It has been along time but I have finally got another game in that was worth writing about, and not because I won. But, because it was a fun game with some useful observations that I wish to write down, and I got some pictures.
My friend and I decided to play a 1500 point game. It was a basic game with no scenario or special skills for princeps or legions. My list was chosen based on the warlord weapon sprue I got in the mail recently, giving me a Titanic Power Glove and Sunfury Plasma Annihilators. As well as my kit bashed Gatling Blaster that I am quite happy with. My maniple was two warlords, a Reaver, and a few knights. One Warlord was going to be the fire support, equipped with carapace missiles, Volcano Cannon, and Sunfury and the other warlord was the assault titan with the power glove, Gatling Blaster and carapace mounted Turbo Lasers.
The support titan is, in my mind, the work horse titan of this maniple. It will sit on the edge of the board firing all of its guns, hopefully out of range of the enemy titans. The banner of knights was also going to hang around this titan and provide a bit of a screen if enemy skirmishers got to close. It was given an oath banner to improve the resolve of the knights and the tracking gyros for the missiles so that they had a better arcs, because first fire orders don't let you turn...
The other warlord was the core of the assault force. This one was going to stomp down the middle of the board with a Reaver in support and hopefully get a chance to charge something it could crush with its glove. The power glove is very strong but since the warlord is so slow it can easily be avoided. I also gave this titan the Turbo Lasers and the Gatling Blaster, I don't know what it is but Gatling Blasters are my favourite weapon. They are kind of jack-of-all trades, but when enemy titans start taking damage and their armour weakens the number of dice with each shot from the Macro Gatling allows you to effectively aim your shots for a killing blow. I also gave this titan the Bastion of Shielding as I was anticipating this one to be the priority target of my enemy.
The Reaver would follow in close support and hopefully not be the enemies priority target. It had a Melta Cannon, Reaver Gatling, and Turbo Lasers, this load-out put is a general purpose load out giving it a preferred engagement range between 8 and 24 inches.
My opponent took his newest model, a Warmaster with Plasma Destructors. This titan is monstrous. Despite having almost zero flexibility in the load-out the standard weapons are devastating and the titan's toughness is impressive (at least on paper). The enemy force also had an expensive nemesis with the Quake, Volcano, and Melta Cannon. The Reaver had a power fist, carapace Turbo Lasers and Melta, clearly this one was going to be his assault force.
The deployment saw my opponent concentrate his forces in the centre and I split my forces to set up a flanking
Turn One. Too Much First Fire. In the first turn my opponent's Reaver moved aggressively towards my support Warlord and my assault force moved slowly towards his titans concentrating their firing arcs on the Nemesis. The other Titans all had first fire orders. Unfortunately since I had more units to activate and was activating second, once his Warmaster had orders I was able to move out of arc/range of the Warmaster's missiles and cannons. The firing this turn had voids on either side get knocked down but no major damage.
Turn Two 2 Focused Fire Kills the Reaver. While there was a bitter exchange on one side of the table, with the Nemesis and the Reaver collapsing their void shields and some damage getting through the big fight was on the other side. Unfortunately my opponent's Reaver (The blue one) did not have sufficient fire power to damage the Warlord and the combined fire of the warlord and knights, over two turns, was enough to destroy the Reaver only loosing one knight in the exchange. In hindsight The Reaver's load-out was too specialized to be operating independently and it was likely doomed the moment it set out across the city unsupported, even if the dice didn't help.
Turn Three. Nemesis and my Reaver die. In this turn both the Nemisis and my Reaver were destroyed in the firefight on the other side of the city. My Reaver was obliterated by the shear power of the Warmaster and his Nemesis fell to the targeted shots of the Macro Gatling Blaster and Turbo Lasers against the Nemesis's damaged leg My support titan was able to turn and provide missile support as well as some good void saves meant that my assault warlord was unscathed. The two remaining knights in the banner were also able to get to 9” from the Warmaster, perfect for charging.
Turn Four. Charge!! Charges in Adeptus Titanicus are devastating, if they get within 2 inches, not only does one melee attack happen in the movement phase and by pass voids they also get one more attack dice for each 3 inches of moment the titan makes. Also, the Warmaster stood still and took First Fire orders, in hindsight stepping backwards so my warlord could not reach and so that the knights didn't charge as far would probably have been a better choice. However, the Warmaster chose first fire, and did get a shot with the Plasma Destructor, it collapsed the Warlords void shields but that wasn't enough to stop the warlord getting it's fist in the Warmaster's face and allowed the knights to make a text book charge to the rear of the titan. The combined might of the power fist, knight melee weapons and the extra attacks for the charge distance all targeting the Warmaster's head were sufficient to kill the Warmaster before the end of the movement phase, and that was that.
Conclusion
Concentrating then diverging your forces is not as effective and as splitting and then converging your forces, the later requires thought and good timing. I was able to achieve an over-match on one side of the city and on the other I got lucky due to range and arc miscalculations, as well as dice. I think if the Nemesis had been supporting my opponents Reaver and the Warmaster blasted away at my assault titan from a safe distance the battle would have gone the other way.
Servitors are always busy. In my limited experience with this game it seems your servitors will always be busy venting plasma and repairing damage. Anything you can take to help these mechanics out will pay dividends in the battle, like Bastion of Shielding.
Carapace weapons have crummy arcs and poor short range engagement. I think the tracking gyros are a must include even if they pretty much double the cost of the weapons.
Firing sequence depends on if the target is shielded or not. With shields you fire from low strength to high strength and when shields are down you fire from high strength to low strength.
I think the to hit modifiers for cover in Adeptus Titanicus need a review. A half obscured Warmaster is more difficult to hit then three knights bounding across the field even though half a Warmaster presents a much larger target. They probably need something like if you can see less than a 20mm stand worth of the model it is -2...
Oh and knights are annoying, don't forget about them. Thanks for reading, I need to paint some scenery :(
