Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation

Unfortunately, my updates are going to be less frequent because I'm getting busier. Finished the first draft of my Masters thesis this week, and did a stupid presentation on it (man, I really suck at presentations, I think my slides are really bad). Well, I did my best, but I think everyone is going to hate it. Oh well. Worse, I'll be leaving for Australia for university stuff, some workshop in Australian National University, so that means you guys won't be seeing me for a week or so. I think. I'll try to write whenever I can, but I'll be in Australia for almost a week, so don't get your hopes too high up.

I'm also looking forward to building an Adeptus Mechanicus army, complete with Skitarii, Cult Mechanicus and Imperial Knights. I'll be building an Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, which means I'll need 1 Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation Detachment, 1 Skitarii Battle Maniple and 1 Imperial Knight Oathsworn Detachment. I already have my Imperial Knights so the last detachment is no problem, and I'll be able to field 3 of my 4 Imperial Knights in 3,000-point games. However, for 2,000-point games I'll be restricted to just 1 Knight. It's fine.

I've managed to buy a Tech-priest Dominus, so that's the beginning of my Cult Mechanicus Battle Congregation Detachment. I'll be slowly adding two Kastelan Robot maniples to it to get my Cohort Cybernetica first, which is freaking awesome. I love Cohort Cybernetica. Putting my Tech-priest Dominus with my Kastelan robots and giving them all I Will Not Die with Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land is just insane. Then I'll add 2 maniples of Kataphron Destroyers with cognis flamers. I'll see if I can magnetize them so that I can use them for the Elimination Maniple where I will equip them with heavy grav-cannons, but for the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, I'll be leaving them with their plasma culverins to exploit the immunity to the Gets Hot! rule. Yay. But if I can't magnetize them or anything, then too bad. Plasma culverins it is.

My Skitarii will be standard fare. I'll have a Skitarii vanguard of 5, 5 Skitarii rangers, 5 Sicarian Ruststalkers, 5 Sicarian Infiltrators, 3 Ironstriders Ballistarii and 3 Onager Dunecrawlers. The vanguards and rangers I'll leave bare for most games, but once I jump into the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation, I'll equip them with everything, including 2 plasma calivers for my vanguard and 2 transuranic arquebus for my rangers so they can camp and take pot-shots from long range. The Ruststalkers I'll leave with their usual transonic razors, chordclaws and mindscrambler grenades because those are more useful, especially with the mindscrambler grenades having the haywire rule. Awesome. They'll absolutely destroy vehicles in close combat. YAY!

The Infiltrators I'll replace their stubcarbines with flechette blasters and taser goads to make them irritating. Ha ha! As for the Ironstriders, I'll equip them with twin-linked cognis lascannons for both anti-vehicle and anti-air duties. Expensive, but worth it - especially when upgrades are free in the Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation! The 3 Onager Dunecrawlers I'll most likely upgrade with the Icarus array and Cognis Manipulator to give them I Will Not Die AND a 4++ invulnerable save. Not to mention each has a single Strength 10 AP 1 melee attack! Awesome. With 3 of these things out on the field, there will be nothing to stop me as I destroy all of my opponents' air units! HA HA HA HA!

To wrap up the Adeptus War Convocation, I'll put in a Knight Warden because the Avenger gatling cannon is the most flexible of them all. So yeah, he goes in. In a 3,000 point game, I'll throw in 2 Kastelan Robot Maniples instead of the single maniple I would have in a 2,000-point game, and add in my other two Knights, the Crusader and the Paladin. I'll be forced to remove a single Ironstrider Ballistarii to keep the points below 3,000, but with so many strength 8 AP 3 attacks from the Imperial Knights, the removal of a single twin-linked lascannon isn't going to be a huge loss.

This means I'll be writing an Adeptus Mechanicus story instead of an Imperial Guard one. No, actually, it's still an Imperial Knight story, but it'll feature the Adeptus Mechanicus instead of the Imperial Guard. Speaking of which, I'm going to try my hand at a short story involving the Imperial Knights and an Exporator Adeptus Mechanicus fleet trying to recover a Standard Template Construct on a Necron-infested world. The Deathwatch joins in to exterminate the Necrons and Orks show up as their Waagh! sweeps through the sector with the silent tomb world in their path. Gonna be fun. Then I'll be submitting it to Black Library (that's why I need to include the Deathwatch, it's in their requirements). I'll most likely fail and get rejected, but hey, that's not going to stop me from trying.

Edit: it seems the window for submission is over. It ended on 26th January. What the hell. I should have read that more carefully. I guess I don't need to write that story now, I'll just write something else. It'll still be about the Adeptus Mechanicus fleet trying to recover a Standard Template Construct, but I won't need the Deathwatch this time! And instead of Necrons and Orks, I'm thinking of pitting my Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation against the forces of Chaos instead! But we'll see. Necrons and Orks might be more interesting than Chaos, ha ha.

For the Emperor! Or the Omnissiah!

Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus

I went and spray-painted my unpainted models Chaos Black today, so every single one of my models is now black. Black is cool, after all. And the color of the Draconis Regiment, whether it's House Yato, the revered house of Imperial Knights, the Draconis Imperial Guard Armored Regiment or... wait. That's all I have right now. Aside from random Tau units which I have to find a way to get rid of (anyone interested in buying a Crisis Commander, a Hammerhead gunship, a Riptide and a missile Broadside  for $10 each?), my army is composed entirely of Imperial Knights and Imperial Guard.

I have 4 Imperial Knights right now for my Baronial Court, so no problems there. I've decided to scrap the idea of getting an Exalted Court. Getting 5 Imperial Knights is a bad idea, and leaves little room for variety. Plus it's not good for gameplay. With only 5 models on the table, they'll get wiped out too easily in 2,000-point games. Maybe it's time I sit back and reconsider this. Well, Baronial Court is good enough for 2,000-point games and I get sneak in a Vendetta and my Veteran troops in. In fact, I had a much better idea.

In addition to Imperial Guard allies, I've decided to throw in Skitarii allies as well. And Cult Mechanicus. I've been a fan of Skitarii and Adeptus Mechanicus - I believe I've mentioned this on this blog before, so I'm pretty happy that the codex for each had been released over the last two months, along with awesome models. Helps to satiate my love for Skitarii. Yay.

So I'll probably buy a couple of Skitarii Vanguard squads, keep them to the bare minimum without additional soldiers, and no upgrades except for the Omnispexes, and supplement the rest with my favorite Onager Dunecrawlers. Sorry, I just love those things. They remind me of Bricks and Cybran units from Supreme Commander. My favorite faction is the United Earth Federation, though, but I already have UEF-equivalent units by including my Imperial Guard, particularly with Leman Russ tanks (equal to Pillar Tanks), Vendetta gunships (equal to Broadsword heavy gunships) and even a single Doomhammer, a super-heavy tank reminiscent of the Fatboy. :D Yay.

So yeah, a squadron of Onager Dunecrawlers would be nice. I'll try to magnetize them so that I can switch between the Icarus Array Dunecrawlers and vanilla Eradication Beam Dunecrawlers when necessary. My Imperial Knights need anti-air, after all!

Last of all, I'll complete my Adeptus Mechanicus-themed army by getting a Tech-Priest Dominus and a whole bunch of Kastelan Robot Maniples by way of the Cohort Cybernetica formation. This will be so cool. I can't wait!

I think that's all I have at the moment. I will update again when I get those models and build them. Will be getting them over the next two months, I hope.

For the Emperor! Or should I say, Omnissiah? Ha ha. Don't forget, Draconis III is a Forge World, after all!

Knight Warden

Getting closer to completing my Exalted Court by adding my 4th Imperial Knight today. Presenting to you my new Knight Warden.

Knight Warden

I glued the arm components wrongly, so it ended up having the Avenger Gatling cannon for its left hand and its Reaper chainsword for its right arm. Whoops. My mistake. Well, it's not that bad, I guess, but it still hurts. Sigh.

Imperial Knights of House Yato, ready for action!

So my Imperial Knights army is forming up nicely. I'll only get a Knight Gallant next month because I'm not rich and I don't have so much cash to splash every month. If possible, I probably wouldn't even bother buying a Knight Gallant, but after much thought and consideration, I think I'll just complete the Exalted Court. I don't like leaving things half done after all. For the Emperor.

Battle Report 2

This is the battle report that is overdue for almost a week, thanks to me being so busy and tired. Well, I've spent the last couple of days shuttling between my office and library, trying to complete my thesis. From 20,800 words, I've bumped it up to 24.700 words in two days or so. I should be able to finish the first draft soon, and I'll organize it.

But never mind that. I'm sure you're all here for the battle report. It's a short one because it was brutal. I lost, obviously, there was never any doubt about that. Basically, it was a Kill Point game, and I pitted my Imperial Knights army (using the Baronial Court detachment) with Imperial Guard allies against a Tyranid army with 4 flying Hive Tyrants.

My Imperial Knight Army with Imperial Guard allies

As you can see, my Imperial Knight Baronial Court consists of a Knight Errant, a Knight Paladin with Icarus autocannons and a Knight Crusader with a rapid-fire battle cannon, Stormspear rocket pod and Sanctuary. I rolled the Ion Bulwark Warlord Trait for my Knight Errant, which I nominated as my Warlord. Sadly, that didn't help because my Ion Wall rolls just sucked, and my opponent glanced my Knights at the sides not protected by the Ion Shield (he had 4 Flying Hive Tyrants, so easy to get them to surround the Knights from different sides).

My Imperial Guard allies consisted of a single Company Command Squad and a Veteran squad with heavy flamer and 2 flamers as well as Forward Sentries Doctrine. Surprisingly, this Veteran squad lasted the longest throughout the game, surviving even after all 3 of my Knights were taken down.

4 Flying Hive Tyrants

As you can see, my opponent has 4 Flying Hive Tyrants. The rest were explosive spores for troops (really?!) and he proxied Rider, Sakura and Saber as Zoanthropes. At least he had a Carnifex for me to kill. And he allied in a Vindicare Assassin, which he took care to place 6 inches away from any of his Tyranid swarm.

My Knights being deployed.

The Flying Hive Tyrants being deployed

Battle begins

Not much to say here. I got destroyed. I only killed his Carnifex and Vindicare Assassin, as well as the damned spores - which didn't count, but my Veterans failed to kill off all the Zoanthropes (only killing 2 out of 3) before the game ended. Ouch. I couldn't land a single hit on the Flying Hive Tyrants at all, only able to make one wound (he made his damned armor and jink saves). And he passed his grounding test, too. Argh. And he took out my Knight Crusader, the only one with decent anti-air in his second turn, leaving me with an uphill battle.

My Company Command Squad didn't even last the first turn, with a single Hive Tyrant absolutely wrecking them to bits. Sigh. Anyway, with my Crusader gone, my Errant was next, and he got glanced to death by those damned twin-linked devourers and some haywire attack. The same way as my Crusader. I think by the 5th turn his 3 Flying Hive Tyrants descended on my remaining Knight Paladin from 3 different directions and glanced him to death too. What the hell......

To make matters worse, I was tied up in combat with the Carnifex for 2 turns because I rolled ones and twos for the danmed Destroyer weapon, and was only able to deal a single wound or two to it the first time, my stomps failing, and it took me another turn to finally get rid of him. Bloody hell.

Well, it seems that I'm a lousy player with horrible luck. That's all I can say. That said, it was fun, and I'm looking forward to taking my Knights to battle again. The next time I play against my Tyranid opponent, I'll be using the Skyreaper Lance formation. So look forward to the next battle report. If you can even call this pathetic piece of writing a battle report.

Crusade

Speaking of crusades, look at what I've gotten my hands on.

Baronial Court

A Knight Crusader! I've equipped my Knight Crusader with a rapid-fire battle cannon and a Stormspear rocket pod. I'll probably equip 3 of my Knights with the Stormspear rocket pod, but I'll build 3 twin Icarus autocannons for the Skyreaper Lance formation just in case. We'll see. Most likely I wouldn't need them, but it's good to have options. I think.

Right, I've gotten the new Imperial Knight codex, which is why I went and continued building my Imperial Knight army. I plan to get all 5 Imperial Knights, one of each type, and go around using them because I'm a Knight player!

So right now I have a Knight Errant, a Knight Paladin with Icarus autocannons (will swap for Stormspear rocket pods soon) and a Knight Crusader with rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pods. I'll get a Knight Warden with a Stormspear rocket pod next week, along with a Leman Russ Vanquisher for my Imperial Guard allies, and the final Knight Gallant with meltagun next month once I get more funds. I ain't blowing all my cash in just one month, sorry.

So five Imperial Knights, barely fitted inside 2,000 points for my Exalted Court. Right now, I can have 3 in my Household detachment or Baronial Court if I want the Ion shield bonuses, but I'm planning on getting the Exalted Court and raising all of their Ballistic and Weapon Skills to 5 (and 6 for the High King).

Forged narrative, basically the Imperial Knights of the Draconis system, as I said before, follows the Imperial Guard instead of belonging to a typical Knight household. That said, it's not as if they don't have one. They belong to House Yato, which has heavy Japanese influences. They are ruled by a Shogun, who is basically their counterpart of the High King or Princeps of other Knight Houses. The Barons are replaced by Daimyos, and the Knightly Vassals are replaced by Samurai Vassals. So all in all, House Yato is basically a Japanese styled Knightly House that doubles as a military commander. The Shogun, the current Shogun being a Takeda Yoshinobu, doubles as the Lord General of the Draconis Imperial Guard regiment. So both the Imperial Knights and the Imperial Guard are under his command.

Basically, the Samurai, all of whom have different ranks, are vassals of the great Daimyos (the Japanese "Baron"), who in turn serve the Shogun (the High King/Princeps). Similarly, this Shogun serves as the Lord General commanding a whole different military branch known as the Draconis Imperial Guard Regiment. The Daimyos are given equivalent ranks such as Lieutenant-Generals, Colonels, and the Samurai vassals vary from Majors to Second Lieutenants. As they are "nobles" or officer candidates, they are all ranked higher than the standard Imperial Guard trooper.

However, as Draconis has comparatively few humans when compared to other Astra Militarum regiments - the vast majority becoming Imperial Knights, almost the entire Draconis regiment is an armored regiment, with very few infantry troops supporting their vast armored columns. The Draconis regiments believe in heavy armor, and try to incorporate as many soldiers into armored units such as Imperial Knights or Leman Russ tanks, or even Vendettas. So the emphasis is on armor, not infantry hordes.

Draconis III is the knightly planet with abdundant resources, and where the Imperial Knights and Draconis Imperial Guard regiment live and train in. Draconis IV is a Forge World, unique even among the countless forge worlds in the Imperium of Man. They aren't afraid to stray into forbidden technology and territories, sometimes incurring the wrath of Inquisitors who force them to stay in line, and are able to successfully replicate cheaper versions of lost technology. That's why they are able to mass-produce less efficient plasma executioner cannons for their Leman Russ Executioners, by studying the forge world Ryza's Leman Russ Executioners, and coming out with their own miniaturized, cheap versions. They are also able to successfully replicate the lot Vanquisher cannon, though not as successful as the original, but at least tech priests no longer need to resort to tearing off Vanquisher cannons from destroyed tanks and placing them on Leman Russ chasis. The tech priests in Draconis IV are different from their Martian counterparts in that they prefer to remain human, choosing to eschew augmentics. To them, machines are tools, and are meant to be separate from humans. They view the Emperor as the Omnissah, and justify their belief in near-heretical technology and replication methods by claiming that the Emperor wants progress, not stagnation. This incurs the wrath of many of their Adeptus Mechanicus counterparts from other forge worlds, especially Mars.

House Yato is one of the largest Knightly houses in the Imperium of Man, second only to House Raven. They are also one of the most loyal houses to the Emperor, second only to House Hawkshroud - they are so fanatically loyal they don't mind driving kamikaze attacks right into the thick of enemy formations. So you have lots of Knight Gallants crazily charging into the enemy vanguard, heedless of their lives and all the while shouting "Emperor BANZAI!" or something. Of course, there are also the cautious ones who sit back spraying long-range ordnance with their Knights Cruader and Paladin, and the moderate ones who don't mind sticking it in, but also holding out at medium range like the Knights Warden and Errant. Being one of the biggest Knight houses, bested only by House Raven, the numbers of their Knights show in the huge variety of Knights they have, having equal distribution of Knights Paladin, Errant, Warden, Gallant and Crusader. Once in a while, the Shogun comes in to battle with his four legendary Daimyo, known as the Shitennou (Four Heavenly Kings), the splendid sight of these five brilliantly colored and designed god-machines striding into battlefield and wrecking devastation to enemy lines and utterly annihilating foes. The Shogun and his Shitennnou have yet to be defeated in battle, something that will be put to the test when they are finally deployed into Cadia to push back Abaddon's thirteenth Black Crusade.

Well, they also make full use of the Daimyo Court...I mean Baronial Court, Tripartite Lance and Skyreaper Lance while supplementing their Knightly forces with Imperial Guard allies. Nothing strikes fear into the hearts of the Emperor's foes more than seeing a heavily armored column of Leman Russ tanks rolling forward with mighty Imperial Knights marching in their wake.

House Yato follows the technology on Mars closely, replicating the technology used for House Taranis successfully and combining it closely with the Standard Construct Template that has remained in Draconis III and zealously protected in Draconis IV for fear that the Martian Adeptus Mechanicus will one day confiscate their valuable technology because it is supposedly heretical. However, it means the pilots for House Yato do not need surgical neural connections to pilot their Knights. They still have a Throne Mechanicum, but it is more advanced than most other Knight houses, and like House Taranis, does not require neural connections or sockets.

This is Draconis. This is House Yato. This is the Draconis Imperial Guard Regiment.

FOR THE EMPEROR!

New Imperial Knights

The manager at Battle Bunker had given me the heads up on the new Imperial Knight codex that is set to be released soon, and I had been looking forward to it. He did make sure that I didn't leak the details, but now that the rumors have been floating everywhere I think it's safe to finally share this.

There will be two new Imperial Knights getting released - the Warden and the Crusader. I can't wait! YAY! Apparently they have 8 hull points, front armor value 14, side and rear armor value 13. Crusader seems to have a Quake Cannon and twin-linked lascannons! AWESOME! And the Warden has a Volcano Cannon and multi-barreled autocannon! Even more awesome! Not only that, both have an optional top carapace missile launcher weapon mount with multi-shot Strength 8, AP3 Skyfire to take out the nasty flyers that have been plaguing my poor Imperial Knights (well, not really considering that my Imperial Knights pretty much only faced Space Marines so far). And it seems that they have void shields instead of ion shields. YAY!

All right, I should start saving up for these two. Can't wait. Looks like there'll be a new Decurion formation for the Knights too. YAY!

I really should stop shouting yay.

Yet another Executioner

Yeah, I built my 2nd Leman Russ Executioner today. So my Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) army is complete. Yay. I can begin playing games with them any time now.

2nd Leman Russ Executioner

Yeah, I built it with plasma cannon sponsons and a heavy bolter. The first one had a lascannon. I also got my hands on a Commander in an XV8 Crisis Suit. Yay.

XV8 Crisis Suit Commander

Now I'll wait for more news regarding the new Skitarii and possibly Imperial Knights before I buy the XV8 Crisis Suit teams. Maybe I'll only need one. I don't know. We'll find out once White Dwarf announces changes to the Imperial Knights codex or something.

The whole army for now.

Damn, it's too dark to see anything. Oh well......anyway, my forces are slowly shaping up, and all that's left are the Crisis suit teams and maybe the Skitarii. I want my Onager Dunewalker!