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 looking at Legio Krytos “God Breakers”, who do not do subtlety at all and favour the overwhelming firepower of Warlord Titans to completely annihilate everything before them.
Who are Legio Krytos?
The God Breakers weren’t shy about excessive force and the resulting collateral damage during the Great Crusade. They were specialists in siege warfare and were often supported by the Iron Warriors in their conquests, leaving behind countless scores of devastated worlds. The most notable being Tallarn, which was a verdant agri-world before the largest armoured battle of the Horus Heresy turned it into a barren desert.
Painting Legio Krytos
We asked our friend Serotonin (@amrypooins) for his method for painting up his Legio Krytos battlegroup which nails that minty green finish.
I instantly fell in love when I saw some titans previewed at a Warhammer World day painted in an unusual shade of light green. I learned these were Legio Krytos and went about looking for the quickest and simplest way to replicate it. I loved the fact that these traitorous evilTitans weren’t in the usual chaos aligned colours of reds and blacks. I have to admit to being slightly disappointed when the more ‘official’ colour scheme, a much more conventional, darker green, was released in the Titan Death supplement. Personally I think the preview colour scheme I have tried to replicate is striking and quite unique.
I use a variety of brands of paint, usually so I can avoid mixing too many, and so I can use ones that are easier to put through my airbrush and don’t need as much thinning. I tend to paint the armour plates on the sprue with an airbrush but pre assemble the ‘skeleton’ of the titan.
There’s nothing interesting about my skeleton recipe: its the usual black base colour, then zenithal painted with Vallejo Model Air Gunmetal and Vallejo Model Air Steel, washed with nuln oil and dry brushed.
For the green areas of the armour I used a base colour of Vallejo Model Air Greyish Blue. Don’t be deceived, it’s much closer to a pale green than a blue. When airbrushing I first basecoat with a 70/30 mix of Greyish Blue and Vallejo Model Colour German Dark Green. I then highlight up through to a final highlight of about 50/50 Greyish Blue and white.
My white recipe is a base coat of Vallejo Model Air Light Grey highlighted progressively up to pure white. It’s nice and easy to achieve a good crisp white colour this way.
I seal my armour with a gloss varnish ( I use Joshnson’s Klear floor polish) and then pin wash with Nuln Oil Gloss. I can then go back and touch up any runs or smudges of Nuln Oil with a light brush of isopropyl alcohol. The gloss coat protects the paint beneath and as long as you don’t overload the brush with isopropyl or scrub too hard, it’s a very effective technique.
The trim is Vallejo Game Colour Glorious Gold, washed with Agrax Earthshade and edge highlighted with Citadel Liberator Gold.
Krytos in Adeptus Titanicus
If you’re new here then this won’t mean too much to you, but if you’ve been around for a bit then you’ll remember that Krytos were not exactly the best Legio to pick and were very probably the absolute worst for a while. The good news is that that’s changed massively with the introduction of the Traitor Legios book.
They’re a Legio that focuses on big engines putting out devastating firepower and slowing the enemy down to keep them at bay. If you like Warlords and Warbringers then this is definitely the Legio for you.
Tactical Overview
Doom of Worlds allows you to substitute Titans into different maniples and the Titans you can do that with depends on which maniple you choose. If you’re running a Myrmidon or an Axiom then you can take a Warlord in place a mandatory Reaver. If it’s a Regia or a Precept then you can take a Warbringer in place of a Mandatory Warhound and when it’s taken in a Regia it can merge shields with other Warhounds in the maniple as if it was a King or Queen. While still a bit limiting it definitely opens up more options than before and no other Legio interacts with the Regia like this.
Civilisation’s Ruin is maybe one of the best new stratagems in the game, up there with Tritonis’ Stygian Veil. It’s not cheap at 3SP but you get to use it in any strategy phase and any enemy hit by a weapon with the Quake trait, even if they have active voids, suffer the effects of the Quake. You can’t use it on Titans that take the Split Fire order so you can’t sit back with a Warlord with 2 quake cannons and hit two units however you can go on First Fire order and do the same thing. This is incredible. Use this with the right list built around it with quake cannons and earthbreaker missiles and you’ll half-move the entire enemy force in the first turn without issue.
Destroyers of Cities is their other stratagem but costing only 1SP and gives your Titans +2S to all weapons when targeting terrain. Also all of your Krytos engines will subtract 2 from the strength caused by any Dangerous terrain as well. This could pair very nicely with their first strat to clear buildings in the way AND slowing the enemy advance in the same turn but then only leaves you (usually) with 1 stratagem point left.
Earthbreaker Missiles are an upgrade to your Apocalypse Missile Launchers, costing 15 points on a Reaver or 25 on a Warlord. Instead of firing the launcher normally, you can instead opt to give it the Quake trait and add 5 to it’s strength while targeting terrain but dramatically reduce its number of shots (to 2 for a Reaver or 4 for a Warlord). This upgrade has some great utility, keeping your Apocalypse Missile Launchers relevant once a Titan has lost it’s voids or if you want a good chance at destroying some terrain before firing with your big guns. It pairs extremely well with both stratagems so is worth looking at upgrading whenever possible.
Condit: Quake is a cool trait, but to get the most mileage out of this you’ll need clever positioning and liberal use of the Split Fire order. It can also be used to give you another source of Quake on a Warlord that’s not packing a quake cannon, so keep that in mind. Being able to cut down the movement of 2-3 Titans per turn is useful and will help you funnel your targets into overlapping arcs of fire where you can cut them down.
Legio Krytos have three personal traits at their disposal, but none of them are particularly inspiring. Look at Swift Killer to ensure you don’t get outflanked with your number activations, especially if you’re going for a “heavy metal” maniple of three Warlords.
Godlike Contempt allows the Princeps Seniores to issue an order to their Titan even if another Titan or Knight banner has failed one previously. Useful pretty much all of the time, it means you can attempt orders with other units first and still always get to order your Princeps. It might not be a better pick than Iron-Clad Tyrant for normal Titans but for Corrupted Titans which don’t have access to that trait its fantastic.
With World Bane, any Blocking terrain destroyed by the Princeps Seniores becomes dangerous terrain if it wasn’t already. This allows you to level the table to give your Maniple line of sight, but at the same time not give your opponent an shortcut to close in. If you like destroying terrain, this is cool, but you’re probably better off with a different trait.
Bair: This could be fun in narrative missions/events depending on the objective – at one event I went to, a mission called for the Loyalists to cross the board to score points with more titans coming on from their own board edge whenever one died. This could actually help to slow them down after knocking out that piece of blocking terrain that a Warhound was going to hide behind.
Path of Iron allows the Princeps to make a single smash attack during the movement phase against anything that’s a smaller scale than itself and allows it to completely step over Scale 3 or lower units provided that it’s base can completely clear the enemies bases. Sounds kind of weird, but keep in mind that if you used your legion trait, you’ve got a very low model-count army, so every attack you’re allowed to make helps. An extra S9 attack from a Reaver hitting on a 4+ can be the difference between killing an enemy or not, and if it’s on a charge order is in addition to the normal charge attacks as well.
We haven’t made much mention of the Titans of Legend in this series, but the Hammer of Tyrants is a fantastic unique God-Engine complement to your forces. Equipped with a Sunfury, Bellicosa and Carapace of your choice, it does not suffer from rolling 1s when using its Sunfury’s Maximal Fire trait, letting you pile strength 10+ shots into any target whose shields you manage to collapse. In addition, the first time it lands a Critical Hit it’s reactor goes back to the first hole. This Warlord embodies the Godbreakers’ affinity for excessive firepower, and quite honestly might be the best thing Krytos have going for them.
Maniple Choice
Unlike other Legios, Legio Krytos’ traits don’t particularly align with any maniples aside from the Doom of Worlds trait, so we’ll mostly look into that. You could look at a Fortis or Regia maniple and still do an OK job of flattening terrain, but you give up the ability to take that third Warlord.
This completely changes the game for you, as you will really have to deploy well to ensure that your fire lanes won’t be denied and that you can score some quick kills to nullify your opponent’s activation advantage. Fortunately, between your legion-specific stratagems, the Warlords’ overwhelming firepower, and the Myrmidon’s ability to reliably get Split Fire and First Fire orders, you’ll be able to clear out firing lanes and lay down serious firepower wherever it’s needed.
With all that in mind, let’s take a look at a 1750 point list which just fits the Doom of Worlds. Triple Warlords isn’t for the faint of heart, but with some clever play (and a little luck) you will stand alone astride the wreckage of your opponent’s engines strewn across a smoldering hellscape of your own creation.
Legio Krytos Battlegroup – 1750pts
Regia Maniple – 1750pts
Warlord Titan – 455 pts
- Princeps Senioris – Swift Killer
- Macro Gatling Blaster
- Paired Gatling blasters
- Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
Warlord Titan – 455 pts
- Mori Quake Cannon
- Mori Quake Cannon
- Apocalypse Missile Launchers – Earthbreaker Missiles
Nemesis Warbringer – 420 pts
- Mori Quake Cannon
- Melta Cannon
- Gatling Blaster
- Upgrade: Tracking Gyroscopes
Warhound Titan – 210 pts
- Vulcan Mega-Bolter
- Turbo Laser Destructor
Warhound Titan – 210 pts
- Vulcan Mega-Bolter
- Turbo Laser Destructor
This list goes in hard on the bit and anyone wanting to go in hard on Krytos this is for you.
This is one of those times where we probably recommend deploying the Warhounds as individuals and not squadroning up because their main role in this list is to act as ablative shield batteries for your bigger titans. They’ll be useful though as well for shield stripping and finishing shots with their mega-bolters.
The Warlords both take on fire support roles but they want to be on First Fire orders in the first turn and make extensive use of the Civilisation’s Ruin stratagem so that you’re quaking upwards of 6 units in the first turn even while they have shields up. Throughout the game they’ll be able to go on Split Fire orders to keep multiple enemies that are found shield-less with half move as well.
The Warbringer takes on a bit of a strange role, we only had enough points for one of the bigger engines to have Tracking Gyroscopes so decided on it for the Warbringer to be able to get up close and personal to make better use of its shorter ranged arm weapons.
From a stratagem perspective think about what other stratagems complement the table and scenario you are facing, Warp Displacement can be a godsend when playing Retrieval or Vital Cargo. Concealment Barrage when you have so few units can be a saviour too at the right time when you’re about to take a beating down a corridor and need to spend the turn healing up instead of putting out your own hurt instead and is cheap enough to take just about all of the time.
Playing against Krytos
Krytos aren’t going to be shy about destroying terrain you try to hide behind, so let them. Every shot they take at a building is one they didn’t take at once of your Titans, and once it’s down you’ll have clear line of sight at whatever Titans killed it. If you don’t give them a good target, don’t expect that to last long, and plan your deployment and movement so you can take advantage of it as well. Just keep in mind that destroyed terrain leaves behind difficult terrain, so advancing straight through it is slower than normal.
Spread your targets out across the board, even if they’re behind cover. Krytos players are going to be tempted to go triple Warlord, and even if they don’t, Warlords and Warbringers are the best platforms to destroy terrain. Both of those large chassis have corridor-arc carapace weapons, which makes them easier to dodge. Plus, if you can force your opponent to issue Split Fire orders, then they won’t be issuing First Fire, which will cut down on the number of weapons firing at you every turn significantly. Finally, those Titans’ big guns with 5” blast templates mean that grouping up is only giving up free hits.
Raze Them to the Ground
Whilst they might not be as strong rules-wise compared to other members of the Collegia Titanica, Legio Krytos still have some fun, thematic rules with one of the best liveries in the setting. Embrace it, go full tilt and set the worlds ablaze.
