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Hey, another American! That looks good, I was assembling my new Warlord and Reaver guns last night.

Praise be to the Omissiah!

Been tidying up my collection tonight, getting all the sprues with the armour plates in one place.

In doing so, found the VSGs for a Reaver, which I’d forgotten to put on, and forgotten that I’d forgotten the same.

Out with the Clippers and the Glue, natch. Clippy clippy........bugger. Where the hell did that go?

Hunted around to no avail. Became resigned to a forever more incomplete Reaver.

The box trays the sprues had been in we’re just about to go in the bin. Lo and behold.....the tiny little bit is there. Dead centre.

It is now in its proper place!

I very nearly lost one of those. Would it have killed them to mold that tiny bit in?

Could be a design decision that allows for their sockets to be used as mounting points for other gubbins?

Does this count?

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByaDzKCIjCO/?igshid=s0q46sa3cqoy

 Fajita Fan wrote:
It doesn’t look like things went well.

Not too well, no. Every Titan on my side died except the one carrying the vital cargo. And that one didn't quite make it off the board thanks to failing a Full Stride order. Posthumous court-martials all around.

Pro tip, everyone: Make a few crater terrain pieces. You'll need them when your Titans go boom.

I made the mistake of not reading my victory conditions properly. It was the first Matched Play game I'd tried, and I assumed getting the cargo to safety (my primary objective) would pretty much win me the game. I threw everything into it, sacrificing all my other Titans to the cause. Only at the end did I realise that I should have been trying to get *everyone* to the far side of the board for the secondary victory points as well.

Great fun though. And I did win the second game. Well, probably (we had to finish early), but I stopped my opponent from completing his rescue mission and it wasn't looking good for him.

The Matched Play mission objectives in general seem a bit odd, but I shouldn't judge as I've only played two games with them.

Hoping we get some alternatives to Meeting Engagement soon. The narrative scenarios look great, but they're very involved, require large forces and generally seem to need a fair bit of planning. I'd like to see something in between.

One thing I loved about Battlefleet Gothic and Epic 40,000 was the wide range of generic scenarios that could be played by any force. Like an escalating engagement where your forces arrive piecemeal, an ambush, and so on. WFB 5th/6th ed and 40K 3rd ed had the same variety.

(I don't have Doom of Molech as I'm not terribly interested in Knights, so not sure if there's anything else in there besides the infamous dino hunt.)

SPE825 wrote:
Just now getting around to starting to paint my Adeptus Titanicus models. Here's my work in progress of a Belicosa Volcano Canon:

Spoiler:

Nice work. I like the smooth glow effect of that laser barrel.

(It should be red, though. Because lava. )

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Praise be to the Omissiah!

Been tidying up my collection tonight, getting all the sprues with the armour plates in one place.

In doing so, found the VSGs for a Reaver, which I’d forgotten to put on, and forgotten that I’d forgotten the same.

Out with the Clippers and the Glue, natch. Clippy clippy........bugger. Where the hell did that go?

Hunted around to no avail. Became resigned to a forever more incomplete Reaver.

The box trays the sprues had been in we’re just about to go in the bin. Lo and behold.....the tiny little bit is there. Dead centre.

It is now in its proper place!

I lost one of the VSGs for my first Reaver, so I left a second one off as well, to keep him symmetrical. That way it's not obvious unless you look closely. But it probably explains why he can't make his shield saves...

I think the VSGs on the 40k scale titans are usually magnetized and taken off to represent them losing a shield. They lack these classy command terminals of ours...

I realise I'm kinda spamming this thread, but I just finished reading Abnett's Titanicus (finally some actual fluff to chew on) and am in a stompy robot mood.

Two thoughts and then I'll shut up for a bit...


1. Warlord loadout musings

As far as arm... uh... armaments go, the two best combos seem to be:

a) bellicosa + quake (for long-range blastiness)

b) sunfury + gatling (for medium-range shootiness).

Other combos seem less effective, though still useful (and it will obviously depend on the carapace weapon too).

However, quite a few people are reporting dual bellicosa to be a bit sub-par due to the strain on the reactor and the lack of a rib-kicker--that is, a weapon good at finishing off an already-damaged location with a targeted attack.

Why bring this up? Well, if the above is valid, it means you effectively get a 'spare' bellicosa in each Warlord kit that's unlikely to see use if you magnetise. And that means it's ripe for converting into a gatling or quake cannon without going the resin-weapons route.

What do you reckon, AT experts? Are those combos indeed the best?

(And why no blast on the sunfury? Biggest plasma weapon that isn't on a spaceship and it doesn't go kaboom?)


2. House rule for Knights hitting tall things in melee

Just had a thought bubble...

I'm one of those people who dislikes the whole 'melee Knights can hit a Warlord in the face' thing. I'm not too fussed about Cerastus; it's mainly the little Questoris that bother me. I keep picturing them with jump jets.

According to James Hewitt in a podcast interview, there were originally playtest rules for which models could hit which locations depending on height / Scale, but these fell by the wayside because they were making things too complicated and everyone tended to forget them. They decided to allow the abstraction and assume a lucky fluke or a chain reaction, or the Knights brought lascannon bayonets, or something.

However, as a simplified house rule, how about rolling the location die to try to score a lucky hit?

Something like this:

"When attacking with a melee weapon, if the target unit's Scale is more than twice the Scale of the attacker, do not choose the hit location as normal. Instead, you may either choose to attack the legs, or nominate another location and then roll the Location die. If the result is the same as the nominated location, you may attack that location. If not, you must attack the legs."

Examples

- A Questoris Banner attacks a Warhound with its melee weapons. Questoris Knights are Scale 3. The Warhound is Scale 6. The Warhound is not more than twice the attackers' Scale. Therefore the Knights can target any location as normal. (This looks just about feasible based on the models.)

- A Questoris Banner attacks a Reaver with its melee weapons. Questoris are Scale 3, while the Reaver is Scale 8. The Reaver is more than twice the Knights' Scale. Therefore the Knights can either attack the legs, or try for a lucky hit on another location. They decide to target the head and roll the Location die. Unfortunately, the result is 'Body'. The Knights' crazy plan failed (whatever it was), and they must attack the legs instead.

- A Cerastus Banner attacks a Reaver with its melee weapons. In this case, the Cerastus are Scale 4 and the Reaver is Scale 8, so the Cerastus can choose to hit any location as normal. (Lance under the jaw!) If the Cerastus were to attack a Warlord, though, it would be another story.

Notes

- There is no penalty for trying for a location other than the legs and failing--I don't want this house rule to be any harsher than it already is.

- As a further optional rule with more complication, you could say that if the enemy is more than three times the attackers' Scale, you can't hit anything but the legs at all. This would mean Questoris can only hit the legs of a Warlord, while Cerastus could still fluke hits on a Warlord's carapace with a lucky roll.

- Nothing with a Scale of 5 or more will be affected by this rule when it attacks something bigger, so Titans should remain unaffected by this rule when they attack other Titans. Unless FW brings out an Imperator model.

Thoughts? Still too fiddly? Weakens Knights too much?

The melee-scale rule is very sensible, and provides some relief for a Titan when getting gang-banged by loads of Questoris.

Only thing that might be an exception is the Cerastus Lancer. Being as he has a long stick to poke enemies with, would he not still reach a Warlord's head? Maybe he could have a +2 for scale in melee, giving him some advantage over his other two variants?

I did wonder about the Acastus Porphyrion( bit of a turtle ), but he doesn't seem to have melee weapons to be concerned about. Other than that...the house rule sounds a good'un.

In other news, I've been considering the Questoris' two melee weapons. The chainsword seems a logical candidate for the rending trait, but not sure about the "thunderstrike gauntlet" or how it can differ from the Chainsword. Maybe keep their points cost the same but where the chainsword has rending it deals 6 damage instead of 7, to give the gauntlet some advantage.

The advantage of doing this - assuming that the Questoris pack will come with the upgrade sprue going forward - is that a Questoris banner can be kitted out for the purpose of melee-only. Looking in the rules, its done as "multiply the dice value by each Knight in the banner armed with that specific weapon" but that doesn't seem to allow for two weapons of the same kind as one of them is always going to be ignored. So, what if you arm your Knights with a gauntlet and a Chainsword? They would need to be different to be legal( unless I'm overlooking something ) ...

In terms of Warlord Weapons, it’s the Quake Cannon that appeals to me the most.

It’s decent enough to land a killing blow, but lacks the solid ‘one shot’ potential.

But it’s the traits. A lucky blow can turn an enemy Titan. That of course can screw up your opponent’s line of fire. And right shot right time can win the game, just by turning an opposing Warlord 45 degrees.

A lovely weapon!

I’m on board with the knight melee issue, I’ve been saying since the game was released that it’s dumb knights can hit a head or carapace weapon. Couple this with knights getting to aim in melee and you can crush a crippled system rather easily.

I think it should be much harder to land hits in melee and they can only hit legs but I like your scale modifier. The lance could even have a slow effect. I’m disappointed the rules writers didnt think we could handle knights having different melee rules from titans.

Played the cargo mission too, and also failed. Knights actually put the hurt to my Warhounds. Failing full stride command checks is a bummer. Just a shot of the round prior to all but one of my Titans going boom! We will get our vengeance on Tiger Eyes soon

RazorMind wrote:
Played the cargo mission too, and also failed. Knights actually put the hurt to my Warhounds. Failing full stride command checks is a bummer. Just a shot of the round prior to all but one of my Titans going boom! We will get our vengeance on Tiger Eyes soon

"FOR LAPLAND! AND THE WORLD'S END!!!"

Good to see the forces of Santa fulfilling their vows and taking the fight to the enemy.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
In terms of Warlord Weapons, it’s the Quake Cannon that appeals to me the most.

It’s decent enough to land a killing blow, but lacks the solid ‘one shot’ potential.

But it’s the traits. A lucky blow can turn an enemy Titan. That of course can screw up your opponent’s line of fire. And right shot right time can win the game, just by turning an opposing Warlord 45 degrees.

A lovely weapon!

It's not just the random turning... it's reducing the enemy's movement on their next turn. Oh dear, you were hoping to sprint that Warhound across the table for objective points? *levels earthquake gun Duke Nukem style* SHAKE IT, BABY!

(It's worth keeping a token handy as a reminder, BTW.)

There are some who believe the Quake may in fact be overpowered or undercosted compared to the volcano cannon, but I have no strong opinion on that just yet.

Sadly nobody has yet found the STC for the apocryphal but reputedly far cheaper Quaker cannon, which causes the enemy to go home and rethink their life.

SamusDrake wrote:
The melee-scale rule is very sensible, and provides some relief for a Titan when getting gang-banged by loads of Questoris.

Only thing that might be an exception is the Cerastus Lancer. Being as he has a long stick to poke enemies with, would he not still reach a Warlord's head? Maybe he could have a +2 for scale in melee, giving him some advantage over his other two variants?

Cool idea. It could be added to the weapon description, or even become a generic Trait. Something like 'Long' or 'Extendable' (but, uh, maybe with fewer opportunities for people to crack jokes):

'When attacking with this weapon, increase the attacking unit's Scale by 1 (before comparison) for the purposes of determining hit locations."

Scale +1 should be enough, as it would bring a Cerastus Lancer to Scale 5, which can hit a Scale 10 Warlord anywhere according to my suggested house rule.

Incidentally, one thing I like about Titanicus is that because both sides have access to pretty much the same options and units, it's easier for everyone to sit down and discuss what's fair and unfair. You don't yet get that situation where, say, the hypothetical Eldar player says "mega-bolters are OP!" and the Imperial player counters with "nah, it's Eldar rules that are broken!" Both sides can take Knights. Both sides can get killified in dubious fashion by Knights. Both sides have an incentive to tweak Knights, should they seem in need of tweaking.

Even legion-specific rules can technically be taken by anyone, no matter their paint scheme, so you're not locked into an overpowered or underpowered Legion that way.

SamusDrake wrote:

In other news, I've been considering the Questoris' two melee weapons. The chainsword seems a logical candidate for the rending trait, but not sure about the "thunderstrike gauntlet" or how it can differ from the Chainsword. Maybe keep their points cost the same but where the chainsword has rending it deals 6 damage instead of 7, to give the gauntlet some advantage.

The advantage of doing this - assuming that the Questoris pack will come with the upgrade sprue going forward - is that a Questoris banner can be kitted out for the purpose of melee-only. Looking in the rules, its done as "multiply the dice value by each Knight in the banner armed with that specific weapon" but that doesn't seem to allow for two weapons of the same kind as one of them is always going to be ignored. So, what if you arm your Knights with a gauntlet and a Chainsword? They would need to be different to be legal( unless I'm overlooking something ) ...

The FAQ/errata fixes this--it says you multiply by each weapon of that type in the Banner, not each Knight armed with that weapon. This was the original intent of the rule, but wasn't worded clearly in the rulebook. I've got Knights with two chainswords, Knights with two gatlings (impractical but it looks cool), etc., and I made sure to check this before I built them...

I have no idea why FW thinks we need gauntlets, which as far as I know have no rules to differentiate them from chainswords, when extra ranged weapons on the sprue would be much more useful.

 Fajita Fan wrote:
I’m on board with the knight melee issue, I’ve been saying since the game was released that it’s dumb knights can hit a head or carapace weapon. Couple this with knights getting to aim in melee and you can crush a crippled system rather easily.

I think it should be much harder to land hits in melee and they can only hit legs but I like your scale modifier. The lance could even have a slow effect. I’m disappointed the rules writers didnt think we could handle knights having different melee rules from titans.

From what James said in the podcast, I gather he did think players could handle it. Or rather, handle every hit location having Scale determine whether you could hit it or not, rather than making a rule specific to Knights. His playtesters proved him wrong, though, so he reluctantly took it out.

RazorMind wrote:
Played the cargo mission too, and also failed. Knights actually put the hurt to my Warhounds. Failing full stride command checks is a bummer. Just a shot of the round prior to all but one of my Titans going boom! We will get our vengeance on Tiger Eyes soon

Looks like a fun game! Both forces are looking great too. Hmm... daughters of Tigrus vs Tiger Eyes burning bright...

I've been smitten by Solaria myself--think I've finally settled on a Legion all of my own. Thanks to the poster upthread who mentioned that Guy Haley's Titandeath novel includes fluff for them. I haven't read it yet, but by all accounts they're basically Necromundan Escher with giant robots. This amuses me no end.

As a further sign from the Omnissiah, the same week I was reading up on the Imperial Hunters, I happened to stumble onto Isaac Asimov's classic robot novel The Naked Sun, which I can't help thinking must be the original inspiration for naming the legion back in the 80s. If you've never read it, it's a murder mystery on the planet Solaria, which is famous for manufacturing robots. The human populace live on solitary estates and grow their babies in test tubes. Your basic prototypical 50s forgeworld.

I think I'll adapt the colour scheme to be a bit less festive, though. And maybe steal those solar-eclipse sigils from the Astorum transfer sheet. Can't say I'm a fan of the Imperial Hunters claw or Nintendo D-pad...

I wish more of you fun people were in the states.

ZenithFleet, thanks for reminding me about the FAQ/Errata. I'm looking ahead to a third battle force of scout titans with a freeblade support banner of "Gallants", so thats handy to know.

Oh, don't tell anyone...but...it might just be...umm...Legio Audax.

 Fajita Fan wrote:
I wish more of you fun people were in the states.

Maybe one day we'll all fly out to Virginia and together we'll rock the pillars of heaven!

There are hotels next door to the GW in Springfield but Springfield is such a gakky place.

my quake cannon arrived today. granted it has been 2 years since i last ordered something from FW but the resin and mould of this product is deffo a few levels higer then before.
a very slight bendt part, apart from that no flaws. no airbubbles, no mould seams whatsoever. detail on same level as the plastic titans.

a tiny bit bigger hole for the magnet then what the plastic part has, but as mentioned earlier in this thread, just be generous with the superglue and there is no issues.
the armor plating on the cannon can be mounted on either side in case that was unclear by the product picture.

SamusDrake wrote:

RazorMind wrote:
Played the cargo mission too, and also failed. Knights actually put the hurt to my Warhounds. Failing full stride command checks is a bummer. Just a shot of the round prior to all but one of my Titans going boom! We will get our vengeance on Tiger Eyes soon

"FOR LAPLAND! AND THE WORLD'S END!!!"

Good to see the forces of Santa fulfilling their vows and taking the fight to the enemy.

Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan! ("Finland mentioned, meet you at the market square")

But really, you could have a Santa model in his flying sleigh dropping gifts on the lines and have it count as the Air Support stratagem...

 Sherrypie wrote:

SamusDrake wrote:

RazorMind wrote:
Played the cargo mission too, and also failed. Knights actually put the hurt to my Warhounds. Failing full stride command checks is a bummer. Just a shot of the round prior to all but one of my Titans going boom! We will get our vengeance on Tiger Eyes soon

"FOR LAPLAND! AND THE WORLD'S END!!!"

Good to see the forces of Santa fulfilling their vows and taking the fight to the enemy.

Suomi mainittu, torilla tavataan! ("Finland mentioned, meet you at the market square")

But really, you could have a Santa model in his flying sleigh dropping gifts on the lines and have it count as the Air Support stratagem...

I'll drink to that!

Forgeworld! One resin Santa sleigh kit to go, if you please!

This is vaguely relevant, and also awesome, so I'll share here in case anyone hasn't seen it

The Night Before 986996.M41 

by Patrick Marstall (MarstallP@bah.com) 

'Twas the night before 986996.M41, and all through the station 
All there was clear, there was no abomination. 

My helmet was set on the desk to my right, 
On the chance that I was to need it that night. 

The guardsmen were ensconced, asleep in their beds, 
All the tanks too were safe, secure in the sheds. 

Marines in the barracks, some manning the wall, 
Assured me that the bastion never would fall. 

When out in the yard there arose such discord 
I grabbed up my bolter and unsheathed my sword. 

Away to the window, I ran to take aim 
As the marines around me all did the same. 

My bionic eye turned the night into day 
Allowed me to see, and to seek out my prey. 

When what did my loyalist ocular show, 
But an ancient conveyance, knee-deep in the snow. 

The vehicle was pulled by horned quadrupeds 
And a fiery red nimbus glowed from the sled. 

The driver was mighty, his eyes full of scorn, 
Dressed all in crimson like a servant of Khorne. 

I gestured for other to shoot without pause, 
For I was now certain this was Santa Claus. 

"Fire Marines! Fire Guardsmen! Fire Ogryn and Ratlings! 
Fire bolters! Fire lasguns! Fire mortars and gatlings!" 

"You in the courtyard and you men on the walls! 
Now blast away! Blast away! Blast away all!" 

But all through this maelstrom the evil one flew, 
Past plasma and bolt shells and frag that we threw! 

And then, to my horror, I heard on the roof 
The vile cavorting of each decadent hoof. 

Screaming my orders, I spun quickly around, 
As down the chimney shaft it came with a bound. 

I saw its eyes glow, its vast stomach gurgle, 
Bloated and fat, like a deamon of Nurgle. 

Blinded by anger, I attacked with a scream - 
Charged into battle with my brave space marines. 

As we thundered towards him, closing the rift, 
He reached in his satchel and pulled out a gift. 

Then it tossed the vile boxes - I fell in a stoop, 
As they arced through the air at me and my troops. 

The wrapped missiles fell short, and plopped at our feet, 
Our morale was quite strong, we did not retreat. 

But the marines paused - our charge was disrupted, 
They picked up the gifts and were quickly corrupted. 

For each box contained a chaotic present - 
The marines (damn their souls), found them quite pleasant. 

A bolter, a flamer, a new power fist, 
The Claus gave to all, and he checked off a list. 

It moved through the station and left in its wake, 
The sound of bright laughter and the stench of fruitcake. 

The others succumbed, but it failed in its goal, 
For to me it gave only a small pile of coal. 

The station was lost, I could only instruct 
The bastion computer to set self-destruct. 

I failed to kill him, for I saw as I fled, 
The target escaping, quite safe in his sled. 

I heard it cry out as the base burst into light, 
"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!" 

Kinda tempted to get additional Quake and Gatling Cannon....

But first, I think I’ll need to delimb the first Warlord I built. In my haste, I glued the Volcano Cannons in place.

Reckon a gentle job with the saw. Then double up the chassis magnets?

You probably won’t need to double them, my arms sit securely with one cheap 5x1 magnet on each side I got from amazon. I’m not sure how heavy the resin arms are though.

It’s more that in removing the Volcano Cannon, I’ll be slicing across the socket where magnets sit.

Suppose I could try it with just the one. Plenty of other weapons already magnetised, so I can see if just proximity attraction, rather than surface to surface is strong enough?

I may not be following you, the arm and the shoulder mating surface each have premolded 5x1 sockets for magnets. If you cut the seam you glued then you should still have those holes mostly available, just need some cleanup around the edges.

"Fire Marines! Fire Guardsmen! Fire Ogryn and Ratlings!
Fire bolters! Fire lasguns! Fire mortars and gatlings!"

This is a truly excellent line.

Got in a 2000 pt game the other day. Full Axiom maniple on either side, plus an additional Titan and Knight Banner for each.

Bit overambitious, as neither of us know the rules well yet. Took about five hours to get through. Trying to look things up in that rulebook... grrr. \

Great fun though. I love the way Titanicus a) rewards good strategy and tactics while b) ensuring that all manner of craziness goes down. Along with the usual war stories of over-the-top Titan deaths, we had a lot of machine-spirit madness in this particular game. One of my Warhounds very nearly worked its way around behind enemy lines, where it would have ripped into a vulnerable Reaver and Warlord from behind... except that its unusually rowdy machine spirit decided to run up and bite a Titan instead of shooting it. Later the same 'hound felt a sudden and urgent need to stop and sniff a lamp-post just after it had turned its back on the same enemy Titan instead of sprinting into cover, resulting in a swift punch up the tailpipe and a messy death. At least it fared better than the 'hound who died because my Warlord fell on it.

The other amusing machine spirit moment was when I tried to march my Warlord forward on the first turn--a foolish move that would have walked it right into the line of fire of multiple enemy Titans--only for its machine spirit to refuse to take a step. My opponent was annoyed that the imaginary friend living inside my plastic model was a better commander than I am.

(Incidentally, this is the first time I've seen any actual machine-spirit happenings in six games.)

 Flinty wrote:
This is vaguely relevant, and also awesome, so I'll share here in case anyone hasn't seen it

The Night Before 986996.M41 

by Patrick Marstall (MarstallP@bah.com) 

'Twas the night before 986996.M41, and all through the station ... [snip]

There is only one solution. Send in the creepy children from the Chaos Wastes!

Hmm... might be some solid inspiration in that movie to make a good adversary for Legio Solaria...

I love the idea of a Warhound biting a Warlord

Brother's Reaver and Lancers vs my pair of Warhounds. He won. Fancied I could wipe out his lancers and then focus on the Reaver, but he literally wiped out one hound and the lancers held strong against the other. Well done matey.

Still waiting on a set of Questoris to arrive( preordered contrast is still not in stock and holding things up ) and the release of the Acastus to complete our second battlegroup, so we can have a proper full game.

Painting a gold loyalist legio in the scheme of the Custodes because the Emperor has his own personal titans. It’s a simple scheme and I can hopefully knock this out. 4 Reavers, a Warlord, 3 Warhounds, and eventually an Ordo Sinister psi-titan with a scratch built gun.

A store near me has the Grandmaster box still on shelf, is it a good place to start? I'm sort of interested in playing but don't know how many people around me are into the game atm.