Today in Titanicus I...

[1ncarnadine]

1 hour ago, Brother Adelard said:

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.

There's plenty of options for more weapon upgrades. Conversion Beamers are a definite possibility. Other things we could expect given the Mechanicum and Knights ranges:

• Saturnyne Lascutter and/or las-pulsers, roughly like the Cerastus Knight Atrapos and Questoris Knight Preceptor
• other variant melee weapons such as wrecking balls, explosive-tipped spears, siege rams or drills, etc
• plas variant weaponry, like the plas-burners the Dark Angels use or the phased plasma that 30k Mechanicum forces use
• Pulsar-fusils, as with the Krios Venator
• Lightning weaponry, as with the Thallax, Magaera or standard Krios
• Arc weaponry, as with 40k AdMech
• Rad weaponry of some kind (lots of options, and usually anti-infantry, but could affect reactor tracks or something)
• Darkfire cannon tech, massively scaled up
• Sonic weaponry? This could be a Titan carrying Ordinatus wargear or corrupt/Slaaneshi in nature, or the latter could be based on the former

It'd be cool to see upgrades for the Warmaster/Iconoclast in particular, though they'd probably prefer to add things to the 3 most popular and classic Titan builds because they're likely to sell more upgrades that way. With the new Grav weapons being long-ranged, I do wonder if we'll see one for the Warbringer Nemesis at some point... though I wouldn't hold my breath either.

 

If we do see more plastic, they need to stop adding niche plastic Titans and add plastics that people are likely to use a ton of in lists. No more of that "rare Titan that you're only ever likely to use 1 of" kind of release. And for the love of god, make them reasonably available in maniples. Scale 5, Scale 7, or just repeat scales we have already with new classes.

Edited August 29, 2022 by LetsYouDown

[Tar Aldarion]

Huh, again a rather unexpected goodie, but why not...

Further assessment will need to wait for the full stats, of course. Right now I'd guess it to be single shot, without blast, possibly beam and probably draining. Certainly nice to have another long range option, not least on warhounds - hope it won't just outclass the already questionable turbolaser by margins, though.

 

As for further options: I'm damn well missing some of the tactical Equipment of old days. Landing Platforms, command Centres, Firecontrol Towers...

Edited August 29, 2022 by Tar Aldarion

[Mandragola]

There’s no real limit on what new weapons  and accessories they could make for our titans if that’s what they want to do. The only constraint is rules, so the weapons all feel genuinely different. They actually have tended to achieve this with the claw and volkite - though not on their first attempt in either case! At least we got FAQs. 

it’s time for a new battle titan though. I want a unit I might use in all my games and that I might realistically paint three or four of, not another 0-1 auxiliary unit. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I agree, in the case of a battle titan, just one model would just open up the whole game. The only way GW could achieve that now solely with weapon upgrades would be to give the Warbringer a second sprue with a third top gun and two wholly new arm weapons, weapons that would actually make the titan worth taking, which presently, it just isn't really.

[Mandragola]

Yeah the Warbringer is a problem. It doesn't really have good arm weapons that work with its carapace options. If you could stick a sunfury or macro gatling on top of it you'd have a totally different beast. A new resin top to accommodate two Reaver carapace weapons would be an interesting alternative to that. Either would give you an interesting new battle titan.

It's curious that there haven't been any resin Reaver/Warbringer arm weapons. That would seem like an obvious thing to expand on. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Easy money I would have thought. A medium plasma weapon would be useful, or some sort of arm mounted missile launcher?

[Mandragola]

I wonder if the 3D printing industry has hurt our prospects for that sort of thing. There are already STLs out there for this stuff and that might make GW feel like they were creating more of a market for 3rd party manufacturers. I think that might be the reason for things like the two Warmasters being different engines, as that leaves no room for people to build alternative weapons for them. If you could run something like Suzerain and chainsword, maybe you'd grab a printed version of one.

[Noserenda]

I certainly think they are taking the wrong direction against 3d printers, they would do better to compete rather than try to deny them, if I can get 3d printed parts significantly cheaper than resin for essentially the same thing, trying to hide the rules is only going to annoy me, not get a sale.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

3 hours ago, Mandragola said:

I wonder if the 3D printing industry has hurt our prospects for that sort of thing. There are already STLs out there for this stuff and that might make GW feel like they were creating more of a market for 3rd party manufacturers. I think that might be the reason for things like the two Warmasters being different engines, as that leaves no room for people to build alternative weapons for them. If you could run something like Suzerain and chainsword, maybe you'd grab a printed version of one.

I don't think so, because all of the events allow you to mix weapons, and still noone does.

Warmasters just aren't fun at regular sized games.

[Sherrypie]

Warmasters are indeed more fun in larger fights where they aren't immediately outmanoeuvered by more nimble enemies.

[Noserenda]

I think the problem with the Iconoclast was it wasnt very different to the Warmaster ultimately, and a lot of people just wrote it off as too big to melee properly. Put it a year apart with a few different kits in between and i think it would have done much better.

Like, i keep planning to buy one but i need to finish my Warbringer, but then with no momentum from GW ive been distracted with so many other things, because i butterfly at the slightest opportunity... See the blog in my sig :P 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I think it would have been better off as a dual release, with upgrade sprues. 

[Mandragola]

The Warmaster was simply the wrong release. The game didn't need an 1100 point model. It's kind of a silly thing to use in any normal-sized game and we don't play massive games that much.

Personally I'm not much of a fan of really big games anyway, as I find that the game scales in odd ways. Titans die in a single combat phase, which removes the importance of repairs, which is a big part of the game's mechanics. Above a certain size it becomes a bit of a shooting gallery and a less rewarding experience, for me at least. So I don't really enjoy the kind of games I'd use a Warmaster in, meaning I have no real incentive to finish the shooty one I have, let alone get an even more niche melee version. I can paint stuff I'd actually use, for AT or some other system.

Since we got the three core titans (in 2018?) we've only had auxiliary titans and knights. The best way to build an army is to buy multiple starter sets and just run the reavers and warhounds out of it rather than use any of these niche things. This results in a vicious circle where GW are (I imagine) upset about the Warmaster's poor sales and think the game isn't a seller, when the reality is that the players just don't need to buy stuff.

[Noserenda]

Thats exactly it, produce flawed output (on the sales front anyway) and then complain its not selling well and knock out even less. 

Like, the thing people are hating on, if they did a plastic Dominus knights box at a good price (IE the current knight boxes) id buy one straight up, then maybe a second or third depending on price/looks/effectiveness but if i buy a grav gunit would be from battlebling if they stick to current pricing.

If they did a new Reaver id inevitably end up collecting a second Corsair maniple over the next year :D 

[Noserenda]

Imagine a new starter that was a Lucius reaver and Warhounds against gargants though... :) 

(Though id probably do a fully Chaos set of three first, or mixed together) 

[Nagashsnee]

For me finish the HH era game with corrupted titans ( still amazed not 1 model or upgrade for this but we got rules??) and then drop 2 ed set in 40k with either orks or tyranids as the 'enemy' faction and expand the game.

 

Orks like imperials only really need 3-4 'core' kits, everything else can be an upgrade.  You can still realease HH set expansion books and models as the setting change wont actually change any rules ( maybe some names,  but even veteran of the great crusade can just be crusade veteran and its fine).  Add a totally new model range and draw in fresh players. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Details for our AT event next month in Bristol (UK)

https://fb.me/e/3HGRC99aV

[Sword Brother Adelard]

TITI played in an event organised by the Bottom of the Barrel YouTube team.

If you haven't heard of them, this is their channel, they do a lot of games, but all love Titanicus and released a new report today as it happens:

https://youtube.com/c/BottomoftheBarrelBatreps

The format was pretty standard, 3 game competitive 1850 points, I took my legio Ventus, swapping the reactor fetters for the cheaper tracking gyros once I realised I couldn't take any fetters due to cost, so may as well save points on the gyros.

I had a Ferrox Maniple:

-Warhound: PBG, VMB, (Bastion)

-Warhound: Claw, VMB (Bastion)

- Dire Wolf: Neutron Laser

- Reaver: Chainfist, Gatling, VMB

- Reaver: Volcano, Apocs, Gatling

Support Warlord: MacroGat, Apocs, Sunfury.(Gyros)

The Scale 6 titans all had Hunting Motives as well, which increases their normal speed only, by 2".

Game one was against Dan from the show, he had a Vulturum Lupercal and Iconoclast, with everything corrupted up the wazoo.

I felt pretty confident going in, and that's where my dice utterly deserted me. Everything went wrong, and despite taking the Warmaster's shields down repeatedly, I just couldn't get any damage on it, despite throwing the volcano and plasma at it continuously, my princeps reaver lined up a decent charge, then the machine spirit just went "nope" and rolled Haughty.

I got tabled, playing the mission where you have to destroy objectives in the oppos deployment zone. Fortunately, I managed to claw back 20VPs for destroying one objective, and planting my standard. Not a great start.

Game 2: I played Alex from the channel, with his Tempestus Fortis Maniple. We had the mission where you have to contest four objectives and he plonked his Warlords on one, and pushed up a flank with his Reavers.

I realised early on that I was not shifting those Warlords with my force, Fortis stationary Warlords are probably the toughest units in the game, so I decided to do the next best thing, I ignored them!

I pushed my direwolf, clawhound and melee reaver around the same flank as his pair, kept my warlord on my objective, and the shooty reaver central, but largely out of range of the Warlords. Simply sending my VMB/PBG warhound around wide to annoy his Warlords as a distraction, managing to run him within 10" of them, behind a rock just big enough to hide himself. Alex was then stuck, as he couldn't ignore the warhound, as he'd nip around the flank of the Warlords and do untold damage. 

On the flank, my titans destroyed his at the cost of the direwolf and the warhound. I then threw the ranged reaver forwards to grab the objective the Reavers had been blocking, and sent the melee reaver back to grab my second objective. The Warlords threw everything they could at mine as he hid behind some rocks on the objective, but sadly in the last end phase of the game, with one pip left and reactor leak (2) on the crit track, I went off the heat track and blew up. Still, this left me with two reavers on objectives, and a secondary worth 10! My warhound survived the battle, having lived rent free in Alex's head all game.

Game three was against a Legio ahnostic player, leaving me with only 4 SP, we were playing chokepoint. He had an axiom Maniple with a brawlord and a banner of 3 Cerastus.

I was the more aggressive of the two and got my Warlord onto the central objective by turn 3, where he managed to take out the forward enemy warhound, with the coup de grace delivered by my princeps melee reaver. The princeps then killed a Warhound on the charge, but was brought down by the knights soon after. Meanwhile, the big highlights of the game were my PBG/VMB warhound managing to get behind the enemy Warlord, running straight up his arse and taking him down with a smash attack and Vulcan. My opponent promptly rolled a 10 on the explosion and took out the brave warhound and one of his own Reavers in the ensuing conflagration. Leaving him with just one Reaver. (Gatling, VMB, Melta)

I then threw my ranged Reaver into that Reaver's face but he rolled priority and just managed to not kill it, leaving him at the end of the crit track.

I was feeling cocky at this stage, as my Ferrox Reaver was exactly where he wanted to be. He lined up the Volcano shot, missed, it scattered directly backwards and I rolled a double 6 for damage. Oof.

By this stage however, it was pretty much all over, my opponent needed to kill my very damaged Dire Wolf for secondary points, but failed, just, to manage it. While the Clawhound, who had done nothing all game, rolling all 1s to hit on the claw, (needing 2s!) Finally hit, then rolled a 1 on the damage roll, breaking the claw.

The dire wolf then finally managed to damage something, finishing off the Reaver, (ironically meaning I yet again didn't get to Shut something down...) And the Reaver rolled a 10 and took my Clawhound with it.

That ended the game, the Warlord on the central objective took the win for me, and I took an extra 5VP for killing the Warlord in turn 3. What a game of Titanicus that was though. Outstandingly nonsensical.

 

Somewhat amazingly, this earnt me a third place finish! Which I am very chuffed with, and I now have a bronze Barrel trophy, which my 14m old son has taken for his own.

Man, I love this game.

 

[Mandragola]

That sounds like an awesome event Adelard. Thanks very much for the write up. Did you take any pics? I find I get absorbed during games so the better a game was the less photos I take of it. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by Mandragola

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Not a one! I will check the channel socials.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

No in game pics on the event page, yet. But there was this cool panorama:

 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

What's particularly cool is how well the Tempestus and Ventus titans blend into the urban terrain!

JUST AS PLANNED!

[malika666]

I'm gonna drop these here...

[schoon]

Congrats on the results Adelard!

Sounds like some really fun games, though maybe not game 1. Never quite as fun when you stubborn dice are dictating the outcome...

[Sword Brother Adelard]

It didn't help either that my opponent's were really hot as well, but them's the breaks!