Legio Lancea

Oops.

I don't think that the Warhounds have a tactical officer though. Moderati is a latin word that can be translated into Governor, I think, which suggests that he controls others. A Weapons Moderati would control the weapons and/or weapon servitors.

I've read the Titan comics, and based my numbers for the Warlord on those. Did you not agree with them?

Just for the record, I'm very unsure about the crew as well. For the Warhound, I just saw Forgeworld's model, noticed that it had 3 crew members, and judged the rest of the titan to be too small to really have servitors doing any good. I figured one of the three visible crew members would control the guns, that would be the weapons moderati, and one would control movement, which was the engineer.



+ + + Heroes of Legio Lancea + + +

Grand Master Nestor Quirinius of Imperius Invictus, Emperor class, Imperator variant
Nestor Quirinius was recently promoted to the rank of Grand Master of Legio Lancea, following the death of the former Grand Master Sigmund Hortan. The choice of Quirinius as Grand Master was an obvious one, as he has long been a great hero of the Legion, renowned for his superb tactics and his legendary victories against the forces of chaos in his early military career.

Though Legion tactics have always put Emperor class titans at a distance from the enemy, where they can use their devastating long range firepower optimally without risking close combat, Nestor Quirinius has a reputation for wanting to lead from the front. This has be a constant source of worry for the more venerable Princeps of the Legion, who have continually reminded Quirinius of the Emperor class Titan’s weakness in close combat, especially with enemy titans. Luckily, as Grand Master, Quirinius has been given the most elite crew of the entire legion, to many of whom Quirinius arguably owes his life, and doubly so the life of the Imperius Invictus.

Princeps Victor Thanatos of Imperius Odiosus, Warlord class
Princeps Victor Thanatos is one of the greatest heroes of Proteus, and has the highest number of killed titans in the Legio Lancea. Something of a lone wolf, Thanatos works best alone and is feared as much as awed by many of the younger Princeps in the legion. If anything, Thanatos appearance only adds to this fear, his gaunt features and long black hair undeniably similar to the Angel of Death which is the logo of Imperius Odiosus.

In addition to being the top ace of the Legion, Thanatos is a great hero of the Anargo sector. On the world Tryphon, Thanatos was instrumental in the mutant uprisings in M37. Cut off from the rest of the Imperial forces on Tryphon, Thanatos discovered an enemy army on route to the city Daria. Knowing that he could not defeat such an enemy by force alone, Thanatos came up with a risky plan that would ensure him a place in the history books of the Collegiate Titanicus. Using his weapons to start an avalanche from the snowy mountains surrounding the city, Thanatos successfully buried his Titan in the snow and powered down his Titan to avoid detection. As the reckless mutant army passed by without detecting the Titan, Thanatos powered up and rose from the snow with guns roaring. More than half the enemy army was annihilated before the mutants even knew who was attacking and had regrouped to face the ambushing Titan. Suffering only moderate damage, Thanatos annihilated the mutant army and saved the million citizens of Daria. As soon as the worldwide mutant uprising had been stopped, a monument was erected on Tryphon in his honour.

Princeps Phillip Xavier Shima of Imperius Immolare, Reaver class
A son of the noble House Shima on Nagoma, Princeps Phillip Xavier Shima is one of the few young Princeps in the Legion who have been given command of the ancient Reaver class Titan. Princeps Shima’s Titan, the Imperius Immolare is configured with a rather unusual armament for a Reaver, with two gatling blasters, and without the trademark carapace mounted missile launcher of the Reaver class.

The young Princeps was recently made a hero of Legio Lancea when he was decorated with the Ebony Halo on account of his sacrifice on Massil. The Ebony Halo is a medal usually presented to Princeps posthumously, and represents a detachment from flesh and sacrifice for the Machine God. On the battle of Black Falls on Massil, Princeps Shima fought alongside a dozen other titans of Legio Lancea against the ork horde of Warlord Garksnik Manik. The battle was an overwhelming victory for the Imperials, with the newly arrived Titans taking the overconfident orks by surprise. Victory was hard fought however, and as the battle drew to a close the Burning Lances’ leading Titan, the Warmonger called Imperius Laureatus leading the Titan force was all but torn apart.

The old Emperor class Titan limped back towards its command depot as its brother-Titans held the line when the Great Gargant Tufzag Og Manik ambushed the Imperius Laureatus. Taking the Emperor class Titan completely by surprise, the ork Gargant crippled the Imperius Laureatus in moments, leaving it immobilised and unable to bring its weapons to bear against the ambusher. Though the Great Gargant was heavily armed, the Warmonger was able to raise its void shields before it was utterly destroyed, and postpone its death at least for a while. Minute by minute, void shields collapsed, and the crew of the Imperius Laureatus could do nothing but pray. Their prayers were heard, and Princeps Shima came to their aid, bravely assaulting the Great Gargant against all odds. The smaller Reaver Titan could not possibly hope for victory against such a foe, yet the young Princeps fought on to distract the Great Gargant from destroying the Imperius Laureatus. In the end, the dwarfed Reaver Titan fell, its void shields collapsed and its legs shot to pieces. The Great Gargant would have destroyed the Reaver then, but the young Princeps had foiled his opponent and lured the Great Gargant into the grasp of the Imperius Laureatus. A sudden storm of fire exploded through the Ork machine, and the two Imperial Titans remained, both crippled but alive.

When the recovery teams found Princeps Shima, he was the only living crew member of his Titan, half his body burned and torn by explosions. By all rights, the Titan’s machine spirit should have short-circuited by the damage and Shima been killed, but both survived, a proof of the indestructible bond between man and machine. Now, Princeps Shima is more machine than man, his noble features distorted by the metal-covered half of his face. His Reaver Titan, the Imperius Immolare has been rebuilt, and decorated with the shield of the family from his homeworld, three angelic feathers.

[nitpick]many of whom Quirinius arguably owes his life, [/nitpick]

Touché

LoL! Cheers, guys. Always nice to improve my English. Of course, it's always nice to get comments on other things than language, but... ah well...

PS: Wonderful spamming, btw. Do it again, and I will kill you untill you die from it ;D

Erm, both. And probably Kage, who's also been spamming lately.

*plays Empire Strikes Back theme in the background*

I do not spam, merely hoard my long posts for the topics that I feel I can give greater contribution to. Erm. And don't you dare ever edit one of my own posts, CELS! ;D

Minor question, but do the legio titanicus really refer to their best crew teams/moderatus as "aces"? I've got this image of handlebar-moustache touting people wearing leather jacket and hat shouting "Tallo ho! Let's give those blighters and jolly good thrashing!" for some reason.

On the name of the legion, is it just me or does it remind you of an Italian care manufacturer? Or is that car make? Can never remember. (This is partially tongue-in-cheek. It does remind me of that but that is not to say that I dislike the name!)

With that said, however, why did you make the legio so large?

Other than that I liked the demi-legio being transferred to the younger forgeworld in Meksum and, generally, the 'fluff' on them.

Kage