+ 'Ere We Go – Great Gargant +
+ Before the paint is dry on the first, a second Great Gargant has emerged from the Meks' workshop, eager to get into combat with the 'oomie Titans. +
As the great philosopher Udgrub of Gaff had it: 'Woss ded ard and ded shooty? A Gargant. Woss even arder and shootier and krumpier? Two Gargants!' Who am I to argue with such a paragon of kultur?
The finer points of ork warfare aside, I'm delighted with this print, which was given to me over a pint at the local. Drawing from the same original sculpt, the two 3D-sculptors have given slightly different results, as you can see below. The new one is slightly more broad in the chest and the arms are proportionally a little lower, and I think these differences help to suggest an individuality that's fitting for Gargants. After all, each is a kustom job – even when orks try to copy each other, there's inevitably some variance.
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+ Gaming +
Besides making a very attractive set of bookends, why would two Great Gargants be useful? Well, what if you had a set of rules that let you play Orks – or Eldar, if that's your breakfast fructose pulp-preserve of choice – in Adeptus Titanicus? Well, I'm pleased to say that such a supplement exists, and pending a couple of permissions for featured artworks, it's just about ready to release.
You can judge for yourself whether I've been successful in my initial aims – the first article on the project was written back in September 2018 [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], and it's been more actively polished and revised in the years since.
I've been beavering away on Bloodsong for just about as long as the new version of Adeptus Titanicus has been out. We're now up to beta version 14, and I'm on track to publish the free, finished, ready-to-play booklet as a Christmas thank-you to readers.
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+ What's new? +
Well, if you've already given the expansion a try, I hope you'll be pleased to hear that it's more refinement than rework.
The Eldar, who benefitted from being much more similar to Imperial Titans, haven't thrown up any huge problems in playtesting, and are largely untouched. The big exception is the psychic lance, which has been considerably toned-down following playtesting – terrifying it might be in background terms, the older rules were both powerful to the point of being oppressive, and also a pain to use in practise.
As for everyone's favourite space-hooligans, ork shields seemed uncharacteristically reliable in early turns – not a problem when you've just got one on the table, but the more you had, the more oppressive it turned out to be. The solution? I looked back into Adeptus Titanicus '87 for inspiration, and found a rule about Power Fields occasionally allowing shots through gaps. There's thus now a (small) chance for a shot to go through and set off a fire. This gives 'feels-good' factor for the opponent, and also gives the Ork player something to juggle in otherwise quiet early turns. Win-win.
In addition to that, the shields/boiler relationship now has a smaller 'sweet-spot', so it's much harder for an Ork player to simply avoid touching their boiler. There's also a bit more of reward/encouragement for pushing, introduced through adjustments to the Gargant's speed value.
The Maniple equivalents – Conclaves for Eldar, Mobs for Orks – were a relatively late addition, and while the Eldar ones seem to have worked out okay, playtesting revealed some fairly elementary problems with the ork's Godbreaka mob; which has been defanged and reworked.
It's not all down-tuning for the orks, however. The gun decks – those key elements for the 'land battleship' feel – now kick out two shots per Krew assigned, making them a genuine alternative to other parts of the Gargant, for example. In recompense for the reduction in their durability, they've also seen some of their more characteristic weapons tweaked upwards; increasing a little in S, range or coming down in cost.
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Besides the crunch, there's now lots of lovely pictures submitted by talented hobbyists like jgnstudios, Gary C, MeshyMesh and Johnpaints, to give you an idea of how to build and paint your Gargants and War-Clans.
I've worked up some silhouette illustrations for the various Maniple equivalents...
... and you've got new background and lore, all lovingly re-interpreted from the original material and aiming to reconcile newer and older lore.
The book has also received reference sections for each faction, so you've got quick comparisons for weapon stats, Command Terminals and more.
+ Tactics and strategy +
Overall, I'm very pleased with how playtesting has refined things, but as always, these rules are explicitly designed for Open Play. I hope they give you fun, balanced games, but the key aim is to allow Xenos players the chance to get involved, and provide a new challenge for Imperial players.
Quite a few playtests threw up a common point that's worth addressing: Imperial players who used an existing force sometimes found it difficult to adapt in their first game – those who tooled up to take on the aliens they were facing tended to fare better. I wanted to make sure that each faction provided a new and interesting challenge to the Imperials, as it's as much an expansion for them as it is for Xenos players. After all, Imperial/Traitor players are likely to make up the vast majority of games you'll get in.
As a result, a lot of the weapons and tactics that are optimal against other Imperial/Traitor Titans aren't necessarily ideal for tackling the Xenos – and that's intentional. The lower armour ratings and shieldbane trait make the oft-derided lasers surprisingly useful against Gargants, for example, while a combination of weight of fire (to deal with holo-fields) and precision shots (once they're knocked down) are your friend against Eldar, rather than specialist Titans.
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+ Back to the point +
But enough on the rules, let's look at some more pictures of the Great Gargant!
Very cool.
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