Legio Favilla walks - Ashen Gods unleashed

[Sherrypie]

Got some Titanicus in after a while of other games, testing a funky custom Legio list for an upcoming tournament and wow did it tear through the opposing Astorum line. ~1700 points, two maniples on both sides.

 

 

 

Mission was for him to break through to my depo and for me to prevent that, with extra points for kills on both sides. The Astorum list had a barebones Axiom and Lupercal maniple with nice midrange guns while my list was a bit more complex. Both lists had a Warlord, a Reaver and four Hounds. My custom set used Fortidus' swap to put a long range Warlord into a Venator maniple, Krytos' earthbreaker missiles to control enemy advance, elite magi to keep my engines running and a signature stratagem of quake shells to harry their maneuver game hard. With the remaining points I took aerial support.

 

Brutality ensued. From the getgo, their lines got ravaged with shield stripping shelling, bombing runs and ceaseless artillery that bogged down any hopes of advancing while the terrain allowed me to maneuver into natural chokepoints while Venators meant my leaders could hammer the opposition with Melta and Mori/Belicosa fire. The Astorum pushed valiantly, but in vain as eventually they were wiped on the final turn with 6-1 engine kills. Harsh, but the mission played perfectly to my strengths. Swapping around, we'll try again tomorrow and see if I can break their line :)

[Fajita Fan]

What did the earth breaker missiles do? They’re good against buildings but what do they do against titans? I don’t have my books with me.

[Sherrypie]

What did the earth breaker missiles do? They’re good against buildings but what do they do against titans? I don’t have my books with me.

They have the Quake trait, which halves movement and turning. I basically dropped a load of bombs every turn, ran a bunch of Hounds blasting shields off of things, got opportunistic shots off with the Venators and shot Quake in there to keep the already stressed forces relatively unmoving. It was a massacre.

 

I like Earthbreaker Venators even with pure Krytos, having Apoc launcher on the leader means it can shoot anywhere on the board and only needs to hit (not damage) to severly hurt their movement. Getting more Str against buildings is nice, but secondary.

[Fajita Fan]

I think using the legio design rules I can take those missiles for my own legio.

[Sherrypie]

I think using the legio design rules I can take those missiles for my own legio.

Yup, Warchest(EB missiles) works for +10/20 points. What's the rest of your force themed about?

[Fajita Fan]

Oh I picked a set of rules for my traitor legio but I’m still working on my Custodes. I have a set of Valkyrie missile launchers, huge cylinders that look like the old launchers, and I kinda want my Custodes to look like a very old legio with old equipment.

 

The Emperor probably would’ve requisitioned the very newest titans for his personal legio or Mars might have pledged a legio to his personal service, an older legio with a trusted history. Knowing the Emperor he’d have replaced the princeps with his own people but he might have preferred older and more battle-tested armaments.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Fajita Fan

[Sherrypie]

Weekend requires all the quake and I'll probably never need four Belicosas anyway so it's time to butcher one of the unpainted ones. Most fitting, Mori built out of the arms meant for Memento Mori... :P

 

 

 

Transparent plastic makes it look a bit wonky, but really it's straight.

[Fajita Fan]

I like it, yours came out way better than mine.

[Mendi Warrior]

Very nice!

[bluntblade]

So are these guys descending and burning at the behest of Kelbor Hal?

[Gore Crow]

Great use of the crusade legio rules for interesting combos! I've not used them too much; I should see what I'm missing.

[Sherrypie]

@bluntblade, the Ashen Gods are in my mind on the grey moral area of doing what must be done for the Imperium as a whole to progress, ready to wipe civilizations off the pages of history when demanded. The Heresy did not change that aim that much, after all, who thinks they're on the wrong side in the beginning? We march, not for generals or warmasters, but for humanity. Which, given how humans do these things, tends to go to hell from time to time in quite apocalyptic ways in whoevers' name at the time :P

 

@Fajita, Mendi: thanks!

 

@Gore Crow, can recommend! They let you play around with several aspects of current Legios' and some extra details with both fluffy coolness and crunchy optimisation without stepping too much out of the established line. Me likey.

 

Also, paint! Tremble before the Judge, as he Quaketh thee.

 

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Judge.

[bluntblade]

I like that

[Sherrypie]

Alright!

 

AT tournament at Kuopio, Finland 5.-6.10.

 

I came, I saw, I conquered.

 

~10 players, five rounds and lots of fun for all even though I might have taken a bit rough list for the occasion given the synergy offered between my strong list, good tactics and somewhat sparse terrain which resulted from larger than expected attendance and stretching to have a fifth table operational. My Legio Favilla, the brown and baroque Ashen Gods in the pictures, took the field by storm and pounded the opposition to dust pretty convincingly. Though the tournament was more for fun and the prize Reaver kit was randomized at the end between all, I did end up getting it anyway for good measure

 

The event called for a 1750 point list, so I tried out an idea I had been brewing for a while: how about a reliable firebase combined with a mobile hammer for flank attacks to harry the enemy into bad position while they are under an unceasing bombardment that will hit them hard unless they compromise their own maneuver game by spreading out, except if they do that they come to my trap? Suits my fluff and playstyle, check. So, custom legio rules open and let's see how to crack some worlds.

 

- Splinter Legio (Fortidus) to swap a titan with roles intact for a Warlord lead Venator.

- Elite Magos for some reliability on my Hounds' reactors, because they are going to get hot at the aggressive front lines.

- Warchest (Earthbreaker Missiles) for another tool in the Swiss army titan set, cutting movement in half could be useful in missions like Retrieval or Breakthrough (part of the tournament pack).

- War Doctrine (Quake Shells), as we get 3 command points I needed this for one cheaper for the master plan to go off. The other two points will then go to Strafing Run so that every turn opens with a massive steel rain on the opposing side.

 

Basically I took two Venators, one lead by a melta-Reaver pushing a pincer move with a squadron of two aggressive forward Hounds (twinfeeeeernoooo, baby!) while the other had a Mori/Belicosa Warlord in the lead to lend artillery support from the edge of the battlefield in maniple with two separate Hounds that roam the field further up stripping shields and giving the Lord a bunch of opportunistic extra shots with the big guns, especially Quake. Okay, one was a double turbolaser doggie Shieldbaning last shields off here and there.

 

Here's the synergy:

Strafing Run causes d3 hits on every unit in a 4" wide line, which is rather nasty if one is infamous for rolling high. This combines with Quake Shells, that also tickle some shields here and there but more importantly they push engines around regardless of shields falling or not. That is rather strong and caused horrible damage on more than one list that did not realize the danger in their deployment, because Collisions are a thing. This barrage, which to reiterate, drops down every turn, taxes shields pretty nicely and allows the roaming Hounds to more easily activate their leaders' Venator abilities time and again without overreaching themselves. Melta, Belicosa and Mori shots were flying often enough that any slip in the defences was quickly exploited to deadly effect. It also helped that because I almost always agressively pushed my squadroned Hound pair to the fore, they had to be focused on and soaked fire for two or three turns before turning to fireballs which left my Reaver and Warlord almost untouched for most of the time, giving them time to brutalize their intended targets. If sprung on an unexpecting opponent or a newer player, this can snowball.

 

First game vs. Mortis, the Quakes smacked his Warlord so that it crushed all his Cerastuses to death and caused havoc in general to the extent that they conceded the game before turn two after some good rolling saw me almost cripple a Warhound in addition. Well, got time to take photos.

 

Second game vs. Fureans with lots of big guns but not that much volume to break shields. They focused my Warlord to death (only time in the tournee), but their Fortis maniple lost most of its benefits under the quake shelling and was eventually annihilated. Twinferno Hound licked their Warlord to flaming ruin, woo!

 

Third match vs. Gryphonicus that had taken only heavy engines, quickly reduced to a survival game as their forward Reavers came too close on Full Stride and my Hounds got the pounce to kill both. Their Warlords did stand until the end, though.

 

Fourth vs. Fortidus proper, again a match I'd basically won from turn one because Warlord and Reaver would have annihilated each other through double collisions but we agreed on the spot to let quake shell results of "Hit" stay still and rather have a good game. And it was, the one I enjoyed the most as it got tough when his 24" wide Dangerous Terrain minefields basically stopped my Hounds in their tracks and immobilized my midfield quite hard (and literally, there were lots of leg injuries in the midfield full of burning Hounds ). It was nominally a Retrieval scenario for both, but by turn three it was clear NOBODY was going to get it off from the blazing inferno that was raging in the middle and it got quite close by kill point secondaries, but as his Warlord was a smidge too close for his carapace lasers he could not finish off my Reaver and the Ashen Gods carried the day. This game is the one on the snow table with everything burning at the Fortidus' Warlord's feet.

 

Final game vs. Ignatum, custom rules for extra repairs, extra shots and an overcharged +4 plasma weapon. The original plan worked like a charm: artillery Warlord took position and others maneuvered so the enemy was stuck in its fire arcs, bombs rained from the sky and Hounds took remaining shields down effectively enough that the Mori cannon punched their Reaver to its death against the Warlord behind it. On turn two there was a memorable nuclear blast on the left flank as I accidentally shot my own critically injured Hound to death, which exploded and killed the shooter, which exploded and killed the enemy Hound near it, which exploded and caused the imminent destruction of their Warlord behind it and... By turn three, they had a single remaining Lord on the field. The mission was to have lots of Scale near the center of the field, and even though I already had more Scale in my remaining Warhounds there, as a last act of spite my Warlord managed to punt theirs out of the scoring range with its Mori cannon, because of course it did. Brutality.

 

Immense fun, good people, awesome venue. If you're somehow stuck in Kuopio, check them out at the Bunker 34

 

~50 pictures here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/H7qXX15gqgqbhnWe9

 

 

 

[Mandragola]

Awesome stuff. Well played and it's great to see all those well painted engines running around. Looks like a great event.

[Sherrypie]

Thanks Mandragola, it was fun!

 

On the workbench, at last it was the time to bust out the chunky bois. First guy is a test subject to see how horrid the feet will be and is there any hope for alternative poses (surgery, here we come...) but man are these guys bulky. Aesthetically, I love 'em.

 

Some springs under the mortar, a skull or two and he's ready to stomp. I'll probably try to model a small flood rushing out of the broken chem-pool after painting for funsies.

 

[Mandragola]

Great base for the Acastus there. They do look seriously difficult to pose, unfortunately. It's the downside of all that detail on hoses and stuff. I've only built one of mine because I haven't yet faced up to trying to make them walk.

[Sherrypie]

Well, on that front, I cut the next one's leg above the knee and pushed the thigh cabling a bit to get more motion in its stride as it's crashing a store house. All sorts of caps are just the best for this scale's tactical rocks :P

 

[Sherrypie]

Huh, got all four built and ready to gather dust unpainted for... a time.

 

 

There was a lot of chopping going on with some of those legs, like this guy who is sort of hopping on the building under its right foot. Both knees got cut, toes and armour bits were bent, hydraulics rebuilt and so on.

 

 

There's also a wounded little guy on the base here:

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your kitbashed base decorations look promising. I hope to see the completed models soon.

[ShotgunFacelift]

Damnation! What an inspiring thread!

Great work posing and converting these Titans.

[Sherrypie]

Damnation! What an inspiring thread!

Great work posing and converting these Titans.

 

Cheers! One aspires to inspire ;)

[Sherrypie]

Some Titanicus after a while, too. I finally got motivated to get some terrain painted as there's an upcoming convention nearby and I will not demo games on a substandard board, damn it! So, here's where we're at after three days of furious brushbuckling (apologies for terrible lighting):

 

 

It's all about this quality, two or three layers of grey with brown glazes and lighter edge work everywhere as drybrushing just ain't doing it for me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also a bunch of bunkers, silos and storage units made with Epic in mind as well as finally, some pools! Water features are something I always like seeing on battlefields but that are often absent.

 

[Fajita Fan]

Is that some kind of upside down egg carton on that building?