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Ave Omnissiah!

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

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Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Mechanicum during the Horus Heresy

I think most people already know this, but I'm a huge fan of the Adeptus Mechanicus. And that includes its Horus Heresy iteration, the Mechanicum. I'm an even bigger fan of the Imperial Knights, and again that includes the Knight houses that were present in the Horus Heresy. I wanted to read Vengeful Spirit, but I was loathe to read all that Horus and other Space Marine stuff (I only want to read about Imperial Knights and the fall of House Devine, I don't care about all the traitors, Space Marines and stuff!). Plus the cast was so huge it felt overwhelming. No thanks, I'll wait for a cheaper version like my Mechanicum or borrow it from a library or something.

Anyway, why am I talking about Horus Heresy? Well...because it seems that Games Workshop is releasing a starter set for Horus Heresy the game in November! No details, I can't find much news or info regarding that on the Internet except that it's happening. Rumors range from Games Workshop wanting to tweak and change the rules entirely for Horus Heresy (bad move in my opinion), making it a game whose difficulty is between Warhammer Fantasy (Age of Sigmar) and Warhammer 40K, to them wanting to make Horus Heresy a hardcore game that surpasses Warhammer 40K in difficulty. Which one is true? I have no freaking idea.

What I'm certain of is that Horus Heresy books do exist in Forge World with all the rules and stuff. I'm planning to get the Mechanicum in Warhammer 30K or Horus Heresy, and thankfully the Omnissiah saw fit to have Forge World release a recently updated and compiled book for the Mechanicum. A Forge World codex, maybe? Mechanicum: Taghmata Army List, which compiles all the Mechanicum units from Horus Heresy books 1 to 5 into a single red book, includes all the Questoris Knights, Battle Titans and even new Mechanicum units from the Centurio Ordinatus, stuff they call Macro-Engines but somehow belong to the Ordinatus Minoris line (meaning they're the smallest war engines of the Ordinatus). Yet one costs over 700 points with a Volcano cannon and the other with the sonic cannon is over 1,000 points. Ouch.

Putting that aside, I suppose an explanation is in order. First I'll explain the difference between 30K and 40K. Actually, someone else has already written a much better explanation, so the guy with the Galaxy in Flames blog has a much better post. Read his An introduction to 30k for 40k players for more details.

To summarize, the Horus Heresy makes use of the Battles in the Age of Darkness Force Organization Chart, which is similar to 7th Edition's Force Organization Chart, except that you can take up to 3 HQ (1 compulsory), 6 Troops (2 compulsory - same as the original 7th ed FOC), 4 Elites, 3 Fast Attack (no change there) and 3 Heavy Support (again, no change there). Optional is a Fortification and a single Lord of War who must NOT be more than 25% of your army size in terms of points. Meaning if I want to play a 2,500-point game, I can't bring a Warhound Titan as my Lord of War as its 750 points surpasses the 625-point cap it places on me. Ouch. DAMN IT!

An allied detachment is also optional, and unlike 7th ed Warhammer 40K, you can't spam detachments or have multiple Combined Arms Detachments or Allied Detachment. You can only have one Allied Detachment, which is again the same as 7th ed's FOC, 1 compulsory HQ, 1 compulsory Troops, a 2nd optional Troops, 1 optional Elites, 1 optional Fast Attack and 1 optional Heavy Support. Yeah, pretty simple to get into.

I won't get into the other FOCs because they apparently aren't legal. Oh well. So we'll skip them.

Anyway, I've somehow gotten my hands on a few Horus Heresy books BUT I will probably buy the Mechanicum: Taghmata Army List eventually. The 30K Mechanicum is my next project once I've finished my Imperial Guard army. YAY!

I just hope someone will tell me if it's a good idea or bad idea to buy the book. Please leave some advice!

Additionally, I already have the models and base for an Imperial Knights army for 30K. I can easily build a Questoris Imperial Knights list with the Knights I have. Knight Errant as HQ Seneschal? Knight Paladin as Scion Martial? Sure. Done. I think I can substitute my Knight Warden as a Knight Castigator - y'know, point at my Knight Warden's Avenger Gatling cannon and tell my opponent, "yeah, that's an improved Castigator bolt cannon." Yay. He'll be my Scion Arbalester until I get a Knight Styrix, which I might get eventually. Who knows? But yeah, as you can see, I already have at least 2 Knights that I can use for my primary detachment, sub a Knight Warden for a Knight Castigator if my opponent is all right with it. If not, then well...I hope I'll get hold of a Knight Styrix eventually. 5 S8 AP3 shots are just too amazing. Well, pretending that my Knight Warden is a Knight Castigator is also good because I've 8 S7 AP3 shots from him...

But yeah, basically I already have a small but legal Questoris Knights list even if I am forced to count out the Knight Warden because my opponent insists that there's no way in the Warp that he can be a Knight Castigator.

As I can take allies for my Questoris Knights, I will take the Mechanicum as allies. That means I can build a Legio Cybernetica gunline with a Magos Dominus with Photon Thruster, 2 Castellax Robots with Darkfire cannons and 3 Thanatar robots. Awesome. All squadroned together in maniples, without the Paragon of Metal because I'm keeping them all at the back without moving them. Gunline, remember? Pure awesomeness. Alternatively I can give them all Paragon of Metal and ditch the Knight Styrix or Knight Castigator, turning my Legio Cybernetica into my primary detachment and using the Knights as allies instead. That means Magos Dominus with 3 Castellax Robots, a 4th Castellax Robot with Paragon of Metal and 3 Thantar Robots all with Paragon of Metal and running around to deal maximum damage. Hmm...sounds tempting. Or maybe I should swap out one Thanatar for a squad of Myrmidon Destructors. I'm not sure.

Well, I've plenty of time to think about it as I finish up my Imperial Guard army, so I'll take my time and experiment with various builds. For the Emperor!

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