About My Blog

Ave Omnissiah!

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My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.

Featured Post

Retrospective: Imperial Knights

Today, we're going to a Retrospective on...Imperial Knights! I mean, this is primarily an Imperial Knight blog, so obviously if I'm ...

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Half-painted Stormblade and Leman Russ Executioner tank

 So I started painting my Stormblade and fourth Leman Russ Executioner tank when...to my horror, I discovered that my Castellan green paint was missing. Oh, well. I guess I'll have to continue painting them another day. The bright side is that I only have the Castellan green paint left, so once I've gotten it, I can finish them up. I don't really need any other paint.


That's pretty much my armored regiment. Nothing but plasma tanks! 4 Leman Russ Executioner tanks, a Stormblade, 3 Armored Sentinels with plasma cannons. I'm not sure what else I need, but I think this should be it. All I have left are...well, Guardsmen. I'll probably get the Death Korps of Krieg from Kill Team and assemble a bunch of Veterans. Looking forward to it!

Friday, July 30, 2021

Adeptus Mechanicus FAQ is live!

 The Adeptus Mechanicus FAQ is now live! Check it out here.


Quick summary of the changes:

Solar Blessing now doesn't stack with light cover. Apparently there are whiners complaining that it stacks with heavy cover, but unless you allow your opponent to apply heavy cover to ruins in addition to barricades and fuel pipes (which makes no sense), it shouldn't be a problem.

Acquisition at Any Cost can only be used once per game.

Enriched Rounds is now 1 CP for 10 or less, 2 CP for 11 or more Vanguard. Also, it only auto-wounds on hit rolls of 5+ now, not 4+.

Galvanic Volley Fire is now change weapon characteristic from Heavy 2 to Heavy 3 and not Rapid Fire 2.

Both Ironstrider Ballistarii and Syndonian Dragoons no longer have the Core keyword.

So what do you guys think? Are the changes good enough for you? Or are you going to complain about how Solar Blessing still stacks with heavy cover? Or maybe whine about the Holy Order of Logi stacking with Lucius's Transhuman on an 8-point model with a 2+/3+ armor save (Bulwark Imperative, apparently), and that the FAQ still doesn't solve anything?

Honestly, this doesn't affect me at all because I don't run blobs of Skitarii, I don't use any of these Stratagems, and I don't use Ironstrider Ballistarii or Syndonian Dragoons. I also don't use Lucius, I use Ryza. So...let me breathe a huge sigh of relief and celebrate.

Monday, July 26, 2021

Torchbearer Task Force Regulus

"Lord Inquisitor, we have just managed to make it past the Straits of Epona and into the border of the Elara's Veil."

Lord Inquisitor Takeshi Tsuchimikado nodded grimly after Captain Connor O'Neil informed him of the ship's arrival. The Retributor-class battleship, Angels Ascendant, sailed into the void, her gellar fields replaced by shimmering void shields as she readied for combat. Accompanied by several heavy cruisers, five battle barges, eleven strike cruisers and a single Ark Mechanicus that was dispatched from the forge world of Draconis IV, the capital ships were surrounded by dozens of escorts, resembling shoals of whales that swam alongside cruising leviathans.

Bulky, heavily armored and brutally ugly, the capital ships of Torchbearer Task Force Regulus sailed onward, the might of the Imperium embodied. Within the cargo hold of the Ark Mechanicus, Omnissiah's Glory, the precious gene-seed that would save a beleaguered Chapter from extinction lay, attended to by dozens of Magi Genetor.

"Plot the coordinates for Elysium IX," Tsuchimikado ordered. "We head for the Celestial Lions' homeworld."

"There are reports that it may have fallen to the Archenemy, my lord," O'Neil reminded him. Tsuchimikado's lips pursed.

"Be that as it may be, we are honorbound to deliver their gene-seed to the Celestial Lions. They require Primaris reinforcements."

"They should already have Primaris reinforcements, thanks to the Emperor's Spears," Interrogator Isaac Istavan pointed out. Tsuchimikado shook his head.

"Not nearly enough. If we can get the Greyshields to the Celestial Lions, they should be able to bring their numbers back to a full chapter. I don't know how they managed to survive after the events of Armageddon, and even that...assassination attempt of my colleagues on Chapter Master Ekene Dubaku, but we are not leaving anything to chance."

"They said the assassination attempt failed...and that Chapter Master Dubaku still lives."

"Yes, they do." Tsuchimikado smiled, the almost star-shaped scar across his face making it look like a grimace. "A Chapter Master is impossible to kill."

"Nonetheless, we must hurry. The astropathic choir reports that the Elara's Veil is under siege, and that the Adeptus Vaelarii are hard-pressed to hold the enemy back. The cries of billions of deaths haunt their messages, and the stars weep blood."

Tsuchimikado turned to see Marshal Mowbray of the Black Templars, clad in his black and white armor. His red cape billowed about him, and the gold trim stood out in stark contrast to the rest of his Tartaros-pattern Terminator armor. When he raised an eyebrow, Mowbray shrugged.

"I was simply repeating what Alain said."

Alain, the resident astropath was prone to flights of fantasy and poetry. Tsuchimikado didn't press him. He bowed his head respectfully. Mowbray had come over from his flagship, Sigismund's Wrath, knowing that the Black Templars Marshal had granted him a huge honor. However, he was also aware that the Black Templar was keeping a wary eye on him.

The Adeptus Astartes and the Inquisition never had the best of relationships, after all.

"My lord," the officer of communications suddenly spoke up, his face tinted green and blue by the hololiths projected from his consoles. "Enemy fleet detected in the system."

"Disposition?" O'Neil asked immediately, leaning forward in his command throne. Both hands gripped the armrests tightly.

"Six capital ships and...over a hundred escorts."

Static and screaming burst from the vox, the wailing of doomed souls and bestial shrieking of things that should not exist. Tsuchimikado winced at the noise, but decades of fighting the archenemy had inured him to it. The crew of the Angel Ascendant, on the other hand, were shaken.

"Shut that off," O'Neil ordered, and the vox officer complied immediately. Blissful silence replaced the bridge once more. The captain then turned toward Tsuchimikado, who nodded. O'Neil drew in a deep breath and glared at the hololiths. "Send the order to the fleet. We attack."

"Destroy all of them," Mowbray said flatly. "Do not let even a single one escape."

"You heard him," Tsuchimikado said, and the captain nodded.

"No pity, no remorse, no fear," Mowbray whispered. He then turned, reaching for his helm that he had maglocked to the side. "I will return to the Sigismund's Wrath. We will show these traitors no mercy."

*

Even when besieged from all sides by numberless multitudes of enemies, the might of the Imperium still could not be denied.

The Black Templar fleet broke off and surged ahead, slicing through the void like sharp, brutish knives. Torpedoes volleyed from their blunt prows, detonating against the void shields of the archenemy warships. Lances arced forward, causing the barriers to sizzle out and collapse in sparks. Macrobatteries whirred about, waiting to unleash their payload the moment their broadsides faced each other.

The enemy fleet, though formidable, had clearly just gone through heavy fighting. There were ragged holes in their armor, and barely patched up damages - repairs that were overly hasty and improvised. Even without the visible signns of damage, the amount of debris that drifted in the system was a testamennt to the furious battle.

The Imperial Navy and Mechanicus ships followed up, the latter opening up with their long-ranged nova cannons. A frigate exploded as a massive round tore into it and detonated in its guts, and a heavy cruiser listed, its guts gouged out by another nova cannon round.

"The Exilarchy," Tsuchimikado murmured as he consulted his dataslate. Under his command, his retinue had tapped into the vox communications and relays spread throughout the system and began to piece together what had occurred here. "The name of the heretics who threaten the Elara's Veil."

The exchange was short but ferocious, the imperial ships slowly getting in close and pounding the battered Exliarchy fleet into oblivion. Several turned tail and attempted to flee, but the Black Templars strike cruisers swiftly caught up to them, their lances burning out engines and slowing their thrust. The entire engagement took hours - such was the nature of void warfare - but the Imperium inexorably and surely destroyed their foes, one ship at a time.

"Do you think the same has happened to Elysium IX?" Istavan whispered, moving toward the armorglass that spread across the bridge. The once beautiful world of Electra had darkened, a crimson fog of embers surrounding its orbit. Even from this disance, he could see the immense infernos that burned upon the surface of the planet.

"I believe the Exilarchy has invaded it," Tsuchimikado replied gravely. "That this is but a token force, mere raiders. The main bulk of the Exilarchy's strength would most likely be in the Elysium System."

"My Black Templars and I will help take back the Celestial Lions' homeworld from the Exliarchy," Mowbray said, his figure buzzing on a faded hololith. The marshal had led one of the boardings aboard an Exilarchy ship, and signs of fierce fighting had worn the blood-splattered Terminator armor out. Nonetheless, he stood tall and proud, no sign of exhaustion on his face. "Not just Elysium...but the whole Elara's Veil sub-sector."

"We will aid you however we can." Tsuchimikado lowered his head. Torchbearer Task Force Regulus was a gathering of Imperial might, boasting a dozen knight lances from House Yato of Draconis III, and about a hundred Imperial Guard regiments, recently reinforced by their victory in Kryptos VIII. When he had requisitioned the fleet shortly after the war in Kryptos VIII, the Shogun had agreed to send them across the Great Rift, to aid the Celestial Lions.

With a single Black Templars Crusade and dozens of Skitarii macroclades in addition to the Knights and multitudes of Guardsmen, they should be able to reclaim the Elysium system at least. Entire sectors had fallen to less.

"We will bring the fleet to the Elysium system, break through the enemy naval cordon and prepare to land ground forces on Elysium itself. We will drive the Exilarchy away from the planet...and refound the Celestial Lions if necessary."

As much as he hoped to find remnants of the chapter, the situation did not look promising. There were no Adeptus Astartes ships in the system, which struck Tsuchimikado as odd. Most of them were obsolete defense monitors and recently salvaged imperial ships whose make had not been manufactured by forge worlds in millennia. Was this system not under the jurisdiction of the Adeptus Vaelarii? What about the Celestial Lions' allies, the Emperor's Spears and Star Scorpions? He had no information regarding the missing Star Scorpions, but he had received information that the Emperor's Spears had benefited from their Primaris reinforcements and even shared whatever they had with the Celestial Lions.

The Greyshields, who had further blooded themselves in void warfare against the Exilarchy along with the Black Templars earlier, would prove to be a boon to them.

"My lord," the vox officer spoke up again. The lord inquisitor turned to him with a quizzical raise of his brow. The junior officer swallowed and gestured to his console. "We are being hailed."

"By who?"

"...by the Blade of the Seventh Son, Castellan Zvarin Roist, the Castellan of the Elysium Crusade."

"Brother Zvarin!" Mowbray looked delighted, or at least as delighted as a transhuman warrior could look. "He is still alive! This is great news!"

"Indeed," Tsuchimikado agreed. "Accept their hail and ask them for permisson to come aboard their ship. We have a lot to discuss."

*

At least that was Takeshi Tsuchimikado's intention, but he did not expect to find himself trained under the dozen or so barrels from the Marines of the Black Templars, Celestial Lions and Emperor's Spears. His Inquisitorial storm troopers mirrored them, their hot-shot lasguns and hellguns lifted up and aimed at them. Under different circumstances, Tsuchimikado would be impressed at how his handpicked troops were not intimidated by forces from three Adeptus Astartes Chapters, but right now he had to defuse the situation.

"I believe," Arucatas said, his tone dark and foreboding. "That we said we will destroy any vessels bearing the Inquisition's mark if they run the Straits of Epona."

"Peace, brother." Mowbray stepped forward, holding up an armored greave. "We are not your enemies."

"Tell that to the Inquisitors who murdered Chapter Master Dubaku." Roist's finger nearly twitched on the trigger of his boltgun.

"Chapter Master Dubaku is dead?" Tsuchimikado repeated blankly. "But the messsage from the emergency beacon pod reported that the In Devout Abjuration was destroyed. My colleagues' attempts should have failed if that's the case."

"They didn't," Arucastas replied coldly, and left it at that. Tsuchimikado felt cold perspiration drip down his back as he stared at the boltgun pointed at his face. He took a deep breath and held up his hands.

"The Inquisition is not, as most misunderstand, a monolithic entity. There are...many factions within the Inquisition. Most Inquisitors are often at odds with each other."

"That is the only reason why you are still alive," Arucatas said. Tsuchimikado nodded and didn't argue, not wanting to push his luck. If the Space Marines truly wanted him dead, he would have been killed long ago.

"I am, obviously, of the faction opposing those who are foolishly attempting to drive the Celestial Lions to extinction."

"Why?" One of the Celestial Lions asked bitterly, his skepticism clear. His boltgun never wavered from Tsuchimikado's face, and it was clear from the intense hostility he emanated that he itched to pull the trigger.

"Because the Adeptus Vaelarii are the only ones who can defend Elara's Veil," Tsuchimikado explained calmly. "Those foolish, shortsighted colleagues of mine have allowed their pride to go to their heads. In their obsession...their desire to carry out a nonsensical vendetta, they doom the Imperium. Already half the Imperium has fallen to darkness. We cannot risk losing any more territories. Lord Commander Guilliman has returned to us and he will bring the Imperium back to the light. But we must all do our part. We cannot be...petty and shortsighted, incensed over some perceived slight. The High Lords who discretely ordered the destruction of the Celestial Lions have already been removed by Lord Commander Guilliman himself. I have also collected evidence of the colleagues involved in this vendetta and sent it to the Primarch. He is busy, of course, and I do not know how he intends to deal with it...or if at all. But in his graciousness, he allowed me to put together a torchbearer fleet to reinforce the Celestial Lions with what Greyshields he can spare from Indomitus Crusade Fleet Tertius. These..."

He gestured toward the hundreds of Primaris Space Marines, all decked out in the blue and gold colors of the Celestial Lions, who stood smartly in the hangar after disembarking from the Overlord gunships that flew over from the Black Templars fleet.

"...these are the hope of your Chapter, and will restore you to your former strength and glory. As you say, you are the Sentinels of the Veil, the Adeptus Vaelarii, and that you still live and fight to protect the Emperor's domains. The Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman has returned to the Imperium once more, and he will reward you for your efforts. You will be reinforced, you will hold, and you will protect Elara's Veil, no matter the cost."

"We do not take orders from the Inquisition," the Celestial Lion snarled. Tsuchimikado shook his head.

"The Inquisition does not presume to give orders to the Adeptus Astartes. This is a mandate from a higher power - the Emperor Himself, as well as his son, Lord Guilliman. I understand if you mistrust the Inquisition, but you should at least recognize the authority of the Avenging Son."

"Brothers." Mowbray stepped forward. "What the inquisitor says is true. He is...not of the same faction as those who seek the extinction of the Celestial Lions. There are many groups within the Inquisition as he says, and he belongs to those who side with Lord Guilliman. He wishes to restore the Celestial Lions as much as we do. It was through Inquisitor Tsuchimikado's efforts that he was able to put together this fleet and bring along hundreds of your Primaris brethren, to take the fight to the enemy."

"Not only that, I have pledged the forces under my command to help you retake the Elysium system. The whole of Elara's Veil." Tsuchimikado boldly pushed on, buoyed by Mowbray's assistance. "We will join the Elysium Crusade."

For a second, the tension in the air simmered, but the Space Marines finally lowered their boltguns. At a subtle nod from Tsuchimikado, the inquisitorial storm troopers did the same.

"What do you think?" Roist asked, turning to Arucastas and the Celestial Lions. He nodded at Mowbray. "I can vouch for Marshal Mowbray. We fought together in the Donian Crusade." He smiled. "We killed hundreds of Orks side by side."

"I remember that," Mowbray responded with a grin.

Arucastas pursed his lips, turning to his comrades. Breac bristled, but his eyes flickered to the newly minted Celestial Lions, the former Greyshields poised to reinforce the devastated chapter.

"I don't trust him," he muttered. "But...we can't deny that we need the reinforcements."

"Indeed," Arucastas agreed. "And with a fleet of this size aiding us, we might just be able to defeat the Exilarchy once and for all."

"No more holding actions. No more defending." Breac noddded. "We can finally take the fight to the archenemy!"

"I sense no deceit," Ducarius murmured, his eyes closed. "For an inquisitor, he is surprisingly open and honest."

"I have no intention of deceiving you," Tsuchimikado spread his hands and met their gazes firmly. "My duty is to the Imperium, not to carry out some petty vendetta. I may have colleagues whose stupidity, arrogance and reckless shortsightedness will doom us all, but that is why my faction exists. To keep those who would abuse their power in check and remove them whenever possible, and safeguard the Imperium from threats both external and internal. The Celestial Lions are vital to the defense of Elara's Veil, and we cannot risk losing them."

"Very well," the Celestial Lion sighed. "We do not have a choice. Our forces are severely depleted, and we have been hardpressed to hold the Exilarchy back. With this, we may just have a glimmer of hope of reclaiming the entirety of Elara's Veil."

"But..." Breac's tone held an ominous air of warning. "At the first sign of treachery, we will destroy you, the Inqusition be damned."

"I understand," Tsuchimikado replied calmly, though he felt a tremendous sense of relief, a massive burden taken off his shoulders. He had fought to persuade the primarch, Roboute Guilliman, to spare a huge number of Greyshields, called in several favors to put together a huge fleet, and even attached himself to the Black Templars, and now his efforts had finally borne fruit.

It would be a colossal waste to destroy the noble Celestial Lions. He truly believed that. Especially in this dark age, where the enemies besieged the Imperium in their multitudes...only the foolish would try and weaken the Imperium's defense by destroying one of the stalwart Adeptus Astartes Chapters. Their pettiness would doom the Imperium.

Most of all, Takeshi Tsuchimikado was a practical lord inquisitor. Elara's Veil must not fall. It was a buffer between Imperium Sanctus and Imperium Nihilus. Should Elara's Veil fall to the enemy, there was nothing to hold back the hordes of darkness that would threaten to spill over through the Cicatrix Maledictum and invade the recently stabilized Imperium Sanctus. The invaders would find a route through and assault Imperium Sanctus, threatening the fragile peace that they had just barely managed to win for themselves.

When that happened, Lord Commander Guilliman's dreams of unifying the Imperium once more and reclaiming humanity's birthright over the galaxy would be shattered.

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Summer Meltdown Grand Tournament - Renegade Wargaming Event

 So I attended the Summer Meltdown Grand Tournament organized by Renegade yesterday, and...well, yeah. I can't say I did well (in fact, I probably did horribly), but I had a good time and it was fun. I guess that's the most important, so it's fine.

So the Renegade GT was composed of 5 rounds. Uh, well...I didn't take many pictures because we were on a chess timer, and it was pretty intense and competitive. Also, I'm too exhausted to write detailed reports, so I'll just sum them up briefly.

First game was against Salamanders, owned by Kyle. You can see him in the picture here below! Great guy. Anyway, it ended pretty...uh, one-sided. The Salamanders with their meltas smashed my Knights and I was effectively tabled by...was it turn 4 or 5? He blew my Knights up with the Eradicators and Land Speeders with multimeltas, and the Aggressors also did quite a lot of work. I lost the game 47-93. Ouch.

My second game was against White Scars, and even though he had a Leviathan Dreadnought and Eradicators, they weren't as potent as Salamanders (with the +1 to wound for melta during Tactical Doctrine) and he only brought 3 of them as opposed to 6, so I survived, and I managed to...uh, I think I tabled him. I'm not sure. I can't remember. Maybe he had a few dudes left, but I remember stomping his Chaplain to death, along with blowing up his Leviathan and Redemptor Dreadnoughts. He also had Bladeguard Veteran and Hellblasters, who I blew to bits, and I also got rid of the Land Speeder Storm, Scouts, Outriders and Intercessors, so if I'm not mistaken, I did wipe out his army, but it was still a close game because he had scored big on primary objectives (while I screwed up on the Primary), and also on Oath of Moment. I managed to win 70-52. Close one! Phew.

My third game was against Adeptus Custodes. Another close game, I managed to destroy the Jet-bikes, but because the damned Custodes all had Objective Secured, I could not contest a single Objective. All he had to do was plant a single Character or squad or whatever on an objective, and it's his. So he scored big on primary. Also, I picked the wrong secondaries - should have taken To the Last, for example, instead of No Prisoners. Also should have retrieved Ocatrius Data with my Ruststalkers instead of charging them in. I ended up killing every single unit in his army except for 2 models. Just 2 models - the Shield Captain and a single Custodian Guard. Unfortunately, I was unable to grab the objectives I needed despite trying to snatch them from the durable and Objective Secured Custodians, and I lost 65-76. If I had gotten To The Last and done Ocatrius Data, I might have gotten 12 more points, enough for me to win. If my Knights could contest objectives better, he wouldn't have gotten so many primary objective points. Ugh, it was a frustating loss, but I did my best. Can't do anything else.

My fourth game was against Ultramarines with a ton of Dreadnoughts. I made a horrible mistake of picking To The Last because of that last game, but I ended up losing all of my Knights to his Dreadnoughts. Despite killing 4 out of 6 Dreadnoughts (well, he actually had 2 Redemptor Dreadnoughts, 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts and 2 Invictor Tactical Warsuits, but because the latter are walkers, I counted them as Dreadnoughts for ease of summary), I lost all of my Knights because I stupidly had my Castelallan within range of the Redemptor Dreadnought. I did get quite a few objectives, though, thanks to my Skitarii, but...yeah, it kind of sucked. My Knight Crusader did blow up with a hail Mary and killed his Librarian, Primaris Techmarine (Master of the Forge) and damaged his remaining Dreadnoughts, but otherwise there was little for me to say, other than...yeah, I captured objectives and did relatively well. Again, I made a terrible mistake of picking secondaries - if I had picked Engage on all Fronts instead of To the last, I would have won or at least gotten a draw. Instead, I got 0 for To the last and lost the game 71-86. Ugh, how frustrating.

My fifth game was against Thousand Sons, with Magnus. I was lucky enough to go first and wounded Magnus enough to tier him, so when he flew across the table, Warptimed, and crashed into my Knight Castellan...he SURVIVED! Killed Magnus in the second round, and then everything went downhill for my opponent from there. I...well, I feel bad because of how one-sided it was, and I wiped him out by turn 4. Ouch. I won the game 93-41. Sorry, Talha. I did not expect that to happen. I thought Magnus would win the game for him, or at least make it a lot closer. Wow...

Also, I wanted to take a picture of Talha's Thousand Sons army, but he left before I could. Whoops, I completely forgot! Ugh...

And there you have it. I won 2 games and lost 3 to cap off a...well, unimpressive performance. I finished 33rd out of 56 players. Considering that it was my first Grand Tournament, I guess it's...okay? I can't complain. I'm playing Knights, after all. Depending on what happens with the Thousand Sons codex (if they make psychic more fun), I'll most likely stick with Knights. I love Thousand Sons, but honestly, I'm not happy with what they did to our psychic spells. The nerf to smite was just a killer, and we don't get a +1 to casting psychic spells like Grey Knights do, which just makes it unreliable for me. We'll see, I suppose. Sigh.

Monday, July 19, 2021

Warzone Charadon: Book of Fire Spoilers

Well, everyone's talking about the Veteran Skitarii Cohort and other rules and stuff in Warzone Charadon: The Book of Fire, but I'm actually more interested in the lore.

I know that many people online have made fun of me for it, but I'm not buying the book for the rules or Army of Renown or whatever. I'm buying it for...you guess it, the lore. I want to know what happened to Metalica. I'm hoping that one of the major forge worlds survived the invasion of the Death Guard.

Did they? Well...spoilers ahead, obviously, but I don't think anyone cares. Nobody reads this blog anyway (except one or two), and even if by chance there are, I doubt they care about the wider implications of Warzon Charadon with regards to the fluff or lore of the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Nonetheless, I'll go against the grain (all those videos talking about Be'lakor's new rules, the Veteran Skitarii Cohort, the supplement for the Order of the Martyred Lady, etc.) and talk about the lore instead!

Well, as we know, Metalica is under siege by the Death Guard. But Morvenn Vahl leads Battle Group Tarsus of Crusade Fleet Primus to reclaim parts of the Charadon Sector, apparently killing the Lord Discordant, Zeid, in a powerful strike.

The Alpha Legion and Word Bearers, or rather, a group from each of these legions united under the moniker Disciples, completed a summoning ritual and called forth Be'lakor into real space. As an added bonus, the ritual was done by sacrificing the captured Patriarch of Dhaku's Genestealer Cult, which is awesome. Heh. Foul xenos. He then descends with a legion of Daemons onto the home world of House Raven, Kolossi, and invaded the Keep Inviolate. After a brief and violent clash, Be'lakor somehow managed to spirit the entire knight world of Kolossi away into the warp. And this was after a group of Adepta Sororitas braved all odds against an Alpha Legion and Word Bearers fleet to make planetfall.

Yeah, you heard that right. House Raven...might not be dead, exactly, but their home world is gone. However, Kolossi apparently showed up deep inside Imperium Nihilus, discovered by the Inquisition. The Knights left back to defend the Keep Inviolate have been corrupted, and they are now House Korvax, a Chaos Knight House. Now, they and the corrupted residents of Kolossi fight under the amused gaze of Be'lakor, who sets them against each other for his own amusement.

Though Vahl reclaimed parts of Warzone Charadon, Metalica itself was left in ruins. The Imperium managed to drive back the Death Guard eventually, and Typhus retreated after suffering like 80% casualties of his forces, but...Chaos won. Typhus achieved his mission of infecting Forge World Metalica with the Nemesis Wurm, or rather he infected Fabricator-General Khleng, and now Metalica is doomed to die a slow death, often outbursts of Nurgle stuff coming up and destroying infrastructure, corrupting Skitarii, tech-priests and servitors. Despite their best efforts to scrub the forge world clean, the infection would always return, and Metalica loses more of itself with each passing day. They will eventually die unless they find a way to get rid of the Nemesis Wurm. Typhus, on the other hand, received Nurgle's favor, and was blessed and rewarded. I'm not sure what will happen to him, maybe he gets extra relics or something, but Nurgle was pleased with what he had accomplished. Yay? As for Khleng, he's dead, and good riddance. I say this as an Adeptus Mechanicus guy. His eradication arks and extremist "all flesh must be destroyed" beliefs did little to endear him to me. My forge world, Draconis IV, follows the tenets of Ryza, as well as the Prime Conduit of the Omnissiah (Belisarius Cawl).

The Deimos didn't really do much...apparently, they showed up and like Vahl and Battle Group Tarsus, reclaimed parts of Sector Charadon. We have the standard "everything is in ruins, the Charadon Sector is a mere shadow of its former self, will probably never recover, and they can't contribute to the Imperium's war efforts" rhetoric, which kind of sucks, to be honest, but...it is what it is. The Grey Knights never did anything. The Thousand Sons fought against the Death Guard, and Tzeentch against Nurgle, but again, nothing came out of that. Why were they even mentioned? No idea.

Big implications: Metalica will probably die in the end. House Raven is now a spacefaring Knight House, having lost their home world and the Keep Inviolate. Not good. Not good at all. Princeps Grevan and the rest of House Raven swore to find Kolossi and make whoever was responsible for it pay (Be'lakor and his disciples), but...I doubt anything will come out of that. Like Metalica, House Raven is probably ruined. Ouch. Don't know what's going to happen to the Knight STC, or how they will replenish their numbers, but I'm sure they will manage somehow. Not fun to have your army invalidated and written off from the lore, but you know, House Raven is basically just another Cadia.

Yeah, they took the Cadian route. Just like Cadians, House Raven lost their home world, and now they are a spaceborne army. Uh...yeah. Apparently only Space Marines are allowed to win, am I right? Oh, well.

That's pretty much it.

Hey, this reflects the meta somewhat. Death Guard are doing well, so they won. Chaos Space Marines are pretty awful right now, so the Black Legion got their asses kicked by the new Sisters codex. And Knights, well...yeah, they are in a rough spot, so House Raven lost their home world, Kolossi. On the other hand, Be'lakor has some insane new rules, so...yeah. Oh, and the Genestealer Cults are a joke right now, which was why they got eradicated so quickly. I probably don't even have to mention the poor Astra Militarum, who were slaughtered in great numbers by the Death Guard and everyone else. Only aberration is that the overpowered Adeptus Mechanicus (or Skitarii) lost to Death Guard, but...meh. Oh, wait...that's Lucius. Metalica is awful right now, ha ha, nobody plays Metalica. On the other hand, Deimos seems to have won, so...there's your Adeptus Mechanicus victory. And the Grey Knights and Thousand Sons codex are nowhere to be seen, just like them being strangely absent in the book, despite being mentioned a couple of times...with no real consequence.

If you guys have any questions about the lore and fluff regarding Warzone Charadon, go ahead and ask! I can't promise to give all the answers because I'm not an expert, but I have both books and I will do my best!

Also, I think I'm going to plan a campaign using the rules in Warzone Charadon for my gaming group in Dreamers Vault. I'll probably be the campaign master. I'll discuss with the kids and my friends and see if they want to play. I'll do my best to run the campaign, but it all depends on them, really. One of them plays Death Guard, another plays Blood Angels, so I think this will suit them. If need be, I have Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus to replicate several of the scenarios here, but being the campaign master, I probably will be overseeing the campaign, handing out rewards and keeping track of scores and the victory tally instead of gaming. Still, we'll see!

Sunday, July 18, 2021

Summer Thawing Munera! Rogue Trader Tournament plus extra Incursion Game

 I attended the Summer Thawing Muneera! Rogue Trader Tournament yesterday in Next Level Wargames, Woodbury. Great place. I was hoping to do as well as last week's Incursion RTT, but alas...it was not meant to be. Oh, well. Anyway...

This was a Strike Force RTT, so 2,000 points. This time, I brought all Knights...probably because my Knight Crusader was the MVP in the tournament last Sunday and I was hoping to replicate his firepower. But I had to alter my list because...quite frankly, the Slayers of Beasts and Questor Imperialis weren't doing well for me. As much as I like charging up the table and getting stuck in, they die very quickly. I think. I can't remember what happened, but I was losing like 2 out of 3 games, or straight-out losing all 3 games with them, so...yeah.

So this time, I tried a Questor Mechanicus House. I swapped Slayers of Beasts out for Aggressive Persecution because I have so much melta in my list, and I thought that it was a lot better for my Knights to sit back and shoot from afar rather than charge up the table and get destroyed in combat (e.g. against Custodes or Terminators). Also, I preferred using Cawl's Wrath and Cold Eradication for Cawl's Wrath. Did it work? We'll see.

This was the list I brought:

Imperial Knight Super-heavy Detachment (Glorified History, Aggressive Persecution, Questor Mechanicus):

Dominus Knight Castellan with Cold Eradication and Cawl's Wrath

Questoris Knight Preceptor with Ironstorm missile pod, Omnissiah's Paragon and Helm Dominatus

Questoris Knight Crusader with thermal cannon, Ironstorm missile pod and Ion Bulwark

2 Armigers Moirax with volkite veuglaires

Armiger Warglaive with meltagun

So yeah. Hopefully the ranged Knights benefit more from Aggressive Persecution and regaining a wound a turn instead of charging up.

Match 1

The first mission was Overrun, if I remember correctly. I played against a Blood Angels player with a lot of Vanguard Veterans with thunder hammers and storm shields.























Blood Angels Battalion Detachment:

Primaris Captain with storm shield

Sanguinary Apocethary (I think? Could just be a regular Primaris Apocethary)

Sanguinary Ancient (I think? Could just be a regular Primaris Ancient...I'm not even sure he was an Ancient)

5 Incursors

5 Incursors

5 Assault Intercessors

2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts with 2 twin volkite culverins each

10 Vanguard Veterans with 6 thunder hammers

10 Vanguard Veterans with 6 thunder hammers

4 Sanguinary Guard

Whirlwind

I think that was about it, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, that was his Blood Angels list. I believe my opponent went for Titan Hunter, Octarius Data and Oath of Moment, while I took Engage on all Fronts, No Prisoners and Assassination.

I went first, and I proceeded to kill about 12 or so Vanguard Veterans with all the shooting that my Knights put out, and my Knight Preceptor killed a squad of Incursors in close combat. I forgot to grab an objective and scored 0 for my second turn. My opponent then charged his Vanguard Veterans up, along with his Captain, Apocethary and Ancient, and the Captain killed an Armiger Warglaive in combat. I then blew him up and did D3 mortal wounds to everybody, killing one Vanguard Veteran that he had resurrected. Then in my next turn, my Knight Crusader killed the Primaris Captain and I think Apocethary, along with the remaining Vanguard Veterans. My Knight Castellan did the same thing, destroying one Contemptor Dreadnought and killing the other Vanguard Veteran squad. My Knight Preceptor then killed the Ancient. He eventually killed one Armiger Moirax, but his poor Incursors and remaining Contemptor Dreadnought failed to kill the second one. However, my Knight Castellan proceeded to blow up the Whirlwind, and the Armiger Moirax destroyed the Contemptor Dreadnought with mortal wounds. I also stomped the Assault Intercessors to death with my Knight Preceptor, who also killed the Incursors. The Knight Castellan then killed the Sanguinary Guard who had jetpacked their way to grab an objective.

By turn 4, I had pretty much tabled my opponent. In the end, I won my first game 84 to 39. Phew.

Match 2

This time, the match was the Scouring, I believe, My opponent brought an Imperial Guard list that was Cadian.

Astra Militarum Battalion Detachment (Cadian):

Ursarkar Creed

Company Commander

4 Infantry squads with meltagun

2 Veteran squads with 3 meltaguns each

6 Chimeras with 2 heavy bolters each

Astra Militarum Battalion Detachment (Cadian):

2 Company Commanders

5 infantry squads with meltagun

Veteran squad with 3 meltaguns

6 Chimeras with 2 heavy bolters each

Something like that, I could be mistaken, but in the end there was a total of 12 Chimeras and 12 squads of 10 men, with 3 company commanders and Creed in total.

My opponent went first, and he brought my Knight Crusader down to like 5 or so wounds through sheer heavy bolter ouput and Overlapping fields of fire. I then proceeded to blow up like 4 Chimeras and kill the infantry, but my opponent was able to swarm me with bodies and capture the objectives. Furthermore, by the second or so turn, my opponent brought 2 of my big Knights down to about 5 or so wounds each, and then he killed my Knight Preceptor, who promply blew up and killed everything within 10" of him...including my weakened Knight Crusader, dealing 5 mortal wounds to him. Bloody hell. That wasn't what I was planning. Sigh. Even so, by the time the dust settled, he had nothing to threaten my Knight Castellan, who proceeded to point and delete everything else.

It took me like 5 turns to kill every single Guardsman on the table except for a single infantry squad hiding out of line of sight on one objective. I managed to get 15 points on the last turn, but because I didn't notice there was one company commander hiding inside a building, I didn't realize that my Knight Castellan didn't get the objective, and he could deny me another objective on turn 4. What the f?! Thanks to that blunder and complete oversight, I lost the game by 3 points. It ended 76-79 in my opponent's favor. Damn, I've to check the buildings for hidden company commanders next time. I wish he had told me, though. I assumed I had the objectives (he was the one keeping track of the scores), so he did not inform me that I didn't score that objective that I thought my Knight Castellan was on. Well, it's just a game, so whatever. A loss is a loss, and it's my fault for not noticing, so I'll take the loss and try to remember next time. Sigh. Could have won the game because I could shoot the company commander and/or stomp him, but I didn't know he was there the entire time.

Match 3

The last mission was Battle Lines, and I was up against a Space Wolves Successor Chapter. He had a lot of Bladeguard and Wolf Guard Terminators.

Space Wolves Battalion Detachment (Successor Chapter: Whirlwind of Rage, Stalwart)

Primaris Captain with storm shield

Primaris Chaplain, Master of Sanctity

Company Champion

3 5-men squads of Assault Intercessors

2 squads of Longfangs with missile launchers, Wolf Guard Terminator with Cyclone missile launcher

2 squads of 3 Bladeguard Veterans

2 Cyber Wolves

2 squads of 5 Wolf Guard Terminators with Cyclone missile launchers.

I think that was his list, I can't remember if I missed out on anything. But yeah. This was a rough game for me because I couldn't get one of my secondary objectives, which was Engage on all Fronts. From the start, I think one Knight lost 11 or so wounds, and the other lost a few too, from missile launchers because my opponent went first. I fired everything I got, but I had horrible, horrible rolls - and Stalwart made it worse. Didn't kill much in the first turn, except maybe a couple of Terminators? And a couple of Longfangs?

The Terminators and Bladeguard Veterans continued up the table, as did the Cyberwolves and 2 squads of Assault Intercessors, and they fired, but my Knights survived. Mostly. Even the Armiger Warglaive survived, until the Wolf Guard Terminators got into close combat and ripped him apart. I finally wiped out the 2 Longfangs, leaving just 1 Wolf Guard Terminator, and then the others crashed into my Knights, the Bladeguard Veterans - and the Company Champion, particularly, killing all of them. The Company Champion could reroll wound rolls against Characters - which was all my Titanic Knights because I gave them Warlord Traits. Ouch.

My Knight Castellan did a decent job, continuing to shoot and kill lots of them, and in the end I managed to kill almost everyone except the Primaris Chaplain, the Wolf Guard Terminator and 2 squads of Assault Intercessors. I rolled 1s and 2s for his stomp attack wound rolls...which was utterly ridiculous and summed up how awful my rolling was, and...he got wrecked by the Chaplain. I got tabled, and...yeah, that was a terrible loss.

I lost 36 to 97. Somehow, I managed to inflict 95 wounds on my opponent despite my subpar rolling, but hey, at least I tried.

Bonus Incursion Game

So I played another game against my friend today, who wanted to try out his Adepta Sororitas list. I think he chose the Sacred Rose, and the 2 of us have to figure out how his Sisters army worked because this was the first time he was playing it.

I chose an easy mission - Ascension, and I used the same Incursion list I did last Sunday. That's the one with a Knight Crusader, a Skitarii Marshal, 2 5-men Skitarii Vanguard squads, 2 5-men Sicarian Ruststalkers and 2 3-men Serberys Sulphurhounds. My friend fielded a Canoness, Celestine, a Dogmata, a Dialogus, 2 squads of 5 Celestian Sacresants, 20 Battle Sisters, and like I said, he was Order of the Sacred Rose.

He had first turn, and he moved his Battle Sisters up, advancing them, and then firing a meltagun. I made a save, so...that was it.

I then killed like 13 or so Battle Sisters with my Serberys Sulphurhounds and Knight Crusader, while one Sicarian Ruststalker squad walked off the table. The other Serberys Sulphurhound squadron and 1 Skitarii squad ran up to grab an objective, giving me 2. The Battle Sisters fell back and shot using a Stratagem and killed one of them. The Dogmata and Canoness charged, but my Serberys Sulphurhounds killed the Dogmata in overwatch, only to get squashed by the Canoness's blessed sword. The Celestian Sacresants then charged my Knight and did a few wounds to him, as did Celestine, and they brought him down to 12 wounds total before I crushed the Celestian Sacresants with Titanic Feet. The second squad of Celestian Sacresants charged my Serberys Sulphurhounds and fared better, killing about 1 or 2 of them, but the Alpha passed his morale.

Between my Skitarii Vanguard and Knight, I killed Celestine once, only for her to rise from the ashes like a phoenix on a 2+, but my Serberys Sulphurhounds and Skitarii Vanguard were not faring well in shooting and combat, and they eventually got wiped out by the Celestian Sacresants This being the second turn, though, they killed the Alpha of the Serberys Sulphurhounds first. I stomped on Celestine with my Knight, but she escaped with...what, 2 wounds? Damn. I had my Ruststalker squad show up in the backfield to grab an objective that the Dialogus left behind because she followed the second squad of Celestine Sacresants to kill the Vanguard and Serberys Sulphurhounds, and they failed the charge. Whoops. So did the other Ruststalker squad, so only the Knight and Vanguard made it in.

The Canoness then charged into my Knight, and between her and Celestine (I think she failed her wounds), they brought him down to 8 wounds. Ouch. I had been burning Command Points on Machine Spirit Resurgent, but yeah. The surviving Battle Sisters then killed 3 Ruststalkers with shooting. Ouch. Meanwhile, the Celestine Sacresants killed my Vanguard to secure the objective they were hoarding with Objective Secured. My Knight then killed Celestine for the second time with Titanic Feet. HA HA HA HA HA! She's not coming back from that!

My Knight and Skitarii then killed the Battle Sisters hiding inside the ruins to grab an objective, while my full squad of Ruststalkers planted a banner instead of trying to hunt for the Celestine Sacresants (I wanted them to come at me, ha ha). At that point, my friend called the game. He had 4 Celestine Sacresants left, and a Dialogus. He wasn't going to win against 7 Ruststalkers, 5 Vanguard, a Marshal and an 8-wound Knight who was using Machine Spirit Resurgent every turn. He could hide them inside the building, away from my Knight and camping on the objective, but I had 2 objectives to his, would get 3, and was way ahead on points. So...yeah.

Hey, at least he tried, and we got a feel for his army. We got used to the miracle dice mechanic, how to generate them, when to use them, etc. We also analyzed what worked, what didn't, and how to improve his army or play the game. It was fun. He was so close to killing my Knight! Celestine is a beast!

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Stormblade

I finally finished assembling my Stormblade. Took me over 6 hours to assemble, which is why I'm posting this at such an ungodly hour. Ugh. Also ended up cutting myself multiple times, getting a blister, and more. The Stormblade had better be worth it, after causing me so many damned injuries. I should have gotten proper tools like a saw or something, but I didn't, and I had to make do with what I have. Hence all the damned cuts and injuries on my hands. Ouch. I really hate working with resin. I got this tank from Forge World (it's genuine Forge World, I have the certificate and everything), and I think it's worth it. Just...painful as hell. Ouch, my thumbs and palm are still hurting. I hope the cuts don't get infected...

On the other hand, my Stormblade is done. Draconian Imperial Guard ready to rumble! I can't wait to field an entire regiment of tanks! 5 Leman Russ Executioner tanks, 3 Armored Sentinels with plasma cannons, and now a Stormblade too! Yay! Plasma Imperial Guard tank regiment on the way!

I doubt it'll win any tournaments, though...but hey, at least I tried. And they look cool! That's all I need. Rule of cool. What other Imperial Guard army has nothing but plasma tanks? Draconian Defenders and their plasma tanks are all I need!

Tuesday, July 13, 2021

Kill Team out in August?

Just saw this little video from the official Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page. It features the Dakka Boy, but stay tuned until the end. Seems like Kill Team will be released in August? I may be jumping the gun here, but it says find out this August, so...yeah!


Never mind. Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page has just officially confirmed it, the box set is definitely due in August. Better start saving now! Woohoo!

Maybe Kill Team will be released in August! Also, just so you guys know, we have a new Kill Team webpage.


I'm not sure, but it appears that Veteran Guardsmen are their own faction and different from Imperial Guard. Sure, you get Militarum Tempestus Scions for Imperial Guard, but nobody is going to use a regular Guardsmen team when you have Veteran Guardsmen. I'm not sure how different they are, maybe the Veteran Guardsmen cost more (which makes sense), but come on, of course the points will be worth it.




Same goes for the Orks. You have the regular Greenskins, and then you have the Kommandos. Interesting. Perhaps the roster will be expanded in the future. But for now we have Veteran Guardsmen versus Kommandos for a very thematic setup! Cool!

As an aside, we no longer have Terminator Kill Teams - they have been removed from the roster for both Space Marines and Thousand Sons. So no more Scarab Occult Terminator Kill Teams. Ugh, that sucks. Who the f fields Tzaangors in kill teams? They are horde units. Kill Teams should be elites, like Veteran Guardsmen. At least I can still field my Sicarian Ruststalkers as part of a Skitarii Kill Team, along with my Rangers and Vanguard.

However, judging from how Imperial Guard and Veteran Guardsmen, as well as Greenskins and Kommandos, are separate factions from each other, I daresay there will be future expansions. Most likely Loyalist and Chaos Terminators will have their own separate factions when Kill Team grows larger. Maybe. Who knows? Only the Emperor, I suppose...

Monday, July 12, 2021

Draconis IV (Ryza) vs Lucius

So I'm trying to analyze what on Holy Mars happened yesterday. As you probably know, if you've been following my blog (dunno, since no one commented, so I'm going to assume nobody read the post from yesterday), I somehow won an Incursion RTT yesterday with an oddball Adeptus Mechanicus list.

I will be blunt. Adeptus Mechanicus is a very strong codex right now. They are winning a lot of tournaments, and...well, my win probably just further skewed their overall win-rate. Oops? Or maybe Best Coast Pairings and ITC don't count Incursion RTTs, I don't know. But yeah...uh, honestly, Adeptus Mechanicus is having an incredible win-rate right now. Is it as bad as Drukhari with their 70+% win rates? Not exactly, but ~65% win-rate is still pretty lopsided. I think there was a Show Me Showdown in Kansas City over the weekend where Adeptus Mechanicus won the tournament. 6 out of the top 8 were Drukhari and Adeptus Mechanicus, with a single Dark Angels list (Charlie's list that had tons of bikes, 10 Hellblasters - I think, they cost him 330 points - Relic Terminators and a ton of Bladeguard) somehow in there. Oh, and Imperium. But otherwise we had 3 Drukhari and 3 Adeptus Mechanicus lists in the top 8 alone, with Drukhari occupying 3rd and 4th.

Turns out that the winning Adeptus Mechanicus list is Lucius, with your standard Tech-priest Manipulus, Skitarii Marshal, hordes of 20 Skitarii infantry (about 80-100), squadrons of Ironstrider Ballistarii, and presumably some Serberys Raiders and Pxterii Sterylizors (how the heck did he fit all those Fast Attack units in a single list?). Well, the guys over at Frozen North weren't very exact on the Adeptus Mechanicus list, though they did provide full details on Charlie's Dark Angels list.


So yeah, Adeptus Mechanicus is just winning it. Lucius with their +1 to their armor save against D1 weapons, in particular, are just dominating.

...um, so how on Holy Mars did I manage to win against a Lucius list yesterday? We could point to pure bad luck and dice rolling on my opponent's part, I guess. It could be that she wasn't prepared to face a Knight. Is a Lucius cohort good against Knights? Well, you could argue that they are, with the Ironstrider Ballistarii blowing them off the table with their insane cognis twin lascannons (though my opponent admittedly didn't have the points for them and had to settle for cognis twin autocannons instead). Knights are just insane against Lucius because we have multi-damage weapons. Sure, the heavy stubbers and multilasers don't do s against them, but we have D D3 battle cannons, siegebreaker cannons and las-impulsors - not to mention Titanic Feet in close combat, D D6 thermal cannons, meltaguns and thermal spears, D 2 Avenger Gatling cannons and supercharged plasma, not to mention D 3 Helverin autocannons. Yeah, so...if you bring a Knight, chances are they won't have enough Ironstrider Ballistarii to blow you off the table, and you'll respond by destroying them, and then wrecking the s out of the poor Lucius Skitarii who can't do a single thing back.

Oh, did we just figure out that pure Knights are the best counter to Skitarii right now? Well, not the best, given that Ironstrider Ballistarii with their cognis twin lascannons exist, but even so...yeah. Speaking of which, we have an Imperial Knight player finishing 15th in the Show Me Showdown. And another at 20th place. Not bad, so perhaps Knights can still put on a good showing. This gives me hope!

What about Ryza, though? Why did I choose Ryza for my Adeptus Mechanicus? Simply put...fluff. Again, I'm not sure how many readers have been following my blog since the old days of 7th edition, but Draconis IV has always been a second Ryza, focusing on plasma weapons. That's where all the Leman Russ Executioner tanks, Stormblades and plasma guns and cannons for my Draconian Imperial Guard come from - from the forge world of Draconis IV. In recent times, I've been considering changing the name of the forge world because it's so damned confusing (Draconis III and Draconis IV, uh, what the hell?), but I still haven't come up with a satisfactory name, and I doubt I ever will. So Draconis IV it is. We've been ripping off Ryza and grabbing their plasma technology since the Horus Heresy. I wrote an entire post about my forge world's fluff, and you can probably see all the articles on the side of this blog. The history of my Knight World, Draconis III, and the forge world, Draconis IV. Hell, my Draconian Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood are more well developed than my Draconian Astra Militarum! Some people might accuse me of chasing the meta, but really, I didn't. You can see all my Adeptus Mechanicus posts - they stretch all the way back to 2015, when the army first came out in 7th edition. I've been playing Mechanicus for a very long time now, I can even claim that I'm one of the longest-playing Mechanicus players, having immediately started them when they were first released. I've been through the crazy Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation phase, I fielded my Adeptus Mechanicus and Knights during the defense of Konor at the beginning of 8th edition, and I continued playing them throughout 8th, even getting the new Skorpius and Serberys models for Engine War. Oh, and the Archaeopters. So no, I'm not a meta chaser, I've always been an Adeptus Mechanicus player. The fact that I stuck to Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza instead of suddenly switching to Lucius should be evidence of that. I didn't go out and buy hordes of Skitarii, I simply bought new ones because I needed new "normal" Skitarii when Games Workshop abruptly decided that we could only bring 1 special weapon per 5-man squad, and only 1 type of each special weapon per 10 men, which threw my models off because I had 2 special weapons per squad. DAMN IT, GW! Otherwise I wouldn't have bothered with new Skitarii stuff.

Honestly, I considered throwing Legio Cybernetica (Kastelan robots) into the list, but I replaced them with a Knight Crusader because...I love Knights. It wasn't even a conscious decision. I originally took Kastelan robots, but one day, I was like, "f it, I love Knights, let's ditch the damned robots and throw in a Knight because I'm a Knight player at heart." I would have played Knights, but this was Incursion, and I couldn't fit in all the Knights into my list. I played pure Knights in the last 2 Incursions, and let's just say they didn't do very well. Well, having a Knight Preceptor and 4 Armigers did win me 2 games out of 3, but they didn't fare well against Salamanders - which was 2 of the lists I played against yesterday, so if I had brought a Knight list, they would have been chewed apart in combat by Bladeguard Veterans, Aggressors and whatnot. Then again, it wasn't as if my Serberys Sulphurhounds and Sicarian Ruststalkers did much damage...well, actually, they did. They wiped out the Lucius Skitarii, took out a tactical squad and Incursors and helped kill the Eradicators, so they made some of their points back. Oh, well. The Sicarian Ruststalkers even helped me get some secondary objecctives, planting banners and getting behind enemy lines, so yeah, they were definitely useful. I wouldn't have gotten any of those if I played a pure Knight list. Fun.

But yeah, I think my Knight was the single MVP of yesterday's tournament. He dealt the most damage, killing Bladeguard Veterans, Infiltrators, Eradicators, Land Speeders, Aggressors, Bray'arth, and he almost singlehandedly destroyed the Lucius Skitarii and Kataphron Breachers by himself. That was just...insane. I don't know what to say, but yeah. He's just funny as f. I guess Warhammer 40,000 is a funny game sometimes. And I got a lot of good rolls yesterday too, so I think luck played a major part of it.


That has to be the only explanation. My Knight Crusader being the MVP and a ton of luck. It's not because Ryza is superior to Lucius (I wish), but...the Knight made the total difference.

Well, I'm going to a couple more RTTs, so we'll see how it goes. This time, they will be 2,000 points Strike Forces instead of 1,000 points Incursions, so I can bring more Knights, but honestly, I doubt they will do that much more. I'm going to fail to accrue a lot of points and mission objectives, which kind of sucks, but hey...Knights. That's all I need. I plan to alter my list - I've been playing a melee-heavy list where my Knights charge up the field and run into combat, but this time I'll go for a more gunline and ranged list. I'll be altering the Allegiance Oaths and Household Traditions to fit that, using House Kanda - a branch of House Yato - who have been pledged to the Adeptus Mechanicus and Adeptus Titanicus (Legio Draconis, the Dark Dragons) in exchange for support and Sacristans. So I replaced Slayers of Beasts with Aggressive Persecution to reflect the Knights' ranged weaponry being designed to slay Titans (thermal cannons, volcano lances, las-impulsors, thermal spears, etc.) in hopes of doing better than my previous lists. I also switched to Questor Mechanicus for a more ranged and durable list, rather than a faster and hard-hitting one (so they regenerate 1 wound at the start of my turn), and can sit back and dish out a whole lot of shots. Heh. Let's try it!

Where's my Adeptus Mechanicus? Nah...after what happened yesterday, I think I'll give them a break for a bit. If I get absolutely destroyed on Saturday during the next RTT, I might switch back to a hybrid Adeptus Mechanicus-Imperial Knights list, but...I doubt I'll do that...as I said, we'll see.

Sunday, July 11, 2021

Phoenix Incursion 2.0

 Once again, I participated in a Rogue Trader Tournament, but this time it was an Incursion type. Meaning 1,000 points games instead of the usual 2,000, so I had to change up my list. I had been playing all Knights for the last few Incursion RTTs I attended, but this time I decided to take an Adeptus Mechanicus detachment along with an Imperial Knight for fun. I wasn't very satisfied with how the Knights couldn't score any objectives, so I decided to switch things up a bit and make my Skitarii the main force, while having my Knight support them. It turned out to be a good idea, because my Skitarii could capture Objectives better, though...well, I'm not sure if I chose them correctly, but hey, if it works, it works!

So what did I bring for my 1,000 Incursion list? Well...

Adeptus Mechanicus Patrol Detachment (Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza):

Skitarii Marshal, Archived Engagements and Exemplar's Eternity

5 Skitarii Vanguard, omnispex, plasma caliver, phosphor blast pistol, power sword

5 Skitarii Vanguard, omnispex, plasma caliver, phosphor blast pistol, taser goad

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers

5 Sicarian Ruststalkers

3 Serberys Sulphurhounds

3 Serberys Sulphurhounds

Knight of the Cog Super-heavy Auxiliary Detachment

Questoris Knight Crusader, thermal cannon, Ironstorm missile pod, meltagun, Ion Bulwark

Yeah, that looks like quite the...odd list, doesn't it? Everyone else is running Lucius or whatever, while I'm the only one who uses Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza. I'm not even using Ryza itself, I'm using a bloody Slaved Systems Forge World (because of my own homebrewed Forge World, Draconis IV). I ran MSU instead of horde Skitarii, and...well, yeah, let's just say I play very differently from all the other Adeptus Mechanicus players who rely on Lucius and Ironstrider Ballistarii. Speaking of which, I do not have a single Ironstrider Ballistarius in my list. Not even one.

Amusing, isn't it? Yeah, I don't chase the meta. Sorry. I'm sure most experts and professional players are scratching their heads and wondering what the hell I'm trying to do. To be honest, I have no idea myself. My strategy is to play my Skitarii the exact same way I play my Knights. Charge them up the table, hit the enemy hard in melee, and...pray to the Omnissiah and hope for the best. And that I do enough damage before my poor Skitarii get wiped off the table. Funnily enough, my Knight Crusader will do the exact opposite of what my Knights usually do...hang back, stay out of the range of my opponent's units, and keep himself safe. Oh, well...did it work? We'll find out.

Match 1

The first mission was Raid, and I played against someone with a Salamanders Successor Chapter. I'm trying to remember what he had, but I know for sure that he had the Born Heroes and Whirlwind of Rage Chapter Tactics, which gave him a +1 to his hit rolls in melee when he charges, and hit rolls of 6s in melee produce another hit.

Space Marine Patrol Detachment (Salamanders Successor Chapter: Born Heroes, Whirlwind of Rage):

Primaris Captain with Storm Shield (Warlord Trait that gives a single chosen unit within 6" Objective Secured and a relic that gives him and his surrounding dudes 6+++ Feel No Pain)

5 Infiltrators with Helix Adept

5 Incursors

5 Bladeguard Veterans

5 Bladeguard Veterans

6 Eradicators

I got really lucky and got to go first. My Knight Crusader, while staying out of range of the Eradicators, wiped out the Infiltrators in the first turn alone, while my Serberys Sulphurhounds raced forward to grab the two objectives in no man's land. I had my Skitarii Vanguard and one Sicarian Ruststalker squad raise the banners, while my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers stalked off the table with the Circuitous Assassins. The Incursors then raised the banners. My opponent tried to move up his Eradicators, but they remained out of range of my Knight Crusader, and ended up wiping out one of my Serberys Sulphurhounds. The Bladeguard Veterans then killed my other Serberys Sulphurhound...ouch. I managed to slowly kill off the Eradicators with my Knight Crusader...or I would have, but my opponent popped the Stratagem and had his Bladeguard Veterans tank the shots...so I killed maybe two or three, I can't remember. My Ruststalkers appeared on his side of the table, giving me Engage on All Fronts, while planting a banner because I stayed out of Auspex range and didn't want them shooting at me.

My opponent finally got within range and fired on my Knight with his Eradicators, only to whiff his wound rolls despite having a +1 to his wound rolls thanks to Salamander Combat Doctrine, and I saved maybe one or two. Maybe I took 3 wounds or so. Ouch. I continued firing on the Eradicators and killed a few, while also taking out a few Bladeguard Veterans in the uninjured squad, but the survivors succeeded in killing my Sicarian Ruststalkers. Damn. He had his other Bladeguard Veterans move toward me, killing one of my Skitarii Vanguard squads, while his Incursors tried to fire upon my dudes, only to miss their shots. Either that or I made all my saves. In any case, my Ruststalkers moved in and wiped them out, claiming the objective for me. I killed more of his Eradicators, but not nearly enough, while I killed maybe 1 Bladeguard Veteran with my Skitarii Vanguard. Then his Bladeguard Veterans moved back to deal with the Ruststalkers and wiped them out to reclaim the objective, while 2 Bladeguard Veterans moved toward my second Skitarii Vanguard squad, and charged them...only for me to make amazing saves and keep them alive despite all odds (I think I made 2 6s!). His Eradicators fired on my Knight again...only to whiff their shots and roll a 1 for the only failed save I made. That was a total of 3 (since they were heavy melta rifles) and he rolled a 1 again despite using a Command Re-roll. Ouch. My Knight went down to 18 wounds.

In the 4th turn, my Knight Crusader killed another Eradicator, then moved to stomp the Bladeguard Veterans, killing them. The Primaris Captain rushed forward, giving himself Objective Secured, while the 2 surviving Eradicators ran off...somewhere. In the final turn, I only killed 1 Eradicator with my Knight Crusader, and his Primaris Captain charged forward, attacking my Skitarii Marshal, only for him to tank the hits like a boss, losing just 2 wounds. He swung back and did nothing, unfortunately, but hey, it's all right. He did his job, ha ha.

The final score was 65 points to 59 points, with me getting 5 points from To the Last. It was a close game, with my opponent grabbing 15 points for primary objectives in the last turn. Maybe I should have tried to kill the Primaris Captain? I don't know. But hey, at least I tried!

Match 2

The second mission was Ascension, and this time I was up against an Adeptus Mechanicus player. Mirror match, except that she was using Lucius, and she had no Knight. I did. What did she have for her list? Let me try to remember. But before that, I've to say that she has an awesome army. Just look at it. She basically did a lot of amazing conversions, using the Necromunda models for her Skitarii Rangers, Armigers Helverin for the Ironstrider Ballistarii and Myrmidon Destructors for the Kataphron Breachers. Plus the paint...look at that glow!

Oh, I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's her list:

Adeptus Mechanicus Battalion Detachment (Lucius):

Skitarii Marshal, Programmed Retreat, Exemplar's Eternity

Tech-priest Manipulus, Luminescent Blessing, the Solar Flare

20 Skitarii Rangers, 2 arc rifles, omnispex, data-tether

20 Skitarii Vanguard, 2 plasma calivers, omnispex, data-tether

3 Kataphron Breachers, heavy arc rifles, hydraulic claws

5 Sicarian Infiltrators

3 Serberys Raiders

3 Ironstrider Ballistarii, twin cognis autocannons

So the direct opposite of my list. This is the typical Skitarii horde list that makes use of Lucius, and unlike my MSU, she brought hordes of 20 Skitarii infantry that will be buffed by the Tech-priest Manipulus, and the Ironstrider Ballistarii that everyone is talking about. Not to mention, her Sicarian Infiltrators versus my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and her Serberys Raiders versus my Serberys Sulphurhounds. As you can see, it's the archetypical Lucius list versus a...very amusing and oddball Ryza list with a random Knight of the Cog. I'm sure you can probably guess who won.

I was lucky enough to start first, and I began by wiping out the Kataphron Breachers with my Knight Crusader. I also killed the Serberys Raiders with my Serberys Sulphurhounds. I also killed like maybe 7 Skitarii Vanguard with the Crusader and Serberys Sulphurhounds, but...yeah. I charged my Serberys Sulphurhounds into the Vanguard, only for them to get wiped out by overwatch. On the other hand, my second squad of Serberys Sulphurhounds made it to the Skitarii Rangers and...killed just 1. Oh, well. Right, and I had my Skitarii Vanguard and one Sicarian Ruststalker squad place banners on three objectives, while the other simply moved up to support the Serberys Sulphurhounds.

My opponent then teleported her Skitarii Rangers to my backline using the Solar Flare, which...kind of left my Serberys Sulphurhounds staring at the dust in astonishment. The Ironstrider Ballistarii then moved up to the center objective, shot off an entire squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers who were on the center of the objective, snatching away my banner (ouch), while...I somehow made the saves for my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers, maybe losing just one? The Skitarii Vanguard then moved up and erased my Skitarii Vanguard with their shooting, as did the Skitarii Rangers, who killed my second Skitarii Vanguard squad as well. But I had the banners there, and the Skitarii Marshal on one of the objectives, so I still held those.

My Knight Crusader then moved up and, along with support fire (heh) from my surviving Serberys Sulphurhounds, destroyed one Ironstrider Ballistarii, who blew up and did a mortal wound to one of its comrades. He also killed more of the Skitarii Vanguard, and...my opponent was so unlucky that she somehow failed so many of her saves despite this being Lucius, and...yeah, she had a single Skitarii Vanguard left after all that shooting. Oh, and she failed morale, and rolled a couple of ones and a 2, which meant 3 ran away. That was out of 4 rolls. Bad luck. Damn. My Ruststalkers, Sulphurhounds and Knight charged in and wiped out the other two Ironstrider Ballistarii, but they didn't blow up this time. Phew!

The Sicarian Infiltrators then popped in and fired their flechette blasters at my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and she whiffed all of her shots, with them killing just one or two, leaving two Sicarian Ruststalkers alive. Damn. The Rangers had more success, though, killing the Skitarii Marshal, and her Tech-priest Manipulus ran to capture the objective and remove my banner. Oh, well.

I did manage to kill the Skitarii Vanguard Alpha with my Serberys Sulphurhounds. Then my Knight Crusader promptly erased the Sicarian Infiltrators from the table, while doing a couple of wounds to the Tech-priest Manipulus with his meltagun and heavy flamer. Whoops. Despite the Serberys Sulphurhounds and Sicarian Ruststalkers charging the Skitarii Marshal, they failed to kill him. Damn. Well, I guess all the rolls even out in the end. My opponent was having awful rolls, failing all her saves and not exactly doing great on her firing, so...yeah.

The Rangers then moved up and fired on my Knight Crusader, taking a few wounds off him, but not nearly enough. Heh. My Knight Crusader moved up, killed like 7 or so Skitarii Rangers, and then stomped the Tech-priest Manipulus to death while tarpitting the poor Skitarii Rangers in combat. Meanwhile, my Sicarian Ruststalkers advanced to the other end of the table to help me score Behind Enemy Lines, while my Serberys Sulphurhounds killed the Skitarii Marshal with sulphur and fire. With nothing but the Skitarii Rangers left, my opponent decided to leave them in combat, and they didn't do much to my Knight. I...simply stomped them to death and tabled her. Ouch. To add insult to injury, I had 10 points from To The Last because not only my Knight survived, but so did one of my Sicarian Ruststalker squads.

Needless to say, this was an overwhelming victory for my Draconian (pseudo-Ryza) Skitarii and Knight of the Cog over a Lucius Mechanicus cohort. That was totally unexpected, but I have to emphasize that I got extremely, extremely lucky. My opponent was very unlucky. I went first and got rid of her Kataphron Breachers, which were probably the only thing that could pose a threat to my Knight, plus she failed an awful number of saves...oh, and that morale debacle where 3 out of 4 dudes ran away. Sigh. Yeah, that was bad luck. Not to mention, her Sicarian Infiltrators whiffing their shots against my Sicarian Ruststalkers, and their making 5+ saves against the Ironstrider Ballistarii earlier. Damn. In any event, I won the game 76 to her 21. That was...weird. I got very, very lucky. I doubt that will ever happen again.

Match 3

And so...the final match. This time, the mission was Center Ground, which was a very odd...map. My opponent was Salamanders this time, so yay, I guess? If my opponent was Chaos Daemons, I would be screwed, but Salamanders are also pretty strong...and this is basically almost the same as the first match, except that he ignores AP -1 and can re-roll a single wound roll every time he fights or shoots.

Adeptus Astartes Patrol Detachment (Salamanders)

Bray'arth Ashmantle (the Forge World Dreadnought Character)

5 Tactical Marines with combi-melta and flamer

5 Tactical Marines with combi-melta and flamer

6 Aggressors with flamestorm gauntlets

Apocethary with the relic that allows rerolls of D6 for flame weapons

Land Speeder with multimelta and heavy flamer

Land Speeder with multimelta and heavy flamer

3 Eradicators

Again, I was lucky enough to get first turn. My Serberys Sulphurhounds rushed forward to grab 2 objectives, while my Skitarii Vanguard placed banners, one squad occupying the same objective as one Serberys Sulphurhound squad. One Ruststalkers squad simply walked off the table using Circuitous Assassins, while my Knight Crusader seized the chance to kill the Eradicators, throwing everything at them. The Serberys Sulphurhounds also helped, flaming the poor Eradicators as well. YES!

The Serberys Sulphurhounds made their charge and tied up one tactical squad, while the other simply died to overwatch from the Aggressors. Whoops. Anyway, my opponent zoomed the Land Speeders forward and charged the Skitarii Vanguard with them, as well as one Aggressor, but they failed to kill the Objective Secured Skitarii Vanguard and I controlled that objective, along with the banner. The Land Speeders also didn't do much damage to my Knight, maybe doing a total of 6 with their melta weapons? The Serberys Sulphurhounds and tactical squad continued to slug it out, and despite the Alpha wounding them on 2+s with his arc maul (them being reduced to Strength and Toughness 3 because of Rad Saturation), I couldn't kill most of them, and I lost one of them. Yikes.

I had my Sicarian Ruststalkers pop up in the backline, giving me Behind Enemy Lines, but they failed their charge. Damn. My Skitarii Vanguard fell back, having survived the charge from the Aggressors and the Land Speeders. The Knight Crusader killed one Land Speeder and killed 3 Aggressors, only for the Apocethary to revive one of them later. The Serberys Sulphurhounds and tactical squad continued to slug it out, with me killing maybe one of them, and losing another dude in return. Ugh...so much for Ryza being close combat specialists.

The surviving Land Speeder zoomed toward my Knight Crusader, but failed to wound him with his mutimelta, or if he did, I made my save. Well...and the Land Speeder promptly failed his charge against my Skitarii Vanguard, rolling 2 1s. What the f...that was just awful luck for my opponent. The Aggressors, now back up to 4, continued toward my Knight Crusader, and tried to hit him with their flamers, but though they did maybe a couple of wounds, it wasn't enough. He still had 15 or so wounds, if I remember correctly. Then the tactical squad and Serberys Sulphurhounds continued to slug it out, with the alpha killing the sergeant and leaving just the flamer guy. That was rough. Oh, my Sicarian Ruststalkers died to the tactical squad's fire, with only the Princepts surviving...and I rolled a 1 for morale. Phew. Then Bray'arth stomped upward, charged my Skitarii Vanguard...and I made 2 6++s saves to keep them in the game and the objective. Holy Omnissiah. That was clutch. I had 2 Skitarii Vanguard left and they continued to hang on despite all odds.

I had my second squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers pop up next to Bray'arth and charge him, but they fluffed all their wound rolls...and I did like maybe 3 wounds in total. Yikes. The Knight Crusader fired on Aggressors and killed another 2 or so, while the Skitarii Vanguard, along wth my Knight Crusader destroyed the second Land Speeder. The Serberys Sulphurhound continued duking it out with the flamer tactical marine, only for my alpha to finally kill the damned squad. Phew. That was annoying. Meanwhile, Bray'arth killed all of Skitarii Vanguard and Sicarian Ruststalkers, while eating maybe 1 or 2 wounds. The sole surviving princeps charged the other tactical squad and killed maybe 1 or 2, but he got slain in combat. Whoops.

The Aggressors tried to charge my Skitarii Vanguard...only to fail. They then died to my Knight Crusader, Serberys Sulphurhound and Skitarii Vanguard's fire. I wasn't able to do anything to the tactical squad despite bombarding them from afar with the Ironstorm missile pod. Oh, well. Bray'arth then moved toward my Knight Crusader and wounded him, bringing him down to 11 wounds with his flamers, while his Apocethary braved overwatch and charged my Serberys Sulphurhound alpha. Yikes. I killed Bray'arth with a combination of supercharged plasma from my Skitarii Vanguard and my Knight Crusader, while the Ironstorm missile pod still did not do anything. The Apocethary survived another round of fire from my Serberys Sulphurhound Alpha, despite him doing his best to kill him. Oh, well. Then, during his turn, he killed my Serberys Sulphurhound Alpha in combat, the Apocethary thus seizing an objective and giving him 15 points, along with his tactical squad at the back, giving him 2 objectives to my 1. Yikes.

Fortunately, I still somehow managed to squeak out a win 70-61. It should have been 71 because I forgot to count the banner for the end of the game, but who cares, it's just 1 point.

Wait, what? Did I win all 3 games in this Phoenix Incursion 2.0 RTT?

...yeah, I did. A lot of good luck on my part, my clutch saving throws ensuring that I somehow had Skitarii holding objectives despite all the odds stacked against them (surviving a charge from Bray'arth and Bladeguard Veterans). Plus my opponents had horrible rolls, failing to wound my Knights with their melta weapons or just...not making their saving throws despite being Lucius. Wow. Just wow. I don't know, but I really lucked out this time.

Consequently, as you can see in Best Coast Pairings, I somehow got first place (yes, my real name is Tobias Fong). I have no idea how that happened, it's just...improbable, but I guess I'll take it. The Omnissiah provides, I guess? Given that I lost all 3 games last week, I guess I managed to get some luck this time and win all 3 games. This is the first time I've won a Warhammer 40,000 tournament. I'm not sure what to say, I'm still in...disbelief. I am very certain that if I had faced the Chaos Daemons player with his scary Slaneeshi daemons who can advance and charge (was it a 14" move, plus advance and charge?), I would have lost. 100% sure. But I guess I lucked out. Oh, well. This was a very, very interesting Incursion experience that went beyond my expectations. I'll admit, I'm extremely glad to have some store credit as a result of somehow winning today's tournament. The Emperor must have smiled upon me today or something...but hey, I'll take it! I'll save the store credit for the Kill Team box, so that I can get Death Korps of Krieg! Yay!