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In the run up to WHFest I managed to get another game in, this time against Adeptus Custodes. They're a really tough fight in 40k, and I had no idea what they would be like in HH. War of Lies, triangles deployment pointing at one another. This game I ditched the preds, despite how much I love them, to run a Leviathan in a HH Leviathal. I also swapped the Deredeo and something else for a Delgatus with nemesis and 3 sky hunters with MM's and a fist. Custodian Army Custodian warden that can be taken at 3k 3x terminators 1x5 dudes with meridian blades 1x 5 dudes with spears 1x 5 dudes with shields 1x3 dudes with spears in reserve 3 with combi instant death things 2x3 bikes with bolt cannons 1x Galatus dead with fist and 12" lance thing. Custodes t2 movement. This time I got seized on! I swear 50% of my games someone seizes. The Custides leader with the 2 next to him advances down the flank to try and fight the Alphas in honourable combat. No chance. The bikes to the right of my Effrit charged in, losing 1 to overwatch (breaching 6+ shred) before killing 3 in combat. The Effrit run away, but managed to escape the bikes. The Leviathan and Galatus get into range and start pummelling one another, The Levi winning out despite the 4+ save due to armourbane and only S8 on the galatus. The final wounds are knocked off in melee, which was a dangerous prospect with the custodian dread being WS6. In future it might be better to let them shoot and charge me to get 2 rounds of shooting off. The Fulmentatus just massacred any unit they shot at, with AP2 Brutal. The Guided fire applies to the unit, not just models with launchers, I think, so my nemesis and telepathy shooting attack could fire through walls... The Shield unit chases down the headhunters after rolling a double 1 charge in turn 1 and massacre the spies. The boss custodian failed their T2 charge, but made it into the dread t3 after I retreated with my fulmentarus. He beat this dread after it killed his bodyguard, however the other dread then charged in and smushed him to paste. We played 3 turns overall and after that it was a pretty clear cut win for the Alphas, I'd barely suffered any casualties (5 recons, dread, 2 seekers, 5 headhunters) while my opponent had like 8 custodians left and I was on 4/5 objectives, then also had warlord and headhunter. This was a good learning game, custodes are a lot more balanced than in 40k, the 6++ isn't great, it could have maybe even been a 5++ (we see how fast tartaros dies), however they are monsters in combat - they'll butcher any army they contact, unless you pick and choose those. I wasted a lot of precision fire in trying to take out the leader with his 4++ (he saves >50% of the saves), while I could have been easily killing the other custodians he was with, so that's a lesson for the future - those like 6 passed 4++ saves would have been 2.5 dead custodians. The headhunters did little this game, other than be the distraction I planned them to be (melta is worse than plasma v T5 2W?) howver the bikes did ok, and the fulmentarus did amazing. I'm not 100% on the rapiers, but the templates did slow stuff down. That might be very useful with alphas.

Not so much a batrep as showing off my friend Dom's gorgeous DG army. I'm trying to get in some practice games for WHFest, and Dom has been working hard on these awesome DG so we got a game lined up! Alpha Legion - No RoW Vigilator - nemesis, dagger Librarian - telepathy, force axe, power maul, pinning wlt. Contemptor talon - 1x melta, grav fist, 1x las, fist 2x rapier grav cannon 5 fulmentarus, 3 fists, 2 axes 10 Effrit - daggers 10 tacs - arty 10 tacs, arty, dagger 5 recons nemeis 10 seekers, arty 5 Headhunters, arty, 4 cmeltas, mmelta. 3x preds 2x meltacannon, 1x pred cannon, all lascannons Deredeo - hellfire plasms, aiolos, hvb's. Death Guard - Creeping Death RoW Praetor - MC hammer, claw, pinning wlt. Siege breaker, nemesis, with autocannon havocs 10 grave wardens in spartan (as las no flare) contemptor - 2x grav las contemptor - 2x fists 20 tacticals - arty 10 tacticals - arty 5 seekers, nemesis, arty 2 scorpius's 10 autocannon HSS, arty Typhon Mission was tide of carnage, so 3/5/7 VP for holding own dz/no mans land/opposing dz, with the quarters deployment rolled - we'd be starting 18" from one another with a typhon on the table. A double edged sword if there ever was one. Neither army was really optimised, just taking what we had [mostly, in my case] painted. DG won the roll off and deployed first, two scorpiuses, 2 contemptors, a typhon and spartan full of grave wardens was pretty scary. I deployed as much out of LOS behind the central building as possible, and out of LOS of the typhon even with a 12" move, including the melta preds, HH's and fulmentarus, then my other infiltrators to the left to try and get the tactical marines, and left my 2 tac squads in reserve to come into the game later and maybe try to mop up. I was all set to be on the receiving end of a whole lot of pieplates when this happened Which basically won me the game. The headhunters scouted to 9.1" away from the typhon, then moved to within 6" of it. The Typhon was blocked by the whirlwinds so couldn't retreat, the melta dread got in MM range, and while the HH's fluffed their rolls, the dread did not and blew it sky high. The melta preds moved 14" to get a bead on the whirlies, and a single salvo from the melta cannon made both explode, wasting 6 lascannons, another melta and predator cannons. Job done, though. The fulmentarus plasma shot the nearby melee contemptor, scoring 3 wounds and failing 5 saves for brutal 2, the dread was then finished off by the rending, breaching 6+ shotguns on the effrit. The las contemptor fluffed the bolt shots at the seekers, but the lascannons killed 2, they failed morale and ran off the board! Other scattered fire chipped 2HP from the spartan. That's about 1000pts dead T1, and myopponent's army crippled! Return fire, the autocannons and twin las cotemptor shot my preds, killing 2 outright through HP strupping and took the last to 1HP and snap shots. Down but not out. The spartan shot the deredeo for 2W, the grave wardens disembarked, fired everything at the mm contemptor then charged it, easily mashing it in melee. At this point we'd spent so long chatting and catching up it was late, so we called it there, with a win to the Alphas! Next time, we need a bit more terrain on the table, and to put the scorpius behind cover instead of in the open, The Death Guard Praetor has learned to fear the melta! Takeaways: I'd planned the army to mess with the opponent with grav templates, dangerous terrain and such, but DG ignore some of that natively, and creeping death lets them ignore the rest of it - this might be the natural counter match up to what I'd planned for the army, despite the end result. Other legions all seem to have amazing or at least decent RoW's, while the Alphas have 1 DoA one (coils) and one that restricts army building to the point of being difficult to list write to be able to take on armoured targets with the current plastic range from GW, meaning heavy weapons need to go into FA or Elites. This will change when/if we get plastic javelins. I think I might drop 1 pred from the list, despite the discount, as 3 seems too unwieldy with terrain, alternatively get better at using the AL special reaction and save it for the preds to get them out of dodge asap. This might mean blowing it in T1 though. The rapiers underperformed here, though DG were their weakness. Zero casualties from them, but in other games this might change. If I get rid of them, I could swp the deredeo for a Levi for the fun that entails. I could always directly swap the deredeo for a 2xlas+helical contemptor, which frees up a HS slot, meaning 1 less FA is needed for Leviathal.

I had a trip to WHW with a few other B&C folk a couple of weeks ago and managed to get some games in, mostly with @Excessus, either playing with or against him! It's been a while since he'd played, so we just did primaries on a random mission, which turned out to have 5 objectives, we did 5pts per command phase for each objective held, and used nachmund rules. My list 1250pts Craftworlds Patrol - Swift strikes and mobile fighters Autarch, Warlord, 2+" move, falchou's wing, fusion gun 5 rangers, wireweave 10 avengers, dual cats 10 banshees, piercing strikes, mirrorswords 6 spiders 3 spears, hearstrike, paragon sabre Prism Serpent - lances Serpent - scatters Alpha Legion Chaos lord in TDS - Black mace master of possession - fleshy thing and 4+ invuln 10 renegade guard - plasma, grenade 10 renegade guard - plasma, grenade 2x 5 marines, plasma 5 terminators hellbrute - tllas, MoT hellbrute - bolters, MoT grav rapier venomcrawler venomcrawler Deployment - I won the roll off and Excessus had to deploy first and stuck everything pretty much as far forward as possible, the lord and terms started in DS Reserve. The 5 man csm unit forward operaratived onto the east objective. CWT1 I won the roll off to go first, and generally shuffled around and the prism advanced 21" onto the north objective. Nothing got out yet. The prism shot the lascannon hellbrute, but the MoT deflected one of the wounds, however I rolled well on the second and knocked it down to 1 wound, the rangers then managed a lucky mortal on it to kill it. The lance serpent then killed the grav rapier before I could find out what it does. Spears shuffled back. ALT1 Everything moved forwards, venomcrawlers shoot and kill the spears (!), a crawler and the other CSM make it onto the central objective, so it's currently 3-2 to the alphas. Other random shooting knocks 6W off the prism. CWT2 10 vp for primaries. The other dread has to die, so I maneuvered stuff around. This was a generally unsuccessful turn, I got 10 VP for 2 objectives, but it took basically all my shooting to kill that second dread and knock some wounds off a crawler. The avengers got out to shoot something also (mistake) ALT2 15vp. The terms came in 9" from my front line, blocking access to the central objective. Avengers got shot up with 5 dead, one crawler managed a charge on a serpent, but fluff the attacks, the terminators fail the charge. Score is 10-15 to the AL. The CSM approach... End of my T2 The Terminators arrive CWT3 10vp for primaries. The banshees hopped out to counter the terminators, they basically go where they want with a 6" advance, 8" move then 3" deploy, but the chaos lord was tucked away limiting access. I fall back with the serpent being attacked by the crawler and fire and fade to let it shoot. The spiders then hop onto the objective to either shoot the crawler or something else. Everything shoots the venomcrawler, it dies and explodes, kiling 3 banshees (!), wounding my autarch twice, and killing a spider. Scatters start thinning cultists on their home objectve. The exarch goes into the lord with 3 other banshees, the remainder, minus the dead 3, go into the terms. I forgot to battle focus the autarch, so he goes in as well. The exarch and 3 banshees knock the lord down to 3w (very good rolling on saves) while the rest of the banshees kill 3/5 of the terminators (less good rolling). The lord then swings back with the black mace wound spillover and wipes the banshees alone. ALT3 Terms go after the rangers on my home objective, the MoP heals the lord for 3W. the east CSM move to the centre with the MoP, the central CSM move toward the western objective. Bit of scattered shooting kills some spiders lord charges my autarch and kills him. 20-30 to the AL. CWT4 10 vp. all my tanks cycle clockwise to get onto the SE objective, scatters wipe their guard off the home objective, prism shoots the other cultists, but CP spent to auto pass morale. random shooting kills a term. ALT4 10VP. Terms move towards the rangers, the get fleshed to recover the flamer which kills the rangers. lord tries to chase a serpent. CSM moves to the serpent on the NW objective in the photo below and manages a long charge into it to ObSec me off it. 30-40 to the AL What was left at the end of T4. My tanks had managed to get into the AL DZ, however hadn't inflicted enough damage to knock them off objectives. The terms at the bottom fleshy cursed the flamer back to life and flamed the rangers, a lone csm marine managed a long charge onto my lance serpent to the left there, which denied me that objective sealing the win for the Alphas - I should have kept a CP for a to hit roll. CWT5 5 vp. I just shuffle, prism and scatters try to kill the last guard, but they survive to deny me the east objective. bracketed serpent fails to kill the csm in contact with it. ALT5 terms move onto my home objective. Nothing else of note. 15VP at the end, for a final score or 35-55 to the despicable Alpha legion!

:::::::::Attempted Data-Recovery::::::::: :::::::::Accessing File AXXR-29748::::::::: :::::::::Please stand by::::::::: :::::::::Access denied as per the Sigillites request::::::::: :::::::::Termination Protocol engaged::::::::: :::::::::Inquisitorial Override, Access Level Charon::::::::: :::::::::Please stand by::::::::: :::::::::Greetings Inquisitor Yannik::::::::: :::::::::Unspooling Data-crystals::::::::: :::::::::Access granted::::::::: ++++++++++Thought for the day: Where dark reigns, light must fall++++++++++ File nr. 229837-11; The Euripides Incident >Date: 013.m31 >Segmentum: Solar >System: Sol >Locis: Europa, orbiting Jupiter >Function: Mechanicum research facility >Assigned Overseer: Genetor-Supreme Kykeron ++Ancient Pict-Reconstruction of Pre-Imperial Europa; date unknown, probably m3/m4++ Settled since age immemorial, Europa, like many of the solar moons, has served as a secretive haven for research most esoteric - it is here that Cult of Solex devised the first examples of darkfire weaponry, and it is here that the predecessors of the Empyrean Engineers would scrawl the first blueprints for Gellar Field Devices on everlasting sheets of platinum. That the Emperor, blessed in His wisdom, would come to desire such a trove of knowledge, appears self-evident even to us, who live in the shadow of His passage. It was thus then, that he would send forth his Angels of Death, the then-nascent Legio Primus - the Angelum Mortis - to root out the entrenched xenophile cults that had come to inhabit Europa by that point. The operation was swift, if bloody, and fiefdom over the stellar body would be ceeded to an enclave of the Helvetian Technocracy - an offshoot of the Machine Orthodoxy that had weathered the Age of Strife in isolation most extreme upon Terra. Where then Deimos and Phobos of Mars would become the twin-seats of the martian synode of Beherrean, and Io became the heart of the lunar Simvulsean Complex, Europa would become home to the Ansilean Circle, a branch of the Technocracy responsible for the research of weaponization of warp phenomena. Due to the high-priority technologies developed and improved upon - research that held keenest interest among a number of the Emperor's subjects - the station had long been obscured from regular imperial authorities and been declared interditum absoutis to any and all who did not hold the appropriate seals of authority. It is during the early stages of the Horus Heresy that elements of the Alpha Legion would conduct a series of assaults on the Solar system - most famously the grand assault on station Hydra, in the orbit of Pluto - and research outposts would prove to be some of their most favoured targets, both due to the wealth of material and knowledge that could be raided there, and the relative isolation in which they existed even in this most fortified of circles. On the third day of the Septimus in the thirteenth year of m31, all contact from Europa would cease, prompting Lord Dorn to send out an investigative force of Imperial Fists to ascertain what had transpired and - should the situation require it - secure and extract any technology still present in the Ansilean vaults. It is to be noted that Lord Dorn was, at first, unwilling to send out any of his own men, for in those early days of the Great Fratricide many things had been uncertain and he - rightly so - feared more direct attacks against Terra and thus sought to hold back his own forces as best he could. It was only after a private audience with Lord-Hierophant Ecneon, master of the Technocracy, that Lord Dorn would relent. The investigative force would quickly discover that a strike force of the Alpha Legion - henceforth termed Strikeforce 'Lintwyrm' - supported by allied Mechanicum and Militia elements - henceforth termed as Strikeforce 'Koleikos' and Strikeforce 'Sarthaccan' respectively - had disabled all communication in the facility and begun off-loading the present technology. It appeared then, that the stationed Helvetian forces had been seeded with operative elements of the Alpha Legion many years prior. This is the documentation of the Euripides-incident. :::::::::Unspooling fragmentary audio-data recorded by Legionnarie Karst of the Imperial Fists::::::::: :::::::::Data is heavily damaged::::::::: :::::::::Please stand by::::::::: :::::::::Data partially recovered::::::::: :::::::::Open the record: Y/N?::::::::: :::::::::Input: Y::::::::: +For the Emperor+ :::::::::Close the file: Y/N?::::::::: :::::::::Input N::::::::: :::::::::Fareth well, Inquisitor Yannik::::::::: :::::::::The Emperor protects::::::::: ++Pict-Captures extracted from reconstructed Helvetian Cybergholam++ ++Identity unconfirmed; presumed to be Consul-Delegatus Autilon Skorr++ We are not gods. We are creations of science. And therein lies our problem, for we are neither human, nor divine. We are flawed versions of both. Attr. to Primarch Alpharius, recorded by remembrancer Mikhael Bro'ok

Okay while bored on a routine drive to work I got to thinking about the consistent comment that Alpharius/Omegon are one soul in two bodies. This, in turn, brought up the point that a lot of the "chaos corruption" we see in the fluff/background talks about souls and deamons attacking souls and what not. Or even when it comes to prophecies and stuff (not just 40K in general) it is often talking about souls and all that. Now combining all of this makes me wonder if there is a reason Alpharius (and Omegon) never really "fell" to chaos. Yes, they sided with Horus' rebellion (Cabal be damned), and yes others in the legion since have dabbled in the arcane arts. But we never really see any corruption or mutation or power enhancement from Alpharius. Is this because the gods couldn't affect him entirely because he only had half a soul. We have - I think, although sources don't come to mind - seen that Alpharius and Omegon didn't always see eye-toe-eye perfectly, so while "one soul" they weren't "one mind". So maybe they couldn't be simultaneously controlled by influencing a single soul. The displacement of the soul parts meant no chaos entity could manipulate the whole? Maybe it's also why they didn't seem to have a part to play in the "Great Game" or whatever because their fate was so convoluted with their separation of soul into twin bodies that their "role" could never be seen and it meant they didn't have one. They were rogue agents to the whims of the Gods and it offered them protection from manipulation? I dunno, just random driving thoughts I guess.