Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Good day all,

Myself and some friends have got hold of a copy of Adeptus Titanicus from 1988 and are getting into it. The rules seem pretty clean and it is easy to pick up but the manual is sometimes frustratingly vague. This has resulted in some... lively discussion. We've worked out most of the kinks, however, there are still some rules that we'd like a second opinion on as they keep cropping up.

I realize looking for some very specific rules errata for a game that pre-dates the internet might be asking a little much... but here goes!

Most of our more heated conversations involve weapons with burst templates and their interaction with cover. If a titan is completely behind cover (so normally could not be targeted) but could overlapped by the edge of a burst marker fired at the ground next to the cover, can it be fired on? And does the -1 cover modifier still effect it? Also, if a titan is partially behind cover and takes a hit with a burst marker, can the explosion reach round the building and damage the parts of the titan usually shielded by the cover? Are these rules covered in more detail, or less ambiguously, in any other GW publications?

Also, an optional advanced rule states that "Titans with 3 or more Voidshields are fitted with a device that allows the Princeps to bypass the Void Shield generators overload cut out mechanism as a last ditch measure to stop a hit." Does this mean a titan that can have 3 or more Voidshields can do this, or that it means that it has to have 3 Voidshields in place to do it?

Much Love

G.

Going by exactly what you said..."a burst marker fired at the ground next to the cover". You cannot target the ground, you have to target the building. The titan wont be in cover unless it is IN COVER itself.
Any part of the titan can be targeted and hurt. Its like you feet are hurting but it still gives you a headache!
Sorry cant answer the third one, but I would go with last statement

Just needs to have at least three possible Void Shields - so you can overload regardless of how many are up, as long as your Stat Card offers a value of 3 VSG or more.

Many thanks for the replies, much appreciated!

Regarding burst circles (an I should have included this in my original post, sorry), the manual says "when a titan fires a weapon using a burst circle, the controlling player can place the burst circle template wherever they like on the table, subject to normal targeting rules of course."

Obviously, you can't fire somewhere beyond the weapons range, or somewhere where line of site is completely blocked. It looks from our reading of the rules that you can reach slightly behind cover with a burst template, but that's all the rules have to say on the matter.

Normal direct fire weapons suffer a -1 to hit penalty for firing at targets partially concealed, so we are tempted to add this penalty when firing at a fully concealed titan clipped by blast markers. It would be useful to have weapons that can root titans out of cover but don't want them to be overpowered. Also, blast weapons tend to be expensive so we don't want to under-power them relative to their cost either.

Mostly, we also want to stop bickering about it!

Cheers again!

G.

The way I play it ...

As long as the centre of the burst template is visible to the firer, you can place it where you like. That can clip a titan that's out of LOS of the firer if you want. As for cover, try it both ways - grant the cover penalty if the "target" is obscure from the point of view of the firer, or only grant it if the cover is between the target and the centre of the burst template. See which seems fairest. I'd go with the latter, personally.

Cheers folks, you truly are gods amongst men.

Cheerio.

G.

Ah, this takes me back. Adeptus Titanicus was the first GW game I played (my parents bought me a copy after I was ill in hospital, for being a brave kid.. so that was... 1989?)

Seem like reasonable interpretations of the rules. That last one should probably say 'three or more Void Shield Generators...'

but hey, GeeDerps

Grampus wrote:
Also, an optional advanced rule states that "Titans with 3 or more Voidshields are fitted with a device that allows the Princeps to bypass the Void Shield generators overload cut out mechanism as a last ditch measure to stop a hit." Does this mean a titan that can have 3 or more Voidshields can do this, or that it means that it has to have 3 Voidshields in place to do it?

Much Love

G.

I'd say it has to be a Titan with a VSG rating of 3 or more. Not just a chassis that could have been designed with 3 VSGs but only has two (i.e. a stripped-back Warlord or Reaver). It doesn't need to have 3 VSGs active to use this ability, though

zerosignal wrote:
Ah, this takes me back. Adeptus Titanicus was the first GW game I played

Yeah I just want to step in here as well and give a shout out and some love for AT. F'in classic game and one of my most prized possessions.

After you get AT down, I suggest getting the SM1 rulebook and trying it out. Rules for combining AT and SM1 are in the SM1 rulebook. You don't need a lot of infantry or vehicles to change the dynamic of the game.

Then if you really like that, check out the original Codex Titanicus.

I actually have everything that was ever printed on a page in White Dwarf back in the day, and bound together like its own rulebook. Took me awhile, but there is a list of all the AT/SM1 articles released in that system out on the internets, including the first rules for infantry and vehicles and other expansion on the races. You'll probably love the Chaos rules, even though they never finished them, or the Eldar, because SM2 came along. We just ended up making our own rules for Aspect Warriors. But when you see the stat lines for those old Epic units, it brings excitement that I didn't find in the later versions.

I absolutely love the detail and grit of that system. There was so much you could do with a single infantry stand back in the day. Now the focus is on the detachment/formation, which is understandable for large games as it speeds things up (we played some big games of AT/SM1 that took 3-4 nights to play out), but for playing smaller games there are fewer GW games more tactical as far as I am concerned. Besides, to me Epic is about masses of Titans WITH infantry and vehicles running around, not only titans, or just a couple of titans and hordes of infantry and vehicles. The thing that sets Epic from other games is that it had all that.

And I love the old stories of the Horus Heresy.

Hello good peoples,

Thanks for the replies. I went on a bit of a mad quest to find all the copies of White Dwarf with rules updates... then Codex Titanicus, then Space Marine (1), then..... well, then it got really mad. There seem to be 2 official versions of Adaptus Titanicus 2, some extra rules from various magazines (if anybody has scanned copies of the Epic Magazines, I would have your babies)... so much to look through. One thing has become clear though, GW were really good at writing rules back in the day.... but so very bad at proofreading them!

Anyhow, it was really interesting watching how the simple, streamlined AT, became the sprawling monster that was SM, and how quickly titans went from being the focus of the game to being a novelty, expensive, bullet absorbing support unit. Both have pros and cons. I prefer AT without or with only limited infantry and vehicle support - its quick, easy to play, everything has a nice role, every decision seems to affect the outcome and there is just enough luck involved to keep things unexpected while rarely undoing all your planning. Adding the slew of units that came after added a lot more tactical depth and sweeping strategies but it doesn't seem to gel for me.

IMHO they ballsed up integrating the three levels of unit in SM, infantry on infantry, vehicle on vehicle and titan on titan all feel pretty solid... but trying to integrate them all resulted in some weird compromises and costings The most dangerous and cost effective unit in the game would probably be a weaponless warlord with a land raider detachments las-guns stapled to its carapace. I guess by starting with the most powerful units fighting one another as the base game and then trying to add in everything else weaker, right down to poor little dudes in cardboard amour and flashlight guns, while keeping the game based round a roll of 1 to 6 was always going to be... interesting!

I haven't really looked at any of the rules past SM(1) so a lot of this might have been ironed out.

Really looking forward to to what the new AT rules are like... whenever it is released.

Love that game - made a 2D version to play on train tables for long journeys.

Covers done but for Void Shields you have to have three generators fitted. As long as one is up of the 3 or more you can overload for all the fits and giggles that ensues.

I wouldn't use the Codex Titanicus changes personally - the increase in speed really changed the game from robots moving along graceful marches between cover offloading weapon systems to far more dashing and charging. I prefer the slower speed to emphasize pre-planning.

My favourite build that just never performed as I hoped it would was 16 autocannon barrels with a camoline titan.