Horus Heresy Review: Warlord Battle Titan

Background.

So, I've reviewed everything now in Tempest, and this is the last entry. The Warlord Titan. I've done the Reaver and the Warhound, so for completeness, I'm now doing the Warlord.

In terms of background, and at the time of writing, the cost of this beast is GBP 1240. Do you need more background? Okay, its points cost is 2750 at the base level.

I would like you to have a good hard look at those numbers. Are you going to use it in a game? Are you rich enough not to care?

Right, now that we have got that out of the way, the Warlord is the largest of the battle titan class and one of the most iconic. In the background blurb, it hints that it is the Warlord that is primarily responsible for the domain of man, rather than the space marine legions. And with the rules presented, its not hard to see why.

Strengths.

Oh my. Where to start. Look, this machine is an absolute game killer. And city killer. With a game breaking AV=15 on two faces, a whopping 30 hull points, 6 void shields, 5++, and all the usual titan rules you've come to expect, I'm not even sure how to bring a Warlord down short of fielding one against it myself. 

Other than that, we get to choose two arm weapons and two carapace weapons. And yes: there is choice here. Note as well, the Warlord can simply target blank areas. That gets around invisibility very nicely. The weapons are all viable in various combinations. For the arms, I like the sun fury plasma annihilators and the bellicose pattern volcano cannons most myself. I don't like the close combat weapon (the shooting is better, and you've got a great stomp attack anyway and can't be locked in combat regardless -- even by another titan. Hence I think taking ranged weapons is better).

For the carapace, I like the apocalyptic missile launchers, the reaver melta cannons, vortex missile banks, laser blasters, and incinerator missile banks (for opponents in very hard cover). 

Weaknesses.

Yeah. It explodes with a large radius? Erm. Okay. Moving on.

Builds.

Here's just a couple of my personal favourites. To be clear, I don't think you can go tooooo wrong here. You just have to ask yourself what you're going to be up against. 

Warlord, 2 Bellicosa pattern volcano cannons, 2 laser blasters (2850 points)

Lots of D class ranged weapons. For the primary weapons that is.

Warlord, 2 Sunfury Plasma annihilators, Apocalypse missile launchers (2750 points)

Cheap!

Warlord, 2 Bellicosa pattern volcano cannons, 2 reaver melta cannons (2850 points)

I've got nothing to add here.

Warlord, 1 Bellicosa pattern volcano cannon, 1 Saturnyne lascutter, 2 vortex missile banks (2900 points)

I don't even like this build. I'm just including it to demonstrate that such builds are still viable.