Adeptus Titanicus tips and tricks!

[Noctem Cultor]

Hi guys,

 

Thought I'd start up a thread where we can share useful tips and tricks for AT.

 

So if you notice something during a game that helps speed things up or a nasty little set up that's good for a Titan kill post it here.

 

I'm looking for anyone who has played to give a general break down of what each Titan/Knight is good and bad for in a game. So if you have any tips please share.

 

-Noctem Cultor

[Kilofix]

Multi shot weapons to take out Shields.

High strength to pen Armor.

Focus Fire.

 

Warhounds to get bonuses from Squadron, and to attack Flank / Rear for +1/+2.

 

Knights to attack Flank / Rear - don’t bother with Gatling, use BC vs other Knights (because you can catch multiple in a blast) and Melee / Thermal vs Titans.

Knights also get scale efficiencies from certain Strategems with costs based on Scale without regard for the number of Knights in the Banner (e.g. Outflank).

 

Figure out exactly how long your forearm is so you can estimate range (though this is kind of a cheat).

 

Choosing to go second will allow you to react move to keep the enemy in arc. But you then shoot second. Trade offs.

 

Certain Strats like Blind or Void Shield might be clutch.

 

Play the Objectives, some games are only 4 Turns. Catastrophically destroying Titans can be hard.

 

Cards and Command are already available for Reavers and Warhounds - proxy them for now.

[Kastor Krieg]

> Cards and Command are already available for Reavers and Warhounds

 

Anything aside from the contents of the Grand Master box?

[Mendi Warrior]

> Cards and Command are already available for Reavers and Warhounds

 

Anything aside from the contents of the Grand Master box?

The Rules set also has them, otherwise as webstore exclusive only from GW the Axiom Battleline Maniple Command Terminal Pack contains 1 Warlord, 2 Reaver, and 2 Warhound Titan Command Terminals. And also the warlord cards. Nothing else so far.

[Kilofix]

Couple more things:

 

First: Once a Warhound or Knight Banner gets behind a Warlord, barring outside intervention or some terrain interaction, they will always be behind the Warlord. From then on, it will be almost impossible for the Warlord to maneuver sufficiently to bring its weapons to bear (except for its Defensor), while the Warhound or Knight Banner will be able to pummel the Warlord’s rear arc at their leisure. So the Warlord has to think ahead to prevent that from happening. It’s tricky when a 500 point Warlord goes up against 2 x 200 point Warhounds and they flank left and right respectively. The key for the Warlord is to kill one ASAP from long range and then turn towards the other.

 

Second: Make giant robot noises.

[AccidentalCultist]

Played my first game last night and found that because i was avioding DRAINING weapons i didnt have enough high S weapons to do anything. On the otherside his 2 warlords chewed through my Reaver and Warhound.

 

Proposed new list below

Taken in an Axiom Maniple. Idea is to throw the Knights and Warhounds forward (using LOS blocking terrain if possible) with the Reaver and Warlord at the back giving covering fire

 

Knight Banner x2 (6 Knights)

Reaper Chainsword x6

Thermal Cannon x3 

Rapidfire Battle Cannon x3 

 

Warlord 

Belicosa Volcano Cannon, Mori Quake Cannon, Apocalypse Missile Launcher

Reaver

Laser Blaster, Volcano Cannon, Apocalypse Missile Launcher

Warhound x2

Vulcan Mega-Bolter, Turbo Laser Destructor

Total point - 1505

[Noctem Cultor]

Thanks for the feedback and tip guys. Extremely happy to hear Warhounds tactics play out just like in the novels.

Is the Knight Gattling gun good for anything? (One of my Kytan has one modelled onto it so it looks like the FW model...)

 

That's a nice list might copy that to get a feel for each Titan.

 

As discussed of course robot noises are a must shame on GW for not releasing a Titan soundboard.

 

-Noctem Cultor

[Kilofix]

Haven’t found a use for the Knight Gatling. It cannot hurt Void Shields and it only pens other Knights on a 6.

[Reyner]

Haven’t found a use for the Knight Gatling. It cannot hurt Void Shields and it only pens other Knights on a 6.

Get right up behind an enemy Titan to get the strength buff then get within their void shields and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt right up their arse?

[Kilofix]

 

Haven’t found a use for the Knight Gatling. It cannot hurt Void Shields and it only pens other Knights on a 6.

 

Get right up behind an enemy Titan to get the strength buff then get within their void shields and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt right up their arse?

That still makes it only Strength 3+2=5. Which will be unable to pen Titan armor.

[Kilofix]

Another tip:

 

You’re running a Warlord, your opponent is running a Reaver and a Warhound and he’s already in close range. You know that your opponent is going to try to flank you from both sides. You have to kill at least one opposing Titan, then try to survive fire from the other until end game to achieve victory via VP (ie your one kill vs his zero kills).

 

You win initiative. If you keep it and go first, then however you end up moving and facing, your opponent might be able to move out of your firing arc when he goes second. And, if your opponent does get both his Titans behind you then it’s over (see my previous post). Conversely, if you give up initiative, then you should be able to react and face at least one of your opponent’s Titans after he moves. But in that case, your opponent will shoot first, which may cripple your Titan before you yourself can shoot. What do you do?

 

The answer is maybe not much in the above case. But wait! If you had Knights, then you would choose to keep initiative, move your Knights first, then react with your larger Titan later in the sequence. By having Knights, if you have initiative, you can better react during movement, and still fire first with your larger Titan during shooting. The more groups of Knights in cases like this, the better it works.

 

I’m running at least 2 Banners at 1250 and up.

[depthcharge12]

Honestly, I think the Gatling gun was included as a cheap meatshield lol. Perhaps I am cynical but it stands to reason you slap it on your pointman knight to eat the first shots while your battle cannons sit back.

[shipmonkey]

Anyone think there is any major benefit to homogenized Knight banners or is mixing the weapons worth it to save a couple points?

[Kilofix]

Anyone think there is any major benefit to homogenized Knight banners or is mixing the weapons worth it to save a couple points?

I like BC, Thermal, Thermal. I use the BC against other Knights, then it dies first. I save the Thermal for Titans.

[noigrim]

Is double megabolters any good?

[depthcharge12]

Is double megabolters any good?

Double megabolters are great for whittling down shields and not much else. Is just barely crosses the threshold for being able to drop shields.

 

 

I think dual plasma warhounds are going to be a force to be reckoned with. As blast weapons count as two hits for the purposes of landing the “hole” on the model, you can effectively get 8(!) hits per warhound to drop shields.

 

Next turn if the shields are down, push the reactor and now feel 8 S10 shots on your target. Of course this is assuming they hit and yadda yadda, but Lordy lord is it nasty. Run those bad boys in squadrons and use combined fire for +1 to “wound”....

 

Warhounds are gonna be nasty. Especially if you use the Reaver/WH maniple to drop shields all day with dual plasma and then immediately fire with the Reaver.

[Captain Idaho]

I'm thinking I'd like a Warlord with Sunfury Plasma Annihilator, Volcano Cannon and either Turbo Lasers or Gatling blasters.

 

Which of the two latter do people think is best (personal choice)?

[depthcharge12]

I'm thinking I'd like a Warlord with Sunfury Plasma Annihilator, Volcano Cannon and either Turbo Lasers or Gatling blasters.

 

Which of the two latter do people think is best (personal choice)?

If you go fire first, Gatling is great to nail shields that way you can slam them with all the heat in your combat phase. Since twin Gatling on carapace is counted as one weapon, it’s pretty much a free extra weapon fired during fire first.

 

 

I guess this is more of a rules question but maybe I can’t find it or I’m blind, but do weapons do damage on a d6 or d10? I can’t seem to find anything supporting the former or latter.

[Kilofix]

You mean do weapons add D6 or D10 to their strength to see if they score a direct hit or greater? D6 normally but D10 for Melta.

[Noctem Cultor]

I have scoured the internet and everything appears to back the why would you take a Gattling gun stance. I'm guessing the weapon was put in for a third cheep option that if in future Infantry became a thing (as I understand they built the rules to have this in mind just incase) the Knights already have a weapon to deal with them.

 

And on the subject of Warhounds it does appear they are built to try get in and take down the other Titans as a pack. I'm guessing their weakness will be while getting to the other Titans the large firepower could take them out with ease if their shields drop.

 

-Noctem Cultor

[noigrim]

And what would be better two warp missiles or two megabolters?

[Captain Idaho]

Yeah, twin turbo lasers seem pretty powerful.

 

But then, say a multiple titan engagement at larger points you might find that the expensive weapons is the difference between 2 Warlords and a Reaver over 1 Warlord and 2 Reavers etc.

[Noctem Cultor]

Has anyone marked up there bases (trim I'm guessing would be easier) for firing arcs like the rulebook mentions? I'm interested in seeing if it helps and how people have done it before deciding.

 

-Noctem Cultor

[Kilofix]

General practice - try to arm every Titan with multi-dice weapons that can break shields and also high strength weapons that can pen armor. If you specialize and arm one Titan as a shield breaker and the other as an armor breaker - then losing either will hamper your effectiveness. This is all unless you’re playing high point games where you have redundant Titans.

 

That said:

 

Warp Missiles - Deadly because of their ability to crit. But one use. I’m not particularly fond of them because I like to put dual Belicosas on my Warlords since Belicosas are just too good at getting Crits on armor. But if I do Warp Missiles and Belicosas then I end up with a very specialized Titan that I don’t generally like (see above) unless at high point games. Remember that Belicosas are only single dice (maybe two hits if direct) and Draining so they are terrible vs shields

 

Apocalypse Missiles - My go to for the Warlord. Cheap and let’s me break shields while the Volcanos break armor.

 

Paired Blasters / Paired Destructors - Still ok vs Shields but not as effective as Apocs. They have Shieldbane but it’s Draining and you want to save your reactor for Belicosas. Their upside is that they’re also ok vs armor - but you’re still relying on whittling down Structure points rather than Critting. Then it’s just weighing the cost and range. Blasters costing more, having more dice, shorter range. Destructors costing less, having less dice, longer range.

 

In a Warlord 1 (Apoc n Belicosa) vs Warlord 2 (Laser n Belicosa) slug out - this is what usually happens:

 

Turn 1:

Warlord1 brings Warlord2s shields down to 50%

Warlord2 brings Warlord1s shields down to 66%

Warlord2s reactor is at +1

 

Turn 2:

Warlord1 collapses Warlord2s shields

Warlord2 brings Warlord1s shields down to 33%

Warlord2s reactor is at +2

 

Turn 3:

Warlord1 does structure damage and one crit to Warlord2

Warlord1s reactor is at +2

Warlord2 collapses Warlord1s shields

Warlord2s reactor is at +3

 

Turn 4:

Warlord1 does structure damage and two crits to Warlord2

Warlord1s reactor is at +4

Warlord2 does structure damage and one crit to Warlord1s

Warlord2s reactor is at +5

 

You can see where that’s going.

 

But it will be of course different if you have say a Warhound that with a Gatlingin support.

 

Edit - remember if you’re relying on Apoc to Shield break - you can use First Fire orders to essentially shoot twice. But if you use First Fire with Lasers you’re Draining twice or not as effective without Shieldbane

 

Further edit - I’ve taken to printing / photocopying the Warhound and Reaver pictures onto cardstock to proxy. 2D papercraft go!

[Nusquam]

Just had my first game. Proxied some Warhounds and Reavers with dreads.

 

My knight Banner was MVP. I took  2 Thermal/RFBC Crusaders and a Paladin. Took a minute to realize there are no "close combat" attacks and "melee" weapons are just effectively short range shooting attack mechanically. Really there are only "attacks" with various traits and ranges, there isn't really "shooting". Next time I'm replacing the Paladin with a twin RFBC Crusader. Banners I feel should be homogenized. The one Paladin didn't do much from the Charge Order and the Thermals attacking on a 3+ with Fusion in 2" did more work. If you're taking melee I would do every knight with a melee, or even double melee and Meltaguns for a Gallant Banner; makes the Charge order much more devastating.

 

Though I find it strange, from what I can tell, is that "melee" is called shot without penalty on a close range attack, and attacks from the back arc grant +2 to armor pen, so a Knight could stab a Warlord in the back of the face on a 2+ to hit with a +2 to it's armor roll, effectively S9? To be fair if your knights are behind a Warlord it's as good as dead anyway.

 

I kept messing up the First Fire choices at the start. It didn't help my Reaver went insane the first time I pushed its reactor.

 

My Warlord immediately got gimped from poor void rolls and lucky crits blowing off one arm and damaging stabilizers.

 

Warhound ran around stripping voids and taking pot shots into an exposed Reaver. It's repair rolls were stellar all game and was running smooth and cool the whole time.

 

We both ran our Titans waaaaaay too hot with the Volcano cannons and pushing the Reactor for various things. We ended up burning out our voids and critting our own reactors. Both our Warlord died horrendously.

 

We played with a lot of ruins terrain and missed a lot because of it. I recommend building things in city blocks with plenty of LoS blocking and firing lanes. Our game was effectively just a shooting gallery at all times with penalties to hit all the time. Only our Knights and Warhounds were out of site at any point and only briefly. Movement wasn't very important because we could see everything pretty well so often. So don't make our mistake.