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FAQ: Classifying war engine weapons
| [Content from Battles Book page 109 to 110.] |
In the old Titanicus game there was quite a dizzying profusion of weapons fitted to the various war engines. Because a lot of these weapons were actually very similar (and to protect our sanity) we have rationalised them down to a reasonably small selection. If you have any war engines already fitted out with weaponry here's a few guidelines to classifying the models.
Heavy Weapons Batteries. (Anything with more than one barrel or things with one barrel which are a bit small to count as a mega-cannon). In terms of the old weapons we usually consider heavy weapons batteries to include Gatling Blasters, Inferno guns, Laser blasters, Melta cannon, Plasma blastguns, Plasma cannon, Turbo Laser destructors, Vulcan mega boilers, Death Storms, Cluster Busters, Gatling cannon, Magnum mega-cannon, Deth Kannan, Slasha Attack gun, De Luxe Kustom kannon.
Death Rays. (Lasers or big plasma weapons single barrelled or otherwise.) Anything which uses a directed blast of energy to destroy a single target. This category includes the Volcano cannon, Plasma Destructors, Doom Burners, da Gaze of Gork and Deth Rays (believe it or not). Some players argue that Turbo lasers and Plasma blastguns belong in here too, and I can see their point, so count them as Deth Rays instead of heavy weapons batteries if you like.
Mega-Cannon. Very large bore, shell-firing cannon of any description, such as Quake cannon, Deathstrike cannon, He!!strike cannon, Skullcrusha and Gutbuster mega-cannon.
Heavy Barrage. Multiple rocket or missile launchers, or a big howitzer (something you might class as a mega-cannon but its barrel is pointing up at an angle). multiple rocket launchers, Havoc missile racks, Big Lobbas.
Close Combat Weapons. Rippy, teary, smashy, crunchy things like Chainfists, Power Claws/Fists, Hellblades, Chaos energy whips, Doomfists, Corvus Assault pods, Battle Claws, Laser Burners, Wreckers, Power Rams, Power Saws, Tridents, Krusher Arms, Ripper Fists, Snappers.
Vortex Missiles. Giant one-shot missiles of any kind, including Harpoon, Warp and Barrage missiles.
Pulsars. Long Eldar Titan weapons including Heat and Psychic lances.
Distortion Cannon. Includes Tremor cannon.
The rest are as before. If you have a war engine which is built with weapons where they shouldn't be don't worry, just use your war engine as is. For example some Gargants had an option to carry a close combat weapon in place of their mega-cannon (the infamous Snapper), though these were always comparatively rare. Anyway you can just use the Snapper-armed Gargant even though the datacard doesn't include that as an option the actual difference in points value between the various weapons is minuscule in relation to the total values of the war engines themselves. The only problem you veterans will run into is with war engines armed with two close combat weapons. They're just going to have to have a little bit of surgery!
If you have heavily converted Chaos Titans with tails and the like simply lift bits of information from the Banelord Titan to give you some guidelines in coming up with your own data sheet. Finally, there were various fire control centres, landing pads and other pieces which could be fitted to the Warlord Titan and I would encourage you to come up with your own rules for these pieces and send them in (if you've played with them and they work). Hopefully we will be able to publish them in a future White Dwarf article.
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