Adeptus Titanicus - what we'd like to see (one day?)

[Brother Casman]

I've moved a few posts to this thread from the announcement thread in News and Rumours, my apologies if conversations got a little mixed up.

[Captain Idaho]

I think Apologist's thoughts on the matter echo my own.

 

In particular, any epic should be its own ruleset that just happens to use the Titan models.

 

I think that would be the case though. GW ain't no dummy.

[CommodusXIII]

Far in the future, if infantry are ever added, I'd like to see rules for boarding Titans.  There were a few interesting scenes in the Titan graphic novel and Titanicus with crewmembers versus Tyranids and Dark Mechanicus Skitarii, respectively.  And I haven't read it yet, but it sounds like the new Imperator novel has a significant plotline about hunting a traitor/saboteur on board.

 

The rules wouldn't need to be at all that complicated - the above examples are better as a themed Kill Team mission - but it would be interesting to have it as a rudimentary mechanic.  Something similar to boarding actions in Battlefleet Gothic.

[Beren]

Tricky thing is, the Forgeworld Titan interiors are rather small. It'd work for an Imperator, but nothing smaller.

[StraightSilver]

Things I would like to see:

Decal sheets for all the Legios with enough decals to ensure you can identify individual Titans via their heraldry. This would go for Knight houses too.

A full campaign setting with varied missions, linked battles, special conditions etc to give the game a bit of longevity.

A campaign/advancement system for Titan crews - I'm not saying turn it into X-Wing or anything but getting bonuses from experienced crews (or minuses from damaged, shell-shocked crews) would be cool and again add a bit of longevity.

A plastic command terminal that the cards fit into rather than being cardboard - like the ones CMON games use.

[CommodusXIII]

Tricky thing is, the Forgeworld Titan interiors are rather small. It'd work for an Imperator, but nothing smaller.

 

True, then smaller classes could make for a good scene using INQ28.

[The Lord Angel]

I’d like to see super heavy tanks and bombers/fighters, but not infantry and non super heavy vehicles.

 

A Shadowsword can conceivably hurt or destroy a Titan, whereas 50 Asartes with bolters is just mulch.

 

I’d love to see Shadowswords and the like deployed in squadrons of 3-5, befitting the HH era of massed technological wonders. A Princeps would be forced to deal with them versus stepping on or over a group of infantry.

[Captain Idaho]

Adeptus Titanicus is likely a solid platform for other super heavies actually. Good shout.

 

(I think most of us are in agreement that ANY return of Epic would need it's own ruleset instead of being shoehorned into Adeptus Titanicus)

[Xin Ceithan]

As a devoted follower of the Ruinous Powers, I'd like to see the original yay planed Titan spread (Apologist summed it up pretty nicely indeed ) and then some sort of upgrade and deviation for the Dark AdMech forces. With the Black Books focusing on the Legions and being already delayed, I feel this could be a setting to have more insight into AdMech and the schism / Rise of the Dark Mechanicus without taking away the leading role in infantry / combined arms fighting from the Legions.But let's face it:

 

This is about Titans! So, Infantry and Tanks can suck it. Actually, infantry and tanks sucked in Battletech and it was fine by me because it's a game about BIG FETHING STOMPING ROBOTS!

 

I already like how the leaked rules seem to make Titan Maniples operate as some sort of land based naval equivalent akin to a Battleship Group.

It feels a natural extension to the submarine warfare feel of Abnett's Titans. :)

Actually, the spotter plane thingy feels oddly right for this.

Though hopefully they avoid the stand off air raids / carrier battle shenanigans of early BFG.

Like I said, let this be about BIG FETHING STOMPING ROBOTS!

[spu00sed]

I would like to see super heavies (shadowswords and stormblades) as Titan killing light units. Knights are to harass superhavies to kill. Their smaller profile making them snipers, hiding in the terrain.

 

This could lead to squadrons of MBTs. They can’t do anything of note to titans, almost nothing to knights, but can flush out and kill super heavies. It would make a fun balancing game between the different classes. Titan firepower is wasted on tanks and overkill on super heavies, so do you take more knights, or a swarm of tanks?

 

As for infantry, I would like to see them and have them do very little. Infantry can hold ground whilst titans push forwards. Possible using a hybrid system of epic:Armageddon’s fire fights and drop zones close quarter battles. Infantry can only kill other infantry, and they move slowly outside of transports (APCs and Corvus assault pods). The only reason to take them is to free up other assets from holding objectives.

[Red_Shift]

There is just something about having the primaris range, particularly astreus, in epic scale that appeals immensely. In terms of additions to the titanicus game, I agree super heavies and some fliers would be a good fit.

[Taliesin]

So there was previously talk of making the books for this like the FW heresy black books in design. Some of that seems to have carried over from the rulebook previews we've seen but it doesn't seem to be the same kind of massive hardback. Any one get any word on that, possibly for the mooted campaign books?

 

 

 

This is a big question which seem to have been clarified somewhat at WH fest.

The hardcover rulebook that releases in August seems to have some of that design, we just don't know how big that rulebook is, how much it covers.

 

The other thing is that there is also a Beta Garmon campaign book coming, the question on that is just, when does it come out, it seems to be scheduled for this year.

But that needs verification from FW. Would be very good if we could get an answer on that during the FW Open Day in July.

[Marshal Rohr]

Titanicus is set on Beta-Garmon and not on Tallarn though. That would be the only campaign in which you can justify not including infantry. Worrying that tanks and infantry will ruin the game assumes they are just porting the epic mechanics. If they redesign the game from the ground up infantry could be entirely useless against titans and only useful against tanks, or something. Maybe they just sit on objectives and titans have to grind down their wounds to take the objective or something.

[Shard of Magnus]

It would be interesting to see fortifications at some point.

[Captain Idaho]

Fortifications would make interesting variance to gameplay that would help longevity I'm sure.

[The Lord Angel]

I'd love to see modular buildings. In plastic. Like 10-12 buildings in a box.

And not just some Gothic ruins either. Manufactorums, barracks, airfields, the sort of thing that make for valid tactical objectives versus another random selection of ruins.

[Captain Idaho]

Terrain would be nice but primarily as a separate buy in as you can get cheap stuff elsewhere if needed.

[Sandlemad]

I'd love to see modular buildings. In plastic. Like 10-12 buildings in a box.

 

And not just some Gothic ruins either. Manufactorums, barracks, airfields, the sort of thing that make for valid tactical objectives versus another random selection of ruins.

 

The ones from the fest look pretty good. The gothic elements are quite toned-down compared to 40k scenery. Stackable and somewhat modular too. Unfortunately more interesting buildings will probably end up in resin or even as part of boards... Specialist Games will indeed be missing a trick if they don't make room for objectives though.

 

The MDF buildings from TTCombat look decent. Could be fun to have titans stride between New York-style brownstones.

[Withershadow]

One thing I absolutely do NOT want to see is small stuff like line battle tanks and infantry.  What we've seen of the command cards and how the Titans operate, it's significantly different from that level of gameplay.  Epic always watered down the Titans to make them compatible with the "small stuff", which frankly never really works out to satisfaction (it's either one-sided, or disappointing).

 

The only non-Titan things I can see are maybe superheavy tanks like Baneblades, which would have super simplified rules (one damage system and a gun) and basically function like fighter squadrons in Armada.

[RandomMarine]

Isn't DZC also in 8mm so the buildings from that game would be usable aswell and they are mostly card so cheap as chips

[apologist]

Chiming in on the terrain front, I think getting the 'third army' right is actually key to the visuals with small-scale gaming. Without recognisable and attractive buildings to give a sense of scale, the unfamiliar giant robots don't look particularly impressive. That's why I'm really pleased to see Forgeworld producing tiles for this game. Seeing the city layout and street furniture really hammers home the size of these models.

 

These aren't the best illustrations (and excuse the shamefully-incomplete painting), but from tabletop distance, buildings and road layouts are often the only playing pieces besides War Engines that 'read-out' distinctly at 10/8/6mm scale:

 

 

Without proper buildings, the visuals of this game are not going to be as striking as they could be. Robot battles are cool; giant robots bashing through ruined churches is awesome!

[Captain Idaho]

That's a solid point. For the same reason a painted army is important; immersion makes the game more enjoyable.

[Vykes]

Man, I do feel a bit out of sorts as I've never been the Epic-scale gamer, but looking at Titanicus I am still pretty excited.  And yeah, a big part of that is that the Titanicus scenery can really do a lot of justice to the grandeur that 30K/40K is supposed to evoke while the 28mm versions have to stack set pieces into a virtual football stadium without going over to the Apocalypse tables. 

 

My wishlist is pretty blasè compared to most, and pretty much everything was sorted on page 1: but I might as well chime in with my support for seeing some well fleshed out Black book support, and the Lucius pattern Warlord.  I never got the chance to snag one not-so-long-ago but I always liked them and distanced myself from the Mars pattern.  That said, looking at the pictures, and for my own personal gratification: I want aircraft strike squadrons. I mean, there's a downed Xiphon on the resin tiles they previewed, I'm way more into aircraft than fighting robots (So what am I doing here?) so yeah. 

[Gorthaur]

I don't want to see this game turn into epic. So i'd rather see more imperial titans, eventually Eldar/Necrons. Maybe some more plastic terrain like a large industrial smokestack refinery or a manufactorum, some more unique terrain features. I want to see the game remain adeptus titanicus...and not slowly phase into a convoluted bloated complex mess by introducing tanks/marines and more stuff to micro manage during the game which will probably last an hour or two without any of that stuff to begin with.

[Doghouse]

This is a tricky one in some respects. I love that they are focusing on Titans and part of me wants Astartes but I think that would be better suited to it's own game.

 

There were a few of units that were teased in Codex Titanicus such as Zeppelins, huge crawlers called Juggernauts and Psi Titans, the former two which I feel would have changed the landscape of 40k quite significantly for a time. 

 

I am hoping they capture the feel of Titan crews and the Titans themselves fulfilling roles, Knights already seem to be fitting into an infantry aspect in my mind and it will be interesting to see how they effect the game. Maybe an experience system would be nice where crews can gain skills.

 

The key to success for me is that focus on the Titans above all else and that they don't dumb down the rules. I miss my damage charts... :(