Distant Forge Worlds

 I'm looking at the Distant Worlds rules for my forge world, Draconis IV, and I'm trying to figure out the most appropriate one.

I don't think I'll go with Slaved Systems Forge World, though if I do go down that path, I'll just go Ryza because of...well, plasma. However, with the changes to the Skitarii infantry's special weapons, I can't simply load up a 10-man squad with 3 plasma calivers (or 2 in a squad) and go to town with my plasma now. It sucks, but hey...it is what it is. If I follow Ryza, I'll need Kataphron Destroyers, but I'm not very keen on those.

So what do I have for my other forge world options? My favorite is still the Magnabonded Alloys and Autosavant Spirits combo, which will benefit my Kastelan robots a lot. I also run quite a few vehicles, like my Archaeopters, Skorpius Dunerider and Skorpius Disintegrator. I can go vehicle heavy in this list, but my Skitarii infantry and cavalry won't benefit much, especially my Serberys Sulphurhounds. My infantry don't get any bonuses whatsoever. I think I can throw in a Tech-priest Enginseer in because he can awaken the Machine Spirit and make my Skorpius Disintegrators BS 2+ (if I use a Stratagem, Tech Adept, to do it a second time). Or I can just take one Skorpius Disintegrator and put my infantry in 2 Skorpius Duneriders, and fill the rest of my Heavy Support slots with more Kastelan robots. In this case, I'll take minimal infantry, so maybe 3 squads of Skitarii Vanguard? That should be enough, there's no point taking Serberys Sulphurhounds in this list because they...just don't do anything. I'll just take a Knight of the Cog detachment to fill out the rest of the points, though I suspect that the Kastelan robots will be taking a lion's share of the points, so I probably wouldn't have enough left over. Depending on how it goes, I guess we'll see.

I could also do Expansionist Forge World because Draconis IV is sort of expansionist, sending out Explorator fleets to reclaim other forge worlds and STCs. That's the whole idea behind the Solar Forges - a chain of forge worlds that are bound to Draconis IV through treaties and the like. If I go that route, I'll have Accelerated Actuators paired with Rugged Explorators because of how thematic it is, and it'll allow me to play around with more Skitarii Rangers (which I have a lot) and my Serberys Sulphurhounds, who finally benefit from this. The 2 Archaeopters will remain, but this time I'll be bringing three Skorpius Duneriders instead. I'm wondering if I should add Serberys Raiders, but it'll depend on what I get. This will be a very mobile list, with a Skitarii Marshal and 3-4 squads of Skitarii Rangers riding in Skorpius Duneriders and wielding arc rifles, getting stuck in melee (along with the Serberys Sulphurhounds). Maybe I'll get Serberys Raiders because of how cool they are, maybe bringing a squad of six? Then I'll round out the rest of the list with Knights, or a Spearhead Detachment of Kastelan Robots featuring the Magnabonded Alloys and Autosavant Spirits combo. It's one possibility.

Or I could just shelve all my Kastelan robots (or swap them for Serberys Raiders) and go all in on Knights for the rest of the points. We'll see.