I played a game last weekend using the following Titan Legions 3.22 army list:

Reaver Titan – 2 Laser Burners, Inferno Gun, Carapace Multi-Lasers – 6725 (BTS)
Reaver Titan – 2 Laser Burners, Inferno Gun – 575
5 Forge Knights – 225
5 Forge Knights – 225
5 Forge Knights – 225
Warhound – Vulcan Mega Bolter, Plasma Gun – 275
Warhound – Vulcan Mega Bolter, Plasma Gun – 275
Warhound – Vulcan Mega Bolter, Plasma Gun – 275
Ark Mechanicus – 150
8 activations, 9 one turn with the spacecraft

I want to work towards getting the Titan Legion list approved but I have some concerns about the balance of some areas of the Titan Legion list and want to try stress testing them in games. In this game I wanted to try out a mass of the newly much cheaper Forge Knights supported by cheap Reavers that are deadly in assault (14 CC3+ attacks or 10 FF3+ attacks) plus the short range ignore cover barrage. There's 27 DC of 4+ Reinforced plus 9DC of Warhounds with 5+ Reinforced, a challenge for any enemy to take on. The new list version of 3.22 removed slow and steady from the Ark Mechanicus making it the second most powerful spacecraft in EpicA, yet still at the bargain cost of 150 points. It was an auto-include on the basis on the 2 pinpoint attacks alone to target any enemy superheavies in the first turn, though I apologised to a not very happy Mark as I explained how powerful and cheap it was.

Mark's Steel Legion list:
Regimental HQ + Hydra – 550 (BTS)
Infantry Company
Baneblade Company
Baneblade Company
Rough Riders
Rough Riders
Shadowsword
Shadowsword
Shadowsword
Thunderbolts
Thunderbolts
11 activations

I'll leave Mark to add his strategy later if he likes. Looking at his army I was afraid of the Shadowswords, many IG players take a couple at 3k but 3 separate ones is a nightmare for a 3k titan legion army.

I placed my two objectives in the woods around the middle of the table, to take advantage of my army all having walker. I generally hid my titans at the start, hiding out of sight of the Shadowswords. The IG infantry company garrisoned forward in the keep towards the middle on overwatch.

Considering my appallingly bad memory I should really try to be more methodical and take more photos as I'm writing this up a week later and there are times I can't remember which order things happened, or which formation attacked which, so some of the below is guesswork. I do have an end of turn photos and can see where thing ends up I just loose some of the detail along the way.

This is how the battlefield looked after deployment:





The Titan Legion won the strategy roll and the gigantic shadow of the Ark Mechanicus fell over the battlefield, lighting it up with lances of blinding light and deadly explosions:


One Shadowsword was broken outright, a second Shadowsword had 2 damage done to it, breaking it. The orbital barrage targeted near the blitz did a point of damage to the third Shadowsword and covered three of the Regimental HQ, though failed to hit and just put a blast marker on them.

I'm not entirely certain which formation Mark activated at this point as I didn't take a photo and can't work it out for certain but I think it may have been moving the Rough Rider formation on one side to a position behind the hill.

The Reaver doubled forward towards the infantry company (they overwatch at it) and kill two with it's ignore fire barrage.


Thunderbolts strafe the Knights on the road on the left but do no damage.


The other Reaver doubled forward towards the infantry company, in range for support fire and killed one with it's ignore fire barrage.


The Baneblade company attack the Reaver Titan, stripping the last of it's shields.



The Knights assault the Infantry Company in the building. They are only in range to FF but are supported by one of the Reaver Titans. Despite the cover of the building 7 of the infantry are killed in the combat and they are wiped out in assault resolution.

The Shadowsword shoots the Reaver but misses.


Titan Legion's Thunderbolts fail to activate.

Regimental HQ with the blast marker from the spacecraft fails to activate.


The left Warhound doubles forward and guns down three Rough Riders before they can threaten the Reaver (I'm surprised Mark didn't choose to assault the Reaver before with them as though they would have died they would on average have done 1.5 damage).



IG Thunderbolts (I think) fire at the Warhound, stripping it's shields and doing a point of damage to it.
I've lost track of the actions, but the other Warhound activated and shot something and then got attacked and broken and fled to the woods.



The right Warhound doubles into the safety of the woods and shoots the Baneblade company but does no damage.



The Knights on the road tripled up on the road near the Baneblades.


The other Knights tripled into the woods also.

State of play at the end of turn 1:



Turn 2

The Titan Legion win the initiative. The Reaver doubles next to the Baneblade company on the right and shoots it's Inferno Gun at them, placing a blast marker ready to help in an assault.

Wanting to act before the IG could do anything to stop it I retained with the Forge Knights and did a combined assault on the Baneblades and Shadowsword.

The combat is bloody with supporting fire from the Reaver and the Regimental HQ. I'm forget exactly how much was caused by damage and how much by combat resolution but the end result was 3 dead knights and 2 broken survivors fleeing and 2 Baneblades and a Shadowsword dead.

Baneblades on the left assault the Forge Knights.

The Forge Knights do no damage and 3 are gunned down. They roll a double 1 for combat resolution too and it's all over for them.


Warhound kills 2 of the undamaged Rough Riders


IG Thunderbolts strafe the titan, stripping the one shield it had regained.

This Reaver titan wants to double up to within FF range of the Baneblades and shoots the Rough Riders but it fails its activation.

The Shadowsword strikes at that Reaver, doing two damage to it

The other left Warhound moves forward, attacks the same Rough Riders as the other and breaks them


With my Baneblade assault plans a mess with the Reaver not having moved up the Regimental HQ then double across to reinforce the area and place a blast marker on the closer Warhound.

The IG then retain and use the 3 rallied Rough Riders to assault the closer Warhound.

They do one damage and loose one, then the huge amounts of support fire from the IG destroys the Warhound and the other gets a blast marker for supporting a lost assault.


Warhound attacks the damaged Shadowsword but fails to kill it


Still smoking from the unleashing of the Shadowsword's Volvcano Cannon the Reaver is broken by the other pair of IG Thunderbolts.

It moves up by the building near to the mass of IG infantry

The full strength Knight formation charges at the remaining 2 Rough Riders that broke the Warhound, showing the horsey warriors the superiority of their knight walkers and wipes them out.

Titan Legions Thunderbolts finally finish off the damaged Shadowsword.


I forgot to take an end of turn photo this turn but the broken Reaver and the single surviving Baneblade fail to rally in the end phase.

Turn 3

The unbroken Reaver moves to a position where it claims the BTS and is in FF range of the IG Regimental HQ and it attacks the Regimental HQ with it's Inferno Gun. 4 die including the Hydra

The Knights retain the initiative to do a heroic charge against the Regimental HQ BTS that probably would have had a good chance of wiping them out, or close to, with the Reaver's support. Sadly they fail their initiative

The Regimental HQ drive through the gap and fan out into a crescent formation, also contesting the BTS and being in FF support range of the Knights. They shoot the Knights but do no damage.

The Warhound is within 5cm of the Knights so the Baneblades declare a combined assault on the Warhound and the Knights.

Two damage is done to the Warhound and 2 Knights are killed. They appear to do no damage in return and the Knights are wiped out and the Warhound legs it.

The 2 surviving Knights on the right wanted to move to capture the objective by them and to shoot the Req HQ but they fail their initiative, which breaks them.

IG Thunderbolts try to fly on to attacks but fail, even with the supreme commander yelling down the phone at them (using his re-roll).

The Warhound blasts away with it's guns, destroying 5 of the Regimental HQ. Not enough to break them, but enough to kill all of them in range to contest the BTS ending the game in the favour of the titan legion



Titan Legion win 2-0 with They Shall Not Pass and Blitz

Post-game Thoughts:

As Mark pointed out I really could have done with a supreme commander, there were some important failed activations during the game and with a number of 2+ formations is was risky. The only points I spent upgrading the titans was on the Carapace Multi-Lasers but maybe I could have done without ground AA and gone for a supreme instead. I have posted up comments on the units in the game in the 3.22 thread as that seemed a better place for them.

Great reportGlyn, thanks!

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"You have a right to be offended" - Steve Hughes
"Your feelings are hurting my thoughts" - Aron Flam

Cheers for doing the report Glyn. Yes nasty kettle of fish that Titan list, and would have been worse with a SC, though that first orbital strike really tipped it early on of course.

I chose my list before I knew what I was going to be facing, and the theme was simply "I want to use lots of Superheavy Tanks", in particular Baneblades which have pretty much sat in the box so far. In firefighting Knights and Warhounds they were quite useful, generally being at +2 to +3 for outnumbering plus their Commissar, and unlikely to take damage from FF. There shooting was the usual disappointment.

Unfortunately the Spaceship basically knocked out all my Shadowswords in the first activation and it was a tough battle back from there. I really should have tried to concentrate fire on everything except the Reavers I think, as with my Shadowswords gone I had no real way of killing Reavers - they are definitely not something to engage with 10FF and 14CC attacks at 3's plus shields.

If I had extended the Regt HQ further in the last turn I could possibly have kept going for a round by stopping the They Shall Not Pass Objective, though I'm uncertain how it would have gone the following turn with me down to a beaten up HQ and a Baneblade Formation vs possibly two Reavers and two Warhounds likely to win the strategy roll.

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http://hordesofthings.blogspot.co.nz/

There was an important rule I unfortunately completely forgot about during theses pair of titan legion games - that when a titan formation dies all formations that have line of sight take a blast marker. I was cursing myself for this later, but nothing I could do about it and at least we both took a turn with the titans.

I only lost one titan, a Warhound late on turn 2 and this would definitely have had some impact but I suspect not changed the result of the game, though it's difficult to tell for sure. Going through the effects this extra BM would have had: The Knights assaulted later that turn and would have had a -1 to their test, but they wiped out the two Rough Riders so combat resolution wasn't relevant. Next turn these Knights failed their activation anyway. The other Warhound would have had 2 BMs not 1 but the two formations got combined assaulted and broken next turn and this wouldn't have effected that at all. One Reaver would have broken earlier from this BM so the Thunderbolts that attacked it later that turn could have gone for a different target instead. The last Reaver would have had a BM but had already activated that turn and would likely clear it in the end phase (I think it was outside of 30 so this would have been automatic).

good report from two interesting armies, thanks for sharing

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

Thanks for the report I'm looking forward to the reverse .

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-Vaaish