Mandragola’s Legio Astorum (and Mortis and stuff)

[Fajita Fan]

I mean for Fureans if you like black/yellow.

[Doctor Perils]

Tbh, the black flames of Fureans are one of the most iconic elements of Titanicus for me, let alone just that Legio - it would feel weird to see Fureans with any other colour scheme

[Mandragola]

Tbh, the black flames of Fureans are one of the most iconic elements of Titanicus for me, let alone just that Legio - it would feel weird to see Fureans with any other colour scheme

 

Agreed. I've seen some with hazard stripes on some panels and, while it was done really well, it didn't feel quite right.

 

There'd be nothing at all wrong with dazzle patterns on titans. It just wouldn't be the Fureans scheme - or Astorum for that matter. 

[Emicus]

Where is that terrain from? :0

[Mandragola]

Where is that terrain from? :0

 

Which terrain? I haven't built any myself. I usually use the stuff at our club, which I didn't buy.

[Mandragola]

I’ve been at warhammer world this weekend and managed to get hold of a set of the traitor titans of legend terminals. This is good news as they’re sold out online I think, at the moment.

 

I’m thinking of using my unbuilt titans, and maybe some knights, to make a legio Mortis force. It would be Penumbral Reaper, a Ferrox maniple of reaver and three hounds, and a banner of three lancers. Comes to 1750, though as I’ve got tons of knights I could potentially make more. The knights will probably be Malinax.

 

There’s no rush to do this but it would be a fun project. They’d look and play quite differently to my Astorum. They’d be worse to be honest, but that might be no bad thing - I seem to win all my games as Astorum.

 

In future I’ll probably build a knight household army too. No idea what house I’ll do, though Taranis could be good.

[Captain Semper]

Sounds great! Unfortunately I missed out on them... :( 

 

Is there a Krytos engine among them? 

[Mandragola]

Yes there's a Krytos Warlord that actually seems pretty good. Has Bellicosa and Sunfury. Maximal fire doesn't heat up its reactor on a 1 and if it takes a crit you reset its reactor track. It's a bit pricey though - 515 points including the arm weapons, though you have to pay for a carapace weapon as well. Still, 30 points for a warlord that doesn't really have to worry about heat is quite nice.

 

I've looked at online reviews of these guys and they always miss important stuff. For example there's a Vulpa reaver that costs 275 base. It's special ability is that it can downgrade a devastating hit it takes to a direct hit if it rolls a 6 on a D6. That's not worth 25 points, but actually its armour values are better than a normal reaver, so you need 1 more to get direct hits on it. That starts to be interesting.

 

Penumbral Reaper is a bit silly, in that it's a Warlord with a claw, plasma and laser blasters. You don't really want a 50 point carapace gun on a warlord that's going to either full-striding or too close to fire its carapace gun. However, it has WS4+ and a great aura. Everything within 12" (I'm not sure if it includes him, but I think so) gets +1 to their command value, rerolls 1s to hit with melee weapons and always treats overheated reactor results as "haughty". It would be extremely unlikely for anything to survive a charge from this guy, given that his fist attacks will almost always hit.

[Fajita Fan]

Typically in GW games "everything within X"" includes the model itself. 

[Captain Semper]

Thx for that! Does it have a name? 

[Mandragola]

It's called Hammer of Tyrants. PM me your address if you want it.

[Captain Semper]

Thank you man, it won’t be necessary. You see I hardly ever play the game, all I needed was modelling inspiration. I believe that the Hammer of Tyrants is the Warlord depicted in the Titandeath book - so here’s a project in the making for me! :D

[Reyner]

A Mortis force would be a very good contrast to your Astorum one :) if you don't need the Fureans and Tempestus terminals I'd be in interested in them - that Krytos warlord sounds pretty awesome with its ability I'll have to double check the Nova Guard reaver against a standard one and see if any armour values are different. Has it come up in an FAQ if you are allowed to run these Titans in a maniple? 

[Mandragola]

I’m pretty sure it says on the box that they replace a normal titan of their type for maniple purposes. The warhounds specifically say to use the squadron rules from a standard warhound (though the tempestus one isn’t allowed in a squadron). They’d only be allowed to be in a squadron if they were in a maniple.

[Mandragola]

Here's what it says on the box:

 

 

 

Each character titan has one of the following icons which denotes their Titan Class. Titan Characters follow the same special rules as their Titan class, such as ARDEX-DEFENSOR CANNON or SQUADRONS, in addition to their own.

 

Overall I'm confident this means that a character titan is able to take the place of any other titan of its class in a maniple.

[Guest]

Finally looked through the whole thread your stuff is very inspiring.... I love that Reaver pose so much but that Warlord does it for me I WILL be stealing that idea :)

[Mandragola]

Thanks a lot. I’m quite pleased with how this stuff is coming out. The models are great to work with.

 

Tonight I did a little bit of work on some warhounds. it probably counts as the first step for my Legio Mortis (or possibly Fureans, though probably not). I’ve got these two hounds I never finished and, at some point before they were delivered to Legio Astorum as planned, they have been diverted to Mortis. The Warmaster up to his usual tricks, I imagine.

 

A potential issue is that the Mortis scheme is a little bit simple really, compared to Astorum. I’ll have to do some work to make them interesting.

[Reyner]

Lots of checkers and stripes work well on Mortis to break up the colours. 

[Mandragola]

I think that's what I'll do - checks and lines a go go. Penumbral Reaper might be an exception as the art for it in Titandeath shows an almost all black Titan, except for a white head and a couple of red panels. I'll try to match that, though I won't be able to do the Lucius head as it doesn't exist - and I don't really like it. But actually there'll be more of a contrast for the all-black titan if everyone else has stuff going on. 

[Mandragola]

Today I've managed to build quite a lot of stuff. My three Legio Mortis warhounds for the vow are now constructed. One kind of already was, but it's got a new head various other spiky bits. The other two have come together from scratch.

 

 

A while back I converted a couple of Reaver Vulcan Mega Bolters into Warlord ones, using the cradles from Laser blasters. Now there's a resin VMB set for the Warlord, and Penumbral Reaper is going to need those blasters, so I repaired them. With a bit of GS work and hte armour panels attached, they'll be as good as new.

 

 

I also built a load of resin guns for Warlords and Reavers. I'm going to need at least one pair of gatling blasters for the February event at WHW. Annoyingly one tiny piston is missing, so I've left one off a Turbo Laser for now. I'll have to create one somehow. Aside from that bit of frustration, it's been a day of good progress.

 

[Guest]

How have you found the quality of the FW weapons Mandragola?

[Fajita Fan]

I need to do some running Warhounds like you, I love that one on the left.

[Mandragola]

How have you found the quality of the FW weapons Mandragola?

 

Pretty good quality so far. The gatlings are a bit of a pain with so many barrels to clean up but the castings are good. No bubbles or big mould lines.

 

Some of the guns look a bit weird. The gatlings are far bigger than the VMBs (though I quite like how both guns look on titans) and overall I'm not a big fan of the upright turbo lasers. I might see about laying them sideways, or I might not bother as it's not likely I'll ever field them.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Mandragola

[Fajita Fan]

Do you think the resin Gatling blasters or the Reaver Gatling blasters look better? I bought a couple of more Reaver sprues to make my own.

[Mandragola]

Personally I like how the resin ones match the macro gatling, and the styling of the Warlord's armour generally. The Reaver gatling blasters are a lot more plain and functional-looking in comparison. They're also significantly bigger. I'm quite pleased with the work I did converting a couple of reaver gatling blasters for a Warlord. They've served me pretty well in lots of games, so I'm a bit sad they're being replaced. But I'll be able to paint pretty flames and things on the new ones' armour and that'll be cool.

 

Here's a comparison. I think mine are fine, but the resin ones are awesome.

 

 

Also in Warlord-related news, Penumbral Reaper walks - sort of. He won't get far without a head, some arms and armour, but he stands up.

 

 

 

The idea for this pose is that he's just doggedly advancing, straight at the enemy. So it's actually kind of simple compared to things like my running warlord. I've raised up his back foot a bit so I can have him be crossing uneven ground. I might also use the gap it leaves to have a big footprint left under that foot.