Today in Titanicus I...

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Thanks! I'm planning on having some more range-focussed knights as a second, mechanicum house, so I wanted to make sure these had a pretty vivid colour scheme as an indication of their role as a chivalric imperial house

[Gederas]

Second of the GME Warlords is painted, this is the one I screwed up the hips on.

 

It took a combination of cutting the ball joints at the hips, re-aligning them, then using plastic glue, greenstuff and super glue to fix it :lol:

 

But, thanks to the colouration I went with for the skeletons and the armour, you can't see the fixed hips at all now.

 

And here's both Warlords together:

[schoon]

Second of the GME Warlords is painted, this is the one I screwed up the hips on.

 

It took a combination of cutting the ball joints at the hips, re-aligning them, then using plastic glue, greenstuff and super glue to fix it

 

 

 

Honestly, if you hadn't mentioned this, I never would have noticed. Good save!

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

Given that today's Sunday preview indicated this year's battleforces will be announced soon, I've been trying to figure out what we might get for Titanicus assuming there's a set for the system as with the past 2 years. The battleforce box gave us 140% value for the contents (going off UK prices), and the knight household set that followed held 150% value for the price, so that range seems a decent benchmark (I think we can assume the starter set's over 200% value is probably a one off) - going off typical £100 price for these style of sets, that equates to £140-150 worth of models.

 

In terms of contents, I doubt it'll be another full-knight box, as there's only a single knight kit that's been released since the first knight household box, so I'm predicting either an all titan or mixed titan and knight set. I'm expecting it'll prioritise sets that haven't yet been in a previous bundle (I'm including the starter and grandmaster sets in this), which comes to the Warbringer, Sunfury Warlord and Acheron/Castigator Cerastus set. I'm betting the Warbringer will be part of the set but the rest of the contents could vary considerably - a 'support box' featuring a warbringer and a bunch of knights would be interesting seeing as we already have a dedicated starter set.

 

My ideal version would be a Warbringer, the Sunfury Warlord and a Reaver which would actually only need a box of warhounds to give you a full Precept Maniple, which is interesting given the previous battleforce was an axiom in a box and the precept is specifically a modified axiom - that said, the total value of the contents would be £155, which spikes slightly higher than the values of the previous sets (also this prediction's likely a bit coloured by the fact I already have 4 warhounds and desperately don't want any more  ).

[I_Am_IronSam]

TIAT I finally wore out my F5 button waiting for stock to show for the Psytitan...... .

[Noserenda]

Looks like no Battlebox this year :( 

Would definitely like to see one with a Warbringer and Plasma Warlord in as those are the titans i want, Acherons/Castigators box would be nice as id like some non converted Acherons and a discount would help the sting of forced Castigators, but i suspect it would build a standard maniple, possibly the new axiom rival? 

 

[Noserenda]

Watching the Warhammer community podcast this week and its a retrospective on their Tale of 4 princeps series, pretty fun :) 

 

[SkimaskMohawk]

Anyone have pics of the command terminals for the new knights? It's a little annoying having no way to know what the rules are before purchasing. Especially interested in unit size I know if Id have to get one set to play them right away or a minimum of two. Or if the styrix and magera can be mixed in a unit like the cerastus patterns or are their own seperate units.

[Noserenda]

Not even seen anyone post about receiving them yet, had a few dispatch emails though, so hopefully over the weekend!

*edit* Though official sources have said units of 2-4, no word on mixing afaik

Edited November 20, 2020 by Noserenda

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Anyone have pics of the command terminals for the new knights? It's a little annoying having no way to know what the rules are before purchasing. Especially interested in unit size I know if Id have to get one set to play them right away or a minimum of two. Or if the styrix and magera can be mixed in a unit like the cerastus patterns or are their own seperate units.

Full stride podcast had a pic of one on their facebook

[SkimaskMohawk]

Not even seen anyone post about receiving them yet, had a few dispatch emails though, so hopefully over the weekend!

 

*edit* Though official sources have said units of 2-4, no word on mixing afaik

2-4 means that you can at least play a set out of the box, but the maximum seems rather harsh for a unit that already needs a bit more creative use.

 

Edit: having looked at the screenshot, I'm thoroughly confused by these units. The claws are super low strength for a melee weapon (how are siege claws worse at damaging stuff on average than knight fists?). The graviton gun is also insanely low strength and comes with the downside of giving your opponent a free turn/extra maneuvering room/colliding with you from concussive; at best you attack in the front and concuss them into a side arc, but might also just knock them out of melee range. The volkite can strip shields alright, but is a ranged weapon that hits on 4s really the best vehicle for that? Especially since you're only using 1/3 of the loadout?

 

I always felt normal questoris were a glass cannon for their points and required careful play to get a result, but these just feel like theyre way worse for the same amount of points. They're a bit more resilient and have more attacks than an equivalent questoris banner of melee/rapidfire, but man do they not get results with them.

Edited November 20, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[Noserenda]

Yeah they are feeling super gimmicky to me and im not sure they are useful gimmicks tbh, the minor survivability boost is nice but their damage output isnt very good/useful for knights, though it would be better in a titan force. 16" is pretty short range for AT though, youll be in optimal range for whatever comes back your way and with rare exceptions you wont be doing any shield stripping in the first, or possibly even second turns if your opponent is edge camping.

Tbh im saddest about the lack of flexibility, with apparently zero options whatsoever which is a big shame for the converters out there. Im sure in the 30k lists at least there was a little flexibility in armament with these, like a battle cannon or chainsword option? (been a very long time since i looked though, i may be wrong!) 

[1ncarnadine]

In 30k they start with a reaper chainsword, & the siege claw + irad cleanser's an upgrade. They also had a reduced initiative and an option for enhanced optics IIRC, so I had some hope these would be BS3+/WS4+. Ah well. Also, the reaper chainsword profile is not on the card, so I don't think they have that option in AT.

I'm really hoping that's their full points cost on the front for a unit of 2. It would be really unfortunate if they're paying out for weapons costs listed on the back, despite having a fixed loadout.

[Sherrypie]

I'd expect them to work best as short range skirmishers that rush in to strip shields and cause occasional bad turns for your opponent that your titans can then exploit. Probably a bit of a dud more than anything too necessary for the knight line, which may partially be due to the backlash from the Acastus fiasco.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Also it doesn't help that voidbreaker only seems to generate bonus hits off the weapon hitting and not individual attacks? Is this another titanicus-ism?

 

I've been told you can double up on the weapons, so double claw could be good, gives 4 attacks a knight.

Edited November 20, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[Sherrypie]

Also it doesn't help that voidbreaker only seems to generate bonus hits off the weapon hitting and not individual attacks? Is this another titanicus-ism?

 

I've been told you can double up on the weapons, so double claw could be good, gives 4 attacks a knight.

Voidbreaker doesn't do things on hits, it simply adds a number of saves to be made in the pool if any hits happen. So a banner of knights can pool as much as they want together for a Dice 102493 gun and get 5492 hits, but that only translates to 5492+1 saves as they are counted together as one Voidbreaker(1) gun. So for maximum effect you'd like them to be single knights, which in general ain't too hot.

[Noserenda]

Also it doesn't help that voidbreaker only seems to generate bonus hits off the weapon hitting and not individual attacks? Is this another titanicus-ism?

 

I've been told you can double up on the weapons, so double claw could be good, gives 4 attacks a knight.

 

Hehe that was my first thought on seeing the 40k version tbh, i gotta go double claw! Unfortunately i think thats still wildly impractical cost wise unless they come with 2 claws per knight, which i doubt

Also it doesn't help that voidbreaker only seems to generate bonus hits off the weapon hitting and not individual attacks? Is this another titanicus-ism?

 

I've been told you can double up on the weapons, so double claw could be good, gives 4 attacks a knight.

 

Edited November 20, 2020 by Noserenda

[SkimaskMohawk]

 

 

Also it doesn't help that voidbreaker only seems to generate bonus hits off the weapon hitting and not individual attacks? Is this another titanicus-ism?

 

I've been told you can double up on the weapons, so double claw could be good, gives 4 attacks a knight.

Voidbreaker doesn't do things on hits, it simply adds a number of saves to be made in the pool if any hits happen. So a banner of knights can pool as much as they want together for a Dice 102493 gun and get 5492 hits, but that only translates to 5492+1 saves as they are counted together as one Voidbreaker(1) gun. So for maximum effect you'd like them to be single knights, which in general ain't too hot.

Yea exactly, my point was there was an argument to be made for a 3 shot str 4 gun that hits on 4s that could potentially strip 6 shields off a perfect roll; 4 shields is rather less impressive.

[Sherrypie]

Over on Dakka someone with the terminals for the two saw that you can double on weapons and their prices are 15 for volkites, 10 for others (per arm). The 100 is for two. 45 for extra models, 2-4 banner size.

 

Methinks that pushes them solidly into a stylistic choice as things stand, as Cerastoi outperform them at the price most of the time.

[1ncarnadine]

wooofff those are rough point costs. I think you're right. This definitely seems like an over-correction after the Acastus debacle.

I'm not sure why the Volkite is so expensive but I'm starting to suspect someone forgot how Voidbreaker worked when writing these stats up... it would have been better off with Rapid. The only possible silver lining is that maybe they'll faq the special rule itself for Knights contributing to an attack or something.

[Mandragola]

Hmm, so that makes 150 points for two Styrix, even before adding grav? Ok well I don’t really like the models and they don’t fit too well for my questoris imperialis hawkshroud guys anyway. I won’t order any of these I think.

[Lord_Borak]

It's such a shame. I was quite stoked for these but the models were a bit, meh, compared to the Questoris models (might be due to paint job so who knows?!). Then the price and now they're pretty blummin expensive points wise as well. I can't see myself getting these now either and I really wanted to.

 

I'm really hoping the Dominus and/or Armiger are better done. 

 

A quick question. Has there been anything about a Lucius pattern warlord head and/or Vortex Missiles? Or is that just wishful thinking on my part?

[1ncarnadine]

Seeing as the 28mm Lucius head kit got dropped by FW and hasn't been used in any of the art since the Titandeath supplement, I think that's wishful thinking. I hope it appears in some way too but I wouldn't hold my breath either.

[Noserenda]

Andy mentioned the Lucius pattern on stream a while back and said it would be a complete kit (Probably plastic) rather than conversion parts, so they have thought about it, but i guess a third warlord kit is a ways off.

Vortex missiles i guess would be in with the other crazy old toys on "soon" :D 

[schoon]

For those curious about the new card in WD 458...

Very interesting card. Fun.