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’ve got another throw down between Bair and Condit, this time with Bair’s Mordaxis against Condit’s…Honorum? Read on to see who can take home the win in this week’s game.
Table of Contents
Lists
Bair’s Mordaxis Arcus
The idea behind this list is similar to what we talked about in the Mordaxis Legion focus about making the most out of the Toxin Node upgrade on the Warbringer couple with firing out of line of sight and only scattering D6” as long as at least Warhound from the maniple could see the enemy target, and this definitely worked as well as I had thought it would. Toxin Nodes decreases the Strength of the weapon by 1 but turns a 3” blast into a 5” blast, meaning the Warbinger is throwing out 3 large blast templates per turn while being able to stay further back than it would be able to, since it doesn’t need to worry about line of sight as much. I would have happily taken a plasma blastgun on the third Warhound in place of the laser destructor, but did not want to change the weapons on any of the other Titans. The Warlord is armed as your standard Brawler-lord but with Apocalypse Launchers to save on points, and to be able to work at a further distance with Mordaxis’ limited movement. To help with this though, I took Experimental Locomotors which allows the Warlord to use its boosted movement speed without the need to push its reactor, allowing it to move 6” and keep up better than it would have otherwise. The Warlord was also upgraded with Overcharged Cannon to help hit more Critical Damage for the Macro Gatling to follow up with called shots for further damage, and maybe an engine kill on smaller Titans. The other stratagems I chose were Last Ditch Effort to be able to choose the direction of a friendly falling Titan, which is as much to avoid taking damage than it is to maybe be able to cause some damage in death; lastly I took Vox Blackout, which is always a good strat to have in the back pocket to deny an Emergency Repair, or stop a crucial charge turn.
The Knights were slotted in last, with spare points, and I chose the Lancers over Styrix for their durability and speed, as well as being able to hit harder on a nicely set up charge order if they don’t die before that happens.
Warbringer-Nemesis Battle Titan
- Mori Quake Cannon
- Volcano Cannon
- Volcano Cannon
- Toxin Nodes
- Princeps Seniores- Devoted Servant of the Machine
Warhound Scout Titan
- Plasma Blastgun
- Vulcan Mega Bolter
- Toxin Nodes
Warhound Scout Titan
- Plasma Blastgun
- Vulcan Mega Bolter
- Toxin Nodes
Warhound Scout Titan
- Vulcan Mega-Bolter
- Turbo-Laser Destructor
Titan Support
Warlord Battle Titan
- Apocalypse Missile Launchers
- Macro Gatling Cannon
- Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
Knight Support
Cerastus Knight Banner
- 2 Knights Lancer
Condit’s Legio Honorum Fortis
If you’ve seen any of my previous batreps, you know that I really just love to hit stuff with melee Titans. However, I usually do this with Legio Vulpa, and decided I wanted to try something different. Honorum is a loyalist legion with a nice set of rules that rewards me for moving forward, gives me consistent orders when I need them, and lets me build the high-scale list of my dreams. I built this on a Fortis to take advantage of the large void shield tracks on all of my engines as I cross the board. I can pair up the Warlords to have a nearly impossible to crack mid- to close-range threat, and can use the Reaver to support the Warbringer at midfield.
Warlord Battle Titan
- Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
- Macro-Gatling Blaster
- Arioch Titan Power Claw
- Basilius Throne
- Princeps: Dominant Strategist
Warlord Battle Titan
- Sunfury Plasma Annihilator
- Macro-Gatling Blaster
- Paired Gatling Blasters
Reaver Battle Titan
- Melta Cannon
- Gatling Blaster
- Vulcan Mega-Bolter
Warbringer Battle Titan
- Gatling Blaster
- Melta Cannon
- Belicosa Volcano Cannon
The Mission
We played an Open Engine War game, and drew the following cards:
- Confrontation
- Conquest
- Arctic World
- Corrosive Haze
Condit: This will play directly to my strengths, rewarding me for crossing the board and giving me plenty of heat to work with, but making it near impossible to recover from damage once it’s inflicted. If I’m smart about how I play, I could really get some mileage out of this with the number of high-strength openers I’ve got on hand.
I drew Preserve the Past and Seize the Quadrants for my secondary choices. I chose Seize the Quadrants, as my Princeps wants to get stuck in, so it’s a risk I’m not sure I’m willing to take.
Bair: The cards definitely felt stacked against me, without being able to push for movement or manoeuvres the Arctic World trait will help with the Warbringer’s reactor a bit, but Mordaxis isn’t a Legio that struggles with reactor management.
My secondary I to play was Preserve the Past and with my Princeps being a backfield Warbringer against a lot of heavier, slower, engines I decided this was a better call than Plant the Standard, which would require a smaller Titan to get across the table and not die.
Round 1
Condit: The plan here is straightforward: move the Warlords up the board aggressively while the Warbringer and Reaver advance a little more slowly and chuck some hate downrange. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out how I wanted. The Warlords got pretty far up the board, but Bair focused on my other Titans, shredding their voids and putting me in a tight spot.
Bair: I needed to start getting the shorter shield-stripping guns in range so that the backfield Warbringer can put down the hurt, until then it’s just a few blast templates knocking off a shield here or there. The Warlord and Warbringer both took a First Fire order to start stripping the shields off of the Warbringer/Reaver duo down field. In the end phase I also rolled a 1 for Experimental Locomotors, losing the Warlord its extra speed as well as dealing a devastating hit to its legs.
Round 2
Condit: The Warhounds moved up aggressively, but I was able to keep my Reaver and Warbringer alive and actually destroyed one of the Warhounds. Bair continued to pour fire into my Reaver and Warbringer (probably largely because the Warlords were out of sight behind cover), and actually managed to get some damage through. Not ideal.
Bair: The Warlord advanced behind the pair of Warhounds, which scampered off trying to duck under carapace-scale range of the Reaver and Warbringer, to bring its arm weapons to bear and start laying down some damage. The Warbringer took to cover where it would mostly remain for the battle, importantly scoring me secondary points if it could remain alive.
Round 3
Condit: Round 3 saw me swinging my Warlords around, moving to bring his remaining Warhounds into arc. I focused down the Knights, then set about tearing down his remaining plasma Warhound. At this point, the damage on my Reaver and Warbringer started to reach critical levels, so I made a note to start the process of separating them in the hopes that whichever one he killed wouldn’t cook off and take out the other. Meanwhile, his Warlord and Warbringer continued to chuck hate downrange while being completely untouched.
Bair: The Warlord was in a good position, so did not need to move closer to enemy fire. The enemy Warlords were becoming an issue and the Warbringer and Reaver just would not die fast enough, the Fortis’ ability to share shields is definitely the winning part of that maniple, being able to shrug off shots much longer than normal is no joke. I’ll need to get my Warlord facing the closer of the two though soon so that I can hope to remove it before it becomes an issue with victory points. It does look like the Honorum Reaver and Warbringer will be pinned where they are for a bit so they shouldn’t be getting their trait for taking less damage from the front when moving any time soon.
Round 4
Condit: OK. Time to make a break for it. I need to get across the board to score the primary and deny him points from the same. I tried to move the Warbringer and Reaver up at the same time as I pushed the Warlords across the board. Unfortunately, he was able to take down my Reaver, which exploded, dealing some additional damage to the Warbringer. Again, not ideal.
Fortunately, my claw Warlord got a charge off and casually removed the remaining Warhound from the board, and my other Warlord moved into the gap between the closest buildings in an effort to maintain some cover as it advanced.
Bair: When Clawlords do hit they are no joke, and when you’re able to get them in a position to hit like this it’s insane, will always just remove something from the table.
Condit: And this turn looked so good. I tried to push across to take out Bair’s remaining Titans, but he was able to score a kill on my Warbringer. The claw Warlord continued its advance, but the other Warlord started taking some serious damage. Fortunately, in order to try to finish me off, he moved his Warlord within range of my power claw. Next turn will be decisive.
Bair: Re: moving Warlord- mistake mistake mistake mistake mistake.
Round 5
Condit: Aaaaaaaaand that’s all she wrote. The claw Warlord’s charge was successful, getting rid of Bair’s Warlord. Unfortunately, his Warbringer was able to remove my other Warlord, preventing me from scoring my secondary as I was no longer in enough quarters of the board. And while I did score my tertiary objective, Bair was able to get all 10 points from his secondary, giving him a narrow 5-point lead for the win at 15-10.
Bair: Corrosive Haze really helped me out here killing that Warlord too, making up for the -1S on the Volcano Cannons from Toxin Nodes since the Warlord had already taken damage and I was very very fortunate to roll the same Location each time on those blast weapons, something that’s not usually that fun to rely on but worked out for me. This was a silly close game for sure and very enjoyable. Early on I really thought I was in trouble without being able to bring down the Warbringer and Reaver nearly early enough.
Wrapping Up
The Open Engine War cards definitely make for more interesting games than the Rulebook Matched Play missions and the battlefield effects always have fun interactions on the game. Condit really keeps trying to make Clawlords work, and it’s just a little upsetting when they actually do work, that weapon is no joke when it hits. Mordaxis are something to keep trying too in different configurations, the Arcus plays to a lot of their strengths, but relies very heavily on the Warhounds being alive. Honorum were fantastic to see on the table and in a Fortis are a massive pain to remove as long as they can keep moving a little each turn. A very close game in the end and always a pleasure to get to roll some dice!
