Painted Cerastus Knight Atrapos!

In preparation for Apocalypse, I've been stocking up on Imperial Knights. You might have notice a long absence of my Space Marines Chapter for a while - that's because I sold all of them off in order to buy more Knights. Yup. Best investment ever...

Anyway, as you can see, I have gotten myself a Cerastus Knight Atrapos. Did I forget to post about him when I first got him? I suppose. Sorry, I was so busy and engrossed with getting ready for an Apocalypse game that I forgot to snap a picture and post about him. Speaking of which, I did field him in an Apocalypse game on Saturday, something I'll have to write a battle report up sometime this week. I hope. I still have that webnovel writing job to worry about. Anyway, I realized that I needed another Knight for my Apocalypse game after the first one, so I went and ordered a Cerasus Knight Atrapos, especially since he has that awesome Atrapos laser cutter and singularity cannon that utterly wrecks super-heavy. Well, they are Destroyer weapons in Apocalypse, so it wouldn't make much sense in this context, but I just love Knights. And I wanted a Cerastus Super-heavy Detachment to run up the table and get stuck into melee.



As usual, I stuck with the black and gold paint scheme, with the yellow smiley faces that serves as House Yato's heraldry. Funnily enough, there's a reason behind the smiley face. It's meant to represent the sun (the star of the Draconis system is a yellow star), sort of like how the Japanese flag has the red circle in the middle to represent the sun. But I added the eyes and a smile because...well, in the grim darkness of the forty-first millennium, you need a sense of humor. In order to survive. But yeah, I had a bit of fun painting up this guy. Yay!



I also procured a second Skorpius Dunerider/Disintegrator, that you already saw in a previous post. They have been very useful so far, so I plan to just leave them as Disintegrator. Maybe in the future, when I have a bit more money, I'll get a third Skorpius Dunerider and have the 2 squads of Secutarii and the Tech-priest Dominus with his little Servitors run up the table in the three transports. We'll see, but for now I am satisfied with the two Skorpius Disintegrators and I honestly don't feel like getting more.



Then there are the Castellax battle-automata. As you can see, I acquired a fourth Castellax battle-automata, so I can essentially play a small game of Horus Heresy with a tiny Legio Cybernetica army now. Mechanicum rules. A Magos Dominus, 2 squads of 2 Castellax battle-automata, a single Vultarax, and a Thanatar siege-automata. Maybe throw in a couple of Knights if necessary, but that's the minimum required for a Legio Cybernetica army. Yay?



I also completed my set of Kasrkins. I sold off my Imperial Guardsmen and Chimeras, and a couple of Leman Russ tanks (the Vanquisher and the Annihilator) to fund my Adeptus Mechanicus and Imperial Knight budget (just selling the Space Marines wasn't enough). Also, because I realized that I might as well just run a full army of Kasrkins...or Militarum Tempestus, as they call them now. I am a little annoyed that all Storm Troopers are shoeshorned into this Militarum Tempestus keyword, but I guess since they don't prevent your regiment from getting its doctrine, they can still be included as your usual regimental storm troopers. Just sucks that they don't get any doctrine though, but whatever. In any event, I sold off the Guardsmen so that I can place my Kasrkins in their own Militarum Tempestus detachment so that they can benefit from the storm trooper doctrine. With the funds I got from selling off my Guardsmen, Chimeras and Leman Russ tanks, I obtained a second Vendetta gunship, since Aeronautica Imperialis units do not prevent storm troopers from getting their doctrine. Yay. Hence my Kasrkins are their own full-fledged detachment with their own support gunships, led by a single Colonel (Tempestor Prime, but I'm sticking with the usual storm trooper ranks). They are the Kamikaze Troopers. I'll probably write a fully fledged article about my Kamikaze Troopers, but suffice to say they revolve around storm troopers with hellguns, environmental hazard suits taken from the Cadian Kasrkins, special weapons storm troopers with plasma guns, Vendetta gunships that ferry them into combat, instead of Valkyries...yeah, in the end I just like Vendetta gunships more than Valkyrie assault carriers - triple twin lascannons are awesome! The Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Shadowsword will be in their own Supreme Command Detachment. For the second HQ choice, I'm thinking of putting in a single Primaris Psyker. Why? Because I plan for my Kamikaze Troopers to be routinely conscripted for Inquisitorial storm trooper duties, and they usually fight for an Inquisitor. I will eventually kitbash my very own Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in Terminator armor, complete with psycannon and Nemesis Daemon Hammer...for fluff, rather than for competition. He'll usually ride in the Vendetta gunships (in lore, anyway, I know he can't ride in Vendetta gunships on the tabletop - he'll be deep striking instead) along with the Kamikaze Troopers to take out Daemons, Sorcerers and disrupt summoning rituals and the like. That's the idea behind my Inquisitorial storm troopers army, and they usually requisition Draconian Armored Defenders, so that's where the Leman Russ Executioner tanks and Shadowsword come in. I have to build a new Ordo Malleus Inquisitor because the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor that I built got eaten by my friend's dog when he took it home to paint it for me. Ouch.



Speaking of which, I gave them plasma guns, so I essentially have 1 Tempestor Prime (the Kasrkin commander or Colonel), which I kitbashed with a Tempestus command rod, 3 squads of Kasrkins - only 1 squad having 2 plasma guns, and a Tempestus command squad (the special weapons squad) of 4 plasma gunners. The single normal Kasrkin squad with 2 plasma guns has been modified quite a bit. Unlike the other Kasrkin Sergeants and the Kasrkin commander, who are all armed with power swords (and hot-shot laspistol for the Sergeants), I gave the Sergeant a plasma pistol and a power fist instead. Yeah, the power sword is sticking out a bit too much, but I don't want to cut it off. Ugh. But as you can see, he clearly has a power fist so I'll make sure to tell my opponent that before the game. But yeah, I gave him a plasma pistol because it fits him better when two of his men are carrying plasma guns instead of hellguns. I also gave him the power fist because I found out that I have spare points left over, so yay. Might as well...to increase the already formidable firepower of his plasma squad, and Tempestus command squads can't take melee weapons, so...yeah.



I have a weird story that's coming together for some random reason, putting all of my Adeptus Mechanicus, the Ordo Malleus Inquisitor and the Inquisitorial storm troopers together in one setting (well, they were always in the same setting, the Kamikaze Troopers are from Draconis III while my Skitarii are from Draconis IV, a forge world that's literally the closest neighboring planet to Draconis III).

After the Great Rift opened up, countless horrors spilled out of its massive maw to flood the galaxy, and the Imperium will never be the same again. In a desperate attempt to stem this tide, the Mechanicus priesthood of Draconis IV frantically develop new weapons and manufacture unprecedented numbers of war machines for their House Yato Imperial Knight allies and the Draconian Armored Astra Militarum regiments of the neighboring Knight world of Draconis III. As they do so, the esteemed Rogue Trader, Richard Riverdale, brought news of ancient Knight Standard Template Constructs being held by the Daemonic Forge World, Xana. Realizing that obtaining these Standard Template Constructs would prove pivotal in surviving the new dark age that had fallen across the Imperium, Draconis IV launched their legions of Skitarii and a full Titan maniple to invade Xana and seize the STCs. The nobles of House Yato, highly aware of the benefits of the success of such a mission, lent their aid in the form of many Super-heavy walkers.

Even as the Mechanicus priesthood and Skitarii of Draconis IV waged war upon the Daemon engines and Dark Mechanicum forces stationed upon Xana, a single Ordo Malleus Inquisitor finds himself drawn into the conflict while pursuing a certain Daemonic quarry. What relationship does the Greater Daemon have with the fallen Forge World of Xana? And why are the Dark Mechanicum priesthood of Xana trying to summon him? Whatever the answers, one thing is for sure. If the Dark Mechanicum priests succeed in bringing him to reality on Xana, the Imperial and Mechanicus forces assaulting the Daemon Forge World will be doomed.