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So after a break I have decided to start a Black Templar army. I painted up a 500 point force for a small Fate of Konor tournament and fell in love with how the models looked on the battlefield. The time spent researching the fluff a couple weeks before the tourney was the most fun and obsessive thing I have had with 40k in several years. So, every good story needs a starting point, here is my crusades story. (bit rough, still fleshing out the details) The Ventros Crusade, led by Marshall Alderic Jamil Ventros is a rogue inquisitor responsible for the Cartalu VII massacre. A backwater world, Cartalu VII's population was massacred over the course of two weeks in an attempt by Ventros to gain favor with the Chaos gods. It was by happenstance that Marshall Alderic's ship received a faint distress signal and investigated. After receiving no word from planetary defense forces a small force of 50 crusaders was deployed to the planet surface. The force was decimated, tortured, and sacrificed to the Chaos gods. One initiate was able to escape and send word back to Alderic, before succumbing to his wounds. Alderic immediately moved to engage Ventros' ship. After a brief firefight Ventros was able to escape into the warp without Alderic's forces able to pursue. Alderic then declared that the Ventros Crusade would bring vengence to this rogue inquisitor. Due to Ventros' willingness to sell many Imperial secrets and his psychic ability for prescience he has evaded the Crusade for several years and never seems to find a lack of soldier be it foul xenos or heretics. Marshall Alderic is closing in though, and vows that he will slay this enemy of the Emperor and show that heresy will never escape justice.

HI All, Decided I'll let you all in on my latest endevours. It's not much, RL keeps me rather busy (study, family life), but slowly and steadilly we're getting back in the hobby. Rcently I dug up a squad of terminators. They are the first plastic ones GW produced and I believe a free blackreach termie. I started to templarise them. Here are some pics. Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics, my camera died on me. Templarification in progress: Some tabbards and a lot of purity seals. Those didn't show up on the phone pics. Made a mould to see if I could make maltese crosses out of green stuff. Worked reasonably well, looks better in RL then on pic. Hope you like them, Comments and feedback is welcome. Greetz,

I fell in love with 40k after seeing alot of 3rd edition art featuring black templars or salamanders. So i couldn't resist getting the new box and starting a little crusade side project that i could team up with my Sisters of Battle. So the idea is that the Elding Crusade is lead by one of the sword brethren Helbrecht appointed to Marshall after meeting with Guilliman. The crusade is charged with making the crossing into Imperium Nihilus and wrecking havok on any foes they come across. The Crusade badge is a white lightning bolt against a field of purple to represent the crusade smashing through the maelstrom. Ive so far gotten 3 members of the crusade squad done and trying to go a blanchitsu inspired paint job. I've always liked medieval heraldry so i plan for every brother above the rank of neophyte to have their own tilt shield depicting their own personal heraldry.

Ladies and Gentlemen! For your consideration, I've decided to post the following lore for my homebrew Chapter. I hope that it meets with your approval. The background influences are derived from a multitude of sources. The most prevalent of which are, as you can see, the now defunct Warhammer Fantasy's Bretonnia, Medieval Chivalry, the Winged Hussars of Poland, Steppe History and Arthurian Myth. I hope I haven't written anything that makes them seem too perfect or that greviously violates the canon as established by Games Workshop's writers. I'm more than happy to take comments, advice and criticism as I said. I've got a thick skin and am more than happy to discuss things with you all. With that said: The Iron Paladins: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/sm.php?b62c=@hLL9J_iakk7.haLvyi5W0D@hidmLhNGa7i7kfY@.____@h3j32hMJwP@hmlmP@@i6vfa@@@i5WtE@@hCmX3.hCmX3._@i7RT1@@_@i3K5o@hHzJl@hk8Yt_@@_@.hmlmP@_hgPVa@i5WtEhEzFZ@_&grid=TRUE The Iron Paladins: Descended from the White Scars, the Iron Paladins Chapter was created during the 24th Founding. They were sent to the galactic north to guard the frontier against the many threats that stood against the Imperium’s citizens in that benighted region. Consisting of over a thousand Astartes, they favored the highly mobile and decentralized form of warfare practiced by their progenitor Chapter. As such, the Astartes of the Iron Paladins chose to deviate strongly from the Codex Astartes in their beliefs and practices. After the fall of Cadia and the creation of the Circatrix Maledictum, the Chapter was among the many that became unaccounted for during the long years following the division of the Imperium prior to the Indomitus Crusade. The Marines of this Chapter have a Fortress-Monastery known as Karak on the world of Gauntlet, located in the galactic north, west of the Malefactus, beyond the Weeping Star and far from Apollonia. However, they favor projecting their forces as far afield as possible and it often a handful of their knights might have to decide the outcome of a battle across several planets. Located on the fringe of Imperial space, along the Logres Reach, they were always confronted with a multitude of foes. With division of mankind’s realm, they became locked in a grim crusade, a fight for their lives along the rotting edge of the Imperium. Heraldry: A coiled black dragon on a red field. Organization and Tactics: Combat Doctrine: Due to their location on the edge of the Imperium and their non-Codex way of fighting, the need to expand their highly mobile way of war was further reinforced to the Chapter’s first leaders. They needed a mobile combat platform that could carry one of their knights into battle. Something that could be sustained on local resources and cover great distances without needing parts or fuel. To that end, they turned to the genetically enhanced steeds ridden by the aristocracy on the feudal world that was Gauntlet. Over a generation, the Chapter’s combined resources and the help of local tech-priests produced the first of the Destriers. These mighty steeds were clad in ceramite barding and could bear the weight of their Astartes riders. These genetically altered war-steeds were deemed a worthy fit for the Chapter’s needs and it was a way of fighting familiar to the primitive aspirants that came from Gauntlet’s feudal lands. Due to the fact that the Chapter is operating on the edge of the Imperium and its holdings are strung out across several primitive worlds, its Marines have been instructed to use their melee weapons primarily and conserve their precious ammunition if possible. A set of instructions which already suited their highly mobile and aggressive way of war. Following the division of the Imperium, the Chapter began hurriedly throwing out heavily fortified outposts and later citadels called Keeps across the Logres Reach. This system of offensive operations from a fortified position allowed the Iron Paladins to mitigate their numerical weaknesses and shore up their position across the Reach. The remaining Astartes based on Gauntlet operate as a mobile reserve for any beleaguered force in the Reach. Structure: Every Company was over a hundred battle-brothers strong at the Chapter’s inception. The Companies were given to the charge of Knight-Captains. They were further broken down into two Demi-Companies, led by a Knight-Banneret. The Demi-Companies were broken down into five-six squads of ten-plus Marines, known as Lances. After the introduction of their steeds the chapters maintained their organization, as established along the following lines: 1st Company: Axeblade 2nd Company: Winged Lancers – Known for their wings that they wear attached to their armor’s powerpacks. 3rd Company: Reaver 4th Company: Manticore 5th Company: Questors – Often a Demi-Company in size, the Marines of this Company are often on different quests across the Logres Reach. Whether searching for lost artifacts or recovering caches of weapons, these Marines may spend years wandering across the bounds of the Reach. Any Astartes from one of the other companies who declares a desire to go on a quest is moved over to this Company, but a Battle-Brother who has returned must then take his place in his former unit. 6th Company: Ironclad 7th Company: Shieldwall – The only Company that fights on foot in the manner of a more conventional Astartes Chapter. 8th Company: Spearhead – Like the 9th Company, the Astartes of this unit are stretched thin, the bulk of the Chapter’s remaining armored vehicles, such as their tanks and land raiders, are concentrated here. 9th: Company: Dragonriders – More of a demi-company after the sundering of the Imperium. Contains the Chapter’s Jump-Pack Squadrons. With the Imperium being divided and the Chapter so far from help and spare parts being in short supply, these Marines are generally held as a mobile reserve at the Fortress-Monastery of Karak on Gauntlet. 10th Company: Hammerhand – The Chapter’s Scout Marines, known as Demi-Lancers. Champions and Dreadnoughts are not attached to any one company but are instead sent where needed. The Immortals: These Space Marines are chosen from the most promising leaders and champions. To serve in the Grandmaster’s Honor Guard is to gain insight into the inner workings of the Chapter and how to command. For this honor is a key step in becoming a commander. This opportunity allows an Astartes to prove his loyalty to the Chapter and not just his Company. Following his service in the Immortals, a Marine may choose to continue along the path to Knight-Banneret and then Captain. Dragon Knights: The Dragon Knights serve as the Grandmaster’s war council and theater commanders. Only by proving themselves in battle and slaying one of the mighty fire-breathing drakes that lurk within the mountains of Gauntlet’s northern regions, can they earn a place in this esteemed brotherhood. These veteran warriors have often served as Captains, for the Chapter will not let a junior Space Marine embark on such a perilous quest. The Dragon Knights serve as the Grandmaster’s inner circle and his right hand throughout the Reach. Recruitment and Ranks: Even with their ties to Terra severed, the Astartes knew their mission remained. To that end, they redoubled their efforts to try and replenish their depleted ranks and then to increase their Chapter’s strength. Whether it’s Gauntlet or any of the other primitive worlds across the Logres Reach, all aspirants follow the same general path to becoming an Iron Paladin. Those who fail or choose to leave the path may return home or continue service as Chapter Serfs or Retainers in the Planetary Hordes. Acolyte: A hopeful entrant to the Chapter’s ranks. Page – A recruit who has passed the first tests and can now begin his journey. Squire – Much of the training has been completed and nearly all the implants required to make an Astartes are present. Demi-Lancer: A Marine who’s received his black carapace and can now prove himself worthy of his spurs as a scout. Knight-Brother: A fully fledged Astartes knight. Knight-Sergeant: A veteran warrior and leader. Also chosen as Honor Guards and Champions. Knight-Technicus: The Chapter term for a Techmarine Knight-Arcanos: The Chapter term for a Librarian Knight-Sanctis: These zealous warrior serve as the Chaplains, they remind their Brethren of their chivalric values and to adhere to their way of war, preserving ammunition and precious vehicles when savagery and steel will suffice. Knight-Banneret: An experienced leader and tactical expert, these Battle-Brothers lead Demi-Companies and plan operations. Knight-Captain: A Knight-Captain is entrusted with one of the Chapter’s precious Companies and must be a master of his craft in all aspects. Knight-Castellan: A proven commander who has been charged with overseeing the many keeps strung across the Logres Reach. After the emergence of the great Rift, they also serve as the de-facto Barons for each planet in the Reach. Knight-Marshal: The Chapter’s second-in-command. Grandmaster: The senior-most leader and most powerful warrior in all the Chapter, a master of warfare on both planets and the void. Only a proven Dragon Knight may serve as the Grandmaster of the Chapter. In recent times, the Grandmaster and his Castellans have assumed a more direct role in ruling the worlds of the Reach. The Cilician Campaign: Before the Fall of Cadia and the creation of the Circatrix Maledictum, the Astartes of the Iron Paladins had planned to both expand their Chapter’s size and their influence. They’d learned of many calls for aid along the eastern fringe, near the Blazing Frontier, and they determined to send a force to help safeguard that region. They chose the thinly defended Cilician Nebula as their position and began gathering their strength. Over the following generations, a force of five overstrength companies was assembled. They were allotted what Dreadnoughts, gunships and armored vehicles could be spared. In addition, a handful of Dragon Knights and the Tancred, the senior Knight-Castellan was chosen to lead the force. A handful of Imperial Knights and a detachment of Planetary Guard were allowed to accompany the expedition as well. The Cilician Campaign was then allotted enough ships the supplies and human personnel needed to support the expedition. The Astartes arrived successfully in the Cilician Nebula and it was shortly after that the Imperium was split in half. While the occasional ship will travel from the Logres Reach to Cilicia, communication has been infrequent and fragmented at the best of times. What is known is that, like their cohorts to the galactic north, the Astartes along the eastern fringe fight on with the same grim resolve as their brethren half a galaxy away. The Imperium Nihilus: The great warp rift ensured that, like so many others, the Iron Paladins were cut off from the Astronomican and all hope of reinforcement. Like their White Scar progenitors, they were a boisterous and comradely brotherhood. Living among and fighting along the humans of the primitive worlds they protected for so long had led them to form strong ties with them. For the humans of the Reach, the Astartes were their inspiration and their hope. They represented the best of humanity and nearly every family on those far-flung worlds would send many of their sons to serve the Chapter or become Astartes. The Iron Paladins had fought long and hard to defend this stretch of Imperial space and they would not abandon their charges now. They sent four of their precious ships to try and find a way across the great rift that now bisected the Imperium. One returned home after escorting the other three to their departure point. Of those three ships and the handful of Astartes who boarded them, nothing is known. Their forlorn attempt to try and call for aid done; the rest of the Iron Paladins turned back to their old mission of defending the Logres Reach. They divided their numbers even further and turned to their human servants. Ordinarily some of their decisions might have been out of the question, but they were on the frontier and no one was coming. So it was that the Grandmaster of the Iron Paladins assumed all authority over the Logres Reach and planned for the last stand of its people. The Grandmaster became the High King of the Reach and his most trusted Astartes were given of its planets as Barons. The populations of these worlds were small, but with the combined strength of each realm, the Astartes were able to reform the Planetary Defense Forces into something they could more readily use. Raw materials and any technology deemed useful were gathered and sent to the forges of the massive citadel known as Karak. Suits of armor were forged for the men and women of the Planetary Hordes as they were renamed. While the improvised armor and new mounts were nothing compared to the ones of their Astartes warlords, the Planetary Hordes would go on to become a lethal and mobile mounted force, one that could ride day and night to defeat a foe. Time flows strangely in the Dark Imperium and the war continues, the enemy might change, but for the humans and Astartes of the Logres Reach, their fight for survival goes on as it always has. The Reclaimed: After the Imperium was cut in half, many Space Marine Chapters vanished into the newly emerged warp rift. Others were scattered or, cut off and without hope of reinforcement, were massacred. The brethren of the Iron Paladins know well that this could have easily have been their fate. So it is that they welcome any remnants of other Chapters that wish to join their cause. Whether it’s what remains of a unit or a handful of straggling survivors, they’ll find a welcome at Karak. If they wish to fight in their traditional fashion or adopt the ways of the Iron Paladins, these Astartes survivors will find a home and comradeship once more. Some of these survivors have espoused a desire to either find what remains of their own Chapters or revive them once more. To that end the Iron Paladins will lend what aid they can, when they can. But they have always held the stance that their own continued survival takes priority. The Fleet: The Logres Reach was a far-flung region of the vast Imperium. As such, it lacked a true shipyard and merely maintained repair station in orbit over Gauntlet. The Cilician Campaign also diverted more precious ships, which most often remain in their current location due to the great rift. Following their desperate attempt to seek help from Terra, the Space Marines commandeered the handful of warships and civilian vessels in the area. The losses the fleet has incurred over the years have been grievous and so every vessel is treated almost like a priceless relic and only to be used in battle if the Paladins manning them have an overwhelming advantage. However, the ships are mostly crewed by humans, with only a handful of Astartes aboard the warships for command purposes. Due to their circumstances, the Astartes have also commandeered a number of civilian vessels for the purpose of transporting supplies and personnel. Together, the battered and much repaired fleet must constantly patrol the scattered worlds of the Logres Reach and carry troops to wherever needed. Rituals, Traditions and Customs: Due to the somber nature of their duty and the nature of their progenitors there’s a loose dichotomy within the Chapter’s ranks. Many of the knights lean towards the boisterous nature and rough brotherhood of their White Scars ancestors. Others favor a more contemplative and ascetic approach. Yet, every single one of the Iron Paladins will gladly fight together. Every year, the Astartes that can assemble will arrive at Karak to launch a combined expedition and beast hunt known as Tourney, this bloody festival will make its way across the worlds of the Lorges Reach and serves as way to show force and train newly fledged Marines. When not in training the Iron Paladins spend the majority of their time either on campaign or hunting and carousing across the worlds they’re responsible for. Because of their unique culture, they encourage their battle-brethren to maintain ties with their human families and many an Astartes has parents and siblings who’ve served the Chapter in other ways. In fact, is not uncommon for an Astartes to later see a younger relative or descendant of a sister join the brotherhood at a later time. Iron Paladins are allowed to keep their human birth name, but they must also choose a secret name from the scrolls of the Chapter’s secret histories. These traditions and ties to the worlds they protect help them reinforce their sense of duty as humanity’s defenders and provide them an anchor for their beliefs. The Chapter Masters believe that by reminding their warriors of their ties, origin and obligation to mankind that they will foster a sense of pride in their continued loyalty. To them, for an Astartes to consider himself beyond humanity leads to Astartes that consider themselves mankind’s ultimate master instead of its protector. That way, they fear, lies heresy and the taint of chaos. While the Chapter is still very insular, like most Astartes, they do allow their Serfs and Retainers and locals to partake in events like the tourney and to dine in the great hall during their feasts. Provided they remain at the tables befitting their station. The Grail: A complex and highly prized collection of processors and centrifuges, this system is supposed to contain a concoction of genetic materials and chemicals that will prepare a Squire’s physiology for the Black Carapace and allow him to take the final step in becoming an Astartes. Legend has it that the Grail also dispenses a mix of mind-altering substances that supposedly force the one who drinks from it to confront their past and deepest fears. This shared ritual is that is highly secretive and the Astartes will not speak of it to any outsiders. The Chivalric Code: While many Astartes chapters have the Codex or their own teachings to rely on, the Chivalric Code is a set of values, legends, precedents and oral traditions that have since become mythologized with time. The Knights-Sanctis act as Chaplains and having been inducted into the secrets of their ancient practices, it is their duty to keep the Iron Paladins’ history, heritage and spirit alive. The Lady Nimenus: While the passing of the centuries has seen much of the Chapter’s history become legend is it said that long ago the Chapter was sorely pressed and in dire need of aid. The first Chapter Master and his Chief Librarian Meridus visited the world of Gauntlet, seeking a cache of weapons supposedly locked in a forgotten depot from the Great Crusade. A local noblewoman and Pysker is supposed to have guided the Chapter Master and Meridus to the depot and aided them in slaying the great sea-drake that had claimed the trove of weapons as its lair. She was later canonized as an Imperial Saint. As such, the Lady Nimenus is one of the few humans, besides mortal drake-slayers, who have gained a place of honor in the Chapter chronicles. What became of those weapons remains unknown, it is presumed they were taken to other some other front around the Imperium. However, the mighty power blade, Terminus, remains from that hold. The blade was used to slay the sea-drake and became the symbol of every Grandmaster’s authority thereafter. When not used in battle, the ancient sword is held by a block of ceramite within Karak and only one with the genetic marker of the Chapter Master may draw the blade. The Dragon Knights and the Grandmaster: Like many of the primitive worlds in the Reach, Gauntlet is rife with deadly beasts. The most dangerous of which are the great Drakes. Many a brave Astartes has tried to slay one of these beasts and many have never returned. For those that can bring home the skull of such a dangerous creature, they are accorded the status of the elite honor guard and may take their place as Dragon Knights. Only the senior Dragon Knight may serve as the Grandmaster. As it felt his status in the sacred order symbolizes his ability to lead and his prowess in battle. However, he must prove himself one final time. Only one who has slain a drake and been covered in its toxic blood may successfully raise a stolen hatchling from an egg. The records are fragmented and much has been lost, but what is known is that the ancient drakes were a product of Guantlet’s natural evolutionary cycle and then later genetically altered by humans sometime before the beginning of the Age of Strife. There are more disquieting rumors that some part of the drakes’ genetic makeup might have been human once. But this is the merest whisper of a legend and one that the Astartes will brook no mention of. Notable Figures: Knight Meridus - The most powerful and famous of all the Chapter’s Librarians, this ancient Pysker has become a figure of legend. Although there are some who believe he still wanders the stars and will occasionally appear long enough to aid those in need before vanishing again. Lady Nimenus – Later canonized as a Saint, this mythical Pysker and warrior was said to have aided the Chapter Master in finding the legendary blade Terminus, slaying a sea-drake and becoming one of the few mortals to have both slain a drake and tamed one. Arthane – The first Grandmaster and Dragon Knight of the Chapter. It was he who took up the blade Terminus and wielded it long and well against the many forces that seek mankind’s end. His fate remains unknown. Some claim that he was betrayed and fell in battle, with his body taken by Nimenus to a hidden base on an uncharted moon where he slumbers eternally with the knights of his inner circle, waiting to be called forth for one final battle. Martel the Hammer – The second Grandmaster, known for his use of the Thunder Hammer instead of Terminus and for singlehandedly bashing a mighty daemon’s skull open with it. Bayard – The mightiest of the all the questors, the great knight was said to exemplify everything an Astartes and one of the Iron Paladins was supposed to be. Noted for his single combat against four enraged Berzerkers. If he’s still alive, he’d be of great age even for an Astartes. However, his location and fate remain a mystery. Ancelone – Arthane’s right hand man. While considered a proud and cold sort by his brethren. His courage and ferocity in battle are undeniable. It is said he was never defeated in battle or single combat. Today his remains are interred beneath one of the ancient mounds and its said that only the inner circle know where the great knight is buried, having made his tomb into a shrine. Garvrane – One of Arthane’s inner circle and the second knight to have tamed a fire-drake. A fact which made him a rival of Ancelones. He came to the Chapter later than many of his peers and was a man grown by time he was able to take the Black Carapace. He nearly died during the procedure, but was at last able to join the ranks of the Astartes. He also began the Chapter’s chronicles and secret histories. A record of the Paladins’ deeds which was later continued by his blood-son and fellow Astartes, Parsinus. Parsinus – One of the relatively humans to be both the biological son of an Astartes and to have followed in his father’s footsteps. Knight Parsinus would do many great deeds, but the mightiest of these was his discovery of the ancient grail. A leftover and largely unknown technology from before the Great Crusade. This ancient device is credited with allowing the Chapter to maintain a stable gene-seed for so long. Whether that is true remains unknown and any Astartes that knows the fact is unlikely to say. Tancred – The leader of the Cilician Campaign and a hard-bitten veteran of many brutal campaigns. This powerful warrior is an unparalleled leader and relentless fighter. Caught by surprise during an attack, he faced a Chaos Dreadnought unarmored, with only a chain spear to hand, and was victorious. Some even claim he is Ancelone or Bayard reborn. Henry of the 8th Company – This ancient Dreadnought is noted for his single-minded brutality in battle and for beheading seven daemons in one battle. Misc: As well being a large, mobile strike force, the Planetary Hordes also boast a handful of armored vehicles and some Titans, as well as a few Knights from the fledgling scion of a noble house in the Imperium Sanctis.

1) Is it possible to take this requisition multiple times? 2) Is it possible to take one Stratagem multiple times? This may be stupid questions. I want to be sure though. Specifically I want to know if I can set up a Custodes crusade force with two Shield-Captains that each have "Victor of the blood games"/"Captain Commander" stratagem.

Hi folks, starting this thread to document my homebrew chapter fluff as I get into a Crusade campaign with some friends. I've been a Blood Angel player since the White Dwarf codex and wanted to try a homebrew successor for this Crusade league. +++ THE ANGELS FATALIS +++ Founding Chapter: Blood Angels Chapter Master: Thadeon Kul Homeworld: Kokkedan IV (Secondary tithe rights to Kokkedan Secondus and the Kokkedan Shardworlds) Fortress-Monastery: Antemurale Argentum (Orbital) Muster Strength: Approximately 600 Astartes, including 200 Primaris Space Marines, divided up between 6 companies Imperial records documenting the origin of the Angels Fatalis are scant at best. What little that has not been redacted, destroyed, or simply lost to the perils of Imperial bureaucracy indicates the chapter was raised from the Blood Angels gene-seed to support the Dark Paladins' holy crusade against the Necron machines of Jarrman Primus. Surviving records of the chapter's first centuries suggest the Angels Fatalis suffered devastating losses that coincide chronologically with the disastrous end of the Dark Paladins' ill-fated crusade, but collected reports from Rogue Trader vessels in the vicinity of the Jarrman system provide no evidence to indicate the Angels Fatalis were ever present in the Jarrman conflict. Their numbers reduced and their estimation in the eyes of the Highlords of Terra now diminished for reasons lost to Imperial records, the brothers of the Angels Fatalis embarked on a lengthy series of penitent crusades, culminating in the brutal Kokkedan campaign. In the minds of many among the chapter, the Kokkedan Campaign marks the true beginning of the chapter's history. The campaign saw the chapter drive a tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken from the Kokkedan system, at great cost. The forgeworld of Kokkedan Prime, once an unrivalled supplier of Munitorum atomics, was almost entirely obliterated, reduced to constituent particles and space dust. The refinery and refueling world of Kokkedan III was rent asunder, casting staggeringly massive shards of the ruined world into an irregular orbit around the system star. The only Imperial-populated world left in the system in the wake of this apocalyptic conflict was Kokkedan IV, a peculiar planet the chapter's scholiasts suspect was once enveloped in a globe-spanning ocean long-since stripped away. Beneath the corpse-dunes of the Kokkedan system's fourth planet, the Mechanicus harvested a rare radioisotope used in the manufacture and operation of miniaturized atomics, both bombs and reactors. While the Angels Fatalis will tell you they were tithed the title to the world of Kokkedan IV to honor their sacrifice in the defense of Kokkedan against the Tyrannic threat, wiser Imperial onlookers may suggest that in the wake of the world-shattering war, it was simply more logical to offload the burden of governance and logistics for a radioactive hell world filled with refugees to the Astartes, who were all to happy to allow Mechanicus radioisotope extraction operations to continue on the surface. From the remains of ruined orbital drydocks and stations, the chapter raised a great glimmering orbital-monastery, the Antemurale Argentum, which quickly became a storied paradise in the heavens to the ash-wasters, refugees, and mining gangs of Kokkedan IV. Like so many other chapters birthed from Sanguinius' gene-seed, the reality of this 'paradise' was anything but. After centuries of brutal, unceasing warfare and little support from other Chapters of the Blood, the Angels Fatalis' hold over the Flaw, the spiritual curse of Sanguinius' gene-sons, had deteriorated greatly. The Antemurale Argentum was more prison for the mad and damned than it was fortress-monastery, whole sections of the orbital dedicated to restraining and safeguarding those brothers who had fallen to the Black Rage in the preceding conflicts, with more joining their ranks every day even in the aftermath of the war. The chapter's fortunes outwardly appeared to be improving, but they stood on a knife-edge precipice with annihilation on both sides. Lord Commander Tithian, the second to lead the Angels, decreed that new Astartes would be recruited from the population of Kokkedan IV, be they honour-tithed champions from the syndicate mining families or warlords out of the irradiated corpse-dune wastelands. So desperate were the Angels Fatalis to replenish their ranks that few who survived the perilous trials were turned away, and to this day many veteran brothers of the Chapter come from mortal past lives as blood-soaked as their existence as sons of Sanguinius. It was close to a century later when the chapter's Sanguinary Priesthood discovered that among those mortals who had lived a great deal of their lives on Kokkedan IV, a not-insignificant amount of the radioisotope so treasured by the Mechanicus could be found in the blood. The Priesthood followed this discovery to the conclusion that an as-yet unknown interaction between the elemental substance and the vitae of Sanguinius' gene-seed had a modulating effect on the Flaw, suppressing the likelihood of total collapse into the Black Rage but elevating violent, predator instinct and impulse. Like a burner below a cauldron, keeping it always at a roil but not quite spilling over, it seemed a morbid hope for the survival of the chapter. Tithian's successor, Imrakos, instituted the practice of the Blood Tithe, still in place today. During the annual festival of Sanguinala, celebrated across Imperial space to honor the sacrifice of the Lord Sanguinius before the Arch-Traitor, all citizens report to processing sites overseen by the Priesthood, now the Keepers of the Ashen Blood. Through this blood-tithe, the Angels Fatalis collect annual stocks of irradiated blood, carefully mixed with the distillation of their progenitor's vitae to control the Flaw. Dark rumors abound among Imperial observers about the long term effects this has on the veterans and ancients of the chapter, whose faces are clad always in the ash-blasted, bone-hued ceramite helm worn by the chapter's most-capable warriors. As the chapter's numbers have swelled, so too has the need for the Ashen Blood, and a black market of sorts of risen in result. So-called "drainer" gangs, warlords, and sometimes even desperate syndicate families engage in kidnappings and forced-exsanguination of enemies or sometimes just the unlucky, the spoils of their bloody harvest being discretely traded to chapter's priesthood for supplies and Imperial scrip. Officially, the chapter forbids this practice, but the present-day chapter master, the Lord Commander Thadeon Kul, has seen fit to look the other way with no indication he intends to put an end to it. Now, in systems neighboring the chapter's far-flung throneworld, new threats rear their heads, and old ones creep back from dark places. Reports of entire Astra Militarum legions, including a storied detachment from Krieg turning traitor, send nervous murmurs through the ranks of the Kokkedan penal battalions. Rogue Traders increasingly speak of Aeldari pirates, striking like warp lightning and vanishing just as quickly. Elsewhere in the sector, brutish Orks raise a great Waaaagh and perfidious Tau probe Imperial defenses with expeditionary forces. Lord Commander Kul's attention is called to myriad threats, none of which can be ignored if Imperial control over the sector is to be retained. + CHAPTER COMMAND + Lord Commander Thadeon Kul, the Light Undying, Master of the Ashen Host Sanguinary Guard Lyander, Exalted Herald of the Ashen Host Brother Ivecter, the Feardrinker, Master of the Blade Alizar, the Black Angel, the Ashen Fury, High Chaplain of the Angels Fatalis Grailbearer Faustus, High Priest of the Ashen Blood Lyphisar, the Doom at Kokkedan, Dreadnought Master of the Librarius Brother Acharnus, Warden of the Antemurale Argentum + FLEET COMMAND + Brother Captain Baelor, the Coriolis Wind, First Wing of the Ashen Host, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Wingbeat Shadow Brother Captain Traxus, Second Wing of the Ashen Host, Captain of the Strike Cruiser Fist of Imrakos +++ END RECORD +++ BLOOD TITHE, PART 1 Thirst and fear clawed at Yavik’s throat. He dug his fingernails, blackened with oil and ash, deeper into the flesh of his bare shoulders, arms clutched tightly around himself. He was cold; the thing in the tunnels had torn his tunic off before he escaped through a service corridor it could not fit through. His gaze was unmoving, dark eyes fixed on the reflection of the chem-lamps in a small puddle in the center of the corridor. He could reach the water through the tangle of sweating pipes and conduits he hoped would conceal him. It was not, however, the everpresent thirst that drew his attention to the condensation. He was watching for ripples, for the tiniest of perturbations in the surface of the puddle that might signify the approach of the hulking thing that had tried to rip out his throat. +++ The first thing Ivecter heard as he ascended the dune skimmer’s boarding ramp was the clatter of two dozen flak-armoured knees frantically colliding with the transport’s deckplating. Arrayed before him, twelve Atomic Guardsmen prostrated themselves as their commissar glared at their bowed backs with an intensity Ivecter thought landed somewhere between severe enough to pierce ceramite and comically overdone. “Praise to the Great Angel!” the commissar barked, his voice modulated and amplified by the half-mask rebreather strapped around his face. “Praise to the Great Angel!” came the hurried chorus from the soldiers of Kokkedan IV’s penal legions. Their voices were dry and cracked; their Munitorum officers had evidently not deemed the expense of outfitting them with hazard gear for the journey to be worthwhile. “Praise to the Lord Ivecter, Master of the Blade, honored scion of the Great Angel!” bellowed the commissar. He was overdoing it, Ivecter thought. The guardsmen echoed the commissar once more and Ivecter strode forward and past them toward the skimmer’s command deck, beckoning the commissar after him with two fingers of his gauntleted hand. He knew what the guardsmen called him, among themselves: Feardrinker. It was as much an epithet as it was a crude honorific and Ivecter found it rather amusing but he had killed men foolish enough to utter it in his presence as a matter of practice - it simply would not do to let the mortals get ideas of their own. “My lord,” said the commissar, with a pronounced conviction to his voice, audible even through his mask, that betrayed his own fear, “I am Commissar Ravitch, I have the great honor to be your liaison for this excursion. As soon as fueling is complete the crew will be ready for departure. Your lord-brothers are in the forward compartment.” Anger flashed for a moment across Ivecter’s thoughts and beneath the ash-streaked, bone-coloured ceramite of his helmet his upper lip curled. His nostrils flared as he exhaled sharply enough that his vox-modulator picked up the sound and amplified it across the command deck, drawing the attention of the skimmer crewmen hunched over dimly-glowing diagnostic readouts on the forward terminals. They returned their attention to their work the moment Ivecter’s head ticked a fraction in their direction. “The skimmer should have been fueled before I arrived, Commissar Ravitch.” “Aye, Lord Angel. I will ensure appropriate consequences,” came Ravitch’s hasty reply, “And if I may ask, my Lord Angel… you are aware of the recent reports from Port Xenophon?” “Assume, Commissar,” said Ivecter, maneuvering his massive armored form through the command deck toward the ramp to the skimmer’s forward compartment, “That very little eludes me.” +++ The skimmer set out for the corpse dunes at first light, the towering refinery structures and acrid industrial haze of Tithian’s Landing giving way to the undulating expanse of ash, sand and choking radioactive dust that was the Amallion Sea. The scholiasts of the Angels Fatalis surmised that once, the Amallion truly lived up to its namesake, a vast sea providing continental access to the oceans that once enveloped most of Kokkedan IV. Now, like the rest of the blasted world, it was a dead place filled with dead things where men and their machines squabbled and fought over the bones of a long-expired world. The Port Xenophon was no stationary outpost of humanity in this dead land, like Tithian’s Landing, where the chapter’s second Lord Commander had first made planetfall. It was a landship, a gargantuan crawling structure under the control of a loose triumvirate of syndicate families where wasters, dune traders, and mining skimmers met to resupply and sell their meager bounties of ore and scrap. But Port Xenophon served another, more divine purpose. It was not practical for the people of the ash wastes to congregate in Kokkedan IV’s cities every year for the festival of Sanguinala, but they were expected to pay the Blood Tithe to their Angel masters nonetheless. Periodically, the chapter sent brothers to Xenophon and other traveling cities to retrieve accumulated tithes of the Ashen Blood the chapter so desperately needed to sustain itself. Great sandstorms, visible even from the chapter’s orbital fortress monastery, made travel to Port Xenophon by Thunderhawk or lighter dangerous and impractical, and so it fell upon Ivecter and two of the chapter’s Ashen Priests to make the three-day trek from Tithian’s Landing to Port Xenophon’s current position. +++ For three days, the Ashen Priests secluded themselves in the forward compartment they’d claimed for the duration of the journey, murmuring benedictions and prayers over their equipment while Ivecter tramped restlessly around the skimmer. Commissar Ravitch had set the Atomic Guard to readiness drills, herding the men and women up onto the roof deck to repel imaginary boarding parties. Ivecter found it amusing to watch the drills while imagining all the ways he could single-handedly board the craft and eliminate the crew, were he the attacking party. It boggled his mind that the guardsmen carried functionally recoilless beam weapons that fired in perfect straight lines, and yet failed to hit the scrap targets hurled off the side of the skimmer by a servitor far more than they succeeded. It was little wonder ork infestations and genestealer cults persisted out in the ash wastes when day to day defense of the planet was left to these wretches. When the skimmer crew announced that their long-range sensorium had detected Port Xenophon just a few hours distant, Ivecter’s dour mood lessened, and when the craft shut off its fields and settled into a berth in Port Xenophan’s docks, he was first off the boarding ramp. Port Xenophon was a sprawling affair, hundreds of meters to each side. Its central platform was an ancient, hovering mining rig, a mobile platform intended to drop anchor and extract precious mineral wealth from beneath Kokkedan IV’s dune seas. Ivecter guessed from the degradation of the exterior plating that the rig (or parts of it) had been in service since the system was invaded by Tyrannids some six centuries prior. The rest of Port Xenophon was composed of legged behemoths, tracked crawlers, and aging hovercraft all lashed to the central rig. Ivecter couldn’t imagine the contraption could operate long without the ministrations of a Mechanicus tech-priest but the people of Kokkedan IV were a clever sort, in spite of their degeneracy. “Your first visit at Xenophon, Lord?” Ivecter’s head swiveled to land on Gaius and Sevlevor, the chapter priests who’d come with him to obtain Port Xenophon’s Blood Tithe. He offered a small nod of his helmed head. “The syndicate families will be ready for us at the Beacon, Lord.” assured Gaius, lifting two heavy plasteel crates, both emblazoned with the bloody, winged-skull sigil of the Angels Fatalis. “If they’ve still any good sense, aye.” came Sevlevor’s skeptic refrain as he hauled up two more of the coolant crates, built to safely transport the Blood Tithe back to the chapter’s orbital fortress-monastery. The trio of Space Marines set off across the docks toward the gantries and corridors that would take them to their audience with Port Xenophon’s ruling families. Early in the chapter’s stewardship of what was left of the Kokkedan system, the question as to how much agency the Angels Fatalis would allow the people of Kokkedan IV was a somewhat open one. It was not until Imrakos, the third chapter master and first who had been raised to the halls of the Angels via Apotheosis from Kokkedan’s mortal stock, that it was settled. Imrakos had seen as a mortal child what horrors man wrought upon man in the living hell of Kokkedan. He had seen the places controlled by syndicate families and their Codes, their robber-bandit honor system. He’d seen how a child emerging red hot from that inferno could be forged into a divine weapon of the Great Angel Sanguinius and his Father, the God Emperor of Mankind. Imrakos had let the syndicate families take the forges and hives, and the wasters take the dunes, deciding that for whatever cruelties they may perpetrate on one another, it would produce for the chapter a stock of killers and warriors from which to grow the ranks of the Angels. +++ A young boy trailed by two deeply unhappy looking syndicate bruisers met the Angels as they reached the base of the Beacon, the command spire at the center of Port Xenophon’s hub machine. The boy introduced himself in clumsy Low Gothic as Yavik, the scion of the Rixis family, one of Xenophon’s three ruling syndicates. He was wiry, like most born on Kokkedan, with pale skin and black hair. Some effort had been made to clean him for the occasion, but Ivecter saw plainly intractable tangles in his hair and oil stains on his hands. He also saw a wariness, a glimmer in the boy’s eye even as he prostrated himself on the grimy deck plating that reminded him of his own youth. This was a clever one. Ivecter thought he might run the whole Port if he lived long enough. Having made the appropriate praises and introductions, Yavik and the bruisers moved to lead the Angels to a lift up the Beacon when Ivecter’s eye was caught by two people dangling in harnesses from a gantry some twenty meters up the side of the Beacon itself. They held rollers in their hands, and were smearing dark paint over what Ivecter thought was crude writing. Like an extension of his own eyes, his helmet’s sensor-suite magnified the scene, and a filtered overlay flickered into sight, picking out the message concealed beneath the black paint. It was written in the shorthand script known to any miner on Kokkedan IV, rather than the Emperor’s Gothic. It was not a beautiful or comprehensive language; it had been borne of necessity, a way for the disparate refugees and laborers of the system to communicate instructions and hazards among mining crews as they rebuilt in the wake of the Tyrannic invasion. It was a language created to be learned and read quickly, and remembered always. Ivecter deciphered it instantly, even after centuries. “THE WORM MAKES US STRONG.” +++

Hi everyone! Long time lurker first time poster, wanted to start a thread to help with motivation for my new crusade. It's a combination of new purchases in the last year and an old firstborn force I tried my hand and I'm now rescuing, from 8 years ago when I was 16 and didn't pay attention to mold lines! Forged in the fires of the Imperium Nihilus comes The Ardent Vigil Crusade. A combination of Armageddon firstborn veterans and fresh primaris recruits now wrestling for control with chaos forces in a sector containing several Imperial Shrine worlds at High Marshal Helbretch's behest. I might write up some proper lore later but the rough idea I have is they are wary allies will a big culture conflict, the new primaris recruits not adhering to the chapter's tradition. For now here is the painted group, as well as Templars we've got assassin allies as well as the local guard infantry that I usually speed paint with drybushing and washes to blow off steam. And finally my conversion triumvirate, left to right is a jump captain, jump chaplain and the Helsreach legend himself.

Hello everyone, new to posting on B&C here and looking for some help with my crusade list. Backstory: My best friend and I are doing a crusade campaign where we start with the 1st Combat Patrol mission and go through all the missions, in order, until we finish out with the last Onslaught mission. For the last several years, he had been beating the ever living crap out of me. I can't remember the last time I won a game against him, and it certainly wasn't with my Blood Angels. We played the first combat patrol mission (25 PL each) in the Crusade part last week and he proceeded to absolutely crush me. Seriously, I had a 5-man squad on Incursors that I set up in cover on an objective, and he proceeds to roll up with a Foul Blightspawn (this was the first time he's used one, so I didn't know what it was) and wiped out 4 of them with the plague-sprayer. Needless to say, the last man did not survive long. Then the Blightspawn's "Revolting Stench" ability really took the wind out of my Blood Angels' sails. By turn three, nothing remained of my proud Sons of Sanguinius but ash and a plague-ridden sludge. We used to get a good chuckle that the reason I lost so much is because he rolls like he made some pact with an evil spirit and I roll like my dice are weighted.... to roll 1's. I did some ole' googling to find some advice on how to beat Death Guard. While this whole campaign is for fun and to get some immersive narrative play in, frankly, it's stopped being fun playing 40k against my best friend knowing I'm just going to get wiped and he's going to have a card up his sleeve to counter every plan I make (seriously, how to hell are the Death Guard going to get to go first in my own fight phase when I charged with 3 different units....?). So, after doing some researching, I realized I'm going to have to play my Blood Angels in a less Blood-Angelsy manner. I completely swapped out my entire Crusade force and chose some specific units for the next game (Supply Drop). Below is my current 60 PL Crusade army that I can choose from: HQ: Librarian Dread w/ Biomantic Sarcophogus and Gift of Foresight. Quickening and Wings (8 PL) Primaris Lieutenant (Indomitus) (4 PL) Troops: 10-man Intercessors Squad w/ grenade launcher (10 PL) Scout Squad w/camo cloaks, 4x sniper rifles, and 1x Heavy Bolter (4 PL) 5-man Tactical squad w/ Heavy Bolter. Probably going to do power sword and plasma pistol for the sergeant (5 PL) *Including the heavy bolters here due to the update they're getting to be damage 2. Figure having some S5 D2 AP -1 shots would be good to have against Death Guard, especially since things like missile launchers tend to miss thanks to the fact that every single Death Guard has some mystical cloud of flies that makes them impossible to shoot.....* Fast Attack: 3-man Inceptor squad w/ Plasma Exterminator (6 PL) Dedicated Transport: Impulsor w/ Bellicatus Missile Array (7 PL) (still haven't built it yet, but would like to hear opinions on missiles vs shield dome. Or maybe even do that orbital bombardment thing....) This brings me to 56 PL, so I still have 4 PL if there's something I really need this moment or to put toward something else later. So, for the next battle, we'll have 25 PL each and I've gone with taking the Librarian Dreadnought (8 PL), 10-man intercessor (10 PL), and inceptor squad (6 PL) [24 PL total]. Thought process behind some of this: Librarian Dreadnought is to help counter the Plaguecaster my friend seems to always take. The biomantic sarcophagus will help make sure I get my powers off and make it easier to deny. The Gift of Foresight is to make it a little sturdier. Additionally, taking a Librarian in Dreadnought form gives me access to Dreadnought/vehicle specific stratagems that will make him even sturdier, such as Armour of Contempt to shrug off some mortal wounds from Smite, or Duty Eternal to make multi-damage weapons (like that plague sprayer and its D3....). Additionally, I can use Wisdom of the Ancients to give him the captain's re-roll 1's to hit if I want to supercharge the plasma on the inceptors or just give the Intercessors a little boost. Intercessors are there to do what intercessors do: hold down some objectives and detract a little bit of the Death Guard's hardiness with the -1 AP of their bolt rifles. I plan to keep them as a 10-man blob until the Death Guard make their way to mid-field. Then I'll use Rapid Fire (and maybe Wisdom of the Ancients) to unload 40 bolt rifle shots into the Plague Marines. Then I'll probably use Tactical Flexibility to combat-squad them and have one team hold my backfield objective, while the other goes for a mid-field. As for the Inceptors, I know these guys aren't known for being that great, but they seem to really hit all the wickets for being anti-Death Guard: high mobility and good damage output. I can bounce around the board with them to get objectives, while still dumping plasma shots into whatever needs it, without getting too close. They're also pretty sturdy in their own right, so they should last until turn 5. Depending where the final objective for Supply Drop is on the final turn, I can Upon Wings of Fire them to grab it, assuming there aren't already Death Guard perched atop it.... Anyways, would love to know what you all think of the above. I know it might get a little CP intensive with some of the stuff I have planned, so hopefully I won't need too many command re-rolls early on in the game. Thanks!

Hello fellow Templars of the Bolter & Chainsword, long time reader - first time poster... getting back into the Warhammer 40k arena after many, many years. Last time I played was 2005 and had the start of a good BT army. Held onto everything through the years and am coming back to the table with new ideas. Here's the first part of the fluff background for my updated army for 2016. Hope you enjoy and all comments welcome. Inquisition Log #41.999.7981:001C HLT Direct Edict Classified Authorization / INQ-UC / AA-BLTMP_HLBR File Custodian: Inquisitor Valdena

PRIORITY OMEGA! Knut and Grimlock are back with episode 2 and this time they are tasked with reinforcing a beleaguered force of Imperial Fists & PDF attempting to stop a Daemonic summoning ritual! Will they stop the summoning or will the planet fall into further darkness?

INCOMING TRANSMISSION *********************************************** The Cicatrix Maledictum has split the galaxy in two. Entire systems cut off from Holy Terra or lost forever in the warp. Or so it seems.... Scylla Quintus, a system thought swallowed by the great rift, has come back into view. With the return of this lost system, what mysteries are held and what threats lie in wait? Are you seeking this system to claim newfound glory, seize forgotten arcaeotech or simply to purify this warp tainted system? *********************************************** So the local group is doing another crusade campaign with a twist, we’re adding the old planetary empire rules as well. Got a bunch of tiles and everything. With the new codex dropping and those new crusade rules looking right up my alley (again) I’m going to do T’au for this. And while some might remember my battlesuit heavy force, this is going to be a better mix. Also allows me to be that guy considering I have lots of the frak off guns already. For this I’ll be using my old Darkwind Cadre. This was an army based off the T’au in the Dawn of War 2 game. So all the units are built (as closely) to how they are in the game. I did add a few units that weren’t in the game, just cause I liked the look or it added to my theme of spamming stealth suits. My starting 60 PL (2 RP on roster expansion) is the following: Commander in XV8 - CIB, MP, Flamer, shield generator, shield drones x2, Through Boldness, Victory, Puretide chip 7 Firewarriors - Pulse rifles Shas’ui - pulse rifle, markerlight 7 Firewarriors - Pulse rifles Shas’ui - pulse rifle, markerlight 7 Firewarriors - Pulse rifles Shas’ui - pulse rifle, markerlight 2 Stealth suits - burst cannon x2, counterfire defense system Shas’vre - fusion blaster, counterfire defense system 2 Stealth suits - burst cannon x2, counterfire defense system Shas’vre - fusion blaster, counterfire defense system XV95 GhostKeel - burst cannon x2, cyclonic ion raker, shield generator, counterfire defense system, stealth drone x2 Hammerhead Gunship - Burst cannon x2, High Capacity Railgun Tidalwall Gunrig - Supremacy Railgun Tidalwall Shieldline I have plenty to add and since I don’t have much in HQs for this army pretty much all my RP is going to roster expansion. I have lots to add including more tanks, pathfinders, a riptide, broadsides and FW flyers. Hopefully this will last longer then the 2-3 months most tend to run in my area. If anything it will be another force to keep records on. We’re supposed to start up in two weeks, the GM is still painting the first two maps. Once done I’ll snap a picture since I’ll be modding the image for territory tracking. Also to tide you over, not sure if I showed these here, but this is a portion of my Darkwind force.

Night Spectres Pale Wardens of the Witch Stars "I looked, and there was a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death. Hell followed him."

With Codex: World Eaters just around the corner, I thought it was time to bring up the topic of how to approach a new codex release with an existing Crusade. The natural reaction to any new Codex might be to simply start again, but I find that solution extremely unsatisfying. Being a narrative format, it would be disappointing to simply throw out all the narrative development I've put into this force so far. On the other hand, the Chaos Warband rules for CSM are pretty powerful, as far as benefits go. I have lost most of my battles, but all three Glory trackers are at Favoured status thanks to a judicious use of Agendas. And when a Chaos Warband is Favoured in a category, they get some significant discounts on important Requisitions - especially increasing supplies and adding WLTs and Relics. Importantly, there's no requirement to use those free Requisitions on CSM units, so you can add free WLTs and Relics to allied units as well... There is one big disadvantage to this, however: if you have started a Chaos Warband, your trackers always go down in every battle, regardless of whether you even use CSM units or not. But to increase your Glory trackers, you must use your Warband Champion in battle. This means your Champion is always exposed to battle scars, and our campaign house rules state that scars can only be removed if a unit skips a battle. This is why Kratus, prior to his ascension, was being used in every battle (even when not the best choice) and had accumulated two very detrimental battle scars. For several battles, Kratus had been unable to perform Heroic Intervention, for example. Ultimately, my concern is that I have benefited heavily from using the Chaos Warband rules, and those benefits might not be replicable with Codex: World Eaters, so they might feel undeserved. But then I did the Agendas and I suffered the battle scars on my Champion, to my detriment in many battles. So, I have a solution: All CSM-specific battle traits and Crusade relics will be exchanged for the nearest World Eater equivalents. Arkrath benefits from keeping all his pre-ascension Chaos Boons. This is something currently unique to CSM, since both Death Guard and Thousand Sons Daemon Princes lose their boons upon ascension. I don't know which way World Eaters will go, but if WE Daemon Princes lose their boons on ascension, then I will need to drop those as well. Similarly to (2), any benefits gained through the Chaos Warband that can't be done using the World Eaters' rules will be reversed. For example, Dreior's Berzerker squad gained a battle trait because I had a Favoured Warfleet - if World Eaters don't have some equivalent mechanic then I'll simply remove the trait. If Berzerker PL changes to account for the new Berzerker Eviscerator, I may need to change unit sizes or I'll be at a significant disadvantage. The main reason they're at 8-man squads now (other than Khorne's number) is to match the 1:20 PL/points ratio. Units that I've lost access to will need to be replaced with their nearest equivalents. The last one will be easy enough for most things: Thrax the Exalted Champion will become a Master of Executions and the Cultists will become Jakhals. But the Dark Apostle, Baruda, will be a bit trickier. I may have to consider giving him a new weapon so he can conceivably use the rules for an MoE as well, but it feels boring to have two virtually identical characters. I'll have to think on that one. Of course, all of this is assuming that World Eaters even get Crusade rules. There's no reason to believe we won't, but this Codex is looking like enough of a departure from existing 9th edition Codexes that there's a small part of me that wonders if maybe we won't. But hey, if that happens then I'll just continue using the CSM Crusade rules!

Terminators have to be some of my favourite models in the game. Personal tank armour? Hell yeah! I've been sitting on a couple of boxes of the newer Chaos Terminators for some time, but have been hesitant to build them with Codex: World Eaters around the corner, especially since some earlier rumours suggested that there wouldn't be any Terminators at all. Now that we've seen all the releases and have multiple leaks indicating that Terminators are still in, I feel a lot more comfortable working on some replacements for Murdax's Butchers. Here are the first five members of the new Butchers: The heads and crests are 3D printed to resemble the old Forgeworld upgrade kit. The heads are a simple STL file, but the crests came from a Berzerker head kit that I modified to fit the Terminator armour body. I also added some weapons and bits from the new AoS Chaos Chosen kit for a little variety, and added some chains to the weapons to resemble the upcoming Berzerker kit. Murdax himself is already made from the new Terminator kit, so once these guys are done it'll just be a matter of making four more Terminators to round out the squad.

Took a month, but Arkrath is finally done! Painting red Daemonic flesh when the model is also wearing red armour is always tricky, so I went with the option of painting the flesh like a redder version of his moral skin tone. Of course, had to slather on the blood for the oversized chainfist! I expanded on the rock that the Daemon Prince model comes with, making it feel more like the type of rocks the rest of the army uses. I also added some more similar rocks made it feel less like a random "hero rock". I'm also particularly pleased with how the bionic leg turned out - I've been wanting to do a biomechanical Daemon for years! That Venomcrawler leg just happened to be the perfect bit and I couldn't be happier. Overall, I'm very happy with how it turned out. The Daemon Prince model is such a great kit, I honestly can't get over just how neatly everything fits together and how many options it has. It did take a long time to paint, though - there are just so many details. I noticed several details that I missed just while taking these photos, but honestly, it gets to a point where you have to call good enough "done". Enjoy!

THE CRUENTES Arkrath, the Hand of Khorne DAEMON PRINCE, 11PL For ten thousand years, the Astartes who would become Arkrath, Kratus, has led his warband of Chosen Terminators. Entering the Long War as a veteran warrior in the ranks of the XII Legion's Terminator elite, Kratus was frequently found in the most bloody of battles. This boldness amassed for him a significant following of Terminators, and they adopted the moniker of Red Butchers, once a reviled and pitied name but one that had since taken on a new sense of respect in their new worship of Khorne. It was from these same ranks that a warlord named Bardûl rose to prominence, his single-minded devotion to the Blood God eclipsing even Kratus's own. When Bardûl declared the founding of the Aksha'i Cruentes and the start of the Red Crusade, Kratus stood beside him, ready to go to war with the galaxy. As Bardûl's chief bodyguard and confidant, Kratus defended the man who called himself Hand of Khorne, as well as delivering justice to those who impeded the Bloodfather's dominance. It was not uncommon for Kratus to be dispatched to kill other Champions of Khorne who had displeased the Hand in some way. During the War for Janus, however, Bardûl grew impatient with the gifts his Daemonic patrons bestowed upon him, and he drank too greedily from the well of power that is Chaos worship, transforming into a monstrous Chaos Spawn. The power vacuum was quickly filled by the former Terminator Champion, who tore the symbolic chainfist from his erstwhile master's broken Terminator plate and took it for his own. Kratus's ascent was meteoric, and before long he was courting the same Daemonic patrons as his former master. Unlike Bardûl, however, Kratus's ambition and arrogance were tempered by personal sacrifices, having suffered several grievous wounds, including the loss of his own leg. Such losses displayed a certain dedication to the Lord of Battles, however they were still defeats in the eyes of the Blood God and would be punished. After one such defeat, Kratus was whisked away to the Warp before the alien witch's magicks could kill him. It was there that Kratus was first imprisoned and tortured by his patron, known to him as Ska'nzand the Wrathforged. He was held here for eight hundred years, by his perception, however never did his faith and determination waver. Impressed by this, Ska'nzand released Kratus on a quest of penitent rage throughout the Eye of Terror for another eight hundred years. In realspace only hours later, a winged figure manifested before the Cruentes, who were on the verge of tearing themselves apart to find a new leader. Monstrous in stature, this figure was armoured in what appeared to be a mockery of Terminator plate and bore a warped chainfist on its right vambrace. It did not use the name Kratus, for the man who bore that name was dead, it said. This was now Arkrath, the True Hand of Khorne. Warlord Trait: Hatred Incarnate Relic: Gorget of Eternal Hate Rank: Legendary Battle Honours: Scorpion Tail (Chaos Boon) - +1A Serpent's Fangs (Chaos Boon) - +1 to wound in first round of combat Warp Stalker (Chaos boon) - reroll advance and charge Razor-edged - improve AP of melee weapon by 1 Blackstone Shard Amulet - cannot be targeted by psychic powers Null-field Disruptor - ignores invulnerable saves Baruda, Blood Priest of Kharneth DARK APOSTLE, 6PL An early convert to the Cult of the Blood God, Baruda was instrumental in the formation of the Cruentes. He wears the charcoal black armour of Loyalist chaplains in dark mockery of his misguided counterparts. Baruda is an extremely - and some might say excessively - zealous individual, to the point that those around him view him with slight unease. However, there is no denying that his entreaties to the Dark Powers are an effective tool. He knows the Dark Zealotry, Wrathful Entreaty and Illusory Supplication prayers. Warlord Trait: Eternal Vendetta Relic: Mantle of Traitors Rank: Heroic Battle Honours: Detestation (Path of the Righteous) - cannot be targeted by psychic powers Stoic Fervour (Path of the Righteous) - 6+ FNP, 4+ FNP vs mortal wounds Just Killer (Path of the Righteous) - +1S when attacking units smaller than his Daemonic Flesh (via Chaos Reward Requisition) - unit gains +1T Aspect of Khorne (via Chaos Reward Requisition) - once per game free use of Fury of Khorne or Scorn of Sorcery stratagems Razor-edged(?) Crozius (via Victor Bonus) - AP of Crozius improved by 1 Thrax Gorechosen EXALTED CHAMPION, 6PL Thrax is a wandering traveller, claiming to be an original member of the War Hounds Legion and claiming to be the bearer of the coveted relic, Gorefather. Regardless of the truth to his words, the Berzerkers who follow Thrax into battle are invariably inspired to great deeds of bloodshed as Thrax himself frequently seeks out the strongest enemies he can find. Warlord Trait: Flames of Spite Relic: Gorefather Rank: Blooded Battle Honours: Sigil of the Shadowlord - 4+ Invul, 4+ FNP vs mortal wounds Validon's Bloodthunderers 8x KHORNE BERZERKERS, 10PL Validon is one of the Cruentes' longest-serving Berzerker Champions, and has been instrumental to the cohesion of the Cruentes as a fighting force. He instituted a gradual change to the Eternal Warrior's fighting pits: instead of individual combat, the pits would focus more on squad-based combat. Through repeated training in this manner over hundreds of years, the instinct to fight in a squad of brothers became so ingrained that even in the deepest frenzy, Berzerkers would know to fight together. Validon leads seven Berzerkers, collectively known as the Bloodthunderers. Rank: Battle-hardened Battle Honours: Hate-fuelled Butchers - +1 to WS Divine Guidance (Path of the Righteous) - improves melee AP by 1 Dreior's Hunters 8x KHORNE BERZERKERS, 10PL A newer member of the Cruentes, Dreior is a vat-grown gift from Fabius Bile's gene clinics. Implanted with false memories, he believes himself to be a veteran of the Long War, and despite his relative youth, he is a consummate fighter. He and his squad are often seen breaking through enemy lines and hunting down specific targets. Dreior leads seven Berzerkers simply known as the Hunters. Rank: Battle-hardened Battle Honours: Bitter to the Bone - can choose their Wanton state Fervid Focus (Path of the Righteous) - can move horizontally through terrain and models Trusted Hounds (via Warfleet Favour) - can choose a character's aura to always be in range Gorm's Stalkers 8x KHORNE BERZERKERS, 10PL Another long-serving member of the Cruentes, Gorm leads the newest inductees into battle. His strict command gives these initiates their first taste at combat, and puts them on the path to becoming fully-fledged Berzerkers of the Cruentes. Gorm's habit of consuming the flesh of the dead, however, often permeates through the ranks of those under his command. As a result, a significant number of Cruentes share his cannibalistic tendencies. Gorm leads seven Berzerkers known as the Stalkers. Rank: Battle-hardened Battle Honours: Hate-fuelled Butchers - +1 to WS Fervid Focus (Path of the Righteous) - can move horizontally through terrain and models Serpentine Fangs (via Dark God Favour) - Gorm's attacks gain +1 to wound on the charge Covenant of the Bloody Hand 20x CULTIST MOB, 5PL Despite this cultist warband's high attrition rate - or, perhaps, because of it - the cult members rarely have any trouble finding more volunteers for their ranks, as few mortal followers of Khorne can resist being given the opportunity to have their blood spilt on the battlefield. Members of this warband have begun adopting a sigil of a bloody handprint as they are inducted, signifying the dead passing on their covenant to the new warriors. Rank: Blooded Battle Honours: Believers of the True Faith - gain the Let the Galaxy Burn ability Murdax's Butchers 10x CHAOS TERMINATORS, 19PL Led by the dangerously ambitious champion, Murdax, the Butchers are a sub-warband of Terminators within the Aksha'i Cruentes. Fierce warriors all, this warband adopted the nickname of Red Butchers upon their descent into the worship of the Blood God. With Terminator plate being difficult to manufacture amongst the Traitor Legions, and with the World Eaters' excessively high attrition rate, the warriors in the Butchers are, ironically for their namesake, some of the more measured of the Cruentes. However, this should not be taken as a lack of aggression - they are capable of as much as their Berzerker brethren, however they have all trained for millennia to hone their use of the Butcher's Nails. Rank: Heroic Upgrades: Red Butchers (via Specialist Reinforcements Requisition) Battle Honours: Ambition's Edge - Murdax gains +1A, +1W and +1Ld Trusted Hounds - can benefit from certain character auras outside of range Hate-fuelled Butchers - +1WS Fervid Focus (via Path of the Righteous: Glorious Ceremony Requisition) - can move horizontally through terrain and models Vervek the Condemned HELLBRUTE, 7PL Vervek's fate is a cautionary tale for any individual who stands in the way of a mighty Champion of Khorne and his glory, for this former Terminator stole a trophy kill that Kratus had claimed. In the eyes of the Blood Father, of course, such triviality didn't matter - however, in the eyes of the corporeal judge and executioner claiming the god's authority, he was little more than a usurper. Vervek was carved out of his Terminator plate with little care, being no more than a head and torso before he was entombed within a Dreadnought's sarcophagus. Rank: Battle-ready Xarian the Bloody Idiot HELLBRUTE, 7PL Once the champion of a whole Cruentes warband, Xarian - formerly known also as Doomgore - was deposed of his position after it was apparent that he did not deserve to lead. Originally, he was the lieutenant of a rival World Eaters warband, the control over which he seized through betrayal, before he pledged them to the Cruentes. As a reward for bolstering their ranks, Xarian was gifted with command of his own warband and a rebellious Daemon sword. The sword resisted Xarian's ownership at first, having not been seized through combat. However, after several battles, Xarian appeased the weapon by stabbing it through his own stomach. Amused by this attempt at sacrifice, the sword appeared to capitulate. It soon became apparent that the sword still had not deemed Xarian worthy. Even though its power had been unlocked, it still rebelled at some of the worst moments possible, often leading to Xarian's defeat. Out of frustration, several conspirators - including Kratus and his Terminators - turned on the champion, dismembering his body and burying the Daemon sword deep within the Eternal Warrior. Xarian was kept alive as an amusement, more than anything, and was interred within a dreadnought sarcophagus. Xarian is a Helbrute, armed with a plasma cannon and hammer. Rank: Battle-hardened Battle Honours: Hate-fuelled Butcher - +1 to WS Despoiler Without Mercy - +1 to BS Chaos Rhino Motorpool CHAOS RHINOS, 4PL x2 Ranks: Rhino I - Battle-ready Rhino II - Battle-ready Rhino III - deleted Bardûl the Wretched Fool CHAOS SPAWN, 1PL A horrid, mutated mess of flesh, Bardûl is kept by the Cruentes as a "living" cautionary tale for those who would squander the gifts of the gods. Bardûl was once a mighty Champion of Khorne, blessed by the Blood God's favour and a promising locus around which the shattered remnants of the World Eaters Legion could gather. However, Bardûl was tempted with more power than he could bear. One of his Daemonic patrons offered him a tiny sliver of immortality, but the Chaos Lord demanded more. In a painful twist of hubris, the mighty Hand of Khorne was wracked with torment as his wrathful masters poured ever more mutating power of Chaos into the champion, until he was no longer recognisable. Rank: Battle-hardened Battle Honours: Fleet of Foot - +1Mv, +1 Advance and Charge rolls Grizzled - 6+ FNP THE PACT CRUENTES - DAEMONIC ALLIES Gorethane RENDMASTER, 7PL Equally at home hewing through ranks of foes from atop its warped chariot as it is duelling with enemy champions, the Gorethane is a dark master of battle. It can be seen directing its Bloodletter hordes from the front, always eager to slay. Warlord Trait: Glory of Battle Rank: Battle-ready Bloodseeker SKULLMASTER, 7PL The Bloodseeker is a swift butcher, and one of the first Neverborn to swear allegiance to Arkrath during his penance. Wielding the accursed axe Bloodbane and thundering into battle atop a loping Juggernaut, the Bloodseeker is a terrifying foe in battle. Relic: A'rgath, King of Blades Rank: Battle-ready Bloodletter Packs 6PL Rank: Battle-ready Bloodcrushers 6PL Rank: Battle-ready Flesh Hounds 5PL Rank: Battle-ready

Or: I really need to make a proper urban-themed board for this narrative campaign that is set in a bloody city... 18 November, 2022 The sharp claws hunting us from the shadows have all but confirmed it: an ancient relic is buried under the surface of Hive Secundus, one that is of particular significance to the World Eaters. Rumour and hearsay had led them to this place, and it is time to claim the prize. The final preparations must be made to bombard this city and reach the relic within. Now, Genestealer Cultists have been found swarming the city, and we suspect that the foul xenos may have worked out how to use the fell technology within. Kratus, his flickering form uncertain in the material universe, leads Baruda, Murdax's Red Butchers, Validon's and Gorm's Berzerker squads, Xarian the Bloody Idiot and Vervek the Condemned in their Dreadnought chassis, and a mob of Cultists. The mission objective is essentially kill points (score VPs equal to the PL value of enemy units destroyed). The defender gets Light Cover while they're in their deployment zone, unless the attacker can turn off the objectives, which also earns the attacker VPs. Ever keen to show his worthiness to the Blood God, I have chosen Eye of the Gods (kill characters, vehicles or monsters for XP and Personal Glory) and Reaper (unit that kills the most gets XP) as my main Agenda picks. For my third, I figure that Deploy Vox Relays would be a good narrative choice for the story. I deploy aggressively, as normal with the Terminators and Cultists. I lose the first turn, but decide to rush both units up the board anyway with Apoplectic Frenzy to hopefully keep my opponent on the back foot. I figure the Atalan Jackals (gods, that name is going to be confusing in a few months...) will spring forward and try to threaten my Helbrutes, so I get the Cultists to help screen the machines against the dirt bikers' damnable bombs. Terminators plod up the field, knowing full well that they won't be protected by Illusory Supplication just yet. It's just GSC, how much firepower could they have? I keep Gorm's Berzerkers in Strategic Reserve, in the hope that they can nab an objective late in the game. In my opponent's first turn, the Goliath truck rumbles forward on my left flank. As expected, the bikers zip forward, past the suspiciously xenoform ruin in the centre, to harrass my Cultists. A Goliath Rockgrinder and a couple of light Ridgerunners wheel around to get some shots off at the Terminators. A not insignificant amount of shooting later, and four Red Butchers are taken out of action, their riddled bodies barely held together by their ancient armour. On the left, a wall of fire from the cultists (soon to be Jakhals?) inflicts a minor burn on the Jackals. The bikes charge, killing a few cultists, who in turn knock two bikers out of their saddles while the other speeds away. In my turn, the cultists advance to turn off the objective on the left. Weirdly, this is not an Action, so can be done after advancing - fine by me! Unfortunately, I forgot that they can't score VPs in the first round, but at least they'll be a distraction. In the middle/right, I send the Terminators out to secure the middle objective, and the Rhino to threaten the right objective. The Terminators also deploy a vox beacon for one of my Agendas. The Helbrutes ponder up and inflict a few wounds on each of the Goliaths. The Genestealers' second turn sees some Purestrains leap out of cover to maul the hapless cultists, turning the objective back on in the process. While the Rockgrinder hops on the objective on the right. Despite the Illusory Supplication from Baruda, the Terminators lose three models (note to self: trans-hit doesn't help much against BS4 enemies...), the Rhino suffers significant damage, and the Kellermorph pick off both of Baruda's little buddies and wound the priest himself. Oof. The cultists prove about as resilient as one can expect, and swiftly become a xenos meal. Frustratingly, the Genestealers burrow underground and head into Strategic Reserves. I always forget about that Stratagem... Meanwhile, the Rockgrinder ploughs into the Rhino, destroying it. Four (!!!) Berzerkers apparently tried, in vain, to stop the machine using nothing but their own bodies. It did not work, and half the squad disappears in a blisteringly bad roll. Things are not looking good, but I know I can still get this if I can disable some objectives and kill a bit more. On the left, Xarian the Helbrute atomises a good portion of the Goliath truck, destroying it. I didn't get good photos of this, but the Terminators likewise melt the Rockgrinder on the right, which turns out was rigged with explosives, killing a Berzerker and wounding everything else around it. Turns out that having 90% of your shooting be short-ranged against such a Stratagem is not wise! In my opponent's turn three, the trap is sprung and his Genestealers and the Muscle Beach make themselves known. Some sneaky buggers are also set up to cordon off the table edges against my own reserves. Back in the centre, the Aberrants and Purestrains clobber and scrabble into the remnants of my force. Unfortunately, one of Kratus's battle scars prevents him from performing a Heroic Intervention, so it's pretty much just down to the Terminators and Baruda. In a show of favour from the Bloodfather, Baruda is barely left standing, though the Genestealers' quick reflexes prevent his return swings from landing. The Red Butchers were not so lucky, and the Aberrants demolish the veteran warriors, though Murdax brings a couple of them down with him. My third turn is one of desperation. Kratus flickers into combat with the Purestrains, supported by Xarian, while the remaining Berzerkers from Validon's squad and Vervek launch themselves at the Aberrants. Meanwhile, my reserves move on from my own table edge, utilising an often-forgotten rule to be able to set up close to the enemy by keeping one model within 1" of my own table edge. Sadly, the charges in the middle weren't as successful as I had hoped. Vervek's power scourge was not the best weapon against 3W Aberrants, and the Berzerkers didn't quite finish them off, while the Purestrains proved to be too quick for even Astartes physiology. They finished off Baruda with numerous, viscious slashes. The lone Aberrant did end up fleeing, however unfortunately it wasn't due to my attacks, so I couldn't get XP for it. At least I could get VPs, though! At least Gorm's Berzerkers on the left were a little more successful, wiping out the Purestrains trying to hunt them down. Unfortunately, despite thinning my opponent's force somewhat, he still has tricks up his sleeve. The Patriarch, which we've learned calls itself the Salt Wyrm (though I still prefer "Big Daddy") blitzes through the ruins to stalk Kratus in an eerily familiar showdown. Meanwhile, shooting from the Ridgerunners knock out the last of Validon's Berzerkers, and the Hybrids that had been guarding the board edge throw themselves at Vervek, cutting at hydraulics and power cables, disabling the dreadnought. I try a couple of tricks: first, negating the damage from one of Big Daddy the Salt Wyrm's attacks using the Divine Shield stratagem from the Righteous Path rules. The blood shield succeeds in protecting him from the Patriarch's attacks...but I hadn't factored in the final genestealer. Kratus's blurred form, one second standing and fighting was on the ground bleeding in less than the blink of an eye. Fine, we'll play it that way! I use the last of my CPs on He Is Risen!, also from the Righteous Path rules. For a second, Kratus's body blinks out of existence... ...Only for him to reappear, a blood-curdling warcry on his lips. Kratus lays into both xenos, finally slaying the last of the Purebloods, but the legendary dexterity of the Big Salt Daddy Wyrm saves him from harm. Luckily, Kratus's terminator armour keeps him alive with only one wound remaining. GSC turn four, he still has some substantial shooting left, and Gorm's squad takes heavy casualties, In the middle, the Patriarch's witch powers prove too much, even for the divinely-inspired Kratus. Invading the heretic's mind with dark tendrils of energy, Kratus - standing in a pool of his own blood oozing from many wounds - begins bleeding from his eyes and other cranial orifices. He drops to his knees, but before the Patriarch can take his head, reality shudders around the Chaos Lord, and he disappears again in a wisp of warp smoke. With that, there's not much else that the World Eaters can do, and the Genestealers succeed in defending their territory from the Heretic Astartes once again. I do, however, manage to scrounge two Chaos Points to help keep some of my trackers at reasonable levels. Result: 53-65 Loss Kratus's Personal Glory: 7 -> 7Khorne's Dark God Glory: 6 -> 7Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 6 After the battle, however, Kratus doesn't reappear. At least, not immediately...

It's been a hot minute since I provided much of an update to my Order of Battle! It also took a couple of months longer than intended to advance to the next phase of the Path of the Righteous that my force has begun. A quick reminder: these are optional rules from White Dward 472-476 from earlier this year. They follow your force at it walks a path of pure zeal, potentially leading to damnation in the process. These issues can be found in the Warhammer Vault, if you are a WH+ subscriber. In this phase of the Path, called the Absolution of Faith, a unit's Righteous Inspiration limit is raised from 4 to 8 points. For units with 7 or less points of Righteous Inspiration, several new stratagems are available. Notably: They Are Risen!, which allows the player to resurrect a character for 2CP on a 2+, once per battle. Doing so increases that character's Inspiration by 3 points, so you can only get away with this a couple of times per character! Divine Shield, which allows you to change the Damage characteristic of an incoming attack to 0 for 2CP, once per battle. This also increases that unit's Inspiration by 2 points. The Last Righteous Act, which is a fight-on-death Stratagem for 2CP. This increases the unit's Inspiration by 1 point. The rest of the stratagems do various things to improve a unit's combat ability (or psychic ability, for those inclined), and each increase the target unit's Inspiration by another 1 point. This phase of the Path also introduces a handful of new Requisitions, which simply allow the player to spread Righteous Inspiration points, redistribute Righteous Crusade Relics, or have a Righteous character teach a unit a Righteous Battle Trait. Oh, and there's some psychic stuff, but whatever So far, only Baruda (of course) has any Righteous Inspiration from taking a couple of Battle Traits in the previous phase. For some reason, Kratus also has a couple of Inspiration points - I must have started using the stratagems a few weeks ago, though I have no memory of doing so! Ah well, it's on the Unit Card, so Past Cheex must have been keeping track of something...right?

11 November, 2022 With news of Hive Secundus housing something powerful, several armies are converging on the city. Kratus, having been thwarted in breaking into the catacombs himself, has resolved to instead locate the weakest crust of the inner city and simply bombard it from space, cracking it open and exposing the bounty within. The Cruentes believe they have found the perfect position. The only problem is that a strike force of Imperial Knights stand in their way. As a further obstacle, something seems to be lurking in the shadows. Superstitious cultists rant about "vampyrs" and "shapeshifters" that have hunted the city's denizens since the war began, snapping up whole communities as they tried to escape the conflict. Indeed, the darkness itself seems to have eyes...and claws... For this battle and the next, units in range of objectives (or in area terrain, if there are no objectives) are at -1Ld and -1 to Combat Attrition tests, as somthing unnervingly stalks the shadows and preys on the unwary. Kratus's physical form is becoming increasingly detached from time and space. His outline appears almost wispy. And his movements, rather than being smooth motion, appear more like short-distance jumps through space. One moment he might be looking away, the next moment he could be turned to face you - only to suddenly be looking away again, all without appearing to move. Baruda, ever the zealot, loudly proclaims it is simply yet another boon bestowed upon his Lord by the god of war. Kratus is accompanied by Baruda the Dark Apostle, Murdax's Red Butchers, Validon's Berzerkers, a mob of Cultists, and Bardûl's wretched form. In this mission, the objective is to secure the battlefield - however, the communication issues present in Secundus and the presences in the shadows have jumbled the orders somewhat. There are four objectives, two of which can only be captured by part of your army, and the other two can only be captured by the rest of your army, randomly determined before deployment. Kratus, Baruda and the Berzerkers are trying to take the nearer two objectives, while the Terminators, Cultists and Spawn are trying to take the farther two objectives. For Agendas, I choose the nearly ubiquitous Eye of the Gods to kill characters and vehicles, and supplement that with one of the Agendas from this mission pack, Machine Vendetta, to get even more experience from killing vehicles. I deploy almost everything on the right flank, hoping to overwhelm this side of the board and prevent the Knights from taking my closer objectives, while sneaking up and capturing one of his for just a turn or so. Kratus himself deploys on the far right with the Cultists, hoping to hold an objective while the mortals are thrown into the fray. As is normal, the Terminators form the anvil in the centre of the battlefield, supported by Baruda's dulcet singing voice. Unfortunately, the Knights win first turn, so I don't have a chance to activate my defensive prayer with Baruda. Despite this, I push on with the plan, and with a blood-curdling roar the Terminators and Cultists move up the field with Apoplectic Frenzy. Baruda uses his Warlord Trait, Eternal Vendetta, to mark the big Knight, Prince Arthur, for death. The chivalrous fools leap at this chance, knowing the Red Butchers' reputation for resilience. The two melta Armigers round on Murdax's squad, supported by the autocannon Armiger in the distance. Prince Arthur likewise moves down the street to offer his - not insubstantial - firepower. On the right flank, a few Cultists were slain by some incidental stubber fire, while a few more were dragged silently into the shadows by the denizens there. (In hindsight, I have no idea why I moved them onto the objective that they couldn't even capture anyway...) The combined firepower of all four Knights sends a storm of shrapnel, high-calibre shells and superheated gas towards the ancient, frenzied warriors. Their priceless plate holds surprisingly well without the machinations of the warp to help them, however six of them are still felled - four of them to the Helverin's autocannons! The ground rumbles as Arthur and one of his Armigers thunder into the survivors. Prince Arthur swings first, cutting open three of the berserk Terminators. Murdax himself survives and, of course, barrels into the Armiger in a Counter Offensive. The junior Knight suffers terribly from the Champion's chainfist as it carves through metal plating, reinforced conduits and locomotive stabilisers. With only four wounds left, the Knight is unable to land a killing blow on the World Eater. Losing nearly an entire Terminator squad on the top of turn 1 is obviously not ideal, however this now means that around two thirds of my opponent's force is out of position. The Berzerkers vault over the pipelines, while Baruda leaps over his attendants to hammer into the damaged Armiger. Kratus - not visible in this photo - moves up to try charging into Arthur as well. Unfortunately, his blasted bionic leg continued to plague him, as he failed his charge even with a reroll from Warp Stalker. The Berzerkers struck first, swarming up the Knight's legs and sawing into various joints and other weak spots, bringing the adamantine giant down to just 10 wounds. Arthur swung back, choosing to mete out his vengeance against the bugs clinging to his hull, killing most of the Berzerkers. Murdax leapt from the Armiger and slammed his chainfist into Arthur's weakened hull, inflicting just enough damage (12) to cause the Knight to lose its remaining power and topple onto its back. Meanwhile, Baruda slammed his corrupted crozius into the Armiger, likewise only bareuly causing enough damage (4) to sever the right hydraulics and conduits to cripple the war machine. In my opponent's turn, having lost two critical Knights, he steps up with his last Warglaive to avenge his fallen. Another punishing salvo from the last two Armigers incapacitates the last Berzerkers and knocks out Murdax. The plucky Knight pilot sees his chance, and launches into Baruda. Luckily, the priest still has two lackeys happy to sacrifice themslves, with one dying. Baruda swings back, inflicting significant damage to the Armiger's hull. In my turn, the Spawn gribbles up to help Baruda in his struggle against the warmachine. Elsewhere, unpictured, Kratus continues to set up his bombardment beacon, while the cultists advance onto one of my opponent's objectives to do the same there. The Spawn knocks a few more wounds off the Armiger, who splits his attacks between Baruda and the Spawn. The Spawn is easilly cut in half, but Baruda's final attendant leaps in the way of the whirring chainblades (an outstanding feat in itself, given that the disciple lacks a face), allowing his master to continue his onslaught, breaking the Knight's steed. Since I controlled more objectives for this turn, I now took the lead in VPs. Now it's just a matter of surviving long enough to keep it that way! In my opponent's turn, the last Armiger makes a good attempt at killing everything left in my army. The autocannons thump away at Baruda, knocking off two wounds thanks to his 6+ FNP, while the heavy stubbers kill off the Cultists (though maybe one or two more were claimed by the shadowy claws!). At this point, I had a choice to make: either keep Baruda on his objective and guarantee the win, or "do the Khorne thing" and charge. I do the Khorne thing and charge. The Armiger lands a single hit in overwatch, killing Baruda. Hmpf. With one model each left on the table, there's not much that either of us can do. He spends the last two turns firing on Kratus, whose Gorget of Eternal Hate easily deflects the heavy rounds while he finishes setting up the beacon. What a battle! The fates certainly swung from one side to the other, and my plan to just nab more objectives ended up working in my favour. Just one single turn of scoring more VPs than my opponent is all it took. Unfortunately, such a narrow victory (I assume) means that I only gain a paltry 4 Chaos Points. Bardûl the Wretched Fool earns the Fatigued Battle Scar. Baruda is the clear MVP for this battle, and so is Marked for Greatness, though this is not quite enough to progress to Heroic level. With the first of the beacons set, the warfleet of the Cruentes begins moving into position... Result: 45-35 Win Kratus's Personal Glory: 7 -> 7Khorne's Dark God Glory: 6 -> 7Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7

This battle occurred a few weeks ago, but real life got in the way. Sorry for the lack of updates! Regular scheduling is to follow. I've also noticed that the recent formatting change on the B&C has deleted all of my paragraph breaks in previous entries, so I will eventually go back and fix them...eventually. 7 October, 2022 Burning with the power of the warp following his last encounter with the Imperial Knights, Kratus presses onwards through the dust-strewn wreckage of Hive Secundus. He's on a mission to uncover something buried in the heart of the city. With an awkward, limping gait, Kratus leads his forces onward to a processional way to the dark belly of the hive. Those who can see Kratus notice something unusual about him - like if they see him from the corner of their eyes, his outline is slightly blurred. Kratus is supported by the raving chants of Baruda the Dark Apostle, Validon's and Dreior's Berzerkers, a mob of Cultists, Murdax and his Red Butcher Terminators, Xarian the Helbrute, and a new Helbrute named Vervek. One of the Berzerker squads is mounted in a Rhino. This newcomer was, in fact, one of Kratus's former bodyguards who stole a glory kill from him several games back, and has been languishing in torture ever since... The World Eaters are defending in this mission, as they must secure this site as a point of ingress to the core of the city. The Genestealers, being the current owners of this mysterious objective, must sabotage this potential entryway by performing actions on the objectives. I choose the following Agendas: Blasphemous Ritual (perform an action in the centre of the table for potential XP and Dark God Glory points) - the World Eaters wish to 'consecrate' their entryway to the city's centre. Cull the Hordes (gain XP for killing 6+ models in one phase) - Khorne demands blood. Assassins (gain XP for killing characters) - Khorne demands worthy skulls. As always with GSC, you get very little information on where they're going to deploy, and I know they can spring up out of nowhere so I try to screen my weaker left flank while focusing mainly on the right. Kratus sees his unnamed follower loping off ahead, moving in a way that Terminator plate shouldn't, apparently unnoticed by the other Berzerkers. The figure, clad in the colours of the War Hounds Legion, turns back and reveals the positions of the enemies. The warning was of little help, however. On the left, the mutants' bikers scream as they surge forward before the battle was even underway, followed by the skittering of claws on dusty pavement. On the right, the jerryrigged civilian vehicles scamper back to try and avoid the fire of the two Helbrutes. In the ruins of some ruins of strangely non-Imperial origin, some shadowy figures can be seen waiting and watching. With a roar, the Berzerkers and Terminators surge forwards using the Apoplectic Frenzy stratagem. Note: these photos were taken after pre-game moves, but before my opponent had taken his first movement phase. The bikers zip forwards, prayers to their Four-Armed False Emperor on their lips as they prepare their demolition charges. Their pure-blooded brothers follow in the dust they kick up. In the centre, a mutant witch saunders forwards, her skull writhing with disgusting energies as she strikes down a couple of Berzerkers with mind bullets. The makeshift explosives do their destructive work, blasting armour plates off Vervek's dreadnought hull and damaging several systems, before barrelling into the Cultists. The cultists open fire in Overwatch, slightly damaging one of the bikes. Elsewhere, other shots ring out across the battlefield, including more than a little firepower directed at Vervek's already damaged form. However, none of them are able to finish off this beast and - despite the photo you see below - he is reduced to a single wound. The bikers run down several Cultists, but their bodies gum up the light steeds. One of the bikers is thrown from the saddle and clubbed to death, while another suffers some damage. Luckily, the Cultists are so intoxicated by the bloodshed that none of them flee. In my first turn, Xarian the Helbrute and the Berzerkers on foot advance up the centre, hoping to draw out the Genestealers. The Rhino moves up cautiously in a position to send reinforcements where needed. Xarian fires up his new multimelta, sighting the foul mutant witch across the battlefield, and in an explosion of superheated matter, wipes her off the table. (Though I have no doubt she used some kind of trickery to escape!) Meanwhile, Vervek lends a hand to the cultists, killing two more bikers as they struggle to extricate themselves from the mass of maddened humans. A few more Cultists are trampled, but again they pass their Morale test with a heroic stubbornness. Vervek gets bored and wanders off to fight the Genestealers...with his whole remaining wound. Meanwhile, I realise I should probably invest in some more disposable bait units, as the Genestealers on the right scamper forwards and make short work of Dreior's squad. And the incredibly fast blue buggers just bypass Vervek entirely to grab one of my home objectives. Some lesser mutants show up to help them out and they sabotage his potential Hive Core entrance. A mutant gunslinger appears with altogether too many arms and altogether too many pistols, taking aim at Baruda, whose chanting is messing with reality around the Terminators in the middle. He(?) succeeds in killing two of Baruda's buddies, and wounding the priest himself. I spend a command point to reroll one of his saves and he survives. The outcome against Dreior's berzerkers was never really in question, but I take a photo anyway. Even less contentious was the other Genestealers against the Cultists and Vervek, however here at least I am able to perform a Counter Offensive to kill a few of them with Vervek before he crumples to the ground. Somehow, the Cultist champion actually survives...and passes another Morale test! Turning to deal with the new threat to the rear, Kratus blurs through reality to charge the mutants. The Red Butchers begin desecrating the Imperial shrine in the centre of the table, knowing they could draw the attention of Khorne to the battle. I seem to have missed a photo here, but Validon's berzerkers jump out of their Rhino and easily take care of the Genestealers on my right. In my opponent's turn, the Patriarch makes himself known, followed by several Abominants as they counter my countercharge. Kratus butchers the lesser mutants in my rear, chasing down the gunslinger that was leading them, but rescue is at hand. Meanwhile, some more mutants appear to demolish another possible route into the heart of the city. They really don't want me in their lair, for some reason. Various combined arms brings Xarian practically to his knees. He retaliates out of rage using the Fire Frenzy stratagem, blasting a decent hole out of the Goliath truck but failing to destroy it. Kratus is surrounded by horrid, blue aliens. His ancient warplate wards off most of pistol shots from the Kellermorph as it disengages, but he is starting to bleed. As he bleeds, however, his silhouette begins to blur more and more frequently. On the right, a variety of mutants, aliens and vehicles launch into the Berzerkers and Helbrute. Taking first swing, the Genestealers tear at Kratus, cutting deep into his armour. His strange warping and blipping through reality continues as he fights off the aliens, before he eventually disappears entirely. Seizing the initiative with Counter Offensive, the Berzerkers launch themselves at the Patriarch and the Abominants, killing all but one of the horrible mutants and almost dragging down the Patriarch himself. However, despite being forced to the ground himself, the Patriarch tears through the Astartes, scattering the squad, while Xarian is knocked over by the truck. Emboldened by their newly desecrated/consecrated shrine to Khorne, the Terminators hurl themselves at the enemy with a mighty 12" charge. Baruda is also feeling lucky, and turns to show the Genestealers his stick. The Red Butchers, unsurprisingly, butcher their way through what was left on my right. While Baruda knocks down a couple of xenos and takes a couple of scratches in the process. Thinking their job was done, the Terminators failed to notice the biotech grafted into the Patriarch's carapace. His Archeotech Nano-meds pump stimulants into his body and he scurries away to join some mutants that had been skulking around my right flank for some time. The Genestealers in my rear, clearly deciding that they had no interest in Baruda's shiny stick, scamper off to take my other objective.... ...while the gunslinger mutant easily caps the priest. In my final turn, Murdax's Butchers close in with the slippery Patriarch, burning his makeshift bodyguards with their heavy flamers, before pummelling the Genestealer lord again. The battle ends there, with the Genestealers having danced around the battlefield and destroying all of the objectives. The Terminators, seeing this fate, head back to the World Eaters' drop zone, leaving behind the Patriarch's corpse. They fail to notice the swarm of nanobots still in the creature's bloodstream, knitting its flesh back together. One of the Terminators turns....only to see the body missing. Back at the drop zone, Kratus rematerialises with cuts and bruises all over. His silhouette is now blurred even when viewing him directly, and his blood is looking unusually black in colour. No units level up this battle and the Rhino (which was destroyed at some point, but I now can't remember how) gains a pretty inconsequential battle scar. However, a solid roll for my Chaos Points after the battle and one successful Blasphemous Ritual puts my force in a better position to when they started. Result: 30-65 Loss Kratus's Personal Glory: 7 -> 7Khorne's Dark God Glory: 5 -> 6Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7

I didn't get to play a game last week, so instead I got some more hobby done! I hesitate to call it progress, since it's really just a distraction from getting stuff done that's been sitting in the Pile of Opportunity for too long, but hey, it was fun. Not content to just say "Kratus has bionics under his armour now", I went online and found a cheap ($1) bionic leg STL, fired up the old Photon Mono and made Kratus a new leg to represent his recent battle scar. I took the opportunity to fix a few things about the model I didn't like: his old pose made him look like he was leaning a bit, I moved the right shoulder pad up a touch to emulate the newer Terminator design, and I touched up his eyes a tad. It turns out it's very hard to paint eyes when the lower half of a model's face is blocked. Combined with his rather fetching tail, I think this Chaos Lord has quite a bit of character now! Now all he needs is something to represent his Serpentine Fangs (+1 to wound when charging) - any ideas?

Or: It's Fistin' Time! 22 September, 2022 After a series of stinging defeats and anaemic offerings to the Blood Father, the World Eaters are eager for a worthy fight. Kratus, in particular, is determined to prove his worth as a successor to the Hand of Khorne. As scattered bands of Cruentes stalk the streets, they encounter a scouting force of Imperial Knights, presenting them with an opportunity to take some worthy trophies. Since the last battle, I used Repair and Recuperate to remove the battle scar from Thrax, the Exalted Champion. It appears his pact with a shadowy daemon has instilled him with new confidence... Kratus and Thrax lead this force, composed of all three Berzerker squads led by Validon, Dreior and Gorm, and backed by a Cultist mob and Bardûl, the Spawn. Eager to salvage his reputation and silence any possibility of usurpation from within his ranks, Kratus seeks to draw the Eye of the Gods (kill characters or vehicles) and solidify himself as an Instrument of Vengeance (Path of the Righteous - kill characters or units bearing relics). In this mission, half of each player's units (rounding down) must start in Strategic Reserve, at no cost. With seven units in my army, I opt to keep Kratus, two Berzerker squads and the Cultists on the board. Thrax leads a reserve band of eight Berzerkers and the Spawn. The objectives for this mission are simply to kill enemies and end the game in the opponent's deployment zone. We also set up a couple of supply cache secondary objectives, per our campaign's rules. Performing a special Action on these objectives would provide free uses of certain Requisitions. A wave of determination sweeps over the World Eaters, and although my opponent gains first turn I decide to use Apoplectic Frenzy to sprint almost everyone forwards. In the Knights' first turn, their warlord, Prince Arthur, shimmies between two ruins to draw a bead on the Berzerkers on my right. In a storm of extremely accurate firepower, six Berzerkers are blasted apart. On the left, one Berzerker is downed by an autocannon from the shooty Armiger. Following up on his successful shooting, Prince Arthur barrels between the ruined buildings to charge and easily destroy the two remaining Berzerkers. Kratus, still suffering from some Deep Scars, cannot use Heroic Intervention. (Our campaign has a house rule where a unit can only use the Repair and Recuperate requisition if they sit out a battle, and Kratus has been fighting in every battle since gaining that scar.) In response, I abandon my original plan of using the Cultists to just nab some supplies, and instead hurl them at the Knight along with Kratus. If push comes to shove, they can use Fury of Khorne to help get a few extra wounds in if needed. The Berzerkers on the left instead head over to pick up those supplies...but I forget that they have the Battle-weary scar, preventing them from performing Actions. Dangit. Kratus leaps from the corpses of dead Berzerkers to latch onto the Knight's carapace. With the help of the Wrath of the Chosen (+1 to hit with Terminators or Chosen) and Stoke the Nails (puts the unit into Wanton Slaughter) stratagems, as well as his various abilities, Kratus drives his chainfist repeatedly into the Knight's body. Inflicting an impressive 27 damage, Kratus manages to rupture the fuel cells of Prince Arthur's mighty steed, causing a catastrophic explosion that kills several Cultists and wounds the Chaos Lord. Seeking retribution for the demise of their Warlord, the two Armigers in reserve start racing towards Kratus. Six cultists (and a couple of Berzerkers on my left) are slain by the Knights' firepower. Wading into the Cultist mob, the Armigers make short work of the mortals and their remains are sprayed onto the walls of the nearby ruins and silo, leaving Kratus decidedly vulnerable. In my second turn, Thrax and his Berzerkers stream in from Strategic Reserve, taking advantage of the ability to set up closer to the enemy if you arrive close to your own table edge. Thrax's aim with his combi-melta is uncanny, scoring a direct hit on one of the Armigers and stripping six wounds off it. Elsewhere, Bardûl wanders onto the table near my opponent's deployment zone, ready to wander in on the last turn to earn some endgame VPs if things go badly. Meanwhile, Gorm's Berzerkers stalk through the ruins, hoping for a long charge on the Armigers to help out the Chaos Lord. Unfortunately, everyone except Kratus fails their charges. I guess it's down to the Hand of Khorne, now! Kratus has an impressive nine attacks on the charge, so I allocate three to the wounded Armiger and six to the other. Using the Wrath of the Chosen and Stoke the Nails stratagems again, he gains an absurd number of attacks from exploding 6s, but even so he barely finishes off the wounded Armiger and, with a lucky Command Re-roll to wound, he destroys the unwounded Armiger. Unfortunately, Kratus's luck can't last forever. The last Armiger sidesteps the ruin and unloads his autocannons into the Chaos Lord, who fails two of his 2+ saves, so even a Command Re-roll wouldn't help. High-impact, explosive rounds tear into Kratus and he crashes to the ground, ending his rampage. In my third turn, Thrax and all the Berzerkers hurl themselves at the last Armiger, eager for the kill. In the Knights' fourth turn, he knocks out a couple more Berzerkers from Gorm's squad, but the writing is definitely on the wall. Thrax and Validon's Berzerker squad pack into the last Armiger, with Thrax severely damaging the machine (seriously, I can't seem to roll 6s to save my life with Gorefather), and it is easily dismantled by the Berzerkers. What a brutal game. I made one mistake in sending my one Berzerker squad that can't perform Actions after some objectives that require Actions, but other than that things went unbelievably well, and probably need to start screening Berzerkers with Cultists to prevent them from getting charged so easily. I also kept forgetting to use the Skulls for the Skull Throne stratagem, since all of the Knights were Characters. But I think that would've just been rubbing salt in the wound at that point! Result: 50-10 victory Kratus's Personal Glory: 1 -> 7Khorne's Dark God Glory: 6 -> 5Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7 I only gain four Chaos Points for the victory, but with Kratus killing the enemy Warlord and two more characters/vehicles, he gains another three Personal Glory points. I put another three Chaos Points from the victory into Kratus's Personal Glory (I think he deserved it!), catapulting him from being Forsaken to being Favoured! Evidently, his followers were impressed by his showing in this game. Unfortunately, Kratus does fail his Out of Action test, and it turns out that one of his legs was turned into a pulpy mess by a hail of mass-reactive rounds. His body has not yet accepted the crude bionic replacement, giving him the Lost Leg battle scar (-1Mv, -1 to Advance and Charge rolls). Oof. However, he gained a whopping 8XP from the Eye of the Gods agenda, and a further 4XP (and 2 Righteous Inspiration points) from the Instrument of Vengeance agenda, plus he killed three units and was Marked for Glory for a total of 17XP (including the one for fighting a battle). And this is the part I've all been waiting for: Kratus finally levelled up to Heroic rank, giving him another chance to roll on the Chaos Boons table. He already has serpentine fangs (13) and a scorpion's tail (21), and if I roll either of those two results again he gets to join Bardûl in the ranks of spawndom. I roll the Chaos Boon - and get 23. Warp Stalker (reroll Advance and Charge rolls). My heart skipped a beat on the first D3 roll, but that result was a very good one, and partially offsets the Lost Leg battle scar. Kratus is now at 47XP, so levelling up to Legendary rank is realistically only a couple of games away. And who knows what awaits him when he does...

Or: Maybe Don't Choose To Go Second Against Custodes Next Time 16 September, 2022 After being surrounded by the foul xenos forces, the World Eaters only manage to fall back thanks to the enemy armies' preoccupation with each other. Returning in force and hoping to catch these enemies off-guard, the Cruentes are surprised to not see Necrons or xenos mutants, but instead the transhuman might of the Adeptus Custodes. After the last battle, I used the Repair and Recuperate requisition to remove the battle scar from the Terminators. Kratus and Baruda lead the force, consisting of Murdax's Red Butchers, all three Berzerker squads led by Validon, Dreior and Gorm, a big mob of Cultists, Xarian the Helbrute and Bardûl the Spawn. In this mission, there are six objective markers in No Man's Land, which players must perform "loot" actions on to score VPs. Each objective can be looted three times in total before being removed. I choose the agendas Blasphemous Ritual (perform an action in the centre for XP and Chaos God Glory), Instrument of Vengeance (a Path of the Righteous agenda to kill characters) and Reaper (unit that kills the most gets bonus XP). I win the roll-off for first turn, and decide that I want to go second, to draw the enemy forward or something. It sounded like a good idea at the time. At the top of the first battle round, I spend a few CPs on Apoplectic Frenzy to rush the Red Butchers, Cultists and two Berzerker squads forward. The Berzerkers on my left flank rage forward but somehow maintain the wherewithal to take cover. The Cultists move into a position to capture an objective on my first turn, while the Terminators look all menacing in the middle. And finally, the Berzerkers on the right start shuffling around a piece of terrain. Why didn't I Frenzy the other Berzerker squad, you ask? You know, the one in a perfect position to nab an objective on turn 1? Your guess is as good as mine, dear reader. In my opponent's first turn, things move up and start shooting. I quickly realise that I should've taken the first turn, if only to get Illusory Supplication off on the Apostle. Thankfully, my dice are extremely hot - who knew that frenzied Berzerkers would be so situationally-aware that they could make so many saves in cover! A few Terminators are, however, blasted off the table. Remind me again why I chose to go second? In response, everything surges forward in a great, red tide. Terminators begin a mission action in the centre of the table, while Baruda sings them a nice prayer. I didn't want to risk failing the dice roll, so I quite happily used the Fell Prayers stratagem to guarantee it. On the left-centre, the Cultists also begin the mission action on an objective. Near them, some Berzerkers Advance to cover. Not sure why I didn't Frenzy them at the start, since it would've meant that they could do the mission action now...but I digress. Past Cheex is not best Cheex. On my right, Berzerkers file forwards, while Xarian opens up on the Custodes with jump packs (I forget their name). Xarian gets a little too trigger happy, rolling two shots and landing both a 1 and a 6 - thanks to Wanton Destruction, the 6 turns into two hits but the 1 still causes a mortal wound. In my opponent's turn, some fancy bolters kill several Berzerkers out on the left flank, a pile of Cultists are turned to mist, and a couple more Terminators are killed. Many Terminators are saved by the Illusory Supplication, though - against an army that relies on a small number of high-quality shots, nearly halving their ability to shoot is extremely useful. I seem to be missing some photos of my second turn, but simply: Terminators continue moving forward, this time enacting the Blasphemous Ritual on the centre of the table. Baruda again uses Fell Prayers to automatically succeed in using Illusory Supplication on them. On the right, my Berzerkers charge and massacre some Sisters of Silence who were on an objective, while the remnant Berzerkers on the left attempt to charge some bolter-wielding Custodes. Unfortunately, Tanglefoot Grenades root them to the spot (reduced my charge range by a whopping 6"!). On my opponent's turn, he decides he's had enough of the Dark Apostle's shenanigans and sends a Shield Captain over to assassinate him. Meanwhile, more jetbikers head off to intercept the Berzerkers on my right, and a couple of Terminators are killed. The Berzerkers on my left, out in the open from their failed charge, are mercilessly cut down, with four dying to shooting. The few that are left are easily mopped up in melee. Yeah, this turn isn't looking good. On the right, the Berzerkers there are skewered by the jetbike charge. The only glimmer of hope this round is Baruda, whose loyal disciples are cut down while the Apostle himself is merely wounded. In return, he lands a successful hit on the Captain. In my turn, I remember that Baruda has the Mantle of Traitors relic, so he can use the Fell Prayers stratagem once for free. He beseeches his daemonic patrons to splinter reality around the Red Butchers once more, while he turns his attention back to the Captain. Sensing an opportunity for a gory kill, Kratus steps up to claim a worthy skull for Khorne. Xarian stomps forward to handle the jetbikes on the right flank. Meanwhile, the Cultists keep chanting "wE cAptOrEd iT fOr ChAyOssS" into their vox for some reason. They've just been quietly earning me VPs all game, bless their hearts. I've got some good charges lined up, which would give me the opportunity to stay in the game. If I can clear out a few of these enemy units, I'll be able to stay ahead on VPs and potentially win the game. Unfortunately, the dice gods would not agree. Tanglefoot Grenades yet again ruin my day, dropping the Terminator charge by 6" again (my opponent profusely apologised for rolling a 6 twice with that stratagem!). They end up failing their charge, even with a reroll. Even more unfortunately, this leaves his Allarus Captain free to use his own relic, which allows him to perform a Heroic Intervention to anywhere on the table. He chooses to go after Kratus. Had this not happened, I would've activated Xarian first to kill the jetbikes on my right, trusting that I could weather the attacks from one captain. But with two captains squaring off against my characters in the centre, I opt to activate Kratus first. He splits his attacks between the two captains (first mistake). The jetbike captain makes enough Invulnerable saves to barely survive, while the Allarus captain uses Transhuman Physiology to absorb the rest of the attacks. Of course, the jetbikes then interrupt combat and demolish poor Xarian, and a string of bad saves means that both my characters die. From there, my opponent simply had to mop up the rest of my Terminators and Cultists to win the battle. Result: 25-45 loss Kratus's Personal Glory: 2 -> 1Khorne's Dark God Glory: 6 -> 6Cruentes' Warfleet Glory: 7 -> 7 Oof, what an unfortunate series of events. My opponent played his stratagems well, twice using Tanglefoot Grenades to severely hamper key charges, but that last Hail Mary charge just fell apart spectacularly. Kratus's Personal Glory suffered again after that disastrous mishap, while the Blasphemous Ritual and my paltry 1 Chaos Point kept my Dark God and Warfleet glory at their previous levels. Thankfully, no rivals tried to challenge Kratus still. Gorm's Berzerkers gained the Battle-weary battle scar, while Bardûl lost 1XP from a Devastating Blow. I made a few key mistakes in this game again, particularly with regard to going first and not Frenzying my third Berzerker squad. They would've been able to nab another objective early on, while benefiting from cover. I also should've kept Baruda better covered, rather than letting a jetbike character charge him. I also failed a few key rolls, especially the Terminator charge in the middle. Had they succeeded, they probably would've killed the Allarus Captain while Kratus killed the Jetbike Captain and the Helbrute killed at least one or two of the jetbikes. No units gained a rank in this game, but I did make Kratus Marked for Glory (though in hindsight shouldn't have bothered, given his performance!), which put him just 1XP behind reaching Heroic rank...