I was thinking about a good Epic UK AMTL list and got a bit stuck on what to do with the Warlord Titan. Since I'm thinking about it anyway why not make a post out of this for future reference?
Let's talk about the elephant in the room, the Warlord. Each list has to have at least one of these bad boys.
It has 4 weapon slots and one free weapon upgrade, so it can really pack a punch!
With 8 hitpoints and 6 shields, it's not indestructible but it will take real dedication to take it down. Multiple units firing on one, maybe two turns. That's a lot of time you get to take from your opponent.
That's some positives, now the negatives.
It's super slow! With a 15cm movement, if it starts on the edge of your deployment zone you should be theoretically able to reach your opponent's blitz objective within the end of turn 3.
However, it is highly unlikely since to reach the objective you need to do a double each turn in a straight line heading towards the objective.
Your enemy will have to be blind not to figure out what you are doing. And stoping this "war walk" is pretty easy. All you have to do is put a small formation in front of the titan (or make him move at least 15 cm off course) to fall out of objective range.
You could argue that it is achievable in turn 4 but most games will not last that long. Especially when the opponent has a mobile force that can simply outmanoeuvre you (which will be most of the time for this army).
Another tactic you could try with the warlord is to stay on your blitz and give it some long-range artillery weapons. The issue with this strategy is that the Epic UK list does not provide any indirect fire weapons. It does provide a Landing Platform which grants one weapon the Indirect rule however for this to be an artillery platform you have to use half of the available slots for Landing Platforms (2) and the other half probably for two Quake Cannons so that you have a 900 point (or maybe 950 with the Supreme Commander) 3BT (a turn due to slow firing) artillery unit. Wasteful to say the least.
The tactics that I think are most suitable for this unit (although not battle-tested) is: set up your two Take and Holds as close to your table half (and to each other) as possible. Double/March your Warlord to them to capture/contest both of them if possible. If you can contest also an enemy objective/s that would be great but capturing the two to get a Take and Hold and pushing the warlords to your opponent's side of the table is a feasible strategy. You deny him one point for "They shall not pass" you should be able to keep your unit alive and deny "Break their spirit" and if you play your hand right, and have a big dose of luck you should get a point for holding two objectives on the enemy's side. That's highly optimistic and probably will not happen but that's a feasible strategy. If you see an opening you could try marching for the blitz from that position but it's unlikely.
As for weapons, based on the above strategy, I would say load up with two Plasma Cannons, one Turbo Laser Destructor and as for the upgraded weapon, take the Barrage Missile. You can either fire the missile at turn one and will not move at all or move and fire if you have line of sight to an interesting group of targets. Not moving on turn one is okay because you are not walking for the blitz. You're simply walking for the take and holds.
In general, the plasma seems like the most effective weapon. You won't kill a lot of units but if you hit then you will probably kill because it denies the reinforced armour roll. Shooting one per turn gives you a 4 dice attack hitting on 2 (probably on 3 because of double). The Laser Destructor is there to add some dice when you are about to be swarmed or want to take some shields down, you can swap it for a third plasma if you want to have more firepower.
Remember that all of your Titans have the Walker ability so you can easily go through terrain of almost any kind without having to worry about damage. The -1 to hit modifier because of cover is a lifesaver and you need as much life-saving as possible! For this list especially on the Warhounds which will be a key manoeuvring unit.
I was also thinking about what kind of armament would be best for an assault and was considering dropping one weapon for either a close combat weapon or the firefight weapon. Out of the two, the firefight weapon is easier to use (harder to avoid for your opponent) because 90% of all the assaults will be your enemies assault. Keep that in mind!
With the amount of firepower, it packs and it's low mobility, I think it will be best to simply avoid assaults. If you have to, take only those assaults which you are sure you can win because if he gets broken then, well that's almost a third of your army broken which is to say the least bad. Rallying on a 4+ (+2 for broken, +1 for enemies nearby) is not impossible but a 50% chance is a very low chance in my opinion.
Disagree with my thinking? See some opportunities that I missed? Like the text overall? Leave a comment below :)
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