A broken hab structure lies one hundred and fifty meters ahead. Despite the damage wrought on it, it is still recognisable, still inviting to infantry trying to survive in the apocalyptic method of war that involves Engines. The squad moves at full sprint into it and takes up firing positions in a three-hundred and sixty degree arc. The augury shows nothing, their eyes can barely pierce the thick black smoke rolling across the ruined cityscape.

Walls collapse in on themselves in other gutted buildings, causing the PDF soldiers to jump. When the rubble settles, all that can be heard is the fire whoofing from a fractured gas main. Suddenly, a binharic cant is heard softly, distant. The PDF squad angle towards the direction it emanated from, weapons raised – there are no friendly forces out this deep anymore.

A piercingly high pitched wail echos out from the wall of smoke, followed by a distant boom that sends the gravel racing. A second wail blurts out followed by booms that seem to rhythmically pulse, from somewhere within the black smoke. “Must be a rolling barrage, quite some way away” says the PDF Sergeant to his men, in an attempt to quell the rising fear in them. He says this, though he knows the booming is already becoming grating thumps as it seems to draw closer. A third, deafeningly loud high pitched wail sounds from the deep rolling black smoke, reverberating from the shattered walls. Suddenly, the smell of ozone and a metallic taste builds in their air. “Get to cover!” screams the Sergeant as an ominous blue glow builds twenty meters above the ground in the wall of smoke. A bolt of plasma screams out and obliterates half of the squad, ash drifting on the wind is all that’s left of them.

The grating gravelly thump sounds again, slowly repeating, as if something is edging forwards. The front of the black smoke wall seems to detach and reach for them like an oily demonic gas. Eventually, robbed of the direct source of fuel sustaining it with fresh smoke, it thins to reveal the wolfs head of a Warhound Titan. It sounds its warhorn as scrap code bleeds from it. The scrap code screams its name in a multitude of cants – Tenebrae Ex Abyssum – The Darkness from the Abyss, as the Legio Vulturum Warhound charges its Plasma Blast Gun for another shot. It’s maw seems to grin, like a feral human knowing it’s prey cannot outrun or hide from it anymore. The Plasma Blast Gun discharges. The auspex shrieks. The warhorn blares. The Warhound rejoins the smoke as ash floats in the wind from the centre of the broken hab structure.

Introduction

It’s dits and bits of lore like this that is part of why I love Titans so much. They’re absolute monsters of war, but they’re not invulnerable – in fact, we see in several books how weak they are to infantry, who can forget “I am Ettan Bok” for instance? From a gaming point of view, they’re amazing centrepieces that have presence even an Acastus Knight cannot match. Modelling wise, they push the limits and skills of the modeller, and reward them for doing so. However Titans aren’t seen on the table a huge amount. This is partly down to the cost of them, and partly down to rules – and that’s a shame and a bonus. A shame because they’re truly lovely models, and a bonus because there’s a mystique and excitement about them as a result of their relative rarely.

Titans in Heresy

Currently, Titans are limited to either being selected by an Army as a Lord of War choice, or as a specific Divisio Tactica: Titan Legions detachment. Note that both of these are optionals to Crusade Force Organisation charts – so you can’t just field a Titan Legions detachment by itself.

The compulsory sections for the Divisio Tactica – Titan Legions are 1x HQ, 1x Troop choice. There isn’t a huge amount of variance in these selections, as you can only have the Secutarii Axiarch as an HQ and there are Secutarii Peltasts (Ranged) and Secutarii Hoplites (Short Range/Melee) troops.

A quick point regarding the V1.2 FAQ changes to the mechanism for allying in same-faction detachments. As the Divsio Tactica and Lord of War are Optional rather than Allied, it means you can always add them as a detachment to your Mechanicum Crusade Force Organisation primary detachment without coming acropper. It’s just another poorly worded FAQ that is designed to stop players taking Mechanicum Cybernetica with Allied Mechanicum Myrmidax, or Questoris Knights with Allied Mechancium (although weirdly, you can take Mechanicum with Optional Questoris Knights).

Soon, with the upcoming release of the Mechanicum Martian Civil War book, we will have the “Titan Support” rule that ignores the 25% rule for Titans. This means that you can now field Warhounds, Reavers, and Warbringers (at a push) under normal game sizes (3,000 points) – however, you must fill your compulsory slots in the Crusade and Optional Divisio Tactica: Titan Legions detachments still. So this means that you’re still looking at around 600-700 points to cover off the compulsories before getting to the Titan and other options. What’s clear here is that whilst this doesn’t change the 0-1 Lord of War option in Crusade Force Organisation, it does make the Titan Legions detachment range of 0-4 Lord of War a viable method of fielding multiple Titans.

This does open the game system up to a bit of bullshido – as not many generalist lists will be able to deal with a two Warhounds (1,500 points) or a Warbringer (2,000 points) and a load of supporting HQ and Line units. The good news is that the Warbringer isn’t that popular a Titan, and in general, Titans aren’t that common in game, let alone players with multiple Titans. Additionally, you can just outplay them by killing their Line (Secutarii aren’t Line) and scoring Objectives, and forcing them to focus on more resilient units like Terminators and Dreadnoughts. The new rule will hopefully open up some really nice narrative play options however, and I really hope the community buys into that side of it, instead of the fromage and bullshido. I sincerely detest those players who make lists that serve only to make the game single sided and eschew all forms of story-telling – and hope that the rule isn’t nerfed into inexistence due to these individuals inability to be a human being and show self control.

On the tabletop, Titans aren’t all conquering, but have their own niches and weaknesses:

Titan	Front	Side	Rear	Voids	HP	Points
Warhound	14	13	12	2	12	750
Reaver	14	14	13	4	18	1,500
Warbringer	15	14	12	6	24	2,000
Warlord	15	15	14	6	30	3,000

Whilst there are some minor modelling issues with the stats (Warlords have eight voids modelled, but only six in game etc), the lower end of the Titans are fairly weak to firepower once their limited voids are down. The trick is to have enough firepower left alive by the time that happens (especially with the Battle Titans). Unlike 1.0 they can’t reignite their voids either. The Warlord is an absolute monster in game, but again, isn’t invulnerable – and for 3,000 points, that’s the right balance for a single model.

The best strategy for countering Titans is dropping the voids, and either hitting them with Melta to the rear – noting there is no Armoured Ceramite or Melta immunity, or Shock Pulsing them to ensure they can’t fire effectively. They are protected from the effects of Haywire and Disruption weapons, so these aren’t optimal for taking them on. The larger Titans are also relatively well protected from melee attacks and have invulnerable saves to further increase their resilience.

Whilst I’ve run my Warlord in several games in 2.0 (at least 1-2 times a year), it’s not likely that a Warlord will be the Titan most people bring to Heresy games. Similarly the Warbringer and Reaver are sizeable investments in pounds and points, and represent a step change in use case on the table (more mobile gunline style) – so I’ll focus on the little monstrosity that is the Warhound Scout Titan for this post.

The Warhound Scout Titan is 750 points of Vehicle (Fast, Titan). This means it can move twice it’s movement characteristic (rolling a D6 and suffering a Glancing Hit on a 1), but has to snap shoot. However, Titan means it shoots like it remained stationary. <CONFUSION>. So depending on how you play that contradiction, its either move 30″ and snap shoot, or move 30″ and fire as normal. To be honest, I’ve never really had that come up in play – as I’m quite aggressive with my Warhound and it’s normally front and centre. If pushed for a decision I tend to fall on the 30″ and fire as normal outcome though, purely because it’s a Titan.

God Engine has two main effects as a special rule; it provides resilience versus Haywire and Disruption weapons, but also provides a neat buff for Mechanicum units within 23″ – it grants them Fearless.

Night Vision is a nice rule as it means you’re engaging straight off the bat on Turn 1, especially when the edition seems to force Night Vision in a lot of games.

Reactor Meltdown (Magna) is what sets apart the God Engines from the Knights. If it dies, it dies big. When the Warhound suffers catastrophic damage and explodes upon losing the last Hull Point it’ll deal Strength 7+D3 AP4, Destroyer to all units within 6+D6″. Destroyer means that you’re rolling 3 dice and discarding the single lowest result and using the remaining dice to determine Armour Penetration (then inflicting D3 on a glance or penetrating hit), or inflicting D3 wounds on non-Vehicle models. Sure the AP isn’t great, but the Warhound has normally done enough on the way in to kill of the enemy in the instant-sunshine of it’s death.

It’s not a Battle Titan, so standing off at the back of the table isn’t going to win the war – although it is still a valid tactic. However, gunlining a Titan makes it more likely that you are going to see that Magna explosion occur in your deployment area and only affect your units. So you’re helping your opponent.

Instead, getting it stuck in using its speed and weapons to engage the enemy as it closes, before inevitably going down and taking a sizeable portion of the enemy army with it is the best use case for it.

This is because it is likely to go down, as it has no invulnerable save, it is weak to melee (no Towering Monstrosity rule), has only 2 voids and armour of 14/13/12.

Weapons wise, the Plasma Blast Gun is killer, with S9 AP 3 initially seeming a bit wimpy for a Titan, until you realise it’s firing twice for D3 hull points with Reactor Overload, Breaching 4+ and has the Massive Blast 7″ template at BS5. Those hull points also edge you closer to Reactor Meltdown (Magna) giving you a way of killing yourself for the greater good in the enemies lines. What’ll it be, go down with a whimper, or in a blaze of glory?

The Turbo laser is ok, but its smaller blasts (Large Blast 5″) means every inch of scatter counts. If you’re seriously lacking in Anti Tank, a twin Turbo Warhound isn’t a terrible investment by any means – as S12, AP2, Destroyer weapons should pull you through nicely.

The Vulcan Mega Bolter is particularly good at mopping up enemy line units on the way forward into their formations. It adds some nice duality of purpose to the Warhound that means it isn’t just lumbering around pointlessly firing anti tank weapons at infantry.

The Inferno cannon is ultimately a bit shit comparatively, though if you’re up against Militia or Solar Aux regularly, it’ll be a prime choice. So three out of four weapons are pretty useful in a generalistic approach.

Titans have access to Stomps as a melee attack, so that gives it 3+D3 S10 AP2 Stomps. It’s not bad, and helps it get out of a sticky situation, especially as it lacks Towering Monstrosity to make enemies hit it on “no better than X”. The Stomps and the fact it can’t be locked in combat still doesn’t excuse getting it too close – as you want it to avoid combat with melee specialists unless you’re after that instant-sunshine moment. Even then, it’s better to step away 1″ and Reactor Overload the Plasma Blast Gun than to lose that final Hull Point to a Thunderhammer or the likes.

Building

Whilst a static pose for a Warhound is ok, to really take advantage of the model, you desperately need to look into more dynamic poses. A more dynamic pose conveys the brutality of the pack hunter the Titan is supposed to be.

You’re definitely wanting to pin on a dynamic model, but just be mindful of “how much is too much”. Ultimately, JB Weld on structural parts, with a pin for extra security will do the job perfectly fine. Tenebrae Ex Abyssum has a 2mm pin and JB weld in the hip, knee and at the base of each toe and centre of the foot is a 6mm anchor (screw) and JB weld. The screw going into the base of the foot actually runs up the shin to the knee. Each of the toes is held in place by JB weld at the knuckle of each segment and into the foot socket too. You don’t need to pin every toe joint unless your pose is absolutely extreme and unsupported, and they’re really not that fiddly once you work that out.

Warhounds are incredibly top heavy, so whatever pose you’ve got in you mind, forget the instructions order, and build the main chassis of the Titan first, then the hips, then down to the feet. This allows you to fine tune the build and make sure you’re not making something that will always want to fall due it’s centre of gravity. The build order in the instructions isn’t even really good for static builds, due to the way the Warhound is so unbalanced naturally. I’d recommend a quick sketch of the pose, and then refine it back once you’ve built down to the hips. You can dry fit the ball joints and legs from there and “feel” the imbalance.

I use 15x3mm circular N52 magnets on the arms of my Warhound, shaving off the bottom half of the arm socket to ensure they fit nicely into the weapons. You can pop a bit of greenstuff in there to make the fit more snug, but remember magnets work best with the mating faces touching. Companies like First4Magnets are pretty good, and as they’re reputable, you’re likely to actually get N52, instead of basic fridge magnets.

Painting

The sky is the limit with Titans, as they’re a really good platform to push your skills to the limit on. I would recommend grabbing the relevant Adeptus Titanicus Loyalist/Traitor Legios book, as the colour plates are absolutely fantastic.

For Vulturum players, I’d recommend the following scheme for the bone panels – it works perfectly on Xana models too, funnily enough:

• Primer: Vallejo Black.
• Base: Vallejo German Red Brown 71.271.
• Layer: Vallejo Sand (Ivory) 71.075.
• Layer: Vallejo Bonewhite 76.034.
• Wash: AK Wargaming Green Wash 14211.
• Technical: Dirty Dog Rust.

Decals/Transfers

28mm transfers are hard to come by from Games Workshop, so I’d definitely suggest Skumb4g Kustoms, especially for the Legios currently unsupported with transfers. Gloss the area, use MicroSet on the transfer, apply it, dry it, gloss again and then apply a varnish of your choice once that last coat of gloss is dry. I go for AK Ultra matte, but really it’s just personal choice. Again, the colour plates in the AT books really work well here for guidance and inspiration.

Summary

I love the Warhound – it’s more acceptably costed than a Porphyrion, so people don’t get upset about them, and arguably has less output than a Porphyrion to boot. It’s also a lovely looking model and one that can perfectly serve as the centrepiece for your army at virtually any points level.

Whilst the bigger Battle Titans often steal the limelight, and the Acastus Porphyrion is the marker of extreme fromage and bullshido in Heresy, the humble Warhound most definitely is the conissures choice of a two-legged Lord of War for semi-regular gaming. What it lacks in protection it makes up with speed and the ability to sow fear in the opponents line by its mere presence. It’ll die, sure, but it’ll go down fighting and with a big bang that’ll leave a lasting impression on your opponents army.

If you’re lacking in Anti Tank, a twin-turbo Warhound will do serious work for you, but other than that you’ve got amazing general purpose carnage sowing capability in the Plasma Blast Gun and a paired Vulcan Mega Bolter. This is often called the Tournament Pattern Warhound Loadout in Adeptus Titanicus, and it’s just a really useful combination in Heresy.

Modelling wise, it’s an amazing prosepect and really deserves a dynamic pose, just make sure you’re not going under or overboard with the pinning. It doesn’t need a huge amount of work to get a really nice pose and a really secure one.