Warlord Battle Titan

A Warlord Battle Titan taking part in an enormous assault with Space Marines. It's the cover of a book by Dan Abnett, did you expect anything less?

The backbone of the Adeptus Titanicus, the Warlord Battle Titan is the Imperium of Man's primary battle titan, undertaking the majority of the frontline combat action, it stands at approximately 40 metres tall (135 feet), and will be a enormously significant presence in any battle. It is a newer and more powerful model of Battle Titan than its smaller brother, the Reaver. It is crewed by a Princeps, Steersman, Moderati, and Sensori. Also comes with 1 techpriest, along with 4 Servitors manning the weapons.

Weaponry

The Warlord Battle Titan has four weapon mounts: two for the arms and two carapace weapons.

Possible arm mounted weapons are the Sunfury Plasma Annihilator, Morai Quake Cannon, Belicosa Volcano Cannon, Macro Gatling Blaster, Saturnyne Lascutter and the Arioch Power Claw (with built-in Vulcan Mega-Bolter).

Possible carapace mounted weapons are the Apocalypse Missile launcher, Vortex Missile Bank, Vulcan Mega-Bolter, Plasma Blastgun, Melta Cannon, Gatling Blaster, Inferno Gun and the Turbo-Laser Destructor

Chaos Warlord Titan

LET THEIR BLOOD RAIN FROM THE SKKKYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Just like all the other Titans, Chaos has its own spin on the Warlord Titan. To differentiate these corrupted Warlords from their Imperial counterparts, the Imperium has designated these war machines with different class names that have been happily adopted by these Titans' Renegade crews. In fact, it has four- one for each of the Dark Gods. Even though there are different versions of the Chaos-altered Warlord-class Titan, the most commonly seen variant operating with the Forces of Chaos is the Banelord Titan, 'Cause you know, GeeDubs has a Slaaneshi hard on for Khorne and all.

• Banelord-Class Titan: The most common of the Chaos Warlord Titans is devoted to Khorne and has two additional guns- one in its mouth and another on the tail that is attached to its back. On top of the guns normal Warlord Titans get, it can also equip a Havoc Missile Rack, a Hellstrike Cannon, and a Doomfist.
• Warplord-Class Titan: Not much is known about these, except that they're dedicated to Tzeentch.
• Plaguelord-Class Titan: We don't know much about the Warlord Titans dedicated to Nurgle either, other than that they exist.
• Painlord-Class Titan: No fluff on Slaanesh's dedicated Warlords either. You'd think GW wasn't putting effort into this.

They are the remnants of those Traitor Titan Legions who sided with the Renegade Warmaster Horus during a particularly fun night and whose blasphemous names still echo with dread thousands of Terran years later. The majority of these monstrous war engines have seen millennia of service with Chaotic foces and have long since become utterly corrupted by the touch of the Ruinous Powers and the Warp.

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  Banelord in all its derptastic and ragebound glory.

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  Plaguelord conversion in its Epic Style of rot, decay and Nurgle's love.

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  Warplord conversion. Don't ask why it has a Flamer for a dick

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  Painlord fanart that will do something illegal to that Dreadnought

Forge World wants a word with you...

RIDE THE FUCKING LIGHTNING!!

FORGE WORLD JUST RELEASED A FULL BUNDLE OF LIKE 5 TITANS FOR THE COST OF ONE WARLORD TITANS. RIP APOCALYPSE. ALSO TITAN LEGION GAMES ARE NOW POSSIBLE WITHOUT BEING A DRUG LORD. As for April 2015, Forge World, our favorite "sell your liver to buy our AWESOME products" company has decided to add the Warlord Titan as a playable unit in the Horus Heresy ruleset. It's up to the reader to decide what to think about it.

The Titan itself is nothing short of an unstoppable death machine, with a bunch of unique rules that were apparently made for the sole purpose of making it impossible to be taken out by anything besides another Warlord Titan. To clarify:

• It has THIRTY Hull Points and AV 15/15/14 in addition to its six void shields, and gets a 5+ invulnerable save against any attacks that breach its shields.
• It can aim its Blast weapons wherever it likes, rather than being forced to only target enemy units which lets it vaporize Invisibility spamming Deathstars.
• In addition to the normal Super-heavy Walker rules, it can't be hurt by Haywire attacks, dangerous terrain, or any non-witchfire psychic powers, can never be locked in an assault, and can only be hit by infantry and MCs in assault on a roll of 6+ (5+ if the unit assaulting it is a GC or another super-heavy walker). Oh, and it has Armored Ceramite too so melta weapons won't do shit either. Additionally, its Stomp attacks use a Large Blast template.
• The only thing keeping it from being completely broken is the fact that its base cost is 2750 points, which can increase up to 3050 points.
• Nearly all of its weapons options are free, and it has a pair of built-in weapons that allow it to Overwatch on top of giving it the ability to fire Snap Shots with them at BS2. You know, in case someone ignores the whole "assault is worthless against it" thing.
• In the absurdly rare event it ever does get destroyed, it produces a 36-inch blast that has a 1 in 3 chance of being Strength D no matter how far you are from the center of the blast.

As ridiculous as it already is to own a Reaver Titan, never mind deploy one into the tabletop, anyone who has the cash to buy a Warlord would probably be better off using that money on something they can actually use, as the odds of finding someone stupid enough to go up against a Warlord are roughly equal to that of the Traitor Legions renouncing the Dark Gods and returning to the light of the Emperor. It's possible a group of friends or perhaps entire gaming clubs could put money together to buy a Warlord, and while that's probably the only way to make buying one reasonable, again, finding another group of friends or gaming club that would (or could) go up against it would be problematic to say the least.

The price of this whale penis of wallet rape comes to a glorious total of £1,240, $2000 USD and $2629 AUD. That's about as expensive as a used car in good condition or a few months of gas. It's almost as if the Warlord is actually an elaborate prank on GW's part, and whenever one actually sells the Forge World crew filling out the order slow whistles and says "Bugger all, some dumb wanker actually bought that?"

God-Emperor save us all.

Beating the Warlord

• Pick up the Warlord, then swing with all your might. At the worst you'll give the smug owner one hell of a concussion.
• If anyone has any theoryhammer on taking this monstrosity down, it would be appreciated.
  • Bring your own warlord, a Reaver with nothing but D Spam weapons, an ordinatus, or (bare minimum) a Shadowsword.
  • The Space Marine Legion list now has a titan killer par excellence in form of the Falchion upgraded with the Neutron Wave Capacitor for 560 points a pop. Take at least 2 and support with a sprinkling of other units to keep the void shields down and watch the Warlord never shoot as it suffers from continual shock pulse D hits courtesy of those tasty twin-linked Volcano Cannons. Cerberus swarms can also be used to a similar but less reliable effect.
  • fuckin spam the D
  • resign
  • karate kick it
  • flip the god damned table
  • cock shot the child size shit show
  • run away screaming
• Serious attempt, assuming this is Apocalypse:
  • For 2750 points you can get like 23 squads of Imperial Guard veterans with melta bombs and 23 ministorum priests.
  • Take strategic assets tunnel rats and precise coordinates to pop up 1" away from the titan (deep strike, no scatter).
  • Use demolition charges to take out void shields, and the titan will not want to accidentally blast the D on itself. Assuming roughly 10 casualties from point-defense weapons.
  • Wait 1 turn, then charge. Melta bombs aren't technically melta weapons, they've got Armourbane instead, and even then Ceramite Plating specifies that it only helps against shooting attacks. (problem here is that you can only throw one grenade per squad per shooting or combat phase.) (key word here is throw. Look up grenades at pg 180 of the BRB, you'll see that the wording is very specific. In the first few paragraphs, attacking with grenades is referred to as throwing whenever it is used in regards to shooting, and clamped in place or used as a melee weapon in regards to melee (see f.ex the "unusual grenades" box). You'll also notice that every grenade has a "shooting" section and an "assault" section, and the shooting section always uses the word throw while the assault section doesn't. The general consensus everywhere I've ever played, from local tournaments to the 2015 European Team Championship, and in every post of every forum I can find, is that there is no restriction on use of grenades in melee in 7th ed.(unless Gee Dubs new faq/errat agoes through.) (The FAQ (not errata) that claims tank shocking is absolutely not intended to be able to kill anything, even though the tank shock rule explicitly states that you can very well kill things with it. I have my doubts, but sure.)
  • Enjoy doing 58 hull points of damage (on average, including Explodes! results on vehicle damage table). Yes, this does take "only hits on 6" into account.
  • Watch in morbid fascination as the titan explodes, killing all but a few guardsmen and significantly fewer priests (rosarius, fuck yeah)
  • Declare a decisive victory

• Serious attempt, Non apocalypse
  • Take 30 Tactical terminators with Chainfists, in a first company task force of 10-10-10 with black templar chapter traits. Optionally add Typhoon missiles for the void shields - 1500, 1730~ for adding in 2x 5 man sternguard squad w/ drop pods for step 3. Optionally add grav for popping void shields
  • take allied guard for 3 priests - 75 (195 including CS & Veterans tax, optional lascannons for void shields)
  • Take 3 conclave of level 2 librarians - 810 - optional grav pistols/combi meltas for void shields
  • roll electro displacement for each conclave, adding whatever if you get it early. Place librarians in a drop pod - optionally give them jump packs to reduce scatter effect or use bikes if not going for 1ctf drop pods. Drop in front of the titan
  • Electrodisplace large termie squads. turn 1 charge
  • Avg 25~30 hits from 74~96 attacks with zealot - Variance introduced due to over watch which if it only kills one termie, increases one squads effectiveness by 20% thanks to BT's RAGE.
  • Avg 20~ pens with preferred enemy armourbane (NOT melta) and another 5-7 glances
  • 10~ more hull points from Explodes!! results thanks to AP2.
  • 2735 pts of plastic > 3050 pts of resin. Add in termie captains with chainfist and combi melta (void shield) or CF/LC for better margins.
  • save 1-2 terminators from resultant explosion. Gold plate models and never use again.

• Serious Attempt, Non Apocalypse 2: Boogaloo
  • Since Apoc is nigh upon dead these days, and the Cadian Battlegroup formations are a thing, take the emperor's fury, with 3 Sadowswords.
  • Pair said shadowswords with an emperor's fist, chock full of vanquishers, all within 12" of the tank commander, for BS4 shenanigans
  • Void shield generators bitches...
  • Group up, and HIT IT TIL IT DIES!
  • It's not guaranteed, but hell if it won't be fun. Besides, Shadowswords are titan hunters, it's kinda why they were built...
  • Alternatively, just take 6 shadowswords, since you could probably get them for the same points cost that the Warlord Player paid to get it on the table.

• Serious Attempt, Non Apocalypse 3: Battle of the Bank Balances
  • Take 3x Galant Lances, 2925 pts w/o upgrades
  • start 12" from the board, move 12, charge with a reroll
  • 54 st D attacks (rage), avg 27 hits
  • 22~ non 1 results on D table, or more importantly 4~ Devastating Hit results on D table; 24+ 4~24 HP
  • Weep, for in victory is defeat.

• How I Did It:
  • 8x D Reaver, Marauder, 3x vendettas in reserve, 12' table hammer & anvil
  • Master of the Fleet attached to coms array hiding behind a bastion for no line of sight
  • turn 2, marauder + Vendettas outflank (warlord trait) break void shields
  • Reaver gets 8 hits, scores 3 6s and one failure - 18 HP down, 8 more for D's D6 results - 26/30 hp
  • Fails save aganst 3 of the 4 solid hits, - 5 HP, 1 explosion result, 32 hp down
  • Titan Explodes, kills Mortarion on a 6 D roll.

Gallery

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  now I am become Forgeworld, destroyer of wallets