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So I've been waiting so long for AT to be released, and have been reading over a copy of the rules before I commit to buying anything, and some of the rules seem a bit...odd. It's probably my understanding but could I get a run-through of these queries, as well as other questions below?

1: How exactly do you inflict damage? I'm looking at the rules for attacks and from my understanding it goes like this. I don't have access to weapon cards so for simplicity we just assume the weapon has a Strength of 10.

- Roll to hit, simple enough
- Roll for Voids.
- Roll for location.

- Let's say I hit the Warlord's head with a S10 weapon. I roll D6, and it comes up with a 4, giving me a total of 14. This is a Direct Hit on the Warlord's head, so I move the peg in the head marker one to the right and it's on a marker with "+1" underneath it.

- Now lets say another shot hits the head. I get lucky and roll a 6 on the D6, which including the +1 from the previous attack gives me 17. This is a Critical Hit so I lose 2 more points on the tracker.

- This Warlord is very unlucky and gets hit in the head again! Since the structure points is as far right as possible this automatically goes to Catastrophic Damage, and the peg is moved one space on the triangular set. If it goes past the red section the Warlord is destroyed?


Is this correct?



2: Looking at the stats for Knights they just seem awful, utterly crap. Very few weapons that could actually hurt the larger Titans and looks like they'll get blown away the moment a Warlord looks their way. Is there any tactical benefit to taking them?

3: Are there rules for Astorum? I understand there's already unique things for Gryphonne and Tempestus, but are the other popular Legios due anything special as well?

4: What would be a good force to start with?

Thanks for your advice.

For 2 they are fast, agile and when at h2h ignore shields, shoot and hit hard. So you are aiming to get to h2h and preferably to rear where slow warlord can't do much due to being too lumbering rendering guns useless. Also they are tiny so easy to hide behind buildins helping goal of getting to rear.

as i actualy havent played the game yet i cant help whit nr 1

nr 2 ; as tneva82 said. their key is that they are fast flanker unit that is easy to hide. move them BEHIND a titan and they will do some serious hurt to it.
see them as a late game bloomer.

nr 3; no. only 2 legion rules so far in the basic rulebook, gryp and temp. more is apparantly coming in the distant future.
nr 4; as i see it the axiom seems as a good starter force.
it consists of 1 titan of each of the 3 in the book(warlord,reaver,warhound) whit a reaver + warhound as optional titans for making it a full maniple.
axiom allso allows you to issue order to all of you titans even if they fail their leadership test. (normaly you are not allowed to give more orders after you fail your first order command check)

1 of each mandatory titan plus a unit of 3 knights should net you around 1200 points(all depending on gear). that means you are playing on skirmish level(700-1250p) in matched and that means games last under 2H when you get the rules down.
further adding the last optional titans will get you into confrontation(1250-1750) that is the middle ground in terms of points for matched.

if money is an issue wait until the warhound has been released and go for the venator maniple that cosists of 1 reaver and rest is warhounds, but that is a maniple ment for mobility and flanking gameplay that gives some sweet offensive bonus to the reaver. (reaver gets 1 free attack every single time a warhound knocks down enemy models shield)

I've played some test games vs myself.

The general process is:

roll to fire. roll void shields (if they're up). Depending on the void level and if you pushed the reactor, the roll can be 2+ to 5+(or 6?). anything qeual or above that will ignore the damage. Anything below that ignores the damage, but a void shield collapses - which makes your next save more difficult unless you reignite the void shield.

the rest of it you seem to have down. However, if on the side or rear of a titan, you add +1 or +2 to the weapon armor roll.

Knights aren't bad, but they will go down quickly if focused on. They have the benefit of having decent saves vs weaker weapons, they have good speed, and should be able to flank and harass titans. Their fusion cannon rolls a d10 - so if at a titans rear it's armor roll is 9 + d10. Thats high enough to crit a warlord. If they have melta guns, they get an automatic str 8 hit if within 3".

If using rapid fire battlecannons - they probably won't do much damage. Its only str 5, but that can do some direct hits and also plink void shields at 24 inches.

Mmh, you might want to be a bit more precise with the wording.

When you shoot a titan, you roll hits and they that many "saves" with their current shield value. Every "non-saved" roll moves the void shield marker one hole to the right, but these are not shield collapses. It's more like a tracker for the integrity of your shields. Void shield collapse occurs when you reach the end of the line. When that happens, in fluff there is a violent explosion that throws off everything nearby. This explains why nothing gets through to the armour until you start a whole new barrage at the now unshielded target.

For 1 you would once you take a crit on a head, body or leg hit, you move the marker up by 2 and. Then move the critical marker up by 1. So if there is no critical marker you place one on the first of the triangle holes.

Once you are maxed out on damage in a location and take a hit there, the marker on the +3 spot stays and you advance the critical damage up.

Once you are on the last peg of the critical damage, any future damage there (still getting that +3 if you are on that last damage peg) will force you to roll on the Catastrophic Damage table. There is a Pricepts Senoris trait that let's you ignore one of these on that titan.

DO NOT DOUBT KNIGHTS!!! They die fast to a Volcano Cannon sure but if they get a charge in to side or rear arc, warlords WILL DIE. It's happened to me and I have done it back. Reavers should be wary and Warhounds need to kill first ask questions later


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Question 3; not yet though I suspect they will be one of the first with their own custom Strategem to teleport a Titan.

4; the GME if you can find it. If not aim for the Axiom as that will help you get a Venator as well

 Valkyrie wrote:
So I've been waiting so long for AT to be released, and have been reading over a copy of the rules before I commit to buying anything, and some of the rules seem a bit...odd. It's probably my understanding but could I get a run-through of these queries, as well as other questions below?

1: How exactly do you inflict damage? I'm looking at the rules for attacks and from my understanding it goes like this. I don't have access to weapon cards so for simplicity we just assume the weapon has a Strength of 10.

- Roll to hit, simple enough
- Roll for Voids.
- Roll for location.

- Let's say I hit the Warlord's head with a S10 weapon. I roll D6, and it comes up with a 4, giving me a total of 14. This is a Direct Hit on the Warlord's head, so I move the peg in the head marker one to the right and it's on a marker with "+1" underneath it.

- Now lets say another shot hits the head. I get lucky and roll a 6 on the D6, which including the +1 from the previous attack gives me 17. This is a Critical Hit so I lose 2 more points on the tracker.

- This Warlord is very unlucky and gets hit in the head again! Since the structure points is as far right as possible this automatically goes to Catastrophic Damage, and the peg is moved one space on the triangular set. If it goes past the red section the Warlord is destroyed?


Is this correct?

Roll to hit.
if the target has active Void Shields, make Void Shield saves. The attack ends at this point (even if you scored more unsaved hits than there were Void Shields, the attack ends).

If it has no shields, roll for location - one roll per weapon, even if it had multiple hits.

Make Armour rolls - D6 + Weapon STR + modifiers (for arc and pre-existing damage). Check the target's Command Console for the scores needed to inflict damage. note that a roll of 1 always results in Superficial Damage, i.e. no effect, regardless of the total.
Apply all the hits, starting from the lowest roll and working up.

Direct hits and Devastating hits simply move the counter up the Structure Points track one or two spaces. If you get to the end of the Structure Points track ands there are still points to be ticked off, then Critical hits are inflicted instead. Critical hits move two spaces up the Structure Points track and inflict a Critical hit too. If you are at the end of the Critical Hits track and are forced to take another Critical hit, you suffer Catastrophic damage and are destroyed.

2: Looking at the stats for Knights they just seem awful, utterly crap. Very few weapons that could actually hurt the larger Titans and looks like they'll get blown away the moment a Warlord looks their way. Is there any tactical benefit to taking them?

I had a Warlord titan destroyed by them the other week. They're fast, manoeuvrable and if they get into a titan's side or rear arc within 2" they can make attacks without worrying about Void Shields, and the bonus to the Armour Roll will help them inflict damage. You always get to choose the target location with melee weapons. chainswords may only be Str 7, but you get +1 or +2 for a flank or rear attack and if you charge, you can get up to three additional attacks* with them. The thermal cannon makes Armour Rolls on a D10 at short range and even the gatling blaster is hitting on 2+ with 8 shots and can get a lucky hit on the weapons from the rear

3: Are there rules for Astorum? I understand there's already unique things for Gryphonne and Tempestus, but are the other popular Legios due anything special as well?

"Just what you see, pal". Other Legios will be in supplements.

Here's a video that showcases what a knight can do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_WHbTPV8tY

TLDW: Knight gets in close, has a melta gun, and just keeps destroying weaponry. Not a perfect game, but just an example.

 Valkyrie wrote:

1: How exactly do you inflict damage? I'm looking at the rules for attacks and from my understanding it goes like this. I don't have access to weapon cards so for simplicity we just assume the weapon has a Strength of 10.

- Roll to hit, simple enough
- Roll for Voids.
- Roll for location.

- Let's say I hit the Warlord's head with a S10 weapon. I roll D6, and it comes up with a 4, giving me a total of 14. This is a Direct Hit on the Warlord's head, so I move the peg in the head marker one to the right and it's on a marker with "+1" underneath it.

- Now lets say another shot hits the head. I get lucky and roll a 6 on the D6, which including the +1 from the previous attack gives me 17. This is a Critical Hit so I lose 2 more points on the tracker.

- This Warlord is very unlucky and gets hit in the head again! Since the structure points is as far right as possible this automatically goes to Catastrophic Damage, and the peg is moved one space on the triangular set. If it goes past the red section the Warlord is destroyed?


Is this correct?

First, you don’t roll damage against the Titan’s armour until all voids are gone so you never roll void saves and location for the same attack.
Functionally, void shields are an utterly impenetrable dome until they collapse.
Against a single attack, for each hit against a shielded Titan, that Titan’s commander rolls 1d6 and compares the results to their current void save level. Each failure knocks the shield level down a notch (this only affects subsequent attacks) and each success means the hit is ignored completely.

For each attack against an unshielded Titan, you roll for hits, then you roll one location for all of the hits, then you roll 1d6 for each hit and add the strength of the weapon to determine damage as you have noted, remembering that natural ones always cause superficial hits, dealing no damage.

You have the rest pretty much correct, except hat crits inflict critical damage and move the tracker two spaces.

If the location runs out of damage pips, then additional points of damage go directly to the critical track instead, and yes, running out of space on any critical track results in catastrophic damage (see the table on p.36 for what happens next).


EDIT: Also, we have a thread for general rules questions and also queries about unusual situations.

 Valkyrie wrote:

- This Warlord is very unlucky and gets hit in the head again! Since the structure points is as far right as possible this automatically goes to Catastrophic Damage, and the peg is moved one space on the triangular set. If it goes past the red section the Warlord is destroyed?

The triangular track is for Critical Hits, not Catastrophic Damage. If the Critical Hit peg is in the red, and the titan takes another Critical Hit, then the titan rolls on the Catastrophic Damage table (which *always* destroys the titan - and possibly other nearby units, as well).

Thanks for all the feedback so far. I thought I'd avoid the main thread for AT as that seemed to be for rules queries whereas I kinda need a more indepth explanation. So with the replies I've had I'll redo the scenario in the OP with how I think it goes now.

Again we're assuming a weapon S10 for simplicity.

- Roll to hit, simple enough
- Roll for Voids. The Warlord is undamaged so the Voids will stop hits on 3+, essentially an armour save in 40K. If I fail this save the Void moves one peg along, which may affect the subsequent saves. If the peg reaches the end of the Voids they blow out and stop any shots from that particular attack.

Warlord is hit again, but has no voids to stop the attack.

- Roll for location.

- Let's say I hit the Warlord's head with a S10 weapon. I roll D6, and it comes up with a 4, giving me a total of 14. This is a Direct Hit on the Warlord's head, so I move the peg in the head marker one to the right and it's on a marker with "+1" underneath it. Just to clarify, the +(X) underneath the damage tracker pegs is what is added to the damage roll in subsequent attacks?

- Now lets say another shot hits the head. I get lucky and roll a 6 on the D6, which including the +1 from the previous attack gives me 17. This is a Critical Hit so I lose 2 more points on the tracker.

- This Warlord is very unlucky and gets hit in the head again! Since the structure points is as far right as possible this automatically goes to Critical Damage , and the peg is moved one space on the triangular set. If it goes past the red section the Warlord is destroyed? I then roll on the Catastrophic Damage table which could be anything from simply tipping over to full-scale Hiroshima-ing of anything nearby?

Thanks for the other comments on Knights. I think I might go for the Warlord/Reaver/Warhound combo at the moment, see how that goes.

Responses:

Yep, you have the shield but down except IIRC the saves are all rolled at once rather than one at a time like damage.
Edit: yeah, you use the same save for all hits from a given attack and only check again for the next one.

Yes, the modifiers under the damage track are bonuses to inflict further damage.

There are four types of hit:
Superficial, dealing no damage at all
Direct, dealing one pip of regular damage
Devastating, dealing two pips of regular damage
Critical, dealing one pip of critical damage and also two pips of regular damage.

That is, a Critical hit will advance the Critical Damage track at least one space, even if it was the first unshielded hit taken.

I say at least because if the regular damage track is on the last space, regular damage gets applied to the Critical Damage track as well.
So if a Titan somehow gets to the last point of regular damage with no existing crits and suffers a Critical Hit to that location it will be instantly in the red and could die to the next stiff breeze.

Yes, falling off the red end of Critical Damage track = Titanfall