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Hey guys, A quick batrep I want to do up for my last AdMech game. The Game: Maelstrom: One of the Chapter Approved missions where you have to draw 3 cards, and you must complete them before the beginning of your next turn or they are discarded. This makes movement a real key element of the mission I find. And it's not something my Admech are awesome at... too much sand in the joints. My List: - As you can see I opted for a Knight. I was tired of having pace dictated to me by my opponents. I feel it's one of my least favourite parts of Admech. In the past I had used a lot of Jazz Hands priests to counter that and fight for some of my own board control, along with Sicarian Infiltrators. Today I went with the beef option: Knight Crusader, pretty loaded. -Cawl -Dominus -Tech Priest 2 x Rangers with Arquebus 1 x 10 Vanguard with 2 x Plasma Cavaliers, taser dude.(had the points) Dunecrawler Dunecrawler 2 Kastelan Robots with Phospher Blasters Datasmith 2 x dragoons 5 Sicarian Infiltrators (not show above). Knight Crusader: Avenger/Ironstorm Missiles,/ Battle Cannon / Very large feet. Dark Angels: - Mostly a very, very shooty list: - Azrael Lt. - 5 Helblasters - Pred Annihilator - 3 x Ven Dread: dual las/missiles - 2 x 10 Tacticals with special weapons - 5 scouts w/Shotguns - Dev squad Plasma/Las - Squad of BlackKnights w/plasmatalons - Dark Talon (really good flyer for the points) The Dark Angel player just came off a great win against a soupy chaos/renegade list with a lot of shooty/forgeworld units so I didn't know what to expect. He has a LOT of high quality shooting, all with re-rolls thanks to Azrael, and the infantry is getting a 4++ invuln from him as well. Deployment: +++ We are playing corner to corner, and I get lucky with first turn. I always deploy to go second so I had my Knight outside of 48" of his Lascannons. In this picture I had finished my movement. - My cards were bad, but I had 'kill a character'. If you can see I set up my Arquebus' for a crossfire on Azrael. He couldn't hide from both, and I had first turn so both got to shoot at Azrael, and I managed to take a few wounds off. - I felt this would be a short, violent game because we both had the potential to rip a lot of armour apart. I got VERY lucky and my Dunecrawlers both had 3 shots, and ripped through his Flyer netting me first blood. - The advancement of the Vanguard left them sitting at mid, but my other card gave me an easy objective squatting in the middle. The Knight did very little. I decided to poke at some Dreads, and one is left with one wound, but other than that I decided to go after the Devastator squad because of the high damage potential of the Las/plasma there, and really the Knight is kitted for anti Infantry. Kastelans plink some infantry, but can't touch all that armour so are fairly ineffective. - Also I go up with my Dragoons, and infiltrate my Sicarians.... I lay down "Wrath of Mars" and get 3 Mortal wounds on the Black Knights, and 4 normal wounds which he saves.... not a great return, but I take it. I fail all charges. - I manage to take a 2-0 lead. Dark Angels: - He's down a Flyer, and 5 of his Devs, and I think I got one dread, and a good piece of the Black Knights. So he juggles the Pred, and starts firing back, but his army list is largely static... this is new to me as I typically am avoiding close contact with my opponents, but I'm happy to see he's content in his zone. However, it's built that way so the shooting starts.... - Even with all the remaining Las, he ignores the Knight (I don't think it was a huge threat to him) and he goes after the Dunecrawlers. Sure enough I make some darn good invulns, and he gets unlucky on wound rolls. Yet with weight of dice I do take a pile of wounds on one Dunecrawler.... down to 3 wounds! + Sicarians survive overwatch, and the Dunecrawler is charged. - Not shown: the bikes charged the Dragoons and kill one. It's okay.... I still have one and he laces into the remaining two bikes along with the Sicarians and I get really lucky here. - He manages a few points, but he's starting to feel the results of my very lucky first turn.... Admech Turn 2: - Admittedly this is a big turn for me. The canticles result in me being in cover, and having ONE Dark bike stuck in close combat with my Dunecrawler the other Canticle is the one where I roll and on a 6 cause a mortal wound... I tell my opponent Cawl will NOT adjust this number because I wish to troll him and kill his last wound on his last bike in this cheesy manner.... I roll a 6!!! The Bike is dead and my opponent can only roll his eyes at my cheesy luck. - The Knight positions for a ton of firepower and takes the Helblasters down to 2 models, but it took a lot of firepower through that 4++ save bubble. - The Vanguard clean up the Devs, and his flanks are now heavily severed. His movement is hampered by this giving me a lot of freedom of movement for Maelstrom cards which I take advantage of and score a couple of points. - The Kastelans change protocols from Aegis to Protector (but that won't take effect until T3). However they do kill some scouts... they were a bit disappointing this game. - The Dreadnoughts have to go and the Cawl combination with the Neutron Laser Dunecrawlers is devastating this turn taking a Dread and the Predator out. - At this point my Sicarians are closing in on his green wing bubble wrap, and the Dunecrawler is on fire.... I have a stellar roll with my special Bolter and Chainsword dice: + 6's mean +2 hits each! + = This roll puts down a lot of the bubble wrap so for turn 3 this leaves Azrael exposed..... + Cawl looks on longingly at his lovely creation... the Hellblaster plasma gun. He asks the Knight to retrieve one for his personal collection.... + - In Dark Angels turn 3 I lose a slightly repaired Dunecrawler but it takes everything he has left.... Azrael comes out of the back lines to clock my last Dragoon. - At this point the Dark Angels concede. It was hard fought but I think this game was decided turn 1. We both had very destructive lists, and my opening salvo put him at too big a disadvantage. With no real assault threat this gave me a lot of room and he didn't have the foot print to push me back. - The Knight was a good... 546 points I believe. He was quite mediocre. I don't think he earned his points back... I'm pretty sure of that. Cawl was good, not sure if he was so good to be 'auto include' in this type of list, but again I think the fact a Dark Angel list was trying to outshoot me helped me although those Helblasters with the Dark Angels' Strategem do 3 damage. I had to take them out early. Thanks for checking this out!

So a super fast run down of a game I just had with metalica. The game was 2k, Maelstrom Deadlock (start with 6 cards, discard one a turn.) . I had first turn with Metalica. My List looked like this: +++ Unfortunately it's obviously not entirely WYSIWYG. The Scouts represent Fulgurite Priests. Eight of them. And I'm proxying a tech priest - The idea of my list was to utilize the Metalica Dogma and the WL trait to move around the board quickly, and be able to disengage from CC and still shoot. - His Dark Angel list was unusual, and did have a huge slant on Deathwing Terminators. Basically 3 full Tact squads, and 3 Terminator squads with Belial (the guy is a beast for his points). And that eats up a ton of points, but he still had the Ravenwing Bikers.... with Plasma talons and a Libby/Chappy on bike. - I take the high ground with Rangers, everything else is in the middle, and the Rangers spread out as far as humanly (inhumanly?) possible to prevent Deep Strike. + The Rangers did squat all this game. Their role was to pick off HQ's and only hit and wounded one out of 4-6 shots (lost track). Abysmal as usual. But they did prevent deep strike on the flank I guess... - My first turn is stellar... I mean I've never had a first turn this big in 8th edition Maelstrom. I score 7 points on 6 cards. Plus First Blood. His troops were spread out, and I really didn't know what to target. We have a house rule that no more than 2 points can be scored PER CARD to prevent runaways. I was glad we had that house rule or I very well could have ran off with it worse. I got a few objectives drawn in my zone which was darn lucky. The rest were 'kills'. - I zap one squad of Tacticals down to zero, and target the Ravenwing bikers with their speed. I barely manage to get all of those bikers, because I did not want to advance any Vanguard yet because his sizable Deathwing Termie star would rip me a new one if I wasn't defensive. - His turn the Termies come in. My opponent was good about it, but he did keep noting the way I deployed prevented him from getting the Termies anywhere he really wanted to go... so he took a far right table side and opened up on some Ironstrider Ballistarius' and they were easily over run, and the Vanguard took a bit of a beating. One thing I'm not sure about is he took shots at my Onager Dunecrawlers, but just piecemeal. In his defense he really hadn't played against Admech. I let him know these were repairable. MID GAME: - With his Termies in, I could move about the map and do what had to be done. He had scored a point or two and I was less concerned about scoring at this point and more concerned about testing some theories. - I moved Vanguard aggressively. The Priests moved up to cover them. The Vanguard shooting was fantastic with the Plasma but that S3 Radium Carbines on Termies was doing absolutely nothing... I knew I was going to take a blunt of a massive charge soon. - I realized through my 2nd/3rd turn that this many Terminators was a serious problem. I know he had beaten a pretty tough Ork opponent with this list (he had 120 Orks) and it was the 2+ save that was too much to get through.... Sure enough I'm seeing even with Dunecrawlers a lot of it was luck based. - I used the Strategem to get to +2 BS on the Vanguard with Plasma. This did good, but not great! Sure enough the inevitable charge happens. + Here it comes.... - I barely remove any models, I don't score a point. Sure enough he's slowly gaining in points on me but the Deadlock scenario is hard if you can't empty your first turn hand and he has a few tough cards he can't get out of his hand.... - The Termies make it in, but somehow I hold the line. I think I actually made 2 x 6 up Invulns! - My army positions for the counter strike, I have my Infiltrators come in..... and The Termies have to be dealt with..... + the Infiltrators bounce really hard on these marines.... I wanted to stop them from scoring a few points on this objective. And I needed it as well, but it went pretty badly... - Back at the close combat, I didn't lose any to battle shock, so I retreat, and move my Warlord up high enough to 'rally' the Vanguard, and they shoot at -1 back into the Termies. This was huge. - All resources I have hit those termies to free up my lines. This is enough to bring them down but I am shocked how much trouble I am having dropping them. The Kastelans really don't do a heck of a lot.... so he was ignoring them and focusing on the volume / plasma fire of the Vanguard. - The termies in cc with the vanguard are all shot up. So the Priests need a new task, I advance them to where the Infiltrators were destroyed. - My opponent gets another point... I COULD get one myself but I'm more curious about the assault in the corner and now I see the remaining 7-10 Termies as a challenge to get rid of.... - - The last of the Vanguard retreat while the bulk of the army unloads. - So the priests get into CC and they do very well delivering Mortal Wounds on the way in..... And since the Dragoons lead the charge, they took the overwatch. Sure enough his Chappy and Libby hit back (on Bikes) and slap a few Priests around. In his turn I manage to finally kill the remaining Tacticals with the Priests bringing their Invuln up to 3++ and they were ready to take on the Chappy and Libby next. - Much closer to my zone, he moved his termies up as much as he could but with only 5" he really couldn't catch me as I knew I had to kite him... I did so with the Dunecrawlers and I advanced my last, full Vanguard Squad up to get into rapid with him... I got a 6 allowing me a 12" move with no penalty, used the Strategem again and unloaded overcharged Plasma re-rolling 1's.... only the Plasma really did much though, but it was a high volume of stuff... combined with the rest of my army firepower, it finally took down theTermies. He had to concede with only a Sarge and Belial left. - He was a good sport after a tough first turn for sure. And as down on termies as some people are... I was shocked how much trouble I had getting rid of them.

So I'm off for another game shortly and just wanted to get this up before I get too back logged with pictures.... This was a really strange game for me. My opponent was Dark Angels and he's new to the game within the last year and doesn't have everything he'd like to bring to a game yet. I will say as preamble I should confess I helped him with tactics where I thought it was critical, but his list was surprisingly... functional. Perhaps that is the best admech type description I could use. :) Sorry but this is all from memory, which like Cawl's is sometimes swapped out for more useful memories such as.... where did I park my Dunecrawler? His list: - Belial - tons of Termies. Mostly 5 man squads with assault cannons. - 3 full tactical squads, usually with mixed weaponry like Missile launcher + special weapon, all in Rhino's - Librarian w/ Adversion (whatever it's called the ol' DA power that makes you -1 to hit something within 24" of him.) - Captain. - Vindicator - Dread with fist/twin Las. Adeptus Mechanicus of the mighty red sands of Mars: - Brigade: - 2 Tech Dominus, 1 Engineseer - 6 x 5 or 6 Vanguard/Rangers. A few Arquebus' etc. Some Plasma Cavaliers sprinkled in. - 3 Onager Dunecrawlers. 2 with Neutrons, 1 with Icarus. - 2 Kastelan's with shooty fists - 1 Datasmith -5 Sicaran infiltrators - 5 Corpuscarii Electro Jazz Hands! - 2 individual Ironstrider Ballastarii with twin cognis Autocannons - 3 Sydonian Dragoons with cattle prods The Game: Red Rock vs the Black Rock. Sand vs Secrets, etc etc... - Maelstrom: We get the mission where you start with one objective card, and can draw up a card in subsequent turns for as many objective markers as you control. This is always hard for my AdMech, as we prefer controlling... code over inanimate things on the battlefield! - Deployment: - Admech deployment features killy stuff around the aura, with defensive positioning on the outskirts by Vanguard/Rangers to prevent uninvited Terminator party crashers. - Dark Angels put rhino's on flanks, and the meat of his shooting is dead center. The Vindicator, Dread and HQ's advance. I know he wants to get his Termies into my board edge but as the Dark Angel player realizes I've spaced things with no way he can do this... so he reconsiders his options and plops all Termies down to my left flank. - He draws a card he can complete, and he gets First Blood and takes the early lead.... His first turn shooting is obviously plinking away at my Vanguard. It is only Stormbolter fire but it is quite a bit of it! Thankfully Shroupsalm is in effect and although he gets first blood I still have some Skitarii left on the flank. His first blood actually game from downing an Ironstrider. - Admech turn is a card I can't complete. He's already owning the middle of the board and the left flank is in serious danger.I elect to keep the Infiltrators in reserve due to unfavourable positioning in his zone. - I change the protocol on the Kastelans successfully, but the middle is decidedly owned by DA and there are two large imperial cylinders that literally block off all LoS. As a side note the Libby cast Averson on my forward squad of Vanguard making them -1 to hit. - Admech start firing back on Terminators while cautiously advancing, but it is quite bad... very bad. A few scattering of wounds. No points for Mars this turn. - Dark Angels advance and capitalize on Mars' lack of CC units and hunker down in the middle of the city preparing for a close quarter fire fight. - Dark Angels draw up 3 cards and some are quite doable. He gets some very handy objectives near his zone, and most of the objective markers he placed are mid field. This works very much to his advantage has he is drawing the right cards to advance and sit on those objectives. Mars is forced to advance. - The Terminators shoot up a lot of Vanguard, The Dominus orders a retreat, and units 'reverse advance' to create a gap, trying to lure the Terimnators into range of the Kastelans. - Dark Angels cast Aversion on the Kastelans this time... which really hurts... and confuses Mars. How is a robot depreciated in efficiency by the warp magic???? Does not compute...! Anyway, I realize the Dark Angels are trying to pinch me in. I have no answer for the Termies in CC, but he is taking the bait on the running Vanguard.... still he draws good cards on my right side, and starts to advance a Rhino with squad to claim one in his zone getting 3 objective markers, and earning D3 points. He's now got a healthy lead of 1111 to 0. That's binary for... I'm getting my ass kicked! ++ Counter measures are made. The Dominus takes control of the Dragoons and warns the Skitarii of the long term plans. This means direct confrontation with the misguided space men of the wrong rock. ++ - Admech have a decent draw but where I am hoping for 'kill' type objectives instead I get 'grab stuff deep in your opponent's zone' type of cards which Admech LOVE to do. (that's Martian Sarcasm btw). - One objective is up my right flank. Another is to have something in my opponent's zone. The Dominus calculates a plan to kill two birds with one stone... prevent the Rhino squad from taking a 'Defend' point, and score the objective instead, while grabbing a point for being in his zone; the brings out the Infiltrators, as well as moving up the Dragoons, and Vanguard. - On the left flank protocols have set in and the trap is set, terminators are in Kastelan range. I heal up two Onagers, and commit the entire double shooting of the Kastelans, and remaining Vanguard into the Terminators, BUT with Aversion still affecting the Kastelans this is a tough turn for me... the Termies with two wounds are still falling but nearly as fast as I need... - The infiltrators do terrible in shooting. The middle is still a mosh pit I can't seem to crack. The Dunecrawlers have been really mediocre to this point. The Vindicator and Dread are still picking away at my heavies but my ability to repair keeps everything going. I do score a point and I'm on the board. ++ Terminators are drawn in to the killing grounds, but the "Aversion'd" Kastelans have technical issues. And the 'bait' Skitarii aren't too happy about it.++ Mid to Late Game: - Although I'm on the board, it's become apparent the game is going poorly for me. Dark Angels have me pinched in on the left flank. Mars tries to hold the middle ground while facing the mounting thread at Mid Table..... - Dark Angels now draw a few objectives that are based on the MID table objective which he is sitting on. Some of these I can't do anything about, but one of them is 'Defend' so Angels have to keep that for consecutive turns. - He starts to put a greater dent into my Dunecrawlers but I keep reminding him to focus fire because my repairs out pace his wound rate. He FINALLY fails Averson. This gives the Kastelans a chance to clear the malware, and reboot quickly! - Dark Angels advance termies closer, and take down a few more vanguard, and damage my last Ironstrider which is taking pot shots at them. He also drew an objective near his right flank Rhino, I have to prevent it... - He scores for mid table, and my Sicarian Infiltrators are hit hard (I could not charge them last turn to get the point for being in his zone). But somehow I pass the armour saves. With his point scored, he's now up by 5-1. - The Datasmith resets the Kastelans and they double fire on the Terminators again, this time with full ballistic skill. This (finally) Kills a great deal of them, the Deathwing are forced to drop their Assault Cannons, Belial and a few heavy handed termies still live, they plod forward... - I grabbed a few decent cards in this turn, and had to push the right side, BUT to make matters worse (or more interesting depending on who you are) I draw the same mid field objective he has been sitting on because he needs 'Defend'. Ouch. I get another card specific to Admech: Do a full repair on something and score a point.. this I can do, But I need to use a Strategem to perform a double repair on a Dunecrawler, but a point is scored. - The Jazz hands turn the corner, and shoot up his mid field stuff... .I use 'Wrath of Mars' but it's terrible... I feel like I did something wrong, and I did.. .(more on that later). ++ Electrolysis-Priests offer free hair removal; Dark Angels refuse the service...+++ - Jazz hands don't do too well here but it's my fault. It turns out I only fired half their shots, total missread of their rules on my part, even though I knew better... very strange, but oh well. As you can see he's loaded up at mid and AdMech is forced to flank. - Finally the Dunecrawlers hit solidly enough to take down the Dreadnaught, giving the rest of the army some breathing space to take on the mid table...if there's enough time, maybe I can salvage this mess? - My fight phase and the Dragoons bring out the cattle prods and smack down the 10 man Dark Angel tactical squad. The Sicarians unfortunately fail their charge into the characters that are supporting the mid table (just off camera above). This means I can't score anything at mid Table. - I do score a few though and I'm within reach of a few points of Dark Angels. END GAME: - Dark Angels score to go up to 7 points holding mid, He can't score points, but he still leads and this is turn 5. The game goes on... - Belial is too far out of reach but the remaining terminators rush an Icarus Dunecrawler. The Dunecrawler would retreat in my turn, and the Dominus combined with an Ironstrider would kill the last of them. Belial would retreat, denying me Slay the Warlord. - The mid table fails a few critical psychic tests. The Vinidicator moves up to prevent me from assaulting the last mid table characters. - Now in my turn I know I need good cards, and a chance to table him... but Belial is clearly out of sight. ++ Mars boldly goes where no Martian has gone before... towards characters at mid table ++ - Desperation time. I draw the card that forces me to get everything out of my deployment, and have no opponents in my zone. I draw mid table, and an objective I'm already sitting on! - This works well with the Dominus' plan to be aggressive at mid. The Kastelans are ordered to fire everything at the Vindicator and kill it. - Jazz hands try shooting again with 'Wrath of Mars'. This time I realize I undershot previously. Even though the squad isn't full strength, I get 4 mortal wounds on top of 6-7 more wounds and a tactical squad is vaped. - I get 'kill a character' by making him the closest unit to a squad of Rangers I advanced. - Dark Angels are nearly tabled, and I have the points in this final turn to put me over the edge. Techically the game should have continued to turn 7, however the cards I drew put me over the top and with only Belial, he could not prevent me from scoring. Admech pulls off a very, very, narrow final turn victory. Conclusions: - I make a point of having the tables with lots of obscuring terrain, but this was brutal. He got to camp pretty darn good at mid field. I'm glad I had the legs on the table to advance without fear of losing high cost units. - I screwed up with the Priests. That miss count almost cost me the game, but I liked them a lot. Fun unit with Wrath of Mars. - Arquebus'. I just cannot get these things to do anything to characters. My best use of them is against Rhino's.. .this seems to happen a lot. But I think people may write them off as vehicle killers but I like them to finish off vehicles. - Tacticals. At first glance I saw his list and thought... tacticals... very juicy for Admech to tear into. I couldn't believe how much trouble I had getting rid of them. Aversion on my Kastelans, turning a 4+ to hit into a 5+ really, really sucks. Having no Psychic defence continues to be an issue. - Terminators. Wow. It's not that I can't kill them, it's just that a lot of the stuff I can kill them with, also happens to be what I need for anti-vehicle, and with the Kastelans psychicly 'nerfed' I had a lot of problems there. - BTW it occured to me in about.. turn 3 that I forgot to deploy my second Dominus. lol But I did not end up deploying him at all. Just in case anyone noticed he was missing. This was a much closer game than I though it would be. It was well fought by the DA. Thanks for reading this!

ADEPTUS CUSTODES OF THE DARK MILLENNIUM They have watched for ten thousand years. They have mourned a vision lost and a galaxy split in two. They perceive there will be no final victory for Mankind. Yet even now they strike out into the dying light. A hurled spear into the eternal night. A desperate reach for those lost in the Imperium Nihilus... THE GREAT QUIET For ten thousand years the Custodes have stood watch within the Solar System, only rarely straying beyond its borders. Their perceived failure in the closing days of the Heresy saw them retreat into mourning and indolence. However, behind the mighty doors of the Imperial Palace debate raged amongst these philosopher-warriors as to their mandate in maintaining the Emperor’s vision for the Imperium, and for thousands of years many questioned: should they intervene? Time and again events arose that threatened the integrity of the Imperium: The Great Beast, the Nova Terra Interregnum, The Black Crusades, all warranted great gatherings of the dwindling ‘Ten Thousand’ in which each warrior spoke and debated their continued inactivity. Yet still, the combination of historical inertia, the Emperor-given prerogative of the High Lords’ rule, and the possibility of leaving the Throneworld unguarded prevented any decisive deployment of the Custodes. But now, with the return of Lord Commander Roboute Guilliman, and the occurrence of the Cicatrix Maledictum a great gathering occurred within the Custodes. Now once more the Adeptus Custodes range far from the Throneworld in aid of the lost and defence of Humanity. Order of Battle Adeptus Custodes 1 Shield Company “The Vigilant” - from the Throneworld 1 Shield Company “First Wall” - from the ‘Talon Aegis’ Star Keep at the edge of Sol Astra Militarum 1st Ziberuan Host “Old Hundred” Throneworld Shield Regiment 3rd and 8th Company Terran Praefects – Palace Guard Companies 7th and 18th Jovian Voidborne Heavy Assault Regiments Terran Penal Regiment 6841 – also called the “Atoners” under the discipline of the Adeptus Ministorum Imperial Personae Aleph-93 Terran Extratus Maniple – Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii Cohort – Imperial Palace Contingent [Data Restricted] members of the Terran Assassin Clades of the Officio Assassinorum Numerous attached personnel of the Battlefleet Solar and Aeronautica Imperialis // ANNOUNCING - a project log of Adeptus Custodes, Adeptus Mechanicus and Astra Militarum!!!!! Pic heavy posts coming soon. This project has been a slow labour of love back into the hobby, and into writing and exploring fluff It is also my first delve into green-stuffing and conversion! Enjoy! // Custodes Biker Captain Attilon - Captain of the Dread Host - WIP Kitbashed with Trajann's torso, and a greenstuff + Wolfguard terminator wolf pelt late additions include the Void shield generators of a Titanicus Reaver Titan replacing the shield generators on the bike to represent the Custodes bike relic Auric Aquilas will be helmless, possibly going to add the Cyber-hawk found on the Deathwatch White Scar biker...... ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Update #1 An Anguished Ancient Amon Tauromachian walked with the Emperor himself, and for over four thousand years remained a stalwart leader amongst the echelons of the Custodians. From the early days of Unity, through the Great Crusade and the Heresy he fought for the nascent Imperium against its numerous foes. It was on the sleepy backwater Agri-world of Mackan on the edge of Segmentum Solar where Amon would meet his match. During the 4th Black Crusade a splinter fleet of off the main offensive made up of Alpha Legion reportedly led by one calling himself "Alpharius" obliterated the sparse defenses of Mackan and landed in number in order to covertly obtain access to long-distance cargo haulers bound for Terra. Alerted to this great threat by an agent of the Eyes of the Emperor Amon led a great Shield Host in a rare excursion from Terra in order to combat this threat itself. In a rapid series of Teleportation strikes onto the planet's vast spaceport the Custodes brought battle to the Alpha Legion in a series of moving engagements through the halls and corridors of the station, whilst orbital strikes demolished the landing zones across the planet's vast network of transport hubs. It was however at a small excavation site over the northern pole of Mackan that Amon and a score of his brethren landed in order to investigate seismic activity detected by orbital augers in the hours leading up to the attacks, their arrival moments before the emergence of the Alpha Legions from tunnels below ground. Leading this force was a tall figure in gilded panoply with twin-ended spear in one fist and a small Black Cube in the other. It suddenly became clear that the attacks had been a mask for this much greater threat. The forces charged each other and it was with this figure that Amon engaged. In the first moments of battle it became clear to Amon that he was woefully outmatched such were the flurry of blows against his guardian spear, and mere seconds later much of the armour of his torso and one of his shoulders was shredded in a glancing blow by the mighty foe. Having recognized the world-ending threat of the Black Cube now lashed to the belt of this "Alpharius", Amon stepped close into the next thrusting blow aimed at his chest, and dropping his guard rushed forward, lashing out at the Cube's tetherings as he did so. The blow struck true, impaling Amon through and through, but as he fell onto the thrust, Amon grabbed the Cube and activated his advanced personal teleportation device. His broken frame teleported onto an Imperial ship in orbit, fist still clutching the Cube, Amon ordered a retreat. His body mutilated and supported by a dozen servitor controlled life-support systems, he was returned to the Tower of Hegemon upon Terra for interment within a great Dreadnought sarcophagus; the Black Cube sequestered away in the Black Cells far below Terra under the watch of the Shadowkeepers. Now, many thousands of years later Amon still fights in the name of the Emperor when awoken from his slumber, still ready to defend the Throneworld or provide wisdom to the Custodes of the 41st Millennium. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Update #2 (short update) Dark-Age Weaponry Exterminatus is a weapon of last resort, utilized only rarely and in the direst of circumstances. Where this might normally be carried out by the massed fleets of the Imperial Navy or Adeptus Mechanicus, there exist still a few rare devices in the possession of the Custodes that can wipe a planet clean of all life in a single moment. Their access to these horror-weapons of Old Night ensures the destruction is a deterrent for any who might consider throwing off their oaths of loyalty to the Emperor. One such weapon is the Archaus Nova-Destabiliser a primus-grade Exterminatus device that sets up a destructive reaction on the surface of a planet strikingly similar to the inside of a supernova. Still, it is with only with intense sorrow that the Custodes employ these catastrophic weapons, as the destruction of worlds brought to Compliance during the glorious days of the Emperor’s vision is a reminder of how much has been lost of His vision for mankind. // in game I am going to use this as one of my Objective Markers // ____________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Update #3 Europa Wall Contingent These members of “The Vigilant” Shield Company stereotype those members from the Terran contingent of Custodes, clad in golden armour and wielding a classic arrangement of weaponry, each Custodian represents a bastion of unmovable Auramite. Malachi, Saturnalia, and Jahdon were previously deployed to the Europa Wall section to the southwest of the Sanctum Imperialis. The relative tranquillity of this region of the Palace in recent decades meant that this section was an ideal location to withdrawal Custodians from for the Last Light Crusade, and whilst reluctant to relinquish their watch to the lesser expertise of Imperial Fist rearguard units and Astra Militarum regiments, this trio were eager to pursue a more aggressive form of protection of the Master of Mankind. // My first troops choice of the army, next one will be posted up soon //

Years ago, I came across an intriguing fan theory about the Machine God worshipped by the Adeptus Mechanicus and how it might hypothetically attain its own, separate existence. To reiterate, it argued that even if the being they deify is actually Void Dragon, their collective belief and acts of veneration might generate a separate entity in the Warp that turn what began as silly superstition into actual reality down the line. A self-fulfilling prophecy, if you will, in which their faith in their beloved Omnissiah winds up making it real. Seems the writers at Games Workshop have moved forward with this concept, too, if the debut of Vashtorr the Arkifane in 10th Edition is any indication. Personally, he still strikes me as too "halfway-organic" and not nearly "machine" enough to be the actual patron god of engineering and invention. In fact, while it's definitely not up to me, I find that I'd quite prefer he'd instead be a Greater Daemon to the true God of Machines — which I've taken a stab at writing myself. That all out the way, I hereby present my own spin on the "Warp-born Machine God!" idea in the form of Deus Machinarum: All in all, quite an "interesting" fan theory that I felt need to expand upon myself. Please let me know what you think; I'm new here, and the ins and outs of 40K fluff and theology are not my foremost area of expertise (especially when it involves Warp shenanigans or potential gods who've been implied to still be forming). Other than that, I'd say I've done a decent job of at least delineating the broad strokes of a Warp-born Machine God would look like and what the ramifications might be, so feel free to ask your questions and supply your comments. I look forward to reading all of them! Thank you in advance, Zyobot