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TRAITOR TITAN LEGIONS
Legiotempestus
Title: TheLegio Tempestus Ordo Titanica (referred to in some post-008.M31 archives as Legio Tempestor)
Militaris Grade: Secundus
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Martian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Estaban III, Mars (former), Orestes Colonia
Cognomen: TheStormlords, the ThunderRaptors
Allied War Houses: Numerous Freeblade associations, Martian division – House Taranis
Allegiance: Unconfirmed (major element Traitoris Perdita)
TheLegio Tempestus was counted amongst the mightiest and most accomplished of the Emperor’s Crusading hosts in the years before the Horus Heresy, having fought for decades at the leading edge of the Imperium’s expansion. Countless worlds were brought to Compliance and numerous xenos empires cast down during the devastating planetary assaults for which the Legio became so well known, earning it the epithet ‘Stormlords’. Thelegacy of Legio Tempestus is as illustrious as its combat record, for the Titan Legion was one third of the fabled ‘Triad Ferrum Morgulus’, founded upon Mars in the distant Age of Strife. Throughoutthe blood-soaked insanity of that age, the Legio Tempestus stood firm against all foes, from machine-mutant abominations rising from the waste-strewn oxide deserts to rival Titan Orders marching from their own strongholds to do battle.
Much of the Legio Tempestus’ history is lost within the anarchy that befell Mars during the Age of Strife or sealed away in forgotten data-crypts beneath the industrial waste. It is known, however, that the Titan Legion laid claim to the Tharsisregion of the Red Planet, carving their fortress from the red basalt of Ascraeus Mons, one of the mightiest of Mars’ many volcanoes. Around this, the Titan Legion constructed concentric rings of impregnable fortifications atop solidified lava ridges, and it was from this steadfast that Tempestus god-engines marched to scour the surrounding plains of degenerate tech-savages. Theregion claimed and defended by the Legio Tempestus bordered that of the Legio Mortis and, on countless occasions, the two Orders came to blows over territorial rights and access to priceless caches of archaeotech found beneath the rust dunes. Thoughboth Titan Legions shared a common enemy in the Cy-carnivora, and other phantasms of Old Night that plagued Mars throughout the age, a deep and mutual loathing developed between them that would later bear truly bitter fruit.
With the coming of the Emperor to the Red Planet and the signing of the Treaty of Mars, the Legio Tempestus took its place in the glorious hosts of Mankind’s all-conquering armies. Tempestus engines walked upon worlds the length and breadth of the ever-expanding Imperium, serving alongside some of the most celebrated forces of the Great Crusade. Thebulk of the Titan Legion’s most celebrated battle honours were earned during service with the 12th Expeditionary Fleet, in what some historians later dubbed the ‘Long March to Ultramar’. Later on, when the Lord of Ultramar, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman, took personal command of the 12th Expeditionary Fleet, the Legio Tempestus played a pivotal role in the arduous wars of the Epsiloid Binary Cluster.
It was during that conflict that the Legio’s master, Indias Cavalerio, earned the title ‘Stormlord’, a name soon used by allied Imperial soldiery to refer to the entire Legio and was thought to echo ancient myths. Thisterm was appropriate, for the Stormlords had proven themselves masters of planetary assault under enemy fire in hostile circumstances many Princeps would never have risked. Cradled in the shield holds of the very heaviest classes of drop transport constructed in the orbital void- foundries on Mars, the god-engines of the Legio would descend shrouded by the fire and storm-turbulence of the drop ships’ almost suicidal trajectories. Upon landing, the Legio Tempestus would stride forth into the midst of battle, shattering cities and sweeping battlefields clear of foes in blistering hails of ordnance.
During the course of six decades of unabated campaign on the forefront of the Great Crusade, the Legio Tempestus claimed warden rights over key worlds in the Estaban and Orestes systems, and suffered heavy losses in return. Acknowledging the need to rest and resupply, the Legio’s master returned to Mars with those of his Legio’s god-engines in most need of repair and refit, ensuring command of the remainder of a reorganised demi-Legio passed to his lieutenant, one Princeps Maximus Karania. Thisseemingly prudent move would begin a chain of events that would lead to a growing rift within the Legio Tempestus, ignited more as a development of circumstance and distance rather than actual acrimony or malice. In the years that followed, two separate commands developed, with little direct contact between them, each being supplied separately and fighting their wars under the light of far distant stars.
TheMartian Tempestus began to be deployed as a heavy reserve, called to battle from their fortress on Mars to re-enforce the line in the most precarious war zones and to punish rebellious worlds before swiftly returning home. In contrast, those under Karania’s command would pass from the order of battle of one far-flung Expeditionary fleet to another, never seeing the light of Sol. Theduality of the Legio Tempestus, born from the two halves of its fighting force, led to greater divides than mere distance and, come the Horus Heresy, the loyalties of the Legio Tempestus were cast in doubt.
When the Schism of Mars tore the Mechanicum in two, Cavalerio and his Princeps fell in defence of the Magma City, standing defiant to the last against the god-engines of the Legio Mortis and the whims of the Fabricator General. The heroic deeds performed in this final battle will never be fully honoured and such tales, alongside the efforts of a scattered handful of Loyalist Legio Tempestus Titan maniples, may forever be overshadowed by the perfidious actions of Maximus Karania. Thesenior Princeps, given control of the Order’s Expeditionary force, proved far less disdainful of political wrangling than Cavalerio.
Indeed, so adept was Karania at intrigue that he had long hidden his true nature as a disciple of a certain strand of esoteric machine lore called ‘Teleologicalica’, itself a form of arcane numerology, purported to predict imminent and all-consuming doom through patterns found in past cataclysms. Karania’s schismatic doctrine, combined with his political cunning and the divergent beliefs of the Tech-Priests of Estaban III, who rejected the prevailing Mechanicum doctrine that the Emperor and the Omnissiah were one, led the Princeps to make secret pacts with the rulers of Estaban III long before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Thoughwell-hidden from most, his dealings did not escape the attention of the Warmaster’s agents, who worked to secure Karania to their cause. When at last word of Cavalerio’s death reached Estaban III, Karania perceived it as fulfilment of his own occult prognostications and he pledged his demi-Legio to the cause of the Warmaster body and soul. Karania seized control of Estaban III, purging it of all who still served the Emperor and vowing to protect the Forge World in return for the bounty of its mighty foundries.
Thetreachery of Maximus Karania would at length lead the Legio Tempestus to the hallowed ground of Terra itself in bloody war, yet archival entries, recovered years after the event, suggest that not all amongst the surviving elements of the Legio Tempestus wished to share in Karania’s betrayal. A small portion of the Stormlords’ strength, derived from those assigned to Mars but absent from the Red Planet when Cavalerio fell, declined orders recalling them to Estaban III. Thesewayward elements professed their continued loyalty to the Imperium and to the Emperor, lending their might to all who resisted the Warmaster. For these scattered Loyalists, Karania promised only death, vowing to hunt them down and slay them, for their very existence made a lie of the teleological prognostications by which Karania was planning and executing his Legio’s future, causing him to delve ever deeper into his occult practices.
While leading his own division of the Legio Tempestus, Karania proved himself a strategist whose cunning served as a formidable force multiplier and elevated the Legio to the highest tiers of the Warmaster’s servants. Thisrise in favour, however, was ever checked by its oldest foe, the Legio Mortis, which remained, of all the Traitor Titan Legions, always first in Horus’ service. Despite their common cause in the ranks of the Arch-Traitor,Tempestus and Mortis, long rivals, slowly became bitterest enemies even as they fought alongside each other, a diametrical opposition that would at length become horribly evident as the unspeakable powers each had sworn themselves to exerted their hideous influence.
MATERIEL STRENGTH ThePrincipia Glorianus Episloidae records that the Legio Tempestus was possessed of around 170 god-engines at the height of the victory over the Orks of the Epsiloid Binary Cluster, with at least 30 Titans lost by the end of those wars. Of these, between 80-120 Titans of various classes, most of them of the Warlord, Reaver and Jackal pattern Warhound classes, were to serve under Maximus Karania and follow him into treachery during the Horus Heresy. Having laid claim to Estaban III, the Traitor Tempestus, which some archival records name the Legio Tempestor at the apparent behest of the few remaining Loyalist Tempestus Princeps, were supplied in limited numbers by the Forge World’s foundries.
Many of the Titan Legion’s older patterns such as its Nightgaunt, Nemesis and Imperator god-engines, were believed destroyed on Mars when Cavalerio was slain, ensuring the Traitor Tempestus ranked as a Secundus-grade Titan Legion during the Horus Heresy. In a desire to supplement his forces and hold proof of the Stormlords’ ancient lineage, Karania commissioned the Tech-Priests of Estaban III to complete several projects, giving them information previously denied to the Forge World in exchange. Thisflurry of activity saw the hurried creation of the Warmaster Iconoclast Ceraunthanato or ‘TheDeadly Storm’ which was amongst the Traitor Tempestus god-engines that lay siege to Terra.
Legio Tempestus (Stormlords)
Legio Trait: Glory In Death It is the creed of the Legio Tempestus crew that the manner of their death is as important as anything they do in life. Crews will fight on to the bitter end, obtaining firing solutions and stoking the reactor even as their Titan comes apart around them.
Before making a Catastrophic Damage roll for a Legio Tempestus Titan, the controlling player may make a Command check for the Titan. If the check is passed, the Titan may immediately make an attack with one of its weapons, chosen by the controlling player; if the check is passed by 3 or more, the Titan immediately attacks with all of its weapons instead.
Subtract 1 from all Hit rolls for attacks made in this way. After resolving any attacks, roll on the Catastrophic Damage table as normal.
Legio Trait: Fury of the Machine Princeps of the Legio Tempestus have ever been known for their wrath and zeal both on the field of battle and away from it, and this trait has been passed on to their god-engines’ machine spirits through the technological sorcery of the manifold.
Once per round, when firing a weapon, a Legio Tempestus Titan that has one or more points of Critical Damage may add 1 to the Strength value of that weapon; the weapon must have a Strength value of 4 or higher, and the Strength value cannot be increased above 10. Thiscan be used in conjunction with Glory In Death.
Legion Specific Stratagem: Combat Drop (3)
Theepitaph of the Stormlords matched the Legio Tempestus’ practice of orbital dropping Titans directly into the thick of the fighting, a tactic few other Titan Legions would countenance.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Tempestus player. Play this Stratagem at the start of deployment, before any units have been placed upon the battlefield. Choose a friendly Legio Tempestus Titan of Scale 7 or lower to be kept in reserve; that unit is not deployed as normal and instead will arrive by combat drop.
At the start of any Strategy phase from the second round onwards, the chosen Titan is deployed by combat drop. Place the Titan anywhere on the battlefield more than 3" away from an enemy unit then scatter the Titan D6". If the Titan scatters into a piece of Terrain, it stops before moving into it and suffers D3+2 Strength 9 hits (Void Shield saves are allowed). If, after it scatters, the Titan’s base overlaps with another model, friend or foe, with a Scale lower than the Titans, move the Titan the shortest distance so its base is not overlapping then resolve the effects of a Collision. If the Titan’s base overlaps that of a unit with a Scale equal to or greater than its own, the Titan is destroyed; do not roll on the Catastrophic Damage table. The unit it overlapped with suffers a Collision as normal.
A Titan that arrives in this way cannot be activated in the Strategy or Movement phase in the round it arrived.
Legion Specific Wargear: Chasmata Pattern Laser Destructors TheLegio Tempestus displayed a heavy preference for the use of modified laser weaponry that provided greater range than the base patterns.
Any Legio Tempestus Titan that is equipped with a turbo-laser destructor, paired turbo-laser destructor, paired laser blaster or laser blaster can be upgraded with Chasmata Pattern Laser Destructors at a cost of 5 x the Dice value of the weapon (e.g., paired laser blasters would be +30 points). Each weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. A weapon with this upgrade increases its Short Range characteristic by 6" and its Long Range characteristic by 3".
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Tempestus Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Adamantium Resolve: ThePrinceps’ will is unbreakable, a fact proved on dozens of battlefields over decades of war. Once per battle, when the Princeps fails a Command check, they may instead choose to pass it. 2 Storm-born: On the battlefield, the Princeps is a deadly tempest, tearing into the heart of the foe and scattering any who stand against them. While the Princeps Seniores is on the battlefield, a Titan within the same maniple (including the Princeps Seniores’ Titan) issued with a Charge Order may declare Power to Locomotors without pushing its Reactor. 3 Defiant Warrior: Death holds no fear for the Princeps and in the face of insurmountable odds they will fight that much harder. If the Princeps Seniores’ Titan has a Void Shield level of X, it may re-roll any Hit rolls of a 1 when making an attack.
Legiotempestus Reaver Battle Titan
ODRYSIAN TheLegio Tempestus Reaver Titan Odrysian is pictured here shortly before leading the Ferrox maniple Teros
Epsilon in an attack on Hive Ilium during the Manachea planetary assault. Odrysian and its supporting god- engines (the Reaver Raxvalian and the Warhounds Scorillion and Durasi) were tasked with breaking the massed
armour of the hive’s Solar Auxilia defenders in support of a Traitor offensive. Initial battlefield reports show the
maniple claimed over three dozen confirmed armour kills before dense urban terrain hampered its movement, leading to Odrysian being disabled due to massed firepower. Legio Tempestus records report that Princeps Nero
Cotys and Moderatus Titus Teres were killed in action, while Odrysian was recovered following Ilium’s fall and
restored in time to see battle once more during the Scouring.
Legio Mortis
Title: TheLegio Mortis Ordo Titanica
Militaris Grade: Primus (Maxis)
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Martian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Mars (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheDeath’s Heads
Allied War Houses: Morbidia, Ju’ll, Senica
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
Thename of the Legio Mortis was feared and distrusted by many within the Imperium long before the betrayal and horror of the Horus Heresy was to unfold. Originating in the pre- Imperial Age of Strife, they were, according to the legends of the Martian lexmechanics, one of the ‘Triad Ferrum Morgulus’ – the three originating Titan Legions created by the besieged Cult Mechanicus during the bloody wars to take back the Red Planet. As was recorded in the iconography of its seal, the purpose of its creation was twofold: firstly, to stand sentinel at the gates of the Fabricator General’s domain as tireless guardians and, secondly, the annihilation of all life that would threaten the Machine Cult.
Since its founding, the Legio Mortis has been instilled with hatred for all those who defy the will of Mars and its rulers, serving both as sentry and exterminator. Grim, dour and secretive, it gained a dark repute during the conquest of Mars as merciless and sinister that would only grow as centuries passed. It was during such a time, marked by great bloodshed and horrific violence, that the Titan Legion gained its more common name, ‘Death’s Heads’, chosen as much for its iconography and the ritual onyx skull masks of its Princeps as it was for the Titan Legion’s long-standing practice of arraying the skeletal remains of slain foes across the armoured pediments of its god-engines.
Bound it was by rite and tradition in personal loyalty to the office of the Fabricator General and long has it been used to enforce his rule, both against his enemies in war and as a weapon to punish recalcitrant magos and even other Titan Legions that defied his will. Thishistory garnered the Death’s Heads few friends or allies and its long-standing rivalry with the fellow members of the Triad Ferrum Morgulus, most notably the Legio Ignatum, and its contempt for the ‘upstart’ Titan Legions of other Forge Worlds was well known. The Legio Mortis’ reputation as an infamously fractious and insular force – whose allegiance many within the Imperium’s military staff believed remained solely to the Fabricator General and the Emperor not at all, resulted in the tragic irony of the Titan Legion’s assignment to the personal flag of Horus Lupercal. It was hoped that being under the Primarch’s guidance, who was at the time not Warmaster but one Primarch amongst many, would deepen the Titan Legion’s loyalty to the Imperium and soften the harsher corners of its personality.
For much of the Great Crusade, the principal strength of the Legio Mortis was assigned to the 63rd Expeditionary Fleet, serving as the Titan background of its strength. Small battlegroups were assigned to the Legio Mortis’ Forge-fortress on Mars and to the blockade of the Uhn Holdfast. Infrequently, those upon the Red Planet were known to depart at the behest
of the Fabricator General, unleashed upon rebellious elements of the expanding Mechanicum or technological bastions that resisted the transfer of control to Mars. In this role, supported by the Pact of Morbidia, the Legio Mortis earned its reputation as callous and grim, the heavy tread of its god-engines crushing civilisations beneath them for the temerity of questioning a path not dictated by the Fabricator General. Of all the Titan Legions that served within the Imperium, few save the Legio Mortis claimed the dubious honour of eradicating a Titan Legion in its entirety, at least until the bitter days of the Horus Heresy. In this did the Death’s Heads revel, for it was upon the field of battle, as god-engine duelled god-engine, that the Titan Legion proved its self-assigned role as greatest amongst the Collegia Titanica.
Thelatter decades of the Great Crusade saw the Legio Mortis cement its reputation as a destroyer and enforcer of its master’s will. In service to the charismatic and deadly Primarch of the XVIth Legion, then known as the Luna Wolves, the Legio Mortis fought in over a hundred campaigns, adorning their god-engines with the ashes of countless worlds and the bones of scores of different races it helped exterminate. Theseyears of warfare did indeed see new loyalties forged but it was to the standard of Horus Lupercal Legio Mortis pledged itself to, not that of the distant Emperor. Such devotion ensured the Titan Legion willingly followed the Warmaster when he fell from grace.
Theguns of the Legio Mortis were amongst the first to be turned against the Imperium, for the Titan Legion willingly followed the Warmaster into treachery. On Isstvan III, elements of the Legio Mortis, including the now-infamous Imperator known as Dies Irae, were trusted with the task of exterminating the few loyalists that were expected to survive the initial virus bombardment. When what had meant to be a coup-de-grace descended into a wholesale battle, Horus ordered the full Titan- Legion deployed to smash the husks of the hive cities and break the loyalists’ resistance. For the first time, Legiones Astartes met Legiones Titanicus in open conflict and the Legio Mortis led the way, baptising its new allegiance in the blood of any deemed antagonistic to the Warmaster.
For the remainder of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Mortis proved a constant companion to the Warmaster and his forces. From Isstvan V and the world of Molech to the Beta-Garmon system and the walls of the Emperor’s Palace on Terra itself, the god-engines of the Legio Mortis brought ruin and death to all assembled beneath the Imperium’s banner. Records from innumerable battles during the Horus Heresy report the presence of Death’s Heads Titans, yet their prolific acts of treachery did little to diminish the strength of the Legio Mortis, for the Warmaster ensured they remained well-supplied. Even when the Traitors were thrown back and Horus lay dead, the Legio Mortis refused to be broken, carving itself a bloody path across the galaxy as it began a new war, one where the Titan Legion would unequivocally stand as the greatest amongst its kind.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Thanksto its ancient history and its close ties to the Fabricator General of Mars and his coterie, the Legio Mortis was one of the numerically largest and best equipped of all of the Titan Legions at the outbreak of the wars of the Heresy. Conservative estimates place their disposition at or around two hundred god-machines in active service, as well as having two battalions of specialised support armour, five Skitarii Auxillia Legions and a close air-support phalanx of nine squadrons bound to their service. Only the Legio Destructor is believed to have been able to put more battle-Titans into the field at the war’s outbreak. In particular, the Legio Mortis was known to possess a strong contingent of the most powerful classes of Titan: the Imperator, the Nemesis and at least one Apocalypse pattern god-engine. While the bulk of their number were Warlord, Reaver and Nightgaunt classes, scout-class Titans such as the Warhound were represented in relatively small proportions on the whole.
Legio Mortis (Death’S Heads)
Legio Trait: Reaper’s Tally ThePrinceps of the Legio Mortis are cold and calculating, keeping meticulous kill tallies, and often filling their command decks with servitor choirs that drone out an endless list of all of their victims. Thiscacophony of the vanquished drives the Titan’s crew to methodical acts of destruction, each fresh kill adding another name to the chant.
Each time a Legio Mortis Titan destroys an enemy Titan, it gains the ability to re-roll a single dice roll of a 1 each time it makes an attack with a weapon without the Melee trait. These effects are cumulative and for every enemy Titan destroyed, an additional dice may be re-rolled.
Legio Trait: State of Decay Even before the infectious rot of Nurgle took root within the ranks of the Legio Mortis, many of its crews were deadened to the constant brutality of war. Thiscold lack of emotion manifested itself most obviously in the Princeps of the Death’s Heads, and in their ability to suffer the most punishing feedback from their MIU units without flinching.
Once per game, a Legio Mortis Titan may ignore the effects of MIU Feedback, Moderati Wounded and Princeps Wounded for a round. In a round that the Titan ignores these Critical Damage effects, it may not allocate any Repair dice to its Head. Each Legio Mortis Titan can use this ability once per game.
Legio Specific Stratagem: March of the Dead (3)
Titans of the Death’s Heads Legio were relentless in the pursuit of their enemies, often marching from one battle to the next without stopping. Wasting no time organising their line of battle or considering the disposition of their foe, they swiftly closed in for the kill.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Mortis player. Play this Stratagem in the Strategy phase of the first round. The Legio Mortis player may immediately move each of their Titans just as if it was the Movement phase. A Titan cannot declare Power to Locomotors! or Power to Stabilisers! when making this move. If the player uses this Stratagem, their opponent automatically becomes the First Player for the remainder of the first game round.
Legio Specific Wargear: Remains of the Fallen From the first battles of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Mortis were known for the grisly trophies that adorned their Titans. Death’s Heads banners were often hung with huge skull bouquets, or the ragged remains of destroyed Knights and lesser war engines. In some cases, still-living enemies were lashed to the hull of their Titans to be obliterated in the hellish fires of battle.
Any Legio Mortis Titan may be upgraded to have the Remains of the Fallen for +20 points. Enemy units within 8" of one or more Titans with this upgrade subtract 1 from the result of any Command check they make.
Legio Specific Wargear: TheWarmaster’s Beneficence Of all of the Titan Legions pledged to the Warmaster, the Legio Mortis were perhaps the most favoured by Horus and, as a result, received a greater portion of the Traitor war materiel. Thisincluded extra supplies of all kinds of ordnance for their weapons.
Any Legio Mortis Titan may be upgraded to have the Warmaster’s Beneficence for +25 points. Once per game, at the start of the Strategy phase, a Titan with this upgrade can increase the Strength value of a single weapon it is equipped with by 1. Thisincrease lasts until the end of the round.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Mortis Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Rotten Heart: ThePrinceps has already succumbed to the lure of the dark gods, and a festering rot has begun to hollow out their soul. Titans commanded by such a Princeps have their machine spirits likewise corrupted though the MIU connection. When the Princeps Seniores’ Titan fails a Command check to quell the machine spirit, it may choose to pass it instead. If it does so, increase the Titan’s Reactor level by 2. If the Princeps’ Titan is a Corrupted Titan, it instead rolls two dice, re-rolling duplicates, when rolling on the Awakened Entity table and the controlling player may choose which result applies. 2 Pitiless: Mercy was never a virtue of the Legio Mortis. Often, when an enemy was close to destruction, a Death’s Heads maniple would instinctively concentrate their firepower, until the crippled Titan was reduced to little more than twisted metal and ash. ThePrinceps’ Titan adds 1 to the Strength of its weapons when targeting an enemy Titan that has suffered at least one point of Critical Damage. 3 Ancient of Terra: Many Princeps of the Legio Mortis were ancient by the time of the Horus Heresy, having served since before the creation of the Imperium. Theirwithered forms were carried on servitor palanquins or permanently attached to their command thrones, and they were connected to the plasma heart of their Titan like it was their own. When the Princeps’ Titan must roll on the Reactor Overload table, only ever roll a D6, even if the Reactor Status marker is in a red hole.
Legio Krytos
Title: TheLegio Krytos Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Secundus
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Krytos Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Krytos (Forge World), Hazor Minor (secondary Forge-fortress)
Cognomen: TheGod Breakers
Allied War Houses: Caesarean, Kepsydra
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheImperium’s path to the rediscovery of Krytos was paved with broken worlds, crumbling ruins and barren wastelands the sole evidence that such planets once held life. On each, the perpetrators of such widespread destruction had left the planet ritually scarred, a kilometres-wide sigil carved into the planetary crust, its form that of a stylised winged hammer. Empyreal wake tracking eventually led the 125th Expeditionary fleet, commanded by Perturabo, Primarch of the Legio Astartes Iron Warriors, to the Forge World of Krytos and the chief architects of the witnessed destruction – the Legio Krytos, a Titan Legion named in honour of the planet it stood sentinel over.
TheLegio Krytos proved to be a bellicose and destructive Titan Legion, holding firm to the ideals that only through the total eradication of all who resisted could victory be achieved. Much of the Titan Legion’s early history had been dominated by warfare with the Agrenium Convocation, a reportedly brutal empire ruled over by a divergent strain of humanity and built upon a foundation of slavery of both humans and xenos. At an unknown date during the Age of Strife, the Convocation set its sight upon the Forge World of Krytos, seeking to enslave its Tech-Priests and plunder the vast stores of knowledge they possessed. Thearchives of Krytos state that it was the Convocation that struck first, and the opening years of war saw the Forge World besieged and under threat. At the forefront of Mechanicum resistance stood the Legio Krytos, wielding power the Convocation had little answer to. When the Forge World was free of invaders, the Convocation is said to have sued for peace and, in answer, the Legio Krytos laid siege to their worlds.
Theexact size and scope of the Convocation’s rule remains unknown, but what fragments exist, extracted from the testimonies of ancient Princeps, emphasise the Convocation’s deep societal class divides, with its citizens assigned roles at birth based entirely on their heritage. To further enforce segregation between its strata, each city was a veritable fortress, with elaborate fortifications separating the domiciles of different classes. Thoughintended to prevent the mixing of the Convocation’s population, its architects had not been lax in their work and each city presented a formidable challenge to invaders, walls bristling with macro-cannon and guarded by slave-infantry whose loyalty was secured through complex psycho-surgery.
War against the Agrenium Convocation wrought great changes upon the psyche of the Legio Krytos; faced with armies brainwashed to fight to the last, complete annihilation was the sole option. To achieve such a goal, the fortress cities of the Convocation were besieged and laid low, their armies crushed and their leaders scoured from existence. Warlord and Warbringer Nemesis class Titans became prevalent amongst the ranks of the Legio Krytos, the fearsome armaments they wielded proving decisive in sundering the Convocation’s strongholds. Over a century of war, during which time the intensity of conflict waxed and waned, the Legio Krytos visited ruination down upon their foe, burning cities to ash and causing irreversible damage to the biospheres of dozens of planets. All offers of peace extended to the Titan Legion were rejected and victory was achieved upon the world designated as Planet-296A, capital of the Agrenium Convocation, known as Agreniux to its people. There,the God Breakers force assembled in its entirety, dozens of god-engines turned towards a single purpose. Within three months, Agreniux bore life no more, inhabited only by crumbling ruins, fire-scorched deserts and the icon of the Legio Krytos carved deeply into its surface.
When Perturabo made contact with Krytos and learned of its past, he expressed great admiration for the dedication and skill with which Krytos had subdued its enemies. In acknowledgement of their struggles, the Primarch extended the hand of friendship on behalf of the Imperium, binding Krytos to Mars and the Emperor. Once concord was reached, the 125th Expeditionary Fleet departed for new fronts, its numbers augmented by the god-engines of the Legio Krytos.
TheTerran War Council quickly recognised the unsurpassed skill the Legio Krytos possessed in siege warfare. For the remainder of the Great Crusade, the Titan Legion served admirably alongside the Iron Warriors Legion, lending its superior guns and well-honed tactics to complement the expertise of the IVth Legion. Thesole stain on the God Breakers’ records was the direct and brutal methods it employed, with casualties among indigenous populations of invaded worlds often far in excess of operational parameters. Attempts to rein in the destructive potential of the Legio Krytos had little effect, its Princeps confident that total destruction was the ideal path, an ethos supported by the stoic Iron Warriors. Thesimilarity between Titan Legio and Astartes Legion saw the two develop a lasting fraternity, with the Princeps of the God Breakers holding loyalty to Perturabo above all else, save perhaps their own Forge World.
Themost apparent explanation for the treachery of the Legio Krytos, who turned against the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, lies with the bonds of fellowship the Titan Legion and its Forge World held with Perturabo and his warriors. Indeed, the god-engines of the Legio Krytos were frequently seen taking to the field of battle alongside the IVth Legion during the fratricidal war that followed. Thedestructive nature of the Titan Legion appeared to escalate during the Horus Heresy, its Princeps displaying a particular enthusiasm when thrown against the fortifications of the Imperium. Combat records note the frequency with which the Legio Krytos would lay siege to strongholds constructed or garrisoned by the Imperial Fists Legion, a singular focus no doubt motivated by the animosity the Titan Legion’s Iron Warriors allies held towards the VIIth Legion.
Thegod-engines of the Legio Krytos participated in many of the most infamous conflicts of the Horus Heresy, with a demi-Legio dispatched to the Beta-Garmon Cluster along with lesser detachments accompanying Iron Warriors forces across the galaxy. Perhaps the most lasting mark made by the Legio Krytos was upon the once-verdant world of Tallarn, a significant portion of the Titan Legion’s strength participating in Perturabo’s invasion of the planet. After the Primarch unleashed his virus bombs upon Tallarn, the god-engines of Krytos took to the surface under orders to wipe out all survivors. Theensuing campaign saw the Titan Legion clash with Loyalist armoured companies and the god-engines of the Legio Gryphonicus. The virulent nature of the bombardment unleashed upon Tallarn prevented the fielding of infantry, the virus stripping the flesh from any exposed to it. Thoseof Tallarn that had survived had done so by retreating to subterranean shelters, yet even this did not stop the Legio Krytos from bringing its wrath down upon the planet’s defenders. Infamous for the directness of its tactics, the Titan Legion once more proved its ingenuity in the field of siegecraft. Denied avenues for direct assault upon the subterranean holdfasts of Tallarn, the Legio Krytos instead employed allied Taghmata forces to probe the underground network and, with the aid of tremor-sensors hastily retro-fitted into the Titan Legion’s Warhounds, undertook malicious acts of terraforming upon the planet’s surface. Great rents were caused in the subterranean complexes, exposing vast sections to the atmosphere above and, in doing so, unleashing the deadly virus upon tens of thousands of defenders hidden beneath the surface. As a mark of its precise brutality, harking back to its ancient war against the Agrenium Convocation, each canyon, crafted by the guns of Legio Krytos Warlords, bore the crude image of a stylised winged hammer, the God Breakers forever leaving its mark upon Tallarn and the Imperium.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Recorded as a Secundus-grade Titan Legion shortly before the onset of the Horus Heresy, the principal strength of the Legio Krytos lay in its Warlord class Battle Titans, with Reaver class Titans their main support. In total, the operational numbers of the Legio Krytos were estimated at 115-140 when the Titan Legion sided with the Warmaster, with over half this number consisting of Warlords, many constructed during the conflict with the Agrenium Convocation. Owing to its preference for siege tactics and direct action, the Legio Krytos invested significantly in the construction of Warbringer Nemesis Titans,
with nearly two-dozen recorded as operational during the Great Crusade. ThreeGod Breakers Imperator class Titans are also noted to have existed, of which at least one was always stationed upon the Forge World of Krytos. Lastly, the strength of the Legio Krytos during the Horus Heresy was, like many ancient Titan Legions of similar standing, augmented by the emergence of the Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan. Unsurprisingly, examples of Warmaster Titans fielded by the Legio Krytos were almost exclusively the Warmaster Iconoclast variant, its nature as a siege engine proving highly compatible with the Titan Legion’s preferred medium of war.
Legio Krytos (God Breakers)
Legio Trait: Doom of Worlds TheLegio Krytos is a hammer that knows only one way of waging war – to crush its enemies utterly beneath the repeated blows of its Titans. While the Legio fielded Warhound and Reaver Titans, its commanders favoured deploying heavier Titans into potent battlegroups, and using their massed firepower to obliterate continents.
When fielding an Axiom maniple or Myrmidon maniple, a Legio Krytos player may take a Warlord Titan in place of a Reaver Titan as part of the maniple’s mandatory components. When fielding a Regia maniple or Precept maniple, a Legio Krytos maniple may take a Warbringer Nemesis Titan in place of a Warhound as part of its mandatory components. When a Warbringer Nemesis Titan is substituted into a Regia maniple in this way, Courtiers can merge their void shields with it as if the Warbringer were a King or Queen.
In addition, when fielding a Fortis maniple, a Legio Krytos player may take a single Warlord Titan and/or a single Warbringer Nemesis Titan in place of a Reaver Titan as part of the maniple’s mandatory components.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Civilisation’s Ruin (3)
God Breakers maniples are methodical in their destruction of the battlefield, turning forests into seas of flame, buildings into clouds of dust and ash, and the ground into a cracked and desolate wasteland.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Krytos player. Reveal this Stratagem in any Strategy phase. For the duration of that round, enemy units hit by an attack made by a friendly Legio Krytos Titan with a weapon with the Quake trait suffer the effects of the Quake trait even if the hit was deflected by the target’s shields. ThisStratagem does not affect Legio Krytos Titans issued with a Split Fire order, even if the Order was issued after the Stratagem was played.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Destroyers of Cities (1)
Theswirling flames of a dying world can be a hostile environment, even for a great god-machine like a Battle Titan. TheGod Breakers routinely endured these adverse conditions, and developed tactics to deal with them.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Krytos player. Reveal this Stratagem in any Strategy phase. For the duration of that round, when targeting terrain, Titans of the Legio Krytos add 2 to the Strength of their weapons. In addition, all Legio Krytos Titans reduce the Strength of hits suffered as a result of Dangerous terrain by 2 (to a minimum of 0).
Legio Specific Wargear: Earthbreaker Missiles Earthbreaker missiles are designed to burrow into the ground before detonating, tearing the terrain apart in showers of broken earth. Theseweapons were used extensively by the Legio Krytos to bring down fortifications, but they also proved effective in slowing the advance of enemy maniples.
A Legio Krytos Warlord or Reaver Titan that is equipped with Apocalypse missile launchers or an Apocalypse missile launcher can take Earthbreaker missiles as an upgrade for +25 points for a Warlord Titan and +15 points for a Reaver Titan. When firing the Titan’s Apocalypse missile launchers, the player can choose to either use its normal profile, or reduce its Dice value to 4 for a Warlord Titan, or 2 for a Reaver Titan, and give it the Quake trait. Earthbreaker missiles increase their Strength by 5 when resolving damage against terrain.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Krytos Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Godlike Contempt: Routinely scouring worlds and extinguishing armies gave many Princeps of the Legio Krytos delusions of divinity – something their allies encouraged by treating the Titans as temples dedicated to war, and their crews as the high priests that worshipped within them. ThePrinceps’ Titan may still make Command checks even if another friendly unit has already failed its Command check. 2 World Bane: It is not enough for the Princeps to merely bring down cities or reduce fortresses to ruins, instead they seed the earth with unexploded munitions, or purposefully rupture fuel lines, toxic waste containers and huge energy cells to mar the battlefield. Any Blocking terrain destroyed by the Princeps’ Titan becomes Dangerous terrain (see the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook) if it was not already. If the optional rules for destroying terrain are not in use and this Personal Trait is randomly chosen, the controlling player may instead choose a different Personal Trait from this table. 3 Path of Iron: Lesser enemies are crushed under the feet of the Princeps’ Titan, their crew barely slowing their massive war machine to consider those they have destroyed or knocked aside. ThePrinceps Seniores’ may make a single Smash Attack (see the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook) during the Movement phase, provided it is against an enemy model of a lower Scale than itself. Stop the Titan when it comes within range of its target and resolve the attack, then complete its movement as normal. When making these kinds of Smash Attacks, the Titan may move through models of Scale 3 or less, provided that they can completely cross the enemy model’s base. This attack does not prohibit the Titan from making attacks in the following Combat phase.
Legio Krytos Warlord Battle Titan
HAMMER OFTYRANTS Warlord Battle Titans are among the greatest war machines of the Collegia Titanica, and among the God Breakers,
these towering beasts are revered as deities of destruction. Hammer of Tyrants, shown here in the aftermath of the Delta-Garmon II landings, bears the scars of its battle plain upon its armoured plates. While other Legios busied themselves restoring the heraldry and iconography of their god-engines, the Legio Krytos allowed their enemies to
see that their maniples had already tasted war, and embraced the carnage they had wrought upon their foe.
Legio Krytos Reaver Battle Titan
BLACK ARROW TheReaver Battle Titan Black Arrow is typical of those that the Legio Krytos used on Beta-Garmon II during the assault on Hive Caldera. In this battle, the God Breakers used their Reaver Titans as a spearhead to reach the hive’s
gates before the storm closed in, while Warlord Titans gave covering fire and Warhound Titans covered the flanks.
It proved to be an effective tactic, the relative speed and armour of the Reaver making it well-suited to the task of
creating a breakthrough and then exploiting it fully.
Legio Fureans
Title: TheLegio Fureans Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Secundus
Patent: Pre-Unification, Incaladine Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Incaladion (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheTiger Eyes
Allied War Houses: Mordred, Perdaxia (Vassal), Rajha
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
Records of Incaladion’s founding centuries are fragmentary but what little remains point to a world established under the constant threat of invasion. Given the planet’s abundance of rare mineral resources, combined with an ideal biosphere for the sustainment of human life, Incaladion ought to have offered a perfect locale for colonisation. However, the stable warp- currents which guided Mechanicum colonists to the planet also served to guide hosts of other, less welcome, voyagers. All saw the Forge World as a target rich in plunder and, as a result, the Incaladion Mechanicum evolved into a distinctive and highly warlike faction. Waves of xenos invasion spurred unusual avenues of technological development along with the creation of vast fortified citadels which defended the richest mineral seams and algae-rich seas, while hidden forge-fanes were sunk kilometres beneath the planet’s crust. All of the Forge World’s efforts were focused on preserving Incaladion against a constant cycle of invasion and bloodshed.
Throughoutthis long and savage history, the Legio Fureans formed the principal military force of Incaladion’s ruling Archmagos, referred to as the Preceptor-General, and the avatar of her will. No resource was spared in the Titan Legion’s maintenance and expansion, for it often stood as Incaladion’s first and sole defence against encroaching threats. When lulls in the fighting allowed, the god-engines of the Legio Fureans reached further afield, raiding the feral populations of nearby inhabited worlds to acquire the additional human stock needed to replenish numbers lost in war. In turn, the inclusion of tribal populations, subjected as they were to intensive psycho- conditioning regimes, infected the increasingly schismatic Machine Cult propagated by the Incaladine Mechanicum with echoes of more barbarous and macabre cultures. Indeed, the more common cognomen the ‘Tiger Eyes’ was itself a corruption of the name given to the Titan Legion by the feral tribes of the nearby world of Humardu, to whom the Titans were divine and terrible beings who descended to reap a sacrifice of the young and strong to serve in the palaces of the gods.
For millennia, the Legio Fureans unleashed its wrath against invading hordes of marauders and bands of spiteful corsairs, scavenging Tarellian war-packs and the colossal viscid horrors of meteor-brought Carnoplasm infestations from the Abyssal Reefs. Such ceaseless conflicts took their toll, however, both on the Titan Legion and Incaladion itself, leading to the degeneration of order upon the planet. Around fifty years before the Great Crusade would finally reach Incaladion, and following a particularly brutal series of incursions and raids, the Tagmata Omnissium – the feudal order upon which the defence and military hierarchy of a Forge World is based – finally broke down. In the ensuing strife the Preceptor-General of Incaladion was assassinated and the Forge World split into warring factions, bereft of central control or coordination, leaving it vulnerable to invasion and the devastation that followed.
By the time the Great Crusade’s advance elements reached Incaladion the Forge World had become a global battleground, disputed by a dozen different armies; Mechanicum, renegade and xenos unleashing atomic fire and yet more savage weapons upon each other. During this time, overwhelmed and vastly outnumbered, the Tiger Eyes refused to retreat or retrench, and shattered their blades on foes uncounted until the Legio became a mere shadow of its former might, reduced to defending the last forge-fane of its dead regent. After contact with Mars was re-established, the Red Planet proved determined to bring Incaladion into the fold. With much of the Great Crusade’s strength at the time tied up in on-going campaigns across numerous fronts, it fell to the IVth Legion, who had not yet taken the name of the Iron Warriors, to bear the brunt of the liberation campaign, supported by elements of the Legio Mortis and Martian Skitarii.
Soon after the liberation of Incaladion, the might of the Legio Fureans was marshalled for war once more. Oaths of loyalty and debts of blood to the liberators were quickly affirmed, although in this Mars and the Legio Mortis were deemed the true saviours, not the IVth or the wider Imperium. An integral part of repaying this debt was to see the Tiger Eyes quickly reconstituted and rearmed, with the deep Titan-forges beneath the planet’s surface put to continuous operation in the effort to fuel a second birth for the Titan Legion. For the first time in half-a-century, the wrath of the Legio Fureans was felt beyond Incaladion, demi-Legios of Tiger Eyes taking to battlefields across the galaxy with an aggressive fervour and tempo of battle seldom matched by any other Titan Legion of that period.
Throughoutits service within the Great Crusade, the Legio Fureans cultivated neither friendship nor overt feud with the rest of the Collegia Titanica, save that of an abiding alliance with the Legio Mortis. Despite the Tiger Eyes’ standoffish nature, many other Titan Legions came to regard them as unpredictable and primitivistic, a reputation only bolstered by its disdain of the standard practices of the Collegia Titanica. Where many Titan Legions favoured sustained bombardments, the Legio Fureans favoured more mobile warfare, close range firefights, rapid flanking assault and, in the face of superior foes, hit-and-run tactics carried out at the very limits of the reactor capacity of its god-engines. Such was the Tiger Eyes’ willingness to do battle that it would commit even a single Titan and its support groups to periods of solo deployment, a practice few other Titan Legions would countenance. Thesewide-ranging deployment patterns and generations of warfare on Incaladion made the Legio Fureans one of the most battle-hardened and adaptable of all Titan Legions, going far to contribute to its enviable reputation.
A willingness to do battle, even against staggering odds, and a willingness to follow orders given by those from outside the Mechanicum, or indeed to follow a warfront’s ordained strategies, proved not to be one and the same as far as the Tiger Eyes were concerned. Indeed, many theatre-commanders expressed dismay at the wilfulness of attached elements of the Legio Fureans, though few could offer evidence that the Titan Legion had placed a campaign in jeopardy by doing so. More troublesome reports spoke of strange pre- and post-battle rituals conducted by Tiger Eye Princeps and their crew, practices that often delayed the deployment of their god-engines. Collated reports speak of such rituals as a macabre mixture of Omnissian machine rites and the savage totemic rituals of a feral animal cult. Given the invaluable battlefield work of the Titan Legion, combined with the rank unfamiliarity of most observers with the inner workings of the Mechanicum, many such reports were dismissed or deliberately ignored.
When the Horus Heresy broke out, it was quickly revealed that the Legio Fureans had sided with the Warmaster, no doubt at the urging of both the Fabricator General and the Legio Mortis. It is clear in hindsight that the Legio knew of the planned treachery beforehand for it proved a key and willing part of the Warmaster’s battleplans, including the deployment of a demi-Legio of Tiger Eyes to Paramar V before blood had yet been spilt on Isstvan V.Therumours of dark rites commonly associated with the Legio Fureans soon gave way to overtly esoteric practices that quickly morphed into the twisted arcana that would become known as the Dark Mechanicum in later years.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Theprincipal strength of the Tiger Eyes was split primarily between the Mars pattern Warlord and the Mars pattern Warhound, both of which, given sufficient time and resource, the Titan-forges of Incaladion were capable of producing. During the later years of the Great Crusade, mid-range Battle Titans such as the Reaver and Carnivore were added in small numbers in order to expand the Legio’s strategic reach; Divisio Militaris records for this period rated the Legio Fureans as a fully operational Titan Legion of the second rank, with an estimated 110-140 god-engines in service by the outbreak of the Horus Heresy. Thisestimation has since been brought into question, as strategic strikes against Incaladion following the events of Paramar V were thrown back by a steadfast defence led by two dozen Tiger Eyes Titans whose existence was absent from Imperial records, including the presence of a Warmaster Titan that stood sentinel on the Forge World in the years that followed.
Legio Fureans (Tiger Eyes)
Legio Trait: Machine Rage Thetribal minds of the Tiger Eyes Princeps have accumulated within the spirits of their god-machines over the centuries. Thismingling of predatory instincts and plasma-fuelled fury makes Tiger Eyes Titans more prone to rage, but more focused on their prey when their machine spirits are awakened.
When rolling the Reactor dice (see the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook) a Tiger Eyes player counts both the Machine Spirit symbol and blank facing on the dice as a trigger for the awakening of their Titan’s machine spirit; the blank face does not increase the Reactor level. However, if a Tiger Eyes player fails the Command check to quell the machine spirit, they may choose the result from the Awakened Machine Spirit table, rather than rolling randomly. If the Titan is a Corrupted Titan, it instead rolls two dice on the Awakened Entity table when called upon to do so, and chooses one of the results.
Legio Trait: Many Faces of the Omnissiah Tiger Eyes crews see the presence of the Omnissiah in every aspect of the machine, from the thrumming power cables of the command throne, to the clanking chains of the autoloaders. Each is venerated in its own right, and crews often beseeched them for their beneficence at the start of a battle.
In the first round of the game, any Tiger Eyes Titan may choose to forgo its activation in the Movement phase and/or the Combat phase – in essence doing nothing for that phase but counting as one of the Tiger Eyes player’s activations. For each phase sacrificed by a Titan, either 1 or 2, that Titan may re-roll any one dice later in the game. A Titan chooses if it is sacrificing its phase when activated in that phase.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Offensive Surge (3)
Attack is in the very nature of the Tiger Eyes, whose Princeps Seniores teach that the striking blade triumphs over all. In Titan warfare, this doctrine is expressed as an offensive surge by a Tiger Eyes maniple, hammering their foes with a storm of weapons fire.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Fureans player. Reveal this Stratagem in any Combat phase. TheTiger Eyes player may choose one of their deployed Tiger Eyes maniples; for this Combat phase, each Titan in the chosen maniple may attack twice with one of its weapons but must increase its Reactor level by 1 if it does so, in addition to any other effects.
Legio Specific Wargear: Hunting Auspex Theforges of Incaladion created many unique systems for their Titan Legions during the world’s long isolation from Terra. Thoughmost have been lost to history, some remain within the ranks of the Tiger Eyes, such as the hunting auspex.
Any Legio Fureans Titan may be upgraded with a Hunting Auspex for +20 points. A Titan equipped with a Hunting Auspex is better able to pick its enemies out from the tangled wreckage of the battlefield, especially at longer ranges where it can isolate targets. When making ranged attacks at targets over 12" away, the Titan may reduce any penalty To Hit by 1, to a minimum of 0.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Fureans Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Titan Stalker: ThePrinceps is adept at taking down larger prey, knowing just how to exploit their weaknesses if they can get close enough. When targeting an enemy Titan that is within 8", the Princeps Seniores may add 1 to the Armour rolls of any hits, provided that the targeted Titan has a Scale either equal to or greater than their own. 2 Humardu Savage: Some of the primitive humans harvested from Humardu by the Tiger Eyes would eventually join their ranks; although despite years of psycho- conditioning, they still retained much of their savage nature. When the Princeps Seniores Titan makes a Smash Attack, add 2 to the Strength of the attack. 3 Trophy Taker: TheTiger Eyes are known to claim trophies from their fallen foes, their Princeps going so far as to tear limbs and heads off enemy Titans as a display of their savage dominance. Any weapon disabled or Critical Damage caused by the Tiger Eyes Princeps by an attack made using a Smash Attack, or a weapon with the Melee trait, is harder to repair; these weapons require a dice score 1 higher than normal when making Repair actions.
Legio Fureans Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan
CYRA BAZHIRR Theblack banding seen here on Cyra Bazhirr during its deployment at the Second Battle of Paramar V was once prevalent in the heraldry
of Legio Fureans. Its origins appear to lie in recorded instances of a melancholic mien in certain machine spirits within the Titan Legion. It was theorised by the Tech-Priests of Incaladion that such aberrations stemmed from the continual losses Legio Fureans suffered during
its frequent conflicts in the Age of Strife. Legio records note that alterations to a god-engine’s heraldry appeared to alter the mien of such Titans from melancholy to barely restrained rage; though little explanation is given for such a shift, the aggressive tactics of Legio Fureans favoured incandescent machine spirits, leading to widespread adoption of the practice. With the coming of the Imperium and the increased
prosperity of Legio Fureans, there seemed little need to focus on the darker moments of the Titan Legion’s past. Nevertheless, many of the
more ancient god-engines retained the black banding in recognition of the sacrifice and legacy of the Tiger Eyes.
Legio Fureans Warlord Battle Titan
CYRA JAL Many Titans, such as the great Cyra Jal shown here, retained the symbols of the Collegia Titanica even after they turned Traitor. Thiswas because they simply viewed the Warmaster as the successor
to the Emperor’s Imperium, and the new overall commander of the Titan Legions. In time, the Titan Legions would fully adopt the Eye of Horus, and then even affect icons of the Chaos gods
as their Princeps fell to dark worship, but at least in those first years of the Horus Heresy they
were often indistinguishable from their enemies.
Legio Vulpa
Title: TheLegio Vulpa Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Primus (Minoris)
Patent: Pre-Imperium, Anvillus Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Anvillus (Forge World), Mars (secondary Forge-fortress), Yythe (Forge-fortress)
Cognomen: TheDeath Stalkers
Allied War Houses: Hyboras, Niagma
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
Thecognomen of Death Stalkers remains an aptly chosen honorific for the Legio Vulpa, for the ancient Titan Legion has an extensive reputation as expert hunters possessed of great savagery and cruelty. Thefounding of the Titan Legion was undertaken during the Age of Strife upon the Forge World of Anvillus shortly after its colonisation, motivated by the appearance of the Jindarii, a race of nomadic bio-mechanical hunters that had, centuries before Mankind’s arrival to Anvillus, established a proving ground in the neighbouring sub-sectors. Records indicate that the colonisation of Anvillus galvanised the local Jindarii tribes into enacting frequent raids against the Mechanicum enclave.
Against the practiced guerrilla tactics of the Jindarii cadres, or Oxalthixduls in the xenos’ own language, Anvillus’ Taghmata forces stood little chance; the Jindarii are recorded to have made frequent use of highly advanced armaments such as pulsar and needle technology that proved effective at shredding the toughest armour the Forge World could produce. In answer, the first demi-Legio of the Legio Vulpa was raised. Unsuited to hunting down mobile groups of infantry, the god-engines of the Legio Vulpa invaded the Jindarii hunting ground, falling upon the temple complexes of the xenos to draw them out. After a decade of fighting, the efforts of the Legio Vulpa had pushed the warfront away from Anvillus, bequeathing the Forge World time to build and expand the ranks of the Legio Vulpa.
Theconflict between the Jindarii and the Legio Vulpa did much to shape the ethos of the Titan Legion, for the xenos proved immensely cunning and highly adaptable. When faced with a threat far beyond the skill of their normal warriors, the Jindarii began a programme of experimentation and genetic manipulation, implanting the bodies of its most seasoned warriors into gene-wrought constructs that rivalled the strength and size of a god-engine. Thearchive of Anvillus, which maintained detailed records on the threat of the Jindarii, highlight that the initial Jindarii Titan analogues compensated for a distinct lack of ranged weaponry with stealth and speed at odds with their size. With the advent of the Jindarii’s new weapons, the conflict entered a new phase, resulting in seven decades of war, during which the military minds of the Legio Vulpa conceived and published the first edition of its Libraxus Tacticae Vulpa, the Titan Legion’s battle bible. Heavily influenced by the hunting tactics of the Jindarii, the Legio Vulpa favoured tactical deployments that involved direct engagement with the foe, utilising bold assaults combined with misdirection and calculated manoeuvring to entrap enemies and slaughter them without mercy.
Thoughthe exact date of the war’s conclusion is lost to time, the archives of Anvillus record the final battle between the Jindarii and the Legio Vulpa being fought on the moon of Yythe, located in the third closest star system to Anvillus. There, a demi-Legio of 32 Legio Vulpa Titans achieved a decisive victory over the Grand Matriarch of the Hyzebaru tribe of the Jindarii; Legio Vulpa legends state the Matriarch, who had led the Jindarii war effort against the Titan Legions for two decades, stood 43 metres tall and slew seven god-engines before being slain in turn. Soon after, the Jindarii surrounding Anvillus withdrew in full, no doubt departing for richer, less troublesome hunting grounds. Theirdeparture was marked by a two kilometre line of Jindarii skulls left along one of Yythe’s great rivers, each one engraved with a stanza that, translated, ended with the line, “Here our greatest blades rest, firm in belief they knew death’s art, taught instead by those who stalk beneath its shroud”. From that day forth, the Legio Vulpa bore the name of Death Stalkers with pride.
In the centuries following Legio Vulpa’s victory, the Titan Legion proved instrumental in the expansion of Anvillus’ domain, increasing the Forge World’s holdings to include dozens of worlds including the Knight Worlds of Niagmarr and Slestra and the ore-rich world of the Anvil Reach. The wide dominion controlled by the magi of Anvillus proved a valuable asset to the Great Crusade upon contact between the Imperium and the far flung Mechanicum fragment. Though negotiations began tersely, an agreement was achieved with little discord, treaties ensuring Anvillus retained the worlds it laid claim to. In concordance with the agreed upon pacts, the principal strength of the Legio Vulpa was deployed to the forefront of the Great Crusade while Anvillus became a crucial part of the Crusade’s supply chain, with tithe records showing that the Forge World and its holdings produced nearly one-fifth of all materiel supplied to Expeditionary fleets deployed within the Ultima Segmentum.
TheMoon of Yythe Theheraldry of the Legio Vulpa is dominated by the Vorpus Sabrefang, its skeletal frame clad in armour. TheLibraxus Tacticae Vulpa, the battle bible of the Death Stalkers, often references this ancient extinct beast as the epitome of the hunter’s virtues – cunning in its pursuit and savage when it strikes. Its prominence within the Legio Vulpa’s iconography lies in the important role it played in cementing the Death Stalker’s demeanour following victory over the Jindarii. TheSabrefang itself was not in fact native to Anvillus but rather the nearby moon of Yythe, recorded as once possessing a humid climate and numerous jungles in which Sabrefangs made their lairs.
Recognised as the final battleground of the war between Anvillus and the Jindarii cadres, Yythe was established as a protected hunting ground for the Legio Vulpa. An early practice of the Legio Vulpa involved prospective Princeps hunting down
Rated as a Primus-grade Titan Legion, the strength of the Legio Vulpa was readily welcomed amongst the hard-pressed Expeditionary fleets expanding the boundaries of the Imperium in the galactic east. Such sentiments soon gave way to concerns about the practices of the Titan Legion and the aggressive mien of its Princeps, who were vocal in their desire to crush any deemed too weak to survive. Numerous acts of callous cruelty are attributed to the Legio Vulpa during their time serving in the Great Crusade with perhaps the most infamous example occurring during the Imperial Compliance action on the world of Dendritica – in service alongside the Legio Solaria, the Death Stalkers refused offers of negotiation while besieging the city of Biphex. Instead, the Legio Vulpa fell upon the city despite the objections of their fellow Titan Legion, burning it to the ground and slaughtering its inhabitants as they fled. In doing so, the Death Stalkers earnt the undying enmity of the Legio Solaria. Clashes with other Titan Legions proved a common recurrence for the Legio Vulpa; on Mars, the Death Stalkers seeking to expand the honorary holdings they had been gifted by the Fabricator General by encroaching on the forge- fane of the Legio Honorum.
a Sabrefang to one of two ends; slaying the beast and returning with its pelt or capturing it alive. In all instances, the Princeps would complete their task on foot, denied all but the most rudimentary of tools and required to scavenge from tech-caches deposited on the moon. Less than half of those that took up the task would return victorious and of those only a rare few would return with a living beast – those who did so quickly rose in prominence amongst the Titan Legion.
By the time of the Great Crusade, the Vorpus Sabrefang had long been extinct, no doubt as a consequence of overhunting. Nevertheless, the elite of Vulpa’s Princeps Seniores were known to keep facsimile versions of the Sabrefang as pets, creations of bio-manipulation and mecha-crafting that prowled around the Princeps’ feet or coiled around the base of their command throne.
Shadowed by a grim reputation the bellicose and savage Legio Vulpa were easily subverted by the Dark Mechanicum, willingly turning against the Emperor. Indeed, the Death Stalkers proved eager to hunt their fellow Titan Legions, its Princeps frequently sporting trophies claimed from fallen Titans upon the carapace of their own god-engines. While the Legio Vulpa wholly committed itself to the Warmaster, the Forge World of Anvillus fell into civil war, cutting off the Death Stalkers from their ancestral home. Few sightings of the Legio Vulpa Titans were recorded within the boundaries of the Anvillus Forge Empire during the Horus Heresy, suggesting a distinct lack of interest in the domestic affairs within the Titan Legion’s ranks. Indeed, the savagery of the Legio Vulpa grew more debased during the conflict, its Princeps becoming consumed by bloodlust and a thirst for battle. Innumerable war zones suffered the predations of the Death Stalkers, its number becoming increasingly scattered as it carved a bloody path across the galaxy.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Divisio Militaris records, detailing the strength of the Legio Vulpa following the incorporation of Anvillus into the Imperium, rate the Death Stalkers as maintaining a strength of 154 god-engines. Theprincipal strength of the Legio Vulpa was invested in Reaver and Warlord class Battle Titans, supported by numerous examples of esoteric Titans, including several Nemesis class Titans and at least two examples of Imperator designs. Despite the notable hunting ethos of the Legio Vulpa, the Titan Legion made use of only minimal numbers of Warhound Titans, preferring hard-hitting direct methods of war to hit and run tactics. Commonly, Death Stalker god-engines would wield close-ranged weaponry such as turbo-lasers, chainfists and Arioch power claws, its preference for Titan- grade melee armaments increasing during the Horus Heresy.
Legio Vulpa (Death Stalkers)
Legio Trait: Honour and Blood TheLegio Vulpa value the honour of close quarters battle, where they can see the eyes of their foes (or, in the case of Titan warfare, their armoured heads) and feel the concussive force as their weapons smash into them.
If a Legio Vulpa Titan is within 5" of an enemy Titan, increase its Weapon Skill by 1, to a maximum of 2+, and decrease its Ballistic Skill by 1, to a minimum of 6+.
Legio Specific Stratagem: No Pity for the Vanquished (1)
Killing fury is common to many Titan Princeps, the thrill of a felled foe echoed by a raging machine spirit and feeding back through the MIU. Death Stalkers Princeps often give into this battle madness, riding the wave of exhilaration and letting their attacks become almost instinctive.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Vulpa player. Play this Stratagem when an enemy Titan is destroyed (i.e., makes a roll on the Catastrophic Damage table). TheTitan who inflicted the killing attack may immediately make another attack with the same weapon system against a fresh target within 12" of the destroyed Titan. For all intents and purposes, this is a new attack requiring a dice roll, any increases to the Titan’s reactor level, etc.
Legio Specific Wargear: Shikarian Conduits TheLegio Vulpa possessed a well-known tendency to favour close- quarters combat. To facilitate this, its Titans would often make use of modified reactor fetters, known as Shikarian Conduits, that would drain and divert reserve power from weapons to enable faster movement.
Any Legio Vulpa Titan with a Scale of 7 or higher may take Shikarian Conduits for +20 points. A Titan with this upgrade increases its boosted speed 2" and its boosted manoeuvre characteristics by 1. If, during a round, a Titan with this upgrade declares Power to Locomotors! or Power to Stabilisers! at least once, then, for the remainder of the round, that Titan decreases the Dice value of all its weapons without the Melee trait by 1, to a minimum of 1. In addition, the Titan suffers a -2 penalty to its Ballistic Skill, to a minimum of 6+.
Legio Specific Wargear: Disruption Emitters Close combat was not the natural environment for many Titans. To enhance its ability in such warfare, the Legio Vulpa made modifications to their war machines, fixing disruption fields to armour plates and limbs to enhance the destructive potential of close encounters.
Any Legio Vulpa Titan may take Disruption Emitters for +35 points. A Titan with this upgrade adds 2 to the Strength value of all weapons with the Melee trait, not including Smash Attacks, it is equipped with and counts its Scale as 2 higher when making Smash Attacks.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Vulpa Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Razor Tongue: ThePrinceps is skilled at delivering biting challenges and chilling threats, unnerving their opponents even before the first blow is struck. At the start of each round, the Princeps can choose an enemy Titan within 24" of their own Titan. For the duration of the round, the chosen Titan subtracts 2 from the result of any Command check it makes. 2 Bloodied but Unbroken: Themore damage the Princeps’ Titan sustains, the more driven they become, seeking to ensure that even should they fall, their enemies are sure to fall with them. For each point of Critical Damage the Princeps’ Titan has suffered (not including Critical Damage inflicted on weapons), increase the Strength of any weapons with the Melee trait and their Smash Attacks by 1, to a maximum of +3. 3 Cruel: ThePrinceps has no pity for weaklings. Unworthy foes are swiftly crushed underfoot with little thought of honour or mercy – after all, what mercy does the boot give the ant? When making attacks against units with a Scale of 5 or lower, increase the Strength of any hits by 2.
Legio Vulpawarlord Battle Titan
ICONOCLAST Close combat weapons are rare on Titans as large as the Warlord, such as the Iconoclast shown here, with most Princeps adhering to the accepted wisdom of the Collegia Titanica that the role of the Titan is that of heavy fire support. Death Stalkers are among those who do not adhere to this school of thought, favouring close-quarters battle and weapons
such as the Arioch power claw, which gives the wielder the strength to tear the plasma heart from another Titan.
Legio Vulpa Reaver Battle Titan
IMMITIS VENOR TheReaver Battle Titan Immitis Venor is typical of those deployed to Beta-Garmon by the Death Stalkers. Armed with
a rapid firing gatling blaster and power fist, it would fight alongside other Reavers, often as part of a Corsair maniple, conducting punishing hit-and-run attacks against more conventional Titan formations. It also illustrates that few Death
Stalkers Titans or Titan maniples marched to war without at least one Titan close-quarters weapon.
Legio Vulcanum
Title: TheLegios Vulcanum Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Extremum; divided between two Primus-grade Titan Legions
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Stygies Mechanicum; Post- unification Patents for Legio Vulcanum I and II request by the Primarch Horus Lupercal and issued and ratified by the Martian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Stygies VIII (Forge World, primary Forge-fortress of Legio Vulcanum I), Marlin’s Reach (primary Forge-fortress of the Legio Vulcanum II)
Cognomen: TheDark Fire (Legio Vulcanum I); The Lords of Ruin (Legio Vulcanum II)
Allied War Houses: No formal bonds; numerous Freeblade associations
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheLegio Vulcanum is a rarity amongst the ranks of the Collegia Titanica for it is not one Titan Legion but two, both sworn to the Forge World of Stygies VIII and bearing the numerical identifiers I and II. Thoughperceived as two separate Titan Legions, dictated by Mars’ desire to curtail the martial strength of Stygies VIII, the Legio Vulcanum were true kin, the connection between the two halves unbroken by the Great Crusade. When one willingly sided with the Warmaster in treachery, the other eagerly followed, bound forever by a shared lineage and dark technological rituals.
Thekinship of the two Legio Vulcanum stems from the fact that it was once a single Titan Legion, founded upon Stygies VIII during the Age of Strife. When the Great Crusade reached the Forge World, the Titan Legion’s strength caused much consternation within the ranks of the Mechanicum, not least because its assembled might far outweighed that of any Titan Legion then known to the Imperium. TheAge of Strife had proved such strength necessary, for Stygies VIII was located in the shadow of the Ocularis Terribus, the Eye of Terror as it is more commonly known, forcing the moon- based Forge World to expend significant resources in defending itself against innumerable horrors that threatened it from the northern galactic reaches.
Representatives of the Red Planet called for the complete subjugation of Stygies VIII following first contact, claiming to do otherwise would be to allow a potential stronghold of Imperial resistance fester within the Segmentum Pacificus. Cooler heads claimed that to lay siege to the Forge World would expend resources the Great Crusade could ill-afford to lose, weakening its war effort across multiple fronts and slowing down expansion. In a bid to swiftly overcome the potential stalemate, the Primarch Horus Lupercal intervened, acting at the behest of the Emperor to ensure Stygies VIII was brought to heel by the swiftest means. Througha series of negotiations headed by the charismatic Primarch, a deal was struck that saw the division of the Legio Vulcanum into two distinct Titan Legions, with agreements limiting the strength of both. In return, the two new Titan Legions would remain under the auspice of Stygies VIII, one to stand as eternal guardians of the Forge World while the other would seek out a new warden domain amongst the stars.
Thuswere two new Titan Legions entered into the archives of the Collegia Titanica, though neither desired to shed itself of past identities. In accordance with the wishes of Stygies VIII, the Forge World’s Titan Legions were titled Legio Vulcanum I and Legio Vulcanum II, made distinct by the numerical qualifier and Low Gothic cognomens, the Dark Fire and the Lords of Ruin respectively, inspired by ancient titles bequeathed to the Grandmasters of the Legio Vulcanum during the Age of Strife.
Thematter settled, Horus departed from Stygies, leaving the process of integration to lesser parties, the newly-christened Dark Fire tasked with continuing its watch over the Forge World. With the Primarch came the entire strength of the Lords of Ruin, its Princeps tasked with conquering a new home amongst the stars as it met its obligations to the Great Crusade. In time, the Lords of Ruin would lay claim to the star system known as Marlin’s Reach, named for its discoverer, exterminating the xenos that resided there and claiming its planets for the glory of Stygies VIII. Thoughseparated by distance, the two Titan Legions were bound by common service to the Forge World, a circumstance that saw them frequently assigned to the same order of battle. Many commanders noted the synchronicity the Legio Vulcanum displayed on the battlefield, its Princeps, be they Lords of Ruin or Dark Fire, displaying an almost precognisant ability to foresee battle plans of its fellow god-engines. On numerous occasions, such tactical acumen was instrumental in turning the tide of war, with the Legio Vulcanum Titans reinforcing collapsing flanks or enacting bold flanking manoeuvres with little evidence of prior communication passing between the Titan Legions’ varying elements.
Theskill which the Legio Vulcanum I and II displayed upon the battlefield, both individually and together, ensured the vast majority of its strength was deployed across the Expeditionary fleets by the onset of the Horus Heresy. In the months before the events of Isstvan III, much of the Legio Vulcanum’s strength, both that of the Dark Fire and the Lords of Ruin, were reassigned to service alongside the Warmaster. Given that both halves of the Legio Vulcanum were to turn against the Imperium, the observed troop movements making it likely the loyalty of both Titan Legions was secured months before the perfidy of Horus was revealed. Notably, the influence of the Warmaster was far less secure on Stygies VIII, for the Forge World resisted his agents and was plunged into civil war, severing ties with the traitorous Legio Vulcanum I and II in the process. For the first time since its foundation, the guns of the Legio Vulcanum were turned against its founding world, seeking the conquest of a world it had once sworn to protect. It was only through the intervention of the Legio Honorum that the Traitors were prevented from securing the Forge World as a stronghold, though fragmented reports speak of graceful war machines characteristic of the Aeldari emerging to do battle with the Warmaster’s allies. Theveracity of such claims is impossible to determine, with the surviving Tech-Priests of Stygies praising the Legio Honorum for their victory and offering the once-crusading Titan Legion rights of domain.
Thedefeat at Stygies VIII saw the Dark Fire bereft of the support necessary to sustain its numbers, with both it and the Lords of Ruin forced to rely upon the meagre industry of the Forge-fortresses of Marlin’s Reach. Once more, the Legio Vulcanum called a single world its home and, though separated by varying heraldry and cognomens, the Titan Legion was bound tighter, ruled over by a duo of soon-infamous commanders, bearing the titles ‘TheDark Fire’ and ‘TheLord of Ruin’, each leading dozens of god-engines into battle.
TheAncient Rites of Legio Vulcanum During the Age of Strife, the Forge World of Stygies VIII often felt the cloying touch of the Warp due to the nearby presence of intense warp storms prior to M30. Thearchives of Stygies catalogue all manner of lifeforms that assailed the Forge World in the centuries before the coming of the Emperor; bloodthirsty xenos, corrupted strands of humanity and logic-defying warp entities – all fell upon Stygies.
To protect against such threats, the Legio Vulcanum was founded and vast quantities of resources were expended to quickly strengthen the Titan Legion. TheVulcanis system provided plentiful stockpiles of resources necessary to construct god-engines and thus the limiting factor proved the recruitment and training of Princeps capable of commanding a god-engine. As such, a program of cloning was introduced by the Genetors of Stygies VIII. Each time a Princeps was inducted into the ranks of the Legio Vulcanum, their genetic material would be collected and used to create moderati and Princeps for the Titan Legion. Theexact means through which such clones were grown is a secret the Forge World’s Genetors guarded closely; the almost precognisant ability with which Legio Vulcanum Princeps are reported to anticipate the actions of other Titan crew members grown from the same gene-batch suggest unknown neurological experiments which encouraged the development of hitherto unseen links between batches of clones.
Following the fall of the Warmaster and the ousting of Legio Vulcanum I and II from Marlin’s Reach, it was discovered that the Titan Legion did not contain its replication practices merely to its Princeps. Data recovered from the ruins of their forge-fanes suggests the Tech-Priests of the Titan Legion undertook dark technological rituals to divide the machine spirits of notable Titans, enshrining the fragments into different god-engines in an attempt to replicate the machine spirit’s character. The specifics of such rituals have been declared heretical by the Mechanicum and remain sealed within the forbidden archives of Mars. Nevertheless, it is clear that, as the Legio Vulcanum fell further into treachery, it laboured to heighten the link between its two halves, perhaps going so far as to harbour dreams of a Titan Legion guided by a conglomeration of minds linked together in perfect harmony.
MATERIEL STRENGTH When Stygies VIII was rediscovered by the Great Crusade, the operational strength of the Legio Vulcanum outstripped that of any Titan Legion known to the Imperium, with estimates suggesting it was capable of fielding over 300 god-engines. Amongst this number stood several ancient Imperator Titans along with notable quantities of Nemesis, Punisher and Carnivore class Titans. Following the division of the Legio Vulcanum into the Dark Fire and the Lords of Ruin, both ranked as Primus-grade Titan Legions, with an estimated strength of 140-160 god-engines each. TheDark Fire displayed a preference towards the deployment of Warlord and Warbringer Nemesis Titans, while the Lords of Ruin favoured Reaver Titans armed for close-quarters fighting. Following the fall of Stygies VIII to the Loyalists during the Horus Heresy, the Legio Vulcanum unleashed a surgical strike on the Forge World, briefly securing a foothold within its Forge-fortress before hastily departing the planet. Several Warmaster Titans bearing the colours of the Legio Vulcanum were unleashed upon the galaxy shortly after, the concealed god-engines no doubt the target of the Traitors’ brief assault.
Legio Vulcanum (Dark Fire/Lords Of Ruin)
Legio Trait: Two-faced God TheDark Fire and Lords of Ruin have a long history of competition. Thisis fuelled by the shared genetic ancestry of their Princeps, who are created using ancient cloning techniques, and see in their brothers and sisters dark reflections of themselves.
When fielding a Legio Vulcanum battlegroup, a player may nominate two Legio Vulcanum Titans per maniple to be commanded by a Princeps Seniores instead of the usual one – each Princeps Seniores gains its own Personal Trait. If one of the Princeps Seniores’ Titans in a maniple is destroyed, for the remainder of the game the other Princeps Seniores’ Titan in the maniple count as having suffered an unrepairable Princeps Wounded damage effect.
Legio Trait: For the Fallen Corrupted clone crews link a Legio Vulcanum maniple together in a disturbing way mere technology cannot, and each Titan that falls is keenly felt by its brothers and sisters.
For each Legio Vulcanum Titan in the battlegroup that has been destroyed, the Legio Vulcanum player gains a single re-roll that may be used once each round. Thisre-roll may be used to re-roll the result of any single dice roll made by a Legio Vulcanum Titan.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Symbiotic Commands (1)
So interlinked were the two Legios that their command structures blended together and, in battle, Princeps Seniores could share tactical information and guide each other’s battlegroups without fear of becoming subsumed by another Titan Legion.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Vulcanum player. Play this Stratagem in the Strategy phase after successfully issuing an Order to a Legio Vulcanum Titan. Theplayer may, if they choose, immediately issue this same Order to any or all of the Legio Vulcanum Titans in their battlegroup without the need to make further Command checks.
Legio Specific Wargear: Twinned Machine Spirits Just as the Legio Vulcanum was said to have cloned its greatest Princeps to command their Titans, so too were notable Titans replicated, their machine spirits divided and enshrined in different god-engines by dark technological rituals.
Any two Legio Vulcanum Titans may be upgraded with Twinned Machine Spirits for +20 points each. Legion Vulcanum Titans with twinned machine spirits count as being part of a squadron with each other (see the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook) – these Titans may not join another squadron. However, should a Titan with a twinned machine spirit roll the Machine Spirit symbol on the Reactor dice, both it and its paired Titan must make a Command check to see if their Titan’s machine spirit awakens. Note that multiple pairs of Titans in a Legio Vulcanum Battlegroup may be equipped to have twinned machine spirits, each forming their own squadron of two. A Titan with this upgrade cannot otherwise be part of a Squadron.
Legio Specific Wargear: Janus Pattern Missiles Janus pattern missiles were not exclusive to Stygies VIII, though the Forge World had amassed great stores of these weapons before the Horus Heresy, and its Legio was always well supplied with this specialised form of ordnance.
Any Legio Vulcanum Titan armed with an Apocalypse missile launcher, Apocalypse missile array or paired Apocalypse missile launchers may take Janus pattern missiles for +20 points. Legio Vulcanum Titans with Janus pattern missiles may split the dice of their missile launchers between more than one target as the Janus warheads disperse in flight. TheTitan chooses a main target for its missiles, which will either be the same target as the rest of its weapons or one of its targets if it has the Split Fire order. At least one dice must then be allocated to the Titan’s main target. Therest of the missile launcher’s dice can then either be applied to the main target or any other target within 12" of the main target, provided the new target(s) are eligible targets (within the weapon’s firing arc, within range etc). Each target counts as a separate attack for the purpose of calculating modifiers to Hit rolls, etc.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Vulcanum Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 True Born: ThePrinceps is a rare true-born son or daughter of Stygies, stronger and genetically purer than their kin, though isolated and prone to destructive rages. ThePrinceps adds 3 to Command checks when issuing Orders to their own Titan, rather than 2. If you roll a 1 when making a Command check, no further Command checks can be made for their Battlegroup, regardless of re-rolls or other special rules. 2 Divided of Mind: ThePrinceps is the host of a shard personality, their mind constructed from MIU ghosts and clone brain-tapes, giving them a great wealth of knowledge to draw upon but sometimes making their actions unpredictable. If the Princeps fails a Command check when issuing an Order to their Titan, they may re-roll the check. However, if the re-roll also fails, remove all Orders (except for the Emergency Repair order) already issued to any Titan within the Princeps Seniores’ maniple. 3 War’s Orphan: ThePrinceps is the last of their line, their clone brothers and sisters slain in past battles, making them reckless and hungry for the embrace of death. ThePrinceps’ Titan may push its reactor while the Reactor marker is in the last hole on its track, gaining the benefits of pushing the reactor as normal. The Reactor level does not advance – however, for each time it should have advanced, the Princeps’ Titan will suffer a Strength 9 hit to its Body, bypassing void shields.
Legio Vulcanum Warlord Battle Titan
VENGEANCE’SMESSENGER Warlord Titans of Legio Vulcanum, such as Vengeance’s Messenger shown here, are often crewed by Princeps that reflect the dual nature of the Titan Legion themselves. Commanded by one half of a cloned pair, Vengeance’s Messenger suffered
catastrophic damage during the invasion of Molech after engaging in a series of increasingly reckless manoeuvres. Such
illogical tactical decisions appeared to have been fuelled by the demise of its paired Titan, Herald of Wrath, with records
extracted from Stygies VIII showing that both Titans’ Princeps had been grown in a single clone batch.
Legio Vulcanum Reaver Battle Titan
ENCROACHING FURY TheLegio Vulcanum II Reaver Encroaching Fury carries a common configuration of the Legio seen during the latter years of the Horus Heresy. Competition between the Dark Fire and Lords of Ruin, both titled Legio Vulcanum in High
Gothic, grew fiercer as the war progressed. With Princeps from both Titan Legions fighting over every kill, the use of devastating close combat weapons became favoured to ensure the most valuable trophies could be claimed for all to see.
Thesecontests saw a marked increase in god-engine loss, leaving only the hardiest and most skilled crews standing.
Legio Interfector
Title: TheLegio Interfector Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Secundus
Patent: Post-unification, Writ of Founding issued to the Valeousan Mechanicum and ratified by the Martian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Valeous II (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheLords of Valour (Pre-Heresy);
TheMurder Lords
Allied War Houses: Makabius
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheLegio Interfector has borne two common appellations since its creation, both reflections of the overriding demeanour of the Princeps who served beneath its banner. Thefirst was acquired during the Great Crusade, the cognomen of ‘Lords of Valour’ bestowed upon the Titan Legion in honour of the courage and steadfastness of Princeps who stood as exemplars for the ideals of the Great Crusade. Yet the machinations of powers far beyond the ken of most plunged the Titan Legion into madness and treachery. By the end of the Horus Heresy, the virtue of the Legio Interfector had long been eroded, replaced by a canker that had taken root within its ranks, stripping away sanity and independence from its Princeps until nought but subservient fiends remained.
Theopening years of the Great Crusade saw rapid growth for the Imperium, with many worlds eager to join the Emperor’s newfound empire. However, as humanity pushed outwards it encountered firmer resistance, both from the varied xenos species that sought Mankind’s destruction and resistant strands of humanity that opposed subservience to the Emperor. This abundance of foes heaped great pressure on the military arm of the Imperium, motivating the Terran War Council to search for new forces to aid expansion. As part of this initiative, the Forge World of Valeous II, newly inducted into the Imperium and eager to benefit from the knowledge of Mars, was chosen as the founding world of a Titan Legion. Named the Legio Interfector, the foundation of this nascent Titan Legion was built from shipments of unconsecrated god-engines dispatched from Lucius and Graia, while Martian delegations toiled to revitalise the decaying industry of the planet and sanctify its forge-fanes in preparation for a new generation of Titans. In short order, Valeous II was transformed and deemed fit to house a Titan Legion in its own right. Thefinal order was to christen the Legio Interfector in battle and the Forge World’s first demi-Legio, consisting of three-quarters of the Titan Legion’s strength, departed for distant stars.
Thetragedy that was to befall the Legio Interfector was not one of its own making but sparked by a simple twist of fate. Thefirst detachment of Legio Interfector Titans dispatched from Valeous II were intended as support for elements of the Ultramarines Legion fighting in the Ultima Segmentum but was instead cast adrift by unpredicted warp currents. Thisabrupt change of course saw the Titan Legion cast into a war zone commanded by Horus Lupercal, his Luna Wolves engaged in a deadly conflict with the xeno-forged Abominable Intelligence known as the Chroxius Myriad. Thearrival of the Legio Interfector quickly reversed the course of the war, its tireless guns throwing back the mechanical horde and laying waste to their nexuses. After a further seven months of conflict, the xenos were defeated, a conclusion Horus attributed to the skill and valour of the newly-forged Titan Legion. In recognition of its service, the Primarch authorised the reassignment of the Legio Interfector to his own forces and bestowed upon it the name of ‘Lords of Valour’ so all would know the honours it had earnt.
For the remainder of the Great Crusade, the Lords of Valour lent its guns to Horus and his Legionaries, with freshly-raised demi-Legions dispatched to Expeditionary fleets manned by the Luna Wolves. To the Titan Legion, the Primarch became an idol, its Princeps frequently proclaiming him to be a model by which all servants of the Imperium should compare themselves. In an effort to be exemplars of Imperial values, the Legio Interfector threw itself into the most deadly of conflicts and, with each new victory, proved that the name given to them by Horus was well-earned.
Yet the devotion the Legio Interfector held for Horus Lupercal was to be repaid with treachery. When the Primarch was appointed Warmaster, the Titan Legion rejoiced, its Princeps clamouring to serve alongside him. Thetides of war were to prevent the Lords of Valour from walking the same battlefield as the Warmaster until a muster was called to suppress rebellion stirring in the Isstvan system. Missives were dispatched and threescore god-engines of the Legio Interfector were sent, called to battle by the personal request of the Warmaster himself.
Themeans through which madness took root within the Titan Legion is unknown, for none privy to such details remains loyal to the Emperor or lucid enough to give testimony. Fleet logs suggest the Legio Interfector joined the Warmaster’s order of battle for three days and then departed once more, its numbers scattering across the galaxy. In such a short time, the personalities of its Princeps were twisted and subverted, minds given over solely to the worship of the Warmaster. Were such a malady contained solely to those of the Legio Interfector that were present at Isstvan then perhaps the legacy of the Titan Legion may have survived the turmoil of the Horus Heresy, yet the machinations of the Traitors left no room for half measures. As the Warmaster moved to eradicate the survivors on Isstvan III, the Traitorous elements of the Legio Interfector were tasked with reuniting the Titan Legion upon Valeous II. Akin to a virulent plague, the madness inflicting the Princeps who had been twisted at Isstvan spread amongst those born of the Forge World, until both the Titan Legion and the Tech-Priests of Valeous II held no passion in their hearts save a desire to bring ruin in the Warmaster’s name.
From that day, the Lords of Valour were no more, the psyche of the Titan Legion hollowed out and replaced with insanity. When next the Legio Interfector walked the galaxy it did so at the behest of the Traitors, obliterating worlds who refused to accede to demands for subservience. War sirens perched atop the carapace of the Titan Legion’s god-engines broadcasted the gibbering prayers of its crews, interspersed with pleas for blood and whispers in unknown tongues that unleashed waves of nausea on any who heard them. Gone were the precise tactical manoeuvres that were once characteristic of the Legio Interfector, replaced instead by erratic behaviour fuelled by the madness that dwelled within the heart of each Titan. From the dark day when the Legio Interfector was undone by the schemes of one they held in highest regard, a new title was worn by the Titan Legion – the Murder Lords.
MATERIEL STRENGTH From the moment Valeous II was granted the singular honour of its own Titan Legion, its forge-fanes laboured tirelessly to supplement the numbers of god-engines provided to the Legio Interfector by the Forge Worlds of Lucius and Graia. By the onset of the Horus Heresy, their efforts had proven successful, with the Legio Interfector…7946 tokens truncated…nnot declare Power to Locomotors! or Power to Stabilisers!.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Unstoppable (3)
Thecorruption that has infested Legio Mordaxis has warped every aspect of its god-engines. TheirPrinceps’ senses are ignorant of the battle wounds inflicted on them and the Titans repair without aid, their metal skin reknitting in a manner akin to that of a living creature.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Mordaxis player. Play this Stratagem at the start of any Damage Control phase, before any Repair rolls are made. Until the end of the phase, add 2 to the Servitor Clades characteristic of every friendly Legio Mordaxis Titan and add 1 to the result of all Repair rolls.
Legio Specific Wargear: Toxin Nodes TheDark Mechanicum engineered methods for exploiting the internal corruption of the Deathdealers’ Titans into their weapons, enabling them to spit forth disease.
Any Legio Mordaxis Titan armed with a Blast (3") weapon may take Toxin Nodes for +20 points. Each weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. Decrease the Strength value of the weapon by 1 (to a minimum of 4) and replace the Blast (3") trait with the Blast (5") trait.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Mordaxis Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Dulled Mind: ThePrinceps has become a conduit of toxins and knows no discomfort or pain. ThePrinceps’ Titan ignores the MIU Feedback and Princeps Wounded Damage effects. 2 Harbinger of Decay: ThePrinceps has welcomed the changes wrought upon them, accepting every ‘blessing’ offered. Models within 4" of the Princeps’ Titan suffer D3+1 S7 hits from the Techno-toxin trait instead of D3 S5 hits. 3 Proud Protector: Thoughthey have broken many oaths, the Princeps still believes in the strength of brotherhood. Once per round, when a friendly Legio Mordaxis Titan within 4" of the Princeps suffers a Direct, Devastating, or Critical Hit, the Princeps’ Titan may immediately push their reactor to make an attack with one of its weapons.
Legio Mordaxis Warlord Battle Titan
SIN-EATER Pictured here before the conquest of Hnudiax in the year 999.M30, Sin-eater was not seen again until the invasion of
Zarathusa Secundus. Thechanges wrought upon Legio Mordaxis were plain to see upon its form, oily fluid seeping from its joints with every step. As Sin-eater strode towards the Aquila Atoll, the water around it blackened, the taint harboured within the Titan corrupting all around it. More troubling still were the sorrowful cries that echoed from the
Titan when attempts were made to hail it, the Princeps of Sin-eater consumed by eternal agony, now enslaved by
the machine curse unleashed upon the Titan Legion.
Legio Mordaxis Reaver Battle Titan
IRKALLA Accurate records of Legio Mordaxis Titans following their declaration for the Warmaster remain elusive, for their very
presence corrupted any machines they came into contact with. Testimonies extracted from Solar Auxilia detachments
after the Siege of Castra Tanagra speak of a Titan bearing the weathered colours of Legio Mordaxis, one of which matches the description of Irkalla.TheReaver Titan was once honoured for its assault upon the fortress of the Illucidian
Barons, breaking their back with precise, lightning-fast charges. Thegod-engine that walked upon Talassar was profoundly different, each step ponderous and heavy, as if weighed down by the corruption that had taken root within it.
Legio Audax
Title: TheLegio Audax Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Tertius (Maximus)
Patent: Post-unification, Martian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Sarum (adopted Forge World), Bodt (secondary Forge-fortress),
Cognomen: TheEmber Wolves
Allied War Houses: None
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheLegio Audax is a Titan Legion noted for its many peculiarities, not least that it lacked the traditional organisation and array of Titan classes available to the vast majority of other Titan Legions. Owing both to the rapid nature of the Legio Audax’s founding during the Great Crusade and data corruption unleashed by the xenos empire of Zlasslr, the Ember Wolves solely employed Scout Titans on the field of battle, with its principal strength consisting of Warhound class Titans. While this resulted in a Titan Legion possessed of a considerable lack of firepower, at least relative to the devastation others of its ilk were capable of bringing to bear, it did little to hamper the Ember Wolves’ capabilities. Indeed, despite possessing a legacy shorter than two centuries by the start of the Horus Heresy, the Ember Wolves stood as one of the most well-known, and often infamous, Titans Legions in active deployment within the Expeditionary fleets.
Theorigin of the Legio Audax lies during the early expansion of the Imperium. As the Expeditionary fleets moved ever outwards from the Segmentum Solar, humanity encountered increasingly greater threats that began to strain the Imperium’s capacity to counter. In answer, the Emperor commissioned the foundation of nearly a dozen new Titan Legions, tasking the Mechanicum’s greatest Forge Worlds with producing a new generation of god- engines in short order. TheLegio Audax was one such Titan Legion, born upon the red sands of Mars and sent forth into the galaxy to annihilate the Mechanicum’s foes.
To facilitate the rapid creation of god-engines, the ranks of the Legio Audax consisted solely of Warhound class Titans, along with the voidships and landers required to transport them across the stars. Thoughconceived by the Emperor as a Titan Legion forever bound to the Great Crusade and supplied by existing Forge Worlds, Mars held different intentions. Upon departure from the Red Planet, the Ember Wolves were accompanied by several well-supplied Explorator Arks equipped with the STC patterns necessary for the creation of additional god-engines of numerous classes. Mission directives stated that the Ember Wolves were to serve at the forefront of the Great Crusade until such a time when the ideal candidate for the colonisation of a new Forge World had been identified; upon which the rights of domain were to be established. Thismission was never accomplished.
A decade after the Legio Audax’s founding, conflict with the Zlasslr Empire saw the corruption of its STC patterns during boarding actions committed by the xenos’ ‘Voidsingers’. Though diligent retro-engineering efforts allowed the Titan Legion to retain its capabilities to produce Warhound and other Scout Titans, all other classes of god-engines were lost to it. Censure records note an increase in the uncompromising and often brutal methods of war employed by the Legio Audax following war with the Zlasslr, resulting in numerous condemnations brought against the Titan Legion. Eventually, edicts of censure were authorised against the Legio Audax following the Lorin Alpha Massacres which involved the indiscriminate slaughter of numerous hive cities by unrestrained Ember Wolves’ Warhound packs.
Numerous voices called for the complete dissolution of the Legio Audax following its senseless destruction during the conquest. Instead, the Terran War Council ordered the relocation of the Legio Audax to the training world of Bodt, the defacto home world of the World Eaters Legion and the indefinite suspension of the Titan Legion’s right to claim a world as its own. Further to this, the Mechanicum refused to resupply the Ember Wolves with the STC patterns lost to corruption, solidifying the Legio Audax as a Titan Legion capable of fielding solely Scout Titans. Intended as an act of significant censure and dishonour, such decrees mattered little to the Princeps of the Legio Audax who revelled in the animalist anima of the Warhound Titan, favouring the pack tactics and cunning stratagems required to conquer larger foes.
Theassignment of the Legio Audax to Bodt did little to temper its callous demeanour; indeed, the frequent deployment of the Titan Legion alongside the World Eaters Adeptus Astartes Legion only escalated the brutality of its Princeps. The adaptation of the Ursus Claw, large harpoons originally designed for World Eater voidships, is but one example of the changes such a partnership wrought. Indeed, the close connection between the Legio Audax and the World Eaters saw the Titan Legion secure a Forge World in all but name. Following the relief of Sarum, in the campaign that became known as the Golgothan Slaughter, the Forge World’s Tech-Priests pledged themselves to Angron, Primarch of the World Eaters. By stint of its association with the Primarch, the Legio Audax soon began receiving a steady supply of god-engines and munitions and though protests were logged to Terra, on grounds that the Titan Legion had circumvented its writs of censure, they were deemed unenforceable based upon the Forge World’s insistence that it supplied the World Eaters not the Ember Wolves.
Devoid of an official home and scorned as animalistic savages by many amongst the Collegia Titanica and the wider Mechanicum, the allegiance of the Legio Audax lay solely with Angron. Thus,when the Primarch sided with Horus so too did the Titan Legion cast off its oaths to the Emperor. TheEmber Wolves’ reputation for vicious assaults only grew during the Horus Heresy, the Titan Legion becoming infamous for its prolific use of ambushes. Themost notable tactical development brought to bear by the Legio Audax was the deployment of its Canis maniples, more commonly referred to as battle- packs, involving Warhound Titans equipped with Ursus Claws dragging unsuspecting god-engines down before tearing the hapless machines apart.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Divisio Militaris records list an estimated 90 god-engines in service to the Legio Audax at the onset of the Horus Heresy. Given the abnormal distribution of the Legio Audax’s strength, the vast majority of such god-engines were Warhound class Scout Titans, with the Titan Legion’s tactics focused heavily on utilising the speed and manoeuvrability of the smaller Titan. Due to atrocities committed during the Great Crusade, the Ember Wolves were not sanctioned to employ other Titan classes. However, the Primarch Angron exploited loopholes in the writs of censure, which stated that ‘…the Legio Audax could not field any class denied to it through the malicious corruption enacted by the now-rightfully extinct entity known as the Zlasslr Empire’, to augment the Titan Legion’s strength with Rapier Light Scout Titans and Dire Wolf Heavy Scout Titans, the patterns of which had been supplied to the forge-fanes of Sarum but not the Ember Wolves. Thedenial of heavier Battle Titans was of little consequence to the Princeps of the Legio Audax, who often traded the felled carcasses of such god-engines to other Traitor Titan Legions in return for munitions and technology to reinforce their Scout engines.
Legio Audax (Ember Wolves)
Legio Trait: Wolves Among Prey Unlike nearly all other Titan Legions, the Legio Audax relied solely on Scout class Titans in warfare, preferring to encircle their prey and slowly tear them apart.
A Legion Audax maniple can consist only of Titans of Scale 6 or lower; any maniple which has mandatory or optional components containing Titans of Scale 7 or higher cannot contain Legio Audax Titans. Any reinforcement Titans declared as Legio Audax must be of Scale 6 or lower. All Legio Audax Titans gain the Squadron special rule if they do not already have it and may always form Squadrons with other Legio Audax Titan of any type. Thisincludes Titans that belong to another Legio Audax Maniple or Legio Audax reinforcement Titans. Legio Audax Squadrons can contain up to five Titans, unless they can normally contain more.
If a Legio Audax Titan is part of a Squadron via this trait, they cannot become part of another Squadron for any reason during the battle. Theonly exception to this rule is if every other Titan within their Squadron has been destroyed. In this instance, additional Squadrons could be formed if a rule allows it.
Legio Trait: Stalk Unseen TheTitans of the Legio Audax are adept at stalking their prey, utilising the lay of the land to launch murderous ambushes.
For the duration of the first round, attacks made against Legio Audax Titans of Scale 6 or lower suffer a -2 modifier to the Hit roll if the Titan is at least 25% obscured, rather than the usual -1.
Legio Specific Wargear: Reinforced Plating TheTitans of the Legio Audax are equipped with additional armour plates to somewhat offset the relative lack of armour most Scout Titans possess.
A Legio Audax Titan of Scale 6 or lower can be fitted with Reinforced Plating for +15 points. Subtract 1 from the result of Armour rolls made against a Titan with Reinforced Plating.
Legio Specific Wargear: Ursus Claws TheLegio Audax fought many battles alongside the World Eaters Legion and adopted the use of Ursus Claws, oversized harpoons capable of toppling larger Titans and rendering them helpless.
An Ursus Claw fitted to a Legio Audax Titan has a Strength value of 4 instead of 3.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Audax Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Master of Ambush: ThePrinceps is adept at stalking their prey, utilising a battlefield’s terrain to strike at their foes and avoid retaliation. TheStalk Unseen Legio Trait applies to the Princeps’ Titan for both the first and second round, instead of just the first. 2 Cull the Weak: Aware that a wounded foe is still a dangerous one, the Princeps seeks out Titans that are wounded to put them down before they pose a threat. ThePrinceps’ Titan can re-roll failed Armour rolls against a location that has suffered Critical Damage. 3 Pack Alpha: ThePrinceps has ascended to their position by force of arms and will allow no other to challenge their authority. Friendly Legio Audax Titans within 3" of the Princeps’ Titan may re-roll rolls of 1 when making Command checks.
Legio Magna
Title: TheLegio Magna Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Primus
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Estabanian Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Estaban VII (Forge World), Condetti Prime (Forge-fortress)
Cognomen: TheFlaming Skulls
Allied War Houses: Atrax, Solantari
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
Thelegacy of the Legio Magna is one riddled with oddities. In sheer numbers, the Titan Legion boasted one of the largest number of operational god-engines, its strength matching that of illustrious Titan Legions such as the Legio Gryphonicus, the Legio Ignatum and the Legio Mortis. Despite this, its parent Forge World of Estaban VII initially showed little interest in engaging the wider Mechanicum, preferring instead to perform their sacred duty unburdened by political wrangling and infighting between factions. Possessing few allies in both the Martian Mechanicum and the command network of the Great Crusade, Estaban VII had little influence in dictating the deployment of the Legio Magna.
As a direct consequence, the strength of the Titan Legion became increasingly scattered as the Great Crusade progressed, with many of its god-engines assigned to positions of little note. By the middle of the Great Crusade’s second century, the god-engines of the Legio Magna were recorded to have been serving in 21 different Expeditionary fleets, with detachment numbers ranging from two dozen to a single god-engine assigned to garrison duty. Such widespread deployment brought increasingly greater losses amongst the Legio Magna’s ranks, soon outstripping Estaban VII’s capacity to replenish the Titan Legion’s numbers. At the same time, events in the Estaban system saw Estaban VII lose further status with the assignment of a demi-Legio of Legio Tempestus Titans to the neighbouring Forge World of Estaban III. With the flow of external aid and resources to Estaban VII being increasingly sparse, the Machinum Triarchy, the name given to the Forge World’s ruling body of Tech-Priests, initiated a program to increase the influence of Estaban VII and revitalise its fortunes.
With relative swiftness, the forges of Estaban VII reallocated their production capacities to the production of armaments and war machines intended for service within the Imperial Army. Throughthe shipment of materiel, including large quantities of Baneblade tanks, Estaban VII cemented links with several Imperial Army regiments that served in prominent Expeditionary fleets. TheMachinum Triarchy then petitioned their new allies for the redeployment of elements of the Legio Magna; records extracted from the archives of Estaban VII highlight such missives included veiled threats of a cessation of supplies should their requests not be granted.
Within the decade, over half of the Legio Magna’s strength was redeployed to more noteworthy positions, including the assignment of demi-Legions to service alongside Horus Lupercal’s own Luna Wolves and Lorgar, Primarch of the Word Bearers, following the departure of the Legio Defensor from the 47th Expeditionary Fleet. Thisshift in prominence wrought changes on the Princeps of the Legio Magna; where once they cared little for plaudits and honours, content to serve in relative anonymity, now they revelled in the high praise they received for exemplary service. Combat records of their service during the latter years of the Great Crusade reveal a noticeable shift in tactics employed by the Legio Magna, with their tactical deployment favouring bold spearhead assaults directly into the heart of the enemy lines. Force deposition reports also highlight the increased use of fusion weaponry, with Legio Magna god- engines willingly participating in the wholescale slaughter often employed by the Word Bearers following the latter’s rebuke by the Emperor. In time, the Legio Magna developed a reputation for their expertise in siege warfare, with its Princeps second only to those of the Legio Krytos in their ability to bring rebellious civilisations to ruin.
While the Legio Magna cemented itself as a Titan Legion of note, the rulers of Estaban VII worked to strengthen political ties, choosing to focus their efforts on Mars. Flaming Skull god- engines were withdrawn from Expeditionary fleets, often despite objections from those they served with, and were instead tasked with providing an honour guard for prominent members of the Martian Mechanicum. Following the events of Ullanor and the appointment of Horus Lupercal as Warmaster, a demi-Legion of Legio Magna Titans were invited to establish a permanent presence on Mars itself. Thisrequest was accepted with great enthusiasm, for with it came increased access to technology and resources which Estaban VII used to further increase both its growing political status and the strength of the Legio Magna. By the end of the Great Crusade, the Titan Legion once more approached its old strength as a Primus-grade Legio with a steadily growing list of honours to accompany such a prestigious size.
Theposition of prominence Estaban VII had built for itself in the decades before the Horus Heresy all but cemented the allegiance of the Legio Magna during the subsequent conflict, for it relied heavily upon those who were to turn against the Emperor. Theprincipal strength of the Legio Magna lay in service to Lorgar Aurelian and Horus Lupercal, each an instigator of the treachery in their own right. What remained of the Legio Magna’s strength was either assigned to watch over Estaban VII or deployed on Mars. Thoseof the Titan Legion upon the Red Planet found themselves easily manipulated by agents of the Fabricator General, willingly subjecting their god- engines to esoteric modifications; pict-captures taken during the first days of the Schism of Mars show Legio Magna Titans sporting monuments of bone, marching to battle accompanied by a cacophony of howls broadcast from speakers hidden amongst the effigies.
Thetraitorous actions of the Flaming Skulls stationed on Mars were repeated across the galaxy, with Estaban VII and the Legio Magna declaring for the Warmaster in short order. In doing so, the Forge World established a prominent position in the new hierarchy, allowing it to pursue research down previously restricted pathways. Many of the discoveries gained from such illicit practices were put to use in enhancing the god-engines of the Legio Magna, and the Titan Legion underwent many waves of modification over the course of the Horus Heresy. Theefforts of the Dark Mechanicum no doubt played a part in the Legio Magna’s rapid acquisition of a reputation as butchers and fiends, its Princeps seemingly eager to burn entire worlds at the order of the Warmaster and the Fabricator General.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Upon the rediscovery of the Estaban system, the Legio Magna were noted to possess numbers capable of matching any recorded Titan Legion in service to the Imperium. Thus,the Legio Magna was officially classified as a Primus-grade Titan Legion, a rating which changed seven times over the course of the Great Crusade, with the Flaming Skulls falling to a Tertius-grade Titan Legion following the Seloid Xenocide. A concerted effort by the Machium Triarchy saw the Legio Magna classified once more as a Primus-grade Titan Legion by the onset of the Horus Heresy, capable of fielding an estimated 155-190 god-engines.
Before its service in the Great Crusade, the Legio Magna possessed several examples of rare Titan classes, including Nemesis and Imperator Titans. Many of these older classes were lost during the Great Crusade and remained unrecovered, with only a single Flaming Skulls Imperator recorded in service by M31. Themajority of Flaming Skulls god-engines consisted of Reaver and Warlord Battle Titans which formed the tip of the Legio Magna’s spearhead assault. Warhound Titans were utilised in lesser quantities, deployed to screen the Titan Legion’s advance and deter flanking assaults.
Fire Spirits of Estaban VII
Theplanet of Estaban VII boasts several thousand active volcanoes which are readily utilised by the Forge World as a consistent supply of geothermal energy. During the Age of Strife, these volcanoes became an integral element in the rites of the so-called Ignartirium tech-tribes that roamed the equatorial firelands of the planet. Archival records indicate that such tribes claimed that each volcano was a hive of fire spirits which housed the servants of the sun god Irimtar, a local deity worshiped by the tribes. Religious texts state that, when Irimtar grew angered, he would incite a fire spirit hive leading to a cacophony of howls and moans to usher forth from the volcano, followed by an eruption during which the fire spirits unleashed their fury upon Irimtar’s servants.
Thoughsuch beliefs were driven out by the rise of the Estabanian Mechanicum, a notion of creatures living within the Forge World’s lava flows remained. An imitation of their supposed cries was fashioned upon Mars before the Schism of Mars and the generated cacophony accompanied the march of all Legio Magna Titans during the Horus Heresy and beyond.
Legio Magna (Flaming Skulls)
Legio Trait: Howls of the Damned TheTitans of the Legio Magna marched to battle accompanied by a never-ending cacophony, said to mimic the horrifying shrieks of fire spirits on their home world.
Subtract 1 from the result of all Command checks made by Titans within 8" of a Legio Magna Titan. In addition, Titans within 8" of a Legio Magna Titan can never re-roll failed Command checks. Legio Magna Titans are not affected by this Legio Trait.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Battle Fervour (3)
For many decades, the Legio Magna fought alongside the XVIIth
Legion, adopting a small number of their rites and rituals until the Legio hungered for nothing more than destruction in the name of dark patrons.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Magna player. Play this Stratagem during any Strategy phase. For the remainder of the phase, friendly Legio Magna Titans may be issued Charge orders without the need to make a Command check. In addition, for the remainder of the round, friendly Legio Magna Titans may re-roll Hit rolls of a 1 for attacks made with a weapon with the Melee trait.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Spearhead Assault (2)
TheFlaming Skulls favoured direct assaults, cutting through the heart of the enemy line as they sought to destroy all resistance before their Titans could be outmanoeuvred.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Magna player. Play this Stratagem during any Strategy phase. For the remainder of the round, friendly Legio Magna Titans add 1 to all Hit rolls and Armour rolls made as a result of an attack against a target within 8" of the attacking Titan, in addition to any other modifiers. However, enemy Titans add 1 to all Armour rolls made as a result of an attack against a Legio Magna Titan originating from its Side or Rear arc, in addition to any other modifiers.
Legio Specific Wargear: Directed Pressure Outlet As the Horus Heresy progressed, the Princeps of the Legio Magna became obsessed with wholesale slaughter, adapting their weapons to better tear apart the god-engines of their foe.
Any Legio Magna Titan armed with a weapon with the Fusion trait may be equipped with a Directed Pressure Outlet for +20 points. Each Fusion weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. A Titan equipped with a Directed Pressure Outlet adds 3" to the weapon’s Short Range.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Magna Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Messenger of Death: ThePrinceps howls and screams as they march into battle, projecting their cries to all and revelling in their enemies’ terror. TheLegio Trait Howls of the Damned affects all units within 15" of the Princeps Seniores’ Titan instead of 8". 2 Slayer of Kings: ThePrinceps seeks to slaughter all who challenge them, bringing low even the greatest of foes. When targeting a Titan that is within 12" of the Princeps’ Titan, the Princeps Seniores may add 1 to the Armour rolls of any hits, provided that the target Titan has a Scale equal to or greater than their own. 3 Bloodthirsty: Thekilling blow is everything to the Princeps, regardless of the cost they must pay. Once per round, the Princeps may make an attack with a disabled weapon, as if the weapon had been repaired. After resolving the effects of the weapon attack, the weapon suffers the Detonation Damage effect, using the highest detonation Strength value to resolve its effects (e.g., a Reaver Arm Laser Blaster would detonate at S9).
Legio Magna Warlord Battle Titan
DAMNATION OFWORLDS ThePrinceps of Legio Magna revelled in the chaos of battle, preferring to plunge headfirst into the enemy line and break
them apart with brutal assaults. Armaments such as those seen here on Damnation of Worlds were common amongst the Flaming Skulls, allowing them to engage their foe directly while retaining the power needed to slay the largest of Titan- class enemies. Warlords of Legio Magna would advance swiftly on the enemy line, unleashing unrelenting storms of plasma
and bolt shells until little more than smouldering rubble and rended flesh remained, the sinister howls of Princeps and
machine spirit both echoing across the battlefield.
Legio Magna Reaver Battle Titan
HATRED UNBOUND Configurations tailored towards close-quarters warfare, such as those seen here on Hatred Unbound, were frequently utilised by Legio Magna, their carapace weapons capable of stripping shields from afar before tearing apart armour with
close-ranged bursts. Such Titans often bore a single weapon more commonly suited to long-ranged warfare to augment
their killing potential. Theseweapons were regularly co-opted for use in their spearhead assaults, with Legio Magna
Reaver Titans unleashing their volcano cannon within the confines of enemy void shields, heedless of the potential
collateral damage against their own god-engine if it meant the death of their target.
Legio Vulturum
Title: TheLegio Vulturum Ordo Titanica
Militaris Grade: Secundus
Patent: Post-unification; founded from Pre-Imperial Titan Legions sworn to Xana II
Warden Domain(s): Xana II (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheGore Crows
Allied War Houses: Malinax
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheLegio Vulturum was one known to many amongst the ranks of the Great Crusade, not due to its honourable record of victory or the valour of its Princeps but rather its aggravating reputation and sinister demeanour. In this, the Titan Legion reflected the nature of its Forge World, and to many the Gore Crows were a mystery preferably left unsolved, an asset to the Great Crusade best utilised when deployed upon the battlefield and left to its own devices. ThoughCollegia Titanica records list the Legio Vulturum as a Titan Legion of limited ancestry, founded as it was following the incorporation of the Forge World of Xana II into the Imperium, such records are only partially accurate. While the Titan Legion known as the Legio Vulturum was indeed founded during the Great Crusade, its numbers were formed by god-engines sworn to Xana II since the Age of Strife, created in accordance with treaties established between the reclusive Forge World and the Imperium of Man.
Thename of Xana is one that had conjured images of sinister mystery at the edge of the unknown since the earliest days of the Great Crusade. Theexistence of the Forge World of Xana II was first recorded in rumours taken from the reports of Rogue Traders and exploratory crafts sent towards the western reaches of the galaxy as early as the 800s of M30. Such tales were contradictory and exaggerated in their telling, yet all spoke of a technological power that was – or at least had once been – human and that its home was a star system on the very edge of the western galactic reach.
Thetides of war and conquest would mean that the truth of Xana would remain undiscovered until 843.M30 when the Rogue Trader Casilida De Aniasie, flung far off-course after engaging in battle with Fra’al Corsairs, intercepted a trio of hulking automata warships at the edge of the inter-galactic void. Thesewarships greeted the Rogue Trader not with aggression but offers of aid, guiding the ship to the Forge World of Xana II, repairing and refitting it before sending it on its way with an offer of diplomatic exchange between the ‘Sovereign Forge Domain of Xana’ and the Imperium of Man.
Negotiations between the Imperium and Xana soon followed this event but, despite the cordial tone under which they had been instigated, they were quickly beset by suspicions held by many within the Imperium’s camp. Theemissaries of Mars were the first among doubters, troubled by a recognisable Mechanicum-dogmatic and Mars-originated Forge World where one should not exist and of whose creation they had no record. Themost cursory of examinations showed Xana II to be a Forge World of vast resource and manufacturing capacity far outstripping its own needs, its mature technologies and industries having produced multiple quasi-independent forge-fanes which in turn created powerful Taghmata for their protection. Themost notable of its military assets was a Titan Legion of size matching the first rank of the Imperium’s own classification. To the emissaries and assayers of Mars, these facts did not make sense, presenting as they did a Forge World simply too powerful, too well-established and too apparently concordant with Machine Cult doctrine, to exist at the far-flung edges of the galaxy. Such a paradox caused great consternation amongst the Martian emissaries, a fact succinctly put by one military attaché who stated ‘…Xana is a gift simply too perfect to be trusted; it is either our greatest good fortune in these times of war, or it is a serpent lying in wait to slay us. My mind perceives the former, while my soul warns the latter’.
Despite such misgivings, calculations run at the time by the commanders of the Great Crusade estimated that the manpower required to successfully conquer Xana would be a force that the Imperium was ill-equipped to spare. Indeed, a spectre of war hung over the negotiations between Xana and the Imperium, in the form of a far larger conflict that would afterwards become known as the Rangdan Xenocides. Thisfar greater threat did much to expedite the development of a deal between the two parties, with Xana maintaining its sovereignty and only notionally falling under the rule of distant Mars. In return, the Taghmata of Xana and its Titans were wholeheartedly committed to the Rangdan Xenocides, the god-engines of Xana II giving rise to two Titan Legions – the Legio Vulturum and the Legio Kydianos, known respectively as the Gore Crows and the Death Cry.
Of the two, the Gore Crows became the most active of Xana’s Titan Legions during the Great Crusade, with the principal strength of the Legio Kydianos recalled in defence of the Forge World following the diminishing of its military assets come the conclusion of the Rangdan Xenocides. Like the planet upon which it was founded, the Legio Vulturum was shrouded in secrecy and possessed of a sinister reputation, with much of the latter fuelled by rumours of the merciless tactics the Gore Crows employed upon the field of battle. Nearly a dozen demi- Legio of varying numbers and strength were scattered across the Expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade during its final decades, yet such widespread deployment did little to dispel the standoffish nature of the Titan Legion. Upon the field of battle, its Princeps exerted a measure of independence often bordering on insubordination, communicating only with the war zone commander when circumstances necessitated such dialogue. In all other instances, its god-engines formed their own force, committing to battlefields judged worthy of their might and ignorant of the pleas of their supposed allies. Thoughfew commanders were pleased when the order of battle showed the deployment of the Legio Vulturum alongside their forces, the standoffish behaviour of the Legio Vulturum was tolerated on the grounds that it rarely harmed the progression of conquest, the benefit of the Titan Legion’s guns far outweighing the infuriating mannerisms of its Princeps.
Theprowess of the Legio Vulturum was greatly tested within the fires of the Rangdan Xenocides, and the Titan Legion emerged from the other side devoid of all concepts of mercy and filled with great contempt for the weak. Many are the tales of brutal subjugation perpetrated by the god-engines of the Legio Vulturum during the Great Crusade, Gore Crow god-engines levelled entire cities to send a singular message to those who survived – submit or water the fields with rivers of blood. Of the two Titan Legions raised upon Xana II, it was the Legio Vulturum that was most frequently utilised as a vessel for experimentation conducted by the Tech-Priests of the distant Forge World. Over the decades of war, newly-crafted weapons and mechanical enhancements were field tested by the god-engines of the Legio Vulturum; esoteric beam weapons that turned entire battalions to ash, explosive munitions that tore through fortifications with ease and temperamental void shielding capable of turning aside entire bombardments only to fail in response to the briefest broadside. Thoughfew of these modifications were permanently enshrined within the war vaults of the Legio Vulturum, each strengthened the wealth of knowledge harboured within the secretive archives of Xana II and stood ready to provide the Gore Crows with an arsenal of unknown technologies which they could unleash about their foes.
When the Horus Heresy erupted, the secretive nature of Xana II and its Titan Legions meant the loyalty of both in the unfolding war was unknown. TheForge World’s isolation allowed it to play both sides, engaging in negotiations with emissaries of Malcador and the Warmaster. Tempted by power and promises of greater independence, Xana favoured the Traitors and when evidence of its double-dealings came to light, the Forge World was declared Traitoris Perdita, the Legio Vulturum condemned by the same title by virtue of its association and loyalty to Xana. From the Forge World of Ryza to the savage conflict within the Beta-Garmon cluster, the god- engines of the Legio Vulturum mercilessly hunted down the Loyalists, plundering technology and wealth for their masters in an effort to further the power of its Forge World.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Following the separation of Xana II’s complement of god- engines into two Titan Legions, the Legio Vulturum was recorded as holding a strength of 77 Titans, the majority of which were Reaver and Warlord class Battle Titans, with over two dozen Warhound Scout Titans as support. Supported by the substantial industry of Xana, the numbers of the Legio Vulturum grew rapidly and exponential growth was only curtailed by the brutal attrition of the Rangdan Xenocides; by the onset of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Vulturum held an estimated strength of 110-130 god-engines. Thecapabilities of Xana offered the Gore Crows access to all classes of Titan, with the Titan Legion recorded as possessing a trio of Imperator Titans as well as several examples of Carnivore and Nemesis class Titans. Such ancient god-engines were only deployed in the most dire of circumstances during the Rangdan Xenocides but saw increased use in the latter days of the Great Crusade and the Horus Heresy.
Legio Vulturum (Gore Crows)
Legio Trait: Relentless Killers TheLegio Vulturum marches to war at the behest of their secretive masters, offering no mercy or respite.
During the Combat phase, friendly Legio Vulturum Titans add 1 to all Hit rolls if, during the same round, an enemy Titan has suffered Catastrophic Damage, regardless of the source.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Cull the Weak (1)
TheGore Crows often employed merciless tactics, forcing their foes to retreat into crossfires that ensured none survived.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Vulturum player. Play this Stratagem when an enemy Titan moves outside of its Front arc (see Sidestepping and Backing Up in the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook), whether voluntarily or involuntarily. A friendly Legio Vulturum Titan can immediately make an attack with one of their weapon systems against that target, increasing its Reactor Level by 1 to do so. For all intents and purposes, this is a new attack requiring an Attack roll, any additional increases to the Titan’s reactor level, etc.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Scent of Blood (2)
TheLegio Vulturum possessed an intense culture of competition, leading their Princeps to push themselves beyond reason in an effort to claim kills that would bring them the greatest glory.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Vulturum player. Play this Stratagem when an enemy Titan suffers Critical Damage in the Combat phase as a result of damage from an attack made by a friendly Legio Vulturum Titan. After the attacking Titan’s activation has ended, you can immediately activate another friendly Legio Vulturum Titan that hasn’t yet been activated this Combat phase, increasing the chosen Titan’s reactor level by 2 to do so. Thiscounts as that Titan’s activation this Combat phase.
Legio Specific Wargear: Storm Frag Shells TheLegio Vulturum often bore experimental weapons in battle, used as testbeds by the Tech-Priests of Xana II.
Any Legio Vulturum Titan that is equipped with a Vulcan mega-bolter or Vulcan mega-bolter array can be upgraded with Storm Frag Shells at a cost of +25 points for a Vulcan mega- bolter and +45 points for a Vulcan mega-bolter array. Each weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. A weapon with this upgrade gains the Maximal Fire trait and increases the negative Acc modifier for the weapon’s Long Range by 1 (i.e., a 0 becomes a -1, a -1 becomes a -2).
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Vulturum Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Experimental Vessel: ThePrinceps believes the Tech- Priests of Xana II are conduits of the Omnissiah, eagerly submitting to their experiments and the boons they bring. Once per game, when the Princeps Seniores’ Titan is activated during the Combat phase, the Titan may immediately repair a single disabled weapon. 2 Enigmatic: Even amongst those of the Legio Vulturum, the Princeps is a mysterious figure shrouded in half-truths. At the start of the Strategy phase of the first round, the Princeps Seniores’ Titan may be redeployed; do this before either player issues any Orders. The Princeps Seniores may be placed anywhere that they would normally be allowed to deploy by the mission being played. 3 Merciless: ThePrinceps despises weakness, unleashing their wrath upon any who dare flinch in their duty. Thepresence of this Princeps within the battlegroup allows it to purchase the Legio Specific Stratagem Cull the Weak multiple times. Thoughthe Stratagem can be purchased multiple times, it can only be played once per phase.
Legio Vulturum Warlord Battle Titan
SANGUINEM INNOCENTIAE Thebrutal wars that became known as the Rangdan Xenocides did much to forge Legio Vulturum into a Titan Legion of merciless killers that revelled in the act of unleashing their might upon those they deemed weak. Thisethos saw the Gore Crows throw themselves into the Horus Heresy with eager abandon, treating it as a crucible in which they could test their mettle against opposing Titan Legions. Some Princeps of Legio Vulturum, as the kill markings upon the honour banner of Sanguinem Innocentiae
attest to, quickly built reputations for being ruthless Titan hunters, racking up an impressive number of engine kills across dozens of battlefields. Sanguinem Innocentiae was eventually silenced upon Ryza, falling at Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega during the
last battles for the Forge World, though not before slaying three Loyalist Titans that sought its death.
Legio Vulturum Warbringer Nemesis Titan
UMBRA DOLOR As the Titans of Legio Vulturum advanced across the continent of Erudition, Warbringer Nemesis Titans such as Umbra Dolor proved invaluable in breaking open the Loyalists’ defensive lines. However, Umbra Dolor’s most notable contribution
was the blunting of a Legio Osedax counter-attack when a squadron of Warhounds exploited a weak point in the Gore
Crows’ line. Targeting the advancing Loyalists with bombardments from its quake cannon, Umbra Dolor delayed
the Warhounds long enough for a Gore Crows relief force to surround the Loyalists and obliterate
them with sustained barrages.
Legio Laniaskara
Title: TheLegio Laniaskara Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Secundus*
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Valia-Maximal Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Valia-Maximal (Forge World), Neubaru (secondary Forge-fortress)
Cognomen: TheImpalers
Allied War Houses: Igrake
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
*Combat records from the Horus Heresy contest such assessments.
Thehistory of the Legio Laniaskara is a fractious one, reminiscent of the warlike techno-cultists tribes from which the Titan Legion fills its ranks. TheForge World of Valia-Maximal, the planet upon which the Legio Laniaskara was founded, was a product of two waves of colonisation which fragmented records suggest occurred nearly two millennia apart. Valia-Maximal first felt the tread of humanity during the Age of Technology through the establishment of a Long March colony on the bountiful planet, rich in minerals and biological life. Like many worlds of its ilk, Valia-Maximal was subjected to untold horrors when the Age of Strife descended and the world itself became all but forgotten in surviving records, save for fragmented accounts that made note of its viability for colonisation. Thus, the world was chosen as a potential target for Mechanicum Explorator arks dispatched from Mars during the Age of Strife and, when an appropriate lull in the warp storms allowed, Valia- Maximal was targeted for a new colonisation mission.
TheMechanicum fragment sent from Mars found a planet vastly at odds with the idyllic descriptions held within the archives of the Red Planet. Instead of a world similar in makeup to that of Old Terra, the colonists found caustic seas and prolonged rad storms, its continents home to hardy fauna and flora that thrived in the hostile atmosphere. Further analysis revealed the fate of the ancient colony, their civilisation brought to ruin by the turmoil of the Age of Strife, the survivors having fragmented into tech-tribes that worshipped machines as divine constructs.
Far from the paradise world promised in ancient records, Valia- Maximal nevertheless proved bountiful to the Mechanicum colonists, with vast mineral deposits readily accessible and the caustic seas offering countless avenues of intriguing research thanks to their unique nature. Preliminary plans for colonisation indicate that the god-engines of the Mechanicum fleet, then bearing no names or Legio, were initially sanctioned for the complete extermination of the tech-tribes. Such actions proved unneeded for the divergent strain of humanity proved highly malleable thanks to the Theocracyunder which it operated; the ruling class were those who possessed even the smallest talent in the operation of ancient machines left behind from pre-Age of Strife civilisations. Thoughthe ruling priest caste, not dissimilar to that of the Mechanicum Tech-Priests, proved resistant to a new order, the superior knowledge of the new colonists, combined with the undeniable power of their god- engines, secured the loyalty of vast swathes of Valia-Maximal’s tribal population. Theresulting religious schism proved brief and led to the eradication of any who doubted the right of the Mechanicum to rule. With control over the planet secured, the Tech-Priests of Valia-Maximal began the full colonisation of the planet.
Thoughthe subjugation of Valia-Maximal’s tech-tribes proved simple, the subjugation of the world proved far more complex. Poisonous flora and deadly rad storms hampered expansion efforts, requiring the lengthy construction of corrosion-resistant forge-fanes that could weather the unagreeable biosphere. The caustic seas of the Forge World also held hidden foes, proving to be the breeding ground for titanic fauna that rivalled the power of the newly-founded Legio Laniaskara. Legio honour rolls stretching back to the founding decades of Valia-Maximal indicate that the Titan Legion saw heavy battle along the coasts of the Forge World, protecting forge-fanes intended to exploit the unique properties of the planet’s seas. Disturbance of this environment led to heightened aggression of the fauna, ensuring the Legio Laniaskara were veterans of war in short order. Attempts to identify the habitats of the beasts and scour them clean initially proved impossible, with the corrosive nature of the seas proving inimical to the god-engines. Only with the development of specialised plating could the Titan Legion venture beneath the surface and retaliate.
Running conflicts with the wildlife of Valia-Maximal were not the sole field of battle the Legio Laniaskara walked upon. Decades after the arrival of the Explorator arks, the Forge World was visited by a new threat. Identifying itself as the Hydrinoxis Conclave, a now-extinct empire founded by a union between Mankind and xenos, the Conclave laid claim to Valia-Maximal. Throughbrief diplomatic exchange between the Conclave and the Forge World, it was discovered that the changes wrought upon the planet were in fact purposeful, brought about by the designs of the Conclave and the expertise of its meteorologists and gene-wrights. Thehuman-xenos empire had transformed the planet in a grand experiment, altering both the atmospheric conditions of the world and all life upon it as part of an undisclosed effort. When the Conclave’s demands that the Mechanicum leave the planet were dismissed, war was declared.
Theresulting conflict waxed and waned over the course of several centuries, resulting in the rapid expansion of the Legio Laniaskara’s strength, the Titan Legion proving instrumental in the destruction of the Conclave and the conquest of neighbouring star systems. Few details survive of the so-called Hydrinoxis Xenocides, with only honour rolls, kill tallies and the expansive Forge Empire ruled over by Valia-Maximal the sole testament to the victories won by the Titan Legion. Following the destruction of the Conclave, the Legio Laniaskara led an aggressive campaign of conquest in surrounding regions, with the senior Princeps of the Titan Legion granted leave to conquer worlds they deemed valuable to the Forge Empire.
Theexpansionist nature of Valia-Maximal eventually drew it into conflict with the Imperium upon the rediscovery of the former by the 114th Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. Thefirst blow was struck by the Legio Laniaskara, their god- engines falling upon Imperial ground forces who encroached upon a system bordering the empire of Valia-Maximal. Much of the Titan Legion’s ethos revolved around the application of overwhelming aggression to subjugate their foes, and recovered missives dispatched between the Legio Laniaskara and Valia- Maximal highlight the Titan Legion believed a show of force would halt the expansion of the Imperium. Instead, such an act brought wrath and ruin down on the Forge World, the 114th Expeditionary Fleet unleashing the Raven Guard and supporting elements of the Legio Astraman, the Titan Legion of Graia, upon it. A direct assault upon Valia-Maximal led to the Forge World ceding to the oversight of Mars, though not before the Morning Stars dealt extensive damage to its holdings. Having achieved total victory, the 114th Expeditionary Fleet departed, leaving Valia-Maximal under the control of integration elements dispatched from Mars and the Legio Laniaskara harbouring a bitter hatred of the wardens of Graia.
Theanimosity between Valia-Maximal and Graia no doubt played its part in the treachery of the former Forge World come the Horus Heresy. Indeed, political instability within the Belt of Iron, the name given to the region of space in which both Forge Worlds were located, often arose due to territorial conflicts between Valia-Maximal and Graia, with outright conflict only avoided due to external agents and the occasional punitive measures against either or both parties. When the Horus Heresy was ignited, it became clear that Valia-Maximal had pledged its allegiance to the Warmaster in advance, with the god-engines of the Legio Laniaskara launching assaults upon the outer holdings of Graia. In doing so, it reignited the grudge between the Impalers and the Morning Stars; by the end of the Horus Heresy, dozens of god-engines from both Titan Legions had fallen, Legio Laniaskara Titans had walked upon Graia, and the Morning Stars were bled against the defences of Valia- Maximal only to be denied final retribution when the Forge World and all its inhabitants simply vanished, leaving an empty, caustic world behind.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Upon the rediscovery of Valia-Maximal, the Legio Laniaskara held enough strength to be classified as a Primus-grade Titan Legion. Thesubsequent conflict with the Imperium, combined with treaties of penance enforced upon the Forge World following its subjugation, resulted in the downgrading of the Titan Legion’s strength along with restrictions on further growth. As a result, by the onset of the Great Crusade, official records estimated that the Legio Laniaskara possessed 100-120 god-engines, with its principal strength invested in Reaver and Warlord class Titans, with only a handful of Warbringer Nemesis and Punisher class god-engines for long-ranged support. Later estimates suggest the Impalers held greater strength than recorded; analysis of the Titan Legion’s deployment during the Cataclysm of Iron suggests a Titan Legion of a Primus-grade, fielding several dozen more Titans than Divisio Militaris records indicate. Such data is supported by the discovery of several concealed Legio Laniaskara Forge- fortresses during the Horus Heresy, with each facility focused solely on the construction of god-engines.
TheDivine Enlightener Prior to the arrival of the Mechanicum Explorator arks, the scattered people of Valia-Maximal placed their faith in the remnants of technology left behind following the ruin of civilisation during the Age of Strife. It was believed that such fragments were shards of the essence of a being known as ‘TheDivine Enlightener’. It was in this deity the tech-tribes placed their trust, resulting in the growth of a religious caste of priests who hoarded knowledge related to the operation of such technology, bequeathing it to their favoured servants only sparingly. Thearrival of the Mechanicum resulted in the destruction of the Theocracythat previously ruled Valia-Maximal, though some external scholars have argued that the Mechanicum simply replaced the previous rule with its own strand of religious governance.
Theacceptance of the Mechanicum as new rulers proved simple for the tech-tribes, as the Tech-Priests of Valia- Maximal displayed unparalleled mastery over technology. Thegod-engines of the Legio Laniaskara were perceived as divine avatars, the wrath of the Enlightener given physical form. To further this belief, the Princeps of the Legio Laniaskara would decorate the outskirts of tribal lands with the carcasses of beasts slain beneath the Forge World’s caustic seas. It was this practice that led to the cognomen ‘TheImpalers’ that became a common appellation for the Legio Laniaskara long before the arrival of the Imperium.
Legio Laniaskara (Impalers)
Legio Trait: Direct Measures Subtlety is not a concept that exists within the minds of those who serve the Legio Laniaskara. Instead, the Impalers bring the fight to their foe, hunting them down wherever they might hide.
Once per round, a single Legio Laniaskara Titan can declare Power to Locomotors! without needing to push its reactor.
Legio Trait: Bullish Beneath the caustic seas of their home world, Impalers Titans were often forced to fight their prey face to face, leading to a culture of direct conflict far beyond that of most other Titan Legions.
When making attacks as part of a Charge order, a Legio Laniaskara Titan may make a Smash Attack and one other attack with a weapon with the Melee trait. TheSmash Attack does not benefit from the additional dice from the Charge order.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Heedless Charge (1)
Contrary to the prescribed dictates of the Collegia Titanica, the use of close-quarters armaments, such as chainfists and Arioch power claws, was the norm amongst the Titans of the Legio Laniaskara. A favoured tactic of the Impalers was to unleash a spearhead of Reaver Titans armed with short range weapons upon enemy fortifications, battering down the walls and shattering all attempts to counter-attack.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Laniaskara player. Play this Stratagem at the start of any Strategy phase. For the remainder of the phase, any friendly Legio Laniaskara Titan can be issued a Charge order without the need to make a Command check.
Legio Specific Wargear: Mordantised Ceramite Themost notable achievement of Valia-Maximal was their specialised knowledge in the development of treated alloy plating that proved highly resistant to plasma burns and corrosive substances.
Any Legio Laniaskara Titan may be upgraded with Mordantised Ceramite for +10 points. Subtract 1 from the result of all Armour rolls made for an attack by a weapon with the Maximal Fire trait against a Titan with this upgrade. This negative modifier is applied even if the attacking unit is not using the Maximal Fire trait to increase its weapon’s Strength.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Laniaskara Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Cruel: ThePrinceps has no pity for weaklings – unworthy foes are swiftly crushed underfoot with little thought given to honour or mercy. When making attacks against units with a Scale of 5 or lower, increase the Strength of any hits by 2. 2 Titan Killer: ThePrinceps has long studied the blows needed to slay a Titan, believing them the ultimate foe to face. TheWarmaster’s betrayal has given them the chance to put such knowledge to the test. Once per round, the Princeps may re-roll all Armour rolls of a 1 for an attack made against an enemy Titan. 3 Heedless Rage: In battle, the Princeps is often consumed by rage and heedless of their own pain. Once per round, the Princeps may make an attack with a disabled weapon with the Melee trait. Once the effects of the attack have been resolved, the Princeps’ Titan suffers a single S10 hit to its Body.
Legio Laniaskara Reaver Battle Titan
BLOOD OFVALIA Given Legio Laniaskara’s reputation for favouring close-quarters combat, the loadout depicted here upon Blood of Valia was a common sight within the Titan Legion. TheImpalers placed particular emphasis on displaying their kills and trophies, measuring the success of each engine against their kin. Thiswas often done through the use of multiple
honour banners, as seen with the secondary banner hanging from the melta cannon of Blood of Valia.Thekill markings made note of the death caused with the individual weapon and, while rarely worn into battle, were updated
by the Titan’s crew personally, and proudly displayed upon the god-engine between battles.
Legio Laniaskara Warlord Battle Titan
BLOODDRENCHED Impalers Titans often bore designs that paid direct homage to the ancient tribes that once inhabited the surface
of Valia-Maximal. During the Age of Strife, the control of the Cult Mechanicus over the Forge World was not absolute and many groups of humanity regressed technologically. Thesetribes made their homes on islands scattered
across the caustic seas, sailing the deadly waters as they hunted the beasts that inhabited them. Many Princeps of Legio Laniaskara can directly trace their heritage back to these tribes, and the traditions of the Titan Legion bear
many similarities to the rituals their ancestors once practiced.
Legio Kulisaetai
Title: TheLegio Kulisaetai Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Tertius (Primus)
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Kalibraxan Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Kalibrax (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheGatekeepers
Allied War Houses: Redoubt
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
TheLegio Kulisaetai was once a broken Titan Legion, eroded by the trials it faced during the Age of Strife and pushed to the edge of extinction by the time the Great Crusade reached the Forge World of Kalibrax. It was only through relief efforts organised by Mars and military intervention led by elements of Legio Mortis that the continued existence of Kalibrax and the Legio Kulisaetai was secured. By this very act was the Forge World’s eternal loyalty to the office of Fabricator General gained and thus when the time came for Kelbor-Hal to aid the Warmaster’s perfidy so too did the god-engines of the Legio Kulisaetai march at his side, conquering the Belt of Iron in the name of a new order.
Theabundance of technologically-advanced ruins scattered across the surface of Kalibrax is evidence of a time when the Forge World might once have rivalled that of Mars itself. Such a state of prosperity had long since ended when the Great Crusade rediscovered the planet, instead finding a world wracked by the last embers of millennia of civil war. The near-victors of the conflict named themselves the ‘Endeavour of Airless Purity’ and adhered to doctrines that espoused the complete eradication of biological life on a galactic scale. The Mechanicum Explorator fleets that ranged ahead of the Great Crusade branded these doctrines as blasphemous, dispatching missives to the Red Planet that called for direct intervention in Kalibrax’s war in aid of the sole remaining faction that opposed the Endeavour of Airless Purity.
Requests for intervention were granted by the personal seal of the Fabricator General, who acceded to demands when evidence of Machine Cult doctrine was discovered amongst those who resisted the forces of Airless Purity. News of Kalibrax’s strife was concealed from the Expeditionary fleets in the vicinity of the Forge World, the Fabricator General instead marshalling forces solely from those sworn to him and him alone. To this end, a Legio Mortis demi-Legion was dispatched to Kalibrax, supported by fourscore Knights drawn from the Pact of Morbida and several detachments of Martian Taghmata forces. After establishing contact with the surviving enclaves of the Kalibraxan Mechanicum, the Martian task force descended upon the Forge World to rally the scattered forces of Kalibrax. In a matter of months, the tide of war had been reversed, the tech-cultists of Airless Purity thrown into disarray and forced to retreat to their chromatic fortifications. Thehonour of leading the final assault upon the nexus of tech-cultist activity was given to the 17 remaining god-engines of the Legio Kulisaetai, millennia of blood and defeat was repaid in an afternoon of destruction that forever left its mark upon the surface of Kalibrax.
Thereinvigoration of both Kalibrax and the Legio Kulisaetai proved to be a significant undertaking, for millennia of warfare had left behind a legacy of sub-standard forge-fanes and entire continents habited solely by ruins. To aid the Forge World’s recovery, a fresh populace was seeded upon Kalibrax, its numbers consisting of tech-wrights from dozens of industrial planets and Forge Worlds throughout the Imperium placed under the rule of Kalibrax’s ruling council. Likewise, the Legio Kulisaetai was reinforced, its Grandmaster gifted a complement of ancient Legio Mortis god-engines to strengthen the Titan Legion’s numbers along with dozens of Mortis personnel to act as advisors in the coming decades. Such acts of benevolence were not altruistic in nature but served to bind both Kalibrax and the Legio Kulisaetai closer to Mars, reinforcing the gratitude the Forge World held towards the Fabricator General. As a final token, the Legio Kulisaetai was bestowed the moniker of ‘The Gatekeepers’ which, according to Legio records, was personally chosen by Kelbor-Hal in recognition of the Titan Legion’s defence of Kalibrax against the endless foe that assailed it during the Age of Strife.
Thetransplanting of elements of the Legio Mortis into the Legio Kalibrax allowed the Gatekeepers to take its place amongst the ranks of the Great Crusade. Theancient rites and practices of the Martian Titan Legion also wrought great changes on the mien of the younger Titan Legion, for its Princeps idolised those of the Legio Mortis who joined its ranks. Official records state the advisors dispatched by the Death’s Heads were fully bound to the Legio Kulisaetai, stripped of all past loyalties and subservient only to the Grandmaster of the Gatekeepers. Despite this, many of those Princeps who hailed from the Legio Mortis quickly ascended the ranks of their new Titan Legion, achieving positions of prominence rapidly as the Gatekeepers’ strength grew. Further changes were seen, with the intense devotion the Legio Mortis held towards the Fabricator General reflected by the Legio Kulisaetai, its god-engines answering his call without hesitation.
In the wake of revelations of the Fabricator General’s treachery following the Schism of Mars, many within the Belt of Iron, the same region of space in which Kalibrax was located, presumed the Gatekeepers would follow him into the service of the Warmaster. Contrary to such suspicions, the magi of Kalibrax were quick to publicly sever all ties to Mars once news reached them, going so far as to broadcast executions of both Tech- Priests and Princeps accused of disloyalty to the Imperium. Themore sceptical observers noted that of those executed none had held firm ties to the Red Planet nor could they trace their heritage back to Legio Mortis. Yet, without firm evidence, no military action was sanctioned against Kalibrax.
As history shows, it was the actions of the Legio Kulisaetai that ignited the Cataclysm of Iron and plunged the Belt of Iron into war. Like many who held firm to Mars, the Gatekeepers had long harboured a hatred of the Legio Atarus for the perceived crimes Phaeton had committed with the colonisation of Atar-Median. Eager to prove their loyalty to the Warmaster, the Legio Kulisaetai toiled in secret during the period of tense neutrality that gripped the Belt of Iron during the opening years of the Horus Heresy. After securing the Findari Spoil, a solar system filled with stellar debris in close proximity to the Forge World of Atar-Median, the Titan Legion set upon building a new fortress in preparation for an invasion of the Loyalist Forge World. In time, this drew Kalibrax and Atar-Median into conflict, which quickly developed into open warfare between the Forge World’s respective Titan Legions. Theresulting cascade of violence led the Belt of Iron into war. Having publicly declared its intentions to topple the Emperor, the Legio Kulisaetai unleashed its god-engines across the region, slaying untold millions before Kalibrax eventually fell into Loyalist hands.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Following the eradication of the ‘Endeavour of Airless Purity’, the amassed strength of Legio Kulisaetai numbered just 13 operational god-engines, a far cry from the recorded peak of 148 god-engines that had once been operational during the Age of Strife. Even with reinforcements provided by the Legio Mortis, the Gatekeepers remained one of the smallest Titan Legions in service to the Imperium. It was only after decades of rejuvenation that the industry of Kalibrax proved capable of supporting an active Titan Legion; by the onset of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Kulisaetai contained an estimated 85-110 god-engines, with the Titan Legion favouring the deployment of Reaver and Warlord class Battle Titans.
Legio Kulisaetai (Gatekeepers)
Legio Trait: Callous Mercy and compassion are not virtues that are known to the Legio Kulisaetai, and the horrors of the galaxy are nothing compared to the suffering they can inflict.
Legio Kulisaetai Titans never suffer penalties to their Command checks and may ignore effects that force them to re-roll successful Command checks.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Steadfast Bastion (1)
Upon the field of battle, the Legio Kulisaetai would advance slowly towards their foe’s defences, unleashing a torrent of firepower between each step.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Kulisaetai player. Play this Strategy during any Shooting phase. Add 6" to the Short Range (but not the Long Range) characteristic of all weapons without the Melee trait carried by a Legio Kulisaetai Titan during the Combat phase, so long as it has not moved (voluntarily or involuntarily) already this round.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Methodical Advance (2)
When the Legio Kulisaetai marches, little can hope to stop them and all is crushed beneath their tread.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Kulisaetai player. Play this Stratagem in the Strategy phase of the first round. Choose a Scale. All friendly Legio Kulisaetai Titans with the same Scale as the chosen Scale may immediately make a move although no Titan may declare Power to Stabilisers! or Power to Locomotors!. After the effects of the Stratagem have been resolved, the opposing player becomes the First Player. Titans that move in this way may not be activated in the Strategy phase of the first round.
Legio Specific Wargear: Accelerated Autoloaders TheLegio Kulisaetai believed they were created to eradicate their foes so the Omnissiah could rebuild upon their ashes. To this end, they made frequent use of modified launchers that could unleash a tempest of missiles upon a chosen target.
Any Legio Kulisaetai Titan armed with either Apocalypse missile launchers or an Apocalypse missile launcher may be equipped with Accelerated Autoloaders for +20 points, so long as that Titan does not already have an upgrade affecting that weapon. Each weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. After resolving an attack made by a weapon with this upgrade, the Titan may immediately make a second attack with this weapon against the same target, applying a -1 modifier to all Hit rolls for that attack. After resolving the second attack, the weapon is disabled and the upgrade has no further effect for the remainder of the battle, even if the weapon is subsequently repaired.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Kulisaetai Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Ancient of Death: ThePrinceps was once part of the Legio Mortis before being integrated into the Gatekeepers, and they were centuries old even before the start of the Horus Heresy. When the Princeps’ Titan must roll on the Reactor Overload table, only ever roll a D6, even if the Reactor Status marker is in a red hole. 2 Infamous Warlord: ThePrinceps is known for being a merciless warrior with a history of atrocity that strikes fear into the heart of all but the sternest warriors. Enemy units within 8" of the Princeps’ Titan subtract 1 from any Command check they make. 3 Corrupted: A canker has taken root within the Princeps, warping their flesh and inuring them to pain. ThePrinceps Titan ignores the MIU Feedback and Princeps Wounded Damage effects.
Legio Kulisaetai Warlord Battle Titan
SANCTIFICETUR FILIUM Legio Kulisaetai favoured defensive loadouts on its Warlord Titans, as depicted here on Sanctificetur Filium during
the invasion of the Ny’Drinah sub-sector. Records indicate that few Legio Kulisaetai battlegroups went to war without one or more Warlord Titans. Indeed, Gatekeepers’ tactics often revolved around a group of Battle Titans securing a position, acting as a central point around which faster battlegroup elements would intercept threats. The use of both mid-ranged and long-ranged weapons ensured that few foes made it close without suffering significant
damage, thus reducing the danger of close-quarters warfare.
Legio Kulisaetai Warbringer Nemesis Titan
INDURATED BULWARK TheGatekeepers showed a preference for the employment of Warbringer Nemesis Titans during both offensive and
defensive actions. Great Crusade martial records indicate that Legio Kulisaetai possessed only three Warbringers, but estimates taken during the Horus Heresy point to at least a dozen within the ranks of the Titan Legion. This
discrepancy was explained when the wreck of Indurated Bulwark was salvaged by Tech-Priests of Atar-Median from the ruins of Malhanr. Assessment of the engine’s origins suggest the Indurated Bulwark once bore the name Iron Valour, having belonged to Legio Astraman. Several other instances point towards a dedicated effort by Legio
Kulisaetai to capture Warbringer Nemesis Titans and turn them against Loyalist forces.
Legio Damicium
Title: TheLegio Damicium Ordo Titanicus
Militaris Grade: Tertius
Patent: Pre-Imperial, Urdeshi Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Urdesh
Cognomen: TheUnbroken Lords
Allied War Houses: None
Allegiance: Traitoris Perditaa
For much of the Age of Strife, the Legio Damicium, wardens of the Forge World of Urdesh, faced a slow extinction. This seemingly inevitable demise was brought on by Urdesh’s loss of the knowledge and STC patterns needed to produce additional god-engines. No reason for such a loss is reported within the Forge World’s archives; manufacturing logs indicate that the last Legio Damicium Titan to walk from the forge-fanes of Urdesh, a Warlord Battle Titan bearing the name Somnium Ultimus, was constructed nearly a millennia before the arrival of the Great Crusade to the Forge World. No further god- engines are recorded to have been born upon Urdesh and, with each passing decade, the ranks of the Legio Damicium dwindled, xenos invasion and pirate raids taking their toll upon the Titan Legion.
Sitting as it does on the border between the Segmentum Pacificus and Segmentum Solar, Urdesh was quickly brought into the Imperial fold, contacted by Mechanicum Explorator fleets dispatched in the vanguard of the Great Crusade. Of particular interest to the Imperium’s dignitaries was Urdesh’s capacity to produce vast numbers of arms and war machines frequently utilised by the Imperial Army. Mars saw Urdesh as a perfect vessel through which they could expand their power within the Segmentum Pacificus and expended much effort in securing the loyalty of the Forge World. Noting the dilapidated state of the Legio Damicium – numbering as it did less than 30 god-engines, many of which were battered by warfare and held together by patchwork repairs – an offer of supply was extended to Urdesh. In return for dedication to the Imperium, oaths of fealty to Mars, and the considerable prowess of its forge-fanes, Urdesh would receive the patronage of the Red Plant and regular shipments of newly forged god-engines to replenish the decaying strength of the Legio Damicium. For the ruling bodies of Urdesh, who had already observed the marshalled strength of the Legio Mortis, such an offer proved irrefutable.
In the decades that followed, the promises of Mars were kept and the strength of the Legio Damicium grew to numbers not seen since the Forge World’s founding, a circumstance which led the Titan Legion to bestow the name of ‘Unbroken Lords’ upon itself. Despite this, discontent grew amongst the Titan Legion’s ranks due to the refusal of Mars and other notable Forge Worlds to supply the knowledge necessary for Urdesh to construct its own god-engines, knowledge its tech-wrights desperately wished for. Relying purely on external support to replenish casualties lost on the battlefields of the Great Crusade, the servants of Urdesh regularly found themselves bowing and scraping to other Mechanicum enclaves. Failure to do so resulted in delayed shipments or a reduced number of god- engines, depriving the Legio Damicium of its promised Titans. Thoughsuch circumstances were held up as accidents that were subsequently corrected, the reliance Urdesh had on others to maintain its Titan Legion became increasingly intolerable.
Thedesire of Urdesh to become truly self-sufficient is believed to be what ultimately drove the Forge World into the hands of the Warmaster. In the years before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, increased shipments between Mars and Urdesh were recorded, dispatched on personal order of the Fabricator General. Alongside this, schematics denied to more illustrious Mechanicum enclaves were provided to Urdesh, including rare Leman Russ patterns which cemented the Forge World as the primary supplier of Imperial Army forces operating within the Segmentum Pacificus. Thesegifts no doubt secured the allegiance of Urdesh for the Warmaster, cultivating an image that those who served him would further reap the fruits of knowledge. When the treachery of Horus was revealed and the Red Planet fell into schism, Urdesh had already begun mobilising its forge-fanes for all-out war.
Thetrue allegiance of Urdesh was not to be revealed until the Cataclysm of Iron began in earnest, yet the Forge World did not sit idle during the opening years of the Horus Heresy. Numerous clandestine tithe shipments bearing no identifying marks were apprehended ferrying materiel shipments in the Segmentum Solar, intended for hidden cells loyal to the Warmaster. Suspicion quickly fell upon Urdesh, for many of the weapons bore marks similar to those displayed by its forge-wrights, yet only circumstantial evidence of this existed. With much of the Imperium’s fighting force occupied by more pressing threats, Urdesh was left to simmer, viewed as only a minor threat that could be dealt with in time. Thegod-engines of the Legio Damicium were to walk openly against the Emperor during the Cataclysm of Iron, focusing their wrath on those Loyalist Forge Worlds who had denied them the knowledge to construct god-engines, eager to plunder their archives for the prosperity of Urdesh.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Throughoutthe Great Crusade, the total number of operational god-engines within the Legio Damicium ranged from 50- 85, with its serving demi-Legio replenished by shipments dispatched from other Forge Worlds at the behest of Mars. Thesenumbers were spread evenly amongst the three mainstay Warhound, Reaver and Warlord classes of Titans, with rarer patterns such as the Warbringer Nemesis being confined to a handful at their most plentiful. To reduce war losses, the Legio Damicium invested heavily in the development of secondary layers of armour plating that enhanced the survivability of its god-engines; bitter about the denial of knowledge to Urdesh, the Titan Legion refused to share such developments with others of its ilk.
TheTitan Legion’s limited numbers encouraged the development of dedicated Taghmata support units that represented a blending of Mechanicum doctrine with Imperial Army tactics. Thecomposition of these forces, self-labelled as ‘Tempest Throngs’,were reminiscent of the Solar Auxilia in both skill and armament, combining armoured companies with infantry well-versed in operating alongside Titans on the field of battle. By the onset of the Horus Heresy, the Tempest Throngs had cultivated a reputation for great skill on the field of battle, often eclipsing that of the Legio Damicium itself.
Legio Damicium (Unbroken Lords)
Legio Trait: Trifling Pain Legio Damicium Princeps are trained to endure pain that would drive others to the edge of insanity, a trait that proves useful in the thick of battle.
When activated in the Movement phase, a Legio Damicium Titan may choose to ignore a single Critical Damage effect. Thislasts until the end of the Combat phase. In addition, Legio Damicium Titans can repair Critical Damage effects on a roll of a 4+ instead of a 5+.
Legio Trait: Envious Thoseof the Legio Damicium are aware that the continued existence of their Legio is reliant on the generosity of others, leading many amongst their number to nurture bitterness towards more prominent Titan Legions.
Add 1 to the result of all Command checks made by Legio Damicium Titans so long as at least one enemy Titan of an equal or larger Scale than their own is visible to them.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Endurance beyond Limit (3)
Even in times of great strife and pain, the Princeps of Urdesh do not waver, refusing to bow before certain death.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Damicium player. Play this Stratagem at the start of the Combat phase, before any units are activated. TheLegio Damicium player may immediately make a Repair roll for each Titan, rolling a number of D6 equal to half its Servitor Clades characteristic (rounding up).
Legio Specific Wargear: Secondary Plating Thoughstill valuing the majesty of their engines, those of the Legio Damicium were not averse to brutalising their form to increase their efficiencyin war.
Any Legio Damicium Titan may take Secondary Plating for +10 points. Thefirst Critical Hit a Titan with this upgrade receives is downgraded to a Devastating Hit instead. As soon as this happens, the benefits from this piece of Wargear are lost for the remainder of the battle.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Damicium Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Beyond Death: ThePrinceps accepts that death is inevitable and will fight to the bitter end, seizing a small measure of victory in their death. When this Princeps suffers Catastrophic Damage, make a Command check for the Titan before rolling on the Catastrophic Damage table. If the check is successful, do not roll on the table. Instead, the Titan moves D6" in a direction of the controlling player’s choice, stopping before it collides with an enemy unit. TheTitan then immediately suffers a Magazine Detonation. 2 Bitter Soul: ThePrinceps marches on, not out of a sense of duty but out of a spiteful need to deny their foe any measure of glory. ThePrinceps’ Titan does not halve their Speed when they suffer a hit from a Quake weapon that is not deflected by their shields, nor do they pivot (i.e., on a roll of a 1-2 or a 5-6) when they suffer a hit from a Concussive weapon that is not deflected by their shields. 3 Limitless: ThePrinceps is ruthless, believing nothing should stand in the way of victory, pushing themselves and their Titan beyond all reasonable limits. Once per game, during the Combat phase, the Princeps’ Titan may make a weapon attack with any and all of its disabled weapons as if they were not disabled.
Legio Damicium Warlord Battle Titan
WOUNDEDMONARCH Legio Damicium placed great pride in their ability to stand against odds others might deem insurmountable. This behaviour stemmed largely from the fact that the Unbroken Lords relied upon the generosity of Mars to replenish
their numbers. TheWounded Monarch, depicted here mustering upon Urdesh during the closing years of the Great
Crusade, was named for its history of surviving damage initially thought unrepairable. Theskull marks upon its shoulder armour relate the number of times an enemy left the Warlord for dead, only for both it and its Princeps to
survive and rise again years later to unleash its anger upon the foes of Urdesh once more.
Legio Damicium Reaver Battle Titan
PRECIPICE OF RUINATION By the time Urdesh was brought into the Imperial fold, the vast majority of Legio Damicium Titans bore names that alluded
to the gradual march to extinction the Legio was suffering. Thisritual continued even after fresh supplies of god-engines were gifted to Legio Damicium, for the Titan Legion still lacked the knowledge necessary to construct its own Titans; to its
Princeps, this was delaying the inevitable rather than being a cure for their woes. Precipice of Ruination was one of the first newer god-engines Legio Damicium received following contact with the Imperium, its name chosen as an implication that
without direct control of the supply of Titans, the Unbroken Lords were but a single act of misfortune away from ruin.
Legiotritonis
Title: TheLegio Tritonis [Ordo Titanicus status unratified]
Militaris Grade: Unknown, presumed Secundus/Tertius-prime
Patent: Post-Crusade, Arachnus Mechanicum
Warden Domain(s): Arachnus (Forge World)
Cognomen: TheDark Tide
Allied War Houses: Numerous Freeblade Associations
Allegiance: Traitoris Perdita
Thename of the Legio Tritonis is one few would commonly associate with the Forge World of Arachnus, for the nascent Titan Legion did not exist within any known records before the onset of the Horus Heresy and the succession of Arachnus from the Imperium. Indeed, it is the Legio Venator that was first founded upon the distant Forge World during the Age of Strife as wardens against the gargantuan arachnid-like fauna that roamed the planet. Thelegacy of the Iron Spiders, to use the more common appellation of the Legio Venator, is integral to the foundation of the Legio Tritonis, for many of the former’s Princeps formed the core of the latter, loyal to Arachnus before any other.
Themotivations behind the creation of the Legio Tritonis are complex and rooted in the desire of Arachnus to remain independent of distant rulers. When the Forge World was discovered by the Great Crusade, it heavily resisted integration with the Imperium, surrendering only after several years of warfare that left both sides bloodied. Even after they were subjugated and brought into the Imperial fold, Arachnus appeared, at times, malcontent, working tirelessly to build a power base within the Belt of Iron and assert its influence within the wider Imperium. At the forefront of such efforts was its attempts to increase its power in the Martian Parliament, with fleets dispatched from Arachnus seeking out undiscovered lesser Forge Worlds and offering them patronage in return for control of the newcomer’s vote in the parliament. Furthermore, Arachnus proved adept at shielding its inner workings from outside interference, delaying tithe ships and concealing forge- fanes from Martian delegations. TheForge World’s defiance was balanced by its securing of supply deals with the Emperor’s own Custodes; possessing skill in laser technology that proved second to none. Arachnus became indispensable in ensuring the Custodes had access to rare technology, earning the Forge World leeway in its dealings with other Imperial parties.
Arachnus and the Legio Custodes
Given the barely concealed anti-Imperial sentiments of many amongst the ruling powers of Arachnus, it is ironic that much of the Forge World’s prominence was built upon its role in supplying the Emperor’s own Custodes. Arachnus’ expertise in laser technology soon saw them become a favoured supplier of the Custodes, with Arachnus Blaze cannon and Storm cannon seeing frequent use on the heavier support elements of the Legio Custodes. Alongside this, Arachnus gained further renown for the loyal service elements of the Legio Venator gave within the Expeditionary fleets of the Great Crusade, with many of its Princeps noted for heroism and self-sacrifice. Combined, these two factors were seen by many amongst the Imperium as evidence of a societal shift amongst the people of Arachnus, with the Forge World slowly transitioning into firm subjects of the Imperium. As history proved, this assessment was woefully ignorant.
TheLegio Venator also showed a measure of dissension during the Great Crusade, at least in those Princeps left to watch over the domain of Arachnus. While the principal strength of the Titan Legion was dispatched to the forefront of the Great Crusade, and in doing so developed a firm belief in self-sacrifice and a devotion to the wider Imperium, the remaining god-engines remained closer to the Forge World. Such elements of the Legio Venator proved resistant to Imperial commands, lending aid to nearby beleaguered worlds at the behest of the Arachnus magi and ignoring any orders from external commanders.
Thestark difference in ethos of those of the Legio Venator deployed across the Expeditionary fleets and those remaining within the borders of Arachnus’ holdings would eventually lead to an ideological split in the Titan Legion, with Princeps from both elements publicly trading barbs on numerous occasions. Matters only intensified when the principal strength of the Legio Venator was rotated back to Arachnus for repair and refit, with escalating tensions threatening bloodshed. Such an outcome was delayed, but not halted, by the outbreak of the Horus Heresy.
Like many Forge Worlds across the Belt of Iron, Arachnus kept its intentions and loyalties secretive during the opening years of the conflict. Political factions present on the Forge World called for Arachnus to join the war both for the Imperium and against it, while others demanded it seize the moment and establish a new order with the Forge World at its centre. Matters came to a head when a cadre of senior Princeps, who had served for decades within the Great Crusade, demanded Arachnus fulfil its duties to Imperium and Emperor or face dissent and rebellion at home. In response, several demi-Legios of the Legio Venator were dispatched for the Ny’Drinah sub-sector, ostensibly in support of the Imperial war effort in the region. Given later events, it is clear such a move was intended to rid the Forge World of dissenting elements, the dispatched demi-Legio made up primarily of those who held loyalty to the Imperium over their Forge World.
Shortly after Arachnus’ apparent declaration of support for the Imperium, communications between the Forge World and other planets halted. Docking manifests indicate that voidships in the employ of the Warmaster’s fleets alighted at the Forge World during this time, with inventory records detailing shipments of plasma reactors, Titan-grade munitions and raw materials necessary for the construction of god-engines. Thenature of these shipments suggest the Warmaster believed he had secured the Forge World as his ally and worked to swell the size of those Legio Venator elements loyal to Arachnus.
In this, both the Imperium and the Warmaster were fooled. Having reaped the benefits of claiming allegiance to both sides, Arachnus broke its silence to announce its independence, declaring both the Emperor and the Warmaster as conquerors and murderers who deserved no respect from the Forge World and its people. A brief period of cleansing followed upon Arachnus, with Legio Venator Princeps who refused to break their oaths with the Imperium set upon by maniples of Titans bearing altered colours and assembled under a new banner. In acknowledgement of its new path, the secessionist elements of the Legio Venator rallied under a new name – the Legio Tritonis, chosen in honour of their Forge World and its two moons. Thoughwarfare between secessionist and Imperialists was to rage on Nizkara, the second moon of Arachnus, for the remainder of the Horus Heresy, the Legio Tritonis had secured the remainder of Arachnus’ holdings and cemented its standing as a powerful independent state.
Thenewly appointed wardens of Arachnus were bequeathed two tasks. Thefirst was the total extermination of the surviving elements of the Legio Venator, who were declared as Traitors to their heritage and their ancestral world. To this end, hunter maniples were assigned to the regions surrounding M’Khand, a secondary Forge-fortress appropriated as the primary base of operations for the Legio Venator in the Belt of Iron following the rebellion of Arachnus. Thoughthe Princeps of the Legio Venator and the Legio Tritonis had once walked beneath the same banner, neither spared compassion for the other, and death and destruction was visited upon numerous worlds as both Titans Legions sought to eradicate the other.
Thesecond task proved to be the expansion of Arachnus’ holdings, the Forge World proving ill-content with its current borders. Legio Tritonis demi-Legio were frequently reported on worlds bordering the Forge Empire of Arachnus, its god-engines descending upon lesser Forge Worlds who had, in the past, aligned themselves with Arachnus. Portrayed as emissaries for a prosperous new order, any who denied requests for subservience were greeted with fire and flame, populations slaughtered until the worlds bowed to Arachnus. Thiswanton campaign of conquest and destruction soon earned the Legio Tritonis a new name, for survivors proclaimed that its god- engines descended like a tide of darkness, snuffing out all hope.
TheLegio Tritonis thrived during the Horus Heresy, using plundered resources in conjunction with god-engines captured through conflicts with the Legio Venator and other Titan Legions within the Belt of Iron to rapidly increase its numbers. Eventually, the Dark Tide was to face its reckoning when the Iron Spiders returned to Arachnus with the support of the Legio Atarus. Theresulting conflict raged for several years and, upon its conclusion, Arachnus was once more brought to heel by the Imperium’s war machine. Official records state that all dissenting elements of Arachnus, including the Legio Tritonis, were exterminated to a man. Nevertheless, scattered reports appear to this day of god-engines bearing the colours of the Legio Tritonis, many standing sentinel over concealed Mechanicum enclaves within the Belt of Iron that prove hostile to diplomatic efforts and quick to relocate should efforts be made to conquer them.
MATERIEL STRENGTH Estimates of the Legio Tritonis’ strength following the succession of Arachnus from the Imperium are based upon comparisons of the surviving strength of the Legio Venator during the Horus Heresy against records collected before Ullanor. While exact numbers are impossible to verify, records utilise the predictions of the Legio Venator in their assessment of the Dark Tide, placing the latter’s strength between 50-90 god-engines during the Cataclysm of Iron. Suspected numbers vary widely thanks to Arachnus’ efforts in siphoning resources from the Imperium and the Warmaster prior to its declaration of independence. Having maintained wardenship of Arachnus, the Legio Tritonis also retained control of ancient god- engines previously available to the Legio Venator, allowing it to field rarer patterns such as several Nemesis Titans and two known Imperator Titans.
Legio Tritonis (Dark Tide)
Legio Trait: Tide of Iron Iktomia, the first moon of Arachnus, had long ago altered its production capacity in favour of Warlord Titans, which were better suited to fight the mega-arachnids that once plagued Arachnus.
Any Legio Tritonis maniple may select a Warlord Titan in place of any Reaver Titan as part of its mandatory components. Note that for the purposes of the maniple’s rules, the replacement Titan does not count as the Titan type it is replacing.
Legio Trait: Revel in Slaughter TheHorus Heresy was seen as a way to enact vengeance upon the Imperium, who had shackled their world to a distant overlord.
Add 1 to the result of all Command checks made by friendly Legio Tritonis Titans for each enemy Titan previously destroyed during this battle, to a maximum of 3.
Legio Specific Stratagem: Stygian Veil (3)
A vanguard of Arachnus tech-cadres would accompany the Legio Tritonis to battle, deploying esoteric devices that could temporarily shroud a portion of the battlefield in impenetrable darkness.
ThisStratagem can be purchased by any Legio Tritonis player. Play this Stratagem during any Strategy phase. TheLegio Tritonis player may immediately pick up to three points anywhere on the battlefield – each point must be at least 10" away from a previously chosen point. Any section of the battlefield within 3" of a chosen point blocks line of sight and any non-Legio Tritonis unit within 6" of one or more points suffers a -2 penalty to any Command checks they make. At the start of the End phase, the Stratagem’s effects end.
Legio Specific Wargear: Radiative Warheads Uncaring of the damage done to the planets they conquered, the Legio Tritonis quickly implemented the use of warheads that contained a radiation heavy payload that placed great strain upon void shields.
Any Legio Tritonis Titan armed with either Apocalypse missile launchers or an Apocalypse missile launcher may be equipped with Radiative Warheads for +25 points, so long as that Titan does not already have an upgrade affecting that weapon. Each weapon a Titan is armed with must be upgraded separately. When making an attack with a weapon with this upgrade against a target with active void shields, each Hit roll of a 6 counts as two hits.
Legio Specific Personal Traits A Legio Tritonis Princeps Seniores’ Personal Trait can either be generated from the table on page 55 of the Adeptus Titanicus rulebook, or by rolling a D3 on the table that follows:
D3 PERSONALTRAITS 1 Tactical Genius: ThePrinceps is a natural leader, able to quickly react to their foes and adapt a battleplan to counter any change in fortunes. While the Princeps is on the battlefield, the player may re-roll the dice when determining who will be the First Player. If they do so, the Princeps’ Titan cannot be activated in the following Strategy phase. 2 Lust for Vengeance: ThePrinceps views damage to their Titan as the greatest insult a foe can give and will strive to ensure the perpetrator is torn apart in return. Once per game, when the Princeps’ Titan suffers Critical Damage, the Titan may respond in kind. After resolving all the effects of the attack that caused the Critical Damage, the Princeps’ Titan may immediately make a single attack with any of its non-disabled weapons against the unit that caused the Critical Damage. If this attack destroys the enemy unit, the opponent’s activation ends. 3 Leader of Arachnus: ThePrinceps is highly respected on their home world and has an army of retainers, Tech-Priests and strategists that will gladly follow them into battle. Thepresence of this Princeps within the battlegroup allows it to purchase the Legio Specific Stratagem: Stygian Veil multiple times, with each purchase after the first costing 2 Stratagem points instead of 3. Though the Stratagem can be purchased multiple times, it can only be played once per phase.
Legiotritonis Warlord Battle Titan
CHAINBREAKER Thoughostensibly a new Legio formed during the Cataclysm of Iron, Legio Tritonis could trace its legacy back to the Age of Strife. Thecreation of Legio Tritonis came during the Horus Heresy when
Arachnus split from the Imperium in an effort to establish their own Forge empire. Chainbreaker, depicted here in propaganda distributed across the Forge Empire of Arachnus during the Cataclysm
of Iron, originally bore the name Sonus est Omnissiah and had served under the banner of Legio Venator since M28. Like many Legio Tritonis god-engines, Chainbreaker was titled anew following the
foundation of the new Titan Legion, shedding its old identity in a public act of renewal.
Legiotritonis Warmaster Battle Titan
BELLATOR LIBERTAS Theveil of secrecy which surrounded the existence of the Warmaster Titans means it is impossible to verify if Bellator Libertas, which roughly translates to ‘A Warrior’s Freedom’, was renamed following the foundation of Legio Tritonis; the practice of renaming
Dark Tide god-engines proved popular following Arachnus’ declaration of independence. Regardless, Bellator Libertas was utilised
by Arachnus as a constant deterrent for dissent upon planets the Forge World’s armies conquered during the Cataclysm of Iron. Collated testimonies from survivors of numerous invasions by Legio Tritonis forces indicate that the Warmaster would emerge in the final moment of conflict. TheTitan Legion would then unleash its might upon a city or military fortification, broadcasting the
complete destruction of its target across the planet in question. Few retained the will for rebellion upon watching a single god-
engine kill tens of thousands over the course of minutes, with surrender to the forces of Arachnus quickly following.