Thursday 24 January 2019

A look at Legio Mortis in Titandeath

Hi all


The Titandeath book is dropping soon, so I thought it would be a good time to look at the Legio Mortis Rules and options. 





MORTIS TRAITS

Reaper’s Tally: This rule sounds particularly dangerous to me, especially with low shot-count, high-damage Weapons (Belicosas etc). As an Engine kills an enemy Engine it gains the ability to re-roll a single dice roll of 1 every time it makes “a shooting attack.” The rule doesn’t specify if it’s to hit or to damage, so it seems like the player can choose. It also isn’t specified whether the rule applies for each and every shooting attack weapon in the Engine’s arsenal or whether it’s a re-roll for just one shooting attack the Engine makes in the combat phase. To me it reads as though it applies to every shooting attack the Titan makes (so a re-roll for each and every shooting attack the Engine makes in the combat phase), as the rule says “it gains the ability to re-roll a single dice roll of 1 each time it makes a shooting attack,” which is damn deadly. This is cumulative too (so kill 2 foes, gain 2 re-rolls per shooting attack). 

State of Decay: This rule shows how deadened the Legio Mortis were to the constant brutality of war. This trait grants a perk to ignore some critical head damage to the crew for a turn. Other restrictions apply. 

 

MORTIS STRATEGEMS

March of the Dead: it’s the equivalent of a quick snap in Bloodbowl (all Engines get a free move before turn 1), but the enemy always gets the first turn. 

 

MORTIS WARGEAR

Remains of the fallen: As we know, Legio Mortis are quite fond of strapping remains of enemies (including Knight torsos or still living foes) to their armour. This increases the command level of an enemy unit +1 if within 8,” as they begin to shake in their jackboots. 

The Warmaster’s Beneficence: This upgrade increases the strength of its missile or bolter weapons the first time it fires, and may ignore the effects of the draining rule the first time it fires in a game. This could be good, if you upgrade a powerful Engine, to finish an enemy Warlord off in turn 1 after another Warlord has softened it. 

 

PERSONAL TRAITS

Rotten Heart: Chaos is here already! The Princeps has already sided with Chaos, and so has the Machine Spirit. It means you can ignore the effect of Machine Spirit awakening, but take some Reactor heat instead. 

Pitiless: Basically even when an enemy Titan is bleeding out, Mortis take no prisoners. When an enemy Titan that is currently critically damaged is targeted, all damage rolls recieve +1 to the strength of the attacks. 

Ancient of Terra: Legio Mortis has many ancient Princeps which have taken full immersion or similar due to how old the Legion is. It is a bit of an odd name for the trait, but it basically means the Titan treats the red level as the orange level of the reactor overload table.


Can’t wait to get some games in. 

2 comments:

  1. At first read the Mortis Trait seems a bit too powerful, and I suspect they might tweak it so it can only be used once per shooting phase rather than attack.
    To be honest though as your opponent is going to know which of your Titans have this, and have the ability to target and destroy said Titan, its probably not too overpowered as you have understood it.
    I just wonder if this is a bit of a RAW vs RAI, did they really mean for it to be for hit and damage, it feels more like a to hit piece.
    Looking forward to the book though, and thanks for posting! Was a nice read!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At first it does seem pretty daunting, but I think the main thing is that it only allows a re-roll of a 1, which means it won't kick in terribly often. And it does require getting kills for it to be active and allows for you to target those engines.

      It's certainly a thematic rule, though.

      Delete