Legio Infernus

TL;DR – Why I made them. If you just want to view pictures of the force, they are after a wall-o-text so feel free to skip to the bottom.

A few months ago, I purchased a ticket to what would be my third Adeptus Titanicus gaming event, Twisted Titanicus, in Leighton Buzzard.

I knew I could have played any maniple I chose – IF I were to play as Mortis, which was becoming less and less appealing.

I went to and fro with various ideas – which is how Legio Solaria and Legio Fureans first got started and stalled – but nothing was sticking with me. Nothing felt ‘right’ for the event.

I now had a dozen Warhounds and a full Corsair maniple – all in various states of assembly – along with an eye-wateringly large box of spares and rescue-projects I had been picking up from Ebay! The fact remained, I had made no progress on deciding what I would actually use – then I had an idea, a particularly devilish one; What if I were to use one of the three lowest rated and regarded maniples in currently in the game and actually try to make a go of it?

I asked around on the Maximal Fire discord (probably the best place to talk about all things titans) and looked online and confirmed the consensus for the three ‘worst’ maniples were:

Dominus

Janisary

Ignis Light

I wasn’t feeling Dominus or Janisary, but Ignus… the imagery of flamers at the titan-scale intrigued me and I had long lamented the lack of the weapons ever seeing any table-time – owing to a high points cost and pretty bad results for said cost. BUT, with +1 dice on all firestorm weapons… an Ignus Light maniple was setting cogs to turning and rats to running on wheels in the dim and dusty attics of my mind…

Much feverish list building later and I found that I needed 5 Warhounds AND that I was going to need a new Legio, one to match the poorly regarded maniple I had set for myself, the equally sneered upon and often ignored Legio Infernus!

Why Legio Infernus?

As noted, like the Ignus Light maniple, Infernus are decidedly ‘bottom tier’. Their sole trait allows you to position ‘Firestorm’ weapons – Inferno Cannon two inches from the model’s base (an effective 25% increase in range on an 8′ flamer template) and turn it around, so long as the ends of the template remain within your front arc.

I looked over the models I had available that I would need to realise a full Ignus Light maniple – 5 Warhounds and 12 Acheron Knights. After all of my efforts starting other Legio projects, I had 3 Warhounds left that were not yet alloted to one project or another. I ordered 2 Warhounds and pulled the last 3 Warhounds on sprues I had about the Cave* and looked with dismay upon the 4 Cerastus knights (2 of which were Castigators) in my cabinet that were not Lancers… damn.

A new box of 4 Acheron/Castigators was purchased and eBay was combed over for the final 4 candidates – the 3dPrinter (I call him Joel, for no good reason) was fired up and Acheron flamers and fuel-hoppers and pipes were printed.

When I had the finished Warhounds assembled, with one Inferno gun glued in place each to ensure their fidelity to the fire was maintained, I was distinctly underwhelmed by the same old tired Warhound heads. After a few hours online rummaging about various places, Joel once more went to work and an assemblage of corrupted visages was ready for placement.

I spent the next few weeks playing 1 game a week as a tester for the list, each time making a small tweak, ever-hoping to find a way to meet and conquer opposition – it failed to materialise.

My final test game, 3 days before the event saw me brutalised by a friend playing Astorum, Alex. Alex wiped out 2 Warhounds and 4 Acheron with one heroic sacrifice of a red-lining reactor Reaver. It was a very memorable gaming event and I could hear my scumbag subconscious crooning ‘Core Memory Unlocked’ as it delighted in storing away something with which to torment me later!

Later that evening, as I sat thinking in circles as to what could be done, I just couldn’t get the full Ignis Maniple to work… it occurred to me: did it really have to be a full maniple? This wasn’t a narrative event and I was likely to encounter some fairly gamey-lists… was sacrificing a little of the theme acceptable to my own, self-imposed lunatic restrictions?

I went back to my list, dropped more of the Acheron than I was comfortable with dropping AND one of my lovely, flame-wreathed Warhounds that I had spent so many hours of the previous 2 weeks painting… I had enough points to provide what the maniple was missing, endurance.

Enter one support Warlord Titan, ‘Her Burning Ire’ – the only issue? I didn’t have an Infernus Warlord! I considered using one of my Mortis – the titan was support after all and would not be using any of the Infernus traits/wargear… no, I couldn’t do it. I could be flexible in my madness, but I could not break free of the strictures I had placed upon myself.

I returned to my ‘in progress’ box of eBay rescues and bits (which should, in reality, be called ‘The Box of Unnecessary Investment’) and found a very down-at-heels Gryphonicus Warlord with no arms, head or carapace. The base was a big issue and the feet all but snapped trying to remove him, but it was a start and it would save me buying and assembling and spraying a fresh Warlord – which was time I didn’t have for what my event-fever-focused mind now contemplated.

I removed every armour plate, subbed in black-basecoated spares for two that were too far gone to recover in the time allowed and set the others to the side for some Black Legion Contrast magic. A Sunfury plasma and Belicosa Volcano cannon were pulled from my endless box of printed odds and ends and a pair of Apocalypse Missile Launchers were appropriated from another titan that had been minding his own business in a shoebox under my backup desk for several months. The head was easier, as I’d found and printed a number of alternate heads when I quested to find the Warhound replacement heads – a boney-cranium was put into position. He looked the part – this could work.

As it transpired, I had a wedding reception to go to that night, so I reluctantly downed tools and went off to ‘have fun’. In the end, I only had from 6pm to 1am the night before the event to base and paint ‘Her Burning Ire’ – she might be the worst painted of my Infernus force, but I am proud of how she came out in such a drastically short time.

Without further ado;

Warlord