Kiitos niblebitzer, tulevaisuudessa tulee sitten lisää :)
Sitä ennen ulkomaankielen kopiopastana raporttia titaanisodasta:
Mega-Titanicus, ahoy!
As previously mentioned, this time the annual big god-machine brawl at the club would happen on two tables: one main assault on an Imperial fortress supported by a nearby island's airfields. In total, we had 14 players each commanding their own maniples, 8 on the walls and 6 on the island. 67 titans and three plucky knights participated in the mayhem, some of them also cycling in again as reserves. I tried to remember taking pictures every now and then, but playing and being the main rules guy to ask certainly make that task harder when intensity racks up and people are trying to wrap things up by the end. Thus, pictures are mostly from the first half of the game.
Twilight at the Gates of Unity.
"The traitors are closing in by the hour, the fools. Our hearts and walls shall hold fast against their rage, imposing as that might still seem. Let them come! Let them smash themselves against our lines, let them bleed themselves dry if they so eagerly wish to die this day!"
Three maniples of legio Favilla's engines, bolstered by one of legio Defensor, stood ready to break the traitors' storm. Lighter Warhounds and Reavers ranged on the flanks while the super-heavy Extermigus force was warming up its engines at the main gates.
Arraying against them, god-engines of legios Fureans, Damicum and Krytos were stomping forwards through the desert heat. As rockets and aerial bombs started to fall like raindrops from the darkening skies, the battle was joined.
In scant moments, the first defensive line before the city was overwhelmed and despite their hard resistance, the armoured elements of the XIV Astartes legion were taking a pounding. Not willing to concede more ground, the defenders sallied forth to keep the attackers at bay further down the field.
On the attackers' right flank, the ever-destructive Krytos took to razing the local infrastructure. With one accurate shot of its quake cannon, a Warbringer of the God Breakers blew up years worth of aerospace logistics efforts.
Meanwhile, on a nearby island the XIV's artillery and airfields were busy providing support to the distant fight. Little did they know that there were hidden forces encroaching on their position by the sea-floor, as two maniples of legio Magna and one utterly corrupted group of legio Omina's monstrous creations soon broke above the waves. However, the attackers would soon find themselves surprised as well but the amount of defending titans on the supposedly lightly manned island. With a pull of the trigger, the air soon filled with projectiles and a bitter firefight erupted.
Some headway is made onto the beach under heavy fire, hijacking the goods being delivered to the traitors' cause. On the western end, the Astorum bring the pain as Magna's lead units bite and hold onto their targets. In the middle, Xestobiax' line holds the traitors' advances. In the east, Omina's daemonic Warhounds spit otherworldly fire and slag Solaria's leading Reaver while pouncing to take one of the airfields under their control.
At the gates, Damicum's Regia maniple advances under their shared shields, with the Warlords protecting their Warhound batteries hiding nearby behind their wide frames. While such a concentration of voids is impressive, it is not so impressive as to withstand a sustained broadside of Favilla's Extermigus and in short order their shields are violently popped one after the other. Damicum leaders order a full spectrum screen to be fired before them, giving them a second to breathe as the Ashen Gods are left scrambling for visibility. With two claw-equipped Warlords and one Warmaster eyeing each other at danger close distances, there is a careful and calm dance of death taking place in the middle of the exploding warzone.
Next to this, on the Tiger Eyes' flank the loyalists are taking a bit of a beating. Though the Ashen Gods' Hounds get some deadly support from the Extermigus at the walls, they are still out of their weight class fighting a delaying action against corrupted Warlords leading a Mandatum pack at their heels. First engine kills are sounded on both sides as Warhounds start popping under the deadly hail.
Legio Defensor takes initiative and courageously surges forth to hold the second defense line against the Krytos Extermigus. With the screen blocking visibility to the Damicum line, Favilla's heavy engines lend their aid to the Defensor's cause. Shields are shredded across the battle line and fires are starting to flare up over the engines, yet casualties are thus far fairly light.
Barely out of the gates, the Defensor Reaver has taken massive fire from the God Breakers. Finally, guns glowing hot from uninterrupted return fire, its legs buckle under the machine's weight and it slumps down, silenced but grabbing the doorframe to the last. None shall pass!
As the Nova Guard seems to be falling on hard times, Favilla positions to push forwards to relieve the pressure. With their Warmaster, Excidium Ultimum, at the second line, it isn't falling to the traitors' clutches anytime soon.
The struggle for the beachhead continues, but it is becoming apparent to the traitors this isle has been more strongly defended than they were led to believe. Never ones to give up, though, they press what momentum they have to hold onto their gains. Surely they were going to get reinforcements soon, right?
At the main gates, Krytos' Warlord Braccus Rex is under heavy bombardment. As it pushes more power to what remains of its soon dying void shields, its belligerent machine spirits lurches forwards with unexpected speed, bringing the beast close enough to pummel the Defensor Hounds with its fist. Turbolasers raking its armour, the Warlord grabs a hold of its assailant and rips the Hound's head clean off as sparks and burning fluids splash on the glassed sands.
At the defenders' left flank, there is aggressive manoeuvre warfare going on with Reavers and Warhounds jockeying for position. Pushing through the Krytos fire with melee engines is costly, but ultimately manageable. The flanking Hounds, however, are a deadly threat.
Legio Omina's Warlord, Lux Aeternis, had proven to be a particular headache for the Solaria defending the now lost airfield on the island's east end. Corrupted beyond measure, it was nearly undying even under constant barrages, yet it would not be enough. The Hounds around it would be torn down and, thus left alone, it too would succumb in time under the harrying trio of Solaria's bloodthirsty dogs.
Similarly, on other fronts it would prove to be too much for the attackers. Toppling on top of their objectives, broken but unbowed, many of the Magna's engines would meet their doom before accepting the reality of their failure. Many names would be added to the list of the lost - Baleful Edict, Ironbound Empress, Scourge of the Faithless... all lost in the cause of the Lupercal, now lying as scrap on the beaches or driven to the sea by the vengeful loyalists.
While the situation at the island was noted on the fortress as some air strikes and bombs also started landing on top of the defenders, there was no time to lose focus. Damicum's charges against Excidium Ultimum left much to be desired, ending either short or as mere scratches. The middle of the board soon descended into total mayhem: the Iconoclast sawed one Warlord in half, engines toppled on top of each other, nuclear reactors began blowing up sky high in succession as the Reaver Damnatio Memoriae began backing away from it all guns blazing. Other maniples of Favilla and Fureans poured their regards into the mix as well, plasma and volcano shots blooming their midst. Soon, the Damicum Regia would be no more and their straggling reinforcement Warhounds entering the battle would not fare much better.
(That's all the pictures I ended up taking, having to then keep up the game's pace.)
Over the second half of the battle, casualties kept racking up but the dogged defenders held their ground. With occasional reserve Warhounds making their way to the fight, the Nova Guard managed to keep their gate unconquered (though the walls were reduced to rubble and the important buildings behind them once more razed by the God Breakers) while the Iconoclast Excidium Ultimum, full of secondary systems and redundant bits as ablative armour, kept frustrating the attackers by refusing to die. The hulking engine hadn't had shields for the last three or so rounds, but kept blasting away at anyone foolish enough to come close until the very end of the fight when it was at last brought down by the Fureans Warlord who cut its legs with a macro-gatling salvo. With such setbacks and the failed capture of the support island laid against them, the traitors were ultimately repulsed and thrown from the walls. 75 % of the important infrastructure lay in ruins, walls had huge torn down sections in need of urgent repairs and the whole sub-city near the entrance was irradiated enough to make it unlivable for the next century, but hey, that's what victory smells like here.
Loyalist victory!
On the whole, the event ran pretty smoothly at roughly an hour per round pace with the two tables mostly in sync (the smaller island being a bit ahead, unsurprisingly). Scoring was given for destroyed engines and held ground, ending up as a 760-550 victory for the defenders. From a scenario writer's perspective, this is fine as the three defence lines were all worth 50 points every turn and basically one or two stronger turns for the attackers could have flipped the game considering in this particular instance the attackers had a bit of a harder time than they ought to because of the situation at the island.
While the battle at the gates felt pretty equally matched, I regret not having the time to look at the forces arrayed on the island table more carefully before things swept onwards. Such is life sometimes, when you're busy setting up the stuff, preparing to play yourself and answering everyone's questions. While careful balancing isn't exactly the main concern for big multiplayer games that are swingy to begin with, it turns out that the attackers on the island were about 1500 points short and as any military can tell you, attacking against superior numbers usually isn't the best of times. This meant that while the island situation was meant to begin with a loyalist edge and turn into a traitor asset as they take ground and get more reinforcements than the defenders, in this particular game it didn't go that way. The traitors got in, but were outgunned and subsequently rolled very badly for their reinforcements, turning the situation into a bit of a massacre. From what the players told me, it was still a fun massacre, but something that was still mechanically somewhat doomed from the early game onwards. Amusingly enough, the people at the table realised this like two turns in instead of checking after the initial player allotment, but I do still take some of the blame for that for it would have been easy to throw a couple of dozen extra knights I had with me at the traitors' disposal as well if I'd realised what was going on. But eh, at the end of the day it's a mega-battle full of moving parts anyway.
Personally, boy the Warmaster is a beast! Excidium Ultimum got a nice outing for its first game, crumped the Damicum Warlords, survived two armies worth of violence until the very last round and looked wicked striding on the field. Sure it's too costly and slow and stupid to use very often, but I like it in these over the top contexts. Next year, though, I need to make a fourth Warlord so I can finally run a full Extermigus without any Reaver-swap shenanigans...
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
- Carl Sagan
