Today in Titanicus I...

[Tar Aldarion]

Hi Brother Adelard,

 

that looks great! An nice model design, and overall your printer did a very good job, I think.

 

I know what you mean with those support issues. Some of the fiddliest Details can't always be rescued in my experience, but have you tried tree supports?

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Oh yes, this was probably the last model I d with 'Normal' supports, everything since has been trees and I'm pretty happy with the results, they're quicker, use less material, and peel off far easier!

Since I finished this, I've been focussing on build speed, i downloaded a ready made Cura profile from Chep yesterday which he claims is his fastest ever, it took an almost 3 hour print down to 45 minutes! The quality was a lot lower, but not horrendous for terrain, and my next print will be a slightly better quality version of the same profile, trying to find that middle ground. For instance, using my good quality profile on a shield generator file would take 2 days, 8 hours+. with the modified fast profile: 17 hours!

This has to be the way forward, as the biggest cost of running the printer is the power, so if it's running for less time, it's getting cheaper!

I'll post some comparison pics when it's all done.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Update on getting that print time down:

Ignore the coils, they were done separately, the one on the left took about 7 hours, on the right, just over 2... There is a difference in quality, but for terrain... I don't care enough.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Not quite today, but this week I finally finished, barring nameplates, my third Warlord! I promptly took the trio out for their first run as an Extergimus at the local gaming club.

My opponent, colloquially known as 'Handsome Mike' (I don't know if he knows that joke.) Had his frankly incredible Slaaneshi Damacium titans with him. (Pics here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgSGeZmtVk1/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=)

He had a full Ferrox and two banners, Vs my Extergimus and support warhound. (My Extergimus build is Vulcans, Plasma, Volkite; Gatlings, Macro Gatling, Plasma and Apocs with double Quake.)

A very cagey match ensued. I realised too late that I had forgotten to check the Tracking Gyros box on any of my Warlords on Battlescribe so was definitely playing on hard mode. Fortunately, I could at least line up some targets if I was clever with my activation order, and my princeps had Swift Killer. Also, Damacium's damage reduction abilities are really good.

Weirdly, nothing died for the first three rounds, bar some outflanking Cerastus which my Quake Warlord promptly mullered. Two base to base warhounds on one flank were both being incredibly unlucky and doing more damage to themselves rolling 1s on maximal fire than they were doing to eachother, which was fairly bizarre. 

Turn four was where the real Titanicus kicked off. A Reaver managed to charge my objective carrying and shield less warlord, and ruined him. In the repair phase the two Warhounds locked in their epic duel both died to the same overloading reactor.

In the combat phase my opponent perhaps unwisely put one of his warhounds within 2" of my princeps with volkite and plasma. I one shotted him with the Plasma. Despite only rolling 3 Twos, thanks to Maximal and Extergimus boost. The resulting death then killed his last warhound. Meanwhile his charging Reaver was now right in front of my artillery Warlord and the Apocs finished it off.

That meant, after a point when things didn't look too good for me at the beginning of round 4, I now had two reasonably healthy Warlords Vs a Reaver and 4 Moirax.

Alas, I rolled a 10 on game length and that solitary Reaver got my oppo 7 points for Retrieval, because he was standing next to the objective, having not picked it up, sneaking him the win.

a cracking game all considered, and I'm kinda glad we all got to play with (most) of our toys for the majority of the game.

 

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ezra]

Today in AT, I lost a game. Something like 50 to 30 points. 1k game, Fureans (2 Reavers, 2 Warhound in a Ferrox) vs Mordaxis (1 Reaver and 3 Warhounds in a Venator). When the dust settled (we ended up playing the full 6 turns), only my Princeps Senioris (in a compromised Reaver) and a Mordaxis Warhound (both with zero voids) were left standing.

Highlights include losing a Reaver to a reactor meltdown that ended up putting down the Mordaxis Reaver via a Silenced critical, my undamaged Princeps Senioris almost getting his Reaver head-capped by a falling Warhound he'd just torn to pieces, and the previously Silenced Mordaxis Reaver getting damaged (it was part of a not-so-wise ploy on my part) and falling over one of my Warhounds and destroying it. Reactors ran hot, shields were collapsing everywhere, and only the first game turn went by without something going hilariously wrong for one or the other.

I had taken the War of Fate stratagem, and it wound up utterly wrecking an entire turn for my opponent (mostly by turning his sixes to ones in the combat phase).

Luck swung wildly both ways, and much fun was had. I note that aside from bad luck on the dice, my Fureans Reaver Banzai is proving to be both fun and oddly effective.

We made some mistakes regarding rules, learnt a lot, and came away wiser.

[schoon]

11 hours ago, Brother Adelard said:

My opponent, colloquially known as 'Handsome Mike' (I don't know if he knows that joke.) Had his frankly incredible Slaaneshi Damacium titans with him. (Pics here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgSGeZmtVk1/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=)

...

a cracking game all considered, and I'm kinda glad we all got to play with (most) of our toys for the majority of the game.

 

 

Handsome Mike has done some wonderful conversion work on his Titans - please pass on the compliment the next time you see him.

 

...and it sounds like it was a well fought game. Kudos to both of you.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I should also note that 'Handsome Mike' is not an ironic or mean nickname. He's a good looking chap.

[Sherrypie]

Today in Titanicus, finished this year's Ropecon. Three days and maybe 30 hours of running Titanicus demo games done, inspiring over a dozen immediate starter set purchases and a bunch of Epic-curious discussions. Job's a good 'un, methinks.

[malika666]

New freebie! Who needs some workers to climb their ladders or giant robots?

STL's of these four workers available here: https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/smallscale-ladder-climbers

Note that the ladder in the render is not included in this set and is available through Vanguard Miniatures: https://vanguardminiatures.co.uk/shop/6mm-raised-industrial-walkways-set-1-stl-download/

[burningsky25]

Today I played my first full game of Titanicus! Well, yesterday at least.  Had been eyeing up the game for years, finally took the plunge with a friend and got a game in for the first time.  Magnetizing everything is satisfying, but adds quite a bit to the initial build time.  

Game was a blast.  Found an example open war mission on a goonhammer review and borrowed the rules there rather than the more bland core mission.  Fighting over an ice world for two objectives you can pickup, with geysers that obscure shooting and are placed by each player.  We each had one reaver, two warhounds, two lancers, one porphyrion.  He kitted his reaver with double melee for the fun of it, managed to one shot a warhound and stay alive hiding behind geysers for almost the whole game.  His first turn he got unlucky with his first movement push with one of his warhounds, took double heat into a 6 on reactor table . . 3 str 9 hit to the body later and two crits . . vsg burnout . . yup that was an easy kill on my turn into reactor detonation, so we really got the whole picture of the chaos that ensues with titan battles! Him being down a warhound early gave me an advantage I managed to push through to a decisive win.  He admitted that double melee reaver probably didn't do him many favours either.

I've admittedly read quite a bit before playing proper, but the game sure didn't let me down.  I've seen people talk about how key movement is, but I really didn't understand how much planning ahead there is especially with slower titans, and orders just adds a whole layer on top of that.  Weapons are definitely satisfying to use, but probably looking forward most to getting more large titans on the field; we have another Reaver a piece to build, and that will be good.  Warhounds and Knights feel a bit flimsy, which is a fine tradeoff for their speed, but the durability of the larger classes really makes them feel like massive war engines, so looking forward to more of that.

As always the resolution is to paint up what I've got before adding things now that I've started something new . . can't wait to get some real terrain rather than duplo buildings (which admittedly are a good size and quite functional but not exactly the right color palette), and get some paint on the models.  Choosing a legio is painful though! So many good options, Leaning towards loyalist tempestus as I like the bright colors on the titans.  Ignatum is also compelling.  

Having played 40K Crusade I know that having some continuity between games and light emerging narrative can really give character to your models and battles, have people done much with the Titandeath campaign rules? I found some references to the broad structure. but that doesn't always tell you if it implements it well or what people like/dislike.  

[Sword Brother Adelard]

The campaign rules are tricky, because they incentivise keeping the titans alive between games in a game where that's actually pretty hard to do! Campaigns therefore get very expensive in terms of armoury points very quickly.

The crusade style experience stuff could be fun to use alone, but you'd need to ensure both sides do it, as I'm not sure that strat points alone would balance it out.

[Noserenda]

The titan death rules can quickly lead to death spirals so we modified them a fair bit for our campaign weekend, from memory...

Removed rosters, titan crews persist but technically the titans themselves dont? Though noone actually transferred crews or anything :D But crews could switch titans in the same class.

Made it a bit harder for crews to die.

Removed territory, had cumulative VPs for both sides and a separate honour track for each player. VPs were earned doing primary objectives and fighting for the faction, honour for kills and the deliberately more selfish/glory hunting secondary missions that often clashed with the primaries somewhat.

Then had separate awards for most vp and most honour ;) (I got the latter incidentally, most due to total board control in one scenario where my opponents were terrified of melee titans :) ) 

I think that was everything? A later book also has crew skills which we havent played with but look fun on top of the veterancy rerolls :) 

[burningsky25]

Yeah, that seems to be a recurring theme from what I've read about the titanicus campaign setup; heavy emphasis on retaining models, and penalties associated that can too easily cause snowballing leads.  Definitely one of the difficulties of any sort of tabletop campaign system, some address it better than others; 40K Crusade manages this as good as any I've seen.  What you've suggested sounds like a good start Noserenda, from what I know of the system at least.  Well I'm hoping the campaign book provides enough structure to use as a starting point and framework rather than something from another system, or from scratch, but I'll only really know once I get it.  And there's a lot of things that will be universally useful I'm sure such as general bonuses, crew attributes, titan modifications, etc.  

First step; pick a legio! Get some painted models.  And try rope in a couple more people.  

[schoon]

13 hours ago, burningsky25 said:

Yeah, that seems to be a recurring theme from what I've read about the titanicus campaign setup; heavy emphasis on retaining models, and penalties associated that can too easily cause snowballing leads.  Definitely one of the difficulties of any sort of tabletop campaign system, some address it better than others; 40K Crusade manages this as good as any I've seen... 

 

How does 40K Crusade handle it?

[Sword Brother Adelard]

2 hours ago, schoon said:

 

How does 40K Crusade handle it?

If a unit 'dies' in a game you roll for them. On a 1 they suffer a battle scar, battle scars have various effects which adversely affect the unit, like no access to re-rolls. You can spend req points to remove the scars I think.

[Noserenda]

A modified crusade system would be pretty good actually, i was sad they didnt include it in 30k 2. 

Hmm, that might make a good side project when i finish my current work actually  (No promises!)

[burningsky25]

On 8/8/2022 at 11:50 AM, schoon said:

 

How does 40K Crusade handle it?

Brother Adelard is correct on the mechanisms of unit penalties.  I was thinking a bit more specifically that Crusade does a good job of avoiding the snowballing nature of some campaign systems.  It essentially works the same way Legio traits are balanced.  Crusade gives various bonuses (wargear, rerolls, etc) to units as a mark of experience, and more when you win. Before each game both players compare the total number of bonuses each of them have, and whoever has less gets a bonus number of CP based on the differential.  Oh, and for each penalty you have you count as having one less bonus.  So, the more bonuses you have compared to the other person the more CP they get.  This is supposed to represent the additional resources and support you're provided against a superior foe.  It functions akin to how the more Legio traits you have compared to someone else the more Stratagems they get. 

It works well to give units character and fun bonuses, while allowing players at different 'power' levels (and indeed entirely different points of progression) to play against each other with limited imbalance.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

TIT I started painting my Grimdark Terrain at long last:

 

I was actually going to paint them grey, and sprayed them Mechanicus Standard. I then decided to make a brown oil wash (oil washes are cheaper in the quantity you need for terrain than agrax!)

And it came out kinda green, which I really like actually.

Edited August 22, 2022 by Brother Adelard

[Sword Brother Adelard]

TIT I, and some friends, started planning our first event.

I wanted to do a narrative event, where each game has consequences, as well as the overall balance of the event.

So tonight, we laid out all of our tables, and decided how they would be laid out. We then planned two or three narrative missions for each layout. We're also planning for the forces to be imbalanced, so each person brings a 1500 and a 1750 list, and then we balance the missions with free strats and other things. It was a very fun evening, and got the three of us hyped for the event, which ironically I probably won't be playing in,

[Mandragola]

Great stuff. Organising events is hard work but just what the community needs.

[Sherrypie]

Event planning starting on my end as well, as the time for our club's yearly mega-Titanicus is approaching again.

This year I wondered if we could have two large tables interacting slightly with each other as different parts of a larger battle, with maybe 4-8 players per table. One table would be a heavily fortified siege line, with, say, traitor hordes attacking into the teeth of the enemy defences, while the other would be a supposedly safer logistics hub behind the front lines with space ports, air fields and so on. The traitors would be initially disadvantaged at the siege line, but they would have the edge of a surprise attack at the other table from where they could take control of bomber fleets, orbital controls and whatnots.

Got to scribble out an outline for the scenario and see where it leads.

[Mandragola]

According to today’s “next week” article there are going to be reveals for Adeptus Titanicus tomorrow. 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/08/28/sunday-preview-get-ready-to-breach-kill-team-goes-into-the-dark/

I’ve no idea what the reveals could be. I’d speculate a second edition of course. We’ll see soon. 

[General Zodd]

8 hours ago, Mandragola said:

According to today’s “next week” article there are going to be reveals for Adeptus Titanicus tomorrow. 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/08/28/sunday-preview-get-ready-to-breach-kill-team-goes-into-the-dark/

I’ve no idea what the reveals could be. I’d speculate a second edition of course. We’ll see soon. 

I have some hopes for what they might do, but frankly it’s just reassuring to have some more news for AT at all! It’s felt like a long time since we got the Direwolf, and that’s the longest we’ve gone without something being on the horizon, or obviously missing from the model range. Glad they’re not done with us!

[Dezron]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2022/08/29/turn-titans-mass-against-them-with-graviton-weapons-for-adeptus-titanicus/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=adeptus-titanicus&utm_content=reveal:-titanicus---graviton-gun-

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Definitely waiting on the previews of the weapon cards before purchasing these. The Volkite debacle still stings.

What's next in this vein btw? Conversion beamers? Lasers are done, kinetics too. Melta and plasma could be more fleshed out across the scales.