The PURGE

I've pretty much decided what to buy. I'll probably finish buying my 3rd Imperial Knight and 5 Broadsides to complete my Adamantine Lance Formation and Tau Firebase Support Cadre. They make a perfect 1,850-point army that I can use in all tournaments. YAY! 3 Imperial Knights with 1 Warlord stomping away, while 1 Riptide and 6 Broadsides provide anti-air support, the Riptide even having Interceptor. Nice. Speaking of which, the story still holds. I still have an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor who requisitoned some troops from the Draconian Regiment (424th Armored Regiment, to be precise) to steal Tau battlesuits from the Tau Empire in the Damocles Gulf.

The Draconians are fun. They come from a system called Draconis, and their main primary planet is the Super-Earth Draconis III, which lies right smack in the habitable zone. Meaning lots of water, great Earth-like atmosphere with 24 percent oxygen. They are pretty much modeled after the Japanese (yeah, you saw that coming, didn't you?), with hi-tech stuff. The running joke is that their war cry is "Koutei banzai!" (「皇帝万歳！」) which roughly translates to "long live the Emperor!" in Gothic. However, if you literally translate their indigenous language, it literally means "Emperor, ten thousand years old!" Which is funny because the Emperor is literally ten thousands years old, having sat on the throne for 10 millenia (since the 31st millenium). It's an agri-world that produce trillions of tons of rice (well, it's a Japan-like world, after all) and offers lots of seafood as well. Yay.

The Draconians have access to a unique Forge World called Draconis IV, something like Mars in the Terran solar system. The Adeptus Mechanicus who live there aren't the dudes with mechadendrites or augmetic implants. They prefer to remain "human" (as if Techpriest Enginseers aren't humans), and as much as possible they strive to preserve their flesh and blood despite working in hi-tech environments. They usually try to experiment and innovate, occasionally ignoring restrictions until an Inquisitor comes down hard on them. They are aware of the dangers of artificial intelligence, having an experiment go wrong during the early years of Draconis's colonialization. Point is, they are usually more technologically advanced and "human" than most of the forge worlds in the Imperium, they are basically the closest thing the Imperium of Man has to the Tau. The Adeptus Mechanicus in Draconis IV relies on Draconis III for food, like all forge worlds, but they maintain a huge distance from their fellow Omnissah worshipping techpriests. The branch in Draconis believes in progress rather than rituals and the machine-spirit, almost to the point of heresy, and this ends up isolating them from the rest of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This suits the techpriests in Draconis fine, because islation means thay can indulge in whatever near-heretical work they want without Magos yelling at them for not respecting the machine-spirit or the Omnissah. Again, banzai. Thankfully, the Imperium of Man maintains their trade with Draconis because they are one of the few forge worlds other than Ryza to produce Leman Russ Executioners, and at a much cheaper price for many more models (but as you'll see later, these come at a cost). Plus the Imperium doesn't care what they do as long as Draconis continues to supply them with Baneblades, Hellhammers and the occasional Imperial Knight armor.

On top of that, Draconis is the only system where the Imperial Knights are not piloted by Nobles. As far as I know of, anyway. As I said, thanks to the advanced technology and research that often dangerously veers close to the limits of what the Imperium allows, Draconis IV is able to produce large numbers of Imperial Knights and even super-heavy tanks like Baneblades and Hellhammers. The pilots of Imperial Knights are not Nobles. There are no Nobles in the Draconis system, and the planetary governor rules by way of elections rather than bloodline or family connections (basically democracy!). The pilots are selected from the Draconis regiments, a large pool of volunteers who strive to pilot giant robot suits (admit it, it's every man's dream). The protagonist is also one of these eager volunteers who wants to pilot an Imperial Knight despite the high death rate and casualty list that come along with the job. These volunteers go through a similar Collegia Titanica, which trains the pilots to pilot Imperial Knights, but operate very differently from their counterparts across the Imperium of Man. They are trained to fight not by themselves but alongside their fellow soldiers in tanks and gunships. The concept of honor and glory is not in the dictionary of the Imperial Knights of Draconis. Friendship, brotherhood and duty are.

As such, the Imperial Knights of Draconis serve side by side their Imperial Guard battle-brothers, often counting themselves as among the Draconian Armored Dragons (the Imperial Guard regiment of Draconis) rather than as a separate division. They are usually given the rank of Lieutenant when commissioned to pilot an Imperial Knight, and answer to their commanding officers in the regiment. Sometimes said commanding officer might even pilot an Imperial Knight himself while he commands squadrons of Leman Russ tanks and Vendettas. Typically, Imperial Knights operate in squads of three so that they can execute the Adamantine Lance Formation to make full use of their overlapping Ion Shields. Of course, the Adamantine Lance Formation is always accompanied by a tank company such as the Steel Host (Draconian version). However, many times the Adamantine Lance Formation is broken up so that individual Imperial Knights would be sent to escort a Baneblade or a Hellhammer. Sometimes two Imperial Knights would escort the super-heavy tank, but very rarely all three will serve as escorts as they operate better alongside normal tanks rather than get in the way of the Baneblade or Hellhammer's prodigious firepower. Too many cooks spoil the broth, after all, and the explosion of either the Baneblade/Hellhammer or one of the Imperial Knight might trigger off a chain explosion that ends up destroying the rest of the exceedingly expensive super-heavies.

The Draconian Armored Dragons are known for their armored regiments rather than infantry. They try not to rely on infantry as much as possible, instead relying on their Leman Russ Tanks. The Draconians are proud of being one of the few Imperial Guard armies to field lots and lots of Leman Russ Executioner tanks. As I said, thanks to the advanced technology of the forge world Draconis IV, the Draconian Adeptus Mechanicus (who are eccentric when compared to most of their counterparts from other systems, always eschewing augmetics and mechadendrites to remain as human as possible) also produce a significant portion of the Imperium's plasma weapons. Hence they actually have a large number of Leman Russ Executioners. Of course, they failed to completely replicate the technology that the forge word Ryza possessed, so they don't have the advanced cooling and venting systems that Ryza Leman Russ Executioners boast of. On the plus side, Draconis makes their Executioners a lot more cheaper and thus are able to more efficiently mass-produce the Executioners, at the cost of these devastating tanks running the risk of having their plasma weapons blow up on them (read: Get Hot!). (Yeah, the reduction in costs from 190 to 155) Despite this, they usually slap on plasma cannons sponsons on their Executioners and throw them into formations (the Steel Host!) or have a Warlord-type tank commander take charge of them (Preferred Enemy rule!) so that they would have less risks of getting hot and blowing up on themselves. The logic is that experienced commanders know when to use these deadly plasma cannons, and how to maximize their destructive power through judicious timings and vast experience without resulting in self-destruction.

Needless to say, it's not all Executioners. They are usually accompanied by one Leman Russ Punisher because a few warlord-type tank commanders prefer Punisher tanks for the huge number of "Dakka" shots the Punisher Gatling Cannon throw out, or one Leman Russ Vanquisher because most warlord-type tank commanders are advised to sit back and blast off their armorbane Vanquisher Cannons from super-long range rather than risk going forward and dying in battle. Alternatively, Executioners are held back for defense as several Draconis Steel Host formations are famous for their long range and artillery-styled bombardment. The Draconians have a good many Vanquishers, and when they use them, they are usually accompanied by a couple of Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks for their equally long range and ability to bombard from afar like artillery and a couple of Executioners for plasma defence. A typical Steel Host formation could consist of a Tank Commander in a Leman Russ Vanquisher (because he's the only one with good enough aim to hit another tank or armored vehicle more than 50% of the time), 2 Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks to fire alongside the Vanquisher from long range, and 2 Leman Russ Executioners for plasma defence in order to melt deep-striking Terminators (we're talking about the Chaos Space Marines) into red-hot slag. Not to mention an obligatory Hydra for anti-air because none of the tanks can shoot air (well, the Vanquisher can, but with only one shot and needing a 6 to hit, it's going to be very lucky if it can score even one hit).

And as mentioned earlier, the Draconians are also famous for producing Baneblades and a second variant, Hellhammers. They wish they could produce the Shadowsword, but they lack the technology to do so (ouch). They usually try to support such massive super-heavy tanks with air units such as Vendettas (for some reason the Draconians don't produce many Valkyries, often preferring the anti-vehicle and anti-air roles the Vendettas take on). As a result, the Draconians excel at anti-armor, be it vehicle or Terminators, but they sorely lack in the department of anti-infantry and anti-hordes. They do have Hellhounds to accompany their precious Baneblades and Hellhammers alongside the Vendettas, but that's as much as they have for anti-infantry. Unless you count Imperial Knights as anti-horde and anti-infantry, but even then the Draconians show a preference for producing Knight Errants over Knight Paladins. Whoops.

A typical full Draconian regiment would often center around a single Baneblade or Hellhammer, with the rest of the support troops consisting of Leman Russ tanks, Hellhounds and Vendettas. Most of the times, they would lack the Hellhounds and so feature a single Imperial Knight or two alongside the Hellhammer instead. It also depends on the super-heavy tank. A regiment centering around a Baneblade would have more Leman Russ Battle Tanks and a Leman Russ Vanquisher while trying to keep the Hellhounds - if no Hellhounds are present (which happens most of the time) they will take on a Knight Paladin. A regiment centering around a Hellhammer would often eschew Leman Russ Main Battle Tanks and Vanquishers and instead support the Hellhammer with a Leman Russ Punisher and Leman Russ Executioner. They would often discard Hellhounds for a Knight Errant, which makes them dangerously reliant on the single Punisher for anti-horde and anti-infantry, but the Hellhammer is supposed to serve that role anyway with its Hellhammer Cannon and it's armed to the teeth with four twin-linked heavy bolters (or flamers) and four lascannons. Funnily enough, and as befitting the Draconian regiment, they use the Hellhammer to wipe out tanks or vehicles hiding in cover rather than destroying infantry camping in urban cover, so......

And both regiments are always accompanied by at least one Vendetta, and sometimes up to three. Plainly aware that their Baneblades and Hellhammers lack anti-air, a single Hydra often not being up to the task, and losing a single super-heavy tank is a more crushing blow than losing 5 tanks (logic, sigh), the Draconian commanders will always insist to have at least one Vendetta to blow enemy aircraft out of the sky so that the super-heavy tanks and Leman Russ tanks can finish the job on the ground below. That's their creed, their mantra, their strategy. Who needs infantry when you have loads of tanks rolling across the ground to crush countless foes? And having lumbering behemoths such as Baneblades, Hellhammers and destructive super-heavy walkers such as Imperial Knights? Above all, the Draconians crave overwhelming destructive power over anything else. They don't rely on numbers of infantry. They rely on armored units with overwhelming firepower.

They are often called upon to provide fire support for more experienced and prestigious regiments such as the Valhallan Ice Warriors or Cadian Shock Troops. The Draconians, on their own, probably have trouble handling hordes of countless Orks, but they can be relied on to take out a Gargant or Stompa. Similarly, they have trouble against the Tyranids because they have so few Hellhounds, but they can take out the big guys such as Hive Tyrants, Tyrannofexes, Carnifexes, Trygons and even the Tervigons. They can even take out the Hive Crones, Flying Hive Tyrants and Harpies, but their Vendettas would probably get taken out by broods of Gargoyles.

The Draconians are best suited for battles against enemies such as the Tau or Necrons, where they have huge targets to shoot at (Riptide? Hammerhead? Monolith? Doomsday Ark? Annihilation Barges? No problem). They also for some reason excel at fighting against forces of Chaos because the population seem to have developed some sort of psychic resistance. Mind you, they aren't Blanks or full Psykers, but they seem to be partway to Psykers, which explains why the Adeptus Mechanicus on Draconis IV are loath to lose their human selves and thus the psychic connection. It is this psychic connection that allows the pilots to pilot their Imperial Knights without needing weird stuff (neural interface sockets) inserted into surgical neural holes poked into their skulls or brains (cerebrum and cerebellum). Meaning anyone can just jump into an Imperial Knight and control it without needing to go through surgery and stuff. Of course, it's a more complex process because you need the Draconians' innate psychic potential AND there's the bonding ritual or imprinting process with the Imperial Knight (yes, I've read the Codex) that slightly differs from Knights of other worlds such as Alaric Prime, etc. so the pilots have to take note of that, and the Imperial Knights don't fall into enemy hands that easily (unless they're Orks. Sigh). The Throne Mechanicum for Draconian Knights resembles a Gundam's cockpit more than an Imperial one.

Speaking of which, the story for this particular Draconian regiment begins when an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, who happened to be born in the Draconis system and thus share the hi-tech ideals of her fellow Draconians, requisitioned them in order to capture Tau battlesuits from the Damocles Gulf. The idea was to bring them back for study, research and reverse engineering so that the Draconians could produce similarly advanced, destructive and effective weapons to further the Emperor's cause of taking back the galaxy. And so the story begins from there. Originally I wanted to throw in Grey Knights with them, the Grey Knights love working with these guys because of their mild psychic resistance, and often Draconians orphans with great potential would be ferried off by the Black Ships to be trained as Grey Knights in Titan (not that they ever remember they come from Draconis, since they have been brainwashed by the Ordo Malleus).

In any case, I did have a story where the Grey Knights worked with the Draconian Steel Host and Imperial Knights. Despite their relationship with the Grey Knights, the Draconian Armored Dragons surprisingly get along well with the Space Wolves as well. I'll probably write a story where the Draconian Armored Dragons swoop in to save the Space Wolves from a tide of Chaos Daemons, and in return the surviving armored troops were under the protection of the Space Wolves when the Ordo Malleus Inquisition arrives to purge them. Thankfully, most Ordo Malleus Inquisitors wouldn't bother purging, mind-wiping or killing Draconian Armored Dragons because they recognize the innate psychic potential (and resistance) in Draconian soldiers. Obviously, they are not used against Chaos Daemons very often because armored vehicles and Imperial Knights often suck against the forces of Chaos, and it is rumored that the reason why the Draconians have such psychic protection is because they might be under the influence of Tzeentch, who encourages them to ever strive further to test the limits of the restrictions the Imperium imposes on their technological research. Such is Tzeentch's schemes and plans that the Draconian Armored Dragons will survive the onslaught of Chaos for now, only to eventually bring about the change that he so desires. Said change will be done from within the Imperium of Mankind, the unsuspecting Draconians unknowingly aiding the Changer of Ways as he laughs and schemes from the Warp, awaiting the day they break the ancient laws and restrictions safeguarding their technological research and changing humanity forever.

The color scheme for the Draconian Armored Dragons are black and gold, with splotches of red. Only because it looks cool (and it helps them camouflage in night-fighting). They probably have watched too many holo-vids of Gundam and Kamen Rider, and so prefer such fun colors. They often bear a black dragon against a gold background, or the other way round, as a symbol of the Draconian Armored Dragons. Both the Imperial Knights and the Leman Russ tanks (and of course the Baneblades and Hellhammers) proudly display their system symbol alongside the aquila, and even the Adeptus Mechanicus unique to Draconis reveres this symbol more than the cogwheel of the Omnissah worship their bethren from other systems possess.

Speaking of which, this dragon seems very ominous because it very much resembles the dragon the Emperor defeated so many millennia ago and sealed on Mars......perhaps, Draconis's "progress" is a lot more foreboding than the Draconians would like to believe?