Featuring the Knight Houses of Ryusei and their household militia, the Ryusei Katanas, and the Skitarii maniples, Cybernetica Cohorts and Titan Legions of the forge world, Draconis IV.
Today, we're going to a Retrospective on...Imperial Knights! I mean, this is primarily an Imperial Knight blog, so obviously if I'm ...
I've finally painted my Vultarx strato-automata and Tech-priest Manipulus!
Well, Warhammer Community has just released an article on the new Kill Team, including an awesome cinematic!
As you can see...Death Korps of Krieg! YES! We are getting plastic Death Korps of Krieg! Along with Ork Kommandos, but I'm not an Ork player (yet...those Squigs and Beast Snagga box are so tempting). But plastic Death Korps of Krieg? I'm in.
That was a brilliant cinematic. Love it. Absoloutely love it. It's so...Krieg. It's also so Warhammer 40,000. Long live Warhammer 40,000! 2 wounds Chaos Space Marines? Who needs that? We have Death Korps of Krieg and Orks! Hell, yeah! Mortals wersus greenskins is where it's at!
I'll be honest, I don't play Kill Team, so I'll more than likely use them as infantry to escort my tanks. Just paint them differently and call them Draconians or something...we'll see. That will be fun. I'll have to see what other options they have and adjust accordingly, but it will be fun to customize my homebrewered plasma-themed Imperial Guard regiment (Draconian Defenders) accordingly. I already have the tanks, I just don't have the infantry (well, Kasrkins?). But yeah. It'll still be cool to have at least one or two squads of trenchcoats and rebreathers-wearing Guardsmen!
For the Emperor!
So I attended yet another Thursday Thrashing RTT today, and...well, I didn't exactly get thrashed, but let's just say it didn't end well for me, yet at the same time it was actually okay. I was fielding an Imperial Knight list, as usual, but...yeah. Let's just say Knights are really, really bad at objectives. In any case, let's get to the actual event. My list consists of Knights and a small Skitarii Patrol Detachment for objectives, but as it turns out, the Skitarii were horrible at holding objectives. For the last two games, anyway. Anyway, here's my list:
Imperial Knights Super-heavy Detachment (Glorified History, Slayers of Beasts, Questoris Imperialis)
Dominus Knight Castellan, Ion Bulwark, Armor of Sainted Ion
Questoris Knight Preceptor, Sanctuary
Cerastus Knight Lancer, Strike and Shield
2 Armigers Moirax with volkite veuglaires
Skitarii Patrol Detachment (Expansionist Forge World: Accelerated Accentuators, Rugged Explorators)
Skitarii Marshal
2 squads of 5 Skitarii Rangers with omnispex, transuranic arquebus
5 Skitarii Rangers with omnispex
I swapped the Armigers Warglaive out for the Armigers Moirax because...quite frankly, the Warglaive variant sucked. They didn't do anything last weekend, always dying and whiffing their D3 melta shots. I was getting sick and tired of their horrid roles and low number of attacks, so I switched back to the Armigers Moirax for quantity over quality. Hopefully my rolls would be better for them. So yeah.
Match 1
For some reason, I can't remember what the first mission was. I think it's Retrieval, but yeah. In any event, I was facing a Tyranid player who went with a Nidzilla list, so we were basically enacting Pacific Rim. Heh! This was his list, and if I'm not mistaken, he went with Hive Fleet Kraken.
Tyranid Battalion Detachment (Hive Fleet Kraken)
Hive Tyrant with wings and Chameleonic Mutation
Hive Tyrant with wings
Broodlord with Resonance Barb (I think?)
4 squads of 10 Termagaunts (or was it 3?)
3 Ripper Swarms
6 Hive Guard with Enhanced Resistance
2 Lictors
Maleceptor
2 Dimachaeron
Exocrine
I believe that's about it. Anyway, we rolled off, I went first, and I whiffed my Knight Castellan's shots. on the other hand, I did kill about 10 Termagaunts, wiping out 1 squad, and taking out another 5 somewhere thanks to my Armigers Moirax. The Knight Lancer injured 1 Dimachaeron, I think, and I think failed to kill it. I can't remember. I brought one of the Hive Tyrants down to 2 wounds, and I think that was about it. The Hive Guard, along with psychic powers, managed to wound my Knight Lancer and bring him down to less than half his health, if I'm not mistaken, and the Dimachaeron and Hive Tyrant charged 1 Armiger Moirax and ripped him apart...only for him to blow up and kill the Hive Tyrant, heh. The Knight Lancer was also able to kill the second Hive Tyrant while my Knight Castellan finally slew the Dimachaeron. I was able to wipe out all of the Termagaunts eventually, thanks to my Skitarii, who also raised banners in the first turn, and when the Rippers appeared in front of 1 squad, they killed them. Phew. I also finally killed the Maleceptor with the Knight Castellan after the Hive Guard destroyed the Knight Lancer, who basically tanked like 2-3 turns of shooting because I somehow made all my Ion Shield saves (there was one time I rolled 3 5+s, Holy Terra). The Knight Preceptor refused to go down too, and he took out the Broodlord. The Knight Castellan then killed the Exocrine, but not before they finally took out my Knight Preceptor. As the game drew to a close, my opponent only had the Hive Guard left because they were out of line of sight, while my Knight Castellan and remaining Armiger Moirax helped me capture objectives. I all but tabled him, except for his Hive Guard. Phew. That was an insane game.
I won like 93 points to 42, thanks to Banners, Abhor the Witch and Bring it Down!. And getting the Primary Objectives also helped. I think my list, especally with Slayers of Beasts, was a hard counter to the poor Tyranids Nidzilla list, since I have a +1 to my melee against them.
Match 2
The second mission was Overrun. This time, I went up against a T'au player (who won the whole thing eventually, beating Imperial Guard, my Imperial Knights and Death Guard to win everything). What did he have? Farsight Enclaves.
T'au Battalion Detachment (Farsight Enclaves)
Commander Farsight
Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit
1 Strike Team of 5 Fire Warriors
2 Breacher Teams of 5
2 Devilfish
3 Stealth Battlesuits
8 Crisis Battlesuits with missile pods? I think it's 8, I can't remember.
Riptide
5 Pathfinders
Lots and lots of Drones.
I managed to go first and took out his Riptide in a single round of shooting. Holy hell, the damned thing had a 3++ invulnerable save, so I made sure to destroy him first before he can overcharge. I can't say I could do much, though I killed a Pathfinder team, slew some Drones when trying to kill the Crisis suits, and also killed 1 Stealth suit. Uh...wow?
He managed to shoot back and destroy my Knight Lancer, who...didn't blow up, unfortunately. Eventually, I managed to kill everything except 1 bloody Crisis Suit and the Coldstar Commander and 2 Stealth Battlesuits, I even succeeded in killing Farsight himself! But the Crisis Suit and Coldstar Commander gave my opponent points for To the Last, which I should have taken because I had both my Knight Preceptor and Knight Castellan by the end of the game (then again, I scored like 8-9 points for No Prisoners, so it wasn't that much of a difference). Unfortunately, he wiped out all of my Skitarii and destroyed 1 Armiger Moirax, but despite me taking his objectives on his half of the table, I wasn't able to outscore him on objectives, while he scored lots of objectives. Damn, the Skitarii were useless, they didn't get me much points for banners...at least I don't think so.
I lost the game 64-78, despite having 3 Knights (2 titanic) left on the table, and him having literally 4 models (a Crisis Suit, Coldstar and Stealth Suit) remaining. Damn it.
Match 3
The third mission was Sweep and Clear, and I was up against Drukhari this time. The list is so complicated that I don't think I'll be able to remember it. I know he at least had Drazhar, an Archon, a Haemoculi, a Sucuubus, 4 Raiders, 2 Venoms, lots of Wyches, 2 squads of Incubi (one elite), a bunch of Wracks, a bunch of Hellions, and...Kabalite Warriors, maybe? Like I said, I can't remember.
I managed to go first and blew up 2 Raiders, injured another severely, and basically wiped out 1 Wych squad and killed enough to leave just 1 in the other. I killed the Haemoculi to get Assassinate, but he got back up on a 2+. Damn. Anyway, after his Drazhar, Incubi, Wracks, etc. charged into my Knight Lancer, they left him with 5 wounds. My Knight Preceptor also took hits from Incubi and ended up with 5 wounds. In the first turn. I was failing all of my saves, it was terrible. But I can't complain, considering I made all my saves against Tyranids, so...it evens out in the end.
My Knight Lancer killed Drazhar in combat, and both he and the Knight Preceptor continued to tank until they had 1 wound each. After all that fighting, he finally died...and blew up, killing the Archon, wounding the Haemoculi, destroying a Venom and...yeah. The Succubus had charged and killed my Skitarii before doing like 4 wounds to my Armiger Moirax, who promptly erased her with volkite. Meanwhile, the other Armiger Moirax died. Well, yeah. The Knight Preceptor went down in the end, but at least he took out quite a few Incubi. The Knight Castellan did most of the heavy lifting, destroying all the Raiders, the second Venom, killing infantry after infantry (my remaining Armiger Moirax helping him out) until all was left were the Wracks (I think?), the Haemoculi and the single Wych who had hidden out of line of sight to camp on an objective.
Despite wiping him out, I didn't have anything else, so...yeah. My Skitarii Marshal helped me camp on a single objective the whole game, but my Skitarii were completely wiped out. Ouch. I don't know what to say. I lost on objectives despite all but tabling my opponent (and he couldn't do anything to my 2 remaining Knights with his Wracks), with the score being 63 to 82. Ugh...I don't know what objectives I could have gotten. There were no good objectives that I could have gotten. None. Not a single one. It was just so painful.
I don't know what I could have done. Oh, well. I think I'll lean more into Knights next game and see how it goes. The Skitarii are just too fragile (even Lucius wouldn't have helped them). So I'll take them out and go pure Knights next game. That seems to be my style. The question is...what can I squeeze into my list? What Knights should I take out? What Knights should I put in? More long-range Knights? The Knight Castellan seems to be the best, to be honest. Sure, he screws up in the first few turns, but as the game goes on, it averages out and he starts destroying stuff. Like, a lot of stuff. He's a beast. Also, I needed shooting that doesn't require line of sight (like the Ironstorm missile pod), which would have denied my opponent objectives and thus lower their points (and allow me to score more). Oh, well. We'll see. This is a learning experience, as usual, and I'll just have to learn from my mistakes and do my best next time.
Well, as you all probably know (if you've been following my blog...not that anyone actually follows my blog or reads any of my posts, but I digress), I have an Astra Militarum tank regiment. Ugh, that sounds pretentious. I have an Imperial Guard tank regiment for quite a long time now, consisting almost completely of Leman Russ Executioner tanks. I also have gotten a Stormblade, to complete the theme of plasma.
Admittedly, 9th edition has not been kind to Imperial Guard and our army is suffering a bit without a codex, but that doesn't stop me from trying to build a list around them. The question is...what regiment is best for my all-plasma tank/armor army?
In the early days of 8th edition, and ever since the Imperial codex came out in 2017, I've been using the Cadian regimental doctrine because it's the one closest to my regiment. I mean, after all, I've been using Cadian Shock Troops models for my Imperial Guard, so...yeah. Also, I had this whole fluff going where the now homeless Cadians have made their home in Draconis III after the destruction of Cadia. So we have a few regiments who relocated to Draconis III and now they are training the Draconian Defenders. So if there's any regiment that fits them best, it's Cadia.
Cadia Regimental Doctrine allows Leman Russ tanks to re-roll hit rolls of 1s if they don't move, perfect for my gunline as well as plasma-equipped Leman Russ Executioner tanks. It was also one of the reasons why I sold all my other Leman Russ tanks and went full-blown plasma and full-blown Leman Russ Executioner tanks. Because, you know, re-rolls of 1s for my supercharged plasma. I also made liberal use of the tank order "Pound them to Dust!" to re-roll the D6 for the Executioner plasma cannon. Also, my dudes are clearly not Strength 4 Death Worlders. They are samurai or Meiji-era Guardsmen (I'll probably need Mordian for that). So I'm not using the Catachan trait, I'm fluffy like that.
However, thanks to the Greater Good, we have a whole slew of new options! I haven't played much with the Greater Good because I was too busily playing Thousand Sons with Ritual of the Damned (Cult of Magic), and then Covid19 hit last year and I simply couldn't get any games. Now I'm busy with Knights and Adeptus Mechanicus, but I'm considering switching to Knights and Guard, flooding the table with Toughness 8 units (which is why I'm writing this post to begin with).
So what does The Greater Good offer us? Tank Aces is one thing, but I'm tempted to just go with Steel Commander for additional orders, and Steadfast Leviathan for my Stormblade. But that's just Tank Aces, and there are a few other options that are worthwhile, such as Up-Armored and Hull Down Deployment. What about Custom Regimental Doctrines?
I'm actually looking at Jury Rigged Repairs and Gunnery Experts because they seem to suit my tank list the most. I don't have any infantry, so I'm not really that fond of taking the established regimental doctrines (Cadian, Catachan, etc.), I prefer to customize my own regimental doctrines, much like what I did for my Knight Hosuehold (Glorified History and Slayers of Beasts). So how does Jury Rigged Repairs plus Gunnery Experts compare to the vanilla Cadian Regimental Doctrine?
Firstly, Cadian regimental doctrine allows me to re-rolls ones, and the tank order allows for re-rolls of D6 for turret weapons. But Gunnery Experts allow for re-rolls of all D6 and D3 weapons, including sponsons. On the other hand, we have the Tank Order, "Gunners, Kill on Sight!", which allows my tanks to re-roll hit rolls of ones. The caveat is that this order applies even if I move my Leman Russ tanks. In 8th edition, I never move my Leman Russ tanks...you know why? Because apparently they will suffer the -1 to hit penalty for moving for their sponson and hull weapons. So my plasma cannon sponsons and lascannons will be hitting on 5+ for the regular Leman Russ tanks...and apparently hit rolls of 2 will make them suffer mortal wounds when supercharging plasma. Ridiculous. This was why the Cadian regimental doctrine suited me fine - I never want to move my Leman Russ tanks anyway, because I was afraid of the -1 to hit penalty.
On the other hand, if I simply combine Gunners, Kill on Sight! with Gunnery Experts, I basically get the Cadian re-rolls of ones AND re-rolls of D6/D3 while having a movement of 5" (because I want to shoot twice with Grinding Advance). Whereas, if I stick to Cadian, I can't move at all and I can only re-roll the D6 for the turret weapons. So yeah...if I'm going all-tanks, I would prefer to have Gunnery Experts plus the Gunners, Kill on Sight! tank order.
What if I don't have access to orders? Well...that's where the Jury Rigged Repairs come to play. They will mitigate the damage that my tanks suffer by allowing them to recover one wound on 2-4, and D3 wounds on 5-6. It might not be entirely reliable, but hey, tanks. I love tanks. That's all I need to justify taking this custom regimental doctrine, to mitigate the damage from supercharging plasma weapons as well as keeping them alive for as long as possible. Yay.
One day I'll field them...then we'll see how it goes. Till then!
Well, yesterday was quite a disaster. I went up to Phoenix to participate in Meltdown Mayhem, another cool RTT, and Phoenix is a great place. Nice store, like Next Level Wargames in Woodbury. I changed up my list from last week, taking out the Armigers Moirax to add infantry to my list for objectives, while swapping the Questoris Knight Cruader for the Cerastus Knight Atrapos. Certainly, while I could get a lot more secondary objectives (no more less than 20 points score), it didn't work out for me. I lost all 3 games. Ouch. Yeah, it was brutal.
Anyway, this is my list:
Imperial Knights super-heavy detachment (Questoris Imperialis, Glorified History, Slayers of Beasts)
Questoris Knight Preceptor, Ion Bulwark, Sanctuary
Cerastus Knight Lancer, Strike and Shield
Cerastus Knight Atrapos
2 Armigers Warglaive with meltagun
Adeptus Mechanicus Patrol detachment (Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza)
Skitarii Marshal with Exemplar Eternal
5 Skitarii Rangers with omnispex and transuranic arquebus
5 Skitarii Vanguard with omnispex, plasma caliver, phosphor blast pistol and power sword
2 squads of 5 Ruststalkers with transonic blades
So yeah, I was hoping to use the Skitarii to get me objectives, but in the end they died too quickly, and I didn't score as many points as I hope to. Better than zero, perhaps? But they lack the resilience of my Knights, and Objective Secured and Banners are useless when my opponent could charge them and kill them in a single round of combat.
Match 1
The first mission was Retrieval, if I'm not mistaken. My opponent fielded an Adeptus Custodes list. I can't remember what he had, but I recall he had at least 6 jetbikes, a bunch of Sagittarum, 2 squads of Venatari and Allarus Terminators. Huh, seems like it was an Outrider detachment, because I don't recall any Custodian Guards (and I vaguely remember him telling me that). Oh, and 3 Pallas grav-attack tanks if I remember correctly. He also had a squad of Sisters of Silence.
Um, so what happened? I think he took out my Knight Lancer with his Allarus Terminators jet-bikes despite the 4++ invulnerable save in melee and Strike and Shield while I...probably just killed a couple of Allarus Terminators in return. That was bad. His Sisters of Silence camped on an objective with the Sagittarum, while the tanks remained at the back. Try as I might, I just couldn't kill the Sagittarum despite my Armigers Warglaive moving up to shoot them. I did finally kill one Pallas tank in the second turn, after failing all my melta shots in the first turn. That's it, I'm probably taking the Armigers Warglaive out of my list for my next game...ugh.
The Venatari jumped around to grab objectives and killed my Skitarii Rangers and Skitarii Vanguard, and eventually pinged my Knight Preceptor to death, along with the jet-bikes. On the other hand, the Knight Atrapos did well in this game, killing all of the jet-bikes before charging into the Allarus Terminators. He failed to kill them...but he blew up and killed the last surviving Allarus Terminator. Meanwhile, my Ruststalkers heavily injured one Pallas tank before they were hosed off the board by the Allarus Terminators. The other Ruststalker did manage to kill the Sisters of Silence, but they got held up in combat with the Sagittarum and failed to kill all of them, with one guy left at the end of the game. And these same Sagittarum also survived my Armiger Warglaive's attacks. Just...wow. Sigh.
Being tabled except for one small squad of Ruststalkers, I lost the game. Got some of my secondaries, which brought me up to 50+ points or so, but that was nothing compared to the 80+ points of my opponent. I might have fared better with Armigers Moirax with this, if I could kill the Sagittarum to deny him the objective, and they certainly would survive better against the Venatari than the Skitarii.
Match 2
The second mission was Surround and Destroy. I met my opponent back at WaaaghFest! If you remember, he was the one with Chaos Knights. Unfortunately...even with more Knights, I got destroyed again.
His list was as follows:
Chaos Knight Super-heavy Detachment
Cerastus Knight Atrapos
Dominus Knight Castellan (or Knight Tyrant, whatever)
Knight Rampager
2 Armigers Warglaive (or War Dogs, whatever)
Armiger Helverin (or War Dog, whatever)
Damn it! I got so excited about playing Knights versus Knights that I forgot to take any pictures of this match! What a waste, he had a beautiful army too. Well, I think I have pictures of his army from WaaaghFest, so check out the WaaaghFest for how his army looks. I got too excited and completely forgot about pictures for this match, sorry. I kind of get carried away playing the game sometimes.
He went first, and obviously that made all the difference. I lost my Knight Atrapos in the first turn (or was it second?), taking heavy fire from the Knight Castellan and other Knight Atrapos. Fortunately, I managed to destroy his War Dogs, but I just couldn't kill his big Knights. Popping off Rotate Ion Shields, his Knight Atrapos survived all the attacks from my Knight Lancer, taking only 8 damage, and then he proceeded to destroy my Knight Lancer. How in Holy Terra? My dice rolls were pretty bad while he rolled hot. This was just...disastrous. My Knight Preceptor was next, blown up by the Knight Castellan, though my Skitarii Vanguard eventually destroyed the Knight Atrapos, but by then I already lost both squads of Ruststalkers.
At least I scored big on objectives, getting 60+ this time, thanks to Banners and Primary. Still, it wasn't enough to save me from being tabled and he went to 80+ points, if I'm not mistaken? Again another loss, even though I tried to play the objectives after losing so many Knights. Oh, well...I should have gone for Bring It Down! instead of Titan Slayer. Sigh. But, yeah...him making all the saves and going first made all the difference. This time, I doubt my Armigers Moirax would have helped me much, but hey, we all do what we need to do.
Match 3
The final mission was Overrun. This time I played against the same Adeptus Mechanicus player that I played against 2 weeks ago, the one who wiped out my Skitarii, only for my Knight Castellan to survive no matter what he threw at it. It went the same way this time, heh.
His list was something like this:
Adeptus Mechanicus Battalion detachment (Lucius)
Skitarii Marshal
Tech-priest Manipulus, Holy Order Genetor (I think? The one that gives them transhuman physiology or something).
20 Skitarii Rangers
20 Skitarii Rangers
20 Skitarii Vanguard
20 Skitarii Rangers (or was it 10? I can't remember)
3 Ironstriders Ballistarii, 2 twin cognis lascannons and 1 twin cognis autocannon
2 Ironstriders Ballistarii with twin cognis lascannons
3 Kastelan robots with incendine combustors and kastelan fists (he took that idea from me, heh)
Cybernetica Datasmith
2 squads of 5 Sicarian Infiltrators
10 Sicarian Ruststalkers
5 Pxterii Sterylizors
I might have gone first, but I didn't do very well. I did manage to take out 2 Ironstriders Ballistarii with my Knight Atrapos, but once again my Armiger Warglaives fluffed their shots and failed to do anything to the other Ironstriders Ballistarii. That's it, they're going out. The Knight Preceptor also didn't do much, but he did take out quite some infantry, I think? But he fluffed his big gun and maybe did a couple of wounds to the Ironstrider Ballistarius with twin cognis autocannons. The Knight Lancer stomped a few Skitarii Rangers to death. I think that's about it. Then my opponent moved his Kastelan robots and Sicarian Ruststalkers forward and destroyed my Knight Atrapos. Everything went downhill from there.
I did manage to destroy all of his Ironstrider Ballistarii by the second time, but he had so much infantry that it was impossible to mow them all down, despite having blast weapons and Titanic Feet. My Armiger Warglaives, once again, didn't do much, though I killed a single squad of Infiltrators with 1 of them. I managed to kill 20 Vanguard and 20 Rangers between my remaining Knights, but his Sicarian Ruststalkers killed my Ruststalkers, Vanguard and Marshal, while the Pxterii Sterylizors swooped in, roasted my Skitarii Rangers, and then charged and killed them to take my objective and remove my banners. Perhaps banners wasn't a good idea for this mission. I should have gone with Retrieve Octavius Data or something. Not that it mattered, because I just couldn't score any primary objectives this game. Objective Secured, 20-men infantry...yeah. Eventually I killed all of them, including his Ruststalkers, but he still had 3 Rangers remaining, as well as the Sterylizors and a Datasmith, whereas I had 2 Knights and an Armiger Warglaive. No matter what he did, he just couldn't kill any of my Knights, thanks to me wiping out his Robots and Ironstrider Ballistarii much, much earlier. Phew. Even so, I lost on objectives, being denied the Primary for so long. That was rough. I might have done better this game and my robots survived, but not being able to score any Primary was brutal. So I only had like 40+ points this time while he had like 80? Or 70? I can't remember, but he maxed out on Primary if I'm not mistaken. I denied him Titan Slayer, though. Heh. So that's good. Still kind of sucks to lose despite managing to survive.
For my next RTT, I'll probably take out the Sicarian Ruststalkers and Armigers Warglaives, and replace my Knight Atrapos with a Knight Castellan. The Knight Atrapos doesn't really do much, if you ask me. I think I shouldn't be throwing my Knights forward so aggressively, for they were simply too vulnerable to a lot of things, I should keep them back, prevent deep strikes in my deployment zone, protect my frail infantry better so that they can score me points and primary objectives. We'll see. I'm still not sure how I'll do it, but yeah. We will see how it goes on Thursday. Till then!
I have finally assembled my Vultarax Stratos-automata!
I have half a mind to kitbash Solar Auxilia using the Palanite Subjugators (and use their shields to kitbash MKIII armor Legiones Astartes Breachers), but we will see. First, I don't have that much money to spend, especially since I just bought a Stormblade, so I might not be that...enthusiastic about spending more money. Especially when I have no income in the summer. But we will see!
Now...all I'm waiting for is the Imperial Fists Praetor in Tartaros Terminator armor, so that I can field him alongside my Black Templars Cataphractii Terminators! Yeah, they might be painted as Black Templars, but I'll probably run them as Templar Bethren, which explains their color scheme. We will see!
Now I bet people will accuse me of being a Games Workshop fanboy or a shill (which is dumb), all because I'm looking forward to Warzone Charadon: The Book of Fire.
The Adeptus Mechanicus codex? I do have a few complaints about the special weapons - I built my Skitarii squads to have 2 special weapons each and now I can't do that because...codex. I'll keep them MSU, but that doesn't mean I like it. Plus I don't care about the damned Ironstrider Ballistarii. I don't care how good their rules are, I'm not going to buy six of them. I smply don't have the money nor the interest to construct them and run them. I'm sticking to my Knights and Ruststalkers (because I love the transonic blades). Serberys Raiders are awesome? Yeah, I have a squad of them, but I like the Serberys Sulphurhounds more - fire-breathing cybercanids!
Oh, and the Grand Tournament Pack? Chapter Approved 2021? That was dumb as hell. I only got it because I don't have Chapter Approved 2020, but if I had Chapter Approved 2020, I wouldn't waste my money on Chapter Approved 2021. Seriously? You're going to clarify some rules, swap out a couple of missions, and then sell them again for a full price? You've got to be kidding me. That's just terrible.
So yeah, I'm not a shill. Do you think Games Workshop pays me to say good things about them? Of course not. They probably don't know that I exist...or maybe they do, because they seem to have referenced my Knights (Daimyos, yay...and somehow Andy Clark came up with House Draconis after I created House Yato on Draconis III), but they have never reached out to me for anything. I have no reason to lick their boots. I'm just saying what I observe.
With that out of the way, I will say this. The whole whining over the Warzone Charadon is stupid.
But all the Adeptus Mechanicus players whining about rules bloat? About how they need to lug around 3 books? How our rules are spread across 3 books, and that we need to get all 3 books to get our "full rules"?
Go frak yourselves.
If you're a Chaos Space Marine player, I sympathize. I agree with your concerns. If you're an Imperial Guard or Tau player, seeing how other factions are getting supplement expansions, I share your pain. But Adeptus Mechanicus players jumping on the bandwagon of whining to...complain about non-existent issues? Like I said, go frak yourselves.
I bet one of my forge worlds that 90% of these Adeptus Mechanicus players complaining about how they need 3 books for all their rules aren't even Metalica players. Most of them play Lucius now (I'm probably the only one playing Slaved Systems Forge World: Ryza). And if you don't play Metalica, why on Holy Mars do you need all three books? Do you play the stupid and utterly limiting Defense Cohort or something? Don't lie to me - the most powerful portion of Adeptus Mechanicus armies is the Skitarii, the only reason why you would field the Defense Cohort is because of fluff or narrative reasons - which is why I buy these books in the first place. I don't play Metalica, I don't play House Raven, and I have NEVER taken my Book of Rust to a Rogue Trader Tournament or any event or grand tournament. I bought it just to read the lore and fluff. There simply is no reason to bring the book to a tournament, because those cohorts or supplements are only meant for a very niche and fluffy portion of the playerbase. Unless you're Metalica and House Raven, there is utterly no reason for you to lug around "3 books" for Adeptus Mechanicus for tournaments. They aren't even the most competitive option!
What you guys are doing is pulling the attention away from the REAL issues at hand. You're whining about non-existent issues like very entitled brats. Oh, should I feel sorry for you that you have 3 books of cool, narrative rules or for Metalica while my Imperial Guard army has no codex yet? That there's still no news for my Thousand Sons despite them getting pointless points updates in Chapter Approved 2021 that we can't use because the codex is nowhere in sight? Bear in mind, I'm a patient guy and I don't mind waiting. I have my Knights and new Adeptus Mechanicus codex to play around with while waiting for the Thousand Sons, and it's not as if I'm not aware of all the problems with shipping worldwide, with the Suez Canal incident, the pandemic and lots of other problems. It's all right, the Thousand Sons codex can come in September, October or even in December, I'm not that desperate for it yet. But here we are, getting a new book for Metalica, and still people complain because... "we need 3 books to get full access to our rules!"
No, you don't. Warzone Charadon is mainly narrative. It's a campaign supplement. It's like me buying Sanctus Reach: The Red Waaagh! for the Steel Host and Adamantine Lance formations. But do I need them for full Imperial Guard or full Imperial Knight rules? No. I'm not a Metalica player, and I know most Adeptus Mechanicus players are min-maxing Lucius these days with the multiple 20-men strong Skitarii hordes. Even if they are not, you have a bunch of other forge worlds to choose from. Do you expect me to believe you all suddenly and coincidentally became Metalica when Warzone Charadon came out? Do you think I'll buy your claims of bringing the Defensive Cohort to a grand tournament when the best units in our army are Skitarii?
Oh, right. The Skitarii Veteran Cohort. We'll see what that is about, but even if it turns out to be this uber, must-bring formation, that's still 2 books, not 3. Yet these Adeptus Mechanicus players are whining about needing to lug around all 3 books, as if they were all Metalica players. Keep in mind, if you're using the Skitarii Veteran Cohort, then why the f would you bring the first book? You can't use the Defensive Cohort if you use Skitarii Veteran Cohort. Either you use one or the other. If you want to use the Skitarii Veteran Cohort, then just leave the Book of Rust at home. Why do you need to bring it along? Is it because you're playing Metalica? Right, I'm sure you are. If that's the case, you'll be referring to yourselves as Metalica players, not Adeptus Mechanicus players (in the same way Ultramarines or Imperial Fists or Black Templars differentiate themselves rather than simply claiming to be Space Marines).
At the end of the day, these warzone books are mostly narrative. They are designed to be narrative, not competitive. Stop whining about having to bring three books around, that's just hyperbolic, and detracts from the main issues. I think it's dumb that we're having supplements when not all the codex are out yet. They should have done like psychic awakening, wait until all factions get their codex before they release psychic awakening campaign supplements. That's a gross error on their part, and I get why people are upset with that. But being upset that you need to bring 3 books around (when you really don't have to) for your faction that has received so much love and attention, that just screams entitled, hyperbolic and selfish.
I'm an Adeptus Mechanicus player too. I get the outrage that we're getting supplements when other factions haven't gotten their codex. But I have to roll my eyes at the nonsensical "we need all 3 books to get full rules!" because that simply is not true. Chill out, dudes. At the end of the day, you're the one with the addiction to purchasing books for the sake of completion, and not because you really need all 3 books. That's more of a problem with you, and not Warzone Charadon.
If there's any problem, it's that we should give the other factions their codex first. I'm rolling my eyes at how Chaos Space Marines are getting supplements without any codex, and how they will not be getting 2 wounds even though it's been almost a year since Space Marines got their codex. Just...come on. Sigh.
