Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation

Unfortunately, my updates are going to be less frequent because I'm getting busier. Finished the first draft of my Masters thesis this week, and did a stupid presentation on it (man, I really suck at presentations, I think my slides are really bad). Well, I did my best, but I think everyone is going to hate it. Oh well. Worse, I'll be leaving for Australia for university stuff, some workshop in Australian National University, so that means you guys won't be seeing me for a week or so. I think. I'll try to write whenever I can, but I'll be in Australia for almost a week, so don't get your hopes too high up.

I'm also looking forward to building an Adeptus Mechanicus army, complete with Skitarii, Cult Mechanicus and Imperial Knights. I'll be building an Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, which means I'll need 1 Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation Detachment, 1 Skitarii Battle Maniple and 1 Imperial Knight Oathsworn Detachment. I already have my Imperial Knights so the last detachment is no problem, and I'll be able to field 3 of my 4 Imperial Knights in 3,000-point games. However, for 2,000-point games I'll be restricted to just 1 Knight. It's fine.

I've managed to buy a Tech-priest Dominus, so that's the beginning of my Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation Detachment. I'll be slowly adding two Kastelan Robot maniples to it to get my Cohort Cybernetica first, which is freaking awesome. I love Cohort Cybernetica. Putting my Tech-priest Dominus with my Kastelan robots and giving them all I Will Not Die with Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land is just insane. Then I'll add 2 maniples of Kataphron Destroyers with cognis flamers. I'll see if I can magnetize them so that I can use them for the Elimination Maniple where I will equip them with heavy grav-cannons, but for the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, I'll be leaving them with their plasma culverins to exploit the immunity to the Gets Hot! rule. Yay. But if I can't magnetize them or anything, then too bad. Plasma culverins it is.

My Skitarii will be standard fare. I'll have a Skitarii vanguard of 5, 5 Skitarii rangers, 5 Sicarian Ruststalkers, 5 Sicarian Infiltrators, 3 Ironstriders Ballistarii and 3 Onager Dunecrawlers. The vanguards and rangers I'll leave bare for most games, but once I jump into the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, I'll equip them with everything, including 2 plasma calivers for my vanguard and 2 transuranic arquebus for my rangers so they can camp and take pot-shots from long range. The Ruststalkers I'll leave with their usual transonic razors, chordclaws and mindscrambler grenades because those are more useful, especially with the mindscrambler grenades having the haywire rule. Awesome. They'll absolutely destroy vehicles in close combat. YAY!

The Infiltrators I'll replace their stubcarbines with flechette blasters and taser goads to make them irritating. Ha ha! As for the Ironstriders, I'll equip them with twin-linked cognis lascannons for both anti-vehicle and anti-air duties. Expensive, but worth it - especially when upgrades are free in the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation! The 3 Onager Dunecrawlers I'll most likely upgrade with the Icarus array and Cognis Manipulator to give them I Will Not Die AND a 4++ invulnerable save. Not to mention each has a single Strength 10 AP 1 melee attack! Awesome. With 3 of these things out on the field, there will be nothing to stop me as I destroy all of my opponents' air units! HA HA HA HA!

To wrap up the Adeptus War Convocation, I'll put in a Knight Warden because the Avenger gatling cannon is the most flexible of them all. So yeah, he goes in. In a 3,000 point game, I'll throw in 2 Kastelan Robot Maniples instead of the single maniple I would have in a 2,000-point game, and add in my other two Knights, the Crusader and the Paladin. I'll be forced to remove a single Ironstrider Ballistarii to keep the points below 3,000, but with so many strength 8 AP 3 attacks from the Imperial Knights, the removal of a single twin-linked lascannon isn't going to be a huge loss.

This means I'll be writing an Adeptus Mechanicus story instead of an Imperial Guard one. No, actually, it's still an Imperial Knight story, but it'll feature the Adeptus Mechanicus instead of the Imperial Guard. Speaking of which, I'm going to try my hand at a short story involving the Imperial Knights and an Exporator Adeptus Mechanicus fleet trying to recover a Standard Template Construct on a Necron-infested world. The Deathwatch joins in to exterminate the Necrons and Orks show up as their Waagh! sweeps through the sector with the silent tomb world in their path. Gonna be fun. Then I'll be submitting it to Black Library (that's why I need to include the Deathwatch, it's in their requirements). I'll most likely fail and get rejected, but hey, that's not going to stop me from trying.

Edit: it seems the window for submission is over. It ended on 26th January. What the hell. I should have read that more carefully. I guess I don't need to write that story now, I'll just write something else. It'll still be about the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet trying to recover a Standard Template Construct, but I won't need the Deathwatch this time! And instead of Necrons and Orks, I'm thinking of pitting my Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation against the forces of Chaos instead! But we'll see. Necrons and Orks might be more interesting than Chaos, ha ha.

For the Emperor! Or the Omnissiah!