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Adeptus Titanicus Rules & Gameplay Latest

7 Minute Read
Jul 20 2016
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FW-warlord-01

GW developers were talking this weekend about Adeptus Titanicus.  Here’s the latest:

via Warseer’s Pushkin 7-17-2016

I had a really nice chat with Andy Hoare…

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Anyway adepticus titanicus is his next project. By the sound of things this makes a warlord the size of a contemptor.
There’s going to be some terrain in the box inspired by the old cardboard buildings, but this will be plastic, everything else is going to be resin.
By the sound of things the focus is going to be getting a decent model range for the HH first. We talked about how hard it is to do all ranges and all unit types in epic, and I think the focus is very much Titans, tanks and flyers!

This is due in 2017 and will all be under the forgeworld banner.

via The Imperial Truth (Facebook) 7-18-2016

Adeptus Titanicus is looking to bring in many of the old style rules, order systems etc, damaging…
Adeptus Titanicus campaign allows pilots to survive where the Titans might not (ejecting), rules for machine spirits.
Adeptus Titanicus encouraging multiple play modes, points no points etc Feature custom dice, critical tables etc

 

 

 

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via Dakka’ Zedmeister 7-17-2016

Adeptus Titanicus
And now, Adeptus Titancius. As mentioned above, the original play test box is quite the relic and was worth a look.
– They’re digging into all previous Epic games for inspiration, but it will be a new rule set.
– Expect Titans to have a plasma reactor power tracker to keep track of how much power they have.
– They’ll be able to overload the reactor to boost power with a risk (Overload voids, increase speed, etc)
– Harpoons will be back but nowhere near as ridiculous as they used to be!
– Expect 2nd edition Epic orders and damage charts
– Expect 1st edition campaign and upgrade rules
– Engine war will be a bit of a slugfest, with Titans slowly blasting each other to Atoms, staggering about, weapons missing, systems burnt out, but still able to fight until you smash the legs, pulverise the MIU’s or cause the reactor to go nuclear.
– Manourberability is key – the heavier the Titan, the slower they are. He described a play test where his final warlord was scragged when an enemy warhound got behind it and he didn’t have enough power to overload the reactor to take more turns than they can
– Knights are objective grabbers and shield droppers, don’t expect them to go toe to toe with Titans and survive
– Campaign games are the default mode of play, similar to Necromunda as he described it. With options for competitive and open play.
– Machine spirit personality will play a role. This sounded really exciting. Titans will pick up a personality the more used they are. So you could end up wth a Titan geared for close combat and have it turn into a bit of berserker which will have an effect of it becoming less controllable in battle. ‘Resting’ the Titan becomes an important choice to make. Yes, your Titan could end up with PTSD or worse…
– They’re starting out with the three classes and Knights, all in resin
– They’ll be a game box that’ll contain just the rules and terrain, a Horus heresy style black book for the main rules with additional background and colour imagery and the models in resin
– As for future Titans, expect a new class between warlord and reaver as well as a Nemesis class and, he got really excited, PsiTitans (at last)! Imperator would only appear if the game proves popular
– They’re now running through play testing the game with a wider player base

It was mentioned that a typical game would be 1 warlord, 1-2 reavers and 2-3 warhounds.

In terms of the rules, he did mention that they’d take on and adapt rules from previous editions only if they made sense and added to the tactical experience. They wouldn’t add them in for the sake of it. He also mentioned that they’re not afraid of a bit of complexity if, again, it made sense.

Finally, I’ve just recalled that they’re like to sell hulls without weapons and sell the weapons separately.

Personally, I think a fully equipped Warlord will be about the same as a fully equipped Leviathan Dreadnought.

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Part 2

It was James Hewitt I chatted to and he was willing to divulge quite a lot of information and was clearly excited on the topic (as was I!). I’m still recalling things as I managed to collar him for nearly 30 minutes! Allow me to expand a few points. Be advised that he was describing early playtest rules. He’s only played it internally with 3 man team. He’s currently frantically printing out paper models for an expanded playtest across GW. So bear that in mind:

Like previous Epic versions, it’s currently an alternative activation system instead of UGOIGO

The plasma Tracker
The plasma tracker was very interesting. Each Titan will have a certain amount of power they generate per turn. They then use the power to move, fire weapons, do damage control and repair voids. There’s currently an overload mechanic whereby you can increase the power they generate to do additional actions. However, overtaxing the reactor carries risks, though he didn’t expand on the risks.

Titan Datasheets
He described each Titan as having its own unit card with stats (move, turns etc.), plasma power tracker, damage track and weapon hard points. He seemed to be describing a hybrid of 1st Edition (weapon hard points, stats and refits) and 2nd Edition Titan datasheets (hit location and critical damage tables).

Expanded Description of his Playtest
He described a typical Warlord as having 4 inch movement and a single 90 degree turn. Warhounds having an 8 inch movement and could make two 90 degree turns. In his playtest, he described the final turn with only 1 Warlord facing off against 2 Warhounds, with everything else disabled or destroyed. One Warhound distracted him to the front, and took down the Warlords last remaining Voids. The Warlord then returned fire and blew it away. But, crucially, failed his reactor overload and was not able to take an additional turn to face the other, hidden, Warhound with his thicker frontal armour. This left his rear, and the vulnerable reactor housing, exposed and unshielded. On the Warhound’s turn, it moved out and fired on the rear of an unshielded Warlord and breached its reactor!

Machine Spirit Personalities
This is something that, as he described, was hinted at in the background but something that he’d like to explore within the game. I think ideas are still being developed, but he wanted to give Titan’s their own personalities, for example the close-combat equipped Titan turning into a berserker. The idea being that you try to issue the Titan an order but the Machine Spirit, feeling more than a little rage as a result of doing far too much close combat and not having any rest, starts exerting its influencing on the Princeps! He mentioned that during campaigns, you’ll want to rest Titans as they become mentally burnt out and start developing undesirable personalities.

Game Types

He described the default game as Campaign games and used Necromunda as an example – you have a roster and for a game, you choose entries from your roster. Between games, you can apply for refits and your crews gain experience. Ejecting heads were mooted as an example of the Princeps and Moderatii being able to survive the destruction of their Titan. He described that, similar to Age of Sigmar, they’re also planning to have an open play and competitive play option as well for those who just want to plop down some Titans and just have at it.

Background
He really wants to codify Titans. He’s currently been scouring archives and has got a lot of material including Jes Goodwin’s ancient sketches.

The Future
He got very excited when I mentioned Psi-Titans!
Imperator Titans would only appear if the game proves to be popular.
I asked about Banelord Titans and vehicles. Again, it’s all about popularity.
However, he is writing the rules engine so that they are able to add in vehicles or infantry without requiring a whole new set of rules to be written. He described the jarring effect of Titans and Infantry needing two sets of rules in previous games and it’s something that he definitely wants to avoid.

warhound

via B&C’ marvmoogy 7-17-2016

I had a chat with Daren Parrwood about all things big and bi-pedal.

Quite cryptic in places, but he did say that all Adeptus Titanicus models are being designed in 40k scale then downsized for the game. Strong hint that the models released for just that game will eventually find their way into the 30k/40k world.

 

~A lot of these concepts were present in the original Adeptus Titanicus, so it is great to see them bring it back with  a vengeance!  I can hardly wait.

 

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Author: Larry Vela
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