Thousand Sons unleash Devastating Sorcery on Commorragh

"Are you sure about this, Ignatius?" Chronos raised an eyebrow as I guided my battle barge, Honor of Tizca, through the webway. "This leads to Commorragh...the city of the Drukhari. They'll be everywhere."

"Trust me, bro," I said, trying to put on a reassuring expression as best as I could. "This particular Archon just took a beating from the Adeptus Mechanicus. Uh, 428-Sigma Hunter Cohort, was it? The Skitarii Marshal, Sigma 44-Kariya, is an old friend of mine. I trust that he pretty much crushed the poor Dark Eldar. They're at their most vulnerable now."

"Your old friend?" Egnis snorted. "I'm pretty sure the servants of the corpse god don't consider us friends."

I said nothing. Inwardly, I maintained that I was still loyal to the Emperor even after ten millennia of being cast out of the Imperium, but whatever my personal feelings, it was true that the Imperials didn't feel the same.

"Nonetheless," I finally spoke up. "The Drukhari possess a relic that we'll need for our research. You know Ahzek is searching for a way to reverse the Rubric...and these bozos happen to be our only clue toward the Ynnari. Remember when Yvraine resurrected several of our brothers? Hopefully, this Ynnari relic in this remote region of Commorragh might have hints toward there."

"You, along with Ahzek, are one of the few in our Legion who still seeks to reverse the Rubric," Hathor Mathias muttered quietly. Clad in his ancient Tartaros Terminator armor, he towered over most of my warband, with me being an exception because I was still wearing the old Cataphractii plate from the Great Crusade. However, instead of the resplendent ruby it used to be, it was now a deep sapphire.

"We will do what we must." I conjured a half-arcane holo-pict, which solidified into a tiny Sky Splinter fleet. "Thanks to our still loyal friends in the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Drukhari raiding party has been vastly reduced in strength. They're seeking to assault this tower to claim the relic, but we'll beat them to it."

Leaning over, I magnified the sleek, spiky shapes. Two Raiders, two Venoms, a soaring squad of Scourges armed with dark lances and a Cronos. Embarked within one Raider was the bitter Archon, still fuming over the defeat by 428-Sigma Skitarii Hunter Cohort, and his Incubi retinue. The other transports ferried three squads of Kabalite Warriors, the unit on the second Raider sporting exotic weapons such as blasters and dark lances.

Unseen, lurking in the shadows, were the Mandrakes, looking to seize the opporunity to strike. It was only thanks to my sorcery and warp sight that I was able to spot them.

"They'll die easily," Chronos vowed.

"That they will," I agreed. "You guys lead Acastus and Tukhan's squads of Rubric Marines. I'll teleport directly into the tower itself with Hathor and his platoon."

"As you will it, brother." Egnis clasped a hand to his gleaming breastplate and inclined his head. He placed his plated helm back, the neck-seals hissing, and turned to search for Acastus. Chronos did the same, heading toward Tukhan.

We barely managed to get into positions, but the aggressive Drukhari were upon the two Rubric squads before we could counterattack, the Raider surging toward Egnis and Acastus. Before they could do anything, the Archon and his Incubi leaped out and slaughtered them, cutting down the Rubric Marines with their glaives and deadly weapons. To make matters worse, the Scourges continued to bombard their position from afar with their dark lances, scything down whatever Rubric Marines remained, despite their esoteric protection and shimmering kine-fields. Egnis cursed before he teleported himself and Acastus back to the Honor of Tizca, their armor breached and their physical bodies wounded.

Being of the Pyrae cult, it would take them longer to heal their wounds. Sometimes, I wished we had more Pavoni experts.

Meanwhile, Chronos and Tukhan had troubles of their own. Dark lances were pelting their position, blowing their cover to bits and vaporizing three Rubric Marines before they could even fire a single shot. But a twist of fate allowed one of them to, uh, be destined to survive somehow.

+Those Drukhari are really nasty,+ Chronos complained with his mind. +Ignatius! When will you show up?!+

+Soon. The Drukhari are well prepared. We can't just teleport into their midst. Give me a few minutes.+

+We don't have a few minutes!+ Chronos whined, but his arcane vortex roared and engulfed the Incubi. Along with Tukhan and his surviving Rurbic Marines, they showered the Incubi with inferno bolt shells and soulreaper shells, dealing devastating wounds and cutting down almost the entire squad. The Archon hissed as he leaped away, but Chronos would not let him get away. The Infernal Master and his Rubric retinue pursued, their force staves clobbering the last of the Incubi and even managing to somehow injure the fleeing Archon.

"Filthy mon'keigh!" The Drukhari leader snarled, only to duck under Chronos's staff. He whistled before cartwheeling through the air and somehow embarking upon the Raider that had brought him here.

The Venoms were hurtling forward, along with the Raiders, while the Chronos stood sentinel at the base of the tower. The Scourges, the Raider with the Archon, and a Venom pummeled Chronos's squad with splinter cannons and dark lances, and at the end of it all, only Chronos was left standing. On the other hand, the Mandrakes finally slipped out of the shadows, and the Infernal Master sprang his trap, engulfing them in an arcane vortex that all but eviscerated them. Fortunately, before he went down, the final Rubric Marine with the soulreaper cannon also managed to gun down the remnants of the Mandrakes, annihilating them. Chronos tried to direct the Rubric Marine, only for him to burst apart under a shower of splinters. The Infernal Master staggered when the Raider charged into him, its prow careening into his chest, but somehow remained stnading. Smacking the spiky ship with his force stave, he reached out with his thoughts.

+Uh, some help here?+

"Coming."

I finally teleported next to the heart of the tower, along with an entire retinue of Scarab Occult Terminators. Leaving half of them to Hathor Mathias, we split fire, weaving spells of utmost potency and unleashing devastating sorcery upon the Drukhari. Ensorcelled Infused inferno bolts thundered into the Chronos, which was bathed by my coruscating flames, and it succumbed to our vicious bombardment. Missiles from hellfyre racks smashed the Raider with the Archon into bits, and the Drukhari commander spilled out in an indignant heap. Chronos smirked as he summoned his Screamers through an invocation and butchered the Archon before he realized what had just happened.

The Scourges were torn apart by another volley, directed by Hathor, while the soulreaper cannons ineffectually pinged away at a jinking Venom. That was...embarrassing. However, we charged into it, cutting it apart with our kopesh swords. I didn't even need to hit it with my force staff - my Scarab Occult Terminators basically tore the transport apart coldly and methodically. The Kabalite Warriors embarked within slashed out with several parting shots, but bounded away so that their brethren could fire at us.

The remaining Raider spun around and its dark lance boomed. By a twist of fate, a Scarab Occult Terminator was able to avoid his demise, but his tactical dreadnought armor buckled from the volume of shots from several splinter cannons from the Kabalite Warriors embarked within. The second Venom flew away, hiding around a corner of the tower and rounding about so as to avoid being gunned down by the implacably advancing Terminators.

"We have you now!" I crowed and directed them mentally toward the single largest target that remained on the battlefield. At the same time, I cast Temporal Surge so that we could reach the tower more swiftly. The end goal was just within sight - I could almost taste the relic within. It was emanating power - power that nullified our kine-shields and whatever esoteric protection the Drukhari was sporting, turning off forcefields and the like, but still a treasure nonetheless.

I would not let the Drukhari get in our way. We will reverse the Rubric, no matter the cost.

The Raider blew up as missiles and inferno bolts hammered it. Unfortunately, there was no other target as we had all but eliminated the Drukhari. Realizing how screwed they were, the Kabalite Warriors from the destroyed Raider doubled time toward the Scarab Occult Terminators, their dark lances and blasters blowing apart at least three of them. Meanwhile, Kabalite Warriors dropped out from their Venom, only for Chronos to spring his trap once again. Empyric flames devoured their shrieking figures, the Dark Eldar thrashing about as they fell just inches away from their transport.

The Venom sought vengeance for its fallen passengers, spinning around and pelting Chronos with splinter rounds. He finally succumbed, unable to endure the constant barrage, and a safety spell teleported him back to the bridge of the Honor of Tizca, where he could convalesce alongside Egnis and the sergeants.

At my command, the Scrab Occult Terminators unleashed a salvo upon the last squad of Kabalite Warriors, wiping them to a man...well, not really, for there was a single survivor. The sole survivor looked around in panic, realizing that he was...screwed. Even more so when the Venom was laid low by the soulreaper cannons, its fragile hull riddled with holes by the high caliber shells.

"...uh...I surrender?"

I watched him flee, but didn't bother hunting him down. We had more important objectives. Turning around, I entered the tower and reveled at the sight of the ancient xenos artifact hovering within. Primordial glyphs decorated its night-black hull, and it reminded me...of the Necrons.

Wasn't Ahzek busily running from a Necron army at this moment? I wasn't worried about my brother, though. He was Undying, after all. Still, to think that such threads continued to link us...my lips curled in amusement.

Though I had no idea what schemes the Changer of Ways had woven, I vowed not to fall into his intricate plans. Like Ahzek, I had no intention of dancing in the Chaos God's palm. We shall see the Emperor ascendant, or...die trying.

But first, we need clues to reverse the Rubric. I didn't know what connection this seemingly Necron relic had with the Ynnari, but surely sometime in the future, the intertwined paths would all be unveiled in all their glory.

Solar Auxilia and Imperial Guard

I've added more Hermes Veletaris Light Sentinels and Leman Russ tanks to my Solar Auxilia army, but I thought I should do several size comparisons.

So here is the Solar Auxilia Leman Russ Assault tank compares to the traditional Leman Russ Executioner tank in the 41st millennium.

As you can see, the Solar Auxilia (or Mars Alpha pattern?) tank is longer - it has a longer hull than the "modern" Leman Russ tank, with the...uh, grilles at the back, but otherwise, they're the same size.

The Hermes Veletaris Light Sentinels are smaller than the Armored Sentinels of modern 40K, and they use smaller bases too. Surprisingly enough, the Armored Sentinels are the same size as the Aethon Heavy Sentinels. I thought the Aethon would be slightly bigger, but nope! They are broader and a bit thicker, I guess, but otherwise they're roughly the same height and size! They even use the same base.

Of course, they're bigger than the original Armored Sentinel before the update/refresh in 2022. Even so, it's surprising to see that the Aethon Heavy Sentinel and the Armored Sentinel are of the same size! So if you want, you can actually proxy or run your Aethon Heavy Sentinels as "counts as" - just swap out the weapons and don't add on the missiles - actually, if you do add the missiles, use the four Hunter Killer missiles to count as literal...well, Hunter Killer missiles. Volkite as plasma, melta lance as multimelta, lascannon as...well, lascannon, and heavy incinerator as heavy flamer. Plus the multilasers and autocannons are pretty much the same thing. The sky's the limit!

But yeah, aside from the Hermes Light Sentinels, I feel like you can actually run your Solar Auxilia tanks and Sentinels as modern 40K ones, as long as you equip them with the right weapons! Even if you want to run volkite demi-culverin/macro-saker, just...count it as the Punisher gatling cannon instead. Since it has lots of dakka and are roughly the same Strength. Even does Devastating Wounds to infantry! Hey!

Anyway, I hope this helps for people looking to compare scale or sizes of Solar Auxilia walkers and tanks to modern Imperial Guard!

Half painted Thousand Sons

I made some progress with painting my Thousand Sons! Now all that's left is the white, and then gold trim. Hopefully, I will be able to complete painting them next week!

Cerastus Knight Castigator

It took me several months, but I finally assembled my Cerastus Knight Castigator! He's for House Yato, so I will paint him black and gold. Can't wait to see how he will turn out, and before long, he will be marching alongside my other Knights of House Yato!

Damn, I have more Knights to ship back to Singapore now. Oh, well. Worth it.

Pariah Nexus Chapter Approved Crusade

I finally managed to procure a copy of White Dwarf #502...and I bought it for none other than the Crusade rules! Issue 502 has a small segment on how to run a Crusade with the Pariah Nexus Chapter Approved deck, in case you didn't want to buy a copy of the Pariah Nexus Crusade campaign book released earlier this year. If you instead bought the Chapter Approved deck for the new Pariah Nexus season (after Leviathan), and don't really want to play tournaments or whatever, you can try using it for Crusade!

First thing to note if you choose to play Crusade with the Pariah Nexus Chapter Approved mission pack - you don't select Agendas as usual. Instead, we play Secondary Missions - or Tactical Missions - and units that help you score victory points for those gain EP. Also, we can only do Tactical Missions and not Fixed ones.

The battle sequence is the same as everything else - if you're familiar with how Crusade games or even Matched Play games are played, nothing here is new. Like Crusade, though, we have Requisitions and Crusade Blessings, but unlike normal Crusade games, we have Secret Missions now! If you're behind in Primary Mission victory points, or have the same but are in a situation where you feel you won't be able to score any more, you can choose Secret Missions, which add flavor to your Crusade games!

This means you can't score more than 20 for Primary, and I think Secret Mission awards you a maximum of 20 victory points, so you'll give away 10 VP by default (so strategize accordingly by scoring both Secret Mission objectives and denying your opponent VP). It also throws a curveball in the narrative, which is cool!

Crusade Blessings are back, and while you have the standard High Strategy that gives you 2 CP, you also have stuff that buffs your Battleline units, giving them Stealth (not much help for me because I already play Skitarii Hunter Cohort), or allowing them to shoot/charge when they Fell Back (now we're talking). Not bad! Also, in broader terms, give up to 3 units Scout (allowing my Onager Dunecrawlers to scout with my Skitarii Rangers) or Ignores Cover when shooting at an enemy on a specific objective marker (not beneficial for my Skitarii Rangers with omnispex, but good for my Ironstrider Ballistarii and Onager Dunecrawlers without phosphor weapons).

There's also a specific set of pre-prepared missions: 12. They pair specific Deployments with Primary Missions and Mission Rules, so it's not as random as before, but still pretty cool.

Remember when I said you can gain XP from Secondary Missions? Depending on the Secondary Mission you draw, you can select a corresponding unit from your army to gain XP according to this table. Really cool!

We also have specific Crusade Relics, so yay! But you can just take the normal Battle Honors from your Faction's codex, and I prefer to do that anyway.

Last of all, we also have Victor Bonuses that vary depending on how much more points you have over your opponent! The 1 extra Requisition point looks like a pretty sweet one, not gonna lie! And if you win by 15 points or more, then you get to increase your Supply Limit by 300 points - more than the 200 points that a Requisition point grants you. Awesome!

Are you looking forward to playing Crusade with your Pariah Nexus Chapter Approved deck? If you can't get the cards, don't worry. In future, during a new season, I'll update this post with pictures featuring the Chapter Approved cards for the Missions, Deployments, etc., but that's only after the season for Pariah Nexus is over, and the Chapter Approved decks for it are no longer in production. For now, though, I'll respect IP rules and stuff. All I can say is that I'll try to make my blog as conducive for Crusade as possible! Narrative over Matched Play! Yay!

Tanks versus Gunships

Colonel Ikeda gulped when he saw the skies darken with the silhouettes of Legiones Astartes gunships. Apparently, Praetor William Roberts of the Emperor's Children had dispatched his airborne company to take the hive-world of Bertual by force. From his auspex, he counted three Fire Raptors, three Thunderhawk gunships and plenty of Storm Eagle gunships.

They clearly aimed to assault the Loyalists' Stronghold on Bertual. This wasn't good. Ikeda's armored company had pushed in to take the field, but they were clearly outgunned by the Fire Raptors and Thunderhawks, never mind the Storm Eagles. One of the Storm Eagles had already landed to disgorge a tactical company, along with Praetor Roberts' personal retinue.

More streamed toward the tanks, one Thunderhawk dropping to a hover as forty Terminators dropped out right next to Tanaka's Cerastus Knight Lancer banner, their storm bolters ineffectually detonating against the pair of Knights' ion shields. The Thunderhawk, 4 Leviathan Dreadnoughts and plasma tactical squad that dropped out of a storm eagle fared better, destroying one of the Knights with a barrage of plasma, even as the four Leman Russ Vanquisher tanks damaged one of the Storm Eagles with a lucky shot.

Meanwhile, Assault Marines bounded out of a Storm Eagle to hammer toward a lasrifle tercio that had just disembarked from a pair of Dracosans. They fired overwatch, flamers and las taking out a couple of squads before the rest of the Assault Marines were upon them, butchering the infantry with chainswords. However, the Solar Auxilia stood strong, the Ryusei Katanas grouping in close fighting formations to bring down their power armored foes as best as they could.

A second tactical squad had also dropped out, their boltguns pummeling the hab block that one of the lasrifle tercios had taken cover in, even as a third Fire Raptor erased Major Murakami's command squad from existence with its Avenger gatling cannon. The other two had pursued four Lightning Fighters, destroying them with lascannons and missiles before the mortal pilots could intercept them.

The Malcodor Valdors fired, their shock pulse neutron laser shaking a Thunderhawk, but it remained aloft, while another fired at the Baneblades, but they were out of range. Another fired at the Malcador Valdors, but they survived the salvo, thankfully. The Dracosans fired back, taking out a couple of Storm Eagles, while the third Dracosan with a demolisher cannon blasted the tactical squad at the front to bits.

The Baneblades finally moved up, and with concentrated fire, they dropped one Thunderhawk, causing it to crash. Ikeda breathed a sigh of relief, shaking his head in dismay when he saw they had only taken down two aircrafts, but lost a Knight. At least they hadn't lost all their tanks...yet.

But that would change shortly. With their passengers disembarked, the gunships took off to the skies to maintain aerial superiority, which they now surely possessed because the Lightnings were downed.

This is bad, Ikeda realized. We're screwed.

Tanaka did a last ditch effort to charge into the tactical squad at the far end, killing half of them with a sweep of his spear, but his Knight suit was obliterated in turbo-laser fire as the Thunderhawk and plasma gunners bombarded his position. Ikeda swore when he saw the Knight go down, but he was relieved to see the Leman Russ Vanquishers destroy the already damaged Storm Eagle from before.

Meanwhile, the Baneblades and Malcador Valdors destroyed all of the Leviathan Dreadnoughts with coordinated fire, while the sponson autocannons hammered the Terminators who had garrisoned a nearby hab-block. Even dreadnought tactical armor couldn't handle the thousands of shells that rained upon them, with several of them taken out and crushed under falling rubble.

The surviving Ryuusei Katana infantry piled in and charged the Assault Marines, and though more were scythed down by screaming chainswords, the weight of their numbers began to tell, and they annihilated the Assault Marines with pointblank las-fire and power katanas. Their accompanying Dracosan's demolisher cannon thundered, but missed. Fortunately, a second Dracosan killed the remnants of the tactical squad with a well-aimed lascannon shot.

However, the Storm Eagles and Fire Raptors continued to dominate the skies, and missiles shrieked from above, blowing up the Malcador Valdors and a couple of Dracosans. Ikeda felt his heart sink when he saw his dwindling number of tanks. Even worse, the Fire Raptors' heavy bolters cut down the triumphant Ryuusei Katana just after they had taken down the Assault Marines, leaving just 5 men.

"We're dying out here!" He cursed, slamming a fist against the console in the commander's seat. One of his Baneblades exploded when the turbo laser destructor of a Thunderhawk tore through it, sending shrapnel against his super-heavy tank, and he slumped against his seat.

There was nothing he could do against the Emperor's Children. They truly were scoring a flawless victory.

"We have to hold out for as long as we can," Ikeda muttered, recalling the Praetorian's orders. Rogal Dorn had ordered the Ryusei Katanas and House Yato to hold Bertual, but he no longer had the forces to hold it.

The Emperor's Children's aircraft circled and swooped down on his tanks, picking them off one by one. Ikeda's Baneblade was wreecked by a Thunderhawk's turbo-laser destructor, but the Leman Russ Vanquishers were able to snipe two Fire Raptors that had hovered over the last infantry's position, to try and snatch the objective from them. Though the infantry were taken out, so were the Fire Raptors - with the two remaining Dracosans turning around to fire at the third Fire Raptor and Storm Eagle hovering above them. Unable to jink, the gunships took las-shots and demolisher shells right in the cockpits and blew up, their wreckage smashing into the ruins of the hab-block.

Though a single Thunderhawk hovered next to them, its weapons missing entirely, the Ryusei Katanas controlled the objective.

However, before the Emperor's Children could press their advantage, the gunships suddenly took off, their surviving infantry loading up on them.

"What on Holy Terra...?" Ikeda murmured in bewilderment, crawling out of his wrecked Baneblade to watch the purple gunships take off. At least two Thunderhawks and two Storm Eagles still remained, and a whole load of Terminators, half a tactical squad and Praetor Roberts's command squad themselves. Another few minutes and they would have completely annihilated the Ryuusei Katanas.

So why had the Emperor's Children pulled out?

...then Ikeda saw why. The skies had darkened, with stars sparkling above in the heavens. Massive stars...no, constellations...no, starships.

The vessels of the Dark Angels had arrived, and they were beginning to cleanse Bertual of life with pinpoint orbital bombardments. The Emperor's Children, realizing that they couldn't match the first Legion's fleet, had withdrawn because they realized they wouldn't be able to take Bertual in time before the Dark Angels obliterated the whole planet.

"Hey, the Lords of the First Legion do realize we're still on the planet, right?" Ikeda protested before the city he had defended with his sub-cohort's life disintegrated under lance strikes and cyclonic warheads.