Havoc856

STARTING HORUS HERESY 2.0: MECHANICUM

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Let’s get this out of the way; If you’re looking for an army that will compete against or counter some of the best entries in the Liber Astartes/Hereticus and Liber Imperium books in a high achieving manner – don’t look at Liber Mechanicum to be the answer. It’s just not as well written, and most of the units within are over costed, under ruled or both. In fact quite a few entries that make up Libre Mechanicum aren’t even comparable to the worst choices of those Astartes books.

Once you understand that the entire book is about as poorly written and ruled as you can get without finding yourself at the end of a major lawsuit, you can then just enjoy making something that you want to play other than something that is full of things that are the best. That’s not to say the book isn’t entirely absent of good options – but that isn’t why you play Mechanicum in 2.0.

You play it because it’s damn cool.

1.0 Mechanicum is a long dead memory. For those coming from 1.0 Mechanicum, understand that some of your units are not only shadows of their former selves, but in some instances, your models will need remodelling of weapons, or simply consigning to the shelf for display purposes. 1.0 Mechanicum definitely was a strong faction, made worse by unfamiliarity with them, and some purely ridiculous rules that eventually got FAQ’d (Scoria looking at you), or that managed to last till the end of the edition (Vulturax).

The fact is, 2.0 Mechanicum feels so at odds with the Astartes and Imperium entries that it feels unfinished, or the result of a petulant rules team that decided that the faction required nerfing incredibly heavily or that the player base somehow deserved this poor quality book.

Perception of quality is subjective, so let’s explore why I believe it to be a poor quality publication:

  • Major Writing and Editorial Issues. As with every Heresy 2.0 rule book, the rules themselves are written by someone trying to reach a word count. They’re overly convoluted and make reading the rules a chore, and the grammar is difficult even for native English readers – the Monstrous rule is pure mind fuckery of the highest order. Some of this can be attributed to the fact the book is structured like a Loyalist Mechanicum book, with Traitor characters shoehorned into their own later section for literally no explainable reason – especially as they’re HQ units and the Loyalist ones are under the HQ section not their own one. Other aspects of this might simply boil down to poor management of rules teams, play testers and publishers.
  • Major Rules Issues and the inconsequential bollocks of FAQs. The most common complaint is that there are five counts in the book of the Brutal rule. Of these, most are locked down to things that you wouldn’t expect it to be on and are widely inconsequential, such as a Radium Pistol. The main issue with this faction rulebook is that you’re almost wholly forced into being a shooting army, with most melee options being so heavily nerfed that it’s really not worth considering. There are some melee possibilities out there that haven’t been FAQ’d yet – but they feel more like unexpected rules interactions than legitimate rules planning.

    Then we have issues like the absolute rules vomit that is the allies matrix in the latest FAQ. Want to take Mech allies as Mech? Take Archimandrite. Want to take Knights or Titans as a detachment? Sure, they’re Optional so it’s fine. Want to run primary Detachment of Knights and ally Mech – can’t do it.

    That’s before we get to issues like Anacharis Scoria has, where he was FAQ’d to add real rules like Mechanicum Protectiva instead of made up crap, and remove things like Firing Protocols and to Treat him as an Archmagos on Abeyant for Feudal Hierarchy, without actually addressing the fact he can’t take and doesn’t have a High Order Techno arcana, so you can’t run him as his lore suggests – with Cybernetica Cohorts. I’m not even going to touch the various template size and weapon strength or AP misprints that made it through editorial and needed immediate FAQ. It’s pathetic really from a multi-million pound company.

Despite all this, I still love my Dark Mechanicum army…. and I’m hoping that regardless of what will be an underlying, negative tone throughout this article – you, the reader will see something that piques your interest and start the army, despite GWs best efforts to make this non-Astartes book rather irrelevant in the game system.

FORCE ORGANISATION

Mechanicum employs the same Force Organisation as Astartes and Imperium books do: Crusade. However, there are Optional Detachments within the book that provide a lovely set of options (if some are woefully written). These come in the form of Divisio Tactica. Now any Lord of War from the Divisio Tactica: Questoris Knights, or Divisio Tactica: Titan Legions (yes, Legions, not Legios) can be used to fill a single Lord of War slot, or may be taken as an Optional detachment along with a Mechanicum Detachment. Note that this is one way and that a Questoris Knights primary cannot take an Allied Mechanicum Detachment as they are of the same faction, however Divisio Tactica: Questoris Knights does ignore the 25% rule for Lords of War. Divisio Tactica: Titan Legions can never be a primary Detachment, and doesn’t ignore the 25% rule for Lords of War. It’s also limited to only taking Secutarii HQs and Troops, along with Titans, which can make for awkward builds.

This means that with a Mechanicum primary, you are always able to take the Divisio Tactica optionals, but your only option to ally another Mechanicum detachment comes from Archimandrite High Order Techno Arcana.

Knights are interesting this edition – as the loss of Armoured Ceramite is pretty important to them with the renewed prevalence of Melta. They’re no longer terrifying and oppressive to face like they were in Heresy 1.0. They still have an edge, but need a bit of experience to generally get the best out of them. Somehow the Acastus Asterius has gotten worse than it was in Heresy 1.0, but the Acastus Porphyrion is borderline oppressive. Use of the latter should be considered carefully as it really does start to rival the Warhound Titan in terms of output for around 100 points less.

Titans in comparison are somewhat similar to last edition. So similar that the same rules mistakes in 1.0 were initially present in 2.0 – until they FAQ’d them, such as a lack of Night Vision on the Warlord Titan. Yet more evidence that GW didn’t apply due dilligence to the Mechanicum book.

With the main points for the Optional detachment Force Organisations discussed, I’m going to take a moment now to discuss a point about list building a core Mechanicum Army. There are two ways to affect the construction of a Mechanicum list in terms of play and theme:

  • Feudal Hierachy interactions.
  • High Order Techno Arcana selection.

Feudal Hierachy simply means that you can’t have an Archmagos Prime and an Archmagos Prime on an Abeyant in the same Detachment. You can have two of the same type in a Detachment however, and this doesn’t extend to Magos Dominus. Why this is important is partly due to element two; High Order Techno Arcana and the FAQ. Some Arcana, such as Myrmidax prohibit the selection of an Archmagos Prime on an Abeyant, so you can’t select some unique characters to exist in the same army as them in those builds. Remember that as per the FAQ:

  • Scoria and Draykavec on an Abeyant are…. Archmagos Primes on an Abeyant.
  • Draykavec and Decima (Loyalist HQ) are… Archmagos Primes.

So, that said, lets get onto one of the better elements of the book – the Advanced Reaction.

ADVANCED REACTION

Let’s start off strong then, after what might feel like a massive let down for some to start. The Mechanicum Advanced Reaction is called Scornful Fire. It marks the direction of the faction in 2.0 being a shooting reaction, amped up to eleven.

The basics of it is that if an enemy unit targets your unit with a shooting attack and that unit has an Independent Character in it, any friendly Mechanicum unit (including the targeted unit) within 12″ may shoot the enemy unit triggering the reaction, if it is allowed to react.

Now that’s fairly stomach churning to read in the first place, but the core text is about three times the length of that. There’s some restrictions to template weapons, but there isn’t a huge amount of ask for that.

It’s a great Advanced reaction, but you need to have your army in a charged-up state to use it for the most part – as a large amount of your army can’t react (Automata) without conducting Cybertheurgy. It means you’re limited to around the mid-game to really take advantage of the reaction, but it certainly rewards thinking players.

WARLORD TRAITS

Mechanicum have three specialised traits and access to Bloody-handed, Ever-vigilant and Stoic Defender. Which is nice. How you select your Warlord trait is important, and actually it’s really worth waiting until you’ve designed your army list to select a Warlord trait, as each has its merits to support a theme behind the High Order Techno Arcana and overall units rules your Archmagos and Archmagos Primes will be joining.

Soul of Cold Iron

Hardly ever seen in games, because there are better choices, but it isn’t actually terrible in itself. Basically, if your Warlord and any unit with 6″ gets Pinned it can still move and charge, but only snap shoot. You also gain an additional reaction in the movement phase.

The Logic of Victory

This isn’t bad, is the second most common trait seen, and definitely suits a back/mid-field Warlord. If you don’t shoot and aren’t locked in combat you gain an additional reaction in each phase of the following turn as the Reactive player along with +1 WS and +1 BS and +3 Initiative or Movement as part of a Reaction for the Warlord and unit it’s joined. This is good for a thinking player who can time a particularly savage pairing of the Warlord trait with the game dynamics.

The Science of Slaughter

This is the most common trait seen and really is for your Warlord that’s going to absolutely get stuck into combat. Basically, if you’re in combat you gain +1 WS and Strength for each turn you’re engaged in that combat for, to a max of 10. You gain an additional reaction in the assault phase too. Once you leave that combat, you reset your stats. It’s pretty good as your Warlord is definitely going to last a few rounds, and that makes you more vicious as combat goes on.

There’s a real danger of wasting the Warlord trait in Mechancium, so make sure you select a complementary one to how you want to play your Archmagos and frankly, don’t forget those core traits if the Mechanicum specific ones don’t fit the bill.

HIGH ORDER TECHNO ARCANA

The High Order Techno arcana are like Rites of War, but represent how an Archmagos has specialised over their career in the Mechanicum. You need to take an Archmagos Prime to unlock them. You don’t need to take one, and this really represents a “Taghmata” or “that which is ordained for war” – a generalist army. Taghmata doesn’t get any benefits though, and you’ll find yourself trending towards an Arcana in your build 90% of the time, or at least see benefit in selecting one.

There are several on offer, but they’re not all useful. I’m not going to cover Reductor because it’s generally not worth my time to type out the myriad reasons why it’s absolutely shit. Mainly because there aren’t that many buildings in game. The Arcana are:

  • Archimandrite.
  • Cybernetica.
  • Lacyraemarta.
  • Macrotek.
  • Malagra.
  • Myrmidax.
  • Reductor.

I’m going to cover in a bit more detail the big three, Archimandrite, Cybernetica and Myrmidax as they’re likely what you’ll be using. Lacyraemarta, Macrotek and Malagra I’ll give a synopsis for.

Lacyraemarta makes you more resistant to Rending, Poison and Fleshbane weapons, enhance units by restoring a wound, or immediately moving their initiative in distance. It’s comically good for running an Archmagos Prime with Tech Thralls and watching people get confused and waste shooting phases into incredibly cheap chaff units.

Macrotek is an effective way of taking Tech Priest Auxilla as troops, and altering the terrain on the table to better benefit you by moving up to three pieces of terrain by up to 6″.

Malagra reduces the cost of Machinator Arrays and adds Prehensile Data Spikes to them. This has the effect of giving them a trade from normal Machinator Arrays from S+1, AP2, Melee, Unwieldy, Shred, Armourbane (Melee) to Melee, Breaching (4+), Murderous Strike (6+), Reach (1). It’s like the Brain Bugs probiscus from Starship Troopers. If you take the Arcuitor Magisterium this locks the Arcana to Loyalist only.

Archimandrite

EffectRemarks
Bonds of Vassalage means you can take an Allied Mechanicum detachment, against what the latest FAQ and core rules states. The Allied Warlord can’t select Archimandrite again, but it does mean that you can take some fairly interesting forces, such as Cybernetica or Myrmidax to complement the Archimandrite force.
Magister Theurgica allows the Warlord to take an additional Cybertheurgic power from those available to it.This isn’t terrible either, as you can mix and match Cybernetica with Ephemera Incursus and switch between buffing automata and making your army more agile each turn as a result.
Master Technomancer makes your Battlesmith rules better by enabling you to repair a target, then allow that repaired unit to use your BS to shoot with, or give a unit Power of the Machine Spirit. This is pretty good too, especially for things like Krios Venators or the Warcrimes-wagon that is the Karacnos Assault Tank.

It isn’t terrible at all and it has its uses in making flexible armies and can buff your units to a good degree. I don’t personally see this one a lot, but I know it definitely gets a fair amount of use across the community and it’s fairly clear to see why.

Cybernetica

In 1.0, this was pretty much the staple for Mechanicum, because it had some strong rules. In 2.0 it’s not nearly as strong, partly because the units are pretty “meh” now in most part due to changes in their own or the core rules and partly because it is fairly rigid in build.

EffectRemarks
Cohorts Cybernetica allows Castellax to gain the Line special rule.This is good, but despite their relative cheapness, a decent squad of Castellax will still normally cost between 300-400 points. Therefore you’re probably only taking one squad unless you have a deathwish.
Networked Sensorium Protocols reduces the cover save of a target by -2 when there’s more than two friendly models with Cortex Controllers within 12″ of them. Another decent enough rule, that can be used to good effect, but limits your table flexibility for deployment and onward movement. Cortex Controllers can be taken by Archmagos and Magos Dominus, along with Magisterium (Loyalists) and Tech Priest Auxillia. So there are plenty of ways to get them in.
Preservation Protocols means that your Warlord gains Patris Cybernetica, allowing him to hand off Precision Shot and Sniper wounds to automata when joined to a unit of them.A really useful effect that stops your Archmagos being sniped out in the early game.

It also allows him to join Automata in the first place.

It’s not a terrible ruleset, and can be used to good effect still. It’s let down by the lack of reactions, as automata can’t react natively, until you use Cybernetica Cybertheurgy on them. If you do lose your Cortex Controller then the automata defaults to Programmed Behaviour (which isn’t a special rule, but under the Cybernetica Sub-type, because reasons), whereby they must shoot and charge the nearest enemy unit within Line of Sight. This means a canny opponent can snipe out your controller and then lead the units astray.

Myrmidax

This is commonly refered to as the Warcrimes High Order Techno Arcana, but it really isn’t. The issue is that Myrmidons are the core of this one, and they happen to be one of the few notable units in a shit book.

EffectRemarks
Avatar of Destruction allows a single Thanatar Calix to be taken as an HQ, but it can’t have Paragon of Metal. It grants Line to Secutors and Destructors wholly within 6″ of it. 6″ isn’t great. It means you’re template fodder and makes bigger squads of Myrmidons a no-go due to having to be wholly within. Also, the Calix is good, but excels having Paragon of Metal so for me this is just too many trades for giving a single, small unit Line.
Myrmidon Host allows you to take Myrmidon Secutors as a Troops choice and Myrmidon Destructors as an Elites choice. This is good, as it frees up a very competitive Heavy Support slot or two. Secutors as Troops doesn’t really work as they’ve not granted Line to them, so they can force a bullshit requirement for an expensive HQ choice to provide it retrospectively.
Vessel of Destruction gives your Archmagos Prime Hatred (Everything), Bulky (3) and takes their Wounds to 5. This is useful, as you can’t take an Abeyant so the Wounds add some resilience whilst Hatred basically means you’re re-rolling all failed to-hit rolls in the first round of each combat.

Pretty good by all accounts, if stunted by some weird decisions. I don’t often see scoring Myrmidon Secutors, and when I do it’s small squads that cling like shit to a shovel to the Thanatar. This also opens you up to explosion damage from the Thanatar dying – which makes it quite difficult to recommend when Secutors are 3+/5++.

It’s probably a dead-heat between Cybernetica and Myrmidax for me, and those are equally the two I see the most. Why is simple to explain, as both the Automata and Myrmidons are wonderful models that often attract players to the faction in the first place. Additionally, some of the few really nice units in an otherwise poor quality book are benefitted in those High Order Techno Arcana.

I don’t think you can really go wrong with either Myrmidax or Cybernetica. Both offer nice, narrative ways to play the game and have their weaknesses that are fairly easy to exploit such as a lack of reactions organically paired with a high unit cost and relative focus on ranged only play for Cybernetica, and poor armour saves, mobility and relatively poorly thought out Arcana rules for those core units in Myrmidax. Archimandrite offers some potential flexibility, but points have a tendency to add up quickly in Mechanicum armies, so be aware of overcompromising in each detachment just to fit them in.

CYBERTHEURGY

Cybertheurgy is effectively the psyhic phase for Mechanicum. Since the FAQ dropped, limiting “in lieu of shooting attack” actions in reactions, it’s taken a hit, which makes order of operations incredibly important for Mechanicum armies taking advantage of Cybertheurgic Rites. This is extremely important for Cybernetica armies.

In order to “do” Cybertheurgy, a model needs to have Cybertheurgist as a rule. This generally is an option for Archmagos Prime, Archmagos, Magos Dominus and a few select models such as Tech Priest Auxilla with the Magos upgrade.

It functions differently to a psychic ability in that some are determined by Battlesmith rolls, or Leadership checks to determine whether they function, or whether multiple effects function. Some automatically trigger once, and require a Leadership check to trigger two effects. In all cases, if you fail these rolls, you suffer Cybertheurgic Feedback where you recieve a single wound against which only invulnerable saves can be taken. It’s an interesting dynamic to the game.

You also have Cybertheurgic Weapons, which function exactly like psyhic weapons do but are limited to each Cybertheurgic Rite.

  • Artificia Cybernetica. This is an amazing Rite and really is useful to Cybernetica based armies. Most commonly used are Effect 2, 3 and 4 – with most players pushing for 2 effects per turn.
    • Select one friendly unit with a model within 12″.
    • One effect automatically applies.
    • Two effects require a Cybertheurgic check.
    • Effect 1: Roll an additional dice for charge rolls.
    • Effect 2: Unit ignores the first wound recieved per shooting attack until the beginning of the next players turn.
    • Effect 3: Add +1BS to the unit.
    • Effect 4: Make reactions.
  • Artificia Machina. This is ok, and useful for keeping vehicle based armies on the table, though it requires practice to get the timing and order of operations right to get the best of it.
    • Apply Battlesmith to a Vehicle, Automata, Dreadnought that is within 12″.
    • One effect applies as per Battlesmith roll.
    • Make a Cybertheurgic check to apply Battlesmith twice.
  • Ephemera Incursus. MIND CONTROL BAY-BEEE! This is good for using your enemies weapons against them. It’s fun, and can cause an enemy to seriously consider the danger they pose to themselves.
    • Select a single enemy unit within 12″ that is a Vehicle or Automata.
    • Shooting without a Cybertheurgic check results in snap shots.
    • Make a Leadership check to shoot at the Cybertheurgists BS.
    • The unit you just shot with then gains Hatred (Cybertheurgist).
  • Ephemera Lacyraemarta. Blow the whistle, up and over the trench towards the enemy.
    • Select a single friendly Infantry unit within 12″.
    • It moves up to twice its unmodified Initiative.
    • Choose to make a Cybertheurgic Check, and that unit gains Hammer of Wrath (1), Furious Charge (1) until the end of the subsequent assault phase.
  • Artificia Reductor. Buildings and transports – so virtually pointless in almost any game.
    • Select an enemy building or unit with the transport type within 12″.
    • Make a Cybertheurgic Check.
    • The embarked unit is emergency disembarked and must make a pinning check.

Cybernetica and Incursus are the most commonly used ones I see. They’re really good, though the Lacyraemarta does offer some really nice movement buffs, even if on average the initiative values are low for Mechanicum. I’m not going to go into the Cybertheurgic Weapons, because they’re really niche and there’s so much more for Cybertheurgists to be doing than shooting that you’re probably wasting ability to shoot a weapon.

So with that covered off, what do I think are the notable units in game?

NOTABLE UNITS

Anacharis Scoria

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Scoria is still a decent HQ, with the above stat line and a raft of supporting rules coming in at a pricey 365 points.

Because GW can’t write rules properly, he technically can’t be the leader of your army by selecting High Order Techno Arcana, as he doesn’t have that special rule, or one pre-selected for him like other Unique Mechanicum characters do. Most Mechanicum players simply run him as if he has High Order Techno Arcana (Cybernetica) – because that’s what he should have and it makes sense. He is after all, an Archmagos Prime on Abeyant for Feudal Hierarchy, because in the lore, he’s an Archmagos Prime on Abeyant.

So there are problems, and his addition to the book is clearly an afterthought as both he and Draykavec appear as a separate bit at the back of the unit list instead of embedded in the HQ slot like the Loyalist unique character Calleb Decima. His stat line is quite good – he isn’t going to kill Primarchs anymore, which is good and will generally be a Praetor or other unique character botherer instead. He’s also highly unlikely to die early on or run away.

He has Eternal Warrior, which means he isn’t getting one-shot with Instant Death weapons and comes with a lovely 2+/3++ thanks to Mechanicum Protectiva (FAQ’d) and Cyber Familiar. He also packs a Machinator Array along with Battlesmith (3) so effectively, you’re not failing repair rolls as the array adds +2 to Battlesmith rolls.

His Warlord Trait Forbidden Protocols is quite nice, if poorly written (a theme). It allows any friendly units made totally up of Automata within 6″ of him to make Reactions. Which is good until you remember that if he joins Automata they are no longer made up of Automata and that joined unit therefore can’t react without Cybertheurgy. Pretty terrible rules writing for something which is quite obviously supposed to work that way – so most Mechanicum players run it like that.

He has a wide range of ranged weapons, from the Meltagun and Flamer in the Machinator Array to the Photon Thruster and Archaotech Pistols on his tail. However, you’re not likely to be using these, due to foregoing shooting for Cybertheurgy. His Melee options however are tasty.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
The Vodian SceptreMelee+22Melee, Two-Handed, Armourbane (Melee), Exoshock (4), Murderous Strike (5+)
Machinator ArrayMelee+12Melee, Unwieldy, Shred, Armourbane (Melee).

Scoria absolutely murders Vehicles and Dreadnoughts, with him rolling an extra D6 for Armour Penetration on Vehicles or re-rolling failed to-wound rolls against Dreadnoughts. The strength of The Vodian Sceptre is nice, although for the points I’d have preferred to lose Murderous Strike (5) and simply gained +3 strength to take it to S8. For 365 points I expect Marines to get smushed in combat, tempered by WS5.

Those additional attacks from the Machinator Array come in useful, and as it’s technically a Melee weapon, you can put all of your attacks through it. Although it is unwieldy, it can be used at Initiative by Scoria because he is Monstrous. Crikey.

Scoria possesses almost every Cybertheurgic rite know, so whilst Rites of the Beast is no longer the narratively cool ruleset its parrallel was in 1.0, it’s still good for flexibilty.

Scoria is still a bit of a unit, and definitely has that fear factor around him still. The only real problem is that his rules are so poorly written that you probably need to have a discussion with your opponent to ensure they’re content that you’re taking him as the Archmagos with the Cybernetica Arcana etc – otherwise you’re investing in an additional Archmagos Prime on an Abeyant and that really starts to hurt your points pool. Remember, Scoria isn’t actually an Archmagos Prime on Abeyant – he is just for Feudal Hierarchy rules – so this combination is still legal. If they’re going to write the rules poorly and refuse to apply an FAQ correctly, then it’s worth taking advantage of the fact.

Archmagos Prime (and on Abeyant)

This is your non-unique leader, that opens up your High Order Techno Arcanas and basically, they can be made into whatever you want them to be.

Their price is of course, quite changable due to their customisability but the Archmagos Prime starts at 155 points and the on Abeyant version starts at 185 points.

From there, you’re limited by some of the High Order Techno Arcana as to which one you can select (Myrmidax doesn’t allow “on Abeyant”) and your imagination.

For non-Abeyant Primes in Myrmidax, I’m a fan of Augury Scanner, Rad Grenades a Machinator Array (Mastercrafted for 5 points) and a Cyber familiar as a base option set, with ranged weapons to suit fitting them in with Myrmidons. Mine average around a 250 point spend, but they’re midfield-to-melee focused and do well.

In Cybernetica, I’m almost always running Abeyant Primes to get the Machinator Array to not be Unwieldy. 270 points is the average here, but of note Abeyant Primes are Toughness 6 and Initiative 3 comparatively to their non-Abeyant analogues.

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I’ve already mentioned that it’s worth waiting until the end of army construction to choose a Warlord trait, and I am also a firm believer that you probably want to wait till the end to tailor your Archmagos to the theme too. Often, you’ll be spending time removing options from them anyway to fit other things in, so it makes sense to just leave them till the end and work with the points you have left over.

One thing to note is one of their wargear options. Mech really don’t like melee, so anything you can do to reduce the enemies effectiveness in that regard is key. The Photon Gauntlet is +5 points for Archmagos and +10 points for a Magos Dominus to take and is 12″ range, S6, AP2, Assault 2, Blind, Gets Hot.

This is quite effective at forcing an Initiative test on the enemy unit charging in – and if they fail they’re down to Weapon Skill 1. Even Mechanicum can compete against Weapon Skill 1.

Castellax Battle Automata

Now, these arent wonderful in non-Cybernetica lists, lacking Line and generally being a bit rubbish in Melee and needing specialists with Cybernetica Cortex to maintain a 12″ distance to them to keep them on the straight and narrow path to devastation.

So why are they notable? Because they are quite nice in Cybernetica but there’s a bit of a knack to them.

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As Automata, they’re Fearless, and for 95 points come with a Mauler Bolt Cannon, which is ok. It’s a better Heavy Bolter, with S6 AP4 and Pinning. That’s about it for stock Castellax that is of note, as their Melee options are particularly pathetic. Gone is native AP2 due to Monstrous, because they’re not anymore, they’re Automata sub-type. They have Hammer of Wrath (1), but so do Jump troops.

When running Castellax in Cybernetica it’s likely that people go for smaller units due to the base size, points cost or a combination of reasons to try to spread their effect on the table. However this isn’t the best way to run them – which is in a blob as close to maximum size as possible. Four to Five Castellax with Darkfire Cannons and at least a Magos Dominus with a 2+/3++ through Cyber Familiar and a Machinator Array will run a total cost of around 670-700 points. Sounds like alot, but that is a fairly nasty blob of 22 wounds, with a 3+ repair roll atop of a 2+/3++ leader and a general 3+/5++ Castellax save if you don’t want to tank on the Magos Dominus. Sure when they die, they blow up and you’ll definitely spend a lot of time wounding yourself, but it takes an inordinate amount of fire to kill that squad – more than their total cost.

Add in the fact that Darkfire tends to work better en masse and your only limitation is base size of 50mm affecting movement. Well, with WS3 and a low amount of attacks, Melee is a last resort. Use the Darkfire Cannons to damage the enemy and sit in the midfield objective areas, using Cybertheurgy to either amp up your destructive powers or to enable reactions to make closing the gap a chore to the enemy.

Thanatar Siege Automata

The big boys of the Mechanicum Automata are genuinely terrifying.

First off, they’re costly and they have notable negatives attached to their abilities, but even with that balance, you probably should only be looking at 1 per 1,000 points. They’re not Contemptors by any means – but they are effective beasts.

At 235 points they are well pointed for their capability and resilience. They’re Toughness 8, with a 2+/5++ and are BS4. They have a Twin-Linked Mauler Bolt Cannon that allows you to pin units of infantry, and the option of a differing main armament (as well as a paired arm weapon change).

The Cavas has the Plasma Mortar that really excels at hunting infantry and light armour. Whereas the Calix has the Sollex Lascannon and Graviton Ram for devastating armoured elements.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Plasma Mortar36″82Ordnance 1, Large Blast (5″), Breaching (4), Ignores Cover, Reactor Overload
Sollex Lascannon48″102Heavy 3, Armourbane (Ranged), Shock Pulse

Now the Plasma Mortar is Ordnance, which means you roll 2D6 for Armour Penetration and choose the highest result. So, it can definitely bring the pain to even medium armoured vehicles, but this is a primarily anti-Infantry weapon. With Breaching (4), 5″ of template fun and a base BS 4 that is improvable with Cybertheurgy to BS 5 (or Paragon of Metal if you’re taking just one), it’s already good, but what makes it better is Ignores Cover paired with Reactor Overload. The latter means you fire twice for D3 damage to the Thanatar at the end of the attack, and the former means there’s literally nowhere to hide.

For the Sollex, it’s a bit of a beast when it comes to anti-tank work, with Heavy 3 giving you a good chance of a decent amount of hits, and Armourbane (Ranged) almost assuring a penetrating hit. Shock Pulse rounds out the bonuses to killing off tanks by making them snap shoot on successful penetrating hits being scored.

Both are really good at their prospective tasks, but the Calix with the Sollex really is nice when combined with Paragon of Metal. This 35 point upgrade adds Precision Strikes (4), Precision Hits (4), Rampage (2) and It Will Not Die (4). This makes it wonderful at sniping out key characters or even Warlords from squads.

Thanatars do suck in melee, and have a major weakness to Instant Death weapons. You’ll likely find that you end up doing more damage double shooting the Plasma Mortar than they take naturally, so managing that wounds count is critical with Battlesmith.

Just a quick one to note – Ordnance weapons can be fired as if the Thanatar remained stationary due to the Cybernetica sub-type as described in the Mechanicum unit types section of the book.

I think that sums it up for Thanatars, they’re really good units but do have drawbacks that need to be managed.

Domitar

145 points of what is on paper, a relatively average unit. However, they have one very useful role in the Mechanicum army. Bullying Dreadnoughts and virtually anything weaker than them.

At S7, T7, 5W and BS4 they’re average, until you consider those weapons. No, not the missiles… the Graviton Hammers.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Graviton Hammer (Ranged)Template–6Heavy 1, Concussive (1), Graviton Pulse, Grav Wave, Haywire.

Why are these so useful? Well, it’s a flamer template weapon, so you’ll want them up close, which entices the enemy to charge them. Because of the threat, that’s likely to be a Dreadnought to try to get rid of them – and this is where the chaos begins.

If you position right, you should get a round of shooting before the enemies turn, in which, when they charge, you can put up a Wall of Death because it’s a template weapon. That’s D3 automatic hits per Graviton Hammer as long as the target is within 8″. Which it should be. Because it’s Haywire, you roll a D6 per hit and a 2-5 inflicts one wound that only Invulnerable saves or damage mitigation rolls can be taken against. A 6 inflicts one wound that can’t be stopped.

Admittedly, you’re paying for at least two of these, to deal with a cheaper single Contemptor, but it adds major threat to the enemy and that, makes them worth their points alone.

Vorax

The unsung heroes of the Mechanicum. 65 points of suicide robot. Deploy them forwards, then scout them further forwards. Use their Lightning Guns and Rotor Cannons on the target before getting in amongst them in melee and…. die…. just two or three of them used in this manner will take down Terminator squads of similar price, quicker than they can get stuck into you.

Genuinely, get some – they’re hilarious.

Myrmidon Secutors and Destructors

These are the boogymen of the Mechanicum. They’re often called OP by Astartes players who use genuinely OP armies or rites of war or a combination by comparison. Realistically, these are a joint best unit within the Mechanicum book with Thanatars.

Why are Myrmidons so good then? Well, similar to Domitars, they appear quite shit. 150 points for a basic-enough Mechanicum stat line and a few extra wounds?

MWSBSSTWIALdSv
Myrmidon Secutors/Destructors6455542383+
Myrmidon Lords6455542493+

They have a Refractor Field which gives them a total of a 3+/5++ save along with Relentless and Stubborn to allow them to move and fire and charge without concern, and then ignore modifiers to morale. However from there the difference between Secutors and Destructors becomes apparent by their specialisation. Midfield ranged and melee chaos (Secutors), and ranged devastation (Destructors).

Secutors can take a plethora of ranged weapons:

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Maxima Bolter24″45Assault 3
Volkite Charger15″55Assault 2, Deflagrate
Irad-CleanserTemplate25Assault 1, Rad-phage, Fleshbane
Phased-Plasma Fusil24″63Heavy 3, Gets Hot, Breaching (4)
Graviton Gun18″–4Heavy 1, Blast (3″), Concussive (1), Graviton Pulse, Haywire

The Maxima Bolter isn’t much to write home about, but it does keep them cheap. You probably won’t take them often. Volkite again, is a bit niche, and the Irad-Cleanser is virtually useless on these due to the presence of the last two weapons.

The Phased-Plasma Fusil is an marine mulcher, but it equally chews through Myrmidons, as your armour save is the same AP as the weapon – so you’re straight to invulnerables. It’s a nice balance considering each Secutor can take two of them.

The Graviton Gun is similar to the Graviton Hammer on the Domitars, making it primo for warding off Dreadnoughts.

This combined threat from a mixed bag of Graviton Gun and Phased-Plasma Fusil Secutors in conjunction with a high wounds count and a decent enough invulnerable save gives them their reputation. The balance comes from the price of the weapons, the poor armour save making self-damage a dangerous prospect and the fact that they’re Bulky (3).

Being midfield brawlers, they have Myrmidon Axes, which are effectively S7, AP 2, Two-Handed and Unwieldy. So combining that with WS4 and Hatred (Everything), these are actually quite good at melee too.

If you want pure filth, a Secutari Axiarch can grant them Preferred Enemy to re-roll failed hits and wound rolls of 1 by adding a Division Tactica: Titan Legion optional detachment and joining the Axiarch to the Secutors.

Destructors on the other hand are ranged beasts, completely the opposite of the Secutors.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Volkite Culverin45″65Heavy 5, Deflagrate
Conversion Beamers0-18″
18-42″
42-72″		6
8
10		0
4
1		Heavy 1, Blast (3″), Blind
Heavy 1, Blast (3″), Blind
Heavy 1, Blast (3″), Blind
Graviton Imploder18″–3Heavy 2, Graviton Pulse, Concussive, Haywire
Darkfire Cannon36″72Heavy 2, Blind, Lance, Gets Hot
Irradiation EngineTemplate43Heavy 1, Fleshbane, Rad-Phage, Torrent (12″)

Every one of their weapons has a use case. It’s just how you want them dialled in. I run mine with C-Beamers or Darkfire as it has the best fusion with my armies. Because they can react naturally, they offer something the mostly-automata based Mechanicum lack – out of the box, turn one, enemy has the first turn threat.

So you see, despite their reputation, there are weaknesses and they have some inbuilt balance for their points cost – which is more than can be said for the majority of Loyalist special units.

Thallax Cohort

Literally the best Troops, Infantry unit with Line in the Mechanicum book, and not just because that’s a list of two entries and the other is Tech Thralls.

MWSBSSTWIALdSv
Thallax7344532274+

Thallax are equipped with a cannot-be-pronounced Jet Pack (Incunabulan Jet Pack). This increases their already decent move pace by +6″, ignoring terrain (but still applying Dangerous and Difficult Terrain effects). It also provides the ability to Move-Shoot-Move (6″ post shooting).

This provides Thallax with some amazing and virtually unrivalled movement capabilities. They’re you’re go to for securing objectives and sowing chaos on the way. All for 125 points base for three. They have the Lorica Thallax and Djinn Sight. The former grants the 4+ armour save and stops them from conducting sweeping advances. This is ok for the cost, and you’re really looking at the T5 and mobility to prevent them from being blasted from the table as the 6+++ Feel No Pain doesn’t come in often for them. The latter is an infiltration armies worst nightmare.

Djinn Sight reduces the cover save of an enemy by -2 and stops infiltrators from being setup within 24″ of the bearer, regardless of line of sight. Infiltrator armies are naturally usually Infantry based, and use the infiltration ability as a part of their protection – so denying that forces them immediately onto the back foot.

They’re equipped with Lightning Guns, Frag Grenades, and Close Combat Weapons base, which is still a solid capability. However, they do have access to special weapons in a 1-per-3 basis. This means that you can have some relatively cheap fairly chunky, but poor armour save line troops, or you can specialise for a cost to give them some more teeth.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Lightning Gun18″ (Arc)
18″ (Strike)		4
7		–
5		Heavy 3, Shred
Heavy 1, Rending (4), Shred
Multi-Melta24″81Heavy 1, Armourbane (Ranged), Twin-Linked
Phased-Plasma Fusil24″63Heavy 3, Gets Hot, Breaching (4)
Irad-CleanserTemplate25Assault 1, Rad-Phage, Fleshbane
Photon Thruster24″62Assault 2, Blind, Lance, Gets Hot
Multi-Laser36″66Heavy 3

Now, the Multi-Laser and Irad-Cleanser are relatively poor choices here compared to the Lightning Gun. However, the other weapons are definitely in the usable-if-expensive category.

Photon Thrusters and Phased-Plasma Fusil do well against more elite units, whereas the Multi-Melta is pure anti-tank. You can equip Melta bombs for +5 points per model too, and I’d argue that this is subjectively the better option for that role specifically. Lightning Guns and Melta bombs – a relatively easy to forget and not obvious loadout. Until they pop those bombs on something important.

Thallax. The bottom line? Never leave home without them.

Triaros Armoured Conveyor

Just a point on this rather handsome transport. For 135 points you get a Transport capacity of 22, 14/12/12 armour and 5 Hull Points. It’s got a Flare Shield equipped that makes it a pain to engage with from the front, but there’s a quirk to it.

Because its narrow, and long, it’s actually really easy to argue a shot to the side. Don’t get overly excited with it, and make sure the nose is facing the likely most dangerous threat, or that 12 side armour will simply fold and leave you in a bit of an unexpected position with the contents exposed.

It also doesn’t have Assault Vehicle, so you’re getting out and standing about for a turn. To a degree, this suits Myrmidons as you tend to be able to get the Secutors out, light up the nearby major threats, then charge into a different unit the next turn. However, forgetting this can really ruin a game plan.

Karacnos Assault Tank

Whilst it outwardly looks like the Triaros, this isn’t a transport. What it is is war crimes embodied. 225 points gets you a Flare Shield equipped 14/12/12 armoured platform that eschews its transport capacity for… a Karacnos Mortar battery and some Lightning Locks.

WeaponRangeStrAPType
Karacnos Mortar Battery60″64Heavy 1, Massive Blast (7″), Barrage, Fleshbane, Rad-Phage, Ignores Cover, Pinning, Shell Shock (3), Crawling Fire.
Lightning Lock36″73Heavy 1, Blast (3″), Rending (4), Shred, Exoshock (4)

The Mortar Battery is certainly a well ruled weapon – and it’s entirely as brutal as it seems. It’s pretty much the sole reason the tank costs what it does. It doesn’t delete Legion Specific units from the table, but it will certainly impede their progress to their destination and make those 2 wound or more models distinctly less threatening than before they started getting wounded.

The Lightning Locks are pretty good too for medium anti-armour work.

Overall, it’s a really good anti-infantry platform, especially useful for routing forces from ruins or buildings etc. However the weaknesses of the Triaros are shared here too, so it doesn need some protection. Luckily Barrage allows it some by breaking line of sight at the cost of scatter distance.

One to experiment with to see if it fits into your army.

Knight Moirax

Again, a bit of a hidden gem these – as they don’t seem overly wonderful on the face of things, and Moirax occupy the contested Heavy Support slots. However, they have a number of bonuses for their 200 point base cost, with a Siege Claw and Volkite – although that configuration isn’t their attraction.

Serious consideration needs to be taken for how you want to employ these – as they are WS 4 and BS 4, S7, T7 and 3 Attacks at Initiative 4. They have a Rad Furnace that enables them to wound on a result one lower than they normally would. However that is kind of irrelevant when you take the Siege Claw, which is Strength x2, AP 2, Brutal (2), Sunder and Wrecker. That makes it Strength 14 on this tiny platform.

I personally feel it’s better as a gunboat, rocking Lightning Locks or Graviton Pulsars, the latter of which are really useful for popping shots on to, and ultimately clearing Dreadnoughts and Vehicles from the table. Should you end up in melee on the way, you’re still likely wounding on 2+.

Adsecularis Tech Thralls

Widely regarded as the single most heavily nerfed unit since 1.0 and absolute dross on the table as a result, they have one job really outside of a meme Lacyraemarta army.

Cheap, disposable Objective securing. They’re Line and you can take twenty of them for 75 points. If your opponent is shooting or charging them, they’re coming immediately off the board, but they’ve equally wasted something comparatively incredibly potent to do so.

Its not rewarding play, and is a zero-mental-engagement unit, but if you’re low on Line and have under 100 points left, pop a max size unit in and sit it on an Objective in cover until the end of the game.

PAINT SCHEME

My collection is all Xana II and Legio Vulturum. It’s a good theme and a lovely paint scheme that I genuinely enjoy to both paint and look at. It’s fairly simple in terms of colour:

  • Primer: Vallejo Black.
  • Base: Vallejo German Red Brown.
  • Layer: Vallejo Sand (Ivory).
  • High: Vallejo Bonewhite.
  • Wash: AK Wargame Green Wash (reductive method – brush on, wipe off).
  • Varnish: AK Ultramatte.

I use an airbrush for mine, but equally you could stipple or spend time blending them in by hand to the same outcome. Transfers are acquired through either purchasing the GW Malinax Transfer sheet when they come up on eBay or Heresy Trading, though you’ll be selling a kidney to do this – or Skumb4g Kustoms.

SUMMARY

If you want to play Mechanicum, do so. It is a fun army when things go alright and can still be somewhat fun when on the back foot, depending on the opponent and their army. The new boxed set is pretty awful in my opinion for new players – as it doesn’t really work outside of a 1.0 Taghmata style army, with a little bit of everything in it. You don’t often see that style of army anymore due to the poor quality of the book.

A better boxed set would be to remove the Triaros and Adsecularis, pop in another Castellax, a Thanatar and another set of Thallax. That would make it useful, as most armies want at least a collection of those units at their core. Later releases could be focused on Myrmidons and then the Triaros makes more sense to be in that boxed set.

As for the “Knights bundle”, that makes no sense other than a stock clearing exercise. Divisio Tactica: Questoris Knights needs 2x Armigers per Lord of War, but this boxed set only gives you two Lords of War – so you need to purchase two boxes of Armigers just to have a working army. Better if it were a choice between Lancer, Castigator or Acheron, along with a box of two Armigers. Doesn’t even need to be in a fancy box – just set out a selection of SKUs to get the stock pickers to select those elements individually and send them out in a parcel.

When it comes to army design, don’t feel constrained by the High Orders Techno Arcana, you could just go Taghmata and not run one – but more often than not you’ll have a theme in your mind based on the models you like and that’ll dictate your build. Just remember that it’s best to leave the Archmagos Primes Warlord trait and loadout till the end to ensure you’re not wasting points or the trait itself in the way you want to employ them.

Overall, there’s a fair few “Notable” units for a blog that started and ended with stating how poor the book is. I think that’s still accurate. They’re notable because they’re better than the other units in the book by a solid, tangible margin – but they have their roles within the army and aren’t flexible outside of those roles. Viability is important to me, and the Mechanicum has lost a lot of that since it’s 1.0 iteration.

I’m not upset over the nerfing of Scoria from pre/post-FAQ 1.0 times, nor the Vulturax – but I am concerned at the heavy handedness of the nerfs that have been applied. Vulturax were always Anti-tank platforms in an army that kind of lacked genuinely reliable anti-tank. They’re incredibly poor at that job now and not really worth their points. Realistically, the Thanatar Calix is still the only proper anti-tank that isn’t a vehicle and therefore incredibly easy to knock out.

Mechanicum needed a subtle nerf, to address the issues still present at the end of 1.0, and to bring them into the 2.0 with variety and viability across the book. You’ll never see Thallax opposite number now, Ursurax – despite their prevalence in 1.0 as a fun unit, not least because their rules don’t even reflect the weapon options in the box.

Adsecularis aren’t nearly resilient enough for what are crudely implemented forced-labour troops jammed into carapace armour – they don’t even have rules for carapace armour. They’re humans that have had their free will subverted via a combat chassis. They know what they’re doing, but are powerless to stop themselves. A bit like GW when it wrote and released the Mechanicum book – there’s no way it was truly playtested or even proof read.

My hopes with the new Mechanicum Martian Civil War book is that it offers something of a love-letter to the Mechanicum without being over the top. Right now though, I’m mostly unimpressed what has been seen in the limited previews of content. I think most of the Mechanicum players I know are still incredibly wary of GW’s ability to deliver a decent bit of content after the Mechanicum book release – where rules writers were saying how wonderful the armies were prior to release, then suspiciously quiet when everyone realised how poor it actually was and it trended negatively.

The other issue is one of optics in the community. “Myrmidons and Thanatars are OP”. The statement of a portion of the playerbase, mostly in the “I play Astartes” camp. It’s draining, because I don’t see Mechanicum players audibly sighing when someone puts down three or four Contemptors, or any of the Loyalist Legion Specific units on the table or when someone brings Imperial Fists, Raven Guard (Dark Furies) or Dark Angels to a game.

However I see that from Astartes players when they see a Cybernetica (which isn’t even that good) or Myrmidax army, even when it contains just one blob of 6 Myrmidons, or 3 Thanatars in 3,000 points. Genuinely, it feels like people who react like this are parrotting internet rhetoric pushed by clueless individuals with a axe to grind, or simply want a single-player game instead of telling a story across a number of turns between two players. I spent some time discussing this phenomenon in a blog post a few months ago.

Maybe, just maybe, GW has secretly pulled the ball out on this upcoming book and it has some lovely content in it. Maybe there’s an entry in there that fixes Scoria properly. Maybe there’s notably more than just the Warhammer Community articles reworked into a quick-money-scheme for GW to appease their stockholders.

But a significant portion of the Mechanicum community seems to feel that there isn’t much hope for that.

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