Dracosan armored transports

That's a lot of Dracosan armored transports. 12, in fact. Wow. But they are for Legions Imperialis, so I do need a lot of them. Actually, I needed 10, but they come in boxes of 5 each, so I ended up with 2 extra after assembling everything. I'm sure I will find something to do for them.

But yeah, 8 demolisher cannons and 4 twin lascannons for the 12. They are for my Solar Auxilia mechanized infantry sub-cohort formation. I can't wait to paint them and field them soon! They will be driving around the table, placing my Solar Auxilia soldiers everywhere. I hope. We will see!

Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of the Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! article, where we finish up the lore summary for this particular campaign. I say finish, but apparently, there's a sequel named Hour of the Wolf, as well as an extra story in the Stormclaw boxset, but we'll get to those...one day. For now, let's focus on the heroics of the Imperial Guard and the Imperial Knights!

We pick off where Mogrok activated his tellyport blasta at the end of the last article, where he teleported away from Auspice Savannah and toward the coastlands to deny the human forces reinforcements across the natural bridges that linked Alaric Prime's major islands.

The Knights of House Velemestrin tried to cross the Knight's Causeway, which linked their island to Sacred Isle, so that they could reinforce House Brahmica and the Cadians embroiled in the battle on the savannah. Mogrok, anticipating this, had assigned gretchin to blow up the Knight's Causeway, but they had yet to finish their job, so after throwing a murderous tantrum, Mogrok sought Mek Dagogg, the Mek who flung the orbital defense platforms into each other with his Shokk Amplifier when the Red Waaagh! assaulted the Obsidian Glaives Space Marines. He, with the aid of his Runtherd, Grabber, was also responsible for the Snotling Rain.

Dagogg and Grabber, after Mogrok yelled at the former, gathered the snotling mobs just as the first of the Imperial Knights had reached halfway across the Knight's Causeway. They opened fire on the Orks, who were forced to cower. Unfortunately, Dagogg had a secret weapon that could teleport one of the Knight's legs away, causing it to fall and miss with his battle cannon, and then he teleported the flames of the Burna Boyz right into the Throne Mechanicum of the Knight, incinerating Sire Tormus and causing his Knight to fall to its knees upright and block the causeway. Oh, well.

At Isle Kamata, Mogrok's Blood Axe ally, Tankboss Baddfrag, led an attack with two hundred heavy Ork tanks. He had repurposed Imperial armor, having landed his rust-ship Da Choppa on top of an Imperial tank company in the Kamata Desert, then destroyed the survivors with its kannons.

Though Isle Kamata's knightly defenders were away at war in Sacred Isle, Badfragg's armored company was outranged by the Imperial Guard artillery company stationed around the Great Oasis. Even his Blood Axe air support, the Drop Kommandos, had lost too many of their fighta-bommas to anti-aircraft fire. The Cadians had water, shade and ammunition supply lines, so they were well dug in.

Unfortunately for the Cadians, a mob of Drop Kommandos intercepted a Chimera convoy, with two of them clinging to the undersides of the armored transports at the cost of the rest of the Kommandos. They were eventually shaken free, with one being run over by the next tank while the sole survivor escaped and returned to Badfragg's camp.

This time, the Blood Axe Kommandos camouflaged themselves and waited for the next convoy to the Great Oasis, once again strapping themselves to the undersides of the Chimeras. The Cadian guards, unaware of the stowaways, allowed the supply convoy in, and the Kommandos used this to infiltrate the Imperial Guard base.

There's a random passage of the Frozen Comet, which drifted close to Alaric Prime. I think you can all guess why they brought it up here. Even if I didn't know what's going to happen later, I will be willing to bet my bottom dollar that the Orks will snag the Frozen Comet and hurl it at the Imperial defenders.

After getting inside the Imperial Guard camp, the Kommandos snuck out from under the Chimeras at night and began planting bombs to blow up the artillery company's ammunition. The resulting explosion was the signal for Tankboss Baddfrag to attack, his Battle Fortress and two hundred looted vehicles charging in. The airborne forces of the Drop Kommandos joined in, and despite Hydra flak tanks and aegis interceptor guns of the Cadian defenders destroying Orky aircraft and Deffkoptas, the Cadians ran out of ammunition shortly after that - thanks to the destruction of so much of their supplies - and the Orks annihilated the 1645th Cadian support regiment. Ouch.

Unfortunately, this meant that the Orks had access to more looted tanks, captured transports and even stolen Knights that now roamed all over Isle Kamata.

Due to the war, lots of human vehicles and tanks were wrecked and totalled, which gave the Orks ample scrap to hammer out new contraptions, recycling the husks of Imperial armor into more guns and metal beasts. Da Wheel Steelaz, in particular, built all sorts of Trukks, such as Trukk-treddas, Wagon-walkers and Bigga Kans. However, amidst all of these Orkish innovation, Mogrok was working on his own invention that could destroy an entire island in one blow. Uh oh.

The Cadian 1652nd regiment bore the brunt of the Orks' wrath, but millions lost their lives on Alaric Prime, including Goralan Helmast of House Kestren, Kyrana Calestros, Phyne Degallio, and Rolundus Velemestrin.

The Freeblade known as the Scorched Knight is piloted by Dyros Kamata. After learning of his older brother's murder at the hands of his father, he became a Freeblade, scorching away the symbols of House Kamata in the Damatoi volcano range, only to return to defend Sacred Mountain from the Red Waaagh!

Instead of fighting alongside other Nobles, Dyros struck against rearward units or Ork artillery, accounting for hundreds of greenskin kills and disrupting their forces around the mountain, frequently saving Cadian Guardsmen in the process.

Dyros's brother, Tyras, had left a neural imprint in the Throne Mechanicum that informed him of the deadly malfunction his father had engineered, and the corruption in House Kamata and Hyram's long list of crimes.

Dyros was able to get revenge during the last battle for Sacred Mountain, when Hyram's Knight was toppled by a crashing Dakkajet. Dyros hastened to his fallen father's side and blew his Knight up with his thermal cannon. Though dozens of other Nobles had witnessed Dyros's patricide, no one barred his way because they respected the right of every Noble to settle debts within his own house.

Remember Silas Ovik? He's back! With more background fluff! Rumored to be a bastard son of a noble family who was exiled back in Cadia, he shot dead a pack of slobbering Cultists attacking a local settlement, and was recruited into the Imperial Guard officer corps.

He was known for being patient and composed, which the senior officers thought made him perfectly suited to the tank regiments. Though he is a master of all variants of the Leman Russ, Silas Ovik prefers to command from the cupola of a Vanquisher where he can destroy war engines from afar: one shot, one kill.

Silas Ovik's squadron famously stalked the Daemon Engines that infested Prosan during the Belliger invasions of 988.M41, his pinpoint accuracy taking apart Warpsmith Vutos's monstrous creations one by one, and thus saving the planet. Ovik also assumed command during the Ork incursion of Crisson Vael, after a suicidal air strike took out the Cadian HQ command. He led two squadrons of tanks against three Stompas, outwitting and frustrating his foes long enough for further support to arrive and destroy them outright.

With such achievements, Ovik was promoted to the legendary Steel Host of the Cadian 1652nd, and as its commander, he has repeatedly led Cadia's armies to victory from within his Leman Russ Vanquisher, Ovik's Fist.

Tempestor Prime Salem Whitlock commands the 50th Kappic Eagles. Orphaned at the age of two, he was raised in the Schola Progenium on the Shrine world of Phrell. Though his natural leadership marked him out as officer material, instead of joining the Commissariat, he excelled as a Tempestus Scion cadet, displaying an acumen for tactics and thus was assigned to Militarum Tempestus command.

As Tempestor (basically Sergeant), Whitlock led the drop assault that ended the decade-long siege of Fortress Hellstar. His squad basically gunned down every Cultist inside within 80 minutes. After being promoted to Tempestor Prime (basically Captain), Whitlock orchestrated the strikes that crippled an Eldar warhost at Telvarr Prime, personally leading the assault against the xenos witch-commander and slaying her while simultaneously deploying his Valkyries and Vendettas to cut off the warhost's line of retreat. The Imperial Guard won the resulting aerial duel via attrition.

Oh, remember the Frozen Comet? Cadian high command just got wind that it had altered its course and was now heading straight for Sacred Isle.

How? Well, thirty miles to the southeast of Sacred Mountain, Mogrok had been hammering away at the rust-ship Bad Gob to fashion the Klaw of Mork, a device almost as high as a Stompa. When the Big Mek activated the device, it shot out a green light that grabbed the Frozen Comet and dragged it toward Alaric Prime.

Castellan Stein was presented with reports that the Orks had built some kind of orbital tractor beam that was used to pull the Frozen Comet to slam it against the top of Sacred Mountain. While Stein held an emergency council to discuss what to do next, knowing that artillery was useless against the Orks' kustom force fields and any frontal attack against the Ork rust-ships and their huge guns would be suicide, Tempestor Prime Whitlock proposed a plan.

He and his Tempestus Scions will grav chute through the gap in the field where it allowed the beam for the tractor cannon out, and his men will destroy the force field generator from the inside. Once they took that out, they would aim for the tractor cannon next. Stein agreed.

And so, a few hours later, Whitlock's Valkyrie and two others flew across the plains to drop their squads on the Ork force field dome. All of them, except poor Orrost, made it through the gap - Orrost was vaporized by the tractor beam when he drifted too close to it - and then the rest of Whitlock's men landed safely.

The Tempestus Scions slipped through the Ork encampment, toward a tower, where a cluster of Ork guns that protected both the tractor beam and the force field generator that protected it. Whitlock and his men slaughtered the Orks within, taking them by surprise. Dagogg, however, killed a Tempestus Scion because he's a Named Character and therefore has plot armor. I mean, seriously, the only named characters who died have been humans so far. Lots of Knights, lots of Cadians, but...no named Orks yet.

Whitlock head-shot an Ork Nob and directed his men to set satchel bombs in the top room of the tower, and then they blew up the generator. The moment the force field collapsed, Whitlock's Valkyrie reinforcements arrived. Dagogg, though, swung his Smasha and wrecked a Valkyrie. Whitlock, realizing the danger, tried to take out the Smasha guns, but Dagogg and the Orks were far too numerous and strong.

Fortunately, Whitlock had a spare satchel charge somewhere, which he detonated to cover his Tempestus Scions' retreat. More men grav chuted to his position, but mobs of Orks were charging toward them. It looked grim.

Even as Whitlock braced himself for close combat, the sole surviving Valkyrie swooped in and took out a mob with heavy bolter fire. Another Valkyrie appeared out of nowhere to fall into formation with it as they flew away, and the rust-ship blew up, along with the tractor beam. Yay! A rare win for the Imperial Guard (and Knights) after all the crushing defeats Mogrok heaped upon us recently!

Despite Whitlock's success in destroying the tractor beam, the Frozen Comet was still on course to hit the planet. Oh, well. On the bright side, it was projected to fall into the sea north of the Sacred Isle. However, that didn't stop the Orks from launching a massive attack on Sacred Mountain, and this would be the final battle.

Castellan Stein watched from his command Chimera as it drove toward the center of the Sacred Isle, spotting teeming Ork hordes converging to join this grand battle that would break Alaric Prime once and for all. Even though for every Imperial Guardsmen who had died, a hundred Orks had been cut down, and the Cadians were mathematically victorious, there were far too many Orks - billions - and it wasn't enough.

Stein also realized that there was an Ork with a brain coordinating the whole thing. While he pondered, he scanned readings that showed that something inside the mountain's depths crackled with an insane amount of potential energy, and remembered that the Alarican Nobles had insisted that Sacred Mountain should be defended to the last despite not having a convincing reason. Stein's Astropath, Zeil, also sensed something from the mountain, which was why Stein took them seriously.

Lord Neru of House Degallio had also dispatched a taskforce of Knights to the mountain's easternmost gulch. Neru himself was watching his consort (wife) accompany Gerantius as she offered up one of House Degallio's Greater Keys to the Sacred Gate. The Sacred Gate opened, and both Lady Degallio and Gerantius entered the place. A few hours later, while Lord Neru continued to watch over the great open gate in his Throne Mechanicum in the White Warden, the earth shook.

Sacred Mountain was waking.

Stein and his Imperial Guard armored columns also came to a halt, watching the shaking mountain in awe. They watched as Sacred Mountain transformed into a giant stronghold that dwarfed even the famous Cadian kasrs.

This was what Gerantius had been guarding, and what Degallio's heirloom-keys had unlocked. This was why the knightly houses were so protective of it. Astropath Zeil called it Fortress Alaric.

Stein quickly assigned his men to the various battlements and redoubts ringing the mountainsides and set up his tank companies across a giant drawbridge that had emerged on the eastern side of the vast fortress. The Baneblade Iron Ettin and the Shadowsword Steel Cyclops took up position on either side of the gap. The Knights of House Velemestrin, Terryn and Kamata paced back and forth at the mouth of the bridge. Artillery companies were in position, and the Cadians received unexpected reinforcements from Alaric's criminal elements.

The Frozen Comet, though thrown off course to crash into the ocean north of Sacred Isle instead of the mainland, provided some light. Unfortunately, this was causing poor Astropath Zeil to have nightmarish psychic visions...which we will see later in Hour of the Wolf.

Countless millions of Orks converged upon Fortress Alaric, directed by the cunning of Mogrok. A great horde of Ork walkers led the assault, with the Gargant Gungutz striding at their heart. Its missing head was replaced by a tusked cab of a Battlewagon, and it was escorted by two captured Imperial Knights.

The moment the Orks came into range, Stein signalled his Master of Ordnance to commence bombardment. Unfortunately, the shells slowed and stopped, hanging in the air. The Ork walkers were generating an electromagnetic field that nullified their artillery, robbing the Cadians of their long-range advantage. The Ork vanguard continued forward, and once they were within lascannon range, the Cadians shot the largest clusters of artillery shells hovering high above the Ork walkers, triggering chains of explosions that took out pockets of Ork vehicles, but it wasn't enough. There were too many Orks.

Stein then ordered his Leman Russ battle tanks to fire, but though they killed quite a few, many more shells detonated prematurely.

Apparently, Mogrok had invented the netmagnet to nullify the artillery shells and tank fire of the Imperial Guard. Trukks, Squiggoths, Walkers, Looted vehicles all charged forward. Tankboss Badfragg used the looted Chimeras to cross the moat, because they are amphibious.

Hundreds of Orks swam across the moat to get to the fortress, and though hundreds succumbed, hundreds more made it across improvised scrap bridges. Mob after mob were gunned down by massed Taurox transports the Tempestus Scions had stationed along the inner bank of the boiling moat.

Fortunately, the surviving Knights counterattacked. Three spearheads of Knights from House Degallio and four Knights from House Terryn covered each other and stamped and blasted the Orks back into the boiling waters of the moat.

At the far end of the vast drawbridge, Stein's super-heavy tanks and a scattered contingent of Imperial Knights fanned out to take on the Orks from the plains, with the Scorched Knight being the first to reach them. Hyram, patriarch of House Kamata, followed closely, only to be knocked off its feet by a Dakkajet despite Stein's frantic warning. The Scorched Knight then turned around to murder Hyram, much to Stein's amazement.

Meanwhile, Sylvost Velemestrin's Knight was knee deep in Orks, who were manually detonating charges against the weak spot of his Knight. Despite his pleas for help, mirroring Lord Gualemort Kestren's last moments when he requested that his fellow Nobles hold their fire - only for Sylvost to seal his fate - none of the other Knights helped him, simply watching as he was taken apart limb by limb.

"Thus does the ghost of Gaulemort Kestren find his rest."

Stein was obviously incensed, screaming that the Knights were supposed to be defending the bridge, not settling old scores, but Lord Degallio, the Seablade, ignored him. He knew that they had to decapitate the leadership of the Orks again, to cut off the head of the beast in order to slay its body - and thus seek out Mogrok. While Neru Degallio and his White Warden led the knightly triumvirates he had named the Alabaster Lances, Gerantius took the lead, storming through the Ork ranks.

Degallio and the White Warden provided support, not wanting Gerantius to fight alone. Neru suspected that Gerantius was heading for the mastermind coordinating the Ork assault, and he intended to be around for the kill.

As they plunged further into the Ork horde, Degallio and the Knights encountered the Morkanauts behind the waves of Ork infantry. Degallio destroyed one. A second Morkanaut with a Mek shooting some weird weapon at Gerantius ended up having the green beam turn back upon him, pulling the Mek and half a dozen Gretchin into some weird portal. While Neru watched in fascination, Gerantius ignored the Mek's demise and strode on.

Stein was still coordinating interceptor fire against Ork flyers and Deffkoptas, having expended all his Thunderbolt squadrons against the descending rust-ships earlier. Only Whitlock and his men afforded any kind of air superiority.

Worse, the gates that the Baneblade Iron Ettin and Shadowsword Steel Cyclops were guarding had been blown open by Ork artillery and Mek-walkers, but swarms of servo-skulls swarmed out to claw and shoot lasbiters into the Orks on the drawbridge.

On the slopes, Bullgryns had plugged the breaches with their slabshields, repelling any Ork assault. Unfortunately, flamer boyz burned them, causing them to rush forward and attack, only for the other Orks to run around them and charge into the defense lines behind. Even so, the xenos were caught in disciplined overlapping fields of fire and exterminated.

Unfortunately, Stein's strategy fell to ruin when he saw one of the rust-ships take off and fly toward the Frozen Comet to intercept it. Despite Tempestor Prime Whitlock diverting his Valkyries and Vendettas to intercept, they couldn't damage the massive hulk.

Before they could reach the rust-ship, the unexploded ordnance captured by the greenskin mag-field suddenly shot up in the air and took all of them out in a series of explosions. Ouch. With that last hope of stopping the rust-ship gone, it collided against the inbound comet and blew apart, but with enough force to divert it right back toward the armored flank of Fortress Alaric.

Initially, Stein ordered for his regiments to get inside the mountains and raise whatever shields they could, or retreat, but he realized there was no way his men could survive the meteoric impact of the comet. Even the Knights would be obliterated.

Stein snapped and then cancelled his orders and bellowed for everyone to attack with full force, believing that they were already dead, and they might as well kill as many xenos as they could before they died.

Ten thousand Cadians charged over their defensive positions at the Orks, firing las-bolts and stabbing with bayonets. Meanwhile, the two dozen or so remaining Knights raced to form a half-mile ring around the thickest of Stein's forces. In contrast, the Orks were erecting force-pylons, presumably to protect themselves as the fortress was flattened.

Stein himself rode his command Chimera to the frontlines to fight alongside his men with his power sword. Leaping right into the middle of Ork Kommandos, he used both his power sword and plasma pistol to slaughter them.

Then the comet struck home. Every man, Ork and machine outside the aegis of a power field was instantly disintegrated. A whole flank of Sacred Mountain was torn away, crumbling down into the boiling moat to leave the honeycombed innards of the great peak exposed to air. Roaring triumphantly, the surviving Orks poured forward.

Sacred Mountain had fallen.

By the way, Grukk survived. When several Ork Nobz and a herd of Gretchin teleported into the mountain's southern slopes to salvage Grukk's Battlewagon, the Warlord's power klaw erupted to grab one of them by the throat. The Mekboy hurried forward to secure Grukk and teleport him and the whole group out of there.

Meanwhile, Stein and his command squad - including Astropath Zeil - had survived, aside from his vox officer. The Alarican Knights had united their ion shields in a great aegis dome that shielded hundreds of Cadians from death by incineration at the moment of impact. It did burn out many of the Knights' number, several of the machines now pillars of flame.

However, millions of fighting men and women had also perished alongside Alaric Prime's valiant Nobles, and even the mountain itself was grievously wounded. Many of the Ork tribes had erected their own shields that protected them from the impact of the comet, and thousands of them remained, charging unimpeded into the resulting breach.

Stein felt like he had died inside, despite having survived the blow. However, Zeil coughed and pointed at the skies. Stein looked up and spotted more meteorites that appeared to be the final blow. Then the flame of hope sparked in his chest once more.

They were the contrails of Imperial Drop Pods.

As a bonus, here's several Formations from the book, including the Legendary Steel Host, the Rampart Detachment and the Adamantine Lance!

Man, those were the days. I still remember playing the Adamantine Lance and the Steel Host. I can tell you that the Adamantine Lance was impractical because there was no reason for you to ever keep your Knights within 3" of each other - that's like 3/4 of your army tied up standing next to each other for rerollable ion shield saves on only a single facing while you are unable to score any objectives except maybe one. I mean, I just fielded my Knight army and said the three of them were an Adamantine Lance, but the moment the 7th edition codex dropped a month after, and I had better Formations, I never bothered with Adamantine Lance again.

Um, maybe I did not use the Steel Host because I never got a Hydra (the Onager Dunecrawler was much better for anti-air anyway), but I did end up building an Armored Company from the Mont'ka campaign book a year later. That's an article for another day, but I'll try to finish the Sanctus Reach series. There's Stormclaw and Hour of the Wolf left, but...no guarantees. Do look forward to them, though. Until such a time...okay, I get it, I should stop ripping off Oculus Imperia. Anyway, till then!

Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! Part 1

You know, it's kind of funny. There's plenty of Warhammer 40,000 lore videos on YouTube, especially those by Arbitor Ian, Luetin09, Oculus Imperia, and more, but I haven't actually seen a single one on Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! Yes, there are quite a few videos on the video game (available on Steam - I ought to know, because I bought Sons of Cadia a few years ago and played it). They're mainly recorded gameplay or walkthroughs or mods, but not exactly lore videos detailing the campaign.

So I thought, for today's article, we will do an actual lore summary on Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh!, which will also be a video on my channel for those people who prefer listening while painting or doing hobbying stuff or even driving, rather than reading. Of course, because I'm primarily a blogger and I know there are people who prefer reading (like me), I'm doing this first as a written article.

So, to first provide context for Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh!, I should point out that it is a campaign book released in July 2014, shortly after the release of the Militarum Tempestus codex supplement and Imperial Knight codex in March 2014, and the Astra Militarum codex in April 2014.

While Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! provides a new narrative campaign to provide a story in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, it is also meant to give these fairly new codexes new Formations to play with, something I'll explore later in the article. For now, it's about the titular Red Waaagh! where an Ork armada invades the Knight world of Alaric Prime, the last bastion of resistance in a system overrun by the greenskins. Alaric Prime is defended by its Knight Houses, and their Astra Militarum allies comprising of several Cadian regiments and a Militarum Tempestus contingent.

The Waaagh! is led by an Ork warlord, Grukk Face-rippa, who killed his Warboss, Krugg the Tyrant, to seize power. So the Red Waaagh! is also known as Waaagh! Grukk for now (but you'll see later why they don't just call it Waaagh! Grukk). At the Slaughter of Black Gulch, he tore open a malfunctioning drop pod and slaughtered all ten Space Marines inside. Anyway, he leads an armada to invade the Sanctus Reach system. He even has a flagship in the form of The Wrath of Gork, which he painted red so that it could go faster.

First, the Orks struck Obstiria, the home world of the Obsidian Glaives Space Marine Chapter, and though the majority of the Chapter succeeded in slaying hundreds of thousands of Orks, they were eventually overwhelmed and wiped out by the millions of greenskins.

Next was the Hive world of Ghul Jensen, and despite the planetary governor Ghul Jensen redeploying the Planetary Defense Force to fortify his capital, Hive Jensen, they were still destroyed in three days.

The people of the Rogue Trading post, Malaghai Morca, managed to escape in time before the Orks struck, so yay, I guess? The same can't be said for an Agri world named Squire's Rest, which apparently has been plagued by Ork raiders over the last few years, and now they are believed be to the outriders for Waaagh! Grukk. Needless to say, they probably fell in short order. Thus, the Knight world of Alaric Prime is the only one left.

The first warning that Alaric Prime had of the greenskin menace was when the twin Astropaths of House Kestren suffered psychic trauma and rushed to their master, Lord Gaulemort, to report an incoming xenos invasion - an entire Waaagh! headed in their direction. Gaulemort then sent a message to all the other Knightly houses, but all except one ignored his warning.

Alaric Prime, just like any Knight world is bound to tradition and protocol, and it's so exaggerated here that there's a bunch of nonsensical laws that ended up incarcerating or exiling two-thirds of the planet's populace. Just for yawning during daylight hours or talking when a Noble is speaking in earshot, or pointing at the stars in the night sky. I mean...that's the grimdark, satirical nature of the Warhammer 40,000 universe for you.

Most of Alaric Prime's surface is covered in a viscous sulfuric solution thicker than seawater, while the main continent of Alaric Prime known as as Sacred Isle is surrounded by islands, each a domain of one of its knightly houses. The islands that form the rest of the habitable lands are mostly penitentaries, and obviously most of the imprisoned there are actually not guilty of malicious misconduct. Unfortunately, this means the truly criminal thrive in these lawless proto-societies there.

Worse, the houses of Alaric Prime had long stood divided, with many of the noble lineages having long-standing feuds that frequently erupted in civil wars. This meant that Gaulemort Kestren's message was ignored by all of his rivals, except Lord Neru of House Degallio, who was aware of how dangerous the Orks are, having fought against pirates raiding Squire's Rest and learning of the Obsidian Glaives' demise. In fact, his own astropath had also warned him two hours before Gaulemort's message reached him.

Despite protests from his own house, Neru Degallio, with the support of his Knight Regal, Ursor Firesword, and his Aegis, Sire Jedric of the Black Shield, rode his Knight, the White Warden, to House Kestren, and Gaulemort accompanied him and his Knights to the supposedly forbidden Sacred Mountain to send a distress call.

Of course, this meant the knightly houses of Velemestrin, Brahmica, Terryn (no, not the one from Voltoris), and Kamata censured Houses Kestren and Degallio for breaching Sacred Mountain, but just before civil war broke out, Castellan Stein - a Cadian commander - sent a message. Originally tasked with reinforcing Ghul Jensen, the Cadians had arrived too late to fulfil their primary mission, but they had outrun the cumbersome ships of the Red Waaagh! and were able to bolster the defenses of Alaric Prime. Accompanying them was a fleet of black-armored warships from the nearby Schola Progenium planet, Edificus, bringing a contingent of Militarum Tempestus Scions.

The Cadians landed and then began fortifying Alaric Prime for war.

House Degallio is the most powerful knightly house in Alaric Prime, and apparently they have their own navy. Cool. However, Isle Degallio is a fusion-powered superstructure that dwarves even the mightiest battleship in Lord Neru's fleet, a mobile conglomeration of prison hulks that has transformed into a conjoined fleet. It also houses not only dozens of Knights but also its own civilian population.

Castellan Jakren Stein is the overall commander of Alaric Prime's defenses, marshalling not only his Cadian regiments but also the Militarum Tempestus contingent, and setting up Hydra squadrons and Icarus batteries. The islander houses also enlisted thousands of minor offenders from the prisons into regiments known as House Militia.

Jakren Stein is a stoic and canny commander with a hard won reputation as he rose to the ranks of Castellan, and among his achievements was the defense of Hive Svard, brutally putting down the Sorschan Rebellion, and even the battle of Crimson Deeps against superior rebel forces who surrounded his company, where he led them to break out of the encirclement at the cost of 90% casualties. I'm not sure why he has never shown up in any other Black Library novel or campaign supplements - he's such a cool character. My in-head canon/fanfiction has him being rerouted to the Draconis system (which contains Ryusei, the Knight world of my House Yato), after the Space Wolves intervened with the whole Inquisition thing - more on that later.

The Ork fleet finally arrived to invade Alaric Prime, dropping...uh, dropships on the Knight world. The Cadians fired their Icarus lascannons and Hydra flak cannons, destroying five percent of the Ork rust-ships, but they were mostly protected by kustom force fields. Castellan Stein also dispatched Thunderbolt squadrons against the enemy ships, but they were outnumbered by Ork Dakkajets, and sent crashing. The surviving Ork dropcrafts slammed down on Alaric Prime's surface, and Orks began pouring out of their craft.

The thousand-mile ring of fortifications around Sacred Mountain began firing in all directions into the Ork hordes, massacring them. But there were so many Orks that they still came on, using each other as stepping stones and flinging themselves at hapless Guardsmen.

Fortunately, the Knights strike back. Two dozen Knights, with the warriors of Houses Velemestrin and Brahmica in the lead just behind Lord Gaulemort Kestren himself, charged into the fray and slaughtered the Orks. House Terryn stayed back to fire with long-ranged battle cannons, while Sire Dindh of House Brahmica revelled in close combat. Their ion shields and thick armor protected them from the Orks' firepower.

The Knights succeeded in annihilating the Orks in a broad column as they plunged toward the heart of the horde, but the greenskins flowed around their forward blitz before swarming behind them to cut the Knights off from the Cadians. Despite Stein's demands that they pull back, the Knights ignored him and went straight for the largest rust-ship. That proved to be their downfall.

The first Knight casualty was Rolundus Velemestrin, piloting his Knight suit, Gauntlet. While Rolundus was busily slaughtering Orks, Gauntlet fell to a thrumming chain-arm of a massive Ork war effigy (I assume it's a Stompa).

A full quarter of the rust-ship's flank fell open, with the hinged slab crushing Sire Vocus's Knight suit like a rations tin. Ouch. The resulting detonation, along with the crashing of the rust-ship's flank sent a cloud of dust across the battlefield, obscuring the Cadians' vision and causing them to miss, so the Orks ran over their fortifications and routed the Guardsmen despite them fixing bayonets.

When the cloud cleared, a Stompa lumbered out and obliterated Sire Faragheist's Knight. Sire Luminer's Knight launched a counterattack, but even his Strength D reaper chainblade only took a couple of hull points off the Stompa (unluckily, he didn't roll a 6 for the 6+D6 wounds/hull points without any saves allowed) before it crushed his armor with its own chainsaw.

...um, there's a random tidbit about Dyros of House Kamata, the second son of Hyram Kamata, who became a Freeblade when he heard whispers from his deceased older brother from the Throne Mechanicum during the Ritual of Becoming, and thus learned of his father's treachery that led to the murder of his brother. A Freedblade known as the Blade of Redemption, he had returned from the far reaches of Alaric Prime to fight the Orks alongside Houses Kestren and Degallio.

Unfortunately, House Kestren fell shortly after this. The Knights were unable to damage the rampaging Stompa, which stomped on Sire Falchine Kestren's Knight next. Finally, Gaulemort Kestren was able to hurt the Stompa with his thermal cannon, but Grukk leaped out and landed on his Knight's helm. Gaulemort was about to shock the Ork with his ion shield, but despite requesting that his fellow nobles hold fire, Sylvost Velemestrin ignored his order and fired at him, causing his ion shield to dissipate. Grukk then proceeded to rip open the carapace hatch and plucked Gaulemort from his throne and saw him into two. His son, Moloris, attempted revenge, but his Knight suit was hammered aside by the damaged Stompa, allowing Grukk to leap onto Moloris's Knight suit and...uh, stomp him to death.

Reeling at the loss of their leaders, the surviving Knights Kestren retreated toward the Cadian defense line, but they now found themselves surrounded by the Orks. Sire Dinh of House Brahmica also fell, as did Oberstraus of House Terryn, and eventually only three Knights were left. Fortunately, for the trio, the Steel Host arrived in time to pull them out - Cadian tanks showing up to blast apart encircling ork vehicles and luring the Ork horde toward them. Those who charged them were incinerated by a trio of Hellhound flame tanks.

This bought the remaining Cadian platoons and those few Knights a reprieve, and they were ordered to head south and rendezvous by the banks of Boiling River. Though the Ork vanguard had been blunted, every single Knight of House Kestren - including Lord Gaulemort - had perished.

Oh, here's a bit of tidbit on the Steel Host, a tank regiment of the Cadian 1652nd, supporting the 1651st's infantry or adding their firepower to the artillery barrages of the 1653rd. They are led by Tank Commander Silas Ovik.

The Cadians still had to face millions of Orks, and while Castellan Stein originally planned to rebuff the Ork attack from a defended position, neutralize one rust-ship's horde, then retreat to Boiling River and use its great bridges as killing fields to deal with the next rust-ship's swarm, maximizing the advantage of narrow points, but...

However, things never go as planned, and the Orks had mustered in the south in great numbers. Though Stein was dismayed by the sheer numbers of the foe, and realized if things didn't change, Alaric Prime would fall within a week, he still had a plan to use the Boiling River. From his command tank, he had the battle tanks and artillery of the 1652nd and 1653rd take up position on the banks.

The Orks charged, only to be massacred by the Cadian 1653rd's artillery fire. Even so, the survivors continued to run forward instead of retreat, and more of them fell to coordinated lasfire. At Bridge Zeta Sec, though, the Orks were protected by kustom force fields, and were less vulnerable to the artillery fire. When the Orks finally reached the bridges, Chimera armored transports were dispatched to both the Zeta Sec and Zeta Tert bridges, their Ogryn passengers disembarking to hold the Orks at bay with their slabshields and armor. The abhuman counterattack kicked the suicide bomber squigs into the river below, while holding steady to meet the Ork charge.

While the Bullgryn line held the bridges, the Ork vanguard plunged into the river eagerly to swim across, and despite the toxic sulfurous vents, the greenskins survived the boiling environment. A small portion of the Orks succumbed to it, but the rest were slowed enough for the Cadians to exterminate them.

Grukk then showed up in a massive wagon, having left his wrecked Stompa behind (apparently, it had been damaged enough by Gaulemort Kestren that he had to settle for turning it into a scrap metal fortress). Grukk and a horde of Orks alighted from the wagon at the end of the bridge and charged. Stein then reassigned his Valkyrie and Vendetta air support to intercept the xenos commander before he could reach the Cadian line. However, the Militarum Tempestus regiments and their accompanying Taurox Prime APCs wouldn't make it in time.

Grukk cannonballed into the Bullgryns and bludgeoned them to death, taking out even Bonehead Grunkt, the sergeant of the Bullgryn squad. Fortunately, the Ogryns were reinforced with another two Bullgryn squads just in time to meet Grukk's elite bodyguard of Nobs. The Cadians slaughtered hundreds of Orks, but with the Bullgryns embroiled in a desperate melee against Grukk and the heavily armored Nobs, they were unable to stem the tide, and the Orks kept coming.

Castellan Stein, having predicted this eventuality, ordered his Cadians to withdraw platoon by platoon without slowing their rate of fire. Though several Guardsmen fell, the majority retreated safely so that the heavy weapon platoons could catch the pursuing Orks in a clear killing field and annihilate them.

For one moment, it appeared that Stein's trap had worked, and though the Bullgryns had fallen to Grukk's onslaught, the Cadians exterminated the Orks at each bottleneck at the far side of the river, with the artillery companies of the 1653rd hammering them with deadly barrages.

Unfortunately, the Imperium can't have nice things, and the Orks teleported into the rear and overwhelmed the artillery positions, wiping out the gunmen and destroying the Basilisks. Though Tempestor Prime Whitlock's Valkyries and Vendettas were inbound to help, they were unable to do anything as the Ork raiders stole the Basilisks and turned them on the withdrawing Cadians, killing dozens of them. With the distraction, the Orks lunged forward and threatened to rout the disciplined Cadian retreat.

Fortunately, Lord Neru Degallio and his Knights showed up to the party. Isle Degallio had arrived and slammed into the Great Estuary, disgorging dozens...maybe even over a hundred Imperial Knights. They split up into four battle groups, with two Knight Lances taking the west bank and bombard the thickening bottleneck of Orks attempting to cross at Zeta Tert. The other two Lances headed east, intercepting the Orks on the southeast that were trying to cut off the Cadians' line of escape.

Stein made use of the reprieve to restore order and resume the withdrawal, while Tempestor Prime Whitlock's Militarum Tempestus regiments grav-chuted from their Valkyries and killed every single Ork swarming over the artillery batteries. The Cadians mounted up on their Taurox and Chimera transports before beginning their firing retreat.

The Albaster Lancers of Lord Neru Degallio annihilated much of the Orks in Grukk's bottlenecked column at Zeta Tert. They proceeded to destroy the bridge and strand the Orks of the first rust-ship on one side of the Great Estuary to allow their Cadian allies to escape. Unfortunately, Grukk and his Meganobz were charging toward them even as they undertook the time-consuming task.

Lord Degallio's White Warden then stomped forward, used his reaper chainsword to saw into the central stanchion of the bridge, then fired his battle cannon pointblank into the crumbling bridge, causing it to break in half. Hundreds of Orks, along with Grukk and his heavily armored retinue - who were literally a few meters away from the White Warden - fell into the Burning River. See ya later, Boyz!

While the Degallio Knights were focused on toppling the bridge and protecting their Lord Neru, Ork walkers arrived from the rear and took out a few of them, including Sire Betel Degallio. Surrounded, with no line of retreat, Lord Neru ordered his Knights to rally in the watercourse of the Burning River, conjuring their ion shields to protect themselves. Lots of Gorkanauts closed in on them, and the Western Degalio detachment had been reduced to fewer than ten strong. Worse, the Knights were taking heavy fire from the Orks who had been fighting the Cadians on the other side of the river.

Lord Neru ordered his lance to break formation and stride downriver in a formation that maximized their overlapping ion shields as they withdrew to Isle Degallio. Ork vehicles pursued the Degallio Knights, along with Deffkoptas. Sire Tetherine Degallio's Knight went down, but the rest managed to make it within range of Isle Degallio's cover fire, which decimated the Ork vehicles and Deffkoptas. Hah! Lord Neru Degallio's Knights then marched back into their floating fortress, safe and sound.

Despite Waaagh! Grukk's initial assault being blunted, the wounded and vengeful Grukk bashed together an army larger than his two previous forces combined. Meanwhile, the Imperial troops consolidated their forces at the base of Sacred Mountain, and were ready for him.

House Degallio had bought the Cadians time to withdraw, as per Castellan Stein's original plan, and the Cadians rallied at Sacred Mountain. Unfortunately, despite inflicting staggering casualties upon the Orks, there remained billions of them. Unless they struck a decisive blow, the Cadians and their Imperial Knight allies would be surrounded and overrun.

Stein's plan was to lure the Ork advance to an ambush on the steep slopes of the mountain, where they could bring the big guns of the Imperial Guard and Imperial Knights to bear on the slowed greenskins, as well as draw Grukk himself to the frontline. For, if they succeeded in slaying the beast, they would decapitate the Waaagh! in one go, crippling its morale and cohesion.

While the Cadians manned the slopes of Sacred Mountain - and whatever was inside the forbidding peak was causing interference with their vox - Lord Viashtu and his House Brahmica, along with the Knights of House Velemestrin, marched into view. At their rear was a green and bronze Knight Errant only known as Gerantius, who refused to respond to any attempts to communicate with him.

However, Stein had no time to ponder on the arrival of the mysterious Freeblade because the Orks finally chose that moment to attack. The artillery commander of the 1653rd had ordered his regiments to open fire, and Stein also issued the order for all guns to fire at will. The Cadians dug in across the fortified slopes of the mountain delivered overlapping fields of fire, as well as heavy weapon platoon fusillade. As the Orks approached, they were eventually met with fire from Baneblades and Stormhammers, then the battle cannons of Houses Brahmica and Velemestrin's Knight Paaldin.

Orks then teleported right in their lines, but the Cadians were prepared for them, hundreds of lasguns turning on the greenskins and felling them where they appeared. Gerantius even did this badass move where he practically jumped and landed on teleporting Meganobz to crush them before vaporizing the survivors with his thermal cannon. Cool.

Ork Dakkajets were brought down by the Steel Hosts' Hydra, while Taurox transports blasted buggies to shreds. Gerantius again did this cool thing by jumping off a boulder and swatting two Deffkoptas out of the air while bringing down a third with his heavy stubber. Hah!

Oh, and every Noble in Alaric Prime had heard tales of the ancient and legendary Knight, Gerantius, also known as the Forgotten Knight. He dwells in the heart of Sacred Mountain for millennia, a cyclopean guardian with uncanny prescience, who guards the priceless secrets of its vaults.

Anyway, Stein intended to take advantage of the Orks' compulsion to engage in melee. The Orks hurled themselves at the defended positions in ever greater numbers, but the Cadians and their Knight allies repelled them. Eventually, Grukk appeared in the frontlines, and the Forgotten Knight, Gerantius, moved to stop him.

Grukk's personal transport was escorted by a trio of Ork wagons, and its ablative armor was proof against the Cadians' firepower. The nobles of Houses Velemestrin and Brahmica stepped forward, their Knights Errant destroying the wagons, but Grukk's transport barged through the wrecks, bent on smashing into Stein's position.

Gerantius barged sidelong into the Ork wagon, flipping it to its side. Grukk and his fellow passengers spilled out and charged at Gerantius, even as Stein ordered three Cadian special weapon squads forward to assassinate the Warboss. The Castellan himself fired his plasma pistol, along with the grenades from his special weapons teams. Grukk was thrown from his feet, and to add insult to injury, Gerantius kicked the Warboss's own wrecked battlewagon onto his broken body to finish him off (but we all know that isn't enough to kill an Ork, especially one of Grukk's stature).

Still, the Orks who witnessed his apparent demise fell into dismay, and Stein ordered his Cadians to charge. Without their leader, the Orks were routed by the triumphant Guardsmen, even as they turned tail to retreat. The battle had turned into a massacre, and Stein had earned his victory.

While the battle raged on the slopes of Sacred Mountain, fighting continued around the Boiling River and the beached rust-ships. Distracted by the events on the mountain, the Ork bosses were taken by surprise by a lone Knight of House Kamata who smashed his way into the Wrath of Gork, to the cheers of the Guardsmen still holding position on the same side of the Boiling River.

The Freeblade Dyros Kamata had returned, and he purged the interior of Wrath of Gork of Meks and other Orks, while searching the wrecks of House Kestren's Knights for survivors.

As Stein anticipated, Grukk's apparent death led to a breakdown in cohesion of the Ork invasion as the horde fell apart due to infighting. The bosses of various tribes fought to become the new master of the leaderless Waaagh!, even as they were bombarded by Imperial artillery. Having broken against the bastion of Sacred Mountain, the Ork horde was scattered by the assaults of the Cadians and their Knight allies. Stein continued to drive a wedge between the Ork klans and tribes through the use of bombardment or Militarum Tempestus surgical strikes, dividing and displacing the xenos because there were too many of them to exterminate - billions, in fact.

Unfortunately, he didn't count on Big Mek Mogrok taking over the Waaagh!.

While the various Ork bosses were vying for leadership, Big Mek Mogrok and his Bad Moons were already enacting their plan. Mogrok was talented in creating big war machines, which earned him a spot in the upper echelons of Grukk's tribe. He was the power behind the throne for some time, having pioneered the kustom force fields that protected the armada of rust-ships, created the Gorkanauts that engaged the Imperial Knights at Boiling River, and spawned the Morkanauts for his personal horde.

In fact, Mogrok had intentionally steered Waaagh! Grukk toward Obstiria in hopes that a Space Marine Chapter defending their home world would be able to slay him. Unfortunately, Grukk obliterated the Obsidian Glaives and won, so Mogrok continued to linger behind the scenes. Fortunately, the Knights of Alaric Prime were able to lay Grukk low, allowing Mogrok to rise in power.

After Grukk's downfall at Sacred Mountain, Mogrok mustered his forces in his titanic rust-ship, Toof o' Mork, and marshalled his horde of Mekboyz, Lootas, Battlewagons and walkers toward the largest concentration of humans he could find. He led his Mek horde toward the massed formations of human infantry making their way across the savannah toward a plateau of crenellated keeps in the distance. With victory over the human army, Mogrok would launch his own Waaagh! Mogrok and rally the other Ork tribes to his banner.

On the rolling Auspice Savannah, far to the east of Sacred Mountain, Stein's second in command, Sergeant Fleiss, was leading an army of thousands of tanks and millions of infantry to rendezvous with the remaining Knights of House Brahmica. They intended to use House Brahmica's castle as their base of operations to scour the eastern side of the continent of greenskins.

On their way there, they encountered a massive armored wedge of Ork vehicles, and Sergeant Fleiss ordered them to open fire, destroying the Ork vehicles. Unfortunately, they didn't know that the vehicles were empty, aside from expendable grots steering the vehicles. When the Cadians wrecked the vehicles, they formed a wall of scrap that obscured the human soldiers' view, only for the Feet of Mork - Mogrok's hundreds-strong Dread Mob - to bash their way through the makeshift wall and close in on the humans.

Behind the massed Killa Kans and Deff Dreads were the Mekanobs, whose armor withstood the heavy Cadian firepower. Then Mogrok himself and lots of armored Boyz. The Cadians held their ground, as Mogrok anticipated, and despite massed lasgun fire, most of the Orks' armor protected them. His horde hit home and engaged the Imperial Guard in close quarters, slaughtering the humans.

A rust-ship descended from above, dropping massive balls of scrap metal that smashed into the rear echelons of the Cadian armies and killing dozens of men with each impact. But these were Morkanauts, and now they were right in the midst of the Cadian ranks, discharging great blasts of lightning that fried the poor men. Battle tanks and transport carriers tried to hit them, but to little effect.

Worse, a Gargant named Gungutz slowly descended into the fight, blowing up more humans. The Knights of House Brahmica strode out of the castle to join the fight, but even they were dwarved by Gungutz. While they reaped a toll on the greenskins, Mogrok's next move came into play. The Speed Freeks, with their Dakkajets, soared into the skies above the savannah, with a giant wrecking ball attached to every single one of them. Unfortunately, it caught the wreckage of a battle tank and crashed.

The rest of the Dakkajets didn't bother with the Cadians and sent their wrecking balls right into the Knights of House Brahmica, knocking them over. Ouch. The surviving Knights managed to take out the flyboys with their heavy stubbers and battle cannons, though, so yay. One of the Knights Errant managed to vaporize Gungutz's head, but the headless Gargant remained operable.

Mogrok then activated his tellyport blasta and disappeared to enact the next phase of his plan...which will be an article for another day. Point is, despite Grukk Facerippa's apparent death, the Waaagh! is not over. Waaagh! Grukk has now been replaced by Waaagh! Mogrok (which explains why the campaign supplement is known as the Red Waaagh!), and the humans are in for a big fight. Alaric Prime is still in danger of falling, particularly with the kunnin' Mogrok now at the helm. Will he succeed, or will the Cadians and Knight houses of Alaric Prime deny him his triumph? We'll find out...

Leman Russ Executioner

My third Leman Russ tank is an Executioner! Yay!

I love plasma, as you know, and of course I was going to add a plasma variant to my volkite ones! My Solar Auxilia armored cohort is coming along! More plasma is always good! Funnily enough, my Solar Auxilia doesn't have much plasma weapons. Usually volkite and las, but not much plasma, especially the infantry and walkers.

With the announcement of more Solar Auxilia tanks for Legions Imperialis, and the Mechanicum being released in plastic, it seems like a good year for Horus Heresy! I will be getting the Castellax and Thanatar automata separately, along with the Archmagos prime. At least that's the plan. Oh, and a couple of Stormblade and Shadowsword super heavy tanks for Legions Imperialis! I can't wait for the Tallarn book! Always wanted to play armored battles!

Retrospective: Traitor Legions Supplement, plus the History of Formations

With the 10th edition Chaos Space Marine codex up for preorder, I thought it would be a cool idea to do a retrospective on the Traitor Legions and how far we've come. Having started the hobby at the tail end of 6th edition, beginning of 7th edition, I thought I would focus on this period, and perhaps introduce to newer players - particularly those who only came in after 8th edition - on what a particularly wild time that was.

Of course, I would be remiss to mention what is now known as the legendary 3.5th edition Codex of Chaos Space Marines. The 3rd edition Chaos Space Marines was a very...how do I put it, sparse affair, with only like 47 pages or so, but this new codex came out before 4th edition hit - hence its famous moniker, 3.5. This new "3.5" codex expanded greatly on the Chaos Space Marine lore and added a lot of details to the Traitor Legions, which set the foundation for what we know about them today, 22 years later.

Despite this being an article on the 7th edition Traitor Legions Supplement, I should cover some details of the 3.5 codex because I think it provides a rich history for the Traitor legions supplement almost 15 years later. Also, you can read Goonhammer's excellent coverage here. But it did lay the foundations in terms of rules and how each Traitor Legion played. The Black Legion, funnily enough, got shafted here, for they were the "generic" Traitor Legion without any special rules. Aside from Abaddon the Despoiler (infamous for being the armless as his metal model was always losing his arms) being a special Character, they didn't have any generic rules.

Fabius Bile, who you will know as having his own Creations of Bile faction now, was an Independent Character back then as well. You could take him as a Chaos Lord for any Chaos Space Marine army, and he had this crazy stat table where you roll a D6, and depending on the result, you'll have to pick one of three different sets for the game. Also, if he's your Warlord, you could essentially "enhance" any number of Chaos Space Marine squads for +3 points per model. Again, at the start of the battle, you roll a D6, and depending on the roll, you get one of 3 abilities: Berserk Rage! (on a roll of 1), Stable Mutation, (2-5) or Created a Monster (6). Wild times.

Oh, Berserk Rage! has your Chaos Space Marines attack each other, meaning you make an armor save for each model, and those who fail...die. The survivors get +1 Strength. Stable Mutation gives your dudes +1 Strength and Initiative, while Created a Monster gives them +1 Strength, Initiative and Attacks, but they all count as being destroyed for Victory Points at the end of the battle. Heh.

Alpha Legion gets Chaos Cultists as Troops. They can't take Daemons except Daemon Princes and Possessed, and their power armor models can get Infiltrate in exchange for points. Chaos Cultists also have the option of taking either Move Through Cover and Infiltrate, Infiltrate and Furious Charge, or Infiltrate and Siege Specialists - for free!

Iron Warriors must be Chaos Undivided and can't take Daemons except Daemon Princes and Possessed, and every model is a Siege specialist for free. They also have no restrictions on the number of units of Obliterators they can take (aside from the Battlefield Roles in a Force Organization Chart), who usually are restricted to a maximum of 1 squad for other Traitor Legions, get an extra Heavy Support choice but two less Fast Attack choices (meaning 4 Heavy Support and 1 Fast Attack Choices), and take up to 1 Imperial Guard Basilisk and 1 Space Marine Vindicator as Heavy Support choices, plus servo arms to repair vehicles.

Night Lords also can't take Daemons aside from Furies, Daemon Princes and Possessed, and must be Chaos Undivided. They get Night Vision for free and only they get access to Stealth Adept (which improves their Cover Save by 1). They are the opposite of Iron Warriors, which means they get 4 Fast Attack and 1 Heavy Support choices, plus no restrictions on Raptors, who usually are restricted to a maximum of 1 unit for other Legions.

Funnily enough, Word Bearers must also only be Chaos Undivided. Unlike the other Legions, though, they can make use of any Daemon. Yay? They can also take Space Marine Chaplains, which count as Dark Apostles, allowing all non-Daemon units within 6" of them to automatically pass Morale checks. Also, if you want to take lots of Daemons (which are usually Troops), you can take up to 9 Troops Choices, but only 2 Elites, 2 Fast Attack and 2 Heavy Support choices.

World Eaters must all be upgraded with the Mark of Khorne, they get free Aspiring Champions, they can only use Khorne Daemons (duh), and you add +1 to your summoning rolls for said Daemons. The Mark of Khorne gives you Blood Frenzy, which means +1 Attack, Fearless, must charge an enemy within range. They must also make a D6 check during the Movement phase, and if you roll 1-2, they make a normal move plus D6" toward the nearest enemy instead of moving normally, and can't shoot. They must also make a sweeping advance when winning combat. No psykers or Sorcerers allowed, obviously.

Oh, and they are known as Berserkers of Khorne, but at this point, Khorne Berserkers don't exist as their own unit - so basically generic Chaos Space Marines with the Mark of Khorne in a World Eaters army are Berserkers.

The Death Guard, on the other hand, must all take the Mark of Nurgle, which gives them Fearless and Daemonic Resilience at the cost of being able to carry heavy weapons like lascannons, autocannons, missile launchers or heavy bolters. They gain True Grit, which gives them an extra attack in combat because their bolters count as bolt pistols (though you need to already have a second pistol or a close combat weapon to gain that bonus attack). However, they don't get the attack bonus on the charge (Horus Heresy players will know what I'm referring to). Vehicles spread Nurgle's Rot for a cost of 15 points, which means you roll a D6 for each unit within 6", and on a 6, they take a wound that Ignores Cover, but can make armor and invulnerable saves against it. Nurgle units are immune to it, though!

They also can only take Nurgle Daemons, add +1 to their summoning rolls for said Daemons, get free Aspiring Champions, and...for some reason, they are primarily infantry based, so you can't spam Rhinos. Only 2 squads of Plague Marines can take Rhinos, if you want more, they start counting as Fast Attack choices. Right, all Death Guard are known as Plague Marines.

The Emperor's Children, obviously, must take the Mark of Slaanesh. That makes them Fearless and gives them Warp Scream, which reduces an enemy's Initiative by 1 if locked in combat with them. Chosen, Chaos Space Marines, Havocs and Bikers can replace their normal weapons with sonic weaponry such as combi-bolters or twin-linked bolters for sonic blasters at 2 points, or a bolter for sonic blaster at 5 points. Autocannons and reaper autocannons can be swapped for blastmasters for free, and meltaguns can be exchanged for a doom siren for free. Their vehicles have Warp Amp, which give enemy units within 12" -1 Leadership, enemy units within 6" -2 Leadership, or -3 Leadership when in base contact.

Only Slaanesh Daemons can be used, and they get +1 to their summoning rolls. Free Aspiring Champion again, and Dreadnoughts get twin-linked sonic blasters in place of twin-linked heavy bolters, or twin-linked autocannons swapped for a blastmaster, and their flamer with a doom siren. For free, too! Predators also swap autocannons for a blastmaster and heavy bolters for sonic blasters for free!

By now, you know the drill. Thousand Sons must all take the Mark of Tzeentch, which in essence, turns all Independent Characters, Chosen and Possessed into Sorcerers, plus they automatically pass all psychic tests. Aspiring Champions - which they get for free - also become Sorcerers. The rest of the unit become Rubric Marines, which makes them Fearless, gives them Daemonic Essence and Slow and Purposeful. They are also immune to Gift of Chaos and Mass Mutation, meaning they can't mutate into Chaos Spawn, but they can't take any Veteran skills.

Slow and Purposeful remains unchanged - it allows you to fire heavy weapons without penalty (snap shooting), but in return, you get movement penalty (always counts as moving in difficult terrain), don't get the +1 attack bonus when charging, are Initiative 1 when fighting in combat, and can never perform Sweeping Advances.

Weirdly enough, they can't swap their bolters for anything (unless they're an Aspiring Champion), unless you upgrade them to Terminators, in which case, go wild. Their Vehicles get Coruscating Flame, which smacks enemy models in combat with them with Strength D6 AP4 hits before they can attack.

They also get the same "can use Tzeentch Daemons" and add 1 to summoning rolls for them.

That was the kind of the cool customizability and flexibility that you can tailor your playstyle to, which endeared the codex to so many Chaos Space Marine fans. Unfortunately, the next edition saw the customizability and character of the Chaos Space Marines cut, with the rules streamlined for presumed simplicity. Still, it was heralded as a flavorful ruleset, the kind of codex, lore and crunch that Games Workshop should aspire to.

Then came 7th edition, and almost 15 years later, the Traitor Legions codex supplement was released.

With it was all the lore about the 9 Traitor Legions, as well as brand new rules for fielding them, along with new datasheets (particularly for the Thousand Sons, who had new units added for them in the Wrath of Magnus campaign book). Those with access to Warhammer Vault can probably check it out - it's still there, but you'll notice that the "outdated" rules and unit datasheets have been removed. I'm sure there's plenty of lore videos about the Traitor Legions out there, so you can pick and choose whatever lore video you want. Instead, for this article, I'll be doing a Retrospective of the crazy Formation stuff that exemplified 7th edition as the...wild times.

First, we probably should consider the rules, and what are Formations. Back then, you built an army using Detachments. Battle-Forged Armies is probably the equivalent of Matched Play Armies today, and they didn't split Matched Play and Narrative back then.

And you'll notice this little caveat, which was how everyone basically went wild back then.

The traditional way of building an army would be to use what we call the "Combined Arms Detachment," but as you'll see above, you can theoretically include any number of Detachments, as long as you took the compulsory choices. Which...made things a little crazy...and this was before Formations - whoops, we'll get to that in a bit. For now, the "normal" way to build an army was to use the options provided in a Combined Arms Detachment. You'll notice it's similar to the Primary Detachment in the Horus Heresy system.

If you don't really want to take two Compulsory Troops, and just want to add Allies for maybe a single squadron of robots/Meks/tanks that aren't available in your Primary Detachment, you can try to cut corners with an Allied Detachment.

Again, it's exactly the same as the Allied Detachment from Horus Heresy - and just like in Horus Heresy, you can take as many Allied Detachments as you want, so long as you fit within the points limit.

However, the really crazy stuff is the Formations - which was what most people complained about back in 7th Edition. People rarely used the Combined Arms Detachments and Allied Detachments because there was simply no value in doing so, aside from being forced to take "Troop Taxes."

As you can see, Formations are a "special type of Detachment," which means you can take as many of them as you want, and without restrictions...and they count as Battle-Forged, which means you can bring them to tournaments. Because they are legal, and Battle-Forged. Matched Play at its finest.

This was where you had the insane "Taudar" combinations, where you combined powerful Eldar Formations with triple Riptides without needing to take the HQ and Troop taxes in the form of Ethereals and Fire Warriors. Just take the strongest unit (cough, Riptide, cough), combine them with, maybe Wraithknights - which you can take as a Formation too.

So...where does Chaos Space Marines come into this?

To be fair, this Chaos Warband - the first Formation in the Traitors Legion supplement - seems thematic. You don't just spam a single overpowered unit. It seems pretty balanced, requiring you to take either Terminators or Chosen or Possessed, Chaos Space Marines, Raptors or Warp Talons or Chaos Bikers, and Havocs or Helbrutes. Seems like it perfectly fits the Combined Arms Detachment, and it does! It's a fluffy, thematic list that stipulates that you take a balanced list, plus give you a decent benefit, such as extra Chaos Boons, and this gives all your models in the Formation Objective Secured, whereas only Troops Choice in a regular Combined Arms Detachment gets Objective Secured. Wow. Not bad. Pretty strong, nothing crazy, right?

But then you'll notice the other Formations are just...spamming a certain type of units.

"Hmm? What's the problem?" You might wonder. After all, the main Chaos Warband doesn't have any option for taking Heldrakes or Daemon Engines. Taking these Formations in addition to your core Chaos Warband to give them much needed heavy firepower or air cover seems thematic, right? Plus they aren't compulsory, so you're not forced to take them. Seems pretty cool?

Until you remember the rules from earlier. You can take as many Detachments as you want in a Battle-Forged army, and Formations count as Detachments. Meaning...you can literally just spam Heldrakes until you have 2,000 points of nothing but flying chickens. Or you can just take an army of nothing but Heldrakes, Maulerfiends, Forgefiends and maybe a couple of Warpsmith tax, plus get these benefits. Or maybe you're playing, I dunno, Imperial Guard, and you don't like Valkyries, so you decide to grab Heldrakes to cover your Basilisks or something. In any case, the spam was real.

I mean, just look at this, you can theoretically get up to 10 units of Obliterators and have them all shoot twice at their targets, bypassing the normal restriction of 3 Heavy Support choices...and without needing Troops tax (though you'll need to drag along a Warpsmith).

Anyway, this isn't going to be a whine article, I'm simply pointing out why people found Formations so egregious, and the kind of balance problems that plagued the notorious 7th edition. As much as I sound critical of it, I actually find the whole thing funny, and enjoy looking back at the history. Ah, how nostalgic.

Back to the Traitor Legions rules, though. I brought up the 3.5 codex because we had customizability and flavor return to the Chaos Space Marines at the tail end of 7th edition. Formations aside, we had a bunch of really flavorful rules that made building your Chaos Space Marine and chosen Traitor Legion enjoyable again. For example, Black Legion finally had their own special rules that made them distinct from the other Traitor Legions. They were no longer the vanilla Chaos Space Marines - there was a benefit to building an army of Black Legionnaires!

In fact, if it weren't for Formations, gamers will be remembering this as one of the best Chaos Space Marine supplements ever. Alas, because the tragedy of overpowered Formations and unit spam overshadowed everything, we'll miss this level of customizability and flavor. I mean, just look at the Special Rules. Black Legion gets Veterans of the Long War for free, and they can take Terminators and Chosen as Troop Choices. In 10th edition, that will mean they are Battleline, but I'm sure those who played 8th and 9th would appreciate having them as Troops. Also, if you're a Horus Heresy player, you'll be enjoying this as a type of Rite of War. Unfortunately, unlike here where they get Objective Secured, even if you take them as Troops in Horus Heresy, they lack Line (unless the Rite of War grants it to them).

Still, this is just...really cool.

However, nobody ever takes these...do you know why? Because of Formations. Not only that, there was something known as a Super-Formation - basically a special combination of selected Formations that give you even more bonuses for taking a supposedly thematic army. Here's an example. The Black Legion can take something known as the Black Legion Speartip Detachment. What's that, you say?

So what are the Formations you need?

Yeah, that's kind of...insane, right? But this is still fairly tame, actually, when you compare it to the Gladius Strike Force that gives you free Dedicated Transports (Rhino and Razorback spam), or even the Aeldari one. Good lord. Those were the times. But I do think the Black Legion is fairly thematic and not too outrageous.

The Alpha Legion also seems pretty cool. If you recall, in 3.5, they have Cultists as Troops, and basically all get Infiltrate. Here...

That's actually pretty cool! You'll see that there's not much changes - their infantry have Infiltrate, you can take Chosen as Troops, which is an improvement, plus the Warlord thing that wasn't in 3.5. Not bad. Also, the same Chaos Undivided applies - you can't take any units with Mark of Chaos or give them Marks of Chaos. So no Plague Marines, Rubric Marines, Noise Marines, Khorne Berzerkers, etc.

Their super-Formation, Insurgency Forc I'mes, is pretty tame, but still very thematic.

Sadly, they don't get as many options as the Black Legion, but they do get Shrouded for non-vehicles and you can keep sending in the next wave of Cultists on a roll of 4+, which is pretty on point for them.

Iron Warriors obviously no longer have Siege Specialists, but they get a 6+++ Feel No Pain and re-roll armor penetration rolls against Buildings and a bonus to the Building Damage table rolls in return, though, and they can take Obliterators and Mutilators as Troops, a callback to when they ignore the 0-1 Restriction on Obliterators in 3.5! Even better, these guys and Havocs now have Tank Hunters! Whoa!

No Marks of Chaos, though, which is another callback to 3.5.

Their super-formation is the Grand Company, which is pretty on point for them.

Now hold on a second, you may cry. Yeah, you might have noticed...the list is exactly the same as the Alpha Legion one, aside from having an extra "Strongholds of Chaos" that gives them 1-3 Fortifications (because Iron Warriors). Aside from the super-formation benefit, there really isn't much of a difference. It's almost like they cut and paste. I kind of prefer the special rules to the weird Formations stuff, because at least that emphasizes the difference and composition of your army, as opposed to saying, hey, "you get this special rule for everyone!"

Night Lords used to be the opposite of Iron Warriors, but now they get Raptors for Troops! Again, a callback to when they had no restrictions to the 0-1 Raptors option.

They actually get Night Vision and Stealth, like in 3.5, but also Fear now! That's very interesting. They also apply penalty to Leadership tests when locked in combat. Also, you can't take any Marks of Chaos, which is a callback to the old 3.5 (meaning they must be Chaos Undivided).

Also, we get Murder Talon Detachments now, and thank the Dark Gods, we finally get something different for a change. You'll notice that we have a new option for Core choices. Introducing the Raptor Talon to you!

You can reroll charges, plus get Night Fighting, which gives your non-vehicle units +1 to their Cover Saves - again a nice callback to the old Stealth Adept rules. Not bad. The Auxiliary choices, on the other hand, are the same old, same old. Nothing to see here.

Remember when Word Bearers are the only ones who can take Chaplains from the Space Marine codex, also known as Dark Apostles? Pepperidge Farm remembers...ahem. Anyway, it's back in the form of giving Zealot to any units within 6" of your Dark Apostles! Also, to drive home the whole Daemon thing, you can have Possessed as Troops and +1 to your summoning rolls whenever you cast a Daemonology conjuration psychic power. Well, well.

On the other hand, you can upgrade units with Mark of Chaos, though you can't take Khorne Berzerkers, Noise Marines, Plague Marines and Rubric Marines. That's a Black Legion only thing, sorry.

The Word Bearers get the Grand Host, which like the Night Lords, actually offer you an alternative option to the boring Chaos Warband.

All non-vehicles get Crusader! And you get the option of selecting Cultists as a Core - meaning you can just spam Cultists instead of needing Terminators, Chaos Space Marines and the like. You do need a Dark Apostle to lead them, though! Aside from that, it's the generic Auxiliary options, but I think the Core is really what you need to make your Chaos Space Marine Army stand out from the others. Giving all the Auxiliary options are fine, the important thing is the Core, as I said.

Now...to the monoGod Legions. This will be fun.

It's mostly the same as 3.5, but you do get Khorne Berzerkers as Troops, and they actually exist as a unit now! They also get Adamantium Will, and Fearless and Furious Charge, but they no longer have the Blood Frenzy stuff. I'll take that!

They also get the Butcherhordes, which is...something.

Now you'll notice that the World Eaters do get a special Core - the Maelstrom of Gore, which focuses on Khorne Berzerkers! They also get an additional Auxiliary option, which is the Trinity of Blood! Meaning...well, three Lords of Skulls. Enjoy. Heh.

Thousand Sons...ah, my favorite Legion. Where do I even begin? I'll go in more detail when I finally do an article on Wrath of Magnus, but for now, let's say the Thousand Sons were in a weird spot back at the end of 7th edition. They had new plastic models, new Rubric Marines, Exalted Sorcerers, Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, plus a whole new slew of rules. However, unlike in 8th edition, they have yet to receive their own codex, so you either relied entirely on this Traitor Legions supplement or Wrath of Magnus to play them, or you can grab the Chaos Space Marine codex and apply the above rules to them.

As you can see, it's not that much different from 3.5, except that you don't turn all of your Characters into Sorcerers. Rubric Marines (and Scarab Occult Terminators) are their own units and datasheets now, with their own Aspiring Sorcerers or Scarab Occult Sorcerers. And they come in-built with the Slow and Purposeful rule anyway, which is obviously a callback to the old 3.5. What is great is that they improve their invulnerable save by 1 if you cast a blessing on them, improving their durability. This was great, because you can usually get a 4++ invulnerable save on them reliably. Also, you no longer auto-pass psychic tests anymore, but given the number of psykers/Sorcerers you can take, and their psychic mastery (level 2-3), you can generate a massive pool of warp charges.

Don't ask, 7th edition psychic phase was and still is a complete mystery to me, which was why I never bothered with Thousand Sons in Horus Heresy 1.0. Like hell I'll try to navigate the bewildering warp charges pool and rolling them just to cast a single psychic spell or something.

Also, Rubric Marines are Troops. Yay!

Behold the Grand Coven, which was first introduced in Wrath of Magnus. The Super-Formation unique to the Thousand Sons, and actually the most flavorful and thematic of the bunch! Okay, maybe I'm biased, but back then, this was a really big deal because it allowed you to build a truly unique Thousand Sons force without having to rely on the generic Chaos Space Marine units from the regular codex. Aside from the vehicles and daemon engines, of course. You'll notice that it's completely different from all the other Traitor Legion super-Formations.

First off, you'll notice that you can take a War Cabal filled with Rubric Marines, or a Sekhmet Terminator-themed Formation as your Core. If you want more psykers, you can take Exalted Sorcerers, or even Ahriman himself, surrounded by other Exalted Sorcerers - and each box has 3 Exalted Sorcerers, so yeah! That's a lot of warp charges. The Formations themselves, such as the Rehati War Sect, War Coven and Ahriman's Exiles, give you bonuses to psychic tests, allowing you to harness warp charges on a 3+ instead of the usual 4+. The Sekhmet Conclave increases the Toughness of its units, especially the Terminators.

And you'll notice that you don't need a Warpsmith tax to include any Daemon Engines or tanks in your army. Plus you can re-roll Perils of the Warp and cast more psychic spells.

Truly Thousand Sons, indeed. Fun times. Really fun times. I never played this (I only had Thousand Sons in 8th and 9th, and sold them before 10th, focusing instead on Horus Heresy), but I can definitely see the appeal.

Death Guard...they haven't changed much since 3.5, keeping Fearless, but now having Feel No Pain (I wonder if Daemonic Resilience is the same? Since it became Disgustingly Resilient in 8th edition), and Relentless. Their Troops, Plague Marines, also became their own thing, but they are Toughness 5, having their own datasheet. At this point, they didn't have their own codex and plastic models - those will come later in 8th edition, shortly after Thousand Sons were released, and they had an expansive range that's actually the largest when compared to the other mono-God factions released so far. They do reduce their Initiative by 1, and no longer gain an extra attack when fighting...no "bolters as bolt pistols" nonsense. In exchange, they can take heavy weapons now! Plus they benefit from taking as many heavy weapons as possible because of Relentless. If I'm not mistaken, many lists started fielding Death Guard Havocs, and there was an outcry when Death Guard received their own codex, and all of these Relentless Havocs were invalidated. Hah!

Aside from Plague Colony, which they get as Core, they appear to play the same as other Chaos Space Marines...just tougher, have Feel No Pain, and have Relentless (Havocs). This was one of the few cases where it was simply better to take Chaos Warband over the Plague Colony because Plague Marines just weren't very good. Also, Stealth benefitted the Chaos Warbands (again, especially Havocs) more than Plague Marines, who want to be up close because apparently Plague Colony reduces WS and Initiative of units locked in combat with them. Uh...yeah.

Funnily enough, they have the option to take a Raptor Talon, which...is very un-Death Guard. They certainly are no longer "primarily infantry-based" and can take Rhinos without restrictions. If anything, that has been rectonned to Death Guard having quite a bit of armor and artillery, especially the Plagueburst Mortars and Plagueburst Crawlers. Strangely enough, you'll notice that the Helforged Warpack and Daemon Engines are conspicuously missing from the list. Huh? I guess they already had one eye on the new upcoming Death Guard codex and knew that none of the Daemon Engines will make it in (aside from the Defiler). That said, the Heldrakes are still in there somehow, despite being replaced by the Fetid Blightdrones in 8th edition.

Emperor's Children...ah. As of this writing, they are no longer in the Chaos Space Marine codex despite being in there for the longest time, and is the last of the four Mono-God Factions to receive their own standalone codex. They have an Index for now, but that's a subject for much better gamers (like Goonhammer) to tackle. Instead, I'll just point out that they are very different from 3.5. Yeah, they retain Fearless, but now - just like Death Guard - they get Feel No Pain too! Also, they get to Fight on Death once. And Noise Marines, which are now their own datasheet, are Troops. No plastic model (except the single special edition one from a few years ago), but for obvious reasons, they are just over the horizon. Most likely next year. Just be patient, Emperor's Children players! The time for excess is nigh!

The Rapture battalions, huh? Like the Death Guard and World Eaters, the Emperor's Children can take the generic Chaos Warband (boring), or they can take the Kakophoni as their Core...in other words, lots of Noise Marines.

Not much to say here because, as you can see, the Auxiliaries are practically a repeat of every other Legion (except the Thousand Sons), though strangely enough the Combat Drugs became a Drukhari thing, and Emperor's Children Fights First in 8th and later editions.

This Traitor Legions codex supplement was released in December 2016, and I think it was well received by everyone. I suspect it would be better received and more fondly remembered - perhaps just as much as 3.5 - if it weren't for the silly Formations overshadowing it. Even more amusingly, the Traitor Legions codex supplement was only legal for just 6 months, before 8th edition dropped in the summer of 2017 and its rules and datasheets were invalidated. That was...sad. And also, it was quite sad for those who paid money for it, only to not be able to use it a mere six months later.

The lore in the book is pretty cool, though, and again, it's available in Warhammer Vaults if you're a subscriber. I believe plenty of loretubers have also covered them - I don't think Arbitor Ian has done a video on it, but surely Luetin09 or Oculus Imperia or one of the others have covered it. Me, just doing a bit of 7th edition history and weaving a narrative about the crazy Formations. So when you're wondering what that oldtimer is talking about when he's complaining about Formations or whatever, here's a bit of background!

The main takeaway, though, isn't the Formations, but how the rules of the Traitor Legions have remained consistent and flavorful. Putting the Formations and super-Formations aside, having these special rules apply to each Legion, giving them unique Troops choice and applying army-wide special rules such as, say, Tank Hunter to Havocs and Obliterators, giving specific Infantry Infiltrate, or Fear, Stealth and Night Vision, or bonuses to summoning Daemons! Furthermore, each of these bonuses remain flavorful and thematic to the kind of Legion that receives them, a callback during 7th edition to the old 3.5 codex! If only we could have focused on these instead!

On the other hand, these have probably returned in some form via Rites of War in Horus Heresy. That, though, is another topic to cover. Until such a time...cough, never mind. Till then!