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I was just reading through the latest Tyranid Codex again and there was a section when one of the hive fleets overruns a Forgeworld and a bunch of Imperial titans get taken out by a single biotitan. Now I could be wrong, but as I recall from reading in just about every other codex this seems to happen a lot, now I know they want to show off how badass the enemies are that they can take down such superpowered war machines, but it just makes titans seem like a massive waste of space.

My question then is this; does anyone know any sources, for or against, Imperial titans being the death-bringers they're actually made out to be, I'm curious if they do win more or not?

See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,

Besides the Titans they have a nice take on the Skitarii ("I have an automatic grenade launcher!"), Imperial/Mechanicum relations, a notion of the Adeptus Mechanicus having an augmented sensorium (imagine if real life had tags like World of Warcraft), though I gotta admit it was disappointing to have what was left of the two Imperial Titan legions blow through a force twice their number and survive relatively unscathed...

It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

How effective are the Skitarii in their own right?

Retribution wrote:How effective are the Skitarii in their own right?

Pretty effective most of the time I've seen them in books. The last time was from the latest Ultramarines book, Chapter's Due I think and they had a good showing.

I thought the Titan portrayal in Helreach was fairly good, seemed about as realistic as you could imagine without one side being the obvious favorite.

I recall the titans in Armageddon were stated to be sent in completely unsupported to fight the Ork gargants. They caused devastating casualties, decimating a great deal of the gargants-- but eventually were overwhelmed due to their lack of support by any other forces.

Whether or not this is a victory to you, I don't know.

minigun762 wrote:

Retribution wrote:How effective are the Skitarii in their own right?

Pretty effective most of the time I've seen them in books. The last time was from the latest Ultramarines book, Chapter's Due I think and they had a good showing.

I thought the Titan portrayal in Helreach was fairly good, seemed about as realistic as you could imagine without one side being the obvious favorite.

Last i knew they were pretty much the equivalent of augmented stormtroopers, but i'm not sure how true that is

Nurglitch wrote:It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

Relic need to get to work on a Titan game, based around gameplay from Mechwarrior 3/4. Controlling even a Warhound, customizing its weapons each mission, and doing massive assaults on cities, using smoke and buildings for cover, and just unleashing hell on lesser forces or doing Titan vs Titan combat, would be awesome.

that game would sound great.

i think i should look into these titan books asap! sound great!

-Loki- wrote:Relic need to get to work on a Titan game, based around gameplay from Mechwarrior 3/4. Controlling even a Warhound, customizing its weapons each mission, and doing massive assaults on cities, using smoke and buildings for cover, and just unleashing hell on lesser forces or doing Titan vs Titan combat, would be awesome.

Titans were usable in one game - SSI's now ancient 'Final Liberation' - although that was a turn-based game. I *think* that game had knights as well as the three primary titan classes, although I'm not completely certain about that.


As for the tendency of titans to get used to show off the awesomeness of the current codex of the month, see - Worf Effect, subheading - Eldar Avatar

Nurglitch wrote:See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,

Besides the Titans they have a nice take on the Skitarii ("I have an automatic grenade launcher!"), Imperial/Mechanicum relations, a notion of the Adeptus Mechanicus having an augmented sensorium (imagine if real life had tags like World of Warcraft), though I gotta admit it was disappointing to have what was left of the two Imperial Titan legions blow through a force twice their number and survive relatively unscathed...

It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

Phew, seems there is some good stuff out there after all, maybe I haven't been looking as hard as I thought. Though I've been a bit slack book-wise, basically because somebody bought me the Dawn of War trilogy novelization one christmas and I figured if that was the standard being written at then I should avoid them like the plague! It's only recently been brought to my attention that books written by CS Goto aren't considered in any way the standard for 40K novels, so I'll definitely try and pick up some others.

On a side note, I think a set of rules that fully explores titan combat could be pretty awesome.

I do consider it a victory for the Titans if, even in defeat, they pull off dramatic losses on an opponent or lose due to extenuating circumstances - such as when two warhounds take down the chaos titan Dies Irae by sacrificing themselves in the process.

That said, the story in the Ork codex where Wazdakka jumps his bike off a cliff into the face screen of a Warlord titan, killing the Princeps crew, well thats edging closer to being hilariously Orky than anything else!

There are also Titans featured in Dan Abnett's Legion, which are portrayed as flattening a counter-offensive by anti-Imperial insurgents.
Also, a lot of the Titans featured in Storm of Iron are made out to be massively powerful and dangerous opponents, with most of the Titan kills in that book occurring due to attacks by other Titans.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:There are also Titans featured in Dan Abnett's Legion, which are portrayed as flattening a counter-offensive by anti-Imperial insurgents.
Also, a lot of the Titans featured in Storm of Iron are made out to be massively powerful and dangerous opponents, with most of the Titan kills in that book occurring due to attacks by other Titans.

yeah the Deus Irae brought some rape down from the sky in that one

Nurglitch wrote:See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,
It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

That reminds me of the game Chromehounds. It was one of the most teamwork heavy online games ive ever played and you had to go about it the same way, usually it was whoever could catch the person offgaurd could typically win. Unless it was a Sniper-hound or Artillery-hound.

Ide like to imagine Titans fighting Titans to be something similar..

I really want to play Chromehounds now...

According to one book(can't remember the name) it says that usually nine titans can conquer a world.

GMR wrote:On a side note, I think a set of rules that fully explores titan combat could be pretty awesome.

You are aware of the Epic scale rules, correct?

Man, long, long time ago, I remember an ad in White Dwarf, that had plastic titans and a cardboard cityscape. I don't remember the name of the game, but it had to be in the late '80s, maybe earily '90s.

Adeptus Titanicus, and the various later incarnations. There is still a rule set available for Epic on the GW website. For something better, take a look at NetEpic.

Fifty wrote:Adeptus Titanicus, and the various later incarnations. There is still a rule set available for Epic on the GW website. For something better, take a look at NetEpic.

The rules are a free download in either case.

There was also a video game released on the PC using the Epic rules - 'Final Liberation'. It included Space Marines, Imperial Guard, and Orks. There were apparent plans to add in Chaos, Eldar, and Tyranids, but nothing ever came of it.

Among other things, it had green screen video of a comissar and a (non-cyberized) tech-priest watching a warlord titan step forward.

Nurglitch wrote:See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,

Besides the Titans they have a nice take on the Skitarii ("I have an automatic grenade launcher!"), Imperial/Mechanicum relations, a notion of the Adeptus Mechanicus having an augmented sensorium (imagine if real life had tags like World of Warcraft), though I gotta admit it was disappointing to have what was left of the two Imperial Titan legions blow through a force twice their number and survive relatively unscathed...

It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

Not to be mean, but I swear I don't understand any of that?

Henners91 wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,

Besides the Titans they have a nice take on the Skitarii ("I have an automatic grenade launcher!"), Imperial/Mechanicum relations, a notion of the Adeptus Mechanicus having an augmented sensorium (imagine if real life had tags like World of Warcraft), though I gotta admit it was disappointing to have what was left of the two Imperial Titan legions blow through a force twice their number and survive relatively unscathed...

It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

Not to be mean, but I swear I don't understand any of that?

Me too.
Make more sense when you're posting please.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Also, a lot of the Titans featured in Storm of Iron are made out to be massively powerful and dangerous opponents, with most of the Titan kills in that book occurring due to attacks by other Titans.

Yep. I just finished Storm of Iron, and the only titan that wasn't taken out by another titan was a warhound that was pummeled upon repeatedly by Vindicators until it was crippled and a Terminator was in a good position to fire into the bridge. It also did a good job of hyping up an Imperator class, to the point that it blasted through several Warlords and Reavers in two battles before getting destroyed by a suicide attack.

Necroman wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Also, a lot of the Titans featured in Storm of Iron are made out to be massively powerful and dangerous opponents, with most of the Titan kills in that book occurring due to attacks by other Titans.

Yep. I just finished Storm of Iron, and the only titan that wasn't taken out by another titan was a warhound that was pummeled upon repeatedly by Vindicators until it was crippled and a Terminator was in a good position to fire into the bridge. It also did a good job of hyping up an Imperator class, to the point that it blasted through several Warlords and Reavers in two battles before getting destroyed by a suicide attack.

Also in Titanicus a dozen titans(or ten) can't lower shielding of a Chaos Emperor-class Titan until they focus their firepower on one point on the shield.

Of course, else there would be none, and they ARE giant robot machines, so...

Henners91 wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:See: Mechanicum, Titanicus, Titan: God Machine,

Besides the Titans they have a nice take on the Skitarii ("I have an automatic grenade launcher!"), Imperial/Mechanicum relations, a notion of the Adeptus Mechanicus having an augmented sensorium (imagine if real life had tags like World of Warcraft), though I gotta admit it was disappointing to have what was left of the two Imperial Titan legions blow through a force twice their number and survive relatively unscathed...

It has inspired me to think about designing some rules for Titan combat that heavily feature visibility and agility, as that's something I really enjoyed about Abnett's description of Titan on Titan combat being a matter of ambush and speed as well as firepower and armour.

Not to be mean, but I swear I don't understand any of that?

Suck it up.

IvanTih wrote:

Necroman wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:Also, a lot of the Titans featured in Storm of Iron are made out to be massively powerful and dangerous opponents, with most of the Titan kills in that book occurring due to attacks by other Titans.

Yep. I just finished Storm of Iron, and the only titan that wasn't taken out by another titan was a warhound that was pummeled upon repeatedly by Vindicators until it was crippled and a Terminator was in a good position to fire into the bridge. It also did a good job of hyping up an Imperator class, to the point that it blasted through several Warlords and Reavers in two battles before getting destroyed by a suicide attack.

Also in Titanicus a dozen titans(or ten) can't lower shielding of a Chaos Emperor-class Titan until they focus their firepower on one point on the shield.

From what i could tell it was 2 battlegroups of 12 each and the remains of another about 4, so 30 titans?
Although i'm not sure that's correct.

GMR wrote:I was just reading through the latest Tyranid Codex again and there was a section when one of the hive fleets overruns a Forgeworld and a bunch of Imperial titans get taken out by a single biotitan. Now I could be wrong, but as I recall from reading in just about every other codex this seems to happen a lot, now I know they want to show off how badass the enemies are that they can take down such superpowered war machines, but it just makes titans seem like a massive waste of space.

My question then is this; does anyone know any sources, for or against, Imperial titans being the death-bringers they're actually made out to be, I'm curious if they do win more or not?

yeah...I think it has less to do with the titan legions sucking in battle and more to do with the fact that BL/GW thinks that killing a titan is a great plot device for making the titan killer in question look like the end all be all of badassery.

Maledictus wrote:

GMR wrote:I was just reading through the latest Tyranid Codex again and there was a section when one of the hive fleets overruns a Forgeworld and a bunch of Imperial titans get taken out by a single biotitan. Now I could be wrong, but as I recall from reading in just about every other codex this seems to happen a lot, now I know they want to show off how badass the enemies are that they can take down such superpowered war machines, but it just makes titans seem like a massive waste of space.

My question then is this; does anyone know any sources, for or against, Imperial titans being the death-bringers they're actually made out to be, I'm curious if they do win more or not?

yeah...I think it has less to do with the titan legions sucking in battle and more to do with the fact that BL/GW thinks that killing a titan is a great plot device for making the titan killer in question look like the end all be all of badassery.

To be fair, it wasn't a normal bio titan either. It was a breed of Trygon, but far bigger than even a Heirophant. Kind of an uncommon matchup, and a creature not mentioned anywhere else in any book.

Anyone who's anyone has killed a titan or at least survived it's barrage of fire/stepping-on-thingsness
Lysander, Wazdakka, random space wolf from wolf guard background that was stepped on by a titan, legion of the damned, chaos fellows in dark apostle(correct book?).

purplefood wrote:Anyone who's anyone has killed a titan or at least survived it's barrage of fire/stepping-on-thingsness
Lysander, Wazdakka, random space wolf from wolf guard background that was stepped on by a titan, legion of the damned, chaos fellows in dark apostle(correct book?).

Yep,that was Kol Badar, and don't forget Forrix from Storm of Iron, he took down a titan single handedly with just his PF and combi bolter. Although it was only a warhound...

Maledictus wrote:

purplefood wrote:Anyone who's anyone has killed a titan or at least survived it's barrage of fire/stepping-on-thingsness
Lysander, Wazdakka, random space wolf from wolf guard background that was stepped on by a titan, legion of the damned, chaos fellows in dark apostle(correct book?).

Yep,that was Kol Badar, and don't forget Forrix from Storm of Iron, he took down a titan single handedly with just his PF and combi bolter. Although it was only a warhound...

Only...
Warhounds are my favorite titans i must admit though.