Adeptus Titanics - Titans in Manufactorum - Big Build - TO DONE!

It seems like ages ago now when I visited Liam's to drop off his Adeptus Titanicus, we spent the evening building Titans and then I crashed my car on the way home. Here are the fruits of our labors. Liam was responsible for the Warhounds and Reavers...

I somehow only had to build the Cerastus Lancers. We're going to be sharing painting duty so we can get them done quicker, but he was also going to be magnetising all the weapons [which eventually took an entire day].

For the Knight I would paint I tried to emulate the pose of my own Lancer.

Funnily enough the legs are oppositely position to my full scale version but the pose is indeed similar - braced for impact.

He passed on the Reaver and Warhounds before lockdown so I got the base done, using Valejo Red Oxid paste for the majority of the basing material.

Some bits of slate and granny grating added some variety.

And some pipe work and the odd bit of gravel and these babies are already for priming.

And so I get my Big Build Big Galactic Stamp of Approval - yay!

Adeptus Titanicus unboxing

As we all face Covid-19 lockdown I thought I'd just post some stuff. Here's an unboxing of the new Adeptus Titanicus set that Liam bought.

Afternoon #warmongers there's been a lot of love online for #AdeptusTitanicus recently and that has lit a fire under my mate Liam to get into it. I had seen the Grand Master box for £162, but in a 25% sale for him, but when I went back the following week discovered the sale had finished that weekend!

Anyway, GW brought out the new starter set and I offered to pick one up for him from Element Games [don't forget my code: DAV910 for DOUBLE Element Crystals] as it's only a short train ride from work in my lunch. Adeptus Titanicus was possibly the 2nd boxed Games Workshop game I bought, in fact I still have the box and most of my original figures. If you go back to the start of my blog you can relive my history with this game.

I actually think this new box is great value, mainly in-part from Element's great discount - £72 all in. A Reaver titan is £35 on it's own and you get two so that's £70. For the other £2 you get two Warhounds £34, two Cerastus Knight Lancers £17, the accessory sprue £10 and the full game rules [which are more up-to-date than the Grand Master edition]. So at least £60 of savings, not including the cost of the rules and the dice etc.

Once inside you've got your sprues.

2 of each for the Reavers.

The Cerastus Sprue, that has all different faces to personalise your Knight. I don't think I've seen any other Cerastus weaponry elsewhere but I think there might be rules for them in the box.

The Warhound sprues and the weapon sprues, which I think are the 2 Reaverr weapon sprues that make up the more expensive 'Reaver battle titan] kit and the Warhound weaponry that gives you all the rest.

Accessory sprue. All the little cog shapes are trackers for your Titan Command Terminals. In the Grand Master edition they're printed on 2mm cardboard with holes punched for the little nubs on the back of the cogs to fit in. In this kit the terminal is a thinner card with no holes. This keeps prices down and means they supply them as standard in the Titan boxes now. It's a simpler solution but game-wise you may want to stick the cards to 2mm MDF or cardboard and drill/punch holes to except the marker nubs, otherwise they'll be skittering across the table with sadistic glee.

Hooray for blast templates, nice to see they found a use for these again.

The now customary art sheet, keeping the paper rules separate from the stabby sprues that might otherwise leave marks and dents in the new paper books and materials.

Some simple decals, rulebook, cards, terminals, stratagems and bases.

I'll be delivering the box to him, we're going to have a bit of a build session and much like Blackstone Fortress I'll be helping with the painting so we can get playing. A lot of this feels like we're entering into another game system but I think that's in part because 40k feels so complex and convoluted now. I think we're all after something a little simpler, with less rules upon rules. Although I see there a re 'detachment style' benefits to certain maniples of titan hopefully it's a stabler set of rules that aren;t ripe for abuse.

Saturday Knight fever

Much like every other 40k addict I am frothing at the thought of the new Knight Titans, sadly I'll probably end up being late to the party  even though I'm already well versed in their lore. I still have this Warden [I think] and one of the Eldar Knights knocking around, I ebayed the rest about 6 years ago but can't find the pictures :( . I don't quite know how this burning desire for the new model came about. Initially I was like, OK, now it's something I have to have.

However, I've planned out this year, hobbywise, so there is no window of opportunity to fit one in, and I have a slightly more impressive alternative to the knight in my sights at the moment. So I will probably hold out for 12 months but the fact that just the one model would really help bulk out my Dark Angels so they were playable much quicker may impact that position.

  

Additionally I have a really cool piece of fluff that manifested itself and fits with the fluff behind Ferron Proxima's rogue Titan Legion and the importance of Ferron Proxima to the Dark Angels. The fluff pieces are swirling around in my head and I just want to get them down but they really only work for me with accompanying images which slows the process and is very frustrating, sadly.

Here's the Eldar Knight Titan.

   

I have to say this initial concept sketch by Jes Goodwin has slightly more appeal to me than the final model, there is a bit more flair and menace about it. The row of spikes on the back, the more rounded shoulder guards and bulbous hatch on top seems to have been toned down a little bit in the finished model. I doubt they'll do this but I hope they make some replaceable shoulder pads and I'd love to see something like a Vulcan Mega Bolter or Punisher Cannon alternative weapon mount, just the two weapon choices seems a bit stingy at the moment.  

Anyway, just stating my intent and sharing these old pics, have a good weekend.

Ebay sales you won't regret* - a Frakkin 40k Warlord Titan!!! Holy Omnissiah!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40K-Warlord-Titan-Scratch-built-3ft-tall-/251453520684?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a8bcc3b2c

* When I say you won't regret buying my mate Liam's scratchbuilt Warlord Titan, you may do when you're otherwise mild mannered hobby widow see's it turn - up there is no hiding this 3 foot tall behemoth, as evidenced in the pictures from our Apocalypse WOW battle: Prelude | Turn 1 | Turn 2 | Turn 3 | Turns 4, 5 and 6 |

There have been quite a few legendary scratchbuilds of the Warlord Titan but I think this is one of the most Epic I've ever seen. In some respects it's actually bigger than a Warlord should be, scale wise, and approaches Imperator scale! Anyone who's ever wanted one and has the finances needs to check it out right now. Starting price is £300 but that is less than a Warhound Titan including it's arms and considerably less than a Reaver Titan [body only] and this thing is HUGE, check it out next to Liam's son! Not to mention his scratchbuilt Warhound, which is I believe actually a little bit bigger than the Forgeworld version!

Seriously this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get an amazing model and with the way GW is going we'll be seeing a 40k scale version of Adeptus Titanicus any week now, rules in White Dwarf ;) If you want to see more pictures and the Work in Progress shots head over to Liam's Blog at Blue Warp Studios for more. Even if you're not interested in the Titan yourself, and have a blog please share it or re-blog it on your own blog or forums that you frequent, there are only 9 days left in the auction. This is an amazing piece, deserves a good home and we want to see Liam get a decent price for all the effort, blood, sweat and tears so please let as many folk know as you can. Whatever he gets will be invested back into the hobby so whatever final price it is rest assured there will be all kinds of crazy cool awesomness coming out of Blue Warp Studios thanks to the lucky winners contribution to Liam's hobby fund. Incidentally I believe he'll be getting rid of his Fortress or Redemption too, so keep your eyes peeled to his ebay listing should the Warlord be too rich for your blood.

To Done - Adeptus Titanicus Epic Reaver Titan

Officially this fella isn't on my 2013/14 'To Do List' but it's been an extra thing to do to keep my mojo up by not OD'ing on just 'nids and other stuff. In truth I wimped out as I should have put some chevrons on it. I think some nice black and white ones on the carapace would have made it that bit better but I think then it would have strayed into an existing Titan Legion.

As it stands it seems a bit 'Word Bearer-ish' I know they're not a Titan Legion but I'm pleased I was able to make a new red scheme that wasn't as bright as the ones on my Chaos Cultists and I think I learned from some of my mistakes on the OSL glows. Tristan M's advice about less is more worked out a bit better, especially on the eyes.

And the white hot green glowing plasma reactor is also quite neat. The litany on the Titan breaks up the flat colours and I'm really surprised how effective that can be. I've always wanted to do battle damage but haven't been brave enough to do it. Pseudo etchings and paint work seems to be something similar but also I have a lot more control over so it may well become my 'cheat' instead.

With this colour scheme I may well try and add some darker red guys into the genestealer-cultists just to add a bit more variety.

Whilst doing all this I had a seed of fluff begin to grow in my head. This will be Ferron Proxima's own Titan Legion. They will not be a Traitor Legion but in fact during the Horus Heresy did go rogue. This will be due to some devious behaviour on behalf of the Alpha Legion that fed them lies about what was going on. This will explain any Epic battles that PeteB and I have with him using it against my War Griffons.

Once the Heresy was resolved much like the Dark Angels seeking to absolve their failings the Ferron Legion will go about trying to redeem themselves, under the watchful eye of the Inquisition. I'll write some more decent fluff  when I get the chance.

Here's my big blue tick anyway, for getting it done.

EPIC! Battle Report - Horus Heresy Skirmish

PeteB went and pickedup the bargain set of Space Marine 1st Edition about a month ago now. Following his 'epic' purchase we decided to have a battle. I thought I had more pictures but it seems I didn't take as many as I first thought. Really we were just struggling to come to terms with the rules as I also had the 2nd edition rule set and Pete had the current Epic Armageddon ones. Having looked at the new rules one thing jumped out at me - the fact you have to roll off to see if your unit actually follows through on it's orders [am I wrong in this?] I hate that dynamic so we went with 2nd edition and mixed in some of the stuff we liked from 1st.

I got to roll out some of my old Ultramarines and PeteB had his force of traitors ;). I really need the 2nd Edition Warlord Titan datasheet, so if anyone has it or a link to it I'd appreciate it. Instead we used the Adeptus Titanicus rules that make it incredibly difficult to kill with non-titan units. Anyway, this was our set up at the beginning of the game, we put down orders and PeteB won the initiative and moved first.

And we suddenly realised that putting everything on Charge orders was quite an issue as some of our faster units - bikes, speeders etc. were suddenly on the other side of the board. 2nd edition rules I think stated you couldn't fire either, compared with 1st edition where it was at a -1 modifier. Therefore I tried to position to capitalise on the next turn, making sure I'd got everything in place to rain fire down on the traitorous scum.

I did manage to get into assault with his Dreadnoughts though [robot proxies] and killed a few.

My Dark Angel allies - Ravenwing and Land Raiders, together with my Ultramarine Predators and Dreadnoughts tried to outflank the Land Raiders on the hill.

My Tarantula battery set up on the hill but I'd bigged them up too much before the game and the next turn they were assaulted and wiped out. My Titan spent most of the game untouched, firing with impunity but not doing a whole lot of damage. 2nd edition doesn't state you get +1 to hit on First fire orders, it's only advantage being you 'fire first'! Given most to hit rolls are on 5+ I'm not sure we liked this. When only a third of your hits do anything it can be a pretty unrewarding experience.

Sadly this is the last pic and so much happened after this. I tried to blow up buildings but again 2nd edition works by only barrage being able to damage them. My Thunderhawk came on, managed to do practically nothing and then put itself in a position in PeteB's deployment zone where it was just riddled with fire and shot out of the sky. Pete also created a Land Raider sandwich attack - my four Land Raiders in the centre of the board [three by the time this event took place] were assaulted by 2 units of three Rhinos with a higher Close Assault Factor the Raiders easily dispatched the first Rhino but the second Rhino gets an additional d6 as a secondary attacker and he was able to ram the Raiders into oblivion.

Once again it was getting late and we called it a night. I'm not even sure who won, we didn't even bother to work up which units had broken [and therefore we gain their VPs] and to be honest I didn't care. This was a game full of fun, attack and counter attack, periods were nothing seemed to happen and then suddenly entire units were vaporised. The great thing was there was no emotional attachment to the forces, these aren't my nids I've been using for years so it didn't matter if I won or lost it was the 'cinematic' journey along the way.

We had a 40k battle the next time we met up, as that was in preparation for Blog Wars but I look forward to our next Epic confrontation. We still need to iron out some of the rules we want to play with, being happy with a system that works for us. I think if we have the correct edition datasheets for Warlords, Reavers and Warhounds that would help too. I was devastated with their rules in 2nd edition, they became so much easier to kill but if we play them like Adeptus Titanicus rules they're overpowered so that has to change.

Following on from my battle I wanted to paint up a Reaver Titan for PeteB to use in battles. I wanted to do a red one with all brass fittings [very Khorne] I started with a Red Oxide primer and then blacked in all the metal areas.

Shoulder pads, missile launcher, and head are all pinned to be secure. I've tried to do a similar metal effect as on my drop pod [do you remember that? G.O.D. that's so long ago now and still so unfinished!] Anyway, I'll add some more highlights and then probably a 'devlan mud' wash and then work on the red bits. I can't decide to go basic highlights on the red or try and do a mottled blotchy pattern of highlights...

EPIC! Battle Report - Horus Heresy Skirmish

A week or so ago I saw an ebay bargain to die for. A near complete set of 1st Edition Epic Space Marine for £28 Buy it Now! I couldn't believe it, more importantly I could justify getting it, not with a number of gaming purchases already made and a new tyre for the Micra due. But PeteB can see a bargain and snapped it up and he got even more than he bargained for with a bundle of extra miniatures - Orks, their battlewagons and the Space Marines that included bikes, Land Speeders, Terminators, Assault and Devastator units. I think he'd probably recoup a third of his outlay by selling the Orks but we'll see.

With a new game in hand we decided to have a knockaround, we'd spent 2 hours just gassing about the game and I showed off my old copy of Rogue Trader and we giggled. Anyway, we went simple, a Warlord and Warhound each [I swapped around the weapons so PeteB had the plasma and I had the las so we could experience the other side. 3 Barrels on each and Chainfists I also had a Multi-launcher and PeteB had and auto-cannon]. We also had 6 Land Raiders each, and two stand of Devastators, Tactical and Assault troops.

This is after turn 1 [although my Warhound needs to move]. I was trying to flank with my Land Raiders, it's worked on the left but the right is very exposed.

My assault marines jump behind the Warhound.

More of PeteB's infantry disembark and the Land Raiders position to shoot.

His Warhound goes to stomp on the Assault Squad, missing one.

But then as he passes he uses his head mounted Heavy Bolter and Plasma Gun to kill one the other.

Devastator and Tactical squads occupy the buildings.

I manage to blow the Auto cannon off his Warlord Titan with my own.

The building occupied by the Tactical squad takes two damage from my Land Raiders. 

The building PeteB's Warlord was taking cover from is destroyed leaving it exposed.

But his Titan manages to get a Plasma Cannon shot on the Warhound and two Land Raiders.

Leaving the Warhound to stand above the molten slag of the Raiders.

By this time it was getting late, I'm not sure who was winning and didn't really care to be honest. We'd had some real fun and it was a completely different tactical game. It eventually became apparent PeteB had missed the bit where I said all the weapons on the Titan had 3 barrels except the Plasma Cannon. He'd been firing only one shot whit his Heavy Plasma Gun. The Auto Cannon had gone quite early so it wasn't too bad but still, a fair few Land Raiders may have been destroyed other wise.

We're going to be playing this again next week but I'll be bringing my 2nd Edition rules and Expansion so we can take some more interesting models and see what does what.