The Defence of Ryza

Warhammer Community has posted in their monthly Engine Kill series (I really wish it was weekly, but oh well) about the much awaited The Defence of Ryza!



Funnily enough, I've read the Horus Heresy books and I honestly can't find much on Ryza. It has been mentioned a lot - and no wonder, because Ryza is truly one of the most influential and powerful forge worlds in the Martian Mechanicum (second only to Mars). Hell, even my forge world of Draconis IV stole their plasma technology and attempted to emulate them because...you know, plasma. I love plasma weapons. That aside, we are going to help defend Ryza because we are staunch allies of Ryza, not just because we share the same love for plasma weaponry, but because we are devoted loyalists to the Omnissiah. But with so little details on the Ryza campaign available, I have no idea what the story behind Ryza was. None of the Horus Heresy novels or the Horus Heresy campaign books by Forge World ever mentioned an attack on Ryza, or a war on Ryza. The only Ryza lore I can find are the two gigantic Waaaghs! that hit us in the 41st millennium, and that they provide most of the plasma technology in the Imperium (again, Draconis IV learned or stole or bought those plasma technology and devoted their forges to producing the same sort of plasma weapons and vehicles like Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Stormblades, as well as the Sunfury plasma annihilators mounted atop the Dark Dragons' Warlord Titans). Nothing on Ryza during the Horus Heresy, other than they provided Mechanicum armies and Titan Legions (Legio Crucius, the Warmongers in particular) to support and reinforce the Loyalists. Strange.

Apparently the story is about Ryza being under siege by the Dark Mechanicum because they also covet the plasma technology and War Engines on Ryza, and they wish to add those powerful stuff to the Warmaster's forces. I say screw Horus, but then again I'm a blind, deluded Loyalist, so whatever.



So we have 4 new Titan Legions, 2 for each side, and then Legio Crucius and Legio Mortis reprinted in here because Ryza is obviously the homeworld for Legio Crucius. So we have Legio Osedax and Legio Honorum joining the Loyalists, and Legio Magna and Legio Vulturum joining the filthy traitors of the Dark Mechanicum and Horus.




But what I'm most interested in are the Create your own Titan Legion rules! I used the ones in the White Dwarf, mostly...and as everyone knows, you can't Create your own Titan Legion rules without relying on Elite Magos.



Yup...they nerfed it. In the past, it was an additional dice during the Damage Control phase, but now it's just a single re-roll. Oh well...better than nothing.

Also, instead of there being two Factions (Loyalist and Traitor), we now have a third, called Blackshields. They are neither Loyalist nor Traitor, and do not fight for either Horus or the Emperor, and instead fight for freedom, survival, or to carve out an empire of their own. Huh? Okay...I guess they are bringing the Blackshields from Horus Heresy in (the Legione Astartes who decided to side with neither the Emperor nor Horus). Oh, well...



The Defence of Ryza promises us 16 Titan Legion Traits, 15 Stratagems and 21 wargear choices. That really expands upon what we had in the White Dwarf issue! Cool! You can take four of any of these rules, with a maximum of up to 2 from each category (so 2 Legion Traits and 2 wargear choices, for example - you can't take 3 Legion Traits!).

We also have new Maniples, rules for Knight Allegiances (finally!), Battle Standards, additional Houses and new Stratagems. I don't know if we'll get any new Stratagems for Knights, though, but I certainly hope so!

Oh, and they gave us a PDF to design our own heraldry. Why would I do that? I already designed my own. You know how my Titan Legion looks like.

And my Knight House as well, for that matter. House Yato is basically the allied Knight House of Legio Draconis (the Dark Dragons), so we share the same color scheme. Okay, I'm too lazy to think of an alternative color scheme, and let's be serious, I like my black and gold paint scheme, so why would I change it? Anyway, I look forward to creating my own Legio rules (even if I play a Knight Household Army) and we'll see what happens in the future! I'm definitely looking forward to the new Cerastus Knights!

My Titan Legion might have very few Titans, but what few we have are extremely powerful, because the majority are all Warlord Titans! If they ever come up with an Imperator Titan, I'll definitely buy it. Still waiting on the Psi-Titan, but...we'll see. I don't know how to fit that guy in my list, so...oh well. We'll see. But I' definitely getting the Imperator Titan if it ever is released!

Engine War - Requisition Approved

WOOHOO! We've got news on Engine War! Plus a new trailer! You can watch the stuff at Warhammer Community.

Apparently the story of Engine War follows the exploits of Tech-priest Dominus Kroll. His reclamation fleet arrived at Ordex-Thaag, a former forge world under the jurisdiction of the Martian Empire. He deploys the Skitarii Legions and Knights of House Terryn (why not House Taranis? That makes no sense - isn't Kroll's reclamation fleet straight from Mars?) to cleanse the planet in the name of the Omnissiah. Apparently it has been infested by Daemons and subverted to manufacture hideous Daemon engines and blaphemous machines. Now, Kroll and his Skitarii Legions and the Knights allied to him shall exterminate the Ruinous Powers with extreme prejudice. There is also mention of the Varlian Device, not just in the trailer but also in this short story. What exactly does the Varlian Device do? Is it a geller bomb in the vein of Skitarius and Tech-priest by Rob Sanders, where it throws all the hordes of Chaos back into the Warp? I guess we'll find out.

Anyway, we have new units. First, we have the Sterylizors, who are winged Sicarians with flamethrowers.



And then we have Skystalkers, who shoot from a distance with their flechette carbines.



Admittedly I'm not a big fan of these models so I'm not going to buy these. For now.

We are also getting the Archaeopter, which has three variants! The Transvector is an aerial transport craft, much like the Valkyrie assault carrier.



Then you have the Fusilave, which is the bomber variant. Apparently the bombs can penetrate the grounds and are tectomagnic (whatever that means). Causes seismic shock waves, so I assume it will affect movement, advance and charge rolls. Maybe half them or cause a penalty. Cool, I guess?



And finally you will have the Stratoraptor, which has twin heavy phosphor blaasters. Though why would you take that when we already have Kastelan robots, I have no idea. As much as it reviles me to admit it, with Kastelan robots and their Protector protocols around, there is little point in installing phosphor weaponry on any other vehicle. Oh well. We'll see. It still looks cool, though. I'll be getting one just because I like the model, and I always wanted a Skitarii flyer anyway. I was hoping for anti-tank stuff, but hey, whatever works. Well, it also depends on my budget. If I can't afford it (because of the stupid Corvid19), then I won't buy it. I plan on buying 3 boxes of Skitarii cavalry anyway, so there's where my Warhammer 40,000 funds will go to. In addition to the Collector's Edition of Engine War.



We also have new Skitarii cavalry, which are the ones I'm most looking forward to! I want these! They are Serberys cavalry, and the Skitarii Ranger version is the Raiders, who are fast-moving scouts. Apparently they outflank enemies, though unless they have better weapons than galvanic rifles, I'm not sure what exactly they hope to achieve. We'll find out!



Then you have the Skitarii Vanguard version, which is the Sulphurhounds. They breathe fire. Enough said. I want these guys. Right now. GIVE THEM TO ME! NOW!!!! In addition to fire-breathing steeds, they seem armed with phosphor blast pistols. Nice! Now that's pretty neat!



Warhammer Community promises to preview their rules soon, so I can't wait for that! WOOHOO! I'll post again when I see more news (though, given how I'm just repeating whatever Warhammer Community posts, I see little point in this...).

Engine War Delayed

Even though Engine War was originally scheduled for an April release, the coronavirus (and accursed Nurgle) derailed our plans and caused it to be postponed by May 2nd, at the earliest.

You can check the Warhammer Community website for more details. Oh well...I guess we'll have to wait a bit longer for Engine War and the new Skitarii units. It happens.

For now...I don't know what I'm going to do. In the meantime, stay healthy and safe, everyone! Do whatever you need to, in order to overcome this latest strain of Nurgle's plagues! Pray to the Emperor for supplication and strength!

The Emperor Protects! The Omnissiah provides!

Online stores are closed

Well...thanks to the stay-home order in the United States, and the changes to university classes (everything is being conducted online now), I've been busy over the last week or so. Still trying to process and get used to the transformations. Damned coronavirus...anyway, I hope everyone is still safe and healthy. The friendly local gaming store in my area has closed off the gaming sections because, you know, corvid19 and all that. It can't be helped. The number of infected is rising, and I hope they bring the situation under control soon.

Fortunately, most of my painting and models are done...so I have nothing to build or paint at home. Perhaps a few of my Kasrkins (or Kamikaze Troopers), but that's about it, and I have no idea how to paint them just yet. We'll see. When I get around to doing it (still waiting for a couple of hot-shot volley guns), I might post my progress, but for now...nothing.

Oh, the point of this post is...yeah. Even if I need new paints, they might not be coming, because Games Workshop is closing down all the online stores, even the Forge World stuff. So we won't be able to order anything online and get it shipped to us. A pity, because I wanted to pre-order Engine War. Well, we'll see! In any case, no shipping or physical products will be available online. However, you can still purchase Black Library novels, which I did. I'll be reading a whole bunch of Black Library books, which includes Shield of the Emperor, Apex Predator, a few of the Warhammer Horror stories (The Colonel's Monograph) and more. Looking forward to that, at least.

Otherwise it's going to be a long spring...and without any games to play, I'm going crazy. Heh.

Speaking of games, I'm playing Mechanicus while I'm stuck at home, and it's an awesome game. Surprisingly enough I like it a lot more than Gladius, Sanctus Reach: Sons of Cadia and even Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2. I got the Faustinus ending, and hopefully I'll get the Videx ending soon. Maybe. We'll see. For now I've to conduct online classes and whatnot, so my time is split between this and that.

Big Guns never tire

So I managed to get another game today, this time against Dark Angels. We played 1,500 points instead of 2,000, and so I was forced to cut my Forgefiends from my list, and halve my beloved Scarab Occult Terminator squad. So my Thousand Sons list today looks like this:

Thousand Sons Cult of Magic Battalion
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Devastating Sorceery, Arcane Focus)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (High Magister)
5 Scarab Occult Terminators (hellfyre missile rack)
5 Rubric Marines (warpflamers)
5 Rubric Marines (inferno boltguns)
10 Cultists (heavy stubber)

Blue Corsairs Battalion
Sorcerer
Dark Apostle
Dark Disciples
5 Chaos Space Marines (boltguns)
2 x 5 Chaos Space Marines (bolt pistols, power axe, chainswords, meltagun)

Imperial Knight...ahem, I mean Chaos Knight Super-heavy Auxiliary
Knight Despoiler, thermal cannon and Avenger gatling cannon (Tzeentchian Pyrothrone, warp-tainted hull)

My opponent brought a Battalion, Spearhead and Supreme Command detachments.

Dark Angels Battalion
Master Lazarus
Primaris Lieutenant
2 x 5 Intercessors (bolt rifles)
5 Intercessors (bolt carbines)
Primaris Apocethary
Darkshroud

Dark Angels Spearhead
Techmarine
Predator (twin lascannon)
5 Devastators (2 lascannons, 1 missile launcher, 1 heavy bolter)
5 Hellblasters (plasma incinerators)

Dark Angels Supreme Command
Azareal
Primaris Librarian
Primaris Lieutenant

And there you have it...Dark Angels versus Thousand Sons. A re-enactment of the war in the Stygies Sector, or on the Planet of Sorcerers itself! I wanted to play the narrative mission as outlined in Ritual of the Damned, but...nope. I don't have Magnus, and I don't intend to buy him. As much as I like Magnus, I'm not a fan of his model, and I don't want to play him anyway. He doesn't seem that fun to play with, if I'm being honest.



Anyway, we decided to play Big Guns Never Tire, and he got the first turn. The first turn went as you would expect, and while long-range fire from his Devastators did 4 wounds to my Knight, he survived most of the Predator's shots and stuff. On the other hand, the huge blob of Dark Angels advanced the table, quick as you please, with the Intercessors equipped with carbines following Lazarus, the Primaris Lieutenant and Primaris Librarian up to confront my psyker Knight, while Azareal led the other 2 squads of Intercessors, the Hellblasters, the other Primaris Lieutenant and the Apocethary toward my infantry. Needless to say, my Rubric Marines were wiped out from plasma fire, but since he advanced, he couldn't shoot his bolt rifles, if I remember correctly. Or if he did, he shot them into my poor Rubric Marines. So First Blood to him.

I had my dudes move up the table too. Funnily enough, my Chaos Space Marines were left unscathed in the first turn, so I could advance and charge (Blue Corsairs Renegade Trait). I lost a couple of Chaos Space Marines to overwatch, my Dark Apostle failed, but my Chaos Space Marines all died. Pathetically enough, my Blue Corsairs Sorcerer failed all of his psychic spells, probably because he isn't as professional as the real Thousand Sons. My Knight had rinsed the Intercessors almost clean with his Avenger gatling cannon, with just one guy left, and destroyed the Predator with a well rolled thermal cannon shot (I rolled 6 for D6 shots!). Boom, went the Predator, and my Knight scored First Strike for me. Then he charged the Primaris Librarian and sole surviving Intercessor. Needless to say, Lazarus and the Primaris Lieutenant Heroically Intervened, but I managed to stomp the Intercessor to oblivion, but couldn't manage to stomp the Librarian to death, leaving the guy with just one health. Oh, the Librarian Denied the Witch for my Smite, which sucked for me. Ugh. Anyway, with one wound left, he swung back...and didn't wound my Knight. On the other side of the table, Azareal used the Counter-offensive Stratagem to kill 3-4 Chaos Space Marines, leaving just the Sergeant on the table. Then my Chaos Space Marines went and killed a single Hellblaster and wounded one, while their meltagun earlier had killed a single Hellblaster when I advanced and fired, thankfully the -1 to assault weapons if you advanced and fired them. So that left him with 3 Intercessors, and they proceeded to kill all but 1 Sergeant, who promptly failed his morale and ran away. The other Sergeant, on the other hand, survived the retaliation from the Intercessors by making all of his armor saves. What a champion. Lazarus proceeded to wreck the Knight, dealing 6 wounds because he could re-roll failed wound rolls and damage rolls against psykers...and my Knight was a psyker because I took the Tzeentchian Pyrothrone. No regrets, though. Tzeentch and sorcery all the way!

My opponent cast Smite, but with my Knight being a Dreadblade, his Leadership was up to 10, so even though I failed to deny his Mind Wipe spell, my Leadership was somehow higher than his. Phew. On the other side of the table, Azareal, the two squads of Intercessors, and Nightshroud killed the Dark Apostle and Sorcerer with their shots and attacks, while the Primaris Apocethary healed the wounded Hellblaster. The Sergeant, once again, survived all the melee attacks from the Hellblasters because of his armor saves, but he didn't do much in return. Oh well. I then paid 2 Command Points for Counteroffensive, and my Knight killed Lazarus with his Titanic Feet...but not before Lazarus reduced my Knight to just 6 wounds remaining because of his ability that allowed him to fight as if it was the fight phase if he died. Damn. The Librarian and Lieutenant then wounded my Knight, bringing him down to 4 wounds, if I'm not mistaken. Ouch!

Then my Scarab Occult Terminators and Rubric Marines, along with my Sorcerers came in, and I proceeded to Smite Azareal to death, using Cabailistic Focus, the Familiar, and Arcane Focus to bring my Smite to over 10, and rolled a 6 to deal 6 mortal wounds to the guy. Hah! Azareal is dead! I then proceeded to use Astral Blast and killed another Hellblaster and 2 Intercessors while injuring the Apocethary, while doing 4 mortal wounds to the Darkshroud. Unfortunately, my poor Sergeant, who survived all the melee attacks thus far...ended up falling to the Astral Blast. Oh, well. He served a greater purpose. The shooting attacks then wiped out the Hellblasters, I believe, but the missiles failed to do anything to the Nightshroud. My Rubric Marines took out a single Devastator with Smite, and then killed a second Devastator with their inferno boltguns, but failed their charge. On the other hand, my Scarab Occult Terminators managed to make their charge into the Intercessors and killed all but one of them, while the Primaris Lieutenant and Primaris Apocethary Heroically Intervened, and didn't kill any of them. Phew. My Knight finally killed both the Librarian and Lieutenant with his heavy flamer and heavy stubber, and his Avenger gatling cannon respectively (I forgot to just Smite the Librarian...what the hell was I doing?).



I lost a Scarab Occult Terminator eventually, as the other squad of Intercessors piled in, and the sheer number of attacks took its toll, despite me casting Weaver of Fates and Glamor of Tzeentch on them. The Devastators killed a Rubric Marine with the Sergeant's combi-flamer, and I lost another to overwatch and I charged them. I did kill a Devastator (the Sergeant) in close combat and another from shooting, though. As for my Terminators, they wiped out the Apocethary and Lieutenant, while my Sorcerers in Terminator Armor slowly smite the Darkshroud to death. Left with one wound, I had them charge and finish it off in close combat, while my Terminators slowly worked their way through the Intercessors, who survived...mostly. The Apocetheary was even able to revive one guy. The techmarine fired his conversion beamer, but I made my saves, and my injured Knight stayed on 4 wounds.

Eventually, I managed to take out all the Devastators and survived the Techmarine's power axe, who for some reason charged my Rubric Marines, while my Scarab Occult Terminators killed all the Intercessors, Lieutenant and Apocethary, not just with their power swords but with Smite as well. I effectively tabled my opponent, and was way ahead...interesting. The Techmarine was left, but my opponent conceded because there was no way he could win, not when his Techmarine was literally the only model left. I controlled at least 2 objectives, and my Scarab Occult Terminators could control the third, and I killed 3 of his Heavy Support units to get the points, while he couldn't even kill my Knight (we agreed to count my Knight as Heavy Support for the purpose of this game). That was just weird. Oh well...a win is a win, I guess, but my list was a little too strong. Strangely enough, Lazarus should have helped his list a ton by giving him a 4+++ Feel No Pain against psychic spells and mortal wounds, while also granting a 5+++ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds in the psychic phase for his friends 6" away from him. But nope, he ended up getting pasted by my Knight, of all things, far from Azareal and the majority of his forces. Huh...I'm sure there should be a way for my opponent to counter my psychic spells and stuff, but I don't know what it is...oh well.

That was fun, though!



Oh, after the game, I built a second Taurox Prime for my Kamikaze Troopers, also known as Kamikaze Draconians. I magnetized the turret, so he can switch between the Taurox gatling cannon and the Taurox battle cannon, though I think the gatling cannon will be my go-to for most games. We'll see!



Speaking of which, I also painted my Forgefiend. Do you remember that one of my Forgefiends from yesterday was all black? Yeah, I spent the next couple of hours after yesterday's game painting him, but I couldn't finish in time. I was left with just the base. Fortunately, I had a little time after building my Taurox Prime to finish painting the base of my Forgefiend. Me being me, I went for the usual snowy base because I like snow, and so he now looks like this.



I wonder if he looks cool. Maybe not, but I really like the snow. My Thousand Sons and Blue Corsairs, as well as Knights, are all trampling about in the snow anyway, so this will fit them more thematically. The other Forgefiend stands out with his grass base, though, but I think it's fine...oh well. We'll see!

ITC 6

Phew, what a day! I managed to get 2 ITC games in today! They were fairly long, but were extremely fun! I enjoyed myself tremendously, and I'm sure my opponents did too! We had very close games that went down to the wire eventually, and it was fun!

I fielded Thousand Sons for some reason...well, because I love Thousand Sons, nothing more. You probably know my list by now...it's a Tzeentch list featuring the Thousand Sons, the Blue Corsairs and a psyker Knight.

Thousand Sons Battalion
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Warlord, Devastating Sorcerery and Arcane Focus)
Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (High Magister)
10 Scarab Occult Terminators (2 hellfyre missile racks, 2 soul reaper cannons)
5 Rubric Marines (warpflamers)
5 Rubric Marines (inferno boltguns)
10 Cultists (heavy stubber)

Blue Corsairs Battalion
Chaos Lord with plasma pistol and power fist
Dark Apostle
Dark Disciples
5 Chaos Space Marines (plasma pistol, power fist, boltguns and lascannon)
2x5 Chaos Space Marines (bolt pistols, chainswords, meltagun and power axe)
2 Forgefiends (Hades autocannon)

Super-heavy Auxiliary
Knight Despoiler (thermal cannon, Avenger gatling cannon, twin Icarus autocannon, Tzeentchian Pyrothrone and Warp-Tainted Hull)

As you can see, it's quite the...insane list.

Game 1

My first match was against Harlequins. I can't quite remember what he had, but it included Ynarri, the Yncarne or something.

The Soaring Spite - Serpent's Brood Battalions (I think he had 2 of them)
2 Troupe Masters
Shadowseer
Yncarne
2 x 10 Troupes
4 x 5 Troupes
Solitaire
Jestmaster
2x6 (or was it 9? I can't remember) Skyweavers (haywire cannons)
2 Starweavers



I'm pretty sure he had a Vanguard or 2 Battalions something, but I can't remember. Or was it Outrider? Whatever the case, I'm sure my opponent had 2 detachments...because this doesn't sound right. Well, whatever. I can't remember.

We rolled and got Seize Ground. With my Knight and 2 Forgefiends, my opponent obviously chose Big Game Hunter for his Secondaries, followed by Behind Enemy Lines, and Engineers. He got Attacker and I was Defender, and so he went first, with me being completely unable to seize because of the new ITC rules. As for me, I chose Born for Greatness (because he had no vehicles for me to kill and I wasn't confident of killing his Skyweavers), Behind Enemy Lines and Old School. Hah!

I can't remember what happened in each turn, but I know for sure that my opponent blitzed into my deployment zone with all his Troupes, his Troupe Master, Shadowseer, Skyweavers and Starweavers, and proceeded to take out my 2 Forgefiends, the Dark Apostle, 2 squads of Chaos Space Marines and 10 Cultists - all in the first turn. Captured 4 Objectives to claim the bonus points, and...yeah. He was way ahead by the first turn, getting almost 10 or so points, I think? I can't remember. My first turn was lackluster, and even though I killed a single Starweaver with my Knight to get First Strike, and captured yet another objective with my remaining squad of Chaos Space Marines, I wasn't able to do anything. I did pull a Warpflame Gargoyles with my Forgefiends before they died and blew up the first Troupe Master (who got hit by my Chaos Lord's power fist), but the Chaos Lord subsequently died to the Troupes in the second turn (more on that later). Right, and I think I destroyed maybe just 1 Skyweaver, but he still had so many of them. Did he have 6 in a squad? Or perhaps 8. Or 9. I just know he maxed out the unit. Maybe I had 3 points in the first turn, but I was very far behind. Ouch. Well, I got Slay the Warlord when I used Warpflame Gargoyles, heh.



Shortly after that, the Skyweavers zoomed across and did like 14 mortal wounds to my Knight with their haywire stuff. I was losing, and losing very badly. My last squad of Chaos Space Marines fell. The Solitaire charged my Rubric Marines with warpflamers and ended up eating quite a few wounds, and then the Troupe charged my Chaos Lord and killed him, as I mentioned earlier. Ouch. I paid 2 Command Points for Counter-offensive and had my Rubric Marines kill the Solitaire before he could hit them, so that was a huge relief. Hah! Small comfort, because I was still very far behind. By the time turn 2 ended, he was like 13 or 15 points...

Then my Scarab Occult Terminators (and Rubric Marines waiting in the walkway) Deep Struck in. And everything Changed.

Using psychic spells such as Astral Blast, I essentially wiped out an entire Troupe, destroyed a few Skyweavers with mortal wounds with the area of effect psychic spells), shot off a bunch of Troupes, had my Rubric Marines with warpflamers kill even more Troupes, and then my Scarab Occult Terminators proceeded to shoot one squadron of Skyweavers...only for them to make all their invulnerable saves despite me using Veterans of the Long War. Damn, that was just not good for me. However, I thinned out their forces, and my Knight did succeed in somehow killing all but 2 Skyweavers in that squad that made all their invulnerable saves, and despite charging and stomping on the last Starweaver, it was left with one wound. Damn.

The Knight then died in the third turn, allowing my opponent to max out on Big Game Hunter. However, despite him throwing everything he had into the Scarab Occult Terminators, I only lost like 3 of them, but in retaliation I wiped out a 10-men troupe in combat. I also somehow destroyed the remaining Starweaver with my Aspiring Sorcerer in close combat after it killed all the warpflamer Rubric Marines with its shuriken cannon, and I destroyed the remaining Starweavers with a combination of psychic spells and assault. Meanwhile, I killed the last Troupe Master with the inferno combi-bolter from my Warlord, which allowed me to finally max out on Born for Greatness (he had been in the opponent's deployment zone for a whole battle round, killed Troupes, and did a Heroic Intervention). The Shadowseer killed herself with Perils when casting a psychic spell, and I think the Ycarne didn't manage to get any psychic spells off either, or I would have gotten the Deny for Born for Greatness. In any event, after wiping out the Troupes, Starweavers and everything, I proceeded to throw everything at the Ycarne and the Jestmaster with a combination of psychic spells and shooting...I didn't even need to charge and assault the Ycarne. She just died to psychic spells and shooting alone.

And just like that, my opponent was tabled by turn 5. I came from behind to pull ahead to 25 points over his 23. The last 3 turns in particular allowed me to kill more and hold more, especially given how fragile the Harlequins were. They are basically glass cannons, and once my Terminators came in, I lost like 3 of them, but they otherwise shrugged off everything the Harlequins threw at them. Using both Glamor of Tzeentch and All is Dust (and my opponent denied Weaver of Fates), I managed to keep them mostly alive and able to destroy much of my opponent's forces, to the point that I tabled him. Still, I also lost the majority of my forces, and the Blue Corsairs completely wiped out, my Knight destroyed, and...my Cultists slain. As I decimated his forces with sorcerey and the sheer firepower and resilience of my Terminators, I was able to pull ahead with capturing more Objectives and killing more, plus I fulfilled my Secondaries and wiped out his Engineers, denying him his own Secondaries. That was at least 3 points I denied him, yay. Since this was ITC, we would have played out the sixth turn, and I would have another 3 points from Linebreaker (Old School), capturing objectives and having more, which would bring me eventually to 28 over 23. Still a very tight and close game, given how he pulled ahead to an overwhelming lead in the first two turns alone. I remembered he had like 20 points to my 13 in turn 3 or so, but by turn 5 I managed to pull ahead as his forces dwindled and he was unable to hold more objectives and I simply killed more with my devastating sorcery.

Game 2

My second match was against White Scars. I can't remember what my opponent had, but it was pure White Scars and looked like this:

White Scars Battalion 1
Kosarro Khan (or however you spell his name)
Primaris Lieutenant
Librarian in phobos armor
5 Intercessors, Sergeant with thunder hammer
2x5 Incursors
2 Invictor Tactical Warsuits with incendium cannons
Impulsor

White Scars Battalion
Captain on bike with thunder hammer and storm shield
Librarian with jetpack
3x5 Scouts with sniper rifles (NO camo cloaks)
5 Assault Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields
2 Stormhawk Interceptors

The second match was Crucible of Champions. As always I lost the roll-off and ended up being the Defender. That was fine, I like being the Defender, and it allowed me to react to my opponent accordingly. My opponent chose Big Game Hunter, Recon and Headhunter for his secondaries, while I went with Big Game Hunter, Behind Enemy Lines and Old School...again.



The first turn went as you would expect...though, even with Devastator Doctrine, he was unable to see any of my Rubric Marines. He did wipe out 2 squads of Chaos Space Marines (again...these poor bastards are doomed to die in the first turn, no matter what), killed 6 Cultists with an Invictor Warsuit (shooting frag grenades and assaulting them), and charged my poor Forgefiend. Needless to say, his Captain on bike and 2nd Invictor Warsuit killed my Dark Disciples and Chaos Lord, despite eating some wounds on overwatch. I did managed to have my Forgefiends survive the attack from the Captain on bike, and I proceededd to pay 2 Command Points for counter-offensive, and had my Chaos Lord take several wounds off the Invictor Warsuit before he was destroyed. Combined with the overwatch, the poor Invictor Warsuit had 4 wounds left, if I remembered correcty, but even when degraded, he did enough to crush the poor Chaos Lord. Oh well...the Cultists obviously failed their morale, and just the Sergeant was left.



My Knight took out a few Scouts with his Smite, and then my Rubric Marines went over, and with a combination of baby Smite, warpflamers with Veterans of the Long War, and charging (though they lost a couple to overwatch), brought the first Invictor Warsuit to just 1 wound left. The Cultist Champion had fallen back and ran off toward an objective (but didn't reach it). And that was even after one of my Forgefiends fell back and used the Blasphemous Engines Stratagem to shoot at it without penalty. Damn it, I couldn't kill it! Similarly, I wasn't able to kill the second Invictor warsuit or the Captain on bike, but they proceeded to crush the Dark Apostle, who failed all his saves. Funnily enough, despite his Strength 10 thunder hammer, the Captain on bike failed to slay my first Forgefiend because I made all of his invulnerable saves. What in the warp? I had my last squad of Chaos Space Marines advance and charge the Incursors, but failed to kill all of them, leaving just one guy left. Similarly, there were 2 Scouts left, despite the Smite and my Knight shooting his heavy stubber at him. Fortunately, I did destroy a Stormhawk Interceptor with my thermal cannon, rolling a 6 for the D6 shots and then blowing it out of the sky. Heh! First Strike for me...for now. However, that left me...pretty vulnerable and exposed.



The second turn was pretty brutal...in a lot of ways. My opponent had his Invictor Warsuit fall back (both of them), as well as the Captain. They killed all of my Rubric Marines (the Aspiring Sorcerer falling in the fight phase by the Captain on bike), but...when both Invictor Warsuits charged my Forgefiends, my overwatch killed the both of them. I mean, they had 4 and 1 wound left respectively, so...the 2 damage Strength 8 AP -1 being a big deal. The other Stormhawk Interceptor flew over and killed my last squad of Chaos Space Marines. Oh, and the Librarian and Terminators Deep Struck behind my Knight. In a hilarious turn of events, my Knight denied my opponent's psychic spells not once but twice. Yeah, two psychic powers denied with my Knight, of all things. Tzeentch was trolling my poor opponent. Anyway, the Terminators charged and got in, and proceeded to take 12 wounds off the poor guy, even though I killed 1 of them in overwatch. Then I stomped on him, using the Stratagem to help him regain health if he killed any of them, except that my opponent proceeded to make all of his storm shield saves. Curse my luck. In any event, my opponent was pulling far ahead of me. His Impulsor wiped out the last Cultist Champion, and yeah, that was it. Oh, and overwatch reduced the Captain on bike to 2 wounds.



This time, I had my Terminators Deep Strike in my enemy's backline, along with the Rubric Marines. I can't remember, but I think I did a lot of damage to the Stormhawk Interceptor, leaving it with 3 wounds, but failed to kill it. My poor Knight killed only one Scout with the heavy flamer, but didn't do much with his shooting. I did manage to stomp the last Incursor to death and claim the Objective. My Terminators proceeded to erase the Incursors and did like 6 wounds to the Impulsor, while my Rubric Marines killed like 2 Scouts (I think?). The Forgefiend and Captain on bike continued to engage each other, but again I made my saves like a boss, and he survived. The captain on bike also refused to die, making all of his storm shield saves.

My opponent then had his Primaris Lieutenant and Phobos Librarian proceed upward to finish off the wounded Forgefiend once and for all, and he actually succeeded...damn. As for the Librarian in jetpack, he cast 2 spells...only for me to deny them both again with my psyker Knight. Warp Tainted Hull plus Tzeentchian Pyrothrone are the best psychic trolling combination ever! The Intercessors and Kosarro Khan jumped out of the Impulsor, moved toward my Sorcerers in Terminator Armor and proceeded to kill my Warlord...who failed all of his invulnerable saves against the thunder hammer, though my second Sorcerer in Terminator Armor made all his saves and survived, only taking a single wound. He attacked back and left Kosarro Khan with 4 wounds, but that was a big chunk of my sorcerery gone. The Terminators finished off my poor Knight, and I used a Stratagem to have him blow up on a 4+, dealing D6 mortal wounds. I killed the final Scout, and then rolled a 6 to kill 3 Terminators straight, leaving them with just 1 wound. The Captain on bike charged...and this time he died to my Forgefiend using Hellforged Stratagem to re-roll all hit rolls in combat (the damned guy made all his saves in overwatch). FINALLY! Hah! The Phobos Librarian, though eating two wounds, proceeded to kill the Forgefiend. Ouch. The Stormhawk flew about and killed like 1 or 2 Rubric Marines.

I managed to kill the Phobos Librarian with my 2nd Forgefiend for some reason, while my Rubric Marines did a smite on the Stormhawk Interceptor and left it with 2 wounds, while proceeding toward the remaining 3 Scouts. Meanwhile my Scarab Occult Terminators proceeded to shoot and kill the Intercessors, while I rolled a 10 (plus 1 because of High Magister) for Smite with my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and rolled to do 4 mortal wounds to Kosarro Khan, effectively killing him once and for all. This was just hilarious. I failed to do any wounds to the Impulsor with the Hellfyre missiles or the inferno combi-bolter, but whatever. Anyway, in the fourth turn, the Stormhawk Interceptor found no way of flying...and flew off the board...to die. Because my Terminators were blocking its minimum movement characteristic and it couldn't land 1" next to them or on them. Whoops! The Scouts failed to do anything to my Terminators, and my Impulsor did...maybe 1 wound to my Sorceerer in Terminator Armor? The Librarian in jetpack failed his charge, but the Primaris Lieutenant made it and...locked my Forgefiend in combat.

The Forgefiend then killed him in combat during my turn, hilariously enough. I used Hellforged or whatever Stratagem it was to re-roll all hit rolls in combat. My Rubric Marines then charged up and slew a couple of Scouts in combat, while my Scarab Occult Terminators erased the last squad of Scouts from existence. Despite Smiting and shooting, my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor still failed to destroy the Impulsor, doing like 2 wounds and leaving it with 3? Obviously he failed his charge, so too bad. Oh, and he got his wounds back, because I cast Temporal Manipulation on him. Yay!



The last surviving White Scar Terminator continued to get the objective, while the Librarian with jetpack finally killed my Forgefiend (giving my opponent maxed out points on Big Game Hunter). I then killed his Impulsor with Smite, and a combination of warpflame pistol and attacks from my Rubric Marines wiped out the Scouts, effectively leaving my opponent with just 2 models on the table. Needless to say, we couldn't do anything for the 6th turn, except my Sorcerer in Terminator Armor advancing to grab the objective where the Impulsor was destroyed on, while my 10 Scarab Occult Terminators remained on their Objective. Both of us had 2 units left on the table, and I had 11 to his 2. Oh well. What a joke.

In the end, I won 24-22 against my opponent. It was an extremely close game that swung back and forth, but as always, my Terminators pulled through and won me the game. They seriously are tough! I can't believe they were so tough! With Glamor of Tzeentch and Weaver of Fates cast upon them, they basically can survivec anything my opponent throws at them, and more besides. People tend to underestimate Terminators for some reason, but there's a reason why they are so expensive. And psychic Terminators are even better!

Somehow I managed to win both games, but...I know my luck won't last forever. Still very fun, and we all enjoyed the matches! They were extremely close - I only won by a couple of points (perspire profusely). Any decision or error could have completely swung the match in the other way. I kind of like what the Forgefiends bring to my list. They may not be as accurate or have as many shots as my Armiger Moirax, and can't do mortal wounds, but they appear to synergize better with my list, especially since they have better melee weapons (daemonic jaws plus Hateful Assault), and Stratagems (Blasphemous Machines and Hellforged). Also they benefit from the Chaos Lord's aura of re-roll ones, and the Dark Apostle +1 to their hit rolls (Warp-sighted Plea). So I think I like them better with my list.

Anyway, that was how my ITC matches went today. I noticed that Lord Adiatun Varunn is forced to stay at home in Italy because of the quarantine from the coronavirus, so I decided to stay up late to write this battle report so that he has something to read. ;) I would have posted this on the Thousand Sons Facebook page or Discord, but...ugh...no thanks. I left both of the groups there because so many Thousand Sons players there whine too much, and I was sick of the constant negativity. "Scarab Occult Terminators suck." "Rubric Marines still are unviable." "Only thing this supplement helps us with is Thousand Sons Supreme Command in Chaos soup." "Thousand Sons are not competitive." Yikes. I bet if I post my battle report there, the members will mock me for using a thematic Tzeentchian list (they will laugh at my psyker Knight, that's for sure). They will wonder why I'm wasting points on meltaguns for the CSM squads, or whatever. They will claim that my list is actually pretty bad, and I only won because I was playing in a non-competitive setting (ITC doesn't mean competitive), and look for all kinds of fault with how I play, the units I chose, or the list I used. Like, seriously, man...get a grip. It's just a game. We're here to enjoy ourselves and have fun, and the constant negativity and incessant moaning just destroys my exuberant mood after I triumphed over my opponents in a close game. Hell, I'm sure there will be members on there who would say I was lucky (and I won't deny it - my opponent's perils killing his Shadowseer was just hilarious, and me denying 3-4 psychic powers in a row with my Knight was on the level of Tzeentchian trolling). But seriously, guys...pouring rain upon other people's parade, mocking them for their lists, complaining all the time about how "weak" or unviable or uncompetitive Thousand Sons is...that's just not the right attitude toward a game or a hobby. I'm not here to win tournaments, even if I do participate in them from time to time. I'm just here to enjoy myself because I love Warhammer 40,000, I love the game, and I love the Thousand Sons and Knights. So lighten up, be more positive, and quit whining! Stop pouring cold water on other people!

Sorry for the rant, but...yeah. I feel like this has to be said, because when I voice this out on the Facebook page or Discord, I get shut down pretty hard. Ouch. I probably deserve it for being the single dissenting voice, or for trying to be positive amidst a sea of negativity, but seriously. When the Ritual of the Damned came out, people were complaining and whining, especially when the FAQ came around and decreed that we couldn't take multiple Cult relics. I've lost count the number of times that people on Facebook or Discord frequently tell others "don't take Rubric Marines, they are bad." or "don't take Scarab Occult Terminators, they are trash." Well, frak them. If I want to take 10 Scarab Occult Terminators, I bloody damn will. Most people just theoryhammered and condemned Thousand Sons as uncompetitive and unviable (unless you take a Cult of Magic Supreme Command) without actually playing games. Guess what, I went and played 6-7 games with my Thousand Sons, and I had fun. Instead of obsessing over theory, mathhammer and statistics, or trying to create this uber netlist to challenge...I dunno, the Las Vegas Open or whatever tournament, you might want to try actually playing instead? Participate in a real game on the tabletop instead of just calculating statistics and running all sorts of simulations in your mind. Have fun for once, instead of being obsessed with victory or the unbeaten list.

Like this couple of matches! You don't need to steamroll your opponent! Hell, I don't care if I lost! I still had fun, I had a couple of close games, and I managed to turn things around! That's the best kind of games, where you turn the tables on your opponent, and squeeze victory out of a dire situation! Watching all the attacks bounce off my Terminators! Throwing smites and mortal wounds around! Experimenting with devastating sorcerery!

I hope the whiners there learn to let go of mathhammer, theoryhammer and their obsession with victory and the invincible netlists, and for once have fun with their games, and enjoy their matches with their opponents.

Completely owned

Well, I had an Adeptus Titanicus game today, after the nerf of the Acastus Knights, to see if I can still play them in their current form.



In short, I got absolutely crushed by my opponent. Even though I fielded 2 Warlord Titans as reinforcement to my Knight Household Army (a Lance of 4 Cerastus Knights and 2 banners of 3 Questoris Knights) and an auxiliary Acastus Knight banner, I was totally tabled by the end of turn 4. I lost my plasma Warlord Titan by turn 2 without firing a single shot (I used Full Stride in the first turn), probably because I failed all my void shield saves. And then I lost my Acastus Knights and a bunch of Knights by turns 3 and 4, and...yeah...in return for my troubles, I only took out a single Cerastus Knight banner, injured a Warhound and maybe took out the void shields of the Nemesis Warbringer...actually, I don't think I even took out those shields. I think he suffered a void shield burnout after his heat reached critical levels. Never mind.



Looks like I need to change my strategy. Oh, for those of you interested, my opponent brought an Axiom maniple of 2 Warhounds, a Reaver and a Warlord, a reinforcement Nemesis Warbringer Titan, an Acastus Knight and 2 Knight Lancers. That was more than enough to destroy me.



Looks like I need to either re-think my strategy or alter my list further. Maybe get more Knight Lances? Since I'll be getting the Cerastus Knight Castigators (and I plan to magnetize them with the Acherons if possible), I have more room to play around. Should I give up on the Acastus Knights? Or should I focus on playing a Titan maniple with Knight banner support? Nah...I like my Knight Household Army. We'll see. I'll figure something out...eventually.



After the match, instead of licking my wounds, I went and painted my new Skitarii. So now I have 6 troops - 2 squads of Skitarii Rangers with 2 arc rifles and omnispex each, and the Alphas equipped with arc maul and arc pistol, 2 squads of Skitarii Rangers with 2 transuranic arquebuses and omnispex each, and 2 squads of Skitarii Vanguard with 2 plasma calivers and omnispex each, and the Alphas equipped with taser goads and phosphor blast pistols. I don't know how effective they will be, but I plan to build a Skitarii Brigade to support my Knights. We'll see how it turns out, but I'm not very confident. Oh, well...



I'll try to get them based this weekend! I still like the Martian iron soil (or was it Martian iron earth?). Anyway, I'll have a game again tomorrow, but I'll be bringing my Thousand Sons instead of Skitarii since I want to try out my favorite psychic powers. That's why I'm not writing too much for today - because I need to turn in early in preparation for two games tomorrow! I'll see you next time!

New Adeptus Titanicus Cerastus Knights!

AVE OMNISSIAH!

My prayers have been answered at long last! The Machine God delivers! GAMA! just revealed that we are about to get new Cerastus Knights for Adeptus Titanicus! I'm on it, planning to build 2 Knight Lances so that I can field an entirely Knight army even without Titan support. Or I can field 2 different Knight Household Armies with Titan support (so my opponent doesn't need to have his own army - I can lend one of mine to him). This will be so cool!



I don't think I will be able to magnetize them, but we'll see!



That's not all! We're getting a new campaign book as well! I can't wait!



I wonder what happend to Ryza during the Horus Heresy. I guess we'll find out! All I know about Ryza is the plasma technology they have (which Draconis IV stole and are trying to emulate) and the numerous Waaaghs! that have plagued it. Oh, and the Daemonic incursion that showed up after they defeated the Ork Waaagh!. Cool! We'll find out!

Psychic Ruse

"Waaaagh!"

Even from within his Throne Mechanicum, and safely protected behind several inches of ceramite-steel, Satoru could still hear the bloodcurdling cry of the Orks. The greenskins charged forward, heedless of the ferocious electro-galvanic projectiles and radioactive rounds that poured forth from the tightly packed ranks of skitarii. Wading through the notoriously inaccurate bolter fire from the onrushing Orks, Satoru swept the Avenger gatling cannon of his Knight Crusader across their ranks, the high-caliber rounds chewing through them in retaliation.

"Kaneda! Tetsuo!"

In response to his commands, his bondsmen loped on either side of his imposing Knight Crusader, their smaller Armiger-class Knights surging ahead of his heavier chassis. Unlike the more conventional Armiger Helverin or Warglaives used by most other Knight houses, House Yato made use of Armiger Moirax, a specialized class manufactured only by a few select forge worlds. Draconis IV's decision to manufacture the Armiger Moirax over the conventional types was vindicated when Kaneda and Tetsuo opened up with their twin volkite veuglaires. The weapons, an ancient design that was lost to most forge worlds, continued to be produced on Draconis IV because of their potent firepower. Crimson rays strobed outward and lanced into the mass of Orks, disintegrating the front row of them. However, their devastating effects didn't end there. The greenskins at the back also spontaneously combusted from the sheer heat, their hulking forms immolated by the embers scattered by their blazing comrades.

A single Morkanaut lumbered forward, its heavy shooter spitting out brick-sized slugs. An entire squad of skitarii Vanguard simply ceased to exist, their forms reduced to bloody splatters and metallic shrapnel on the ground. Rockets spiraled from the shoulder-mounted launcher, but most of them missed, twisting away in a mocking manner before crashing into the Orks, dealing more damage to them than to the enemy. The few missiles that landed a direct hit against Satoru's Knight detonated harmlessly against a shimmering wall of energy, the noble skillfully angling his ion shield to deflect the shots.

Narrowing his eyes and relying on the auspexes that filled his Throne Mechanicum, Satoru lifted the right arm of his Knight Crusader and swiveled about. A vermillion beam burst out and struck the Morkanaut square in the center, burning out its haphazardly constructed forcefield and melting through several layers of steel and scrap that the greenskins had patched together in what appeared to be armor. It didn't matter. A Knight's thermal cannon was capable of melting through even the most fortified of armor, and it was clear that he had inflicted critical damage. The scrap-giant listed for a moment, fumes pouring out of its grievous wound, but before it could right itself, Satoru was already charging into it.

With a grace that belied his gigantic suit, he spun about and kicked the xenos engine with one of his titanic feeet. The Morkanaut staggered for a moment, but the momentum behind Satoru's strike was too much. With a dreadful, metallic groan, the Morkanaut crashed onto the ground, shattering into debris. For good measure, Satoru stomped on one of its arms - reducing the heavy gatling cannon into flattened scrap, and fired off another melta burst into its insides, cooking the howling greenskin crew that manned it.

Beside him, Kaneda and Tetsuo continued onward. Bestial roars drew their attention back to the front, where a squadron of buggies zoomed forward. Missiles and mass reactive projectiles pelted them, most of them exploding harmlessly against their formidable ion shields. The bondsmen responded by triggering their volkite weapons, and the lead buggies caught fire, their drivers shrieking as they combusted within their seats. The buggies continued swerving forward, rudderless, before they flipped over, crashed upside down and blew up. Debris struck their comrades, who yanked at what passed for a steering wheel to prevent a collision. However, one huge shrapnel sailed out and decapitated one of the ork drivers, and without direction, the buggy rammed right into a tightly knotted mass of greenskins before being totalled.

"It is beneath us to deal with such rubbish," Haku remarked, his Knight Crusader lumbering forward several dozen meters left of Satoru's own. "The greenskins do not make for good sport...they lack any ounce of skill or intelligence. They just throw themselves at us, as if asking to be culled. I have never seen any other species as suicidal or so mentally...limited."

"It is not wise to underestimate the orks, Haku-dono," Satoru reminded him. "You have heard the briefing from Yato-sama. Ever since the appearance of their self-proclaimed prophet, these foul beasts have been gathering in numbers unheard since the days of the Beast. They have been carrying out tactics and strategies that have taken even the most esteemed Guard generals by surprise."

"Really now?" Haku snorted as he hefted his rapid-fire battle cannon and fired several rounds into a second Morkanaut. The xenos engine stumbled as the high explosive rounds detonated against its bulk, its force field flickering out. Without pause, both Haku and Satoru sent stormspear rockets streaking from their carpace-mounted pods and into the wouded construct. Orange conflagrations blossomed both inside and outside the Morkanaut and it slumped down, a fuming wreck. Orks attempted to bail from their now useless machine, but the heavy stubbers and Avenger gatling cannons made short work of them. "You call this tactics? We have cornered these brainless beasts and are slaughtering them by the thousands. At this rate, we'll exterminate the vermin by nightfall."

Satoru could detect a trace of mockery in his lance-mate's tone, and picture him curling his lips into a sneer.

"Perhaps it's only natural for a lowborn for you to be so cowardly. You lack the pure noble blood of true Knights, and thus your courage naturally falters in the face of such scum. Just follow my lead and we'll lead House Yato to glory once again."

"Sir Shirayama, Sir Hounouji. We request assistance."

A motonous, almost mechanical voice sounded over the vox. Satoru recognized it as belonging to Radis-74-Cronius, the skitarii alpha in overall command of the cybernetic infantry assigned to escort the Knights.

"What is it, Alpha Cronius?" Satoru asked, consulting the visual auspexes and trying to get a read on the skitarii's position. They were still fighting the ork infantry, radium rounds and galvanic projectiles shredding the howling greenskins, but the distance between the two forces was gradually shrinking. Satoru knew that if the orks got in close and engaged the skitarii in melee, the latter would be routed. "We'll clear out the lines of greenskin..."

"I apologize for the interruption, but given the urgency of the circumstances, I hope you forgive my lack of protocol." Satoru fell silent and allowed Cronius to continue. "We have heavy ork infantry materializing behind us. Terminator equivalent class. They are butchering our rearlines. I request for support."

"Huh? Behind?" It was Kaneda. "How did the orks get behind us?!"

"I do not know. I speculate, however, that there is a 37.8% probabilility that they employed teleportation technology. There is also a 61.2% probability that they exercised the use of psychic powers to transport the group of heavy infantry over space. Judging from the traces of empyrean energy that our sensors detected, I believe the latter reason is the most likely explanation."

Satoru was hardly paying attention to Cronius's explanation. He had already turned back and sighted the heavy ork infantry that the skitarii alpha had mentioned. A horde of meganobz had suddenly teleported right behind the skitarii lines and were laying into them with their power claws. The skitarii vanguard and rangers desperately fired into them at near pointblank range, but despite being pieced together from scrap, the bulky armor of the meganobz was more than a match for the tactical dreadnought armor that the space marines wore. It was almost as if they were shooting into a tank. Heedless of the radioactive or electronically charged rounds that sparked off their formidable armor, the massive orks mowed the fragile skitarii down, leaving a trail of broken bionics and torn flesh in their wake.

Several of the skitarii vanguard specialists strode forward, leveling their plasma calivers at the newly appeared enemy. Blue globes of superheated light burst out and slammed into the bellowing monsters, incinerating the first couple of them. Snarling, the meganobz turned toward them, their power claws clacking incessantly as they set their ferocious eyes on their new prey.

The horde vanished as a massive blast of thermal energy washed over them, melting even their vaunted armor into slag. The surviving skitarii rallied, their plasma gunners continuing to pummel the remaining meganobz with superheated projectiles. Satoru added to their barrage, sweeping his Avenger gatling cannon over the growling greenskins. The high-caliber rounds did little against the towering monsters, but they contained enough kinetic force to smack them off their feet and send them bowling. The skitarii capitalized on the moment of vulnerability to finish them off with a barrage of plasma, arc lightning, radium rounds and galvanic bullets.

"You didn't have to bother with that," Haku snorted derisively. "Leave the infantry to fight infantry. There is no glory in stomping on those ground sloggers. We are Knights...we deserve bigger prey than that."

"It is our duty to provide support to the infantry," Satoru pointed out wearily. Haku merely chuckled.

"Then you go and continue stomping around in the mud with them. I will not share any credit or glory with you when I claim another super-heavy kill."

Satoru didn't even bother to watch as Haku stalk off with his own bondsmen. There were other nobles who followed him, their Questoris chassis Knights disappearing into the distance as they surged toward the greenskin lines, to take the fight to the enemy. Fortunately, Kaneda and Tetsuo remained loyal, their Armiger Moirax Knights staying back to rake the diminishing ork lines with thermal rays. Buggies, mek guns and greenskin infantry vanished into ash as the devastating beams washed over them.

Pivoting around, Satoru unleashed another thermal lance into a battlewagon, scything it into half. As immolated orks poured out of the crippled vehicle, the surviving skitarii advanced and pumped them with radioactive rounds or electrocuted the tough brutes with galvanic and arc lightning, dropping them onto the ground. As tenacious as they were, even the orks couldn't withstand the sheer firepower of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

"We will visit the vengeance of the Omnissiah upon his foes!" Cronius hollered in both flesh-voice and binary, rallying his skitarii to him. "Let none of the foul xenos survive, for their existence alone is an affront to the Machine God!"

Satoru continued to stalk at the back, moving his heavy stubbers to cut down more of the orks. Lifting his thermal cannon, he let loose another shot at a speeding buggy. The impossible contraption was somehow fast enough to evade his fire, but even so he managed to clip the tail and the engines exploded, turning the dakkajet into a streaking fireball that careened right into the lines of scattering greenskin. Even the orks weren't stupid enough to stand around and let a crashing vehicle smash them into bits.

"Charge! Get in close before...!"

An explosion engulfed the panicking voice of Haku, and Satoru felt the ground shudder from violent tremors as something massive detonated. Swiveling around, he caught sight of Haku's Knight Crusader blow up as something blasted it, overloading even the ancient walker's vaunted ion shields and engulfing it in fiery destruction.

"What...?!"

"Super-heavy engine approaching from the west! Titan-class! All Knights, spread out, and then charge in!"

Another noble - from the voice, Satoru suspected it was Jisatsu - was yelling, before his Knight Gallant was enveloped in green flames. Within several seconds, the ion shields fizzled out and the huge armored suit crashed over, emerald lightning shorting out its systems and frying the screaming pilot inside.

Despite the deaths of two Knights in so short a time, the remaining Knights charged at their killer. Amidst the gloom, Satoru spotted something lumbering forward - a massive war engine towering over thirty meters long. A long skirt that covered its thick, clumsy legs, bristling with all sorts of guns, while the head was carved into a fanged, mechanical grin that was supposed to resemble the orks' gods in some twisted humorous fashion. Gigantic cannons jutted out of its eyes and shoulders, firing colossal beams and projectiles that rendered even the Knights' normally impervious ion shields useless.

"Satoru-sama! Satoru-sama!" Satoru snapped out of his stupor when he realized that Tetsuo was calling out to him. "What do we do? Do we engage?"

"Y...yes." He nodded, his mouth dry. Another Questoris-class Knight had blossomed into shrapnel and flame, its shields and armor no longer proof against the apocalyptic firepower that the ork Gargant meted out upon them. With their ranged weaponry, shields and armor outclassed, there was only one way for the smaller Knights to bring down the gargantuan walker. They had to close in and engage it in close combat, right beneath its weapons' arcs. Well, most, anyway. One of the Gargant's hands had ended in a gigantic wrecking ball almost half the size of a Questoris Knight. Even so, their only chance was to carve into the titan with their reaper-chainswords or tear into it with their thunderstrike gauntlets. Those not armed with dedicated melee weapons could coordinate their firepower, concentrating thermal lances or volleys of high-caliber rounds into a single spot. It wasn't going to be easy, but it was doable. "We need to help them."

Then, for some reason, he felt as if the Gargant was looking at him. It couldn't be possible - the xenos titan was still swatting away his comrades like horseflies, its lethal weapons still spitting out a torrent of death at his dwindling comrades. Yet he could feel its stare...or at least the eldritch stare of the ork that was in command of it.

Even though he didn't know how he knew, he instinctively understood that the princeps of the Gargant was a witch. A psyker. And it also recognized him somehow...as a threat.

One of the super-heavy weapons of the Gargant was leveled at him, and a green arc of devastating light formed between them. Despite adjusting his ion shields to deflect the powerful blast, Satoru's Knight was knocked off its feet. The entire space around him disintegrated, the skitarii unfortunate enough to be near him simply ceasing to exist as the eldritch energy curled about their cybernetic bodies. His Throne Mechanicum sparked and his auspexes all went dark.

For a moment, Satoru thought he was dead. So dark...so silent was his surroundings that he believed that he had descended into oblivion.

Get up!

Don't dishonor your ancestors!

You're still alive! Fight!

The ghosts in his Throne Mechanicum urged him up, and his hands twitched in his haptic gloves. Pain stabbed through his throbbing body, assuring him that he was very much alive. The neural plugs stung as the machine-spirit of his Knight growled, determined to return to the fight.

You're not done yet, boy! Get up!

The voice sounded familiar. His grandfather? Or perhaps his great-great-grandfather, whose voice he had heard once in a holo-vid, when he was taught how to pilot the Knight and was introduced to the past glories of the Honouji family. They were always close to him, especially during his Ritual of Becoming, but he often tuned them out. However, shaken by the Gargant's strike, his mental defenses had crumbled and he was hearing the ghosts' voices once more.

"Throne," he mumbled as he restarted his suit. Several of the visual auspexes flickered back on, the holo-picts displaying the outside world.

Then he froze.

The Gargant was approaching him, another of its deadly weapons pointed straight at him. Even with its horrendous aim, Satoru recognized the titan-grade weapon as having such a massive blast radius that it didn't matter if it missed. With his ion shields down, even a single clip or graze from such a powerful weapon would wipe him from the face of this planet.

He could sense the triumph from the greenskin witch. The weirdboy at the helm of the Gargant was laughing gleefully, ready to destroy what he thought was a pathetic enemy.

"Pathetic humie, you iz tinkin' you can krump us? The prophet iz here! He will ledz us all to victory! We iz rulez the galaxy once more, and not you or your humie Imperium will standz in our way! Waaagh!"

Eldritch fire burned across the Gragant's titanic form, gathering into its weapon once more. The other Knights were battered, either blasted to scrap, destroyed or incapacitated, and all across the battlefield, skitarii were fighting valiantly to prevent the orks from capturing the pilots and their downed machines...for they knew the dreadful fate that awaited them if they succeeded. Kaneda and Tetsuo were doing their best, their volkite weapons lancing into rows of howling orks, but they were fast being overwhelmed.

Not that it matter. Not when the orks had brought one of their god-machines along with them. Defeat was inevitable.

I'm going to die here... Satoru realized. In an Emperor forsaken planet whose name I can't even remember...

You fool!

His hands twitched when he heard the ghostly voice chiding him.

Is this the time to give up!? You are a scion of the Honouji family! A Knight of House Yato! Use whatever power you have within your disposal to win! Don't just roll over and die!

Satoru shut his eyes. Power? What power? His Knight suit didn't have any power left. He didn't have any power to fight back...

...no, that was not true. Ever since he sensed the ork witch, he had been feeling some sort of inner turmoil within his chest. A maelstrom of...something, something dark and ominous burning within him.

He had been afraid to touch it, for its whispers were dark and ghastly. He didn't want to consider what this power was, or the consequences that came along if he was to harness it.

But if he didn't, he would die here.

Taking a deep breath, Satoru reached within himself and harnessed the maelstrom of psychic energy building up within his chest. He did not know what its origins were, only that it was agitated in response to the ork witch's presence. He knew intuitively that it was this...this entity that was what made the weirdboy wary of him in the first place.

Well, so be it. If the weirdboy was afraid of this, then he might as well give it a real reason to feel fear. Tapping into the power, he reached out and...

...the empyrean...the great ocean of power...the hard gaze from a single eye...a cyclopean entity with angelic wings of fire, his towering form stretching as far as he could see. A sea filled with primordial predators, their intangible forms swimming about and getting as close to him as he could. Blazing fire - fire that burned from phantom stars, fire that was his to harness. An insidious chuckle, and a promise of damnation if he were to accept that power for himself.

And looming death as the Gargant approached, its weapon near critical discharge.

Satoru made his decision.

The ork witch shrieked as crimson flames bathed its form. Dropping its staff, it rolled about in its throne, screaming and yelling. The flames spread from him and spread across the cockpit, overwhelming the other greenskins and gretchin that had been bullied into piloting the Gargant. The titanic war engine stumbled and its shot went wide, immolating a column of battlewagons that were packed full of whooping orks, not realizing that friendly fire was in fact not friendly.

That wasn't all.

Deep within the core of the Gargant, the plasma reactor that caged the power of a star, temperatures rose. The gretchin that were manning it yelped and jumped back, but before they knew it their tiny forms were incinerated from the intense heat that continued to spike upward. Within seconds, the reactor blew and the Gargant was immolated from within. The fuming wreck tottered for a few moments, and for a second it seemed that it was breathing fire, molten metal leaking from its eyes, mouth and other gaps. Then with a bestial groan, it toppled over, blazing like an effigy at the burning stakes.

Satoru gasped as something threatened to devour him...something from the immaterium, seeking this chance to use his body as a portal to enter the material universe. With a force of will, he shut the gate down, somehow halting the empyrean powers that were overflowing from him and bathing his Throne Mechanicum. Red-hot agony filled him, and he could almost see the claws rip out of his chest, but somehow they stitched back together. Blood oozing from his mouth, nose and eyes, he fumbled about his Throne, brushing against the warp-frost that had condensed all over the metallic surface of his cockpit. Outside, Kaneda and Tetsuo, the skitarii and the orks looked in wonder at the coat of warp-frost that covered the fallen Knight.

With their idol downed, the orks were still dazed when the skitarii overrode their human emotions and returned to butchering the hated xenos in a blaze of cold, methodical firepower.

ITC 5 (I think)

Sorry if I missed out on ITC 4, but I don't remember if I've ever written a battle report for it. But I managed to get an ITC match today, against Orks!

This time, I brought my Adeptus Mechanicus Convocation, which meant a Skitarii Battalion and 3 Knight Crusaders, so something like this:

Draconis IV Skitarii Battalion (using Graia rules)

Tech-priest Dominus with volklite blaster and phosphor serpenta
Tech-priest Enginseer
2x5 Skitarii Rangers with arc pistol, arc maul, 2 arc rifles and omnispex
5 Skitarii Rangers with 2 transuranic arquebuses and omnispex
2 Skorpius Disintegrator with Belloros cannon

House Yato Imperial Knight Super-heavy Battalion (using House Taranis rules)

Knight Crusader with rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pod (Warlord, Endless Fury and Cunning Commander)
Knight Crusader with rapid-fire battle cannon
Knight Crusader with thermal cannon and Stormspear rocket pod (Fury of Mars and Ion Bulwark)

My opponent brought Death Skulls and Evil Sunz, I believe. 2 Battalions.

Death Skulls Battalion
3 Big Mek with shokk attack gun (one of them is the Warlord that allows him to re-roll wound rolls of ones against vehicles)
3 squads of Gretchin (20 in one squad, 10 in two squads)
2x3 Megatrakk Scrapjets
Morkanaut
1x6 Mek Gunz

Evil Sunz Battalion
Weirdboy
Big Mek in Mega-armor
Meganobz (7-8?)
3x10 Gretchin

Since it was ITC, we rolled and had Priority Parcel or Courier or something...the one where you have 5 Objectives, and designate one objective that is not the center as your priority objective, and if your opponent controls it, he gets a bonus point. My opponent's secondary objectives were Big Game Hunter, Old School and Recon. My secondary objectives were also Big Game Hunter and Old School, but I chose Engineers instead of Recon. We rolled off, he got attacker and I was defender. As you know, the new ITC rules mean that I can't seize the Initiative, so I had to suck it and go second (actually, I don't mind going second). It's good for me because my army is more defensive.

Turn 1

My opponent moved all his Megatrakk scrapjets forward, as well as several of his Gretchin, and his Morkanaut. He attempted to cast Da Jump with his Weirdboy, but because my Skitarii were using Graia rules, I went and used the Steel Mind, Steel Logic Stratagem and denied his psychic power. Yeah...I don't know how the frak I did that, but my Skitarii pulled it off. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Anyway, the combined shooting from the Megatrakk Scrapjets, the Mek Gunz and the Big Meks' shokk attack guns spread across my Knights and one of my Skorpius Disintegrator tanks, so my Knight Crusader with thermal cannon had 16 wounds left, my Warlord had 8 wounds left and was barely hanging in there, and my last Knight Crusader had 15 wounds left. The Skorpius Disintegrator had 4 wounds left. But my opponent failed to kill any of my units, and his Meganobz were stuck in their deployment zone because I denied his Da Jump psychic power with my Steel Mind and Steel Logic. All hail Skitarii! In any event, my opponent immediately got all 4 points for Big Game Hunter because he did a total of 41 wounds to my vehicles. Ouch.

Then it came to my turn, and I fought back while having my Knights move up. Despite my Tech-priest Enginseer repairing the Skorpius Dunerider, I only managed to get it back up to 5 wounds. Ugh. In a ferocious round of shooting and melee (and me popping the Machine Spirit Resurgent Stratagem off on my wounded Knight Crusader), I managed to destroy 4 Megatrakk Scrapjets, the Morakanaut, and 2 Mek Gunz, as well as stomped an entire squad of 20 Gretchin to death. Cool! Thanks to my Warlord, who stayed within 3" of the center objective, I held more Objectives than my opponent, and I did manage to get all 4 points for Big Game Hunter too, given how I essentially took out over 50 wounds from his vehicles (17 from his Morkanaut, 36 from his Megatrakk Scrapjets), and he controlled like 2 Objectives to my 3. Since I also killed more (he didn't kill anything) and took First Strike from Old School, it meant I took a huge lead, getting 9 points to his 5.

Turn 2

My opponent moved his Meganobz toward my Knight Crusader who wasn't my Warlord, while his remaining twoMegatrakk Scrapjets powered forward, toward my damaged Skorpius Disintegrator. His Weirdboy cast Smite on my Warlord, taking another couple of wounds off him. Ouch. His remaining Mek Gunz and Big Meks then fired upon my Knight Crusader Warlord...and I think his Warlord fired upon my thermal cannon Knight Crusader, and...didn't do anything. Basically he rolled 3s and 2s for every Shokk Attack gun whenever he tried to determine its Strength. And that was even after he used the Stratagem for his Warlord to shoot twice. Both times he rolled a 3 or a 2 for its Strength, even though it was 2D6. What are the odds? Well...Orks. ("Stinkin' humie!") For those of you who don't know, basically you determine the Strength of the Shokk Attack gun by rolling 2D6. And yeah, he rolled 3s and 2s, which meant he was only wounding my Toughness 8 Knights on 6s. That was terrible rolling on his part. Guess all the good shooting happened on the first turn. Anyway, he failed to kill my Warlord, who was promptly left with one wound after all was said and done. On the other side of the table, his Meganobz charged my non-Warlord Knight Crusader, while the Gretchin and Big Mek in mega armor charged my Warlord Knight Crusader, and the megatrakk scrapjets charged my damaged Skorpius Disintegrator - they didn't even need to attack. They blew him up with the mortal wounds from their charge alone. Well, he didn't blow up, but he was turned to scrap, leaving my poor Tech-priest Enginseer quivering in fright by himself, suddenly feeling quite exposed (he couldn't Heroic Intervention because my opponent had his scrapjets pile in over 3" away...which meant he couldn't consolidate into him either...hah!). On the other side, my Knight Crusader failed his overwatch and promptly got crushed to death by a bunch of Meganboz. Well, I think I did 2 damage with one of my overwatch attacks, but still not enough to kill even one. Funnily enough, I rolled a 6 and he blew up, dishing out D6 mortal wounds. I rolled a one or two at first, and decided to Command Re-roll that, and had a 5 this time, which killed 2 Meganobz and left one on two wounds. Phew. Then I paid 2 Command Points to Interrupt and had my Warlord stomp the Big Mek in mega armor to death (he killed like 4 or 5 Gretchin in Overwatch) before he could attack. The Gretchin failed to wound him, and they collapsed and were wiped out because of morale after the combat phase ended.

That was 2 kills for my opponent, and he controlled 2 Objectives. He also got Recon, which brought him up to 8 points.

The combined shooting from my remaining Knight Crusaders (again, I used Machine Spirit Resurgent on the ailing Warlord with one wound left) and Skorpius Disintegrator, Tech-priest Dominus destroyed all but one Meganobz, wiped out an entire squad of Gretchin, decimated another squad to about 3 left, severely damaged another 2 Mek Gunz, wrecked another megatrakk scrapjet while leaving the other on just 3 wounds. My Skitarii snipers sniped the Weirdboy, killing him with their transuranic arquebuses. I had my Warlord Knight Crusader charge in and finish off the 2 Mek Gunz that I damaged, while my thermal Knight Crusader charged and stomped the final megatrakk scrapjet to death. At this point my opponent didn't have much left. His squad of Gretchin was left with just 1 guy after morale, which allowed him to keep the objective, but because my second Engineer squad of Skitarii ran up to capture the Objective, I controlled more objectives than he did (3 versus 2). I also killed more - like 5 or 6 against his 2, so that, along with Engineers, granted me 5 points, bringing me up to 14 against his 8.

Turn 3

Even though I wiped out most of his vehicles, my opponent still had decent shooting power. He still rolled pretty badly for his shokk attack guns...and even though my Warlord Knight had only one wound left, it took the combined shooting of his 2 remaining Mek Gunz, 2 Big Meks with shokk attack guns to finally destroy him...and then I spent 3 Command Points on Our Darkest Hour to bring my Warlord back to life, and a Command Re-roll to turn that damned 2 to a 4 (Command Point well spent) and he essentially had his Warlord kill my poor Warlord for the second time that round. At least that meant he wouldn't be shooting at my final Knight Crusader, who had been repaired back up to 14 wounds...for now. The sole surviving Meganobz charged my Skitarii Rangers Engineers and killed 2 of them in combat. My Tech-priest Dominus Heroically Intervened and did 2 damage to him, but it was my Skitarii Alpha who slew the Meganobz in combat, his arc maul taking off his last wound and making sure I held that Priority Objective uncontested. However, with him killing my Warlord, he had earned Slay the Warlord, which brought his points tally up to 11. 12, because of Recon (I think).

Then my turn came, and I finished off both Mek Gunz with my Knight Crusader, as well as slew the last surviving Gretchin on the Objective with my Skorpius Disintegrator, who also killed about 3 or 4 Gretchin that were camping on the final Objective. The Skitarii snipers took about 2 or 3 wounds off the enemy Warlord, but failed to kill him. Oh, well. There wasn't much left I could do, because Characters can't be targeted until I shot the other stuff off the board, and I had to shoot the other stuff first, so...the Big Meks lived. Fortunately, that meant I scored 2 points for Engineers, and I killed more and held more (again). That brought me up to 20 points against his 12.

Turn 4

By now our armies were looking really thin, and there wasn't much shooting to be done. The Big Meks fired their shokk attack guns, and finally my opponent rolled well. And I chose this time to fail all my saves. That meant my Knight Crusader went down and he died. All my Knights were dead and that was pretty much not much firepower left. Ouch.

My Skitarii Rangers moved forward since I would have gotten maximum Engineer points anyway, and my Skitarii snipers finally killed my opponent's Warlord, earning me Slay the Warlord. I failed to kill the Big Mek with the Skitarii Ranger's galvanic rifles and arc rifles, though, but my Skorpius Disintegrator killed what was left of his Gretchin (but couldn't shoot the Big Mekz because they were Characters and not the closest). Oh, well.

Again, I pulled ahead on points, getting 25 to his 14.

Turn 5

With just Big Mekz left, my opponent decided to go for it, charged right into my Skitarii Rangers and ripped them apart in combat. I did some damage through overwatch, but only the Skitarii alpha survived, and he did nothing in return in close combat. He ended up fleeing from morale, though. Whatever happened, I think my opponent got 15 points. I know he ended up with 16 eventually, so I probably missed an Objective or something, sorry.

With my Skitarii squad dead, my Skorpius Disintegrator and Tech-priest Dominus were free to open fire on the two remaining Big Mekz, and I actually rolled 2 6s for my Tech-priest Dominus, dealing 2 mortal wounds and killing him outright even without my snipers intervening. My snipers then wounded the last Big Mekz, only for the Skorpius Disintegrator to finish him off. And so...I effectively tabled my opponent. He had no forces left, no units left on the table, nothing. That gave me another 4 points to bring me up to 29 against his 16.

Turn 6

I know this sounded stupid as hell, but apparently ITC rules require you to continue playing out the game even though you tabled your opponent. So...my Skorpius Disintegrator flew and advanced up the table to grab my opponent's priority objective to get me a bonus point. Since I had already achieved all of my secondary objectives (couldn't get Linebreaker or Last Strike for Old School, though), and there was nothing to kill, I got 3 points from capturing Objectives. That brought me up to 32 against his 16.

House Yato and Draconian Skitarii emerge victorious over the Orks and their latest Waaagh!

That was a great game! Very fun, and very brutal. I lost all 3 of my Knights, while my opponent's army was annihilated. This would make for a very fun story later...we'll see what I can write. In any case, we both enjoyed ourselves tremendously, and it was pretty rad blowing each other's vehicles and walkers off the table (he destroyed 3 of my Knights!). I hope to play against him again!