Burning Sands 3 - Adeptus Titanicus Tournament Report

Hello!

It's been a little while since I've been able to play some AdTit, and Grim Dice provided the opportunity to do so with a tournament on a day that I wasn't at work! So I jumped at the chance (or more accurately, I bought a ticket), and tried to remember what I was doing. It has to be said that matched play has kind of passed me by in Titanicus, so I had not actually seen the Matched Play Guide until I bought it for the day, so I wasn't really expecting to win anything. That said, Titanicus is a narrative focused, very swingy game so I was expecting some silly chain reactions and huge explosions and the dice generally causing carnage.

I was running my Mortis engines, and decided to keep it fairly simple with an Axiom maniple, all guns and no melee (I've seen it's strong but it's always gone badly for me), with fairly minimal upgrades aside from some corruption on the Warlord to make it even tougher. I did make the mistake of taking the Warmaster's Beneficence upgrade on three Titans, and then forgetting to use it in every single game!

Anyway, the first thing I noticed when I walked in was that the tables looked really cool. A few borrowed bits from 40k scale stuff but also a lot of appropriately sized city buildings set out on appropriately coloured matts. Not the default L ruins of 40k tournaments at all!

First game was against Stuart (I think - I didn't take photos of the score cards for this one so memory is a bit hazy on player names) with a beautiful Mechanicus Knight force, full of lots of scary guns with loads of templates and some nasty melee options. We both had to grab an objective in the opponent's corner but also kill or protect certain units for secondary points.

The game was a total bloodbath, with neither of us achieving out primary objective and only one Knight Lancer and a few Armigers surviving. A narrow loss based on secondary points but a very enjoyable time! Highlights for me were an over eager Warhound getting surrounded and then exploding, the Warlord shrugging off massive firepower in the first couple of turns with some unreasonably good void shield saves, and then the Melta cannon Reaver doing some serious work with fusion shots on knights melting through them!

Game two was against Dave (again - I think!) with a stunning Legio Solaria Warhound based force. We both had to retrieve an objective from the centre line, while also eliminating certain enemy targets.

Again this was carnage, with a lot of chain reacting catastrophic damages, including my melta Reaver getting a magazine detonation to hit four or five other titans and both my Warhounds getting engine kills by picking up the pieces. In the end we both achieved our primary objective (in spite of the Dire Wolf trying to stun my warhound carrying it) but I was unable to finish either of the priority targets, compared to losing my secondary one, so once again a close loss.

Final game was against Gordon (pretty sure this time - recency bias) with a cool melee focused traitor titans list. For the final game our objectives pretty much boiled down to kill each other.

Good use of stratagems (and poor from me) allowed the enemy engines to close in without taking too much damage and get into the perfect positions for some melee action. I wiped some Knights but this one was much more one sided as the chain fist Reavers chopped through my forces, eventually ending with my last Reaver collapsing onto my last Warhound, hilarously destroying it as well. Tabled for a solid zero points.

With that, I secured the coveted wooden spoon (in this event taking the form of a tub of gravy, obviously) and some good experience going forward. Regardless of results, I had a great time. Titanicus is always a bit of a laugh and the 'competitive' game is still fun with a lot relying on the dice rolls. Not to say of course that I wasn't outplayed - I was, but in AdTit the dice can turn an absolute stomping into an exciting, and potentially close game. I would definitely go again if I can get to the next one, and hopefully I can play some more in the not too distant future! Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there.

Adeptus Titanicus Battle Report - The Fate of Esteban V

Hello!

It's another AdTit game against The Claw, concluding our little narrative campaign in which two traitor forces, Legio Mortis and Legio Magna, battle to control the forge world of Esteban V. While the Warmaster's attention has turned to the road to Terra, the two Legios sent forces to secure the spoils of worlds previously cleansed of loyalists. Magna lay claim to Esteban V, being close to their homeworld of Esteban VII (but not Esteban III, one time home of Legio Tempestus - there are a lot of Estebans in 40k!), while Mortis claim it due to status and seniority as one of the original Titan Legions. 

After their initial landing, Mortis forces soon encountered and engaged Magna at Gate 7, the entry to a huge underground manufactorum. Mortis took the site, but were unable to defend it against the Magna counter attack. A larger battle ensued in the desert flats below Gate 7, where Mortis were once again able to claim the ground. Magna struck back decisively though to take control of the Spaceport supplying the Manufactorum. With the fate of the planet in the balance, the two forces turned to the polar city of Bolsunder, the planet's last remaining population hub, to decide this war once and for all.

We decided to play a 2000 point, semi-matched play kind of scenario - we both took the primary objective to destroy the other player's most expensive model as soon as possible, with the secondary objective of controlling quarters of the board. We also had some points for stratagems each this time, and The Claw took a tertiary objective to get some bonus points for engine kills as one of them. My most notable pick was the Blind Barrage.

Legio Mortis forces included a Lupercal Light Maniple of three Warhounds and a Perpetua Battleline Maniple with a Warlord and two Reavers, one set up for melee and the other for armour busting ranged firepower. All three of my larger engines were Corrupted Titans for the first time. The Warlord had Corrupted Soul and Preternatural Regeneration to get a load more repair dice, the melee Reaver picked the Overwhelming Rage mutation for obvious reasons and had some Daemonic Bile to spit all over it's opponents, and the ranged Reaver took Warp Conduit so it could effectively smite something and grab the Empyrean Shroud for a -1 to hit at range. There were a few other upgrades here and there but that was most of it. I think the Perpetua maniple seems to go well with Corrupted Titans since it means emergency repairs always go off on a 2+ regardless of other command check modifiers, like the ones all Corrupted Titans get.

On the other side of the battlefield Magna fielded a Fortis Maniple once again, this time with two Warlords (including one double traitor - a salvaged and repurposed Mortis engine!) and two Reavers, all with an assortment of ranged weapons and some upgrades. They were accompanied by another banner of Knight Lancers - presumably not the same ones that got blasted to bits in turn one last time!

Deployment - the forces line up. It looked like the larger buildings on the left would be the focus of the fighting while the sparser right flank would be less contested. My Warlord was set up deliberately back a little from the front lines, I did not intend for it to move much and I expected it to weather most of the firepower coming it's way with all it's bonuses to repair rolls.

Turn one, the lighter Titans and Knights moved up - the Lancers hiding themselves from the Mortis Warlord's First Fire order! Magna took minor damage to the merged shields on their twin Warlords, while the Mortis one took a battering, losing it's shields and taking some heavy head damage already!

Turn two, operation protect the Warlord. I dropped the Blind Barrage on it while it Emergency Repaired to get shields back and lose some heat.

Elsewhere the Knights engaged the angry Reaver, taking minimal damage from it's swinging fists...

Then taking it out with lances and shield blows to the head! A huge explosion did more damage to the Knights than the Reaver did, as well as hurting the Magna Reaver behind! ENGINE KILL!

The Mortis Warhounds got a measure of revenge, downing the shields on the Titan and blasting it with Maximal fire Plasma, the blasts killing off a couple more Knights and destroying the Reaver! Good work Warhounds!

Going into turn three things were heating up, both sides losing a Reaver and both sides' Warlords had been taking heavy fire so shields were low - one of the Magna ones lost it's shields entirely due to a reactor overload - time to capitalise. My Warlord stripped the remaining shields, before the Warhounds on the left flank (the one on the right got destroyed by it's opposing Reaver) blasted into the target Titan, the Plasma nearly doing the job.

But return fire knocked out my Warlord! Felled for the first time on the surface of Esteban V, the death of the Mortis Princeps Senioris put Magna firmly in control.

However, my remaining Reaver was able to get a bead with the Melta Cannon around the blue building and finish off the damaged Magna Warlord to even the score - that meant both sides had destroyed the enemy target on turn three, so it was going to be a tight one!

Going into turn four I hid the Warhounds from the enemy Warlord and finished off the remaining Knight that was harrassing my Reaver - which took heavy firepower but since it was shrouded in psychic energy most of it missed.

Turn five, once again the Mortis engines hid from the Warlord and tried to focus down the enemy Reaver, to little effect thanks to the building shielding it. The Psychic Reaver once again avoided most of the damage, and then the game ended.

With both key targets destroyed in the same turn, and few units left to control the board, our primary and secondary objectives were a dead tie. However, Magna had a tertiary objective - the few extra points there for killing my engines was enough to give them a win by the tiniest of margins!

With that, the remaining Mortis forces withdrew to follow the call of the Warmaster. So Esteban V would be the realm of Legio Magna for the rest of the war, and perhaps now the two might put aside differences and bring their fury to bare on the Loyalists? 

This was definitely the closest game of Titanicus we've had, absolutely down to the final moments and a fitting finale. Obviously we both had a blast, plenty of classic Titanicus moments like explosions and machine spirits (or in this case daemonic entities) taking over, and as always the games look awesome. The Corrupted Titans are a lot of fun, but this time I was particularly impressed by my Warhounds, especially the always entertaining Plasma blast guns.

Anyway, that's it for our narrative, I hope you've enjoyed it! We definitely did and I think it served the purpose of helping us slowly learn and relearn the rules over the past two years! I'm sure there will be more AdTit down the line, but for now, thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.

Adeptus Titanicus Battle Report - Mortis vs Magna, Battle for Pad 13

Hello!

Another Titanicus game with The Claw, continuing our little narrative of the traitor Legios fighting for the spoils of Esteban V, as the Warmaster's gaze turns towards Terra. Mortis and Magna have been trading blows in the first three encounters (click for game one, two and three), so perhaps at the battle around this lone, but vital space port one side can land the killing blow?

We decided on a nice size of 1750 points, and a simple objective of whoever had the most stuff (by scale) of units touching the landing pad square at the end of the random game length would win. As it's a landing zone the terrain was fairly light in terms of completely blocking stuff, but there were plenty of little structures to grab some cover here and there.

I took a classic Axiom maniple, with the standard loadout Warlord as the Pitiless Princeps Seniors, a Reaver loaded out for shield stripping, a melee Reaver and Warhounds with double turbo lasers and double flamers. I rounded out the points with a trio of Questoris Knights. This felt very Mortis-y, the plan being to strip shields and feed engine kills to the Warlord.

The Claw took the Fortis maniple again with a Warlord swapping a volcano for a Quake cannon, a pair of mixed load out Reavers, and supported by a bunch of knights- six Questoris and four Cerastus Knight Lancers.

The forces lined up against each other, with Warlords pretty much central and faster elements on the flanks. Turn one initiative went to Mortis.

I decided those Lancers were a bit pokey and needed to go. As my last movement action I pointed the Warlord at them. One good blast with the Belicosa Volcano Cannon and all four evaporated before the second gun or the missiles could fire! New model syndrome in full effect for The Claw.

At the end of turn one, not a lot of damage elsewhere (I think I passed every single void shield roll this turn!), leaving the Mortis forces in the ascendancy - keeping the initiative for turn two.

Turn two and the forces started to converge on the centre. The Questoris Knight banner on the Magna side made a charge into my melee Reaver, losing one to the chain fist before hacking away at the legs. The Inferno gun Warhound got some shots in to little effect, and ended up eating melta cannon from a Magna Reaver, getting immobilised away from the main fight. The Magna Warlord took some punishment to it's shields but no serious damage yet. Since they were still moving into position it was unable to share shields with it's maniple.

Turn three and initiative to Magna. The Knights cut into the Reaver to disable it, leaving it a standing wreck. My inferno Warhound continued to suffer with emergency repairs failing to get it moving again. My left flank had collapsed, but the right was still pretty strong, Knights and Warhound moving in to be annoying and the shooty Reaver and Warlord still undamaged, pouring fire into the Magna Warlord, causing critical leg damage and getting it to spin away from the objective.

Turn four, the Magna Warlord made it's move onto the middle, reigniting it's shields in defiance. Mortis aligned Knights ran in to cause a nuisance of themselves. The Reavers moved around into closer positions, though the Magna one immediately behind the Warlord succumbed to the Machine Spirit and marched towards my badly damage Warhound.

All eyes on the centre, the other Reaver moved into position behind the Magna Warlord and their Knights engaged my Reaver. Once again the shields went down on the enemy Warlord but my Volcano cannons scattered and were unable to get the finishing blow. Random game length was rolled, and we went into turn five, with Magna stubbornly holding onto the objective.

In turn five, knights fought knights, Reavers blasted Warhound, and the Warlord swayed the wrong direction, repaired shields once more, then stood it's ground. Finally the Fortis Maniple was able to share it's shields and this was just about enough to hold off the firepower of the Reaver and Warlord - I think they ended up with two points of void shields between them.

Once again, random game length rolled, and this time it was game over. With the crippled Warlord hanging on just by the skin of it's allies void shields, Legio Magna picked up the win.

Another fun outing for AdTit. It's always a lovely looking game for me when there's a fully painted board and two painted forces, and it was awesomely cinematic to see all these big stompy robots converge on a central space that they absolutely had no right all trying to fit into! After that game our little narrative sits at two wins apiece, so I think sometime in the new year we will have to have a decider! 

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe!

Adeptus Titanicus Battle Report - Mortis vs Astorum

Hello!

More Titanicus! And this time, it's a blog crossover episode, as I teamed up with Heretic Deb to run a pair of Mortis maniples into the forces of Legio Astorum, commanded by Dave. (Dave and Deb are the couple behind Forsters Foundry who 3D printed the cool Lunar Auxilia minis I painted a little while back.) As usual, AdTit games are a bit of a blur of back and forth decision making, so I'm leaving out a whole load of details!

We (perhaps optimistically, given we were all pretty rusty) played a 2000 point game, using the Titanicus Open War cards, which are rather cool. Having previously discussed after my last game how the standard objective cards are a bit lacking, it was a nice change. We also went for a couple of stratagem points each, and team Mortis decided on the orbital lance strike, primarily because it was cool.

The Mortis team consisted of a minimum Axiom maniple (Warhound, Reaver, Warlord) for Deb and a Venator Light Maniple (Reaver, three Warhounds) for me. We had an assortment of weapons with most loaded up for shield stripping, while the Warlord and my Reaver were rocking heavy duty weapons, Volcano cannons, plasma and melta between them. I also had one of my Warhounds with the always fun flamer and plasma.

The Astorum force had a full Precept maniple, which allows for a chosen order at the start of the turn to be passed on a 2+ by everyone in it. The maniple consists of a Warlord, Warbringer, Reaver and two Warhounds. They also brought along a big banner of six Questoris Knights, which are a right pain!

We ended up with smallish deployment zones that were each half a table edge, in opposite corners, with a mission to just kill everything. Our secondary mission was to hold table quarters, while the Warp Runners had to hold a building in their deployment zone.

We deployed with a Warhound gang in the middle to charge through the city ruins, and the bigger Titans taking some cover, the Warlord on the flank to swing round and secure the near quarter.

Astorum forces formed up with good firing lines down into the city and the Warlord (with a power fist!) at the head. Obviously the Death's Heads had dropped in unexpectedly since these loyalists had not had their liveries applied yet!

Turn one featured a lot of Full Stride orders and Titans moving into position. Notably the Warbringer stepped back to make the Mortis Warhound gang a target, combining with the Reaver to strip some shields and leave some of them looking vulnerable.

Into turn two, we used the Dominant Strategist Princeps Senioris trait to take priority in order to get the unshielded Warhounds out of sight of the big guns. We also started things off with the lance strike on the knights, bunched up and cowering behind a building, but it was a bit of a whiff.

Speaking of those Knights - this Warhound may have dodged heavy firepower but it was about to be torn apart by the banner! They chopped away and took it down to critical.

The other movement saw another vulnerable Warhound make a break for it, while our two Reavers lined up to target the Knights or the Warlord.

 My undamaged Warhound (the fun one with flame and plasma) ran up to stand right next to an enemy one and blast it under the shields and hopefully discourage the melta cannon from the nearby Reaver! It didn't, but it got away with it, surviving with shields intact and dealing some heavy damage to the Astorum Warhound's head!

Elsewhere the unshielded Warhounds were not as lucky, both falling. The one fighting the Knights got taken out embarrassingly by the Warlord's defence laser, and sadly did not explode, instead wild firing backwards at my Reaver! This did leave the Knights open to the Reaver battery, and when the smoke cleared there was only one left. Note - Knights do not like Melta cannons!

Going into turn three and some interesting duels and shootouts were developing. The Mortis Warlord finally cleared the buildings to start firing, blasting away at it's counterpart - though in spite of everything the shields held. The Axiom Warhound went and got in the way to dutifully receive a powerfist to the face for it's master.

Our Reavers were being harassed by the enemy Warhounds, eventually killing one of them but allowing Deb's one to be lit up by the Warbringer and take serious damage all over. The last Knight got caught by a blast template and removed, while my last Warhound zipped around to get beside the Warbringer and within range of the Astorum's protected building.

Turn four saw some shuffling, including the damaged Reaver shuffling off to cover. Mine started to take some heavy damage as well, but the Warbringer took some from the Warhound as well, and the enemy Warlord did eventually lose it's shields, but the Mortis one was shedding it's shields like they were going out of style!

Sadly at that point it was time to call the game and pack up. At that stage we had killed a Warhound and six Knights to two Warhounds for Dave, and some critical damage here and there. He also partially controlled his building, while we didn't hold enough quarters to score, giving him a narrow victory. We talked through a few options for what might have happened in turn five, but there would be too many variables to really call a result so I think we settled on a draw. 

In any case, a very close, fun game with cool hosts! There was some talk of perhaps running a campaign in the future, and possibly the option of a get together with multiple AdTit people (I know The Claw has been thinking of something like that as well) - so watch this space! Whatever happens, I'm sure there will be more Titanicus on the blog in future. Hope you enjoyed reading, and stay safe.