Today in Titanicus I...

[Sherrypie]

I like that its Order bonus is pretty non-synergisig with the obvious artillery Warlord target, who suffers from the Command Penalty on First Fires. An advancing midrange Lord with a fist though, oh yeah.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

A friend pointed out that the command minus isn't such an issue on a Princeps Seniors, who has +2 command to mitigate it somewhat.

[Sherrypie]

A friend pointed out that the command minus isn't such an issue on a Princeps Seniors, who has +2 command to mitigate it somewhat.

It is, if you actually want reliability. A Seniores with this Stratagem only has an effective Command of 4+ if they're in a Warlord. That's fine on its own, succeeding more often than not, but when you want more Orders to go off you really need to start prioritizing instead of going with the safe 2+ checks on all your battle-titan Seniorises first. 

[Mandragola]

I agree this doesn't make much sense on an artillery Warlord. They also don't really benefit from the automatic charge and repair orders. And the extra BS isn't even all that big a deal if you don't have the guns to do targeted shots. 

 

I think the two main candidates for this are a Melee Reaver, especially the second one in a Ferrox maniple (with the first as Seniores) and a midfield brawler Warlord - maybe with a Fist and maybe not.

 

I think it's generally going to be better to have the sunfury and macro gatling hitting on 2s and doing targeted shots on 4s (or even 3s) than to occasionally have a claw hitting on a 2+. Actually a warlord with WS4+ becomes a pretty serious charge threat even with no melee weapon, especially if it's a traitor with various strats to boost melee. Those S11 slam attacks hurt a lot.

[Noserenda]

Yeah i was certainly thinking melee reaver when i read it :D 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I absolutely had my melta/chainfist Reaver in mind when I read it. I'd be tempted to give it a full stride every turn in the hope of failing the order, that way if I pass, he gets closer, and if I fail I get the D6", maybe a smash attack, and I can still shoot. 

[General Zodd]

TIAT, I finished painting my High King/Seneschal and his personal standard bearer for my House Vyronii force. Been building these up gradually to give myself options for support banners in my Atarus force, and I thought it was time to get the boss done so I could field them on their own if I wanted to!

 

 

 

 

 

[Sherrypie]

Very good, I love that old Empire standard.

[Noserenda]

Ooh nice those are some beautiful knights! Been working on some myself that stalled a bit with lockdown shutting down play, guess all the disappointment about the mechanicus knights aint been wasted :D 

126614781_10158875271155797_4820078717027413291_o by Noserenda, on Flickr

[Gederas]

I have a fully painted Battlegroup! :D

[General Zodd]

I have a fully painted Battlegroup! :D

Well done! Always nice to hit a milestone! One question, though, where are all their weapons?!

[Gederas]

I have a fully painted Battlegroup!

Well done! Always nice to hit a milestone! One question, though, where are all their weapons?!

To be painted :lol:

[Mandragola]

Great progress, but I think titans are even better with guns.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

 

 

I have a fully painted Battlegroup!

Well done! Always nice to hit a milestone! One question, though, where are all their weapons?!

To be painted :lol:

Isn't this a contradiction in terms?

[Mendi Warrior]

It is a close-combat dedicated battlegroup, they can distribute various kicks and headbutts 

A beauti-fully painted Battlegroup 

Eager to see the weapons.

Any plans for the bases?

[malika666]

So this just happened...

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/11/24/the-cerastus-knight-atrapos-hunt-titans-in-the-horus-heresy/

[SkimaskMohawk]

I just went on a rant in N&R.

 

This doesn't recreate the feel of an atropos in any way. They give it a bunch of str 6 weapons but only give them the bonus vs reavers and up...

[Noserenda]

Confirmed resin again. aaaaaaand there goes any interest in buying them. Well, that and their junk rules.

[Sherrypie]

"A Strength of 6 and 3” Blast means units of smaller foes will be torn apart, and not even the thick armour of Battle Titans will be proof against such force."

 

That's hilariously out of touch with the reality of the game :D

 

While the cool gun is an utter dud, their melee capability is actually pretty interesting. It has the same average damage as the Lancer while having more room in the d10 to go up while their chassis is more durable than the basic Cerastus, plus they reroll hits on bigger targets. If they aren't ludicrously overpriced, I could see running some just for the shock assault role.

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

I feel like the best way to think about these is as a variation on the lancer profile - similar melee weapons (with the potential to spiker higher on the Atropos), similar ranged weapons (with the Atropos having a longer range and swapping rending for concussive) and additional durability (blessed autosimulacra & ionic flare shields vs the +1 to all ion saves). Macro extinction protocols even mean the accuracy bonus on the Atropos' lascutter is the same as the shock lance against reavers & above, so I imagine they'll play pretty similarly on the table, we'll just have to wait for the points cost to see if they're as viable.

[SkimaskMohawk]

The problem is that while they have a higher ceiling than the lancer, they also have a higher spread needed to even equal it. A lancer needs a 2+ to hurt av 10; atropos needs a 4+. 83% vs 70%. The atropos has better odds at dealing with high armour (rolling a 14 is 30% for them compared to the 17% for a lancer), but I think that low base strength really hampers them. I'm not sure how rear/side arc affects the math, but my gut feeling is that unless it's against really low armour the lancer is going to be more reliable.

[Mandragola]

I also think the Atrapos looks like a pretty interesting knight. That's a very nasty melee weapon indeed. A unit of these with the Shielding standard will be at -3 strength for any incoming blasts too.

 

The gun is not trivial. Very few knights have a gun that works against other knights, but this really does. It doesn't kill them (much) but the concussive trait strips them of their orders, which is great. And of course the fusion trait means they're pretty dangerous, with a chance to even land crits - something that knights generally cannot do to each other.

 

So in the end I think these look a lot more successful than the Questoris admech designs. They're weird and different, and of course a lot depends on their cost, but their equipment does do really useful stuff.

[Master Ciaphas]

Hail

 

I like the models, to be sure. Only slightly sad that they are resin, but I will be limiting myself to a single banner in any case, as I "feel" they ought to be a rare chassis (like the Styrix, Magaera and Acastus ones). 

 

In any case, it is only great to see that AT18 is still going strong and getting good support! 

 

Faithfully,

Master Ciaphas

[Noserenda]

They really need to stop putting "blast" on every other gun though, its getting tedious.


Id debate whether this is good support too :D 

[Iron Hands Fanatic]

I am curious about what running a full lance of these might be like - with the potential to roll 12 D10s on a max-range charge if you get a couple of crits, maxing out the track could well finish off a Titan in a single movement phase.

 

I do *really* wish they hadn't been in resin though, but that ship has sailed.

Edited November 24, 2020 by Iron Hands Fanatic