GOD ENGINES

So this is a bit of a sneaky project that, if you've seen Pooch's blog from last week and my swathe of waterslides, you might have figured out that we've been working on. Over this year, I might have built and painted a bit more than the Cerastus Knights and a single Warhound Titan for the Apocalypse stupid.

I might have done a whole bunch in fact, including 3 Reaver Titans and a Warlord Titan, all armed like they are ready to hit things in the manner of any kind of Khornate worshipper, God Engine or otherwise!

The God Engines of Legio Vulpa

For completeness' sake, the three Banners of knights of House Hyboras who will accompany my titans into combat:

Cerastus and Questoris Knights

Gaming?

So having painted a whole bunch of God Engines, we could hardly not get them out for a run. Blogger Pooch and I ran our Warlords and Blogger Tank brought out his....Ordo Sinister Psi-titan.

The Psi-titan gave me quite the hiding in the first couple of turns, nearly tearing off one of my legs, so I ducked and weaved away and it went off to go and chase the Legio Astorum Warlord. This gave me the wiggle room to cross the board. Pooch did a fair whack of damage in a firefight with the Psi-titan and then my Warlord arrived and the resulting combat round ended thus: 

Mors Aerea tears off the Psi-titan's head!

 After that, I ran my Warlord down the long table to try and engage Pooch's Warlord. I almost succeeded until my Voids failed and Pooch's Mori Quake Cannon damaged my stabilisers. That spun my poor Warlord around 180-degrees and got him shot repeatedly in the back:

Right before Mors Aerea was shot to bits

 Pooch and I went on to play a second game, 3 Reavers vs. a Nemesis Warbringer and 3 Warhounds, and it was....less destructive than we thought - I damaged two Warhounds and Pooch destroyed one Reaver. Here's a couple of pics just to whet your appetite for more competent Titanicus in 2021: 

Pooch's insanely quick Warhound, right before it ran straight past my Reaver

One of my Reavers engages a Warhound, only to have his chainfist shot off!

 We got a sense of how nimble Pooch's titans are, but at the cost to their reactors (two of his Warhounds overloaded his shields more than once!) and a Reaver, even with only one functioning weapon system, can still do a lot of damage. 

  Thoughts? 

It's a really cool game. Pooch and I both went through the rules afterward and realised how many things we got wrong (no surprises in the first playthrough) and how those would have improved the experience no end. It's definitely easier to learn the game once you have some experience to hang the rules on.

I really like the Titan command terminals, the order mechanics are fascinating (that there is a genuine benefit to not giving your Titans orders) and I enjoy how challenging it is to respond to your opponent  given the movement and firing arc limitations, especially on the bigger titans. It's also got a really interesting turn sequence that is integral to the tactical decision making. Terrain matters and line of sight and good positioning are really valuable. Ranged attacks seem well balanced against the incredibly destructive capacity that Titans have in close quarters. I also like that there's nothing to stop you firing while engaged in close combat, just using a lower skill. There's a lot of nice flavour differences between the Traitor and Loyalist sides as well as the different Legios and the titan formation choice tacks on some tactical benefits.  

Dislikes? Only one really. GWs seeming pleasure in it's boxed games (at least in AT and Necromunda) of separating core rules and advanced rules and then not providing a rulebook index. That's a real pain. I get the reason for separating them out for accessibility's sake but jeez it's a pain for experienced gamer. 

I have high hopes that there'll be some more Titans in future. There are enough rules that exist and no models to use them that presages some neat stuff. I really really would love (we're firmly in "shut up and take my money" territory here) a Banelord upgrade kit for the Warlord.

Ghosties

I have been doing a bit of work moving the Ghostie project towards completion. I've got the last 16 models to go to finish up the army and am currently exploring some options for some contrasting basing. In the meantime: 

 

These are my Large Cavalry, the Dreadblade Harrows in GW-land, Soulflayers in Kings of War.  They were a lot of fun to do and I learned a bunch of lessons from doing the Knight of Shrouds about making sure I could paint the interiors successfully before assembly. These were GW Easy-builds and they're held together by paint and plastic putty! Amazing.

Next Time

A bit more workbenching I suspect and a preview of what's on the blocks for 2021. I've got a couple of Christmas projects that I want to have done before the end of the break as well so will be getting into those before I head back to work in Jan.