Legio Nikator (Sons of the Temple) and Legio Validus (Amber Kings)

[apologist]

Heh, cool. I agree that the old eldar crew aesthetic might work nicely as an alternate set of crew – perhaps some Forge World with a tradition for high-born Princeps?

 

Speaking of crew, here are the WIP moderati.

[malika666]

 

 

Heh, cool. I agree that the old eldar crew aesthetic might work nicely as an alternate set of crew – perhaps some Forge World with a tradition for high-born Princeps?

If only Necromunda housed its own Titan Legion with crews recruited from the upper-hive High-Borns! 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the Titan Moderati.

[malika666]

By the way, are these crew models new, or just existing ones added to a new kit?

[Sandlemad]

By the way, are these crew models new, or just existing ones added to a new kit?

They're the same as the guys in the existing warbringer head. Not sure why they weren't shown on the other page but they're the same.

[apologist]

Yeah, while it's nice to have one less thing to chase(!), it's also a bit sad not to see a separate standing Princeps. Wonder why they stopped doing them?

[Wordy]

 

Thanks all. 

 

+ Raising the Dread Hellespontion +

As part of Legio Sumer-Nikator, The Sons of the Temple, Hellespontion needed a couple of extra tweaks. When assembling, I trimmed away all the posing tabs, giving me free reign.

 

My advice for creating a slow walking pose is simply to assemble the stable leg first (usually the front leg, or it'll look like your Titan is walking backwards). Secure the foot flat and slightly off-centre on the base, set back a short distance from the front of the base –as the Titan's centre of gravity will be biased towards this point, you want to leave a space for the upper body and weapons to fill; otherwise you'll make it hard to bring it into base contact.

 

Once that's in place, build the leg above it, canting the lower leg forward, so the knee is over the front toes. If you go straight up, or lean it backwards, the sense will be that the Titan is coming to a halt.

 

Next, attach the upper leg, canting it backwards so the leg is bent. Don't go with too extreme an angle, or you won't sell the idea of a ponderous pace; it'll look too dynamic to be convincingly weighty. Such high-speed poses are generally better-suited to Reavers or Warhounds. 

 

 

With the stable leading leg fixed, you're virtually home and dry on the pose. Glue the pelvis in place, tilting it slightly so that that it's higher on the trailing leg's side. This ensures there's a sense that the rear leg is lifting.

 

The rear leg can then be built in relative safety. Working down from the pelvis, mock-up the pose by holding the upper and lower legs and the foot roughly in place (use some blu-tak or similar to hold it, if you struggle to hold them). Depending on how fast you want the Titan to seem to be moving, you can swing the foot inwards or outwards.

 

Swinging it in towards the centre of the Titan will imply speed (the foot is pulled in and up towards the centre of gravity as it trails), while leaving it further out will give the sense of a steady walk (the foot remains underneath the shoulder, ready to be placed for stability). +

 

 

I've picked a mid-pace stride here. The forefoot is placed flat and secure, the leg slightly bent to brace it. This helps to suggest the immense weight of the Titan is almost all over the front leg. The trailing leg is lifting away, only the front two still in contact with the ground. As the pelvis is raised, the leg is lifted vertically, and the foot therefore swings in. However, because the pelvis is not swung fully (as it would be at greater speeds), the foot doesn't move too far towards the centre of the Titan, ending up slightly between shoulder and groin.

 

 

I couldn't resist adding a little Epic Space Marine to the base. These aren't available any more, but I've no hesitation in recommending Vanguard miniatures' ranges. The Tusculum Nova Elites are ideal. The base itself  which came from Silverback Games' (formerly Gladius Game Arts)

Titan City range. Really nice quality.

 

To help sell the pose, I needed to bend the toes. This was easily achieved simply by cutting in between the main toes and the little armour plates, then bending them with a little brute force and ignorance. While the side and rear toes were bent downwards to suggest weight, the front toe was bent upwards,leaving as much in contact with the floor as possible. This was to avoid it looking too dynamic – as though the Titan were tip-toeing along.

 

That completes the pose; you just need to balance the upper carapace on top. For a walking pose, this should cant slightly towards the stable leg. The angle should be more extreme for greater speed – but you should also bear in mind that Titans can turn as well, which might affect the angle you want to place it at.

 

Some spare 6mm figures help to fill the upper deck, and give a sense of scale to the city-ending ordnance of a Titan! Again, these particular figures are not available, but you might try Vanguard's Novan Regulars Nuclear Waste Specialists as an equivalent.

 

Hope that was helpful. This is a repost from my blog, which has some further thoughts and a review of the Warbringer, if you're interested.

 

Wow! that pose really portrays the size and weight of that Titan while it’s in motion. It looks utterly fantastic.

[schoon]

That really is excellent posing. Well done!

[Gillyfish]

I agree, that really is excellent posing. I relly like the way you've thought about where the centre of gravity ought to be and moved the hips accordingly. It makes a very static kit look far more dynamic.

[apologist]

+ Gaugamela +

 

 

Bit of painting work on the third Warlord in the Sons of the Temple battlegroup. Prior to the stage above, the orange parts of the armour received another layer of Citadel's much-missed Solar Macharius Orange; the white parts a couple of layers of Mummy Robes (from Army Painter's Warpaint range – this colour's fast becoming a favourite for white); and the blue parts Vallejo's Prussian Blue.

 

 

This initial weathering/toning is produced with a variegated wash of Citadel's Dryad Bark brown paint mixed with Daler Rowney's sepia ink. This is then heavily diluted with flow medium, water and granulation fluid. It's the combination of sepia and granulation fluid that causes the particles to gather, creating the instant 'sooty muck'.

 

The wash is applied panel-by-panel with a 12mm (½in) flat brush, which I then quickly rinse and dry before using it to lift off the excess. This is done by drawing it slowly down the panel from top to bottom. The excess fluid is drawn up into the brush hairs by capillary action, allowing you to reinstate midtones/highlights as you wish. The advantage of using a large brush is speed; the advantage of a flat brush is that you can use the corner of the brush head to lift out fine details.

 

There's no perfect consistency to the wash mix; in fact, I think it's more effective and realistic if it varies across the model. Try different proportions of the constituent parts for different effects. More paint and ink will create heavier results, while more water can cause backruns

[General Zodd]

That’s lovely work, both on the pose, and the paint job, great stuff! Cool name, too!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Gaugamela is well-painted.

[Mendi Warrior]

Wonderful! Truly superb 

[apologist]

 

'I spent a mortal lifetime searching for what was good. I beheld then Titans; and ever after have searched for what is right.'

– Aphorisms, Polyphy

Edited April 26, 2021 by apologist

[Chaeron]

Love the Warlord work and the brief guide - always good to see how others achieve their great results! ^_^

[apologist]

Ta very much – hope this little guide proves interesting, too:

 

+ Painting weathered white +

The Sons of the Temple have orange and white heraldry, so finding a way to quickly and effectively paint large panels was key. Below you'll see a composite picture of how I tackle this. While it's demonstrated on white, the colour is largely irrelevant; as the same mix and technique is used for the orange and blue panels, too. This is important in terms of harmonising the scheme. 

 

To give the sense of scale, colours must be ever so slightly desaturated; and tonal contrast slightly reduced. Aerial, or atmospheric, perspective is the term for the effect that makes distant objects look increasingly blue and less vibrant than closer ones (owing to dust and light scattering). This technique makes blacks ever so slightly lighter, and whites slightly darker, while also merging the tones across the whole model. The intent is to mimic the effects of atmospheric perspective.

 

+ The main image is the finished result, the top row the various stages. 

 

i_ I start by painting a flat, clean surface of Army Painter's Mummy Robes. This colour covers well, so two thin layers usually gets the result you want. If you are including any freehand (such as the heraldic fur markings visible in the finished pictcapture here), paint this on now. 

 

ii_ Next, we mix sepia ink (I use Daler Rowney's calligraphy ink, as it has a convenient dropper) with brown paint – I used Dryad Bark for this example. This is then thinned down with a little clean water, a little flow enhancer (a colourless medium that breaks the surface tension of the paint), and granulation medium (which encourages the pigments in the paint to clump together, creating a gritty visual texture without physical depth). This is applied with a 12mm (½in) flat brush in vertical strokes, working down from the top of the area. 

 

There's no magic consistency or proportions of these components; indeed, I think it's best to vary it, as it leads to more naturalistic, realistic results. Having said that, you want to find a balance that ensures it's fluid enough to be lifted off by a dry brush, and thick enough to stay in the recesses. 

 

iii_ Working quickly, for the paint must still be wet for this stage to work, rinse the brush and dry it on kitchen paper. It doesn't need to be bone-dry, but take off as much water as you can. (You might instead keep a separate brush for this, but I find it more enjoyable to use one rather than stopping and swapping all the time). Using the dry brush, repeat the downward strokes slowly, allowing the paint mix to be drawn up into the dry hairs of the brush through capillary action. This is called 'lifting off'. You can lift more or less of the paint off depending on how wet it remains, so timing is crucial.

 

iv_ Allow to dry completely. This is shown in the top centre of the picture above. You can see how the granulation fluid has caused the paint to, well, granulate. It's a simple way to build very fine texture that, again, helps to suggest the colossal scale.

 

v_ Repeat steps ii_–iv_ until you are happy with the result. As per my note on consistency, there's no real 'right' way of doing things – just make sure that you stop before you go too far. You can always add another layer later, but it's a [sCRAPSHUNTERRORABORT] to remove.

[apologist]

With the Legio getting nearer to being properly painted, and the updated 'making your own legio' rules out, I thought I'd draft some ideas. Note that these are based on the Loyalist Legios book and Legio Nikator are... er... dubious in their dedication to off-worlders, so I don't want to commit until I've checked that the forthcoming Traitor Legios doesn't take a different approach. 

 

With that said, I think the following provide a nice starting point for playtesting, and I'd appreciate your thoughts and ideas on how best to reflect Sumer-Nikator's background. Overall, they're a fairly 'normal' Legio in terms of composition, with a slight prediliction towards Battle Titans over other types (Scout, Heavy etc.). Top-down and highly hierarchical, the Legio has an esoteric – even mystic – approach to deciding and enacting their strategies, and so Princeps are encouraged to be generalists, able to cope with changing battlefield conditions.

 

Forgeworld Sumer-Nikator doesn't particularly specialise in any particular type of martial technology, so Suturvora/Infernus-style weapon specialisms  or Ryzan plasma predilictions are not exactly off the table, but I wouldn't want to focus on them. 

 

With those notes in mind, how does the following strike you?

 

+ Legio Traits +

Towering Exemplar  The Princeps Seniores works as a mentor as much as a leader, using their knowledge to help the Titan’s in their Battlegroup; this allows one Titan from the same Legio within 6” of the Princeps Seniores each Strategy Phase to gain +1 to Command Rolls as well as re-roll hit results of 1 for the entirety of the round.

 

+ Legio Stratagems +

Power Reserves  Before rolling the reactor dice to push the reactor play this stratagem and count the roll as a blank instead, automatically. Allowed to be taken multiple times but restricted to once per engine per phase. 

 

+ Legio Wargear +

Plasma Rifling  Plasma Rifling is a global upgrade on a Titan, applying to all Laser or Plasma weaponry for 15 points. It allows you to push to give +6” to the short and long range of those weapons.

 

Tracking Gyroscopes  Tracking Gyroscopes change the fire arc of your carapace weapons to be the full front arc for 10 points. 

 

 

+++

 

+ WIP +

[schoon]

Quick question before commenting on your choices: what's your typical play style? Melee in your face; stand back and shoot; maneuver wizard; or something else entirely?

[Mandragola]

Interesting to look at custom Legios. Some thoughts:

 

Your Legio sounds like they're probably blackshields, but obviously that's up to you.

 

Gyros for carapace weapons are now available for everyone, at 25 points. Personally I wouldn't take them as a trait for a custom legio now, both because 10 points is way too little for them and seems a bit wrong, and also because you can get a whole other trait for your Legio instead, effectively for 15-30 points in a typical battlegroup. So your Legio will probably be more effective, while also seeming less gamey.

[apologist]

Thanks both.

 

Quick question before commenting on your choices: what's your typical play style? Melee in your face; stand back and shoot; maneuver wizard; or something else entirely?

 

That's a good question! I haven't had the opportunity to play more than a couple of games, but generally I seem to favour a mid-range, balanced approach (which likely influenced my lore!) I don't like standing back and shooting exclusively, and while I'm happy to field a couple of melee weapons, I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket, so tend to go for all-rounders. Similarly, I favour Battle Titans – Reavers especially, but like to field at least one Warlord. I'm not a fan of Knights.

 

Part of the reason I wanted to take Tracking Gyroscopes was to make advancing into midfield with Warlords more practical and less risky.

 

Interesting to look at custom Legios. Some thoughts:

 

Your Legio sounds like they're probably blackshields, but obviously that's up to you.

 

Gyros for carapace weapons are now available for everyone, at 25 points. Personally I wouldn't take them as a trait for a custom legio now, both because 10 points is way too little for them and seems a bit wrong, and also because you can get a whole other trait for your Legio instead, effectively for 15-30 points in a typical battlegroup. So your Legio will probably be more effective, while also seeming less gamey.

 

Thanks for your notes Mandragola – I ought to point out that the points costs were cribbed from Goonhammer's article; I assume that the points haven't been updated since the White Dwarf playtesting article, although the rest seems to have been. 

 

In terms of lore, they're a divided Legio – somewhat akin to Legio Tempestus; but with more weight on the traitor side. Far from the main ravages of the Horus Heresy, Forgeworld Sumer-Nikator as a whole is isolationist and supports the Warmaster in a fairly distant, lukewarm way, but their Titan Maniples are nomadic and allowed a great deal of leeway. Some of the more distant have wholeheartedly embraced Chaos, while others occasionally fight as allies of convenience to loyalist forces, or have long-standing esoteric alliances with them that override their loyalty to their more wayward kin. I'd class them as Traitors, but I'll likely be playing them as fairly conservative in terms of explicitly Chaotic upgrades. 

 

Sumer-Nikator has a long history of warfare with Eldar and the Thyrrus. Their seemingly capricious and protean actions in warfare are a response to that – if your enemy can see the most likely future, the best bet (as Sumer-Nikator see it) is to act unpredictably and spontaneously in order to regain control. As a result, they put great weight on esotericism themselves in an attempt to occlude predictions, and rely a lot on instinct.

 

As noted above, I want to make my Warlords as useful in midfield as possible; and so want to give them some flexibility in how they bring their weapons to bear. Tracking Gyroscopes (at the correct price!) seemed a good approach, but I'm open to other ideas that achieve the aim. I was toying with the trait that allows Titans to volte face at the cost of critical damage to the legs; as I thought that suited the rather mercurial nature of Legio Nikator.

 

Would love to hear your further thoughts.

[Mandragola]

I might not have quite been clear enough about the tracking Gyros. The thing is, you don't have to take them as one of your four traits - though you still can if you want. The Loyalist Legios book now has a list of upgrades that are available to everyone and Gyros are one of them, costing 25 points. Alternatively, you can take them as one of your four picks from the Defence of Ryza list, in which case they'll cost 10 points. Personally I would not take them as one of your four options and I'd grab some other cool thing.

 

For what it's worth, I think gyros are needed less by midfield warlords than ones that are hanging back in support. A moving titan can generally point itself at a target so the corridor arc isn't such a problem. Gyros are at their most useful for a titan that wants to stand still on first fire orders, like a Warbringer or a quake/bellicosa Warlord.

[Gattopardo]

I think tracking gyroscopes are a bigger deal on a fire support warlord (or Warbringer, assuming the updated arc in the Loyalist Legios book is an error). Something like a Warlord with missiles and volcano / quake cannons (either double quake, or volcano and quake). It can be sat back in a corner and then all its weapons will cover most of the board. This means it can be given first fire orders and almost always have a good target. If the missiles have the corridor arc, you can put this guy on first fire (and it can make sense) - but you'll find you're then missing shots as your opponent will get the hell out of the corridor arc if at all possible. With tracking gyroscopes, this kind of Titan becomes very hard to dodge, particularly if there isn't much blocking terrain (or even if there is, if you can place him on a fire lane your opponent can't escape from - covering an objective for example).

 

 

A midfield Warlord is moving anyway and so tracking gyroscopes are less of a help as you will get the chance to turn and point it at something - though it's still very possible to arc dodge the corridor arc, so certainly not useless. On the other hand a midfield Warlord is more at risk of opponents getting too close for its carapace guns to be able to target them, which Tracking Gyroscopes won't help with. Locomotive Override, on the other hand, is very good I think. If you're outmanoeuvred and flanked by knights or Warhounds or whatever, being able to pivot up to 180 degrees is just amazing - turn round and then swat them with a power fist! I think that's a great option if you're planning on taking brawler or melee Warlords. The cost of taking a crit to the legs is totally worth it I think, and it's cheap at 1 SP. 

 

I've looked at the other traits to see if there's anything that fits with your lore, and nothing jumped out at me - the best I could come up with is Masters of Defence, which you could see as the esotericism and mysticism of Sumer-Nikator allowing them to coax more unpredictable and unusual movement from their Titans. I'm not sure whether having Masters of Defence would mean Locomotive Override is unnecessary. The fact Locomotive Override is used in the combat phase makes me think it would still help you a lot, potentially.

 

EDIT: Mandragola said the same as me in a lot fewer words!

Edited April 29, 2021 by Gattopardo

[apologist]

I might not have quite been clear enough about the tracking Gyros. The thing is, you don't have to take them as one of your four traits - though you still can if you want. The Loyalist Legios book now has a list of upgrades that are available to everyone and Gyros are one of them, costing 25 points. Alternatively, you can take them as one of your four picks from the Defence of Ryza list, in which case they'll cost 10 points. Personally I would not take them as one of your four options and I'd grab some other cool thing.

 

For what it's worth, I think gyros are needed less by midfield warlords than ones that are hanging back in support. A moving titan can generally point itself at a target so the corridor arc isn't such a problem. Gyros are at their most useful for a titan that wants to stand still on first fire orders, like a Warbringer or a quake/bellicosa Warlord.

 

Ah, light dawns! Apologies – hadn't understood that the equipment is now freely available. This is what comes of trying to work things out from online reviews instead of the book! I'll hold off finalising the details until the Traitor Legios book is out, but thanks for the input; much appreciated. 

 

 

[...]

 

A midfield Warlord is moving anyway and so tracking gyroscopes are less of a help as you will get the chance to turn and point it at something - though it's still very possible to arc dodge the corridor arc, so certainly not useless. On the other hand a midfield Warlord is more at risk of opponents getting too close for its carapace guns to be able to target them, which Tracking Gyroscopes won't help with. Locomotive Override, on the other hand, is very good I think. If you're outmanoeuvred and flanked by knights or Warhounds or whatever, being able to pivot up to 180 degrees is just amazing - turn round and then swat them with a power fist! I think that's a great option if you're planning on taking brawler or melee Warlords. The cost of taking a crit to the legs is totally worth it I think, and it's cheap at 1 SP. 

 

I've looked at the other traits to see if there's anything that fits with your lore, and nothing jumped out at me - the best I could come up with is Masters of Defence, which you could see as the esotericism and mysticism of Sumer-Nikator allowing them to coax more unpredictable and unusual movement from their Titans. I'm not sure whether having Masters of Defence would mean Locomotive Override is unnecessary. The fact Locomotive Override is used in the combat phase makes me think it would still help you a lot, potentially.

 

EDIT: Mandragola said the same as me in a lot fewer words!

 

Thanks for your thoughts on Tracking Gyroscopes, too. My experience so far has been that I've struggled to make the corridor arc work for me, so I think I will take the upgrades at least until I get better at manoeuvring(!) 

 

I like the idea of Masters of Defence in concert with Locomotive Overdrive – that seems like a combination that will allow some unexpected results in the movement phase, and be a bit different from the turtling/concentration on shields that my gaming group has so far seen.

 

+++

 

+ Painting +

 

Bit more progress on the Dread Hellespontion:

 

While Gaugamela has received a little freehand work

 

...and some light weathering.

[Gattopardo]

Glad it was helpful. The titans look great too. The Dread Hellespontian looks so weighty and implacable, and Gaugamela is shaping up very well too. I love the brutality of that Lucius-pattern head. I bought one myself recently, and am looking forward to painting it up - I think it works particularly well with a power claw-armed Warlord, marching towards the foe to smash them up. There's no subtlety or elegance about it - in a good way!

 

If you don't have copies of them, I'd recommend getting both the Loyalist Legios and the Defence of Ryza books. Ryza obviously has the up to date Crusade Legio rules. It also has the rules for declaring your battlegroup to be loyalist, traitor or blackshield. It's possible that these will be reprinted - and maybe refined - in the Traitor Legios book, although personally I don't think they will. The Loyalists book has useful generic stuff too - both updated stratagems (not just Loyalist only), and universal wargear. 

 

AT is absolutely a great game, but it can be a little dull if both sides are turtling. Still, there are ways to deal with that - most obviously, focussing your battlegroup on melee and running under the enemy's shields. There are lots of ways of combining maniples and strats to help with this. There are other strats that can help, too. Something like Earthshaker Mines could be seriously bad for a Fortis maniple for example (if they move) - at best you're going to move them out of base to base contact, and at worst there could be a hilarious collision - which is seriously bad news if Warlords are involved. Having said that, I've found the missions - particularly if you have the Open Engine War cards - tend to force medium to close range encounters anyway. 

[Mandragola]

I think the recent FAQ should help with turtling.

 

In terms of what to buy, I think that if you're planning to usually play as traitors then you can skip the loyalist book. It's true it has a bunch of generic stuff in, but I expect the traitor book will duplicate it. So I'd wait for that.

 

Defence of Ryza is a different issue. You basically need that to play a homebrew Legio. It's probably the one book that has the most content in, including the rules for Legio creation, a bunch of extra stuff for knight houses, and allegiances - including blackshield. If buying one book I'd definitely recommend that one.