Somewhat lost in the shuffle of this week’s other FAQs, Games Workshop released updated FAQ and Errata for Adeptus Titanicus yesterday, and if you’re curious about what changed or what it means, well we’ve pored over the docs and jotted down a few thoughts about the changes and the impact they’ll have.
The biggest change here is a set of tweaks to Acastus Knights, making them more expensive and limiting how many you can take in your lists, but there are a few other changes worth pointing out. Read on to see how your games might be changed based on these updates.
Tyranny Is Over
Acastus Knights ate two major nerfs with this update. Not only did Acastus Knight Porphyrions nearly double in points cost (and Asterius actually did double to 200 for the Lord Scion), players are now also limited to bringing a maximum of two Acastus in a single banner for each maniple or lance in their list. Additionally, Acastus banners can’t be part of a lance. The force-composition restriction is mainly codifying the rules most events have been using to this point, but the points hike is going to sting for players who have been leaning on them heavily. The combination of these two changes means that taking solo Acastus Banners is no longer an auto take to increase your activation count, which we are very glad to see.
Additionally, the restriction to a single banner per maniple or lance will almost always mean that you’ll be facing a maximum of 2-3 Acastus in a given game, limiting the effect they can have on the game. If you’ve got more than 4 Acastus, they’ll probably never all see the table at once.
As an aside, at 200/180 points for a Lord Scion/Scion Martial, we’re no longer convinced that the Acastus Knight Asterius is always the better choice. While the extra point of strength and larger blast template are certainly nice additions, the extra 15 points over the Porphyrion might be better deployed into Titan weapon upgrades or legion-specific wargear in some lists. The C-Beamer is still the better weapon in a vacuum, but the difference in cost now means there’s a case to be made for taking a Porphyrion now and again, especially if you’re planning on taking two.
Legion Changes
A few legions also saw changes, some more substantive than others.
Legio Astorum
The Warp Striders’ War March trait got clarified to work like it was probably intended to all along: the penalty to reactor rolls for taking the boost applies in the entirety of the first two rounds, not just in the movement phase. It also clarifies that the penalty only applies during the first two rounds, not the entirety of the game. This is is a good clarification – it puts some additional risk on a powerful ability without hamstringing you later in the game when you no longer have access to it.
In addition, their Ancient MIU trait is now no longer a trap for the unwary: you still get a random order, but now you can just ignore Shutdown if that’s your result. Still probably not worth taking, but if it fits your fluff or you roll traits randomly, you might conceivably take a chance on it at some point during a game.
Legio Fortidus
Dauntless’s Lost Sons trait no longer opens up as many cool options, as the replacement Titan no longer counts as the Titan type it’s replacing, which takes away some of the more powerful tricks available to them – no longer can they sub a Warlord into a Venator for its Opportunistic Strikes rule, or use a Lupercal to shove a Warlord into a squadron and get +2 to armor rolls. This change stings, and dramatically limits the power of this previously very flexible legion.
There are still a few good tricks here, though: a “brawler” warlord in a Ferrox is still nasty, and you can double up on Reavers in a Venator like Gryphonicus. You can also use this as a cost-saving mechanism to swap out a heavier chassis for a smaller one. We’re a bit disappointed this trait still doesn’t allow you to put a Warbringer-Nemesis into one of the older maniples – this could have been a fun and fluffy way to let Dauntless use new tools more aggressively than other legions to replace their losses early in the Heresy.
On balance, this change is probably warranted – putting a Warlord in a Lupercal or Venator was a neat trick, but it definitely warped the balance of those maniples, leading to some very lopsided match-ups. The new trait is still useful and powerful, but reins in some of the more over-the-top shenanigans Dauntless could get up to.
Soggy’s Note: Boo! This was my favourite party trick when playing as a loyalist.
Legio Vulcanum
Two-Faced God no longer requires you to have your second Princeps in a different maniple. Still not sure what happens if you take two or more maniples, but for now you can run a Regia with twin Principes, which Zach is definitely looking forward to.
Bair’s Note: I am STOKED about this!! Have never been able to use this rule really before as I wasn’t taking support titans, can’t wait to try it out now. Dominant Strategist AND Swift Killer on a twinned pair of Warlords in a Regia, the possibilities!
Legio Audax
We have clarification on how Audax’s ability to form squads between maniples works – if you have a “cross-maniple” squad, those Titans are permanently in that squad unless and until there is only one Titan remaining in the squad, at which point you can use the Lupercal’s rules if you’d like. The most likely way you’d use this would be to run a Canis maniple with 3 Warhounds, squad two of them, and then pair the third with a single Titan from another maniple, probably another Canis or, if you don’t have one, a full-strength Lupercal. This clarification is probably the easiest way to make this rule work, and while it’s not as cool as it could have been, it means there probably won’t be any more problems down the road.
Other Stuff
We’ve got clarifications on a few Doom of Molech strats. Titan Hunter Infantry tokens are removed when they’re activated or during the End phase, meaning you will no longer be able to conscript the entire population of the city you’re fighting in over the course of a game and will instead be limited to two shots with this stratagem per round.
Next, a clarification that probably didn’t need to be made: because strats are played before orders are issued, you can’t issue Emergency Repair orders and then use Vox Blackout to clear them.
Finally, it turns out Strafing Run is even more powerful than some players thought it was: while you do get void saves against it, hits into armor can benefit from the bonuses from attacking the flank or rear based on how the line for the stratagem is positioned on the table.
Bair’s Note: This Strafing Run strat clarification is HUGE. It was already a very powerful stratagem in my opinion, especially for those players with access to extra strat points to be able to take this and any another 2 cost strat together. However, with so many good strats out there now I’m not sure this is necessarily an auto take.
They’ve corrected their error in Shadow and Iron and added the Bypass trait, which works exactly as you’d expect – it means that weapon just ignores voids, giving us confirmation that you can start dragging down enemies with ursus claws without having to worry about voids.
It also turns out that the weapon cards in the Warlord-Sinister box were misprints, and they’ve been corrected to be consistent with the other Warlord weapons.
Charge orders and slam attacks for Knights are changed to be consistent with the rules for Household Forces in Doom of Molech, and Household Forces can take Titans as reinforcements. In addition, Household Knightly Qualities that gave re-roll 1s to hit with Melee weapons for a Seneschal’s Banner have been expanded to affect their entire Lance. Together with the changes to Acastus, Knight Household Forces are in a tougher spot, but being clearly allowed to take reinforcement Titans is a nice bonus.
Striding forward
All in all this is a good FAQ with a number necessary clarifications and addresses the elephant in the room, the Acastus support banner. Time will tell how much impact this has on Knight Household forces, who are often on the back foot to start with.
Soggy’s Note: RIP the guy who had 8 of them in his Knight Household Force at the Warhammer World event two weeks ago, even though he knew their days were short.
Bair’s Note: Really happy with all these clarifications and the couple of actual changes overall. Fortidus still a solid Legio just maybe with different Maniples than seen before. Vulcanum’s second trait now a little more useful. Acastus maybe didn’t need to be hit quite so hard but will need to be played with to see, I am looking forward to fielding a banner of two will alongside my Gryphonicus to help strip shields to keep Lust for Glory going as long as possible without feeling mean in friendlier games.
Whilst Titanicus is mostly played in a narrative environment, we are glad to see that GW is listening to community feedback and making changes to ensure that playing the game is fun for everyone. As always, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.
