Titans seem to be a marvelous piece of technology from the past, so advanced that they can no longer produce them. So the Imperium oft launches whole campaigns, sacrificing a lot of lives and resources just to get hold of a single Titan.
What makes them so valuable? As far as I have seen it, they don't use them to try to understand the technology involved, they acquire them only to be used in battle. However, the Imperium possesses equipment with much higher firepower, and a titan is a large target, and can be wrecked with a well placed hit from above, nuked from orbit, etc. As it is a lone target, maybe the only one on the whole planet, the opponents would surely target it from orbit as highest priority.
Maybe when they could be easily mass-produced it was worth it, but now, are their military capabilities really worth the time and effort to acquire them?
Answer
Ton per ton, a Titan has value on a number of levels that if rumors of a working one that is not in the hands of the Imperium should surface, all haste is made to get it. If it is in the hands of the enemy or the enemy is fielding their own Titan, every resource is made available to destroy it. Titans can turn the tide of battle so completely as to render infantry completely useless against them and only the mightiest of tanks have even a ghost of a chance to damage them.
Various Titan Classes showing scaled to each other, with the Warlord being the middle of the range
Damage-dealing: Titans were designed to lay siege to the entire battlefield, with the right modifications, no structure could resist them, no matter how well fortified, no tank, or smaller war machine could survive even a grazing blow from their super-sized weaponry and only another Titan on the battlefield could do enough damage to overcome their mighty Void Shield projectors.
Even without their Void Shields, a Titan was proof against normal weapons on the battlefield. Only specialized technology could penetrate their armor. As far as nuking them from orbit, they possessed a variety of technologies for destroying incoming planes, nukes or missiles long before they could reach them. They were righteous engines of destruction.
Ancient technology: Some of the ancient Titans were self-aware or had access to technology not currently in use. Self-aware machines were a hit and miss technology but when it works, it makes a Titan nearly unstoppable because the machine works at peak efficiency, far better than when a human crew, no matter how well trained use it.
Finding a Titan is finding a treasure trove of technology no longer being made. In an area with the right mix of tech priests and resources, while the Titan may not be reverse-engineered, due to its holy status, any technology found with it might.
Morale: As a weapon of an earlier age of destruction, Titans give morale to Imperial troops, just seeing one crest the horizon on a battlefield could spur troops to continue giving their all, turning the tide of battle. Varying in size from 50 feet to 400 feet tall, these war machines could provide an entire army with support from a distance, keeping troops from being overrun and removing enemy tanks/heavy weapons from the battlefield. Morale is the grease of the Imperial Army and Titans provide a whole-hell of a lot of it.
Yes, there are Imperial weapons that provide devastating firepower coming from the Forge Worlds today. Some of them are quite capable of ruling most battlefields quite effectively. But none of them are LEGENDS from a time of the Imperium when Mankind waged war at an epic scale and ruled millions of worlds nearly without equal. These are the machines with which warfare was defined in a bygone age. They are still so amazing that even a thousand, two thousand years later, they can hold their own and even dominate modern battles. To a citizen of the Imperium, only the living, fighting Emperor himself could inspire more awe as they stride across the battlefield leaving devastation in their wake. What's not to love?
Warlord Titan, showing scale to other Imperial Units
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