August Weekday Munera RTT

 I actually participated in the August Weekday Munera Rogue Trader Tournament on Monday (August 23rd), but I didn't have time to write a battle report on it because I was busy with other stuff. Add to that, I developed a headache after the RTT and so I basically went to bed the moment I reached home, and was distracted by my other projects when Tuesday arrived. Nonetheless, my load has lightened up a little and I decided to drop one of my writing projects to focus on another (which was how I could write the conclusion to the Argent Crusade yesterday), so I thought I would write a quick writeup of the RTT on Monday before I return to work.

This time, I decided to play with my Thousand Sons and try them out because of their new codex. Because I'm more of a fluff player, I was fielding Ignatius along with a bunch of Daemon Engines. I love Daemon Engines. So my list isn't very optimized, but I don't think anyone was expecting something like mine.

Thousand Sons Battalion (Cult of Magic)

Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Seeker After Shadows, Arcane Focus)

Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (Athenaean Scrolls, Devastating Sorcery)

Infernal Master

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamer and warpflame pistol

10 Chaos Cultists with flamer

2 x 5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannons and Hellfyre missile racks

2 Forgefiends with Hades autocannons

Forgefiend with 3 Ectoplasma cannons

2 Heldrakes with baleflamer

You might look at the list and wonder, why the hell do I have so many daemon engines? Well, simply because I love daemon engines. Dinobots...ahem, Forgefiends and Helldrakes look so awesome. Who wouldn't want to field them? I certainly do!

My first game was against a Chaos Daemons player who fielded like...I think 4 Exalted Daemons, so Exalted Keeper of Secrets, Exalted Bloodthirster, Exalted Great Unclean One and Exalted Lord of Change. They were accompanied by Shalaxi Hellbane and Belakor himself. I think he had a single squad of Bloodletters and 2 squads of Nurglings.

The first turn went to him, and I think he pretty much advanced, charged up the table and tore my guys apart. My Forgefiends tried to shoot his Daemons down while my Heldrakes charged up the table and torched the Bloodletters, but other than that I couldn't really do anything. Oh, well. In the end, I succeeded in slaying Shalaxi Hellbane and the Great Unclean One, and basically leaving just one wound on the Keeper of Secrets (though she recovered a couple more after killing my Cultists) and severely injuring the Bloodthirster. It wasn't enough, though, and I got tabled. Whoops. Still a fun game, though, and I wish I brought my Knights. It would have been so fun to see Knights fight against Greater Daemons. Giant robots versus giant monsters. Damn, wasted opportunity! Oh, well, it was still fun, though. I managed to take 41 points to my opponent's 90, so it wasn't too big of a loss, ha ha.

My second game was against White Scars. I honestly have no idea what happened, but I managed to table him. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't send all his Vanguard Veterans and Assault Terminators to kill one squad of Scarab Occult Terminators that I had deep struck in the corner of his table, but he got distracted, fell for the bait that I didn't even know I laid out, and then got shot off the board by my Forgefiends. Those daemon engines were doing some serious work for me! I won that game 87 to 54 points.

My third game was against Adeptus Mechanicus, Mars Skitarii Veteran Cohort. I already knew I was going to lose this, so I focused on taking out his Ironstrider Ballistarii and Fulisaves out before they could blow my daemon engines off the table. As it turned out, I failed to kill one Fulisave. I was almost tabled, with only two of my Forgefiends left on the table (I think). But I did some serious damage, and to my surprise, in terms of points, it was a much closer game than I thought. Turned out I managed to grab quite a lot of secondaries. I lost the game 65-75, which was a lot closer than I thought it would be. Perhaps if I played the game right and made several decisions differently, I might even have won the game. Nice.

In conclusion, I think the Thousand Sons have a lot of potential. Doing relatively well when this was th first time I played Thousands in 9th edition (and after a long time), I think I like them. I just need to learn and adjust. The codex is new, I have to experiment and find out what's good and what works. I find that the Daemon Engines work really well for me, so I'm keeping them. Well, the Heldrakes and the Hades autocannon Forgefiends, anyway. Probably I should stop suiciding my Heldrakes to the front (Ha ha) and find better ways of using them, but they really help me with Engage on all Fronts. Between them and my Scarab Occult Terminators, I find that I can max out on that very easily. I also have to think about my other objectives more clearly, I suppose.

To be honest, I prefer playing Knights (and Adeptus Mechanicus). They are much simpler to play, I don't have to worry about a bazillion spells, they are tougher, I have less models to move about, and they simply play faster. Oh, well. Anyway, that's cool. We'll see how it works, I guess. I'm definitely bringing Knights to the Renegade Servitor Appreciation GT in Roseville next week. I doubt they will do much better, but they're definitely more fun to play with.

The Defense of Argent

And so the Argent Campaign concludes today. We did Phase 3 of the Crusade Campaign that I had been organizing thus far, with the final showdown taking place in the homeworld of the Encarmine Angels, Argent itself.

The combined forces of the Death Guard, two plague companies under the command of Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, and the Plague Lord Alastor Karkinus, attacked the fortress-monastery of the Encarmine Angels. Under the command of the Chapter Master, Varile Nosferatus, the Space Marines defended their homeworld stalwartly, doing their best to resist the decaying invasion of the Death Guard. Though it was a close battle, the majority of the Blood Angels Successor Chapter eventually succumbed to both plague and blade. A Redemptor Dreadnought attempted to destroy a Great Unclean One, only to be fell by it. Fortunately, Chapter Master Varile Nosferatus valiantly fought back and slew the Great Unclean One, sending it back screaming to the Warp. Despite his efforts, the Encarmine Angels were eventually overrun, the Sanguinary Guard annihilated by Possessed, and their tanks and vehicles overrun by Blightlord Terminators and Plague Marines. Though many Poxwalkers were slain by the noble Adeptus Astartes, they were unable to stand before the might of warp-imbued Heretic Astartes, the Veterans of ten thousand years of warfare thwarting their defenses and bringing their fortress-monastery down.

The Orks, led by Cyba-boss, scoured Argent for scrap to build his Waaagh!. Doubling as a Forge World, Argent was home to many manufactorums and tank assemby lines. Eying the newly constructed vehicles for loot, Cyba-boss led a great mechanized Waaagh!, leading a Stompa and a Gorkanaut in trampling over the Forge World's manufactorums. The local Imperial Guard regiment, led by the Lord Commissar known as the Dread Lord, Shaidar Haran, marshaled a defense over a vital manufactorum in hopes of halting Cyba-boss's rampage. The combined firepower of a Shadowsword, Leman Russ tanks and courageous Guardsmen felled the Stompa, but the Astra Militarum were slowly being overrun by the Orks. Fortunately, a last-ditched effort to protect the vital machinery saw the Guardsmen successfully defend the crucial installation, keeping it out of the hands of the greenskins. They suffered horrific casualties, however, with their Lord Commissar falling to the hands of...Grots. The same Grots who killed Adepta Sororitas and Poxwalkers, which only increased their reputation and cemented as legends among their klan.

The World Eaters attempted to assist the Death Guard, but they encountered a patrol of Armiger-class Knights from House Yato and were slaughtered. Though they destroyed an Armiger Warglaive and heavily damaged an Armiger Moirax Knight, the entire warband was annihilated.

Disgruntled at his defeat, Cyba-boss rallied his surviving forces to attack a power plant that was supplying another chain of manufactorums, assembling what was left of his mechanized forces into a mek-Waaagh!. Fielding an entire army of walkers, ranging from a Stompa to a Morkanaut, Killa Klans, Deffdread, and more, the Orks smashed through the defenders...only to collide against an imposing force of Imperial Knights. The nobles of House Yato weathered the ferocious assault from Cyba-boss and his scrap walkers, seeing their Knights fall one by one to the klaws of the greenskin armor, though they fought as hard as they could. Eventually, the Daimyo Koushiro Kusanagi, the pilot of the Dominus Knight Castellan, Dragon's Fury, managed to destroy the last of the mechanized Ork walkers. Though the defenders held the power plant, it was at a great cost. Of the three Knight nobles and two bondsmen who walked into the battle, only one survived.

Though the Encarmine Angels fell in battle, the majority of their storied chapter destroyed, their Imperial allies succeeded in securing the Space Marines' homeworld of Argent and drove the invaders off. However, the Death Guard were content to leave, as their objective had been achieved. They had left a parting gift - a permanent plague cluster that had taken root in the Encarmine Angels' devastated fortress-monastery, infecting a good amount of their gene-seed and hampering their process to create new Space Marines. Nurgle smiled upon them indulgently, lavishing his rewards of rot and decay upon his champions for their feats.

And thus Argent was held by the Imperium, though at great cost. The once valiant Encarmine Angels have been reduced to a shadow of their former self, with only their first and tenth companies functional. Everyone, including their ancient Dreadnoughts, had been killed. Looking upon the plague-ridden scene of what used to be the proud fortress-monastery of the Encarmine Angels, Varile Nosferatus felt despair. However, he vowed that his Chapter's sacrifice would not be in vain. In spite of the devastation sown by the triumphant Death Guard, the Encarmine Angels will rebuild and emerge stronger than ever.

That's pretty much it for the campaign. Thanks to a last-ditch fight by the Imperium, they barely managed to keep ahold of Argent and prevent it from being turned into a plague planet by the Death Guard. And so the campaign concludes, with quite an exciting finish. At least it didn't turn into a one-sided victory for the Death Guard! I'm glad the Imperium managed to fight back in the end.

Warzone Points:

Imperium: 12

Chaos: 10 (this was a 2v1 game where 2 Death Guard players fielded 75 power level each against the Blood Angels player's 150 power level list, so I calculated it as if 2 players won a Strike Force game, hence 1+4+1+4)

Xenos: 2

As a result, the Imperium won the third phase of the campaign. That was enough to lift them from an abyss of defeat and save Argent somewhat.

Total Strategic Value:

Imperium: 3

Chaos: 3

Consequently, the campaign ended in a draw. So everybody wins! Even the xenos, who got a good scrap. Yeah, the Orks didn't get any Strategic Value, but they got a good krumpin', which was what they were looking for, so objective achieved. I hope everyone enjoyed the campaign! I probably should have done a lot of things better, but we all live and learn. I certainly had a lot of fun. I don't know if the narrative I wrote out sounded convincing or fun to read, but hey, at least I tried!

Happy gaming, everyone!

Oh, before I forget, I guess I'll be joining a new Crusade League next week. It'll be run by someone else, so hopefully it'll be much better!

Thousand Sons Painted!

 I've painted the Infernal Master and 5 Scarab Occult Terminators! As an aside, I also painted three alternative Ironstrider Skitarii pilots so that I can switch between Sydonian Dragoons and Ironstrider Ballistarii. I thought it would be fun. Magnetization is the way to go, after all.

Anyway, now I'll be able to field my Thousand Sons tomorrow! We'll see how they do. I doubt I'll be able to do well in the RTT tomorrow, especially because it's a long while since I played Thousand Sons and I'm not familiar with the new rules and psychic powers. I'll just experiment with them tomorrow.

Counteroffensive on Gammuller

For phase 2 of the Argent Campaign, the Death Guard and Orks have invaded the bastion world of Gammuller. A vital planet in the supply chain between Argent and the rest of the Imperium, Gammuller is heavily fortified with Imperial Guard regiments and defensive bases. As the threat of the Death Guard draws ever closer, the Imperium launches a counterattack to take back Gammuller in order to stymie the Heretics' offensive.

First, Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, weathered an assault from the Imperial Guard regiments of Gammuller, commanded by the Lord Commissar known as the Dread Lord, Shaidar Haran. Despite a valiant attempt by the mortal Guardsmen, the Death Guard was able to hold their ground and rout them, forcing the mechanized forces into a disordered retreat.

Meanwhile, the Adepta Sororitas preceptory, under the command of the Saint Morrigan, tried to take a vital munitorum back from the Orks, but the cunning warboss, Cyba-boss, annihilated the zealous Sisters, their mechanical contraptions and scrap walkers pulverizing faithful flesh and drowning the redoubts in the blood of humans. During the fierce battle, one Grot rose to prominence. Having survived and even slaughtered Poxwalkers in combat, he went on to slay a Celestian in melee, earning a place in the legends of his Klan for all time. Gork and Mork must be smiling on this particular runt, who would eventually be the boss of his own herd of Super-Grots. Or Cyba-Grots.

The Encarmine Angels, led by their Chapter Master, Varile Nosferatus, gambled on an all-out assault on the Death Guard. However, the canny commander, Alastor Karkinus, outwitted the Blood Angels Successor Chapter. Luring them into a trap, he then ambushed them with shambling legions of Poxwalkers, derailing the Adeptus Astartes tanks and literally overwhelming them in numbers. Despite a courageous counterattack by the Death Company, who wiped out the Possessed, Chaos Spawn and a good number of Poxwalkers in retaliation, the disgustingly resilient Plague Marines and Blightlord Terminators eventually overran the Space Marines' position, engulfing them in filth and disease that overcame even the Space Marines' genhanced immune systems.

The only bright spark for the Imperium was when the Knights of House Yato stampeded over the World Eaters' position, slaughtering the Heretic Astartes and their subordinate beserk hordes of Khorne Daemons, including the slaying of Skarbrand. The World Eaters had attempted to summon him into real space, but the noble Imperial Knights put a stop to that, banishing the exalted Bloodthirster back to the Warp to face the wrath of Khorne again.

The final score is as follows:

Chaos, 11 Warzone Points

Imperium, 8 Warzone Points

Xenos, 5 Warzone Points.

This gives Chaos 3 Strategic Value total, and unless the Imperium somehow wins Phase 3, Chaos will have won this campaign. All is not lost, however, as the forces of the Imperium are mustering for a final stand on Argent itself. Will the Encarmine Angels be able to defend their homeworld, or will the Death Guard succeed in corrupting a once pristine Space Marines planet and transforming it into a plague planet fit for the Gardens of Nurgle?

Ironhammer Season 4 Game 1

I had a game with James today - you remember him, especially if you're following Goonhammer. Same guy who crushed me during the Bug Hunt RTT a couple of weeks ago. I played against his Drukhari list again, and ever since I was matched up against him when I saw the pairings in Ironhammer Season 4, I already anticipated a loss.

Well, doesn't matter to me. Playing against a top player like James will teach me a lot, and I'm more grateful to learn from losing a game than...I dunno, having one-sided games like in the last RTT I was in.

Anyway, I should explain what Ironhammer is. Ironhammer is basically a season where you play 6 (or 7 in season 4 because we have 48 players) over 12-14 weeks. So it's like a league. Basically you're given 2 weeks to play a match with your designated opponent, and then you move on to the next game after that. I think that's the gist of it, so rather than a single one-time RTT, it's an entire season. The benefit is that you get to change your list here and there, just like I plan to do. It's meant to help us learn over the course of a season and become better players, so it's not just about winning. It's experimenting with your army to see what works and what doesn't, and then improve from there.

The mission today was Battle Lines, and I brought a vehicle-heavy army because...you know, I love vehicles. My list was as follows:

Imperial Knights super-heavy detachment (Mechanicus, Glorified History, Blessed Arms)

Knight Castellan, Cold Eradication, Cawl's Wrath

Knight Crusader, thermal cannon, meltagun and Ironstorm missile pod, Ion Bulwark

2 Armigers Warglaives with meltaguns

Adeptus Mechanicus Spearhead detachment (Data-hoard Forge World, Autosavant Spirits)

Tech-priest Enginseer

Cybernetica Datasmith

2 Kastelan robots with incendine combusters and fists

2 Skorpius Disintegrators with ferrumite cannons

You notice that I decided to switch to Data-hoard Forge World with Autosavant Spirits. Yeah, I'm a treadhead who loves vehicles (you've seen my Imperial Guard army), so I decided to try them out. I thought my vehicles - particularly the Kastelan robots and the Skorpius Disintegrators - would benefit greatly from them. Or so I hope, but things rarely work out the way I want them too.

Anyway, James brought the same Drukhari army as that other time. His list is already perfect, so I doubt he needed to change anything. He had Drazhar, 2 Succubi, 5 Wyches, an Archon, a Haemonculi, 2 sqads of 3 Kronos, 3 squads of 5 Wracks, 1 squad of 10 Trueborn, 2 squads of 5 Incubi (I think?) and Kabalite Warriors, 4 Raiders...and yeah, he also had the Court of the Archon with the Ur-ghouls and 5 Mandrakes.

The first turn started well for me, the Raiders failed to kill anything, and the Kronos didn't do much either. Apparently I had the advantage during the first turn, and I essentially wiped out the Kronos, weakened 1 Raider, and then I proceeded to kill the second squad of Kronos, destroyed like 2 Raiders and wounded the Haemonculi. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capitalize on my advantage because I made a series of blunders, allowing the Succubus to heroically intervene into my Datasmith and kill him before grabbing the objective, and the Trueborn or Kabalite Warriors stole the objective from my Knight Crusader. Oh, well. I tried.

After a good 2 turns, everything went downhill from that. James was able to deny me all the objectives, his Wracks and Incubi jumping from the surviving Raiders to grab my only objective. The Succubus destroyed my Skorpius Disintegrator, which blew up and killed the other one, but the mortal wounds weren't enough to take out all of the enemies surrounding them. My Knight Crusader went down to Drazhar and the Trueborn, but he ended up nuking them all, killing Drazhar, the Wyches, a couple of Trueborn, and even the Archon. I continued shooting stuff off the board, my Kastelan robots killing a Succubus and then the Mandrakes, while my Knight Castellan continued to shoot the Raiders off the board, as well as a few Incubi and stuff. He failed to kill the Succubus and eventually died to mortal wounds, blowing up everything except her because she was too far away. Oh, well. I tried. The Succubus then blitzed into my Kastelan robots and killed them. I ended up being tabled. Ouch.

Well, at least I did better this game than the other one. Because I failed to get any objectives, I only managed to get 27 points to James's 85. But it's okay, I learned a lot from this game. I look forward to putting the lessons into play next game.

Perhaps James was right. I relied too much on my vehicles, and the Skorpius Disintegrators didn't do much, to be honest. I should swap them out for infantry to hold objectives. I'm not sure if it would have worked, though, but we'll see. Let's see what happens in the next game! There are still 6 more to play!

Painted stuff

I spent the whole night painting my Stormblade, Leman Russ Executioner tank, Sydonian Dragoons and a couple of Skitarii Rangers.

The tanks were easy to paint - they were already mostly painted. I simply needed to add Castellan Green. I went and bought Castellan Green on Saturday, and now I added patches in to give my tanks more life. They don't look so plain anymore.

Kind of glad with how they turned out. Now I can run an armored spearhead. Yay. 4 Leman Russ Executioner tanks (one of them will be a Tank Commander), a Stormblade andd 3 Armored Sentinels, all armed with plasma cannons. A plasma armored regiment for my Imperial Guard. Now I'll have to collect the Krieg Guardsmen and convert them into Draconians. Hopefully I can get enough plasma guns for them, or else it would be...yeah.

Speaking of plasma, I also painted my 2 Skitarii Rangers with plasma calivers. I can't say I'm impressed with the transuranic arquebuses, so I decided to replace them with plasma calivers instead. Fits the fluff of my forge world, Draconis IV more, since we produce lots of plasma weapons. I mean, just look at the tanks we manufacture for the Draconian Defenders Imperial Guard regiments. They get literally nothing but plasma. If I could, I would field every single Guardsmen with a plasma gun, but I guess the rules don't allow for that.

I also painted my Sydonian Dragoons. Can't wait to run them. I wonder how they will fare in a game maybe later today. I'll keep you guys posted. I also grabbed a couple of power swords and swapped the taser goads out for the power swords. I prefer the power swords with the +1 Strength and AP -3 as opposed to simply getting +2 Strength and AP -1. With the Vanguard's Rad-saturation rule decreasing the opponent's Toughness and Ryza giving them a +1 to wound rolls in melee, I figured a power sword would work better for them. So...yeah. I'll be wounding Space Marines on 2+ when I charge them, so might as well get the AP -3 one instead.

Anyway, we'll see how the Sydonian Dragoons fare today!

Infernal Master and Scarab Occult Terminators

I split the Hexfire box with a friend, and so I now have an Infernal Master and more Scarab Occult Terminators. I intend to sell the Tzaangors (already have someone interested in buying them off me) because I don't really like Tzaangors and don't plan to use them. I'm more old-school, so I'll run mostly Thousand Sons Sorcerers, Rubricae (including Scarab Occult Terminators) and Daemon Engines. My list in particular has a lot of Daemon Engines...well, if you've been following my blog, you already know that I have 3 Forgefiends and 2 Heldrakes. Can't wait to field them!

Funnily enough, I had a former Chaplain in the Sapphire Drakes join Ignatius's thrallband, so I'll make him the Infernal Master. Apparently Infernal Masters are like Chaplains (though they are more of Daemon summoners, really). Ignatius remains the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and the Magister of the band, though I'll have Makhat, the former Chief Librarian of the Sapphire Drakes, be one of the Scarab Occult Sorcerers and Chronos the Infernal Master. Acastus, a former Sergeant, is the Aspiring Sorcerer of one of the Rubric Marine squads. The Exalted Sorcerer is Epistolary Egnis. So yay. I can basically run a crusade army with them. In fact, I plan to do just that...

If possible, I wish to promote Ignatius to a Battle Psyker. For Matched Play games, he'll just be that, but he'll need to be blooded and get some experience before I can make him a Battle Psyker. Oh, well. That works for me.

Oh, right. The Hexfire box. I checked out the Crusade story there and it was kind of underwhelming. So basically what happened was that the Infernal Master, Xentep Korazon, desired Castellan Garran Crowe's Black Blade of Antwyr because he wants the daemon sealed inside the blade. Meanwhile, as a result of Magnus's failed ritual when the Dark Angels and Grey Knights launched an orbital strike, Sortiarius is in flux. Many of the Thousand Sons Legion's Sorcerers died when the ritual failed, while Magnus returned to his Tower of Cyclops to brood and plot vengeance against the Imperium (doubt he'll actually do anything about it, though). So the Thousand Sons Sorcerers who weren't involved in the Ritual returned to Sortiarius in order to return to Magnus's favor and rise to power once more, or regain their ranks and influence, or fulfil their ambitions. Usual Chaos schemes and stuff.

So Xentep Korazon, whose thrallband was exiled to Hexenfast in the Senvorth System, convinced his magister - an Exalted Sorcerer - to return to Sortiarius and help Magnus capture the Grey Knights and Dark Angels still on the planet, left behind by Kaldo Draigo and the rest when they desperately escaped. And then in a completely stupid and unnecessary move, he backstabbed his magister and killed him. For no freaking reason at all. Like...dude? Was that necessary? What even was the point of the betrayal? Anyway, he then teamed up with a Tzaangor Shaman named Razyrak the Pilgrim, who had his own herd of Tzaangors, and they captured a bunch of Grey Knights, brought them back to an abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus facility orbiting the gas giant Hexenfast, and lured Crowe and his band of Purifiers into a trap.

So Crowe led his Purifiers to fight against Scarab Occult Terminators and hordes of Tzaangors in a desperate attempt to free his captured brothers of the Third Brotherhood and a Knight of Flame from the Purifiers. You have two Crusade missions for that, and...yeah. Depending on how those missions play out, you have two outcomes.

If it's a Grey Knights victory, Crowe slays Korazon with the Black Blade of Antwyr, a Dreadknight obliterates poor Razyrak with his heavy psycannon and they wipe out both the Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, and succeeded in saving their brothers. Yay.

If it's a Thousand Sons victory, Crowe's Purifiers get wiped out by Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, the Dreadknight is destroyed by Razyrak's arcane machinations, and Korazon attempts to seize the Black Blade of Antwyr, only for the daemon within to laugh at him and claims that he will serve no mortal...and that Korazon will be the first of his loyal thralls. In an act of desperation, Korazon summons daemons, tears a rift open to the warp, which sucks both Crowe and Korazon in, and they kind of vanished, leaving an open ending. Of course Crowe will survive, he's a named character. But his Purifiers and Dreadknight got annihilated, while he's currently trapped in the warp. Well...I guess it sucks.

Either way, not very consequential to the Warhammer 40,000 lore. Not sure what to say, but I can't say I'm very impressed with it. At least we know the aftermath of the failed ritual. Thousand Sons are hunting the remnants of the Dark Angels and Grey Knights abandoned upon Sortiarius. Perhaps it's time for Ignatius to make a return to the Planet of Sorcerers and see what his genesire wants. If you recall, Ignatius travels around on the battle barge, Honor of Tizca, which makes him different from the Exalted Sorcerers and Magisters traveling around on Silver Towers. And his thrallband, the Sapphire Drakes, is mostly composed of former Adeptus Astartes who were loyal to the Emperor but turned renegades because the Inquisition, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence persecuted them.

Heh...that means it'll be very interesting for the Sapphire Drakes to return to Sortiarius, for this is an opportunity for revenge...well, they are more focused on revenge against the Ordo Hereticus, the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence, not the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus, but we shall see. It'll be fun.