Cadian/Draconian Battle Group update

I've been searching around the Internet and I can't find any battle reports of Cadian Battle Group, except one on Youtube that for some reason isn't available in my region (why?!). Weird. Anyway, I'll try to build a Cadian Battle Group, which is actually a Draconian Battle Group according to my own personal fluff, and write a battle report to test it out.

My Emperor's Fist Armored Company is complete, so that's my Core done, and I do have a Company Command Squad in a Chimera for my Battle Group Command. I even have a single Stormsword for my super-heavy element (if I want to, I can change it into a Shadowsword) as an Auxiliary. So the bare minimum of my Cadian/Draconian Battle Group is done, so to speak. That's basically about 1,575 points though, so if I want to play a 1,850 or 2,000-point game, I need a few more models in the form of another Auxiliary.

Currently, I'm planning on buying a Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions box set to complete my Draconian Battle Group - these stormtroopers serve as the Draconian Armored Regiment's famed Kamikaze Troopers because they always carry out near-suicidal missions and live to tell the tale. Um, most of the times, anyway. That will net me another Vendetta (I'm going to convert the Valkyrie), so I can swap the Stormsword for an Emperor's Spear Aerial Company, or play a 2,500-point game. Yippee. I can only buy this next month because I'm waiting to receive my salary. I don't use credit cards and I don't believe in borrowing and spending what I don't have. So waiting for salary it is. If all goes according to plan, I should theoretically be able to play a game and write a Cadian (Draconian) Battle Group battle report by the end of February. Fingers crossed, of course.

On another note, I lost the volkite blaster for my Tech-priest Dominus. I need to buy a new one, but bits and kits UK has sold out...if anyone has a spare volkite blaster bit, please let me know. I'm willing to buy it from you. Thanks.

Oh, and one last thing. I bought Cult Mechanicus Painting Guide: Crusaders of the Machine God. No, not for the paint schemes. I bought it for the fluff. I'll be writing a post on the fluff inside Crusaders of the Machine God tomorrow. It's pretty interesting, and I think I can add to the online Warhammer 40K canon if it hasn't been added already. I hope. I should look into buying Skitarii Painting Guide: Legions of the Omnissiah. That might have even more fluff! Yay!

As a bonus, I'll leave this poorly taken photograph for you guys to enjoy.

Cadian Artwork - apparently only 250 of these exist in the world!

Um, I found a better picture of it off the Internet. Whoops. Should have used this instead.

White Dwarf Miniature of the Year 2015

Oh, right, some news for you guys.

White Dwarf has opened a feedback form asking for our favorite miniatures of the year 2015. So you can list the top 5, but remember to include an explanation why number 1 is your favorite miniature of the year!

The survey is open until 6 February, Saturday, so make sure to send your list to team@whitedwarf.co.uk before it closes! Basically, the rules are for you to choose your favorite Citadel miniature that was released in 2015. Not Forge World models, but Citadel, meaning the plastic ones. So you can use stuff from Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, or from Age of Sigmar, or like me, throw out the Knight Crusader and Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus models released in 2015. An example is something like below:

Name: Tobias Fong

Your five favorite miniatures of the year (in order, favorite first)

1: Tech-priest Dominus

Why is this your favorite miniature of the year? Tell us what you love about it.

Because it's awesome (don't use my example, elaborate more).

2: Knight Crusader

3: Onager Dunecrawler

4: Tech-priest Enginseer (in Leman Russ Tech Command)

5: Contemptor Dreadnought

Something like that. Send the list to White Dwarf's email address that I listed above, and remember, the deadline is 6 February, 2016, Saturday! So you have about less than 3 weeks to decide!

For the Omnissiah!

Speaking of which, Winters SEO has just released an awesome new battle report, Adeptus Mechanicus versus Orks, so if you're interested, please watch it! It's evidence that you can still win against an army with a super-heavy or Gargantuan Creature even without one of your own! And as always, Winters SEO's videos are fun to watch! "This is the way the world ends..."

Rookie Battle Report

Rookie Battle Report: Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation versus Space Marines (Imperial Fists)

Before I begin, let me inform all Warhammer 40K fans in Singapore (citizen, tourist, permanent resident, visitor, otherwise) that a new gaming shop has opened in Bugis+, and has already been open for a while now. Battle Bunker has a new shop in the 3rd floor of Bugis+, just go behind the giant Gong Cha sign and you'll see a shop with more tables than the outlet in Funan IT Mall, which will sadly close in June. Oh well. Anyway, check it out if you have the time, and there's always someone eager to play Warhammer 40K with you!

Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation deployment

That's what happened ot me today. I was moving my army from Funan IT Mall to Bugis+, hoping for a game, and I got one. It was a bit unexpected, though, because my opponents (yes, plural) were a couple of very young kids. Fortunately, one of the kids' dads is a veteran, and he helped me out a lot. I offered to have a match with them to show them how Warhammer 40K works (admittedly, the veteran's son a ready knows how to play, so the introduction was more for his friend).

However, kids being kids, they're easily distracted, and they have...um, curfews. So we could only play one match. Kind of sad, but hey, that's how life is. Anyway, we decided to play 2,250 points because one of them wanted to bring 3 Terminator squads, so I was like, all right, I'll bring my usual Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation list, I'll just add 2 Kastelan Robots. It was 2v1, the fan already having a sizeable Space Marine army, with 3 tactical squads, 3 Terminator squads, a Chapter Master and a Devastator squad. His friend borrowed his models and also had a Chapter Master, a scout squad, a tactical squad, 2 Dreadnaughts and 1 Predator with lascannon.

Well, it was only one turn, so...I guess I don't have to worry about dividing the report. Anyway, I let them deploy first (actually, the kids got too eager and deloyed first before I could roll, but whatever). It's a teaching session, meant to be relaxed, so it's fine if we make mistakes. I bought the rulebook because I guess I needed it to explain better, sigh. I'm not buying starter sets for the rulebook because I don't need those models. I need the templates though. Argh.

Anyway, after teaching the friend about rules and the 4 phases (thankfully we decided not to play Psyker, so it was easier to teach the other 3 phases), I started off by moving my Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins forward so that they can get within range. Apparently the veteran's son wanted to play siege, so he grabbed a bunch of terrain, turned them into a fortress, and hid all his models under cover. I was all right with that, the emphasis was to show his friend how the game works, how to roll dice, the sequence of actions, etc.

I scouted my Vanguard and Ruststalkers into the center ruins, and infiltrated my Infiltrators not far behind. Then I moved the Ruststalkers and Infiltrators forward as well as the Kataphron Destroyers (sorry for repeating myself, I'm tired). I think that's basically all I moved.

My Ironstrider Ballistarius again did absolutely nothing. I had used the Protector Imperative Doctrina to increase my Skitarii's BS by 3, though their WS was reduced, so most of my shots missed, and the guy had twin-linked. However, he still rolled a freaking 2 for his lascannon when I fired at the Dreadnaught...useless bugger. My Rangers fared little better, their arc rifles being out of range of the Dreadnaughts. Their galvanic rifles and arc rifles just bounced off the tactical squad's armor and cover. Oh well.

Vanguard did well, they ripped apart a Tactical squad in cover through sheer number of plasma caliver shots. The Infiltrators were impressive as usual, murdering a squad of scouts with flechette blasters alone. The rest did subpar...while the Onager Dunecrawlers killed 3 Devastators with their neutron lasers, the last Devastator and his Sergeant lived. The Imperial Knight failed to rend the Dreadnaught with his Avenger Gatling cannon, even though I scored quite a lot of hits, I didn't even get a single 6. I had a glance with the Stormspear rocket pod, but the Dreadnaught made his cover save. Argh. My Kataphron Destroyers continued attacking the Devastators, but bad rolling meant I scattered 5 out of my 6 plasma culverin shots and had 3 hits...I think I killed the Sergeant. The heavy grav Kataphron Destroyers had better luck, I think wiping out another tactical squad, but the Imperial Knight's rapid-fire battle cannon, due to one scattering pretty badly, took out only 3 from another. That was my shooting in a nutshell, with 3 squads dead, I scored First Blood and 3 kill points.

The friend had left when I fired the first shot because his mother came. So I only taught him the basics. Oh well.

Shooting phase

The son continued on, with his father's help, and the counterattack was fierce. The 2 chapter masters rained down 2 S10 AP1 orbital bombardment pie plates, dealing a couple of wounds to my Kastelan Robots, who failed his invulnerable saves and Feel No Pain, and Instant Death killed all 3 of my heavy grav Kataphron Destroyers. Ouch. Oh, right. Because his mother called, the father suggested he deep striked his Terminators in the 1st turn for fun, and I agreed. I mean, it's for fun, and for learning, so it's fine with me! And I'm happy to obliged. So all 3 Terminator squads Deep Struck, 2 of them didn't scatter, but the 3rd one with storm shields and thunder hammers scattered right into my Infiltrators and Deep Strike Mishap. He rolled a 3, and I happily placed the Terminators deep inside his deployment zone, behind the buildings. They are going to take a long time to reach any of my units.

His Predator fired at my Ruststalkers from inside a building, and as they were right behind a wall, they had a cover save and made it. The 1st Dreadnaught came out and shot at them, but surprisingly he missed his multi-melta. He did cause a wound with a storm bolter. I think. The other Dreadnaught also fired, and while his multi-melta hit, I think he rolled bad and didn't wound. His storm bolters and combined fire from the tactical squads' boltgun fire killed 1 Ruststalker and wounded another. Ouch. That's so sad.

His 2 squads of Terminators fired upon my Kastelan robots and plasma culverin Kataphron Destroyers. All my Destroyers died to combined stormbolter and assault cannon fire. Ouch. So 2 kill points to my opponent. My Kastelan robot took a wound from the other assault cannon, but rolled a 6 for his Repulsor Grid, which meant I deflected a shot, only for me to roll another 6, so the Rending shot with AP2 killed the assault cannon Terminator. My Infiltrators, amazingly enough, made their armor and invulnerable saves from his Scouts' (combat squadded them) sniper rifles. His final tactical squad, coming from reserve, put a wound on one of my Infiltrators, but that's all he could do.

He charged his Dreadnaught into my Ruststalkers, killed one with hammer of wrath, and proceeded to mis-roll his hits. He did no damage to them, but with 4 attacks, I scored 2 hits and glanced 2 hull points with Haywire thanks to mindscrambler grenades. Not to mention, I already glanced him with overwatch. So the Dreadnaught died, giving me another kill point. Not bad!

The game pretty much ended here because the father and son had to leave when the mother came calling. Too bad. I was at an advantage, despite losing my anti-Terminator heavy grav cannon Kataphron Destroyer squad, having wrecked his Devastators, wiped out about half his army and stuff. I think I would have destroyed one Terminator squad in the open (no cover saves!) with my plasma caliver Vanguard, and the other one with combined fire from my neutron laser Onager Dunecrawlers (again, no cover saves because they Deep Strike into the open) and probably Knight Crusader, who will melee them with S10 AP2 Smash if I have to. The Ruststalkers were ready to tear apart either the tactical squad in cover, or the Predator (they have Haywire thanks to mindscrambler grenades and prehensible dataspike). The Infiltrators were ready to move up and charge into the newly arrived tactical squad from reserve. There wasn't much the guy had left to answer my threats, most of them have been nullified and were awaiting death in the open. Ha ha ha...it was a good thing the game ended on Turn 1, or it wouldn't have looked very pretty. Oh well. On the other hand, I might roll bad rolls, and I had already used up my Imperative Doctrina, so I probably wouldn't get as many hits. Not to mention he still had that Terminator squad with stormshield and a 2nd Dreadnaught (not much use, he would have died to my Ruststalkers sooner or later) hiding in the back. Now that I think about it, I shouldn't have brought the Knight Crusader, he had no answer to it at all. Then again, I need something to destroy his Terminators...actually, even with my heavy grav cannons gone, I still had my Vanguard, so I might still have the advantage. This is difficult.

End of game - only 1 turn, and so many potential moves, but kids will be kids.

Anyway, it was extremely fun, and I look forward to coaching and teaching more little kids in future!

New Leman Russ Tank

I've managed to get my 5th Leman Russ tank!

Leman Russ Battle Tank with Tech-Priest Enginseer

This time I built a Leman Russ Battle Tank, the standard one, along with a 2nd Tech-Priest Enginseer. This completes my Tank Commander squadron, both tanks will be visible with the aquila and antenna. Yay. The Battle Tank has a shorter cannon than the Leman Russ Vanquisher.

With my 5th Leman Russ done, that means I finally have the bare minimum for an Emperor's Fist Armored Company! 5 Tanks, 2 in Tank Commander Squadron and 3 Leman Russ squadrons of 1 tank each, with the necessary Tech-Priests Enginseer (I have 2, so 1 is a spare). So right now my Emperor's Fist Armored Company looks like this:

Tank Commander squadron

Tank Commander in Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon (and multi-melta sponsons if necessary, I'll just count them as broken and malfunctioning to save points)

Leman Russ Battle Tank with lascannon (and heavy flamers sponsons if necessary, as with above I'll count them as broken and malfunctioning to save points)

1st Leman Russ squadron

Leman Russ Punisher with 3 heavy bolters

2nd Leman Russ squadron

Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons and lascannon

3rd Leman Russ squadron

Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannon sponsons and heavy bolter

Tech-priest Enginseer (2 if necessary)

With this completed, I have the Core choice for my Cadian Battle Group (or Draconian Battle Group that uses the Cadian Battle Group Detachment rules). So I shall present you the might of Imperial Armor!

The might of Imperial Armor

A formidable wall of steel, behind which human guts and hearts stand firm against the terrifying enemies of the Imperium. Yeah, tanks may suck in the current meta with all the haywire, melta and destroyer weapon spam, but a wall of AV14 is still a tough nut to crack. Usually. I hope.

So with my Emperor's Fist Armored Company done, and in effect the Core Choice of my Cadian Battle Group, I only have my Emperor's Spear Aerial Company left. I already have the Command Choice, the Battle Group Command, which composes of a Company Command Squad inside a Chimera. This means I can essentially play a 1,575-point game now. But I'll be wasting my Company Command Squad and the command benefits the Cadian Battle Group grants me if I just rely on my tanks. So what I'm going to do is...get a job, and once I get my pay, I'll purchase the Militarum Tempestus Storm Scions box set, which allows me to get a 3rd Vendetta (or Valkyrie, I just need to get the Vendetta conversion kit), plus much-needed infantry to make use of those amazing command benefits. Can you imagine Stormtroopers with Ignores Cover, or Tank Hunter/Monster Hunter, or even a group of 10 Stormtroopers firing their hellguns...uh...hot-shot lasguns three times with the First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! order? Even more so, I can order them to run after shooting when I drop the Company Command Squad and 2 Stormtrooper squads down from my Vendetta gunships after they make a low-altitude drop

So yeah, I'm so getting Militarum Tempestus Scions for my Cadian Battle Group. Right now I have no stormtroopers, and only 2 Vendetta gunships. I can always swap the Stormsword and Chimera for 3 Vendetta gunships and an extra Stormtrooper squad. Or I can play 2,500-point games, that would be fun.

For the Emperor!

Oh, right. And if you're asking me why there's Imperial Guard in an Adeptus Mechanicus blog, well, it's part of the fluff. The Forge World of Draconis IV manufactures countless tanks for the Imperial Guard armored regiment of Draconis III, so they have close ties and will support each other in times of xenos incursion and other threats. Makes sense, right? I mean, in Titanicus by Dan Abnett, there's an armored Planetary Defense Force that fights alongside the Skitarii and Titans against the traitor Titan legion. So why not Draconis III as well?

Expanding your army: Skitarii

At last, the release of the new Warhammer 40K starter sets have been released! I have been waiting for their launch before writing about my next article which is on expanding your army. If you recall, the last post, Starting Warhammer 40K: Imperial Knight, was about recommending those who have no idea what they like to start the game with an Imperial Knight. In that post, I promised to write about expanding your Warhammer 40K army collection, and that's what this article is today. It's about expanding your Imperial Knight army with a collection of Skitarii!

And now is the best time to do it, what with the Start Collecting! Skitarii bundle being released by Games Workshop that will ship from January 9th onward. Awesome! It's a great deal, and I wish I had waited for this before getting my Skitarii army, but what's bought is bought. And I do like my army. Anyway, this isn't about the bundle or the Dominus Maniple rules (which I don't have at the moment, and I will write about it once I get my hands on it), it's about expanding your army.

Again, let me emphasize this. The best army to start with is the faction YOU like. You must love your faction, its fluff, its models, its units, etc. I mean, there's no point power-gaming and collecting a bunch of drop pod models just to be competitive if you don't like them - I'm not going for Drop Pod Skitarii or Drop Pod Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation regardless of how powerful or competitive it is. I don't like Flesh Tearers or Space Marine models, so I won't get them. That's why I sold my Tau stuff, I didn't like them so there was no use holding on to them. Don't be stupid like me and avoid buying them in the first place, even if they have really cool rules. Similarly, don't get an Imperial Knight because I say so. Get it only if you like it, or if you have absolutely no idea what to get.

For those who are on the fence and neutral to all factions, thus having no idea what to start with, I have already recommended an Imperial Knight. However, if you remember, I had advised readers to only begin with one or two. Partly because if you're a casual player looking for casual opponents wanting a good time and not highly competitive, plonking 3 or 4 Imperial Knights on the table is hardly going to earn you friends (unless your friends don't mind playing against them, which is great!). Sure, they can be easily countered with melta guns and stuff, but your opponent probably wants to bring his favorite list, not a list tailored to specifically destroy Imperial Knights. So just bring one, or maybe two.

However, as you play bigger games, you also realize that while they are awesome, Knights have weaknesses. They are few in number, they get easily meltagunned to death (or Haywired to death), they are a big fire magnet and the targets they shoot at are limited even if you can fire its 6 weapons at 6 different targets (and trust me, 2 heavy stubbers aren't going to do anything even if you fire both at the same target, which means 5 targets). Plus if you find out that you love the tabletop game and enjoy spending more time in longer matches, Knights wouldn't be a good army as they either win too quickly or die too fast.

So you need infantry to shield your Knights from meltaguns, you need more units to grab more objectives, and you want a lot more flexibility. That's where allies come in, and I would recommend Skitarii.

Again, I must reiterate here that this article and advise is only for those who have no idea what to do after they have gotten their Imperial Knights and have no favorite faction or clue what they like. If you want to pair your Knight with Eldar, do so. Throw in a Wraithknight alongside your Imperial Knight and bring a cup to collect your opponents' tears (just don't blame them if they refuse to play with you ever again). Or if you want Tau hiding behind your Knight and sending the guy in as a Distraction Carnfiex while your favorite Gundam-ish models shoot from the back, that's fine too. In fact, if you're a huge fan of Imperial Guard and their tanks, then by all means roll out an armored column of tanks and Knights with the new Cadian Armored Company, The Emperor's Fist. However, if you don't know what to like and have come against the wall while not being willing to buy another Knight because while one or two are cool, you find a whole army of four or five Knights boring, then I'll recommend the Skitarii or Mechanicus. One. because it's fluffy, and two, the two (or three) factions synergize very well together in an excellent formation.

In fact, I'm using the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation from White Dwarf Issue 69, released in 2015, which is a formation that makes use of a Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation, a Skitarii Battle Maniple (take note it's the Battle Maniple formation that requires one of every unit except the Ironstrider Ballistarii and Sydonian Dragoon, which you choose either one), and an Imperial Knight Oathsworn Detachment. If you think that's too much for you, then ditch that (but it's a very powerful and fun formation - not overpowered, I've lost a lot more games than won with it, thanks to me being a newbie) and just get Skitarii.

Skitarii is awesome and very flexible, having an array of options to counter almost every threat. The Vanguard are equipped with radium carbines, standard, which can put a lot of wounds on your opponents if you roll enough sixes - and with a squad able to stock up to 10 men and each radium carbine pumping out 3 attacks, you'll probably get a lot of those. Furthermore, you can swap 2 (or 3 if you have 10 Vanguard) for plasma calivers, which throw out an equal number of shots (3 per gun) at S7 AP2, making them Terminator killers if you need to. Good for killing Monstrous Creatures too. Rangers have quite the range, and Precision Shot, but S4 AP4 without rad poisoning like the Vanguard does, and only 1 shot each, means they aren't going to do much. For Troops, I would prefer Vanguard, even with their inferior range, they pump out quite the dakka and put on lots of wounds. Plus plasma calivers are better on them because they have equal range to the radium carbines, and you are probably wasting them on your Rangers because they're meant to sit back and make use of their 30" range (and the armorbane sniper rifle thing). Both can use arc rifles for Haywire goodness, so keep in mind their great number of options.

The Elites, Sicarian Ruststalkers and Sicarian Infiltrators, are pretty good melee units. Not as good as dedicated melee units like Necron Lychguard or Thunderwolves, as I found out to my chargrin (though the Ruststalkers did give the Thunderwolves quite the big fight despite being only a fraction of their total cost), but still pretty good. Their 2 wounds each make them pretty resilient, even with T3 - they shrugged off shooting from Tau Fire Warriors and wiped them out in shooting, never mind combat. Infiltrators are anti-horde units in addition to their nerf circle, aka Neurostatic Aura, which deducts 1 from WS, BS, Leadership and Initiative, so make use of that in conjunction with your Knight and other units! Their flechette blasters pump out a hell lot of shots, about 5 each at 12" range, which usually means I throw 25 shots at my opponents. Don't underestimate the S2 AP-. With that amount of dakka, and Shred which allows me to re-roll To Wound rolls, I usually deal a surprising amount of damage to my opponents (I told you I wiped out a squad of Fire Warriors with just the flechette blasters alone!). Their taser goads are also deadly in combat, with each roll of a 6 generating 2 additional hits! Sometimes I deal more wounds than the number of attacks my little guys have! Just 2 of them wiped out an entire biker squad on their own! HA HA HA HA! They also have a better Feel No Pain 5+ than their Troops counterparts, who only have Feel No Pain 6+, so keep in mind that makes them a lot more resilient. And don't forget the 6+ invulnerable save! That has saved me countless times.

Fast Attack is pretty good too, with the Sydonian Dragoon having the same taser lance that generates 2 extra attacks with rolls of 6. These 3 units, plus the Ironstrider Ballistarius, have Dunestrider, which adds 3 to their movement and charge, making them extremely fast and with Scout conferred to them by their Maniple bonuses, this usually negates the need for transport and stuff. The Dragoon also has Incense Cloud, which provides a 5+ cover save to your fragile AV11 all-round 2-Hull Point walker.

The Ironstrider Ballistarius, while useless in all my games, probably needs a lot more friends to be useful. Ouch. I gave him a lascannon, and twin-linked means he can shoot tanks and stuff without much difficulty. Usually my opponent makes the cover save though, or I failed to penetrate. Ouch. Anyway, they are useful in multiple model-units, same with the Sydnonian Dragoon. Take more of them in one unit, don't just take one each. Otherwise don't take them at all and spend your points on the awesome Infantry. Cognis means the Ironstrider Ballistarius can shoot at air though, but as I said, you probably want to have a lot more than just 1 guy in a squadron.

The Onager Dunecrawler is my favorite, and is the epitome of flexibility. If you need anti-air, this can be your guy, with his Icarus Array able to shoot down any flyer dumb enough to fly within his range. Otherwise you can give him a S10 AP1 neutron laser that would wreck both vehicles and Terminators reliably. My favorite tactic is to put 3 of them in a single unit because they improve each other's saves. One only has a 6+ invulnerable save, but 3 of them have 4+ (they get +1 for each other Onager Dunecrawler in the same squadron).

With this many options, you can reliably ally them with your Knight to get rid of a bunch of stuff that your opponent throws at you. The infantry are surprisingly resilient, tough and very shooty. They can grab objectives, hunker down and dish out a frightening amount of damage. So if you're worried of Terminators with Power Fists hammering your Knight to smithereens, fire radium carbine rounds and plasma caliver shots at them until they die! Land Raider annoying your Knight with its lascannons? Get your guys close enough to pump out 4-6 arc rifle Haywire rounds! Worried about tarpits? Throw your Sydonian Dragoons and Sicarian Infilitrators at the hordes and watch them melt to your taser attacks! Flyers bombarding you with multi-meltas? Throw in your Onager Dunecrawlers with Icarus Arrays and laugh as they get shot down the moment they fly into the table! With so many options and huge flexibility the Skitarii can cover the weaknesses of your Imperial Knights, bring a lot more bodies to the table, having great shooting and resilience, and have a countermeasure for just about everything! Best, they're cheaper than Space Marines, come with all sort of exotic gear, relics and awesome weapons (Space Marines have no taser weapons! Hah!), the best anti-air platform in the game, and Dunestrider makes them pretty fast!

So if you're wondering who to pair your Knights with, look no further than the militant arm of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Get maybe 10-20 Vanguards and Rangers (10 each, or 2 10-men squads of Vanguard, or 10 Vanguard and 5 Rangers, or 5 whatever, combination up to you). Get 1-3 Onager Dunecrawlers (I'll recommend 3 for that awesome 4+ invulnerable save and more dakka), then follow it up with Sicarian Infiltrators. Ruststalkers are useful sometimes with their Haywire and 2nd turn AP2 attacks in melee, but Infiltrators are better, so get them first, and then consider Ruststalkers after that. Syndonian Dragoons are great in large numbers, and Ironstrider Ballistarii are good anti-vehicle guys if you get 2-3 of them, so never get them by themselves or they'll be uesless like my single Ironstrider Ballistarius. Remember all these tips and you'll have a well-balanced army that while not top-tiered, should be fun to play with and has an answer to everything!

So that's it, guys! Ave Omnissiah! Have fun with your new Adeptus Mechanicus army!

Starting Warhammer 40K: Imperial Knight

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been busy the past week with spring cleaning (an ethnic Chinese tradition) so I didn't have time to do much about Warhammer 40K. Now that I have a bit of time, and since Christmas has just ended, I had an idea about starting a Warhammer 40K army - what with the festive spirit and giving season and all.

Basically, if you're wondering what to give as a present, and you want your son/nephew/friend/loved onee (daughter and niece also work here, let's not be gender-biased) to start playing tabletop Warhammer 40K, you might probably want to give him or her a box. But what do you give to someone who has never played Warhammer 40K before? Similarly, what if you are someone, like me, who decided around the same time last year that you are no longer contented with just reading the novels pouring out of Black Library and want to participate in an actual tabletop game as well? If you've read so much Warhammer 40K fluff and been exposed to so many factions, would you have trouble deciding which faction to start off with?

That's what this article is today: Offering a suggestion on how to start off a Warhammer 40K army. I know this is going to sound controversial and perhaps downright stupid, but I personally think a good choice to start Warhammer 40K is an Imperial Knight.

Yeah, I can hear the dismissals and outcries already. Why would you want to start with a super-heavy?! Are you crazy?! An Imperial Knight gets killed easily! It's difficult to learn tactics and strategies with an Imperial Knight! It's not good advice for list-building! Blah, blah, well, I'm sure people will elaborate more in comments (if anyone comments, that is, I don't think anyone actually reads this blog, and I don't blame them) with better criticisms than the ones I randomly threw out. And they are right.

But I never said an Imperial Knight was the BEST choice, nor did I suggest it for learning strategies, list-building and tactics. I said it's a good choice for starting Warhammer 40K tabletop. What I'm focusing on is the rules of the tabletop game itself, not the strategy, deployment, tactics and list-building. Why? Well, I'm going to list the advantages and good points of fielding (as well as procuring) an Imperial Knight.

Before I begin, I would like to make it clear that the best advice is still BUY THE ARMY THAT YOU LIKE. Yes. Don't just buy an Imperial Knight because I said so. Buy it if you like it. If you have something else you like, like Xenos scum and Eldar Cheese, then buy them because by the Emperor, it is YOUR army, not mine. You have to be the one who likes the army you buy, build, paint and field. Otherwise it defeats the purpose of starting the game.

The suggestion of Imperial Knights is for new players who have absolutely NO idea what they like, are dazzled by the vast array of options and factions, people who are indecisive, or you can treat it as a plain analytical article for why an Imperial Knight makes for a good starting army. If you have an idea of what you like, or you already started the game with a faction you like, buy that. Don't be like me and waste money on Tau (only to sell them at huge losses) just because I wanted to power-game with my Imperial Knights and decided that I needed anti-air to cover my Adamantine Lance Formation's weakness (in the end, I had Icarus autocannons and Skitarii for that, so the Tau stuff was a total waste of money and I do not regret getting rid of those blue commies Xenos scum).

With that out of the way, here are my reasons why I think an Imperial Knight is a good starting point for people who have no clue what they like. Yet.

1: You only need one to three models.

A single Imperial Knight is enough for a whole army, to be honest. 500-point games? Sure, let me bring my Knight Crusader, upgraded with a rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pod. If your opponent is all right with it, then perhaps throw in a Helm of the Nameless Warrior or Mark of the Omnissiah to round the points off to 500 (of course this is, strictly speaking, illegal, but if you're just starting out and learning how to play, then your opponent might not mind). 800-point game? A Knight Errant and a Knight Warden, both with meltaguns and a single carapace weapon. You don't even need to glue or magnetize the carapace weapons, just use blue-tac. It's enough. 3 Imperial Knights for 1,500-point games would be good, but if you're just starting off, maybe stick to 1 or 2. Save the $200 for that 3rd Imperial Knight for a new army if you're going into bigger games (I'll elaborate more at the end, and in another article).

Contrast this with trying to buy, build and paint more than 10 models. I think the Dark Vengeance Starter set is a good buy, but honestly, it offers so many models and units that the list gets downright dizzying. I mean it has 49 models! And 2 different armies! And there's not a lot of choice - if you want to play Dark Angels, you're pretty much stuck with a Chapter Master (or Company Master), a Librarian, a 10-men Tactical Squad, 5 Terminators and 3 Bikers. No customization, no room for much options - your Librarian doesn't have the Terminator armor that you might want. Plus you have 2 different armies, and you're probably going to wonder which to use. That's of course assuming you are actually hardworking enough to build and paint all 49 models (then again, if you wanted to start Warhammer 40K you probably already have the determination to go through all that).

An Imperial Knight box offers all 5 choices - so you can build a Knight Errant, a Knight Paladin, a Knight Warrant, a Knight Gallant or a Knight Crusader. Take your pick. No restriction whatsoever. And you don't have to remember the rules for so many models. Plus, unlike the Dark Vengeance set, you probably don't need to spend weeks or even months building and painting your Knight. Maybe a week to build it (I built one in about 3-4 hours), and another week to paint it. Much easier than trying to build and paint an entire army (and if you give up halfway you've just wasted your money).

Now I'm not discouraging you from buying Dark Vengeance - it's still a very good starter set! It has its own advantages, strengths and benefits, but I also think just buying an Imperial Knight will have its own advantages as well.

2: Easy to learn the rules.

The Imperial Knight Codex is thin and light enough to carry around, and you don't need to flip through so many pages to find the Knights you're looking for. Besides, they all have the same rules anyway, so you only need to refer to the book for the weapons they're carrying. This will allow you to concentrate on learning the tabletop rules - for example, the four phases. Movement phase, your Knight moves - and you don't need to worry about moving so many models! You can ignore your Psychic Phase since Knights do not have psychic powers, and Shooting phase would be easy to remember as you only have a few weapons on each of your Knight, so you don't have to remember, for example, if your Sergeant has a bolt pistol, you have 6 lasguns, 3 special weapons, etc. Assault phases hould be easy to remember and learn too. Basically, if you want to learn the four phases and how the tabletop game flows, fielding an Imperial Knight would be an extremely easy and quick way to learn (of course, I'm not bothering with the complexities, tactical decisions, placement, etc. but this is for starters who are trying to get a feel of the game and see how one match plays out).

Furthermore, you also learn about vehicle rules, armor values and stuff when playing an Imperial Knight. Not to mention, you get exposed to the super-heavy rules pretty early on, and so know Invincible Behemoth, Smash, Move Through Cover, Stomp, etc. And if starters find the whole vehicle damage table complicated, the Imperial Knight's Invincible Behemoth rule allows it to ignore that table except for the Explodes! result, so it does allow the owner to gradually get used to the vehicle rules.

Of course, the Dark Vengeance set shines here because it gives you a small rulebook along with the armies, and if you jump into the game with an Imperial Knight like I did, you'll have to buy a $100+ rulebook that's thick, heavy and takes up a lot of space. Ouch. But then again, if you're not very fond of Space Marines and was going to start off with another army anyway, then you were probably going to just buy the rulebook anyway.

3: Quick and fast

Not sure if Warhammer 40K is for you? Worried about matches that take 3 to 4 hours? Are those matches (I find them fun, personally) too long for you? Then an Imperial Knight is for you, sir!

An Imperial Knight, as many people have rightly pointed out, are sometimes impractical in games. They either crush the enemy too easily, or they die too easily to drop-pod melta squads and Haywire (I bet my 170-point Sicarian Ruststalkers can easily wipe out my 420-point Knight Warden!). However, if you flip this around, this can mean quick games. Sure, you might lose a lot when people bring hard counters to your Imperial Knight, but both you and your opponent might get a good laugh when your Imperial Knight blows up in an Apocalyptic explosion and destroys both armies for an entertaining draw. Plus it also means you'll find ways to navigate or place your Knight strategically to avoid those deadly meltaguns. I hope. Either way, if you're someone with a short attention span, or has little time to game, an Imperial Knight provides a quick fix and a shorter game.

4: Easy to build, keep and bring around

Having so few models makes it easy to build and store. You can just build and paint one or two Imperial Knights, or even three, and being bigger it's easier to paint than a Guardsman. I know how difficult and time-consuming it is to build a platoon of Guardsmen, 10 each, and then paint every single one of them individually. Some people enjoy it, but if you don't, then just build an Imperial Knight, spray paint it, coat the rims, and then go straight to gaming. Additionally, you don't need a box to store dozens of Guardsmen, vehicles, aircraft and artillery (or just infantry). You just throw one or two Knights into a bag and carry them around without much difficulty. They're not too big like the Warlord Titans to carry around, and not too small and numerous like infantry to transport either.

5: Shooting and Melee

Playing an Imperial Knight is also an excellent way of learning the rules of shooting and assault. As mentioned earlier, with so few models, it makes it easy to remember the rules just for the Knight, and the weapons. The Knight is good with both shooting and melee, especially if you brought the hybrid ones with cannons and a Strength D Reaper Chainsword. You'll get to roll scatter and roll to Wound with both a strong gun (battle cannon or Avenging Gatling cannon or Thermal cannon) and a weak gun (heavy stubber), and fairly judge the rough values of Strength against Toughness. You also get to remember the whole Ballistic Skill as well, with the Knight's good BS4.

Similarly, you'll get used to melee with the Knight's good WS4 and take note of the Initiative and Attack values. With so few models, you can concentrate on getting used to shooting and melee instead of worrying over who has what weapons, who has what BS, who has what WS, who has the higher Initiative, who has how many attacks, since Knights have the same stats all across the board. Guardsmen, for example, are usually BS3 and WS3, but Veterans have a higher BS, Sergeants have more attacks, and if you give your Sarge a Power weapon or Power Fist, you've to remember Unwieldy and different strengths. With Knights, you don't have to remember all those, and can just focus on shooting and melee.

6: High durability

An Imperial Knight's strength is not just its Invincble Behemoth that allows it to shrug off vehicle damage stuff (except Explosion! results), but also its high AV13 front, ion shield and 6 hull points. As I said earlier, it may be killed easily, but it will still last longer than a Guardsman with Toughness 3 and 1 Wound. Or even a Space Marine with Toughness 4 and 1 Wound.

What this means is that the Imperial Knight will stay alive long enough for you to get familiar with it and its rules, so you don't have to keep trying to keep track of whether your squad of 10 guardsmen only have 5 shots left after losing half of their squad to a devastating bolter volley. It also means you don't have to take the model off the table as frequently as your opponent. Usually...I hope. And you don't have to bother with Morale checks since it's effectively Fearless, and you don't have to worry about the weapons snap-shooting after moving since it's effective Relentless.

7: Ambiguous Alignment

Okay, maybe you don't like the Imperium and much prefer Chaos, but you have done your research, read through 1d4chan, forums, other Warhammer 40K blogs' comments (can't be mine since I get almost zero comments) and Internet stuff, only to find out that the current Chaos Space Marines codex sucks. I don't know how true that is, but I heard Khorne Daemonkin is pretty competitive. Huh. Anyway, you want to play Chaos but you don't like Chaos Space Marines, and you're not interested in summoning Daemons or spilling your blood for Khorne (because you like Tzeentch more but you can't wait for the Thousand Sons and Tzeentch Daemonkin supplement that's rumored to be released next year). So what do you do?

Turn your "Imperial" Knight into a Chaos Daemon Knight. Paint it black and red, draw a skull or something on the banner, add horns, add spikes, throw in lots of stuff and make him as Chaos-y as possible. There you go. You're still Chaos, but you now have a Knight that has the same rules and stats as your awesome Imperium brethren. After all, House Devine and oher houses have fallen to Chaos according to the fluff, and who's to say you can't have a Daemon Knight? Just use the same rules but tell your opponent that for the sake of game narrative and fluff, your Knight is a Daemon Knight. It still works!

This also applies to Ork fans, and at my local gaming store, someone actually converted an Imperial Knight into a grotesque (and I mean this in a very good way) into an Ork Knight! Awesome. I should get a picture of it and post it here one day, but obviously I need the owner's permission and I don't have the chance to meet him.

These are the reasons why Imperial Knights make a good starter army for beginners, in my opinion, of course. I'm not suggesting that playing Imperial Knights make you more tactically nous and turn you into a competitive, high-level tournament player able to sweep the table. But I do think fielding Imperial Knights allow a fledging player just starting out to familiarize himself (or herself) with the game, learn the basic rules such as the four phases, shooting and assault, have a quick taste of the game without being put off by the tremendous amount of time needed (though I actually enjoy spending all that time playing), and have no trouble transporting so few models around for a game without worrying about dropping or losing anything.

After starting with an Imperial Knight and finding out that you really like the tabletop game, you actually enjoy spending a longer time moving models around the table and rolling dice, you want more models and a larger army, and you're finally motivated to develop a deeper tactical nous, heavier list-building and better strategies, then I would recommend expanding out of Imperial Knights and jumping into a new army. No! Do NOT throw away your Imperial Knight! Keep them! In fact, you probably want to keep them as an Ally (or if you really love them, as the Primary Detachment) to your new army! And my suggestion for that new army is none other than the Adeptus Mechanicus such as Skitarii (more so) and Cult Mechanicus (less so). Huh, I think that article for expanding into a new army is for another day, so we shall stop here for today.

So yeah, if you're thinking of starting Warhammer 40K, or getting someone else to begin the tabletop game, please consider getting an Imperial Knight. It's easy to use, field, learn and familarize yourself with the game! For expanding into a new army after getting used to your Knights (that's why I advise getting just 1-2 at first, and not jumping straight to 3...or 4, like I stupidly did), I'll elaborate more in another article in the new future.

Battlefleet Gothic: Armada

I know I'm late to the party, but Battlefleet Gothic: Armada is a game set to be released next year. Awesome. They have a website here, so check it out if you want.

This is the gameplay trailer. Awesome. They have also released a trailer for the Imperium fleet, which is down below.

Speaking of games, I will also keep tabs on Space Hulk: Deathwing and let you guys know of more details when I hear news. Unfortunately, other than a couple of trailers, there hasn't been much updates on that front since June so I have no idea if it's still going on.

I should also purchase the Dawn of War collection during the Christmas season. Whoops. Oh well. I have not played Dawn of War or Space Marine before, but I'm tempted to try them out soon. We shall see. I'm not that eager to try out Dawn of War II because I don't like tactics-based small squads, and only Retribution has Imperial Guard (my favorite faction). Anyway, we shall see.

For the Emperor!