Redaxe, The Edgelords and Weeb Knights

"We is gonna krump some beakies! So ya gitz betta get movin', or I'll krump yer heads first!"

Ardgit Redaxe stomped on the ground, bellowing at his Boyz in exasperation. The Orks had crash-landed on the humies' world that they named "Hamlicar" or "Ham licker" or whatever, but there was way too much green for the Warboss's liking. He was sick of seeing his own fellow greenskins, after all. Nonetheless, he had targeted the feudal planet as his staging base for his ever-growing Waaagh! Clad in his vaunted mega-armor that deducted one from enemies' wound rolls against him, Redaxe was confident that his Waaagh! would claim this humie world before long.

And then he could proceed to conquer the rest of the galaxy, and prove to the other mobs that he was da bestest of da bestest. The kunnin' of Mork, combined with the brutal of Gork!

If only his Boyz weren't so dimwitted...he wished he had brought along Beastsnagga Boyz instead. Those primitive gitz might stubbornly cling to their squigs and reject his favored forms of dakka, but they were tougher and meaner than the Boyz he was saddled with.

"Look, boss!" The Nob leading the Boyz pointed. "Green beakies!"

"GAH! Green again!" Redaxe swore and smacked the poor Nob in the head. "That's it, Boyz! We gonna go krump some beakies and paint their armor red! WAAAGH!"

"WAAAGH!"

His unruly mob followed him as he recklessly charged toward the Salamanders detachment that had been sent down to investigate strange signals on the surface of Hamlicar. A squad of Incursors immediately took cover when a volley of dakka blasted in their direction. The Kommandoes disappeared, but Redaxe wasn't too worried. They were always sneaky, those Kommando bastards. He didn't trust them, and they didn't trust him, but they got the job done.

"Yer up, Dred!" He snapped at the clunking contraption behind him. The Deff Dread lumbered forward clumsily, its pistons hissing nosily. Its skorcha lit up, a wailing gas slowly igniting.

Then Dred's machine exploded.

Redaxe blinked stupidly, not sure what had just happened. Then another ruby beam lanced in their direction, smashing apart the wrecked Deff Dread. A humie tank - painted in the same color as those absurd green beakies - was hovering over the rocky terrain, bristling with anti-vehicle weapons.

"Get that, Boyz!" He shouted, leading his Boyz in a charge. The Incursors opened fire at something, probably the Kommandoes, but when Redaxe didn't hear any shots being fired back, he turned to snarl at his reserves. "What iz ya waitin' for? An invitation? Get 'em, ya gitz!"

The warbikers roared forward, the three crazy Orks yelling in exultation. Firing haphazardly at the Incursors, who dove into cover, they swung their choppas and power klaw at the scattering infantry. Redaxe was pleased to see them bisect at least one of the beakies who was too slow to escape.

However, his joy turned into dismay when the surviving Incursors swung about, a couple of them hopping onto the smoking bikes. The bikers snarled and tried to turn around, but the Incursors slit their throats from behind like the cowardly, sneaky bastards they were.

Fortunately, the Kommandoes matched them in their cowardice and sneakiness, the kunnin' fools dropping on the Incursors from above. Having climbed a broken hab-block, they waited for their dying comrades' warbikes to shoot toward their position before springing their ambush.

Then the Gladiator Valiant fired, its superheated weaponry disintegrating a bunch of his Boyz. Redaxe roared and tried to blink the blinding lights out of his beady eyes, staggering and swinging about wildly. As his vision cleared, he saw that only he and his nob had survived. With a sneer, he charged the tank, only for a beakie in red armor to intercept him.

"Finally something that's not green!" He spat, swinging his axe. The beakie, for some reason, also wielded an axe and sported a mechanical arm hanging above. Redaxe wondered if his mekboyz would love that weird metal arm. Perhaps he could salvage one for them after he was done with the beakie. Without much effort, he cleaved the Techmarine into two with his massive axe, the latter's meticulously crafted armor no match for his brutal strength.

The Gladiator Valiant hammered him with its lethal array of anti-tank weapons. Multimeltas, las-talons, whatever. Redaxe staggered, but his kustom forcefield held sturdy, protecting him from the deadly beams. He grinned.

"Hey, whaddaya know...these beakies aren't so tough, after all!"

With a laugh, he charged the tank, cleaving its front armor off. The driver calmly pulled his Gladiator into reverse, despite it listing to the side and thick, black smoke arising from its front. He snap-shot another blast from the twin multimeltas, only for Redaxe's kustom forcefield to flare up again, deflecting the superheated ray. The warboss's green skin reddened for a moment, blistering from the extreme temperatures, but he wasn't cooked. Yet.

"Ya can shoot all ya like, but ya ain't killin' me! For I iz Ardgit Redaxe! The bestest Ork there is!"

Those were his last words before a las-talon shot finally shorted out his kustom forcefield. Unaware that the invisible field of protective energy around him had collapsed, Redaxe continued hurtling forward, his axe raised for a killin' blow.

"I gonna turn ya into scrap! And use ya for my Waaagh! Ya will make the bestest battlewagon!"

The tank driver was not amused and simply squeezed the trigger. A multimelta shot caught Redaxe and all but vaporized him.

The last thing the Warboss saw was his sole surviving Nob cut down by a spray of mass-reactives. As his head fell to the ground, he caught sight of two battered Incursors hunkering down, the corpses of their brethren mingled with the dead Kommandoes.

"Ya had one job," Redaxe cursed the supposedly kunnin' bastards. "One job."

Then everything went dark.

*

"Apparently, I'm supposed to swear to a quest or something?"

Tanaka wasn't very pleased with what he was hearing, but since he was participating in an Imperial Knight Crusade, he had to follow the rules.

"Well, I've received an Imperial Petition, so I might as well help them out."

The agri-world of Hamlicar had come under attack from the Orks, and so the governor had put out an astropathic call for aid. As a feudal world, it had some ties to Knight Houses, and as such, House Yato of Draconis III had answered the call for aid.

Or the Imperial Petition, as it was called. Tanaka would rather call it an Agenda, and since he was getting experience points from it, he couldn't complain.

"Let's go save some Imperial citizens and kick some xenos' asses," he told his fellow Lance mates. Kazan loped across the grassy plains, the Armiger Warglaive's machine spirit in search of enemies. Tanaka swept Kazan's thermal spear across the open space, consulting the auspex for any sign of intruders.

"Over there!" Suzuki suddenly shouted, guiding Hebi forward. He frowned. "But they're not Orks. They are...Traitor Astartes!"

Apparently, a renegade warband had also landed on Hamlicar. Tanaka didn't know what they were scheming, or if they had anything to do with the Orks, but he couldn't let the Traitors run free. Whatever they were up to, it couldn't be good.

He had no way of knowing that the Edgelords - the Renegade Warband led by the famed War Warrior - had just fled to Hamlicar after a spanking by the Necrons that had awoken in Barca. What the Edgelords were doing in Barca, Tanaka didn't know and wouldn't want to even if he had heard about their desperate flight.

He was just here to kick heretics' asses and chew bubble gum. Not that there was bubble gum in the Imperium, but you know what he meant.

The Edgelords had seen the Knights as well and were advancing. A squad of legionnaires swiftly took cover in a hab-block and began laying down suppressive fire, but their bolter shells were turned away by the ion shields. Taking the lead, Suzuki's Hebi came under fire, but he turned away their shells with his ion shield. He wasn't as lucky when a lascannon smashed through the protective field and tore away a chunk of adamantium.

"Ouch! Hey!" Suzuki complained.

"Hang in there! I'm coming to back you up!" Tanaka assured him. Behind Kazan, Kanda's Armiger Knight Moirax followed, though Kanda had his knight suit hang back in a distance to lay suppressive fire.

Then the Possessed came.

Howling in berserk rage, the swollen forms of Traitor Space Marines hit Suzuki's Hebi like a truck, tearing the Armiger Warglaive apart. Suzuki retaliated with one of his meltaguns, turning one of them into slag, but the rest came on in a frenzy, smashing and slashing at his buckling suit. Suzuki yelled in fear and ejected before Hebi blew up, the explosion buffeting one of the Possessed and knocking it over.

Not letting the opportunity that Suzuki created go to waste, Kanda immediately opened fire, the silvery arcs leaping from his paired lightning locks to incinerate one of the Possessed. Their armor held strong, the Possessed displaying contempt for the weapons crafted by servants of the Omnissiah, but even the resilient heretics couldn't withstand such lethal energies for long. One of them went down, its body charred beyond recognition.

Then Tanaka barreled into them, Kazan's reaper chain-cleaver cleaving them apart. The carapace meltagun and thermal spear spat superheated beams, disintegrating one of them before the whirring chain-cleaver finished the rest of them.

"Ugh!"

Just after combat, Tanaka reeled when a lascannon shot slammed into the flickering ion shields of Kazan. That was enough to collapse his ion shield, and a volley of bolter rounds followed to dent his armor, causing Kazan to sway from the explosive impacts. To make matters worse, the Master of Possession, who was left behind by his Possessed, charged at him, breaking a couple of rivets with his force stave.

"Watch it!"

Annoyed, Tanaka lashed out with the reaper chain-cleaver. While he was preoccupied with the skillful Master of Possession, who deftly avoided his first few blows, Kanda fired at the legionnaires, who ducked under cover. Despite seeking refuge behind ferrocrete walls, one of them was caught and his convulsing body toppled over, hissing with acrid smoke.

While the survivors went to ground, Kazan finally beheaded the Master of Possession, who had tripped up when backing away from Tanaka's maneuver. The panting Bushi reared up just in time to spot a fully buffed up War Warrior charging straight at him.

"Uh oh...that doesn't look good."

Tanaka didn't know what was up with the edgy Chaos Lord, but the dude just looked...wrong somehow. Juiced up with the powers of the warp, wings sprouting out from his back, being possessed by a daemonic entity to further augment his already incredible strength, the possessed War Warrior would hit like a truck. Capable of bringing down even a venerable Knight, such a foe couldn't be underestimated.

Swallowing, Tanaka fired overwatch.

It was just a single melta shot. The other two shots missed, but the first hit home. For some reason, the Dark Gods that War Warrior worshipped had chosen to forsake him. The Chaos Lord shrieked as the superheated ray disintegrated his warp-fuelled body and obliterated him from existence.

"...huh?"

Tanaka stared in disbelief at the blackened smear that used to be such a formidable foe. Shaking his head and reminding himself that there were still Legionnaires hiding in the ruins - particularly the one handling a lascannon - he and Kanda proceeded to finish them off, with Kazan charging vengefully into them and finishing them off in time-honored combat.

With that, Hamlicar was currently safe from the dark designs of the Chaos Gods. For now, anyway.

That still left the Orks to deal with, unfortunately. Right after hasty repairs where the Sacristans of House Yato restored what remained of Suzuki's wrecked knight suit, they set out again upon hearing rumors of a Waaagh! massing in the grasslands.

Ardgit Redaxe was back, fuming over the defeat handed to him by the green beakies, and he was looking for more scrap. Tanaka was determined to stop him, especially since the Salamanders had already left. The commander of the Salamanders detachment, Captain Faye, had traveled to Carthage instead.

"I'm not sure about this," Suzuki complained as he dragged his Armiger Warglaive across the agri-field. "Hebi isn't fully restored. In a standup fight, he'll probably fall apart. The Sacristans did their best, but there's only so much they can do."

"Don't worry, I'll take point this time," Tanaka assured him. "I'll lead from the front."

"Isn't that what you've been doing all this time?" Kanda muttered, but both Tanaka and Suzuki ignored him. This time, Hebi hung back with the Armiger Knight Moirax, allowing Kazan to forge ahead by his own. Tanaka paused when he caught sight of the approaching mob.

"A Deff Dread," he murmured, and leveled his thermal spear. A couple of volcanic beams lanced out and melted the haphazardly constructed walker in seconds. Smoke billowed as it felt apart, the softening and melting metal giving in and the Ork machine seeming to implode.

"Not again!" Redaxe complained, turning on the Mek who piloted it. "Dred, why is it every time that ya get blown up right at the start!? Ya never get ze chance to show off what that thing can do!"

"Not my fault, boss. All the humies always shoot me first."

That was actually very true. However, the "humies" weren't done with their shooting. They were going to out-dakka the Orks.

Kanda opened fire on the sprinting Kommandoes, almost wiping out the entire squad in a single volley. For now, Suzuki ignored the reeling Kommandoes and focused fire on the warboss, his thermal beams piercing through Redaxe's kustom forcefield and gouging out a huge chunk of his mega-armor.

"HEY! That hurt, ya git!" Redaxe bellowed and swung his axe about. "Fight me like a humie! Not like a coward! Face to face, mano a orko! Capisce?!"

Tanaka ignored the warboss for now and met the warbikers in a charge, kicking one over and stomping him into oblivion. Spinning Kazan about, he then cleaved the other two with a couple of swift, decisive strokes of the reaper chain-cleaver. On the other side, Suzuki charged into the stunned Kommandoes and finished them off, annihilating the whole squad.

"HEY! Iz ya ignorin' me?!"

With a roar, Redaxe charged, along with his Boyz. Despite not being Beastsnagga Boyz, the mob did well to carve open parts of Kazan.

"Ugh!" Tanaka fought to control his knight suit as he did his best to fend off the sheer volume of choppa attacks that were peeling layers of armor away from Kazan's legs. Determined not to fall ignobly, he launched a counteroffensive, his reaper chain-cleaver puncturing through mega-armor and stabbing through Redaxe's chest.

For a moment, the Warboss stared at the mortal wound in disbelief. Then he roared furiously, refusing to accept that he was going to die without fighting back.

"Frakkin' humie! I iz the bestest! I'm gonna fight on death!"

"What the?!"

Taken completely by surprise, Tanaka tried to retreat, but Redaxe's axe scythed through his Armiger Warglaive, punching through the carapace armor and sinking deeply into his Throne Mechanicum. Tanaka reacted quickly, moving to the side and avoiding getting chopped in half by the growling weapon, but Kazan was evidently out of the fight for now.

"Um...some help, you guys?"

"Trying my best," Kanda said, frying half of the Boyz mob with his lightning locks. Suzuki snickered as Hebi crashed into them, cutting the remnants of the routed mob apart with his snarling reaper chain-cleaver.

"How does it feel to be a casualty now? It's your turn to get blown up!"

Because I rolled a 6 for my Out of Action test...

"Well, actually..." Climbing out of his damaged Knight suit and standing proudly on the fallen Kazan, Tanaka raised a hand to display a thumb's up. "...I feel like I've just been marked for greatness."

Painted Numerologist Cabal and Warmaster Titan

I've finally finished painting my Numerologist Cabal (Order of Ruin) and Warmaster Titan! Yay!

I tried to follow the Exemplary Battles color scheme, but yeah, I'm not sure if it worked out well. Anyway, my Numerologist Cabal is done. The Order of Ruin has officially joined my Thousand Sons forces! Oh, and I cut off the bolt pistol and replaced it with a volkite charger for my Legion Previan. So he'll be firing volkite beams as usual, but his model actually reflects it now.

Right, and the Warmaster Titan took quite a lot of time and work, but I'm glad he's done now. Yay! So now I can field a fully painted Warmaster Titan alongside my Knight Household Army!

Liber Imperium content page

Seems like someone posted the Liber Imperium content page on Reddit - in the other words, leaks. Yay. Most people are interested in the Sisters of Silence expanded roster with loads of new units. I'm not a Sisters of Silence player, so I'm not that interested in that. Instead, I'm more interested in Solar Auxilia.

Interestingly enough, it seems that Veletaris Storm Section has been moved to Elites as Veletaris Tercio, and we have Auxilia Armored Tercio now. I think, depending on the Cohort Doctrines (or maybe Solar Auxilia Tercios?), you can take specific Tercios as Troops. So if you want to take an armored Cohort Doctrine, the Armored Tercio becomes Troop choices, and maybe Veletaris Tercio becomes Troop choices if you take a more elite Cohort Doctrine. I don't know. The Armored Tercio interests me greatly - I believe we'll get Leman Russ tanks and maybe Carnodon tanks in it. The Carnodon is not listed at all, even though the Aurox is. I'm not saying the Carnodon will be in the book for sure, but if it is, it probably is in the Armored Tercio. And I don't know if Leman Russ tanks get sponson options. I hope they do. I suspect that you can upgrade one of your tanks into a Tank Commander similar to the Armored Spearhead Rite of War if you choose a particular Armored Cohort Doctrine, but right now, everything is up in the air.

There is a reason to hope the Armored Tercio has both Leman Russ and Carnodon tanks. I mean, the Solar Auxilia Infantry Tercio, for example, should have the lasrifle sections and the flamer sections (who are support squads). So there's no reason to think they will only have a single unit in it. The only question is whether they will have sponson options for Leman Russ tanks, or if Carnodon tanks are an option there. I hope they are.

Another thing that dismayed me is the lack of super-heavy tanks. We have a Stormhammer...and that's it? No Baneblades? No Stormblade? What am I supposed to do with my Stormblade now? Well, I should calm down. Most likely, they'll be in a PDF document like Legacies, but that's disappointing. Most likely, they will get nerfed heavily, be overcosted, and just suck in general. That doesn't bode well for my armored Solar Auxilia army. It'll suck if I have to bring the Legion Stormblade using the Age of Darkness Legacies PDF because it's simply overcosted and not as good. But I doubt the Solar Auxilia has better options, ugh.

Anyway, we'll see. Let's hope for the best and pray to the Emperor. Till then!

Zone Mortalis

To be honest, I didn't get a Zone Mortalis game today, but I watched two of my friends play it, and it was fun! I even have a few pictures here.

A World Eaters detachment was assaulting a fortress manned by the Iron Warriors, probably because Horus ordered the World Eaters to drag part of a retreating company of Iron Warriors back to Terra to continue the siege when Perturabo decided to up and leave during the events of Mortis. At least that's the narrative. The World Eaters had 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a single talon, a Praetor in Cataphractii armor, Red Butchers and 2 15-men Despoiler squads. The Iron Warriors had a Warsmith, 2 15-man Despoiler squads, an Apocethary, Siege Tyrant Terminators and Cataphractii Terminators (can't remember if they are supposed to be Dominators or something), as well as 3 Contemptor Dreadnoughts in a single talon.

This being our first Zone Mortalis game in the new edition, we made quite a few mistakes - I think we had way more than four doors, for example, and the Defender (Iron Warriors) controlled all the doors while the Attacker (World Eaters) were forced to break them down because they were locked even though the mission (Force the Breach) said nothing about that. Oh, well.

Notable moments - the World Eater Contemptor Dreadnoughts piled in and tried to smash the Siege Tyrant Terminators, who tanked the hits, but in the end, all the Contemptor Dreadnoughts either destroyed each other in combat, or were smashed apart by krak grenades. That was brutal.

The Dreadnoughts failed to kill the Iron Warrior Despoilers, though one of the Iron Warrior Dreadnoughts blew up and killed the World Eaters Praetor, Instant Death-ing him because it was Strength 8. Ouch. The World Eaters did get one objective, but the Iron Warriors had two in the end, and with Slay the Warlord (and Attrition), they won the game 5-2. Oh, well.

The Reactions for Zone Mortalis also made things more interesting. So we have Suppress for the movement phase where the reacting unit makes snap-shots. We have Displace for the shooting phase where they move up a number of inches up to their Initiative, if I remember correctly, and Brace for the assault phase where you do a morale check. If you fail it, you move 1D6" away, but if you pass it, you automatically pass all morale checks for sweeping advances or losing a combat. That allowed the Iron Warriors to use Displace to retreat his Terminators or Contemptor Dreadnoughts out of line of sight to avoid getting shot by the World Eaters Dreadnoughts.

There was also an instant where the World Eaters attacked the Warsmith and his Despoiler squad, as well as the Apocethary, but the Praetor managed to tank a load of chainaxe hits and even caused the poor Despoiler squad to run away (though they did avoid getting sweeping advanced). But they were locked in combat for quite a while, and the World Eaters managed to kill all but one guy in the Despoiler squad!

That said, the Iron Warriors still had the Warsmith, Apocethary, that single Despoiler, another 10 Despoilers and the Cataphractii Terminators (Dominators?) by the end of the game. On the other hand, the World Eaters only had 2 Despoiler squads, one of which was falling back. Yikes.

Well, that was brutal. Glad to see a Zone Mortalis game being played!

Painted Phalanx Warders

I finally finished painting my Phalanx Warders. Oh, and I also painted my Spartan Assault Land Raider as well. They took me over 10 hours to paint. I'm exhausted now, so I'll just show the picture for now.

They look really cool. I look forward to playing them. I think I'll have a Zone Mortalis game tomorrow night, so I'll be able to see what they can do! In any event, my Stone Gauntlet is finally ready, and I'll be running my Shield Company in future Horus Heresy games alongside my Knights! And my Cataphractii Terminators finally have a transport to ride in!

The Rogal Dorn Tank

Warhammer Community finally revealed the Rogal Dorn Tank! YAY! We've been waiting for this for so long, and we finally see it!

We had the Leman Russ tank, and Leman Russ, quite frankly, isn't my favorite Primarch. I love tanks, though, so it doesn't really matter. That said, the Rogal Dorn tank looks really cool and I might get one. I'm a little disappointed there isn't a plasma option, but you can't have everything in life, eh?

There are several options - you have have twin-linked battle cannons or you can have an oppressor cannon and an autocannon. I probably prefer the oppressor cannon, though I wish we have plasma.

You can also have a castigator gatling cannon or a pulverizer cannon on the hull. I almost though that was a demolisher cannon when I first saw it, but I guess the Rogal Dorn tank is one step down from a Baneblade, so...yeah. It's totally fine. You can also have meltaguns or heavy stubbers, as well as heavy bolter or multimelta sponsons.

I'm not sure I like the idea of a pintle-mounted heavy stubber or bolter, though. Imagine swinging it around to shoot and accidentally hitting your commander or fellow tanker in the cupolas with the barrel - or worse, a hail of mass reactive rounds. Ouch. That's pretty dangerous, and I think firing right next to the commander is gonna make him deaf. The other options are cool too.

I might just get one for my armored company, for collection sake, or maybe I will wait and see if they will ever come up with a plasma option. I doubt it, but hey, we will see. Oh, and will we get to use the Rogal Dorn tank in the Horus Heresy? That will be cool. But if we don't, then oh, well. Speaking of which, Rogal Dorn is one of my more favorite Primarchs, so I'm glad we have a tank named after him. Leman Russ isn't, and I have a bunch of those tanks, so I'll definitely get a Rogal Dorn tank someday.

Looking forward to the new Imperial Guard codex! Ahem, I mean Astra Militarum.

More Horus Heresy House Yato

"Wait, did we just travel 10,000 years back into the past?" Tanaka asked, looking around. At least he was in his Questoris Knight suit this time, making full use of an Errant-pattern with thermal cannon and a Stormspear rocket. Even better, he was the Seneschal this time, which meant he was the big boss.

The +1 bonus to his Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill was the cherry on the cake. God-Emperor, I love the Horus Heresy.

"Daimyo Tanaka, what are you doing?" One of his subordinate Bushi, Sato, asked as he steered his Armiger Warglaive forward. "We've been tasked by Lord Dorn to take to task a traitor detachment of Ultramarines."

"What? Ultramarines? Traitors? There must be some mistake."

"No, not really," Watanabe said gravely, his Cerastus Knight Lancer loping forward. The Tsurugi was gleaming under the bright rays of the sun, the rarely seen pattern a common sight during the Age of Darkness. Tanaka couldn't believe he was able to witness such a venerable suit. To think they had entire armies of Cerastus Knights ten thousand years ago.

How much had been lost over the ten millennia that had flown past since Horus Lupercal's betrayal?

"The Ultramarines Praetor, a bloke by the name of Mariaden Suh, has decided that he wanted to rule a sector like Ultramar, and so his company rebelled against Lord Guilliman and took up authority here."

"Well, we can't let that happen, can we?"

Tanaka couldn't help but feel pride when he saw four Armiger Warglaives escorting Kazan and Tsurugi. Not only that, but the Mechanicum had fielded their own exotic Knights too, with four Armiger Knight Moiraxes accompanying them with esoteric weaponry.

"Careful!" Watanabe warned as Tsurugi stalked through the demolished hab-blocks. "Legion Shadowsword ahead!"

Before Tanaka could bring his attention to the super-heavy tank, he found his front armor riddled by high velocity rounds from a heavy support squad. Ten Ultramarines, bearing autocannons, were firing on his position and overwhelming his ion shield through sheer volume of shots.

"Oh, f off already!" He yelled and Returned Fire, his Reaction taking out a chunk of the heavy support squad. They immediately took cover, ducking under dusty ceilings, but over half of them vanished in the superheated blast from the thermal cannon. Tanaka blinked in surprise. "Huh, no more rolling 2D3. We're back to using blast templates now. This feels...refreshing, actually."

"What are you talking about?!" Sato yelled. "Pay attention to the front!"

"Yikes!" Tanaka rotated his ion shields to withstand a barrage of missiles from the Arcus, as well as sundering ruby beams from the Shadowsword's sponson lascannons. He steeled himself for the deadly shot from the volcano cannnon...but it never came.

Instead, the Shadowsword chose to fire its volcano cannon at the four Armiger Warglaive escorts.

"Huh?"

Thankfully, the Knights of House Yato were Eternal Warriors. A couple of the Warglaives rocked, their ionic deflectors overwhelmed by the sheer fury of the violent blast. A third Warglaive stood strong, its ionic deflector...well, deflecting the shot by the most miraculous of chances.

"Good thing we no longer have D6 plus 6 wounds or hull points with no saves of any kind allowed," Tanaka murmured, shuddering at the memory of the previous edition where Destroyer or Strength D weapons were pretty much cheese.

The Contemptor Dreadnoughts advanced, along with a tactical squad and a group of Fulmentarus Terminator squad and Invictarus Suzerain squad accompanying them. The Mechanicum dentured Armiger Knight Moiraxes opened fire, their haywire grav pulsars wreaking havoc on the Contemptor Dreadnoughts' systems and frying them. Both Dreadnoughts dropped, convulsing as their normally impenetrable hulls cracked and were crushed by gravity.

The Terminators continued to fire their hellfire plasma missiles, destroying an Armiger Knight Moirax with lightning locks, but the other decimated the tactical squad with rending blasts of electricity. Unfortunately, the resulting explosion killed a Tech-priest Auxilia who was trying to repair the damaged Knight Moirax, and also wiped out 3 of his accompanying servo-automata. The Archmagos Macrotek, on the other hand, survived without any problems, his specially designed weapon proof against such attacks.

On the other side of the battlefield, Watanabe charged the Shadowsword, his shock lance smashing a hole in its front, shocking the crew. However, the venerable super-heavy tank held strong, its resilient superstructure resisting the deadly strikes and the crew firing in retaliation. Tsurugi raised its ion gauntlet shield, tanking the blasts, but he was unable to finish off the wounded machine.

Tanaka had worries of his own, however. As he and his accompanying entourage of Armiger Warglaives charged forward, the Arcus and surviving autocannon-bearing fired upon Kazan, determined to bring down the big Knight. Kazan staggered from the onslaught, almost on his last legs, but Tanaka was able to rotate his ion shields in time to tank a full blast from the Shadowsword's volcano cannon, the super-heavy tank's turret traversing to fire at him even as the sponson lascannons spat angrily pointblank into Tsurugi. Watanabe deftly deflevted the majority of the shots, but his attempts to destroy the tank were thwarted as his shock lance found no purchase through layers of adamantium.

"The Shadowsword is proving to be a tough nut to crack!" He complained.

"Quit whining and just keep it busy for now!" Tanaka snapped. Fortunately, the Armiger Warglaives had blown up the reversing Arcuses with their meltaguns and thermal spears, and more of the superheated rays lanced out at the Fulmentarus Terminators, laying waste to at least half their number. The remainig Armiger Knight Moirax with lightning locks fired and killed off a bunch of tactical marines, forcing the lone survivor into retreat. Disobeying his furious Praetor, the coward ran off the battlefield.

"Hey!" The Praetor bellowed, and then turned just in time to see his Fulmentarus Terminators charged by one of the Armiger Warglaives. His Invictarus Suzerain bodyguards were getting pasted by another blast from the thermal cannon before Tanaka had enough and charged the autocannon squad. He finally scythed one of them down before stomping on the Masters of Signal who was accompanying them and pulping him into bloody paste.

"Phew..." He breathed a sigh of relief as he checked the condition of Kazan. The Knight suit was literally on its last legs, its integrity on the verge of blowing up. Just another lucky shot and he would die.

Not to be denied victory, the Praetor and his sole surviving Invictarus Sizerain charged another Armiger Warglaive, even as the other one was locked in combat with the Fulmentarus Terminators. The poor bodyguard was cleaved in half by the reaper chain-cleaver, but the Praetor deflected the next few attacks with his refractor shield.

Realizing that he had no anti-tank weapons yet, save for the Shadowsword that was being locked in combat with Tsurugi, and only a tactical squad remained...about to be stomped to oblivion by Tanaka, the Praetor threw his power sword down and raised his arms in surrender.

"Fine! We'll rejoin the Imperium! Don't kill us!"

Tanaka blinked in disbelief and glanced at the others, who shrugged. Watanabe, piloting the other Lord of War, deferred to him, for he was just a Dolorous and not a Seneschal. As the Warlord of this particular Knight Lance/Banner, the choice was for Tanaka to make.

"All right." Tanaka considered, eying the Shadowsword. The super-heavy tank would be a valuable asset, as would the surviving Fulmentarus Terminators. "We accept your surrender. But you'll have to prove your loyalty to the Imperium."

"How?" The Praetor demanded. Tanaka shrugged.

"Um...by a penitent crusade against the Warmaster's forces, I suppose?"

"...I guess we have no choice."

With no other options, save death, the Praetor raised his arms and called for his private army to lay down their weapons and rejoin the Imperium.

Watching them, Tanaka felt his chest swell with pride. Taking a deep breath, he punched the air inside his Throne Mechanicum.

Oh, God-Emperor of Mankind. I love the Age of Darkness!

Contagion Detected

"We've been sent here to root out a plague," Tanaka informed his fellow Knight pilots coolly as he steered Kazan toward the ghost town. The hive world of Hovid-18 used to be populated by billions of Imperial civilians, tolling in the heavily polluted hive cities as they churned out macro-tons of ammunition, weapons and vehicles to feed the ravenous appetites of the Astra Militarum.

As such, when the Administratum noticed a drop in exports, they dispatched the 7th Karam Regiment to investigate. The last reports from the panicked Guardsmen hinted at something darker...about bloated, diseased traitor Space Marines lumbering through volleys of lasguns and felling soldiers with plagues.

Thus, the Knight Lance of House Yato had been rerouted to Hovid-18. It was unfortunate, but Tanaka found himself demoted back to becoming a lowly Bushi piloting an Armiger class Knight instead of a Questoris...for narrative reasons.

"We're restarting the crusade, and so everyone is starting from scratch again - this means, you're back to leading combat patrols," Warmaster Jack had informed him, and that was it.

"Okay..."

Not at all pleased with the situation, Tanaka nonetheless led Suzuki and Kanda on a patrol. The two Armiger Warglaives and one Knight Moirax loped across the blasted ruins of the ghost town, seeking for the remnants of the 7th Karam Regiment. They hadn't gotten very far when their auspexes picked up something.

"Plague Marines."

Tanaka realized the green armored monstrosities that marched inexorably toward them, having fought against them in the Konor campaign a few years ago. They belonged to the Death Guard, the XIVth Legion and one of those who had turned against the Emperor during the days of Horus Lupercal. Aware of how disgustingly resilient they were, he immediately opened fire, his meltagun and thermal spear

firing superheated lances at them. A couple of the Plague Marines vanished, disintegrated by the incadescent beams, and then Tanaka was suddenly among them, swinging Kazan's reaper chain-cleaver and cleaving another couple of Plague Marines. They struck back, slashing at the adamantine hull with their plague knives and rusted blades, but the consecrated surface of Kazan turned away their melee weapons.

"We're coming," Kanda assured him, moving his Knight Moirax forward to support, but Suzuki's warning came a second later.

"Blightlord Terminators!"

Even more heavily armored and disgustingly resilient than the Plague Marines, the slow-moving but sturdy Terminators teleported a few meters away from Hebi. Suzuki opened fire with his meltagun and thermal spear, but only one of them went down from enough destructive prowess to melt a reinforced bunker.

They charged in and smashed Suzuki's steed with their bale swords and flails, ripping out rivets and causing the metal to rust immediately through foul magicks. Hebi reeled, and despite Suzuki's vengeful strike that reaped another Terminator, his Armiger Warglaive was going down.

Kanda opened fire immediately, realizing that he might be too late to save his fellow Bushi. The exotic energies arced from his twin lightning locks and detonated against the Terminators. But the swollen bodies of the foul warriors absorbed the punishment, shrugging off the lethal electricity. Only one burst open, falling to his knees as his flesh cooked within his ancient armor, but the rest continued to hack away at Hebi, which was now flailing about.

By now, Tanaka had finished off the Plague Marines. A Malignant Plaguecaster attempted to attack him with its plague staff or something, parrying his reaper chain-cleaver with the ease of a veteran who had survived the long war. Unable to defeat the plaguecaster in melee, Tanaka pulled Kazan back before desperately firing his thermal spear in pointblank range.

Shocked, the Malignant was unable to evade in time, his millennia of experience failing him when he needed it the most. The lance of superheated energy disintegrated him in a single volley, and Tanaka rushed Kazan through his smoking remains, adding insult to injury.

He was too late.

The Blightlord Terminator Sergeant had brought Hebi down to its knees and Suzuki was wailing, trapped in his Helm Mechanicum as it rusted all around him.

Then Kazan barreled into the Blightlord Terminator and ran him through. Even the tenacious body of the Death Guard was unable to withstand such a crushing blow, and he crumpled underneath the Armiger Warglaive's feet.

"You all right, Suzuki?"

"Yeah," his fellow bushi replied, his voice shaky. "I'll live. But Hebi needs critical repairs."

"The sacristans will get him fully restorted," Tanaka vowed. Straightening up in his Helm Mechanicum and comsulting his pict-screen and auspex. Swallowing, he wiped the perspiration from his face. "We need you back in the fight as soon as possible. I have a feeling this is only the beginning."

Order of Ruin Numerologist Cabal and Phalanx Warders

I'm exhausted, so I'll keep this short, but I've almost assembled my Order of Ruin Numerologist Cabal and Phalanx Warders. I'm still missing a pair of legs for one of the Life Wards for my Numerologist Cabal, but hopefully the seller I ordered the bits from will send me the missing legs soon. He usually replies very quickly, so phew. But yeah, here's my Order of Ruin Numerologist Cabal - the Techmarine or Technomancer Numerologist fashioned from MKIII Techmarine, the Achean pattern helms, and the shoulder pads. The Life Wards themselves are fashioned mostly from MKIII armor, but I used spare bits from the MKVI set to make the volkite caliver guy. Yeah, I want a life ward with volkite caliver. I love volkite weaponry, so I'll be adding more volkite and plasma (I love plasma as well) to my forces.

I also assembled my Phalanx Warders. With 20 of them, I can run my Stone Gauntlet Rite of War as a primary detachment, so yay. With my Cataphactii Terminators equipped with Vigil pattern storm shields and thunder hammers, a Spartan Land Raider, a couple of Contemptor Dreadnoughts and a Praetor in Terminator (Tartaros, it seems), I essentially have what I call the Shield Company. Heh. Because almost everyone is equipped with shields.

I'll probably add Rhinos and maybe a Tartaros Terminator command squad, and yay. I'm tempted to add Breachers, but I hate dealing with resin. Ugh. We'll see. Sigh. Anyway, till then!

House Yato vs Goffs

"We'll be doing Commissar Yarrick and Lord Helbrecht a favor if we hunt Ghazghkull Thraka down," Tanaka told his Knights excitedly as he led them on a Crusade. That only earned him a few disbelieving stares from his fellow Bushi, but thankfully he couldn't see their incredulous expressions when ensconced within his Throne Mechanicum. His steed, the Questoris Knight Errant pattern Kazan, slowly stalked over the ruins as it hunted the barren wasteland for any sign of Orks.

"Assuming we are able to hunt him down," Suzuki commented dryly as he guided his Armiger Warglaive, Hebi, over difficult terrain.

"We shall have none of such talk!" Oogami barked, the venerable ancient piloting the much older machine, Ookami. The battered Questoris Knight Preceptor had waged thousands of battles in the name of the Emperor, and only the sagely Oogami could temper its bellicose machine spirit. "We will prevail!"

Suzukin snorted. "Like how Lord Ragnar Blackmane prevailed?"

Tanaka was about to retort, but he was interrupted by a howl from over the horizon.

"WAAAGH!"

A stream of green raced toward them, Beastsnagga Boyz accompanied by clunking walkers and greekskins riding squighogs. A beastboss on a squigosaur led them, waving his choppa wildly. Killa Klans and a single Deff Dread charged forward, their guns firing erratically. In the center of the horde, Ghazghkull Thraka growled, firing off an onslaught from his Mork's Roar to little effect, for the rounds didn't do much to Kazan.

"Kill them all," Tanaka commanded, though he didn't have to. Chiba and Sato were already getting into formation alongside Suzuki, their Armiger Warglaives loping forward to meet their charge. Kanda took up position behind cover, his Armiger Knight Moirax readying its twin lightning locks to fire into a squad of Boyz. Accompanying him was wise Watanabe, whose Questoris Knight Paladin, Tsurugi, fired its rapid-fire battle cannon into the Squighog Boyz and pulped them instantly. Oogami blasted a couple of Killa Klans apart, while the Armiger Warglaives wiped out a squad of Flash Gitz with their thermal spears, as well as damaging the Deff Dread with their meltaguns. Tanaka focused on Thraka, vaporizing the big guy with a blast from his thermal cannon.

Or so he thought, but the greenskin survived, bellowing in rage as his flesh burned and blackened from the sheer heat.

"That can't be good," Tanaka murmured.

Chiba and Suzuki crashed into the Deff Dread, but it twirled about and hacked down Chiba's Armiger Warglaive with its saw-like contraption. Furious, Suzuki scythed it down to avenge his fellow Bushi, totaling the clumsy-looking but deadly walker. Unfortunately for him and Tanaka, the Deff Dread exploded, showering both Hebi and Kazan with destructive shrapnel.

Meanwhile, Watanabe slashed the Beastboss on Squigosaur, only for him to survive the opening blow and retaliate with a devastating strike that left the venerable Tsurugi reeling.

"Damn, we're getting slaughtered here," Tanaka murmured, eying Thraka, who was steadily drawing closer to them.

"Got them!" Kanda cheered as his lightning locks ripped through a horde of Beastsnagga Boyz, wiping out the whole squad. "Don't worry, I've got your back!"

"Yay," Tanaka murmured as he fired overwatch at the charging Ghazgkhull Thraka, taking off another chunk from the great warboss. The leader of the Goffs stumbled, coughing as he failed to charge across the crater he was running in, partly because of the damage he had sustained from repeated blasts from the thermal cannon.

However, a squadron of deffkoptas dropped in from the skies, rockets spiraling and hammering into Sato's Armiger Warglaive. Kaen staggered, smoke billowing from its slender frame as it struggled to right itself. Sato managed to evade the other projectiles from the impossibly flying machines, striking out at one of them and tearing its wing off. The other two continued to hover above him, chopping at his steed with their rotors. Fortunately, Suzuki was on hand to save him, striking from the flank and scything down the last couple of machines.

On the other hand, his rear was exposed to a squad of Stormboyz who rocketed from one of the ruined habblocks to slash at him, but Tanaka intercepted them, grabbing one of them with Kazan's Thunderstrike Gauntlet and crushing him. Hurling the corpse at another, he continued to sweep them away, the lethal energies around the mechanical fist burning the poor Stormboyz to a crisp.

Spinning around, he then sent another incandescent beam lancing into the still charging Thraka, finally ending the warboss's terror for good. No doubt a Painboy would find his corpse and bring him back to life later, but for now his reign of atrocities over Imperium held space was finally ended. Tanaka and his Lance had prevailed!

The rest of the battle was little more than moping up. Watanabe finally hacked down the Beastboss on Squigosaur, and his rapid-fire battle cannon, combined with Oogami's las-impulsor, wrecked a Trukk that was bundling toward them. Tsurugi proceeded to hack and saw the surviving Nobs to death while Kanda annihilated the Burnaboyz that spilled from the wreck with an accurate volley of exotic energies from his lightning locks. Ookami cut down the last Killa Klan, and proceeded to perform a Linebreaker action toward the remaining Beastsnagga Boyz.

The Weirdboy still had other plans in mind, teleporting a fresh horde of Beastsnagga Boyz behind Oogami, and both squads, along with the Squigbuggy, assaulted Ookami. Tanaka was about to move in to help, only to find Kazan assailed by...Makari.

"...what the?!"

To his surprise, Makari managed to evade the sweeps from his Thunderstrike Gauntlet with contemptuous ease, jumping about and laughing as he stabbed with his dagger. Annoyed, he enacted an exacting charge and finally dealt the slippery Grot a mortal wound that squished him. Sato also managed to vaporize the Weirdboy with his meltagun, taking him out. On the other side, Ookami was listing slightly as he fought against the horde of Beastsnagga Boyz and Squigbuggy, but while the Boyz were able to hack and run about, the Squigbuggy wasn't so fortunate. It was cleaved neatly in half by the roaring Reaper chainsword.

Eventually, Watanabe was able to help Oogami by charging Tsurugi into the fray and sweeping the bigger squad of Boyz out. Though Ookami suffered more damage from the surviving Beastsnagga Boyz, he was able to wipe them out.

"See?" Tanaka panted as he moved to the center of the battlefield. If only he had a standard to plant, just like the Imperial Guard or Adeptus Astartes. "We won!"

"Yeah...I don't believe it..." Suzuki shook his head. "How...?"

"I guess Thraka had a bad day," Tanaka remarked with a shrug. "But who cares? We won!"

And thus, the Imperium lived to see another day. For now, anyway.

Horus Heresy Match

It has been a while since Renegade, and I finally had the chance to play Horus Heresy again! A group of us is attempting to make it a regular thing, so we're having weekly sessions, mostly in Dreamers Vault at Hiawatha Avenue (Minneapolis). So we had 4 guys show up today, including me, but unfortunately, one of them wasn't playing. Fortunately, I did get a game against White Scars.

Still, here's what they have! White Scars, Blood Angels and Iron Hands! Cool!

And then there's my Thousand Sons. So we had a 2,500 point game, though I only had 2,470 points worth of a Thousand Sons army. I had a game against White Scars, who had 2,655 points - almost 200 more points than me. That's totally fine, I didn't expect to win and was playing for fun. Besides, I could use it as an excuse when I inevitably lost (heh).

Chris - the White Scars player - used the Chogorian Brotherhood Rite of War. So he had a list like this:

Praetor on bike

Stormseer on jetbike

Warmonger

2 huge squads of Outriders

1 massive squad of Sky Hunters

Tactical squad in Rhino

Support Tactical squad with 10 plasma guns

Xiphon Interceptor

Storm Eagle

10 Tartaros Terminators

Apocethary on bike

I think that's...it? In contrast, I was using the Achaean Configuration Rite of War for my Thousand Sons, so my list was something like this:

Praetor in Cataphractii Terminator with Biomancy

Previan with Biomancy

Librarian with Biomancy

Techmarine

2 Osiron Dreadnoughts

5 Cataphractii Terminators with volkite chargers and aetherfire blaster

2 tactical squads with asphyx bolters, chain bayonets, aetherfire pistol and achean force sword

2 tactical support squads with 10 aetherfire blasters each

2x2 Castellax Achea-automata with aetherfire cannons

Yeah, I think that's about it. The mission was Tide of Carnage, so it was about grabbing deployment zones or something. Chris got first turn, and I didn't bother to seize the initiative because most of his guys were in deep strike or outflank, so we basically skipped our first turns, ha ha.

Then the White Scars came in, took out almost an entire plasma tactical squad, wiped out one tactical squad in combat (with the bikers) and destroyed two Castellax-Achea automata and the Previan. Ouch. He then killed all my Terminators and Praetor with his Sky Hunters, while his Storm Eagle took potshots at my Dreadnoughts, but didn't do much other than a couple of wounds. I did manage to decimate most of his plasma tactical squad in return and even wrecked his Storm Eagle. Phew! He continued to chip away at me, wiping out my plasma tactical squad eventually while putting more wounds on my Dreadnoughts. In return, I destroyed a Rhino, all of his Terminators and an Outrider squad.

We continued to trade blows, and I lost one of my Osiron Dreadnoughts to the Sky Hunters, but managed to kill the Stormseer and wipe out an outrider squad. The plasma tactical squad killed themselves on gets hot! rolls while trying to kill my remaining Osiron Dreadnought, who then proceeded to pummel the second Outrider squad, killing the enemy Praetor in combat. His Sky Hunter squad flew up to kill one of my remaining Castellax-Achea automata, leaving just one, while earlier he had wiped out my second tactical squad with the Outrider squad (who then fell back and got locked in combat with my Osiron Dreadnought). His tactical squad traded blows with my plasma tactical squad, who lost combat, leaving my Librarian to fail his Leadership test twice in a row and ran off the table. Wow.

In the end, he had a Xiphon, the remains of a Tactical squad and a couple of Outriders and almost a full Sky Hunter squad in my deployment zone, giving him a lot of points, while I only had a single Castellax-Achea automata, my Techmarine and the Osiron Dreadnought (with 1 wound remaining). Ouch, that was a pretty crushing defeat. Oh, well.

At least I had a game, and it was fun! That's all that matters! (also, insert obligatory "He had almost 200 points more than I did!" excuse here)

Looking forward to another game maybe next week! Maybe I'll get a chance to test out the new Knight rules this time.