Warhounds 2 Warmasters

A two-Day, five-Game Adeptus Titanicus Event – I’m liable to refer to the Tournament Organiser a lot in this post, so will use TO because… lazy.

The last Adeptus Titanicus event of the year arrived and it did not disappoint. In spite of having a spread of players not turn up, the TO rolled with the punches (metaphorically, his overseers weren’t literally admonishing him for the failed attendance with physical remonstration) within our line of sight, at least – and adapted the tables and rounds and stepped in to fill the gap as Loyalist Vulpa. You don’t see many of those kicking about.

Each table had a theme and set objectives and these changed as the results of the rounds came in.

Loyalists were given enigmatic choices to respond to after Round 2 and Traitors were given equally vague choices. This was deliberate and had a great bearing on the ultimate round – this was a very well run narrative tournament.

Scale of engine kills was tracked – distinguishing what constituted a kill very specifically as the result of a deliberately shot or melee – no credit for blowing up and taking them with you! Overheating and blowing up your own titans was also tracked. Interesting events and situations from each table were picked up by the TO and the teams were then regaled with skjaldic retellings at the end of each round.

We were also given free rein to change Maniple and even Legio between rounds – which was interesting. I took my Vulcanum Extermigus and Fureans Corsair for Day One, ultimately leaving the Corsair in their cases as I was still disappointed in them from their showing at Defence of Abbona. Day Two had my Infernus Ignis Light maniple – reduced to 1750pts – that had last seen table-time at Twisted Titanicus 1.0 come out for a walk and my Vulcanum Extergimus – reduced to 1500 and technically illegal, but run at the discretion of the TO – return for the final Round.

I have to take a moment to thank the Dark Gods or whoever determines the community for Adeptus Titanicus because it was an absolute pleasure to be in an event with so many decent folk. I even got matched up against one of Goonhammer’s own. This was a great hobby-moment for me, having read every article of Warlord Wednesdays they have put out. This was only made better by the fact that I hadn’t realised who Scott (Soggy) was until the evening after I’d gotten home!

I digress – often, but that isn’t the point – I won’t be doing battle reports for each of the games. I didn’t really take photos or notes of the games as we had times to stick to and in honesty, I wasn’t well enough to have been attending. The chest infection that has had me teetering around hospital admission for the better (worse?) part of three months now has been met with super-mega steroids and the side effects of those are… not terribly dissimilar to the chest infection itself. I’m not entirely sure how I am supposed to gauge if I am getting better or worse currently, so am working and trying to get painting and table-time whenever I am not curled up on the sofa, gasping for breath between horrific coughing episodes. Sexy.

For the weekend, I was broadly keeping myself going on a mad-bastard-chemist’s mix of wilful stubbornness, ASD Special Interest locomotion and sheer bloody-mindedness. Also strepsils.

So, broad summaries and anecdotal remembrances are about all we can hope for here! Without further ado:

Game One

My first game was against Legio Oberon – a Legio I was only vaguely aware of and had never encountered before – which was commanded by a lovely archaeologist called Ben.

Like, a for real archaeologist. As an actual job and everything. He informed me it was terrible and he was burnt out and it was a horrific and stressful environment but his warnings fell on deaf ears as my mind trawled back through all of the hundreds of hours I had spent fantasising that I’d actually followed my first real Special Interest and become an archaeologist. I was jealous and I quite clearly informed him that at the end of the day, his entire profession was like a perpetual series of opening (digging) lootboxes (trenches) and hoping for rare drops. I’m not sure I changed his mind about his job, but I think at the very least no one had ever referred to his job in that way.

As to the game, it was a bit of a pasting for our newfound friend. The table’s deployment was cramped and and the massed firepower of the Extergimus began to tell early on. Ben’s Direwolf failed to hit and failed to shutdown any titans in the game, whilst my own managed to shutdown two Warhounds and Ben’s Direwolf as well! Ben did manage to finish off one of my ranged Quake/Graviton Warlords with the final shot of the game.

The game was scored on Scale of titans destroyed and ended 30 to 10 in my favour. A decent start to an event.

Game Two

The second match had me facing off against an Astorum player called Henry. I found out later the pedigree of Henry – he is known from 40k and AT tournaments up and down the land and is an absolute powerhouse yet, at the same time, one of the most pleasant and polite players you are likely to encounter. He is also an insanely talented modeller and painter and his Legio won the Best Painted award – to the surprise of no one present! Seriously, they were fantastic.

Objectives required me to defend my table edge and claim and hold a power generator. I did not meet these objectives. In point of fact, I was roundly thrashed by Henry and had been tabled by the end of turn three.

I learned a few tricks for Astorum – that I diligently passed on to Alex – and have an entirely new appreciation/fear of Clawlords. I was forcefully introduced to the rules regarding titans walking over buildings and was punished most painfully for having assumed all this time that buildings were impassable terrain – they are not. Also, Outflanking Armigers can and will kill a Warlord. I have seen it happen and will admit to grinning widely as my Titan fell upon their tiny little frames and took them down with it in death.

Game Three

Final game of the first day found me pitted against Ignatum, fielded by Scott. Yes, that Scott.

The ‘GH’ top he was wearing and the fact I was SURE that I recognised those Ignatum models from somewhere had completely failed to register with my strepsil-addled mind.

We set ourselves up on a desert map and read the mission brief – a sandstorm was delivering -1 or -2 to hit rolls, determined at the start of each turn AND we would only be able to vent heat on repair rolls of 5+… spicy.

I set my long-ranged Warlords almost back to the table-edged corner and my Plasmalord a few inches forward so he could get his plasmas and gatlings in range at some point. I’m pretty accepting of the notion that he will take the majority of fire for a match and have largely made peace with seeing my Plasmalord be removed from the table – what is important is that he kills a few first! Scott split his deployment between his corners and finally I dropped my bait *ahem* Direwolf into cover in the centre and prepared the tried-and-tested ‘Fire Fire’ shutdown gamble.

The Direwolf managed to shutdown one of Scott’s Hounds and in return the Direwolf was gutted, gouged and generally mistaken for Constantinople, if the level of sacking of his burnt shell was anything to go by.

The long ranged Warlords opened up with Fire Fire missile shots, hoping to drop a couple of shields here and there and Scott managed to roll more 2s than I have ever seen rolled at once – his PlasmaVolkite-lord lost shields in a single volley! Further shots were poured in and Scott dropped a Concealment barrage (‘time to wear a hat’ as Scott would have it) on top of his PlasmaVolkite-lord and set him to emergency repairs.

At this point, I should have focused all efforts to remove the Warhounds as they were the most realistic threat – I split my fire between the Hounds and remaining Warlord and as an ultimate result, a few turns down the line, lost my Plasmalord.

The game had an almost dragged cadence to it. Not due to lack of interest, we were both having a great time, but the heavy penalties to shooting meant we were largely shadow-boxing and titans were surviving a lot of what they normally wouldn’t.

As the final turn rolled around, Scott had a Warhound and a red-lining Warlord and I had my two Grav/Quake Lords. We tallied up the scores and I was slightly in the lead but not enough to claim a victory, it was a draw! A brutal and hard fought for draw. Coming out of a game with one of the Goonhammer team on a draw was nothing to be negative about, on the contrary, I had an amazing game and played with a fantastic player – the best outcome for games of Titanicus.

The day was over and the weary Princeps packed away their engines and made their way to their loading bays, hangers or homes to find what respite they might. When tomorrow dawned, the war would rage on.

Day Two

Tables were changed up a bit, breakfasts and coffees were had and the 4th round was upon us. I had changed around the boxes I had brought along and had trimmed down my Legio Infernus Ignis Light maniple – halfing the Knights and removing all Corruptions to make it fit into 1750pts.

Game Four

I came up against the TO himself running Loyalist Vulpa. I’ve never seen Vulpa played without corruptions before, but as the list was explained to me I realised that they were very much bent to a single purpose – get into melee and hit things. I was very much starting to wish I had not swapped to my short ranged Burney-Boys…

Mission objectives for the table were simple enough – there were four aircraft pads, one in each table quarter, that needed a titan within an inch to claim. I at least had numbers and mobility so I wasn’t immediately worried on that front.

As we began to roll for priority, orders and such, it became apparent that a Table Jonah had settled it’s chill soul over me and wrapped my dive rolling hands in it’s calamity-ridden fingers. If there was a command check needed – I failed. If there was a Reactor check when pushing locomotors for extra movement or pushing the generators for shield saves – I failed it and generated heat. If there were shots to be fired, I missed them. I fielded four warhounds. Each equipped with a plasma and an Infernogun (flamethrower). The plasmas fire two shots a turn. I fired them on every turn. I hit with one plasma shot. Every single other shot missed. I managed to still claim a few hits from low distance scatters but, until the final turn of the game, this was to be my lot. Everyone has games like these now and then, my take on these is that the measure of a player is in how they endure loss and misfortune far moreso than how they enjoy victory and good fortune. I hope I held my manner and, truth be told, I still had a fantastic game. Right up to, and including, my last titan the supporting Warlord gunboat, scattering a Quake shot back on himself and then being killed in the next round and falling onto – killing – one of the Warhounds. If we include the pancakes Warhound, I killed two titans in that match – so nowhere close to the drubbing that Henry had delivered to me 🙂

We broke for an extended lunch to fuel ourselves, wander the stalls, make any purchases we fancied and we held a painting competition – Henry won with his absolutely fantastic Astorum.

When we returned from our wanderings, laden with purchases and food, we were given a briefing as to the effects on the planet our games had had. This is the main difference between competitive/tournament settings and narrative events – the central story, the Why you are all fighting and the results of those fights remain at the core of the experience. My first Adeptus Titanicus event, earlier this year, had been the preWarfare narrative day, so I had something of a continued interest in the story we were telling 🙂

The final round was a doubles game at 1250pts each. It was also a mismatch – the choices the Loyalists made after round two and the Traitors made after round three divided us into two camps, comprised of Loyalist and Traitors – working toward the same ends. Weird.

Fortunately for myself, my choices aligned me with none-other-than Henry! Oh, happy fortune! Return thy rose-scented kisses to mine brow and leave me not again!

We faced the TO’s ‘Loyalist’ Vulpa and one of a Legio Interfector (MurderLords) Arcus maniple. An Arcus maniple is a Warbringer titan with lots of Warhounds running about, acting as spotters. So long as the Wahounds have Line of Sight on a target, the Warbringer can fire indirectly at them as a barrage – and the scatter distance is reduced to D6 from a D10. He also had a melee Reaver support.

I returned to table with a reduced Vulcanum Extermigus maniple, sans one long ranged Warlord. Henry came with his Regia maniple.

We rolled to claim table corners and setup and chaos ensued – as is to be expected in a four player game that isn’t using the new Matched Play rules as a guideline. There was lots of fun, plenty of engine kills and one or two disagreements as to what constituted cover and Line of Sight – after two days and at the closing moments of the fifth game, everyone was a little tired and frayed!

My Direwolf attempted to draw attention away from my Warlords, pulling the Arcus maniple away into the centre of the board – hopefully drawing some of the Vulpa forces after him to reduce what Henry was facing as well. If that worked, Henry could come to my rescue after he deleted his scattered opposition. As was becoming expected, the Direwolf failed to shutdown any titans – he disabled a weapon on a Warhound and fled to the centre – from where he was charged by one of the Vulpa Warhounds that had split off to cut him off, redlining his own reactor in the process. As expected, the Direwolf was kicked to death by the Vulpa Warhound and he joyfully fell straight into the Warhound, damaging his body severely. The red-lining Warhound wasn’t able to survive the damage control phase. As his already damaged body suffered overloading hits from his boiling reactor, he cooked off in a miniature nuclear explosion. Lovely.

Henry pushed up his side of the table, flattening titan after titan with his Clawlord, whilst I slowly wore down the shields of the Warhounds and Reaver rounding on my Plasmalord. The round of fire the combined Arcus maniple levelled at my Plasmalord dropped his shields and started tracking damage to his body. The next round, I put him to emergency repairs and Henry dropped a concealment barrage on him – giving him a lovely untargetable cover-hat. Henry proceeded to wipe up the Vulpa forces and I took shots as they came with my Grav/Quake Lord. One of the Arcus hounds ran too hot from all of the pushing for shield and ran as close to the Plasmalord as possible, in the hope that he would explode and further damage the Warlord. As expected, the Hound went Catastrophic from the heat but rolled low and wandered D6 random direction before falling. This would be where some of the previously mentioned consternation came into play as the direction for the fall which was rolled was away from the Plasmalord but the Arcus player claimed a collision – not wanting to spoil the flow and assuming that everyone has a different perspective, I waved acceptance and further damage was added to the Plasmalord – but she remained upright.

The Arcus was slowly reduced from a combination of my Warlords’ fire and Henry sending Apocalypse barrages across the map and into the rear of titans. The remaining heavily damaged Warhound of the Arcus managed a charge into the Plasmalords flanks – undoing much of the repair work – and took a series of shots in the rear from the Quake/Grav Lord for its troubles. This caused the second case of consternation as the Grav Warlord knocked the Warhound back with the concussive shots, away from the Plasmalord – the Arcus player once more claimed a collision. Angles were shown, lasers were used and it was clear that no collision took place. The Plasmalord pushed forward to remove itself from the Warhound’s arc, placing itself into the charge arc of the Reaver – either the Plasmalord killed the Reaver NOW or it was going to be killed.

The Plasmalord unloaded both of it’s Sunfury Plasmas into the Reaver -generating dangerous levels of heat – but failed to secure the kill and, as was foretold, the Reaver finished off the massive engine. Henry followed up with another barrage across the table into the rear of the Reaver and finished it off – it only occurred to us afterwards that if Henry had done the barrage first, the Plasmalord could have finished the Reaver and survived. Ah well 🙂

The heavily damaged Arcus Warhound was destroyed by shots from my sole surviving Warlord and Henry destroyed the last Vulpa engine.

The final turn had Henry barrage the shields off of the Arcus Warbringer and then my remaining Warlord and the Warbringer traded shots – without an engine kill being secured.

All in all, a crazy match and a fantastic event and all that was left was the final debrief and the awards.

As the trophies were arrayed, knowing how badly I felt I had performed, I was heartened to see the Wooden Spoons were bespoke trophies, made by one of the Warfare committee team members with a lathe and a lot of effort.

The spoons went to Scott as a Loyalist and John (I think) on the Traitor side – I think he was running Tempestor – as he came back to stand beside me, I candidly informed him of my jealousy. That spoon was fantastic. Henry was awarded 1st Place for the Loyalists – unsurprisingly – he won every single match by significant margins. 1st Place Traitor was a close thing as the Traitors had, without exception, presented themselves rather poorly. It was with absolute shock that I was called up – apparently, whilst I had losses and draws, I had managed to secure a decent amount of Victory Points, enough to push me to the top position!

There were awards given for painting, most engine kills and most titans overloaded by self but, I have to admit, I don’t recall how these were allocated – I was in shock!

So, a fantastic event and a lot of great games and fantastic players met and another trophy for my cabinet! I would thoroughly recommend Warfare to anyone interested – as a day trip to browse or as a tournament. The staff are fantastic, the location is brilliant and the atmosphere is comprised of all that is great in the hobby. An amazing final event for the year and I remain in a mild state of surprise!