Adeptus Titanicus game

I finally had my first Adeptus Titanicus match on Memorial Day (Monday, May 27th)! YAY!

My friend and I had a match on a 48" by 48" table. It was our first ever Adeptus Titanicus game, and so we probably aren't familiar with the rules. Ouch. But we did all right, I guess. Probably took some getting used to, but I think we did well. Phew.



My friend brought a standard Axiom Maniple, with a Warlord Titan with 2 Belicosa volcano cannons and Apocalypse missile launchers, a Reaver Titan with Apocalypse missile launchers, a laser blaster and a gatling blaster, and 3 Warhound Titans in a squadron - 1 with 2 inferno guns, 1 with a plasma blastgun and laser blaster (I think), and another with a Vulcan mega-bolter and gatling blaster (or was it laser blaster?). He used the Gryphonicus Legion Traits, and upgraded his guys with auspex scanners and armor for his Reaver Titan...except that we completely forgot about the upgrades as the game went by. Oh, hell.

As for me, I brought a Fortis Maniple with 2 Warlord Titans and a Reaver Titan. Wait, what? That's not the requirements for a Fortis Maniple! Don't worry, I used the Legio Fortidus Legion Trait, and thanks to Lost Sons, I replaced a Reaver Titan with a Warlord Titan. Heh. One Warlord Titan was armed with Apocalypse missile launchers and 2 Belicosa volcano cannons, the other was armed with paired turbo laser destructors and 2 Sunfury plasma annihilators. The Reaver Titan was armed with Apocalypse missile launcher and 2 volcano cannons. I placed the volcano cannons Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan together, so that they can merge void shields...except that I forgot to merge void shields when one went down. Fortunately, I remembered that they ignored modifiers from structural damage. Cool! Accompanying my three Titans is a support banner of 2 Cerastus Knight Lancers. Ugh! I didn't realize they can receive orders! I should have allowed them to receive orders! I would have used the Charge Order! DAMN IT! Oh, well...

My opponent's objective was Engage and Destroy (he rolled 2 and discarded 1). I drew Hold the Line and Vital Cargo. As my Titans were not exactly Courier types, I discarded that. I had no Titan fast enough to run across to the other side of the map...oh, well. Anyway, we rolled off and my opponent deployed first. He placed his Reaver Titan and Warlord Titan together, and his 3 Warhound on the opposite side of his Deployment Zone. I then responded by placing my Warlord Titan with plasma annihilators opposite his Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan, and my Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan with volcano cannons opposite his Warhound Titans, and the 2 Cerastus Knight Lancers in front of them.

We rolled off and I got 10 to my opponent's 8 or something, but being a nice guy, I let him go first. His first Stratagem was spent on the plasma reactor, and he had his Reaver Titan next to it to draw power from the reactor. My opponent used First Fire for his Warlord (I think?) and missed his volcano cannon shot. His Warhounds received the Full Stride Order and they moved while advancing their reactor to get the maximum speed. Or something like that. I also used First Fire, and I knocked down a couple of void shields from the Warhounds, but holy molly, my opponent made most of his saves. To make matters worse, his Warhounds were moving in a squadron and could merge void shields, so I only knocked down 2 or so, and that was pretty insignificant. Ouch. My Knight Lancers moved, but they avoided getting hit by the Warhounds because they had made the Full Stride Orders earlier. My opponent seemed to fluff his shots as well, for he didn't really hit with his Apocalypse missile launchers, and his volcano cannons missed. Poor guy...he was pretty unlucky. I think I lost a couple of void shields, but then he went and made all his void shield saves against my Titans. Funnily enough, it was my Knight Lancers who knocked down another couple of void shields, but with them merging void shields, it was pretty...insignificant.



Turn 2, I got a higher roll, and this time I elected to go first. I mean, I let him go first the last time, so it's only fair, right? I had First Fire for my plasma Warlord, but went and failed my command check for my Princeps Seniores Warlord Titan with volcano cannons...fail. My opponent used Full Stride again (I think) for his Warhounds, and something else. I can't remember. He knocked down a few of my void shields for both my Warlord Titans with First Fire, but otherwise his shooting was pretty ineffective. I managed to take out almost all the Warhound Titan's void shields, leaving just 1 or 2, while recovering several of my void shields from repairs and stuff (as did my opponent), but otherwise nothing much happened. He then revealed his second Stratagem, Thermal Mines, and scored a devastating hit on my Knight Lancer, after I failed a save. Then in the Combat Phase, he knocked down my volcano Warlord Titan's shields and did critical damage. Stupidly enough I forgot that I could merge void shields for my Warlord Titan with my Reaver, and I just took the damage while sustaining damage to the stabilizers and causing him to move 45 degrees...to his left. Right where the Warhounds were facing. Heh. Then I unloaded and ended up damaging one of his Warhounds, immbolizing it because all its void shields had collapsed, and I scored a critical hit. It also had to move 45 degrees to the right, and thus my Knight Lancers could sneak up on it without getting flamed by its inferno cannons. I fired on the other Warhound with my plasma Warlord, and managed to take out their remaining void shields, while dealing some damage to it. I think. I can't remember.

Turn 3 was where things got really violent. My opponent got first turn this time. His Warhounds moved up, pushing their reactors and stuff. I think they were beginning to get dangerous unstable, and I can't remember if this was the turn where they started taking hits. Maybe it was the next turn. In any case, they got almost in front of my Warlord Titan, with the Inferno guns Warhound using Full Stride and separating from the other Warhounds. The other Warhounds didn't use orders and just went ahead so that they could take potshots at my Warlord Titan. The Warlord and Reaver, because of constant draining of the reactor, were pushing, and I think this was when he had to order a Shutdown of his Reaver after it took a hit in its body because its reactor had turned red. The Warlord moved up a bit, so didn't use First Fire. I took advantage and took potshots at it with my Reaver, but only knocked down maybe 1 or 2 void shields. Holy Terra, my opponent was making all his void shield saves, or most of them. Meanwhile my Warlord Titan's First Fire obliterated the inferno guns Warhound. ENGINE KILL!

My opponent was not impressed, and he fired on my Knight Lancers. Funnily enough, I survived the volcano cannon shots with their 3+ invulnerable saves (because of ion gauntlet shields), but then lost a few structure points because of the Apocalypse missile launchers dealing quite a bit of damage with devastating hits. Ouch. The Warhounds, on the other hand, pounded my Warlord Titan with their laser blasters, plasma blastgun and gatling blaster, and wounded him badly. No critical damage yet, but his body had taken a couple of devastating hits and went down by 4 or so. Phew. The Reaver was on shutdown, but my opponent rolled a 6 and managed to reignite his void shields.

Random Knights show up because they are supposed to be Legio Draconis's bond-Knights banner.

My Knight Lancers then moved up and assaulted one of the Warhounds, severely wounding it with their Cerastus shock lances. Then my Warlord Titan used Maximal Fire with his plasma, and combined with his paired turbo laser destructors, destroyed one of the Warhounds. It suffered catastrophic damage and he rolled a 9. BOOM! My Knight Lancers actually survived the first explosion, funnily enough, thanks to their ion shield saves. But the Warhound, with its void shields blown out, didn't. Thanks to that, it died from yet another explosion, and this time he rolled a 10. I lost a Cerastus Knight Lancer from that explosion, suffering a devastating hit from the explosion, but passed the Shaken Banner with a Command Check. Oh, boy. Double Engine Kills! I had taken out 3 Warhounds in Turn 3! Unfortunately, at the end of the turn, my Warlord Titan moved 45 degrees to the right. I vented plasma and restored void shields, but I forgot to repair the critical damage. Derp.

With his Warhounds down, Turn 4 was less brutal. As I was way ahead, I let my opponent go first even though I rolled higher. He then used First Fire on both, but my Lancer survived. Unfortunately, my Warlord suffered a bit more damage again from the first shots, his void shields sparkling out and blowing out. I suffered critical damage this time, with his void shields completely blown out, and his reactor leaking by 1. This time, I made sure to repair the critical damage on my other Warlord Titan, but because of that I couldn't use First Fire. On the other hand, my Reaver Titan's First Fire knocked out the Reaver's Void Shields, and my plasma Warlord Titan's plasma destroyed the Reaver Titan's weapon, the laser blaster. My Lancer went forward and destroyed a weapon on the Reaver with his lance. I believe it was the gatling blaster. The Warlord, on the other hand, didn't miss, and I destroyed the Reaver with a combination of plama and turbo laser destructor shots. Phew! My opponent rolled a 10 and he blew up again, and did quite some damage to the Warlord Titan, who was the last one left. Funnily enough, my Lancer survived the catastrophic explosion with his ion gauntlet save, with me rolling a 4. However, he didn't survive for long. I then fired the Reaver Titan's volcano cannons, missed, scattered and destroyed my own Lancer. Whoops. My Warlord Titan then opened up on the final Warlord, blowing up his void shields with the Apocalypse missile launchers, and then scored several direct hits with his volcano cannons, thus destroying him with a bunch of critical hits.

As the dust settles...the enemy Titan Legion has been completely annihilated. With the exception of my couragous Cerastus Knight Lancers, all my Titans survived.

...and that was it. My opponent only succeeded in destroying a couple of Knight Lancers, which gave him 6 victory points (I think?) for destroying a scale 4 unit for Engage and Destroy. He also scored another 20 points because both my Warlord Titans were structurally compromised (I think). So he had a total of 26 points! But he was tabled - I had completely wiped out his Titan Battlegroup, while all 3 Titans from my Fortis Maniple had survived. Since I had Hold the Line, I easily had 20 Victory Points from the primary objective alone, and the secondary objective (Retribution) nailed me another 3+3+3+4+5 = 18 Victory Points for destroying 5 Titans. And I had another Stratagem (A Score to Settle), which was score an additional 1 point for destroying each enemy unit. Nice! That would give me about 41-43 (depending on whether a squadron of 3 Warhound Titans count as a single unit as opposed to 3) Victory Points to his 26. Unfortuantely, he failed to get his secondary objective, and Rule as Written, I get 5 Victory Points for having more than half my army still alive at the end of the battle, while he had none. So essentially I get 46-48 Victory Points to his 26. Nice! That was not bad at all! I could have reduced the victory points he gained further had I remembered that I could merge void shields between my Warlord and Reaver, and not get that stupid critical hit on his legs. Hmm. Oh well...but we're all learning. And we forgot about all the Legio Traits, upgrades and stuff. I completely forgotten about my Legio Fortidus Stratagem, that allowed me to ignore the damage effects of critical damage (For the Red Planet). Whoops. And I also forgot that my Knight Lancers can receive orders. Oh, well...we're still learning, so that's fine. It all evens out in the end.

I'm glad I managed to win somehow! That was a tough game!