Ahriman: Undying

I've just recently finished Ahriman: Undying by John French, and as usual, I'll give spoilers for those who want to know what happen but don't intend to read the book anytime soon (or at all). Obviously, spoiler warning, so if you don't want to read them (why are you here then?), please skip this article.

In the last part where we left off in Ahriman: Eternal, the Pyrodomon is in ascension and is turning all the Sorcerers in the Thousand Sons Legion into ash. Ignis has already fallen, and poor Ctesias is next. Ugh. That's just the foreshadowing, though, and it turns out it was one of the multiple timelines that Ahriman experienced when using the Key of Infinity to rewind time and redo things again and again.

While Ahriman is using the Key of Infinity, he's being pursued by the Necron Lord Setekh, and his Hyksos Dynasty. Unfortunately, Setekh is also stuck in the same loop, before Ahriman rewinds time, though his presence is also causing Ahriman's plans to sort of unravel.

There's also the ubiquitous Harlequins doing the dance and revealing bits of prophecy from some book in the Black Library that's supposed to foretell all the events. Also, speaking of Harlequins, it appears that in most timelines, Ahriman's fleet of Exiles happens upon the Aeldari being attacked by the Hyksos Dynasty when they arrived to find the Key of Infinity, which is in some pocket dimension in some space somewhere.

Meanwhile, Gilgamos and Gaumata, the latter who was resurrected in the previous book by the Pyrodomon, are planning a coup because they think Ahriman has failed them and is directionless. They believe change is the only way forward for the Thousand Sons (Exiles?), and plan to ursurp him. They are also influenced by the cult of the Pyrodomon (who saved Gaumata), created the cult, and basically turned half the Exiles' fleet, including thralls and other Sorcerers, to the service of the Pyrodomon.

Of course, this ends in betrayal when the Pyrodomon, in the form of Helio Isidorus, turns both Gilgamos and Gaumata into ash. Ah, the price of treachery, indeed.

While Gilgamos and Gaumata lead the coup and sort of paralyzed the fleet, the Necrons of the Hyksos Dynasty attack them. It is foreshadowed frequently that the Hyksos Dynasty have fallen to the Flayer virus, and are all Flayed Ones. Setekh and his Dynasty have been pretty much driven to insanity, and I think it's hinted that Ahriman might maybe have introduced the Flayer virus somehow, or led to it.

Lycomedes is Ctesias's disciple, formerly being under Gaumata, but is encouraged to go under Ctesias's tutelage by Ahriman to promote "bonds" between the Exiles.

Uh, there's also this complex memory and mindscape section where Ahriman basically "conceals" his existence from the Pyrodomon - who can detect every single Thousand Son across the galaxy - by wiping his memories and becoming a "different" person altogether. This is where his Horkos persona comes in, and he essentially flees the Pyrodomon. Unfortunately, because he has some Necron device on him that Setekh had implanted with a tracking beacon, he can't escape the Necrons, and Setekh and his Royal Court pursue him all the way to the end, until they find the Key of Infinity.

Speaking of which, there's a daemon named the Bitter Kin who was sent to assassinate Ahriman...by Ahriman himself, a future version, who has all sorts of intricate schemes. Probably to wall off his memories in order to hide from the Pyrodomon (don't ask, I don't really understand either). The Bitter Kin was able to make it as far as Ahriman's mindscape, but just as the Arch-Sorcerer planned, Ctesias arrives to save him.

Meanwhile, the Pyrodomon, distracted by the Necrons attack and unable to find Ahriman, turns his attention on the assailants and essentially brings both fleets into the warp, massacring the Necrons while preserving most of the Exiles' fleet. Cool.

Setekh has Ahriman at his mercy right before they find the Key of Infinity, only for Ahriman to essentially lift the blinkers from his eyes and reveal the Flayer virus and insanity that infected his Dynasty, so Setekh finds himself assailed by his own mad warriors and crypteks and other guys. He fights them off and continues to pursue Ahriman, only to find himself trapped in the Key of Infinity, where Ahriman explains that he has full control of it.

"You may have created it, but I learned how to wield it by using it, rewinding time and experiencing near infinite timelines over and over again." Or something like that.

Basically, everything in this book is "Just as planned!" TM, but Ahriman.

Ahriman then leaves Setekh to his slow disintegration while he finally redoes time for the final...uh, time. This time, he goes back to the War on the Planet of the Sorcerers, where he cast the second Rubric. You know, back in Ahriman: Unchanged, and undoes everything. He essentially writes Helio Isidorus out of existence, so that the Pyrodomon never happened.

So basically everything after Ahriman: Unchanged has been reset, and Helio Isidorus never existed. No Pyrodomon, and everyone sees the Second Rubric as a failure, unlike in the original where at least one Rubric Marine was returned to normal. They note this weird Rubric Marine who used to be Helio Isidorus, but in the current timeline, no one remembers who he is and can't identify him, and Ahriman just locks him up, isolating him from the others.

Instead, he moves on from the failure of the second Rubric and targets a new place where he might undo the Rubric - the Black Library. Thanks to the machinations of the Harlequins to prevent a tragedy that would befall the galaxy if Setekh and the Necrons, or the Pyrodomon, were unleashed (they basically made use of Ahriman to eliminate both Setekh, the Hyskos Dynasty and the Pyrodomon, because if they didn't, the galaxy would be in a much worse state than now), Ahriman has learned of the Black Library, and within it, he sees the possibility for a cure for the Rubric. Setting his sights on the Black Library, he orders his Fleet of Exiles toward the webway.

Also, Ahriman's flagship is the Hekaton. Not sure why it's not in the Lexicanum or the wiki. Hey, someone update those pages, yeah?

Magma City

Oh, man! Just look at how big those heavy stalkers are! I think they're about the height of an Acastus Knight Porphyrion, judging from comparison pictures.

Also, it seems like we're getting plastic Krios and Karacnos tanks in addition to the Triaros as well? For Legions Imperialis?! Holy Omnissiah!

Not only that, we have a taste of a legendary formation, known as the Sibilans Taghma.

Uh, I'm not a fan of Formations of Legends, but I do hope there are Formations that allow you to take those Serperos Heavy Stalkers and Scintallax Cyclops, along with all the other new Dark Mechanicum stuff. I might build a Dark Mechanicum army to throw them against my Knights, Titans, Loyalist Legio Cybernetica and Solar Auxilia. It'll be even funnier if I use this.

So every time my Loyalist forces destroy 3 detachments from the Dark Mechanicum, they wll just respawn and attack my dudes again. That will be fun. I think my Loyalist forces will outnumber the Dark Mechanicum completely, especially since I have an entire Knight Household accompanying my Legio Cybernetica, never mind the Titans and Solar Auxilia...anyway, we'll see. This will be fun!

Rise of the Dark Mechanicum

Somehow, I forgot to report on the newest Legions Imperialis book, The Rise of the Dark Mechanicum after the livestream on Saturday. Then again, it was midnight for me (since I'm back in Singapore), so by the time it was done, I went to bed. Whoops. Anyway...

Awesome. The Serperos Overlord Heavy Stalker seems like he's Knight sized, when you compare him next to the Adsecularis Tech-thralls.

Here's a closeup:

But he's not alone!

Joining the Serperos Overlord Heavy Stalker are the Tennebrax Archer Battle Stalker, Errax Butcher Assault Stalker, Scintillax Cyclops and Harpax Swarmer Scout Host.

Put them altogether, and you get:

Even better, you can field the Scintillax, Tennebrax, Errax and Serperos in Adeptus Titanicus! WOOHOO! I assume the Serperos is Knight sized and the other Stalkers are Armiger sized, but I'm not sure. Still, they look amazing! Would be worth getting just for Legions Imperialis and Adeptus Titanicus. Along with the Mechanicum Battle Group.

I can't wait! This looks awesome! Dark Mechanicum is rising, but my Loyalist Mechanicum and Knight Houses will stand against them!

Repairs

I sent my Knights, Titans, automata and vehicles to the Sacristans and Tech-priests in my forge world to get them repaired. If you remember, a lot of them were delayed in a warp storm during the return trip to Singapore, but thankfully, they eventually made it.

Not without damage, though. So I repaired them. Or my Sacristans did, if I really want to immerse myself in role play or the 40K universe. Heh. Anyway, here are my Titans.

They are in a Titan forge or something.

Here are my Knights. Most of them, anyway.

My Mechanicus Knights too, though only the Helverin.

I also had to repair a lot of broken Skitarii units, such as my Ironstriders or Dragoons, Kastelan robots, the Secutarii, a couple of Ruststalkers and even my Onager Dunecrawler. I will need to purchase a second and maybe even a third eventually, once I get a job, to replenish their numbers. Plus the Castellax battle automata too. Sigh.

I also repaired my Adeptus Titanicus Knights.

Most of them were intact. Just a couple of magnets and one Lancer fell off his base, having broken his feet. An Atrapos also broke an arm. But generally the Legions Imperialis stuff are less fragile.

Even my Thousand Sons dropped by my forge world for several repairs. My Praetor's volkite charger and the Previan's servo-skull fell off, so it took some fixing. The worst, though, were the resin Castellax-Achea, a couple of which fell apart into several pieces. Holy Throne, that took me a long time to repair. The Osiron-Contemptor Dreadnoughts needed some fixing, but thankfully they weren't as bad as the Castellax-Achea.

Well, the Castellax-Achea will be joined by plastic Castellax battle-automata in the near future. Anyway, I'm glad they're mostly fixed now. All that's left is to check my Imperial Guard and Solar Auxilia infantry and tanks for any damage, but I'll do that another day. Already spent hours on these guys, and I'm tired. Till then.

Knight of Gold short story - Introducing Female Custodians

I've seen a lot of dissatisfaction with how female Custodians are revealed, and man, YouTube videos whining about how "Games Workshop doubled down on being woke" after the second Tithes episode on Warhammer+. Like, damn. C'mon.

One of the more common complaints is that the reveal feels "lazy" or they want a better way of how female Custodians are introduced into the lore, or something. So I thought I should try and bridge a supposedly "better" reveal with Games Workshop's statement that female Custodians were always around. I agree that they have always been around (call it a retcon, or as Games Workshop said, there's always space in the lore for constant changes and updates), but for argument's sake, if people do want a less abrupt reveal, let me try my hand at something.

Knight of Gold

I grunted as the gigantic axe collided against the glimmering shock lance of my steed, causing it to stumble. The bestial creature bellowed, swinging its immense weapon again, but I flexed my hands, my haptic gloves transmitting neural impulses. In response, my armor raised its glowing gauntlet shield to catch the deadly blade before it could cleave through adamantium, sparks showering the lesser, gibbering exodimensional xenos that brayed and leaped around our enormous feet.

As I guided my steed back, I inadvertently trampled upon several of those red-skinned, horned beasts. That small sense of satisfaction vanished when the gargantuan beast lunged again, its axe hammering into the flickering ion gauntlet shield that enveloped my Knight in a defensive aura.

The machine spirit of Naginata howled, its bellicose nature disallowing it to believe it would lose. Having fought within the Throne Mechanicum of my Cerastus patterned Knight Lancer for decades, I had been influenced by its valor and its stubbornness.

"Long live the Emperor! For House Yato!" I roared and leveled the pedal. My steed jerked forward, thrusting its crackling power lance into the beast's chest. The xenos growled and dodged with a grace that belied its bulk, and though I sheared off one of those great, black bat-like wings, I was unable to deal the finishing blow.

The gargantuan beast snarled and slammed its shoulder against my steed, cracking the frontal armor and staggering it. The holo-display before me fizzled and cracked from the impact, the grainy feed providing nothing but its massive maw.

"Throne damn it," I muttered, struggling to right my armor. The beast was barreling forward again, and my reeling steed was knocked over. My vision blacked out, my helmed head cracking against my Throne Mechanicum as I was flung against my restraints. I clenched my haptic gloves desperately, lashing out and gouging flesh and muscle from the foul creature, but it had withdrawn enough to avoid a fatal injury.

Its hooved feet stomping against the ground, it raised its huge axe with both hands, like an executioner about to behead a fallen prisoner.

My shoulders slumped, even as I defiantly raised my ion gauntlet shield for the last time. The azure glow was gone, leaving bare metal, and from experience, I knew naked adamantium wouldn't be able to withstand the cleaving stroke.

"Hah." I chuckled darkly. When I left my homeworld of Ryuusei all those years ago, to participate in the grand endeavor of the Emperor's Great Crusade and bring human worlds back into the fold of the burgeoning Imperium - and enlightenment - I never would have thought I would journey all the way back to Holy Terra for its final defense against the Traitors.

The thought of returning to humanity's birth planet had never even crossed my mind.

But now, Horus Lupercal's Legions were knocking down the walls of the Palace, and threatening the Master of Mankind. I had survived the initial Siege at the walls, I had participated in the retaking of the Lion's Gate Space Port against the Traitor Death Guard as part of the First Terran Tank Division alongside the valiant legionnaires of the White Scars, I had even escaped the massacre of so many Loyalist Knight banners and Titan Legions at the hands of the nefarious Legio Mortis.

And now, right within the innter Sanctum, the last bastion of mankind that was invaded by these foul exodimensional xenos through unknown means, my faithful steed and I would finally fall.

At least I fall in the defense of the Emperor...but by His name, I shall take this monstrosity down with me!

Even as the axe severed the left arm of my Cerastus Knight at the elbow, hewing through the adamantium frame once renowned for producing an impenetrable field of defensive energies, I thrust the shock lance forward as one final display of defiance.

...only to miss spectacularly, the lance grazing the shoulder and tearing off the monster's other wing. Like the Minotaur of ancient myth, the beast snorted and sawed through the remnants of my steed's shield arm, readying to plunge that infernal weapon into its chest.

It never had the opportunity to do so.

At the corner of my failing holo-screen, I caught sight of a glimpse of gold. A flash, too fast for my mortal eyes to see, streaking like a bolter shell, impacted against the great beast and causing it to stagger. As the bullish monstrosity whirled to confront the new threat, bolter shells detonated against its face, the gold figure landing at its heels and spinning the guardian spear in his grip.

Golden auramite with a polished sheen that remained bright despite the falling dust and violence of the siege. That crimson plume that extended proudly from a tall helm. Reflexes and movements far beyond any human - surpassing even those venerable warriors of the Legiones Astartes.

A warrior of the Legio Custodes. I had the privilege of witnessing their martial superiority before, even fought alongside a handful of them during the Great Crusade - and more frequently during these final dark days of Holy Terra - and their superlative skills had never failed to amaze me. The genius of the Emperor, condensed into his masterful genetic craft, had bred only ten thousand of these warriors - a drop in the ocean when compared to the uncountable military forces seeded throughout the vast Imperium.

I watched in awe as he danced through the barrage of strokes that the monstrosity furiously delivered, weaving through the immense axe-blade before punching his guardian spear into the chest. The smaller weapon didn't seem to deal more damage, but the following detonations told me that the Custodian had fired bolters pointblank into the wound he had opened.

The beast bellowed and swatted the Custodian away, but the golden warrior cartwheeled - a movement that seemed impossible for a figure clad from head to toe in brilliant, heavy armor - and avoided its immense arm. He hit the ground and ducked elegantly under a reverse sweep of the beast's axe, and even left a cut across the assailant's wrist that bled brimstone and ash instead of blood.

Stomping about, the monstrosity appeared to be a raging whirlwind of uncontrollable violence, a contrast to the precise and measured strokes of the impossibly swifter golden blur of the Custodian. Another couple of strokes sent infernal substances spurting from the creature's ravaged throat, but still, the beast refused to fall.

However, this was no mere monster. From what I could tell, it was a master of the infernal legions that were crushed under the fuselage of my steed, of the gathering hordes that continued to sweep across the Inner Sanctum and were now joining the battle.

The Custodian, noting the numbers, swung his guardian spear in an eviscerating arc, gutting and cleaving the smaller creatures before taking a step back. However, he was unable to avoid a backhand, the curled talons of the greater beast grazing his helm and tearing away the plume.

The Custodian stumbled, his helmet clearly dented, but he was somehow able to avoid the next blow, which pulverized the ground. As he retreated, more bolter shells detonating against the pursuing beast, I finally made my move.

C'mon, Naginata, you can do it.

I poured my will into my steed, melding it with the barely contained rage of Naginata, and pierced the monstrosity from behind. Azure lightning erupted along the length of my armor's shock lance, focusing into an explosive blast at the edge and blowing the monster from the inside out. I watched with grim satisfaction as the once-winged beast convulsed before disintegrating into a swirling cloud of ash and brimstone.

The Custodian landed on his feet gracefully, poised to evade a sweep that never came. He tilted his head slightly in thanks.

"No, I should be the one thanking you." Coughing, I removed my helm and climbed out of my fallen Knight, which was half-lying in the dirt, partially propped up by the still crackling shock lance. I was going to need a sacristan, but such experts were impossible to find now, when the forces of Terra were depleted severely by the constant assaults. "I'm Tanaka of House Yato, and I wish to express my gratitude to you for saving my life."

"The gratitude goes both ways," the Custodian replied in a deep voice. He reached up to remove his damaged helm, allowing the dented equipment to drop on the ground. My jaw dropped when I saw his..., no her features.

"You...you are a woman."

Her brow furrowed in puzzlement. Like all Custodians, her steely features appeared chiseled from granite, that bulked up frame coiling with all of that raw power within.

"I do not see the revelance of my gender to this situation."

"Ah, no. Forgive me, my lord. I meant no offense. I just thought...I used to believe that all Custodians are men."

Now that I thought about it, the majority of the Custodians I had fought alongside always had their helms on. Perhaps their leader - the Shield Captains, if I wasn't mistaken - would occasionally remove their helms to speak with a Legate Marshal or a Legion Praetor, but for the most part, the golden warriors were silent inhuman figures with their faces concealed behind those auramite masks.

I had always assumed that all of them were male under those inscrutable helms, but it appears that I was sorely mistaken. Now that I thought about it, there was no basis for such an assumption. For all I knew, underneath those helms and layers of master-crafted auramite, a significant portion of those Custodians were female. There was no way to tell, not when their resplendent armor rendered their physical exteriors near identical to each other, aside from markings of rank.

"Our Lord and Master does not distinguish between genders when it comes to selecting prime candidates for the Legio Custodes. As long as our constitution matches His needs, He will perform the genealchemical surgeries on us, regardless of our origins."

"Y...yeah. I didn't know that."

She cocked her head. "You are from House Yato of Ryuusei. Similar to House Procon Vi of Procon, where your military traditions are dominated by male scions and soldiers."

She did not mean that as criticism, but merely an observation, yet I flinched from the sting of her words. The Daimyos of House Yato had insisted on "honoring" our traditions and customs, but was real honor not doing all we could in order to combat the Traitors? In these dark days, we should have mobilized every reserves we had, instead of adhering to history and tradition.

Not only that, a significant fraction of our planetary militia was composed of women, many of them wives and daughters left behind by the soldiers departing for the Great Crusade. They were equipped with rudimentary lasrifles to protect our homeworld of Ryuusei, a stark contrast to the more advanced volkite chargers from Old Night that were issued to the male frontline soldiers. Yet, would possessing the resolve to defend Ryuusei from invaders with basic, less advanced weapons and wargear not make them more courageous and honorable than us, complacently clad in our immense armors of adamantine or ensconced within sturdy hulls of battle tanks?

"That is correct, my lord. My apologies."

"No need for apologies." She turned away, clanking the haft of her guardian spear against the ground. "You are here, in the final days, to assist us in the defense of the homeworld. For that alone, you have our thanks."

I made the sign of the aquila as I watched her go before flopping against the hull of my sprawled Knight Lancer. Glancing at Naginata, I wondered what kind of field repairs I could conduct to coax my faithful steed back to battle. As I did so, I shook my head wryly.

I thought I saw everything, but even in these final apocalyptic days of the Age of Darkness, I still find myself learning something new.

Mechanicum for Legions Imperialis

Oh, awesome! I was busy the whole day, having to run errands for my dad and job hunting, but I saw this morning that the Mechanicum is getting a battle group for Legions Imperialis!

I'm here for the robots. The automata, in other words! I'm going all in on the Legio Cybernetica. My Forge World of Draconis IV finally gets represented in Legions Imperialis, and I'll be assembling my cohorts of automata for war!

I also see quite a few other automata aside from the mainstay Castellax and Thanatar - the Vorax, the Vultarax and even the Arlatax get models, which means they will be getting plastic releases in the future! WOOHOO!

I can't wait! Obviously, I'll need to get a job first before I buy any of these, but hopefully it won't take me too long to find one. Then I'll get back to hobbying. Fingers crossed! We'll see, but even if I don't get this box, I'll just buy the models separately when they're released. Whatever happens will happen, I guess.

Ave Omnissiah!

Martian Civil War Lore

I had the chance to read through the lore section of The Martian Civil War, the latest Horus Heresy campaign book, and...well, it's interesting. I do like a lot of it, but I won't deny that I came away feeling largely disappointed.

First, though, let's get this out of the way. I've seen a lot of complaints on social media about how a Mechanicum-centered book is a Legiones Astartes book instead. They are mostly exaggerated. Yes, the lore is about Space Marines...fighting Dark Mechanicum. But it's not only about the Legiones Astartes. The Imperial Fists, Raven Guard and Blood Angels are joined by Loyalist Mechanicum forces - the Pilgrim Skitarii being a very fascinating addition to the lore - and Solar Auxilia in the form of Saturnye Rams and Jovian Grenadiers (you'll remember these guys from Graham McNeill's Mechanicum), and the Legio Custodes. And the big bad, the primary antagonist, is the Dark Mechanicum. No two ways about it. The Alpha Legion shows up sporadically, but no other Traitor Legions appear. This is by and large a Loyalist "everybody" versus Dark Mechanicum book.

What, did you think the Dark Mechanicum will only fight Loyalist Mechanicum? That the Astartes stationed on Terra won't do anything about Traitors right on their doorstep?

Look, I get where the complaints are coming from. We pretty much have the Daemon Engines from The Depths of Tredecimmia exemplary battle encountered by the Imperial Fists when they launched an invasion of Bodt, a mustering ground and defensive bastion for the World Eaters, reprinted here. They are the Blood Slaughterers, Decimators, Kytan Daemon Engine and Greater Brass Scorpion. The Anima Malefica from that exemplary battle makes a return, but it has been updated with new rules! Specifically, you gain access to it if you take the Aethertek Proscribed Techno-arcana. You also get reprinted Corrupted Knight rules from The Battle for Felweather Keep exemplary battle. That aside, yes, we have no new datasheets or new models for the Mechanicum, aside from reprinted datasheets from a free exemplary battle PDF. I get that people are upset and disappointed.

But focusing on the three Unique Characters given to the Legiones Astartes (plus a fourth in the form of Legion Previans getting access to daemon engines for Traitors) and claiming that this is a Space Marine book is a bit of a stretch. Rules wise, there's plenty to indulge in if you're a Dark Mechanicum player. Reprinted Daemon Engines aside, you get new Warlord Traits and new Proscribed Techno-arcana. If you're talking balance or whining about how weak or useless these are, then I don't know what to say because I'm not a competitive player, but from what I can see, they seem very flavorful and open up new options. Nekrotek seems pretty fun, Malefekite is interesting with the Ruinous Cybernetica upgrade, and even Aethertek gives you a Decimator in your Troops slot. Plus there's an assassin one that's the Dark Mechanicum version of the Myrmidon, called Malimina.

The Krios gets a new weapon option - irradiation blaster - which hints that we might be getting a new plastic model. A squadron will pair well with the Triaros Armored Conveyor. Triaros and Krios. Hey, they rhyme!

I wonder if publishing the Corrupted Knights and Daemon Engines in free exemplary battle PDFs earlier was a mistake on Games Workshop part. People tend to be upset when you have to pay for stuff that was originally available for free. I do hope this doesn't put them off from creating new exemplary battles in the future, but they'll need to balance reprinting these with additional new content. That said, it is pretty cool to have exemplary battles' units officially published in an actual book so you can just refer to that single book instead of printing out the PDFs. Maybe. Your mileage may vary.

Honestly, though, I bought the book for the lore. As a Loyalist Mechanicum guy, I won't deny being disappointed that there was almost nothing rule-wise for me, whether it's datasheets, Warlord Traits, Techno-arcana, or whatever. There is a sweet campaign system that I will try out if I ever have a chance and get a group going, but aside from that, the lack of rules - though disappointing for Loyalist Mechanicum players - didn't really bother me. I was more interested in what was going on in Mars, if there was any new narrative content that wasn't covered in Graham McNeill's amazing Mechanicum novel in the Horus Heresy series.

...there was, but it was...disappointing to say the least.

To sum it up, there are three separate campaigns or battles/missions/events/incidents/whatever you call them in The Martian Civil War. The first one is a tale we're all very familiar with, especially those of us who have already read Graham's Mechanicum. Instead of Dalia Cythera's little group, the Knights of House Taranis, the Loyalist elements of Legio Tempestus or any mention of the battle at Koriel Zeth's Magma City (it's mentioned offhand, but that's it), we zoom in on the Imperial Fists' battle to secure munitions, power armor and war materials from Zagreus Kane's forge at Mondus Occulum. Sigismund and Camba Diaz lead four companies to Mondus Occulum and Mondus Gamma, with Camba Diaz accompanied by cohorts of Jovian Grenadiers. The Imperial Fists and Solar Auxilia are beset upon by the frenzied cyborgs and automata of Lukas Chrom.

Sounds familiar? That's because it's a more detailed account of that incident in Graham's Mechanicum.

There's also the Saturnye Rams who fought at Ipluvien Maximal and got wiped out. Ouch. I do like the detail that they added about the Saturnye and Jovian forces having a grudge because of a bitter history between them - the polities of Saturn having bent the knee to the Emperor first and thus received more favor than those of Jupiter, who resented them for it despite believing they deserve as much prestige. However, Jupiter resisted for much longer, which was why they weren't as...favored.

Legio Mortis shows up, as well as a bunch of Knights. The poor Knights weren't even given a name nor their House identified, just called the hunting dogs of Legio Mortis. I assume they are House Vextrix because a Knight in its colors gets a footnote and they are known to serve alongside Legio Mortis. Apparently, Legio Mortis and House Vextrix were hunting Legio Agrivades (Agravides?) and House Zavora.

There's a cool moment when the Legio Custodes teleport to save the beleaguered survivors of the Jovian Grenadiers, which I appreciate. Always gotta look out for the mortals. Good on you. Um, Sigismund, the Imperial Fists, and Zane's Taghmata took out the Knights accompanying Legio Mortis, but were forced to retreat because they're no match for the Titans.

After that, Knights are never mentioned again in the lore section. I call utter BS.

I won't lie, it's frustrating to see illustrations recycled from the old Horus Heresy black books from 1.0 - Conquest, Tempest, Retribution, etc. - with lots of Knights fighting alongside Taghmata forces. In those original black books, Knights are frequently described clashing against each other alongside opposing Taghmata forces. Yet, there was little to almost no mention of Knights, alongside from nameless Knight fodder blown up by the Imperial Fists, and three pages of random Knight characters who aren't involved in any of the three incidents at all. Really?

The Martian Civil War, which was a great opportunity to flesh out non-Space Marine factions such as House Taranis, maybe House Zavora, perhaps House Vextrix - much like how the old black books went into details on the various Knight Houses (hell, you can see my Knight articles in the blog) - did not. I don't mind the inclusion of Imperial Fists, Raven Guard and Blood Angels. It makes total sense that they will dispatch missions to Mars. But why are you excluding House Taranis and other major Mechanicum/Knight factions that were involved in the Heresy? Why is there no mention of the Loyalist Legio Tempestus's last stand?

Omnissiah, this is a major disappointment.

The second battle is Corvus Corax leading a contingent of Raven Guard to Mars alongside the Legio Custodes to save the Arch-genetor Kephram Unguor, a Martian gene-wright who helped the Emperor create the Custodian Guard. He also helped elevate the adults (think Luther of the Dark Angels or Kor Phaeron of the Word Bearers) to near Astartes level with his technology, though it had a high failure rate that proved fatal. Along with Shield Captain Sola Morvae Arcas, the same commander who led the Custodes force who rescued the Jovian Grenadiers earlier, Corax was to infiltrate Perditum Incendor with his sons. Reaching Mars, they met up with the Aedis Theta-14 Skitarii Pilgrym Conclave, commanded by First Ordinal Theta Gao, before taking off to Perditum Incendor.

Long story short, they failed.

Turned out the whole thing was a trap by Lukas Chrom to lure Custodians to Perditum Incendor so that he could kill and capture them for further research. He set daemon engines upon the Astartes and Custodians, as well as Skitarii. Lots of Loyalists die, despite taking a toll on the daemon engines, automata and tech-thralls, but Corax was able to fight his way to Chrom and grievously wound him before the villain teleported away. Kephram Unguor, by the way, was long dead, his body among a pile of Magi Biologis genetors ritually massacred for Chrom's dark designs.

So basically the Raven Guard (and a few Custodians) lost a lot of men for nothing. The Pilgrym Skitarii got wiped out (ouch), and further purges were done on Loyalist holdouts across Mars. Holy Omnissiah, this sucks for us Loyalist Mechanicum. It gets worse and worse.

The Pilgrym Skitarii is actually an awesome concept, and I wish we get rules for Skitarii in Horus Heresy. I really do. Hell, I think a lot of the flak this book is getting would be mitigated if they just provide Emperor-damned datasheets for Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard as Line Troops for Mechanicum. Let them take Triaros as transports, just give them Line and make them an option in Mechanicum armies (instead of the weird half-assed Titan detachment they get). Ugh. Ironstriders, Sydonian Dragoons and Onager Dunecrawlers will be cool too. For Omnissiah's sake, just give us actual Skitarii rules for Horus Heresy (not just the weird Titan detachment one for Secutarii)! The Pilgrym Skitarii are armed with photon and galvanic weapons, apparently - lots of photon rifles mentioned, so maybe we might be getting new Horus Heresy era Skitarii later down the line? I doubt it, but a cyborg can wish. Still, Skitarii for Horus Heresy and photon rifles...cool.

Oh, Corax, the surviving Custodes and Raven Guard leave empty-handed. What a waste of time.

The third and last battle is when scrap-code was transmitted from Mars to the servitor-slaved kill-sats in the Oort Cloud - especially some awesome titanic automata called the Arca Silentus, which was a spacecraft and construction platform combined to endlessly replicate attack automata-satellites among the Oort Cloud asteroids. The Arca Silentus, as you would expect, is corrupted by the scrap-code sent by Lukas Chrom (AGAIN), and turns into a gigantic daemon-automata thing that the Custodes struggle to defeat until they receive unexpected assistance from two Dark Angels Destroyers, who blow the whole platform to the warp with rad torpedoes. Again, this Custodes contingent is led by none other than Shield Captain Sola Morvae Arcas. Not sure if they (yes, Arcas is non-binary, it seems, and if you're going to whine about woke, go...wake up) survived. There is an aftermath addendum that says they discovered the wrecked Dark Angels destroyer, and though the mortal crew (serfs) and servitors were dead, they found the Astartes and Custodians in deep sus-an coma, and recovered them as high priority subjects. Arcas might be among them, I don't know.

Very rad.

On the other side, you have Praetor Aster Crohne leading Blood Angels Inductii and a single Dreadnought by the name of Hamonah, to Mars to destroy whatever was sending the scrap code. They are accompanied by a Legio Cybernetica Cohort named Capita Aquilae, commanded by Archmagos Domina Erane Shurol.

Again, long story short, the Blood Angels and Cybernetica army were beseiged by Chrom's daemon engines, and almost died when a Legio Mortis Titan showed up, only for Skitarii to show up and save their asses. Not only do they blast apart the corrupted automata with exotic energy weapons, they also produced an Ordinatus engine that blew up the Titan in two shots. Hah!

The Blood Angels had to fight a Brass Scorpion later, which was guarding the two siege-walkers that were transmitting the scrap code. They destroyed it, along with lots of other automata, but two more Brass Scorpions showed up! Thankfully, the Arca Silentus was destroyed by the Dark Angels at that moment, and the feedback hit them, shutting down the daemon engines or something, allowing the Blood Angels to counterattack and destroy them. Hamonah sacrificed himself to detonate the reactor of one of the engines, which blew up and wrecked its twin. Loyalists win. Oort cloud servitor-satellites were secure and safe from scrap-code. Chrom, as usual, escaped again (this is getting annoying), but at least this isn't meaningless like the Raven Guard one.

The lack of Knights is...disappointing. We get brief mentions - House Taranis Questoris Knight Styrix "Mors Iram" and its scion who escaped the doom of the Magma City and pledged her service to various Loyalist enclaves and roving warbands against the Traitors. At least she will be reunited with other scions of House Taranis after the Siege of Terra as distant detachments returned to their homeworld.

There's also Hastam Glorae, pilot of the Cerastus Knight Lancer (the damned book didn't even get it right, it called it a Questoris Knight Lancer, shows you how little effort they put into the poor Knights), "Rubricatus Exul," part of the 19th Vanguard Lance of House Taranis. He was waiting to embark a House Taranis conveyor-barque when the Death of Innocence erupted across Mars, and fought through the Ring of Iron to his transport along with other knights of House Taranis. Fortunately, the Knights of House Taranis escaped the Ring of Iron and Mars safely.

But...yeah, Knights of House Taranis, apart from these brief anecdotes, are not involved in the main story at all. It's very disappointing. At least give us a datasheet of Raf Maven or Leopold Cronus? C'mon. We do get Steadfast Aegis the House Vextrix Knight Atropos I mentioned earlier hunting poor Knights of House Zavora and Titan Legio Agrivades. But that's it. Compared to the black books of 1.0, this is...very disappointing. In Conquest, Tempest and Retribution, we have accounts of entire Knight Houses clashing. That was where House Vyronii first appeared, and pretty much became the poster boys for Horus Heresy Knights. You have House Malinax for the Traitors. They were very involved in the main conflicts of the Horus Heresy. Yes, Space Marines Legions were the main players, but the Legiones Astartes were not the only factions to be embroiled in civil war. You need to expand on the Knights as well.

At least the Mechanicum get a token mention. Skitarii, Pilgrym Skitarii, Capita Aquilae, etc. on the side of the Loyalists against the daemon engines and twisted automata of Lukas Chrom and other Dark Mechanicum forces. But Legio Tempestus? House Taranis? House Zavora? C'mon.

I might be nitpicky, but there's another thing that really, really annoys me as a Mechanicum fan. Always, the Astartes are described as superior, more skilled, blah blah blah than the "limited" programming of the automata. Until that "limited" protocols were overcome by the Dark Mechanicum's proscribed daemon engines, then the corrupted engines became a match for the Astartes. The "Emperor's Genecraft" was often pitted against the "machines of Mars" and proved superior, until Daemons are involved. Yeah, yeah, I don't need you to tell me two or three times how the Astartes/Custodians are superior to automata (which kind of makes no sense, given that the automata are tougher and have more firepower on the tabletop, and cost more points). It's always how the Astartes lose only a dozen, but they slaughtered dozens of automata and hundreds (if not thousands) of Tech-thralls. Or the Custodes butchered dozens of automata while losing only one of their number. Only the limitless numbers of the automata and daemon engines end up overwhelming them.

Tech-thralls being fodder, I can understand, but c'mon, leave my precious automata alone. It's getting depressing to read. Am I supposed to concede if I'm playing Mechanicum and my opponent brings Space Marines or Legio Custodes? I know Astartes are "awesome," but surely there has to be a better way of illustrating it rather than simply mowing down endless hordes of automata. Like, the Castellax is tougher than the typical Astarte Legionnaire, yet the latter are somehow destroying dozens of the former with bolters and chainswords without taking relatively many casualties in return?

I call BS.

Seeing your faction turned into a punching bag does not feel good. And this isn't the Skitarii we're talking about here. The hundreds of tech-thralls getting massacred, I understand. If a hundred Skitarii fall for a dozen Astartes in exchange, that's a good trade. But automata? How? Are you going to bring them down in points in the future or something? It's like someone forgot how robots in Warhammer 40,000 are supposed to work.

It's just a nitpick, and while it doesn't feel good to read how automata are being massacred by the dozen without doing much to the Astartes opponent, honestly, it really isn't a big deal. Units get nerfed all the time, lore constantly changes, and I'll just move on. Valrak says there's a new streamlined edition next year, so hopefully they'll balance everything out rather than just favor Astartes. I know the game is Astartes centered, but honestly, that doesn't mean you nerf all the other factions to oblivion or exclude them from the lore. I wish there was more involvement of Knight houses in The Martian Civil War instead of token anecdotes - and seriously, you're reusing all those amazing illustrations from the first edition Horus Heresy black books with lots of Knights in them! For Omnissiah's sake, make use of them in the lore as well!