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.

Crusade Battle Report - Orks vs Adeptus Mechanicus

Hello!

So about two weeks ago I played a role as an 'NPC' army in narrative, Crusade campaign run by Ed (from one of my first Death Guard games) at Grim Dice Tabletop Gaming. I was asked to run a 50 power level Ork force, so I took the opportunity of playing my first game with a new Ork Crusade. Apparently the background is that a big war has suddenly broken out on this backwater, unremarkable planet, and no one in the Imperium has quite figured out why so many forces have appeared - but it must be important, so they sent in their own. As far as I'm concerned, da boyz saw a big scrap going on and decided to join in!

Anyway, I was up against an AdMech Ryza force, which of course I approved of. They had a pair of Onagers, a couple of Kastelan Robots, a bunch of small Skitarii troop units, Enginseer, Techno-archaeologist and two blobs of melee infantry - Infiltrators and Fulgurite priests. 

Da Vipers tribe are propper Snakebites, though they aren't opposed to using a few bits of tech to get the job done - they'll just complain about it! My force was a mix of infantry (10 Slugga Boyz, 20 Shootas, 3 Meganobz), vehicles (Battlewagon and a Trukk), Snakebitey stuff (Weirdboy Durrork, Squighog Boyz and a Nob on Smasha Squig)  and of course Redtoof himself, who is a ded 'ard Warboss (Super Cybork Body and Brutal but Kunnin). Since both armies were starting Crusades we didn't have any funky upgrades.

Deployment looked like this - the black d10s are objectives. Fairly open ground in terms of LoS, but a fair bit of cover and of course a nice small board. I don't remember all the agendas, but I do remember taking Krumpin' Spree for Redtoof to get points for killing units himself. There was also a special rule in effect for the campaign to not allow the reroll stratagem or I think the auto pass morale one, to encourage more use of your own flavourful strats. Fine by me since I'm rerolling charges anyway.

First turn went to the Orks, and we surged forward. Shootas in the wagon, Nobs and Boss in the Trukk. The Squigs hugged the backs of the vehicles for protection, while the Slugga Boyz held an objective. Lots of big shoota fire plinked off around five Skitarii, but then the return fire came...

Between plasmas, and Icarus array and the Robots' flamers, the Trukk got cracked open, and the Meganobz were reduced to one. This left Redtoof and the Smasha Squig in the open, and through the will of the dice it was decided the second Onager would fire everything at the Squig, blasting it off the table. To add insult to injury, the Meganob would proceed to fail morale and run away.

But that wasn't all, as the Infiltrators had arrived (I don't remember off the top of my head if turn one reserves is technically allowed in narrative play anymore, but for this game at least it was!) They spat some flechette rounds, then lanuched into melee with poor Durrork Orkorrah - who somehow proved not to be useless and survived!

Into turn two, and now it was on! WAAAGH!!! Redtoof made a beeline for the big shiny robots, supported by the wagon with it's Deffrolla. The Slugga Boyz turned to face the Infiltrators, while the Squighogs grunted their way up to some Skitarii.

Some shooting from assorted big and little shootas did some damage, but the real damage was coming up...

Redtoof made it in, and with a little help from some Ramming Speed mortal wounds by the Battlewagon, he tore down both Robots! That's why he's Da Boss!

Elsewhere the Squighogs were reduced to one model, but made it into combat and butchered some Rangers. The Infiltrators interrupted and killed all ten Boyz and Durrork in a glorious display, though Orks is Never Beaten and he took a few of them down with him, swinging his force staff to good effect.

The AdMech response was to encircle Redtoof and go for the kill with the Priests, while the Onagers plinked fire off the Battlewagon.

"All I iz surrounded by iz fear, an' ded men!"

The Electro-priests dropped him all the way down to one wound...

And he killed six of them in return, while his attack squig finished of the couple of Rangers who joined in! That priest then, wisely, ran away.

Elsewhere the Infiltrators charged the last Squighog Boy, but he interrupted and went into a bit of a frenzy, only leaving one alive! Turn 2 did not go so well for the forces of Ryza, and neither of us had many assets left.

After that carnage we quickly raced through the last few turns. Redtoof attempted to charge an Onager, but failed and then got shredded by it's Icarus Array in return. The Battlewagon dumped it's Boyz onto a couple of objectives and charged the other Onager, which is where both stayed for the rest of the game, neither quite doing enough to finish the other.

Thanks to the Boyz on the objectives I picked up plenty of points to win the game and send the Ryza forces packing back into the ruins.

Really fun game, it was good to see the Orks take a battering but still fight back and ultimately win the day. As a result of this Redtoof levelled himself up, and being the WAAAGH-Boss, gained an extra wound. He also picked up the Ded' Ard Armour, a Crusade relic that grants +1 wound and +1 to armour saves, but he suffered a chest would, which reduced his wounds by one again. Durrork also suffered an injury, those taser goads giving him a deep concussion, meaning that he cannot use any stratagems.

I'm really hoping I can get in some more Crusade games with the Orks, but also the Death Guard and AdMech! Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading, and stay safe!

Pallid Hand Elites and HQ

Hello!

More Death Guard, but again not for me. Continuing with the Pallid Hand commission, here's a bunch of elites and characters, once again largely using 'cheating' methods, contrast, drybrushing, washes and the sponge!

First up, Deathshroud Terminators. I've not got any of these in my own force, so it was fun to see them in person, and how much more imposing they are than their Blightlord brothers. Particularly pleased with the pale green half cloaks on these, a bit of an improvement over the ones on the Plague Marine champion.

Of course, we've got some 'regular' Terminators in here as well, five Blightlords with axes, a Blight Launcher and a Flail of Corruption. The Champion has stolen an axe from the PM set, replacing a sword with a fairly simple conversion.

It wouldn't really be Death Guard without a bunch of elite characters would it? The Foul Blightspawn, Biologus Putrifier and Tallyman representing here. These guys have some fun details on them, which I think ended up looking pretty decent while still being fairly efficiently painted.

Getting to one of the big bosses now, the Lord of Virulence. Very cool model, and I think the sponging really gave all his cables and pipes a bit of a worn, wouldn't pass a safety inspection look.

Finally the real boss, Mr Destroyer Hive himself, Typhus. I think he looks the part, and I'm particularly pleased with how all the flies came out, slightly colourful but not distractingly so, and not just boring black.

So there we have it, the command structure of the Pallid Hand. And that's not all, there is some heavy support, some chaff and some daemon allies on the way too! Happily the client is as pleased as I am with the results, I really am enjoying doing these messy, worn, mottled looking schemes, and the DG are absolutely perfect for it! Hope you liked them as well, and stay safe!

Adeptus Titanicus Battle Report - Full Maniple Clash

Hello!

I recently played another game of Adeptus Mechanicus with The Claw (check out his Instagram and Fast Panda Gaming for his Infinity battle reports). Our most recent two battles have been smaller engagements fighting over Gate 7 - the entryway to an underground manufactorum on Esteban V, the spoils of war for two forces turned against the Imperium but also out of the Warmaster's gaze. In the first game the forces of Legio Mortis took the Gate for themselves, but in the second Legio Magna fought back to take over once more. Now the two Legios mass larger forces for a showdown on the desert wastes at the base of the mountains, where millions once looked up at the mighty forge entrance.

For this game we both went up to 2000 points, which feels more like a 'full' Titanicus force. Once again we were a bit too overwhelmed to play with stratagems, and used the matched play rules from the core book with the objective cards.

My forces were a classic Axiom Maniple, with an extra squadron of Warhounds to accompany them. A nice mix of weapons, I had a Warhound with each of the standard guns doubled up, Reavers with a mix of melee weapons and mid range guns, and the Princeps Senioris Warlord with the Bellicosa Volcano cannons and missiles. That came to 2000 points on the nose. 

The Claw took a Fortis Heavy Maniple (who get bonuses for standing still and can combine shields like a Warhound squadron) with an assortment of guns on two Reavers and a Warlord, a squadron of Warhounds and a big banner of Knights. He was a bit under pointed on this but made it up with a whole load of useful upgrades, including abilities to pre measure for shooting, which was cool.

As mentioned, we picked from the mission cards. My objective was Hold the Line again, netting points for keeping enemy Titans out of my half of the board. The Claw got Glory and Honour, which awards points for killing the biggest enemy Titan as early as possible.

Deployment - we rolled a deployment type that had us split our forces into the four quarters of our deployment zones and designate them secretly. Predictably the Fortis maniple was dead centre, opposing my Warlord and split Reavers trying to find cover, while our faster units were on the flanks.

Turn one, I used Full Stride orders for most of my force to close ground and ideally get out of the arcs of the Fortis guns. There was some firing at my Warlord but the shields held admirably. I rather foolishly marched one of my Reavers up to right in front of the guns of both Warhounds - I'd forgotten quite how nasty plasma blastguns can be. Shields stripped and some critical damage.

In turn two I tried to move my Warhounds away from the smoking Reaver, but first fire orders on the enemy 'hounds caught it, and it went up...

Big boom! Some shields lost and as a by product the Warhounds had edged into the Fortis' sights!

Speaking of getting into sights - my Warlord lined up to blast the weaker, faster enemy Titans rather than waste fire on the combined shields of two Reavers and a Warlord. Some heavy fire down that way but no major damage.

As predicted, the big guns targeted my Warhounds, dropping the flamer one.

On the other flank the Knights clashed with my Warhounds and the other Reaver. They may be little but they are surprisingly tough with their combined Ion shields, so this was going to be a bit of a tarpit for a couple of turns.

Turn three, the Magna Warhounds advanced up, but they were running hot and one of them suffered a significant reactor leak, which ended up with it spinning around and wild firing into the shields of it's bigger brothers as it fell.

My Princeps Senioris showed the superior tactical mastery of Legio Mortis (and not cowardice) by hiding most of the Warlord's body behind a spire. From there he blasted away at the Fortis wall of shields with relative impunity.

With two shieldless Warhounds left to contest the left flank, it was a straight up duel. Mine shot first, blasting the Magna engine with double, maximal plasma.

The Warhound fell, but it also wild fired, shooting directly forward with it's plasma and crippling my titan! Double KO!

In turn four the left flank was completely destroyed for both forces, while my Reaver and 'hounds had taken the right. We blasted away at each other, taking some damage on my side (one of the Warhounds had a serious head injury, which I ignored for one turn with the Mortis ability) and finally stripping the shields off the Fortis maniple. With that however the game would reach it's end. 'Random game length' - or time to go home.

We left in an interesting position, both sides poising to launch a potentially killing blow, but ultimately the objectives heavily favoured a win for Mortis. Magna were penned back in and my Warlord remained standing.

Another fun game with plenty of silly explosions and reactor overloads. Worth noting The Claw had some serious trouble with his command checks in this game. Several failed orders and titans having their machine spirits take over! I think 2000 points felt about right for a 'decent' size game, I'd definitely be up for playing a similar set up again. I think now we've strung together a couple of games relatively close together it might be time to finally look at the stratagems or some different missions. The cards are... ok? They are a bit unbalanced I think and with only five you repeat them pretty often. I think it'd be fairer if both players played the same, or possibly if you got to pick one that suited your force. I'm sure The Claw's stationary gun battery Fortis maniple would have preferred to have the 'just kill stuff' objective.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed, and stay safe out there!