4-points Guardsmen

Apparently there are a lot of people complaining about 4-points Guardsmen. I'm not sure why they claim that 4-point Guardsmen are mathematically superior to any unit in the game. In what way? They are more durable? I think that's BS. They put out more firepower than any other unit in the game, point for point? Uh...no?

Let's see. They are Toughness 3, 1 wound, with a 5+ armor save, and are BS 4+ with Strength 3 lasguns. I always take one with a plasma gun, so that skews things a little, though even with the Cadian re-rolls - which I don't get if I move them to capture Objectives - it's still risky. But for 4 points it doesn't matter if they die, right? So why are they mathematically superior, to say, a squad of Scouts? I've been playing my Draconian Imperial Guard for so long, and I'll just point out, most of the time they don't really win me the game. With Toughness 3 and a 5+ armor save, they die to a stiff breeze. Yes, they are much more durable in comparison to the past, but in 7th edition you had all those stupid cover saves (just because you're in a building, you suddenly get 4+ even against plasma cannons or battle cannons, that was stupid as hell). Honestly, the best way to play last edition was to have high Strength blast template weapons that ignored cover (like the Stormsword). The Emperor's Wrath Artillery Company formation from the Cadian Battle Group in 7th Edition was so strong because you could essentially order those AP3 Basilisks to Ignore Cover.

And their lasguns do absolutely nothing. Even with First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire!, my Guardsmen do not kill anything. Usually it's the plasma gun that actually kills something, but the lasguns are pretty pathetic. Not only do they not wound anything Toughness 4, with AP 0, my opponent always makes all his saves. My Guardsmen literally do nothing against Space Marines, Terminators, Marine Equivalents or Terminator Equivalents. Maybe they kill 2-3 Orks with 32 shots from their lasguns (and 2 shots from the plasma gun), but...yeah, that's 14-21 points of enemy units from 47 points before they get slaughtered in combat. Very mathematically superior indeed.

They are more durable, I'll give you that. A 55-point Scout squad killed 5 Guardsmen with boltguns and in melee, but I got lucky with morale (I rolled a 2). Normally that would have been 2 Guardsmen fleeing on statistical averages, but it takes 55 points of a Scout squad to kill 20-28 points worth of Guardsmen. On the other hand, it took 2 entire squads of Guardsmen to kill 5 Scouts (so 80-94 points of Guardsmen to kill 55 points' worth of Scouts). On the other hand, 10 Orks can kill 20 Guardsmen easily, with 10 points left. Only if you're stupid enough to put your 2 infantry squads close enough for the 10 Orks to charge them both, of course, but we're talking about mathematical value here. And I think it took just 5 Tau Fire Warriors to wipe out an entire infantry squad despite them being close in points, whereas an infantry squad could only kill 2 or so Fire Warriors.

Yeah, and I remember a bunch of Termagaunts shooting 2 infantry squads to death in just one turn. Never mind I was in cover. It just took a single round of shooting, and 2 infantry squads were wiped out. Granted, there were 30 Termagaunts, but think about it. If you bump the cost of the infantry squads up by even 1 point per model, it would swing the advantage further toward the Termagaunts, who even had Deep Strike capability. Now, I'm not saying infantry squads are bad. But they are nowhere as durable or resilient or powerful as people make them out to be, and unless I'm doing my math wrong, 4 points is all right for such a fragile and weak unit. Of course I believe Cultists should go back down to 4 points, and not be 5 points, but that's just me.

And if we're talking about 4-point expendable models being the best unit in the game (second to Knights), then why are Guardsmen the only target? I mean, if they're so good and worth their value, then why hasn't anyone been using Renegades and Heretics? We have 4-point Traitor Guardsmen in Renegades and Heretics, but for some reason Chaos players don't use them to flood the board with bodies. We always hear about the Loyal 32 (and I agree, it's a problem, but I think it's more to do with the Command Point system than the points cost of Guardsmen) but why does Chaos not field the Renegade 32? In fact, the Renegade 32 is even cheaper than the Loyal 32, clocking in at 170 points instead of 180 points, and it has the advantage in that you can bring dual flamers per renegade militia squad rather than just 1 special weapon. Obviously the Loyalists have their Regimental Doctrines and Orders. But then if it's the Orders that make the whole difference, shouldn't the Company Commander or Platoon Commander see their points increased instead of the Guardsmen? In other words, if you don't have the Commanders to give Orders, the Guardsmen are practically worthless on their own. So why bump them up to 5 points? Might as well increase the Commanders instead. By the way, the Cultists don't need Orders to work on their own, especially since they get access to Stratagems such as Veterans of the Long War (which is ridiculous, to be honest) and Tide of Traitors (which they don't have to pay reinforcement points for, but Valhallans have to pay for their Stratagem, what the hell?!). They can even shoot twice if you give them the Mark of Slaanesh, but why you would waste your Endless Cacophony on them like that that is beyond me. Even so, I still think Cultists are only worth 4 points per model. The only cheaper Battalion than the Renegade 32 is a Skitarii Battalion at 165 points, with 2 Tech-priests Enginseer and 3 squads of 5 Skitarii Rangers.

So if the Loyal 32 is so powerful, then why does no one use the Renegade 32? Are 4-point Guardsmen really the problem? Why do Chaos players continue to use Cultists over 4-point Renegade Guardsmen? Or does the lower BS (BS 5+), lower armor save (6+) and lack of Orders make all the difference? Again, if it's the Orders, then the problem should be the Commanders, right?

Another thing to take note of is that the majority of competitive Imperial Guard builds revolve around Catachans. Nobody takes Cadians except me. I hardly see any Militarum Tempestus armies in tournaments like the Las Vegas Open. Other than the occasional Valhallan regiment, it's dominated only by Catachans - where are the Cadians, Vostroyans, Tallarns, Armageddon Steel Legionnaires and Storm Troopers? Why does no one use them?

That's because Catachan is too strong. 4-point Guardsmen at Strength 3, Toughness 3 are fine on their own, but with the Catachan Regimental Doctrine, they suddenly become Strength 4. They even get buffed by Ministorum Priests, Harken, etc. and suddenly they become as good as Space Marines in melee despite costing less than half their points. The problem is not with the 4-points Guardsmen - you don't see them dominating the table in other regimental doctrines. The problem is the Catachan Regimental Doctrine giving them Strength 4 and going around smashing people's faces as if they are Space Marines. Yes, they are fluffy, but...yeah, they are definitely worth more than 4 points if they are Strength 4.

I believe the solution is to tweak the Catachan Regimental Doctrine (or nerf it a little). Keep the Guardsmen at 4 points, weaken the Brutal Strength Regimental Doctrine, and then let's see how the tournament unfolds. Will Guardsmen continue to dominate the tabletop with 4-point models? Or will people be taking less of them, and less Catachans? Instead of overreacting and making sweeping changes, let's hope a small, tiny change will be enough. If it isn't, then it's not too late to roll out the next change, which is the 1 point increase. But honestly, with how my Guardsmen literally do nothing but die, and them not damaging anything at all, I honestly don't think they are worth 5 points per model. Maybe it's just me rolling badly and my opponent making all his armor saves all the time. But the Guardsmen don't seem that durable or powerful to me. Perhaps it's just me stubbornly sticking to the Cadian Regimental Doctrine and using more Leman Russ tanks than infantry. I don't know. But based on my experience, my Guardsmen don't do much except die when they get shot at or charged at.

Has anyone ever fielded the Renegade 32 alongside Chaos Space Marines before?

More Shadowspear stuff

Thanks to John in the Thousand Sons Facebook group, here are the leaks. Apparently. You can find all the datasheets here at Imgur.

I have no idea what the Malefic or Obscura disciplines do, but they sound cool.



Also no idea whether these guys can be taken in Thousand Sons or Death Guard armies. Time for summoning! I guess...

One interesting thing to note is that none of the new Chaos units have the Daemonkin keyword, so if you're expecting a new faction or a new Daemonkin army, you'll probably be disappointed.

Shadowspear Rumors

I found some Shadowspear rumors in the Thousand Sons Facebook group page. Remember these are RUMORS, not leaks as the dude claims, so take them with a pinch of salt as with everything else. In any case, a lot of Thousand Sons players (and by extension Chaos Space Marine players) are extremely upset about the new Daemonkin units, and are complaining about it. I'll leave it to you guys to see why.




As you can see, quite a few Thousand Sons players are pretty upset with what we have. Bear in mind these are just rumors, so they might or might not be true. Sorry, apparently one of them got upset with me for using his name without permission - my bad, it didn't occur to me because I was linking the post and expected everyone to see your comments anyway, so I apologize for that lack of foresight - so I have removed them both in the post and the picture. Apologies to him and all the others I've inadvertently included in the picture! But I will leave James's name in here to credit him for the source.

Oh, and just in case you can't read the words in the picture, I'll copy and paste what James Gallegos said. I don't know where he got this info from. From Reddit? A friend? Someone working in Games Workshop? He never said, which is another reason to stay on your guard. They do sound pretty plausible, though. Update: Seems like it was from Bolter and Chainsword, and they have the datasheets on Imgur.

Chaos side :
1 Master of possession : Basically just a sorceror that knows 2 powers. Has 5++ save for being daemonkin 
2 Greater possessed : squads of 1-2, can separate after deploying together. S5, T5, W5, A5, give +1S to all friendly <Mark of Chaos> <Legion> Daemon units within 6".
1 Squad of Chaos Space Marines : 1 champion with axe, 4 with bolters, 3 with chainsword and bolt pistols, 1 with plasma gun, 1 with autocannon. No ability to switch out what's in there, so I assume they're monopose. The heavy bolter rumor picture might actually be for havocs? Not sure.
Obliterators : T5 now with 4 wounds. Fleshmetal guns are the same, but they now have Crushing Fists. S+1, AP-1, D3 damage. I assume there will be 3, since squad size is still 3.
1 Venomcrawler : 10 wounds, S6 (goes down to 5 and 4 per bracket). Armed with Excruciator Cannon (Assault D3, S+2, AP-2, D3 damage) and Eviscerating Claws (S+2, AP-3 and 3 damage), as well as Soulflayer Tendrils (S user, AP-2, 2 damage, does 2 additional attacks with this weapon). Blows up on a 5 and adds 1 to daemonic summoning rolls for Master of Possession within 6".

Space Marines :
Librarian in Phobos Armour : Librarian that can set up anywhere more than 9" away from enemy deployment zone and models. Also has a camo cloak, which adds 2 to saving throws in cover.
Captain in Phobos Armour : Same as Librarian, but is a captain. Armed with Master-Crafted Instigator Bolt-Carbine (what a mouthful). S4, AP-2, 2 damage, can target characters even if they're not the closest. Has combat knife too, same as Reivers.
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour : Same as above. Has Master-Crafted Occulus Bolt Carbine, S4, AP0, D2, units don't get cover saves against it. Also has combat knife.
Eliminator Squad : Squad of 3 . They have bolt sniper rifles, two different ammo types. Both are heavy 1, 36" and S4. Executionner rounds are AP-2, D3 damage and rolls of 6 do mortal wounds. Mortis rounds are AP-1, 1 damage, can target units that aren't visible, they don't get cover and add 2(!) to hit rolls with these rounds. Also have the abilities of the librarian.
Infiltrator Squads : Squad of 5, can have up to 10 with an Infiltrator Helix Adept. Armed with Marksman Bolt Carbine, Rapid Fire 1, S4, AP0, 1 damage. Each unmodified hit of 6 does an instant hit and wound. Helix Adept is basically an apothecary, it can heal or revive a model from the unit.
Suppressor Squad : Squad of 3, can deep strike with the grav-chutes. 12" movement. They have Accelerator Autocannons, heavy 2, S7, AP-2, 2 damage. Also, when they kill a model in a unit, that unit can't shoot until the end of the turn (so I guess it cancels out overwatch?).

I personally think they are all right. The Obliterators got buffed, and are just as good in melee as they are in shooting (dunno what's gonna happen to the Multilators, but nobody uses those, at least I don't think so). The Daemonkin seem to be a fun and fluffy army to play with. Furthermore, this is what is in the box, and as we all know, they will most likely release separate kits and boxes for all the units in Shadowspear soon enough. I am not as disappointed and bitter as the other Thousand Sons players - probably because I'm not really that invested in Daemons (if you've been following my blog, you would know I play more of a Rubric and Scarab Occult Terminator-heavy list that's supported by Dreadnoughts and Renegade Guardsmen instead of Daemons, mutants and Tzaangors). But they seem pretty fun, thematic and fluffy. We'll see!

Again, these are just rumors, so keep your chin up and hope for the best!

Knights versus Dreadnoughts

I finally managed to get a game yesterday after spending last weel in Columbia University for an East Asian conference. And it was a match I had been looking forward to - against Dreadnoughts!

To recap, the first game ended with my Thousand Sons getting tabled by a Salamnders army that largely consisted of Dreadnoughts. My opponent had ten Dreadnoughts - basically he had a Battalion and a Vanguard Detachment which consisted of 2 Techmarines, a Primaris Lieutenant (who was his Warlord), a squad of 10 Intercessors, 2 squads of 5 Scouts - one with a heavy bolter and 4 sniper rifles, the other with a storm bolter sergeant and boltgun Scouts and both squads having camo-cloaks - , 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts with twin autocannons and twin lascannons, 3 Redemptor Dreadnoughts with the macro plasma incinerator, onslaught gatling cannon and hurricane bolters or storm bolters (I think), 3 Ironclad Dreadnoughts with hurricane bolters, and a Contemptor Dreadnought with multimelta and Contemptor fist. Or Dreadnought close combat weapon. You know what I mean. Wow, that's a lot of Dreadnoughts! Awesome, right?

In my first game, I played Thousand Sons, and despite fielding a Leviathan Dreadnought with grav-flux bombard and siege drill, and 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts with butcher cannons (only one had 2 butcher cannons, the other had a chainclaw and soulburner paired with his butcher cannon), I got tabled. Understandably, my mostly anti-infantry - or to be more precise, anti-Marine Equivalent Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators couldn't stand up to an armored army. Without much anti-tank weaponry, even with the butcher cannons (well, I only had 3 in total, which meant 12 shots), I failed to kill a single Dreadnought (though I wounded quite a lot of them). Once he eliminated the three Hellforged Dreadnoughts, the rest of his walkers were free to rampage across my army, killing my Daemon Prince, Exalted Sorcerers, Ahriman, Rubric Marines and Scarab Occult Terminators. It was pretty one-sided, admittedly.

Even so, it was a ton of fun to play against. I'm not that obsessed with winning, and I loved that Dreadnought army - it did sound like something I would play if I ever go Space Marines, and I had entertained the idea before. It was so fun to play against, and it proved that it was viable in friendly and casual games! The owner was also a great guy and a lot of fun to play against too, so I asked him for another game.

This time, I opted for Knights. It would be walkers against walkers! And despite their differences in sizes, a Dreadnought can easily kill a Knight in close combat. I'm not kidding. Well, you'll see what I mean later. In any case, I took my usual House Yato Imperial Knights (they use the House Griffith Household Tradition) with their Household Retinue and Imperial Guard (sorry, I mean Astra Militarum) allies, the Draconian Armored Defenders. Unlike my Thousand Sons, who only had 3 Dreadnoughts and the rest of the points sunk into infantry and Marines, my Imperium army was mostly armored - and the way I love to play them. 3 Imperial Knights and 3 Leman Russ tanks!

So I had a Knight Gallant, a Knight Paladin and a Knight Errant in a Super-heavy Detachment. I spent a couple of Command Points to give my Knight Gallant the Knight Seneschal Warlord Trait (plus 1 attack to his characteristics) and Paragon Gauntlet, and the Knight Paladin was my Warlord (Ion Bulwark and Judgement Stormspear rocket pod relic). I also had a standard Imperial Guard Battalion of 2 Company Commanders (1 with plasma pistol, the other with bolt pistol), and 3 infantry squads (2 of them with plasma guns). Rounding them up was my Supreme Command Detachment of 3 Leman Russ Executioner tank commanders, which I spent another couple of points for the Vigilus Emperor's Fist Armored Company Detachment and Field Commander for the Warlord Trait.

We got the mission, Cut off the Head, an Eternal War mission from Chapter Approved. My opponent got the first turn, deployed first, and I deployed everything near the back to make sure I didn't get charged first turn (even my Knight Gallant hung back). I failed to seize the Initiative, and my opponent began!

Oh, right. My opponent placed his intel points on his 2 techmarines and Primaris Lieutenant. Knowing that my Knights will draw a lot of fire and be huge fire-magnets, I designated my 2 Company Commanders and Vigilus Tank Commander as the intel points instead, and had them all hang back. Not that it worked, given how the Scouts all scouted forward. But my Company Commanders were out of range of the sniper rifles, so yay.

Turn 1

My opponent had the first Venerable Dreadnought shoot at my Knight Gallant, and I used Rotate Ion Shields to prevent a few shots. The Ironclad Dreadnoughts and Contemptor Dreadnought advanced because they were out of range of anything, and the other Venerable Dreadnoughts and the Redemptor Dreadnoughts all fired on my poor Knight Errant. He didn't roll very well for the macro plasma incinerators, but they did enough damage to bring the Knight Errant down to 6 points, which was his last bracket. Ouch. However, other than putting maybe 2 or 3 wounds on my Knight Gallant, he didn't do anything. The Scouts with sniper rifles and Hellfire Rounds Stratagem (Heavy Bolter that does mortal wounds) contributed to bringing the poor Knight Errant down to 6 wounds, but the other Scout squad killed...maybe 2 of my Guardsmen (I actually made 3 5+ armor saves) with their boltguns and storm bolter. Then they charged in and clubbed another 3 to death (didn't fare as well with my saves in melee). My Guardsmen fought back and killed a single Scout with a bayonet (how funny), and even though they lost half their squad, I rolled a 2 for morale and they were fine. Nobody ran away.

With none of my units dead, not even my Knight Errant who was still on 6 wounds, my opponent failed to get First Strike.

My turn came, and I had my smoking Knight Errant move closer, but with him on his last bracket, he could only move 6". Furthermore, he was a Questor Imperialis and not Questor Mechanicus, so he couldn't use the Machine Spirit Resurgent Stratagem as my opponent suggested (I told you he is a great guy). My Knight Gallant also moved forward, so yay. Shooting for my Knights was pretty poor. My Knight Errant, as usual, did absolutely nothing with his thermal cannon. On the day I finally rolled a 4 instead of a 1, he missed all of his shots (to be fair, he was hitting on 5+, but you would think he could at least score a single hit...). Heavy stubbers did nothing, as usual, for both the Knight Errant and Knight Gallant. My Knight Paladin fired his rapid-fire battle cannon and totally fluffed his shots, and it was only his Judgement Stormspear rocket pod that hit and wounded...only for me to roll a 1 and a 2 for the D6 damage and do a total of 3 wounds to a single Venerable Dreadnought. My Knights were messing with me, for sure.

On the other hand, my Guardsmen had a lot more luck. Despite falling back, I had the surviving 5 Guardsmen fire their lasguns on the Scouts and I actually killed 1 of them with lasgun fire (well, 4+ save kind of...sucks and they were in the open instead of in cover after trying to charge my Guardsmen and kill them in melee). Unfortunately, the plasmagunner blew himself up by rolling a 1. Ouch. The Company Commander killed another Scout with his plasma pistol, then ordered the second infantry squad to First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! However, before I even started rolling for the Rapid Fire 4 lasguns in rapid fire range, my plasmagunner fired and killed both surviving Scouts with his supercharged plasma (this squad stood still, so they got to re-roll ones, unlike the other squad). Welp...plasma guns are awesome...when they don't blow up in your face anyway. That earned me First Strike! WOOHOO!

My Leman Russ Executioner tanks, in contrast to my failed Knights, had a great round of shooting, destroying a single Redemptor Dreadnought, reducing a second one to 3 wounds and the third one to 5 wounds (putting 8 on him). The Knight Errant charged the Ironclad Dreadnoughts, and failed his charge. At least he didn't take any wounds on Overwatch. In contrast, when my Knight Gallant charged, he took a couple of wounds - I think he had taken like 7 wounds? He made it into both Ironclad Dreadnoughts, crushed both of them with his Thunderstrike Gauntlet, picked them up and threw them at the poor Techmarine (I rolled 2 4+). Initially I did only a single mortal wound, but the second Ironclad Dreadnought that was chucked at him did 3 mortal wounds and I killed a Character with intel points. Yay. Then I consolidated into the Intercessors, which was a bad mistake, for the Sergeant with Power Fist (and they were Indominus Intercessor Veterans with extra attacks) put another few wounds on him, bringing him to 15 wounds left or so. I think.



Turn 2

Neither of us had anybody in the objective at the start of the battle round, so neither of us gained any victory points. I did get 1 for First Strike, though, so yay? My opponent moved his Lieutenant forward, probably to engage the Knight Gallant in melee with his thunder hammer or something. The Contemptor Dreadnought also moved forward, as did the last Ironclad Dreadnought. The Redemptor Dreadnoughts also moved, and the surviving (second) Techmarine repaired one of them, bringing the one with 5 wounds to 7 wounds remaining and restoring his upper bracket stats. The Venerable Dreadnought fired upon my Knight Paladin, who had moved out, but with a 3++ invulnerable save (Rotate Ion Shields!), they did maybe a couple of damage at most. The other Dreadnoughts finally destroyed my Knight Errant through shooting while the other guy was in prime position to destroy one of my Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Funnily enough, the wounded Redemptor Dreadnought moved and rolled a 1 and a 2, and did 2 mortal wounds to himself despite the Salamander re-roll (he rolled a 1 again). Ouch. He had just one wound left. Oh, the Contemptor Dreadnought fired with his multimelta but did nothing to my Knight Paladin. Instead, it was the combi-bolter that put a single wound on him. Welp, I would take a single wound over the multi-melta multi-damage. As for my Guardsmen, the Ironclad Dreadnought killed 5 in the full, unscathed plasma squad, leaving 5. Again.

The Ironclad Dreadnought charged in and killed my Knight Gallant with his 4 attacks at AP -4 and 4 damage each. I used the Noble Sacrifice Stratagem, but it turned out I didn't have to, for I rolled a 6 and I blew up everything in the area. The Ironclad Dreadnought only took a single wound (damn it!), but the Intercessors took 3 mortal wounds, as did the Primaris Lieutenant. Ouch. And that was the Warlord too. The Redemptor Dreadnought charged and destroyed my Leman Russ Executioner tank and despite me using the Defensive Gunners Stratagem, I took about only 2 wounds off him in overwatch. I also completely forgot about the Vigilus Warlord Trait (he was within 6" of my field commander) so I might actually do more if I re-rolled. Whoops. On the other hand, my opponent completely forgot about his surviving squad of sniper scouts so it evened out. Maybe? The Contemptor Dreadnought ran in and smashed my Knight Paladin in combat, reducing him to about 6 wounds or so. I stomped on him, and of course, he only did 9 damage in total, leaving the Contemptor Dreadnought with 1 wound and failing to kill him. Just my luck. On the bright side, I rolled a 2 for morale and lost no Guardsmen despite losing 5 out of 10 of the second squad, and my plasmagunner survived.

With my firepower reduced, I tried to fight back as much as I could, and my Leman Russ Executioner tanks succeeded in killing both Redemptor Dreadnoughts as well as wiping out the Intercessors. It was funny. I missed with one of the lascannons and destroyed the guy with 1 wound with the plasma cannons. Then I decided to fire my lascannon at the Redemptor Dreadnought with 5 wounds left and all the plasma at the Intercessors...only for me to roll a 6 for my lascannon damage and destroyed the final Redemptor Dreadnought. The plasma cannons, as expected, wiped out the Intercessors, especially since I supercharged. My Knight Paladin had stepped out of the way and shot at the Ironclad Dreadnought, and did a total of 1 damage. Kind of pathetic if you think about it, even if he was shooting on a 5+. The plasmagunner who killed the 2 Scouts earlier stepped up and destroyed the Contemptor Dreadnought before any of my First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! lasgun Guardsmen could fire a single shot. That plasmagunner deserves a promotion.

I then had my Knight Paladin charge the Ironclad Dreadnought, and with 5 Reaper Chainsword attacks hitting on 5+, at least 2 got through, and boom! The Ironclad Dreadnought was dead. 6 damage flat, and as he already took a total of 2 wounds (1 from the Knight Gallant explosion, and 1 from the shooting of the rapid-fire battle cannon and Stormspear rocket pod, and I think it was the Judgement relic that hit and wounded him, only for me to roll a 1 for damage), that was enough for me to kill him. Yay. Funnily enough, it seems my Knights fail at shooting but rock in melee. I should have made all of them Gallants instead of upgrading my Knight Paladin into a Knight Crusader. Oh well. :'(



Turn 3

At the start of the battle round, because my opponent had his Primaris Lieutenant on the objective, he gained 1 Victory Point. And I didn't gain any...figures. So the score was 1-1. Hmm...this didn't look good for me, for he had killed 2 of my Knights and my last Knight, who was my Warlord, was on his last bracket and looked likely to die this turn. He also killed 1 of my Leman Russ tanks and I had 2 Executioners left. Well, that's actually pretty good, considering that all he had left were his 3 Venerable Dreadnoughts, which meant I killed 7 Dreadnoughts while losing 2 Knights and a tank. Well, a roughly equal trade, considering.

Realizing that I would get 3 intel points this turn if he focused on my Knight and left my tank commander alone, my opponent began moving his Venerable Dreadnoughts up. I think he did maybe 4 damage to my Knight Paladin, leaving him with 2 wounds? But he took 6 wounds off one of my Leman Russ Executioner tank, and 4 wounds to the other, leaving him with 7 wounds or so. He also used the sniper rifles and Hellfire Stratagem with his Scouts, but he completely missed his Heavy Bolter shot twice - even with the Salamander re-roll, so my Field Commander survived with 7 wounds. Nice.

First, I used a Stratagem (Jury Rigged) to bring my damaged Tank Commander back to 7 wounds to get him back to his upper bracket. I retaliated by firing back at the Venerable Dreadnoughts, and despite my best attempts, I only managed to kill 1 Venerable Dreadnought while putting a few wounds on the other two...I think. I can't remember, but I think I did succeed in killing at least one Venerable Dreadnought. As for my Knight Paladin, I had him shoot all his weapons at the Primaris Lieutenant, and despite his storm shield giving him a 3++ invulnerable save, I killed him and earned Slay the Warlord. I then charged the last Techmarine, but despite having 15 Stomps (I think I only rolled 12 and competely forgot about the House Griffith rule giving me an extra attack), the Techmarine was left with 1 wound - just like the Contemptor Dreadnought. And woe be me, the Techmarine swung back with his servo-arm and destroyed my Knight Paladin, thus earning my opponent Slay the Warlord. I tried to trigger an explosion with Noble Sacrifice, but I wasted the 2 Command Points by rolling a 2. Nope...not happening.

At least I gained 3 Victory Points, which meant I was up 4 against my opponent's 3 (he gained an intel Victory Point with his last surviving Techmarine).



Turn 4

The Venerable Dreadnoughts continued moving, and they as well as the Scouts fired everything they had into my Field Commander, who survived with just 2 wounds remaining. I think they damaged the other guy as well, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that I killed both Venerable Dreadnoughts with both my Leman Russ Executioner tanks, and the score became 7 to my opponent's 4 because my 3 Characters with Intel points were still alive.

Turn 5

Getting desperate in trying to kill my Leman Russ Executioner field commander, but completely out of Command Points (so no more Hellfire Stratagem for mortal wounds), my opponent moved the Techmarine up to get Linebreaker, and when the Sniper rifles and heavy bolter failed to wound the Leman Russ field commander, the Techmarine charged and attacked with the servo-arm that had brought down a mighty Knight (earlier, he fired with his plasma pistol, flamer and storm bolter and failed to wound even with Salamander re-roll). Alas, I rolled a 5 for the armor save (the servo-arm was only AP -2), so despite only needing one attack (which was 2 damage) to get through to kill my Field Commander, the Techmarine failed. Whoops. Oh, and I completely forgot about the damned Field Commander Warlord Trait. I missed the overwatch mostly, but I forgot to reroll them. And that guy was the Field Commander himself. Well, I was winning at this point, so whatever. But I've to remember this in future.

The next thing my opponent knew, my Field Commander fell back, and my last Leman Russ Executioner tank unleashed plasma hell on him, killing the Techmarine and my opponent's last Intel Point Character, and also denying him Linebreaker. The score was now 10 to 4 because all my Characters were still alive, and with only a single squad of Scouts left in the game (which I would most likely vaporize next turn with my last Leman Russ tank, even if they had 2+ cover save with their camo-cloaks), my opponent surrendered. Even if it went on, the lead would stretch because I had at least 2 Company Commanders with the Intel points out of range and out of sight, and I would continue to accumulate more Victory Points while my opponent simply had no way of gaining Victory Points at all with all his Characters dead. I was already ahead by 6 points at this juncture, and it would only grow to 8 even if he somehow succeeded in killing my Field Commander.

So it ended in my victory, but admittedly it was an extremely close game. I had only 2 Leman Russ tanks left (effectively 1, since the Field Commander was on 2 wounds), and had lost all my Knights. Traded them for the Dreadnoughts. Dreadnoughts are scary, especially in close combat. The Ironclad Dreadnought destroyed a Knight Gallant while the Contemptor Dreadnought brought my Knight Paladin down to his last bracket. Ouch. I think my opponent will get wiser and not bunch his Ironclad Dreadnoughts together for my Knight Gallant to kill both of them at the same time. And I should remember my Warlord Trait for Field Commander and not to consolidate into Intercessors. Ouch.



Anyway, it was a fun game and very enjoyable! I hope to play against the ten Dreadnoughts again! Maybe this time with a new list!

Upgrades and Reinforcements

I ended up biting the bullet and deciding to upgrade my Knight Paladin into a Knight Crusader.

As those of you who have been following my blog since its conception in December 2014 (or more accurately, around January 2015 when I first began to actually assemble and play Warhammer 40,000), my Knight Errant and Knight Paladin are my very first Warhammer 40,000 models, and Imperial Knights are my very first army. That's why my Knight Errant and Knight Paladin have a soft spot in my heart, and I continue to hang onto them and run them in my army despite...them not being good in the current meta.

I'll try to write the battle report sometime soon, but basically yesterday, in a game where I played my combined Imperial Knight and Imperial Guard (as you all know, my Imperial Guard are my Knights' Household Retinue who escort them in the battlefield), my Knight Errant and Knight Paladin basically sucked. No kidding. The D6 on the thermal cannon has always let me down, and for the life of anything my Knight Errant can't hit or kill anything with his thermal cannon. My Knight Paladin fared little better with shooting, and his Titanic Feet does more damage in close combat than any of his long-ranged weapons during shooting (and even then the Titanic Feet fell...flat. Twice). More on that in the battle report. But I had enough of the inconsistency - and since I had Titanic Feet and didn't really need the melee stuff, I thought I should cut off his Reaper Chainsword and replace it with an Avenger Gatling Cannon. I also succeeded in getting a 2nd Stormspear rocket pod, so now I have 2 Stormspear rocket pods. Several iterations of my list uses 2 Stormspear rocket pods because of how good and powerful they are...I wish I had better luck firing them, though.

Shoutout to my young friend, Adrian, who has always helped me out. He helped me cut off the Reaper Chainsword while I worked on assembling my Avenger Gatling cannon, and he also helped me prime and spray my models black while I was working on my Carnodon tank. In any case, I magnetized the arm and now my Knight Paladin has been upgraded into a Knight Crusader. Thanks to the magnetized thing, I can turn him back into a Knight Paladin with either a reaper chainsword or Thunderstrike Gauntlet (though that means my other Knight Gallant would have to be a Knight Crusader or Knight Paladin or Knight Warden, which defeats the whole point unless I'm desperate on saving points), or if I ally him as a Renegade Knight with my Thousand Sons, he can wield dual rapid-fire battle cannons (though I might as well use my other Knight and turn him into one with dual Avenger Gatling Cannons). In any case, he's now a Knight Crusader, and I hope the Avenger Gatling cannon helps him be more consistent or I'll cry. A lot. Well, not literally, but he and the Knight Errant haven't been doing so well in my games and I really want them to remain a solid mainstay in my army. Let's hope the Knight Crusader upgrade helps him fare better. Currently he's the one with the Stormspear rocket pod (I usually give him the Judgement Relic to re-roll hit rolls for the rocket pod and the AP -3 and 60" range), but now my Knight Gallant gets a Stormspear rocket pod too! Yay!

My Knight Crusader isn't the only one getting an upgrade. My Imperial Guard army has received reinforcements in the form of a Carnodon tank. As mentioned, ever since the Martian Priesthood has reinstated the Standard Template Construct for the Carnodon tank, Draconis IV have embraced full-scale production of the medium tank, which makes an ideal escort for the slower and heavier Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Draconis IV being Draconis IV, my Leman Russ tanks are equipped with plasma weaponry and lascannons, while my Carnodon tank is fitted with volkite weaponry. That said, I've magnetized the weapons (or tried to, in any case, with quite disastrous results - the twin lascannons in particlar look very shaky), so I can switch between volkite weapons and lascannons. I love the volkite culverin and volkite calivers, and making my Carnodon tanks the hi-tech yet ancient armor to boost the armored squadrons is just too tempting to resist. I still have a single Leman Russ Annihilator left over, so there's my anti-tank needs. However, for 70% of the points, I have 80% of the firepower (admittedly, I forgot to include the plasma cannons, oh well). Anyway, we'll see. For now I'll be happy to use the volkite weaponry because...volkite. I have no idea how it'll work, but I can't wait to try him out in a game!



It was annoying to magnetize because the main turret especially was not meant for magnetization. Oh well. After a few hours of frustration, I finally manage to get the magnets to stick (I washed the resin before assembling the tank and had no problems with assembling the actual tank) but for now I'm leaving the volkite on. I completely forgot about giving him a spare multilaser, but we'll see.



Again, shoutout to my friend Adrian for helping me paint and prime my models. He helped me spray and prime my Knight Valiant, Deathwatch Primaris Hellblasters and Carnodon weapons (I did the Carnodon tank itself). Thanks, Adrian! Thanks to him, now I can begin painting them (I'll paint them next Saturday or something, depending, because I have to study during the weekdays and on Sunday as always). I wonder how my Knight Valiant will look like - of course I'll be using the same color scheme as my other House Yato Knights. And the Carnodon tank is Draconian, so he'll be in Draconian colors too. The Knights of House Yato from Draconis III, marching to war with their Household Retinue, the Astra Militarum Regiments of the Draconian Armored Defenders! I also look forward to using my Knight Valiant in combat too. I haven't used him yet, having used my usual House Griffith Household Tradition for my House Yato Knights, but I want to experiment with my Knight Valiant and see what's appropriate for him, or maybe even just run them as Questor Mechanicus with the House Taranis Household Tradition alongside Skitarii. Well, no one said Questor Mechanicus or Mechanicus-aligned Knight Houses can only fight beside Skitarii - if I find that the House Taranis Household Tradition works better for me, then I'll just field them as House Taranis/Yato alongside my Draconian Imperial Guard, who are basically on their way to being Tech-guard anyway. Given the amount of plasma and tanks they receive from the Forge World Draconis IV, they might as well garrison the place in the place of Skitarii or are in-between normal Imperial Guard and Tech-Guard. We'll see. A pity Veterans have been relegated to Elites instead of Troops otherwise I could just field Skitarii as Imperial Guard - they have the same stats as Veterans and can take hi-tech weaponry (3 plasma guns for Veterans). That's one of the things I missed about 7th Edition Imperial Guard - Veterans as Troops. I do have to say, our Leman Russ tanks are a lot better and Guard is a lot stronger than in 7th Edition now!



With these done, my next project will probably to get the grav-flux bombard and storm cannon (or butcher cannon array) I need for my Deathwatch Leviathan Dreadnought and Thousand Sons Leviathan Dreadnought, and probably a Contemptor close combat fist and Volkite Culverin for my Thousand Sons Contemptor Dreadnought that I'll be getting soon (I'll have to stick him in the freezer to break off his arms and magnetize them). Once those are done, I'll wait on the Doom of Molech and start planning for my Adeptus Titanicus accordingly. While the idea of running nothing but Knights are tempting, I do want at least one Warlord Titan with the Sunfury Plasma Annihilator. I wonder if I'll be able to run 2 Reaver Titans as his escort without having to rely on the Legio Gryphonicus Legion Traits. I could just run the Myrmidon Maniple with 2 Warlord Titans and a Reaver, but I wouldn't have enough points for Knight banners, which I really want!

The next post should be on Knights versus Dreadnoughts if I ever have the time to write out a full battle report. I have several books to read for graduate school this week, so...we'll see. Till then!

The Daemonkin arise

Here's the Chaos trailer for Shadowspear, aptly titled the Daemonkin Arise. Not sure if Daemonkin will be a new faction or not (anyone remember Khorne Daemonkin in 7th edition?) but will be cool if it does exist. In the meantime, check Warhammer Community for the new trailer.



Now, where is the Lost and the Damned, or a reworked Renegades and Heretics Index? I mean, I don't care if we don't get a codex, at least give Renegades and Heretics or Traitor Guard an Index like you did for Crimson Fists and Imperial Assassins (speaking of which, I might just get March's White Dwarf even if I don't play Assassins and already sold the ones I own - the only Assassin I foresee myself ever using is the Eversor Assassin). We already have codex for Heretic Astartes and Chaos Daemons...it's time to give us mortals proper rules and Index too!

That said, I guess I don't really need much apart from the cheap Renegades and Heretics Battalion with flamer spam?

Forge World stuff sold out

Well, I was trying to get a grav-flux bombard, a Leviathan storm cannon array (or butcher cannon array) and perhaps a Thousand Sons Contemptor Dreadnought...only to find that they're all out of stock. The Contemptor pattern twin volkite culverin is out of stock too. Oh, and the Thousand Sons Osiron Contemptor Dreadnought and the Castellax-achea batle-automata with aetherfire cannon are out of stock too.

So if you guys are looking for those, here's a heads-up. I have no idea how long Forge World will take to restock them - maybe a month, maybe half a year, maybe a year, maybe 2 years - but I'll keep track and let you guys know when they finally come back in stock. And maybe I'll be decisive and buy them this time instead of waiting for money to flow in. Ugh.