How many people use them with any old imperial army? Do they seem to be balanced and fine for tournament games or are there over-powering combinations compared to the default weapons fit?

I’d like to try various different weapons fits for mine as it’s very boring to have them always be the same, and not to use all the cool WYSIWYG weapons out there, while there’s zero background reason not to have them freely varied. I don’t want to feel I was being cheaty for doing so though, so wanted to see.

Random thought: if the existing costs from the AMTL list are not high enough for the additional flexibility they give you in other armies (I’m not saying they are – I have little idea) perhaps one counter to this could be to pay a premium to use a custom titan – like an extra 10-25pts or something. It’d be like the old vehicle design rules from W40k where you could make your own vehicles however you liked, but they cost a bit more than a official vehicle that did something like that did.

I have tried this from time to time with Steel Legion and Codex Marine armies, and found them fun to use.

I haven't used them enough to make any judgements on balance at this stage, but producing a (more restricted) set of rules for using variant weapon loadouts with other Imperial Armies has been one of my design goals as Mechanicus Champion from day one.

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There are obviously some combos that first certain armies. I think you can do a limited system that essentially predicts this and can plan for it.

otherwise its simply a case of working out the best combos and ensuring the points charged for them matches the effectiveness of the unit.

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Personally, I'm not a big fan of full customization. It seems too 'gamey', too much of what I didn't like about 40K.

I'd rather see several roles developed for each class of Titan, and then have them worked to be balanced against each other, or given certain surcharges if necessary.

As a non-complete example,
Warlord Class
Artillery Configuration - 3x Apocalypse Launcher, 1x Carapace Landing Pad
Close Support Configuration - CCFist, Las Burner, 2x Melta Cannon
TitanKiller Configuration - 2x Turbo Laser Destructor, 2x Volcano Cannon
General Purpose - Basically, what you have now.

Anyways, just my opinion. Which should be probably taken with a little salt, as for the most part, I dislike Titans. Every game I've played with, or against Titans, the Titan element has bored the hell out of me.

Morgan Vening

We have done quite often and it is usually a lot of fun.

That said it can be used to really change the feel of certain armies. For example, I used a 2x Quake Cannon/CLP Reaver to back up a Marine army and it was crazy. Having the enemy coming at me because there was no where they could hide instead of waiting on Overwatch for the aerial assault. I was a very different game but it was a game that certainly stuck in our memories!

I think we will do it every now and then but will always let the other player know we are going to do it before the game.

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Something to keep in mind is that customisable titans will put players in different categories. Those who have models for other titans and those who don't...Affects game balance right there and then as invariably there will be better and worser combinations. If standard loadout won't be most cost effective those without access to proper models for more effective ones will either have to proxy or be at disadvantage.

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Titans are probably the easiest thing to scratchbuild new weapons for in the game... stick a pipe on the arm, and it's a Quake Cannon. Stick a 40k Lascannon on the arm, and it's a Volcano Cannon, etc...

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Which is why I think it's totally fine for fun/home games, but isn't really necessary for tournament games.

Perhaps if three, or so, "Alternate Configuration" Titans could be made standard options, then they could be pointed appropriately, but "complete customization" probably isn't going to work in the context of the tournament army lists.

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I agree with Chroma, a more limited setup is warranted.

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This is the kind of thing I find to be an issue.  Titan weapon loads can cover up intended weaknesses, create internal balance problems, or otherwise change the flavor of a list pretty radically.  We've run into problems with cross-army pricing on aircraft.  IG have little reason to ever take Marauders because their ground arty is superior in most ways, while for SMs Marauders are arguably better than their Whirlwind ground arty.  Titan loads are going to be even more extreme in that regard and I think that full free choice is always going to be problematic.

I also favor a handful of alternate titan configurations in generalist styles as options in the Imperial lists.  We have been testing a set of "Ryza pattern" titans in a few games which swap out some of the weapons on the standard configuration for plasma weapons.  They keep a similar role but they play a bit differently as you maneuver based on desire to use slow-fire weapons, planning alpha strikes or saving up some shots as the situation warrants.  So far they've worked well.

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I would love to see say half a dozen different weapon configurations for titans for use in IG/SM list. But probably best for friendly games rather than competition lists.

Cheers

James

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I agree with a few variants on titans but full customization should be left to the AMTL list.

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It may be feasable to have people using custom titans playing in a different `league` for tournaments, in order to be fair to people who don`t have collections of 20 titans (poor Cads).  

They'd actually only need one to a few titans, plus a selection of their chosen weapons that can be attached at will e.g. Tiny magnets are commonly used.

They'd be stuck with the same selection for the duration of any tournament anyway and even if they model their titan(s) permanently with a particular configuration at least there be a bit of choice in that rather than everyone using the identical same ones. In other ways we have overcome the killing off SG new model producing, but not with the variant titans configurations for some reason.

In the past year and a half of games against Dave, I've been using the FW Warhounds with the TLD/Inferno cannon combination fairly regularly. When grouped together, the TLD's can be fairly devastating against armor, but lots of times the inferno cannon goes unused because of its 30cm range. Only after recently downloading the latest AMTL list did we figure in the TLDs in the warhounds' cost. I can't point to exact numbers of games or other quantitative data, but my impression is at the "low end" of the titan spectrum, customized weapons do not seem to pose balance problems (even when costing them as standard warhounds).* Of course, there are fewer options for warhound configurations than with the battle titans, so that might be a factor. I agree with Neal that titan configurations should not be able to cover up weaknesses that are part of a given army's design.

*Outside of a couple AMTL games, I've used these titans with IG, SM, and minervans, versus 'nids, SM, IG, Chaos, and orks.

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