Legions Imperialis – Warhound Scout Titan

While we talk about super heavy and heavy armour with the likes of Baneblade and Kratos, there are far bigger warmachines available for Legions Imperialis with the use of the Adeptus Titanicus range from 2018. These boxes will now come repacked with additional content (bases) for the dual use in both systems. And while we already covered the Warhound Scout Titans in 2018 in its initial Double-Box release, we will do an updated review on the variant for  Legions Imperialis, as we now have more weaponry!

What is new about the LI variant of the Warhound? Well similar to a lot of other Titanicus releases, Games Workshop swapped the weapon sprue. We have seen this with the Reaver Titan, where they replaced the Laser/Gatling Blaster with Power Fist for Melta Cannon and Chain Fist, the Warlord Titan, with Volcano Cannon or  Sunfury Plasma Annihilators and even Warmaster Titan, where the Plasma Destructors got replaced with an Iconoclast weapon system.

But let us talk first, about what a Warhound is, if you are not familiar with titans and their different classes. There are multiple patterns of the Warhound Titan, produced on Forge Worlds among others like Mars or the now destroyed Gryphonne IV. The here shown Warhound pattern is the Mars Pattern, depending on how you count the Mark III. A Warhound has a crew of 4 (a Princeps, a Tactical Moderati, a Weapons Moderati and a Techpriest Enginseer) along with multiple servitors and servo skulls.

Initially the Warhound had a more hound like design, was originally released for the first small scale game of Adeptus Titanicus, and got a full sized model by Armorcast in the 90s. Later in the early 2000s Forge World would produce the Lucius Pattern Warhound (after the Forge World Lucius). A boxy armour design, which would be among the first titan sized kits. Later the Mars Pattern would follow, of which we even had a Traitor / Chaos variant. We never saw these for Titanicus in the smaller scale (but I wish we did).

Warhounds have the role of scouts on the battle field, often fighting in packs of two and as a spearhead in front of the main army / other titans. With a speed of roughly 60 kph and a height of just 14m (remember we're talking titans here, so being a bit larger than a regular family house isn't that tall for a moving battle fortress), they are able to stalk their enemies using ruins and buildings for cover. In Legions Imperialis they can be used as individuals or in packs of up to 3.

The first kit covered a sprue with two of each of the following weapon systems, Plasma blastgun, Vulcan Mega-bolter, Inferno gun and Turbo-laser destructor and did not have access to titan close combat weaponry. But this is about to change with the new weapon sprue, which replaced the old one in this box. We do not know if the new kit will come as a variant A and B, like within the Titanicus range, or cover both weapon sprues with a lot of options. The new options are Volkite Eradictor, Incisor Pattern Melta Lance, Natrix Shock Lance, Ursus Claw and Missile Pods with Shudder and Swarmer Missiles. All options are covered in the rules of the core rulebook.

The repacks will have three (or four) sprues in them, an instruction leaflet, a decal sheet (so far we have to make use of the one from the core set, the Titanicus one is a bigger as seen below) and most likely both bases, as well as the command terminals and cards for the use with Titanicus. The old price was 55 EUR, I assume the repack will be a bit more expensive.

Of the three sprues in the core set, two are known, and they cover the legs, upper body, head and armour  of the Warhound, in the third you will find all the weapon options. They make good use of the space in the sprues, and give you variants for loyal as well as traitor armoury / insignia.

The entire build process of the body is covered in the Adeptus Titanicus Warhound Scout Titan review and I won't copy & paste that here, please follow the link.

The only thing I did differently this time, I magnetized my Warhound. The Titanicus range is incredibly well planed and covers a lot of slots for magnets right away, this was done a bit more decent / less obvious with the Warhound. I covered some options in my Mustering of Legio Astraman article.

The main difference with the Legions Imperialis range compared to Titanicus are the flatter bases. The core set comes with lots of 25mm round bases and two 80mm round bases for the Warhounds. The classic Citadel Base is the same diameter, but higher. It is possible that we will see both in the repack.

For comparison, the flat base is 1,9 mm in height, the smaller infantry bases are almost 2 mm in height. While the classic Games Workshop / Citadel Slota-Bases are about 4mm in height.

This does not really make a difference regarding the total height of the miniature, it just creates a better immersion with the terrain. Anyhow, as I (plan to) use name plates for my titans, I will keep them on the taller bases and just put anything smaller like Knights on the flat bases I think. Maybe even just the smaller Knights like Questoris or Armigers.

But let's start with the new content, the new weapon systems. Some of these, like Natrix Shock Lance/Ursus Claw and Volkite Eradictor used to be Forge World resin kits, while others like the Incisor Pattern Melta Lance and Missile Pods are completely new.

The biggest difference towards the old weapons, these do not come with power cables that are connected to the body of the Warhound. This was one of the reasons, why I didn't magnetise these weapon options. But I should have. This is something that does not come right away with the kit, unlike with all the bigger titans, like Reaver, Warlord etc. where there are mounts for magnets. There is a 3d printed option to replace the arm bit, with a mounted variant for magnets.

Let's start with the Shock Lance and Ursus Claw. The Forge World kit was a 2-in-1, with the same body and different heads. Now you have two of each in this kit, you can build both variants two times. Happy hunting, great for Legio Audax.

The Incisor Melta Lance is a new weapon system for the Warhound class, a bigger variant of the weapon system the Leviathan class Dreadnoughts carry. Once again, two of them in the box.

There are two Missile Pods in the sprue as well, where you can choose between two designs, for Shudder and Swarmer Missiles. You can align the elbow for either left or right. You could cut out / drill some of the missiles to show empty slots (or even put one missile, maybe from the Aeronautica sprues, on a wire for a bit of dramatic effect).

And the second (or third, depending on how you count) replacement of a resin option, the Volkite Eradicator.

The entire load out you receive from that sprue. Great deal, really proper options. Especially in combination with the old set.

And here are some examples, how they look mounted. Once again, I recommend using magnets, either convert the arms or get the 3d printed replacement bit.

The Warhound is the smallest of the titans, and only a bit taller, but wider than the largest of Knights.

But this looks entirely different in comparison with the troops of the Legiones Astartes or Solar Auxilia, who will be just happy with the support of one of the god machines.

And you can use some spare miniatures for base decoration, on either bases / games.

Conclusion

The new weapon systems are a great addition to the Warhound Scout Titan. Not that I was unhappy with them in the first place, this came a bit out of nowhere, but I'm very happy about it. As for the price, at around 60 EURs for two, or in this case, part of the core set, they are not a bad deal and you can probably pick some up from somebody who split the box (or in the past from people who bought the Titanicus starter for the Reavers), which makes them an even bigger bargain.

Easy to build, proper fit and I like the dynamic poses of the Warhound. With the update of the Dire Wolf coming in plastic as well (which is a great news and I hope that they will transfer some of the dynamic over to the kit, as the resin ones were a bit "stiff"), I can see these as proper additions and reasonable support for Legions Imperialis forces in smaller games. The only thing really missing from this kit, would be the magnet mounts for the weapon systems right away, as moulded pieces. But beyond that, proper kit.

And if any of the designers is reading this, please give us the corrupted traitor armour plates. It would be four pieces of resin (Back, Groin and Shin armour), perfect Forge World product.

The Horus Heresy and Legions Imperialis are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.