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Friday, June 23, 2017

40k Short Story - State of Mind

"Milady, we are ready to move out."

Haldir, the Kabalite warrior informs his mistress of the webway portal's materialization, but she appears to be in her own world, staring out into the darkness of the Commorite skies. The Archite is looking up upon the skies with as she leans upon her right palm and her elbow upon the railings of the Raider. Her legs are crossed in a state of rest, her heels carefully resting upon the bars where the deck's railing would not trap her heels.

In his mind, he is tempted to stab her to take over the Kabal as she was daydreaming. Should he do it? Or is this a trap? Haldir grips upon his dagger, wondering if it is wise to attempt the dark desires of murder in his mind. He looks around and as the other Kabalite warriors toil to climb on their sleek, dagger-like transports it appears that there is nothing stopping him from doing so. He unsheathe his blade a little as to not alert and telegraph his attempt to the Archon.

                                                      ***************

Despite her form being healed back to its apex by the Haemonculi of Commoragh, but her soul remains a little out of sync from her mind, and in the dark spires of Commoragh it is akin to tempting fate as she needs her lightning reflexes to be in its peak performance to survive the dark spire jungles of the dark city. The reason for this lack of synchronization of her mind falls down to one matter; the thoughts of her little pets and their old relative that is currently taking care of them.

There is something inside Vespera that seeks the answer to why she is treating the Mon-Keigh under her care to something above the treatment of playthings or livestock that so often befalls their kind. At the same time, she has an unprecedented desire to jealously hoard them to herself and guard them as if they are part of her. Although they would never thought the same about her as she would to them, but in a way that is how things are meant to be.

                                                  ***************


As Haldir moves closer and closer, his heart attempts to not beat faster than it should be. The Archite is still staring upon the dark skies, as if wondering if it ever going to change to something else. However before he could do the deed himself, another Kabalite warrior moved forward with the lightning speeds that only a Dark Eldar could move in, attempting an assassination.

Haldir was a second too late, and all he could do is to slip the dagger out of his own scabbard and moved towards the Archite, not wanting for the other Kabalite to take the glory. If anything, Haldir could take the confusion to slip the dagger to the Archite, or he could stab the assassin to curry favour with the mistress. However as he moved, time starts to slow down for the Kabalite warrior and he moves slower and slower.


                                                  ***************

They were never meant to put their trust in her, seeing that she is the reason why their parents are slain by her handmaidens. Alas, she wonders what she could have done to earn a little bit of their trust or at least to not let them look upon her as a blight upon their existence. Granted, she did terrorize the youngest of the brood twice, once intentionally to force her grandfather to speak, and another was unintentional as she brought her to a meal between two other archons.

This would be tough, as Mon-Keighs are not Dark Eldar, and their train of thoughts are as different as those of a beast of burden and its owner. Perhaps it needs to be something instinctual, something primal for her to reach out to their hearts? Would feeding it helps in earning its docility? Would petting it...hold on a second.

She needs to take care of something trivial first.

                                              ***************

However, the would-be assassin's efforts ended as quickly as it began. Despite the slowing of time, Haldir could clearly see what is going on before his eyes.

With a slight lean of her head, the assassin's blade missed her head within a fraction of an inch and with the grace and ruthlessness of one of the high nobility that ruled Commoragh the palm where her head is resting drops slightly and she gently pushes her palm forward. Such was the momentum of the assassin that the assassin missed her entirely and the assassin's throat was struck by the palm of the Archite with such force that the assassin jerked back forcing one leg to lift off the deck. The crossed leg of the Archite moves gently forward and hooks the assassin's leg that is still on the deck and hooked it forward. With the slight force, the assassin loses his balance and is now falling down on the deck.

The leg that the Archite used to hook the assassin proceed to move in a perfect circular motion and is raised above her head in a perfect vertical position before it falls down upon the assassin.The assassin falls down upon the floor with a loud thud and the force is such that he bounced upwards. As he bounced upwards due to the recoil from the deck, the heel of the Archite's footwear flawlessly slip between the armour around his neck and with the force of the axe kick, the assassin was violently slammed down on the deck once more but with the heel of the Archite penetrating his neck with such force that it goes through the deck.

The Kabalite warrior known as Haldir stop just short of the slain assassin, and as he watches the flawless kill by the Archite, the Archite looks at him and twists her heel that was inside the assassin's neck. The loud audible crack snaps Haldir from his stupor, and immediately he found the words he needs.

"Milady, are you alright?" Of course, as with any Dark Eldar, these words are a lie, but the courtesy is needed anyway. Fortunately for Haldir, the Archite did not see him as a fellow conspirator and thus his life is not forfeited for his drawing of the dagger.

"Of course I am. Please clean up this mess for me. Also please command the others to not bother me." The Archite pulls out her heel from the slain assassin, and walks off to the prow of the raider. The Kabalite warrior could do nothing else, and he drags the body to be dumped out from the Raider.

Haldir was glad that he did not attempt the assassination, for Archite Vespera Phyliantrx's reflexes are on an entirely different level than those of his own. He could be the one that is thrown abroad instead of the assassin. Such precision, such brutality, such grace. Such mindless killing of someone like stomping an insect is just inspiring for the Kabalite warrior. He wonders what went through her mind as she callously killed a Dark Eldar without even a shred of emotion?

                                           ***************

She sighed a little as she once more drift into her thoughts of the young pets of hers after getting rid of a slight distraction to the more pressing issue in her mind. Should she bring the little Mon-Keigh out to play in the hanging gardens or should she show them around the Port of Lost Souls? Or should she do something else entirely? Such was the mind to drift itself to concerns of the soul, whom the Archite lacks to the point of near emptiness. If only her mind could be as empty as her soul.

Such was the state of her mind.

                                                               

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

New Edition, New Dark Eldar, New Orks, New Daemons and New CSM

Greetings Realspacers,




It has been ages since I have blogged, but that is due to several sequence of real-life events and also 40k burnout. In fact for almost the entire year of 2016 till the dawn of 8th Edition, I have been just staying away from 40k. 7th edition is a mess of rules and often times I feel that I am studying for an exam rather than enjoying the game. So during the interim period of a year, I have been playing a little more Blood Bowl (Awesome btw) and also some MTG Commander.

Fortunately GW in many ways realized the stupidity of it all and decided to revamp the rules in such a way that everyone is now a blank slate once more. Lots of whining from many people, but personally I find it refreshing that the rules are easily accessible.

For some reason, I find that 8th edition really reminds me of 4th edition, with the way assault, target priority and leadership works. In many ways I am adapting much better to 8th than most people and
with this edition, I have returned and I have brought my armies from 8th edition alongside an army that was always in cold storage due to it often being collateral in my Daemon expansion; My Night Lords.



Before I move on to speak about my experiences with 8th edition, I have to speak about what is essentially my most freshest army; The Night Lords. These guys somewhat came along a while back during the time where I am just adding on to my Tzeentch elements and they are kinda the extras. Before long, more and more of the abandoned models slowly came into my home, and with Cataphractii terminators, Tartaros Terminators, Raptors, Predators, Vindicators and other such fell units of the CSM joining my pile I literally have around a few thousand points of Night Lords.

In a way the CSM came into my life the same way most of my Orks and Dark Eldar came into my life; being adopted as a result of their owners abandoning them in droves.

Due to the way I have procured them, my Night Lords is more or less a very infantry heavy army and with the way 8th edition reserves work they are essentially the closest thing I have to a Null Deployment army as the list that I have decided to run with my Night Lords consist primarily of Terminators and Raptors. So far they have did very well due to the changes on how shooting works and also the way close combat works (Combi-plasma, Meltas and power axes for the win). They are essentially the army that I bring around as my main secondary army due to how compact they are.



My Orks on the other hand is hands down my most effective close combat army as the prospect of having 6 attacks on the charge for normal boyz with the right stacks really pushed me towards a battlewagon heavy list with lots of boyz in them, supported by lots of auras and also psychic gifts. On the note of psychic powers, the Weirdboyz are utterly amazing and I have pulled out enough tricks with them that I have reserved a spot for the Weirdboy. Also with how everything is just basically a sack of wounds, punching everything with boyz and klaws are amazingly viable and perhaps as always, the best  way to play Orks is the simplest way; move fast, charge hard.

My Tzeentchian daemons are untested, but that is due to me sending them over to my good old friend Carl Lum for his paintworks, and they would take a while to come back to me. But based upon how it goes, it would be a very FMC heavy list with lots of chariots. The pic that adorn this post is the first batch of my whole Tzeentch army that was completely painted.



As for my Dark Eldar, they came off to a bad start for 8th Edition gamewise, but that is due to me underestimating the reduction of damage output of a Dark Eldar blaster and also my opponent and I did so many mistakes (from miscalculating the point cost to forgetting vital rules). However I have learned a lot and now have decided that I would be taking out blasterborns and also normal 5-men kabalites with blaster as I am now focusing on the weapons that truly matter for the Dark Eldar; Dark Lances and Splinter cannons. Of course, Splinter cannons are nerfed when it come to firing its maximum amount of firepower at range, but the nerf is a little better for my style of play due  to my preference for medium ranged firefights. My army composition will have more dark lance and phantasm grenade launchers, and the blasters will be reserved only for Archons.

On the note of the archon, they are just priced amazingly, and for the same build in 6th-7th edition, I would be paying more than twice the cost of the current Archon. Only gripe I have is that there are no middle-ground HQ for Dark Eldar. I personally would appreciate the Dark Eldar equivalent of a Space Marine Captain. Dark Eldar vehicles as a whole are generally more durable, which is a nice thing for me but I wished that they were a little faster than Eldar vehicles (and no, assault weapons does not make it faster).

Nonetheless, with this, I can finally go about with my proper fluff setting for my Kabal which is originally a trueborn Kabal to begin with.

Only stickler is just that the way my army works, it appears that Ynnari is the best option for me in order to optimize my firepower generation but the true Dark Eldar in me is saying 'NOPE'.


 My list looks something like this for 2500 pts which can be Dark Eldar or Ynnari(which is the usual game size for 8th in my area);


CP: 7 pts
Spearhead Detachment
1 Archon with Agoniser, Blaster and Phantasm Grenade Launcher
3 Ravagers with 3 Lances and Shock Prow

Spearhead Detachment
1 Archon with Agoniser, Blaster and Phantasm Grenade Launcher
3 Ravagers with 3 Lances and Shock Prow

Vanguard Detachment
1 Archon with Agoniser, Blaster and Phantasm Grenade Launcher
2 squads of 8 Trueborns with 2 Dark lances and a Dracon with agoniser
1 squad of 5 Trueborns with 2 Dark lances

Dedicated Transport
2 Raider with Dark Lance and Shock Prow
1 Venom with 2 splinter cannons

Vanguard Detachment
1 Archon with Agoniser, Blaster and Phantasm Grenade Launcher
3 squad of 5 Trueborns with 2 Dark lances

Dedicated Transport
3 Venom with 2 splinter cannons

Yes, I know that that is a hell a lot of Dark Lances, but with the way the edition is going about I would need to dish out enough nonsense to get even with my opponents and the way my meta is forming up. Also, I personally hate Wave Serpents and they deserve to die painful deaths.

Also of note is that due to prolonged usage of my vehicles, a number of my raiders and ravagers have literally crumbled and would warrant me to get a whole new set of vehicles just to replace the ones that crumbled. This also gives me the chance to finally get sets of Kabalite Sky Splinter boxes as those boxes are now value city for me due to the needs of more bodies to put my Dark Lances on and also more Raiders.

With that it appears that my armies are more or less set for the first few months of 8th Edition.

See ya next time!