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!