Warhounds 2 Warmasters

Article by Hasan

Towards the end of January, I found myself suffering from severe withdrawal, given the lack of Titanicus events I had pencilled in over the next few months. Yes, Beachhead was a week later, no I did not let this stop me. (Ed Note – those pangs can be vicious, take 5cc of Robots and make sure to schedule a game, stat!)

While trawling the Titanicus groups on Facebook – ‘working hard’ if my line manager asks – I stumbled across an event in Manchester taking place on March 15th. Now, this event was being spun as a way to create a community ‘up North’ and I am very much within the London orbit, and so I asked the organiser if he would deign to allow me to attend. The organiser, Leo, was more than happy to have me and thus once Beachead was out of the way, (where I came third!) I began to think about Peakhammer.

”For somebody who doesn’t like hounds you play them bloody well!” – Luc Turner, discussing the juxtaposition between my opinion of Warhounds and my use of them.

List Building

Going into Peakhammer, all I knew was that the missions would be drawn from the Open Engine War deck, the points level was 1750, and that the battlefield & planetary effects might be in play.

I therefore reluctantly, and mournfully, shelved taking an Extergimus – good luck doing [mission with three objectives at the other end] with only one hound to march up the field. (Ed Note – having gained a basic proficiency in speaking Hasan, I think he means the ‘Wrath and Ruin’  objective from the Open Engine War deck)

I was after something flexible (see: Open Engine War missions) and something that was NOT a Ferrox (point and click). I also wanted to bring plenty of Warlords as they are the best Titan chassis (fight me, Princess) (Ed Note – worth noting the differing philosphy approaches of Hasan and Princess; one favours the strength and raw power of the Warlord Battle Titan, the other the mobility and flexibility of the nimble Warhound Scout Titan. They are both wrong as we all know that Warbringer Battle Titans are the best). I therefore settled on a Regia, which is a very strong maniple, and has a great selection of Titans for OEW and so you can do a bit of everything with it.

Regia identical WL [1750 Points]

Allegiance: Loyalist

Regia Battleline Maniple [1750 Points]: Titan Legion (Legio Ignatum (Fire Wasps)

• 1x Warhound Titan [245 Points]: Bastion Shielding [10 Points], =Ignatum= Gravitic Sensor Array [15 Points], Plasma Blast Gun [WH] [30 Points], Vulcan Megabolter [WH] [10 Points]
• 1x Warhound Titan [230 Points]: Bastion Shielding [10 Points], Plasma Blast Gun [WH] [30 Points], Vulcan Megabolter [WH] [10 Points]
• 1x Warhound Titan [225 Points]: Bastion Shielding [10 Points], =Ignatum= Gravitic Sensor Array [15 Points], 2x Swarmer Missiles [10 Points]
• 1x Warlord Titan [525 Points]: Princeps Seniores, 5 Favoured by Fortune, Tracking Gyroscopes [25 Points], =Ignatum= Gravitic Sensor Array [15 Points], Ardex Defensor Cannon, Bellicosa Volcano Cannon [WLD] [55 Points], Graviton Ruinator [30 Points], Apocalypse Missile Launchers [15 Points]
• 1x Warlord Titan [525 Points]: Tracking Gyroscopes [25 Points], =Ignatum= Gravitic Sensor Array [15 Points], Ardex Defensor Cannon, Bellicosa Volcano Cannon [WLD] [55 Points], Graviton Ruinator [30 Points], Apocalypse Missile Launchers [15 Points]

Stratagem Hand [12 Stratagem Points]

• =Ignatum= Punish their Folly [1 Stratagem Points]
• A Score to Settle [1 Stratagem Points]
• Blind Barrage [1 Stratagem Points]
• Concealment Barrage [1 Stratagem Points]
• Earthshaker Mines [2 Stratagem Points]
• Iron Resolve [1 Stratagem Points]
• Void Shield Relay [2 Stratagem Points]
• Vox Blackout [3 Stratagem Points]

I have attached my list with all it’s titans and what they have above, but to go through it from the top:

Allegiance: Loyalist – in a competitive sense, this is taken for access to Iron Resolve first, second, and last. In a narrative sense, I can’t bring myself to play traitor Ignatum so this was an obvious pick. Adaptive Tactics is also a nice to have when I remember it exists. (Ed Note: the fact that Hasan has climbed the AT player standings without seemingly understanding or embracing how exceptionally good Adaptive Tactics is saddens and amuses me in equal measure)

Legio: Ignatum – infamous amongst AT players, and for good reason. Ignatum has access to good stratagems, a great trait, and wargear that is slightly undercosted. The strat – Punish Their Folly allows you to make an attack, at normal BS, after an enemy titan ends a charge move within 3 inches of their own titan. The trait – We Loyal Few allows you to reroll attack rolls of 1 when your titan is within 12 inches of it’s target. The wargear – Gravitic Sensor Array allows you to ignore the first negative modifer for cover an opposing unit gets for being obscured. To be frank, I take as many as I can afford and as can be seen above, I have four of these sensors in this list.

All told, this is a lethal package when put together and probably why Ignatum is consistentlt the most overrepresented Legio at AT events. It doesn’t hurt that they have a truly sick colour scheme. My defence is that I read ‘Master of Mankind’ which inspired my choice before I knew how good they were but no one quite seems to believe me…. (Ed Note – *Skeptical Look*)

We then proceed to the titan loadouts themselves. As you can see, I have two Tournament Pattern hounds (Plasma + VMB) and one double Swarmer hound. All of these are equipped with Bastion Shields and two of them have the sensor arrays. The Tournament Hounds were included for their lethality – there are only two weapons in the game that can kill a fresh Warlord in one go: the Plasma Blastgun and the Plasma Sunfury. That combined with a VMB, which makes an excellent stripping weapon or finisher, really makes them lethal little fellas and an absolute danger. Combine that with the sensor array which enhances their lethality by making them more accurate; stackrd with their trait allowing them the rerolling of 1s when inside 12 inches (whicu is where a hound wants to be); the extra survivability afforded by a free push of the reactor to send power to the shields granted by the Bastion Shielding (be gone! foul orange reactor!); and the even further increased survivability of being able to share shields with a Warlord (see: Regia); you get an incredibly dangerous pair of titans that can hold their own in a gun fight or rush to exploit an opening.

The double Swarmer hound shares many of the same qualities as its Tournament brethren, gaining long range shield stripping capabilities in exchange for the closer ranged firepower of the PBG. Crucially what this lets me do is open up options for my Warlords – they are not committed to having to march forwards with the hounds and can happily sit back with a Warhound battery on first fire the whole game.

Finally, we get to the Warlords. As you may have noticed these are equipped identically with Apocalypse Missiles, Bellicosas, Gravitons, tracking gyros and sensor arrays. One is the Princeps Seniores with Favoured By Fortune. The sensors we have discussed above and Tracking Gyros are cruical for upgrading your carapace weapons from Corridor to Arc. On their weapon loadout though, as mentioned above, I wanted something flexible for OEW but whatever I brought also needed to be able to efficiently kill titans. I settled on the Bellicosa/Graviton loadout mainly because it was a loadout that could fight effectively at all ranges – if I need to push up, I still have a Strength 12 blast, and two Strength 10 shots at all ranges. Similarly, I feel that there is no need for my Warlords to rush up into 24″ range if my opponent’s titans look particularly vicious.

GAME 1

After my four hour drive to Manchester (commented on no less than three times in my first 10 minutes on site), it was time for game 1. The mission was Chokepoint – have more scale within 6″ of the centre of the battlefield than your opponent. My opponent, Christopher, had a Ferrox maniple (evil) supported by a double Bellicosa Warlord. My plan was simple enough; to neuter the Warlord as much as possible through stratagems while I killed my way through the rest of his list, then march forwards to claim the central building and thus the objective. My secondary was Secure Ground (TLDR: keep the opponent 12″ away from a specific building in your deployment zone) which I figured paired well with everyone being focused on the central objective. My opponent picked Plant the Standard (deploy a banner in your opponent’s deployment zone). I deployed my Warlords to give them each as wide a field of fire to either side of the central building as possible. Each got a Tournament Hound to support and the Swarmer Hound was put down to support my Princeps Seniores with shield stripping and to act as a void shield battery.

The game went according to plan. Turn 1, the opposing Warlord was blinded, effectively stopping it from playing a part in the game that turn. Each of my Warlords then picked an enemy Warhound that was skirting through the buildings and attempted to delete it. This is where the Gravitic Array really ruffle some feathers – just prior to the above image being taken the removed Warhound had been hiding behind the building with the spire with only its head and a VMB visible. Thanks to my sensors, I was still hitting on 4s, and with the body and legs hidden, it was a fifty/fifty chance of hitting the head or a weapon. It also let me aim on 6s to finish off that Warhound where most other Legios would not have had that luxury.

Round 2 followed a similar pattern – the enemy Warlord received a Concealment Barrage, meaning no first fire orders and the other hound was marked for death (he unfortunately survived). Elsewhere, firepower was put towards the Reavers in an attempt to put them down which stripped the shields of one and damaged the other, but again, failed to kill any titans.

Round 2 was the point, as has been drilled into me by both Simon and Jay, that I began to focus on the objective. As you can see above, I began my march forwards to claim the central building.

My opponent’s hound was not healthy by round 3 and had rather a lot of firepower pointed at it, at which point it chose an honourable death and advanced to point-blank of the top Warlord and Warhound. However, it did not manage to get a shot off as it did manage to explode catastrophically, undoing much of the good work my own Emergency Repairs had done.

Over the next two turns I was able to hammer down the Warlord and kill the melee Reaver. One bold Reaver did however survive to advance and denying me scoring full points for the Primary objective. The Tertiary Objective stratagem, A Score to Settle, bastard strat that it is, did however keep me topped up.

Game 2

Game 2 was Conquest – points are scored based on being progressively closer to your opponent’s board, with bonus points scored for keeping the opponent way from your board edge. Richard also had a Ferrox (evil) with a pair of Warhounds in it and a Pair of Reavers. It was supported by a pair of Styrix and a double Plasma Warlord with Megabolter shoulders(!!!). My secondary this time was Preserve the Past. My game plan was to leave my second Warlord back a bit with the Swarmer hound supporting him while my Princeps with the two Tourney Hounds in support could move forward and draw fire, fairly invulnerable, before making a break for the otherside of the board with my Warhounds.

As you can probably tell from his list, Richard’s plan was to be very agressively in my face, supported by the Dawn Attack in his hand.

So I played Vox Blackout. Forcing him to march up the board with no cover and no orders to assist. This lead to the swift demise of his Princeps Reaver (with Unconventional Thinker) before it could use its very useful Princeps trait. Other than that, the first round was very cagey, with his Warhounds sheltering behind building 5 (see picture below) waiting for their chance to pounce.

Now as you can probably tell from the state of the board in the picture above, said pounce did not go well. A Concealment Barrage blocked off my Princeps Warlord and Tourney Hounds. This was obviously not great but it was at that point his Warhounds moved out of cover towards my Warlord at the back. My Tourney Hounds leaped out of the concealment barrage at that point, and Reader, let me tell you: a pair of Ignatum Warhounds within 8 inches of another titan will absolutely tear through said titan. Especially if it’s a pair of Warhounds. I also took the opportunity to obliterate the Knights with some split fired Gravitons. Just to make sure they couldn’t sneak around behind me and score points.

At that point, I turned my attention to the Warlord which, while not a threat at the moment where it was, would be a threat to anything moving forwards. While said hammering was on going, my sole Tourney Hound was able to begin lesiurely strolling up the board (after some frantic machine spirit quelling). Some gymnastics were required to get my Tourney Hound up the board, and into a safe position but safe it was. I just had to not kill his lone remaining Reaver so it couldn’t blow up and take my Hound with it.

At which point, I rolled a machine spirit for my second Warlord, it decided to fire it’s Bellicosa, nailed said Reaver to the cross, which promptly exploded. 🙂

Luckily, on end of track and three crits, my Warhound survived, scoring me max points.

Game 3

Finally, on two wins, and max points (so far) Game 3 arrived. The Primary Objective was Seize and Hold (both players place two objectives within 18 inches of the centre of the board). Rob kindly took a list which was not a Ferrox. Legend that he is, he had a Legio Astorum Ignus Maniple with 4 Warhounds (which naturally had Meltas and Flamers); two full banners of Acherons; and two banners of Armigers.

“Fuck that’s a lot of Knights.” – Me to Rob upon seeing his list and the amount of blocking terrain.

Objective-wise, I placed mine as far back as I could, while Rob committed fully to the bit and put them as far forward as possible.

As a secondary, I took ‘Cut off the Head’. The reason being that Rob’s Princeps was a Warhound, and he didn’t squadron anything. The table was a little tricky given it had a lot of terrain that was completely model blocking rather than just providing cover (which I would ignore), but despite this, I figured it would be pretty easy to pick the bugger off at long range.

I deployed relatively evenly – one side had a Warlord and a Warhound, the other two Warhounds, with the Plasma hounds seperate. I figured in this case, it was unlikely to be Rob’s guns doing the killing so no need to squadron my hounds, and better to spread my firepower out. Rob stacked everything except a Warhound and a unit of Armigers on one side.

Ok, not a problem, pick off the Knights at long range with my many, many, blast weapons, then kill Warhounds as normal, right?

Then Rob played Dawn Attack.

Now, while suboptimal (ask my regular opponents how much my Warlords usually move!) it wasn’t something I couldn’t deal with – Tourney Hounds are murderous upclose; I lose nothing by moving my Warlords forwards; and his weapons were probably too short ranged to reach me this turn anyway.

So that’s what I did – to Rob’s great suprise. On the flank with a single Warhound and Armiger banner, my Princeps did an uncharacteristic, and insane activation…moving 4″ forwards.

With my daring manouvre complete and subsequently right flank secured, I turned my attention to everything charging towards me on the left flank. Reader, let me tell you, this was a slug fest. Plasma hound moved forward to begin tearing through Knights? Instant return meltas. Acherons lined up for the charge? Vox Blackout. Hound hacked to death by Acherons on the way to a Warlord? Fidelis Ad Mortem – send the next one in to block their path to the Warlord.

I had comfortably pulled ahead by the end of turn 3, but Rob still managed to get a Warhound in on my second Warlord to threaten it with the melta. It’s here I owe Tom (of wine noteriety) a nod.

After the first day of Beachhead (and our rather exhausting game) we sat to strategise about the coming day and Titanicus in general. One of the many of the wine/oreo ice cream sandwich fuelled revalations we had was that Earthshaker mines is a great ‘throw of the dice’ when you have no other option to stop a thing.

It is that exact thought which came to mind when Rob got a successful charge on said Warlord. It wouldn’t have changed the game if it had died, the game was tipped in my favour any way at that point, but fortune favours those who stack the deck so I played the strat, and knocked the Warhound six inches back. At which point I introduced it to the business end of my Bellicosa.

ENDEX

With three wins, and max points, my glorious victory was assured. If I was Simon or Jay, or not creatively bankrupt in regards to list design, I would have some cutting insight to impart to you, dear reader. Unfortunately, I don’t.

What I will say though, is pulled straight from the Simon Ecole school of thought – make sure you build a list that can do anything well, regardless of your opponent’s list or the objective, and have a game plan going in – but don’t be afraid to improvise if necessary. As long as you play the mission and kill plenty of enemy titans on the way, you’ll average up. As my beloved Legio says (apparently): Inveniam viam aut faciam.

Of course, none of this applies if you’re playing Vulpa – just go punch them in the face.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Hopefully you got something out of it be it a tactical insight or 10 minutes of entertainment. I’m off to start work on my Legio Damicium. Stay tuned for the follow up when I win a tournament with them.