Daemons of the Machine Ghod
The Adeptus Titanicus (Collegia Titanicus): Creators of the mighty avatars of the true Machine Ghod: The Omnissiah. These Titans are vast walking engines of death and destruction, great beasts clothed in Dark Age science and armour. To see a Titan is to see Ghod. A personification of the power of science, and the greatest of the death bringers that walk the earth. The Warlord is the backbone of the titan legions. They are the 'core troops' of each divisions and pack some of the most awesome firepower every devised. They make heavy used of grav-repulsion technologies, and are surprisingly mobile considering their size.
* Daemon is a reference to the artificial sentience that runs in the background.
Warlord Class Titan [Greater Daemons]
A Warlord titans can stride faster than the top speed of a modern day MTB (Main Battle Tank). The can negotiate terrain that would be considered impassable by modern day armour: literally scale mountains and 'walk on water' with full anti-grav, or become fully submerged in the ocean and act as a submarine.
Stats [Mars Pattern]
This is the core stats as defined by the Mars Pattern of the Warlord Class. Mars Pattern Mec.III/ IX [Warlord 9]
Height: 115 Standard Imperial Cubits
Weight:110 Standard Imperial Kilo Kegs
Power: Plasma Engine 850 Me
Main Drive: Phase Engine L94-V ('Anti-gravity': 544 Kp)
Aux Drive: T3 servo exoskeleton over P-field repeaters. Foot mount Stasis field mine suppressors.
Spirit: Lower Cortex [Bear] with Archaeotech-Covenant override. Fully impressive mind blend, with higher functions provided by the Princeps.
Perception: Class 3 sensor net via Autosense.
Crew: (10) 1 Princeps, 3 Moderati, 6 Engineseers (Techpriests), and 9 servitors
HP-ML Armament: Volcano [R] Cannon
HP-MR Armament: Gatling [B] Blaster [3K bolts]
HP-HL Battery: Duel Turbo-Laser Destructors
HP-HR Battery: Duel Turbo-Laser Destructors
Anti-aircraft: 6 carapace mounted autoaim heavy multi-laser.
Anti-personnel: 24 foot mounted autoaim Heavy Bolters with co-axle light multi-laser.
Armour: T90 [set] Ablative Ceraforms over Adamantium chassis.
Shields: Composite [Void] 6 + Conversion layer/ Earth
Orbital Drop: L94-V aux over-booster
Endurance: 20,000 Imperial Kilo Cubits/ Terra year.
All this conspires to make the Titans a magnet for enemy firepower, but this is by design as the Titan has rank upon rank of void shields and can withstand all but orbital bombardments. Titans have been know to survive direct nuke strikes. They are the avatar of the Omnissiah! Nothing demoralises the enemy faster than pouring everything they have at the Titan only to see the dust settle and its magnificent silhouette highlighted against the sky, before clearing to reveal and unblemished Titan. Many with the presence of mind surrender instantly and plead for unconditional terms, those who dither see the Titan unleash the true horror of war.
Weapon Systems
Titans are incredibly large weapons platforms and wield a variety of super heavy weapons, often found only on starship or housed within installations.
Volcano [R] Cannon
Primary 'Titan killer' weapon. Powered by the core Plasma Reactor of the Titan this weapon can generate a beam that will slice through any know armour.
Gatling Gun
A six barrel 'Gatling Gun' weapon. Each barrel in a liner accelerator firing ordnance using meg-lev. It is a tri-feed weapon and can change between feeds even at full spin up. Each feed is linked to a hopper via a meg-lev flex belt containing 1,000 rounds. Each hopper can be filled with differing ordnance, or all the same.
Ramjet Penetrator: A ferric ringed sabot encased round. Once the sabot encased round is clear of the barrel, it discards it's sabot which floods its ramjet with air (hence the need for high initial speed) and rapidly accelerates to strike velocity at hypersonic speeds. Primarily and anti Super Heavy Tank weapon.
- On worlds without a breathable (no oxygen) atmosphere a variant is used.
Frag: A high explosive shrapnel round (frag shells) is also used in areas where a great many ground troops are to be destroyed. Each frag shell has no rocket or booster, and is just a massive iron frag grenade accelerated via the meg-lev in the barrel.
- A variant is the flechette canister shot, which can even destroy small armoured vehicles with its 10 foot rocket javelins.
Thermobaric (vacuum bombs): Fuel-Air Explosives. Similar in mission to frag rounds but dependant of atmospheric oxygen. However these pack quite a punch compared to the frag and often will overturn armour, and literally clear the ground (even trees fly away). As they use up atmospheric oxygen, and in order to optimise blast damage considering the rate of fire, these shells are only fired every other round or every two rounds. A common mix in ground wars is the 0/2/1 load: No penetrators, 2 hoppers of frag and 1 hopper of thermobaric.
To imagine this weapon in action, read up the 'daisy cutter' bombs (BLU-82) which have a blast radius of 500 feet and will remove trees. Then conjure the image of 50-100 of them slamming into the front line of a battle force in the space of 30 seconds. If doubled with penetrator rounds (i.e. one penetrator directly followed by a vacuum bomb) this combination can rapidly destroy heavy fortifications.
Fire Control: The fire control systems of the Warlord can ensure that the Gatling Blaster matches munitions to target even as full fire volume. It can mow down masses of ground troops in a single sweep, yet instantly switch to penetrator round as it passes over an armoured vehicle, and back to frags. It is also smart enough to know if a sweep and fire increment do not match, and can abort a switch if the penetrator would miss (see note below).
Not precog: I read this interesting thread, and I thought I would address it. The miss would be due to no armoured target within the area where the shot would land. This is not for direct fire, but a sweep, and spacing between shots means an armoured target could be in between the shots, in the spaces, and penetrators need a direct hit to work. When this happens the system does not switch, and the Titan will have to specifically target it, or chance a second sweep. The high rate of fire make it likely to hit a large armoured target, and small targets can be targeted by other weapon systems)
Design note by Philip Sibbering
Defence systems
The Warlord has ceramite based armour several meters thick. This type of armour is not the primary defence, and is actually considered 'obsolete' against the more serious threats the Imperial war machines encounters. The Warlord's primary defence is several advanced personal defence systems. If these personal defence systems are overcome, most weapons of the advanced species can punch through material armour with ease and inflict catastrophic damage.
Although the material armour can be seen as 'obsolete', it is included as a backup in case of personal defence system malfunction. While ineffective against advanced weaponry, it is still very effective against the technology of the less advanced species. Kinetic penetrators fired from a modern day main battle tank will not get through, though cruised missiles with the correct warhead will (cruise missiles are usually dealt with by the Warlord's personal defence systems).
It is the personal defence systems that make the Warlord so dangerous. Being immune to most incoming heavy weapons fire allows it to be used in a very direct and aggressive manner. The Warlord can lead the spear tip, it can smash an enemy head on, and survive unscathed. A rampaging titan, the avatar of the machine ghod, is an awesome (and that's 'awesome' in the biblical sense) sight to behold. Many armies confronted with the full glory of a Warlord striding towards them, their weapons useless against this mighty war machine, have fled in terror. Rebellions have been broken by the mere presence of a Warlord. Often standing as a silent sentinel while the Imperial forces crack down: rooting out the ring leaders and other 'undesirables'. Occasionally the personal defence systems will spring into life to protect the Warlord from guerrilla attack, but the rest of the time it stands as a titanic totem to the machine ghod. The oppressive presence of the Imperium manifest!
Void shield
6 ranks. The core of the Titan supremacy package. More here.
Anti-Air(craft)
6 auto-aim (servitors) Multi-lasers. These are proactive and rapid firing and can track, prioritise, and target hundreds of airborne missiles and craft within the Warlord's 'exclusion zone'. Nothing is allowed near the Titan and everything will be shot down. Often the void shields are not even tested, most threats are neutralised long before they has a chance to fully engage. Most modern day missiles and aircraft would be destroyed at the outer marker. The multi-lasers are fast, and can even track targets such as snipers (via a deferral system from main sensors).
Anti- Personnel
24 auto-aim (servitors) Heavy Bolters with co-axle light multi-lasers. 12 per foot. Fed with huge hoppers stored in the lower legs, the Bolters do not run dry in most shock campaigns. The light multi-laser is a backup weapon for lighter armoured troops, and being powered from the core can remain active as long as the core has fuel.
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