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Warhammer 40K: The Warbringer Battle Titan

4 Minute Read
Nov 14 2023

Gather round Magos and Techno-Archivists, today we speak of the holy Warbringer Battle Titan – God-Machine of the Collegio Titanicus.

The Warbringer is between the size of a Warlord Titan and Reaver Titan. It is a dedicated Titan hunter and dedicated fire support platform, sporting a truly immense quake cannon designed to take down enemy Titans at range. The Titans reinforced frontal plating allows it to weather most return fire with casual ease, and its defense batteries render it well-protected against aerial attacks, though its relatively light rear armor can leave it vulnerable to flanking attacks by ground armor.

Used during the Great Crusade against various Titan-scale xenos constructs, the Warbringer came into its own during the Horus Heresy, as Titan war became commonplace.This class of Titan is renowned for its bellicose Machine Spirit, and it is said that the Titan may lock onto targets and assume firing positions before their crews are even aware of an approaching threat.

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Titan Overview

The Warbringer boasts six Void Shield generators and is protected by thick, well-sloped layers of adamantium armor plating, giving it an immense level of protection in excess of the Reaver-class. It can mount up to three weapon systems of terrible destructive power which are configured based on its mission role: long range fire support. Indeed such is the power of the Warbringer that only another war engine of similar capability or entire tank battalions working together have a hope of defeating one in open combat. However, the titan is not invulnerable, especially when fighting against multiple lighter Titans, which can attempt to flank it’s weak rear armor. In a one-on-one duel, however, even the larger Warlord will take time and suffer great damage to destroy a Warbringer.

The Warbringer shares a design feature with the Reaver – class in that its plasma reactor is placed in the rear of the carapace housing. This feature makes it much harder for an enemy to knock out the Titan when attacking from the front, while simultaneously making the reactor an easier target when attacking from the sides and rear. Warbringers, therefore, are less suitable for extremely heavy fighting in cities and other built-up areas, exacerbated by their slow plodding speed. Their reactor is underpowered for such an up-gunned and heavily armored chassis, and their outright speed and maneuverability suffers accordingly.

Even so, some Titan Legios such as Legio Honorum, will field their Warbringers on the front lines of engagements, trusting in their extreme durability to weather enemy fire.

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Warbringer crews are the same as found in other Imperial Titans, consisting of a Princeps with overall command of the machine, two Moderati who control its weapons and movements, and a Tech-Priest to manage the plasma reactor, assisted by servitors wired directly into the Warbringer’s many systems. The Princeps directs from an armoured command throne, where he connects directly with the machine’s Mind Impulse Unit through neural connectors (typically cranial socket connectors and cyber-optic implants, though spinal-cortex coils or even immersive vitro-tanks are not unheard-of), allowing him to directly receive information from the logic-engine, auspex and control systems. In most cases the Princeps’ commands are carried out via the MIU interface, though a master override allows the Princeps to directly control all of the war engine’s functions, including as a last resort manual override controls in the arms of the command throne. Of the Moderati one is charged with controlling the Warbringer’s primary weapons while the other pilots the war engine and monitors sensor information.

Sub-Classes

The Warbringer Nemesis is a variant armed with either a longer-ranged Mori Quake Cannon which can throw targets off course, or the Belicosa Volcano Cannon which is more outright lethal, but puts a dangerous strain on the titan’s reactor when overused. 

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Armaments

The main weapon of the Warbringer is its carapace mounted Quake Cannon, which is capable of transforming anything it hits into a white-hot crater. This artillery weapon features a revolver-style loading mechanism and is crewed by a spotter and a loader. The Warbringer can also mount a Mars-Alpha Pattern Nemesis, or Bellicosa Volcano Cannon as its main carapace weapon. Besides this, the Warbringer is equipped with two carapace-mounted Anvilus Defense Batteries, three Ardex-defensor Mauler Bolt Cannon turrets, and two arm-mounted weapons which can be a Laser Blaster, Gatling Blaster, Volcano Cannon, or Melta Cannon.

Learn More of the Warhammer Titans

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Author: Larry Vela
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