Guest Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 (edited) While the creativity on display in this thread is wonderful, for me a lot of these designs are all fort and no cog. Plonking a literal fortress down on top of some kind of propulsion system just doesn't do it for me. 40K Titans could also be described as moving fortresses, but they're not literally buildings with legs - there's a lot more going on in the concept and design than that. Given that these structures are presumably so closely associated with clockwork mechanisms that the word 'cog' makes up half the name, perhaps a design that takes its inspiration directly from some of the more bizarre, complex and wonderful clockwork creations would be more evocative. There is some truly mesmerising clockwork automata out there, both historical and modern. Very few of the concepts I've seen so far truly give me a sense of some grandly elaborate mechanism, rather than just architecture that's on legs but is otherwise as static as any other building. For me, if something is called a cog fort then I would want it to be a fort that's literally, visibly made from clockwork in large part, not just nominally propelled along by it. Just some constructive critique. Edited July 11, 2018 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EccentricCircle Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 2 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said: While the creativity on display in this thread is wonderful, for me a lot of these designs are all fort and no cog. Plonking a literal fortress down on top of some kind of propulsion system just doesn't do it for me. 40K Titans could also be described as moving fortresses, but they're not literally buildings with legs - there's a lot more going on in the concept and design than that. Given that these structures are presumably so closely associated with clockwork mechanisms that the word 'cog' makes up half the name, perhaps a design that takes its inspiration directly from some of the more bizarre, complex and wonderful clockwork creations would be more evocative. There is some truly mesmerising clockwork automata out there, both historical and modern. Very few of the concepts I've seen so far truly give me a sense of some grand mechanism, rather than just architecture that's on legs but is otherwise as static as any other building. For me, if something is called a cog fort then I would want it to be a fort that's literally, visibly made from clockwork in large part, not just nominally propelled along by it. Just some constructive critique. I absolutely agree. However, the tricky thing with this is that it also has to be a fort. Logically any clockwork which is essential for its function would be safely tucked away behind the armoured panels so that it can't be broken during a battle. The trick is keeping the mechanism exposed enough to suggest the cogs, while armouring it enough to make a solid fort. I'm envisioning something along the lines of a ring of watch towers, connected by armoured bridges, with a massive clockwork engine at its heart. The towers, and their batteries can be rotated using massive interlocking cogs, while the engine drives a mass of armoured legs. In the centre is a vast smokestack, belching steam into the air. Skyships and Gyrocoptors come and go from skydocks build on the pinacles of the steel towers, while vast hangers can be lowered to the ground beneath the legs to deploy squadrons of steam tanks. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I love what you envision. Now I want one man steam tanks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EccentricCircle Posted July 11, 2018 Share Posted July 11, 2018 I may have whipped up a couple of concepts. Here is a very rough sketch of a hexagonal cogfot plan, with a bit of foot detail, and a 3d model of one of the constituent cogtowers. I need to add more detail to the model. but will probably work on the skeleton of the rest of the castle first. clearly it should ultimately be as gothic as possible, but there's a limit to how much of that I'll be able to implement in sketchup. I'm imagining a set of gun ports all around the tower. Gear teeth at the top and bottom of the bridge level would allow the bridge to remain stationary, while the tower rotates within an armoured sheath, bringing different gun ports to bear on the enemy. It can rotate at the rate it takes for the gun crews to reload their canons, so that there is always a loaded gun pointed outwards. Additional bridges will lead inwards to the central boiler dome, which will be suspended above a mass of gears and clockwork, with pistons and cam shafts to drive the legs, and the rotation of the tower. There should maybe be six legs to mirror the hexagonal profile of the castle. The bottom of the structure will be an armored bowl like structure, to stop anyone from getting under the fort, and attacking the clockwork from below (I'm looking at you goblins and skaven...) It will probably need some defense against aerial assault as well, maybe some angled metal plates suspended above the mechanism. Sorry that the plan is so rough. I wasn't intending to draw up proper blueprints, but rather get the scale of the different componants straight in my head before starting on the 3d model. Once that is done I should be able to output whatever views I want, to turn into proper paintings, blueprints etc. Or, you know, get it 3d printed at 28mm scale... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundercake Posted July 11, 2018 Author Share Posted July 11, 2018 Cogfort commander almost ready to get painted. However, he needs a pistoler/outrider pistol or an arkanaut company pistol. Anyone got one, a right handed one, just one? I've got temptus scion weapons, grave guard, black knights to trade. Anyone? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cèsar de Quart Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 I agree with both Jamie the Jasper and Eccentric Circle. The "cog" must be there, but the cog, unprotected, is a pretty visible weak point. Building a fort out of only cogs means that you're making a Death Star with just exhaust ports as surface features. The cogforts will be whatever GW decides them to be (I don't think they know it at this point, and if they're watching, hello, make up your mind as soon as possible please), but until then, we all have our own set of ideas. Let this thread be a melting pot, but to me, there are a couple of elements that can't be missing: - A semblance of plausibility in the inner workings of the design. - A usefulness of the desing itself. I need to see a cogfort and believe that yes, this is really a game-changing, necessary aspect of warfare. If it's just unprotected cogs and wheels and brass tubes, well.... as a Skaven, an Ork or a Chaos warrior, I'll know what to shoot at pretty easily. If it's all stone, I'll wonder how the hell does this move. To me, it's cheaper and easier to have engines and coal and mechanisms than wizards being focused all the time in moving golem legs (although, who know, Navigators in 40k are essentially this for the ships). So there's a fine line between "that's too cool to be true" and "that's just a moving fortress". That's where the cogforts should stand. I'm not sure GW know what they were making up when someone published the first reference to a cogfort (I think it was in some of the Malign Portents stories), but, at least to me, it has become one of the most compelling ideas in AoS lore. So much that my free city has become a cogfort legion due to some cataclism (I lost a campaign, and I thought, hey, cogforts are cool... why not?). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 Didn't cog forts come up first in a passing reference in the SOH story that set up the game? Or was it in City of Secrets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arkanaut Admiral Posted July 12, 2018 Share Posted July 12, 2018 This discussion reminded me of this: https://imgur.com/gallery/dwbR1Z3 Is that how cog forts are discribed in the fluff? With big crab/spider like legs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oath Stoned Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 (edited) On 7/12/2018 at 2:53 PM, Arkanaut Admiral said: Is that how cog forts are discribed in the fluff? With big crab/spider like legs? There is very little fluff on the actual look of cogforts. These stories contain pretty much all we know. https://malignportents.com/story/iron-and-oak/ https://malignportents.com/story/the-offer/ The first story gives an initial idea. Says, On her piston-driven legs, she carried us ever eastwards from the city walls, and the light of civilisation dawned anew in her wake. Chaos warbands broke like waves upon her ironclad flanks. The Story then describes some kind of network of cogforts creating a shield web around Hammerhal Aqsha. Also mentions a draw bridge. The Second story gives more details. Such as the cogfort having 17 gun emplacements (cannons, organ guns, and a large center piece cannon.) Alarielle then splashes the cogfort with a wave of swamp water which is "several dozen feet high" which almost goes over the cogfort wall. So about 60-80ft tall at the cogfort' deck. The first story is in Aqshy, the second is in Ghyran I heard there is a bit more fluff in the Soul Wars novel. This is all I have so far. Edited July 17, 2018 by Oath Stoned 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cèsar de Quart Posted July 22, 2018 Share Posted July 22, 2018 They will become very popular in the future, maybe Titan-level of popularity in AoS... if we ever see them. But really, I think that, in keeping with the "anything goes" attitude seen in AoS, it makes sense that cogforts can be whatever you want. Just like some Titans in 40k probably don't look like the "official" ones, moreso in AoS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundercake Posted July 31, 2018 Author Share Posted July 31, 2018 Cogfort commander now armed and ready for duty. Simple weapon swap, filed off the Eagle on his ha and added a feather. Was going to use the Freeguild General rules but may end up using Kharadron Admiral rules as the other units will WYSIWYG weapon-wise closer to Dispossessed and Kharadron units (just really tall human looking ones). Currently working on putting together Temptus Scion bodies for his shock troopers 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted July 31, 2018 Share Posted July 31, 2018 On July 14, 2018 at 8:46 AM, Oath Stoned said: The Second story gives more details. Such as the cogfort having 17 gun emplacements (cannons, organ guns, and a large center piece cannon.) Alarielle then splashes the cogfort with a wave of swamp water which is "several dozen feet high" which almost goes over the cogfort wall. So about 60-80ft tall at the cogfort' deck. In AOS scale, how many inches is that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundercake Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 15 hours ago, MacDuff said: In AOS scale, how many inches is that? If a freeguild solider is about 6 feet, give or take, and comes in at 28-30 mm. Then the top of cog fort deck or wall depending on how you want to interpret the story. 280/300mm to 380/390 mm. So about 1 foot, 3 inches on the high end of that 80 feet? I believe a Warhammer giant is about 4.5 inches tall? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stato Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 15 minutes ago, Thundercake said: If a freeguild solider is about 6 feet, give or take, and comes in at 28-30 mm. Then the top of cog fort deck or wall depending on how you want to interpret the story. 280/300mm to 380/390 mm. So about 1 foot, 3 inches on the high end of that 80 feet? I believe a Warhammer giant is about 4.5 inches tall? Given a Kharadron frigate is supposed to hold several dozen Arkanauts on its deck by the literature, I think you can probably scale the walls back a bit and still be 'in scale' ? 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundercake Posted August 1, 2018 Author Share Posted August 1, 2018 @stato, totally! At my measurement level, we are pretty much talking table terrain feature lol. Titans get scaled down, 40k flyers get scaled down, I'd buy totally for a frigate sized cog-fort! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 10-11 inches seems doable if that includes observation turrets, etc. to stretch it to that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oath Stoned Posted August 1, 2018 Share Posted August 1, 2018 1 hour ago, MacDuff said: 10-11 inches seems doable if that includes observation turrets, etc. to stretch it to that. The 1st deck of my cogfort sits at 6inches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacDuff Posted August 2, 2018 Share Posted August 2, 2018 (edited) I'm trying to figure out gun placement for a 17-cannon cog fort. Two banks of two per side (4 sides), and a big gun turret? Edited August 9, 2018 by MacDuff Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oath Stoned Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 On 8/2/2018 at 12:34 AM, MacDuff said: I'm trying to figure out gun placement for a 17-cannon cog fort. Two banks od two per side (4 sides), and a big gun turret? Ill get there. I have 6 of those mounted cannons, the big cannon(which i want redo), and 4 based arty that fits nicely under the upper walkway. I just nervously cut a huge hole in the side and added this rotating cannon. I need 2 more cannon bits and need to cover the inside. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundercake Posted August 8, 2018 Author Share Posted August 8, 2018 that thing looks massive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oath Stoned Posted August 8, 2018 Share Posted August 8, 2018 4 hours ago, Thundercake said: that thing looks massive It is. 2'x2'. its a giant terrain/display piece. It actually makes a great center for the battleplan from the nighthaunt battletome. The nighthaunt start in the center and move out so the height wouldnt affect the ge since NH fly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShadowSwordmaster Posted August 9, 2018 Share Posted August 9, 2018 Great work with this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oath Stoned Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Got to work on my cogfort factory table over the weekend. Pvc fittings and some boxes look great. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ragnar Alpaca Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Looking good! @Oath Stoned Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cèsar de Quart Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 I was taking a look at the troops coming with the Rogue Trader 40k kit and, I must say, they look neat, and we could use them to portray officers in the Cogfort military machine (pardon the pun). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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