Welcome back to Goonhammer’s series for aspiring Titan Principes. We here at Goonhammer’s own Collegia Titanica know that Adeptus Titanicus can seem intimidating to players unfamiliar with its particular quirks, but this series aims to equip you with everything you’ll need to play out epic clashes on the battlefields of the far future with your very own Titan Battlegroup. In this series, we’ll be taking a more in-depth look at the various Legios of the Collegia Titanica – exploring their origins and how to use them on the tabletop, from maniple selection and their loadouts, through to how to command them on the field of battle to secure ultimate victory.
This week we’re taking at the aptly named Legio Infernus, the Fire Masters. If you’re a bit of a pyromaniac or a fan of making pledges to dark gods, this is the Legio for you.
Who are Legio Infernus?
Legio Infernus have a very long history – so long that they originally went by another name: Legio Suturvora. The Legio was originally founded just after the original three members of the Collegia Titanica, the Triad Ferrum Morgulus. During the original unification of Mars, in the spoils of war they were rewarded with a home inside the hollowed out Mons Sutura, one of the most remote areas of Holy Mars. It was from this new home they took their name. The isolation by the northern polar wastes led them to become separated from their peers in the Collegia Titanica.
With the Treaty of Mars, Suturvora were uplifted and allocated entirely to the fledgling Great Crusade. While on the Great Crusade, the legion earned the respect it never had on Mars, fighting alongside the majority of Space Marine Legions. It was over the course of these compliance actions that they gained the nickname Fire Masters from their allies. Over decades of razing countless worlds, the younger generations of Titan crews eventually came to identify with this new moniker more than with Sutura on distant Mars.
Their fierce devotion to the Omnissiah was easily leveraged by Fabricator General Kelbor-Hal to convince them turn their back on the Emperor and prepare for the Betrayal at Calth, where they were to crush Legio Praesigus.
Painting Legio Infernus
This week we have Alex (instagram: arch_reductor_antigonos) walk us through his paint scheme for his Legio Infernus.
I use a mix of Citadel and Vallejo, and Scale75 paints, and airbrushed most of the colours to get a nice even layer.
The paints I used are:
Games Workshop:
- Nuln Oil
- Agrax Earthshade
- Guilliman Blue (replace with Tallasar Blue and Contrast Medium mixed 1:2)
- Seraphim Sepia
- Carroburg Crimson
Vallejo:
- Pure Black
- Black Metal (air)
- Gun Metal Mecha
- Light Steel Mecha
- Heavy Red
- Gory Red
- Sun Yellow
- Hot Orange
- Phantom Grey
- Pale Blue
- Rust
- Light Grey Wash
- Desert Dust Wash
- Light Rust Wash
- Chipping Medium
- Matt Varnish
- Gloss Varnish
Scale 75:
- Old Copper
- Victorian Brass
- Decayed Metal
The stencil is from Anarchy Models.
Starting with the skeleton over a black primer airbrushed Black Metal (VJ) mixed 1:1 with Heavy Red. Next a layer airbrushed over with Gun Metal Mecha, Light Steel Mecha, and Hot Orange mixed 2:1:1 respectively. A final layer airbrushed with Gun Metal Mecha and Light Steel Mecha mixed 1:1. Metal details on the skeleton are picked out with a brush with Old Copper, Victorian Brass, and Light Steel Mecha wherever I liked. This then received an all over wash by brush of Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, and Carroburg Crimson mixed 2:2:1 respectively. Finally, a dry brush is applied of Light Steel and Aluminum to bring out the edges. All of this gives a nice dark skeleton with a subtle deep red hue.
The plasma vents on the back are painted with Pale Grey Blue followed by Guilliman Blue. After dry, apply Nihilakh Oxide followed by another wash with Guilliman Blue.
The armour plates are primed black and airbrushed over with Decayed Metal followed by Old Copper. Then with a layer of Rust and Light Rust Wash. After all of this, apply a layer of Chipping Medium so that paint over this can be picked away to reveal the rusty metal underneath.
The Flame Colours are next with the black being painted around the flames, this is so that the lighter colours could be airbrushed onto the plates. First is Gory Red Air, followed by Hot Orange and then a layer of Sun Yellow. Let this fully dry before applying the flame stencils and airbrushing Pure Black followed by a mix of Pure Black and Phantom Grey 1:2. For a mottled look, change the ratio of the Pure Black and Phantom Grey in spots. Remove the stencils and chip away at the surface to take the paint and chipping medium off in places to reveal the rusted look from before. After this seal with a mix of Matt Varnish and Gloss Varnish 1:1.
Armour Trim is based with Old Copper, washed with Seraphim Sepia, and highlighted with Victorian Brass.
Lastly the bases, these are resin bases which can be purchased from a seller on eBay and are painted with a black primer, mottled with Phantom Grey in areas, mottled further with Pale Blue and then washed in a mix of Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, and Seraphim Sepia 2:2:1 respectively. Drybrush over with Pale Blue and then weather with Light Grey Wash and Desert Wash.
Infernus in Adeptus Titanicus
Legio Infernus were introduced in the Shadow and Iron supplement where they would clash with Praesigus throughout the Shadow Crusade and the following Crusade of Iron.
Tactical Overview
Their first trait Masters of Flame applies to Firestorm weapons and gives you some more flexibility with placement of the flame template. Rather than having to touch your base, the start of the template can be within 2” of the weapon – giving you a 25% improved range. Not only does this improve the range it opens up some interesting use cases, such as shooting around friendlies or corners – just remember that both the start and center of the wide end must still be in your weapon’s firing arc. It’s a cute trick, but ultimately isn’t anything incredible.
Dark Blessing is their second trait and allows a corrupted Infernus titans to purchase 1 more mutation than normally allowed. Useful if you’re running lots of Warhounds or Reavers who don’t get many upgrades but overall it just becomes incredibly expensive. We talk about corruptions much more in depth here. If you really really want to lean into corruptions then do it but you’ll often be better off with just more Titans for the same cost you spent in upgrades.
You can turn up the heat further with their first item of wargear, Clinging Phosphex. This makes a Titan equipped with Inferno Guns perform extra war crimes via more collateral damage – targets after the first unit hit by the flamestorm template will take two hits instead of the usual one. At first, this may seem tricky to make the most of, but just by mind games alone it will make anyone with squadrons or maniples like the Regia or Fortidus reconsider standing adjacent to each other. Plus, combining this upgrade with the Masters of Flame trait makes lining up the extra hits more forgiving. Also: remember to play with destructible terrain for that collateral damage.
Soggy: At the time of writing, both of these only currently apply to the Warhound’s Inferno Gun. Personally, I’m not its biggest fan although if you’re playing the Masters of Flame it is completely rude not to use them to melt voids and Knight banners alike.
Bair: This is thematically a very cool upgrade, and melts Knight Households but generally isn’t something you want to be paying for.
Burned Ones lets you level the playing field, literally. For a single stratagem point during the strategy phase, you can remove a piece of Blocking Terrain within 12” of an Infernus Titan and replace it with Difficult Terrain of the same size. This lets you play some serious mind games as your opponent will be constantly wondering whether they’re going to be able to hide behind that building. It also denies melee knights the ability to hide in terrain as they close. And if that wasn’t enough, you can take it multiple times!
Soggy: The fact this is played during any combat phase and doesn’t explicitly say the start of it allows for some awesome ambushes. The ability to destroy terrain at will combined with the potent Inferno guns can make users of Knights reconsider their life choices.
When it comes to Princeps Seniores traits, the clear standout if you’re taking a Reaver is World Burner. It allows your Princeps Seniores to fire an inferno gun or melta cannon twice during its activation in the combat phase, gaining the Draining trait for the second attack. This is fantastic, allowing you to get in additional big hits from a Reaver in a Venator maniple to utterly cripple crucial targets with repeated melta cannon fire.
Condit: Think hard before taking this on a Warhound with an inferno gun – the additional heat from this trait could push you over the edge into orange lining with even one unlucky roll.
Butcher allows your Princeps Seniores to forgo any orders in exchange for getting the ability to re-roll all hit rolls of 1 until the end of round. As mentioned earlier, rerolls are hard to come by, making this a tempting offer – a solid boost to reliability in shooting without having to worry about penalties to orders, like being Corrupted, when you need them. On the right loadout this is incredibly powerful, looking at you Brawler Warlord.
Methodical allows your Princeps Seniores to give any other Titans in the maniple First Fire orders if they successfully pass it themselves, lining up for a solid turn of fire. This ability is only usable once per game and would need to be timed correctly. Situationally strong but not as much utility as the other two traits available, especially if you’re running Warhounds for inferno guns: a stationary Warhound is often as good as dead.
Maniple Choice
Whilst it may seem like sacrilege, you don’t have to take Inferno Guns with Legio Infernus. Although if you are taking Warhounds it is a bit rude not to, that said it is a bit harder to justify the expensive Clinging Phosphex wargear.
Some maniples we would have in mind when assembling an Infernus Battlegroup –
- Ferrox – Our usual go-to light maniple, the Knife Fighters trait pairs well with the use of Inferno Guns and Melta Cannons with their in-your-face playstyle.
- Venator – Send in the hounds to strip some shields and get some very good mileage on a World Burner Princeps Seniores with a Melta Cannon. Use Burned Ones to open up line of sight to surprise your opponent with melta shots when they least expect it.
- Arcus – Similar to the Venator, the hounds will go melt voids while a World Burner Warbringer with a melta devastates armour in the midfield. The indirect fire will ensure you can make the most of your World Burner Melta Cannon, and packing a quake cannon or a belicosa will let you add on some additional damage.
- Mandatum – A Butcher Brawler Warlord escorted by its hunting pack of hounds all with Dark Pledge will net an absurd amount of re-rolls. The Pack Master trait can also offset the leadership penalty on your order rolls.
With all that in mind, Bair wrote a 1500 point list this week, which takes advantage of the unique rules Legio Infernus offers. This thematic list is a literal blast to play and does its best work in close with your opponent.
Legio Infernus Battlegroup – 1745pts
Mandatum Maniple – 1055pts
Warlord Titan – 585pts
- Princeps Seniores – Butcher
- Paired Gatling Blasters
- Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
- Macro-Gatling Blaster
- Mutations – Preternatural Grace, Preternatural Regeneration
- Upgrades – Tracking Gyroscopes
Warhound Titan – 235pts
- Plasma Blastgun
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Mutations – Frozen Soul
Warhound Titan – 235pts
- Plasma Blastgun
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Mutations – Frozen Soul
Lupercal Maniple – 690pts
Warhound Titan – 230pts
- Princeps Seniores – World Burner
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Inferno Gun
- Mutations – Preternatural Grace
Warhound Titan – 230pts
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Inferno Gun
- Mutations – Preternatural Grace
Warhound Titan – 230pts
- Vulcan Megabolter
- Inferno Gun
- Mutations – Preternatural Grace
List thoughts:
This week we wanted to play a bit into the “Fire Masters” theme, so we gave the Warhounds in the Lupercal maniple an inferno gun each.
This list wants to close the gap quickly. With most guns being shorter than 24” range and those inferno guns having an effective 10″ range you’ll need to sprint across the table. That’s why we’ve given those inferno gun toting Warhounds Preternatural Grace: it keeps them moving at their full speed without any worries of pushing their reactors. Their Princeps Seniores will not be using World Burner every single turn (probably?) but in the right situations when you’re able to get a flanking shot with its Inferno gun on an enemy Titan as part of a coordinated shot it’ll be hitting at an effective S9, or even higher depending on body damage, without the chance of missing. That’s when you’ll want to fire it again if your target isn’t dead.
The Mandatum is a personal favourite maniple, mixing the high speed and shield stripping of Warhounds and the heavy hitting firepower of a Warlord while keeping the Warhounds on orders more often and making their weapons more accurate as you close the gap. The Warlord is your main damage dealer here which is why we’ve kitted it out with Preternatural Regeneration to help get its shields back up each turn easier and its reactor cooler; Grace helps it keep speed with the Warhounds to make better use of the maniple’s +1 to hit bonus. The Mandatum Warhounds are going to need to be in the front of the fight so should be squadroned to share shields, push reactors for shields to keep them up, and then will have 2 extra repair dice to vent their (likely very hot) reactors in damage control thanks to Frozen Soul. Also useful if you get unlucky and roll 1’s on your plasma blastguns when maximal firing. The Warlord doesn’t need orders as it’ll be using its Butcher trait most turns for re-rolls instead making it a real murder machine so doesn’t care about its -2 to command checks.
As far as stratagems go, you’ll probably want to choose Burned Ones at least once to be able to remove a piece of terrain to be able to hit an enemy hard after using it to cover yourself a bit. Consider using it to open up firing lanes for your World Burner Reaver when your opponent least expects it. Otherwise, other stratagems that will let you close into effective range such as Concealment Barrage and Warp Displacement are very good contenders that will let you bring this powerful mid-ranged firepower to bear early and often. Your Warlord would really love to have Overcharged Cannon on its plasma, to really make sure you’re removing what its hitting.
Playing against Infernus
Infernus will punish you up close with their affinity for melta cannons and inferno cannons. Don’t let this happen and consider making use of longer ranged loadouts or quake cannons to slow the advance. Slowing down the Titans with quake and taking out their Princeps Seniores from a distance before they’re able to fire melta cannons too many times will change the game drastically. Don’t rely on any piece of cover too much since it can just be removed with Burned Ones. Use First Fire and Split Fire orders to whittle them down as much as possible before they can get in. If you find them closing on you, try to avoid bunching up so they can’t use those template weapons to hit more than one of your Titans at once.
Need a light?
The Fire Masters rules are oozing with theme, allowing you to reduce both your opponent and the battlefield to mere ashes. If that wasn’t enough, you also get easy access to re-rolls along with some solid Princeps Seniores traits. Get in close with your opponent and make them feel the heat.
