Dark Angels joke

Every time someone makes the same old joke about Dark Angels on social media, along the lines of them being heretics, traitors or non-loyalists, I'm just going to spam this picture.



Stop beating the dead horse, folks. It's no longer funny. It might be amusing a few years ago, but once it's repeated too often, it just comes across as obnoxious instead of humorous.

(this might not be the first time I've posted about this, and if so, I apologize)

Steeling my Steel Dragons

My progress on my Steel Dragons was interrupted when I fell sick earlier this week. Down with a bad cold, ugh. Probably overworked myself when writing stupid stories and maintaining a regular update. Since I'm writing garbage as a hobby, that wasn't a good idea.

Anyway, I felt a lot better yesterday after fighting off a fever on Friday, so I went to Dreamers Vault to continue building my Steel Dragons army. To my disappointment, the Iron Hands codex supplement was completely sold out. What the hell?! Since when was Iron Hand so popular? Instead, all the Raven Guard stuff was there. But Raven Guard and Shrike are too emo for me. Besides, I'm an armored guy. My Imperial Guard army are mostly tanks. I intend to build a similarly mechanized Space Marine force based around heavy armor and robots as well. I'm pretty sure I'm the exception - who the Warp plays an armoed Space Marine force? Don't they run, like, Terminators and all that? Or drop pods? Or...smash Captains?



Why Iron Hands?

Doesn't really matter. The Iron Hands codex supplement won't be going anywhere. If anything, I'll just order it online if necessary, but it's not that urgent. My army isn't even complete yet, and it's just a Successor Chapter. I don't really like the Iron Hands because they're so cold and ruthless, but I like how they play with armor! So to reconcile that, I have an Iron Hands Successor Chapter that learn the ways of the noble Salamanders and prioritize the lives and welfare of mortals over victory. Yes, I know it's an incredibly idiotic backstory and I'm probably violating the fluff. Sorry about that.

Back to my army. What I have right now is built around a single Repulsor Executioner tank. The core of the army is the three squads of 5 Intercessors - as you would have notice, one of them has a Thunder Hammer (so does a second, but I lack the points so I'll probably replace the Thunder Hammer with a power sword instead). There is no Primaris Captain to lead them yet because the store hasn't restocked them (ouch). So I am making do with a Primaris Librarian for now. Aiding the Primaris Librarian is a regular Librarian, but unlike the Primaris Librarian his wargear options are a lot more flexible, so I gave him a force axe instead of a force stave. Cool! I think.

Wait...what? Why Librarians? Where are the techmarines? Yeah...you would think I should include techmarines. But again, I can't find any. Where are the damned techmarines? Apparently there are only metal and resin models, and I'm reluctant to buy those. I don't need the Servitors and after the nightmare of Battletech, I don't want to deal with pewter or metal models if I can help it.

Besides, my Successor Chapter doesn't agree with the Iron Hands's doctrine of "flesh is weak." Not only do they refuse to cut off their arms to replace it with a bionic, they insist that man and machine must work together in perfect harmony. The Librarians, with their technomancy discipline, epitomizes that. That's why they have a lot more psykers and not many techmarines or Marines with bionics and augmetics. They believe in the human body and its potential - psychic potential, maybe - and refuse to just give themselves over to the machine. It was this split in ideals, both regarding the attitude toward mortals and the treatment of flesh that caused the founding Chapter Master to leave the Iron Hands during the Fourth Founding and found his own Chapter, the Steel Dragons, based on his ideals. My idea is that during the War of the Beast, this particular dude and his platoon saw how Vulkan and the Salamanders fought valiantly to save the mortals from overwhelming tides of Orks during several of the Imperium's darkest days. Inspired by Vulkan's courage and the Salamanders' nobility, the dude found himself disgusted by the callous and ruthless attitudes of his fellow Iron Hands toward mortals, and how they callously sacrifice civilian camps or lives just to level a city to maximize the kill count of Orks, and hence when Lord Protector Drakan Vangorich and Lord Commander Maximus Thane organized the Fourth Founding, he seized the opportunity to leave the Iron Hands and found a Chapter based on his ideals - combining the cold steel and armored efficiency of the Iron Hands with the selfless valor of the Salamanders. That was how much the impact of firsthand witnessing Vulkan, a living and breathing Primarch, coming back to life and leading the war effort against the Beast and his Orks was. They said a Primarch can inspire, so why not do that?

Anyway, I digress. In addition to the Librarians and Intercessors, we have Devastators. I'm going heavy plasma on this, true to form. But because each Devastator box only has 2 plasma cannons (curse you, Games Workshop!), I can only build 2 plasma Devastators. So I plan to eventually get a second box and build 1 squad of plasma cannons Devastators, and another squad of 4 heavy grav Devastators. Why heavy grav? Because it's the next coolest weapons. Lascannons and missile launchers are pretty meh, and I like the hi-tech stuff like plasma and grav. Multi-melta and lascannons only offer one shot each, which doesn't really fit what I have in mind, considering I already have a Repulsor Executioner with a heavy laser destroyer. I mean, I have plasma, so I don't care about that, honestly, but I guess I was thinking along the lines of, "what can I play with Space Marines that the Imperial Guard can't?" Grav, that's what. We have multi-meltas, lascannons and missiles in the Guard, but no grav. Okay, we have plasma cannons, but I'm a plasma guy and I already have lots of plasma. Actually, I don't have enough plasma. Never mind. Anyway, grav it is. If you got a problem with it, then that's your problem. I know people will tell me that grav sucks, that lascannons are much better and I should build more anti-tanks or build efficient lists, but who cares? Just let me build what I want and equip my Marines with whatever weapons I want. They are MY dudes. Not yours. At most I'll just sell the extra grav Devastators. They should fetch me some much-needed money for other models. Heh.



Rounding out the infantry, both battleline and heavy fire support, is...you guess it, even more plasma. I managed to get a Contemptor Dreadnought with dual heavy plasma cannons! Yes, you can tell that I really love plasma. And then you have an Invictor Tactical Warsuit right next to the Relic Contemptor Dreadnought because apparently I need a non-Relic Elite unit to unlock the Relic Contemptor Dreadnought. That's fine. I love giant robots, and hence my list shall have giant robots! YAY!



Now all I have left is to get a Primaris Captain, another Devastator box, another Contemptor Dreadnought, another Invictor tactical warsuit, and 2 Impulsors. Hopefully. We'll see. You'll never know! Oh, and the Iron Hands codex supplement, of course. Yeah, people will tell me Ultramarines are more competitive, but I don't want to play Ultramarines. I want to play heavy armor and the Iron Hands chapter tactics make more sense for my heavy armor list. All my vehicles (the Repulsor Executioner, the Relic Contemptor Dreadnoughts, the Invictor tactical warsuits and the Impulsors) have degrading stats, so the Iron Hands' Scions of the Forge Chapter Tactic is going to help me out a lot!

As an aside, I also got a third Cerastus Knight Lancer for my Adeptus Titanicus stuff.

New Knight Moirax and Adeptus Titanicus Weapons!

Sorry, I'm sick today so I couldn't update this in time. But we have new weapons for our Knight Moirax and Adeptus Titanicus Reavers!

You can check out the post in Warhammer Community.



So we have the Moirax Conversion Beam Cannon and...


...Graviton Pulsar. Cool, right?

This is how your Knights Moirax will look like after you attach them!




And our Reaver Titans are getting a Vulcan mega-bolter carapace weapon too!


I can't wait to mount it on my Reaver Titan with dual melta cannons!




Start ordering them before they vanish!

Armiger Knight Moirax and Steel Dragons!

And so I managed to finish building my second Armiger Knight Moirax today! So now I have two Armiger Knights Moirax, each equipped with the volkite veuglaire and Moirax siege claw. Now I'll have to wait for Forge World to sell those arm weapons separately. Sigh...in addition to my Armiger Knights Moirax are my Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan arm weapons, the Mori quake cannon and macro gatling blaster, which you've already seen in one of my previous posts. Nothing much to add, except that I hope to start painting them...soon. I hope. We'll see.

I also went deep into the process of building my Space Marine Successor Chapter. After long consideration and a few experimental brainstorming sessions, I realized that the Salamanders' combat doctrine and fighting style doesn't suit me at all. As much as I like the pyromancy, flamer weapons and the ship-boarding specialization I created at first, I found that they don't mesh well with my armored spearhead tactics or treadhead mentality. Those of you who have been following my blog since the beginning will know that I'm a treadhead. My Imperial Guard...cough, Astra Militarum army consists primarily of tanks. I've always been fielding mostly Leman Russ tanks, very few mechanized infantry, a Shadowsword, and now I even have a Carnodon tank! That's the core of my Imperial Guard army, and I don't intend to deviate from that armored mentality. I love tanks. I love vehicles. I love mechs. I love Knights. Hell, my very first Warhammer 40,000 army is Imperial Knights, and they remain my number one (hence you see the Armiger Knights Moirax right at the beginning of the post!). As such, even though I hate the Iron Hands' callousness toward us mortals and their machine-like ruthlessness, I feel that their tactics and armored assaults suit me a lot more than the noble and compassionate Salamanders. Not to mention I'm heavily invested in the Adeptus Mechanicus lore, what with my Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard regiments being so heavily reliant on the priesthood of Mars (that's what happens when the core of your army consists of heavily armored machines). Naturally, my Space Marine Chapter will be closely affiliated to the Adeptus Mechanicus to maintain their fleet of Battle Barges, Furious Abyss Class flagship Abyssal Dragon (which serves as their homeworld) and armored columns of vehicles.

However, they are not Iron Hands. They are successor to the Iron Hands, but they are completely different except in their affinity with mechanized warfare, armored assault and optimized vehicles. Before I get too ahead of myself, I should state first that I have changed the name of my Space Marine Chapter to Steel Dragons. Yeah, I love dragons. Problem, dragons?

The Steel Dragons are a successor Chapter of the Iron Hands, and were created during the Fourth Founding when the first Chapter Master, was disgusted and revolted by the Iron Hands' ruthlessness and callous disregard for mortal lives. He could not bring himself to sacrifice millions of mortals just to secure a win, and he was influenced strongly by the Salamanders' noble attitudes and valiance in protecting these mortals. Obviously, his clan mates weren't too happy with him and they had an altercation. When the Fourth Founding occurred, the first Chapter Master of the Steel Dragons brought like-minded Iron Hands individuals along with him to form a new Chapter. They would combined the mechanical ferocity and precise, calculated armored stategies with the nobility and selflessness of the Salamanders. Taking the best from both worlds, they became the Steel Dragons. Unlike the Iron Hands, the Steel Dragons are not interested augmenting themselves. They do not think the flesh is weak, either. They believe in the potential of the human body, both genehanced and mortal. Using armored tactics learned from their parent Chapter, they stand at the forefront of the Imperium, protecting billions of human lives alongside their Astra Militarum comrades, who regardly them highly and have the utmost respect for the Steel Dragons.



Unfortunately, it is this noble selflessness that nearly doomed the Chapter. At the close of the forty-first millennium, the Steel Dragons' original homeworld, Bahamut, was devoured by a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Leviathan, as well as overrun by a massive Waaagh! led by a charismatic Ork Warboss known as Garruk Fierceteeth. As the two xenos species fought over Bahamut, mirroring what was unfolding in the Octarius War at a far greater scale, the Steel Dragons were nearly annihilated as they fought to the last man. Salvation arrived in the form of Imperium allies, who answered the call for aid. The Knights of House Yato and the armored tanks of the Draconian Armored Defenders landed on the single place left to the Imperium, the ruined monastery-fortress of the Steel Dragons, and dug in to defend the Space Marines. Realizing that they were outmatched and vastly outnumbered, the Imperial defenders then beat a fighting retreat, saving the last remaining survivors of the Steel Dragons. Thousands of Draconians were sacrificed that day for the lives of barely a hundred Space Marines. The Steel Dragons would never forget this debt, and even now continue to fight alongside Draconians even after the Cicatrix Maledictum, answering every call for aid and striking at enemies the Draconian Defenders and Knights of House Yato engage. They attemtped to rebuild their Chapter by recruiting from the Draconian worlds, which explains why the Steel Dragons sport Asian features. However, with barely a hundred Marines left, and much of their armory destroyed after an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor enacted Exterminatus on Bahamut, it was going to be a long, arduous process.

That all changed when Roboute Guilliman appeared with Primaris Space Marines to replenish and rebuild the Chapter back to full strength. The Steel Dragons now comprise mostly of Primaris Space Marines, with their Battleline Companies made up of almost nothing but Intercessors and supporting armor. Actually, it's more like the mechanized Intercessors are the ones who are supporting the armor. Whoops. So yeah, they still engage largely in armored warfare, making use of the new Executioner Repulsors and Impulsors to continue waging their mechanized strategies. Fortunately, the links with the forge world of Draconis IV allowed the Chapter to maintain the technology required to build Contemptor Dreadnoughts, and crippled Space Marines are interred with the Contemptor-class chassis. For some reason, because the Interessors can't use heavy weapons normally available to Space Marine Chapters, the Steel Dragons continue to raise old-school Marines to operate the surplus of heavy weapons they possess, largely because of their links to the forge world of Draconis IV, who manufacture lots of plasma weapons and exotic weaponry, such as grav cannons. The Draconian Imperial Guard are supplied with lots of plasma guns and Leman Russ Executioner tanks, as well as Carnodon tanks equipped with volkite, the Knights of Draconis III are equipped with exotic and ancient volkite weaponry, and the Steel Dragons also benefit largely from this relationship. Hence while the battleline squads are mostly Intercessors, the fire support squads are mostly Devastators armed with plasma cannons and grav weaponry. Even the Contemptor Dreadnoughts of the Chapter are equipped with two plasma cannons.

The Steel Dragons are also unusual for Iron Hands Successor Chapters not only because of their refusal to augment or mechanize themselves or their high regard for flesh, but also because of their mysteriously high number of Librarians. Every Company has at least ten Librarians, ranging from the common Lexicanium, the veteran Codiciers, and the highly regarded Espistolaries. The Librarians of the Steel Dragons uphold the belief that the flesh should coexist with machine, not prizing one over the other. That doesn't mean they mechanize or cyborg-ize themselves, but more like they communicate with machine spirits, and coax them to do their bidding. Their potent psychic powers allow them to repair machines with just a thought, or to destroy possessed machines and Daemon Engines with the wrath of the Omnissiah behind them. To the Steel Dragons, the flesh is the pinnacle of the machine. For what is the human body, if not a miracle created by the Omnissiah Himself?



So this explains why I have 2 Librarians (1 Primaris Librarian, 1 normal one), 3 squads of 5 Intercessors, a squad of Devastators (I'm intending to get a 2nd squad), a Repulsor Executioner and a Contemptor Dreadnought. I'm hoping to expand into 1 Devatastor squad with 4 grav-cannons with grav-amp, 1 Devastator squad with 4 plasma cannons and get a 2nd Contemptor Dreadnought as well. Following which, I'll arm both Dreadnoughts with plasma cannons. Because I like plasma. I know people will tell me that plasma cannons suck on a Dreadnought or that plasma cannons suck in general, and tell me to take something more useful like 4 lascannons or something. I say screw it, I'm going to get what I want. Plasma served me well whenever I play Imperial Guard, and I just like plasma. It's not as if I'm going to a tournament with my Steel Dragons anyway. Back to the topic, I'm also planning to get a 2nd Repulsor Executioner if I can, so it maximizes the armored warfare and stuff that I like. Tanks! More tanks! YAY!

I'll also have a story coming up soon regarding the Steel Dragons' audacious raid on the Word Bearers' orbital shipyard. Taking the Word Bearers by surprised, the newly rebuilt Steel Dragons launched a strike on their orbital shipyard when the Word Bearers' fleet was elsewhere. Allied elements from the Draconian Defenders, elite Kamikaze Troopers, dropped into the orbital shipyard alongside strike teams of Space Marines, and they quickly captured and mined the orbital platform. Then they stole all the Battle Barges and even one Furious Abyss class ship that the Dark Mechanicum was building for their Word Bearer masters, and escaped before the enraged Word Bearers fleet returned. With the help of the Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, countless servitors and Skitarii, they managed to seize control of the Battle Barges and disengage them from the shipyard before fleeing to the warp. As a side note, Tzeentch was highly amused by the Steel Dragons' audacity and schemes that he delibrately caused a warp storm to delay the Word Bearers and helped the Steel Dragons throw their pursuers off their trail.



Unfortunately, because the Warhammer 40,000 must be grimdark, it wasn't a totally happy ending. In order to purify and cleanse the ships of daemonic taint (it's the Dark Mechaniucm, after all), the Librarians of the Chapter conductd a cleansing ritual, callinf forth as much power as their enhancd minds could muster, and purged the ships of any lingering taint or darkness. The cost was steep. Over half of the Chatper's Librarians perished in the effort. And even with half of their Librarians left, the Steel Dragons still had considerably many more Librarians than others (about fifty or so). Sucks to be a Librarian during these dark times.

So that's about it. If there's anything more I'll try to update!

Imperium versus Tyranids!

I didn't manage to do much yesterday, only building one Knight Moirax. I actually like the rad-cleanser, even though I still hoped for another Volkite Veuglaire. The rad-cleanser's ability to hurt anything that isn't a vehicle or Titanic on a 2+ is awesome, and allowed me to kill a bunch of low-save horde units, as well as wound stuff like Carnifexes and the 3 Damage outright kills stuff like Ripper Swarms. It's insane. But yeah, I ended up building one Knight Moirax and that's what it's all about! Maybe I should keep the Moirax siege claw after all, but we'll see.

Anyway, contrary to my original plans, I only had time to build a single Knight Moirax (I wanted to build both) before I was dragged away for a game. Well, not exactly. I wanted to test my Knight Moirax out so I was happy to get a game anyway. My opponent was bringing Tyranids, which meant there would be plenty of chances for my volkite weapons to shine. As a side note, I wish Games Workshop or Forge World would allow volkite weapons in 40K for the Imperial Guard. I have a single Carnodon tank with volkite, which is cool, but I also hope my Guardsmen can field volkite chargers one day. Just like the vaunted Solar Auxilia of old! Maybe we'll get rules for Solar Auxilia one day, but I'm not holding my breath. Besides, it's too expensive for me to get a Solar Auxilia army. Even so, I did want to kitbash with the volkite chargers, the hostile environment suits and either Tempestus Scions or Cadians to form my own volkite regiment (with plasma gun). I think Tempestus and their backpacks go better because volkite chargers make for cool alternative hellguns/hot-shot lasguns. But I don't think I'll ever do that because 1) money and 2) it's not very practical. How am I going to cut all the lasguns from the arms for volkite chargers? Ugh...



Anyway, the game. Yeah. My opponent brought a Flying Hive Tyrant, Old One Eye (a legendary Carnifex who's his Warlord), 3 other Carnifexes, a Tervigon, a Tyrannofex, 2 squads of 3 Tyranid Warriors, 2 squads of Termagaunts, 1 squad of 3 Ripper Swarms, 2 units of bio spore mines, a gigantic Harpy and 3 Zoanthropes. That's basically all I remember. Ugh. I brought a Supreme Command of 3 Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders, a Battalion featuring 1 Company Commander, a Kamikaze Captain (Tempestor Prime), an infantry squad with plasma gun in a Chimera, 2 squads of 5 Kamikaze Troopers (Kasrkins) with 2 plasma guns each in a Chimera, and a Super-heavy Detachment of a Knight Gallant, a Questoris Knight Styrix and an Armiger Knight Moirax with volkite veuglaire and Moirax siege claw.

We rolled off, my opponent seized the initiative and went first. He had all his Tyranids move up the table, basically. His Harpy essentially zoomed across the table. The Tyranid Warriors fired on one of my Leman Russ tank commander and took 6 wounds off him in total. I can't remember anything else, but I think there wasn't much in range, so he couldn't shoot much. He did cast Catalyst on the Hive Tyrant, and his Tyrannofex took about 6 wounds off my Knight Gallant, but on the whole, nothing happened because most of his units weren't in shooting or charge range.

I went next, and 2 of my Leman Russ Executioner tanks fired their lascannons into the Carnifex and took 5 wounds off him. The plasma went into the Hive Tyrant and I think he was knocked down to 6 wounds or less remaining. Maybe 5? I can't remember. The Knights had all moved up the table while all the Chimeras and Tanks remained stationary, so I could only fire at the Carnifex and Hive Tyrant. I could also hit the Termagaunts and Tyranid Warriors too, but I focused on the big guys. The third Leman Russ Executioner tank, on the other hand, fired on the 3 Tyranid Warriors that brought him down to half health (though I used the Jury Rigged Stratagem to bring him back to his top bracket) and wiped them out. YAY! The Chimera did a total of 2 damage to the Ripper Swarm and killed nothing. On the other hand, my Knight Styrix fired his big gun on the Tervigon and took several wounds off her, reducing her to 5 wounds. I killed a couple of Termagaunts with the Armiger Knight Moirax's volkite weapon, and the rad-cleanser auto-hit the Harpy and did about 6 wounds or so when my opponent failed his save. My Knight Gallant charged into and killed the Flying Hive Tyrant with his Paragon Gauntlet, and my Armiger Kight Moirax charged in and killed the Harpy with his siege claw. That was pretty good melee for me!

Turn 2, the Termagaunts concentrated fire on my Armiger Knight Moirax, with my opponent popping off a Stratagem that allowed them to add 1 to their wound rolls...except that their strength 3 fleshborer guns were wounding my Armiger Knight Moirax on 6s, so now they wound on 5s. Unfortunately, they didn't get a lot of wounds and my 3+ armor save meant that any that did wouldn't get through the armor. Hilariously enough, when the second squad of Termagaunts fired, even without the Stratagem they rolled 3 6s for wound rolls. I rolled 2 1s and a 6, and failed 2 armor saves. Ouch. However, the funny thing was that I rolled 2 6s for the Omnissiah's Grace and my Armiger Knight Moirax didn't take any wounds. Whoa. He did take some wounds from psychic attacks, and by the end of the turn he had 9 wounds left. My Knight Gallant, on the other hand, was knocked down to 6 wounds after the second squad of Tyranid Warriors, the Tyrannofex and the Carnifexes all fired at him, and that was also after the Zoanthropes Smite him for a couple of mortal wounds AND the bio mines charged in and exploded, dealing another few mortal wounds. Ouch. The Carnifexes either failed their charges or were too far to charge, so the Tyranid Warriors charged instead and brought him down to just 1 wound with their bone swords. Thank the Omnissiah that I made several of the Feel No Pain rolls (I'm using House Taranis's Tradition to best represent my House Yato) or he would have died. Anyway, I stomped with Titanic Feet and killed one, but his death meant he could strike back one last time before his removal. Obviously I failed the save and my Knight Gallant lost his last wound and died. Ouch.

My Leman Russ Executioner then killed the Tyranid Warriors, at the cost of taking a mortal wound even though I could re-roll ones with the Cadian doctrine. Damn. The other Leman Russ Executioner tank killed the wounded Carnifex. Yay. Then the Knight Styrix moved up and killed the Ripper Swarm with his twin rad cleasner, and his big volkite gun killed a bunch of Termagaunts. The Armiger Knight Moirax also moved up and killed more Termagaunts with his volkite and rad-cleanser, leaving just one termagaunt. One. Which the Chimeras failed to kill. The third Leman Russ Executioner tank fired at a second Carnifex and killed it too, leaving just Old One Eye and one Carnifex. I then charged the Knights in, but the Knight Styrix failed his charge while the Armiger Knight Moirax got in and reduced the Tervigon to 4 wounds (she recovered a wound and went up to 6, I rolled a 2 for the D6 damage after the siege claw hit her so she went down to 4). Oh, well. She struck back and the Armiger Knight Moirax took a total of 3 wounds, being brought down to 6? Or 5? I can't remember.

Turn 3 was the last turn, I believe. The Termagaunts fired and didn't do much to the Knight Styrix, or not that I remember, but between the Tyrannofex and something (I can't remember), they essentially brought the Knight Styrix down to 12 wounds. The spore mines tried to charge, and got wasted in overwatch. The combination of Psychic Scream and melee brought my Armiger Knight Moirax down to 1 wound. Old One Eye charged my Knight Styrix and rolled a bunch of 1s and 2s for his hit rolls and wound rolls...and did absolutely no damage to my Knight Styrix (after taking 6 damage from overwatch - the twin rad-cleanser wounding on 2+s was just insane!). The other Carnifex failed his charge...predictably. My Armiger Knight Moirax, with just 1 wound left, missed because he needed 6s for his Moirax siege claw to hit. Whoops.

By now, my opponent surrendered because he had most of his army wiped out. All he had left was a Tervigon, who was about to get wasted by my Armiger Knight Moirax (who was using Machine Spirit Resurgent), 3 Zoanthropes, about 10 Termagaunts, a single Carnifex and a Tyrannofex. The last surviving Termagaunt got terminated by fire from the Chimeras. In contrast, I only lost a single Knight Gallant. My Armiger Knight Moirax had somehow survived with just 1 wound. I have no idea how. My Knight Styrix still had 12 wounds left. Uh, I was only able to kill a Carnifex with a Leman Russ Executioner tank before my friend conceded, and I pretty much didn't do anything else (I really wanted to kill his Tervigon).

And so it ended up as an overwhelming victory for the combined Astra Militarum and Imperial Knight forces, who crushed the Tyranid incursion (Hive Fleet Kronos). Well, they aren't the dreaded Hive Fleet Leviathan, so too bad. Hive Fleet Kronos specializes in other things like shooting, not fighting an armored spearhead head-on with a bunch of Carnifexes...I guess? Well, it matters not. The humans won this time. YAY! We successfully defended one of the Draconis system's worlds from the ravenous Tyranids! Woohoo!

...I guess. Maybe I shouldn't bring Knights against my friend, but I don't have any other armies and my Imperial Guard army isn't enough for me to field a full 2,000-point army (I sold most of my Guard stuff and preserved only my tanks). We'll see! The Guard is meant to fight alongside other Imperium forces and I like soup, so it makes no sense to make a pure Guard army as viable as a pure Space Marine army. Our codex is top tier and we're doing well, so we don't need that much improvements or Combat Doctrines or something. Just more customability for our home-brewed regiments (like the successor Chapters) would be nice.

For the Emperor!

Macro gatling blaster, quake cannon, Primaris Space Marines and Battletech!

What a long day! Today I built 3 Battlemechs for Battletech, a bunch of Primaris Space Marines and then built and magnetized the macro gatling blaster and quake cannon for Adeptus Titanicus!

I hate dealing with pewter and resin. Especially pewter. I had less trouble gluing the macro gatling blaster and quake cannon, but by the Emperor/Dragon, I just could not get the damned pewter Battlemechs to stick together. Fortunately, these will be my last Battlemechs. I won't be getting any of the pewter ones. I will be getting plastic ones in future - especially my favorite Mad Cat! Well, my favorite is actually the Mad Cat MKII, and I've gotten one! Built him just today! YAY! Mad Cat MKII, go, go, go! I also already have a Mad Cat IV, which was my VIP today. More on that later, heh. Anyway, I have 2 lances of Battlemechs, a total of 7 (missing just the plastic Mad Cat to bring the number up to 8), so YAY! My lances consist of an Awesome (AWS-9Q variant, the one with 4 PPCs), a Dragon II (DRG-11R), a Lament (LMT-3C, the one with 3 ER PPCs), a Legacy (LGC-03, the one with 2 heavy PPCs), a Mad Cat MK II, a Mad Cat MK IV (Primary), and a Tenshi (TN-10-O). Cool, I guess? I just went for those with PPCs because PPCs are my favorite weapons. Of course, the heat is going to kill me, but I couldn't care less. Rule of cool and all that. The only exception is my favorite Mad Cat MK II, but I have no choice. That's my favorite battlemech and has a special place in my heart because I always picked him back when I played Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance over 15 years ago. Mad Cat MK II is my mech, and I ain't giving him up for anyone! Well, I'm starting to prefer the Mad Cat MK IV because of the ER PPCs and all, but yeah. Mad Cats are where it's at! I intend to create a Mad Cat lance, which will include the plastic Mad Cat once I get it (Kickstarter Battlemech project with clan wars).

From left to right: Mad Cat MK IV, Awesome, Dragon II, Tenshi, Mad Cat MK II.

After I finished gluing my battlemechs togeether, (holy hell, they were a pain to glue! Pewter just refuses to stick!), I managed to get a game with a friend. He brought a Battlemaster and a Catapult. With no clue of all the "newer" mechs and era differences, I just headed into the battle with my Awesome and Mad Cat MK IV because I happened to have their record sheets on hand. We had a small skirmish game where he taught me, and I saw how we had to roll, shoot and stuff. For ease of play, we played Veterans so that we won't always miss, which was just annoying. The first couple of turns was just us moving about and I eventually had my Mad Cat MK IV hide inside thick woods for cover, while my Awesome climbed a hill. His Battlemaster and Catapult stopped somewhere in front of me, and we started trading shots. It went a little well, with the Awesome scoring a critical hit on the Catapult's center torso, but my Mad Cat MK IV's missiles missed. However, one of his ER PPCs hit the Catapult's right arm and completely destroyed the LRMs inside there. Nice! The Catapult and Battlemaster fired back (the Catapult still getting to fire both its LRMs because the destroyed effect won't take place until next turn), and both my Awesome and Mad Cat MK IV received some damage, but nothing crippling. Yet.

The next turn, my Mad Cat MK IV began taking more and more damage, and he took a hit to his gyro. Ouch. Both my Awesome and Mad Cat MKIV fired upon the Catapult, with the former dealing quite a bit of damage here and there with his PPC hitting the front torso and melting the armor, but it was the Mad Cat MKIV who destroyed the enemy mech, his ER PPC striking the front torso and destroying him outright even before my missiles could hit him. It was essentially overkill. Wow! The Catapult was downed in the fourth or so turn!

Legacy

The Battlemaster began hunting down my Mad Cat MKIV, getting into close combat, and I received even more critical damage, the engine taking a hit this time and a double heat sink got destroyed. Fortunately, none of my weapons were affected and I fired everything in desperation despite the buildup of intense heat. Did some damage, but didn't hit anything critical. My Awesome only fired three of his PPCs this turn in order to avoid shutting down from too much heat, and I only did superficial damage here and there. We then went into the next turn where I tried to have my Mad Cat MKIV retreat, but the Battlemaster relentlessly pursued and finally destroyed him. Fortunately, destroy effects don't take place until next turn, so I had my Mad Cat MKIV fire everything before he died, not caring about the heat (since he was going to die anyway - well, I'll just have the pilot punch out since he was running away, so even though his mech got wrecked, the pilot survived). To my utmost surprise, he scored a headshot with his ER PPC and outright destroyed the Battlemaster, killing the pilot with the luckiest of shots.

Lament - stupid arms kept falling off. Ugh. I hate pewter.

My Mad Cat MK IV is the VIP!

After that, I finished building my Primaris Aggressors. Yes, they are easy to build. No, I don't care. They were the flamer variants, which are the ones I want, and they are cheaper. So I got them instead. I also got a Captain in gravis armor, to go with the Aggressors and ensure he has the much-needed extra Toughness, as well as a Primaris Librarian.



Wait, what's going on? Why do I have Space Marines?

Well, after the new Space Marine codex came out, I succumbed into temptation and began collecting a bunch of Primaris Space Marines. My goal was simple - I intended to build a Successor Chapter using the cool new rules and stuff...but I ended up just going for the Salamanders Successor Chapter instead because they are the nicest, and I'm a nice guy. Usually. I also love playing with fire - that's why the Primaris Aggressors are all armed with flamestorm gauntlets instead! I'm also planning to get at least two Primaris Librarians so that I can have them take the Pyromancy or Lavamancy or whatever fire psychic discipline the Salamanders and their Successors will get. I can't wait to see what combat doctrine we'll get. Even if it's underwhelming, I don't care - I'm committed, and I'm not a meta person. I like fire and dragons, and hence I'll go with Salamanders Successors. Yay. I plan to get a couple of Invictor Warsuits (you guess it, for the incendium cannons), and a couple of Impulsors and Repulsor Executioners. I'm arming all my Intercessor Sergeants with Thunder Hammers (again, because Salamanders Successors, yeah?) and stuffing them into Impulsors along with the Librarians to BURN! Let the Galaxy burn! Incinerate the xenos scum! Burn the heretics! Put the Traitors to the torch!

Stuff like that, anyway. My idea is that this Chapter of Space Marines, called the Hellfire Dragons, is an all-Primaris Space Marine Chapter created during the Ultima Founding. They are the receipients of Vulkan, but much of their recruits are from the Draconis systems, so the Space Marines tend to be more Asian in appearance (like White Scars, but they aren't White Scars). They are a fleet based Space Marine Chapter like the Black Templars, but their origins are a little funnier than that. After helping the Adeptus Mechanicus of the forge world Draconis IV to fight off Tyranids or Necrons, the Hellfire Dragons decided to attack a Dark Mechanicum orbital shipyard that was building a fleet for the Word Bearers. Assisted by Skitarii and Tech-priests, they sabotaged and destroyed the orbital shipyard, but not before they stole about twenty Battle Barges and a single Furious Abyss-class ship, only to escape before the furious Word Bearers fleet warped in with the Trisagion at its head. Ha ha ha ha! So now the Hellfire Dragons are pretty much wandering around the Draconis system and helping the Draconian Defenders and Imperial Knights of Draconis III fight off the various enemies of mankind. They specialize in psychic assaults (hence having more Librarians than normal Chapters) and flamer weapons. They largely engage in boarding actions, storming and capturing capital ships in order to add to their ever growing fleet. Thanks to this, they have an unusually large number of Chapter serfs (most of whom are usually conscripted Guardsmen or Navysmen in all but name) to man their massive fleet. There are rumors that they number just as many as the Black Templars, but obviously they maintain that they have 10 Companies and about 1,000 Space Marines. Huh, then who are all those Space Marines aboard those twenty Battle Barges, not including the five companies stationed aboard the Furious Abyss-class ship, which by the way has been renamed Abyssal Dragon by the Chapter Master.

That's why they have quite a few dudes in gravis armor, to allow them to maximize their chances of survival in the close corridors of ships, to flood those corridors with fire, and to board Space Hulks to wipe out Genestealers and Orks. That's the Hellfire Dragons' specialty. They love playing with fire. I'll try to represent this with more Aggressors, but I also like their mechanized aspects. If possible, they will try to hit and board orbital platforms and larger capital ships with their Repulsor Executioners and Impulsors. They are also a mechanized Chapter, which is kind of weird when you remember they specialize in ship-boarding. But the anti-grav technology is what allows these hovering vehicles to fly through vacuum and board orbital platforms, space stations and ships. They're not as fast as Thunderhawk gunships, but they are just as sturdy (I think?) and reliable. Well, I dunno how it works, maybe I'm just making things up as I go along. Sorry. It's just that I love tanks and armor (hence my love of Imperial Guard armor in the form of Draconian Armored Defenders and their columns of Leman Russ tanks), so I want my Space Marine Chapter to reflect that at least.

What I do know is that they share a great empathy for mortals, and just like their founding Chapter, the Salamanders, they strive hard to save and rescue as many mortals as possible. That's why they find staunch allies in the Draconian Defenders, the Knights of House Yato and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Nice guys all band together! After this, I'm going to buy all the Salamanders books and read them for the hell of it. They are not exactly Salamanders, having never met Vulkan or their parent Chapter, but they are still Adeptus Astartes who are descended from Vulkan's gene-seed. Even if they look very different from the black-skinned Salamanders of Nocturne. Thanks to being fleet-based and recruiting from Draconis systems, they end up looking more East Asian than the actual Salamanders. Or something like that. They still share the same affinity with fire, and are more susceptible to psychic activities, which explains the huge numbers of psykers within their ranks. More than the Blood Ravens, and enough to challenge the Blood Angels! Heh!



Oh, and one last thing. I also built the macro gatling blaaster and Mori quake cannon. Yay! The damned six barrels of the macro gatling blaster was hard to glue on for some reason, but I managed to do it somehow. Phew. Now I have more options for my Warlord Titans! More weapons! YAY! I'll paint them tomorrow, hopefully, to get them ready for an Adeptus Titanicus match in future. All I need now is a third Cerastus Knight Lancer and I'll be able to play 1,700-point games in future! YAY! I think. For the Emperor and the Omnissiah!

Knight Moirax and Adeptus Titanicus Warlord arm weapons are back up!

For those of you waiting for the Knight Moirax with volkite veuglaire to be back on stock, it is back in stock right now! And has been for over 12 hours! Quick, order it before it becomes temporarily unavailable! The Knight Moirax with lightning locks was available yesterday or day before yesterday, and already it has sold out. Ouch. So you had best hurry if you don't want to miss out on the Knight Moirax! I already ordered mine!



The macro gatling blaster and the Mori quake cannon are also back in stock for now! So those of you who play Adeptus Titanicus (like me), hurry and order them before they run out too!



One last thing. If anyone needs an extra Gyges siege claw (the Knight Moirax melee weapon), hit me up. I want to trade them for a volkite veuglaire or a lightning lock. I've ordered 2 Knights Moirax, so I should have 2 available. If you have a volkite veuglaire and a lightning lock (or 2 of one) that you want to swap for a Gyges siege claw, let me know! Leave me a comment or two and we will arrange the deal. Thanks!

Repainted Shadowsword

I didn't like the weird auric gold that I painted my Shadowsword with, so I covered it up with my favorite balthasar gold instead. Yay. While painting it, I decided to touch it up with more colors, since it's a super-heavy Lord of War and all that. YAY!

I think he looks much better than before. I added some blue so that he wouldn't be so plain, and also added thicker layers of red to have it stand out. Now he looks much better than before. Oh, I got myself a couple of new cool-looking Chimera because of how awesome their camouflage paint schemes are. This one just looks so Valhallan, and fits in well with the snow bases for my infantry. Nice.

Well, that's pretty much all I need to do for my Imperial Guard. We'll probably have more news when I start on the Demak campaign this week! I have no idea what's going to happen!