+ Crewing a Titan +

+ Nuts and bolts of Titan crew +

The core concepts of Princeps as the commander and Moderati as support have held true ever since, even if the atmosphere as a whole has become more bound up in mysticism, doctrine and so forth.

An alternative – and remember, this is all informed guesswork – is that the missing three servitors could be accounted for as gunners for the automated defence weapons, be patrolling the deck as combat servitors, or pretty much any other task you'd like them for in your Titan.

+++

+ What do the crew do? +

The names of the crew are a mix of High Gothic cod-Latin and naval/military terms, which means that we can make some educated guesses as to their roles and duties.

• Princeps
• Perhaps the easiest to define, and certainly the most explored in the background, is the Princeps. This crew member takes the role of the ship's captain, and is also the one who has the most direct and deep connection to the Titan; feeling its body as his or her own.
• Primus
• This rank is in Betrayer, the Primus is seemingly reponsible for actioning the Princeps' orders; covering movement and aiming and firing the weapons.
• Steersman
• From implication, the Steersman is in charge of directing the Titan's movements; maintaining a course and speed.
• Navigator
• ... and the flip side of the Steersman taking you somewhere is the Navigator showing the Princeps where they need to go. In the context of 40k, Navigators are usually a special abhuman, but here I think it's most likely a more mundane map-reader and person in charge of analysis.
• Sensorious
• We can interpret this as someone in charge of the Titan's sensor array – something akin to a real-world officer in a naval operations room, in charge of identifying threats and hazards through 'spoor', the 40k equivalent of radar, sonar etc. 
• Pleasingly, the sensorium is also a biological concept; it's the part of the brain that receives and interprets experiences – which is very on-brand for a 40k Titan.
• Oratorius
• With heavy Classical/religious trappings drawn from orare ('to pray'), the Oratorius can be interpreted as being in charge of that very 40k-coded mix of militarism and mysticism; so having some role to do with channeling and placating the Machine Spirit of the Titan and guarding the spirits of the crew. 
• Alternatively, we can draw the origin of the rank from Oratorio, which is a musical term, suggesting this Moderatus orchestrates everything; making sure all the crew and systems are working together.
• Weapons Moderati
• Fairly clear here, I think. A Weapons Moderatus is in charge of a particular primary weapon.
• Tech-priest
• The other easy one – or at least a more well-documented 40k role – the Tech-priest in a Titan is in charge of the Servitor clade, monitoring and overseeing the plasma reactor, and directs repairs. He's the chief engineer, but with a heavy coat of religious paint.

In some background it's suggested that the Princeps controls everything that the Titan needs to do actively – movement, weapons and so forth. This relegates the rest of the crew to support roles. In other bits of background, we have the Princeps operating more as a directing force; so they order the Moderati to fire the weapons or increase the Titan's speed, for example – but it's the Moderati themselves that action things.

If you prefer the former, this makes having a crew on the smaller end much more sensible: one Princeps supported to two Moderati. If you prefer the latter, it makes more sense to have specialist Moderati directly involved in aiming and firing the guns, or moving the Titan's legs. And of course, you can happily blur the roles a bit: the Princeps deciding all the Titan's movement, for example, but the Moderati actually enacting things.

By terminology (and the appearance of the 'Secundus' rank in Betrayer), we can take the Primus to be the second-in-command – a 'Number 1' that's a senior Moderatus. We're told that Moderati are effectively Princeps in training, some (but not all) of whom will one day ascend to command a Titan of their own. You can decide how formal you want your Legio to be; and having titles like Primus are one way of showing it.

As a third option, it's notable that the 'gunnery command chamber' listed is singular, so all the weapons Moderati and our missing servitors could be grouped together rather than in individual little 'bubbles' for each main gun. But that begs a questions – where is this gunnery command chamber, and what form does it take?

+++

+ Where do the crew go? +

Besides the background in the book, we've also got the models to help guide us. The Forge World Reaver Titan is the Mars-Pattern, and that has the Princeps and two Moderati in the head...

+ Pict-capture from Games Workshop – used without permission +

...while under the carapace you'll find a Tech-priest and three servitors embedded in the walls and ceiling. Bafflingly, GW have precisely zero pictures of the Reaver interior on their website, but you can can see some great shots of the interior built and painted by Goddenzilla at their blog Kaiju Country [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

What can we take from this? At face value, that the Mars-pattern Reaver sits toward the lower end of the crew complement outlined in the rulebook background. Given that the Clade is represented by just three visible servitors, however, rather than the minimum of six, we should probably assume that the model doesn't quite reflect the in-universe reality – so it's entirely possible that there are more Servitors and possibly Moderati in other parts of the Titan that simply aren't shown/modelled.

+++

+ Rivet-counting +

For explorations of the 'fuzzy edges' of 40k like this, I've always leaned towards the 'yes, and' principle. By that I mean that while there's often an answer within the 'official' background, there's lots of room for interpretation and variety. 'Yes, Mark II power armour has a fixed helm – and there are some variants that have a mobile helm'. It allows people to point to particular details and stick closely to 'the canon lore', but also allows for updates, retcons and good old fashioned exploring and creativity.

Do Reaver Titans have the Princeps and two Moderati in the head? 

Yes, and some also have more Moderati elsewhere as well/this Legio has all the crew in the gunnery deck/this pattern only has the Steersman there/this particular Titan crams seven crew into the head.

You have a lot of freedom. While Titans can be identified as different types, they are ritualised and individual creations – so their creation has as much in common with a church or temple as with, say, a tank or car.

Churches of a particular era can be identified by being built in a cross shape, and will have an atrium, an apse, an altar etc. – these are the things that make them a church building rather than, say, a town hall – but there will also be a lot of variety in the specifics. The point is that they're individual buildings, and not mass-manufactured.

Likewise a Reaver can be identified by certain elements: being broadly human-shaped, having mounting points for three primary weapons, broad scale (covered by the in-universe term Immensus), and having a machine spirit that can be interacted with by the Princeps. The finer details – berthing gauge, resting height, reactor output etc. – will vary depending upon the particular Forgeworld, time and circumstances of its creation. This extends to the crew compartment, and thus the crew.

On top of that, besides the design of the individual Titan, the Forge World's, Legio's and crew's cultural and societal idiosyncracies, beliefs and ranking systems will also differ, which means that there's absolutely no reason why different Titans of the same type might not have different crews for various reasons. 

+++

Back to the crew. What does this variety mean for our hypothetical Reaver crew? Well, all Reavers must have a Princeps, and must have a Tech-priest, and must have at least two Moderati. Beyond that, you've got a lot of flex.

Even within a Titan Legion, different Titan patterns and variants exist. Mars- and Lucius-pattern Titans might serve together as the result of ten thousand years of war, alliance and trade, and there are presumably lots more patterns of Titan, some of which might cram all the crew into the head; others of which split them between the head and a gunnery deck; and still others might have the crew elsewhere. 

AT87 made this explicit, with the 'Deathstrike head' variant. This replaced the head entirely with a giant gun (Jes Goodwin clearly channeling his inner Mekaniak with this design!), and moved the crew to a fire control platform or tower:

Incidentally, it's my guess that this concept of a giant centreline gun with a viewing platform served as part of the inspiration for the new Warbringer-Nemesis Titan.

The variety of heads Jes designed suggests that the GW design team left lots of design space open on what exactly was going on in a Titan's head. The Command and Custodian Heads (top left of the picture) suggest a mobile command and control centre, perhaps with more space for Moderati – these would be a great head to use as inspiration if you want lots of Moderati there. I can picture a two-tiered bridge-style interior, with the Sensorius, Oratorius and Princeps on one level, and a Steersman and two weapon Moderati on the next level down.

The weapons heads – particularly the close combat and Corvus assault head – would suggest that the Princeps and Moderati were tucked away elsewhere in the Titan, on a separate command and control deck, so this concept might be your choice if you prefer a naval-style 'ops room' to the more common pilot-style approach.

(The design, of course, suggests that – but doesn't insist upon it. You're quite welcome to have your Princeps and Moderati perched above a chainblade if you wish! That mix of reverence and danger is very fitting for the insanity of the 41st millennium).

+++

+ Conclusion +

Much of this is my speculation, and its purpose is to spark some ideas for you to help design and explore the crew of your Titan.

The point that I'm dancing around is that you can have a very rigid and structured system for your Reaver (and other Titans), or a very freeform one. Like much of 40k, you've got the whole gamut of sleek Star Trek-style sci-fi right down to techno-barbarian thugs following through with blood ritual, taking in hooded monks guiding their titan through organ-style keyboards, amputees in fluid-filled tanks, fighter-pilot style charmers and much, much more.

Keep your inload-port cycled open, as I'm planning to use the info and ideas above as a way to explore a Reaver crew of my own devising – to show how this all works in practise, and how we can apply it to  making fun models with a bit of story behind them.

+ Cue 80s montage music +

+++

+ How to build the Warden Titan +

+ Kit review and build notes +

+ Building the Warden Titan +

+ Planning, prep and cleaning +

+ Torso +

Don't glue the legs just yet – but do dry fit them to make sure that all the parts go together cleanly.

+++

+ A note on posing +

I recommend you build the first leg from the bottom up – i.e. starting from the foot. If you're posing your Warden in motion, I suggest starting with the foot nearest the centre of gravity – i.e. the one with most foot in contact with the ground. If you're going for a more static pose with both feet firmly down, this doesn't matter.

Why does this matter for a sense of motion? If you start with the foot nearest the centre of gravity, you know that you have a firm foundation for the model, and it has support on the base. You can then build up to the pelvis, get everything secure, then build the other leg down from the pelvis so you can adjust the pose relative to the base.

If the second foot is left in mid-air, that's then not a problem – the pose will work because the first leg looks sturdy, so it 'reads right', and the pelvis remains at the level you want so you don't end up with a drunk-looking pose. The toes can be angled to below the level of the centre of the foot, to look more convincing.

If the second foot instead does contact the ground as you build down, you've still got flexibility in the hip and knee to make sure that the pelvis remains stable. That's what happened with mine owing to a bit of poor planning with the base, and you'll see later on how I adjusted things to ensure a good result.

+++

Enough theoreticals! Back to the build:

Each foot comes with four support struts (top), four toes (bottom), a central foot and two additional armour plates – so don't panic that you're missing a couple of toes. The additional armour plates fit on the joints without sockets, but for the moment pop them to one side.

Take your time deciding on the pose you want for the foot, and dry fit it all together – Blu-tak or similar is very useful. 

If you go for a more stoic or static pose, this stage is easier. I've gone for a fairly dynamic pose to show you what's possible while not causing any problems later on.

When you're happy with the foot, dry fit the leg and pelvis as shown. It's important that the sockets on the foot align with the vertical striped areas on the shin – this is where the support struts will attach, and if it's twisted too far, the shin armour won't fit later. 

At this point, glue the foot and leg together, but leave the pelvis unglued. Put it to one side.

+++

Glue the front three support struts in place one at a time, starting with the central one (it's easier to get to the others than slot the middle one in later). 

+ Front view +

This picture shows a detail of the foot with the support struts in place – you can see that there's quite a bit of play and poseability in the toes and feet, which is great.

It's important at this point to dry fit the shin armour, ideally before the glue dries on the support struts. It should drop down from above and the plug at the back connect neatly into the slot on the front of the shin. 

If  the armour doesn't fit at this point, you'll need to break off the struts and/or toes and rethink your pose – and while the 3D print resin is fairly strong, it's also brittle and prone to breaking if forced. 

Dry fit everything, get your plan in place, and execute things as quickly and smoothly as you can.

+++

+ Rear view +

Glue the back support strut in place, then glue the two additional armour plates on as shown on the left. I've left the one on the right off so you can see the clever moulding on the back – this gives flexibility with the pose.

As for the front, dry fit the shin armour while you finalise the armour plates' position to avoid later problems.

+++

+ Body and head +

Good news – with the first leg done, the rest of the build is all downhill. 

Dry fit and assemble the other leg as described above. The Warden's hips connect via balljoints, but these aren't as prominent as on the GW Titans. As a result, there's not so much play in posing, so be careful. Make sure the pelvis is able to attach with space on your base for both legs, and isn't canted too far. If it's tipping backwards, it'll look odd, so aim for a level top to the pelvis, or a slight forward angle. 

Once you're happy with the pose, glue the first leg to the pelvis, then build down from the hip. As explained above, this will ensure that you've got a safe pose, and you can adjust the hips and pelvis to make sure things look convincing, as shown in this finished pict-capture:

+++

While building, note that the pelvis has a nominal front and back, and while I couldn't see any external difference, if you glue it the wrong way the upper torso won't fit, as the peg and socket – shown below – won't align.

If you do get this wrong, don't worry. It can be easily remedied by trimming the peg flush on the upper torso. I imagine the intention is to stop there being too much play in the posing, but it's good to be aware of things as you work.

The pict-capture also shows the armour plates in place – I dry-fitted these again, partially to check the fit, but mainly because I couldn't wait to see what it'd all look like!

The groin and rear armour plates fit both the front and the back of the pelvis, so you can choose which you want to have front and back. I opted for the additional banding detail on the front, which I think is the intended way round, but the plainer version would be good for freehand, should you so wish.

The thigh and chest armour are just slotted in, so they can be removed for priming and painting, hence why the armour on the thigh is at a funny angle.

The head is a ball and socket joint, but like the hips, there's not much play, and so not a great detal of freedom in posing. When gluing the head, I recommend you do it with the armour plates in place, to avoid any unfortunate clashes.

+++

+ Arms, weapons and magnets +

The arms (which you can see in place in the picture with the armour plates) are small pieces, similar to the Warhound arms. One end of each is a ball to fit into the shoulder socket, while the other is flat to attach to the weapons.

While you can glue everything securely, the arms (and the body) are designed with recesses for magnets. I recommend you inload this Maximal Fire article for general advice on magnetising your Titans: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], and will keep the following bits to the Warden specifically.

Pictured here are a couple of additional parts I ordered – a 'Malus' warden head, which I preferred for the Knight/Cylon look, and a Beam Rifle weapon, which looked appropriately sci-fi and awesome. More importantly for this look at the kit, it's identical to the Warhound weapon fittings – and Battle Bling have designed the Warden to be cross-compatible with your existing Titans.

The primary weapons cleverly have recesses for both 4mm and 5mm magnets. I think the intention is to use 4mm magnets, and for the arm to then fit into the 5mm slot. However, if you've only got 5mm magnets, or want to attach them to other Titans (i.e. Reaver, Warbringer Nemesis) these will fit into the upper part of the recess and remain flush. 

The carapace secondary weapons/systems have only a 5mm recess, as does the top of the body. This makes the Warden compatible with Reaver carapace weapons, and the Warden's carapace armour plate has been thoughtfully designed to fit the larger Reaver weapon mounts comfortably.

The result is that the Warden is fully compatible with your existing weapons for both Warhounds and Reavers, which I think will go a long way to integrate the Titan into the broader game.

+++

Because the arms are slightly angled (like the GW Reaver's arms) , I suggest that you magnetise the weapons and arms before gluing the arms. This will allow you to dry fit and try out some poses before making a final decision, and you can use the weapon itself as a tool to help fit the arm into the socket and hold it in the right place as the glue dries.

Once that's done, your Warden is all assembled and ready for priming.

+++

+ Priming and final assembly +

It probably does without saying, but the 3D resin prints take paint just like resin or plastic, and so you can prime them just like plastic models. 

Leaving the armour plates unsecured earlier will allow you to prime different parts in different colours – as shown below. This Warden is destined for my Iron Skulls (Legio Metalica) Maniple, so I've used Colour Forge paints, Hyrax Brown and Sanguine Red, which I thoroughly recommend. [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].  (If you'd like to see the finished Maniple, by the way, check 'em out here [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+])

Once dry, you can either glue the armour plates in place and secure your Warden to the base, or leave them in parts for ease of painting. 

... And that, Princeps and Moderati, is that. Your Warden is built and battle-ready to join your Legio and wage war on behalf of – or upon – the forces of the Emperor.

+++

+ Conclusion and notes +

Thoughtfully designed and nicely produced, it fits in very nicely alongside other Adeptus Titanicus models. It's a reasonable price (£38 at time of exloading), and the model is quick to go together – helped along by some very slick design decisions. Once finished, it's sturdy and fits right into the setting, and I confess to marching it around making little 'stomp stomp stomp' noises, which I regard as an excellent sign for a fun, characterful model.

The kit is not flawless. You'll notice a small misprint on the left-hand shin armour, and there was also a minor misprint on one of the feet. This isn't representative of Battle Bling's usual quality – I've been ordering from them for years and these are the first two pieces that have had any meaningful misprints. I mention this here for thoroughness, because this is a review – but in any case, I felt these errors were both minor and in places where they would be hidden by other parts of the model. As a result, I haven't asked for a replacement; but their customer service is very good, so if something similar happens in your kit, I'm sure they'd be happy to replace bits if you're unhappy.

There are a couple of things to look out for when building and working with 3D-printed resin, principally the brittleness of the material. If you want to convert or alter things, it's going to be tougher to do so than a plastic kit. However, forewarned is forearmed, and I hope that the advice in this inload helps you avoid or minimise any problems you might have with this. 

Having said all that, it's worth making clear that the material it's made of is a high-quality printing resin, so the finished kit is surprisingly tough and sturdy, and takes both glue and paint well. 

A set of instructions would be handy – though hopefully this article sorts this out for you! The kit does not come with a base, either, so you'll need to supply one of those yourself. (Battle Bling recommend an 80mm round base.)  

I really like that it's been designed to be cross-compatible with both the Warhound and Reaver weapons so you've got flexibility. If you don't fancy using Battle Bling's own suggested rules (available via their newsletter), then it could also be used as a Dire Wolf or Warhound stand-in just by swapping out some weapons, or perhaps simply as an objective – finding the plans and prototypes for a recently-recovered Titan STC would be a great hook for a campaign.

Overall, I think the Warden is great, and thoroughly recommend you pick one up. It's a fun afternoon's work to add a new dimension to your gaming, and stands up as a display model, too. 

I really hope that this spurs on third parties like Battle Bling, and GW itself, to produce more Titans – if they're even half as good as the Warden kit, they'll be splendid.

+++

Below are some comparison shots so you can see how it looks alongside other Titanicus kits:

If you'd like to get one of your own, here's the inloadlink you need [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

For clarity, I've no affiliation with Battle Bling themselves – but they are lovely people, and I've no hesitation in recommending their stuff. Likewise Colour Forge are just a great brand that I want to shout about.

The BattleBuilder link, however, is a referral link that gives me some pennies if you place an order for their nameplates (you can see some examples above), so I want to flag that for transparency. I do genuinely think they're great nameplates, so recommend them warmly. If you do choose to buy some through the link, do make use of the MournStarfall discount code so you get 10% off, too.

If you'd like to read more about the Warden, and froth about Adeptus Titanicus and Legions Imperialis with like-minded hobbyists, do check out Maximal Fire's Discord.

+++

+ Refighting the Battle for Death Mire + 

Are you an aspiring ork Warboss? Do you want to see if your orks can break through Taskforce Blacksand and succeed where Gazgrim's War-Horde failed?

Well, you're in luck. I've had a few requests to share the campaign pack and mission pack we wrote for our Armageddon war event, Third War in 3rd: Battle for Death Mire. If this is all news to you, you can read about the event through this inloadlink: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+]

+++

I'm very pleased with the Campaign pack, and glad to share it. 

Overview of events leading up to the campaign.

Since GW seem to be going back to Armageddon themselves, this should give you a ready-to-go campaign if you fancy replaying it. While it's designed for Warhammer 40k 3rd edition, the nature of the later editions mean that it'll require minimal tweakage to play in any edition through to 7th – and with a little more tinkering, will do the groundwork for 8th–10th, if you wish.

Whatever you choose to use it for – gaming or just reading for fun – I hope that you enjoy it. Please do pipe up with any questions and I'll do my best to answer. 

Whether you're intending to play through it or not, the pack got a few campaign-specific units  like the Steel Legion Liasion Team and Shokk Attack Gun, which you might like to try in your own games on Armageddon, and it's even got rules for an entire new Ork list, the Big Gunz Warbands. 

The Big Gunz Warbands rules

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these in particular – either in the comments below, or on the +Death of a Rubricist+ group  here: [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+].

+++

+ 3rd War in Third campaign pack +

• Rules of engagement 4
• Where's the event? 4
• What do I need to bring? 5
• Armageddon 6
• Your place in history 6
• The story so far 8
• Choosing your army 10
• Fighting your war 12
• Timings 12
• The strategy phases 12
• Mission briefings 13
• Taskforce Blacksand 14
• Chain of command 14
• Key personnel 16
• Additional Imperial units 18
• Gazgrim's War-horde 20
• The Pit Fight 20
• 'Oo's da boss? 22
• Additional Ork units 24
• Big Gunz Warbands 28
• Reference 30
• Weapon reference 32

All of the characters and armies reflect the players' own armies.

+++

+ Mission pack +

These missions are designed to be printed on A3 paper and folded in half. The outside shows the region you're fighting in, and gives some colour text on the region. Once you open it up, the mission details are explained, and there's a space to keep track of objectives and turns – this is explained more clearly in the Campaign pack, on page 13.

The mission pack is organised in sets of three briefings for each table, and is designed by be played in order, as the story in each depends on the results of the first game. 

• The first mission for each table has a plain pack, marked 'A.M. Blacksand Initiative'. 
• If the orks win the first game, use the briefing with an ork glyph and marked 'P.M. War-Horder Initiative'. 
• If the Imperials win the first game, use the briefing with a Steel Legion icon, marked 'P.M. Blacksand Initiative'. 

Unfortunately +{engage embarrassment subroutine}+ it looks like I neglected to save the final version of the mission pack, so only the first six tables are represented in this version of the mission briefings. I'll see if I can recreate the six missing missions and update this.

+ Well, that was fun! On Saturday, Sinan and I hosted a one-day 40k 3rd edition event themed around a particular conflict during the Third War for Armageddon, and I'm pleased to say that it went pretty swimmingly. Beautiful armies, charming and cheerful players and lots of human versus ork fighting in glorious retrohammer action. +

+++

+ What happened? +

After a very hard-fought campaign between the forces of Taskforce Blacksand (a collection of six Guard and two Space Marine forces) and Gazgrim's War-horde (eight of the grittiest, smashiest, sneekiest ork warbands in the region), the victors were the Imperium, and Death Mire has been preserved... for now.

At the heart of the event were sixteen games of 3rd edition 40k, which ran – judging by the speed, laughter and occasional cries of dismay – very smoothly and were packed with fun. The pre-campaign and strategy phases involved a few simple mini-games, which I hope everyone enjoyed.

The games themselves looked absolutely spectacular, with a really high level of quality in terms of painting, modelling and theme. We'd tried to ensure all the boards were thematic (regular inloaders will know my thoughts on the 'Third Army'), and I hope everyone went away feeling that little bit more 40k*.

*More enthused about their hobby, that is, not downtrodden and living in a state of constant grinding terror!

+++

+ Visions of Armageddon +

What follows are Sinan's lovely pictures from the event. I've included some snippets of info along with Instagram handles (@Sinan_atamer, in Sinan's case) where I know them, so you can go check out more of these awesome armies.