Second ITC game

So I managed to get my second ITC game yesterday! YAY! I brought my Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard yesterday, but to my chagrin, I found that I couldn't afford an Assassin. Ouch. On the other hand, my opponent brought a scary list of Adeptus Custodes and Adeptus Mechanicus! They were really cool models, and he had a lot of great ideas. All those high-toughness, multi-wound models with great invulnerable saves...wow. Basically the majority toughness of his army was 5, though he had Toughness 6 Jetbikes!

Adeptus Custodes Battalion
Shield-Captain on Jetbike (re-roll charges, 5+++ Feel No Pain Warlord Trait)
Shield-Captain on Jetbike
3 Dawn Eagle Jetbikes (I think that's their name? They are Jetbikes)
7 Custodians
2 squads of 3 Custodians

Adeptus Mechanicus Battalion (Servitor Maniple from Vigilus Defiant, Ryza forge world dogma)
Tech-priest Dominus (Field Commander, Bio-splicing)
Tech-priest Enginseer
5 Skitarii Rangers
5 Skitarii Rangers
5 Servitors
12 Kataphron Destroyers with plasma culverins and cognis flamers

Inquisition Vanguard
Inquisitor Greyfax
3 Acolytes

Holy Terra, that's a lot of firepower! As you can see, the majority of his army was made out of Toughness 5 models with 3 wounds apiece. Those Custodes and Kataphron Destroyers will be hard to take down. Furthermore, he gave the Kataphron Destroyers a 5++ invulnerable save with the Mindlock Stratagem, and Ryza gives him +1 to wound, and +1 damage to plasma. No prizes for guessing who the Ryza Plasma Specialists Stratagem will be used on.

Against this terrifying list, I had 3 Knights as usual, and my Leman Russ tanks. The only saving grace is that I have a tremendous amount of firepower, armor and Toughness 8 models of my own, and he didn't have any anti-tank, surprisingly enough. Then again, the Kataphron Destroyers were all the anti-tank he needs.

Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment (House Taranis Household Tradition)
Cerastus Knight Lancer
2 Knight Crusaders with Ironstorm missile pods

Imperial Guard Battalion (Cadian Regimental Doctrine)
2 Tank Commanders in Leman Russ Executioner tanks
Company Commander with plasma pistol (Grand Strategist, Kurov's Aquila, because I couldn't think of any other relic to take)
Platoon Commander with bolt pistol
3 infantry squads with a plasma gun each

As you can see, I went for my standard plasma Imperial Guard regiment. Yay. I opted to go for House Taranis's Household Tradition because I brought 2 Knight Crusaders, and I felt that the House Griffith's Household Tradition wouldn't really benefit this iteration of Knights. Honestly, neither of my Knights want to be in melee (ironically enough, they ended up being in melee, but that's something we'll talk about later). The Omnissiah's Grace really helped me out, though!



My opponent chose Kingslayer, with the Knight Lancer being the Character (totally forgot about that, since I didn't make him my Warlord for this game), Big Game Hunter and Engineers for his ITC secondary objectives. The Skitarii Rangers on his backfield objective was an Engineer, and so was one squad of the 3 Custodes. As for me, I chose Gang Bustas, Ground Control and Old School. I'm a big fan of Old School, since I usually play Maelstrom and Eternal War, so those were the objectives I'm more familiar with. We decided on Dawn of War deployment for simplicity's sake, so we were arrayed opposite each other.

Turn 1

We rolled off, and I got first turn. My opponent failed to seize the initiative, and we started the ball going! I had 2 infantry squads camp on 2 objectives, and a third one running - I actually rolled a 6 for their advance, and they grabbed a third objective. Nice! The Platoon Commander also followed suit, and I rolled a 4 for his advance. My Knight Crusader also moved up a little to support my infantry squad (I'll call this Knight Takeda Takeshi). My other Knight Crusader also moved up the board, but was unable to grab a 4th objective (this one will be my Knight, Tanaka Tomoyuki, heh). Kenji in his Knight Lancer advanced, and being a Cerastus Knight with Flank Speed, I rolled 2 D6 and I rolled 2 6s. That was crazy. Kenji and his Knight Lancer basically moved 26" forward and ended up almost on top of the Kataphron Destroyers.

My infantry squad who moved up received the "Forwards, for the Emperor!" or whatever order it is that allows them to shoot after advancing, and they killed about 2 or 3 Skitarii (I think 3). My Knight Crusader fired upon the Kataphron Destroyers, and I actually killed 2 or 3. I think. The Ironstorm missile rocket pod killed maybe 1 Skitarii Ranger? Whoops.

On the other side, my Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Knight Crusader (Tanaka Tomoyuki) fired and I managed to wipe out a single squad of 3 Custodians, while killing 1 Custodian from the second squad that had 3. Needless to say, I got almost all the Gang Bustas points this turn, and I also received First Strike from Old School. Phew! Tomoyuki's Ironstorm missile pod killed another Skitarii Ranger on the objective, but there were still 3 left.

My Knight Lancer tried to charge the Kataphron Destroyers, and he ate a few shots in overwatch. My opponent saw one Kataphron Destroyer slain with a double roll of ones, despite his Tech-priest Dominus providing re-rolls. He used a Stratagem from Custodes that forced me to deduct 2 or 3 from my charge rolls (I can't remember) and even with a re-roll Stratagem, I failed my charge against the Kataphron Destroyers. Whoops. At the end, I gained 3 victory points for holding 3 objectives, and 1 for killing a single squad of 3 Custodes.

My opponent moved his 7 Custodes up to capture one objective, advancing to do so, so that he could get 3 objectives (same as me), and his Jetbikes and Shield-Captains on Jetbikes captured another Objective in the center. The Kataphron Destroyers moved away from Takeshi's Knight Crusader while the 4 remaining Servitors attempted to screen them - this was after my opponent used Bio-splicing and sacrificed one of the Servutors to revive a single Kataphron Destroyer. So he still had about 8 or 9, I believe. The 2 Skitarii Rangers moved up to challenge my infantry squad, but fired on my Knight for some reason, and I made my save. As for the Engineers Skitarii on the objective in his backfield, they failed morale and 1 ran away, leaving 2. Hmm, I think that was about it for movement. Oh, right! Greyfax and her Acolytes advanced, along with the 2 remaining Custodes!

The Jetbikes then proceeded to erase my infantry squad in one of the objectives, so I only held 2 objectives to his 3. Ouch. One Tank Commander received potshots from the Shield-Captains, and took a total of 2 damage, which wasn't bad. Could be worse. Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader went away unscathed. Meanwhile Kenji's Knight Lancer got hit hard by an onslaught of plasma, but thanks to me doing well with my Omnissiah's Grace rolls, I think I only took a total of 16 damage. Phew. Still in his second bracket somehow!

My opponent got 3 objectives and 1 kill (the poor infantry squad), and Kingslayer as he definitely did 16 damage to my Knight Lancer. Ouch. So he was ahead in points for now, probably 4+1+4 = 9, to my 3+1+3+1 = 8. Oh well.



Turn 2

I moved my Knight Lancer right to the back, walking over the Servitors (because I can - Kenji's Knight Lancer is a Superheavy Walker). Takeshi's Knight also moved up, as did Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader, toward the Shield-Captains. In a crazy round of shooting, my infantry squad at the middle objective finished off the 2 Skitarii Rangers who had run upward, Takeshi's Knight Crusader killed all four Servitors with his heavy stubbers, and demolished about...2 or 3 Kataphron Destroyers with his shooting. His heavy flamer did nothing to the Custodes, but whatever. His Ironstorm missiles also failed to kill the Skitarii Rangers on the backfield objective. Kenji's Knight Lancer ended up killing another couple of Kataphron Destroyers with his shock blast - I didn't expect that! I think my opponent had about 4 or 5 Kataphron Destroyers left at this point.

Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader killed the Skitarii Rangers engineers with his Ironstorm missiles (yay!), and proceeded to split his heavy stubbers between 2 Acolytes. He failed to kill one, but took out the other. Phew. He then did a lot of damage to the jetbikes with his primary weapons, killing maybe 1 and injuring the other. My Tank Commander who was wounded fired and took a mortal wound from supercharging, bringing him down to 9 wounds, but wiped out the Jetbikes. Holy Terra! That was an awesome round of shooting! I was rolling really hot (sorry for the pun) for my plasma shots, and the jetbikes couldn't withstand that amount of plasma. The other Tank Commander then fired on the 2 remaining Custodes who were the 2nd Engineers, and they also died to the storm of superheated plasma. I was rolling really good!

My Knight Lancer then charged in and stomped maybe one Kataphron Destroyer to death (or just wounded - I know I whiffed all my Titanic Feet rolls, funnily enough), while my opponent lost another to overwatch (supercharged plasma, rolling 2 ones in a row despite re-rolls), which meant he was left with three. I think. Meanwhile, Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader charged in and dealt 6 wounds to the Shield-Captain on jetbike with his Titanic Feet, and he took maybe like 6 or 7 wounds from both Shield-Captains, thanks to me making my Omnissiah's Grace rolls. But since they are bikers, I didn't get the Objective they were on. Whoops. Oh, right, the Tech-priest Dominus did a Heroic Intervention, but failed to wound Kenji's Knight Lancer with his Omnissian axe.

I only held 2 Objectives, but I slaughtered like 6 units (2 Skitarii Ranger squads, an Acolyte, the 3 Jetbikes, the 2 surviving Custodes, and Servitors), and got the last point for Gang Bustas, which brought me up from 8 to 17. Phew!

My opponent then moved his Acolyte to grab the objective his Custodes were holding while his Custodes advanced toward Takeshi's Knight Crusader. The Shield-Captains remained locked in combat, while both Kataphron Destroyers and the Tech-priest Dominus fell back from Kenji's heavily wounded Knight Lancer. Greyfax also moved up, along with another Acolyte. She then cast Dominate on my Tank Commander, who ended up getting a mortal wound despite re-rolls, and did 4 wounds to Kenji's Knight Lancer. Ouch. He was left with 7 wounds, still just barely on his second bracket. Just one more wound! Actually, he did 6 damage (because supercharged plasma), but I rolled 2 6s for Omnissiah's Grace, and he only took 4. Phew! Otherwise he would be swinging on his third bracket! The Custodes fired on Takeshi's Knight Crusader, and charged him, but with both combat and shooting, they did a total of 10 damage, I think? The Kataphron Destroyers couldn't shoot because they just fell back from combat, and he actually lost 1 to morale, even though he could re-roll morale (he rolled 2 5s in succession) because of Canticles. Ouch. I paid 2 Command Points to use the Counteroffensive Stratagem to have Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader literally stomp the wounded Shield-Captain to death, but my opponent then spent the last of his Command Points to allow the Shield-Captain to fight before he died, and passed the Warlord Trait to the other Shield-Captain. Between the two of them, they did another 6-8 wounds, but by the end of the turn, Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader had taken 14 wounds total, leaving him with 10 wounds. Ouch.

My opponent still held 3 objectives, but he didn't kill any unit this turn, surprisingly enough. All my Knights were still alive - they really are tough to kill, and House Taranis's Omnisssiah's Grace helped me a lot! I'm so glad I took that as my Household Tradition! That gave him 3+1, but he didn't get Tank Hunter, and I literally killed all his Engineers in the 2nd turn, so he didn't get anything for that either. I denied him 4 points, phew. It brought him up to 13 points, which was still pretty close to my 17, so he could win on just Objectives alone.

Turn 3

This was a really short turn, with Kenji's Knight Lancer killing both remaining Kataphron Destroyers with his shock blast. That was unexpected. I used Machine Spirit Resurgent on Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader and have him move out of combat to grab the objective (plus be within charge range of Grayfex). Meanwhile, Takeshi's Knight Crusader ran away from the Custodes, and between the Guardsmen (who did only 1 or 2 wounds with their First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! lasguns) and him, they killed 6 Custodes, leaving just one. Phew! Takeshi's Knight Crusader filled to kill any of the Acolytes with his heavy stubbers, though. Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader and the first tank commander killed the last Shield-Captain on jetbike, though the tank commander ate another wound from supercharged plasma. Worth it, though. And that earned me Slay the Warlord! The heavy stubbers killed one Acolyte but the Ironstorm missiles whiffed their shots, so one Acolyte remained alive, though there was no longer anyone on the objective in the middle.

At this point, we called it. My opponent conceded the game, as there was nothing he could do to catch up. I had wiped out the majority of his army at this point, and to be honest, I still had a single Leman Russ Executioner tank who hadn't fired a single shot. Yet. And I would have just charged Grayfax with Tomoyuki's Knight Crusader and stomped her to death while claiming a third objective for myself. I was way ahead in points, having gotten just 3 from killing the Shield-Captain, Acolyte and Kataphron Destroyers, my Knights were poised to charge and kill even more units, and I had another point for Slay the Warlord. Plus he had no way of killing my Knights now that he had but a single Custodian left, and all his Kataphron Destroyers were dead. Recognizing the uphill task he faced, my opponent conceded the game and surrendered.

So it turned out to be quite an overwhelming victory for my Knights and Guardsmen! The Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders were rolling really hot that day, and my Knights actually destroyed a lot of stuff with both shooting and combat! I hope this means that Imperial Knights are viable? Okay, it was not a pure Knight list, so never mind. That said, I was a little surprised that they did so well. I was kicking myself for not having brought my Armiger Helverins, as their Strength 7 AP -1, 3 Damage Helverin cannons would be more effective against the Custodes and Kataphron Destroyers, but in the end it didn't matter. My list had too much firepower and plasma to shoot everything off the board.

I really like this list, and I feel a bit bad. I think my opponent will bring more anti-tank next time! I was actually surprised that he didn't - I told him I would be bringing Knights, but he didn't bring his melta missiles and stuff. I think he was relying on his Kataphron Destroyers to do some serious work with the Ryza Plasma Specialists Stratagem. It would also have changed if he had gone first, maybe? Yeah, he probably would have done more damage and mitigated my attacks if he had gone first.

Well, let's see what happens tomorrow!

List for tournament on Saturday, and don't forget about White Dwarf!

There will be a 1,500-point tournament on Saturday at Dreamers Vault, Minneapolis. No Lords of War are allowed, so my poor Imperial Knights will be sitting this one out. I'll have to bring both my Imperial Guard and Adeptus Mechanicus because I don't have enough points to field a pure army of either (especially since I'm not allowed to take my Shadowsword).

So this is probably what I will take for a 1,500-point list.

Imperial Guard Battalion
3 Tank Commanders in Leman Russ Executioner tanks
Platoon Commander with bolt pistol
3 infantry squads with plasma gun

Adeptus Mechanicus Battalion
Tech-priest Dominus
Tech-priest Enginseer
Cybernetica Datasmith
Skitarii rangers with 2 transuranic arquebuses and omnispex
Skitarii rangers with 2 arc rifles, alpha with arc maul and arc pistol
Sktiarii Vanguard with 2 plasma calivers, alpha with taser goad and phosphor blast pistol
Secutarii Hoplites
2 Kastelan robots with incendine combustors and Kastelan fists

Operative Requisitioned Sanctioned
Imperial Assassin - either a Vindicare or an Eversor Assassin. We'll see. 2 Command Points, dude!

I have no idea how this will go, but I'll be using Cadian for my Draconian Imperial Guard, and Lucius for my Adeptus Mechanicus maniple. Might want to place the Kastelan Robots in Teleportium, and spend another Command Point to make it a Cybernetica Cohort Detachment. But I don't have Vigilus Defiant, so...yeah. Anyway, the Emperor protects, the Omnissiah watches over us. Let's go!

And if you recall Warhammer Community's information, which you may have forgotten because it was right at the very end of the article, there will be no White Dwarf next week. The June issue will be released on June 21st, and going forward, White Dwarf will always be released mid-month instead of at the beginning of the month. Just in case you forgot (like me).

Adeptus Titanicus game

I finally had my first Adeptus Titanicus match on Memorial Day (Monday, May 27th)! YAY!

My friend and I had a match on a 48" by 48" table. It was our first ever Adeptus Titanicus game, and so we probably aren't familiar with the rules. Ouch. But we did all right, I guess. Probably took some getting used to, but I think we did well. Phew.



My friend brought a standard Axiom Maniple, with a Warlord Titan with 2 Belicosa volcano cannons and Apocalypse missile launchers, a Reaver Titan with Apocalypse missile launchers, a laser blaster and a gatling blaster, and 3 Warhound Titans in a squadron - 1 with 2 inferno guns, 1 with a plasma blastgun and laser blaster (I think), and another with a Vulcan mega-bolter and gatling blaster (or was it laser blaster?). He used the Gryphonicus Legion Traits, and upgraded his guys with auspex scanners and armor for his Reaver Titan...except that we completely forgot about the upgrades as the game went by. Oh, hell.

As for me, I brought a Fortis Maniple with 2 Warlord Titans and a Reaver Titan. Wait, what? That's not the requirements for a Fortis Maniple! Don't worry, I used the Legio Fortidus Legion Trait, and thanks to Lost Sons, I replaced a Reaver Titan with a Warlord Titan. Heh. One Warlord Titan was armed with Apocalypse missile launchers and 2 Belicosa volcano cannons, the other was armed with paired turbo laser destructors and 2 Sunfury plasma annihilators. The Reaver Titan was armed with Apocalypse missile launcher and 2 volcano cannons. I placed the volcano cannons Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan together, so that they can merge void shields...except that I forgot to merge void shields when one went down. Fortunately, I remembered that they ignored modifiers from structural damage. Cool! Accompanying my three Titans is a support banner of 2 Cerastus Knight Lancers. Ugh! I didn't realize they can receive orders! I should have allowed them to receive orders! I would have used the Charge Order! DAMN IT! Oh, well...

My opponent's objective was Engage and Destroy (he rolled 2 and discarded 1). I drew Hold the Line and Vital Cargo. As my Titans were not exactly Courier types, I discarded that. I had no Titan fast enough to run across to the other side of the map...oh, well. Anyway, we rolled off and my opponent deployed first. He placed his Reaver Titan and Warlord Titan together, and his 3 Warhound on the opposite side of his Deployment Zone. I then responded by placing my Warlord Titan with plasma annihilators opposite his Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan, and my Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan with volcano cannons opposite his Warhound Titans, and the 2 Cerastus Knight Lancers in front of them.

We rolled off and I got 10 to my opponent's 8 or something, but being a nice guy, I let him go first. His first Stratagem was spent on the plasma reactor, and he had his Reaver Titan next to it to draw power from the reactor. My opponent used First Fire for his Warlord (I think?) and missed his volcano cannon shot. His Warhounds received the Full Stride Order and they moved while advancing their reactor to get the maximum speed. Or something like that. I also used First Fire, and I knocked down a couple of void shields from the Warhounds, but holy molly, my opponent made most of his saves. To make matters worse, his Warhounds were moving in a squadron and could merge void shields, so I only knocked down 2 or so, and that was pretty insignificant. Ouch. My Knight Lancers moved, but they avoided getting hit by the Warhounds because they had made the Full Stride Orders earlier. My opponent seemed to fluff his shots as well, for he didn't really hit with his Apocalypse missile launchers, and his volcano cannons missed. Poor guy...he was pretty unlucky. I think I lost a couple of void shields, but then he went and made all his void shield saves against my Titans. Funnily enough, it was my Knight Lancers who knocked down another couple of void shields, but with them merging void shields, it was pretty...insignificant.



Turn 2, I got a higher roll, and this time I elected to go first. I mean, I let him go first the last time, so it's only fair, right? I had First Fire for my plasma Warlord, but went and failed my command check for my Princeps Seniores Warlord Titan with volcano cannons...fail. My opponent used Full Stride again (I think) for his Warhounds, and something else. I can't remember. He knocked down a few of my void shields for both my Warlord Titans with First Fire, but otherwise his shooting was pretty ineffective. I managed to take out almost all the Warhound Titan's void shields, leaving just 1 or 2, while recovering several of my void shields from repairs and stuff (as did my opponent), but otherwise nothing much happened. He then revealed his second Stratagem, Thermal Mines, and scored a devastating hit on my Knight Lancer, after I failed a save. Then in the Combat Phase, he knocked down my volcano Warlord Titan's shields and did critical damage. Stupidly enough I forgot that I could merge void shields for my Warlord Titan with my Reaver, and I just took the damage while sustaining damage to the stabilizers and causing him to move 45 degrees...to his left. Right where the Warhounds were facing. Heh. Then I unloaded and ended up damaging one of his Warhounds, immbolizing it because all its void shields had collapsed, and I scored a critical hit. It also had to move 45 degrees to the right, and thus my Knight Lancers could sneak up on it without getting flamed by its inferno cannons. I fired on the other Warhound with my plasma Warlord, and managed to take out their remaining void shields, while dealing some damage to it. I think. I can't remember.

Turn 3 was where things got really violent. My opponent got first turn this time. His Warhounds moved up, pushing their reactors and stuff. I think they were beginning to get dangerous unstable, and I can't remember if this was the turn where they started taking hits. Maybe it was the next turn. In any case, they got almost in front of my Warlord Titan, with the Inferno guns Warhound using Full Stride and separating from the other Warhounds. The other Warhounds didn't use orders and just went ahead so that they could take potshots at my Warlord Titan. The Warlord and Reaver, because of constant draining of the reactor, were pushing, and I think this was when he had to order a Shutdown of his Reaver after it took a hit in its body because its reactor had turned red. The Warlord moved up a bit, so didn't use First Fire. I took advantage and took potshots at it with my Reaver, but only knocked down maybe 1 or 2 void shields. Holy Terra, my opponent was making all his void shield saves, or most of them. Meanwhile my Warlord Titan's First Fire obliterated the inferno guns Warhound. ENGINE KILL!

My opponent was not impressed, and he fired on my Knight Lancers. Funnily enough, I survived the volcano cannon shots with their 3+ invulnerable saves (because of ion gauntlet shields), but then lost a few structure points because of the Apocalypse missile launchers dealing quite a bit of damage with devastating hits. Ouch. The Warhounds, on the other hand, pounded my Warlord Titan with their laser blasters, plasma blastgun and gatling blaster, and wounded him badly. No critical damage yet, but his body had taken a couple of devastating hits and went down by 4 or so. Phew. The Reaver was on shutdown, but my opponent rolled a 6 and managed to reignite his void shields.

Random Knights show up because they are supposed to be Legio Draconis's bond-Knights banner.

My Knight Lancers then moved up and assaulted one of the Warhounds, severely wounding it with their Cerastus shock lances. Then my Warlord Titan used Maximal Fire with his plasma, and combined with his paired turbo laser destructors, destroyed one of the Warhounds. It suffered catastrophic damage and he rolled a 9. BOOM! My Knight Lancers actually survived the first explosion, funnily enough, thanks to their ion shield saves. But the Warhound, with its void shields blown out, didn't. Thanks to that, it died from yet another explosion, and this time he rolled a 10. I lost a Cerastus Knight Lancer from that explosion, suffering a devastating hit from the explosion, but passed the Shaken Banner with a Command Check. Oh, boy. Double Engine Kills! I had taken out 3 Warhounds in Turn 3! Unfortunately, at the end of the turn, my Warlord Titan moved 45 degrees to the right. I vented plasma and restored void shields, but I forgot to repair the critical damage. Derp.

With his Warhounds down, Turn 4 was less brutal. As I was way ahead, I let my opponent go first even though I rolled higher. He then used First Fire on both, but my Lancer survived. Unfortunately, my Warlord suffered a bit more damage again from the first shots, his void shields sparkling out and blowing out. I suffered critical damage this time, with his void shields completely blown out, and his reactor leaking by 1. This time, I made sure to repair the critical damage on my other Warlord Titan, but because of that I couldn't use First Fire. On the other hand, my Reaver Titan's First Fire knocked out the Reaver's Void Shields, and my plasma Warlord Titan's plasma destroyed the Reaver Titan's weapon, the laser blaster. My Lancer went forward and destroyed a weapon on the Reaver with his lance. I believe it was the gatling blaster. The Warlord, on the other hand, didn't miss, and I destroyed the Reaver with a combination of plama and turbo laser destructor shots. Phew! My opponent rolled a 10 and he blew up again, and did quite some damage to the Warlord Titan, who was the last one left. Funnily enough, my Lancer survived the catastrophic explosion with his ion gauntlet save, with me rolling a 4. However, he didn't survive for long. I then fired the Reaver Titan's volcano cannons, missed, scattered and destroyed my own Lancer. Whoops. My Warlord Titan then opened up on the final Warlord, blowing up his void shields with the Apocalypse missile launchers, and then scored several direct hits with his volcano cannons, thus destroying him with a bunch of critical hits.

As the dust settles...the enemy Titan Legion has been completely annihilated. With the exception of my couragous Cerastus Knight Lancers, all my Titans survived.

...and that was it. My opponent only succeeded in destroying a couple of Knight Lancers, which gave him 6 victory points (I think?) for destroying a scale 4 unit for Engage and Destroy. He also scored another 20 points because both my Warlord Titans were structurally compromised (I think). So he had a total of 26 points! But he was tabled - I had completely wiped out his Titan Battlegroup, while all 3 Titans from my Fortis Maniple had survived. Since I had Hold the Line, I easily had 20 Victory Points from the primary objective alone, and the secondary objective (Retribution) nailed me another 3+3+3+4+5 = 18 Victory Points for destroying 5 Titans. And I had another Stratagem (A Score to Settle), which was score an additional 1 point for destroying each enemy unit. Nice! That would give me about 41-43 (depending on whether a squadron of 3 Warhound Titans count as a single unit as opposed to 3) Victory Points to his 26. Unfortuantely, he failed to get his secondary objective, and Rule as Written, I get 5 Victory Points for having more than half my army still alive at the end of the battle, while he had none. So essentially I get 46-48 Victory Points to his 26. Nice! That was not bad at all! I could have reduced the victory points he gained further had I remembered that I could merge void shields between my Warlord and Reaver, and not get that stupid critical hit on his legs. Hmm. Oh well...but we're all learning. And we forgot about all the Legio Traits, upgrades and stuff. I completely forgotten about my Legio Fortidus Stratagem, that allowed me to ignore the damage effects of critical damage (For the Red Planet). Whoops. And I also forgot that my Knight Lancers can receive orders. Oh, well...we're still learning, so that's fine. It all evens out in the end.

I'm glad I managed to win somehow! That was a tough game!

Battle Report 35

Here's Battle Report 35! This time, it's a battle between Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard versus Traitor Guard (Blood Pact)!

My opponent brought a heavy tank list.

Blood Pact Battalion Detachment (Vostroyan Regimental Doctrine)
Company Commander, Warlord, Vostroyan armor thing, Grand Duelist Warlord Trait
Lord Commissar Yarrick (represented by a beastman)
Primaris Psyker
Platoon Commander with Kurov's Aquila
3 infantry squads, all with grenade launchers

Blood Pact Battalion (Vostroyan RD)
Company Commander (Genestealer mutant thingy, so uses power axe)
Primaris Psyker
Platoon Commander
3 infantry squads, all with grenade launchers

Blood Pact Spearhead (Catachan RD), Emperor's Fist Armored Company
Tank Commander with Hammer of Sunderance and Unflinching Resolve
Leman Russ main battle tank squadron (3 tanks)
Leman Russ Executioner tank squadron (2 tanks)
Basilisk squadron (2 artilleries)
2 Heavy Weapon squads (3 mortars)
Veterans with shotguns and 3 flamers
Platoon commander with bolt pistol
Chimera

Against this heavy armor and horde of Khorne infantry was the loyalist battlegroup of my Draconian Knights and Skitarii. This time, I opted to use House Taranis and go for Questoris Mechanicus because I was bringing Skitarii instead of Imperial Guard, otherwise I would have stuck with Questoris Imperialis and House Griffith, so...yeah.

House Yato Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment, House Taranis Household Tradition)
Knight Lancer (Warlord)
2 Knight Crusaders with Stormspear rocket pods

Draconian Skitarii Battalion (Lucius Forge World Dogma)
Tech-priest Dominus with volkite blaster
Tech-priest Enginseer
2 squads of 5 Skitarii Rangers with 2 arc rifles each, alpha with arc maul and arc pistol
5 Skitarii Vanguard with 2 plasma calivers, alpha with taser goad and phosphor blast pistol
5 Skitarii Rangers with 2 tranuranic arquebuses
10 Secutarii Hoplites

That's about it. I love seeing my Cerastus Knight Lancer with Secutarii Hoplites. That's so thematic! And using the Lucius forge world Stratagem, I placed 3 Skitarii squads in Deep Strike (not the transuranic arquebuses one, obviously).

We got the 4 pillars mission, and proceeded to roll off. I managed to get first turn, thankfully, and my opponent failed to seize the initiative!

I moved my Knight Crusaders to capture 2 objectives while my Tech-priest Dominus and Skitarii Rangers camped on a single objective, thus giving me 3 objectives. Yay! The Tech-priest Enginseer ran to follow one of the Knight Crusaders, to keep repairing him. The Secutarii Hoplites also ran with the Knight Crusader, because they can't catch up with the Knight Lancer. I killed about 2 infantry squads with shooting, and sniped a Primaris Psyker with my Skitarii Rangers. I failed to do more than one or two wounds to the tank commander despite shooting with my rapid-fire battle cannons and Stormspear rocket pods...my shooting really sucked, ugh. On the bright side, I killed a bunch of infantry, so there's that...not that it helped. My Knight Lancer stomped a bunch of infantry to death, and then consolidated into one of the Leman Russ Executioner tanks, but he otherwise did nothing. Ugh. That was a poor turn of shooting for me. At least I got First Strike and 3 objectives.

My opponent then focused everything on my Knight Lancer and killed him with all the tanks firing upon him, as well as the grenade launchers. He tried to move some of his infantry out and killed 1 Secutarii Hoplite. He also moved his Chimera out as well. They captured the objective my Knight was on. Ouch. And after killing my Knight Lancer with 4 of his tanks' combined shooting, his last remaining tank (because the Executioner fell back) did 5 wounds to my Knight Crusader. It was a great turn of shooting for him. The Basilisks were a little lackluster and killed only 2 Skitarii Rangers. Whoops.

However the funniest thing that happened was me using Noble Sacrifice and nuking my Knight Lancer right in the middle of his tightly clustered forces. I did a bunch of mortal wounds to everybody with 8" (or was it 10"?). I killed his Warlord (Slay the Warlord!), 2 of his platoon commanders, brought Yarrick down to his last wound (he made his 3+++ saves to survive on his last wound), and cleared out some infantry. I also did a range of mortal wounds to his tanks, but none of them took that much damage (most was 4, but usually 1 or 2 mortal wounds - I did a lot more mortal wounds to his infantry and Characters). Holy Terra. That was indeed hilarious. Running my Knight Lancer into his lines and nuking his whole blob of units was just about the most epic thing that ever happened in the game.

Cheers, Knight Lancer. You did your job. Funnily enough, he did much more damage with his catastrophic explosion than when he was alive and stomping through the puny infantry. Funny how things work, huh?



That was about it. Yay. I gained 1 Victory Point for No Prisoners.

In turn 2, I couldn't find a place to deep strike my units in his backlines, and only my Eversor Assassin was small enough to deep strike more than 9" away from his infantry squad and stuff, but other than that, I had to deep strike my Skitarii Rangers next to my Secutarii Hoplites, and my Skitarii Vanguard next to the tanks.

With my Knight Lancer gone, there was nothing I could do against his tanks. My shooting was ineffective, but I managed to bring a single Leman Russ tank to his lower bracket. My Skitarii Vanguard hit one Executioner with plasma and did 4 wounds to him. They also cleared out an infantry squad with radium carbines, and my Knight Crusader also killed another 2 or 3 infantry squads. By now I think my opponent only had 4 or 5 infantry squads left, because I was just murdering them. I killed yet another infantry squad with my Skitarii Rangers, and my Secutarii Hoplites managed to take out some guys from an infantry squad before charging into them and killing them, while capturing the objective. My Knight Crusader charged the Chimera and I completely fluffed my stomps, and did less than 4 damage overall. Despite rolling 3D6 and spending a command re-roll to re-roll a 2, my Eversor Assassin failed his charge. Bloody hell. My dice was really not on my side that day. The only good thing on my side was that my Skitarii Rangers killed Yarrick with their transuranic arquebuses. He made his 3+++ against a mortal wound, but failed the actual wound and died. YES!

The Chimera fell back, the Veterans disembarked and proceeded to wipe the floor with the Secutarii Hoplites. The tanks fired upon my Knight Crusader, but I managed to keep him in the top bracket. Phew. I think. I can't remember. Anyway, the Leman Russ tanks killed all my Skitarii Vanguard, but that was about it. The Basilisks killed 1 sniper guy, but at this point I had cleared out almost all his Characters, so there was nothing to it. My opponent had 1 infantry squad fire upon my Eversor Assassin, but failed to kill him, then they charged in to attempt to stab him to death with their bayonets. Bad mistake. My Eversor Assassin wiped them out with his Rampage going in a rampage and dealing extra hits. Heh. Again, I managed to get another point for No Prisoners, but it seems that we were even on objectives again. So 2 Victory Points to me, with Slay the Warlord and First Strike, while my opponent also had Slay the Warlord and First Strike. 4-2 to the Knights of House Yato and their Draconian Skitarii allies for now.

In turn 3, I managed to reverse the situation somehow, with my Skitarii Rangers capturing the objective and killing the Veterans. Phew. My Knight Crusader wiped out all the remaining infantry squads except one, and charged and killed the second and last Company Commander. The other Knight Crusader managed to wound a single Leman Russs Executioner to 1 wound, and destroyed another Leman Russ Executioner tank. So my opponent had 5 Leman Russ tanks left. Finally got rid of a single tank. Ugh. My Eversor Assassin failed his charge again (this time against the Company Commander), but that was all right, since my Knight Crusader took care of the Company Commander. I just wanted to gain an extra Command Point, you know? My Skitarii Rangers had charged to capture the objective, and I lost a couple to the Platoon Commander with Strength 4 and chainsword.

My opponent dealt more damage to my wounded Knight Crusader, bringing him down to his last bracket or something (or was it his middle bracket?). I managed some saves with House Taranis's Grace of the Omnissiah, or I would have taken more. In any event, I managed to have him survive that round of vicious shooting. The mortars killed a single Skitarii Ranger squad, leaving just one squad with 2 arc rifles left. My opponent then charged with his Chimera and tied up my Skitarii Rangers in combat, but I had nothing better to do than have them camp on the objective and capture it with objective Secured. This thus gave me 3 Objectives, and for the first time I had more Objectives than my opponent, giving me 1 extra Victory Point. Combined with No Prisoners, I had 2 Victory Points this time, allowing me to pull ahead to 6 against 2.

Turn 4 went all right for both of us. The Chimera took a couple of wounds, and was probably down to his second bracket. The Eversor Assassin finally did something useful (other than wiping out a single infantry squad half his points), moving toward the Catachan/Blood Pact Platoon Commander and wiping him out in combat, plus earning me a single Command Point with his Priority Objective Achieved or whatever that Stratagem was called. The Knight Crusaders took out another tank, bringing one to just one wound. My other Knight Crusader failed to kill the mortar squad (killing just one or two teams) with his Avenger Gatling cannon, with my opponent making all his saves and me fluffing so many of mine, as well as the heavy flamer doing nothing against the last infantry squad. He did charge in and kill a single Leman Russ tank with his Titanic Feet, leaving my opponent with 4 Leman Russ tanks left. Phew. I had to spend a Command Point for Machine Spirit Resurgent for my wounded Knight so that he could shoot on his top bracket, and it did help wound quite a few tanks.

My opponent destroyed the wounded Knight with his remaining tanks and Basilisks. My Skitarii Rangers with the transuranic arquebus lost yet another guy to the mortars, leaving just the alpha. My Tech-priest Enginseer ate a single mortal wound from my Knight's explosion (I rolled a 6), but was otherwise fine. Ouch. The Chimera and Skitarii Rangers did nothing to each other, still locked in combat.

This time, I still held 2 objectives to his 1, and killed more dudes (a tank and the Platoon Commander), which allowed me to go to 8 Victory Points against his 2, but I was running dangerously low on units while he still had a healthy amount of tanks and Basiliks.

Turn 5 was slightly better for me. I managed to kill a tank with my remaining Knight, and then charged right into them, but failed to kill any with Titanic Feet. I also failed to kill any of the Mortar squads again, despite hitting them with my heavy flamer. For the love of the Emperor, my dice hate me. Ugh. My Eversor Assassin ran in, wiped out the Infantry squad and snatched the Objective from my opponent. My Tech-priest Enginseer advanced and captured the other objective as well. This time I actually had 4 Objectives, so that was good.

My opponent fired everything on my Knight and killed him.  I think the mortars killed my Skitarii Rangers that was camping on an objective with the transuranic arquebuses, but my Tech-priest Dominus was there to hold it, so yay. So I still held all 4 objectives, which gave me 3 Victory Points. We both killed 2 units this turn, so I didn't get No Prisoners, but the 3 Victory Points was good enough for me. That allowed me to pull ahead to 11 Victory Points to his 2. But I had nothing left, just a bunch of Characters and a single Skitarii Ranger squad still locked in combat with the Chimera and securing the Objective with Objective Secured. No matter what Karru complains about on Bell of Lost Souls, Objective Secured is still useful, and Troops still matter. They make a whole lot of difference to help you secure an Objective and win the game, especially when it comes to earning Victory Points. I know Karru has been whining about how Troops suck, how Troops don't matter and how Objective Secured is useless, but do not believe him. As I have shown from experience, Objective Secured matters, and has helped me earn a lot of much-needed Victory Points.

We rolled to see if the game continues to Turn 6, and it did!

My Eversor moved in, and failed to do anything except kill a single Mortar team. But both Mortar squads were still alive, one with two teams, and the other with one team. Emperor damn it. I just can't roll well, can I? I fluffed all my shots, and what little shots got through, my opponent made his saves. He was rolling a bunch of 6s for his Mortar guys. HOW?!

My opponent then killed my Tech-priest Dominus with the Basilisks, the remaining three Leman Russ tanks killed my Tech-priest Enginseer, and the mortars killed the last squad of Skitarii Rangers after his Chimera fell back. His Primaris Psyker then charged my Eversor Assassin, and of course I had to fail my invulnerable saves and died. On the other hand, he exploded...only to do 1 mortal wound to the Primaris Psyker and 1 team, and killing NOBODY. He did kill a team for the squad that had two teams left, doing 2 mortal wounds, but again the squad survived with just one team left. The dice really hate me that day. For the Emperor's sake...

Well, that was it. I got tabled. My opponent gained 2 Victory Points from controlling more objectives (his Chimera on the objective), and from killing more units than I did (I killed absolutely zero that turn, absolutely terrible). So the game basically ended on Turn 6 with me having 11 Victory Points and being tabled, and my opponent dragging himself up to 4.

Since I got tabled, you would think I lost, right? NOPE. Thanks to Acceptable Casualties, the rules of Sudden Death do not apply. So I actually won the game 11 Victory Points to 4 Victory Points because of Acceptable Casualties! Awesome, eh?

I guess in this scenario, the Adeptus Mechanicus succeeded in capturing all four pillars, siphoning the energy they needed, and got away with a transmission of much-needed data, so even though they got completely wiped out by hordes of Blood Pact infantry and tanks, they achieved their objectives and won. Apparently. At least my opponent got the moral victory. But I still won despite being tabled, and that's what matters! After all, to the Tech-priests of Draconis, their Skitarii Legions are disposable! The Knights less so, but for the sake of STCs and data/knowledge, their sacrifice might be worthwhile. After all, Draconis IV has the technology and resources to build more Knight warsuits, so what's a few that's destroyed? Plus that Noble Sacrifice was just so awesome, ha ha ha ha ha!

First ITC Game

As promised, here's the battle report for my first ITC game. I honestly can't remember what happened, but it was  an ITC game that used tournament rules. I faced off against Imperial Guard, Grey Knights and Militarum Tempestus.

My opponent brought Grey Knights and Imperial Guard.

Grey Knights Vanguard Detachment
Kaldor Draigo
Apocethary
2 squads of Paladins

Imperial Guard Battalion
Company Commander
2 Leman Russ main battle tank commanders
2 Basilisks
3 infantry squads - one with lascannon, two with flamers

Militarum Tempestus Battalion
2 Tempestors Prime
3 8-men squad - 2 with 2 plasma guns, and 1 with 2 meltaguns.

Callidus Assassin (Imperial Assassins Requisition Sanctioned)

Mine was Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard.

Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment
Cerastus Knight Lancer
Knight Gallant
Knight Crusader

Imperial Guard Battalion
2 Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders
Company Commander with plasma pistol
3 infantry squads with plasma gun each

Requisitioned Eversor Assassin

My opponent placed his Tempestors Prime and 2 8-men squads in Deep Strike. I think he used 2 infantry squads as Engineers, and he took the King Slayer and something else as his objectives (I can't remember what). I also took Engineers (2 of my infantry squads), Tank/Monster Hunter and Old School.

I managed to get first turn, and I basially charged my Cerastus Knight Lancer up and destroyed one of his Leman Russ tanks to get First Strike and 1 point for tank slayer, while my Knight Crusader wiped out the infantry squad holding one objective (the one with the lascannon). My Knight Gallant didn't do much, his Stormspear rocket pod didn't do anything, and the Knight Crusader's Stormspear rocket pod and battle cannon didn't do much to the Basilisks or 2nd Tank Commander either. My Leman Russ Executioner tanks injured one of the tanks (I think), but probably the one that my Knight Lancer destroyed. One of my infantry squads used the Move, Move, Move! order to get into a third objective while I essentially captured another with my Knight Gallant. I really can't remember what else happened, ugh. Sorry, having too much fun with the game that I didn't write anything down.

Anyway, my opponent fired everything and destroyed my Knight Lancer in his first turn, plus charged his Paladins and Draigo into my Knight Lancer and smashed him with Hammerhand and Nemesis Daemon Hammer, earning him all 4 points for King Slayer. He had his remaining Tank Comander move into cover, but that's about it. He killed a bunch of Guard, but they passed their morale and survived. Ouch. I held more objectives than him. So I had 2 more points because I killed more and controlled more objectives. Or something.

In the second turn, I had my Eversor Deep Strike into the backline where the 8 Tempestus Scions and infantry squad was, moved my Knight Gallant further up (but he still wasn't in charge range of anything), and my Knight Crusader to take over his objective. My first tank commander killed all but 1 Paladin. My Eversor wiped the floor with the Tempestus Scions because of Rampage (and maybe morale), consolidating into the Company Commander. Heh. I did absolutely nothing to the Basilisks with the rapid-fire battle cannon...I think. Maybe I injured it a bit. I really can't remember. I also hurt the Leman Russ tank with the Stormspear rocket pod, but not too much, having fluffed my shots or something.



My opponent then Deep Struck his Tempestus Scions, Callidus Assassin near my infantry squads, Leman Russ and tank, another Tempestus Scion squad into the infantry squad who had moved up to occupy the third objective and used a combination of Gate of Infinity and Deep Struck his second Paladin Squad and Apocethary next to my final infantry squad. A combination of shooting saw two infantry squads erased, the one in the third objective and the Engineer squad next to the tank. But I think he didn't kill anyone else. He did charge his Callidus Assassin in and locked one of my Leman Russ tank in combat, but his Paladins failed their charges. So did Draigo, trying to charge into my Engineer Guardsmen, but ate 2 wounds in overwatch from supercharged plasma. Maybe he did some damage to my Knights, I can't remember. Ugh. I think this was when Engineer Points came in, and I got 2 points, and so did he. We were even on objectives this time, and on kills (two units each), so nothing there.

In turn 3, my Knight Gallant moved up toward the Tank Commander, but still wasn't within charge range. Damn. My Eversor Assassin killed the 10 Guardsmen to deny him the Engineer objective, while he contested it with the Company Commander. I think. My Knight Crusader wiped out the 8-men Tempestus Scion squad, but stayed on the objective, and I think he finally wounded the Basilisk, but didn't kill it. Whoops. Anyway, I did get another victory point for tank hunter, so there's that. My Company Commander ran up and captured the objective that my other infantry squad got wiped out, so yay. One of my tanks retreated from the Callidus, and my other Executioner tank fired on her, but she survived because of a command re-roll.

My opponent killed one engineer squad with his Paladins, and I think he locked his Company Commander in combat with my Eversor Assassin. Turned out to be a bad mistake, because my Eversor Assassin killed him in combat, earning me Slay the Warlord for Old School. He also wiped out the last Engineer infantry squad with Draigo in combat. Ugh. He charged my tanks with his Paladins, but failed (?) or didn't wound them, but it didn't matter anyway because he charged one tank with his Callidus, then piled in and locked both tanks in combat. I shouldn't have made my first Leman Russ tank fall back so close to my second one. Whoops. He failed to kill my Company Commander with his Basilisk, though. The Tempestor Prime ran and captured the objective that my slain Engineer squad was sitting on. Anyway, we gained whatever points we could or something, but I can't remember how everything else went. We were even on objective at this point, with my Eversor Assassin capturing one objective.

In turn 4, my Knight Gallant moved and charged the tank commander, killing him with his Paragon Gauntlet. I failed to kill the Basilisk, leaving it with just one wound despite both my Knight Gallant and Knight Crusader shooting at it. I also shot at the Paladins, but only killed one of them and wounded another. Damn it! My tanks couldn't do anything, or that's what I remember anyway.

Nothing else for me to do except watch one of my tanks get wrecked in combat by the Paladins. The Basilisk killed my Eversor Assassin, but the Tempestus Scions failed their charge against my Company Commander and I continued to hold that objective. He Deep Struck his remaining Paladin from the first decimated squad next to my Eversor Assassin, but had to be more than 9" away, so he couldn't capture the objective (not that it mattered, because my Eversor Assassin was pulped by the damned Basilisks). At this point, we called it because the shop was closing up. Oh dear...

We tallied the points and realized that we had about 14 each, so it was a draw! I had Final Strike and Line Breaker from Old School, having killed the Tank Commander last turn. So it turned out to be a draw. Not bad for my first ITC game, I guess?

That was fun. I hope to do it again!

Acceptable Casualties

So I had another game today, this time against Imperial Guard. Or Traitor Guard...they were Blood Pact (from the Gaunt's Ghosts series), using red tanks and working for Khorne. They used the Catachan regimental doctrine...for the tanks, artillery and vehicles, anyway, and Vostroyan regimental doctrine for the majority of the infantry. The dude brought 80 infantry guardsmen. Good Emperor. He was literally flooding the table with infantry.

In contrast to him, I brought my Imperial Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus army. I wanted to try out my new Skitarii, especially the Secutarii Hoplites. It was hilarious. The Secutarii Hoplites did a good job, I guess? I can't tell if they made back their points, but they killed at least one squad of Guardsmen. In addition to my Skitarii and Secutarii, I brought three Imperial Knights using the House Taranis Household Tradition. Oh, and my Skitarii used the Lucius forge world dogma, so that I could deep strike three whole units all over the table. Heh. That alone was worth it. It made up for their total lack of mobility. I also included an Eversor Assassin, because my Tech-priest Dominus unleashed him from his stasis chamber upon the Blood Pact.

We rolled and ended up playing the Chapter Approved 2018 Eternal War Mission, the Four Pillars. We had quite the awesome and fun game - my opponent brought 6 Leman Russ tanks - 1 Tank Commander with the Hammer of Sunderance, 2 Leman Russ Executioner tanks and 3 Leman Russ main battle tanks (all squadroned up). That amount of firepower was devastating. Even with 3 Knights, I ended up dead. Ouch.

Actually, I ended up tabled. I'll need to write a battle report for this someday, but long story short, the game went on to Turn 6 before I was tabled by the sheer firepower the tanks were throwing out. However, I somehow won on points. I think I was ahead by 14 points to his 6. Heh. Even though I was pathetically tabled and wiped out by the end of the game, I still won because of Acceptable Casualties. Whoever created that rule deserves an award! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

So I won overall, but my opponent still had the moral victory because he wiped out my Knights and Skitarii and tabled me! So it's basically win-win!

One day I'll write the battle report, but I have stuff to do this week, so I don't know when I can do it.

Adeptus Titanicus Knight upgrade sprues!

Here's the upgrade sprue for the Questoris Knights in Adeptus Titanicus! Courtesy of Chopsticks from Dakkadakka. Cool, I guess?

As you can see, we get three pairs of Thunderstrike Gauntlets, 3 helms, 3 Stormspear rocket pods and 3 meltaguns. No ranged weapons (other than the meltaguns), though. Wish we would get thermal cannons, battle cannons and Avenger gatling cannons, but oh well...

Legio Draconis shall walk

"Anything from the front yet?"

Lord General Richard Grusin asked briskly as he strode down the corridor, a gaggle of followers and hangers-on trailing his rich leather coat. Tactician Jay Bolter glanced at his dataslate, his brow furrowing as he read through the scrolling rolls of data, and grimaced.

"Confirmed sightings of at least four Archenemy Titans."

"Emperor on Terra..." Grusin breathed as he shook his head. "And Segmentum Command expects us to hold this world with just twelve regiments? Eight of which are infantry regiments? They might as well call in the Commissars and execute us. It'll be a faster and less painful death."

"We all have our duty to the Emperor," Bolter reminded him. Grusin scowled at him.

"I know that, Jay. But the least He could do was provide us with something. A Titan maniple, a company of Shadowswords...anything that can make a dent on those Titans." He sighed as he consulted his own dataslate. "As much as we are lucky to have the 44th Cadian Armor with us, their Leman Russ tanks are hardly going to put a dent on those God-engines."

"I'll see what I can scrounge up with. We could scrounge up all the Basilisks from the 122th Valhallan Artillery and fire upon the Titans before they get within range of Leviatha..."

"Do you honestly think twenty four Earthshaker cannons will be enough to take out a Warlord Titan?" Grusin asked incredulously. "And that's assuming they all hit the same Titan at the same time. We'll be lucky to collapse the damned thing's void shields."

Bolter said nothing as he kept up with Grusin. The nobles of Leviatha followed, chattering anxiously amongst themselves as they caught snippets of information from the duo's conversation, but none of them was stupid enough to interrupt them. Just as well. Grusin was in a foul mood. The Planetary Defense Force had been nothing short of incompetent, and it took several gruelling months before Task Force Solaris brought the underground cults and heretics to heel. And just when they thought they had finally rooted out the source of the infestation, the Archenemy promptly landed several full maniples of Titans on the other side of the planet. Already they were beginning to march toward the capital city of the world of Ravinesburg.

Leviatha, a hive city with a population of ten billion. Evacuation was not an option. They would never be able to move so many people, not before the Traitor Legio reached them.

"Any word on those reinforcements they promised?" Grusin asked, his patience fraying.

"About that, Lord General..." a monotonous voice blared up from an unexpected direction. Grusin and Bolter raised their heads and spotted a tech-priest of the Adeptus Mechanicus sidling up toward them, his baggy red robes sagging over a strangely inhuman body. Mechadendrites snaked out from under the hem, probing the floor or just whirling around, and the Tech-priest fixed his optical sensors upon the pair. The monocle whirled and revolved with a faint hiss.

The nobles who had been following Grusin the entire time quickly fled, unable to bear the sight of the half-human monstrosity.

"Magos Rymilon," Grusin greeted him tightly. "I trust you have several pressing matters if you've chosen to approach me directly?"

"Affirmative," the tech-priest confirmed, his metallic voice droning from the vox emitters embedded in his ruined throat. Very few flesh remained of his original organic body, with his limbs removed and replaced by augmetics. "A delegation from a Draconian battlegroup wishes to see you."

"Draconian?" Grusin raised an eyebrow. The word sounded unfamiliar.

"Correct."

"The Draconian system," Bolter supplied helpfully. "The core of a cluster of worlds in the Draconian Coalition...never mind. It's a system in the far east of Segmentum Solar."

"Never heard of them."

"That is fine," Magos Rymilon said, his voice neutral. "The matter of import is not their origin, but that their fleet just happened to be passing through when they intercepted our Astropathic signal for help. They have diverted their fleet to assist us in our crisis." His lenses flared crimson for a moment. "I heard that you are experiencing...issues with Traitor Titan Engines landing on the far side of Ravinesburg."

"So what do they have?" Grusin asked. Magos Rymilon replied with a binharic blurt, and Bolter skimmed through the fresh data inloaded into his slate.

"Two Astra Militarum regiments..."

"Two? Just two?" Grusin scowled. "What difference would that make?"

Bolter gave him a sharp glare, despite the differences in their rank. "At least wait until I'm done speaking. They are all armored regiments. And each of them possess a company of the Shadowswords you were asking for earlier."

Grusin's expression changed when he heard that. "Thank the Emperor! Two companies of Shadowswords then!"

Honestly, just Shadowswords were not ideal, but their chances of surviving an assault from the Traitor Titan Legion had just risen considerably. At the very least, they now had a way of fighting back against the monstrous God Engines. Even if the daemonic titans leveled Leviatha eventually, they could at least take down a couple of those bastards with them.

"They also have several lances of Knights," Bolter continued, his voice rising a notch from barely contained excitement. "A mix of Questoris and Cerastus class Knights, with a lance of three Acastus Knights. Porphyrion chassis."

Grusin nodded, unable to speak. This was getting better and better. Even though Knights were hardly a match against a true Titan, they were still bipedal behemoths capable of tremendous destruction. They would lose many in the fight, but as long as they could get close, a lance of Knights working in concert could even bring down a Titan.

"...and a single maniple of Titans," Bolter finished before looking up. "Two Warlords and a Reaver. The Kagutsuchi, Ryuujin and Akatsuki."

Grusin felt his heart lift. Titans! They were actually getting Loyalist Titans for reinforcements!

"Our fortunes are turning up," he gasped in relief. "Praise the Emperor..."

"A delegation will be present soon," Rymilon informed the lord general. "There are...formalities to complete before they deliver the Omnissiah's wrath upon the Archenemy. I trust you will be capable of handling them?"

"Leave that to me." Grusin was brought back down to earth for a moment. Negotiating with the Princeps of a Titan Legion and the Nobles of Knightly houses was a delicate matter. To stave off a threat of this magnitude, Grusin had to ensure that all the military elements under his command cooperated perfectly and carried out his orders in unison.

However, Knight nobles tended to have excessive pride, and the Princep commanders of Titan Legions took orders from no one, save the Omnissiah Himself. He couldn't afford to offend them, or they would literally just pack up and leave.

That was a risk Grusin was willing to take, though. For the first time since he received the terrifying news of enemy God Engines landing on Ravinesburg, he saw a ray of hope.

Drawing a deep breath, he instructed Bolter to make the necessary preparations.

*

Lord General Richard Grusin watched the surprisingly short procession of Titan Princeps and their Moderatii flock into the strategium. Then again, there were only three Titan crews from Legio Draconis, so there weren't many of them to begin with. The Dark Dragons had always been a small Titan Legion. They were vastly outnumbered by the enemy Titans, but right now Grusin would take as many God Engines as he could get. Three were better than zero, and even better they were all battleline Titans. A Myrmidion Heavy demi-maniple with enough apocalyptic firepower to demolish an entire hive city.

However, just three of them would not be able to halt the advance of at least three enemy maniples marching toward Leviatha at the moment.

The Titan crews were escorted by Secutarii. At least two squads of Titan Guard accompanied the crews, serving as both honor guard and protectors. Each of them were armed with lances and shields, their armaments crackling with lightning as they marched in perfect step before turning smartly around and forming two rows on either side of the entrance. They stood extremely still, and if it weren't for the intense, glowing electricity, Grusin would have thought the highly augmented soldiers were statues.

Shortly after the Titan crews took their seats, several dozen men in extravagant robes swept in, their hair as black as night. The Knight nobles of House Yato had arrived, along with a contingent of their Stormtrooper retinue. Dressed in carapace armor, the Stormtroopers escorted the nobles into the strategium, and like the Secutarii, they took up positions near the entrance to ensure no intruder could trespass without a challenge. Their features concealed behind environmental hazard helmets, they almost resembled the silent Secutarii with their smooth, metallic helms. Holding their hellguns at port, they stood rigidly as the nobles flowed into the chamber.

Each of the Knight nobles were armed with a sword. Long, curved blades that were held at their waists, they were an antique weapon known as katana. Grusin heard from Bolter that despite the ancient pedigree of these weapons, the katana had been modified by the Martian priesthood, and they were basically a fancy power sword. Not that Grusin cared what the nobles called them. As pilots of super-heavy walkers, they were hardly going to use those fancy power swords in battle, not unless the armor they rode in was ripped apart by the enemy.

"Greetings, esteemed guests from Legio Draconis, and the honorable Sirs from House Yato." Standing up, Grusin kept his voice in a respectful tone. His regimental commanders stirred, but they knew the game as well as they did. None of them was stupid enough to think they could survive without the help of the Titans of the Dark Dragons, or the Knight nobles of House Yato.

Fortunately, the regimental commanders from the two Astra Miliarum Draconian armored regiments had already taken their place. Even though they were technically seconded to House Yato as their military retinues, out of respect to the Lord General, they had acceded to the chain of command prevalent to the Imperial Guard. It made things...easier.

"As you all have probably heard, the Archenemy has landed Traitor Titans on Ravinesburg."

"Legio Mortis. Three Maniples, Axiom Configuration. A total of fifteen Engines." Princeps Kaneda Ryuuji declared with a nod of his head. Grusin glanced at him, surprised. It appeared that the Dark Dragons had more updated information than his command.

"That is correct," Grusin confirmed after a glance at Bolter, who looked just as bewildered and lost as he felt. Fortunately, when he caught sight of Magos Rymilon, the tech-priest nodded imperceptibly to affirm the information. "As such, we would like to request assistance from your venerable Legion to halt their advance."

"Our forces are at your disposal," Princeps Kaneda said, much to Grusin's pleasant surprise. "The God Engines of Legio Draconis shall walk."

"As will the Knights of House Yato." Daimyo Takeda Junpei declared as he rose from his seat. "These foul heretics have turned their back on the Emepror for too long. The Knights of House Yato will march against the enemy!"

"I am immeasurably relieved and delighted to hear that." Grusin had been expecting a much more difficult time, as was his experience when dealing with previous Princeps of other Titan Legions and the proud nobles of more well-known Knightly houses. "I will be relying on you then."

Kaneda nodded, and with a flick of his hand, the hololith in the center of the strategium flickered and changed. Grusin stared, astonished at the Princep's usurpation of the command terminal. Presently, a full-scale map of Leviatha hovered in the middle of the large chamber, displaying the hive city's defenses, assets and fortifications.

Kaneda did not seem to care much about the response, however, and directly addressed the stunned Lord General. "Where would you have us?"

Grusin swallowed, and did his best not to be thrown off guard. The Princeps of the Adeptus Titanicus were closely related to the priesthood of the Adeptus Mechanicus, and thus they wielded exotic technologies often not available to the common soldiery of the Astra Militarum. Taking a deep breath, Grusin gestured toward a massive emplacement.

"If you would set your engines down here, next to the south gate, we could perhaps begin mobilizing them for the march toward the Prenara Plains. I aim to stop the enemy before they reach the hive city. Perhaps engage them in the Plains where we wouldn't have to worry about collateral damage. How long do you need to unload your engines?"

"There is no need to." Kaneda smiled. "We have already landed our engines in the Plains. We are ready to march out to meet the enemy at any time."

First ITC game!

I don't think I have enough time to write a full battle report - at least not in the near future, but I managed to play an ITC mission for the first time today! With all the Engineers and all that. Well, I picked Engineers, even though I already sold all my Thousand Sons. Ouch. I'm not sure what else to say, other than I sucked at this. I will write a full battle report soon, so I won't share the results, but needless to say, it was fun, intense and crazy. ITC allows you to score a lot of points for some reason. Like, for real...4 points each for the secondary objectives alone, and about 2 points per turn. That's some crazy stuff.

I played Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard (their Household retinue, basically), so my standard Cerastus Knight Lancer, Knight Gallant and Knight Crusader, along with 2 Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders, a Company Commander with plasma pistol and 3 infantry squads with plasma gun each, plus a requisitioned Eversor Assassin. My opponent brought Grey Knights and Imperial Guard too - a Vanguard Detachment of Kaldor Draigo, an Apocethary, a bunch of Paladins (I think 2 squads of Paladins). They were reinforced by a Battalion with a Company Commander, 2 Leman Russ main battle tank commanders, 2 Basilisks, and 3 infantry squads - one with lascannon, two with flamers - and a Militarum Tempestus Battalion with 2 Tempestors Prime, and 3 8-men squad - 2 with 2 plasma guns, and 1 with 2 meltaguns. Nice. I think. I can't remember anything else.

It was a pretty vicious game, with both sides taking a large number of casualties. Who won, who lost, and who died? We'll find out soon!

That's all I can remember for now. I need to do some other stuff, so I'll see you guys next time.

Index: Astra Militarum

White Dwarf has released quite a few interesting Indexes this year. First, we had Index Astartes: Crimson Fists in January, then we had Index Imperialis: Assassins in March. Finally we had Index Xenos: Ynnari in May. This leads me to believe that we will be getting an Index once every two months, but obviously don't take my word on it.

If we do get an Index in July, I wonder who we will be getting? Index: Astra Militarum? There are a couple of regiments that require an Index. I think we all know who I'm talking about.

Index Militarum: Death Korps of Krieg and Index Militarum: Elysian Drop Troops. Or maybe an Index Chaos: Hereticus Militarum (Renegades and Heretics). That would be awesome.

Well, what other Index do you think we might have in July and the rest of the year? Chaos Knights are getting their own codex, Adepta Sororitas are also getting their own codex. Maybe Index Xenos: Squats? But we don't have models for them. Index Imperialis: Inquisition? Index Xenos: Kroot? One of the things we should bear in mind is that the Index is based off existing Games Workshop models, so I doubt they will do an entire Index on Kroot or Squats when we don't really have any models for those guys. Anyway, we'll see.

I might be wrong. This is all speculation, after all.

Draconis III marches to war!

I have finally finished painting my Legio Draconis Titans, or the Dark Dragons! Yay! My Adeptus Titanicus Battlegroup is finally complete! As I said before, it features a single Myrmidion Heavy Maniple and a Cerastus Knight Banner.

The Warlord Titan, Kagutsuchi, armed with two Belicosa volcano cannons and Apocalypse missile launchers, the Warlord Titan, Ryuujin, armed with two Sunfury plasma annihilators and turbo-laser destructors, and the Reaver Titan, Akatsuki, equipped with two volcano cannons and an Apocalypse missile launcher.



That's not all. I also painted my Castellax-Achea battle-automata. Even though I no longer have a Mechanicum army, I'm keeping these two just in case we get Warhammer 40,000 rules for the Mechanicum units. I also have a single Thanatar that I haven't really painted, but that's fine. And a Vultarax Stratos-automata. I probably wouldn't get more, not unless we get rules for 40K. Horus Heresy really isn't my thing, and if I do want to play Horus Heresy, I'll just play Imperial Knights instead. In addition to my Castellax battle-automata, I also painted my Vindicare Assassin. Yay?



So this is pretty much my full army. The full might of Draconis III marches to war, supplemented by the Skitarii of Draconis IV. As my blog should already tell you, this is a blog about Imperial Knights, Astra Militarum and Adeptus Mechanicus. And as you can see, that's exactly what I have here. A full Household of Imperial Knights, with their Astra Militarum armored retinue, and a small garrison of Skitarii, Secutarii Titan Guard and Cybernetica automata from the Adeptus Mechanicus.



My Imperial Guard regiment, the Draconian Armored Defenders, as you can see, are primarily an armored regiment comprising mostly of tanks. If possible, I would like to have Chimera, but they're stuck somewhere else right now. I'll get them over eventually, and turn the infantry into mechanized infantry (probably gonna need more than 2 Chimera if that's the case). But as you can see, there are a bunch of Tank Commanders in Leman Russ Executioner tanks, a single Leman Russ Punisher tank, a Leman Russ Annihilator tank, and a single Carnodon tank with Volkite weapons. Volkite is amazing. If I have the option to arm my Guardsmen with volkite chargers instead of lasguns, I would do it in a heartbeat. But...oh, well. The tanks are escorted by the Shadowsword, The Emperor's Wrath, which is the command tank of the regimental commander, Colonel Ikeda Itsuki. The armor column is escorted by 3 squads of infantry, each armed with lasguns and a single plasma gun. They are commanded by a Company Commander with plasma pistol, and 2 Platoon Commanders with bolt pistols. Right at the back are the Draconian Stormtroopers, also known as Kamikaze Troopers. I prefer Kasrkin models to the Militarum Tempestus models, and I might get more in future. Maybe. We'll see. Kasrkins look cooler, and I think they suit my Draconian aesthetic more. In any case, the Kamikaze Troopers are the elite infantry of the Draconian Defenders, and they are often called upon to escort the nobles and serve as bodyguard retinues for the Knight pilots of Draconis III.



At the back of my Astra Militarum regiment are two Assassins from the Officio Assassinorum. Usually, when the Company Commander feels that the threat is too overwhelming, he would requisition an Imperial Assassin or two from Segmentum Command, and they will sanction and dispatch the Assassins with all haste. In the past, we would need the High Lords of Terra to sanction the Assassins, but after Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman returned to Terra, he has changed the system to allow for greater flexibility. So my Astra Militarum basically has Imperial Assassins seconded to them. The Eversor Assassins usually remain in stasis, guarded by the Tech-priests of the forge world, Draconis IV.





Draconis IV is a forge world with its own Skitarii garrison, but as you can see, it's not a very big Skitarii force. They have a considerable Cybernetica Cohort, however, with Draconian-pattern Kastelan Robots, Castellax battle-automata, and eventually Thanatar siege-automata (if we ever get the damned rules for 40K). The Skitarii is armed usually with plasma calivers or arc weaponry - as you can see, there are two squads of Skitarii Rangers with 2 arc rifles, and the Alpha armed with an arc pistol and arc maul. The military forces of the Draconian systems prefer exotic weaponry such as volkite, plasma and arc weapons, whether it's the Imperial Guard or Skitarii Tech-Guard. Thanks to the forge world Draconis IV, they get a lot of these advanced and exotic weapons that aren't normally available to other regiments. They also have a massive garrison of Secutarii Hoplites that march alongside Legio Draconis to war as Titan Guard. Anda gain, these Secutarii Hoplites are equipped with arc lances. I told you arc weapons are a thing with Draconis IV.



And finally we have House Yato. The pilot of the Knight Crusader is Tanaka Tomoyuki (Family name first, then given name), the protagonist of my story. Supposedly. The pilot of the Knight Errant is Suzuki Seishirou. And the pilot of the Knight Gallant is Takeda Takeshi, though I occasionally swap the Knight Gallant's primary weapons for that of a Knight Crusader. In which case, the pilot will still be Takeda, because...yeah. The pilot of the Cerastus Knight Lancer is the Seneschal, basically, and I might as well just call him Yatogami Yuuto. He is usually the "Warlord" who leads the Knight Lance. House Yato is known as the Dragon Slayers, because their Knights often battle the Ryu - or Dragons - in Draconis III, and the Daimyos are usually decided by who slays the Yamata no Orochi in the deepest heart of the dense forests that populate much of Draconis III's continents. The nobles are accompanied by trusted retainers selected from the commoners, who earn the honor of piloting the Armiger-class Knights like the Armiger Helverins. These commoners are elevated to semi-noble status, and they have the opportunity to prove themselves through battle to elevate their ranks to actual nobles. Many eventually rise through the ranks and pilot Questoris or Cerastus chassis Knights of their own, though many more die valiantly in combat, sacrificing their lives for their masters and the Imperium. Nobility, while frequently hereditary, is flexible and fluid. A commoner may become a noble through military valor and heroic deeds. As long as he proves himself in combat, he will ascend from retainer to noble and pilot a "proper" Knight. And the Secutarii Hoplites accompany the Cerastus Knight Lancer because the Knights of Draconis III are closely allied with the Dark Dragons, and march to war beside their gigantic Titan cousins.



I have read the Titan supplements and stuff, and I like the way they name the indentured Knight Houses to the Titan Legions. So I'll probably divide the Lances into maniples or something. So you'll have three main Houses. Under each House, you'll have four main battlegroups, headed by the top Daimyos - the Seiryuu, the Suzaku, the Byakko and the Genbu battlegroups. And within each battlegroup, you'll further divide them into big lances that are named after weapons. So you'll have the Katana lance, the Tsurugi lance, the Tachi lance, the Wakizashi lance, etc. And under each big lance, you'll have them divided into smaller lances of three to five Knights, each with the designation Alpha, Beta, Sigma, Epsilon, etc. I'll probably need to do a separate article on this, but for example, Tomoyuki's lance is under House Yato, the Seiryuu battlegroup, Tsurugi-Alpha Lance. So the designation would probably be Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha, and his Knight would be designated Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-Four (Yatogami Yuuto's Cerastus Knight Lancer would be designated Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-One because he's the Seneschal/Lance Leader). That would solve my problems of having to come up with stupid names for each individual Knights, since there are literally hundreds of them in Draconis III. The Armigers would be granted the double-digits. So, for example, the Cerastus Knights, Questoris Knights, Acastus Knights and Dominus Knights would occupy the single digits (and most often they number up to five, but it is also common for lances to have up to nine, so that they can split into two lances). The Armigers would then be designated Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-Ten and Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-Eleven.



As you can see, I have both the big version of my Cerastus Knight Lancer, Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-One piloted by Daimyo Yatogami Yuuto, and the smaller Adeptus Titanicus versions. For the Adeptus Titanicus versions, we'll just call them Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-One and Seiryuu Tsurugi-Alpha-Two, piloted by Yatogami Yuuto and Kaneda Kenji, who doesn't appear in the regular 40K because budget reasons, and also because I can't squeeze two Cerastus Knight Lancers into a single list.

The same naming system will be in place for the Leman Russ tanks, but instead of the four Celestial Creatures, they will use something else. I'm not sure, but at the moment it would be something like Fox Tsurugi-Alpha-Twelve. Or Leopard Katana-Sigma-Four. So instead of legendary creatures, they use basic animal names, but I'll have to change them up to suit the flora and fauna of Draconis III. Might use flower names instead, like Osmantus Wakizashi Beta-Three, but that strikes me as odd. So probably not.

Anyway, we'll see. I'm glad to have my full army out and painted! Most likely I'll add a coat of red to my Skitarii once the Contrast Paints are released, but for now they are done. Oh, and I'm still waiting for the Questoris Knights and Acastus Knights for my Adeptus Titanicus stuff! I can't wait!

Outdated news regarding Adeptus Titanicus and Horus Heresy

Whoops, I'm 4 days late, but whatever. I just happened to find this while looking for Adeptus Titanicus news (I want the Acastus Knights and new Questoris Knight upgrades now! Okay, I'm not that impatient but you get what I mean, heh). The Age of Darkness Podcast has some extra information from Warhammer Festival posted on his Facebook page.

Basically, this is what he says:

"News from Warhammer Fest

Malevolence and general Age of Darkness news
FW are pleased with the reception of Book VIII and the general feedback it has received. A lot of discussion in the Malevolence seminar was about daemons of the Ruinstorm. One question was about the competitiveness of the list compared to the current lists. The response was that the DotR list is not designed for competitive play as there are too many variables and unit options - if someone wanted to break the list, they could. The focus of the list should be on narrative play with an emphasis on talking to your opponent about the list and the 'gaming contract' of creating a list that your opponent will enjoy playing against as much as you will enjoy playing.

Warhammer Community have shown several pictures of the daemon brutes - there were also digital renders of the same kits with wings. The design process behind these is that they are no daemons of the pantheon but are formed from human consciousness of the monsters of stories. They are designed to visibly not xenos like but more beastial. Due to the influence of Ka'bandha at Signis, they do have some Khornate elements but these are not overt due to humanity not yet recognising, and this influencing, these particular motif.

The daemonic warp table may also find itself into future missions and campaigns where it may be tweaked or adjusted according to the narrative.

The designers also discussed that they have been creating a 'back catalogue' of the older, hand sculpted models into a CAD format. This can be seen on the Golden Keshig jetbikes which are CAD-products formed from the original hand sculpt of the scimitar. Another example is the new jump pack Contemptor. This means that with several of the older sculpts now in a CAD catalogue, they can adjusted for future units much more readily.

The AoD rules team once again stated that they would like to revisit all Legions in future books, showing how they progress as the Heresy grows and develops. Once again, they said they would like to re-do the Astartes army list and re-balance the units but this is all dependant on schedules and other projects being worked on.

The team also mentioned that one section that they were hoping to include in Book IX was an agents of the Emperoer / Warmaster section. This would include assassin clades of both sides; Mechanicum assassins and several other unique units. However, Book IX is now getting too full so they are saving this section for a later book.

So, onto a few little general details:

Over the last two years, the release schedule has been 'flattened out' to bring all the Specialist Games and Heresy into equality with each other rather than a clear focus on Heresy. This means that we can expect releases every quarter in the same way as Necromunda, Blood Bowl or Adeptus Titanicus.

The only question that the FW team would not be drawn on at all and would alway answer with a flat, "we can't discuss that", was the point of a entrance level box to reduce the cost of starting a heresy army. During individual discussions, they would admit there have been discussions behind the scene but there is resistance to the idea in some areas. However, they would admit that they are aware that Heresy is currently the most difficult game to break into starting.

The Armigars are designed to be placed into either a Questoris Household or a Mechanicum force. They are piloted by brains-in-jars...

Discussion was also held about the armour marks in resin - especially Mk.II. Like the starter set, the only answer that was fed back was that, "they are looking into it".

I also raised the issue of the Malcador in the FAQ nerf. One possibly way they are looking at addressing the problem for Militia and Solar Auxilia is by giving each weapon independent tracking to allow it to fire independently and an extra rule to allow the tank to fire ordnance as well as other weapons at full BS. The issue is Astartes Malcadors that the team feels doesn't really fit in with other tanks in the Astartes army list.

Adeptus Titanicus news
Warhammer Community have shown off the new releases coming up in the next three months so I won't waste time discussing those. However, I will clarify a few key points before moving onto other information.

The new Loyalist / Traitor stratagem cards are not just reprints of the main rule books cards - they include new cards as well. It was unclear if they include the stratagems from Doom of Molech or if they are entirely new.

The special titans will include some special rules to make them stand apart from a standard chassis. It was unclear if they are limited to a specific Legio or if they can be added as reinforcements to any maniple.

The Cerastus patterns that are currently missing (archaon and castigator) are being done in plastic and not as resin upgrades. They is currently no ETA on when they will be released.

The team keen to also include the Mechanicum knights but are unclear on how they want to progress with them. Resin upgrades are one option as the distinctive difference is the carapace but the shin armour is also different. The current plastic kit has these moulded on but would it make a difference at this scale? Whatever the end result is, we will get Mechanicum knights but not for a while.

A big emphasis, which has been consistent since the release of AT, has been that the team is not looking at adding infantry and tanks to this game. They are fully focused on creating background of engine battles rather than events where titans are merely there to provide fire support.

Talk inevitably turned to chaos titans. Although BL have establish in Titandeath that Chaos titans fought at Beta-Garmon, the team have also identified another mid-late Heresy battle where chaos titans fought before the Siege of Terra. This was in an old WD article: the Siege of Cado.

This was a siege where Legio Crucius and House Devine fought. What makes it significant is that this is one the battle that started to see a more marked distinction between Loyalist and Traitor titans and legios.

This is one area that the AT team want to develop; the growing differences between Loyalist and Traitor. Through the use of stratagems and wargear - sometimes legio specific, the team want to begin to identify the changes between Loyalist and Traitor. In a game where there are only a small units, this is one of the things that can add greater differentiation between units and forces.

These differences will be fed out through campaign books in the most part; there as discussion around the release of Mechanicum knights that could be linked to a book about Mechanicum vs. Dark Mechanicum for example. It was also mentioned about blackshield forces that have just walked away from both sides or declared their forge world or system independent.

As well as the new scenery kits previewed, the designers also talked about me scenery like fortification lines, orbital defences and hive defences. This links back to the Titandeath campaign book or possibly future campaigns.

White Dwarf will soon include a feature about homebrew legios and give the option to create custom rules for your own legio rather than borrowing an existing Legios rules. This will take the form of a series of tables, one each for: Legio traits, Legio stratagems; Legio wargear and princeps traits. There will be 10 options in each table. Some of these will allow you to pick from existing Legio rules but others will be unique.

As someone with a homebrew Legio and knowing that the AT team have emphasised the huge number of legios existing during the Heresy, this is a really exciting development and I can't wait for it to be developed.

Book IX - Crusade (general information)
By the time of Malevolences release, Book IX had already seen six months development work and the team are now at the point of playtesting units in their second or third forms. Most of the narrative is written. Although the team would not commit to a release date, they did say that there would not be a two year wait between Black Books this time.

The book will contain a section titled, 'Galaxy in Flames'. This is a full campaign system for representing an entire Expeditionary fleet at war including Astartes, Mechanicum, Army and Legio forces. This will be the basis for the Thramas Crusade campaign between the Dark Angels and Night Lords.

The book will also contain a system on Dark technology which will be available to all factions. This is similar to the psyarkana section in Malevolence that will just give more options to armies.

Book IX - Crusade (Dark Angels)
Some of this information hasn't changed since the Weekender so check my previous summary for some additional information.

Some new details include that the emphasis won't be on the Calibanite feature of the legion but more on the Terran origins and the role of the First Legion in the late Unification Wars, Great Crusade and early Heresy. This will include more details on the Rangdan Xenocides!

The look of the legion (as seen in the artwork and on the model previews on the Warhammer community website) is more knightly than robed monk. There will also be no green on the armour at all - there will be a great focus on black, white and red.

In terms of rules, the team may tweak the existing legio Astartes rules and the existing RoWs to match the intent in Book IX. The wings that are unique to the Dark Angels are most likely to be represented by RoW but they are exploring other options. Each wing will have something in the rules to represent them on the table. One example was the firewing that has an emphasis on cloak and dagger operations and assassinations.

One large part of the First Legion will be the focus that they are the prototype behind all other Legions. Therefore they have technology that is not accessible to other Legions that was gifted to them by the Emperor. This include Terran technology such as battle-automata that is skirting AI. This uniqueness will be able to be represented on the tabletop as well through wargear.

Book IX - Crusade (Dark Mechanicum)
This will a full list that will also explore the background and philosophy of the dark Mechanicum. One interesting new feature is that members of the Dark Mechanicum are not always sided with Horus - some may be Loyalist. The definition of a member of the Dark Mechanicum is that they are using technology that is frowned upon by the Emperor - it is a belief system rather than a side in the war that is more shades of grey, rather than black and white. The narrative within the book will explore this more and chart its development throughout the Great Crusade.

The army list will emphasis constructs rather than daemon-engines as this is more of a scouring-period development. There will changes to the standard army list as by nature, a DM army is extremely feudal and is focused on the archmagos.

You are only allowed one HQ in the army and this allows you to select a type of Dark Mechanicum philosophy to follow. These are:
- [ ] A.I.
- [ ] Warp-based technology as a power source (not daemonic in origin)
- [ ] Gene-crafting or the use of xenos technology.
All three of these are proscribed by the Imperium. Each one will open up unit and wargear options in a similar way to Militia traits or daemon dominions.

The archmagos controls all the units on the table in a manner similar to cybertheurgy. Although there is only one HQ, you can purchase more control nodes to spread the influence of the archmagos further.

There wasn't much detail on other units. They will be familiar but unique to each branch of DM thinking."

Interesting. Well, I won't bother you because that's a long wall of text. Again, many thanks to the Age of Darkness Podcast for the news. Seems like exciting times ahead for Adeptus Titanicus players!

To sum it up for Adeptus Titanicus:

Cerastus Knights will be getting their other weapon options...soon. In plastic.

Mechanicum (Forge World?) Knights will get released...soon. Most probably in resin.

No tanks and infantry. Epic, this is not.

We're getting Chaos Titans.

Homebrewed Legio rules in an upcoming White Dwarf issue. I'm so looking forward to this because my Titan Legion is homebrewed.

As for the Forge World Armigers, we don't have to wait 2 years for Book IX: Crusade. They might be released in a year or so. Apaprently they want to bring Horus Heresy in line with the other specialist games like Adeptus Titanicus, so that might mean a release every 3 months (not the campaign books but just new Horus Heresy stuff in general, but no longer do we have to wait years for a new Horus Heresy Campaign book).