The Adeptus Titanicus game is Games Workshop’s tabletop wargame of giant walking war machines, first released in 1988 and set during the Horus Heresy. It kicked off the whole Epic scale of tiny miniatures, and it’s still the best way to fight Titan-on-Titan battles on a tabletop.
What it is
It’s a turn-based miniatures game for two or more players, each commanding one or more Titans, the towering bipedal war engines of the 41st millennium’s distant past. Jervis Johnson designed the original, and Games Workshop published it in December 1988.
The setting is M30, during the Horus Heresy. One side runs Loyalist Titans, the other Traitors, and you play the princeps in charge. The original box pitched it as a fast-thinking, planning-heavy duel where a single salvo can wipe out hundreds.
How it plays and what’s in the box
The first edition used an “all move, all fire” system: every unit moves in order from fastest to slowest, then firing resolves with the slowest units shooting first. The 2018 edition (often called AT18) switched to alternating activations and usually plays out on a 4×4 foot board.
Scale is the big difference from mainline 40k. The original game and the Epic range around it were roughly 6mm, while the current version sits at about 8mm, so Titans are small models but still tower over the infantry.
- Original box: a 60-page rulebook, six 6mm Warlord Titans with interchangeable weapons, eight polystyrene buildings, diecut counters, a scale ruler, dice and Titan cards
- Later Battle Titans box (February 1989) added six more plastic Warlords plus parts for variants
- Play time runs roughly 45 to 90 minutes, with setup around five minutes
Editions and supplements
White Dwarf carried a lot of the early support, adding Land Raider vehicle rules, Reaver and Warhound Titans, infantry, Eldar, Orks, robots and advanced close combat. Codex Titanicus, published in December 1989, pulled those scattered rules together into one book.
A companion game, Space Marine, arrived in 1989 and could be played alone or combined with Adeptus Titanicus. In 1994 GW released a second edition retitled Titan Legions, alongside a second edition of Space Marine, again compatible but standalone.
| Release | What it was |
|---|---|
| 1988 | Adeptus Titanicus, first edition |
| 1989 | Battle Titans box, Space Marine companion game, Codex Titanicus |
| 1994 | Titan Legions, second edition |
| 2018 | Adeptus Titanicus reboot, 8mm scale |
Why it matters
This is the game that invented Epic scale. Everything that followed in that tiny-model corner of Warhammer 40k traces back to it, and it’s why Titans got proper tabletop rules instead of just showing up as background lore.
It also fleshed out the Horus Heresy as a playable setting long before the novels and later 30k games made it mainstream. The Eldar and Adeptus Mechanicus, including Legio Cybernetica robots, got expanded rules here too, with the Eldar usually siding with the Loyalists against Chaos.
Key facts
- Released by Games Workshop in December 1988, designed by Jervis Johnson
- Set during the Horus Heresy, with players commanding Loyalist or Traitor Titans
- The first game to introduce the Epic 6mm scale; the 2018 edition uses about 8mm
- Original box included six Warlord Titans, a 60-page rulebook, buildings and counters
- Followed by Titan Legions in 1994 and a reboot in 2018
- Companion game Space Marine (1989) could be played alongside it
FAQ
Is Adeptus Titanicus the same as Epic?
Not exactly. Adeptus Titanicus came first and introduced the 6mm Epic scale, but Epic grew into its own broader game system covering whole armies. Adeptus Titanicus focuses specifically on Titan combat.
What scale are the models?
The original 1988 game and the surrounding Epic range were about 6mm. The 2018 edition uses roughly 8mm models.
When is it set?
During the Horus Heresy, around M30, with Loyalist and Traitor Titan legions fighting across the galaxy.