Adeptus Titanicus – The Defence of Ryza

After Titandeath and Doom of Molech in 2019, and Shadow and Iron in 2020, The Defence of Ryza is the fourth campaign supplement published for Adeptus Titanicus, and we're going to cover it today.

The supplement is either available as a 108 page hardcover for 29 EUR or as an ePub3 through Warhammer Digital for 25.99 EUR.

The hardback book or digital copy cover the following content;

• An overview of the Defence of Ryza
• Background and Legion-specific rules for six Titan Legions: Honorum, Osedax, Crucius, Magna, Vulturum and Mortis
• Four new maniples to use in your games
• Background and rules for six Knight Houses: Sidus, Taranis, Zavora, Morbidia, Ioeden and Oroborn
• Full colour examples of paint schemes and heraldry for Titans and Knights
• Six narrative missions based on the dramatic events of the story
• Three different allegiances for your Titan Legions, and four for your Knight Houses
• Rules for creating your own Titan Legions, including 16 Traits, 15 Stratagems, and 21 pieces of Wargear
• Battle Standards, Lance Standards and High Kings to expand your Knight Households
• New environments: Manufactoria, Plasmatic Infrastructure and Ryza Secundus
• 11 new Stratagems to use in your games

The creation rules for Titan Legions aren't a new idea, as there was a basic approach (4 double pages) on this included in White Dwarf of July 2019, but these are much more elaborate and give the player a lot more flexibility (10 pages).

The new campaign, The Defence of Ryza, covers the attack of the Dark Mechanicum and Warmaster Horus on the forge world of Ryza. You'll probably have seen multiple STCs with a Ryza pattern, for example the Ryza Pattern Habitats, that were part of the Sector Fronteris, or the focus on plasma-based technologies, that lead to exclusively on the planet manufactured constructs like the Leman Russ Executioner or the development of the Stormblade. Especially the later made it a very interesting objective for the traitor Fabricator-General Kelbor-Hal. Warhammer Community covered an intro on the background of the battle as well.

As such the supplement covers the details on the Titan Legions and Knight Houses that joined the Dark Mechanicum forces on their march on Ryza. These are the Titan Legions – Legio Magna (Flaming Skulls), Legio Vulturum (Gore Crows), and Legio Mortis (Death’s Heads) – and Knight Houses Morbidia, Ioeden, and Oroborn. The defending counter-part on the loyal side are the Tech-Priests of Ryza themself, supported by Legio Crucius (Warmongers), Legio Honorum (Death Bolts), and Legio Osedax (The Cockatrices), and three Knight Houses Taranis, Zavora, and Sidus.

The first 27 pages are dedicated to setting up the conflict, entirely pointing out the importance of Ryza, including maps of the planets / segment and a very strong narrative. Interesting decision, as Adeptus Titanicus is set within the Horus Heresy and strongly interweaves with the extended Black Library books, and as such should be of more interest for the players. The following 22 pages cover 6 Titan Legions, all of them with at least one large and full coloured example of Titan wit heraldry, in most cases two. These are provided with high quality artwork that we have seen in some of the Horus Heresy books by Forge World. All of them cover their Legio Traits, Stratagems, Wargear and Personal Traits. At the end of this chapter, you'll find four maniples, quite broadly shaped from almost only Warlords to a good mixture from Questoris Knights up to Warlords. The Dominus Battleforce maniple covers two Questoris Knight Banners that are shown with Magaera type Knights. A further 14 pages cover the Knight Houses of Ryza, all of them listed with the specific Household Knightly qualities, but most of all showing close-ups of the mechanicum variants of the Knights, like the Questoris Knight-Magaera and Cerastus Knight-Atrapos, and I hope to see them in the near future as an option for Adeptus Titanicus model wise.

We're entering the last third of the book, beginning with the narrative missions of the Defence of Ryza. The six missions take you through the following battles:

• The Battle for Ryza Secundus: Last Stand (House Morbidia vs. House Vornherr)
• The Treachery of House Ioeden: Ambush (House Ioeden vs. Legio Honorum)
• A Road less travelled: Assault upon the Fortress (Legio Vulturum vs. Legio Crucius)
• Death of Salvation: The Defiance of Legio Crucius (Traitor Force vs. Lego Crucius)
• Honour and Glory: The Relief of Endeavour (Traitor Force vs. Loyalist)
• Conveyance Terminus Nine-Omega (Traitor Force vs. Loyalist)

Of course, you can swap the named houses and legions for the ones available. It is interesting to see, that all of these scenarios have special objectives and sometimes in favour of one of the sides, so no simple frontal clashes and often played on compact tables of 4 by 4 ft. They are listed in chronological order, but the results of the individual games do not cause any effects on the next battle.

And the remaining 16 pages are dedicated to create your own Legion and expand your Knight Households. For comparison, the White Dwarf of July 19 covered 10 Traits, a single Stratagem and 11 pieces of Wargear. In this supplement, you'll find 16 Traits, 15 Stratagems and 21 pieces of Wargear, along with the allegiance. That is actually the first thing you choose, if you're either Loyal, Traitor or a Blackshield, unlocking a special allegiance ability along with the overview, which units or upgrades you can choose. For example Psi-Titans are exclusive to loyal legions, and even hint new units / banners, that will be introduced in future supplements, for example Renegade Knight Banners or Blackshield Titan of Legends. As for Knight Household, these can choose their allegiance from either the Questoris Imperialis, Mechanicus, Traitoris or Oblitus. The Renegades will be covered as explained before in a future supplement. This flexibility is highly welcomed, as it gives you the option to customize the abilities of your legion to your gaming style. May that be aggressive, superior-engineered or flexible. But beyond your legion you can further customize your knight household as well, with battle banners, lance standards and the option for a high king.

The very last pages of the book cover the battlefields of Ryza, with their special environments of the Manufactoria, Plasmatic infrastructure and Ryza Secundus, along with 11 new stratagems. The environments cover the battles on a forge world, as such the dangers of huge manufacturing plants for those who wander around, as well as the vast supply of reactors and such in a production facility.

Conclusion
This book makes a great and valuable first impression. The front of the hardcover has a special print that makes you feel the logo. The binding of the book is properly done, not just glued, there is even a bookmark included. This is not just a product of a Games Workshop side game, but from the hands of Forge World and you can see that, as the layout is kept in a similar way to their Horus Heresy series, creating a bridge towards the setting of Warhammer 30.000.

The mixture of lore with a new campaign / scenarios, maniples and houses, makes The Defence of Ryza a useful addition to the game. Normally I would point out, that I would be expecting Ad Mech knights with this book, but as profiles / units are delivered along their products (as part of the command terminals) these might be released on their own - if / when they are released. The price of 29 EUR is absolutely fair for this supplement.

Creating your own Titan Legion and Knight Houses is a great addition to the game. The supplements covered the larger, more well-known names, and you could produce a work-around with the White Dwarf rules or by using one of the existing legions/houses with your own paint job. But this is a proper way, especially with the broad variety of Titan Legions and Knight Houses there can to be found in the lore (see for yourself). Now I have the chance to create the rules for my chosen Titan Legion Astraman (Morning Stars) and their supporting houses.

As this is a supplement for Adeptus Titanicus, a copy of the rules is required to use the contents of this book.

Warhammer 40.000 and Adeptus Titanicus are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.