Acastus Knights for Adeptus Titanicus

"Acastus" class knight banner for GW's re-booted Adeptus Titanicus. Plastic models from GW.

More scary machines from the grim darkness of the far future.  These are "Acastus" class Knights for GW's rebooted "Adeptus Titanicus" game. In that game, the knights are relatively small fry, needing to operate nimbly, and in groups, in order to be successful - after all, the battlefield features massive battle titans armed with batteries of weapons which can level entire city blocks with one shot. But the "Acastus" knights are a sort-of-hybrid machine - still knights, but armed with titan-level weapons.

Crew hatch, and view of the retractable rocket launcher system.

The "Acastus" knights are the largest knights available, quite large compared to the "Cerastus" and "Questoris" machines, and, as you can see in the pictures, nearly as big as a Warhound-class battle titan, and their weapons can not only cook enemy knights but are also capable of dealing out long-range harm to enemy battle titans. The look of these models certainly reflects that role well - not only are they bigger, but their limbs are encased in more armour plating, and the plating is found on the sides and back, not just the front.

Various sizes of knight and, in the background, some titans.

Almost as big as a Warhound...

While these knights do hit harder, they will still need to be used carefully on an "Adpetus Titanicus" battlefield - one blast from a "volcanon cannon" will still render them to slag.  But working in conjunction with other war machines, the "Acastus" knights can be a real threat to enemy Princeps. They can also serve as a stout flank guard for allied titans, easily capably of blasting enemy knights and leaving the bigger titans free to concentrate on bigger game, as it were.

I've not had any occasion to use these models in a game (obviously) and I've not seem them used myself, but I note that in a recent FAQ GW has already dialed back these models, shrinking the maximum size of the "banner" to two machines (down from a max of four), limiting the number of "banners" which can be deployed in a force and increasing the points cost for some elements.  When GW screws up these sorts of things, they seem to use "FAQs" to dial them back, and these specific changes would indicate to me that these machines must be rather potent indeed...

More armour...even the back has plate covering for extra protection.

Scary guns, of course...

Lots of cables and other details...these are truly fantastic models.

These models are painted in the blue/teal and white colours I use for the Knight House in my collection that fights alongside Legio Mortis, and as such these machines will do battle in the name of Horus Lupercal, the glorious Warmaster! Horus for hope!

Lots of decals come with the kits...just fantastic.

And you need to have a banner, right? Obviously.

"Horus for hope!"

While these models were of course fantastic, GW f**ked up the assembly instruction booklet - the part numbers vs. actual parts for key components of the legs are reversed in the booklet vs. how they actually appear on the sprue...so you will need to proceed with caution. If you look at these models, you will see one of them has very small leg greaves on the exterior side vs. interior side...not the end of the world, but it is what will happen if you are not careful and miss the mistake in the instructions.

Updated "family photo" for Legio Mortis & friends.

I hope everyone is safe, and able to find some relaxation with your hobbies during these times of quarantine and "physical distancing".