August Weekday Munera RTT

 I actually participated in the August Weekday Munera Rogue Trader Tournament on Monday (August 23rd), but I didn't have time to write a battle report on it because I was busy with other stuff. Add to that, I developed a headache after the RTT and so I basically went to bed the moment I reached home, and was distracted by my other projects when Tuesday arrived. Nonetheless, my load has lightened up a little and I decided to drop one of my writing projects to focus on another (which was how I could write the conclusion to the Argent Crusade yesterday), so I thought I would write a quick writeup of the RTT on Monday before I return to work.

This time, I decided to play with my Thousand Sons and try them out because of their new codex. Because I'm more of a fluff player, I was fielding Ignatius along with a bunch of Daemon Engines. I love Daemon Engines. So my list isn't very optimized, but I don't think anyone was expecting something like mine.

Thousand Sons Battalion (Cult of Magic)

Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (Seeker After Shadows, Arcane Focus)

Exalted Sorcerer on Disc (Athenaean Scrolls, Devastating Sorcery)

Infernal Master

5 Rubric Marines with inferno boltguns

10 Rubric Marines with warpflamer and warpflame pistol

10 Chaos Cultists with flamer

2 x 5 Scarab Occult Terminators with soulreaper cannons and Hellfyre missile racks

2 Forgefiends with Hades autocannons

Forgefiend with 3 Ectoplasma cannons

2 Heldrakes with baleflamer

You might look at the list and wonder, why the hell do I have so many daemon engines? Well, simply because I love daemon engines. Dinobots...ahem, Forgefiends and Helldrakes look so awesome. Who wouldn't want to field them? I certainly do!

My first game was against a Chaos Daemons player who fielded like...I think 4 Exalted Daemons, so Exalted Keeper of Secrets, Exalted Bloodthirster, Exalted Great Unclean One and Exalted Lord of Change. They were accompanied by Shalaxi Hellbane and Belakor himself. I think he had a single squad of Bloodletters and 2 squads of Nurglings.

The first turn went to him, and I think he pretty much advanced, charged up the table and tore my guys apart. My Forgefiends tried to shoot his Daemons down while my Heldrakes charged up the table and torched the Bloodletters, but other than that I couldn't really do anything. Oh, well. In the end, I succeeded in slaying Shalaxi Hellbane and the Great Unclean One, and basically leaving just one wound on the Keeper of Secrets (though she recovered a couple more after killing my Cultists) and severely injuring the Bloodthirster. It wasn't enough, though, and I got tabled. Whoops. Still a fun game, though, and I wish I brought my Knights. It would have been so fun to see Knights fight against Greater Daemons. Giant robots versus giant monsters. Damn, wasted opportunity! Oh, well, it was still fun, though. I managed to take 41 points to my opponent's 90, so it wasn't too big of a loss, ha ha.

My second game was against White Scars. I honestly have no idea what happened, but I managed to table him. It wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't send all his Vanguard Veterans and Assault Terminators to kill one squad of Scarab Occult Terminators that I had deep struck in the corner of his table, but he got distracted, fell for the bait that I didn't even know I laid out, and then got shot off the board by my Forgefiends. Those daemon engines were doing some serious work for me! I won that game 87 to 54 points.

My third game was against Adeptus Mechanicus, Mars Skitarii Veteran Cohort. I already knew I was going to lose this, so I focused on taking out his Ironstrider Ballistarii and Fulisaves out before they could blow my daemon engines off the table. As it turned out, I failed to kill one Fulisave. I was almost tabled, with only two of my Forgefiends left on the table (I think). But I did some serious damage, and to my surprise, in terms of points, it was a much closer game than I thought. Turned out I managed to grab quite a lot of secondaries. I lost the game 65-75, which was a lot closer than I thought it would be. Perhaps if I played the game right and made several decisions differently, I might even have won the game. Nice.

In conclusion, I think the Thousand Sons have a lot of potential. Doing relatively well when this was th first time I played Thousands in 9th edition (and after a long time), I think I like them. I just need to learn and adjust. The codex is new, I have to experiment and find out what's good and what works. I find that the Daemon Engines work really well for me, so I'm keeping them. Well, the Heldrakes and the Hades autocannon Forgefiends, anyway. Probably I should stop suiciding my Heldrakes to the front (Ha ha) and find better ways of using them, but they really help me with Engage on all Fronts. Between them and my Scarab Occult Terminators, I find that I can max out on that very easily. I also have to think about my other objectives more clearly, I suppose.

To be honest, I prefer playing Knights (and Adeptus Mechanicus). They are much simpler to play, I don't have to worry about a bazillion spells, they are tougher, I have less models to move about, and they simply play faster. Oh, well. Anyway, that's cool. We'll see how it works, I guess. I'm definitely bringing Knights to the Renegade Servitor Appreciation GT in Roseville next week. I doubt they will do much better, but they're definitely more fun to play with.

The Defense of Argent

And so the Argent Campaign concludes today. We did Phase 3 of the Crusade Campaign that I had been organizing thus far, with the final showdown taking place in the homeworld of the Encarmine Angels, Argent itself.

The combined forces of the Death Guard, two plague companies under the command of Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, and the Plague Lord Alastor Karkinus, attacked the fortress-monastery of the Encarmine Angels. Under the command of the Chapter Master, Varile Nosferatus, the Space Marines defended their homeworld stalwartly, doing their best to resist the decaying invasion of the Death Guard. Though it was a close battle, the majority of the Blood Angels Successor Chapter eventually succumbed to both plague and blade. A Redemptor Dreadnought attempted to destroy a Great Unclean One, only to be fell by it. Fortunately, Chapter Master Varile Nosferatus valiantly fought back and slew the Great Unclean One, sending it back screaming to the Warp. Despite his efforts, the Encarmine Angels were eventually overrun, the Sanguinary Guard annihilated by Possessed, and their tanks and vehicles overrun by Blightlord Terminators and Plague Marines. Though many Poxwalkers were slain by the noble Adeptus Astartes, they were unable to stand before the might of warp-imbued Heretic Astartes, the Veterans of ten thousand years of warfare thwarting their defenses and bringing their fortress-monastery down.

The Orks, led by Cyba-boss, scoured Argent for scrap to build his Waaagh!. Doubling as a Forge World, Argent was home to many manufactorums and tank assemby lines. Eying the newly constructed vehicles for loot, Cyba-boss led a great mechanized Waaagh!, leading a Stompa and a Gorkanaut in trampling over the Forge World's manufactorums. The local Imperial Guard regiment, led by the Lord Commissar known as the Dread Lord, Shaidar Haran, marshaled a defense over a vital manufactorum in hopes of halting Cyba-boss's rampage. The combined firepower of a Shadowsword, Leman Russ tanks and courageous Guardsmen felled the Stompa, but the Astra Militarum were slowly being overrun by the Orks. Fortunately, a last-ditched effort to protect the vital machinery saw the Guardsmen successfully defend the crucial installation, keeping it out of the hands of the greenskins. They suffered horrific casualties, however, with their Lord Commissar falling to the hands of...Grots. The same Grots who killed Adepta Sororitas and Poxwalkers, which only increased their reputation and cemented as legends among their klan.

The World Eaters attempted to assist the Death Guard, but they encountered a patrol of Armiger-class Knights from House Yato and were slaughtered. Though they destroyed an Armiger Warglaive and heavily damaged an Armiger Moirax Knight, the entire warband was annihilated.

Disgruntled at his defeat, Cyba-boss rallied his surviving forces to attack a power plant that was supplying another chain of manufactorums, assembling what was left of his mechanized forces into a mek-Waaagh!. Fielding an entire army of walkers, ranging from a Stompa to a Morkanaut, Killa Klans, Deffdread, and more, the Orks smashed through the defenders...only to collide against an imposing force of Imperial Knights. The nobles of House Yato weathered the ferocious assault from Cyba-boss and his scrap walkers, seeing their Knights fall one by one to the klaws of the greenskin armor, though they fought as hard as they could. Eventually, the Daimyo Koushiro Kusanagi, the pilot of the Dominus Knight Castellan, Dragon's Fury, managed to destroy the last of the mechanized Ork walkers. Though the defenders held the power plant, it was at a great cost. Of the three Knight nobles and two bondsmen who walked into the battle, only one survived.

Though the Encarmine Angels fell in battle, the majority of their storied chapter destroyed, their Imperial allies succeeded in securing the Space Marines' homeworld of Argent and drove the invaders off. However, the Death Guard were content to leave, as their objective had been achieved. They had left a parting gift - a permanent plague cluster that had taken root in the Encarmine Angels' devastated fortress-monastery, infecting a good amount of their gene-seed and hampering their process to create new Space Marines. Nurgle smiled upon them indulgently, lavishing his rewards of rot and decay upon his champions for their feats.

And thus Argent was held by the Imperium, though at great cost. The once valiant Encarmine Angels have been reduced to a shadow of their former self, with only their first and tenth companies functional. Everyone, including their ancient Dreadnoughts, had been killed. Looking upon the plague-ridden scene of what used to be the proud fortress-monastery of the Encarmine Angels, Varile Nosferatus felt despair. However, he vowed that his Chapter's sacrifice would not be in vain. In spite of the devastation sown by the triumphant Death Guard, the Encarmine Angels will rebuild and emerge stronger than ever.

That's pretty much it for the campaign. Thanks to a last-ditch fight by the Imperium, they barely managed to keep ahold of Argent and prevent it from being turned into a plague planet by the Death Guard. And so the campaign concludes, with quite an exciting finish. At least it didn't turn into a one-sided victory for the Death Guard! I'm glad the Imperium managed to fight back in the end.

Warzone Points:

Imperium: 12

Chaos: 10 (this was a 2v1 game where 2 Death Guard players fielded 75 power level each against the Blood Angels player's 150 power level list, so I calculated it as if 2 players won a Strike Force game, hence 1+4+1+4)

Xenos: 2

As a result, the Imperium won the third phase of the campaign. That was enough to lift them from an abyss of defeat and save Argent somewhat.

Total Strategic Value:

Imperium: 3

Chaos: 3

Consequently, the campaign ended in a draw. So everybody wins! Even the xenos, who got a good scrap. Yeah, the Orks didn't get any Strategic Value, but they got a good krumpin', which was what they were looking for, so objective achieved. I hope everyone enjoyed the campaign! I probably should have done a lot of things better, but we all live and learn. I certainly had a lot of fun. I don't know if the narrative I wrote out sounded convincing or fun to read, but hey, at least I tried!

Happy gaming, everyone!

Oh, before I forget, I guess I'll be joining a new Crusade League next week. It'll be run by someone else, so hopefully it'll be much better!

Thousand Sons Painted!

 I've painted the Infernal Master and 5 Scarab Occult Terminators! As an aside, I also painted three alternative Ironstrider Skitarii pilots so that I can switch between Sydonian Dragoons and Ironstrider Ballistarii. I thought it would be fun. Magnetization is the way to go, after all.

Anyway, now I'll be able to field my Thousand Sons tomorrow! We'll see how they do. I doubt I'll be able to do well in the RTT tomorrow, especially because it's a long while since I played Thousand Sons and I'm not familiar with the new rules and psychic powers. I'll just experiment with them tomorrow.

Counteroffensive on Gammuller

For phase 2 of the Argent Campaign, the Death Guard and Orks have invaded the bastion world of Gammuller. A vital planet in the supply chain between Argent and the rest of the Imperium, Gammuller is heavily fortified with Imperial Guard regiments and defensive bases. As the threat of the Death Guard draws ever closer, the Imperium launches a counterattack to take back Gammuller in order to stymie the Heretics' offensive.

First, Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, weathered an assault from the Imperial Guard regiments of Gammuller, commanded by the Lord Commissar known as the Dread Lord, Shaidar Haran. Despite a valiant attempt by the mortal Guardsmen, the Death Guard was able to hold their ground and rout them, forcing the mechanized forces into a disordered retreat.

Meanwhile, the Adepta Sororitas preceptory, under the command of the Saint Morrigan, tried to take a vital munitorum back from the Orks, but the cunning warboss, Cyba-boss, annihilated the zealous Sisters, their mechanical contraptions and scrap walkers pulverizing faithful flesh and drowning the redoubts in the blood of humans. During the fierce battle, one Grot rose to prominence. Having survived and even slaughtered Poxwalkers in combat, he went on to slay a Celestian in melee, earning a place in the legends of his Klan for all time. Gork and Mork must be smiling on this particular runt, who would eventually be the boss of his own herd of Super-Grots. Or Cyba-Grots.

The Encarmine Angels, led by their Chapter Master, Varile Nosferatus, gambled on an all-out assault on the Death Guard. However, the canny commander, Alastor Karkinus, outwitted the Blood Angels Successor Chapter. Luring them into a trap, he then ambushed them with shambling legions of Poxwalkers, derailing the Adeptus Astartes tanks and literally overwhelming them in numbers. Despite a courageous counterattack by the Death Company, who wiped out the Possessed, Chaos Spawn and a good number of Poxwalkers in retaliation, the disgustingly resilient Plague Marines and Blightlord Terminators eventually overran the Space Marines' position, engulfing them in filth and disease that overcame even the Space Marines' genhanced immune systems.

The only bright spark for the Imperium was when the Knights of House Yato stampeded over the World Eaters' position, slaughtering the Heretic Astartes and their subordinate beserk hordes of Khorne Daemons, including the slaying of Skarbrand. The World Eaters had attempted to summon him into real space, but the noble Imperial Knights put a stop to that, banishing the exalted Bloodthirster back to the Warp to face the wrath of Khorne again.

The final score is as follows:

Chaos, 11 Warzone Points

Imperium, 8 Warzone Points

Xenos, 5 Warzone Points.

This gives Chaos 3 Strategic Value total, and unless the Imperium somehow wins Phase 3, Chaos will have won this campaign. All is not lost, however, as the forces of the Imperium are mustering for a final stand on Argent itself. Will the Encarmine Angels be able to defend their homeworld, or will the Death Guard succeed in corrupting a once pristine Space Marines planet and transforming it into a plague planet fit for the Gardens of Nurgle?

Ironhammer Season 4 Game 1

I had a game with James today - you remember him, especially if you're following Goonhammer. Same guy who crushed me during the Bug Hunt RTT a couple of weeks ago. I played against his Drukhari list again, and ever since I was matched up against him when I saw the pairings in Ironhammer Season 4, I already anticipated a loss.

Well, doesn't matter to me. Playing against a top player like James will teach me a lot, and I'm more grateful to learn from losing a game than...I dunno, having one-sided games like in the last RTT I was in.

Anyway, I should explain what Ironhammer is. Ironhammer is basically a season where you play 6 (or 7 in season 4 because we have 48 players) over 12-14 weeks. So it's like a league. Basically you're given 2 weeks to play a match with your designated opponent, and then you move on to the next game after that. I think that's the gist of it, so rather than a single one-time RTT, it's an entire season. The benefit is that you get to change your list here and there, just like I plan to do. It's meant to help us learn over the course of a season and become better players, so it's not just about winning. It's experimenting with your army to see what works and what doesn't, and then improve from there.

The mission today was Battle Lines, and I brought a vehicle-heavy army because...you know, I love vehicles. My list was as follows:

Imperial Knights super-heavy detachment (Mechanicus, Glorified History, Blessed Arms)

Knight Castellan, Cold Eradication, Cawl's Wrath

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

2 Armigers Warglaives with meltaguns

Adeptus Mechanicus Spearhead detachment (Data-hoard Forge World, Autosavant Spirits)

Tech-priest Enginseer

Cybernetica Datasmith

2 Kastelan robots with incendine combusters and fists

2 Skorpius Disintegrators with ferrumite cannons

You notice that I decided to switch to Data-hoard Forge World with Autosavant Spirits. Yeah, I'm a treadhead who loves vehicles (you've seen my Imperial Guard army), so I decided to try them out. I thought my vehicles - particularly the Kastelan robots and the Skorpius Disintegrators - would benefit greatly from them. Or so I hope, but things rarely work out the way I want them too.

Anyway, James brought the same Drukhari army as that other time. His list is already perfect, so I doubt he needed to change anything. He had Drazhar, 2 Succubi, 5 Wyches, an Archon, a Haemonculi, 2 sqads of 3 Kronos, 3 squads of 5 Wracks, 1 squad of 10 Trueborn, 2 squads of 5 Incubi (I think?) and Kabalite Warriors, 4 Raiders...and yeah, he also had the Court of the Archon with the Ur-ghouls and 5 Mandrakes.

The first turn started well for me, the Raiders failed to kill anything, and the Kronos didn't do much either. Apparently I had the advantage during the first turn, and I essentially wiped out the Kronos, weakened 1 Raider, and then I proceeded to kill the second squad of Kronos, destroyed like 2 Raiders and wounded the Haemonculi. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to capitalize on my advantage because I made a series of blunders, allowing the Succubus to heroically intervene into my Datasmith and kill him before grabbing the objective, and the Trueborn or Kabalite Warriors stole the objective from my Knight Crusader. Oh, well. I tried.

After a good 2 turns, everything went downhill from that. James was able to deny me all the objectives, his Wracks and Incubi jumping from the surviving Raiders to grab my only objective. The Succubus destroyed my Skorpius Disintegrator, which blew up and killed the other one, but the mortal wounds weren't enough to take out all of the enemies surrounding them. My Knight Crusader went down to Drazhar and the Trueborn, but he ended up nuking them all, killing Drazhar, the Wyches, a couple of Trueborn, and even the Archon. I continued shooting stuff off the board, my Kastelan robots killing a Succubus and then the Mandrakes, while my Knight Castellan continued to shoot the Raiders off the board, as well as a few Incubi and stuff. He failed to kill the Succubus and eventually died to mortal wounds, blowing up everything except her because she was too far away. Oh, well. I tried. The Succubus then blitzed into my Kastelan robots and killed them. I ended up being tabled. Ouch.

Well, at least I did better this game than the other one. Because I failed to get any objectives, I only managed to get 27 points to James's 85. But it's okay, I learned a lot from this game. I look forward to putting the lessons into play next game.

Perhaps James was right. I relied too much on my vehicles, and the Skorpius Disintegrators didn't do much, to be honest. I should swap them out for infantry to hold objectives. I'm not sure if it would have worked, though, but we'll see. Let's see what happens in the next game! There are still 6 more to play!

Painted stuff

I spent the whole night painting my Stormblade, Leman Russ Executioner tank, Sydonian Dragoons and a couple of Skitarii Rangers.

The tanks were easy to paint - they were already mostly painted. I simply needed to add Castellan Green. I went and bought Castellan Green on Saturday, and now I added patches in to give my tanks more life. They don't look so plain anymore.

Kind of glad with how they turned out. Now I can run an armored spearhead. Yay. 4 Leman Russ Executioner tanks (one of them will be a Tank Commander), a Stormblade andd 3 Armored Sentinels, all armed with plasma cannons. A plasma armored regiment for my Imperial Guard. Now I'll have to collect the Krieg Guardsmen and convert them into Draconians. Hopefully I can get enough plasma guns for them, or else it would be...yeah.

Speaking of plasma, I also painted my 2 Skitarii Rangers with plasma calivers. I can't say I'm impressed with the transuranic arquebuses, so I decided to replace them with plasma calivers instead. Fits the fluff of my forge world, Draconis IV more, since we produce lots of plasma weapons. I mean, just look at the tanks we manufacture for the Draconian Defenders Imperial Guard regiments. They get literally nothing but plasma. If I could, I would field every single Guardsmen with a plasma gun, but I guess the rules don't allow for that.

I also painted my Sydonian Dragoons. Can't wait to run them. I wonder how they will fare in a game maybe later today. I'll keep you guys posted. I also grabbed a couple of power swords and swapped the taser goads out for the power swords. I prefer the power swords with the +1 Strength and AP -3 as opposed to simply getting +2 Strength and AP -1. With the Vanguard's Rad-saturation rule decreasing the opponent's Toughness and Ryza giving them a +1 to wound rolls in melee, I figured a power sword would work better for them. So...yeah. I'll be wounding Space Marines on 2+ when I charge them, so might as well get the AP -3 one instead.

Anyway, we'll see how the Sydonian Dragoons fare today!

Infernal Master and Scarab Occult Terminators

I split the Hexfire box with a friend, and so I now have an Infernal Master and more Scarab Occult Terminators. I intend to sell the Tzaangors (already have someone interested in buying them off me) because I don't really like Tzaangors and don't plan to use them. I'm more old-school, so I'll run mostly Thousand Sons Sorcerers, Rubricae (including Scarab Occult Terminators) and Daemon Engines. My list in particular has a lot of Daemon Engines...well, if you've been following my blog, you already know that I have 3 Forgefiends and 2 Heldrakes. Can't wait to field them!

Funnily enough, I had a former Chaplain in the Sapphire Drakes join Ignatius's thrallband, so I'll make him the Infernal Master. Apparently Infernal Masters are like Chaplains (though they are more of Daemon summoners, really). Ignatius remains the Sorcerer in Terminator Armor and the Magister of the band, though I'll have Makhat, the former Chief Librarian of the Sapphire Drakes, be one of the Scarab Occult Sorcerers and Chronos the Infernal Master. Acastus, a former Sergeant, is the Aspiring Sorcerer of one of the Rubric Marine squads. The Exalted Sorcerer is Epistolary Egnis. So yay. I can basically run a crusade army with them. In fact, I plan to do just that...

If possible, I wish to promote Ignatius to a Battle Psyker. For Matched Play games, he'll just be that, but he'll need to be blooded and get some experience before I can make him a Battle Psyker. Oh, well. That works for me.

Oh, right. The Hexfire box. I checked out the Crusade story there and it was kind of underwhelming. So basically what happened was that the Infernal Master, Xentep Korazon, desired Castellan Garran Crowe's Black Blade of Antwyr because he wants the daemon sealed inside the blade. Meanwhile, as a result of Magnus's failed ritual when the Dark Angels and Grey Knights launched an orbital strike, Sortiarius is in flux. Many of the Thousand Sons Legion's Sorcerers died when the ritual failed, while Magnus returned to his Tower of Cyclops to brood and plot vengeance against the Imperium (doubt he'll actually do anything about it, though). So the Thousand Sons Sorcerers who weren't involved in the Ritual returned to Sortiarius in order to return to Magnus's favor and rise to power once more, or regain their ranks and influence, or fulfil their ambitions. Usual Chaos schemes and stuff.

So Xentep Korazon, whose thrallband was exiled to Hexenfast in the Senvorth System, convinced his magister - an Exalted Sorcerer - to return to Sortiarius and help Magnus capture the Grey Knights and Dark Angels still on the planet, left behind by Kaldo Draigo and the rest when they desperately escaped. And then in a completely stupid and unnecessary move, he backstabbed his magister and killed him. For no freaking reason at all. Like...dude? Was that necessary? What even was the point of the betrayal? Anyway, he then teamed up with a Tzaangor Shaman named Razyrak the Pilgrim, who had his own herd of Tzaangors, and they captured a bunch of Grey Knights, brought them back to an abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus facility orbiting the gas giant Hexenfast, and lured Crowe and his band of Purifiers into a trap.

So Crowe led his Purifiers to fight against Scarab Occult Terminators and hordes of Tzaangors in a desperate attempt to free his captured brothers of the Third Brotherhood and a Knight of Flame from the Purifiers. You have two Crusade missions for that, and...yeah. Depending on how those missions play out, you have two outcomes.

If it's a Grey Knights victory, Crowe slays Korazon with the Black Blade of Antwyr, a Dreadknight obliterates poor Razyrak with his heavy psycannon and they wipe out both the Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, and succeeded in saving their brothers. Yay.

If it's a Thousand Sons victory, Crowe's Purifiers get wiped out by Tzaangors and Scarab Occult Terminators, the Dreadknight is destroyed by Razyrak's arcane machinations, and Korazon attempts to seize the Black Blade of Antwyr, only for the daemon within to laugh at him and claims that he will serve no mortal...and that Korazon will be the first of his loyal thralls. In an act of desperation, Korazon summons daemons, tears a rift open to the warp, which sucks both Crowe and Korazon in, and they kind of vanished, leaving an open ending. Of course Crowe will survive, he's a named character. But his Purifiers and Dreadknight got annihilated, while he's currently trapped in the warp. Well...I guess it sucks.

Either way, not very consequential to the Warhammer 40,000 lore. Not sure what to say, but I can't say I'm very impressed with it. At least we know the aftermath of the failed ritual. Thousand Sons are hunting the remnants of the Dark Angels and Grey Knights abandoned upon Sortiarius. Perhaps it's time for Ignatius to make a return to the Planet of Sorcerers and see what his genesire wants. If you recall, Ignatius travels around on the battle barge, Honor of Tizca, which makes him different from the Exalted Sorcerers and Magisters traveling around on Silver Towers. And his thrallband, the Sapphire Drakes, is mostly composed of former Adeptus Astartes who were loyal to the Emperor but turned renegades because the Inquisition, the Adeptus Custodes and the Sisters of Silence persecuted them.

Heh...that means it'll be very interesting for the Sapphire Drakes to return to Sortiarius, for this is an opportunity for revenge...well, they are more focused on revenge against the Ordo Hereticus, the Adeptus Custodes and Sisters of Silence, not the Grey Knights and Ordo Malleus, but we shall see. It'll be fun.

The Fall of N-th Lily

And so today was the conclusion of Phase 1 of the Argent Campaign. Chaos won big time. For today, we played the Darkness Descends on Kolossi mission from Warzone Charadon: The Book of Fire, but I adapted it for the Argent Campaign.

If you recall, in the last mission, the Death Guard had successfully set foot on the jungle planet of N-th Lily. Despite the Encarmine Angels' best efforts to drive them off, they only defeated the World Eaters. However, the Death Guard managed to wreck the Orks on the moon to foil their Waaagh! as well as make a foothold on the jungle planet itself. This week, they were conducting a ritual to turn N-th Lily into a plague planet.

Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, led his Plague Company against the Encarmine Angels and utterly crushed them. The Blood Angels Successors stood no chance. Their Dreadnoughts and vehicles rusted against the decaying power of the Death Guard. In the opening salvo, they lost their venerable Land Raider, Issac Clarke, to plague-ridden flamers, and the Encarmine Angels were almost annihilated.

Meanwhile, Cyba-boss led his beleaguered Ork Waaagh! off the moon of Amor and descended on N-th Lily itself. There, he and his Boyz got into a scrap with the World Eaters led by a self-styled Berserk Warlord called Ryan. Despite calling forth Khorne Daemons from the Warp, the World Eaters were overrun by a green tide, the Orks only too happy to clash against what they saw as a fun opponent. The Khorne Daemons slunk back to the Warp, with most of the World Eaters practically wiped out in the fierce fighting. The Orks were delighted with their find, looting the World Eaters' Rhinos and Helbrutes to use for their own wagons and Deff Dreads.

Alastor Karkinus's Plague Company descended upon an embittered mechanized Astra Miltarum regiment led by the Lord Commissar known as the Dread Lord, Shaidar Haran. The Guardsmen fought to the end, but their vehicles shared the same rusty fate ass the Encarmine Angels, and the infantry succumbed to toxic spores and deadly plagues. Before the week was out, they were forced to a retreat.

The survivors of Flug's regiment then encountered the Orks, who were only too happy to get into another scrap and loot more vehicles for their upcoming Waaagh!. Fortunately, the Guardsmen were able to hold the manic greenskins to a stalemate, and though Cyba-boss didn't have his fill of fun, he left with a ton more scrap beyond his wildest estimates. On the other hand, Colonel Flug's regiment survived, evacuated the planet and lived to fight another day.

A corrupted covenant of Sisters descended upon Amor, but met an Adeptus Mechanicus reclamation force led by Radon 724-Sigma. The Veteran Skitarii Cohort was able to reclaim the facility back from heretics and traitors, and secured Amor back under Imperial hands.

However, while the Imperial Forces were either routed or distracted against other enemies, the Death Guard completed their ritual and transformed N-th Lily into a plague planet. The Loyalists were forced to leave the planet, which is essentially a Daemon World ridden with sickness, and the Death Guard were able to proceed to the next stage of their plan. In the horizon, Argent beckons, and the Death Guard seek to destroy the Encarmine Angels Chapter once and for all, in order to deal a blow to the Imperium...

Final Score, in terms of Warzone Points

Chaos: 21

Xenos: 14

Imperium: 16

Phase 1 is a Chaos Victory, and thus Chaos receives 1 Strategic Value. Next week, we shall see the Death Guard assault the bastion world of Gammuller, a highly fortified planet that serves as the final line of defense for Argent itself.

Sydonian Dragoons

I built 3 Sydonian Dragoons today. They are for my Skitarii Veteran Cohort. Ugh, I'm tired, so I'm not going to write about much else.

Yeah, I know some people will start making fun of me. Why Sydonian Dragoons? Why not Ironstrider Ballistarii? Sydonian Dragoons suck, Ironstrider Ballistarii are the most cost efficient anti-tank units in the game, even if they lost the core keyword.

I don't have justify myself to meta-chasers. I play Ryza (or rather, my homebrewed forge world that copies Ryza). I prefer melee. I love swords and blades. That's all the reason I need. So yeah.

On another note, I'm reading The Lost and the Damned by Guy Haley right now, and I love Katsuhiro. I'm going to have to incorporate the Dragon Nations into my Draconis fluff. I'll do that another day because I'm exhausted right now.

Misconceptions about the Death Korps of Krieg

You know, I've been seeing all these comments on the Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page where you have these superfans who think they know the IP better than Games Workshop. In some cases, they probably do...but in most cases, these are people who are simply pretentious and full of themselves. They cherry-pick facts or probably read a small bit of the lore here and there, and suddenly they pretend to be experts on the lore. I see this particularly in the posts about Death Korps of Krieg.

Am I an expert? No. Of course not. I don't claim to know the lore better than Games Workshop or any of the fans. In fact, I probably know a lot less than most of you. I love reading, yes, and I would like to think that I read a lot, but I am aware that there's a lot that I do not know about. Elysians, for example. Aeldari. Xenos stuff. Chaos. I am not an expert on any of these. Hell, I know next to nothing about Space Marines. I don't read much about them. I'm not even that well versed in my favorite armies like Imperial Knights, Imperial Guard and Adeptus Mechanicus. I read as much as I can, enjoy the Black Library novels, and that's about it. But I'm certainly no expert and I will never claim to know more about them than the writers, Games Workshop or other fans.

So if it turns out that I know that you're blatantly wrong, that's saying something.

Nonetheless, here are the common misconceptions that lots of so-called fans of Death Korps of Krieg like to spout. They claim to know the lore, but they don't. Not really. Most of them probably read a few pages of The Siege of Vraks, but they didn't read the novels and short stories by Steve Lyons, most notably Dead Men Walking. They probably didn't read about the Kriegers in Graham McNeill's Ultramarine series where they showed up to fight Tyranids. They just either watched Youtube videos or read a bit of The Siege of Vraks or maybe even a wiki article (1d4chan?) and then they claim to know Krieg lore better than Games Workshop or the company that made them.

Misconception 1: Death Korps of Krieg do not use bionics.

Wrong. Colonel Tyborc from the 261st Siege Regiment did. He's literally in The Siege of Vraks, so how did you miss that? Also, in Dead Men Walking, you literally had quartermasters not only stripping the dead of weapons, ammunition, armor and other things for salvage, to reuse them for new troops, you also had them stripping bionics, if I'm not mistaken. Kriegers do use bionics because it helps them continue fighting the enemies of the Emperor. Where the hell did people even come up with this misconception?

Misconception 2: You can't join the Death Korps of Krieg if you're not vat born.

Wrong. While it is true that the core regiments of the Death Korps of Krieg are drawn from vat-born and cloned soldiers that apparently would drive the Adeptus Mechancus mad if they find out about it (heretek!), the Death Korps of Krieg do recruit from local populaces of the planets they are dispatched to. In Dead Men Walking, the Death Korps of Krieg forcibly conscripted from the local population, essentially abducting them and bringing them to brutal training camps and indoctrinating them. One of the major characters in Dead Men Walking is a local, and by the end of the book, he has bought into the whole Krieg tradition, picked up a hellgun from a dead Krieg grenadier and attempted to solo a Necron tomb all by himself because of that indoctrination and despair. It's all very grimdark, but my point is that Death Korps of Krieg are not limited only to vat-born soldiers. They don't give a feth if you're vat born or not. If you want to join them, they will be more than happy to enlist you, then throw you against the enemy because you're just another expendable body for them to use.

Misconception 3: Death Korps of Krieg are all numbers.

I'm not sure if this comes down to conflicting canon, because in some books Kriegers have no names. They are all known by numbers. And then you have Graham McNeil's Ultramarine books or Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain books, as well as The Siege of Vraks, where Kriegers do have names. The officers, in particular. So...yeah. But don't get surprised when you see an actual name for Kriegers and you start going, "how dare Games Workshop screw up the lore! Kriegers don't have names! They are all numbers!" Well, some of them at least have names. There has been precedents. So...yeah.

Misconception 4: All Death Korps of Krieg are fearless and suicidal.

Not exactly. In fact, during the Siege of Vraks, there was one regiment who got routed and fled when hit by daemon engines. In the end, Kriegers are still humans. They might be cold, callous and seemingly emotionless, but they are still only human, not transhuman Space Marines. They can still feel fear. And Krieg commanders don't just simply sacrifice their men for war. They know when to retreat and regroup. Hell, against the Necrons in Dead Men Walking, after they lost the war, the Death Korps of Krieg simply abandoned the planet to its fate and left, dispatching their regiments elsewhere. They didn't intend to throw away all the Krieg lives in an attempt to kill the Necrons and reclaim the planet for the Emperor. They understand a lost cause when they see one and simply redeploy their forces elsewhere, where they can be more useful.

So it is very amusing to see an arrogant prick of a commenter telling off Games Workshop with "you might want to know more about the universe than your ip lawyers, just saying" when these so-called IP lawyers clearly do not seem to know the lore as well as they think they do. It's very ironic that they claim to be experts and overrule stuff that's being revealed by saying Krieg doesn't have this or that, only to be outed for their ignorance when I bring stuff up from Dead Men Walking or another of Steve Lyons's books. Or Graham McNeil's books. Or even from Sandy Mitchell's Ciaspha Cain books. Or The Siege of Vraks. You know, the lore of the Death Korps of Krieg isn't limited to what you've only read off the Internet or wikis or watched from Youtube videos. There's quite a few novels on them, about them or featuring them (even if they aren't the main characters or main regiment, they provide quite a lot of insight into how other regiments interact with them). Might want to read up on those before telling the Warhammer Community team about how wrong they are about the lore, only to make yourself look like a fool.

By the way, the new Kill Team box will be out for preorders starting August 14th, and the preorder window will be open for 2 weeks until August 28th. That means we'll be getting the box on September 4th, if I'm not mistaken. Yay!

Invasion of N-th Lily

And so the first phase of the Argent Campaign has begun. The Death Guard has invaded in force, and accompanied by a warband of World Eaters, they have struck at the Argent System. Their first stop is N-th Lily, a Death World lush with jungles. Launching an insidious scheme to transform the verdant wildlife into a plague-ridden Garden for Grandfather Nurgle, they have landed massive forces at strategic locations in a bid to take out Imperial leadership before they can rally and mount an effective resistance.

The mission was Critical Targets from the Crusade Pack Amidst the Ashes. It's an Incursion mission, so power level 50 points played on a 44"x30" table. The Death Guard struck at both a holy shrine within the equatorial mountains of N-th Lily and the forge moon of Amor, after a clan of Orks had destroyed the Skitarii security maniples stationed to protect the precious ore stockpiled there. The World Eaters have broken off to meet the Encarmine Angels in the plains, both forces keen on clashing in open combat.

A detachment from the Seventh Company of the Death Guard, under the command of Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh, invaded the shrine, only to find a preceptory of Battle Sisters pledged to protect it. The Saint Morrigan took charge and attempted to repel the Plague Company, but despite bitter resistance, they eventually fell to both sickness and the warp-ridden plague weapons of the Death Guard. The Traitors then desecrated the shrine, converting it into a site of worship of Nurgle.

Meanwhile, led by Alastor Karkinus, the Doom of Worlds, another detachment of the Death Guard assaulted the forge moon of Amor in a bid to prevent the Ork Waaagh! from growing out of control. Recognizing that their efforts to transform N-th Lily into a plague planet would be for naught if a massive Ork Waaagh! was allowed to grow right at their doorstep, Karkinus led squads of Plague Marines, Blightlord Terminators and Poxwalkers to exterminate the greenskin menace before it could grow too large for them to contain. The Orks, despite reaping a massive toll upon the Death Guard, were eventually routed, their machinery and scrap contraptions rusting unnaturally rapidly under the cursed influence of Nurgle.

Fortunately, the Encarmine Angels held the line at the plains of N-th Lily. Despite sufferig horrifying casualties when the World Eaters took them by surprise, slaughtering Intercessors and Tactical Marines alike, a ferocious counterattack by the Death Company annihilated the Traitors. For now, most of N-th Lily remain under the firm control of the Encarmine Angels.

However, that might change, for reinforcements have been brewing in the Warp, and the Encarmine Angels discovered that they have so very few allies left...

Warzone Points - Chaos has scored a total of 9 Warzone Points, the Imperium 5, and Xenos 1. The first phase is not over yet, as we have a second mission next week. This time it will be Strike Force, played on a 44"x60" table, and most likely I'll be using a Legendary Mission. Looking forward to it!

The Argent Campaign

The Argent System burns...yada, yada, yada. You know the usual hyperbolic way in which Warhammer 40,000 campaigns start out. I could do the whole "The Argent System burns, billions perish in the wake of a colossal Chaos invasion" but it's gonna sound as pretentious as feth.

So let's just skip the whole theatrics and get down to business. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Argent System. As most of you do not know, Argent is classified as a Death World. The surface is very radioactive, so none of you Guardsmen had best be getting out of your sealed void armor unless you want to die a very early death. Trust me, radiation poisoning is not a good way to go. It is also the home world to one of the most...uh, suspicious Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, the Encarmine Angels. Not to be confused with the Angels Encarmine, a more illustrious and well known Blood Angels Successor Chapter from the Second Founding. The Encarmine Angels are also a Blood Angels Successor Chapter, but they are known to frequently come into conflict with other militant arms of the Imperium, often pilfering archeotech and other weapons, probably in their quest to seek a cure for the Black Rage. They seem to specialize in using grav weaponry, though this is not confirmed.

Nonetheless, as an Adeptus Astartes Chapter, the Imperium cannot afford to lose them. Not in this dark age where countless other Chapters have already vanished into the Noctis Eterna, consumed by madness or worse. They have sent an astropathic signal for aid, and we shall answer. Argent shall not fall!

Shortly after our fleets made warp translation, we were able to piece together what had transpired in the Argent System from both vox chatter scattered around orbits of dead worlds, devastated orbital defense platforms and wrecked ships. The Death Guard has invaded in force. Their true motives, as of yet, remain unknown. What we do know, however, is that the XIV Legion has dispatched a plague company to the jungle world (also designated as a Death World, by the way) of N-th Lily. Reports are sketchy at the moment, but it appears that they are infecting large swathes of the planet's ecosystem and forests with warp-ridden diseases and unholy plagues, possibly to conduct a ritual there. They are commanded by the Plague Champion Alastor Karkinus, the Doom of Worlds and the Plague Lord Rhegorn, Chosen of the Seventh.

The Encarmine Angels, under the command of their Chapter Master, Varile Nosferatus, have assembled for a counterattack to drive the Death Guard and other disparate Traitor Marines out of N-th Lily. We shall attempt to land our forces there to reinforce their position, secure a beachhead, and then seize the planet back once and for all.

Fortunately, we are not the only Imperial Forces to have responded to the Encarmine Angels' call. A company of Dark Angels, under the command of Master Ian, has just translated at the Mandeville Point as well, in a small fleet of Strike Cruisers. In addition, a crusading preceptory of Adepta Sororitas under Saint Morrigan of the Adeptus Ministorum, have also answered their call for aid. By the light of Holy Terra, we shall drive these heretics from the worlds of the Emperor!

Wait, what's that? Oh...more bad news. Of course.

I have just received reports that a large warband of Orks under the cunning Warboss, The Cyba-boss, has decided to "join the fun" or so they claim. They are attacking an Adeptus Mechanicus facility on one of the moons of N-th Lily, Amor, presumably to acquire the large stores of ore and precious minerals there. We cannot allow such resources to fall in the hands of the greenskin...for if they do successfully obtain such a cache, their assault might erupt into a fullblown Waaagh!. We must stop them before that happens.

We shall divide our forces accordingly when we reach orbit. Until then, pray and look toward the Light of the Astronomican for guidance. The Emperor protects.

New Thousand Sons stuff

We have more news regarding Thousand Sons from Warhammer Community! Just look at the nine great cults.

Hmm, I'm not sure what to say, but yeah, a lot of them look like a reprint or updated versions of the Cults we get from Ritual of the Damned. I do like the addition of Cabal Points from the Cabalistic Rituals, though. And seems like you get them every psychic phase, so it's best if you find a way to shield your characters and don't let them get shot off the table.

Yeah, so if I bring like 2 Sorcerers in Terminator Armor, an Exalted Sorcerer, 2 squads of Rubric Marines and 1 big squad of Scarab Occult Terminators, I'll get like 10 Cabal Points. If I split the Scarab Occult Terminators into 2 squads and swap a Sorcerer in Terminator Armor for an Infernal Master, I'll get 11 Cabal Points. That's just awesome. Just look at what you can do with them!

That sounds pretty cool.

On another note, I remember again why I quit all the Thousand Sons Facebook pages and Discord server. Honestly, some of the Thousand Sons players I've met are among the whiniest people I've ever seen. Maybe it's a Chaos thing because I tend to notice the same snide remarks, toxic negativity and whining from Chaos players as well, but for the love of Tzeentch, a lot of them are so over the top. When they previewed some of the Cult powers in Facebook (official Warhammer 40,000 page) yesterday, already there was a bunch of people whining about how Time Flux was nerfed, how the Thousand Sons spells look weak and underwhelming when compared to Grey Knights. There was even some joker who insisted that Chaos would stay at 1 wound, never mind Death Guard didn't in their new codex. "Games Workshop hates Chaos." "Anything good that Thousand Sons has will be nerfed to uselessness in the next FAQ." "Waah, Thousand Sons suck, all these psychic spells suck, they look so weak!" "The Cult magic are by definition the strongest, so based on this, Thousand Sons will suck." What the f?

Seriously, dudes? The rules are not completely out yet, but already you have so many Thousand Sons players resigned to "our codex sucks", "GW hates Chaos", "Thousand Sons are weak", etc. based on the preview of Time Flux and a couple of spells. Honestly, the Cult of Knowledge one looks good, allowing you to reroll wound rolls of ones. But hey, let's just whine about how the cult spells suck, and therefore the codex sucks even before we get the full rules. I mean, I kind of understand why people are unhappy about Time Flux going up to warp charge 6 from 5, but think about it. Rubric Marines have 2 wounds and Scarab Occult Terminators have 3 wounds now, so they are harder to kill. Also imagine bringing back 3 Scarab Occult Terminators when you roll a 9 for psychic test after your opponent finally takes them down with lasguns, which was why they removed the D3 on 9 or more thing. So it's reasonable that they are harder to bring back. Of course, someone jumps in and complains that "they are not harder to kill because everything is deadlier now." Like what? Heavy bolters being bumped up to 2 damage? We'll probably see an adjustment of All is Dust to mitigate that, so let's just wait for the full rules before jumping into conclusions and whining, all right? Oh, let's not forget the comparison - Space Marines have a Chief Apocethary model that can automatically bring back a Terminator or Centurion for free! Yeah, I hate that ability too, but let's not forget 1) it's not free, you have to pay for the points and 2) it's one model, whereas all your Sorcerers in the same cult get access to the same spell. But hey, the cult spells still look weak, therefore the codex will definitely suck, am I right?

And guess what? We have 18 new spells now, 9 from the Discipline of Change and 9 from the Discipline of Vengeance. I'm sure you'll find plenty of spells to use. But no...the cult magic by default must be the strongest, so these spells suck even though we don't know what they are yet!

Finally, some people seem to cheer up over the new Cabalistic Ritual rules we're getting, and how thematic Thousand Sons seem to be now...and guess what? You have some clown coming in the official Warhammer 40,000 Facebook page and whining about how Daemons suck. For the love of Tzeentch...no matter what we get, people will still find somethig to complain about.

Sometimes people need to chill. I'm probably one of those, because I'm ironically whining about other people whining, but really, their negativity turns me off. And this isn't even productive negativity, it's toxic. Most of it sounds like whining for the sake of it. If Chaos stays at 1 wound per Marine, I can understand why you're upset - I'll probably be unhappy too. But that's not what's happening, as much as some negative nancies would have you believe. Making things up, jumping into conclusions and complaining before you get the full rules, and just being negative no matter what other people say in general, it's just...dumb. It's toxic. This was why I straight up left the Thousand Sons Facebook page and Discord. No matter what rules we get, people whine. If it's not about Tzaangors, it's about how our spells suck. Or how our Marines and Terminators suck. Ugh.

I won a tournament with Thousand Sons once, about 2 years ago, before Covid hit. They aren't as bad as people make it out to be - and I didn't use Tzaangors, I mostly used Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. Maybe, if you experiment, have fun with them and just try them out instead of whining based on theoryhammer, you might find that they aren't as bad as you thought they are.

Bug Hunt RTT

So I participated in a Bug Hunt RTT yesterday in Phoenix Games, Fridley, and it was...well, I don't know if I'd call it fun. Let's just say all my games were incredibly one-sided. In any event, I'll just give a quick rundown on my list.

As you guys probably know, I bought the Warzone Charadon: The Book of Fire, and I found myself intrigued by the Skitarii Veteran Cohort. I didn't think I would use it, but I kind of wanted to experiment with it because it seemed fun. Upgrading my normal Skitarii infantry to having 5++ invulnerable saves and an extra attack each? Hmm, seems kind of fun. Might as well try it out. Also, it would be a usual change of pace from playing Knights. I love Knights and all, but I thought it would be fun to try new things, to switch form fielding gigantic robots to fielding hordes of infantry. My plan was to drown my opponent in bodies and pray that they wouldn't be able to kill them all. I saw that there would be Tyranids (full of Monsters), Adeptus Custodes and Knights, so I was praying that I would be able to have enough bodies and units on the table so that they wouldn't get wiped out in an instant or something.

The plan didn't work out as planned, unfortunately.

My list was a Skitarii Veteran Cohort that looked like this:

Skitarii Veteran Cohort Battalion Detachment (Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza):

Skitarii Marshal, Exemplar's Eternity, Calculate Without Diversion

Tech-priest Manipulus with Transonic cannon

Tech-priest Enginseer

3x10 Skitarii Rangers, Alpha with arc maul and arc pistol, arc rifle, omnispex, transuranic arquebus

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

2x5 Skitarii Vanguard, Alpha with taser goad and phosphor blast pistol, plasma caliver, omnispex

2x10 Secutarii Hoplites

2x5 Sicarian Ruststalkers with transonic blades

2x3 Serberys Sulphurhounds with phosphor blast carbine

2 Skorpius Disintegrators with Ferrumite cannons

2 Archaeopter Stratoraptors with chaff launchers

So yeah, I figured that since I have the models, I might as well try it out. It looks fun! Or so I thought. By the way, this is after the Adeptus Mechanicus FAQ, which didn't affect me because I don't really care about the weird stuff like Enriched Rounds or whatever, and I don't run 20-men blobs of Skitarii or Lucius or Ironstrider Ballistariii anyway. I stuck to Ryza because I'm sort of fluffy that way, and I was planning to have my dudes run up the table, swamp my opponents in bodies, hopefully make use of the 5++ invulnerable save to survive in both combat and shooting, and then hit back as hard as I can.

That was the plan, like I said, but...it never worked out the way that I envisioned.

Mission 1

First game was Retrieval, I think? I was up against an Adeptus Custodes player, which I had thought I might play against. He had like 3-4 Jetbikes, a Shield-captain on Dawneagle jet-bike, Allarus Terminators, a Shield-captain, 3 units of 3 Custodian Guards, 2 special Contemptor Dreadnoughts (one with a spear, one with a sword and shield), and a Telemon Dreadnought. I figured I wasn't going to kill all that, and instead picked To The Last, Retrieve Ocatrius Data and Engage on All Fronts to maximize my secondaries. After all, like I said, my goal was to survive and hope my opponent wouldn't kill all of my infantry. I had like, what, 84 dudes on the table, not including the vehicles. In terms of No Prisoners, that would give my opponent 9 points because I have a total of 97 wounds. I sent my Secutarii forward to screen and hopefully distract my opponent away from my more precious Objective Secured troops, and...yeah. That's about it.

As it turned out...my Ryza Skitarii Veterans still had enough firepower to shoot everything off the board, killing the Custodians and essentially wiping out all but the Telemon Dreadnought and 3 Custodian Guards by turn 4, I believe. In return,  lost 1 squad of Vanguard, 1 squad of Rangers, the Tech-priest Manipulus accompanying them, 1 squad of 10 Secutarii Hoplites, 3 Serberys Sulphurhounds, and...perhaps a couple of Ruststalkers in one squad (probably 3). I could still technically kill the 3 Custodian Guards. By the way, I believe I went second, but I can't remember. I think I allowed him to move his jetbikes up the table or someething so that I could shoot them off the table. In any event...yeah. He conceded by turn 4 or something, so I didn't get to kill his Custodian Guard, and I might have a chance to kill his Telemon Dreadnought because I still had both Skorpius Disintegrators and Stratoraptors on the table.

Eventually I won the game 96 to 43.

Mission 2

That was a mistake, as it turned out. Having such a score meant I had to face a Drukhari player. Some of you might have heard of the name James Kelling - you know, he's on Goonhammer, and even Frontline Gaming has an article on him. Got 5th place at the Dallas tournament, and I'm sure he's ranked up high in ITC or something.

The mission this time was Overrun. Needless to say, I got crushed. By what, turn 3 or something, he all but tabled me. I only had a single stratoraptor flying around, so I pretty much conceded because there was really nothing I could do. I had literally 0 points for primary, and I managed to get some for Engage on all Fronts on the first turn, and by virtue of conceding, I got 5 points for my surviving stratoraptor before it could get shot off, but oh, well. That was brutal. His Wyches and Kronos (did I spell that right?) swept up the table, advancing and charging, and pretty much slaughtering everything. My only moment of glory was when my Ruststalkers killed Drazhar in combat, ha ha. Ryza for the win. I think I destroyed a single Raider? That's pretty much about it. Ouch.

So much for drowning my opponent in bodies and hoping he wouldn't kill all of them. Even the Secutarii, who supposedly had a 4++ invulnerable save in combat, were brutalized by the Wyches and Sucubii. Yeah, well...I don't know what to say.

I lost the game 95-18. Yeah...that was...not good. Ouch.

Mission 3

After such a humbling defeat, I went into the next game fearing that I would get crushed again. Turned out to be another one-sided match, but this time...

Well, anyway, I was up against a Chaos player who fielded a combination of Thousand Sons and Daemons. I was expecting to charge all my Secutarii and Skitarii forward to ravage him in combat because...you know, Ryza. What I don't understand was...him pretty much sticking all his Daemons and Forgefiends right at the front. I even asked him if he was sure about that, if he didn't want to hide them behind terrain, but he was like, nah. To be fair, this was his, what, sixth game or so? But I was hinting to him that he should hide them behind terrain, but...well, this being a RTT, once he declined, I was like, uh oh. He even had his Rubricae pop up in the middle of the table to claim the objective because he used the Stratagem from Ritual of the Damned, Risen Rubricae. Again, I asked him if he was sure about that, but...yeah. I guess he was gambling on going first or something.

The mission was Sweep and Clear, so it was quite the odd deployment. As I said, my opponent pretty much put all his Forgefiends and Daemons right at the front, right in plain sight. We rolled off, I got first, and...well, I pretty much shot almost everything off the board before my army could run up and hit him in melee. In the first turn alone, he lost a Forgefiend, lost like almost 2 whole squads of Pink Horrors (10 dudes in 1 squad, which I annihilated, 20 dudes in another), a whole 10-men Rubric Marine squad, and half of the 10-men Rubric squad right in the middle. The Forgefiend detonated in the midst of his poor dudes, dealing a bunch of mortal wounds to them. My Secutarii Hoplites charged in and wiped out the Rubric squad in the middle...and that was that.

So much for charging forward and hitting them in melee Ryza style.

His Daemon Prince then flew up the board and wiped out both my first Serberys Sulphurhound squad and Skitarii Vanguard...only for him to be shot off the board too! I think I lost my other Seryberys Sulphurhound to his last Rubric Marines, and he managed to smite the hell out of my Secutarii, along with shooting them off the board with the Forgefiends and Characters (Exalted Flamers or something). Then I pretty much spent the next 2-3 turns shooting off his remaining characters, as well as destroying his remaining Forgefiends one turn at a time. And for some reason, he didn't bother to claim objectives, he continued running forward to try and kill my dudes with magic. Ahriman came forward to Gate my Skitarii and deal a bunch of mortal wounds, then killed my Tech-priest Manipulus in combat (the poor guy can't catch a break, he died in all 3 games). Then my Skitarii shot Ahriman off the board before tabling the guy by turn 4 or so.

Ouch. That was brutal. I know Thousand Sons are up for a codex update next week (or in 2 weeks since it's only preorder next week), but come on...okay, part of the reason was that my opponent chose to rush forward instead of playing for objectives and hiding his troops behind terrain like I did for my Skitarii, and this was like his 6th game, so it could have been mitigated. But man, that was one-sided, and I felt sorry for him. I feel...really bad. And this was after I got my own ass kicked by James in the previous game.

The final score was 96-24 to me, but...yeah. Because of my 18-point humbling at the hands of James's Drukhari, I finished 5th despite getting 2 wins and 1 loss, and winning big on both matches. Not that it matters to me...that last game still made me feel bad.

Thoughts

Honestly, this is the first time I was trying out my Skitarii Veteran Cohort, and it plays very, very differently from my Knights. First of all, there's a lot of infantry and a lot more units for me, so I spent a lot of time going through the different stuff. The chess clock is useful, so yeah, but I managed to finish in time. Well...because the games rarely went to the full five turns. Either I shoot my poor opponent off the board, or I get tabled myself. So yeah. But I have to be faster, I guess?

Secondly, the Secutarii Hoplites suck. Sorry, but that's an honest assessment. They may have a 4++ invulnerable save in combat, but they are Toughness 3, they die to shooting anyway, and they still die in melee against melee-dedicated units with lots of attacks like Drukhari. They don't get Forge World dogmas, so no +1 to wound rolls in melee on the charge (or when they get charged) like the Ruststalkers do. They only have 1 wound each, which is okay because I laughed when my opponents waste D2 shots on them, but...yeah, they suck. They move a paltry 6", they don't get forge world dogmas, and they are still too fragile. I love the models, they look cool, but right now, they simply suck and aren't worth taking. I'm sorry. That's just how it is. The arc lances too, they suck. I wanted to use them against vehicles like the Dreadnoughts, but the 12" range means they never get within range of the Dreadnoughts before they get shot off the table, and they still get destroyed in melee despite the 4++ invulnerable save. I...don't know what to say, but...yeah. It is what it is.

Thirdly, I shouldn't underestimate the shooting power of my army. It's Ryza, yes. My army is supposed to charge up the board and hit people in melee. In fact, one of the reasons why I chose the Skitarii Veteran Cohort was because I wanted to make use of the +1 Attacks to my standard Skitarii infantry (along with the 5++ invulnerable saves). Hell, even the +1 Leadership turned out to be useful, for I actually passed morale just barely with their Leadership 8 characteristic thanks to them being Veterans. But the shooting was insane. Against Thousand Sons, I shot them off the board in about a turn, and though the Characters with their 3++ invulnerable saves made them a lot harder to kill (and despite being melee specialists, my Secutarii Hoplites died against the Rubric Marines and Exalted Flamers or something), I still tabled my opponent by turn 4 or so. The Custodes too, I thought I wouldn't be able to kill anything, but it turned out that I pretty much tabled my opponent by turn 4, with his Telemon Dreadnought the only thing who would probaby survive. I don't know what happened against James's Drukhari, but I think his dudes were all stuck inside transports or something, and he went first, so I couldn't shoot them off the board before they hit me hard in melee and wiped me out. Not that it mattered, I just am an incompetent player when compared to someone like him, so I saw that coming. Need to improve, but...yeah. Binharic Offense, in particular, is a bloody monster of a Stratagem. Two Core Skitarii Veteran Cohort units getting +1 to wound...that was how I killed the Toughness 8 Daemon Prince after he buffed himself through the roof with Diabolic Strength and some Boon of Tzeentch (sorry, I forgot the name). I think I used that against the Custodes Dreadnoughts too and tore them apart with galvanic rifles and arc rifles. Incredible.

Fourthly, I need something sturdier. Unfortunately, this being the Skitarii Veteran Cohort, I don't have many resilient options. I can't bring Knights - which is just as well, because imagine if I bring Knights. They just die in melee. Secutarii, as I said above, suck right now. Their arc weapons aren't updated, and even with a 4++ invulnerable, their Toughness 3 means they will take a lot of wounds. No matter how good their invulnerable saves are, they are not going to survive the weight of attacks. I'm considering adding Sydonian Dragoons because they might be sturdier and won't die as easily. I'm kind of sad that I can't add Kastelan robots - such is the price to pay for playing Skitarii Veteran Cohort, but I'll have to live with it. I'll see if I can add Sydonian Dragoons. And no, before you tell me to get Ironstrider Ballistarii, I'm not getting those. I'm Ryza, I want to get into melee.

Fifthly, the transuranic arquebuses...are too unreliable. No, seriously. One shot means they are bad. I had entire turns where I just rolled 1s or 2s and just fail to hit anything with them, even with bloody rerolls. Or I do hit something, and then I roll a damned 2. They just aren't...very reliable. Not for my liking anyway. I'm thinking of swapping them out for plasma calivers. Since I'm Ryza anyway, and we are known for our plasma technology. Scratch that, I'm Draconian, but we use Ryza rules and we are known for stealing plasma technology from Ryza (so we're pretty much a second Ryza or counterfeit Ryza).

We'll see. I'll tinker with the list further and see what I can do. Maybe I'll participate in Ironhammer Season 4 and see how far I can go with the Skitarii Veteran Cohort in 6 games.