Adeptus Titanicus: convince me to play

[BolterZorro]

FW Titans? What? Are you going to play AT with 40k-sized Titans?

 

I get what you're saying about everyone getting "the same things" but there are a lot of Legio by Legio variations - and I'm sure things will become more differentiated going forward. Although there is nothing official (to my knowledge) there will undoubtfully be some possessed machines or Legio (or Faction) specific wargear... 

 

We'll see. I sure hope AT takes off in your area.

 

EDIT: in a way, the entire HH game (the 40k-sized one) can be tough of having the same stuff for both sides. It's the nature of the Heresy - it's a civil war between the SM Legions. Yet, the special units and the special rules, sort of negate that. 

 

Read the today news

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/02/05/shadow-and-iron-crusades-of-vengeancegw-homepage-post-4fw-homepage-post-1/

 

Psi-Titan for AT available at pre order friday:

[Mandragola]

Yeah the psi titan has me all excited. I've actually got an unpainted warlord skeleton on my desk in front of me. I could paint it like that easily enough (it's black!) and take it to an event at Warhammer World on the day of release. Maybe. This is a very silly plan that requires me to paint up some bits in a very short time, on Valentine's day...

 

However, for new players, I wouldn't worry about it. And as others have said, you don't need the knight box either. That's really for people who want to run whole armies of knights. It's too many to field in a force with Titans really. And knight armies are odd because knights use so few of the mechanics of the game (no void shields, no plasma reactors to push, no fire arcs or turns) that they're almost playing a different game. The starter set gives you a couple of them to play with and some titans, which is exactly what you want to get started.

 

To be honest you probably don't need two starters for yourself, though it could be useful if you want to build two opposing armies. That starter set and a Warlord really does give you a decent 1750 point army list. If you wanted two opposing forces then you could do worse than to get one of each variety of Warlord, to split the weapons between them. Personally I've got four Warlords, and due to the image above, I'm probably about to acquire a 5th!

[BolterZorro]

How are managed in AT the decors:

- LOS blocking? are they from any point of the miniature to any point of the target?

- Cover : what is considered cover, not cover, half cover etc?

 

What is the total height of a warlord including its weapons?

 

As usual, I really like the GW decors but for a real LOS blocking I'm affraid that one need at least 3 levels building...

[Sherrypie]

How are managed in AT the decors:

- LOS blocking? are they from any point of the miniature to any point of the target?

- Cover : what is considered cover, not cover, half cover etc?

 

What is the total height of a warlord including its weapons?

 

As usual, I really like the GW decors but for a real LOS blocking I'm affraid that one need at least 3 levels building...

 

LoS is traced from the firing weapon, cover effect is deduced from 25/50 % obscurement of the target viewed from this point of origin. Even 1/4 obscurement counts and affects the game, though some 5-6" high terrain pieces are required to completely hide Warlords. Which is good, you want to have a mix of complete and partial cover as well as non-covering movement obstacles like rivers and pools to really create a dynamic battlefield.

[Mendi Warrior]

Count a total height of around 12.5cm for a Warlord with weapons.

 

With regards to tall buildings, you can easily combine the AT scenery with other, much cheaper, stuff in order to get more height. My latest building is 23.5cm tall and so far, it uses only 4 small panels and 5 floors from the civitas imperialis range, combined with foamboard, cardboard, plasticard, and an old door from Cities of Death. Have a look at my project log and others to see what can be done.

[BolterZorro]

Thx @Mendi  . I've read your topic, impressive work you did, especially for the decors.

I'm a bit disapointed not seeing the buiilding finished. There are so many of them since more than a year ago, maybe some are finished. Do you have by any chance some pictures of the finished buildings?

Could you do some image for the building WITH some titans (you got some nice armiess finished I've seen) on a full battlefield (4"4"?) ? This will give me some perspective on what I'd buy...

 

Count a total height of around 12.5cm for a Warlord with weapons.

 

With regards to tall buildings, you can easily combine the AT scenery with other, much cheaper, stuff in order to get more height. My latest building is 23.5cm tall and so far, it uses only 4 small panels and 5 floors from the civitas imperialis range, combined with foamboard, cardboard, plasticard, and an old door from Cities of Death. Have a look at my project log and others to see what can be done.

[Sherrypie]

BolterZorro: here's one recent battle of mine, with all sorts of stuff but buildings from maybe one Civitas Sector's worth (probably less, I still have loads unbuilt from GME and one big box). Click 'em larger to see better.

 

 

 

Using elevation and natural pieces helps immensely in creating a fun, varied and affordable battlefield. Get some GW bits and turn trash into treasure

Edited February 6, 2020 by Sherrypie

[Mandragola]

Something GW have said is that buildings shouldn’t really be that big, so that it’s difficult to hide a Warlord. They’re sort of supposed to tower over things.

 

That’s a bit weird as they’re only 30m high (about 100 feet). Lots of buildings and even quite a lot of trees are taller than that. Actually 30m buildings are relatively rare except in big cities, and more so after Titans have been fighting.

 

So overall it would be perfectly reasonable in real life for all sorts of things to block LoS, but that might not be how the game is intended to work. I think a good approach is to look at how GW makes their buildings and so something similar.

 

AT isn’t like 40k, in which anything visible is likely to die. I’ve had games in which no engines had died by the end of turn 3. You don’t therefore need anything like as much LoS blocking terrain as you would in 40k.

 

One thing I would suggest is to block line of sight, or provide cover, but try to avoid blocking movement. Titans have big bases so it can quickly become hard to move across the battlefield if there’s too much terrain that stops you. So basically it’s better to build tall buildings with a small footprint, rather than low, sprawling ones.

[Sherrypie]

Something GW have said is that buildings shouldn’t really be that big, so that it’s difficult to hide a Warlord. They’re sort of supposed to tower over things.

 

That’s a bit weird as they’re only 30m high (about 100 feet). Lots of buildings and even quite a lot of trees are taller than that. Actually 30m buildings are relatively rare except in big cities, and more so after Titans have been fighting.

 

So overall it would be perfectly reasonable in real life for all sorts of things to block LoS, but that might not be how the game is intended to work. I think a good approach is to look at how GW makes their buildings and so something similar.

 

Personally I disagree a bit, as this game of battleships with legs shines when it's one of maneuver and nothing forces maneuver quite like varied terrain. As you said, normal hills, ridges, tall trees and such are quite capable of hiding 30 m tall stompy robots and should feature on battlefields that haven't yet been shelled to plain mudfields. A healthy mixture of varying heights including those that tower over Warlords makes for more interesting matches. Low cover, tall cover, hard to travel non-cover, negative heights, easily destroyed wooden copses and whatnots are all great, whereas GW's promotional materials are often either sparse or comprised of only the kits they sell, which has nothing to do with the game itself.

 

Naturally the best option is to play enough games that one can try out dense urban sprawls, open deserts, dusty agrihubs, lush jungles and all the other myriad forms of conflict zones the galaxy has to offer ;)

 

[Fajita Fan]

You both raise great points. I’m building essentially 3 levels of terrain, LOS blocking for Warhounds, Reavers, and Warlords. My little scatter bits are assumed to block knights but I want to keep things simple with terrain.

 

There’s a bunch of stories with titans having to find other titans in cities because 30k-40k hives are so tall. “Ember Wolves” had them trying to track a bloody Imperator through a city!

[BolterZorro]

You guys are really bad : I now am looking forward to falling into this Adeptus Titanicus trap, and spend crapload of money for my plastic addiction.

You are EVIL !  

 

(I'll preorder 2 starters as soon as it's online grrrrrr)

[Sherrypie]

You guys are really bad : I now am looking forward to falling into this Adeptus Titanicus trap, and spend crapload of money for my plastic addiction.

You are EVIL !  

 

(I'll preorder 2 starters as soon as it's online grrrrrr)

One of us... one of us...

 

But are we bad if we're good at it ;) ?

[Taxidermied]

Come and join us weird kids that play the niche game :)

[Mendi Warrior]

Join the dark side!

oops, sorry, wrong franchise 

 

 

Thx @Mendi  . I've read your topic, impressive work you did, especially for the decors.

I'm a bit disapointed not seeing the buiilding finished. There are so many of them since more than a year ago, maybe some are finished. Do you have by any chance some pictures of the finished buildings?

Could you do some image for the building WITH some titans (you got some nice armiess finished I've seen) on a full battlefield (4"4"?) ? This will give me some perspective on what I'd buy...

 

Thanks! No scenery painted yet, and partial built for most of my stuff so far. That is why this year my Titans of the Heresy vow is focused on scenery. I'll see what I can do for the pictures of buildings with titans. My advice for scenery is similar to what Sherrypie said: turn trash into treasure!

[BolterZorro]

Come and join us weird kids that play the niche game

Kid forver as I started in the 80'   (last century...)

[schoon]

I must say that scenery is one of the joys of this game.

 

I've really enjoyed creating large centerpiece terrain with interesting buildings and/or rock formations.

 

...and I've been waiting for Psi-Titans since '88, so you'd better believe I'll be in line (in an online sense) to get one this Friday.

[Fajita Fan]

This is a shameless plug but another reason to play AT is the excuse to hang out in this subsection.  This is best group of guys I've seen in an Internet subforum, there has been literally 0.0% bickering, insults, or more than the slightest difference of subjective opinions in here that I've seen since I rejoined when the game came out (and I've been on forums since the Clinton administration). 

 

Everyone here is supportive and really helpful.

Edited February 6, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Sherrypie]

Seconding Fajita's notion, this is a most warm and welcoming community here. Sure, it's smaller than the teeming general section, but it's cheerful and without drama. Many of us are also pretty deep in the nuts and bolts of the system, in case there's something unclear in the game itself that needs to be asked.

[BolterZorro]

I don't want my warlord to be stuck in the bottom of the table. What is the recommended set up of this warlord? (will be my first one)?

[Mendi Warrior]

Magnets, so you have maximum flexibility and can field any possible weapon.

All depends on your style, I have yet to test different things so I'll let others speak of the merits of the different weapons.

My personal idea is currently: sunfury + macro gatling and apoc launchers

[Sherrypie]

I don't want my warlord to be stuck in the bottom of the table. What is the recommended set up of this warlord? (will be my first one)?

Magnetize all weapons, life is just easier that way.

 

Weapon loadouts depend on a lot of things, but for an advancing one you can't really go wrong with Macrogatling + Sunfury + Carapace Gatlings / Lasers for a versatile midfield brawler.

[noigrim]

This is a shameless plug but another reason to play AT is the excuse to hang out in this subsection. This is best group of guys I've seen in an Internet subforum, there has been literally 0.0% bickering, insults, or more than the slightest difference of subjective opinions in here that I've seen since I rejoined when the game came out (and I've been on forums since the Clinton administration).

 

Everyone here is supportive and really helpful.

Age of darkness < titanicus

[BolterZorro]

I've been long enough (more than 3 decades) in the hobby to know that magnet is the way to go ;-)

 

Also, I'll go further: I've noticed by reading the titan descriptions (warhound and reaver) that those both have several carapace version, meaning that with one kit, you can paint 2 versions on one titans. So, I'll magnetize even the carapace!!! This is a HUGE thing in the collection. Too bad GW didn't do this with the warlords.

 

More of this, did you guys notice that the picture of the upcoming new starter set shows the reavers titans with 2 different builds? That means that you have all the sprues in the box (at least one of each different reaver's weapon sprue) which adds some more value to this starter set.

[Fajita Fan]

Warhounds and Reavers have a bunch of leftover bits to use as basing material. The plasma cannon is a popular all around weapon for the Warlord, also the FW Warlord arm weapons are pretty nicely made but pricey. Edited February 7, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Taxidermied]

I wouldn’t leave home without a plasma annihilator on at least one warlord usually. It’s just so damn flexible, with only the relatively short range hampering it. Need to crack Armour? Maximal Plasma! Voids? Yeah it can help. The final death blow? Four targeted shots.

 

When it comes to a full load out I suggested looking at what complements each other. Some weapons have an optimum condition they want to be in and can be hampered by trying to get another into its idea position. For example a quake cannon wants to be ideally sat at long range to avoid the hit penalty. A macro gatling loves the sweet short range bonus for targeted shots for shredding compromises targets. Much better to pair the quake with a volcano and stand back, while the gatling gets an annihilator as it’s buddy and can spend a turn or two closing range. Artillery warlords want missiles up top for long range shield shredding before they drop the pie plates. Even on a close range brawler I don’t think you can go wrong with the missiles. Cheap and effective, the paired gatlings may out perform them once in range, but the missiles may get an extra round or two of shooting in as you close.