+ inload: Corsair Gambit part III +

+ The Corsair Gambit part III + 

+ I've had a very busy and very enjoyable few days of gaming, hanging out with friends old and new. Saturday was spent with Baraqu droog @seneschal_werhner at Maximal Fire's The Corsair Gambit event for some Epic: Legions Imperialis fighting; and Sunday and Monday was with the PCRC, including a 2nd ed. 40k game. I'll froth about the latter game in another inload, so here's a very quick overview of how the Corsair Gambit played out. +

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+ Salamanders and Legio Maximal +

As you can see below, I did manage to get everything painted up in time (hooray), though not quite as polished as I'd have liked (boo). 

The event itself was brilliant. Two games over the course of the day was a good shout for 3,000pts. Epic: Legions is an old-school game that rewards time spent on it: the rules are too byzantine to crash through three games easily, and there's the very practical aspect of moving models from one board to another. To put this in context, at Beachhead, I had five Titans and their terminals to move between games. Here, I had upwards of a hundred, and that's with a sixth of the army taken up in a hefty Warlord Titan.

I also had the good luck to spend time with two great and gentlemanly generals, who made the gaming really enjoyable. Please excuse the lack of pict-captures – there was already a lot going on, and I wanted to focus on enjoying the games!  

First up was Grant's lovely Dark/True Mechanicum, which were supported by a Warlord and Reaver:

The mission involved capturing three objectives, one of which was removed each turn. This shot, from the Mechanicum's table side, shows the end of turn 1, I think. I'd managed to get a foothold on all three objectives, largely thanks to the manoeuverability of the Space Marines.

There was a good mix of forces at the event, with all three big forces (Marines, Guard and Mechanicum) appearing on both sides, along with a healthy sprinkling of Titans and aircraft. 3,000pts really lets the visual side of the game shine, particularly since everyone had really pulled out all the stops to make some great-looking armies.

The Warlord, Consequens Indevitatus, was downed in this game on turn 1 without firing a shot – to our mutual amusement – which gave me an uphill battle. It turned into a real back-and-forth struggle, with the speed of the marines allowing me to adapt to the changing battlefield; while Grant's ponderous Mechanicum were unable to put their (substantial!) power where they needed to be, as the objectives thinned out.

The game ended up being decided on secondary objectives, and was a narrow squeak for the loyal Salamanders. A very fun game indeed, and a great army and opponent to face.

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Game 2 involved the Salamanders surrounding and attempting to capture three central objectives, while the Imperial Army held them off. Commanding the traitors was @Tetsugakhan (go check out his awesome painting).

This was a bloodbath from the beginning, with huge damage done to both sides from turn 1. Solar Auxilia have a lot of tricks up their sleeves, and the sheer number of superheavy tanks and artillery was daunting to face. 

The variety in this army made it great fun to play against, with a real feel of combined arms. As with Dark Mechanicum, I'd never played against Solar Auxilia, and they were a treat to fight against. Events like this give me a great opportunity to actually play games, and so it's lovely when you get to play cool new armies against cool people on cool tables.

This shot sums up the visual appeal of Epic: Legions for me – tanks, troops, titans and aircraft all in concert. You'll be pleased to hear that Consequens Indevitatus gave a bit of a better account of himself in this game, contributing to clearing out the central bastions, and surviving everything Tetsugakhan's air wing could throw at him!

This game ended in an honorable draw owing to time, with both sides exhausted!

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A really enjoyable event, so thanks to Johnny and Alex from Maximal Fire for organising it, and to all the players involved. The narrative ends with Nabed-Paleae falling to the traitors... so we'll see what the future holds for the Vigilants!

+ inload: Legions Imperialis Corsair Gambit painting +

+ Drake Hunters – 5th Company Salamanders +

'The 5th has a reputation of destroying large enemy constructs and alien horrors. Its members specialize in slaying the salamander drakes of Nocturne. As a Reserve Company, they rarely fight together but instead are used to reinforce other companies during campaigns. In battle, they favor acting as mobile weapons platforms instead of static defense and use a large amount of Dreadnoughts. They also make extensive use of attack craft and heavy gunships.'

– Codex supplement: Salamanders

***

One of the great appeals of Epic-scale gaming is that you can easily make armies that feel like armies, throwing whole companies into the conflict. If you're into the pseudo-historical side, there's a lot of fun and creativity possible in designing colours or markings or campaign banners that fit well into the established material. 

Codex: Armageddon [refcapture={ABOVE}] has a few variants and ideas in yellow, while this artwork shows a yellowy-orange pauldron for the 5th. In the post-Primaris landscape, the 5th Company is a definite orange, rather than yellow with orange shadows, but that's part of the fun of painting your own models – you get to choose.

The Salamanders don't have anywhere near the amount of background lore and artwork as the 'Big Chapters', but there's still a huge amount from which to draw inspiration. With that said, if you want to be really strict and 'rivet-countery', I think the Salamanders aren't a great place to start, with lots of retcons, overlooked details and contradictory information. 

As I've noted in earlier inloads, I think regarding the lore as 'true for a certain period of time' is about as good as you'll get. Of course, that also makes them a great place to start being creative!

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As you can see, I've painted these marines to have yellow pauldrons with black Legion/Chapter icons. Having different markings on these figures to the rest of the army (which are green with black as a secondary and white details) is very useful from a practical point of view – it's easier for everyone involved to distinguish formations from one another, and is also more interesting for me to paint, keeping me engaged. 

The Epic scale makes it easy to handwave a great deal of otherwise curious wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff and allow these figures topull double duty for both HH-era and Armageddon-era gaming; but I still find it fun to make something that'll fit neatly in both – after all, this is a collaborative hobby, so I want to make sure that those who lean harder into the 'historical' side of Legions Imperialis/Epic aren't too offended. 

It's partially for that reason that I picked yellow as the heraldry colour. It's got precedent in both HH and 40k eras as an accent colour, and helps to make the base green pop. 

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+ Roll call +

What have we got here? I had sufficient models to put together 9 Tactical stands (by drafting in sergeants, the odd veteran and squad banner bearers, you can have five on each stand and still stretch it), 2 Plasma Support squads and 2 Missile Support squads.  Besides that, I put together a Command stand, too, with a converted banner bearer and a Terminator Sergeant standing in for the Officer. I like a bit of variety in the HQ models.

I think it's important to remember that these are 8mm models, and meant to be fielded en masse. Detail and precision aren't necessarily your friends here, as they'll stretch the time needed to get your forces on the board. Sometimes, 'fair and finished' is the goal, rather than jewel-like individuality.

As an example of what I mean, looking at a stand chosen at random reveals the hideous daubings importance of abstraction at this scale. I think the freehand Salamanders symbols on the pauldrons do a pretty good job of evoking the drake's head Legion icons, and when seen at actual size, the effect is fair. Nevertheless, they're far from perfect. Where you decide you want to strike the balance is worth thinking about in your plan... just don't let your aspirations stop you from getting started.

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+ What's next? +

These infantry mark the last in the list for this coming weekend; fittingly the reserve company being used to expand and plug gaps in the line of battle.

That leaves the vehicles to polish up and the Warlord to paint. I'm feeling quietly confident about this, as the tanks are nearly there. They'd be fine to field as-is, but I think an evening's spit and polish will do wonders to bring a sparkle to the battlefield.

To do, then:

• 6 Land Raiders
• 6 (well, 7, as there's an extra) Land Speeders
• 4 Rhinos
• 2 Kratos (Kratoi?)
• 3 Predators
• 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts

... which sounds like I lot, but as you can see, isn't too arduous:

These have all been basecoated, washed, had the blacks and metals picked out, and basically need the decorative metallics (the bronzes) added, along with the tracks and markings. Should – cross fingers – be relatively quick.

Which leaves the elephant in the room, Consequens Indevitatus, Warlord Titan of the Vigilants. The base, thank the good Lord, is done; and the metallics laid down. 

It's now whether I can make a good stab at painting the rest of it over the course of two evenings, while also not falling asleep at the event!

But is it an event if it's not a caffeine-fuelled-late-night-painting-the-day-before-deployment event?

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+ inload: Steel Hammer of Legio Metalica +

+ Beachhead MMXXV +

+ If you've been inloading the recent datascreeds, you'll know that I've put all other hobby projects on hold to get a Titan maniple painted for Maximal Fire's annual Adeptus Titanicus tournament at Beachhead in Bournemouth. I was painting up to the deadline, but managed to take a complete maniple and accompanying themed markers down. This inload gives a very brief rundown on my experiences of my first tournament, and then we look at the models. +

+++

+ Beachhead 2025 in brief +

Not to bury the lede, I had a fantastic time. From gaming to socials to the overall event, if was really, really fun. I was a little apprehensive in going to a competitive event (my previous weekends have been narrative only), but I couldn't resist the siren call of the biggest Titanicus event in the world – and I was really pleased with how relaxed and friendly everything was. A very collegiate atmosphere with a mix of what were clearly old friends welcoming in newcomers like me; and all eased along by everyone being invited to bundle along for dinner and drinks at a pub round the corner – very much appreciated.

The event itself, smoothly run by Maximal Fire and sponsored by Battle Bling, took the form of five 1,950pt games. You can see the event pack here, if you'd like the nitty-gritty [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], but the take-away for me was how varied the forces were, and how little the expectations you might take from noospheric chat – 'tournament-pattern this', and 'such-and-such weapon is useless' – really applied to the stuff people brought. I half-expected to see the top tables populated purely with cookie-cutter lists, or very similar model choices, but things were very varied. Admittedly, I didn't scale the heady heights of the top tables – 13 was my highest placing, and with one win, one draw and three losses, I think I came 38th overall – but certainly my impression was that Adeptus Titanicus is a very varied game. 

So on top of all that, there was great prize support – lots of awesome trophies and cool prizes to be won, (including a Warbreaker Titan!) and little goodie bags provided by the organisers too. More on those in another inload.

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend grabbing a ticket for next year – just leave one for me!

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+ Steel Hammer – Malleo Chalybis +

Princeps Kurtiz Mannheim – sometimes styled as 'Kurt Manneheim' in some Imperial records – was the commander of the Legio Metalica Titan Legion assigned to Armageddon during the Second War for Armageddon. 

Mannheim was obliged by his oath of loyalty to the Emperor to follow an insane order of the corrupt and incompetent Planetary Governor of Armageddon, Herman von Strab, to stem the onrushing tide of Waa-Ghazghkull, even though the Imperial forces would be outnumbered by more than three to one. 

Knowing it would be his final mission, Mannheim dressed in his best uniform, said goodbye to his wife and children and climbed aboard his Warlord Class Titan, Steel Hammer, with pride. 

[+Later Heroes of the Imperium, Vol MCMXX+] 

Themed around the Second War for Armageddon – and if you'd like to read more on that, check out The Ashes of Armageddon noospheric blognode – my M41-era Maniple sneaked into the Horus Heresy-era Beachhead games. I'd have felt a bit conflicted about this at a themed or narrative weekend, but as this was more of a pure gaming event, I laid my worries to rest. 

I've written at length in the previous inloads on how I've painted, so you can divert your optics and cerebromanifold to this noospheric flow-cascade if you'd like to dig deeper into how this Legio Metalica project has unfolded. Here, then, I'll just highlight a few little bits of the finished Titans that I thought you might like to see or that I'd like to wax lyrical about, and show the finished pieces as they appeared on the day.

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+ Battle Builder Nameplates +

I've added names to models before – long time inloaders will remember by formative Blood Angels from the 90s, and more recently my Blood Bowl team, Chaunterwick Unathletic, got Blackletter freehand names and positions on their bases – but generally I prefer to treat bases quite plainly, to help frame the models.

The monolithic and highly-revered nature of Titans, however, seems to deserve something more – and so I've used Battle Builder's [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] name plates for this maniple. If you haven't tried it out, go give it a spin – the interface is very intuitive and fun to use, and certainly helped me to avoid analysis paralysis: you can see immediately exactly how the nameplates are going to look on the bases. There's even a discount code for first-time users.

In painting these, I wanted to strike a balance between the names being clear to see, but not so eye-catching that the nameplates distract from the Titan itself. I opted for a gold frame, black field, and a (necessarily!) quick and simply reflective effect, which I thought was evocative of the design style of the 90s. This was achieved by painting the letters with Balor Brown, then painting the upper and lower quarters of each letter with Averland Sunset, then the very top and bottom with Mummy Robes (Bleached Bone/Ushabti Bone).

The result then clearly stands out from the base, but since it uses very similar colours as those of the base itself, it doesn't draw the eye too much.

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The little Steel Legion troops and pillar are included to give a sense of monumental scale to the Titan through visual contrast. The paint scheme is a simplified version of that used for my 40k scale Steel Legion – you can inload the datascreed here: [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+].

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Considering how experimental and quick everything was, I was pleased with how the transfers, varnish and oils all worked together. I think all of these techniques and approaches have given a Titan maniple that both hangs together well, and doesn't look completely out of place alongside my other forces. 

The armour plates here are available from Battle Bling – you can read my thoughts on the Reaver equivalents here – and were designed by the mighty @argo_jasonm. 

Also of note in the above picture are the void shield generators, which are painted with my new favourite paint, Runelord brass, and then a touch of Nihilakh oxide to give a weird greeny glow. Very quick and simple.

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The Graviton Ruinator is based on the Armiger Gravity Pulsar from another third party designer/seller: Taro Model Maker. Very nice quality, and sufficient detail to work well on a big (albeit small scale) model like Steel Hammer.

Talking of armament, Steel Hammer benefitted from having very little existing information on him – the little blurb at the top detailing his Princeps' last command is pretty much all that exists. Except that Steel Hammer is a Warlord, there's no further info. What could have been unsatisfying for a retrohammer project like this actually proved to be a lifesaver. It allowed me complete freedom in terms of appearance and equipment, and from a gaming perspective, gave me a blank slate to load him out with guns to cover weaknesses left by the rest of the Maniple.

As things turned out, he was the only Titan of mine that survived all five games! I had lots of nice comments about the maniple, too.

As well as showing off the back view of Steel Hammer, I think this shot illustrates the dynamism of the pose. This is set off by the banners, which were made from the foil from a wine bottle capsule (and what more excuse do you need for a glass?)

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... and here he is in all his pomp and glory, ready to stride the stars and bring the wrath of the Emperor to the benighted fools that oppose Him-on-Terra.

While my gaming prowess proved lacklustre (and full credit to all my awesome opponents), Steel Hammer and the rest of my Iron Skulls maniple created stories, (mostly) survived to fight another day, and most importantly, was great fun to play with.

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+ Objective markers +

As well as sharing the finished pictures of the other Titans over the next few posts, I wanted to kick off with these objective markers I made for the event. The first picture represents the three markers you need for ‘Secure and Hold’ – doubtless critical materiel for the ongoing war.

The second picture shows an officer of the 7th Army alongside an Astropath and a Magos from Forgeworld Metalica – all critical personnel for the 'Defend and Extract' mission.

… and the final picture shows two Titan Hunting Infantry teams, so the Steel Legion can pop up and threaten any Gargants.

Thanks again to all the people I met, dined with and played against; it was an absolute pleasure from beginning to end, and thoroughly recommended.

Really reignited my passion for Titanicus, and I’m looking forward to sharing the Titans with you over the next few posts.

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+ inload: Varnish, transfers and acrylic paint +

+ Heraldry and battered metal boilerplates +

+ The casting of propitious runes and god-engineering stumbles onwards as the time creeps closer to the Beachhead deadline. Today's inload looks at transfers on Titans, including bimblings on varnish. +

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+ Titan Maniple +

They're getting there. Slowly but surely, every day brings completion that little bit closer. I just hope it's in time! One weekend and sixish evenings to go, and still plenty to do to get them as I want.

With that said, they're at least playable at this point, so let's push panic to one side and enjoy the last steps. This inload [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] has struck-through text to indicate which steps I've completed since then, and as you'll see it's mainly the banners left to go – though those will be finishing touches done after the oils washes are in place.

+ Transfers in place on the shoulder, ready to be softened in and integrated. +

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+ Adding transfers: theoretical +

I've used transfers here and there on different models and units, but generally prefer to freehand markings, as I enjoy the focus it brings me. For this project, however, I wanted to shake things up and try something new – and combining transfers and oils is something that I've rarely if ever done.

Having decided I was going to do it, I then needed to choose whether to use the iconographic or hyper-realist designs from the Metalica transfer sheet. I was really torn on this. On the one hand, the simpler icons seem more akin to practical markings to be used on an engine of war... but the more complex, detailed versions are more akin to devotional artworks that might appear on religious icons.

Since a Titan blurs these roles, I decided that it made sense to use the simpler stuff for more practical purposes: squadron marking and faction equivalents, which would be consistently placed lower down the Titans, so allies can quickly assess things in the fog of war. More complex, realistic artwork would be reserved for higher up the Titan, where such finery primarily serves decorative and heraldic purposes rather than practical ideas.

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+ Adding transfers: practical +

The process of getting transfers on is fairly simple:

_i +Preparation+  Paint your model to a finish you're happy with (e.g. highlighted and shaded).

_ii +Protect+  Apply a varnish – I used Winsor & Newton Professional spray varnish (matt finish) [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Gloss is probably better for this stage, as it creates a smooth, glassy finish that means the transfers lie as flat as possible. However, I didn't want to splash out for a second can of varnish, and I want a matt finish eventually.

_iii  +Wetting+  Cut out the transfer (including the backing) and dip into the water pot. Let it get soaked, then place it on your palette while it loosens itself from the backing.

_iv  +Solution+  Use a brush to paint Microscale's Microset solution [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] over the area you want to apply the transfer.

_v +Placement+   Bring the transfer and backing up to the area, and use a clean damp brush to gently slide the transfer across into the correct position. Try to avoid any bubbles.

_vi +Patience+   Allow to dry thoroughly. The transfer will now be in position, but will look glossy and the edges will often be obvious.

+ Transfer in place after stage vi – note the reflection of the light, and the circular shape of the transparent backing. +

_vii +Repetition+   Apply a second coat of Microset, working outwards from the centre of the transfer, and leave to dry. The solution softens the transfer and helps it adhere to the surface.

_viii +Integration+   Once completely dry, use a clean brush to apply Microscale's Microsol solution [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] over the transfer. This partially dissolves the transfer, helping it to settle onto the surface and look painted on.

_ix +Sealing+   Once that's completely dry, apply a second coat of W&N spray varnish, and allow to dry to finish.

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+ All over bar the shouting +

That brings us to this stage (well, step 8), and as you can see, the transfers now look more settled in. Of note here is the effect that varnish has on the metallics – the matt sheen kills the reflectivity of the metallics. The result's not unpleasant, but it's worth bearing in mind if you've spent ages working on the metals. For these, they've deliberately been left as basecoats so that I can develop them later on.

It's worth noting that transfers and freehand painting aren't mutually exclusive, and nor are you restricted to the designs on the sheet. The example above is a very simple example of this – before the transfer on the left knee (right of picture) was applied, I painted on a yellow circle that would fit within the cog shape. Since part of the transfer is clear, the yellow shows through and looks like an integral part of the design.

Key to my plan is that the designs evoked (or even matched) the original inspiration – another reason why I went for the simpler, more iconic designs from the sheet for these parts.

 

For the larger areas on the Warlords – the big shoulder plates – I've instead gone for the more detailed versions. Still in two minds about the decision, but he who hesitates is lost, and all that. Steel Hammer, above, has this large Legio symbol on his shoulder, and a similar variant on the other side.

Old Three Skulls, being rather larger that the original, has received some additional nods to his name – a trifecta of skulls on the shoulder in the same arrangement as on the original's weapon banner, and three smaller yellow skulls running along the cockpit.

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+ Painting nameplates +

But it's not all transfers. I've also been doing some building and painting. First off, I built Fors Clavigera an alternative missile launcher to better evoke the Barrage Missile Launcher of the original.

The old models used the same weapons for carapace and arms (rather than having specific mounts for each), so as you can see below it's quite ungainly. I wanted to ensure it evoked the idea of the original, while having a similar feel to the other modern weapons.

I built it with a bits box dive. At the base is a magnetised Apocalypse Missile Launcher connector, so I can still swap it out if necessary. The mounting is from Battle Bling, and the larger parts are from the new Imperial Guard big artillery piece – one of the super-lascannons. This was trimmed down and carved into a shape to evoke the original. 

The upper armour is from a Reaver Power Fist – I cut the central part away and married them together, while the part with a cable near the front is a Reaver close combat weapon upper arm. Finally, the missile piece itself is a Leagues of Votann (new squats) piece, given to me by TrojanNinja (thanks!).

I sprayed and basecoated it, then popped it in place to see how it looked. You decide – does it look about right?

Elsewhere in the maniple, Praeterita Carnivorus (Carnivore to his friends) has had the armour and lenses of the cockpit painted, ready for oils and trim:

You'll also note here that I opted to add a yellow transfer rather than paint his groin completely yellow (as in the original). Just like the alterations to the carapace stripes, I thought this was a better, less distracting compromise between the original and the retrohammer remake.

And I also spent an enjoyable few minutes painting the chequers on Old Three Skulls' Power Claw:

This involved little more than thinned Scorched Brown paint, a fine-pointed brush, and time. I'm still in two minds on whether to continue the chequers over the 'knuckles' or not. What do you think?

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+ Painting nameplates +

I also started putting the base paint down on the nameplates. These are from Obsidian Forge [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+], and will sit on the magnetised terminals that I made for the force, so it's easier for both me and the other players to track which Titan is which.

The first stages I've taken to paint them are:

_i  Apply a brown undercoat – this gives a nice warm undertone.

_ii  Stipple Balthazar gold over the whole surface. Make sure you get a nice thin coat over the whole surface, including in the recesses within the text.

_iii  Work Seraphim Sepia wash into the recesses, leaving large areas clear.

+ End of stage _III +

More to come soon!

+ inload: Post-event enthusiasm +

+ Gaming at The Corsair Gambit part II +

+ A company of Salamanders Predators sweep in on the attack. +

+ Last inload concerned polishing off a Legio Maximal Reaver Titan for a Legions Imperialis event run by Maximal Fire down at Entoyment in Poole. Very pleased to report that it was a lot of fun! Alex and Johnny who were running things had clearly put a lot of effort into making sure things ran smoohtly, and that was eased along by everyone being a really nice, friendly bunch of players. I'd thoroughly recommend further events down here – Entoyment is a real Aladdin's cave of gaming, and one of my few regrets was the schedule being so packed that I didn't get more chance to explore. +

+++

+ The background for this event was built on the results of the previous Corsair Gambit event earlier in the year, in which the forces of the Warmaster managed to establish a foothold on Nabed-Paleae, Forgethrone of Legio Maximal. As a Salamanders loyalist player, I was part of the taskforce sent to reclaim this critical world. +

+ I won't go into great depth about the games, but suffice to say they were all very fun, and it was a treat to come to a gaming event where everyone was so friendly. +

+ Game 1 +

+ A planetstrike against a defending Sons of Horus army. Highlights included the Kratos tanks that just would not die, the treacherous Reaver Moderatus (I missed all three of its – 2+ to hit – Volcano Cannon shots!), and an absolutely spectacular Sons of Horus army belonging to a great chap called Gary. +

+ I managed a narrow win on objectives here – my strategic skills rather flattered by the fact he had to deploy his army to defend the whole board, while I could pick and choose which parts to contest. +

+ If nothing else, these shots go to show just how cool Legions Imperialis looks on the boards Maximal Fire brought down – and bear in mind that this was one of ten or so, so they'd really put the effort in on terrain. +

+ Green on green. Playing against such a beautiful Sons of Horus army was a real highlight of the weekend. Helps that it was against such a sporting opponent and remained close all the way through. +

+ A shot from the viewpoint of Profugon Iratus. +

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+ Game 2 +

+ This game was an ambush scenario, with the Salamanders defending a central ridge against Night Lords attackers, led by a cunning commander whose name – alas – evades my leaking mem-banks. Apologies! +

+ A very different army to face. Rather than tanks with infantry and air support, here I was facing a mass of infantry, Dreadnoughts and jetbikes, largely deployed via Drop Pods. Quite the contrast, and a nice change of pace. At the last event, very little had been released, so most lists were pretty samey – not so here; a very diverse set of lists. +

+ Another very fun game against a lovely opponent who was very patient with explaining the intricacies of drop pods and transports to me. These events are always learning experiences for me; however well-prepared I try to be! +

+ A second close victory here – despite Profugon Iratus being surrounded and brought low by the swift and vicious Night Lords legion. Again, the result could esily have gone either way, and I benefitted from some event special rules that affected morale. The Salamanders' special rules are not quite a hard counter to the Night Lords', but I think were important in how a few close fights fell out. +

+ I had been warned that Titans were a bit pillow-fisted and ineffectual in Legions Imperialis, and I'm sorry to say that was my experience, too. On the plus side, I think having a lot of points tied up in one activation did help my games to go slightly quicker – and of course it was great to be able to field a campaign-specific Legio to lean into the theme of the event. +

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+ Game 3 +

+ The day closed with a short sharp shock of a game with the awesome Jon [+IGident: @jonlukedesign +] from Battle Bling – he had designed a lot of the bits in my army, in fact; from the Thunderhawk upgrades to the objective markers. +

+ I had faced his World Eaters at the previous event, and lost in a fairly close tussle across a dense city – but his beautiful army has clearly have been polishing their skills, as they took my army apart in two turns across the salt desert, with minimal casualties! +

+ I'd love to blame tiredness for the number of tactical blunders I made early on, leading to isolated picket forces being bypassed and troops being trapped in their transports, but full credit to him, he kept the pressure up and finished the job in a fittingly brutal World Eater style! +

+ Victories are lovely, but you learn a heck of a lot more from defeats – and when they're in such a friendly, collegiate atmosphere with such a nice gang, there's really nothing to mope about. A third very fun game. +

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+ Closing calculations – on Legions Imperialis +

+ I don't think I'm saying anything too contentious to say that Legions Imperialis is a flawed system. It is also, however, a lot of fun. Events like this demonstrate to me that you do get spectacular thematic games, and beneath all the needlessly complex chrome, bells and whistles it retains a good underlying engine that looks great on the table. +

+ You do, however, need to play with the right spirit of cooperation. It would be very easy to abuse the army-building, and if you're looking for the 'best' options in-game, there's rarely even much consideration. With this borne in mind, I was really pleased to see the sheer variety of armies and unit types that people had brought – these were a group of people who clearly love both the setting and the scale, and valued playing the game first and foremost. I'm very grateful to have been playing in this sort of environment. +

+ I hate to say it, but as it stands I'd hesitate to recommend Legions Imperialis to new players until there's a substantial FAQ or revision. I hope that in a year or two the army list, agonisingly incompletely and broken up across multiple expensive expansions, is collected into a single volume. +

+ Of course, when you do get these ingredients together – sportsmanship, beautiful armies, great tables – it's a heady combo, and the game is really very fun. Things largely do what you'd expect them to, and you get the sense of a 'grand sweep of battle'. I just hope GW can get their act together to make Legions Imperialis the success it could be. +

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+ Closing calculations – on the Corsair Gambit +

+ On the event itself, I have no real criticisms. Very nicely run, and some flavourful additions that added to the theme. Three games at 2,000pts did feel a little crammed, but we were asked midway through the first whether we'd prefer to cut things to two games. We ended up pressing ahead for three, which I think was the right decision, but for future events – particularly if they're at larger points limits – I think I'd prefer a two-game per day approach. +

+ Personally, I'd have loved this to be done over the course of a weekend; it was nice to meet and catch up with people from last time, but it would have been even better to have less time pressure, and some more time to socialise. +

+ We also got to see a sneak preview of, and free sample from, Battlebuilder – a very snazzy-looking nameplate service that's a collaboration between Maximal Fire, Battle Bling and some others. I hope to do a proper look at that in the near future, but the thing that made it jump out to me is that you can design things 'live' on the website itself. +

 

+ Glittering prizes +

+ I was also delighted to receive the Best Painted trophy, which you can see nuzzled between the free objectives pack we were given, and a flyer for Entoyment's Beachhead 2025 event next year. Winning this was very unexpected, given the quality of armies on display. Turns out that I can thoroughly recommend painting a Titan from the organiser's Legion to score some brownie points with the judges! +

+++

+ The true test of an event is whether you come away filled with enthusiasm, and I'm happy to say that I'm already planning for a potential third event in the Corsair Stars – you can see some additional Land Raider reinforcements above, and as you'll see below, I've also got started on an Iron Skulls maniple for Adeptus Titanicus, too. More on this shortly... +