Warhounds 2 Warmasters

A series of articles by multiple authors following the building, painting and play-testing of forces in preparation for the biggest Adeptus Titanicus event of the year, in the world: Beachhead!

Beachhead or, to give it it’s full title for the uninitiated, Beachhead Tabletop Games Expo is a large convention held at the Bournemouth International Centre each year in February. Thousands of attendees gather to visit their favourite online retailers in person, enter painting competitions and generally soak in and marinade in some top draw geekiness. There are, for some, other reasons to travel to Bournemouth. Better reasons. Some really are travelling, we have seen folk arrive from across the world with a regular delegation of Swedes arriving to blot out the sun and offer salty sweet-candies to any that get too close. One of the better of those reasons, that I can offer, is to compete in the tournaments and to be more specific, the best one: The Beachhead 2027 Adeptus Titanicus GT: The End and the Death (Ed Note: something of a grander title for 2027 than we have seen in previous years… I wonder how they will fit that all onto a trophy!).

Maximal Fire (these guys: https://maximalfire.com/ ) have been hosting an Adeptus Titanicus event at Beachhead for the majority of the life of AT – this will be their sixth Beachhead event and it is considered by most of the regular event-faring community the event which kicks off the annual calendar. Many of the Tournament Operators take cues from the Beachhead pack when deciding which missions or rule-sets are used for the year to come, there is no formal requirement or agreement in place to do so, it has just become ‘a thing’.

So, why are we doing a series and why is it called Road to Beachhead?

Edd@Death_of_a_rubricist suggested a paint-along project on the Maximal Fire discord, referencing Stu’s Midweek Maniples articles that were very popular. I thought about it, figured we enjoyed the Tale of More Gamers series and so offered to contribute and to host.

Shortly after, our resident Frost Giant, Micheal, said he would be down for a Road to Beachhead 2027 series – I’m not sure if he was aware of the previous article series that we did with the same name, probably not – it is just the first title that typically pops into one’s head and on that basis alone is a fair indicator that it is a solid choice.

So, what will this series include?

Quite a bit.

There are a couple of us at W2W that will contribute and an as yet not finalised roster of additional authors – to be honest, if anyone is interested and wants to spend the time to draft an article with some reasonable pictures then I am happy to consider keeping participation open all the way up to the event.

Some of us will be a little cagey about the specific list we will field, it is the largest competitive event in the calendar after all. Others will really want to focus on their list building, play-testing and findings – we are hoping for a real smorgasbord of input here (Ed Note: I can neither confirm nor deny that I rewrote this section entirely purely so I could finally publish the word ‘Smorgasbord’). If you would like to contribute, please leave a comment or you can @ me on the Maximal Fire or W2W discord (Jay @ Warhounds2Warmasters/ Jay @ W2W).

If you have ever wondered what the Titan-walk pic after the games are done look like:

So, a little history:

Being the late-comer, blow-in to AT that I am, I went to my first Beachhead in 2024 – which was a team event and we did pretty well, by which I mean we won. Simon, Alex and I did some pieces on Road to Beachhead 2024, I think the articles are still about… somewhere. I’d played a few events by this point but I certainly wasn’t a face that everyone knew at events – that changed thereafter, it was at a narrative event following that win that someone asserted that I was technically the world #1 AT player at that time, which was probably the most reverse-Ron Burgundy moment of my life.

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Obviously, fame and fortune followed and I attended events escorted by chauffeur-driven Limos and made millions on book deals in which I explained the deep, abiding tactical genius of fielding Legio Gryphonicus with a Vortex Missile Payload and Psi-Titan in support at a 1750pt event… Ok, so, perhaps there was slightly less fame and fortune BUT I was driven to the LGT in 2025 in a Clio after I had an operation on my spine, so I am claiming poetic license on the rest.

In 2025 I returned with Legio Damicium and was roundly pushed from claiming another First Place by Melon-Dan (Ed Note: the very same Dan as featured in the ‘Dystopian Wars: Tale of More Gamers’ series). Dan is an exceptional player and an incredibly nice person – he also happens to have such high Charisma stats that no-one has yet realised he is actually the result of an experiment in which the consciousness of a Shark has been implanted into a Human. Without context, that may seem an incredibly odd and specific statement, I can only invite you to play a game with Dan and then we can compare notes, he remains one of the most incredible people I have ever shared a table with. I actually dropped to Third place so still got to take home a trophy, which was nice.

2026 was something of a low-point for Beachhead for me, I was recovering from the flu which had then developed into a chest infection and I absolutely should have been in bed (Ed Note: I would like to confirm, for the record, that LSW was very clear and correct in saying I should not have attended in the state I was in and it would likely make me significantly unwell.) As it was, I pushed myself and ended up developing Pnuemonia and was laid up in bed for 3 weeks after and it was June before I felt less-than-rough. Pnuemonia aside, it isn’t even the worst part. I had spent significant time painting a custom Crusade Legio which was supposed to represent W2W on the table, it wasn’t how I had initially planned the scheme but it was a nice scheme with nice lightning effects and such. The fact it was a Crusade Legio had meant I needed to be careful with my selections so as not to provide too unpleasant an experience for those sharing a table with me – so I steered entirely clear of Blind Missiles, Diabatic Missiles etc and so instead took Vanguard Fighters, Marked Prey, Towering Exemplar and Enduring Gods. Whilst I had taken a fairly strong list, it had no soul. It should have performed incredibly but I found myself despondent with it. Playing that list gave me not a moment of joy. By the second day, I was catching myself grousing at the tables over my own list and I can safely say I didn’t enjoy the event which was purely and utterly down to me and not my opponents – I took some time away from AT after and have started playing lists and Legios again that I enjoy.

I have several potential forces I am considering for 2027 – I’ll run up a more personal introduction article for myself shortly.