+ inload: Neglected models and army themes +

+ inload: Neglected models September +

+ One of my [annual cycle resolutioncodes] was to get a bit more involved in events run across the community. For the past few months, Azazelx, of the excellent Node Azazel's Bitz Box [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], has run monthly challenges to encourage readers to do something a bit different. I've been meaning to get involved for a while, and what better time than 'Neglected Models September'? +

+ The Steel Legion miniatures that I'm currently working on have been sat in a box for the best part of a decade (perhaps more), predating my orks, Iron Warriors, and many sub-projects. Many of the additional figures I'm using in the army – the Space Hulk genestealers, brood brothers and various characters – have also been gathering dust, waiting for their time. +

+ This pict-capture was taken when I started work on them, in a previous house! +

+ Now, of course I won't be able to paint them all for this group project, but I think it fits the principle behind Azazelx's idea – to encourage people to paint – very nicely (thanks for the boot up the ex-cycler, Azazel). I will, however, try to get a sub-section of the army all nicely finished for the monthly round-up. +

+++

+ Army themes and restrictions +

+ ...And that brings me neatly onto the next part of this inload, which is a look at the army list I'm taking to the Bristol Vanguard Spoils of War: Silence event [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], which I'll be attending with the PCRC next month. It's a good example of how restrictions can help to theme an army. +

+ We've long discussed taking a themed group of armies to an event – primarily in order to hang out as a gang, but also to tie our armies together a little. (And also make sure we don't trek across the country and end up facing each other!) This year, we've finally managed it. The Silence event is exploring a sector of the the 40k galaxy in the face of an oncoming tyranid hivefleet, so we thought we'd get into the spirit of things and create a tyranid-themed battlegroup. Warmtamale, Lord Blood and Lucifer216 are taking their awesome 'nid armies; while Bob Hunk and Trojan Ninja are taking Genestealer Cult. While I would have loved to have taken a 'nid force, I couldn't really justify buying a whole new army when I had a load of Guard just begging to be painted. As a result, I'm taking a genestealer-infiltrated PDF force. +

+ With this idea in place, I then took it through a few drafts – the first I rejected because it was simply a Guard army – which wasn't really in the spirit of things. The next I rejected because it included tyranid vanguard organisms (like Lictors), and I didn't think that really fitted with my image of the 'early stages of corruption' feel. +

+ The current (and likely final) version is below. [If you're interested in army list composition etc., feel free to browse and offer any thoughts.] This is what I consider a fairly well-themed list, in that it has lots of the iconic units – such as basic Imperial guardsmen, and a mix of the genestealer generations – of the different factions represented; and few of the more specialised units. +

+ Of course there's nothing inherently wrong with cherry-picking bits from lists, but it's harder for other people to see the idea behind your army if the iconic units are missing, or are completely outnumbered by the more specialised stuff. As an example, I'd usually take a complete platoon of tanks in a Guard army, but in a back-water PDF, I felt that it's more thematic to have a few mismatched vehicles dragged into service rather than serried ranks of veterans. +

+ It's also worth thinking about the balance of your army in a combined list. The guard are famously not much cop in combat, while genestealers are not great at shooting. It'd be easy to optimise a list to cover both bases, but that wouldn't be much fun for the other player. As a result, I've pulled back on the guard's shootiness – few tanks, no heavy weapon squads – and made sure that for every combat monster in the genestealer section (purestrains, Patriarch, abominant), I've taken some more middle-of-the-road choices (hybrids). +

+ Because the guard are representing a dominated PDF company – effectively acting as hypnotised 'brood brothers' – for a relatively small cult, the genestealer choices are intended to represent that. The hybrids and purestrains represent the bulk of the cult itself. +

+++

Imperial Guard (Brood Brothers) Battalion Detachment [55PL]

• Imperial Guard Company Commander (HQ) – [3 PL]
• Lord Commissar (HQ) [4 PL]

• Imperial Guard Platoon Commander (Elites) – [2 PL]
• Imperial Guard Platoon Commander (Elites) – [2 PL]

• Astropath (Elites) – [1 PL]
• Wyrdvane Psykers (Elites) – three-strong [1PL]
• Techpriest Enginseer (Elites) – [3PL]
• Ogryn bodyguard (Elites) – [4PL]

• Guard platoon
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]
• Imperial Guard infantry squad (Troops) – ten-strong infantry squads [3 PL]

• Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy Support) – [11PL]
• Chimera (Transport) – [6PL]

Genestealer Patrol Detachment [14PL]

• Primus (HQ) – [4PL]
• Acolyte hybrids (Troops) – five strong [5PL]
• Neophyte hybrids (Troops) – ten strong [5PL]

Genestealer Supreme Comand Detachment [23PL]

• Patriarch (HQ) – [7PL]
• Magus (HQ) – [4PL]
• Magus (HQ) – [4PL]
• Abominant (HQ) – [4PL]
• Purestrains (Elites) – eight strong [8PL]

+ inload: Bristol Silence, the genestealer threat, and The Alien Wars +

+ Chrono-shunt active: Deadline deployed +

+ As the pict-capture below shows, it's not all games and theory for me – though if you fancy trying out some Gargant rules for the new Adeptus Titanicus, I'd very much appreciate your input [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] – I'm also (slowly) getting on with my infiltrated PDF force for the Bristol Silence campaign. +

+ The only model that's recently reached a finished (bar the base) state is the officer above, thought the long and tedious batch-painting on the remaining infantry is starting to bear fruit. They've all reached what I consider the base-coat stage. The officer above was a test of how far I can realistically take such base-coated figures in a short period of time, and I'm pleased to say that he took only around twenty minutes to take to this state. That's given me a realistic target to aim for for the remainder; and I think I can probably tackle half a squad or so in an evening going forward. +

+ The second part of the force I'll be taking to Bristol is the genestealers, of course; but it wouldn't be me if they weren't converted or altered in some way – particularly since the Steel Legion models I'm using for the infiltrated PDF are for the most part unaltered. + 

+ Just as the Steel Legion will see double-duty in my Alien Wars project [REF: tab-bar at the top of the page – +noosphericinloadlink embedded+]as the ldebaran 4th/5th; so too will some of the genestealers appear in another project. +

+ As a little work-in-progress preview, here's the King of Beasts:

+++

+ LOOPACTIVE: Procrastination subroutine  +

+ As is traditional, in trying to finish the Steel Legion, I had the sudden urge to clear up other bits and bobs. The Blood Angels 3rd gained a lieutenant:

+ Fairly simple stuff, using the new Blood Angels lieutenant as the base, but with a few bits and bobs to make him fit in with the rest of the army. I wasn't a huge fan of the original's pose – the head in particular looks really awkward; and so I've opted for a more open feel, as though urging on his comrades. Creating M35 marines (for The Alien Wars project) is interesting – not quite so uniform as HH marines, nor so opulent as M41. +

+ ...And having popped open the Dark Imperium box to get sprues to build the Blood Angels lieutenant, the inevitable happened, and I got sidetracked building Death Guard. +

+ Such cool models! I've done some minor conversion work (altering poses I found awkward, and making the heads a bit more uniform) but the underlying models are so gorgeous (in a horrid gribbly way) that they just work. +

+ The design has some great callbacks to Jes' classic Plague Marine sculpt. I've no great plans for anything big with these, but they were a genuine delight to put together. If they're fun to paint, I might expand them a little. +

 + Like much of GW's recent Chaos releases, the dolorous chap carrying the great bell has an wonderfully over-the-top and silly name – my main objection to the Death Guard release was the stupid naming – but the figure itself is fantastic. The conversion work here was mainly trimming off the really over-the-top elements to reveal the underlying silhouette. A headswap to more closely match the iconic Death Guard helm gives him a bit of individuality, and I twisted the arm to give a swaggering motion. +

+ inload: Engine War – Gargants for Adeptus Titanicus III: Krew +

+ Gargant krew for Adeptus Titanicus +

+ Building on previous inloads, today we're looking at a gargant's krew. If you'd like to catch up, you can read the previous installments here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. +

Paul Bonner's always excellent art is a great inspiration!

+ General design principles +

• Being orky, Gargants should be tough, and kick out a lot of firepower. 
• Unsubtle but entertaining, they should be generally less reliable than their Imperial equivalent, but have the potential – with luck and good planning – to outshine their opponents' equivalent War Engines.
• Playing a mob of Gargants should feel like you are an ork Kaptin managing his krew, and reward aggressive play.
• Playing a mob of Gargants should not be a frustrating experience.
• Using Gargants must abide to the core rules as seamlessly as possible while maintaining character.

+++

+ Krew +

+ Extinguishing fires [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] will necessarily have to be tied into the crew mechanics. I've had some great ideas from the PCRC and other places, and the crew mechanics have such potential to give the orky feel (design principle 3) that I really want to get something good without over-complicating things (design principles 4 and 5). +

+ There are two broad approaches that I've toyed with. These are outlined below; I'd love your thoughts on which you'd prefer to pursue. Remember the design principles – which feels orkier? Which is going to make for a more fun, fluid game? +

+++

+ Approach 1: Dice pool allocation +

+ In background terms, the crew of a Gargant has always been related to its size. Bigger Gargants have more crew. We've got an existing mechanic for reflecting that in the game: Scale. Keeping things simple, Gargants should have one team/mob of crew for every point of scale. Our Great Gargant, for example, will have ten Krew, an abstract representation of the riggers, stokers, boyz and nobz used in previous editions. +

+ With this approach, the bridge crew (the Kaptin himself, Gunboss, Flagboss etc. detailed in Codex Titanicus) are represented through the Critical Damage mechanics, as they are in Imperial Titans. +

+ The Krew themselves then form a pool that can be assigned as you wish. Unlike Imperial Titans, where the disciplined crew perform highly-specific ritual tasks – the Enginseer only monitors and administers to the plasma reactor, the servitor clades only repair damage, the gun-servitors only fire the defensive weapons etc. – ork krew are more versatile, if less reliable. An ork or grot can shovel coal, throw water onto a fire or bang an armour plate back into place just as effectively as they fire the guns. +

Krew: During the 'Issue Orders' part of the strategy phase, roll a number of D6 equal to the current Krew value of your Gargant, then allocate them to the relevant locations for that turn. [designer's note – the details of what the krew do in a location will be on the command terminal].

+ To reflect this, this approach will let you assign those ten Krew as you wish during the Strategy phase of the game. Each Krew mob gives you one D6, which you can allocate to one of the following Hit Locations/Weapon Card Slots:

• Head
• Right Arm
• Left Arm
• Gun Decks
• Engine Room
• Belly Gun

Gonna krump 'em!

+ Having a krew die in a Location/Slot allows you to push the boiler (equivalent to pushing the reactor) for the relevant region. The subtleties come in when looking at the values. A die of 2–5 represents the vast majority of the orks and grots crawling through the Gargant, and simply allow the region to work as normal. A die reading '1' represents a mob that is either dangerously incompetent, overly enthusiastic or simply not paying attention. Such a krew marker will prove detrimental to the region. Conversely, a die reading '6' represents a mob that is curiously well-disciplined, contains a knowledgeable oddboy, or is simply close enough to a shoutin' tube that they know what the Kaptin wants. Such a krew marker will prove beneficial to the region. +

+ The astute will quickly spot that with a Krew value of 10 (the Great Gargant is Scale: 10, and you get one die for each point of Scale), there will be some spare krew. This allows you to send additional krew to particular regions (space allowing). Having multiple Krew in a region can benefit certain regions – lots of orks shovelling coal/nuclear pellets/dogs into the boiler will let the Gargant put on a particularly impressive turn of speed; and the more orks that crowd into the gun decks, the more supporting firepower your Gargant will be able to kick out. +

+ Another reason for redundancy is to account for bad mobs. You always count the highest value within a region; so accompanying a '1' Krew with a '4' Krew will ensure things run smoothly. +

+ Finally, Krew can be lost through damage - so having some spare runtz and replaceable boyz doesn't hurt. +

+ Krew and the Command Terminal +

+ To fit with design principle 5 (see above), I want to keep this mechanic as self-enclosed as possible, and minimise book-keeping. The Command Terminal is the ideal place for this. In the revised prototype, there's a box for crew; with 16mm squares (the same size as standard dice). This house the crew dice before they're allocated; so there's a physical object to move to the relevant region – I think that'll add to the feeling of commanding a crew, as per design principle 3. +

+ This space also organically tracks crew casualties; placing a marker to fill a box after a casualty is taken is a physical reminder not to place a die in the pool; so you won't forget in the heat of battle. +

+++

+ Approach 2: Regional crew +

+ A simpler approach entirely, rather than a allocating crew from a central pool this approach has dedicated crew to the various sections – somewhat similar to the abstract servitor clades and so forth of Imperial Titans. The advantage of this is that we can bring forth the specific character of the crew types – gretchin riggers, ork stokers and so forth; bringing the different types out in Critical Damage results etc. +

+ It means that the enemy can target particular locations, and the orks can't simply redirect krew from other areas. This may or may not be an attractive option – personally, I like the fact that the Kaptin can just send a mob to replace the last lot; but I'd be interested to hear your views. +

+ This approach does have the advantage of being simpler and less hands-on. A Gargant Bigmob (Maniple) would become much more streamlined and easy to manage – potentially useful, if a great number of Gargants is in use. There simply wouldn't be much micromanagement for the ork player to do; and that design space could potentially return attention to the Engine Room (i.e. the Plasma Reactor equivalent) or other areas of the game – perhaps creating a Bigmob-wide 'Waaagh/morale' mechanic. +

+++

+ Next inload +

+ Next time I'll show the revised Command Terminal for the Great Gargant, and give some concrete examples of allocating krew. However, as mentioned above, I'd really appreciate any thoughts on which you'd prefer to see based on this theoretical inload. Remember the design principles – which feels orkier? Which is going to make for a more fun, fluid game? +

+ Finally, if anyone would like to playtest these rules, I think they'll be ready to roll out towards the end of the month – I would very much appreciate some practical field experience, however limited. So if you fancy it, let me know how you get on. +

+++

+ inload: Engine War – Gargants for Adeptus Titanicus II: Fires +

+ Burna boyz: fires in Adeptus Titanicus +

+ Building on yesterday's theoretical inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], I roughed out a Command Terminal for the Great Gargant. Working like this is a good way to spot if anything's not going to work, and bring together your ideas in a single place. The result, v0.1, is below:

Great Gargant Command Terminal v0.1

+ Immediately, I've got a few reservations about it. Firstly, it just looks like a more complicated version of the Imperial Command Terminal. That's not necessarily a bad thing (no need to chuck the neonate out with the hygienofluid, after all), but it really should feel a bit more orky, to me. +

+ I've already had some excellent feedback and ideas – here, from the PCRC, on the Adeptus Titanicus subforum of Bolter and Chainsword, and on the Adeptus Titanicus 2018 Facebook group – on what players want from orks, and there are some common threads; which is encouraging. +

+ To recap:

+ General design principles +

1. Being orky, Gargants should be tough, and kick out a lot of firepower. 
2. Unsubtle but entertaining, they should be generally less reliable than their Imperial equivalent, but have the potential – with luck and good planning – to outshine their opponents' equivalent War Engines.
3. Playing a mob of Gargants should feel like you are an ork Kaptin managing his krew, and reward aggressive play.
4. Playing a mob of Gargants should not be a frustrating experience.
5. Using Gargants must abide to the core rules as seamlessly as possible while maintaining character.

+++

+ Pending changes: Fires +

+ One common request was for fires – it seems lots of players have fond memories of Gargants blazing from stem to stern – so I included a fire tally on the right, just to have it roughed in. However, it feels a bit abstract; and misses the feel of fires spreading through the Gargant. Almost immediately, I thought of a much better way to represent this – through damage counters on the Structure Points charts (i.e. the 'pips' of the head, body and feet). This is integrated into the existing system, simplifies the terminal and (hopefully) feels like the fire can spread better. +

+ How do fires work? +

+ My idea is as follows: Rather than starting from the left and working right, as normal damage accumulates, Fires would start on the right and spread left. These fiery regions then become ineligible to take damage; instead, further damage goes straight onto the Critical Damage area. Here's an example in play:

+ In turn one, the Great Gargant's body has taken a bit of a pounding, losing three Structural Points, and three fires having started. The damage accumulates on the left, and the fires are placed on the right. +

Turn one

+ The End Phase goes badly, and the fire spreads, adding a further token from the right-hand side. 

+ In Turn two, the Gargant is hit for four Structural Points. The first three are lost normally, accumulating on the left (the bright red ones are new). However, the fourth is unable to be placed, as the regions are ablaze. The excess damage immediately jumps to the first Critical Damage region. +

Turn two

+ Realising he'd better do something, the Kaptin bellows down the shoutin' tube to put the fires out, and in the end phase two are extinguished, being removed from the left, revealing two charred but functional regions. Turn three rolls around and the Great Gargant receives a single point of damage. This is placed as normal. +

Turn three 

+ I hope that makes things clear. It'll require some working out and tweaking to find the right balance of Structure points, but I think the principle is sound. +

+ How do fires start? +

+ Only you can prevent forest fires I think a nice way to model this is to have Devastating hits causing one point of Damage and starting a fire, rather than causing two points of Damage. Background-wise, Ork Gargants have fewer critical systems and more redundant/empty regions than an Imperial or Eldar Titan, and it helps fulfil design principles 1 and 5 (see above). Importantly, it also means that ork Gargants are mechanically a bit tougher than comparable Titans, because while they take the same gross amount of damage, orks can repair it, while Imperial and Eldar Titans cannot. +

+ This approach also means that you can potentially access the Critical Damage area more quickly (though since fires can be extinguished, you might go back to normal damage), making it harder to predict when something special will happen – this unpredictability helps fulfil design principle 2. +

+ Given that note above, when it comes to writing the Critical damage chart, I'll have to be careful to make sure that the results are relatively less heinous than the Imperial equivalent – from a mechanical and historical point of view, we want Gargants to degrade gradually, rather than from lucky one-hit kills (though the potential for that should be there, even if less rare than for an Imperial) and as design principle 4 states, we want the game to be entertaining, not frustrating. +

+++

+ Spreading and extinguishing fires +

+ Seeing whether Fires spread is an obvious End Phase addition; and a great opportunity to reflect the nature of fire – the more there is, the harder it is to extinguish. My current thoughts:

Fires: In the end phase, roll a D6 for each region of the Gargant that contains at least one Fire marker. If the total is greater than the number of Fire markers in that region (or the result is a 6 regardless of the number of fires) the fire does not spread, and nothing happens. If the total is equal to or lower that the number of Fire markers, the fire spreads. Add another Fire marker to the region.

+ Fires will need to have the potential to be extinguished; but we don't want to make it too easy – they should be a fun management mechanic. If you ignore them, they get harder to extinguish (see above), but if you send your crew to fight them, you'll have less to fire the guns etc. +

+++

+ In a later inload, we'll look at Krew in more detail, but for now, what do you reckon to the Fire mechanics – do they fulfil the design principles? DO they fit the background? Most importantly, do they look fun? +

+ inload: Engine War – Gargants for Adeptus Titanicus I +

+ Orks in Adeptus Titanicus +

+ I'll preface this by saying that these rules are only intended to tide players over until we get some official rules. With that said, it's a great opportunity to do some fun stuff, and have a practise at writing rules. +

+ Theoretical +

+ General design principles +

1. Being orky, Gargants should be tough, and kick out a lot of firepower. 
2. Unsubtle but entertaining, they should be generally less reliable than their Imperial equivalent, but have the potential – with luck and good planning – to outshine their opponents' equivalent War Engines.
3. Playing a mob of Gargants should feel like you are an ork Kaptin managing his krew, and reward aggressive play.
4. Playing a mob of Gargants should not be a frustrating experience.
5. Using Gargants must abide to the core rules as seamlessly as possible while maintaining character.

+ Inspiration +

The gigantic Titans known as Gargants stride at the core of the Waa-Ork. Each Gargant is a huge towering war machine of awesome destructive power. It is also a mechanical, fighting, firebelching idol in the image of the Ork war gods. The machines are served by a living crew of Orks and Gretchin, stoking the boilers and loading the guns in the Gargant’s turrets. The construction of a Gargant is in itself an act of god worship, and stands for all that is Orkish.

+ Codex Titanicus, 1st edition +

+++

Like many products of Orkoid military engineering, the Gargant relies on comparatively simple technology and devastatingly heavy firepower, an attitude summed up by Boss-Mek Badlug One-Leg in his oft-quoted dictum “S’gorra be dead shooty, wiv loadza gunz all over.” 

Orks do not rely on auto-systems to the same extent as other races, and Gargants carry a large crew of both Orks and Gretchins. The crew is led by a Kaptin, who relays orders through a body of officers. A speaking-tube is the preferred method of communication within a Gargant. Each officer is in charge of one section of the Gargant, be it a weapon, the magazine, the engine room, or whatever.

Under the officer is a crew of Orks and Gretchins who carry out the orders passed down to them. Repair crews are composed of Gretchins, whose smaller build suits them to crawling through cramped spaces armed with wrenches and oily rags. 

Gargants are protected by up to eight banks of power fields. In practical terms, a power field is very similar to a void shield, but cannot be repaired - when a hit is absorbed, one field generator is permanently destroyed. 

+ ibid. +

+ Resource management +

+ Gargants don't have plasma reactors (well, I'm sure one or two do, but in general, they're 'comparatively simple technology'), so I don't think it's appropriate to use the plasma reactor mechanics. On the other hand, it'd be a shame for ork players to miss out on the resource management side of the game; particularly if they're not going to have the balance of shields (since Power Fields just burn out, and can't be repaired). In addition, design principle 5 (above) means I want to stick with the core rules if possible, so we need some sort of resource generation and management that's equivalent to the plasma reactor table. +

+ Officers and crew +

+ Looking over the rules from Codex Titanicus (CT) and Titan Legions (TL), the main things ork players had to manage was the krew, which fits in nicely with design principle 3. With this in mind, I'd like to look at the plasma reactor and servitor clade mechanics, to see if we can find some fun interactions. + 

+ Both CT and TL had lots of different types of krew – riggers to repair, stokers to keep the engine room going, boyz who were being transported etc. Choices had to be made to take lots of riggers to keep your Gargant functioning, bosses to make sure it did what it was meant to, and so forth. It might be fun to have this level of granularity – make the ork player find the balance that works for them, and give a lot of customisation options. On the other hand, it's also quite complex; perhaps over-complicated. +

+ There's a middle ground – having some krew represented by counters; others by rules; similar to the Imperials: servitor clades, Princeps etc. are fixed statistics/rules; and the plasma generator is a movable counter. +

+ Dwindling resources +

+ A potential problem of having krew as your resource is that unlike plasma, they're irreplaceable. Once an ork is dead, he's dead. This ties in with the Power Fields, which also can't be brought back up. That could be bad, or it could be good. On the one hand, it means that orks have to be aggressive: their forces only get degraded, so they need to close and keep pressure up on their opponents. On the other hand, there's not much management to do beyond pre-game selection, which is a shame. What other management could there be? +

+ Power +

+ Gargants do have engine rooms. 'Power' is a catch-all term for steam, coal, solar, plasma and however else the individual Gargant is made to do stuff. This is a good chance to have a manageable resource. I'd like it to work like a plasma reactor, but for both ends to be bad – if you use too much, the engine goes out and has to be re-lit. If you don't use enough, it overheats and starts fires. +

+ This mechanic would interact nicely with the krew – do you drag your gunners away to stoke the boiler, or do you have to move faster than you wanted to burn off some excess? +

+ It might also be a place to introduce fires, which I fondly remember as one of my favourite mechanics from previous editions. Fires would be a great way to represent Devastating Hits – rather than taking two structure points, Gargants might take one SP and a fire is started. +

If any fires are still burning at the end of the repair phase, roll a D6. If the result is more than the number of fires still burning, the crew have at least managed to prevent them from spreading. If not, the fires have spread with disastrous results – roll a D6 on the Gargant Catastrophic Damage Table.

+ ibid. +

+++

+ Practical +

The following notes are essentially here for discussion. I'll start with the Great Gargant, as that's the Warlord equivalent.

Stats: 

Command: 5+

Speed: 4in/6in

Manoeuvre: 1/2

Ballistic Skill: 4+

Weapon Skill: 3+

Riggers [Servitor clades equivalent]: See above

Gun decks: As an equivalent to the Ardex-Defensor cannon, I thought it'd be fun if unassigned krew could shoot out of portholes etc. The 'bucket o' dice' is an ork hallmark, which'd go some way to making things feel orky. The strength of shot would have to be determined; probably S3 or S4. I guess it'll depend on how many krew are likely to be 'free' every turn. This would be a nice way to get some rear defence and make the Gargant feel like a naval vessel – if your Gargant is immobilised with no targets in arc, for example, all hands can start shooting from the back.

Engine Room: Pip starts in the centre (green), with two yellow, one orange, and one red space on either side.

Stoking (Pushing the reactor) – can be used for:

• Shields up! – Voids to Full equivalent (perhaps allows rerolls to all saves, but one Power field burns out? Too complex?).
• Full Steam Ahead – Power to Locomotors equivalent.
• Hard to – Power to Stabilisers equivalent.
• Perhaps boosting power to weapons – more shots for Rapid/Ordnance? Additional Strength for some guns? 

+++

Here's the outline for the Command Terminal (Kaptin's Klipboard?)

Head (Head) – (360°) – 8 SP

13–14 Direct Hit

15–16 Devastating Hit

17+ Critical hit

Body (Body) – 10 SP 

13–14 Direct Hit

15–16 Devastating Hit

17+ Critical hit

Belly (Legs) (Fixed forward) – 10SP

13–14 Direct Hit

15–16 Devastating Hit

17+ Critical hit

Upper turrets – Weapons (equivalent to Carapace) – Secondary weapons (90°)

Lower turrets – Primary Weapons (90°)

+++

Power Fields: 

• Act as Void Shields, but can't be brought back online. 
• As a result, these are effectively like a structural section of the Gargant; a 'shell' that has to be broken before you can start adding damage to the Gargant. 
• 1st ed. had a random mechanic for the number of Power Fields. Something to include, or frustrating?

+ inload: Adeptus Titanicus Reavers +

+ Reinforcements for Legio Nikator + 

+ My Sons of the Temple battlegroup are joined by two new God-Machines – Senex Codommanus, the Princeps Senioris' Titan; and Megasthenes Dura, a grumbling new-build that's still being broken in. +

Senex Codomannus

+ Codomannus will be the lead Titan of my Maniple for the simple reason that I've always favoured Reavers. Something about their design just speaks to me, and I like their status as 'the middle ones'. It's gained a second name – Senex – in order to help differentiate it from Coropedion. Making the names distinctive makes them easier to remember in-game, which adds a lot to the narrative. Much more fun to declare that 'Senex moves full power to locomotors!' than 'I'm pushing this one's reactor.' +

+ The pose is intended to be a bit more dynamic than the stock one, while remaining fairly ponderous. It was achieved simply by trimming the toes off and repositioning them. I braced the trailing leg on a spare slottabase while the glue dried, to stop it drifting downwards. +

Megasthenes Dura

+ Megasthenes Dura is a more straightforward build, and was constructed much more swiftly – helped in no small part by the fact I'd built all the weapons beforehand while constructing Senex Codomannus. This was to ensure the polarities of the magnets I'm using was consistent. +

+ Speaking of magnets, the Reaver's Gatling blasters work nicely as carapace mounts, don't you think? They'll certainly do while we wait for upgrade sprues etc. While I am excited to get more guns, I'm actually champing at the bit for different heads. This focal detail is something that, more than anything else, helps differentiate and personalise your models. I'm hoping against hope we get a modern interpretation of the old Reaver head variation; the slightly longer one. To this end, I've magnetised the heads of all my Titans. +

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+ Size comparison +

+ Sitting alongside a third-party version, you can see quite how much bigger the new Reaver is. Even taking into account the slightly elevated pose, it's considerably taller and bulkier. I'll be keeping my old ones separate – apart from anything else, I'd like a Maniple that I can take to GW events! +

+ The painting of Coropedion stalled somewhat while I feverishly built Reavers, but I'm looking forward to coming back to it. +

+ inload: Titan, crew and a grand duc +

+ The joys of flitting +

+ Nothing motivates me more than having a project deadline – in this case for a campaign weekend over in Bristol. Unfortunately, that motivation is for largely unrelated models! +

+ Still, paint is paint, and where would the PCRC be without traditional panic-painting? +

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+ Legio Nikator +

+ Painting continues, albeit slowly, on Coropedion. The approach I've taken here is to give the whole model a layer of dirty metal, using a similar approach to that used for the early stages of my Iron Warriors [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]. I've then begun blocking in the terracotta and turquoise. For the terracotta, I'm starting from the orange midtone, to allow me to highlight and shade; while for the turquoise, I've started from a slight highlight, which means it will  be subdued significantly in the finished result – or at least, that's the plan! +

+ My hood is doffed to Games Workshop for this model – it's proving as much a pleasure to paint as it was to build. The details are crisp, the detail raised enough to make brushwork enjoyable while retaining inks/washes, and a lovely mix of smooth plates for considered blending and heavy industrial detail for quick washwork. +

+ The thoughts behind the scheme are in an earlier inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], if you'd like to know more about it. +

+ New crew +

+ Vomited forth from the the depths of the immaterium, this Princeps model will join the others [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] in the Sons of the Temple. +

+ I've never been much of a collector; but in gathering together the various Princeps and Titan crew models Forgeworld have produced, I can see why people get the bug. +

+ Meanwhile, in the Court of the Sun King +

‘Yn the Cōurt of the Suñne Cyngge; yclept the latest – ðe Grænd Duc; though whither his duchy, we wit not.’

So spake the owlingman.

‘Still: lieless and sturdy stands the truth on which this tale is told. This fourteen-month saw Childeric muster his allies to his breast; deep in the wildes of Cepheus where the scrimshander-monks gave him succour and made good his pains and his band’s sorrows - yet evenwhilst Sciriusc, the Sunne King, pinned forth The City and swept it clean of forwandlers, perverts and strangemen.’

‘Forewhy? In sanity I could not plumb not fathom; though knowing yet now that howling moon-madness was the best of the bitter platters served for us to choose; so monstrous strange we’re the events yet forthcoming.’

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+ Now, with reference to flitting from project to project and procrastinating about my Bristol force, this full-figured chap will make an appearance there – he'll be playing the part of a VIP protected by the PDF – and whether he's a bewigged fourth-generation hybrid or brood brother is yet to be seen... +