The Challenge!
So Mike’s bought a Warlord Battle Titan! Or rather, Mike has joined a fairly exclusive club of hobbyists who’ve taken the plunge to buy a model the size of a small child and costs about the same as a small second hand car!
This isn’t the first Titan that Mike has in his collection though, he has a few more hidden away in the Obsec dungeon, including a rather rare Amorcast Phantom Titan!
The challenge is simple, Mike has thrown the gauntlet down to kill the Warlord!
The setup, two games, one with the equivalent 200 power level and the second with the equivalent 6000pts. The idea is that we’re going to see if the power/points level is in anyway shape of form balanced against one another.
Normal rules for Obsec will be in effect, the models must be fully painted and that’s about it!
The Warlord Problem
Not so much a problem, more of a a mind boggling set of numbers and stats that this thing has…
For a start, its TOUGHNESS 16! Let that sink in…T16. Melta Guns wound this on a 6+, Lascannons on a 5+. So anything in the armies I put down will need to have S9 or higher to even look at wounding it semi-reliably, and even then, I’m in need of luck. Imperial Knight Gallants only wound this on a 4+ with either close combat option…and forget about Death Gripping it!
The Warlord starts with BS2+, WS4+, Strength 16, 5 Attacks and moves a rather incredible 18″. Its BS, WS and movement do degrade thankfully.
In it’s defence the Warlord has 70 wounds, 2+ armour and a 3+ Void shield invulnerable save. The void shields are interesting as they work against everything including Mortal Wounds, but not in close combat (a weakness perhaps…). Not that I want to be stuck in close combat against it either. It has the Greater Titanic Stride melee option too which is basically a powered up version of the Imperial Knights Titanic Feet attacks. GTS do 4 hits per attack, so 20 attacks in total at S16, -4AP and flat 3 damage that will mince most targets.
The offensive weapons of the Warlord Titan is awe-inspiring too. Luckily we know that Mike’s geared his out with three rather impressive weapon systems. The first is the Apocalypse Missile Launchers, which fire Heavy 12, S7, -2AP, 2 Damage each and can target units out of sight or the Incinerator Missile Bank that fires Heavy 10, S6, -2AP, 2 Damage missiles that double the amount of hits versus infantry. Then we have the Sunfury Plasma Annihilator, the pinnacle of the Imperium’s plasma weaponry, Macro 2d6 shots, S10, -4AP, 2d6 Damage and does D3 additional hits to every unit with 6″ on a 4+ after damage has been resolved to the main target. Lastly the Warlord is packing probably its signature weapon system, the Belicosa Volcano Cannon! Macro D6, S30, -6AP, D12 and any 6’s to wound cause an additional D6 mortal wounds. A true titan killer of a weapon!
The Warlord also comes stock with some minor weapons systems too, but they’re not as impressive as the main systems, so we’ll move on…
The Plan of Attack….ATTACK
Well, short of deploying the 1350 Imperial Guardsmen all withing rapid fire range and firing FRFSRF I’m going to need a better plan*.
The Warlord does degrade in Movement, BS, WS and its Void Shield too. The tricky part will be knocking it down it’s first bracket and reducing it’s Void Shield down to a 4++. That takes 11 wounds. Its next two brackets keep its save to a 4++ at which point it drops to a 5++. Sounds easy…
Looking at my collection, and going through what’s fully painted and would actually stand a chance of denting the Warlord my options are actually quite slim.
My Warhound is the first model that comes out to play, it’ll need both Dual Turbo-Laser Destructors on it too, anything else is pointless. Even then, deploying the Warhound isn’t guaranteeing it’ll do any damage against the Warlord. The Turbo-lasers are only S16 so will be wounding 50% of the time. Any wounds that do sneak through past the Void shields, it’s Macro 2d6 damage could cripple the Warlord…could.
After the Warhound, I’m looking at taking Imperial Knights, they have some protection in the form of 5++ Invulnerable Saves. The Castellan with it’s S14 Volcano Lance has a decent shot of chipping away some wounds. I’m looking at taking my two Gallant’s too, getting stuck into the Warlord and slashing away it’s ankles with their Reaper Chainswords!
I’d be looking at a decent Guard detachment next, filled with Leman Russ, Manticores and anything else that has S8 or higher weapons. Also included would be the Shadowsword running along with a Trojan Support Vehicle. A Shadowsword hitting on 3’s re-rolling hits and wounds with it’s S16 Volcano Cannon is pretty handy. It’s just a shame the Volcano Cannon isn’t Macro…
Looking elsewhere, maybe something in my Space Marines collection could be used to slow the Warlord down…something like a Sicarian Venator could possibly mess with it. It’s Neutron Laser has a neat little rule, any vehicle suffering an unsaved wound must subtract 1 from it’s hit rolls in the following shooting phase. Also the Leviathan Dreadnought could possibly be handy, it’s Siege Drill is S16 and does flat 4 damage…but only has 4 attacks base (3 if has a ranged weapon instead of two combat arms) and it is a little slow.
What else? Well pretty much anything else in my collection just bounces off the Warlord! Maybe a few Blood Angels smash captains throwing themselves at it repeatedly could work to chip away damage.
I could paint up my half built Magnus The Red I’ve had for over a year, he could dish out some serious damage both psychically and in combat, but that would mean my entire force would need to be Chaos**.
An Exercise in Futility
Whatever I plan and whatever list I put together, this is still going to come down to first turn. If Mike gets first turn, he kills the Warhound and Shadowsword quite reliably. After that I’d be lucky to last past T3 at best. On the flip side and I get to go first, the Warhound has to roll hot along with the Shadowsword. If the Knights can close up and pull off a T2 charge, then maybe (that’s a massive MAYBE!) I may stand a chance of knocking the Warlord down a bracket…or two… At which point, the Warhound actually stands a chance of taking a full broadside from the Warlord and surviving…MAYBE…
I think, whatever happens, the games will be down to pure unadulterated luck! Chip damage and Mike rolling poorly for his Void Shield saves are what I’m hoping for. The dice gods would also need to favour me, I may have to sacrifice a Guardsmen to the dice Gods!
The games will be short regardless, the Warlord just eats armies, and this leads me to my last option…RUN AWAY!
*1350 Guardsmen, 4 shots each with FRFSRF is 5400 shots. 2750 hits. 258 wounds. 76 wounds after it’s 2+ save to kill a Warlord on average with JUST lasguns minus any re-rolls.
**I don’t really do Chaos armies and Magnus is a long term paint/hobby project that I don’t want to rush.
710 Guardian defenders, 1 Farseer, 1 Autarch, 1 Warlock. Doom + Jinx and assume all 710 guardians can reroll 1s to hit. Approximately 6000 points.
1420 shots, 1104 hits, 337 wounds, 168 get past 4++ save. You have 2 dead warlord titans. Silly guardsman.
Hi Odras – its a little more complex than that – mainly as the warlord starts with a 3++ anyway for those bladestorm hits. Its also all but impossible to get than many in range at the same time due to area on a single titan.
The main point of this article however is that all these funky examples of how to kill one (see 11 shadow swords or 30+ manticore batteries) are never real world – as in people cant ever field such silly quantities of models. The anecdote of 1350 guardsman was much like the Eldar example – one that proves it is more than possible to kill it for less points with the right models but meant to show just that – its not a real world example.
You do get bonus points for using Eldar though – a gamer after my own heart!
I am aware that neither 1350 guardsman or 700 guardians is practical. My example was meant as a joke pointing out that the pointy ears are better than guardsman. I think my maths is correct though, the 4++ save is the 3++ save affected by jinx.
I missed Jinx! sorry – you are indeed correct. I completely missed the tone – my apologies… teach me to reply when its late.
I would personally try a mix of Deldar and harlequins with haywire blasters/cannons. 5 scourge with 4d3 s4 haywire is 92 pts. And skyweavers are 45pts per model with a haywire cannon which is d6 s4 haywire. All assault weapons all dealing MW ona 4+and d3 Mw on a 6+. Can add a shadowseer for Mirror of minds for pure RNG MW dealong (tbh if rolling well this is terrifying). The harlequins all have the 4++ and scourge 6++/6+fnp.
Can add in a craftworld command detatchment for doom/jinx and the DE Disintegrator ravager battery is gonna do better than lances here.
Aeldari do seem to be a better option – just remember its void shields work against mortal wounds as well so haywire and psychic are no guarantee