Titanicus is Here

Literally twenty-odd minutes ago, Adeptus Titanicus arrived…

Two Warlord Titans, a building set, and the rules box – just in time for the weekend!

I am all about the playing with painted miniatures, as you know, so the Warlord Titan was the first set that I dived into – I am still aiming to get both of these bad boys built and painted up over the weekend…

No massive surprises in this set, and it all looks to be up to GW’s normal high standards. No weapon options, but we knew that going into this and, frankly, weapon packs are just going to give me the ‘need’ to collect more Warlords when they come around.

The instruction book makes construction look simple enough (should know whether that is the case by Saturday evening…), and they have added the usual paint scheme tips for five legions.

I was also sent this simple mission book for beginners.

Nicely enough done, and it basically walks you through your first battle with two Warlord titans.  It might get used, perhaps on Tuesday night when the club comes round.

However, once my Warlord-lust was sated, it was the rules set that held my attention. Note that this is not the Grandmaster’s set (that is coming next week), but the £35 everything-but-the-actual-miniatures set.

First impressions? This is very, very well put together. GW have pulled out all the stops in terms of quality of components, and it is packaged supremely well.

You also get a tad more in the box than you might first expect.

I had forgotten about the objectives sprue, and this is going to add more to build and paint over the weekend (the Warlords remain the priority though).

However, I dove right past the thick card boards and various card decks, and went straight for the rulebook.

Not the biggest book in the world (96 pages), but full colour throughout (obviously, these days), and hardback.

I have only briefly skimmed through the book, but it all seems rather glorious. The ‘intro to titans’ comes with these natty little tech sheets for all three basic titans (Warlord, Reaver, and Warhound), and this is followed by the now familiar ‘famous battles’ pages.

The bulk of the book is taken up not by fluff, though, but the rules. Which is a shame in one way, but it sounds like Forge World might work on full-blown campaign books. Which I will be all over.

It is going to be at least a week or two before I ‘properly’ dive into the rules themselves and get some games in (even with new games, you cannot played with unpainted models!), but there is much that is familiar here for people used to both the new 40k and the original Adeptus Titanicus (if it is set in the Heresy, should it not be Legio Titanicus? I digress…).

The rules are sprinkled with Designer’s Notes that are used to point things out or reinforce what the rules are trying to get across – a nice touch. The advanced rules add the likes of stratagems, terrain, overloading reactors and giving machine spirits a poke.Not usually a good idea.

The artwork is, as always, gorgeous, and the only complaint is that there is not more of it – only two Knight Households get the treatment shown above.

Titans, naturally, get more attention.

Adeptus Titanicus continues with the now-standard three modes of play for GW games – Open, Narrative, and Matched Play. Stratagems are also a thing, and to my mind make sense for war on this scale. With them you can do the usual outflanking and setting of traps, but the likes of long-ranged artillery and orbital strikes make a lot more sense in this game.

Narrative Play features six ‘historical’ battles, and if Adeptus Titanicus continues this sort of approach, I think I will be in it for the long haul.

 Matched Play, on the other hand, revolves (in this rulebook) around the ‘meeting engagement’ of the original rules, whereby both sides have random objectives which must be completed while the enemy attempts theirs – basically, you are each fighting your own scenario rather than both armies fighting the same scenario.

If you see what I mean.

Each Legio gets its own rules, which boil down to traits and wargear. What is going to set some people off (I just have a feeling) is that only two legions are included in this rulebook – Legio Gryphonicus and Legio Tempestus. Which blows big monkey, whichever way you look at it.

My soul had been prepared not to have legio-specific rules for Xestobiax, but missing out on Mortis? Really?

I am presuming that we are going to be getting supplementary material sooner rather than later.

That aside, I am liking what I am seeing up to now, but I am going to reserve further judgement until a) the first titans are built and painted, and b) I have actually had a game or three.

Expect pictures of painted titans and a battle report soon!