Joke Thousand Sons Ritual of the Damned Story

Since there are a lot of Thousand Sons fans and players pretty fed up with how Ritual of the Damned ended, and how so many things did not make sense, I decided to write a joke story about it. Well, think of it more as a fanfiction. I guess.

Anyway, here goes!



Ignatius plodded across the ruins of Tizca, each of his steps not merely weighed down by his heavy Terminator armor plating, but also the scene of devastation that he was currently bearing witness too. After all those millennia of planning and rebuilding in the Planet of Sorcerers, to see the once great city leveled by orbital bombardment...it was disheartening. He closed his eyes briefly, the echo of memories from the time of the Great Heresy...when the Wolves came. Back then, he had also fought in these streets against the hateful Space Wolves, who came as executioners to destroy Prospero.

Prospero...at least the Grey Knights and their Dark Angels allies had not touched their first homeworld. Prospero remained unblemished, already in the advanced stages of the Crimson King's rebuilding process. The Thousand Sons's fleet had been located in orbit above Prospero, and for some reason held their position instead of flying out to intercept the two Adeptus Astartes Strike Cruisers that hung over Sortiarius.

"Father," he greeted the one-eyed monarch who sat over the destruction of the ritual site. Magnus was currently in his gigantic, red-fleshed form, his wings drooped over the razed rockcrete that formerly stretched across the Tizcan temple. The burned remains of mortals, mutants and Sorcerers were gradually disappearing, almost as if the Daemon Planet was devouring them. The Daemon Primarch set his solitary eye on him. "The capture of the Loyalists proceeds well."

"I know," Magnus replied flatly. Ignatius was surprised to hear that there was no anger, no resentment and no bitterness in his lord's melodic voice. The lone eye that was fixed upon the Sekhmet Sorcerer appeared to be gazing into nowhere and everywhere at the same time. "Bring them to my palace."

"It will be done, Father."

"Well done, my son." Magnus favored Ignatius with a fatherly smile. Despite the seemingly warm expression, the High Magister couldn't suppress a chill. As one of the Rehati, he had always been one of Magnus's favored sons, though less so than even that Exile Ahriman. However, with such treatment came great responsibility, and those of the Rehati who failed their Primarch were handed punishments much worse than any of the ordinary Sorcerers could ever imagined. Casting a glance at the smoking bodies and the ruins of the temple, Ignatius tapped into the Warp and drew its power. Visions flooded his mind's eye, unbound. Before this, Magnus had requested that Ignatius, along with the rest of the Rehati, to each offer a cadre of Sorcerers. Those Sorcerers were now gone, blasted into oblivion by the Grey Knights' orbital lance strike.

That the Ritual failed this time...Ignatius could not help but shudder at the implications.

"We did not fail," Magnus said. Ignatius almost jumped, and then realized that his father did not have to read his mind to tell what he was thinking. The Daemon Primarch offered a malevolent smile. "If anything, we succeeded."

"My lord?" Ignatius ventured, uncertain. "Our enemies have halted the Ritual. It will take a long time to gather the sacrifices and Sorcerers needed to perform it a second time...to undergo all those processes from..."

"Don't forget who we are, my son. We are the Thousand Sons. The masters of time...we have all the time in the universe."

Magnus rose to his feet, his angelic wings spreading outward. Blue and red feathers seemed to flutter downward, the empyrean substances combusting into daemonic flames before they could touch the ground. The Primarch turned to cast his eye in the direction where silent ranks of Scarab Occult Terminators were forcibly herding abandoned Grey Knights and Dark Angels toward one of the greatest pyramids of Tizca. Ignatius was also capable of projecting his astral senses toward the distance, for his own cabal of Scarab Occult Terminators were carrying out his instructions and shepherding a battered squad of Grey Knight Terminators forward, into the pyramid.

Once, the great pyramid had been a thing of beauty, constructed of glass and conforming to patterns of superlative logic and esoteric forms. Now, it was a warped structure, its angles contorted to formulae that screamed against rationality, and its mysticism was seeped in daemonic malevolence. The accursed Loyalists who were being brought there were aware of how...wrong the structure was. Even from here, Ignatius could sense their trepidation, their apprehension and...wariness. Not fear. Never fear. From the beginning when the Emperor first conceived of the Adeptus Astartes in His personal laboratories, He had decreed that they shall know no fear. But...uncertainty. Hesitation. Anxiety. These emotions were not...could not be removed, and Ignatius savored those sensations.

They would pay for disrupting the Ritual. No doubt Magnus had the appropriate punishments for them in mind. He would inflict upon them the most cruelest and twisted tortures that would surpass even the greatest imaginations...



"No."

The Crimson King turned to look at Ignatius, that godly and chilling smile still splayed across his red face.

"I have other plans for them."

"Father?" Ignatius blinked, and even though his face was clad behind Terminator helmet, he was sure that Magnus could clearly see his confusion.

"Why did you think I allowed the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to descend upon our world?" Magnus asked, catching him off guard. "It would be but an easy matter for me to call in our fleet and obliterate their two Strike Cruisers from existence, but I ordered Ra to remain in orbit above Prospero."

Ignatius nodded. High Magister Ra was the de facto admiral of the Thousand Sons fleet, assigned the honor by the Crimson King himself to take charge of the XV Legion's naval assets. He listened to no one but Magnus, and if he had been told to hold position above Prospero instead of intercepting the two strike cruisers, then...

"I allowed them to run amok in our world...to give them the impression that they succeeded in disrupting my Ritual. I put on a great show - I gathered thousands...no, tens of thousands of mortals in this temple, I created an audience of unprecedented magnitude...because I needed to convince them that they succeeded in halting my Ritual."

"And they did, did they not?" Ignatius asked, bewildered. "They destroyed the site, killed so many of our brethren and massacred our followers."

"Ignatius, Ignatius." Magnus shook his head, his grizzly mane swaying gently from the movement. "Even now you still have not realized? How can a Prince of the Great Schemer be out-schemed himself? I could have halted their orbital bombardment with a single finger. I could have reached out and smash their two strike cruisers together with just a single hand gesture. Did it not occur to you that I allowed them to get away?"

He reached out and pointed a finger at one of the Dark Angels being paraded by Rubric automatons. The Space Marine went rigid, his body combusting from the inside out. His green power armor slumped down as its wearer literally disintegrated within it. While the other Dark Angels flinched, they were held at bay by the emotionless automatons of the Thousand Sons, the Rubric Marines pointing their inferno boltguns at the disarmed Astartes to stay whatever act of defiance they planned to play. Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Sorcerers used arcane magicks to immobilize them, and telekinetically shoved them forward when necessary.

The surviving Dark Angels glared in the direction of Magnus, but they knew they would not be able to enact their dark vengeance upon their chief tormentor. The Crimson King merely chuckled under the weight of their glares, more amused than intimidated. As if to prove his point, he extinguished the life of a second Astarte, causing his fellow Space Marines to roar in impotent rage.

"See? How easy it is for me to crush these...insects. But I allowed them to flee back to their hive, to spread the news of their victory."

"Why would you do that?" Ignatius asked, astonished.

"So that they won't be able to stop the real Ritual," Magnus replied, his Machiavellian smile still causing the High Magister's spine to constrict. "Now that we have our real sacrifices, we can truly begin."

"Real sacrifices...?" Ignatius turned to look at the rows of Dark Angels and Grey Knights.

Then he understood.

"Sacrificing ninety-nine Loyalist dogs will bring about a more potent outcome than offering nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine mortals, don't you think?" The Crimson King's grin grew wider. "More so if a good portion of them is made out of the Imperium's most powerful Sanctioned Psykers. Psykers who have been trained to control their power more exquisitely and skillfully than the rabble of recently awakened mortals seeking refuge with us. Besides, I would much rather reward my followers for their loyalty and faith than sacrifice them."

"That's why you called the Grey Knights here...you sent them those visions and deliberately leaked part of your plan to them..."

"You're finally seeing the bigger picture, my son." Magnus placed a taloned hand upon the High Magister's thick Terminator shoulder pad. "I have always originally intended to lure the Grey Knights here, and to my delight they brought the Dark Angels as well. The more sacrifices we have, the better."

The Crimson King rose to his full height, his great wings unfurling to send feathers of empyrean fire fluttering once more.

"Now that all of my pieces have fallen perfectly into place...there will be no one in the Imperium capable of halting the Psychic Awakening of Mankind."

Insert "Just as planned" meme here.

Shadow and Iron!

Hell, yeah! Warhammer Community has just posted some new news for Adeptus Titanicus!



First and foremost, we have a new boxset with the core rules!



A bit late for me, but hey, I think it's cool. I hope more people get into playing Adeptus Titanicus after this release! As for me, I'm more interested in this next thing:



The Nemesis Warbringer Titan! I'll probably just collect the model even if I don't plan on fielding him. Because I love collecting Titans.



Also, we're getting more terrain, though whether it's resin or plastic, I have no clue



This is the one book I can't wait to get! I'm definitely getting this! I think I'll like it better than Ritual of the Damned, that's for sure. What interests me is that we're getting rules for the Psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister! Oh man, that's freaking awesome! I can't wait to see them!

I hope we'll get more details soon!

Ritual of the Damned Story

So I purchased my copy of Ritual of the Damned today, and I must admit...the story was pretty bad. Even I was disappointed, and you probably know how laidback or easy to please I am. Usually, anyway. But the story was so bad that even I couldn't bring myself to like it. There were so many problems, plot holes and weird stuff that I found myself shaking my head at what I perceived to be sloppy writing. No, seriously? What the hell?

Before we begin, we have this cool speech from Magnus the Red regarding "now is our time." and all that stuff. Admittedly, I love this quote and his grand speech. Makes him look badass. Pay special attention to this: "But we know time. We know the warp. We know its currents, its waves, its flows, its tributaries. Our power is almost limitless, our knowledge almost total." Because I will be coming back to this later.



So Ritual of the Damned starts off fine - it begins by covering the Planet of the Sorcerers, and how Magnus brings it to real space to orbit around Prospero. We all know this by now, especially after the events of Wrath of Magnus. Ever since then Magnus has rebuilt Prospero entirely, reconstructing libraries and restoring a lot of librariums of lost knowledge and scrolls, excavated hidden treasures, relics and texts that even treasure hunters missed out somehow on the ruins of Prospero throughout the ten millennia since it was bombed by the accursed Space Wolves, and basically brought his Legion's strength back up to unprecedented levels. Having learned his lesson from the razing of Prospero, Magnus refused to see another of his worlds undefended and burned by invaders again, and as you can see from the image, he woved all sorts of esoteric enchantments to protect Prospero and the Planet of Sorcerers from orbtial bombardment, invasions and other attacks. MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THIS INFORMATION - because we will be coming back to this later.



In order to reunite his Legion, Magnus sent his Rehati out to force a dozen scattered sects back to his side, and murdered the Sorcerers of these poor sects (he did not murder the Rehati, as opposed to the Bell of Lost Souls spoilers - they misread the text. The Rehati were sent to bring back these exiled or wayward Sorcerers of scattered sects and warbands, and it was these Sorcerers who were gunned down, not the Rehati). Details aside, Magnus then began the ritual to elevate an entire sub-sector of humanity to unleash their psychic potential.



Enter the Grey Knights. I won't go into too much detail here, but basically their Prognosticars saw all sorts of omens and protents leading to Magnus and his ritual, and they advised Grand Master Voldus to do something about it. Obviously he agreed and sent Captain Arvann Stern and the 3rd Brotherhood, including a number of Paladins and Purifiers. Knowing a single Brotherhood wouldn't be enough, they also approached the Dark Angels for help, and we know the Dark Angels hold a grudge (if you've been following the Warhammer Community articles) against Tzeentch and psykers after the events of Warzone Fenris. Again, the usual suspicions followed, the cliche "we can't trust the Dark Angels, but we'll just ally with them anyway." Silly, but okay.

As you would expect, the Dark Angels had suspicions of their own regarding the Grey Knights and were worried about getting found out, what with the Fallen and Luther's betrayal and all that nonsense. Honestly, a single Grey Knight reading their minds would have found out anyway if they really wanted to, but we can't have that because it would spoil the story. Don't ask me why. Whatever the case, the Dark Angels decided to set aside their paranoia and agree to help because their Librarians also foresaw these ominous omens and portents, and knew they couldn't just leave Magnus and the Thousand Sons to their own devices. Okie dokie. So Grand Master Azrael sent Lazarus and the 5th Company, plus a complement of Deathwing and Ravenwing. Apparently they are supposed to "assess whether the sons of Titan knew anything at all of Caliban's secrets" but that doesn't matter because this little trivial plot point is never mentioned again. Rolls eyes.



So the Dark Angels, coming from Imperium Nihilus, the Grey Knights coming from Imperium Sanctus, met above the Planet of Sorcerers. Just two ships. The Dark Angels strike cruiser (I think, doesn't seem to be a battle barge) Seeker of Redemption and the Grey Knights strike cruiser Purging Sword somehow sailed into Thousand Sons territory unchallenged and unopposed, and parked in orbit right above the Planet of Sorerers. Without any Thousand Sons vessels (where the warp is their damned fleet?!) protecting the planet. No orbital defenses, NOTHING. Don't ask me why, I am extremely confused over why in the accursed warp would Magnus - after the book stated so clearly that he wove all sorts of esoteric defenses and wards over the Planet of Sorcerers to protect it from orbital bombardment, invasion, enemy fleets and attacks, had absolutely no standing fleet or defense satellites or orbital platforms to challenge and stop just TWO freaking strike cruisers. TWO strike cruisers, yes. Made it all the way to the Planet of the Sorcerers - home territory of the Thousand Sons Legion where they supposedly rebuilt and restored their strength - without encountering a single vessel from the Thousand Sons fleet or any orbital defense.

What the frak. How?! What is going on here?! I just...I just don't understand.

Anyway, they parked above the Planet of Sorcerers and hung in orbit, and executed the plan. The Dark Angels would launch a feint and attack somewhere in Tizca, while the Grey Knights infiltrated the temple complex that "was a source of power preventing orbital bombardment of the planet" to destroy it and disrupt the ritual. Okay. That sounds fair (other than the completely idiotic fact that the Grey Knights and Dark Angels were allowed to approach the Thousand Sons's second home planet without any challenge, obstacle or loss). The Dark Angels drew out all the military forces and defenses of the temple complex, trying to divert as many of the Thousand Sons and their armies away from it so that the Grey Knights could secretly teleport into the temple complex to destroy it and disrupt the ritual. Standard "oh, lots of Dark Angels died even as they killed lots of Cultists, Daemons, Daemon Engines and mutants". The point is that they thought they succeeded in drawing the bulk of the Thousand Sons military forces away from Tizca but obviously in the usual Tzeentchian "just as planned" shenanigans, it was all just a sham.

While they did that, the Grey Knights teleported into the temple complex, and contrary to their expectations (and a classic "just as planned" from Tzeentch), ended up facing a great host of Daemons while they got lost and wandered about, completely lost. Only the sudden appearance of Matt Ward's abomination Kaldor Draigo saved them - he strode out of the warp, raising his Titansword and nullified Magnus's spell. Okie dokie. That was stupid as f, but whatever works, man.



Realizing that they were outnumbered and outgunned, the Grey Knights tried to hail the Dark Angels and ask them for reinforcement, only to discover that all psychic communication had been blocked out. Hah! Serves you right. However, here comes the pinnacle of bad writing and Deus ex Machina. Even though psychic communication has been blocked, Stern and his Interceptor Squads conveniently find some stupid empyric amplifier that would have the potential to boost a psychic signal. How frakking convenient. No, seriously, this is pretty bad writing. Number one: Why the f would the Thousand Sons need an empyric amplifier to boost their psychic signals? Number two: it's mighty convenient that the Grey Knights would stumble upon something that they just happened to need. Like seriously? Oh, our psychic communication is blocked...don't worry, the Emperor provides. Our enemy just happens to have a gadget that overcomes their own advantage (why? This is their planet, their home ground, why would the Thousand Sons even need this? They literally live in the Warp and draw raw power from the Immaterium. Sounds like they happen to have it just so the Grey Knights could take it from them...poor plot device). As you'd expect, Stern killed the Sorcerer, the Librarians contacted the Dark Angels, and through the sacrifice of the Librarians, they created a spatial corridor through the Warp for both forces to link up and unite for a final strike against Magnus's ritual - a corridor wide enough for their armored vehicles to get through.



And then they attacked the temple where Magnus was conducting the ritual. Now this...is just dumb. No, seriously. Magnus, you have a bunch of Space Marines running around in your second home planet wreaking all sorts of havoc, but instead of marshalling your forces to get rid of them, you're like, "naw, fam, I'm gonna leave them to my incompetent Sons to get rid of them while I focus on this Ritual." Why, Magnus? Why? It makes no sense - it shouldn't take much effort for him to pause or postpone the Ritual, go straight to the Dark Angels and Grey Knights, kick their arses and wipe them out, then return to conducting your Ritual.

Never mind. We'll assume that for some reason the Ritual couldn't be interrupted no matter what (though you could just pretend to hold the Ritual to trick the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to coming to stop it, beat them up, then start the Ritual after you chased them away or destroyed them). Anyway, the Dark Angels and Grey Knights attacked Magnus and his Sorcerers as they conducted the Ritual, and nothing happened, because of some barrier or whatever. And still Magnus and his Sorcerers ignore the invaders, leaving them to their hordes of cultists, mutants and Daemons and Daemon engines. Uh, okay... To be fair, there were so many that the two Adeptus Astartes Chapters couldn't overcome them and were on the verge of being destroyed.



So what does Stern do? Order a withdrawal and commence orbital bombardment.

Wait, what? Huh? Did I read that right? Yeah, I did.

After all that stuff in the beginning where Magnus did all sorts of esoteric enchantments and arcane wards to protect against orbital bombardments and lance strikes that he precisely never wanted his worlds to suffer from again, the Grey Knights still somehow succeeded in calling down an orbital bombardment.  Let's return to page 6. "Invisible conjurations surround the planet, sucking any munitions fired upon it into the warp and dissipating powerful lasers into harmless rays of light. Illusory hexes cause attackers to believe that their weapons have hit their target when they have, in fact, proved wayward. Portals absorb city-levelling barrages and turn them back on the firers. Other spells and enchantments cause weapons to detonate while still on-board attacking ships, or initiate the warp drives of enemy vessels, hurling them into the empyrean without shielding. Magnus has had one world destroyed by invaders before. He wll not allow it to happen again."

Guess what? It happened again. All those hexes, enchantments, portals and spells were completely and promptly forgotten by the authors and hand-waved away. The Grey Knights apparently use Kaldor Draigo's "immense psychic presence" (damned Mary Sue) to act as a beacon for the Purging Sword's lance batteries and macro cannons, and somehow this single beacon was able to disrupt and nullify all the various complex enchantments, wards and defenses that Magnus and the Thousand Sons wove around their world, destroy the temple and annihilated all the Sorcerers participating in the ritual along with the sacrificial victims and countless mortal followers of Magnus. The Grey Knights and Dark Angels suffered horrendous casualties in the process, but that didn't matter. They won, and ran away, but were forced to leave many of their Brothers behind to their horrific fate. Don't worry, those who mattered - Stern, Lazarus and Draigo - escaped and though they were filled with dread about what would happen to their abandoned Brothers...who cares? They won. As a side note, this is an interesting plot development for Kaldor Draigo. Seems like he has been reunited with the Grey Knights and is no longer disappearing back to the Warp again. Will he permanently return to the Grey Knights and fight alongside without that whole disappearing and reappearing trick?

And thus...the story ends there. Pyrrhic victory, as you would expect. Now I'm not mad about that. I expected that. It's the way this victory was achieved, the plot holes, the inconsistencies and glaring contradictions that annoyed me. This just screams amateurish and sloppy writing to me. Jeez, they should hire a Black Library writer to write this (Graham McNeill or John French, anyone?). Seriously? On one page it said Magnus made his planet impervious to orbital bombardment, but they lazily went and solved everything with an orbital bombardment by handwaving the enchantments away with a single stupid beacon. Also, after that awesome quote at the beginning with Magnus claiming that he could see the future and read the currents of time...how in the frakking warp did he not see that coming? He should have foreseen the failure of his Ritual, he should have foreseen the orbital bombardment. But no, "Such was their speed that Magnus barely had time to conjure a psychic barrier for his personal protection before the lance beams and macro-cannon rounds struck." What absolute BS is this?! He is a master of all magic, including Divination (or Corvidae), and you're telling me he never saw this coming? After those whole "this is our time" and "we know time" quotes at the beginning? He just left the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to run around doing their own thing just so he could focus on his Ritual? What was the point of making that awesome grand speech of having limitless knowledge and being able to read the currents of time if you're going to get outsmarted and defeated by the Grey Knights' last-ditch orbital bombardment eventually? Are you seriously telling me that the smartest and most scheming of all Daemon Primarchs (and in 40K) did not anticipate any of this and planned accordingly? Hell, evidently he planned accordingly, but all his esoteric enchantments and arcane spells were nullified by a single gigantic Grey Knights psychic beacon that somehow allowed the orbital bombardment to circumvent all the portals and hexes that supposedly turned orbital barrages back, dissipate lasers into harmless ray of lights, teleport munitions into the warp, and hit Tizca? And Magnus never saw any of that coming? And once again, where in the bloody warp is the Thousand Sons fleet?! Did they seriously just allow two strike cruisers to approach their second home planet, park in orbit and get in position for orbital bombardment, without challenging or even attempting to get rid of those enemy ships? Where are the damned orbital defenses, orbital platforms or even some semblance of picket ships?! And even after the Dark Angels and Grey Knights landed in Tizca, did none of the Thousand Sons Sorcerers even think to eliminate the two bloody strike cruisers hanging above their precious city? Seriously?!

What utter BS. I'm so astounded by the poor writing and bloody contradictions that I'm absolutely fuming right now. This has to be one of the most poorly written stories I had ever read. Generally I do like the stories. I'm all right with how Faith and Fury turned out, I enjoyed Blood of Baal, and I love a lot of the campaign books. I had no complaints with how the Vigilus campaign turned out, and unlike most people I didn't see a problem with Abaddon abandoning victory just to save his beloved Vengeful Spirit (no victory is worth the cost of that ancient, invaluable Glorianna-class ship). I actually loved and applauded Wrath of Magnus, and you know I raved over the Sanctus Reach campaign (my only complaint being that the Space Wolves had to come save the poor Astra Militarum as usual, but I was delighted when the Cadians showed up to rescue the Space Wolves from Daemons). I was even fine with the sudden appearance of Primaris Marines and enjoyed the Gathering Storm Campaign. But this thing right here in Ritual of the Damned is just utter BS. The inherent contradictions, sloppy writing, poorly executed plot devices (conveniently inserted psychic signal booster, for example) and ridiculous ending...I'm sorry, I can't defend it. It was just bad. Like, real bad. This was one of the worst writings I had ever seen. I won't claim that I can write better, but at least I won't resort to clumsily contrived plot devices, blatant Deus ex Machina, and Mary Sue characters, and I will do my best not to forget and then contradict what I just wrote a few pages ago.

Sigh...oh well. Make of this what you will. As an amusing aside, when I bought the book, the first thing I did was spend a couple of hours reading through the lore (probably less, it's pretty short, but I was distracted). When I lent the book to my friends, unlike me the first thing they went to was the new rules for Dark Angels, Grey Knights and Thousand Sons. I was more interested in the narrative fluff, and them in the gameplay. That's probably the difference between me and most Warhammer 40,000 players, and that's also the reason why I'm so bitterly disappointed by the terrible writing in this book.

They had better write a much better story for Engine War, or I swear...well, I honestly don't know what I will do, but most likely I'll just rant and complain here in my blog again.

New Skitarii units and Ghazghkull Thrakka revealed in Las Vegas Open!

Yeah, I've been waiting for the Las Vegas Open reveal, and it's been worth it! You can check the Warhammer Community page for full details but needless to say I'm more interested in the Skitarii stuff. Come on, man. This is the Admech Knight blog. Of couse I'm invested in all things Adeptus Mechanicus.

Anyway, we have the newest Psychic Awakening book revealed, after Saga of the Beast! It's titled Engine War and will unveil a whole host of new Skitarii units!




Skitarii Rough Riders. Hell, yeah. I'm definitely getting these guys. They are known as the Serberys Sulphurhounds and the Serberys Raiders. I'm assuming the cyber-mounts of the Serberys Sulphurhounds will be able to breath fire - I mean, just look at them! They have flamers for mouths! What can be more awesome than that?!




Then you have the winged Pteraxii and Serberys. These guys...I'm not as enthusiastic. They look, forgive me, silly. I'm sure there will be quite a few people who like them, but they're not my thing. I love the calvary guys though (I'm just going to call them Skitarii Rough Riders). Cousins of the Sicaran, one of them have a flamer, the other has a taser goad. Hmm...well, as I said, not my kind of thing.

Also, we'll have the Archaeopter featured in Engine Wars, and I don't know how that will look like. Apparently we'll have three types of builds for it, and I can't wait to see what they have. This will be fun! The Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights will ally against Chaos Daemons and Chaos Knights, apparently.



Oh, and Ghazghkull Thrakka is back with a new model! All Orks players, your prayers have been answered! Ghazghkull has a new model! I know they teased him and ended with a full screenshot of his sidekick, Makari the Grot (we all know he is Ghazghkull's sidekick). Turns out he didn't get sat on by Ghazghkull after all. Happy now, Ork players? All the Orks players I know are clamoring for his return, and the Emperor has answered their prayers.



We are also getting new books from Forge World that will replace the Imperial Armor Index, though what we will get, I do not know. No details on that. But maybe we'll finally be getting rules for Mechanicum units in Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition? Castellax battle-automata and Thanatar siege-automata coming to 8th Edition? That will be awesome!

I'll update you guys if I know more. A very big if, unfortunately. Sorry.

The Nine Cults of the Thousand Sons, plus Stratagems

Yup, jumping onto the leak train and collating everything I can find from previews, reviews and whatnot so far. Not that you guys will read this, and I think other sites such as Goonhammer or the Youtube review videos by WinterSEO and D6Evolution will provide you everything you need to know.

Thousand Sons get Hateful Assault and Malicious Volleys, plus new Stratagems. You can further personalize your Thousand Sons Detachments to represent one of the nine Cults of the Legion. Take note that it is Detachment, not army, so you do not need to run mono-Thousand Sons, and you can take up to several Cults if you want (so if you bring three Thousand Sons Detachments, you can take 3 different Cults).



Cult of Prophecy

Psychic Power: Divine the Future.
Warp charge value of 6, roll 1 D6 and set it aside. Until the start of your next psychic phase, you can use that dice roll to replace a single dice rolled for a hit roll, wound roll, advance roll, charge roll, Psychic test, Deny the Witch test or Morale test for a Cult of Prophecy unit from your army.

Warlord Trait: Guided by the Whispers
Once per turn, after your Warlord fires overwatch, he can move up to 6" as if it's your movement phase.

Sorcerous Arcana: Pythic Brazier
Friendly units within 6" of the bearer can re-roll one hit roll, wound roll or damage roll during the shooting phase and fight phase.

Cult of Time

Psychic Power: Time Flux
Warp charge value of 5, choose one Cult of Time infantry unit within 6" of the psyker, revive one destroyed model with all his wounds remaining. If the unmodified result of the psychic test is 9+, revive up to D3 destroyed models with all their wound remaining instead.

Warlord Trait: Immaterial Echo
When your Warlord's psychic test is 9+, he can attempt an additional psychic spell. Obviously doesn't accumulate, so no atttempting yet another additional psychic spell even if you get 9+ twice.

Sorcerous Arcana: Hourglass of Manat
The first time your Relic bearer dies, return him to the battlefield with D3 wounds remaining. Must be out of combat.

Cult of Mutation

Psychic Power: Warp Reality
Warp charge value of 6, select one terrain feature within 18", then one enemy unit within 3" of that terrain feature. Halve their movement Characteristic, and substract 1 from their Advance and charge rolls.

Warlord Trait: Touch of Vicissitude
Warlord does an additional mortal wound on an unmodified hit roll of 6 with his melee weapon.

Sorcerous Arcana: Exalted Mutation
Sorcerer Warlord gets +1 to his Strength, Toughness and Attack Characteristics.

Cult of Scheming

Psychic Power: Seeded Strategy
Warp charge value of 6, select one friendly Cult of Scheming unit within 24", they can shoot and charge this turn even if they fell back.

Warlord Trait: Grand Schemer
Friendly Cult of Scheming units within 3" of this Warlord gets Objective Secured, and if they already have Objective Secured (your Rubric Marines), then each model counts as 2 for the purpose of claiming an Objective.

Sorcerous Arcana: Cha'qi'thl's Theorem
Once per battle, you can reduce the Command Point cost of any Stratagem to zero.

Cult of Magic

Psychic Power: Astral Blast
Warp charge value of 6, deal D3 mortal wounds to the closest visible enemy unit within 9", and then 1 mortal wound to each other unit within 3" of them. Obviously you can't extend that to 9" with the Brotherhood of Sorcerers Ability (but you can hit an enemy unit 15" away).

Warlord Trait: Devastating Sorcery
Your Warlord does 1 extra mortal wound whenever he successfully casts a spell that inflicts mortal wounds. So your Smite does D3+1 mortal wounds, for example.

Sorcerous Arcana: Arcane Focus
Relic bearer gets +1 to his psychic tests.

Cult of Knowledge

Psychic Power: Psychic Delve
Warp charge value of 6, select an enemy unit within 18" of this psyker and until the start of your next psychic phase, re-roll all wound rolls of 1 for friendly Cult of Knowledge units targeting that enemy unit.

Warlord Trait: Ardent Scholar
Re-roll ones for psychic tests made by this Warlord.

Sorcerous Arcana: Incaladion's Cry
Replaces a warpflame pistol with a 12" pistol D6, Strength 6 Ap -2 D1, auto-hits.

Cult of Change

Psychic Power: Disturb Reality
Warp charge value of 6, select one enemy unit within 12" of this psyker, and deduct 1 from their Leadership and Attack Characteristic, to a minimum of 1.

Warlord Trait: Fickle Nature
Re-roll charge rolls for this Warlord, and he can shoot and charge in a turn he falls back.

Sorcerous Arcana: Capricious Crest
Once per turn, when a psychic test is taken for a model within 18" of the relic bearer, you can change a roll of 1 to 6 for your psykers, and a roll of 6 to 1 for enemy psykers.

Cult of Duplicity

Psychic Power: Sorcerous Facade
Warp charge value of 7, teleport a Cult of Duplicity unit within 6" of your psyker anywhere that is more than 9" away from any enemy unit.

Warlord Trait: Duplicitous Tactician
First battle round, before first turn begins, redeploy D3 Cult of Duplicity units (remain in your Deployment Zone, and units inside a Transport remain embarked inside a Transport).

Sorcerous Arcana: Perfidious Tome
At the start of each battle round, roll a D6, your opponent gains a Command Point if you roll a 1, but you gain a Command Point if you roll a 4+.

Cult of Manipulation

Psychic Power: Attempted Possession
Warp charge value of 6, select one Character within 18" of psyker, he suffers one mortal wound and gets -2 to his psychic tests until your next psychic phase.

Warlord Trait: Beguiling Influence
Subtract 1, to a minimum of 1, from the Attacks Characteristics of models in enemy units within 1" of this Warlord.

Sorcerous Arcana: Sorthis' Reflector
During your fight phase, copy the melee weapon of an enemy infantry model with Leadership less than 9 locked in combat with you, but you can't re-roll hit rolls or wound rolls. If you're locked in combat with multiple enemy units, you can only attack the unit which you copied the weapon of.

Stratagems

Magister, 1 Command Point, gets you another Warlord Trait for a second Thousand Sons Character. No duplicates! And can only be used once per battle.

Risen Rubricae, 1 Command Point, once per battle, set up one Rubric Marines unit anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from your opponent's deployment zone and any enemy models.

Infernal Fusillade, 1 Command Point, choose one Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators unit that you didn't move this turn, and they can shoot their Rapid Fire weapons twice.

Sorcerous Infusion, 1 Command Point, when you get a 9+ for casting a psychic spell, you can have a model in that unit regain up to D3 wounds, or if there's any destroyed models in his unit, revive a single model for his unit, with all his wounds remaining.

Yoked Automata, 2 Command Points, if your non-Tzaangor Thousand Sons Character got charged, you can choose a Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators unit within 12" of that enemy unit and have them Heroically Intervene up to 2D6" instead of 3" to save your Character.

Indomitable Foes, 1 Command Point, improve the invulnerable save of your Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators by 1, to a maximum of 3+.

Adepts of the Immaterium, 1 Command Point, your psyker doesn't suffer Perils of the Warp even if he rolls double ones or twos (or gets hit by "Perils on any doubles" shennanigans).

Infernal Fusillade

Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page just posted this, in addition to Malicious Volleys (which we already have).



So...nice combo, I guess?

Thousand Sons preview

Warhammer Community has posted the preview for Thousand Sons in Ritual of the Damned!



Anyway, this is what we have for our Cults. Apparently.



Oh, nice. This Cult of Time power allows us to resurrect Thousand Sons infantry! I can see this being used a lot by my Scarab Occult Terminators. Do take note that you have to dedicate each detachment to a Cult, so no taking all the different Cult powers on a unit by unit basis. In other words the 4chan rumor that I got from Discord is FALSE! I knew it. I was right to be skeptical about it. Anyway, I do like this Cult of Time power, because resurrecting a slain Scarab Occult Terminator is a pretty thematic thing to do. I wonder what other psychic powers we have?



Eh, this is just a rip-off of the Alpha Legion Trait. Could be useful if you want to screw around with your opponent, but otherwise it feels like a waste of a Warlord Trait to me. That's just my personal opinion, though.



Now this is fun. Take note, it says once per turn, and not once per battle round. So this means you can use it during both your turn and your opponent's turn. If you're casting a psychic spell, you can change a roll of 1 to 6, potentially getting off that super-smite or Doombolt! Or you can screw your opponent over by turning his roll of 6 into a 1, either denying him a super-smite or causing him to fail his psychic spell altogether



Ha ha ha! I love this Stratagem! Most people in the Thousand Sons discord are complaining that warpflamers are too expensive despite some innovative souls seeing the potential, but I tend to agree with the pro warpflamer faction. Nothing beats setting your dudes up about 13" away from an enemy model, then walking 5" to flame them. Heh. Nice. Pop off Veterans of the Long War too, and watch your enemy burn!

We also have a bunch of Cult of Duplicity, courtesy of the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page.



Uh...okay. Not my cult, to be honest.



That is one sweet psychic spell. Hey...this was very different from the 4chan rumor in Discord. As I expected, that 4chan rumor that they posted on the Thousand Sons Discord is a hoax. Maybe it was someone from the Cult of Duplicity who was responsible for that hoax, eh?



And then you have this! If you're lucky you get a bunch of Command Points. If you're unlucky, you give your opponent a Command Point. Just make sure you don't roll 5-6 ones in a row...well, I guess that's what happens when you dabble in duplicity.



Already previewed in the Warhammer Community article. Nothing much to say here. My feelings remain the same. I'm looking forward to the other Cults. Like the Cult of Time, or the Cult of Magic, for example.

This is gonna be good. Maybe? We shall see!

Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights

I finally managed to put my whole army of painted Adeptus Mechanicus maniples and Imperial Knight lances together!

Well, looking good...I guess? Since this blog is Admechknight, I decided to update the top cover picture above. So it reflects more of my blog. Sad to see my Imperial Guard vanish from the top, but if there's one day when I can put all of them together in one setting, that would be awesome.



Nonetheless, this is my Apocalypse army! Exactly 300 power level...well, almost. Probably 303 because I forgot all about the Skitarii Vanguard in the middle. But yeah, this looks really cool! I can't wait to field all of them in an Apocalypse game again!

----

<Archmagos Triarch, it appears that we have a visitor.>

<I see. Have him wait in the hall, Adept Alain.> Trevor Triarch sounded half-distracted as he splashed holy lubricant oil over an Ordinatus machine. <I am currently ministering the proper rituals for the Mars Resurgent. The process will take approximately eight minutes, thirty four point two seconds.>

<Yes, Archmagos. But the unaugmented is...really insistent.>

<As they all are,> Triarch replied brusquely. <Their lack of efficiency often leads to a significant waste of time and resources. If only they are as precise as the servants of the Omnissiah, upgraded with internal chronological meters and enhanced neurological circuitries. It baffles me why they have yet to understand the full benefits of the Machine Cult. Then again, the biological workings of the human body are indeed magnificent, as we have seen in the genhanced physiology of the Adeptus Astartes. To achieve such near perfection with just flesh...without the need of bionics and augmetics, I understand the appeal to stay as close to the image of the Omnissiah in his bodily aspect as possible. Ah, I apologize for digressing. Have him wait, nonetheless.>

Triarch finished his labor, ordaining the newest Ordinatus machine to have been manufactured upon the forge world of Draconis IV before taking a step back and admiring his handiwork. To craft an Ordinatus engine was an exquisite task undertaken only by the highest-ranking Tech-priests of the Martian Cult, and he was glad that his rank of Archmagos offered him the opportunity to take charge of this project.

<Adept Alain, what were you saying? A visitor?>

<Yes, Archmagos.> The adept blurted out. <He is currently waiting in the hall, as you have instructed.>

<Good. I am on my way.>

Trevor Triarch glided into the hall, his mechadendrites withdrawing underneath his cloak, so as not to frighten his unaugmented visitor. Without his mecahdendrites, his figure looked mostly human, with one hand gripping his Omnissiah axe and using it as a walking stick, while the other remained mostly flesh. Unlike the Tech-priests of most forge worlds, those of Draconis IV preserved their human features, choosing instead to present a face of blood and flesh underneath their cawls and hoods. Like all visitors, the newcomer in the hall visibly relaxed when he saw the unintimidating facade that Triarch presented.

"Ah, Archmagos. An honor."

"Indeed." Triarch was accompanied by a maniple of Skitarii. Divided into five-men squads, they split up and flanked him, the whirring hum of their galvanic rifles barely audible in the vast hall. In flawless concertation, they snapped their weapons to port and stood rigidly, almost becoming statues. Only their glowing optics showed any sign of life.

Triarch paid his honor guard no attention. Linked to him through the noosphere, they were as much as extention of his heavily augmented body as his mechadendrites were. Of course, he allowed them a large amount of autonomy and individual thought, for human innovation and resourcefulness in the battlefield never ceased to amaze him - he could count at least two hundred and seventy-two instancces where his on-site Skitarii Alphas surprised him with brilliant tactical moves that could never have been conceived in the Kataphron battle-servitors that so many Tech-priests of other forge worlds favored - but he didn't mind putting them on a parade show here and there.

Data flowed into his mind through the noosphere as he appraised the relatively unaugmented man in front of him. His in-built optical sensors had detected a few luxury augmetics - a bionic arm, with digital weapons built into his fingers, an artificial lung, presumably to replace his original biological one in the aftermath of a battle, and a single augmented eye that contained far less sensory than the sophisticated suite built into Triarch's own augmetics. A name, along with a wealth of other information, was uploaded directly into his brain.

"You requested for an audience, Mister David Maximoff?" he asked. "I must admit, I am perplexed. I would think a rogue trader like you would have business with the merchants of Draconis III instead of our forge world."

"Oh, yes. I do plan to visit Draconis III later, for some business." Maximoff chuckled. "But I thought I'd drop by Draconis IV to sell you a piece of information."

"Sell? Ah...you wish to procure parts for your ship...the Elegant Lady."

"Not exactly. She's due a refit in the Draconian docks above Draconis III. But yes, I would like some new toys."

Triarch's brow furrowed at that. Even though the tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus were supposedly above human emotions, those of the Draconian priesthood regarded human feelings, intuition and emotions as favorable, sometimes outright worshipping them as a necessary feature of the biological aspect of the Omnissiah.

"I assume, by toys you mean new bionics. Weapons, maybe."

"Yes, yes. That's right." Maximoff grinned. "I'm sure we can reach a deal. As a sign of good faith, I'll give you a hint. I might have the information regarding a couple of STCs that would prove very useful to your forge world."

Now that caught Triarch's attention. Standard Template Constructs were invaluable technology coveted by any tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus - more so for an esteemed Archmagos such as himself. If he could obtain those STCs, he could elevate his forge world to greater heights...but even such an ambition paled in comparison to his greed for more knowledge and lost technology. Like any other Mechanicus priest, Triarch was a fervent participant in the quest for knowledge. Worse, with the yawning of the Great Rift, the Mechanicus forces on Draconis IV were pressed more than ever to produce an increasing number of war engines, military machines and weapons to fuel the growing armory and arm the expanding soldiery of the Imperium, so as to combat the exponentially rising numbers of horrors and monsters vomitted forth from the bowels of the Warp.

"And not just any STCs too. I understand that Draconis IV is famous for building Knight suits?"

"That is correct." Triarch did not deny that. The close alliance between the Mechanicus priesthood of Draconis IV and the noble Houses of the neighboring Knight world of Draconis III was legendary. House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda have been relying on the Draconian Mechanicus priests to supply them the bulk of their war engines, as well as provide repairs, suppplies and maintenance.

"Then these STCs should interest you further."

"Yes, they do. Where did you get this information from? Do you have more details?"

"Ah, not so fast, my friend." Maximoff raised a finger and wagged it at the excited Archmagos. "Such information, as you realize, is a commodity, and I hope you understand that I'm not just going to give it away for free. As I said earlier, let's discuss business."

"...yes." Triarch paused for a microsecond, his enhanced brain running several calculations. If this information proved to be true, then this would definitely be a boon for both his forge world and the noble Knights of Draconis III. Given the increasing raids from both opportunistic xenos and corrupted Chaos warbands of Traitor Astartes, the Draconian priesthood would spend almost anything to improve their arsenal of war machines. "We shall...as you put it, make a deal."

Sorcerous Schemes

Warhammer Community has some new stuff on the fluff for Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned. Check it out if you're so inclined.

Nothing we don't already know, but we have some cool art. Especially the one above. Heh. Except that those are all taken from Wrath of Magnus, so they are not new art. Whoops. Oh, and as we already know, Magnus is providing a sanctuary for unsanctioned pykers, mutants and others who are fleeing from the tyrannical Imperium seeking to cull them for no reason other than because they happen to be born with psychic potential. He plans to...usher in a new psychic age. Like, yeah, we know that already.



What interests me is this little tidbit that says that "Magnus is seeking new mortal followers for his Legion." Hmm? Will we get new psychic Cultists? Prosperine Spireguard? I always wanted rules for Traitor Guard, for Thousand Sons to fight alongside Prosperine Spireguard, but I think it's unlikely. Would be funny if these mortal followers come with new rules of their own. Psychic Cultists, now that would be super-cool. Not that it will ever happen.

Standing in our way is the accursed Dark Angels and the indomitable Grey Knights. Let's hope they fail, or the Thousand Sons won't be able to bring enlightenment to the ignorant Imperium.



As I said, nothing new for now, except that pre-orders will be up for the Thousand Sons next Saturday. Cool. We'll find out more this week, I guess...till then!

Apocalypse II

Finally got down to writing this battle report, but by now my memory is faded so I can't remember what happened. I think I'll focus on what got destroyed, ha ha.

Anyway, this is an Apocalypse game between me and my friend, and he brought his Imperial Guard army as always. Well, I say Imperial but it's really Traitor Guard, or Hereticus Militarum as High Gothic calls it. He brought 12 Leman Russ tanks (3 of which are Tank Commanders) a couple of Battalions with 6 Chimeras, 2 Wyverns, 2 Basilisks, 2 heavy weapon squads of nothing but mortars, and a Super-heavy detachment with a Baneblade, Shadowsword and a Stormlord.



In contrast, I brought a small Battalion of a Tech-priest Dominus and 3 Skitarii ranger squads plus 2 Skorpius Disintegrator, a Vanguard of a Tech-priest Dominus, 4 Servitors and 2 Secutarii Hoplites squads (one of which I had to proxy because I hadn't gotten my second squad at that time...yet), a Spearhead of a Cybernetica datasmith leading 3 maniples of robots, and 3 Super-heavy Detachments of Knights. 3 Questoris Knight Crusaders, 3 Cerastus Knights (Lancer, Castigator, Atrapos) and an Acastus Knight Asterius with 2 Armiger Knights Moirax.



My opponent had the initiative, and...well, I don't remember much, but I think he just moved his infantry and Chimeras forward while everything took aim. I grabbed the Objectives because this was the Exterminatus mission and we had orbital strikes landing everywhere, ha ha. In any case, I don't remember what happened, but he took out my Knight Lancer and almost killed my Knight Atrapos. I didn't kill anything back in return except a bunch of infantry, wiping out like 2 or 3 squads, though he removed a bunch of blast markers from one squad to save it. Oh, and I killed a mortar heavy weapons squad. Didn't kill any Leman Russ tanks, frustratingly enough. Couldn't even kill the Shadowsword or Baneblade, with them both having about 1 or 2 wounds left each. It was a bad game for me, to be honest, losing a Knight and stuff.



Unfortunately, we only got one round off. We began the second round with life virus bombs going off and dealing a lot of blast markers to his tanks, while I escaped miraculously with few in return, but we didn't get much further than that. He tried to take down my Knight Asterius with his Baneblade and Shadowsword, but failed. We ended the game there because we ran out of time and the store had to close. Oh well. We did our best, though!



I can't wait to try again. Apocalypse is fun, and I hope I'll get a game where we actually get to play all 5 round instead of just only one round!

New Secutarii and Thousand Sons

I finally procured a second squad of Secutarii! So now I have two squads of Secutarii Hoplites (ir a single squad of 20 Secutarii Hoplites, but why would I do that? Morale would kill them). My Titan Guard is coming along fine for now...I hope. This is also the reason why I obtained a second Skorpius Dunerider. So that I can transport 2 squads of Secutarii Hoplites to the thick of battle without needing them to footslog.

Yeah, I somehow managed to finish building them and paint them all in the same day. God-Emperor, I hate working with resin. In future, I'll try to avoid resin as much as possible, because they're so hard to glue together. I was almost on the verge of flinging my resin stuff across the table because they wouldn't stick together no matter how long I held them. Ugh.



Additionally, I also built and magnetized the arms for my Thousand Sons Contemptor Dreadnought. I built him with dual Conversion beam cannons, but I magnetized so that I can swap them out for something else in future, if I need to (many people are demanding that I use twin lascannons).

After that, I primed and sprayed my Scarab Occult Terminators and Contemptor Dreadnought black. I sadly did not have any time to paint them, and was only able to finish painting the Secutarii Hoplites at the very last minute, right before the store closed. Ugh. Well, I did my best. I'll do my Thousand Sons next week or something. I guess.



I also received my second Vendetta gunship in the mailbox today! I can't wait to field it alongside my Kasrkins (or Kamikaze Troopers). As I said before, the Kamikaze Troopers of Draconis III exclusively use Vendetta gunships because they tend to go out on long-term missions, and having gunships that rely on energy weapons instead of munitions (such as rockets, ammo for bolters, missiles, etc.) would be much more practical. They tend to operate in isolated environments, away from supplies and whatnot for a very long time, and this makes them very attractive for requisitioning Inquisitorial storm troopers. Now all I have left is the Inquisitor. I want to write a story about my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor, but I'll have to do it sometime in the future. For now, I need to get some writing done, and also for my preliminary examinations for graduate school. We'll see!

Ritual of the Damned rumor for Thousand Sons

Yeah, since this is a rumor, the usual salt applies. Took this from the Thousand Sons Discord server.



Uh huh. I do not know how reliable this source is, and I took it right out of the Thousand Sons discord, so pour a lot of salt on it and keep in mind the possibility that this might be a hoax. Some of the stuff sounds cool, though, so there is that.