SMM's Legio Fureans

[SkimaskMohawk]

With the release of the starter kit, my buddy and I are finally taking the dive into AT. Fortunately for me, I had no problem deciding on a Titan Legion as Fureans' scheme had always been the 'one'; any time I saw it online I told myself I'd do it if I started.

 

So, after splitting the starter and buying a few kits, I decided to test my paint scheme a bit on a Cerastus first. Well, I actually googled Fureans' knight houses, it mostly showed Rajha and they shared the yellow of the Legio. Also I love the cat reference to the tiger in Aladdin. The idea was to have that sharp yellow offset by red-brown weathering and minor scrapes and dings. The bases match my 30k Iron warriors and now-sold mechanicum for an overall cohesive feel

 

The test being a success, I moved on to finishing off building my warhound. While I was busy figuring out loadouts (vulcan and plasm, or vulcan and turbo laser?), I also reflected on the yellow; it was nice and smooth, but I needed it to pop more and have a sharper transition. As a result, Rajha will have a slightly more lemony scheme (or transformers, because they look like bumblebee according to my girlfriend), while Fureans will have an orange to yellow look. Bonus points for semi-adhering to them being called orange in various sources. 

 

 

 

My first Titan of Legio Fureans, Faeles Anima. It translates roughly to Wind Cat (see what I'm doing here?) and also to Soul Thief, a name that fits the predatory nature of the class well enough. Other than some slight refinement to the flames and some areas having a bit too much enamel paint left on them, I think it turned out perfectly. I plopped down some base details so my future Titans with vanguard miniatures 8mm stuff would all fit together.

 

I then moved on to assembling my Reaver, the last of my part of the initial stater set. I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with legs on walkers like this. I do love the freedom you get, but some times I wish they just had some slight keys like the arms for an easy to build pose. That being said, I got a really menacing stance in the end; as a titan that is sporting short-ish range weapons (and one I'm tempted to run double chainfist on), I wanted it to be striding forward and hunting for targets. As a result, it's a little canted forward and definitely on the lookout.

 

 

I haven't fully decided on a name yet, but I think it will end up being Malice. It's blunt and intimidating, much like the Titan.

 

 

Last is a group shot of all my currently assembled models on the workbench

Edited May 16, 2020 by SkimaskMohawk

[Marshal Loss]

Looks great - I went for metal trim on my Fureans as well, much prefer it to bronze/gold

[Fajita Fan]

Yeah, I think that looks better than gold trim! 

[Sandlemad]

That's a very nice yellow.

[Mandragola]

Very nice. I really like the metal on the knight.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks guys! I really thought bronze was an odd choice with a bright yellow, so went with the iron instead.

 

I haven't been able to play a game of because of the virus, so I've just been going over the rules trying to learn that way. It seems to me like blast weapons are bad at actually killing titans because of the inability to target, but very good at damaging sections (and crushing knight banners), though the warhounds plasma blast gun might be better because of its multiple shots per gun.

 

Also, the sunfury on the warlord seems like it's missing blast on any of the cards I've seen. Which means a blast gun can equal the damage output of a warlords main weapon.

[Mandragola]

Yes that's all correct. Personally I wonder if it's a mistake that the plasma blastgun has the blast trait (despite the name!). As you say, blast and 2 shots gives it the potential output of a sunfury, and on a platform that's good at getting extra bonuses for flanking shots, squadrons and so on. In a Forrex maniple it's absolutely lethal.

 

The downside is being attached to a platform that's fragile and has a weak reactor, while also attracting a lot of hate. And the blastgun is somewhat inaccurate too. Many people run warhounds with blastgun and vulcan because the VMB can be used to strip shields and do targeted shots at damaged locations, which complements the blastgun very well. One of these in a Forrex maniple can sometimes run inside a titan's shields and kill it in one go.

 

Another good option is the Regia maniple, where the Warhounds can shelter under the Warlords' shields.

 

I've written up a sort of tactica that you might find useful. It's a bit quiet at the moment while most of us can't play. Check out http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/357441-principia-titanicus/.

[Sherrypie]

Ferrox, Mandragola, Ferrox... :D

 

Yes, Blastgun can equal the raw damage of Sunfury, but their uses are very different in the sense that Sunfury works perfectly fine at any range and can target finishing rounds when needed. In both respects, the Blastgun doesn't compete and the expected damage is lower in many scenarios even if it is still an absolutely brutal weapon that can outright core an engine first time you fire.

 

Also, great work, SkimaskMohawk! Nicely dark and cohesive look even with a yellow theme.

[Mandragola]

Ferrox, Mandragola, Ferrox...

XXXX. 

 

That's true about the differences between the weapons. They actually don't feel like similar guns in practice, I find.

 

The Sunfury is relatively consistent but also generates quite a lot of heat. The great thing about it is that it can do anything: take shields down, break through tough armour, do targeted shots to finish off damaged engines and kill knights. It's not necessarily the best gun at any of those roles but it's reasonably good at all of them. If there's any gun it makes sense to have two of on a Warlord, it's a Sunfury - though as macro gatling on the other arm would be better.

 

The plasma blastgun is seriously inconsistent, but if anything it's more dangerous. For starters it's attached to a Warhound, which is likely to overheat, fail machine spirit tests and die - all things that a Warlord is much less likely to do. On the other hand, as a blast weapon, it's incredibly powerful against bunched up enemies like other Warhounds and Knights. And even though it'll very often scatter, that's not terrible as it's reasonably likely to hit something. Firing one of these at a Warhound squadron without shields can be utterly devastating.

 

Fureans have access to Iben Faruq, who is a nasty little Warhound that likes to kill Warlords. It costs the same as a normal hound with the addition of long range auspexes, which it includes. It gets +2 strength against stuff with scale 10 or more. With the -1 for long range on a blastgun cancelled out by the auspexes, a plasma blastgun on one of these things hurts a Warlord like being shot by two bellicosas.

 

The auspexes are also great for sunfurys of course. They allow long-ranged targeted shots hitting on a 4+ instead of a 5+, which is a huge improvement. 

 

If I was running Fureans I think I'd take a Regia maniple to maximise the benefit from the auspexes. I find Reavers don't gain as much because they want to be up close as a rule. You probably want a single maniple to make the most of the offensive surge stratagem. Iben Faruq can shelter under a Warlord's shields and you can dish out a lot of pain. At 2k adding a melee Reaver would help keep the enemy at the right sort of distance.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Thanks guys!

 

That tactica is definitely useful. There's a lot of stuff thats seemingly obvious, but might take a few games to actually figure out on your own.

 

I totally forgot that the blastgun has a long range modifier and a really short short range to boot. That's what happens when your friend has the cards lol.

 

For now, we're sticking with a smallish list of 1200 each, so no warlords. The largest thing is going to be a reaver per side; lots of knights and a couple of warhounds running around though. We're also kind of completely scrapping the mission. We both don't like the two different mission thing, or a lot of the missions in general; we're going to try out some simple objectives and see how that goes. At the very least it makes us both play the same game.

[Mendi Warrior]

Very lovely titans and knights, very nicely painted!

[schoon]

Excellent work on the "glow" effect on the shield and lance. Looking forward to seeing the Reaver.

[noigrim]

You can always take two warhounds and a warlord with the new maniple

[SkimaskMohawk]

@mendi warrior @schoon Thanks guys, the airbrush certainly helps.

 

@noigrim yea, our intent is to have the warlord be the capstone rather than the starting point. Not too sure on optimal maniples right now lol.

[SkimaskMohawk]

So I'm building up some questoris knights at the moment, what are people's thoughts on loadout for the banner? Ideally I'd like 3 thermal lances...but the box doesn't really support that, so instead I was thinking double melee and melta gun.

[DuskRaider]

I think you're better off getting some more boxes and making your Banners that way or just running them as Freeblades.

[SkimaskMohawk]

I think you're better off getting some more boxes and making your Banners that way or just running them as Freeblades.

 

Still pretty unfamiliar on the intricacies of Knight units. What's the difference between Freeblades and normal Household Support for Titan Maniples?

[DuskRaider]

Freeblades can be run using a mix of weapons, but they don't get the bonus you would using a cohesive Banner.

[splayedpaintbrush]

 

Still pretty unfamiliar on the intricacies of Knight units. What's the difference between Freeblades and normal Household Support for Titan Maniples?

Nothing really. A support banner for a Household Knight force is termed a Freeblade Banner. The difference is between Banners of Knights forming Lances in a Household Force, and supporting Banners of Knights (for either supporting Maniples or supporting Households) .

 

Supporting Knight banners have no restrictions on weapon selection. Pick and chose how they are armed as you wish.

 

Knight Banners forming a Knight Lance are restricted in what weapons can be taken. Each Knight in a Banner has to have the same main armaments. For example, a Questoris Banner of 4 Knights armed with Thermal Cannon and melee weapon would all need to be armed the same. However meltagun and rocket pod upgrades don't have to be on each knight.

[Fajita Fan]

And your banners within a lance in a household get the Coordinated Strike order, your freeblade banners do not within a household list.  There's no Coordinated Strike if you're just using knight support banners in your titan battlegroup so you can arm those knights however you like.

 

In my household list I've decided not to run the thermal cannons within a lance because thermals don't get the same bonus from Coordinated Strike that the gatlings or battlecannons do; I will run the thermal cannons as freeblades so I get additional activations.  Dual melee doesn't get much of a bonus in AT other than as a fun tarpit to slow down a titan and try to punch it in the nuts over and over.  That said it looks cool so I absolutely will use them.  

[SkimaskMohawk]

Sounds good, lots of interesting things to think about. For the purposes of supporting a titan maniple, is the lance/freeblade rules used or just the standard rules found in the updated rulebook?

 

Really feels like the lance rules for banner comp is there to make you buy a ton of boxes.

[splayedpaintbrush]

Whether a Banner of Knights supports a Titan Maniple or a Household force doesn't really matter, the rules for them are the same. Just the name changes for 'flavour' with the Household Force.

Edit: So just standard rules in core rulebook.

 

You're buying lots of boxes of Knights to feild Lances in a Household force anyway. Arguably the Household composition rules make the most worthless guns useable because of the coordinated strike rule. This increases the strength of that weapon's shots. Only banners within a Lance can use that.

 

Edit: Doom of Molech adds in the Knight Household rules.

Edited April 22, 2020 by splayedpaintbrush

[DuskRaider]

Yeah, Knights with a Titan Maniple don't really have special rules other than those on their data slates. When you run a dedicated Knight list is where you start getting more complex (and strict) rules.

[splayedpaintbrush]

Oh, by the way the Cerastus Lancer up there is good. But that Warhound is amazing. Lovely painting, I really like it.

[Fajita Fan]

Sounds good, lots of interesting things to think about. For the purposes of supporting a titan maniple, is the lance/freeblade rules used or just the standard rules found in the updated rulebook?

 

Really feels like the lance rules for banner comp is there to make you buy a ton of boxes.

No freeblade rules, essentially the knights in your titan list are all "freeblades" so to speak because there's no special rules for them.  It's when you use the Molech book and build the knight household list (where titans are bought as support) that you need to look at your composition rules.  It's like 40k, if knights aren't your primary detachment they don't get any special rules.  It's when the knights are your primary detachment that you get the special traits for your king, need to use the lance composition/coherency rules, get Coordinated Strike, etc.  

 

Doing a knight household has been really enjoyable for me, you can really go conversion crazy if you like.