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Ave Omnissiah!

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My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.

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Retrospective: Imperial Knights

Today, we're going to a Retrospective on...Imperial Knights! I mean, this is primarily an Imperial Knight blog, so obviously if I'm ...

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Adeptus Titanicus Battle Report: Against the Warmaster!

With the release of the Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan last week or so, I'm sure many of you want to see him in action. Well, I certainly did, and I got my wish! Somehow I managed to get a game with my friend at Dreamers Vault (Hiawatha) - I was lucky. He was asking if anyone wanted an Adeptus Titanicus game last week and I immediately jumped at the chance. You all know me by now, I love Adeptus Titanicus. Yay.

Anyway, we had a great game yesterday (I wanted to write the battle report yesterday, but I was too exhausted after returning home in the evening, so I wasn't able to write anything last night). The exhausto was totally worth it, though! I enjoyed the game! It was a blast!

My friend used the Open Engine War cards - somehow I missed this and I didn't get a copy. Bloody hell! I'll need to get Open Engine War cards of my own in future. In any case, we had to draw cards. We drew some weird vanguard deployment where we each had two triangles as our deployment zone, stretching from 14" on the side to the center. The setting is a Hive World, which means dense urban terrain - perfect for me. I like fighting on hive worlds because they are the bread and butter of Warhammer 40,000. The primary Objective was Death and Destruction, which gives you 10 Victory Points if you destroy 25% worth of points of your opponent's army, 20 VP if you destroy 50%, and 30 VP if you destroy 75%. I think. I can't remember the details. I also recall something about Structurally Compromised Titans and Knight Banners with over half their models destroyed also counting as having 50% of their points under the destroyed units, or something. Battlefield effects were Vox Ghost, which had something to do with a failed command check during the Strategy Phase allowing the enemy to pass an order without rolling a command check.

My opponent's secondary objective was gaining 3 victory points for destroying my Lord Scion with targeted attacks, up to a maximum of 10. Mine was Cut off the Head, which gives me 5 Victory Points for destroying my opponent's Princeps Seniores, and an additional 5 VP if I pulled it off during the first or second turn.

So my opponent brought his Warmaster Titan, who was equipped with Vulcan mega-bolters and plasma destructors (obviously). He supplemented the Warmaster with 3 Reaver Titans from a Corsair maniple. I think 2 of them had Apocalypse missile launchers for carapace weapons and one had a Vulcan mega-bolter. All of them had gatling blasters, supplemented by 1 melta cannon, 1 volcano cannon (the Princeps Seniores) and 1...was it laser blaster? I think so. The Princeps Seniores had the Favored by Fortune trait, and they were all Legio Tempestus. Traitor, obviously.

Opposing the towering Titans was my Knight Household Army. I had 2 Lances - 1 Lance consisting of a Cerastus Knight banner of 4 Lancers, 2 Questoris Knight banners, one having 3 Knights Errant and the other having 3 Knights Crusader. The second Lance composed of a Cerastus Knight banner of 2 Knights Atrapos, and 2 Questoris Knight banners of 2 Knights Styrix each. Supplementing them were 2 Auxiliary Acastus Knight banners (1 for each Lance) of 2 Knights Porphyrion each. I made them Imperial aligned, so they have the Valorous Charge Ability. Woohoo! And I rolled on the Master of War Knightly Quality, which made the Valorous Charge Ability give me 4" additional movement instead of 2". HA HA HA HA HA! Why am I laughing? You'll see why later. I spent 50 points to upgrade him into a High King for an additional Stratagem point. Yay!

And so the battle begins. I seized the initiative for the first turn and passed all of my orders, giving the Acastus Knights Split Fire and First Fire, while the Mechanicum (I'll be calling them that for ease of use) Lance had Full Stride and my normal Lance had Coordinated Strike (stupid, I should have given them Full Stride as well). Unfortunately, my opponent dropped an Orbital Bombardment on my Mechanicum Lance and destroyed one of my Knights Atrapos while damaging the other as well as another Knight Styrix. Ouch. I took down all but a couple of void shields from his Princeps Seniores  Reaver Titan, knowing I couldn't hurt the Warmaster, and then during the combat phase I blew out his shields and did quite a bit of damage to his head while missing most of my shots. The Warmaster utterly destroyed one of my Acastus Knights Porphyrion with his maximal fire plasma destructors, scoring a critical hit. Ouch. His melta cannon Reaver wiped out my entire banner of Knights Errant, and that particular lance couldn't do anything during the combat phase because they were out of range. Should have given them the Full Stride order. Stupid of me.

All in all, not a very good turn for me, as I lost a bunch of Knights while not doing anything more than grazing the head of the Princeps Seniores Reaver Titan.

In the second turn, however, something hilarious happened. I managed to passs the Charge orders for my Mechanicum Lance and First Fire orders for my Acastus Knights, while I popped Smokescreen off on my banner of Cerastus Knights Lancer. However, my opponent used Blind Barrage on my Acastus Knight banner that hadn't been hit yet, so they were going to miss almost all of their shots. So much for First Fire. I did manage to take out the shields, but somehow he still had a shield or so remaining, I think, thanks to pulling his Emergency Repairs order earlier and restoring quite a few of them. Despite having Smoke Screen, the melta cannon and laser blaster from the Reaver Titans took out 2 of my Knights Lancer. My opponent had the initiative for this round, and he wasted no time giving the other 2 Reavers First Fire. Ouch. Then my Mechanicum Lance charged straight into the Warmaster. I had activated Valorous Charge for them, and with the Seneschal taking the Master of War Knightly Quality, they moved up to 14" (the Knight Atrapos could move 16", but obviously he moved in a straight line and covered only 14"). Unfortunately, one of my Knight Styrix banners couldn't make the charge, but the other did, with both Knights Styrix getting within melee range along with my Knight Atrapos. Now you know why I was laughing earlier?

The Knight Atrapos hit like a damned truck. He pulled off a move worthy of legends. His Atrapos lascutter, which had the Fusion Trait, allowed me to roll D10s for his armor penetration rolls - and keep in mind, I had 6 attacks from Charge (adding 4 because I moved 14", so 1 extra attack for every 3"). Good lord, he utterly ravaged the poor Warmaster with his Atrapos lascutter, with me rolling 2 10s and 2 8s, causing a couple of critical hits and devastating hits. Boom. The poor Warmaster fell right into the damned red thanks to my Knight Atrapos's massive Atrapos lascutters. Holy Terra.

The Knights Styrix, having 8 attacks (4 additional attacks from Charge for 1 of them) finished the Warmaster off with their Hektaon siege claws (keep in mind, I got the +3 bonus or so for armor penetration rolls after dealing so much damage to the Warmaster's body from the Knight Atrapos's Atrapos lascutter). Needless to say, the heroic Mechanicum Knights of that particular Lance brought the mighty Warmaster down in a single charge phase. The Knight Atrapos was brought down when the Warmaster retaliated with his Wildfire catastrophic damage table, but he was a hero. The hero I needed, and the one we Knight players all deserved.

Yeah, that was brutal. Heh.

The remaining Reaver Titans destroyed my single Acastus Knight (the one who lost his buddy), and wiped out the entire Knight Lancer banner. OUCH. I also lost a Knight Styrix, but I did manage to strip the Princeps Seniores's shields with their volkite chieorovilles and damage his head further with a few shots from my Acastus Knights, but the highlight of the turn was still my Mechanicum Knights' slaying of the Warmaster Titan. Heh. That, my friends, is the stuff of legends. I need to write a story about that one day.

The third turn came and I seized back the Initiative this time. I think my opponent tried to move his middle Reaver away, only for him to suffer a few hits to his legs thanks to my plasma mines Stratagem, while his Princeps Seniores backed away. The third Reaver destroyed 2 of my Knights Crusader, with only a single Knight Crusader left. He passed his Charge order...only for me to stupidly realize that he had no melee weapon when he ran to smash the melta cannon Reaver...to no avail. Yikes. Should have given him Coordinated Strike instead. In any event, I managed to strip the shields off the middle Reaver Titan, and I think I lost the poor Knight Styrix who already watched his buddy fall the previous turn. The other two Knights Styrix managed to charge into the Princeps Seniores and ripped his already damaged head off with their Hekaton siege claws. Thus I achieved Cut off the Head, but a turn too late. Well, better late than never, right?

The surviving Acastus Knight banner fired upon the middle Reaver Titan, his shields having been stripped off by the surviving Knights Styrix's volkite chieoroviles, and to my astonishment, their magna lascannons scored 5 out of 8 hits despite them only hitting on 5s (counting for Obscured). That was 10 direct hits...and I rolled so many Devastating hits on the body that the Reaver Titan was obliterated. Wow. Just wow.

With that, my opponent only had a single Reaver Titan left, locked in combat with my Knight Crusader. Yikes. My Knight Crusader fired his Stormspear rocket pod, rapid-fire battle cannon and Avenger gatling cannon at pointblank range, but didn't do much. I think I took out his melta cannon, though, by a lucky shot from the Stormspear rocket pod, but didn't bother rolling the Avenger gatling because it wasn't going to do anything with Strength 3.

In the fourth turn, I gave my Knight Crusader Coordinated Strike and moved him to the side so that I can get the bonus to side armor. I managed to continue pinging away at his side, dealing some minor damage, but that was about it. The Reaver Titan was out of range of my Acastus Knights, and he couldn't reach my Knights Styrix either. I was trying to keep them out of his weapon arcs, especially since he succeeded in repairing his melta cannon during the damage control phase, but perhaps it would be better if I stayed away.

And then the game ended there and then. Tallying the points, I got the full 30 Victory Points for destroying over 75% worth of points of his army, with his Warmaster accounting for over 50%. Nice. In contrast, my opponent scored 20 because I had an Acastus Knight banner, a Questoris Knight banner with its full 2 Knights Styrix and the lone Knight Crusader, whose banner only counted as 50% destroyed in terms of points. Phew. My friend had 3 points for his secondary objective, having destroyed a Lord Scion with a targeted attack (I believe it was my poor Acastus Knight) while I had 5 for Cut off the Head. Not to mention, I had spent most of my Stratagem pointss on tertiary objectives such as Decapitating Strike, Fight for every step and Vengeance, which gave me more VPs. Worth noting I got 0 for Fight for every step because the surviving Reaver Titan wasn't Structurally Compromised. Still worth it, though.

That was a brutal game, with me losing 15 of my 20 Knights, but it was totally worth trading them for a Warmaster and 2 Reavers...in terms of strategic value, anyway. That was awesome! Brought a big smile to my face to see my Knights still being able to compete. The Warmaster might be scary, but as long as I can get into close combat with him - especially with someone like the Knight Atrapos - I might be able to bring him down. Phew! I'll admit, I got lucky there. Scoring 2 Critical Hits and 2 Devastating Hits isn't something you see everyday. I literally rolled 2 10s. TWO 10s. For a fusion trait melee weapon. I still can't believe it.

And thus my Knights of House Yato have emerged victorious, but not unscarred. The Martian Legio Tempestus lies dead, trampled beneath the ashes of a devastated hive world. Okay, never mind. That sounded dumb, sorry. In any event, I should spend some time thinking of how to write a story about a heroic noble pilot of a Mechanicum Cerastus Knight Atrapos selling his life dearly to inflict critical damage on a near-invincible Warmaster Titan and laying him low with the help of his subordinate pilots of accompanying Questoris Knights Styrix. That will be a legend worth telling over and over again.

For the Emperor! Deus Mechanicus!

Monday, April 19, 2021

Knight Household Army


This page is for assembing a Knight Household Army and it is my attempt to gather all the rules in one place. As you know, if you play Knights, you have to refer to at at least 3 different books. The main rulebook (for orders), Doom of Molech Supplement and Defense of Ryza Supplement. And now you have the Knight Houses gathered in Loyalist Legios...except that they don't have the Doom of Molech Knight Houses. Oh, well...

Most of the Adeptus Titanicus stuff you see mostly focus on the Titans themselves, so it's hard for us Kight players to keep up with the rules and everything. This will be a live page where I will continue to add updates when new stuff comes out (so please point out any mistakes or anything I missed in the comments...not that anyone reads this blog, so I'm probably wasting my breath here).

Why play a Knight Household Force?

Simply because it's cool. Okay...jokes aside, Knights are usually faster - moving as fast as, if not faster than a Warhound Titan. They are super mobile and have a 360 degree front arc, which means they can make as many turns as they want - so you don't have to worry about weapon facing or rear armor. They can literally zip across the battlefield, close in on Titans, dart around to poke at their rear armor - especially Warlord Titans (and the odd Warmaster Titan). They have decent melee weapons, which means you ignore void shields if you get in close and you can make targeted attacks without worrying about negative modifiers to hit.

Also, we are probably the only ones who can literally play a Horde army in Adeptus Titanicus.

Mustering a Knight Household Battlegroup

First, take note that Acastus Knights count as Auxiliary Knight Banners, and Nemesis Warbringer Titans and Warmaster Titans count as Auxiliary Titans. Everyone else is normal.

- A Household must consist of at least one Lance, which must have at least a Seneschal or High King.

- All Knights within a Lance in a Household Battlegroup must be from the same Household.

- No Knight Banner in a Lance, except for the Seneschal's Banner, can be an Auxiliary Knight Banner.

- A Household Battlegroup can include Titans and Knight Banners as reinforcements, but Titans don't get Titan Legion rules (no Legio Trait, damn), these reinforcement Knight Banners are not part of any Lances. Titans can be from any Titan Legion (but pointless since they don't get Titan Legion rules, so), and you can only include a maximum of one Titan per Lance. However, you only get one Auxiliary Titan max in your whole Battlegroup. As for Auxiliary Knight Banners, you get one per Lance.

Knight Lance

One Knight Lance is made up of three Knight Banners. Each Knight Banner is dependent on the type of Knight you are facing, so you'll have to refer to their respective Command Terminals to see how many Knights you can take, what weapons they have, etc.




Knight Banners in Knight Lances, however, must all be equipped with the same weapon. So if you take a Banner of Questoris Knights, they must all be armed with a thermal cannon and melee weapon, for example. No random Knight Paladin hanging out with 2 Knights Errant, and no Knight Paladin, Knight Errant and Knight Warden hanging out with each other like a Support Banner in a Legio Battlegroup, unless you're taking a Freeblade or reinforcement Knight Banner that's not part of a Lance. Carapace weapons like Stormspear rocket pods or special weapons like meltaguns or graviton guns don't count toward this rule, thankfully.

Each individual Lance is commanded by a High Scion, and your multiple Lances (that is, your entire Knight Household Battlegroup) is commanded by a Seneschal. The Seneschal is basically the highest-ranking High Scion.

High Scions get +2 bonus to Command Checks, and you get +1 Stratagem point for each High Scion present in your Household Battlegroup. Knights in the High Scion's Banner also re-roll hit rolls of 1 when using their Weapon Skill. Nice!

- The Seneschal gets +3 bonus to Command Checks, and you add +2 Stratagem points. Your Knights in the Seneschal Banner also get to re-roll hit rolls of 1 when using both their Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill. AWESOME! Also, your Seneschal's Banner gets to be a special snowflake, meaning unlike all the other Banners in a normal Lance, all his Knights (the Baronial Court) can take different weapons - so you can take a Cerastus Knight Lancer, Knight Atrapos and Knight Castigator in a single Seneschal Banner, or a Questoris Knight Errant, Knight Paladin and Knight Warden in a single Seneschal Banner. Unfortunately, this means you give up Coordinated Strike Orders. Also, you get Look Out, Sir! on a roll of 6 if your opponent is mean and makes a targeted attack at your Seneschal. Lastly, you get to roll for Knightly Qualities (basically Warlord Traits) for your Seneschal (see below).

- High King: For those who think their Seneschals aren't good enough. You can upgrade your Seneschal to a High King for 50 points and he gets all the bonuses that Seneschals do, with additional rules. For one, he must make Targeted Attacks with melee weapons against enemy High Scions, Seneschals and other High Kings (uh, you are already making Targeted Attacks with melee weapons anyway, since you don't suffer any negative modifiers for doing so). And your High King's Banner cannot become Shaken. AWESOME! Also, your High King's Banner passes Orders automatically without needing to make command checks, even if a friendly unit has already failed a command check earlier during the phase. However, you can't use this for Lance Orders, which makes sense. Also, you get to add +3 Stratagem points instead of +2. AWESOME!

A Lance must be composed of three Banners, cannot contain any Freeblade Banners, and at least two Banners must have the same type of Knights (so 2 Questoris Banners and 1 Cerastus Banner, or vice-versa, but you can't have 1 Questoris Banner, 1 Cerastus Banner and 1 Acastus Banner). Each Banner must be armed with identical weapons (except the carapace or special weapons), but the Lance can have its Banners armed differently from each other (so you can have a Banner of Knights Errant, a Banner of Knights Crusader, and a Banner of Cerastus Knights Lancer in a single Lance). The highest-ranking Knight in your Lance is the High Scion, and his Banner is the High Scion's Banner.

Also, a single Lance counts as one unit for the purposes of deployment or activation. Yes, that means you deploy and activate all three Banners in a Lance together. Of course, you still activate one Banner in a Lance at a time, and you can change it up (so you don't have to activate the High Scion's Banner first all the time, you can change things up, as long as the whole Lance finishes activating together).

Lance Orders

You can issue Lance Orders to all your three Banners in a Lance. So you use the highest Command Valu of the Banners that are being issued the Order. Of course, not all the Banners need to be issued a Lance Order - if you want, you can have one of your Banners act on their own initiative and receive a different Banner Order.

So what are the Orders for Knights? Well...

Split Fire: Your Knights can basically shoot at different targets with their different weapons. Take note that all your Knights' weapons count as one, so you can't have your Knights Errant fire their thermal cannons at two different targets - Split Fire allows you to fire their thermal cannons at one target and their Stormspear rocket pods at another. This is useful for Acastus Knights, who have 2 different types of ranged weapons.

First Fire: Your Knights can't move, but they get to fire one of their weapons in the Movement phase. And they get to fire that weapon again in the Combat phase.

Full Stride: Your Knights can't attack in the Combat phase, but they get to move a second time.

Charge: Your Knights must move in a straight line during the Movement phase, and if they end up within melee range of a target, they can make a Smash Attacks against units of the same scale or smaller, or they can use their melee weapons to whack an enemy Titan. For each full 3" that the Banner moved, one Knight may add 1 to their weapon's Strength. Also, they can attack again in the Combat phase, so yay. CHARGE!

Coordinateed Strike: During Combat phase, choose one Knight in your Banner and have him fire one of his weapons, but you add 1 to the Strength of that weapon for each Knight participating in the Coordinated Strike (this means the other Knights don't fire, though). So if you have 3 Knights Warden, they fire 8 Strength 6 shots. Cool, eh?

Movement Phase

Move your Knights one Lance at a time, according to their movement speed. Your Knights must stay within coherency - so Knights within a Banner must be within 3" of at least one other comrade, and Knight Banners in a Lance must be within 6" of at least one other Banner. Who came up with this stupid Lance Coherency rule? Rolls eyes. The worst thing is that if your Knights aren't within Banner or Lance Coherency, they become Shaken.

Combat Phase

You shoot with your Knights. Determine line of sight and shoot. The caveat is that each weapon type, as stated earlier, is counted as one weapon. So if you have Knights Errant, you fire all their thermal cannons together. So roll 3D6 for to hit rolls. Oh, you use Ballistic Skill for ranged weapons and Weapon Skill for melee weapons...and also for ranged weapons if you're within 2" of your target (so they ignore void shields, yay).

Ion Shields

We get ion shields! Yay! Basically, depending on your type of Knight and how many of them there are in the Banner, they get a specific invulnerable shield save against attacks. Of course, ion shields are useless against powerful attacks, so if your Banner get hit by, say, a Strength 10 plasma blast, then no taking ion shields. Yikes.

Damage

Direct hits take one structure point off your Knights' health, Devastating hits take two structure points off. Critical hit makes you lose one Knight automatically. Yikes.

Shaken

Every time you lose a Knight, you must make a Command Check, and if you fail, the Banner is Shaken. Also, certain weapons will cause your Knights to be automatically Shaken (Mori Quake cannon) or if your Knight Lance or Banner isn't in Coherency. Shaken means you deduct 3" from movement speed and -1 modifier to all hit rolls. Ouch. Not fun at all.

To recover from Shaken, roll a command check during the Orders phase during your next turn, and hope you pass. But you can't issue orders even if they recover from being Shaken.

Knightly Qualities

Basically the Warlord Traits for your Knight Seneschal. These are the generic ones, though you get specific ones for certain Households and Allegiances

- First Born: Automatic Full Stride orders without making command checks, but deduct 1 from Command Checks made to see if any of your Banners get Shaken.

- Elder Patriarch: Opposite of First Born, you add 1 to Command Checks whenever your Banners within 12" of the Seneschal get Shaken.

- Young Blood: Automatic Charge ordere without making command checks.

- Second Son: Any Banner within 12" of the Seneschal's Banner can re-roll hit rolls of 1s for their Ballistic Skill, but you don't get the +3 bonus to Command Checks like normal Seneschals do.

-  Former Freeblade: Automatic Split Fire orders without making command checks

- Outcast Bloodline: Automatic Coordinated Strike orders without making command checks, but again, you don't gt +3 to Command Checks like normal Seneschals do.

Household Allegiances

You can choose your allegiance for your Household Army. Either you swear fealty to the Emperor and fight for what is right, or you can allow ambition to cloud your judgement and side with the treacherous Warmaster instead. Or you can denounce both the Imperium and Horus Lupercal to become a Blackshield Household. Entirely up to you.

Questoris Imperialis

Imperial aligned, no Corrupted Titans or Renegade Knight Banners for reinforcements. If you want legends, you can only ally with Loyalist Titans of Legend, so no Traitor Titans of Legend or Blackshield Titan of Legend. Simpler to just grab a normal Titan from your favorite legio and declare the allegiance for that legio (I don't care what everyone says, Legio Tempestus is Loyalist). Psi-Titans! Yay!

Ability

- Valorous Charge: Add 2" to one of your Lances' movement speed for one turn. Too bad you can only use it once per game.

Knightly Qualities

- Master of War: If you use Valorous Charge, add 4" to your Lance's movement speed instead of 2".

- Hunter of Traitors: Attacks targeting your Seneschal's Banner suffer an additional -1 penalty if they are in cover - so if your Seneschal's Banner is 25% obscured, that's -2 to hit, and if they are 50% obscured, that's -3 to hit!

- Courting Death: Someone has been reading too many trashy cultivation manhua. Once per game, you can choose to activate your Seneschal's Banner a second time during the Combat phase, but the Banner immediately suffers a Critical Hit. No ion shield saves, too bad. I think you get to attack first before you lose a Knight to a Critical Hit, otherwise this is just pointless.

Questoris Mechanicus

Mechanicus aligned. No Psi-Titans, though. Can either take Loyalist Titans of Legend or Traitor Titans of Legend, but not both. No Corrupted Titans, Renegade Knight Banners or Blackshield Titans of Legend, though.

Ability

- Targeting Solutions: Once per game, you can give all Banners a Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire order without making command checks. Better yet, you can give them all different orders. Sweet.

Knightly Qualities

- Survivor of Betrayal: Once per round, you can lower the damage suffered by your Seneschal's Banner by one level, so Critical Hits become Devastating Hits, Devastating Hits become Direct Hits, and Direct Hits become Superficial Hits.

- Favored by Mars: Increase the Strength of any weapon in a Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength value of 4 (so no Avenger Gatling cannons or Castigator cannons) or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8.

- Faithful Servant: Once per game, you can reuse a Stratagem that costs 2 or fewer Stratagem points that has aleady been used earlier in battle, but your Seneschal must still be alive. If the Stratagem is one that can be used more than once (e.g. Artillery Bombardment), you can use it twice in one phase. Whoa!

Questoris Traitoris

Traitor-aligned. No Psi-Titans or Loyalist Titans of Legend or Blackshield Titans of Legend. But you get access to Corrupted Titans, Renegade Knight Banners and daemons!

Ability

- Lust for Blood: Once per game, during the Combat phase, you get an extra attack for a melee weapon for a single Banner...for the rest of the game. All Knights in the Banner gets this bonus, so yay. Obviously you can only choose one melee weapon, so...if you're running Knights Gallant, you don't get to add 2 to your melee attacks for each Knight.

Knightly Qualities

- From Darkness Born: Weapons targeting the Seneschal's Lance reduce any positive accurate modifiers gained from a weapon's range (like Apocalypse missile launchers) by 1, to a minimum of 0.

- Battle Madness: Once per game, at the start of any Strategy phase, your Seneschal's Banner may reduce their Ballistic Skill by 1 to a minimum of 6+ and their Command Value by 4 (to a minimum of 10+), but increase their movment speed by 3". For the rest of the game. Uh...I'm glad I'm not a Traitor.

- Warmaster's Chosen: Once per game, all of the Seneschal's Banner's ranged weapons gain the Ordnance trait, and if they are already Ordnance weapons, they may re-roll all failed Armor rolls. For just one round, not permanently.

Questoris Oblitus

Blackshield Knight Houses. Not much bonus to taking them because you can't take anything except Blackshield Titans of Legend, or just normal Titans and support Knight Banners that you declare as Blackshield.

Ability

- Firm Absolve: Once per round, a Banner that must make a command check to see if they get Shaken can choose to automatically pass the command check instead.

Knightly Qualities

- Giant Killer: Seneschal's Lance ignore penalties for making Targeted Attacks against Titans with Scale of 8 or higher, but you can't use that with Coordinated Strikes.

- Xenos Sympathizer: Seneschal's Banner can re-roll failed ion shield saves. Also, they get a minimum of 6+ ion shield saves, regardless of the weapon's Strength.

- Freeblade King: Lances in the Seneschal's Knight Household can be made up of Freeblades (meaning you can mix and match weapons, yay?). But you can't do Coordinated Strikes unless you have the same weapons, and you must have at least 2 Banners in your Lance that have the same type of chassis (Questoris/Cerastus/Armiger/Dominus - no Acastus, though, since you can only have one auxiliary Banner in a Lance).

Battle Standards

If you want, you can have one Knight in your Seneschal's Banner carry a Battle Standard at a cost of points. Only Knights from the same Household benefit from Battle Standards, though, so no Freeblades getting bonuses. One odd thing is that, if the Knight bearing the standard dies, his comrade gets to pick it up, so...no point shooting the standard bearer. This changes if the Seneschal is the only one left - he is not allowed to carry the standard, for some reason.

- King's Standard, 35 points, Friendly Banners within 12" can re-roll failed Command Checks when they are Shaken.

- Pennant of the Champion, 40 points, Friendly Knights within 12" re-roll hit rolls of 1 for melee weapons.

- Hunter's Eye Standard, 40 points, Friendly Banners within 12" can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made against enemies over 2" away.

- Stalwart Standard, 50 points, Friendly Banners within 12" count the first Critical Hit of each round as Devastating Hit.

- Dragon Slayer Standard, 70 points, Friendly Knights within 12" can re-roll armor rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons against Titans with scale 6 or higher.

- Colors of the Castellan, 25 points, once per round, a single friendly Banner within 12" can re-roll one failed command check when issuing orders, and if your re-roll succeeds, you can continue issuing orders to other units as per normal.

- Shielding Standard, 60 points, friendly Banners within 12" reduce Strength of Blast and Firestorm weapons by 2, to a minimum of 3.

- Gauntlet Standard, 30 points, whenever a friendly Banner finishes charging within 12", any enemy Banners within 2" of that friendly Banner must make a Command check to see if they get Shaken, before you start attacking them.

- Icon of the Emperor (Questoris Imperialis only), 40 points, friendly Banners within 12" add 2" to their movement speed when issued the Full Stride order.

- Mark of the Omnissiah (Questoris Mechanicus only), 40 points, friendly Banners within 12" can try to recover 1 lost Structure Point on a 4+ during the Movement phase, but they can't move and you can't bring back destroyed Knights (duh).

- Eye of Horus (Questoris Traitoris only), 40 points, enemy Banners within 12" must re-roll Command checks when testing to see if they become Shaken. So if they fail the first time and succeed the second time, you can go blame Horus.

- Raider's Flag (Questoris Oblitus only), 60 points, attacks against friendly Banners within 6" suffer a -1 modifier to hit rolls if they are within the Short range of the attacking unit, and it stacks with other modifiers! Including Targeted Attacks!

Lance Standards

Unlike Battle Standards, which are only limited to one per Household Battlegroup, you can buy a Lance Standard for each of your Lances. They work the same way, if the bearer dies, choose another Knight to pick it up, but your High Scion can't pick it up for some reason.

- Bloody Standard, 30 points, once per game, Knight Banners within 6" can Charge without command checks.

- Standard of Valor, 40 points, once per game, Knights within 6" can add 1 additional hit for one of their melee weapons for one Combat phase.

- Standard of Defiance, 10 points, once per game, at the start of the Strategy phase, you may have all Knight Banners in the Lance no longer be Shaken and receive Orders as per usual.

- Standard of Perspicacity, 35 points, once per game, your Knight Banners within a Lance won't be Shaken and receive penalties for being outside Lance Coherency, but you can't issue Lance Orders to them in the following round's Strategy Phase if they're still are outside Lance Coherency (you can still give them Banner Orders, though).

- Standard of Dawn (Questoris Imperialis only), 50 points, once per game, you can have your Knight Banners within 6" roll a D6 whenever they suffer a Critical Hit. On a 5+, the Critical Hit becomes a Devastating Hit, and each Banner can only benefit from this once per round.

- Blackened Standard (Questoris Mechanicus only), 30 points, once per game, friendly Banners within 4" always count as being 50% obscured.

- Withered Standard (Questoris Traitoris only), 35 points, once per game, substract 2 from the result of all Repair dice rolled for all units (friend or foe) within 6".

- Icon of Conquest (Questoris Oblitus only), 35 points, once per game, all friendly Banners within 6" add +1 to the Strength of all their weapons during the Combat phase.

Household Stratagems

Noble Tactics

Vengeful (1): If you have a single Knight remaining in a Banner, pick him and he immediately gets Charge orders, which means he can make a Smash attack that is resolved at Scale x2. Then he dies. But your opponent only gets half the Victory Points rather than the full amount at the end of the battle.

Outflank (X): Secretly choose one Freeblade Banner, and the cost of the Stratagem is half their scale, rounding up. They outflank (basically put the Freeblades in reserve and have them come from a neutral flank). In the first turn, let your opponent know which flank they come from. In the second turn, they show up in the Movement phase (but you can't give them Orders because they aren't around in the Strategy Phase), but must have all their bases touch the flank and they can't move. What the f...doesn't that mean they are sitting ducks?

Interference (2): Choose a single enemy unit and he can't receive Orders this round.

Plasma Mines (2): After an enemy unit finishes moving, they suffer D3 Strength 10 hits, and if he's a Titan, he takes it to his legs, bypassing void shields. Ion shields can be made, though, but it's Strength 10, so...

Voidbreaker Field (2): After an enemy unit finishes moving or turning, you roll a D6. On a 2+, your opponent must make a number of void shield saves equal to the D6 you just rolled. So don't roll a 1. Except that if you do roll a 1, you can use this Stratagem again in another turn.

Ranged Support

Fire Support Bombardment (3): Play this during each Strategy phase and you can put a 5" blast marker anywhere on the battlefield before scattering it D10". Units under the Blast marker suffers a Strength 8 hit or 2 Strength 8 hits if their bases are directly under the center hole.

Orbital Lance Strike (2): Once per battle, throw a 3" blast marker anywhere on the battlefield and scatter it D6". Any unit touched by the marker suffers D3 Strength 10 hits or 2D3 Strength 10 hits if their bases are directly under the center hole.

Smoke Screeen (1): Once per battle, a single Banner gets to hide behind smoke, so any attacks made against them get a -2 to Hit penalty for the round. Doesn't do anything against melee, though, for obvious reasons.

Tertiary Objectives

Fight for every step (2): Score 2 Victory Points for each enemy Titan that has not been destroyed, but is Structurally Compromised.

Decapitating Strike (2): If your opponent's Princeps Seniores's Titan is destroyed, score Victory Points equal to half his scale, rounding down. Or if you ended up destroying your opponent's Seneschal and his entire Knight Banner instead, score 3 additional Victory Points.

Vengeance (1): Secretly choose one enemy unit and score 2 additional Victory Points if he's a Titan who is Structurally Compromised, 3 additional VP if he's destroyed. If the unit is a Knight Banner, score 1 additional VP if they're below half their starting strength, or 2 additional VPs if they are completely destroyed.

A Glorious Death (1): Choose a Freeblade Banner and your opponent gets no Victory Points if they are completely destroyed.

Battlefield Assets

Same as the ones for Titans, so I won't talk about them.

Knight Chassis

You know them, you love them. Knights are divided into many different chassis. Here's a quick rundown.

Questoris Knight

Your standard, uh...Guardsmen-level Knights. The redshirts, I guess? They come stock with Questoris melee weapons, which you can take 2, or you can just take 1 and swap the other for a gun. The melee is Strength 7, 1 attack, so not so bad. 2 if you take 2, and you get +1 bonus to hit rolls when you're within range of melee, so you'll be hitting on 2+s (Weapon Skill of 3+ plus 1). No kidding. You can take Knights Crusader by giving them two ranged weapons and foregoing the melee weapons if you want. You can take thermal cannons, which are Strength 8, Fusion, but with -1 modifier in 12" long range. Then there are the trusty battle cannons, which are Strength 5, with 2 Ordnance shots each, and a nice 24" range and a +1 bonus to its 8" short range. There's the Avenger Gatling cannon, which is dakka. 8 Strength 3 shots with Rapid trait (meaning 6s score additional hits) with a bonus +1 to its 8" short range. They can't do anything to void shields or to Titans...unless you shoot them in the rear. But the dakka isn't the point. The point is to save your Coordinated Strike Order for Avenger Gatling cannons so that you'll be pumping out 8 Strength 6 Rapid shots in the rear armor...or against void shields. Now that's dakka. For additional and entirely optional upgrades, you can also take a Stormspear rocket pod that is 3 Strength 5 shots, but with a 16" range, and a meltagun that does a Strength 8 hit to an enemy within 3". Remember, even for Lances, you don't have to give all your Knights Stormspear rocket pods or meltaguns!

Oh, and the new Forge World Knights...the Knight Styrix has a volkite chieorovile that fires 3 Strength 4 Voidbreaker (1) shots...that means your opponent has to roll an extra void shield save whenever you hit them with it. The latest FAQ has confirmed that you only add (X) per weapon attack, not individual hits, and because Knights in a single Banner attack with the same weapon, it doesn't matter if you have 2 or 4 Knights, you still only force a single extra void shield save with Voidbreaker (1). And you must have at least one hit to trigger that effect. So, for Titan-class volkite weapons that have Voidbreaker (2), they force 2 extra void shield saves, yay. I still love my Knight Styrix. His melee weapon, the Hekaton siege claw, is no joke, dealing 2 hits at Strength 6, but with Rending (whoa) and the usual +1 bonus in close combat. Can take a graviton gun that fires Strength 3 shots with Concussive, but only useful against enemy Knights. As for the Knight Magaera...

Yeah, his Lightning cannon fires a 3" Blast template with Rending at Strength 5. They also get the same Hekaton siege claw as the Knight Styrix and a plasma fusil that fires 2 Strength 4 hits within 3". Both variants also have the ionic flare shield that reduces the Strength of Blast weapons by 1, to a minimum of 3, and Blessed Autosimulacra that restores a Structure Point on a roll of 6.

Cerastus Knight

Ah, the awesome, swift Knights who are a little tougher.


First, you have the Cerastus Knight Lancer, who has a short-ranged Ion Gauntlet Shield shock blast that throws out 2 Rapid shots at Strength 6, but with a pitiful range of 12" (like the thermal cannon, but that is at least Strength 8 with Fusion). But that's not why you take the Cerastus Knight Lancer. They have their melee Cerastus Shock Lance that deal 2 Strength 8 hits with a +2 bonus to accuracy when hitting in melee.

Then you have the Cerastus Knight Castigator, who's just a tougher Knight Warden with less dakka. Like the Avenger Gatling cannon, the Castigator bolt cannon throws out 7 Rapid shots at Strength 3, so you're missing one hit. Also, you tend to take them in 2s rather than 3s, so if you used Coordinated Strike, they will be firing 7 Strength 5 hits, which is still good at taking out void shields, admittedly. Gets a Rending melee weapon with 2 attacks at Strength 7 and the usual +1 accuracy in melee.

The Cerastus Knight Acheron is cool, having a Firestorm Acheron flame cannon that throws out 2 Strength 7 hits, and that's not counting the template rules that hit the first model with 3 automatic hits or something. Great against Knights and Warhound Titans. Also have a similar melee weapon to the Knight Castigator, Rending Strength 7, so they make a good fit in a Seneschal Banner or Freeblade Banner.


The Cerastus Knight Atrapos is the Mechanicum version, with the same ionic flare shield and Blessed Autosimulacra that the Knight Styrix and Knight Magaera have. But he's a Titan Killer, so he gets Macro Extinction Protocols that allow him to re-roll hit rolls of 1 when targeting Titans that are Scale 7 and above. His weapons are awesome, with a Graviton Singularity Cannon that fires a Stength 6 5" Blast Concussive pie plate. But you want him to get in close because of his Atrapos lascutter, which is a melee weapon that is Strength 6 FUSION. 2 hits. Right in the Titan's face. Yeah, that's going to hurt. A lot. Not to mention you'll be hitting on a weapon skill of 2+ because of the bonus to accuracy in melee AND you re-roll hit rolls of 1 if you're targeting the bigger Titans. WOO!

Acastus Knight

You know them, you love them, the biggest, baddest and most powerful Knights. So powerful that they got hammered into oblivion, being turned from Lances bristling with nothing but Acastus Knights into condemning them to rare Auxiliary Knight Banners and inflating their points by about 85%, capping them at a maximum of 2 per Banner at 350 points. Yikes.

No, they are NO LONGER 80 points + 20 for weapons (about 100), they are literally 185 points for just the first Knight now

Right now, we have both models. The Acastus Knight Porphyrion is thankfully plastic, but the Acastus Knight Asterius is resin and from Forge World. We'll discuss the Acastus Knight Porphyrion first. He has ann Ironstorm missile pod, which fires 6 Strength 4 Rapid shots, and is Barrage, so doesn't need line of sight. A whooping 36" range too. Yeah, this guy is meant to be artillery. You thought that was far? Nah, you ain't got nothing on the 48" range twin magna lascannon that fires 4 Strength 8 3" Blast plates. This guy literally destroys Titans from across the table, no kidding. Why do you think he got nerfed?

As if that wasn't bad enough, the Acastus Knight Asterius has a similar Karacnos Mortar battery that fires 6 Strength 4 Barrage hits, but this time with Rending instead of Rapid. Ouch. But it's the twin conversion beam cannons that get you. 4 Strength 9 Blast hits, 3" Blast at short range and 5" Blast at long range. Yeah, 5" Blast pie plates at Strength 9 from 48" away. Why do you think he got hammered with the nerfbat?

To make matters worse, they get a Ballistic Skill of 3+ if they successfully receive Split Fire or First Fire Orders. They are as tough as Rogal Dorn, with you needing an armor roll of 10 to do anything to them. Yikes. You can upgrade them with lascannons, which are 2 Strength 6 shots at 12", but honestly, with how expensive they are, let's just save on the points.

Let's put it this way. The Acastus Knights murder Titans. They've been nerfed to a reasonable price for points now, and they are still pretty strong, but back then I was going around destroying entire Titan Legions with just these guys alone. Yeah...it was that bad.

Armiger Knight

Forge World, in their infinite wisdom, has released resin models for Armiger Knights! Both the regular Armigers, as well as the Moirax versions. Unfortunately, they are still bound by the rule that forces you to take the same weapons for the whole banner, but Forge World sells them as 2 guys having the same weapon, and the third guy being the odd one out. I haven't gotten them yet, so I don't know the rules, but eventually...yeah. I don't know when "eventually" will be.

There really isn't much flexibility to their loadouts. The Armigers either come as a Warglaive with a thermal spear and reaper chain-cleaver or a Helverin with two autocannons, and you can swap their carapace heavy stubbers for meltaguns. The Moirax either has one volkite veuglaire and one siege claw, or two lightning locks. Honestly, other than speed and being super cheap, they don't seem very appealing in a Knight Household Army. If I'm not mistaken, each has like 2 hull points. They die very easily, let's put it that way.

Dominus Knight

Wait, what? They still don't have models in Adeptus Titanicus? Well, watch this space. When they finally get released, I'll write about them here. But I won't hold my breath. I mean, we all wanted an Imperator Titan, but we got a Warmaster Titan instead. Huh.

Knight Houses

Knight Households don't really get much rules. We have no Household Traditions in Adeptus Titanicus, no Household-specific Stratagems, Standards or wargear, no Legio Traits like the Titans do. Sucks, but hey, what can we do?

What we do have, however, are unique Knightly Qualities for our Seneschals. The Emperor alone knows whether that will be enough for us to compete against the mighty Titans. But hey, we get to play our Knight armies as horde armies now! What we lack in firepower, we more than make up in sheer firepower!

House Donar - Molech

- Guardian Preceptor: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll failed command checks.

- Kush Veteran: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance treat Deadly Terrain as Dangerous Terrain. But they must test for Dangerous Terrain when moving through Deadly Terrain. Huh?

- Beast Killer: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking bigger enemies.

House Indra - Molech

- Dancing Blade: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, otherwise it's dumb if it is just restricted to the Banner.

- Forsaken Indarii: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge.

- Banner of the High King: Free Battle Standard in your Seneschal's Banner, but if you lose the Standard, your opponent gets extra D3 Victory Points.

House Kaska - Molech

- Drunken Lord: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Direct Hit, roll a D6. On a 5+, ignore the hit. But you don't get the +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals.

- Lord of Rain and Ruin: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance treat Deadly Terrain as Dangerous Terrain. But they must test for Dangerous Terrain when moving through Deadly Terrain. Copy of Kush Veteran.

- Scion of the Storm: When making command checks to see if a Banner wthin 12" is Shaken, add 1 to the roll.

House Kaushik - Molech

- Stoneblind: When rolling off to see who gets the Initiative, you may re-roll.

- Iron of the Earth: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, and a copy of Dancing Blade above.

- Hardened Soul: All Banners in the Seneschal's Lance can never be Shaken, but their movement speed is reduced by 1". Worth it if you ask me.

House Mamaragon - Molech

- Sea Lord: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll failed command checks. Another copy.

- Prince of the Waves: Banners within the Seneschal's Lance can never be shaken, but at least one Banner in the Lance must be given Charge orders in every round from round 2 onward.

- Reaver Lord: When making a command check to see if they get Shaken, all Banners in the Seneschal's Lance add 1 to the roll, but you can't give the Seneschal's Banner a Battle Standard.

House Tazkhar - Molech

- Dervish Lord: Automatic Coordinated Strike without Command check, but you don't get +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals do.

- Khariii Savage: Automatic Charge orders without command check, and you add D3" to their speed when charging. But the Lance can't be issued First Fire orders. I can live with that.

- Vizier of Blades: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance may re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons. FAQed to work for the whole Lance, and a copy of Dancing Blade above.

House Taranis - Mars

- Grace of the Omnissiah: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Critical or Devastating Damage, roll a D6. on a 6, the damage is reduced by one level, so Critical Hit becomes a Devastating Hit and a Devastating Hit becomes a Direct Hit.

- Resolute Brotherhood: When attacking with Charge, Knighs in the Seneschal's Banner add 1 to the number of hits they make with their melee weapons for each additonal Banner within the Seneschal's Banner that is within 3" of them. For some reason, you have to measure for each Knight separately. Oh, well.

- Master at Arms: Automatic Coordinated Strike without Command check, but you don't get +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals do. Copy of Dervish Lord.

House Coldshroud - Gryphon Sires

- Skirmisher: Seneschal's Lance can attack only with non-melee weapons in the Combat phase even after being issued Full Stride orders, but only before they move, and they take a -2 modifier to their Hit rolls. The Lance cannot be issued First Fire orders, though.

- Vanguard Leader: After deployment, you can move the Seneschal's Lance up to 6", taking them out of the deployment zone if you want.

- Hunter Killer: Seneschal's Lance can re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking an enemy unit with double their Scale or more.

House Terryn - Voltoris

- Glory Hound: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge. Same as House Indra.

- Peerless Leader: Once per game, you can have any Knight Banner within 8" of the Seneschal automatically receive an Order without making a command check.

- Resolute: When making a Command check to see if they become Shaken, all Banners within 12" of the Seneschal add 1 to their roll. Also, the Seneschal's Banner can never be Shaken.

House Orhlacc - Dark Haven, Wychal

- Shadow Fighter: In the first round, attacks targeting the Seneschal's Banner gets -2 modifier to Hit rolls.

- Indecipherable Commander: After both players finished deploying, and before you roll off to determine the first player, you can redeploy your Seneschal's Lance.

- Independent Warriors: Banners in the Seneschal's Lance do not have to maintain Lance Coherency and they don't suffer penalties for not being in Lance Coherency. But you can't give Banners outside Lance Coherency Lance Orders.

House Procon Vi - Procon

- Shared Lineage: Seneschal's Lance can re-roll failed command checks and cannot be Shaken when within 6" of a friendly Titan.

- Ancient Bulwark: Models in the Seneschal's Banner always have at least a 6+ ion shield save against weapon attacks, regardless of the weapon's Strength or number of Knights in the Banner. Hey! That's pretty similar to the Blackshield Knights' Knightly Quality.

- Swift Hunter: The Seneschal's Lance automatically get Full Stride orders without command check. Better yet, any Banners who get a Full Stride order in this way get a -1 to Hit rolls made against them until the end of the round. Sweet!

House Col'Khak - Atar-Plaitia

- Consecrated Autosimulacra: During the Damage Control phase, roll a D6 for each Knight within the Seneschal's Banner and regain one lost Structure Point for each roll of 6. Obviously you can't revive a destroyed Knight. But if you already have Blessed Autosimulacra (Knight Styrix or Knight Atrapos), then add 1 to the repair roll.

- Child of the Omnissiah: Increase the Strength of any weapon on the Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength of 4 or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8. Sounds familiar? That's because it is! Favored by Mars under the Questoris Mechanicus Knightly Qualities.

- Bombard Commander: Once per game, your Seneschal's entire Lance can get Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire orders without command check. You don't have to do a Lance Order, but if you do, obviously you must issue the same Order to all the Banners in the Lance.

House Krast - Chrysis

- Vengeance Above All: Once per game, you can choose to activate your Seneschal's Banner a second time during the Combat phase, but the Banner immediately suffers a Critical Hit. No ion shield saves, too bad. I think you get to attack first before you lose a Knight to a Critical Hit. Sounds familiar? That's because this is the same as Courting Death for Questoris Imperialis Knightly Qualities.

- Charismatic Leader: Friendly Knight Banners within 12" of the Seneschal can re-roll command checks to see if they are Shaken. Yes, not just the Seneschal's Lance, but all other Banners from other Lances too! Including Freeblades!

- Unwavering: Each time the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Critical Hit, roll a D6, and on a 5+ it becomes a Devastating Hit instead.

House Moritain - Ceamira

- Iron Lord of Conquered Dreams: The Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, and all the other Banners in his Lance add 2 to their command checks to see if they are Shaken.

- The Blade that Rends all who Defy: Knights within the Seneschal's Lance can re-roll Hit rolls of 1 when attacking with melee weapons.

- One who Walks Unshackled by Reality: Attacks against the Seneschal's Banner suffer -2 penalty to Hit rolls if they are made from more than 18" away, or -1 penalty if they are at least 12" away.

House Vornherr - Luhnborg System

- Survivalist: Whenever a Knight in the Seneschal's Banner would be destroyed, roll a D6 and on a 6+, the model is not destroyed and they don't get affected (so Quake cannons won't Shake your Knights). If your opponent is mean enough to Target Attack your Seneschal, on a 4+ he gets saved by a Look Out, Sir! by one of his fellow Knights (normally it would be a 6+).

- Unto Death: Whenever a model from the Seneschal's Banner is destroyed, they may immediately attack with one of their weapons. But you had best resolve all the hits to your Banner first before you start firing multiple times with the same Knight.

- Legend: Friendly Banners with at least one model within 3" of the Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, but the Seneschal's Banner can still be Shaken for some reason. And if his Banner is Shaken, then you lose this Personal Trait. Ugh.

House Vyronii - Damaetus III/II

- Independent Spirit: If a Banner in the Seneschal's Lance fails a command check for an order, you can still issue orders to other units, but continue making command checks. But no cheating and giving the failed Banner a Lance Order.

- Resolute: When making a Command check to see if they become Shaken, all Banners within 12" of the Seneschal add 1 to their roll. Also, the Seneschal's Banner can never be Shaken. Copy of House Terryn. Same name, even.

- Lord of Felweather: The Seneschal's Lance can Charge without command check. If you decide to issue a different order to one of the Banners in the Seneschal's Lance and failed, then they must Charge. Same as House Indra and House Terryn's Glory Hound. Wait, so House Vyronii is basically a clone of House Terryn? MINDBLOWN.

House Sidus - Ryza

- Bombard Commander: Once per game, your Seneschal's entire Lance can get Coordinated Strike, Split Fire or First Fire orders without command check. You don't have to do a Lance Order, but if you do, obviously you must issue the same Order to all the Banners in the Lance. They ripped off House Col'Khak. Getting lazy now, huh?

- Scion of Ryza: Increase the Strength of any weapon on the Seneschal's Banner with a starting Strength of 4 or higher by 1, to a maximum of Strength 8. Sounds familiar? That's because it is! Favored by Mars under the Questoris Mechanicus Knightly Qualities. Again, it's copied off House Col'Khak. So is House Sidus another clone of House Col'Khak? Come on, don't be lazy.

- Favored Scion: You get a free Battle Standard Mark of the Omnissiah for your Seneschal's Banner, but the Battle Standard lose its effect and nobody will Look Out, Sir! for your Seneschal the moment his Banner becomes Shaken.

House Zavora - Mars

- Progeny of Mars: Seneschal's Banner cannot be Shaken, and the Banners in his Lance can First Fire without command check. Yay!

- Sacred Armament: Knights in the Seneschal's Banner get 1 more hit for their melee weapons, but his Lance cannot receive Full Stride or Charge Orders.

- Broken Soul: Whenever the Seneschal's Banner suffers a Direct Hit, roll a D6. On a 5+, ignore the hit. But you don't get the +3 bonus to command checks like normal Seneschals. Copy of House Kaska's Drunken Lord.

Saturday, April 17, 2021

Black Templars Bladeguard and Terminators

 I finally painted my Bladeguard Veterans and Tartaros Terminators for my Black Templars! I also painted my Captain in Cataphractii Terminator armor as well. Oh, not to forget my Primaris Techmarine as well! I'm not sure if you can see him, but he has a Templar Cross on his shoulder pad and knee.

Yeah, I screwed up the Templar crosses. They are so difficult to paint. I suck at painting. Oh, well, at least they are done and I have my very own Black Templars. Yay. I have nine...yeah, nine Bladeguard Veterans. I'm planning on making a single three-man squad and a six-man squad. Then I'll stuff them into my Impulsor and Repulsor Executioner and have them charge straight into the enemy.


I'm having second thoughts regarding the all-gravis armor Space Marine army. Maybe I'll just sell the Aggressors and Eradicators. I need the money for a new Stormblade, after all. We shall see. I might prefer to focus on my Adeptus Mechanicus and Astra Militarum armies instead. My Knights are pretty much done, but I still need a Stormblade for my Imperial Guard...and a Skitarii Marshal and maybe a few more Skitarii for my Adeptus Mechanicus army. They're coming up with rules for the Skitarii Legions in Horus Heresy - done by Road to Terra Podcast, so it's actually fanmade. But I might try to build a Skitarii army around those rules. Again, we'll see. I'm not sure how it'll work out, but obviously it'll be a combination of Legio Cybernetica and Skitarii, since I have plenty of battle-automata.

But to do that, I'll need the funds. So...I might just sell the gravis armor instead. I already have my Black Templars, after all, so...yay?

Friday, April 16, 2021

Way of the Warrior 7

The Reaper chainsword smoking and revving, I yanked it out of the daemon knight's chest. Or what was supposed to be its chest...

Ichor and noxious fluids poured out, along with organic matter that in no way belonged to the material universe. There was a shudder and the daemon knight slumped.

"Blades and fire work better against these monstrosities than any other weapon," I breathed, studying the scorched, pitted form of the daemon knight. The damned thing had shrugged off hits from my las-impulsor, only to finally die when I stabbed its beating heart analogue with the Reaper chainsword that was Karyuu's left arm. What used to be a Knight Desecrator no longer resembled anything the Mechanicus had built, its form twisted and warped by cursed energies from Jigoku, the hellish realm from which these specters emerged.

That had been the saying passed down to all Knights of Draconis III. From the time of the Old Night, long lost historical records and myths had whispered that the best method of dispatching daemonic entities was through blade and fire. This was further reinforced during the time of the Great Heresy, when the Knights of House Yato had fought alongside the noble scions of Ultramar to defend the realm of Five Hundred Worlds from the Great Enemy. This was not the first time the Knights of Draconis III had fought against enemies belonging to a realm not of our universe, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. Just as the Ultramarine Legion - before it was broken down to its disparate Chapters - had learned during the calamitous betrayal at Calth, we were forced to once again rely on old legends to confront these old daemons that had supposedly vanished into myth, bringing blade and fire to bear against the unholy hordes. Already, I could see a few Knights Crusader of House Yato purging the remains of daemonic knights with gouts of promethium from their heavy flamers. Cerastus Knights continued to duel in the shadows, the azure-white arcs of lightning that lined Cerastus shock blades clashing against crackling Reaper chainfists or Tempest warblades. In close combat, however, the nobles of the Cerastus Knights Lancer were more skilled, able to pilot their machines more deftly and swiftly while warding off melee attacks from their opponents.

Within minutes, the Knights of House Malinax were annihilated.

Our victory wasn't without loss, however. Broken chassis of Knights clad in the colors of House Yato littered the landscape. Many were those who fell to the immense firepower of the Titans of the traitor Legio Mortis. The Death's Heads had claimed a fair tally before they were finally brought down.

But House Malinax had also slain a good number of our valiant scions. A few of the old and venerated Knight Lancer chassis lay sprawled on the ground, their adamantium armor gouged apart by snarling Reaper chainfists. One of them had remained locked in mortal combat with his foe, his shimmering Cerastus lance - now gradually fading - plunged into the chest of the Knight Acheron that had slain him. I didn't know if the pilot was still alive - but the growling fist had plunged deep into where the Throne Mechanicum had otherwise lay.

So many dead. So many venerable suits of armor fallen, their machine spirits extinguished. Perhaps the Adeptus Mechanicus could revive them and restore the broken pieces of armor, but the valiant souls of the courageous, noble pilots would never return. Combat experience and wisdom accumulated over decades...gone, snatched away cruelly in mere moments.

"The war is not over yet," Lord Takeda Takumi said wearily, gently guiding his limping Cerastus Knight Lancer to the fore. Sparks scattered from exposed wires and broken cabling. I caught sight of his wary countenance on a flickering pict-screen installed within my Throne Mechanicum. "The blasted scions of House Malinax are here. We will wipe their treacherous existences from this planet."

There was a blurt of binharic over the vox before it resolved into a mechanical voice. I raised an eyebrow, not recognizing the voice.

"This is Alpha-Primus Hexodal Rho-Ixas, Marshal of the Skitarii Macroclade 24-Epsilon-Theta, Draconis IV. Most holy and noble scions of House Yato, do you read us?"

"I'm Takeda Takumi, a Daimyo from House Takeda, but yes, we march under the banner of House Yato. What's the situation of Augerilla, Rho-Ixas?"

"The Hive City of Augerilla has been secured, Lord Takeda. Cadian, Draconian and Valhallan regiments have succcessfully captured the city and wiped out all ork elements. It will hold. However, I've just received a transmission from the Skitarii maniple garrisoned at the Hive City of Kryptonia."

Kryptonia...that was the principal hive city of Kryptos VIII.

"The Black Templars have landed in force to attempt to retake the city from the heretic warbands of the Iron Warriors and Word Bearers. The Skitarii maniple is reinforcing them, but their progress has been hampered by the appearance of Knight-class armor within the city. Visual records and noospheric scans confirm a 99.7% match with those of House Malinax. The Black Templars' attempt to successfully take Kryptonia has statistically fallen from 48.6% to 23.2%."

"With such low odds, why would they even try?" Sir Honda Haruka muttered. "That's suicidal."

"They are Astartes," Lord Takeda said grimly. "Do not evaluate them according to the standards with which we evaluate normal men."

"Do we help them?" Sir Honnouji asked fiercely, despite the exhaustion clear in his voice.

"Of course," Lord Takea replied resolutely. "Gather the Knights and have the Sacristans conduct field repairs immediately. We'll move out in six hours."

"The wastelands will still be teeming with orks," Sir Kanda Keisuke warned.

"Augur scans report that their numbers have been greatly diminished by Titan-class war engines from Legio Mortis," the Skitarii Marshal reported. His voice was devoid of emotion, but I could still hear some form of satisfaction in his voice. "The same war-engines that you noble scions have slain. The Omnissiah bless you for destroying the abominations that have turned away from His most holy teachings."

"Rho-Ixas, we would appreciate infantry support. We'll be calling upon the tanks squadrons of the 724th Draconian, or whatever they have left after the last assault, but the more we have..."

"Rest assured, my lord, I have called upon significant Skorpius vehicle assets from the Ark Mechanicus, Omnissiah's Grace. I have already assigned a full macroclade to accompany you to Kryptonia, with additional Cybernetica reinforcements."

"Excellent." Lord Takeda turned his Knight Lancer, sparks still cascading off his frame. "Now where are those damned Sacristans?"

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

House Yato

The history of House Yato of Draconis III is a long and gloried one, filled with battle honors stretching over more than ten millennia. The original colonists of Draconis III mostly originated from Nippon of Old Earth, their many ships and arks landing on Draconis III and its nearby worlds, thus seeding a population in the Draconis Sector that tended toward a worship of the Kami. The earliest settlers survived the monstrous inhabitants of Draconis III's many forests and seas - which they term Ayakashi - by piloting massive bipedal armored suits to drive them off. From the titanic serpentine Orochi and their kings, the nine-headed and nine-tailed Yamata no Orochi to the leviathan Bake-Kujira that dwelled in the depths of the oceans to the gargantuan, amphibious Ryuu. These bipedal armored suits later formed the basis of the numerous Knight Houses, massive formations of Knight walkers that marched in defense of the colonists against the behemoths that haunted Draconis III. Each Knight House was commanded by a Daimyo, a warlord who claimed to possess the pinnacle of courage, virtue and honor, but no matter their allegiance, the Draconians came to worship the sun. They believed that the Sun Goddess would deliver a savior to them, to unify the planet and bring unprecedented prosperity.

It was this faith in the Sun Kami and the adamantine valor of the Knight Armors that saw them survive the Age of Strife and the horrors of the Old Night. The Ayakashi and many twisted denizens that emerged from the netherworld, which the Draconians termed Jigoku (or the Warp in low Gothic), were banished back to their foul realm, the Knights crushing them underfoot and reaping them with their gigantic chainswords and burning them with hi-tech weaponry. The Men of Iron who rose against humanity were quickly culled, and the Knight World of Draconis III plunged into feudalism, with each Daimyo staking out his own private domain and commanding armies of Knights.

Eventually, the Warring Era was ended by the tactical ingenuity of a single Daimyo - Yato Yasutaka of House Yato. Yato Yasutaka led several hundred Knights in over several dozens of campaigns to isolate and crush each of his rival houses one by one. He was a shrewd diplomat, able to absorb lesser Houses into his own and forge powerful alliances - persuading Takeda Kenji of House Takeda and Uesugi Fuutarou of House Uesugi to join him in uniting the whole of Draconis III under his rule. Within four decades, he successfully emerged the supreme power on Draconis III, tying the fates of the proud House Takeda and the skilled House Uesugi to his House Yato through marriage politics or promises of glory, and subjugating the powerful House Oda, the patient House Tokugawa and resilient House Akita. Yato Yasutaka would take on the mantle of the Shogun, the ruler above all the other Daimyos, the Draconian equivalent of the High King.



Millennia later, the Imperium would come, and facing a disastrous defeat at the hands of a superior foe, the then Shogun, Yato Yoshinobu accepted the terms from Lord Marshal Mathias Perry - the commander of a massive Solar Auxilia contingent - and the Praetor from the Thousand Sons, consisting of at least three companies (the First, Fourth and Sixth) and reinforced by several Prosperine Spireguard regiments. Ever the shrewd diplomat, Shogun Yato Yoshinobu preserved the autonomy of his Knight Houses in exchange for pledging military support to the Imperium, and invited the Mechanicum to colonize the fourth world in the Draconis system in exchange for construction, repairs and maintainence of their aging Knight suits.

With the Mechanicum's assistance, the ranks of House Yato and their subordinate Knight Houses were furnished with many new Knight suits, including Cerastus patterns. While the majority of Knight armors still composed primarily of the Questoris chassis, the Knight Houses of Draconis III also received a substantial number of Cerastus chassis, as well as a few Acastus chassis. Armiger class Knights, including Armiger Knights Moirax, and Dominus Knights expanded their roster, and when Legio Draconis was founded in Draconis IV, an entire branch household of House Yato was pledged as a vassal Knight House to serve the Titans of the Dark Dragons. Thus House Kanda was formed, and they received exotic Knight armors not seen in many Houses, such as Questoris Knight Stryrix and the deadly Cerastus Knight Atrapos.

With Draconis IV's specialization in plasma weaponry, it is no wonder that Dominus Knight Castellan became one of the most prevalent Knights among households in Draconis III. Their expertise in laser weaponry also meant that House Yato and their branches have an unusually high number of Questoris Knights Preceptor, though Questoris Knights Errant and Questoris Knights Crusader are fairly common. The Armiger Knights Moirax are armed with exotic weaponry, such as volkite veuglaires, though Armiger Warglaives are also fairly common, with them being the preferred Armiger variant among the warriors of House Yato, desiring a close combat weapon. The sword remains a sacred symbol to the Draconians, so they prefer Reaper chainswords (or Reaper chain cleavers) to Thunderstrike Gauntlets, and the Cerastus shock lances of Cerastus Knight Lancers - the most common Cerastus pattern for House Yato - are modeled after the naginatas of old warriors atop horseback.

When Horus Lupercal turned against the Emperor, the Knight Houses of Draconis III declared their loyalty to the Emperor, who they viewed as the descendant of their Sun Goddess, Amaterasu. The Shogun was believed to rule as the Emperor's proxy, and the Draconians developed a fanatical belief or faith in the Emperor as divine. This was compounded by the beginnings of the Imperial Truth, particularly those espoused by Euphrati Keeler, which only reinforced the Draconians' worship of the Emperor as descemded from the Kami and the son of the Sun Goddess. They participated in many battles, campaigning against the Warmaster's forces, clashing against enemy Knight Houses such as House Malinax in Beta-Garmon and even on Holy Terra itself. They also reinforced Tallarn against the Iron Warriors, fought against the World Eaters, Word Bearers and their allied Traitor Knight Houses and Titan Legions during the Shadow Crusade and the retaliatory Crusade of Iron to take back the worlds of Ultramar. One of their more notable actions was when they helped Loyalist Iron Warriors, White Scars, Dark Angels and Loyalist Imperial Army forces defend Janus from the forces of the Warmaster, which included the Warhound Titans of Legio Audax, the Iron Warriors, the Thousand Sons and World Eaters. Hundreds of Knights were sent to hundreds of warzones, determined to exterminate the Traitors for turning their back on the Divine Emperor. Foremost of these wars was the Razing of Prospero, where a significant contingent of Knights from House Yato fought alongside the Thousand Sons when the Space Wolves, Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence attacked. There, the Knights of House Yato clashed against the twisted forces of House Malinax, and it was there that they became the bitterest of foes. From then on, the Knights of House Yato swore vengeance upon the sinister scions of House Malinax and vowed to annihilate them - which they failed to do so, despite clashing against them in many theaters of war, from the realm of Ultramar to Beta-Garmon, Tallarn and Holy Terra.

Despite suffering major losses, the jubilant House Yato took part in the Scouring, leading House Takeda, House Uesugi and the other Knight Houses of Draconis III in a campaign that saw them drive traitor Knight Houses, including House Malinax, back to the Eye of Terror. Alongside the growing Skitarii legions of Draconis IV and the expanding Draconian Defender regiments, the Knight Houses of Draconis III spent the next millennia recovering, though they frequently fought off xenos raiders such as ork incursions. They participated in the war against the green hordes of the Beast, fighting off countless orks that threatened to invade their sector.

After their recovery, around the 34th Millennium, the Shogun Yato Yoshitsune launched the Draconian Crusade to conquer the entire Draconian Sector and bring them under Imperial control. Within a century, the Knight Houses of Draconis III, their subordinate Draconian Defender Astra Militarum regiments, and their Skitarii allies and Cybernetica Cohorts from the forge world Draconis IV, as well as the venerable Titans of Legio Draconis, successfully brought over two hundred worlds to heel. The number would remain in flux and some worlds slipped out of Imperial rule, only to be reconquered later, while other new worlds were discovered and brought to the fold, but by and large, House Yato maintained a Draconian rule over the sector. The forge world of Draconis IV had their own interests, of course, subjugating a chain of forge worlds under their rule, which would later form the Helios Forges, all of whom would follow the Draconian doctrine and specialize in plasma and laser weaponry, as well as the manufacture of Knight suits and Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Hundreds of smaller Knight Houses would be founded across the Draconis Sector, benefiting from the vital supplies of war materiel from the Helios Forges.

There was little that could threaten countless Knight lances, the cyborg warriors and resilient automata of the vaunted Legio Cybernetica, near limitless men and tanks of the indomitable Draconian Defenders and the mighty Titans of the Dark Dragons. Even a Tyranid incursion was swiftly destroyed, a splinter fleet of Hive Hydra and a significant bio-fleet of Hive Behemoth destroyed when they approached the sector. On the Eastern fringe, a T'au attempt to turn several worlds over to the Greater Good was quashed, the young, upstart xenos suffering the wrath of the ancient war machines of House Yato. Even their Stormsurge ballistic suits were no match for the Dominus Knights' immense firepower, the latter's volcano lances ripping through hi-tech ballistic suits with astonishing ease. Humbled, the T'au were sent back to the Damocles Gulf to link up with Commander Shadowsun and concentate their forces on Agrellan. Oddly enough, House Yato ended up allying with the Farsight Enclaves to ward off several ork Waaaghs! and an invasion from a significant splinter fleet from Hive Leviathan. Recognizing the honor of the Fire Caste and seeing similarities, the Shogun decided it was in the best interest of the Imperium to sign a truce with the T'au - a truce that was inspired by the actions of the legendary Hero of the Imperium, Commisssar Ciaphas Cain. In secret, both forces sought to make use of each other, though in an honorable fashion.

Despite sending Knight lances to Cadia, they were unable to prevent Abaddon the Despoiler from smashing the bastion planet and were helpless to see the Great Rift tear the galaxy in half. For a while, the Draconis Sector was swallowed by warp storms, many of its systems cut off from each other. The Draconian Coalition was in ruins, with only the primary Draconis system itself remaining defiant in the face of daemonic incursions.

Fortunately, the warp storms eventually died down, replaced by the gleaming light of the Astronomican once more. With the Draconis system secured, the current Shogun, Yato Yoshimoto, declared a second Draconian Crusade, determined to take back the Draconis Sector and reforge the Draconis Coalition. The tech-priests of Draconis IV were only too happy to offer their help, for they too wish to reclaim their Helios Forges and once again reestablish that vital supply of war materiel and tireless industries. With reinforcements arriving from Terra, shortly after the newly awakened Primarch, Roboute Guilliman launched his Indomitus Crusade, Yato Yoshimoto is determined not to let the Lord Commander of the Imperium down. Should he succeed, the Draconian Coalition will be able to once more provide vital munition supplies, much-needed tanks and vehicles, armaments, important starships, Knight armors and Titans with their robust industries, manufactorums and forge temple-complexes.

However, it appears that some taint of darkness has been left behind on many of the worlds they are posed to retake...

As you all know by now, House Yato has a Glorified History, stemming back from the dark age of the Horus Heresy. We have fought over many battlefields and waged war in many campaigns, including the Liberation of Janus, the Shadow Crusade in the realm of Ultramar, the Battle for Tallarn, Titandeath in the Beta-Garmon system, the defense of Ryza and many other forge worlds, and even the Siege of Terra itself. I won't say we were practically everywhere, but my Knight House has certainly taken part in many battles during the Age of Darkness, fighting ferociously against the Warmaster's Traitors. Hence we have a storied history stretching back over ten millennia, proudly defending the Imperium even during those darkest days. Even now, in the 41st Millennium, House Yato and their subordinate Knight Houses of Draconis III remained one of the most powerful and numerous Knight Houses in the Imperium, with the forge world of Draconis IV maintaining incredible production, maintainence and repairs of Knight chassis and armored suits for the majestic House.

Additionally, as you saw above, the Knights of House Yato have fought against the many horrifying creatures indigeneous to Draconis III, including the Orochi, the gargantuan Yamata no Orochi and the leviathan Bake-kujira among many Ayakashi that inhabit the dense forests and bottomless seas of the verdant Knight World. The noble warrors of House Yato have thus become accustomed to hunting such massive beasts.

Oh, one last thing. House Yato's Allegiance Oath is to the Imperium, so they get the Questor Imperialis: Vow of Honor that gives them +1 to their Advance and Charge rolls. I am tempted to give them an Allegiance oath to the Adeptus Mechanicus, given how often they fight alongside the Skitarii and Cybernetica of Forge World Draconis IV, as well as their close ties with the Mechanicus gven them access to better technology and more resilient Knight suits, but I think Questor Imperialis suits them better in terms of lore and fluff. So Questor Imperialis it is. Heh. I mean, I picked Questor Imperialis for my Adeptus Titanicus House Yato Knight Household Army, so I'm going to stay consistent for my 40K army as well. Because...fluff. The narrative is what's more important to me.

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