Today in Titanicus I...

[1ncarnadine]

Dang, great work! That's some legitimately fantastic transfer wizardry there. I really like the split on the right tilt shield in particular

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Dang, great work! That's some legitimately fantastic transfer wizardry there. I really like the split on the right tilt shield in particular

 

Thanks! It was a bit finicky and took some thorough planning, but it's certainly easier than freehanding so I wanted to use them as much as possible

[Mandragola]

Oh I do like the split transfer.

 

Here's where I'm up to with the Warlord I'm working on, my 4th for Astorum. Decent progress is being made though the trim is still kind of a pain. I've got the eagles to do still.

 

 

I'm getting closer to being able to field a full Extermigus, if we get to play games again any time soon.

[Gattopardo]

Great updates, both those Warlords are looking great! And a full Extergimus sounds great. How effective do you think it will be on the tabletop? I'm guessing it will be very good at annihilating the enemy, but what about actually completing missions?

 

I've made a fair amount of progress recently. The armour panels are all on both my Vulturum reavers, and I've painted most of the trim. It needs some highlighting and tidying up but they're coming along well. I've also made good progress on the weapons. Hopefully will have them finished in the next week or so. I've also got about 50% of the way through building my second Astorum warlord. And I've started basing my models as well, which makes such a big difference to how they look.

 

However...I have had a bit of a disaster with a Warbringer! I'd built it (just the skeleton) and am happy with the pose, but I've messed up painting the skeleton. I tried a different approach to weathering the skeleton (with a coat of contrast snakebite leather & contrast medium over the metallic - on my other titans I'd used mournfang brown and contrast medium) and it gave an effect I didn't like (or at least - an effect I wasn't trying to achieve and that will look inconsistent). I'm not really sure why I tried a different approach, to be honest. Anyway - the real problem (and frankly an unforgivable sin) is that I put too thick a coat on and it has obscured some of the details a bit (just in the recesses of some of the skeleton). I'm really not sure what to do about this. Certainly, I can't simply paint over it. Do I just accept it will have a different finish to the other titans in the force? Do I try to strip it? I'm really not sure of the right way forward at this stage. For the moment, I've put it in the cupboard and am working on other things, as I don't want to make a rushed decision that I later regret. Either way however, it's very, very frustrating.

[Mandragola]

With that warbringer, try dry fitting some armour panels. They actually cover a lot of the skeleton. If you can live with how that looks, no problem.

 

I'm not sure what the best method is to strip contrast paint. In general though, acrylic paint does come off if you hit it with the right stuff. Dettol is easily available. Don't take this lightly though - it's a bit of a job to do and can be tough to get all the paint off. I've just read an article saying that isopropanol is better, so maybe that's the way to go. I've got a big bottle of that recently for using alcohol-based paint, so I might give it a go.

 

I can't wait to give the Extermigus maniple a go. It's kind of silly to go with so few activations, but you get enormous firepower out of the Warlords. You can have an overcharged sunfury fire four S14 shots, which can just one-shot a shieldless titan. The Warbringer is less exciting to me, so I might often leave it out. I can just fit 3 Warlords and a Warbringer into 1750 but it might be better to use something like a melee Reaver.

 

Doing missions will be hard, but that's what makes it fun. It's a little bit easier as Astorum since I can make my Warlords run faster.

 

Here's my 1750 Extermigus list with a Warbringer:

 

Extermigus Battleline Maniple 1750

 

Warlord Titan: 475

Macro-Gatling Blaster

Sunfury Plasma Annihilator

Apocalypse Missile Launchers

 

Warlord Titan: 460

Macro-Gatling Blaster

Arioch Power Claw

Paired Vulcan Mega bolters

 

Warlord Titan: 440

Mori Quake Cannon

Mori Quake Cannon

Apocalypse Missile Launchers

 

Warbringer Nemesis Titan: 375

Mori Quake Cannon

Gatling Blaster

Gatling Blaster

 

And this is a bit more sensible, with a Reaver:

 

Extermigus Battleline Maniple 1750

 

Warlord Titan 475

Macro-Gatling Blaster

Sunfury Plasma Annihilator

Apocalypse Missile Launchers

 

Warlord Titan 485

Sunfury Plasma Annihilator

Arioch Power Claw

Paired Gatling Blasters

 

Warlord Titan 440

Mori Quake Cannon

Mori Quake Cannon

Apocalypse Missile Launchers

 

Reinforcements

 

Lucius Praetorian 350

Melta Cannon

Gatling Blaster

Apocalypse Missile Launcher

[Sherrypie]

I've enjoyed the Extermigus with a swapped in Reaver for some Volcano cannon goodness, but it's gonna be rough sailing under 2000 points if your enemy isn't about taking you on head first. You have no speedy engines (makes missions harder), you have to get maximum pain out of the ones you have because the opposition has more than you (meaning all losses hurt, you're running hot all the time and any disruption stratagems hurt harder) and you are prone to get outmaneuvered especially against lighter maniples that are willing to rush your line from the flanks or behind terrain. If you can get a bead on them, something will die, though.

 

It's fun and challenging in a game where all participants know the game, it's like clubbing seals against a carefree player who lets you take advantage of your superpowers all the time. Use with caution.

[Mandragola]

Yeah I agree with that. I wouldn't use this except against someone who really knew the game. To be honest the rest of the time I'd probably be coaching the other player a bit.

 

Against a good player this would be a challenging but interesting list to play. I'd probably try and take a mission like retrieval to see if I could do it. I never take engage and destroy.

[Mandragola]

This stuff looks good for stripping minis: https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/paints-hobby-and-scenery-by-manufacturer/biostrip-20/biostrip-20-1000ml

 

A friend of mine says it does the job and it's quite a bit less hazardous than most alternatives.

[Dosjetka]

TITI assembled some more AT-scale terrain. Gotta say, it's a fiddly kit. Great, make no mistake, but fiddly. And I haven't even gotten through the first sector box. :sweat:

[Gattopardo]

Useful thoughts on the Extergimus maniple, Mandragola and Sherrypie. If I got another Warlord (which I clearly will at some point!) it would actually be an option for my Astorum. At the moment however I'm more attracted by maniples that have some lighter Titans in as well. And to be honest a Warlord for my Gore Crows should probably be a priority before adding another Astorum one.

 

 

This stuff looks good for stripping minis: https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/paints-hobby-and-scenery-by-manufacturer/biostrip-20/biostrip-20-1000ml

 

A friend of mine says it does the job and it's quite a bit less hazardous than most alternatives.

 

Thanks for this. Element are actually just down the road from where I live. I have decided to strip the Warbringer - in fact it is sitting in paint stripper right now - but if the stuff I have doesn't work I'll nip down to Element and get some of this (obviously dangerous as I'll probably pick up some other stuff when I'm there just because, er, reasons).

 

In more positive news I've been making incremental progress. I've built my second Warlord - in a walking pose - which I'm pretty happy with, and also done some more work on the decoration and heraldry of the one I'm painting. Here's a photo of the shoulder decoration, which is still a WIP. This is intended to be heraldry to reflect the Titan's name, Shield of Lucius:

 

 

 

[Sherrypie]

Your freehand is lovely, Gattopardo.

[Gattopardo]

Your freehand is lovely, Gattopardo.

Thank you! I have to say I am pleased overall with how my Titans are coming along. I do enjoy freehand, probably because I've done a fair amount of painting on canvas, which I definitely think helps a lot with it. And the Titanicus models are just perfect for freehand, with their large, smooth armour panels.

 

Pleasingly, my attempt at stripping the paint off my Warbringer seems to have been successful, so I'll be able to get on with (re)painting it. I'm looking forward to that, as I think it's a great model - possibly the best of all the Titan kits. The details on it are just superb, especially the gun deck and loading mechanisms. They almost manage to be cute!

[Mandragola]

Glad the stripping has gone well. There's a certain amount of trial and error in the construction of armies, and many of our engines bear scars from the process. I'm glad yours has escaped unscathed.

[Perry]

Had a cracking game of AT recently, Legio Astorum (Traitor) Warlord with Powerfist, enhanced leg servos, warmarch strat combined with the 1 use Traitor movement strat and Astorum bonuses saw him zoom across the battlefield and into combat with a Mortis Gatling Warlord, one round of combat latter the Mortis Warlord is missing his reactor (3 crits to the chest) which promptly resulted in some critical damage to my Warlord from the explosion taking out my shields...

 

A nearby Warbringer finished off my now shieldless Warlord causing another meltdown which caught the undamaged Warbringer full on resulting in its destruction.

 

Brutal game and my first big kill with my Warlord's powerfist.

[Sherrypie]

There are few better things in a princep's life than punching the heart out of another titan, save perhaps seeing the rest of their forces driven before them and hearing the lamentations of their repair crews.

 

It's a bit of a shame one rarely gets to do it multiple times in a row during the same clash, given the likelihood of getting damaged in the process as well :D

[General Zodd]

TIAT, I finished my new Cerastus variants!

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure how much I’ll be using them over the Lancers, but I’m slowly adding to my House Vyronii collection with a view to having a decent sized Knight Household at some point, so I’ve gone for minimum sized Banners of each, with a red headed Lord Scion in each.

 

Some Porphyrions next, then maybe back to Titans for a bit!

[schoon]

Well, even though I'm normally a "glass half full" kind of guy, I'll tell you what we didn't see in Titanicus today...

 

Nothing concerning Titanicus in today's preview.

 

Was hoping for a little something, but alas...

[Perry]

There are few better things in a princep's life than punching the heart out of another titan, save perhaps seeing the rest of their forces driven before them and hearing the lamentations of their repair crews.

 

It's a bit of a shame one rarely gets to do it multiple times in a row during the same clash, given the likelihood of getting damaged in the process as well :D

I built most of my strategy around getting a good kill with the Warlord fist, it happens so rarely. Kinda like getting a rare Xbox achievement.

[Mandragola]

I have to admit, my own Warlord's Fist hasn't achieved all that many engine kills. Or at least, not that many titans. It's killed an awful lot of knights. Titans seem to try and stay out of its way, for some reason.

 

This was one engine kill it did get. This is Rhu from WHC's Iben Faruq in a sub-optimal position. We worked out that a hit in the back to its structurally-compromised head was S17, which was enough.

 

[I_Am_IronSam]

I played an actual game! Forgot to get pics though...

 

2500pts is a lot of titan fun! 

 

I took Astorum, 2x Corsair Maniples totaling 7 Reavers and 2 Acastus Knights. 

My opponent (O) had Gryphonicus with 3x warlords in an Extergimus maniple, a Psytitan and a Reaver.  

 

My list; 2500pts on the nose: 

Reaver 1: Princeps - 2 x Volcano cannons, Apoc Missile launcher 

Reaver 2: Melta Cannon, Gatling blaster, Bolter

Reaver 3: Powerfist, Chainfist, Bolter

 

Reaver 4: Princeps - 2 x Volcano cannons, Apoc missile launcher

Reaver 5: 2 x Gatling, Apoc missile launcher

Reaver 6: Melta Cannon, Gatling blaster, something

Reaver 7: 2 x laser blasters, turbo laser destructor

 

2 Acastus with Magma lascannon 

 

O's list. Not 100% on all the load outs but mostly should be accurate. 

Warlord 1: Princeps - Apoc missiles, Quake cannon, Volcano cannon. 

Warlord 2: 2 x Sunfurys and Turbo lasers. We will call this one Double plasma

Warlord 3: Plasma, Gatling, Turbo lasers. We will call this one Far Right...  

 

Psytitan: Apoc missiles + Quake cannon

 

Reaver:  2 x laser blasters, Apoc missiles 

 

My mission choice was Retrieval or Vital Cargo. My opponent just had Engage and Destroy which put me at a big disadvantage with so many titans on the field. I went with Retrieval as the movement bonuses of Astorum and the Corsair maniple meant I could get to the objective quickly and then fall back easily too.  

 

Several large buildings were scattered across the table. 

O set up his warlords so they were evenly spaced across the board, with the princeps dead centre, who was supported by the Reaver. The Psytitan joined another warlord on the far right. Opposite this I put 4 Reavers (1, 2, 3 and 5) and the knights, with my other princeps sitting on the opposite diagonal hidden behind a building but still able to see these two Warlords. The other two Reavers I set up in the middle to be speed bumps. 

 

Turn 1: I use strafing run and take shields off all the enemy titans. First order for me is to go full stride with my combat reaver. Which I fail. Great start. O uses the Psytitan to first fire the quake cannon at the murder turtles. 

All my Reavers except the two volcanos pushed forwards using Astorums extra 2 inches, so I had a little heat, but this went fairly quickly. Importantly I managed to grab the objective with Reaver 6. 

Shooting saw me lose a knight and the objective carrying Reaver, which was laid low. She walked and fell towards the enemy then the objective also scattered forwards :(

I stripped the shields from the Princeps and the far right warlord, who I then failed to hit with any of my volcano cannons. The remaining knight failed to do any damage to the same warlord. Not a good turn. 

 

Turn 2: I got some orders off this time, Full stride on the combat Reaver, Emergency repairs on the two Volcano Reavers to get the heat down and stop the crew cooking. I also played blind barrage on the combat Reaver. O does some emergency repairs on the two shieldless Warlords but fails to get any voids back! 

I picked up the objective again with Reaver 5 and pushed everyone else forwards. O stays still with everyone but double plasma warlord on the far left who is trying to get back in to the fight.  

Only the Psytitan can see the Porphorian and I know O really hates them. But the combat Reaver is currently a big threat and if he lives this turn will be in combat next for sure. 

O fires the far right warlord into combat Reaver and does nothing thanks to the blind barrage, I full stride her into the Psytitan, trying to force his hand and hoping that if she dies then at least she might do some damage. She does die, but is only laid low and misses the two warlords taking up half of the places she could fall. 

Porphorian shoots the far right warlord and hits with everything :) Then proceeds to do a tonne of damage to the legs and causing the warlord to turn in toward the middle of the board in the end phase. YAY! 

All my volcanos miss again. Boo!

Reaver 5 takes a lot of punishment but lives! Yay! 

Nothing else does any damage or just misses. 

 

Turn 3: Far right warlord and princeps do emergency repairs and get a couple of shields back each. I do first fire on the Porphorian, which I use to take the shields back off :) 

Reaver 5 dies and is again laid low, but only goes a little to the left before falling. The objective however scatters backward towards my deployment zone! 

I get Reaver 2 into the side arc of Far Right and use the melta to take two off my own shields, and then a targeted shot from the gatling to finally kill the titan...! I got one! Far Right falls onto the psytitan and does a massive amount of damage to the legs. The knight takes of a couple of shields, the volcanos miss, Reaver 7 losses some shields and continues to miss aswell. 

 

Turn 4: Porphorian gets first fire. The hidden Princeps, who has yet to hit anything, gets full stride. Psytitan does its repairing thing. 

Porphorian takes a couple of shields off but not many. I push the Reaver 2 into the side arc of the Psytitan in a position to do some horrible damage with the melta. Power to locomotives gets the hidden princeps heading towards the objective, and the full stride puts him about 4 inches away. The objective is behind a building, so as long as he can survive this turn (and pass my orders next phase), my opponent cannot stop me getting my objective off the board. 

Shooting occurs and the Porphorian strips the Psytitan of shields :O Awesome. But then promptly dies. I am about to use the melta gun reaver when I decide to give the volcano Reaver one more chance. This time it hits! I roll 2 crits and the Psytitans legs are almost gone. One more hit and its done. Targeted shot with the missiles kills it! Whoop! 

Reaver 7 takes masses of damage. Legs are almost gone, body almost gone and by the end of the turn the reactor is running very hot. But its alive and only a couple of inches from the enemy Reaver and not far from the other two warlords. I take a couple of the Reavers shields with my melta Reaver who is now well in the enemy deployment zone. 

 

Turn 5: I get my princeps to do full stride, securing my objective. 

Everyone turns into the center to get some shots on the enemy Reaver. Reaver 7 pushes the reactor to the limit and gets behind the Enemy Reaver, within 2 inches of Double plasma warlord and 6 inches from the enemy princeps. She then blows up in the repair phase and goes NUCLEAR!! Huzzah! All 3 remaining enemy titans take some serious damage but are still alive. My remaining volcano princeps takes a beating but lives, and proceeds to miss with the volcanos. 

Melta reaver to the resuce though. She kills the enemy reaver. Who also explodes!! In turn killing the double plasma warlord! Who also explodes! Crippling the princeps but he lives and the game ends. 

 

Victory points: 36 to me - 40 to O. 

 

What a game! So much fun! The twists and turns were awesome. I laughed so hard my stomach hurt when all the titans started exploding... 

 

[Xenith]

My starter set arrived last week, and I've been absorbing the rulebook, seems ok so far, though I'm missing terminals for the models in the battleforce - is there anywher/anyway to get warlord titan terminals - I presume I can order them individually from GW...but there may be a low cost option...

[Sherrypie]

My starter set arrived last week, and I've been absorbing the rulebook, seems ok so far, though I'm missing terminals for the models in the battleforce - is there anywher/anyway to get warlord titan terminals - I presume I can order them individually from GW...but there may be a low cost option...

https://www.warhammer-community.com/downloads/#the-horus-heresy for titan and knight terminals in PDF form.

 

Printing it on a magnetic surface is a common DIY way, if cardboard ain't doing it for you.

[General Zodd]

I have to admit, my own Warlord's Fist hasn't achieved all that many engine kills. Or at least, not that many titans. It's killed an awful lot of knights. Titans seem to try and stay out of its way, for some reason.

 

This was one engine kill it did get. This is Rhu from WHC's Iben Faruq in a sub-optimal position. We worked out that a hit in the back to its structurally-compromised head was S17, which was enough.

 

I may be misremembering, as I don’t have the rule book to hand, but can you target a location you can’t see, like the head when attacking from behind?

[Sherrypie]

You would be correct, Zodd, one must be able to draw LoS to the location being hit. Little things like that do get forgotten every now and then and the idea of punching the dog hard enough through the neck to sever its head is funny enough to just laugh it off at the table, but by the rules it shouldn't have happened that way ;)

[Sword Brother Adelard]

That Warlord can see the head, from above it. He just reaches down and rips it off.