Aeronautica & Titanicus – A Match Made At GW
Games Workshop might have given us a few reasons why it wouldn’t work – but combining these two games needs to happen!
Adeptus Titanicus is a game that’s all about massive warmachines duking it out on the tabletop. Aeronautica Imperialis is a game that’s all about planes dogfighting in the skies above a battlefield. AT is played on a tabletop and uses inches and free-form movement while AI is played on a board using hexes and maneuvers. They are two very different beasts and have been designed in such a way that they aren’t even remotely compatible rules wise. And yet we can’t help but wonder if it would be possible to smash these two systems together for something new.
“Pretty sure those aren’t titans blowing up in the sky in this picture…”
Games Workshop has come out and stated two very clear things in opposition of this:
- “The two games are set in wildly different time periods”
- “[The two games are] completely different rulesets -in terms of “in-world” time; a game of Aeronautica Imperialis takes about as much time as an Adeptus Titanicus Titan takes to warm up a knee-actuator”
To their credit, yes – those things are 100% true. However, to the first point – “So what?” All of these Titans still exist in the time period of Aeronautica Imperialis, right? Sure they don’t exist in the same number but who cares? It’s still 100% accurate to have a Warlord Titan on the battlefield with an Imperial Thunderbolt flying overhead. That happens in Apocalypse and it can happen in (a very large game) of 40k.
Hey look – Airplanes in 40k!
To their second point: True again. But I’d like to point out that if the game rules don’t work due to the time scale, then you can simply change the scale of time. The other counterpoint to this, again, is the fact that you can use both units in 40k and Apocalypse already.
The final nail in the coffin to their reasoning is one of the other points that THEY made:
“We’ve had a few people ask if Aeronautica Imperialis is on the same scale as Adeptus Titanicus. Indeed it is [emphasis added]…”
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Indeed they are…
These two games’ models are in the same scale. If they are in the same scale, then what is the hold up?! The answer to that is actually pretty simple: Rules.
Adeptus Titanicus does have a very different set of rules vs Aeronautica Imperialis – and I haven’t even seen the rules for AI and I can tell you that with 100% confidence. Now that doesn’t mean that these two games can’t be reconciled together. I’d say of the two rule sets, AT is probably going to have more structure to graft the AI rules into. We already know what the armaments are for these planes (thanks 40k datasheets) and those could be converted over fairly easily. The real issue is the movement and targeting rules.
Okay – think I figure out the issue.
Games Workshop just so happens to employ an entire design team that works on rules. It’s what they do for a living. I’m pretty confident in their ability to create those movement and targeting rules for the AI units grafted into AT. If nothing else, they can always fall-back on the 40k rules from previous editions for targeting flyers:
- -1 to hit (maybe more depending on speed)
- Blast weapons can’t target them
As for movement, obviously these flyers should be fast – the should be able to do loops around the table and fire away. They are already on hex bases which provide some pretty clear lines for arcs – just keep using those. Adeptus Titanicus already uses firing arcs and movement arcs, too. Those hexes could be adapted to have the flyers move in a similar fashion.
Now I’m not going to pretend that it’s going to be easy to just bolt in some flyer rules to AT and *poof* it’s done. But I’m looking at these models and I’m looking at the rules for AT and thinking, “why the heck not?!” In the meantime, I’m gathering up the datasheets for these flyers and the titans for 40k. When AI drops, I’m going to take a good hard look at the scale and the 40k rules and try to figure out that “why not” question. Because, to me, the rules are already out there – it’s just a matter of figuring out how they would fit together. So c’mon GW – Make it happen!
These ground assets look familiar.
What do you think? Can/Should Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis be combined into a new game at a later date?
