Warhound-class Titan

The Warhound-class Titan belongs to the smallest class of Imperial Titan, and is used as a scout or as the flanking element of a Titan Legion in conjunction with others of its kind. The Warhound-class Titan is thus the most common form of what are classified as Scout Titans by the Collegia Titanica.

Design
The Warhound differs structurally from other Imperial Titans; it possesses an anthropomorphized, canine-like shape, reverse-jointed legs and shoulder weapon mounts. Warhound Scout Titans are lightly-armed and armoured compared to other Titans, although still fearsome compared to the more standard armoured combat vehicles deployed by the various intelligent races of the Milky Way Galaxy. The Warhound Titan, despite being a class of Scout Titan, is still an immense war machine that stands 14 metres (approx. 45 feet) tall. On the battlefield, the Warhound has been proven to be very effective, as the double-barrelled Turbolaser Destructor which it is now possible to mount on a Warhound-class chassis can destroy even super-heavy armoured vehicles with ease.

Armament
Warhound Titans are protected by two Void Shield generators and are otherwise lightly armoured, emphasising speed over strength. They possess two Titan-strength weapon mounts and are limited in their selection to the lighter class of Titan weapons such as the: The most common configuration of armaments for Warhound Titans seen on the battlefield are the use of the Plasma Blastgun and the Vulcan Mega-Bolter. During major engagements Warhounds operate on the flanks of the Imperial forces, seeking to engage enemy tanks and infantry formations rather than other Titans, where their lighter weapons can still inflict immense damage and provide the maximum tactical benefit.
 * Inferno Gun
 * Plasma Blastgun
 * Turbolaser Destructor
 * Vulcan Mega-Bolter

Operation
A Warhound-class Titan normally requires a human crew of 5 members which increases to 12 when constructs like Servitors and Servo-skulls are included. Like all such war machines, a Warhound Scout Titan is commanded by an officer of the Adeptus Mechanicus' Collegia Titanica known as a Princeps, whose cerebrum is cybernetically interlinked through the Titan's command throne directly to the Titan's Mind Impulse Unit (MIU), enabling him to oversee all aspects of the war machine's operations. He is assisted by two junior officers known as Moderati, who control the Titan's navigation, movement, sensor operations and weapons systems. In their turn, the Moderati control a complement of 3 remote Servitor-slaves which have been hard-wired into the Scout Titan's weapons, Void Shield generators and engineering systems. From the engine room, 2 Tech-priests make up the final human members of the crew. It is their job to control the output of the Titan's plasma generator, the heart of the Titan, supplying power to all the war machine's various systems as required. Four Servo-skulls are also usually tasked to a Warhound Titan's crew to assist its human members with any miscellaneous tasks or unexpected need for repairs that might crop up in combat. Like other Titans, Warhound Scout Titans are equipped with an artificially-intelligent Machine Spirit (an on-board computer) that interfaces directly with the Princeps through the MIU, thus avoiding the Imperium's ancient proscriptions against allowing the development of truly independent machine intelligence. Yet, over the centuries, these Machine Spirits can develop a surprising amount of independence and even personalities of their own.

Deployment
Being faster and more agile than a standard Battle Titan, Warhound-class Scout Titans are deployed as the eyes and ears of the Titan Legions on campaign, raging far ahead of the main battle groups. They are the only Titans to be normally deployed by the Titan Legions in packs of two members, as compared to the larger Battle and Emperor Titans which normally operate alone. By Collegia Titanica tradition, Warhound Titans can only operate in a pack with a maximum of two Titans as a result of the actions of Chaos Warhound Titans on Terra during the Horus Heresy. When the Traitor Titan Legions landed on Terra, the Arch-Traitor Horus let them terrorise Terran civilians in squad-sized (10+) units of Warhounds. As a result of this blood-stained history, during the Reformation of the Imperium after the conclusion of the Horus Heresy, the Adeptus Terra ordered the Titan Legions to never again allow Warhound Scout Titans to operate in squads larger than two, to prevent such horrors from being perpetrated upon humanity again. Obviously, the Forces of Chaos do not feel bound by this rule.

Chaos Warhound Titans
To their eternal shame, the Titan Legions bear the stain of disloyalty to the Emperor like so many other branches of the Imperial armed forces. Like the Legio Astartes, many of the Titan Legions also sided with Horus against the Emperor during the dark days of the Horus Heresy, and eventually fled to the dark refuge known as the Eye of Terror when their master was defeated. Within the Forces of Chaos, the dreaded Chaotic Warhound-class Titans have seen millennia of service in the Traitor Titan Legions' pursuit of the Long War against the Imperium of Man, becoming utterly corrupted by the daemonic powers of the Warp and the fickle favour granted to these vile war machines by the Ruinous Powers. Many of these dreaded war machines easily date back to long before the Horus Heresy and have had their Machine Spirits wholly corrupted and possessed by the Warp-touched powers of Chaos. The Titan's Machine Spirit and its damned crew become possessed by daemons and are doomed to serve the will of the Chaos Gods in battle for all eternity.

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