So after a game last week, there was an interesting situation that developed. An 850 point warlord titan finds itself surrounded by five rough riders. The Rough Riders surround the titan using their scout distance between each unit, and remain 5 cm from the titan, covering it completely with their 10 cm zone of control. The titan now cannot move through the rough riders, and it’s only option is to engage the 150 point formation, rendering it useless for a turn.

In the original game of Adeptus Titanticus, infantry formations were required to make moral checks if they moved within 25 cm of a titan. Moral checks are gone from the game, but the philosophy behind it was that these immense lords of battle are terrifying to the normal sized man on the battlefield.

Why then, can a Warlord titan not barge through a formation of scouts on horseback that it is surrounded by?
Could we consider the Titan a different “kind” of war machine, as in times past? There could be a War Engine classification of “Pretorian” (2nd ed players will remember this) that could only be prevented from taking a normal action by another War Engine, and able to ignore the zones of control of smaller units?

This thought comes out of a specific example that I found very disappointing in the current rule set, the impossibility of a Warlord Titan to ignore a few simple scout units it was surrounded by. Any change to the rule set would increase the power of Titan class vehicles on the battlefield, not align them to be blocked by small units, but in the spirit of the Warhammer universe, isn’t this an acceptable change?

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Dan B.
San Diego Epic Armageddon Coordinator
Author Army Book Epic: Frontiers 1.0

I can see your point. Unfortunately there are a few wanky rules in the system that don't reflect fluff or reason. I guess you just have to take it as part of the rules/tactics etc. of the game. It's unlikely to change (change here at taccomms can be like the formation of large stalactites) so maybe take a different tac and play the game so you don't get hemmed in by horsies... <shrug> alternatively play the game with a few house rules (if you're not tournament playing).

My 2 Cents.

This is a game, and a game tries its best to simulate a real or imaginary conflict in order to provide that 'experience' to players. Games also aim to provide a fair and balanced set of rules that, for the benefit of being a good game, need to sometimes skew how a real (or imaginary) conflict would play out. This is why your Warlord was trapped. Because if Titans were allowed to do everything they can do in 40k fiction they would be far too powerful and the game would be just them w/out any little people at all. Ditto for space marines, who by all accounts should be able to butcher 10x or 100x their number in guardsmen. But would you want to play that game?

In the case you mentioned, you were badly outplayed by your opponent. A formation of 5 rough riders is exceedingly easy to break, especially if they have a Warlord within 15cm ready to provide supporting fire in an engagement! Just make sure it's something that can get to the supporting fire part of the assault and with the Warlord so close by you're safe. The other option is not to put so many eggs in one basket w/ the Warlord, or when you do to at least try to support it properly, perhaps w/ your own scout screen that can clear or keep at bay such nuisances as the rough riders.

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I think the rules in this area are good for the game myself. Try thinking of it not so much as the titan being trapped, but ‘having to deal with’ those pesky scouts that have surrounded it and got to close. Scout units in W40k have krak grenades and often melta bombs, which can genuinely threaten or destroy a titan in decent quantities (jammed in the leg/foot actuators and the like). Scouts are also especially spread out more sparsely over a wider area than normal formations and are often camouflaged, so though we from a gods-eye viewpoint might know there are only a few nearby the titan crew may not have be able to judge the numbers or threat so well.

Warlord titans are designed for shooting things at a distance, or even if they are equipped with close-combat weapons these are more intended for smashing a single big-ish thing nearby with extreme prejudice, but they’re less useful at taking out a horde. Imperial Titans (bar Imperators/Warmongers) lack any defensive turrets or small weapons, relying on killing things with their main guns or having their allies deal with them. To tackle the Rough Riders they would need to stomp them underfoot and re-orientate their main weapons to blast them to bits at close range before returning to usual, i.e. an assault.

In-game there’s often a better alternative though – use other formation(s) to break those Rough Riders before activating the titan! If you’ve let yourself get to a situation where your titan is the only thing left to attack them then you’ve really been out-manoeuvred.

Yes, even something so powerful as a warlord shouldn't be so out on it's own that it doesn't have support that can "dust off" minor irritants like rough riders. Don't forget also that the warlord can barge, so at the very least you could've engaged the rough riders while getting the warlord 15cm closer to an objective/being more useful next turn.

Warlords are shooting specialists, however, at 2+ CC x8, even a standard warlord should do quite well - unfortunately against rough riders it's really overkill.

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Let us playtest like the Greeks of old... You know the ones I mean

Combined Arms. It's not just a good idea.

This looks to be one of those many situations that arise in games that aren't as big a problem as they first seem to be for new players.

Along with things like being caught intermingled, counter charges (dragging in other formations or moving out of combat range so the engage action stalls due to bad positioning by the attacker), 10cm line of sight into/out of terrain (especially formations set up on Overwatch in terrain but too deep so they cannot see out)etc. etc. .

This is an in game event you will be able to deal with better now the situation has been experienced, either with supporting formations clearing the offenders or using your own scouts to keep a path clear where you're intending the 'lord of war to go. Although it can still occur if your facing a determined opponent.

As an example almost every player has thought that the Intermingling rule is ridiculous when they first get caught by an opponent but after learning not to make the same mistake again the rule isn't a problem at all.

Changing of the rules are rarely needed, usually it is the players who need to learn how to counter or prevent such situations happening in the first place.