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My blog is primarily my own personal fluff in the Warhammer 40,000 universe regarding the Draconis system such as the Knight House Yato in Ryusei, their Household Militia, the Draconian Defenders, and the Forge World of Draconis IV with its Adeptus Mechanicus priesthood, Cybernetica cohorts and Skitarii legions, and the Titan Legion, Legio Draconis, known as the Dark Dragons.

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Friday, May 17, 2019

Outdated news regarding Adeptus Titanicus and Horus Heresy

Whoops, I'm 4 days late, but whatever. I just happened to find this while looking for Adeptus Titanicus news (I want the Acastus Knights and new Questoris Knight upgrades now! Okay, I'm not that impatient but you get what I mean, heh). The Age of Darkness Podcast has some extra information from Warhammer Festival posted on his Facebook page.

Basically, this is what he says:

"News from Warhammer Fest
Malevolence and general Age of Darkness news
FW are pleased with the reception of Book VIII and the general feedback it has received. A lot of discussion in the Malevolence seminar was about daemons of the Ruinstorm. One question was about the competitiveness of the list compared to the current lists. The response was that the DotR list is not designed for competitive play as there are too many variables and unit options - if someone wanted to break the list, they could. The focus of the list should be on narrative play with an emphasis on talking to your opponent about the list and the 'gaming contract' of creating a list that your opponent will enjoy playing against as much as you will enjoy playing.
Warhammer Community have shown several pictures of the daemon brutes - there were also digital renders of the same kits with wings. The design process behind these is that they are no daemons of the pantheon but are formed from human consciousness of the monsters of stories. They are designed to visibly not xenos like but more beastial. Due to the influence of Ka'bandha at Signis, they do have some Khornate elements but these are not overt due to humanity not yet recognising, and this influencing, these particular motif.
The daemonic warp table may also find itself into future missions and campaigns where it may be tweaked or adjusted according to the narrative.
The designers also discussed that they have been creating a 'back catalogue' of the older, hand sculpted models into a CAD format. This can be seen on the Golden Keshig jetbikes which are CAD-products formed from the original hand sculpt of the scimitar. Another example is the new jump pack Contemptor. This means that with several of the older sculpts now in a CAD catalogue, they can adjusted for future units much more readily.
The AoD rules team once again stated that they would like to revisit all Legions in future books, showing how they progress as the Heresy grows and develops. Once again, they said they would like to re-do the Astartes army list and re-balance the units but this is all dependant on schedules and other projects being worked on.
The team also mentioned that one section that they were hoping to include in Book IX was an agents of the Emperoer / Warmaster section. This would include assassin clades of both sides; Mechanicum assassins and several other unique units. However, Book IX is now getting too full so they are saving this section for a later book.
So, onto a few little general details:
Over the last two years, the release schedule has been 'flattened out' to bring all the Specialist Games and Heresy into equality with each other rather than a clear focus on Heresy. This means that we can expect releases every quarter in the same way as Necromunda, Blood Bowl or Adeptus Titanicus.
The only question that the FW team would not be drawn on at all and would alway answer with a flat, "we can't discuss that", was the point of a entrance level box to reduce the cost of starting a heresy army. During individual discussions, they would admit there have been discussions behind the scene but there is resistance to the idea in some areas. However, they would admit that they are aware that Heresy is currently the most difficult game to break into starting.
The Armigars are designed to be placed into either a Questoris Household or a Mechanicum force. They are piloted by brains-in-jars...
Discussion was also held about the armour marks in resin - especially Mk.II. Like the starter set, the only answer that was fed back was that, "they are looking into it".
I also raised the issue of the Malcador in the FAQ nerf. One possibly way they are looking at addressing the problem for Militia and Solar Auxilia is by giving each weapon independent tracking to allow it to fire independently and an extra rule to allow the tank to fire ordnance as well as other weapons at full BS. The issue is Astartes Malcadors that the team feels doesn't really fit in with other tanks in the Astartes army list.
Adeptus Titanicus news
Warhammer Community have shown off the new releases coming up in the next three months so I won't waste time discussing those. However, I will clarify a few key points before moving onto other information.
The new Loyalist / Traitor stratagem cards are not just reprints of the main rule books cards - they include new cards as well. It was unclear if they include the stratagems from Doom of Molech or if they are entirely new.
The special titans will include some special rules to make them stand apart from a standard chassis. It was unclear if they are limited to a specific Legio or if they can be added as reinforcements to any maniple.
The Cerastus patterns that are currently missing (archaon and castigator) are being done in plastic and not as resin upgrades. They is currently no ETA on when they will be released.
The team keen to also include the Mechanicum knights but are unclear on how they want to progress with them. Resin upgrades are one option as the distinctive difference is the carapace but the shin armour is also different. The current plastic kit has these moulded on but would it make a difference at this scale? Whatever the end result is, we will get Mechanicum knights but not for a while.
A big emphasis, which has been consistent since the release of AT, has been that the team is not looking at adding infantry and tanks to this game. They are fully focused on creating background of engine battles rather than events where titans are merely there to provide fire support.
Talk inevitably turned to chaos titans. Although BL have establish in Titandeath that Chaos titans fought at Beta-Garmon, the team have also identified another mid-late Heresy battle where chaos titans fought before the Siege of Terra. This was in an old WD article: the Siege of Cado.
This was a siege where Legio Crucius and House Devine fought. What makes it significant is that this is one the battle that started to see a more marked distinction between Loyalist and Traitor titans and legios.
This is one area that the AT team want to develop; the growing differences between Loyalist and Traitor. Through the use of stratagems and wargear - sometimes legio specific, the team want to begin to identify the changes between Loyalist and Traitor. In a game where there are only a small units, this is one of the things that can add greater differentiation between units and forces.
These differences will be fed out through campaign books in the most part; there as discussion around the release of Mechanicum knights that could be linked to a book about Mechanicum vs. Dark Mechanicum for example. It was also mentioned about blackshield forces that have just walked away from both sides or declared their forge world or system independent.
As well as the new scenery kits previewed, the designers also talked about me scenery like fortification lines, orbital defences and hive defences. This links back to the Titandeath campaign book or possibly future campaigns.
White Dwarf will soon include a feature about homebrew legios and give the option to create custom rules for your own legio rather than borrowing an existing Legios rules. This will take the form of a series of tables, one each for: Legio traits, Legio stratagems; Legio wargear and princeps traits. There will be 10 options in each table. Some of these will allow you to pick from existing Legio rules but others will be unique.
As someone with a homebrew Legio and knowing that the AT team have emphasised the huge number of legios existing during the Heresy, this is a really exciting development and I can't wait for it to be developed.
Book IX - Crusade (general information)
By the time of Malevolences release, Book IX had already seen six months development work and the team are now at the point of playtesting units in their second or third forms. Most of the narrative is written. Although the team would not commit to a release date, they did say that there would not be a two year wait between Black Books this time.
The book will contain a section titled, 'Galaxy in Flames'. This is a full campaign system for representing an entire Expeditionary fleet at war including Astartes, Mechanicum, Army and Legio forces. This will be the basis for the Thramas Crusade campaign between the Dark Angels and Night Lords.
The book will also contain a system on Dark technology which will be available to all factions. This is similar to the psyarkana section in Malevolence that will just give more options to armies.
Book IX - Crusade (Dark Angels)
Some of this information hasn't changed since the Weekender so check my previous summary for some additional information.
Some new details include that the emphasis won't be on the Calibanite feature of the legion but more on the Terran origins and the role of the First Legion in the late Unification Wars, Great Crusade and early Heresy. This will include more details on the Rangdan Xenocides!
The look of the legion (as seen in the artwork and on the model previews on the Warhammer community website) is more knightly than robed monk. There will also be no green on the armour at all - there will be a great focus on black, white and red.
In terms of rules, the team may tweak the existing legio Astartes rules and the existing RoWs to match the intent in Book IX. The wings that are unique to the Dark Angels are most likely to be represented by RoW but they are exploring other options. Each wing will have something in the rules to represent them on the table. One example was the firewing that has an emphasis on cloak and dagger operations and assassinations.
One large part of the First Legion will be the focus that they are the prototype behind all other Legions. Therefore they have technology that is not accessible to other Legions that was gifted to them by the Emperor. This include Terran technology such as battle-automata that is skirting AI. This uniqueness will be able to be represented on the tabletop as well through wargear.
Book IX - Crusade (Dark Mechanicum)
This will a full list that will also explore the background and philosophy of the dark Mechanicum. One interesting new feature is that members of the Dark Mechanicum are not always sided with Horus - some may be Loyalist. The definition of a member of the Dark Mechanicum is that they are using technology that is frowned upon by the Emperor - it is a belief system rather than a side in the war that is more shades of grey, rather than black and white. The narrative within the book will explore this more and chart its development throughout the Great Crusade.
The army list will emphasis constructs rather than daemon-engines as this is more of a scouring-period development. There will changes to the standard army list as by nature, a DM army is extremely feudal and is focused on the archmagos.
You are only allowed one HQ in the army and this allows you to select a type of Dark Mechanicum philosophy to follow. These are:
- [ ] A.I.
- [ ] Warp-based technology as a power source (not daemonic in origin)
- [ ] Gene-crafting or the use of xenos technology.
All three of these are proscribed by the Imperium. Each one will open up unit and wargear options in a similar way to Militia traits or daemon dominions.
The archmagos controls all the units on the table in a manner similar to cybertheurgy. Although there is only one HQ, you can purchase more control nodes to spread the influence of the archmagos further.
There wasn't much detail on other units. They will be familiar but unique to each branch of DM thinking."

Interesting. Well, I won't bother you because that's a long wall of text. Again, many thanks to the Age of Darkness Podcast for the news. Seems like exciting times ahead for Adeptus Titanicus players!

To sum it up for Adeptus Titanicus:

Cerastus Knights will be getting their other weapon options...soon. In plastic.

Mechanicum (Forge World?) Knights will get released...soon. Most probably in resin.

No tanks and infantry. Epic, this is not.

We're getting Chaos Titans.

Homebrewed Legio rules in an upcoming White Dwarf issue. I'm so looking forward to this because my Titan Legion is homebrewed.

As for the Forge World Armigers, we don't have to wait 2 years for Book IX: Crusade. They might be released in a year or so. Apaprently they want to bring Horus Heresy in line with the other specialist games like Adeptus Titanicus, so that might mean a release every 3 months (not the campaign books but just new Horus Heresy stuff in general, but no longer do we have to wait years for a new Horus Heresy Campaign book).

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