The Adeptus Titanicus (1988) rules and miniatures set, which dealt with battles between opposing Imperial Titans, was published first. Rules for infantry and vehicles (the troops and vehicles of the Heresy era Space Marines) followed in "White Dwarf" 109. At the time of its release Adeptus Titanicus was GW's way to counter the increasing popularity of FASA's Battletech, a tabletop game based around mecha warfare (which eventually expanded to infantry and vehicular combat, and even to an aerospace fighters supplement). GW was able to benefit from its savviness in the miniatures business, and integrating "Titanicus" in the popular WH40K universe proved a winning move.