A Simple Guide to understanding the new Adeptus Mechanicus Codex

 Okay, I've seen many comments - particularly from WinterSEO and other people - about how "bloated" or overly complex the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex is. Layers and layers of buffs, and all that complaints about it being needlessly complicated, something that frightens off new players, the usual "rules bloat" complaints, and even the "overpowered" or "codex creep" nonsense. Even Goonhammer complains about how they took the violent way to write the codex instead of the easy or difficult way.

I'm here to set the record straight. The new Adeptus Mechanicus codex isn't actually that bloated or complex. What it does, however, is offer you tons of new options. The problem is when people try to remember and use all those options, and then they find it just so overwhelming.

My advice? Don't be greedy. Don't min-max. Keep it simple. You do NOT need to know each and every option. You do NOT need to use every option. So let's break down the codex into something simpler.

First, the Canticles of the Omnissiah and the Doctrina Imperatives. There is a simple way to understand them. Skitarii units - that is, almost every unit in the book that are the more conventional tanks, troops or infantry (that is to say, the very human-looking cyborgs that sometimes have wings), cavalry and walkers EXCEPT Robots - get Doctrina Imperatives. Only Cult Mechanicus units get Canticles of the Omnissiah, and these will be all your priests (Electro-priest, Tech-priests and all HQ units except the Skitarii Marshal, easy to remember because the Marshal has Skitarii in his name, eh?), Servitors (both normal and Kataphron), Robots and Cybernetica Datasmith (in fact, Cybernetica Datasmiths are also Tech-priests - they have the Tech-priest Keyword!), unless you play Mars. That's all, really. Servitor? Cult Mechanicus. Robots and their accompanying Datasmith? Cult Mechanicus. Priests in the name? Cult Mechanicus (duh). Everything else is Skitarii.

Secondly, Holy Orders. You don't need all of them. You don't want all of them. Choose one or two, if you fancy any of them, but you don't need to remember all of them. Also, they only affect one Core unit, so yeah. Too complex and too many for you? Choose one, choose your favorite, and remember that it only affects one Core unit close to that Tech-priest you upgraded. That's all. What is your favorite? If you play a Robot-heavy list, keep the Tech-priest close to your Kastelan Robots, keep the Robots close to your Cybernetica Datasmith (just think of the Cybernetica Datasmith and Kastelan Robots as one unit, don't bother with switching Protocols - rely on the Stratagem Binharic Override to do so instead, but keep in mind their different Movement Characteristics and Wargear - so just always put your Datasmith in front of your Robots so that he can keep up with them). Most of the times, you'll probably just want the Logi for Robots because they nullify AP -1 and AP -2, useful for Kastelan Robots on Aegis Protocol. I mean, you could improve the Strength of their Ranged weapons or let them explode on 6s to hit for shooting (though your Tech-priest will need to stand still and switch to the Advanced Part for an entire turn, but then again, dakkabots will probably stay in your backline). Again, my advice is don't be greedy and try to overbuff them. Strength 7 phosphor weapons aren't all that useful, to be honest, you might as well keep the Artisans with infantry instead. And don't bother changing the Protocol. Or maybe you like Artisans, in which case you'll probably put them next to Skitarii Rangers or Vanguard to buff the Strength of their guns, and therefore you want to activate the Advanced part. Or if you love Dakka, Magi is for you, especially the Advanced part. Remember, Advanced part takes a turn to activate, so just take note that your Tech-priest is inactive for a turn just to switch. Shouldn't be too hard. If you really need a reminder, use a marker or different-colored dice to mark him as switching Protocols, then flip the dice (1 for Initial Part, 2 or 6 for Advanced Part) or marker to indicate that he's now advanced for the rest of the battle.

Thirdly, focus on what you want to build your army around. You want to build around hordes of infantry? Then focus on Skitarii as a horde army. This will probably revolve around the whole Enriched Rounds or Galvanic Volleys Fire Stratagems, but remember you can only use it on one unit each. Yeah, there will be people who min-max and want to buff them as much as possible, so they try to do too much, like throw in a Tech-priest Manipulus in it, give him the Artisan or Magi Holy Order (usually they will just give him Artisan), and then buff the Skitarii Unit's core weapons further. But that's just for one unit. You're playing a horde army. You have plenty of other squads and models. You don't need to remember the buffs for all of them. Just think of a single super-unit next to your Tech-priest Manipulus, and then play the others normally. Really, that's about it. Of course, if you want, you can bring a Skitarii Marshal to either further buff the shooting with re-roll auras, or you can give him the Warlord Trait that allows a single Skitarii unit to perform Actions while shooting, or you can just not bother with that because you're playing a horde army, after all. If you can't be bothered with that Warlord Trait, then good - you don't need 6 blocks of 20 Skitarii Rangers or Vanguard. Keep in mind that you don't necessarily have to play horde. And as much as people whine about how "overpowered" they are with the new Stratagems, remember that Skitarii are Toughness 3 with a 4+ armor save and 6++ invulnerable save. Even with Bulwark Imperative (which halves their movement), they are still going to get shot off the board by bolter fire (especially AP -2 bolt rifles on Tactical Doctrine). They are not going to survive getting into range with their 18" radium carbines or 15" for rapid fire galvanic rifles (Bulwark Imperative might improve their survivability, but halves their movement, so there's a tradeoff). Any smart opponent is going to shoot them off the board, and they will be susceptible to blast weapons, heavy stubbers and anti-infantry weapon that will easily mow them off the board. And unless you take Graia (which I doubt), you'll be susceptible to morale as well, though you do have a Stratagem to mitigate that (as long as you're near an Objective), but chances are, you will likely never be able to make use of your super-squad combo with those Stratagems unless you keep them out of line of sight (though your enemy might have weapons that ignore line of sight, so that point is moot) and hold them back for your opponent to slowly approach them.

So the combos and super-units of 20 Vanguard and Rangers might sound powerful, but practically wise, they are hard to pull them off unless your opponent decides to ignore them for some weird reason. You can plan and come up with whatever combos you want, but no battle plan ever survives enemy contact. That is not to say you should dismiss the Stratagems and not play horde armies - quite the contrary - but don't expect to have this ideal scenario where your opponent walks a Knight or a horde within 15" of your 20-strong Skitarii Rangers so that you can conveniently pop off Galvanic Volley Fire for maximum carnage. More often than not, it won't happen, and you'll most likely have a few of them dead by the time you are within rapid-fire range. Keep that in mind and plan to mitigate the damage, improvise and adapt. Don't be afraid to pop off Galvanic Volley Fire even if you only have 10 Skitarii Rangers left, or Enriched Rounds with 10 Skitarii Vanguard (that's still 30 shots, with 15 auto-wounds). The damage output will still take enemies by surprise and it can prove to be the difference between victory and defeat. Just don't be rigid and think that you need 20 dudes for the Stratagems and min-max. You don't. Putting 10 Skitarii Rangers or Vanguard in a Skorpius Dunerider, zooming them up the table, disembarking them and popping off the Stratagem can still deal an incredible amount of damage, plus your Skitarii Rangers or Vanguard will have a higher chance of surviving than in the open or inside a building (if they can all fit inside a building, but that won't protect them from weapons that ignore line of sight). Of course, if they wreck your Skorpius Dunerider and kill the poor Skitarii Rangers or Vanguard inside (which probably means they aren't targeting your other, more important units), then well...the Stratagem is a nice plus, but it's not entirely necessary. Plus it's easier to have mutiple 10-man squads ferried around in a Skorpius Dunerider than trying to hide 20-men squads all over the board.

But yeah...notice something? If you play an infantry-heavy horde army, then why do you need to remember so many things? The answer is...you don't. Just particular combos here and there. Maybe you'll want to add in Ironstrider Ballistarii for anti-tank. Cool. But you won't be buffing them (at least I don't think you will). Canticles? What's that? Unless you play Mars, you probably don't need to bother. And since this is a shooting army, the only Canticles that apply to your Skitarii horde army will probably be Shroudpsalm and Benediction of the Omnissiah - you will most likely avoid having your Skitarii in close combat anyway. I mean, you can take the rest for your Cavalry or Sydonian Dragoons or Sicarian assassins if you want - Chant of the Remorseless Fist will be great for them, but by and large they won't really affect the rest of your Skitarii dudes (and you might as well get the permanent +1 to wound roll in melee from Ryza than a single turn of +1 Strength, anyway). If you don't want to remember the Canticles, then don't use Mars, keep it simple. Use maybe Lucius or Stygies VIII to make your dudes more durable. Besides, Mars is better for multiple smaller units, given that you get re-rolls for each unit, so you'll want Mars if you're running 5-man Skitarii squads with special weapons instead. If you do that, obviously you don't have to bother with all the buffs, super-unit, Stratagems and absurd combos, and just focus on re-rolling hit rolls for your Skitarii, Benediction of Omnissiah for one turn, and then maybe select a specialized unit next to a Tech-priest with the Martian Warlord Trait to benefit from the Benediction of the Omnissiah (remember, only one unit can benefit from it).

If you want to go Robot-heavy or tank-heavy, you can too. There's a Forge World for that! Datahoard Forge World (Magnabonded Alloys) with Autosavant Spirits. You would want a Tech-priest Enginseer to buff your tanks to BS 2+, while a Tech-priest Dominus accompanies a single unit of Kastelan Robots and a Cybernetica Datasmith. That will make them a lot tougher. Oh, and throw in a couple of Archaeopters if you want, for more firepower. Or if you want to go Walker heavy, that's fine too! You can build around huge units of Ironstrider Ballistarii and Sydonian Dragoons and maybe even the Onager Dunecrawlers, Skorpius Duneriders or Skorpius Disintegrators, and Archaeopters, and then use Datahoard Forge World (Magnabonded Alloys) with Servo-focused Auguries to buff their Cognis weapons. Do you need to buff them with Characters, auras and stuff? No. Keep it simple, your Forge World stuff already buffs them. You can keep in mind the Dunestrider or Crushing Weight Stratagems (also cool for Kastelan Robots), but that's about it. Do you need to remember Galvanic Volley Fire, Enriched Rounds or the Skitarii infantry buffs? Nope. You sure don't have to. Don't be greedy, keep it simple.

Find a theme that you like, and build around it. If you like melee, then pick Ryza or an Expansionist Forge World. Ryza might be better in melee because of the bonus to wound and to charge rolls, but if you have the Rugged Explorators paired with Accelerated Actuators, you can have very mobile Skitarii Ranger squads moving around in Skorpius Duneriders or not, and perhaps multiple small squads will be better for them, so you don't really have to bother with all those "layers of buffs" unless you're that desperate to buff a single 5-man squad to...I don't know. Still, it's not like you can't - the Genetor Holy Order will give your dudes a boost, and for practical reasons, while you would certainly love to boost your Serberys cavalry in combat, your Tech-priest will most likely be accompanying Rangers or Vanguard instead. So it really depends on your build.

There's another option to keep everything simple. Can't stand the "complexity" of remembering your Canticles and Doctrina Imperatives? Turn them off. Take a single Super-heavy Detachment of Imperial Knights (like me!). Ally in a small Patrol Detachment to your Knights and have the infantry perform Actions and capture Objectives while your Knights move around. Are Canticles and Doctrina Imperatives necessary? No. They are powerful in the right circumstances, and definitely useful, but the sheer firepower of your Knights should more than make up for not having them. After all, if most of your points are going into Knights, you'll hardly need the +1 to your Ballistic Skill for a 20-men Skitarii Ranger block. Nor will you bother with buffing the Strength and Weapon Skill of your Skitarii or Robots or walkers because your Knights will be doing the heavy lifting in melee - in this case you will want your Skitarii to hang back in the backline and capture Objectives (same goes for Kataphron Servitors and tanks and other units). This applies to other allies such as Imperial Guard as well.

So yeah, the best advice is to keep it simple. If you feel overwhelmed by all the options in the codex, remember that you do NOT have to use all of them. Pick a theme and build around the theme. A horde Skitarii army will not benefit from Ryza or melee-orientated or vehicle-orientated (self-repairing or cognis weapons) Forge World Dogmas, for example. And you do not necessarily need to build hordes of 20-man Skitarii squads just to use those Enriched Rounds or Galvanic Volley Fire Stratagems, not if you just want to play with Robots, gunships/bombers and tanks, and the vehicle-orientated Forge World stuff will benefit them more. If you're going Ironstrider-heavy, you might want to add an Artisan Tech-priest and make a gunline where he buffs the Strength of cognis lascannons. Though if you stay back, you won't get the re-rolls unless your opponent comes to you, so it depends on what you want...and let's be honest, there's little reason to buff the Strength of lascannons because they'll still be wounding your vehicle targets on 3+, so the only reason you'll do that is if you're firing 6 twin cognis lascannon shots at Toughness 5 Death Guard Terminators or Adeptus Custodes or Gravis armored Marines, which is...pretty specific - though, there's a good argument for buffing twin cognis autocannons to wound Toughness 8 vehicles on a 4+ instead of 5+, and Toughness 4 Marine Equivalents on 2+. There is also the option of taking a Logi Tech-priest to make a block of Ironstriders or maniple of Kastelan Robots even tougher. You can even do both if you want, but remember that your Artisan Tech-priest will be inactive for an entire turn if you switch to the Advanced Part, so yeah, the stacking of buffs will probably only happen from the second turn onward, though the Logi Tech-priest will probably improve the survivablity of that squadron. However, you can only buff ONE Core unit, so no cheating your opponent here, and just put a marker or colored dice to indicate the unit that's being buffed (preferably the same marker and colored dice you use to indicate the Holy Order of your Tech-priest and whether he's in the Initial or Advanced part). My advice is to keep it simple, though, so you'll probably just want one Holy Order rather than attempt to stack as many buffs on a single unit as possible, because it'll often backfire. Your opponent will usually be smart enough to target the super-unit with his biggest guns like melta, plasma and lascannons, in which case your Logi Initial Part isn't going to help you much. Maybe they might even snipe your Tech-priest, in which case I hope your whole plan didn't revolve around him buffing your dudes. Hell, you could even not bother with the Holy Order and character buffs and auras, so that your Ironstrider army will be more mobile and can move freely without having to wait for the Tech-priest to buff them. Or perhaps you want melee, in which case you can forego the whole blocks of infantry and make use of multiple small units in the form of Electro-priests, Sicarian Assassins, Serberys Calvary, Sydonian Dragoons and Kastelan Robots. I mean, you can take large units of Electro-priests if you want, but keep in mind they will be susceptible to morale, and you'll want to make as many charge rolls as possible to ensure at least a few of them reach the enemy. You can also focus on a melee Skitarii list (Sicarians, Serberys, Sydonian Dragoons, Pteraxii), and in this case you'll want to focus on the +1 WS Doctrina Imperative and not bother with the shooting as much (if possible, keep a Skitarii Marshal near your Serberys or Sicarian Infiltrators, or at least a Skorpius Dunerider near the Serberys or Sicarian Infiltrators to give them the Data-tether keyword so that they can still shoot properly, but that won't be a problem for your Sicarian Ruststalkers or Sydonian Dragoons because they don't have ranged weapons). Holy Orders might be helpful, particularly the Genetor one, but not very necessary as your Tech-priest isn't likely to keep up with your melee units rushing up the table and charging anyway. And if you put him in a transport, he can't use his aura abilities, so...yeah.

And now that you can choose your own Canticles and Doctrina Imperatives, it should be easier to keep track of them - you'll obviously want to select the most relevant ones for your turns. For example, if you're going second, you'll probably go for Shroudpsalm and Bulwark Imperative in the first battle round, and then switch to whatever Canticles and Doctrina Imperative you see fit as the battle progresses. Oh, you'll probably be in melee in the third turn, let's buff their Strength and WS. Something like that. And keep in mind the separation I outlined for you earlier - Servitors, Priests (including Datasmiths) and Robots are Cult Mechanicus. Everything else is Skitarii. Simple.

I hope this helps!

Second Rogue Trader Tournament

 Hello, everyone! Sorry for the late battle report, it has been a long day and I dozed off immediately when I reached home. Otherwise I would have written this last night instead (I wanted to write about the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex today...). But yeah, whatever happened has happened, no use whining about it. So yesterday, I went to an Incursion (1,000 points) Rogue Trader Tournament at Next Level Wargames at Woodbury, and it's a great place, so if you have a chance, visit it. Owner is awesome, and you get a discount if you buy stuff from there. Looking forward to a Strike Force RTT in future.

So...1,000 points, and I'm still playing Imperial Knights (since the Adeptus Mechanicus codex only came out today, I wasn't familiar with the points, rules and I have yet to buy and build my Skitarii Marshal). Good thing I ordered the codex and Skitarii Marshal from Dreamers Vault, so I'm relieved with that (it's sold out at Next Level Wargames and online). Hell, even the Skitarii Vanguard/Rangers are all sold out. Damn. Well, not that it matters to me because my primary faction is Imperial Knights! So what do I have in my Imperial Knight list for a 1,000 point game?

Imperial Knight Super-heavy Detachment, Custom Knight Household Traditions (Glorified History, Slayer of Beasts), Questoris Imperialis Alignment

Knight Preceptor (Warlord, Ion Bulwark and Sanctuary)

2 Armigers Moirax with 2 volkite veuglaires each

2 Armigers Warglaive with meltaguns

3 battles in one day, so let's get to it!

First Battle - Reconnassiance

The first battle was the Reconnaissance mission from the Grand Tournament Pack 2020 (2021 is coming out next week! I'll probably have to get it). So 4 Objectives. My opponent was an Adeptus Custodes player who brought a Shield Captain on foot (with the Feel No Pain Warlord Trait), Shield Captain on Jetbike, 4 Jetbikes, 2 squads of 3 Custodians, and a single squad of Sisters of Silence.

I ended up going first, even though I wanted to go second. Scratching my head and wondering what to do, I had my Knight Preceptor go up the table, flanked by the two Armigers Warglaive while my Armigers Moirax grabbed both objectives on my side of the table. With a bit of shooting, I think I killed just 2 jetbikes...that was it. My opponent then zoomed his surviving jetbikes up, including his shield captain, to attack and kill my Armiger Moirax on one objective, who promptly blew up and killed another jetbike and did a few mortal wounds to the Shield Captain. Meanwhile, three Custodian Guards moved out and fired and charged my Armiger Warglaive...only to do absolutely nothing and get wrecked in combat instead (it took maybe two turns of melee combat). Uh...whoops?

My Knight Preceptor moved up further and tried to shoot the Custodians, but maybe I failed to kill anyone because of bad rolling, I can't remember. I charged the Shield Captain, only to fail my wound rolls and took some damage, damn. Meanwhile, my Armiger Warglaive moved forward and shot and charged the last surviving jetbike dude, killing him. The Shield Captain, on the other hand, charged my Armiger Warglaive in return...and failed all his wound rolls. And despite having the ability to reroll wound rolls, he failed all of his wound rolls AGAIN. Ouch. Damn. My Armiger Warglaive ended up killing the poor dude. Yikes.

It took a couple of rounds, but my Knight Preceptor finally managed to kill the Shield Captain in melee, and with combined shooting from him, my other Armiger Warglaive - who had moved onto an objective after erasing the first Custodian squad - and surviving Armiger Moirax, we managed to wipe out the second Custodian squad. Meanwhile, the Sisters of Silence had advanced in an effort to deploy scramblers, only to run into my first Armiger Warglaive - the one who had successfully killed two jetbikes - including the Shield Captain - and he slew a couple of them with his melta weapons before charging and...cleaving them apart.

Needless to say, I tabled the poor Custodes table, and I think I had like 70+ points to his 30+. Damn. A first win for me, but that was brutal.

Second Battle - Rise of the Machine Spirit

My second match was against a Salamanders player with 6 Assault Centurions, who were being led around by a Chief Apocethary (damn, that guy was annoying), some Salamanders Dreadnought Character from Forge World, and 3 tactical squads. This did not end well for me.

My opponent went first and he moved his Assault Centurions up. Despite my efforts to keep my Knights back, I almost lost one Armiger Warglaive to melta from the Assault Centurions, with only 3 wounds left. My Knight Preceptor moved up in an attempt to try to plug the gap in my defenses, while my full-heallth Armiger Warglaive moved up. I killed one tactical squad and perhaps 3 Centurions after a lot of shooting from everyone, and I think I took maybe 1 wound off the Dreadnought. My Armiger Warglaive charged the Centurions, but I don't think it was enough, he died in overwatch, and he failed to blow up. Damn. On the bright side, the Centurions failed morale and lost another 2! What...the f? They rolled a 6 for Leadership...twice. So one guy fled, and then he rolled a 1 for Combat Attrition. That left him with one Centurion.

My poor Knight was reduced to 11 wounds or so after the Dreadnought Character fried him with his Dreadfire flamers. Oh, and the Apocethary simply brought back one Centurion to life with a Stratagem. Ouch. Unfortunately, he failed his charges. Phew. I know I killed his Dreadnought Character in close combat with my Knight Preceptor, only for him to fall to the Centurions in close combat, and he blew up this time, but despite killing yet another Centurion, I was only able to do 3 mortal wounds to the Apocethary. Damn.

The rest of the battle went as you might expect. I erased another tactical squad with my Armiger Warglaive, but my two Armigers Moirax were destroyed by the resurrecting Centurions (good lord, the ability to revive them is ridiculous). Eventually, I did a last charge of my Armiger Warglaive into the Centurions as a last hurrah in the final turn, but he did nothing and simply fell to their drills. I got tabled in the very last turn.

That was not a very good game. I think I had like 30 over points compared to my opponent's 60+ or 70+, which was a reversal of the previous game.

Third Battle - Raid

The final match was against an Emperor Spears player (he should be playing Salamanders, though). Since this is a longer list, I'll list it out properly.

Primaris Chaplain on Bike (Warlord, super Chaplain)

Primaris Captain with storm shield

Incursors (I think? The ones who auto-wound on hit rolls of 6s)

Assault Intercessors

2 squads of 3 Aggressors with flamestorm gauntlets

3 Eradicators

3 Outriders

Yeah, I think that was it. He came in with his Primaris Chaplain on Bike and Outriders, zoomed into one of my Armiger Warglaives and almost wrecked him in combat, but fortunately, my Knight Preceptor was on hand to Heroically Intervene, so the Chaplain hit him instead, doing maybe four or so wounds? And my Knight Preceptor failed to wound him at all with his Titanic Feet, me rolling all 2s. Wait, why do 2s not wound the Primaris Chaplain? Well, because my opponent popped off the Transhuman Physiology Stratagem so I can only wound him on 4s. Damn. On the other hand, my Armiger Warglaive killed the Outriders, so no more bikes except the Primaris Chaplain.

My Knight Preceptor then moved up, as did my other Armiger Warglaive and one of my Armigers Moriax. Between all the shooting, I was somehow able to kill all the Aggressors and wound the Primaris Chaplain on bike. However, the Primaris Chaplain simply blitzed and destroyed my Armiger Warglaive in combat without taking any wounds in return, and I failed to blow up. Damn. He then charged both of my Armigers Moriax with his Primaris Chaplain on bike and Primaris Captain with storm shield respectively. I did several mortal wounds to the Primaris Captain with storm shield on overwatch, and the poor guy didn't wound my Armiger Moirax much. On the other hand, the Primaris Chaplain on bike utterly destroyed my poor Armiger Moirax Ouch. On the bright side, my Armiger Moirax blew up and I killed the Primaris Chaplain with mortal wounds. Heh. On the other side of the table, the Eradicators took off like 11 wounds from my Armiger Warglaive...but failed to kill him in combat when they charged him.

Fortunately, my surviving Armiger Moirax killed the Primaris Captain by shooting into him with his Volkite. Nice! Yeah, vehicles can shoot in combat now, but at a -1 to hit for heavy weapons. Then my Armiger Warglaive, with 1 wound remaining, ran away and advanced to a backfield objective. My Knight Preceptor then moved up to shoot and then charge the Eradicators, wiping them out from the battlefield.

My opponent tried to move his Incursors up, forcing me to retreat my wounded Armiger Moirax. Then during my turn, I erased the Incursors with a combination of shooting from my Knight Preceptor and Armiger Moirax, which meant I didn't have to charge them (I think?). The Assault Interecessors tried to run out of their Objective to at least kill the 1-wound Armiger Warglaive, but even with advancing, he was simply too far away from them to hit with their heavy bolt pistols or charge...and my Knight Preceptor simply wiped them off the board. Effectively tabling my opponent.

I think I had like 70+ points again, to my opponent's 30+, which effectively brought me up to 186 points total for yesterday's RTT. With 2 wins and a single loss, I ranked second. Phew! That was brutal and fun! I would love to participate in another RTT again! Hopefully in bigger games this time!

Cataphractii Terminators

 I managed to build Assault Terminators for my Black Templars, or to be more precise, Cataphractii Terminators with storm shields and thunder hammers. You can probably see that these aren't just any storm shields, but the Imperial Fists' storm shields from Forge World, as well as the thunder hammers from the Cataphractii Terminators special weapons upgrade kit that is also from Forge World.

Since the Black Templars are a successor Chapter of the Imperial Fists, I see no reason why they would still possess ancient suits and wargear dating back from the Great Crusade. Draconis IV can certainly replicate and construct those Cataphractii Terminator armor, storm shields and thunder hammers for them!

Oh, and you'll also notice the two Battlemechs behind the Cataphractii Terminators. That's right, I have obtained a Deimos and Titan II. They will be joining my Draconian Lance of Battlemechs. Yay! I'll be usng the Dark Age rules for them because...well, I don't know. They have cooler tech and weapons, I guess. We'll see!

Distant Forge Worlds

 I'm looking at the Distant Worlds rules for my forge world, Draconis IV, and I'm trying to figure out the most appropriate one.

I don't think I'll go with Slaved Systems Forge World, though if I do go down that path, I'll just go Ryza because of...well, plasma. However, with the changes to the Skitarii infantry's special weapons, I can't simply load up a 10-man squad with 3 plasma calivers (or 2 in a squad) and go to town with my plasma now. It sucks, but hey...it is what it is. If I follow Ryza, I'll need Kataphron Destroyers, but I'm not very keen on those.

So what do I have for my other forge world options? My favorite is still the Magnabonded Alloys and Autosavant Spirits combo, which will benefit my Kastelan robots a lot. I also run quite a few vehicles, like my Archaeopters, Skorpius Dunerider and Skorpius Disintegrator. I can go vehicle heavy in this list, but my Skitarii infantry and cavalry won't benefit much, especially my Serberys Sulphurhounds. My infantry don't get any bonuses whatsoever. I think I can throw in a Tech-priest Enginseer in because he can awaken the Machine Spirit and make my Skorpius Disintegrators BS 2+ (if I use a Stratagem, Tech Adept, to do it a second time). Or I can just take one Skorpius Disintegrator and put my infantry in 2 Skorpius Duneriders, and fill the rest of my Heavy Support slots with more Kastelan robots. In this case, I'll take minimal infantry, so maybe 3 squads of Skitarii Vanguard? That should be enough, there's no point taking Serberys Sulphurhounds in this list because they...just don't do anything. I'll just take a Knight of the Cog detachment to fill out the rest of the points, though I suspect that the Kastelan robots will be taking a lion's share of the points, so I probably wouldn't have enough left over. Depending on how it goes, I guess we'll see.

I could also do Expansionist Forge World because Draconis IV is sort of expansionist, sending out Explorator fleets to reclaim other forge worlds and STCs. That's the whole idea behind the Solar Forges - a chain of forge worlds that are bound to Draconis IV through treaties and the like. If I go that route, I'll have Accelerated Actuators paired with Rugged Explorators because of how thematic it is, and it'll allow me to play around with more Skitarii Rangers (which I have a lot) and my Serberys Sulphurhounds, who finally benefit from this. The 2 Archaeopters will remain, but this time I'll be bringing three Skorpius Duneriders instead. I'm wondering if I should add Serberys Raiders, but it'll depend on what I get. This will be a very mobile list, with a Skitarii Marshal and 3-4 squads of Skitarii Rangers riding in Skorpius Duneriders and wielding arc rifles, getting stuck in melee (along with the Serberys Sulphurhounds). Maybe I'll get Serberys Raiders because of how cool they are, maybe bringing a squad of six? Then I'll round out the rest of the list with Knights, or a Spearhead Detachment of Kastelan Robots featuring the Magnabonded Alloys and Autosavant Spirits combo. It's one possibility.

Or I could just shelve all my Kastelan robots (or swap them for Serberys Raiders) and go all in on Knights for the rest of the points. We'll see.

Second Archaeopter painted!

 I've painted my second Archaeopter! Now I have two fully painted Archaeopter Stratoraptors! I love gunships (that's why I have a Vendetta gunship). So to have 2 Archaeopter Stratoraptors was a treat. Gearing up for the Adeptus Mechanicus codex next week! I can't wait to see what we will get!

I know for sure that I'll most likely be taking the Data Hoard Forge World with the 6+++ Feel No Pain to vehicles and probably the regaining a wound for vehicles at the start of my turn. I run vehicle heavy lists - those of you familiar with my Imperial Guard already know I'm the type to run tank-heavy armies. I have like 5 Leman Russ Executioner tanks, and hopefully I'll be getting a Stormblade in near future. Infantry? What's that? Do I need them? NAH. Wait, I do have plenty of Skitarii, though, so...whatever. I want to see how Adeptus Mechanicus interacts with Imperial Knights. Would be cool to run a thematic list where I have self-healing vehicles with Feel No Pain combined with House Taranis styled Knights who also have a 6+++ Feel No Pain (though that's kind of difficult, considering House Yato's style). But I'll stick to my own fluff.

There might be other forge world dogmas that interest me. I know Ryza definitely interests me because Draconis IV is known as the second Ryza, with our specialization in plasma weapons. We manufacture Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Stormblades exclusively, and the Skitarii Vanguard are often equipped with plasma calivers. I'm looking at the Crusade rules and laughing at how they are going to get the plasma weapon enhancements. That would be cool and very, very fluffy. I might need to get Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins, but I don't know. I like what I have, and in all honesty, I'm not that keen on the servitor units anyway. I prefer robots, but I don't know how a Cybernetica list is going to play. Maybe I can combine two detachments with different forge world dogmas together to represent the myriad forces of Draconis IV (so the Legio Cybernetica uses the Data Hoard forge world dogma rules while the Skitarii uses Ryza or something else, I'm not sure). We'll see! Till then!

New Canticles and Doctrina Imperatives

 What did I tell you? I told you Skitarii will be getting their own Doctrina Imperatives, didn't I? I mentioned that on the Facebook pages and other social media, such as Natfka's blog or Disqus, and while some people believed me, I got scorned by others who were yelling about how the sky was falling, Skitarii got nerfed because they lose Canticles and got called a...GW apologist or fanboy, among other things. Come on, guys. I don't know what drugs you're on (combat stimms, maybe?), but just because I suggest there might be a positive to this so-called nerf doesn't make me an apologist or a fanboy or whatever. The irony is that these people called me blinkered. Wow.

Anyway, Warhammer Community has run an article covering the Adeptus Mechanicus Canticles today, and they look quite different from what we're used to. There are some returning ones, such as Chant of the Remorseless Fist/Invocation of Machine Might (which helped me a little on Monday's game, but not too much), but a few have become quite unrecgonizable.

That's one example of a changed Canticle! I believe it was formerly re-roll failed hit rolls of ones, which might be a little...uh, downer, especially if you're relying on your Kataphron Destroyers to reroll all ones for supercharging their plasma weapons. The downside, of course, is that it makes your Tech-priest Dominus's aura pretty pointless. So maybe this is better. Allows you to reroll 2s too (and 3s, since Kataphron battle servitors and Kastelan robots hit on a 4+).

This is...weird. Formerly, Chant of the Remorseless Fist simply allows you to re-roll hit rolls of ones in the Fight phase, but now it turned into Invocation of Machine Might, so I assume Invocation of Machine Might is gone and replaced by some new Canticle. I don't know, we'll see. But yeah, Chant of the Remorseless Fist is simply Invocation of Machine Might now. Eh...?

So instead of Invocation of Machine Might, we now have Invocation of Machine Vengeance instead, which gives our Cult Mechanicus units better Advance and charge rolls. Well, in a way, it just gives you an additional D6 and discards the lower one. Still statistically better, anyway.

Now Servitors get Canticles (so they are better in your Adeptus Mechanicus army than they are in your Space Marines or Imperial Guard army), along with Kastelan Robots, Kataphron Servitors (I'm talking about the normal, cheap Servitors here, who are somehow Elites when compared to the Kataphron Troops - ha ha ha ha ha!), Tech-priests and Electropriests. But Skitarii don't get Canticles (unless they are Martian). What do they get? Doctrina Imperatives. They are very different from the Doctrina Imperatives of 7th edition that I covered on Monday. Allow me to show you!

Just like in the original Doctrina Imperatives in 7th edition, you get benefits at the costs of others. So yeah. With the Bulwark Imperative on, our Skitarii are now wearing power armor! But they end up having their Move characteristic reduced by 3". Damn. Take note, this applies to vehicles too, so your Ironstrider Ballistarii, Onager Dunecrawlers, Skorpius hovercrafts and Archaeopters now have a 2+ armor save. Sweet!

On the other hand, Protector Imperative is back, and you get to hit on a 2+ for your shooting, in exchange for a lousier Weapon Skill. Well, it depends on what you want, really. Weigh the costs and think about it!

So you can have your Cult Mechanicus units do one thing while your Skitarii units do another. Since I run Kastelan robots alongside my Skitarii...yeah, this will be cool! I wonder what other Doctrina Imperatives we will have, or if any of the other Canticles have changed! I think Shroudpsalm will remain the same, giving us Cover (I bet they get both Heavy and Light cover or something). Maybe they'll change Litany of the Elecromancer. While it helped me once, I think it's too unreliable. Mostly. We'll see!

First Onslaught Game

 Damn, I was so exhausted after playing four matches in two days that I ended up sleeping a lot today. Unfortunately, that meant I overslept, hence I apologize for the late battle report.

So I had my first onslaught game yesterday against an opponent who brought Grey Knights. As you know, Grey Knights had a great update in Psychic Awakening, what with their Tides and everything, but they took a hit when 9th edition dropped and they no longer are exempt from the accumulative +1 modifier to subsequent Smite castings. I myself have stopped playing Thousand Sons briefly because...quite frankly, I don't quite like their current psychic powers. I'm hoping for better psychic powers and improved summoning rituals when their book drops, but I don't know. I technically don't have to rely on Smite, but with All is Dust becoming ineffective against heavy bolters and many anti-Marine weapons, they simply aren't fun to play with. I prefer playing with my Adeptus Mechanicus and Knights. Knights, in particular, are more fun...even if I lose.

Well...I should get into the battle report anyway. First off, my opponent brought a Grey Knights list that featured:

Grey Knights Brigade (I think)

Brother-Captain

Chief Apocethary (I think?)

Techmarine

7 Strike Squads (I am not kidding, he really brought 7 Strike squads)

1 Inceptor squad (I think? Was in Deep Strike)

3 Purgation squads, all with psycannons

1 Stormraven with multi-melta and lascannons

2 Land Raiders

3 Dreadknights (can't remember if they are Grand Masters, I think they are all Grand Masters)

2 squads of 4 Servitors

That's 3,000 points! I also brought 3,000 points, but I went heavy on Knights this time as opposed to the last game.

Super-heavy Detachment of Imperial Knights, Questoris Imperialis aligned

Knight Castellan with Ion Bulwark and Armor of Sainted Ion

Knight Preceptor with Sanctuary and Strike and Shield, Ironstorm missile pod

Knight Errant with Ironstorm missile pod

2 Armiger Warglaives with meltaguns

Patrol Detachment of Adeptus Mechanicus

Tech-priest Dominus

2 squads of Skitarii Vanguard with 2 plasma calivers each

1 squad of Skitarii Rangers with 2 transuranic arquebuses

2 Skorpius Duneriders

2 squads of Serberys Sulphurhounds

2 Archaeopters with chaff launchers

We played the mission Pathway to Glory, so we could easily deploy opposite each other. My opponent went first, as expected, and...the carnage began.

In the first turn, I lost 2 Armiger Warglaives and a Skorpius Dunerider, and one of my Knights went down to 8 wounds (I think?). The Dreadknights, Stormraven and Land Raiders had a field day, shooting my Knights and destroying the Armigers with relative ease. And they haven't even gotten into combat yet. Also, their Tides helped them a lot, with them dishing out 2 mortal wounds with their Smites, and I don't think they failed any of their Smites despite escalating the warp charge needed to cast them. In fact, I lost my Tech-priest Dominus to a single smite that scored 6 mortal wounds after he rolled an 11 for it. Damn it to the warp. I lost another two Serberys Sulphurhounds in one squad, leaving just the Alpha. And that wasn't even his entire army - most of them were still inside his Stormraven and Land Raiders. Ouch.

I tried to fight back, but despite my Ironstorm missile pods raining down on the Servitors, I killed maybe a couple of them at best. And that was with the Archaeopters shooting their cognis heavy stubbers at them too. Damn it. The phosphor blasters did better, killing a few Grey Knights in strike squads here and there, but failed to wipe them out. The Serberys Sulphurhound tried to attack and charge a single Strike squad Justicar, but he ended up getting killed in combat instead. Damn it. Despite shooting from my Knights, the Dreadknights with 3+++ invulnerable saves basically made all of their saves. I charged into combat and once again, my Knights failed to wound them because of their 3++ invulnerable saves again. I think I only killed one Dreadknight despite my Kastelan robots and Knight Preceptor all charging in. My Knight Castellan, on the other hand, did decently, and wiped out a Stormraven in a single blow from his Volcanic Lance, so yay? He lost a couple of Marines in the Stormraven when it crashed, but they otherwise survived.

In the second turn, he disembarked all of his Strike squads and purgation squads, and I think he used Gate of infinity to teleport one of them into my backline. The Inceptor squad also jumped to the back as well. The Skitarii Rangers were massacred, my Skorpius Dunerider and Knight Preceptor were destroyed in combat by the two Grand Master Dreadknights, and the Purgation squads and Strike squads killed my first squad of Skitarii Vanguard, as well as brought down one of my Arcaheopters, despite me making so many saves for him. My two Kastelan robots were also destroyed during the shooting phase, with me failing all of their 4++ invulnerable saves and Feel No Pain saves (they are from a Data Hoard forge world of Draconis IV, remember?). They also shot my Serberys Sulphurhounds to death. In two turns, I was reduced to having like 3 units left - a Knight Castellan, 5 Skitarii Vanguard, an Archaeopter and...that was literally it. Damn. That was brutal.

At least I killed another Land Raider, wiped out one Strike squad with my Knight Castellan, the volcano lance taking care of the former and the siegebreaker cannons taking care of the latter. The Skitarii Vanguard managed to deal another few wounds to the Grandmaster Dreadknight with their plasma calivers, and I did more wounds with the Knight Castellan's plasma decimator but failed to kill him. The Archaeopter still failed to finish off the servitors with his cognis heavy stubbers, but his phosphor blasters took out another few Grey Knights, but I don't think they actually wiped out any squad. His cognis lascannons finished off the wounded Grandmaster Dreadknight, though, so wow. That wasn't so bad.

In the third turn, the Grandmaster Dreadknight finished off my Skitarii Vanguard, and...I don't think they did much else, they tried to shoot my Knight Castellan, but he survived...mostly. Took a few wounds, but otherwise emerged unscathed. He cast Sanctuary on the Land Raider this time, but I fluffed my volcano lance this time, rolling a 1 with the D6 shots and failing to wound it. Damn. I don't think I did anything else, but my Archaeopter did kill the servitors...finally...but didn't kill that many Grey Knights and didn't do many wounds to the Land Raider despite his lascannons.

In the fourth turn, the Grandmaster Dreadknight walked up to my Knight Castellan and destroyed him in close combat. At that point, there was little point in continuing, because I only had a single Archaeopter left, and my opponent was way ahead in points, having captured more objectives than me. Ouch.

Another devastating loss, but I don't know what to do. Maybe I need more shooting and avoid getting into combat with those Grandmaster Dreadknights. Keep my Knights back, get more Knight Crusaders or something, don't put them so far up. We'll see. I'll plan another game soon and keep trying until I figure it out. It's frustrating to lose, but it won't make me quit the hobby or anything. Rather, I'm going to tinker with my list and change my strategy until I find one that suits me and my Knights. Till then!

Forge World Analysis

 I actually have a battle report that I want to write, but I'll keep that for later. Needless to say, today's Onslaught game was disastrous for me, it was another one-sided, crushing defeat that saw me tabled by turn 4. Ouch. More on that in another post because I want to focus on the forge worlds today!

Today, Warhammer Community has posted an article on the forge worlds that will feature in the new Adeptus Mechanicus codex. As you all know, I'm looking forward to this because I have a large Skitarii force (albeit one that got decimated in their last 2 games, ouch). Maybe the new codext will help them out a lot more. Bloody hell. Though most likely it's my own idiocy and failings that are the problem, I made both poor tactical choices and horrendous rolls. So maybe no new amount of buffs and codex creep will help until I actually figure out what I'm doing wrong and why I keep losing so badly. My Skitarii are so fragile at Toughness 3, with only a 4+ armor save, they die to storm bolters, bolt rifles and other Space Marine weapons. Ouch. Hopefully there will be some way in the codex to mitigate that...so we shall see!

I'm not going to repeat everything they said in the article, you might as well go to Warhammer Community and read everything there instead. Copying and pasting what is already said just wastes everybody's time and I'm sure you don't want to read what is essentially the same post twice in a row. So here's the stuff of interest particularly to me. I will be running an analysis (a very sucky one), taking note of what these might mean for the faction in general, and what changes there are.

First of, we have Mars. Yay! Now what is of particular interest to me is that "Skitarii units with this dogma gain the Canticles of the Omnssiah ability." If you recall, the original Mars dogma was giving your Mars Adeptus Mechanicus detachment two Canticles of the Omnissiah. So what does this mean?

It means that Skitarii no longer get Canticles of the Omnissiah in the new codex. Wait, I hear some of you cry. Then that means they got nerfed!

Well, yes and no. Skitarii no longer get Canticles of the Omnissiah - that's a Cult Mechanicus thing now - but they should be getting Doctrina Imperatives instead. If you recall, back in 2015 and 7th edition, when the Adeptus Mechanicus got their codex, it was in the form of 2 books, Skitarii (which was released first, I believe in April 2015) and Cult Mechanicus (a month later, in May 2015). Back then, it was kind of stupid that they divided Adeptus Mechanicus into two books - I remember grumbling to myself about having to buy two codexes for what was essentially one army. The White Dwarf in 2015 also gave us the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, which combined the Skitarii Battle Maniple formation with Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation (basically a primary detachment in 7th edition that uses the old Force Organization Chart) and a single Imperial Knight in an oathsworn detachment. So you had the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus essentially spread over two books - three if you include Knights. It was ridiculous.

Back then, though, Skitarii had something called Doctrina Imperatives. For those of you who only started out in 8th edition, you'll only be familiar with them in the form of Stratagems, and limited ones at that. But 7th edition veterans (goodness gracious, I've already been in the hobby for 6 years, though not as long as many veterans, but I can't believe time flew by so fast) will remember the old Skitarii Doctrina Imperatives. In essence, if you take a Skitarii maniple (which had no HQ slots for some stupid reason, despite having Skitarii Alphas), your infantry get Crusader and Scout, and your Warlord has Preferred Enemy, and your Skitarii all had Doctrina Imperatives. These allow you to tailor your stats accordingly - one would add 1 to your WS, or add 2 to your Ballistic Skill, in exchange for subtracting 1 from your Weapon Skill.

Now, with the cap on the negative modifiers to shooting and hit rolls (they can never stack and thus -1 is the maximum modifier), I don't know how the new Doctrina Imperatives work, but needless to say they will reappear in some format or another, giving bonuses to your hit rolls for either ballistic skill or weapon skill, like above. I don't think they will deviate too much from the original Doctrina Imperatives, they will most likely be the Skitarii's version of Combat Doctrines (a la Space Marines). But instead of increased AP, it'll be increased weapon skill or ballistic skill. Nice. And I bet the Skitarii Marshal will have an ability to allow you to swap Doctrina Imperatives if necessary.

I'm assuming the Cult Mechanicus units will also have a tweaked or completely changed Canticles of the Omnissiah. In the past, it was kind of unwieldy because the strength of the Canticles depend on the number of models using them, but I doubt they will do that nonsense. Most likely they will try to stay as close to the current Canticles, but with slight improvements or modifications, but don't quote me on that. However, only Cult Mechanicus units will get Canticles, Skitarii will not unless they are Martian. That means your tech-priests, Kataphron battle-servitors, electro-priests, Cybernetica Datasmith and Cybernetica Kastelan robots. Seriously, they need to give us access to the Forge World Cybernetica robots and other units already. Cult Mechanicus is seriously lacking in options and variety. We only have one type of robot, which could be fixed if they give us access to the 5+ different automata we have in Horus Heresy (Castellax, Thanatar, Vorax, Domitar, Vultarax, Altarax, to name a few). Sigh.

Lucius basically became Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. Won't help much against heavy bolters, autocannons and D2 weapons with AP -1 (damn it!), but it'll help more against small-arms fire like lasguns, hot-shot lasguns and autoguns, as well as boltguns, giving you power armor level saves, heh. I don't know how to feel about this, but I don't play Lucius, so whatever. Just thought it was interesting that they completely changed the dogma. It used to be "treat AP -1 as AP 0" but now it's a flat +1 save against any AP weapons, whether it's AP 0, AP -1, AP -2 or AP -3 (plasma weapons that aren't supercharged, but you'll get a 6++ invulnerable save due to bionics anyway). Speaking of which, I wonder if they intend to change the bionics 6++ invulnerable save back to 6+++ Feel No Pain like in 7th edition, but I doubt it.

Bad news for those of you using Teleportarium for Kastelan robots...you can no longer teleport vehicles, and Kastelan robots are vehicles. Damn. Ouch. Also, it's noteworthy to see how they have tweak the limits of the Stratagem - you can only use it one for smaller games, but if you play Strike Force (2,000 points), you can use it twice, and thrice in Onslaught (3,000 points). I think this will be a new pattern we will be seeing throughout.

Thanks to the change in how overwatch works in 9th edition, it was inevitable that Agripinaa saw one of the biggest changes to their dogma. They no longer hit on 5+s for overwatch all over the army, for it's kind of useless since only one unit can overwatch per turn (it's now a Stratagem). So instead they can now Hold Steady (which allows you to overwatch on 5+ when you use the Stratagem) or you get +1 to your hit rolls in melee when you are charged. Not bad. They also get a slight boost in offense, an additional AP -1 for weapons shooting under half their range. Nice?

Their Stratagem has changed too. Originally it was Fresh Converts, which allows you to revive a dead unit of Kataphron Servitors, but now you just increase their Toughness by 1. As above, you can do it multiple times in bigger games.

Graia, which I used mostly before Engine War (then I switched over to custom forge worlds), no longer gets 6+++ Feel No Pain. Instead they are basically Black Templars who can resist psychic powers and mortal wounds. Take note that this applies to plasma too, so if your Kataphron Destroyers eat a bunch of mortal wounds when supercharging their plasma culverins, you can roll to see if they ignore those mortal wounds on a 5+! The other one, which allows them to automatically pass Combat Attrition tests is pretty meh, if you ask me. Only kicks in if you field large units of Skitarii, like stuff with 10 or so models, otherwise the combat attrition will rarely come in if you field multiple small units of 5 men each.

Stygies VIII largely remain the same, except that their vehicles have to be over 18" away and not 12" (like the infantry and cavalry) to get the -1 to hit debuff on your enemy units. Yeah, that's what Dense Cover (not heavy or light cover) does, gives your opponent a -1 to hit against your dudes.

I've always like Ryza. If you've been following my blog and are familiar with my forge world, Draconis IV, you'll know that Draconis IV has always considered itself the second Ryza, recruiting extensively from Ryza and replicating their plasma technologies to manufacture plasma weapons, Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Stormblades. I love plasma weapons, so I modeled my forge world after Ryza. But their forge world dogma was lackluster, to say the least. Originally it just gave the models re-rolls of wound rolls of one during the fight phase, and that was it. Yikes. But now thy are a lot deadlier in melee - Ryza has become pseudo Blood Angels. As you can see, their dogma adds 1 to the wound roll if you charge, were charged or Heroically Intervened. It's exactly the same as Red Thirst! Unlike Blood Angels, on the other hand, your Ryza Skitarii and combatants get +1 to their charge rolls. Sweet! Now I might actually consider building around a Ryza styled dogma by adding more melee orientated units. I already have a bunch of Kastelan robots, I can add more Sicarian Ruststalkers and maybe even Serberys Raiders! We'll see.

They nerfed the plasma specialists Stratagem, though. So now you don't get +1 to wound rolls for plasma, and it costs 2 CP instead of 1. Damn. Still powerful, since you're basically getting Dark Age of Technology Stratagem (so Ryza didn't just copy the Blood Angels, they also learned from the Dark Angels too!) and increasing the damage of your plasma weapons. Also thematic, since my forge world is known for producing plasma weapons. But ultimately...I don't know. I'll consider it and keep it at the back of my head, but I prefer my custom forge world for now.

With the changes to the galvanic rifles (now heavy instead of rapid fire), you can move your Skitarii Rangers around and shoot without penalty if they are from Metalica. Your Skitarii Vanguard can advance and shoot assault weapons without penalty - and take note this applies to all cognis weapons, including those on Ironstriders Ballistarii, Skorpius Duneriders (cognis heavy stubbers) and perhaps the cognis twin lascannons on Archaeopter Stratoraptors (though why would you advance an aircraft that can zoom across the tabletop is beyond me). All cognis weapons are Assault weapons now, remember. Also, it seems that Metalica forces enemy units to take Combat Attrition tests when in melee with them at half-strength, meaning they will always lose models on 1s and 2s if they fail their morale. That's an increase from 1/6 to 1/3, nice.

Now...for the fun part!

We have the Distant Worlds rules to create custom forge worlds now! So I can best represent Draconis IV by creating a custom forge world dogma from four primary dogmas, each of which have three secondary dogmas to choose from! Those of you who already follow my blog will know that Draconis IV currently uses the custom forge world rules from Engine War, with me combining Magnabonded Alloys (6+++ Feel No Pain for vehicles) and Autosavant Spirits (my vehicles gain 1 wound at the start of each of my turns). That's why I field a lot of Skorpius hovercraft, Archaeopters and Kastelan robots. They are all vehicles and they benefit from the two dogmas!

And now that has changed for me! We got improvements! Look!

Now my vehicles don't just have 6+++ Feel No Pain and regain 1 wound at the start of each turn, they also count as having double the number of wounds when checking if they have degraded a tier! AWESOME! Thank you, Omnissiah!

Of course, I'll be checking out the other new forge world rules to see if there's anything more suitable. But we'll see. If there's more suitable dogmas out there for me, I don't mind changing my forge world dogma. After all, Draconis IV isn't just famed for producing lots of vehicles - we don't just manufacture our own Skorpius hovercraft, Archaeopter planes and battle robots, we also build Leman Russ tanks and many other vehicles such as Vendetta gunships, Carnodon medium tanks and APCs for the Imperial Guard - we also have a bunch of Skitarii. I have 30 Skitarii who wouldn't benefit from the dogma, so I'm looking to see if there's any stuff from Data Hoard Forge Worlds that benefit my Skitarii (no, not just Onager Dunecrawlers). We'll see!

I'll be keeping an eye on the codex updates, so when I hear more, I'll post about them again!