+ inload: Building Objective Markers for Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis +

+ Mission Briefing: What Are We Fighting For? +

+ In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war... But what exactly is it we're trying to achieve? +

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Like terrain, objective markers are often left as a bit of an afterthought – abstract tokens or templates, left 'til the last minute rather than built as part of the army. Nothing wrong with that – and having something obviously not a miniature or a bit of scenery is good for clarity. 

Nevertheless, since I'm going to an event, I wanted to add a little something to the immersion, so I've made some little modelled markers to represent various objectives. I've tried to theme these around the objective concepts from the Adeptus Titanicus Matched Play book, which will be in use during the event at Beachhead:

• Three objective markers for primary missions: Secure and Hold and Salt the Earth
• Three objective markers for primary missions: Asset Protection and Defend and Extract
• Titan Honour Banner for primary mission: Honour thy Forebears
• Two markers for secondary mission: Deny Them

For example, from left to right here you can see an Secure and Hold objective – a supply crate, guarded by a heavy bolter team while the big Titans arrive to defend it; and two Defend and Extract objectives – important personnel. These are a Magos from Metalica, and a Steel Legion Senior Officer. 

... and here's another Defend and Extract – a critical Astropath (in the sense of being important, rather than disagreeing with your choice of decor). Alongside that are two tokens for the Titan Hunter Infantry stratagem. I'm not 100% sure on whether I'll be taking this for the event, but it's useful to have in the back pocket. 

This raises the question of how I – and more importantly the other player – can distinguish between objective markers and tokens, and that's largely going to come down to the painting. I'll likely do something with the base rim; perhaps some text. The point is that they'll be distinguishable at table height, rather than having to lean down to see whether a 8mm tall figure has a particular gun or not.

Another shot of the Titan Hunting Infantry (foreground, left and right). You'll note that these are on tall (i.e. not Legions-style flat bases) 32mm bases, to fit the AT stipulations. I went for the raised bases to help distinguish them from LI infantry, to future-proof things for an eventual Epic-scale Steel Legion army.

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+ Building the markers +

The models themselves are small-scale Steel Legion figures that I had printed for me, intending them for an Epic-scale Steel Legion army for The Ashes of Armageddon project [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Alas, the printer did them rather too large, so the integrated bases don't fit in the recesses of the bases I had, and – more annoyingly – they tower over my Marines and orks, just enough to niggle and bump any enthusiasm for getting them built and painted.

They've thus lurked, unwanted for their intended purpose, and itching at the back of my memcoils and angst-gland every time I open the Cupboard of Shame Opportunity. It's such a terrible shame, because the prints are beautiful quality (certainly can't fault that!) and the sculpts are absolutely perfect. Varus, the sculptor [+noosphericexloadlink embeeded+], is such a talent, and these little models are absolutely exquisite, capturing all the detail and character of their 28mm cousins [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

Anyway, this seemed the perfect opportunity to use them. While slightly too big to look right against other Epic: Legions Imperialis armies, the sheer size of the Titans masks the scale discrepancy. Secondly, their slightly over-large size means they'll read better as the relevant Objective, and if I do ever manage to get the army printed at a size I'm happy with, these over-sized figures on raised bases will stand out beautifully as objectives there, too.

And that's another advantage of making scenic, themed objectives. No matter how themed you make them, you'll find that they end up being surprisingly versatile, and useful in all manner of places.

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The practical side of building them was simplicity itself – smear some acrylic texture gel [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] on a base, embed the figures, use a sculpting tool to work the gel over the integrated bases to hide them, then pour on some play sand.

The crates, pillars and bunkers (you can see a couple lurking at the back of the picture above, which will be my Asset Protection objectives) are from Battle Bling [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], proving just how much these tiny elements can change a base of infantry into a mini diorama.

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