Shadow and Iron

Warhammer Community has released more stuff regarding Shadow and Iron!



They include a ton of fluff and background information regarding the crusades, which took place in the Five Hundred Worlds of Ultramar, when the Word Bearers and the World Eaters descended upon Roboute Guilliman's realm to divert them away from Horus's path toward Terra.



And guess what?! We'll be getting the Psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister too! I'm definitely adding this guy to my collection! They say Forge World will be releasing him, so he's probably resin? I'm guessing it's a Warlord Titan with a new head and new weapons, and something on top of his carapace. But who knows?



I can't wait to order them! Well, they'll only be released next Saturday (this Saturday is just pre-release), so I'll wait patiently. :)

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor

I built an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator armor, and gave him both a Nemesis Daemon Hammer and a psycannon. I kitbashed him out of Grey Knight Terminator parts, Deathwatch parts and...well, just these two.

This is like an old throwback to the old Daemonhunters codex in third edition. Instead of Grey Knights, I have Inquisitorial Stormtroopers accompanying my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor. I always preferred Inquisitorial Stormtroopers to anything else, even Grey Knight, so I went with them instead of a Grey Knights army. Of course, I used Kasrkin models because I love the Kasrkin models a lot more than the current Militarum Tempestus line. They just look cooler to me. As you can see, there are three normal Kasrkin squads, and one command squad with nothing but plasma guns. My Ordo Malleus Inquisitor recruits exclusively from Draconis III, drawing upon an entire regiment of Kamikaze Troopers to bolster his forces as they hunt Daemons.



My Kamikaze Troopers, even when not serving in their Inquisitorial Stormtroopers capacity, are equipped with Vendetta gunships. I know they have terrible rules now, but I couldn't care less. I like lascannons so I'll stick to lascannons. Anyway, the Vendetta gunships offer heavy anti-tank firepower, which usually doubles as anti Daemon firepower. After all, even a Greater Daemon would be blasted apart by six lascannons firing in concert. The energy weaponry of the Vendetta gunships also ensure that my Kamikaze Troopers are capable of operating in long missions where they expect to be stranded in the field without receiving any ammunition or supplies. The energy batteries of the Vendetta gunship's lascannons can be easily recharged without requiring ammunition, and thus it is the ideal gunship for operating out in the field for long missions - months at a time, or even years. More so than the Valkyrie assault carriers favored by most Militarum Tempestus regiments. Also, the consecrated lascannons deal more damage to the Greater Daemons that my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor hunts than the limited Hellstrike missiles or rockets from multiple rocket pods.



They are led by a Stormtrooper Colonel (generally known as Tempestor Prime if you follow Militarum Tempestus rankings, but obviously I have no intention of doing so). The Ordo Malleus Inquisitor gives him orders, which he then passes down to his troops, but generally the Colonel is allowed a lot of autonomy and freedom to take his own initiative and issue his own commands based on what the circumstances need. He is extremely loyal to the Inquisitor, and will never question the guy, seeing the Inquisitor as the manifestation of the Emperor's authority made flesh.

The Ordo Malleus Inquisitor currently has a single Primaris Psyker in his retinue, a sanctioned battle psyker who he has nurtured and raised alongside him to help fight against the Ruinous Powers. While he is quite clearly a Primaris Psyker, I'm making him an Interrogator. Eventually the psyker will rise to the rank of Inquisitor, but for now he serves as my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor's Interrogator. Perhaps he will have his own Terminator armor when he leaves his master to become an Inquisitor in his own right.



Often, when the Kamikaze Troopers/Inquisitorial Stormtroopers aren't enough to take objectives or require much heavier firepower and more manpower to bring down a Daemonic Incursion, the Inquisition will employ outside help. The Draconian Armored Defenders and their massive tank companies come into play here. As Draconis III is known for its vast arsenal of plasma weaponry, all the Leman Russ tanks in the Draconian armored regiments are almost exclusively Leman Russ Executioner tanks, complete with plasma cannon sponsons. I sold my Shadowsword, mostly because I plan to stick to the plasma theme and get a Stormblade eventually. I would rather stick to my thematic pattern of plasma and field three Leman Russ Executioner tanks along with a Stormblade in a Supreme Command Detachment. That would be much cooler! We also have the much rarer Carnodon tanks, armed with volkite weaponry, but I don't know how to fit that in my list. I'll find a way.

Anyway, this is what happened to my Draconian Imperial Guard regiment! They have undergone quite a lot of changes for their fluff and lore, and while the vast majority of Kamikaze Troopers and Draconian Armored Defenders continue to fight and serve alongside the Knightly nobles of Draconis III, their tanks and gunships strafing enemies alongside the massive super-heavy walkers of House Yato, House Uesugi and House Takeda, a small fraction of their forces is often requistioned by my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor to deal with Daemonic Incursions.

I intend to have him clash against my Thousand Sons eventually. My High Magister in Terminator armor, Ignatius (you saw him in my joke Thousand Sons story) is part of the Cult of Magic, and he intends to summon a bunch of Daemons while helping Ahzek Ahriman on his quest for redemption or to undo the Rubric, and obviously my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor isn't going to allow him to do so. There will be a reckoning, a cat-and-mouse chase...but just who is the predator and who is the prey?

Before that, I should sort of resolve the problem of the forge world...Draconis IV is making plans to invade a Daemon forge world to steal several Knight STCs, and my Ordo Malleus Inquisitor has caught wind of that. He is joining the Mechanicus fleet, though his agenda remains a mystery. Will he be helping the Draconian priesthood in securing the STCs and destroying a good chunk of the Daemon forge world's production lines, or is he seeking something even more sinister and nefarious, an ancient entity that has been lurking for millennia deep within the core of the Daemon forge world, without even the Dark Mechanicum noticing its existence?

Well...we'll find out.

Joke Thousand Sons Ritual of the Damned Story

Since there are a lot of Thousand Sons fans and players pretty fed up with how Ritual of the Damned ended, and how so many things did not make sense, I decided to write a joke story about it. Well, think of it more as a fanfiction. I guess.

Anyway, here goes!



Ignatius plodded across the ruins of Tizca, each of his steps not merely weighed down by his heavy Terminator armor plating, but also the scene of devastation that he was currently bearing witness too. After all those millennia of planning and rebuilding in the Planet of Sorcerers, to see the once great city leveled by orbital bombardment...it was disheartening. He closed his eyes briefly, the echo of memories from the time of the Great Heresy...when the Wolves came. Back then, he had also fought in these streets against the hateful Space Wolves, who came as executioners to destroy Prospero.

Prospero...at least the Grey Knights and their Dark Angels allies had not touched their first homeworld. Prospero remained unblemished, already in the advanced stages of the Crimson King's rebuilding process. The Thousand Sons's fleet had been located in orbit above Prospero, and for some reason held their position instead of flying out to intercept the two Adeptus Astartes Strike Cruisers that hung over Sortiarius.

"Father," he greeted the one-eyed monarch who sat over the destruction of the ritual site. Magnus was currently in his gigantic, red-fleshed form, his wings drooped over the razed rockcrete that formerly stretched across the Tizcan temple. The burned remains of mortals, mutants and Sorcerers were gradually disappearing, almost as if the Daemon Planet was devouring them. The Daemon Primarch set his solitary eye on him. "The capture of the Loyalists proceeds well."

"I know," Magnus replied flatly. Ignatius was surprised to hear that there was no anger, no resentment and no bitterness in his lord's melodic voice. The lone eye that was fixed upon the Sekhmet Sorcerer appeared to be gazing into nowhere and everywhere at the same time. "Bring them to my palace."

"It will be done, Father."

"Well done, my son." Magnus favored Ignatius with a fatherly smile. Despite the seemingly warm expression, the High Magister couldn't suppress a chill. As one of the Rehati, he had always been one of Magnus's favored sons, though less so than even that Exile Ahriman. However, with such treatment came great responsibility, and those of the Rehati who failed their Primarch were handed punishments much worse than any of the ordinary Sorcerers could ever imagined. Casting a glance at the smoking bodies and the ruins of the temple, Ignatius tapped into the Warp and drew its power. Visions flooded his mind's eye, unbound. Before this, Magnus had requested that Ignatius, along with the rest of the Rehati, to each offer a cadre of Sorcerers. Those Sorcerers were now gone, blasted into oblivion by the Grey Knights' orbital lance strike.

That the Ritual failed this time...Ignatius could not help but shudder at the implications.

"We did not fail," Magnus said. Ignatius almost jumped, and then realized that his father did not have to read his mind to tell what he was thinking. The Daemon Primarch offered a malevolent smile. "If anything, we succeeded."

"My lord?" Ignatius ventured, uncertain. "Our enemies have halted the Ritual. It will take a long time to gather the sacrifices and Sorcerers needed to perform it a second time...to undergo all those processes from..."

"Don't forget who we are, my son. We are the Thousand Sons. The masters of time...we have all the time in the universe."

Magnus rose to his feet, his angelic wings spreading outward. Blue and red feathers seemed to flutter downward, the empyrean substances combusting into daemonic flames before they could touch the ground. The Primarch turned to cast his eye in the direction where silent ranks of Scarab Occult Terminators were forcibly herding abandoned Grey Knights and Dark Angels toward one of the greatest pyramids of Tizca. Ignatius was also capable of projecting his astral senses toward the distance, for his own cabal of Scarab Occult Terminators were carrying out his instructions and shepherding a battered squad of Grey Knight Terminators forward, into the pyramid.

Once, the great pyramid had been a thing of beauty, constructed of glass and conforming to patterns of superlative logic and esoteric forms. Now, it was a warped structure, its angles contorted to formulae that screamed against rationality, and its mysticism was seeped in daemonic malevolence. The accursed Loyalists who were being brought there were aware of how...wrong the structure was. Even from here, Ignatius could sense their trepidation, their apprehension and...wariness. Not fear. Never fear. From the beginning when the Emperor first conceived of the Adeptus Astartes in His personal laboratories, He had decreed that they shall know no fear. But...uncertainty. Hesitation. Anxiety. These emotions were not...could not be removed, and Ignatius savored those sensations.

They would pay for disrupting the Ritual. No doubt Magnus had the appropriate punishments for them in mind. He would inflict upon them the most cruelest and twisted tortures that would surpass even the greatest imaginations...



"No."

The Crimson King turned to look at Ignatius, that godly and chilling smile still splayed across his red face.

"I have other plans for them."

"Father?" Ignatius blinked, and even though his face was clad behind Terminator helmet, he was sure that Magnus could clearly see his confusion.

"Why did you think I allowed the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to descend upon our world?" Magnus asked, catching him off guard. "It would be but an easy matter for me to call in our fleet and obliterate their two Strike Cruisers from existence, but I ordered Ra to remain in orbit above Prospero."

Ignatius nodded. High Magister Ra was the de facto admiral of the Thousand Sons fleet, assigned the honor by the Crimson King himself to take charge of the XV Legion's naval assets. He listened to no one but Magnus, and if he had been told to hold position above Prospero instead of intercepting the two strike cruisers, then...

"I allowed them to run amok in our world...to give them the impression that they succeeded in disrupting my Ritual. I put on a great show - I gathered thousands...no, tens of thousands of mortals in this temple, I created an audience of unprecedented magnitude...because I needed to convince them that they succeeded in halting my Ritual."

"And they did, did they not?" Ignatius asked, bewildered. "They destroyed the site, killed so many of our brethren and massacred our followers."

"Ignatius, Ignatius." Magnus shook his head, his grizzly mane swaying gently from the movement. "Even now you still have not realized? How can a Prince of the Great Schemer be out-schemed himself? I could have halted their orbital bombardment with a single finger. I could have reached out and smash their two strike cruisers together with just a single hand gesture. Did it not occur to you that I allowed them to get away?"

He reached out and pointed a finger at one of the Dark Angels being paraded by Rubric automatons. The Space Marine went rigid, his body combusting from the inside out. His green power armor slumped down as its wearer literally disintegrated within it. While the other Dark Angels flinched, they were held at bay by the emotionless automatons of the Thousand Sons, the Rubric Marines pointing their inferno boltguns at the disarmed Astartes to stay whatever act of defiance they planned to play. Aspiring Sorcerers and Scarab Occult Sorcerers used arcane magicks to immobilize them, and telekinetically shoved them forward when necessary.

The surviving Dark Angels glared in the direction of Magnus, but they knew they would not be able to enact their dark vengeance upon their chief tormentor. The Crimson King merely chuckled under the weight of their glares, more amused than intimidated. As if to prove his point, he extinguished the life of a second Astarte, causing his fellow Space Marines to roar in impotent rage.

"See? How easy it is for me to crush these...insects. But I allowed them to flee back to their hive, to spread the news of their victory."

"Why would you do that?" Ignatius asked, astonished.

"So that they won't be able to stop the real Ritual," Magnus replied, his Machiavellian smile still causing the High Magister's spine to constrict. "Now that we have our real sacrifices, we can truly begin."

"Real sacrifices...?" Ignatius turned to look at the rows of Dark Angels and Grey Knights.

Then he understood.

"Sacrificing ninety-nine Loyalist dogs will bring about a more potent outcome than offering nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine mortals, don't you think?" The Crimson King's grin grew wider. "More so if a good portion of them is made out of the Imperium's most powerful Sanctioned Psykers. Psykers who have been trained to control their power more exquisitely and skillfully than the rabble of recently awakened mortals seeking refuge with us. Besides, I would much rather reward my followers for their loyalty and faith than sacrifice them."

"That's why you called the Grey Knights here...you sent them those visions and deliberately leaked part of your plan to them..."

"You're finally seeing the bigger picture, my son." Magnus placed a taloned hand upon the High Magister's thick Terminator shoulder pad. "I have always originally intended to lure the Grey Knights here, and to my delight they brought the Dark Angels as well. The more sacrifices we have, the better."

The Crimson King rose to his full height, his great wings unfurling to send feathers of empyrean fire fluttering once more.

"Now that all of my pieces have fallen perfectly into place...there will be no one in the Imperium capable of halting the Psychic Awakening of Mankind."

Insert "Just as planned" meme here.

Shadow and Iron!

Hell, yeah! Warhammer Community has just posted some new news for Adeptus Titanicus!



First and foremost, we have a new boxset with the core rules!



A bit late for me, but hey, I think it's cool. I hope more people get into playing Adeptus Titanicus after this release! As for me, I'm more interested in this next thing:



The Nemesis Warbringer Titan! I'll probably just collect the model even if I don't plan on fielding him. Because I love collecting Titans.



Also, we're getting more terrain, though whether it's resin or plastic, I have no clue



This is the one book I can't wait to get! I'm definitely getting this! I think I'll like it better than Ritual of the Damned, that's for sure. What interests me is that we're getting rules for the Psi-Titans of the Ordo Sinister! Oh man, that's freaking awesome! I can't wait to see them!

I hope we'll get more details soon!

Ritual of the Damned Story

So I purchased my copy of Ritual of the Damned today, and I must admit...the story was pretty bad. Even I was disappointed, and you probably know how laidback or easy to please I am. Usually, anyway. But the story was so bad that even I couldn't bring myself to like it. There were so many problems, plot holes and weird stuff that I found myself shaking my head at what I perceived to be sloppy writing. No, seriously? What the hell?

Before we begin, we have this cool speech from Magnus the Red regarding "now is our time." and all that stuff. Admittedly, I love this quote and his grand speech. Makes him look badass. Pay special attention to this: "But we know time. We know the warp. We know its currents, its waves, its flows, its tributaries. Our power is almost limitless, our knowledge almost total." Because I will be coming back to this later.



So Ritual of the Damned starts off fine - it begins by covering the Planet of the Sorcerers, and how Magnus brings it to real space to orbit around Prospero. We all know this by now, especially after the events of Wrath of Magnus. Ever since then Magnus has rebuilt Prospero entirely, reconstructing libraries and restoring a lot of librariums of lost knowledge and scrolls, excavated hidden treasures, relics and texts that even treasure hunters missed out somehow on the ruins of Prospero throughout the ten millennia since it was bombed by the accursed Space Wolves, and basically brought his Legion's strength back up to unprecedented levels. Having learned his lesson from the razing of Prospero, Magnus refused to see another of his worlds undefended and burned by invaders again, and as you can see from the image, he woved all sorts of esoteric enchantments to protect Prospero and the Planet of Sorcerers from orbtial bombardment, invasions and other attacks. MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THIS INFORMATION - because we will be coming back to this later.



In order to reunite his Legion, Magnus sent his Rehati out to force a dozen scattered sects back to his side, and murdered the Sorcerers of these poor sects (he did not murder the Rehati, as opposed to the Bell of Lost Souls spoilers - they misread the text. The Rehati were sent to bring back these exiled or wayward Sorcerers of scattered sects and warbands, and it was these Sorcerers who were gunned down, not the Rehati). Details aside, Magnus then began the ritual to elevate an entire sub-sector of humanity to unleash their psychic potential.



Enter the Grey Knights. I won't go into too much detail here, but basically their Prognosticars saw all sorts of omens and protents leading to Magnus and his ritual, and they advised Grand Master Voldus to do something about it. Obviously he agreed and sent Captain Arvann Stern and the 3rd Brotherhood, including a number of Paladins and Purifiers. Knowing a single Brotherhood wouldn't be enough, they also approached the Dark Angels for help, and we know the Dark Angels hold a grudge (if you've been following the Warhammer Community articles) against Tzeentch and psykers after the events of Warzone Fenris. Again, the usual suspicions followed, the cliche "we can't trust the Dark Angels, but we'll just ally with them anyway." Silly, but okay.

As you would expect, the Dark Angels had suspicions of their own regarding the Grey Knights and were worried about getting found out, what with the Fallen and Luther's betrayal and all that nonsense. Honestly, a single Grey Knight reading their minds would have found out anyway if they really wanted to, but we can't have that because it would spoil the story. Don't ask me why. Whatever the case, the Dark Angels decided to set aside their paranoia and agree to help because their Librarians also foresaw these ominous omens and portents, and knew they couldn't just leave Magnus and the Thousand Sons to their own devices. Okie dokie. So Grand Master Azrael sent Lazarus and the 5th Company, plus a complement of Deathwing and Ravenwing. Apparently they are supposed to "assess whether the sons of Titan knew anything at all of Caliban's secrets" but that doesn't matter because this little trivial plot point is never mentioned again. Rolls eyes.



So the Dark Angels, coming from Imperium Nihilus, the Grey Knights coming from Imperium Sanctus, met above the Planet of Sorcerers. Just two ships. The Dark Angels strike cruiser (I think, doesn't seem to be a battle barge) Seeker of Redemption and the Grey Knights strike cruiser Purging Sword somehow sailed into Thousand Sons territory unchallenged and unopposed, and parked in orbit right above the Planet of Sorerers. Without any Thousand Sons vessels (where the warp is their damned fleet?!) protecting the planet. No orbital defenses, NOTHING. Don't ask me why, I am extremely confused over why in the accursed warp would Magnus - after the book stated so clearly that he wove all sorts of esoteric defenses and wards over the Planet of Sorcerers to protect it from orbital bombardment, invasion, enemy fleets and attacks, had absolutely no standing fleet or defense satellites or orbital platforms to challenge and stop just TWO freaking strike cruisers. TWO strike cruisers, yes. Made it all the way to the Planet of the Sorcerers - home territory of the Thousand Sons Legion where they supposedly rebuilt and restored their strength - without encountering a single vessel from the Thousand Sons fleet or any orbital defense.

What the frak. How?! What is going on here?! I just...I just don't understand.

Anyway, they parked above the Planet of Sorcerers and hung in orbit, and executed the plan. The Dark Angels would launch a feint and attack somewhere in Tizca, while the Grey Knights infiltrated the temple complex that "was a source of power preventing orbital bombardment of the planet" to destroy it and disrupt the ritual. Okay. That sounds fair (other than the completely idiotic fact that the Grey Knights and Dark Angels were allowed to approach the Thousand Sons's second home planet without any challenge, obstacle or loss). The Dark Angels drew out all the military forces and defenses of the temple complex, trying to divert as many of the Thousand Sons and their armies away from it so that the Grey Knights could secretly teleport into the temple complex to destroy it and disrupt the ritual. Standard "oh, lots of Dark Angels died even as they killed lots of Cultists, Daemons, Daemon Engines and mutants". The point is that they thought they succeeded in drawing the bulk of the Thousand Sons military forces away from Tizca but obviously in the usual Tzeentchian "just as planned" shenanigans, it was all just a sham.

While they did that, the Grey Knights teleported into the temple complex, and contrary to their expectations (and a classic "just as planned" from Tzeentch), ended up facing a great host of Daemons while they got lost and wandered about, completely lost. Only the sudden appearance of Matt Ward's abomination Kaldor Draigo saved them - he strode out of the warp, raising his Titansword and nullified Magnus's spell. Okie dokie. That was stupid as f, but whatever works, man.



Realizing that they were outnumbered and outgunned, the Grey Knights tried to hail the Dark Angels and ask them for reinforcement, only to discover that all psychic communication had been blocked out. Hah! Serves you right. However, here comes the pinnacle of bad writing and Deus ex Machina. Even though psychic communication has been blocked, Stern and his Interceptor Squads conveniently find some stupid empyric amplifier that would have the potential to boost a psychic signal. How frakking convenient. No, seriously, this is pretty bad writing. Number one: Why the f would the Thousand Sons need an empyric amplifier to boost their psychic signals? Number two: it's mighty convenient that the Grey Knights would stumble upon something that they just happened to need. Like seriously? Oh, our psychic communication is blocked...don't worry, the Emperor provides. Our enemy just happens to have a gadget that overcomes their own advantage (why? This is their planet, their home ground, why would the Thousand Sons even need this? They literally live in the Warp and draw raw power from the Immaterium. Sounds like they happen to have it just so the Grey Knights could take it from them...poor plot device). As you'd expect, Stern killed the Sorcerer, the Librarians contacted the Dark Angels, and through the sacrifice of the Librarians, they created a spatial corridor through the Warp for both forces to link up and unite for a final strike against Magnus's ritual - a corridor wide enough for their armored vehicles to get through.



And then they attacked the temple where Magnus was conducting the ritual. Now this...is just dumb. No, seriously. Magnus, you have a bunch of Space Marines running around in your second home planet wreaking all sorts of havoc, but instead of marshalling your forces to get rid of them, you're like, "naw, fam, I'm gonna leave them to my incompetent Sons to get rid of them while I focus on this Ritual." Why, Magnus? Why? It makes no sense - it shouldn't take much effort for him to pause or postpone the Ritual, go straight to the Dark Angels and Grey Knights, kick their arses and wipe them out, then return to conducting your Ritual.

Never mind. We'll assume that for some reason the Ritual couldn't be interrupted no matter what (though you could just pretend to hold the Ritual to trick the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to coming to stop it, beat them up, then start the Ritual after you chased them away or destroyed them). Anyway, the Dark Angels and Grey Knights attacked Magnus and his Sorcerers as they conducted the Ritual, and nothing happened, because of some barrier or whatever. And still Magnus and his Sorcerers ignore the invaders, leaving them to their hordes of cultists, mutants and Daemons and Daemon engines. Uh, okay... To be fair, there were so many that the two Adeptus Astartes Chapters couldn't overcome them and were on the verge of being destroyed.



So what does Stern do? Order a withdrawal and commence orbital bombardment.

Wait, what? Huh? Did I read that right? Yeah, I did.

After all that stuff in the beginning where Magnus did all sorts of esoteric enchantments and arcane wards to protect against orbital bombardments and lance strikes that he precisely never wanted his worlds to suffer from again, the Grey Knights still somehow succeeded in calling down an orbital bombardment.  Let's return to page 6. "Invisible conjurations surround the planet, sucking any munitions fired upon it into the warp and dissipating powerful lasers into harmless rays of light. Illusory hexes cause attackers to believe that their weapons have hit their target when they have, in fact, proved wayward. Portals absorb city-levelling barrages and turn them back on the firers. Other spells and enchantments cause weapons to detonate while still on-board attacking ships, or initiate the warp drives of enemy vessels, hurling them into the empyrean without shielding. Magnus has had one world destroyed by invaders before. He wll not allow it to happen again."

Guess what? It happened again. All those hexes, enchantments, portals and spells were completely and promptly forgotten by the authors and hand-waved away. The Grey Knights apparently use Kaldor Draigo's "immense psychic presence" (damned Mary Sue) to act as a beacon for the Purging Sword's lance batteries and macro cannons, and somehow this single beacon was able to disrupt and nullify all the various complex enchantments, wards and defenses that Magnus and the Thousand Sons wove around their world, destroy the temple and annihilated all the Sorcerers participating in the ritual along with the sacrificial victims and countless mortal followers of Magnus. The Grey Knights and Dark Angels suffered horrendous casualties in the process, but that didn't matter. They won, and ran away, but were forced to leave many of their Brothers behind to their horrific fate. Don't worry, those who mattered - Stern, Lazarus and Draigo - escaped and though they were filled with dread about what would happen to their abandoned Brothers...who cares? They won. As a side note, this is an interesting plot development for Kaldor Draigo. Seems like he has been reunited with the Grey Knights and is no longer disappearing back to the Warp again. Will he permanently return to the Grey Knights and fight alongside without that whole disappearing and reappearing trick?

And thus...the story ends there. Pyrrhic victory, as you would expect. Now I'm not mad about that. I expected that. It's the way this victory was achieved, the plot holes, the inconsistencies and glaring contradictions that annoyed me. This just screams amateurish and sloppy writing to me. Jeez, they should hire a Black Library writer to write this (Graham McNeill or John French, anyone?). Seriously? On one page it said Magnus made his planet impervious to orbital bombardment, but they lazily went and solved everything with an orbital bombardment by handwaving the enchantments away with a single stupid beacon. Also, after that awesome quote at the beginning with Magnus claiming that he could see the future and read the currents of time...how in the frakking warp did he not see that coming? He should have foreseen the failure of his Ritual, he should have foreseen the orbital bombardment. But no, "Such was their speed that Magnus barely had time to conjure a psychic barrier for his personal protection before the lance beams and macro-cannon rounds struck." What absolute BS is this?! He is a master of all magic, including Divination (or Corvidae), and you're telling me he never saw this coming? After those whole "this is our time" and "we know time" quotes at the beginning? He just left the Grey Knights and Dark Angels to run around doing their own thing just so he could focus on his Ritual? What was the point of making that awesome grand speech of having limitless knowledge and being able to read the currents of time if you're going to get outsmarted and defeated by the Grey Knights' last-ditch orbital bombardment eventually? Are you seriously telling me that the smartest and most scheming of all Daemon Primarchs (and in 40K) did not anticipate any of this and planned accordingly? Hell, evidently he planned accordingly, but all his esoteric enchantments and arcane spells were nullified by a single gigantic Grey Knights psychic beacon that somehow allowed the orbital bombardment to circumvent all the portals and hexes that supposedly turned orbital barrages back, dissipate lasers into harmless ray of lights, teleport munitions into the warp, and hit Tizca? And Magnus never saw any of that coming? And once again, where in the bloody warp is the Thousand Sons fleet?! Did they seriously just allow two strike cruisers to approach their second home planet, park in orbit and get in position for orbital bombardment, without challenging or even attempting to get rid of those enemy ships? Where are the damned orbital defenses, orbital platforms or even some semblance of picket ships?! And even after the Dark Angels and Grey Knights landed in Tizca, did none of the Thousand Sons Sorcerers even think to eliminate the two bloody strike cruisers hanging above their precious city? Seriously?!

What utter BS. I'm so astounded by the poor writing and bloody contradictions that I'm absolutely fuming right now. This has to be one of the most poorly written stories I had ever read. Generally I do like the stories. I'm all right with how Faith and Fury turned out, I enjoyed Blood of Baal, and I love a lot of the campaign books. I had no complaints with how the Vigilus campaign turned out, and unlike most people I didn't see a problem with Abaddon abandoning victory just to save his beloved Vengeful Spirit (no victory is worth the cost of that ancient, invaluable Glorianna-class ship). I actually loved and applauded Wrath of Magnus, and you know I raved over the Sanctus Reach campaign (my only complaint being that the Space Wolves had to come save the poor Astra Militarum as usual, but I was delighted when the Cadians showed up to rescue the Space Wolves from Daemons). I was even fine with the sudden appearance of Primaris Marines and enjoyed the Gathering Storm Campaign. But this thing right here in Ritual of the Damned is just utter BS. The inherent contradictions, sloppy writing, poorly executed plot devices (conveniently inserted psychic signal booster, for example) and ridiculous ending...I'm sorry, I can't defend it. It was just bad. Like, real bad. This was one of the worst writings I had ever seen. I won't claim that I can write better, but at least I won't resort to clumsily contrived plot devices, blatant Deus ex Machina, and Mary Sue characters, and I will do my best not to forget and then contradict what I just wrote a few pages ago.

Sigh...oh well. Make of this what you will. As an amusing aside, when I bought the book, the first thing I did was spend a couple of hours reading through the lore (probably less, it's pretty short, but I was distracted). When I lent the book to my friends, unlike me the first thing they went to was the new rules for Dark Angels, Grey Knights and Thousand Sons. I was more interested in the narrative fluff, and them in the gameplay. That's probably the difference between me and most Warhammer 40,000 players, and that's also the reason why I'm so bitterly disappointed by the terrible writing in this book.

They had better write a much better story for Engine War, or I swear...well, I honestly don't know what I will do, but most likely I'll just rant and complain here in my blog again.

New Skitarii units and Ghazghkull Thrakka revealed in Las Vegas Open!

Yeah, I've been waiting for the Las Vegas Open reveal, and it's been worth it! You can check the Warhammer Community page for full details but needless to say I'm more interested in the Skitarii stuff. Come on, man. This is the Admech Knight blog. Of couse I'm invested in all things Adeptus Mechanicus.

Anyway, we have the newest Psychic Awakening book revealed, after Saga of the Beast! It's titled Engine War and will unveil a whole host of new Skitarii units!




Skitarii Rough Riders. Hell, yeah. I'm definitely getting these guys. They are known as the Serberys Sulphurhounds and the Serberys Raiders. I'm assuming the cyber-mounts of the Serberys Sulphurhounds will be able to breath fire - I mean, just look at them! They have flamers for mouths! What can be more awesome than that?!




Then you have the winged Pteraxii and Serberys. These guys...I'm not as enthusiastic. They look, forgive me, silly. I'm sure there will be quite a few people who like them, but they're not my thing. I love the calvary guys though (I'm just going to call them Skitarii Rough Riders). Cousins of the Sicaran, one of them have a flamer, the other has a taser goad. Hmm...well, as I said, not my kind of thing.

Also, we'll have the Archaeopter featured in Engine Wars, and I don't know how that will look like. Apparently we'll have three types of builds for it, and I can't wait to see what they have. This will be fun! The Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knights will ally against Chaos Daemons and Chaos Knights, apparently.



Oh, and Ghazghkull Thrakka is back with a new model! All Orks players, your prayers have been answered! Ghazghkull has a new model! I know they teased him and ended with a full screenshot of his sidekick, Makari the Grot (we all know he is Ghazghkull's sidekick). Turns out he didn't get sat on by Ghazghkull after all. Happy now, Ork players? All the Orks players I know are clamoring for his return, and the Emperor has answered their prayers.



We are also getting new books from Forge World that will replace the Imperial Armor Index, though what we will get, I do not know. No details on that. But maybe we'll finally be getting rules for Mechanicum units in Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition? Castellax battle-automata and Thanatar siege-automata coming to 8th Edition? That will be awesome!

I'll update you guys if I know more. A very big if, unfortunately. Sorry.

The Nine Cults of the Thousand Sons, plus Stratagems

Yup, jumping onto the leak train and collating everything I can find from previews, reviews and whatnot so far. Not that you guys will read this, and I think other sites such as Goonhammer or the Youtube review videos by WinterSEO and D6Evolution will provide you everything you need to know.

Thousand Sons get Hateful Assault and Malicious Volleys, plus new Stratagems. You can further personalize your Thousand Sons Detachments to represent one of the nine Cults of the Legion. Take note that it is Detachment, not army, so you do not need to run mono-Thousand Sons, and you can take up to several Cults if you want (so if you bring three Thousand Sons Detachments, you can take 3 different Cults).



Cult of Prophecy

Psychic Power: Divine the Future.
Warp charge value of 6, roll 1 D6 and set it aside. Until the start of your next psychic phase, you can use that dice roll to replace a single dice rolled for a hit roll, wound roll, advance roll, charge roll, Psychic test, Deny the Witch test or Morale test for a Cult of Prophecy unit from your army.

Warlord Trait: Guided by the Whispers
Once per turn, after your Warlord fires overwatch, he can move up to 6" as if it's your movement phase.

Sorcerous Arcana: Pythic Brazier
Friendly units within 6" of the bearer can re-roll one hit roll, wound roll or damage roll during the shooting phase and fight phase.

Cult of Time

Psychic Power: Time Flux
Warp charge value of 5, choose one Cult of Time infantry unit within 6" of the psyker, revive one destroyed model with all his wounds remaining. If the unmodified result of the psychic test is 9+, revive up to D3 destroyed models with all their wound remaining instead.

Warlord Trait: Immaterial Echo
When your Warlord's psychic test is 9+, he can attempt an additional psychic spell. Obviously doesn't accumulate, so no atttempting yet another additional psychic spell even if you get 9+ twice.

Sorcerous Arcana: Hourglass of Manat
The first time your Relic bearer dies, return him to the battlefield with D3 wounds remaining. Must be out of combat.

Cult of Mutation

Psychic Power: Warp Reality
Warp charge value of 6, select one terrain feature within 18", then one enemy unit within 3" of that terrain feature. Halve their movement Characteristic, and substract 1 from their Advance and charge rolls.

Warlord Trait: Touch of Vicissitude
Warlord does an additional mortal wound on an unmodified hit roll of 6 with his melee weapon.

Sorcerous Arcana: Exalted Mutation
Sorcerer Warlord gets +1 to his Strength, Toughness and Attack Characteristics.

Cult of Scheming

Psychic Power: Seeded Strategy
Warp charge value of 6, select one friendly Cult of Scheming unit within 24", they can shoot and charge this turn even if they fell back.

Warlord Trait: Grand Schemer
Friendly Cult of Scheming units within 3" of this Warlord gets Objective Secured, and if they already have Objective Secured (your Rubric Marines), then each model counts as 2 for the purpose of claiming an Objective.

Sorcerous Arcana: Cha'qi'thl's Theorem
Once per battle, you can reduce the Command Point cost of any Stratagem to zero.

Cult of Magic

Psychic Power: Astral Blast
Warp charge value of 6, deal D3 mortal wounds to the closest visible enemy unit within 9", and then 1 mortal wound to each other unit within 3" of them. Obviously you can't extend that to 9" with the Brotherhood of Sorcerers Ability (but you can hit an enemy unit 15" away).

Warlord Trait: Devastating Sorcery
Your Warlord does 1 extra mortal wound whenever he successfully casts a spell that inflicts mortal wounds. So your Smite does D3+1 mortal wounds, for example.

Sorcerous Arcana: Arcane Focus
Relic bearer gets +1 to his psychic tests.

Cult of Knowledge

Psychic Power: Psychic Delve
Warp charge value of 6, select an enemy unit within 18" of this psyker and until the start of your next psychic phase, re-roll all wound rolls of 1 for friendly Cult of Knowledge units targeting that enemy unit.

Warlord Trait: Ardent Scholar
Re-roll ones for psychic tests made by this Warlord.

Sorcerous Arcana: Incaladion's Cry
Replaces a warpflame pistol with a 12" pistol D6, Strength 6 Ap -2 D1, auto-hits.

Cult of Change

Psychic Power: Disturb Reality
Warp charge value of 6, select one enemy unit within 12" of this psyker, and deduct 1 from their Leadership and Attack Characteristic, to a minimum of 1.

Warlord Trait: Fickle Nature
Re-roll charge rolls for this Warlord, and he can shoot and charge in a turn he falls back.

Sorcerous Arcana: Capricious Crest
Once per turn, when a psychic test is taken for a model within 18" of the relic bearer, you can change a roll of 1 to 6 for your psykers, and a roll of 6 to 1 for enemy psykers.

Cult of Duplicity

Psychic Power: Sorcerous Facade
Warp charge value of 7, teleport a Cult of Duplicity unit within 6" of your psyker anywhere that is more than 9" away from any enemy unit.

Warlord Trait: Duplicitous Tactician
First battle round, before first turn begins, redeploy D3 Cult of Duplicity units (remain in your Deployment Zone, and units inside a Transport remain embarked inside a Transport).

Sorcerous Arcana: Perfidious Tome
At the start of each battle round, roll a D6, your opponent gains a Command Point if you roll a 1, but you gain a Command Point if you roll a 4+.

Cult of Manipulation

Psychic Power: Attempted Possession
Warp charge value of 6, select one Character within 18" of psyker, he suffers one mortal wound and gets -2 to his psychic tests until your next psychic phase.

Warlord Trait: Beguiling Influence
Subtract 1, to a minimum of 1, from the Attacks Characteristics of models in enemy units within 1" of this Warlord.

Sorcerous Arcana: Sorthis' Reflector
During your fight phase, copy the melee weapon of an enemy infantry model with Leadership less than 9 locked in combat with you, but you can't re-roll hit rolls or wound rolls. If you're locked in combat with multiple enemy units, you can only attack the unit which you copied the weapon of.

Stratagems

Magister, 1 Command Point, gets you another Warlord Trait for a second Thousand Sons Character. No duplicates! And can only be used once per battle.

Risen Rubricae, 1 Command Point, once per battle, set up one Rubric Marines unit anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from your opponent's deployment zone and any enemy models.

Infernal Fusillade, 1 Command Point, choose one Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators unit that you didn't move this turn, and they can shoot their Rapid Fire weapons twice.

Sorcerous Infusion, 1 Command Point, when you get a 9+ for casting a psychic spell, you can have a model in that unit regain up to D3 wounds, or if there's any destroyed models in his unit, revive a single model for his unit, with all his wounds remaining.

Yoked Automata, 2 Command Points, if your non-Tzaangor Thousand Sons Character got charged, you can choose a Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators unit within 12" of that enemy unit and have them Heroically Intervene up to 2D6" instead of 3" to save your Character.

Indomitable Foes, 1 Command Point, improve the invulnerable save of your Rubric Marines or Scarab Occult Terminators by 1, to a maximum of 3+.

Adepts of the Immaterium, 1 Command Point, your psyker doesn't suffer Perils of the Warp even if he rolls double ones or twos (or gets hit by "Perils on any doubles" shennanigans).