Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Mechanicum Tactics

From 1d6chan
Jump to navigationJump to search

From the weakness of the mind, Omnissiah save us
From the lies of the Antipath, Circuit preserve us
From the rage of the Beast, Iron protect us
From the temptations of the Flesh, Silica cleanse us
From the ravages of the Destroyer, Anima shield us
From this rotting cage of biomatter, Machine God set us free.

Ave Omnissiah!

These are the current rules for the Horus Heresy era Mechanicum, featured in Liber Mechanicum – Forces of the Omnissiah Army Book.

The previous editions rules can be found here.

Why Play The Mechanicum?[edit]

Start at the top, and requisition your way to the bottom.

You've seen the models, right? For the first time since Rogue Trader, the followers of the Machine God can take to the field en masse! You can embody the grimdark universe of Warhammer 40,000 30,000 with your exotic Martian death-rays, terrifying Battle-automata and horrific Cybernetic monstrosities. Now, as of May 2024 coming in plastic baby!

Also, Robots.

In HH 1.0, the force used to be divided between the three ordos of the Mechanicum: the footsloggin' MCs of the Legio Cybernetica, the more complete Taghmata (vanilla) and the extremely limited Ordo Reductor. This led to the question of why would anyone ever use Reductor when the Taghmata list had better siege engines. The most recent update, however, offers you six Orders of High Techno-Arcana to choose from.

The list is still fairly small, with limited unit choices, but a large amount of flexibility within many of these units; however, many units have been yeeted into the Legacies doc in 2.0. Furthermore, almost all the models are FW resin, though soon, they will begin to make the transition to be plastic. Be warned, this is a slippery slope that may result in the loss of financial security, family, friends and house...

Also, BIG Robots!

Unusually for Forge World, the Mechanicum is one of the cheapest armies to get into. It's possible to start an army with a single Magos and a pair of Castellax or small Thallax Cohorts (Adsecularis if you really want to break the mold!); all of which are about to get even cheaper than ever with the transition to plastic. The army lists, whilst capable of standing alone, are intended to be used as allies for the Legion army list. As a starting point for a new army, this is ideal, as you need even less to get have something you can field. Mechanicum units provide you with some unique possibilities for conversions, too! Take a cursory glance around Coolminiornot or a painting forum and you'll find some damn fine examples. Of course, if this is not your thing, Forge World's own models are more than capable of satisfying any model fanatic.

PROS:

  • Lots of tanky robots! God-Machines at your beck and call!
  • Practically everything in your army has some shade of Invulnerable save or another way to mitigate damage.
  • Certain High Techno-Arcana can improve either the effects you can make when using Battlesmith (X) or give you unique uses for Cybertheurgy.
  • Soon to be in plastic!

CONS:

  • Extremely limited transport options. If you aren't taking the Aktaeus for its massive storage bays, you're stuck with the Triaros. Yes, the Legacies doc brought back the Termite, Land Raider and Macrocarid, but they're eating up spots you could've spent on other things.
  • The majority of your army's still in that Forge World resin rather than plastic like the Legions are becoming. THE FUTURE IS NOW ! May 2024 Plastic Mechanicum announced on WHC with a starter army box of Castelax, Thallax and Adsecularis and separate releases of a plastic Thanatar and Arch Magos.
  • The changes to the WS chart means that most of your army is only effective at shooting. Your robots' human-tier WS and less than stellar Initiative means that a lot of your big scary robots will struggle to deal basic tactical squads and will more often than not lose to Space Marine squads that are made for combat. Even the handful of units you have that are good in combat will be ripped apart by Dreadnoughts and the Legions' elite fighters.

Special Rules[edit]

Advanced Reaction[edit]

  • Advanced Reaction - "Scornful Fire": Triggered when the enemy shoots a unit containing an Independent Character. This unit can immediately shoot that enemy if they're within 12".

Army Special Rules[edit]

  • Disruption (X+): The common rule for arc weapons, this gun will deal instant Glancing Hits on Vehicles and auto-wound Dreadnoughts and Automata on an X+ To Hit. If you played in the pre-8th days of 40k, this rule should be giving you uncomfortable shudders of the old gauss guns. Unlike Haywire these wounds do not get beyond the base AP of the gun, so while vehicles will melt as usual dreadnoughts will get their 2+ save and be the bane of your general existence.
  • Data-Djinn: Weapons with this rule will not hurt any enemies that lack the Vehicle, Automata or Dreadnought unit types.
  • God-Engine: Your Titans are all-out immune to psykers and Cybertheurgy, not to mention Haywire and Disruption (X+) - any weapons using those rules must use their base Strength to wound your Titans. In addition, any units within 12" of a God-Engine count as Fearless, which is a serious buff for your troops.
  • Paragon of Metal: The special character upgrade for a lone Automata (Cybernetica) unit. This unit replaces the Cybernetica sub-type with the Paragon sub-type, giving +1 to Wounds and WS, It Will Not Die (4+), Precision Strikes (4+), Precision Shots (4+) and Rampage (2). Simply put, this is a Primarch made of steel.
  • Patris Cybernetica: Allows the Independent Character to join Automata or units with the Monstrous sub-type. Note that this won't work on anything else with the Monstrous sub-type or Automata type, meaning your Archmagos Prime or Magos Dominus on Abeyant can't fly alongside their pet Vulturax despite wishing to.
  • Reactor Meltdown: As expected from a Titan, if it gets dealt catastrophic damage, it explodes in fantastic fashion. Magna (reserved for the Warhound) makes the explosion deal Destroyer hits, Major makes those Destroyer hits AP2 and Maxima (for the Warlord) doubles the range of this explosion.
  • Ætheric DominionMCW: Just like the daemons, your daemon engines can also gain a blessing from some unknown benefactors of the Warmaster. You don't get the whole list though, because you can't be cool.
    • Heedless Slaughter: Bad news, your unit needs to charge the nearest thing within 8". Good news, they get a +1 to that charge as well as a +1 to combat resolution and sweeping advances.
    • Malevolent Artifice: Your unit can re-roll armour saves (and only armor, not invulns or cover) against any weapons with a Strength lower than their Toughness.
  • Corrupted EngineMCW: Represents Daemon Engines is pretty similar to the standard Corrupted rule that the Word Bearers units get. Anything with it gains Fear(1) (or improves it if they already have it), is immune to Fear(x), automatically passes re-group tests and cannot voluntarily fall back, eats D3 wounds when they fail a moral test instead of falling back, only suffers D3 wounds when hit by something with Instant Death and any rule that effects the Corrupted sub-type effects also effects the Corrupted Engines in the same way.
  • Melefic Aegis (X)MCW: Another form of Invuln that daemon engines get. However, these can't stack with any of the conventional means.

Warlord Traits[edit]

All generic Mechanicum Warlords from all three lists have the option of getting a Warlord trait from one of the charts in the main rulebook or rolling on their own unique chart. The Martian Civil War adds in a few extra traits, but they're all dependent on you playing a traitor army that's running daemon engines.

  1. A Soul of Cold Iron: The Warlord and any unit within 6" may still declare charges if they are under the effect of Pinning, but they are still subject to firing Snap Shots. He also allows an additional Reaction during the Movement phase.
  2. The Logic of Victory: If the Warlord has not shot or is not locked in combat, the whole army may make an additional Reaction in all phases of the following turn. In addition, the Warlord and a unit he is attached to gain +1 WS and BS during Reactions, and +3 Movement and Initiative during Movement-based Reactions.
  3. The Science of Slaughter: For each turn this Warlord is locked in combat (so starting on the 2nd round), he gains +1WS and Strength for each round of combat he is in. After he has left the combat, his Strength and WS return to normal. The army may also make an additional Reaction during the Assault phase.
  4. Scion of Cyclothrathe (Traitor Only)MCW: Your corrupted engines have an alternative table to roll for the effects of Haywire (They do nothing on a 1-3, a 4-5 deals a glancing hit/1 wound that can be negated by invulns and mitigation, 6 deals a penetrating hit/1 wound that negates saves). The army may also make an additional Reaction during the Movement phase.
  5. Scion of Xana II (Traitor Only)MCW: Gain the unique Xanite Artifice Advanced Reaction to use during the Shooting phase, allowing a corrupted engine with a Malefic Aegis to improve it by +1 for the phase. This is pretty nice if you're running against lines of lascannons and meltas at least. The army may also make an additional Reaction during the Shooting phase.
  6. Scion of Retlaxi (Traitor Only)MCW: Whenever a corrupted engine dies, it explodes, dealing S5+3 AP5 hits to anyone within 3+d3". Anyone who gets hit also needs to take a Pinning check, so it might be useful for Distraction Slaughterers. The army may also make an additional Reaction during the Shooting phase.
  7. Scion of Sarum (Traitor Only)MCW: The only trait for daemon engine spam. Allows you to take Blood Slaughterers as Troops and Fast Attack. Only Blood Slaughterers taken as compulsory troops can gain the Line sub-type though, so you'll still need your Castellax and Adsecularis for capping objectives. The army may also make an additional Reaction during the Movement phase.

Cybertheurgy[edit]

Psychic powers for machines. No, seriously. They're pretty much running the same rules as Psychic powers, only now you have your own unique Cybertheurgist unit sub-type. In addition, failing a Cybertheurgy check only deals 1 wound to the cybertheurgist, a fairly light injury for most magi but this becomes D3 wounds for Vehicles or Automata.

  • Animatus Integro: Allows the Cybertheurgist to apply Battlesmith (X) to anything within 12", extending their support range considerably as they don't need to contantly be touching things to repair them. If you pass a Cybertheurgy check, this makes a second repair as if you had rolled for Battlesmith (X) repairs twice. It goes without saying that repairing your bots and tanks is a necessity, so being able to restore 2 HP/wounds or fixing a wound and a lost weapon is a massive gift.
  • Animatus Excindor: A wild 12" Assault D6 S1 AP1 gun with Haywire and Data-Djinn. This is devastating on any tanks or Automata you come across, though the swingy Assault D6 won't guarantee any kills and it's a waste against Terminators.
  • Cybernetica Exortus: Instead of shooting, you can target a friendly unit with at least one Automata model within 12" of the Cybertheurgist and make a Cybertheurgy test. If successful, you can apply a buff to the entire unit (re-roll charge distances, ignoring the first wound from the shooting phase, +1 BS, overriding Reaction restrictions). Note that this only requires one model in the unit to have the Automata type, meaning that this can even work with Tech-Priest Auxilia that lost all but one of their Servo-automata.
  • Mordeo Cogita: A 12" Assault 1 S10 AP1 gun with Instant Death and Data-djinn. Pretty much custom-made to eradicate lone tanks and Automata, but you'll need to guarantee that you're actually going to hit them in the first place.
  • Ephemera Perfidiae: Target one enemy Vehicle or Automata unit within 12" and you can make it shoot at its friends as Snap Shots because you managed to hijack its brain. If you make a successful Cybertheurgy check, these shots are made at the Cybertheurgist's base BS, not counting as Snap Shots. Whichever you choose, you just pissed off that engine so hard that it now gains Hatred (Cybertheurgists) for the rest of the game.
  • Ephemera Exocluo: A 24" Assault 6 S3 AP- gun with Data-djinn, Blind and Vox Silence. While this won't hurt anyone, Vox Silence knocks 2 points off the Leadership of enemy Infantry or Cavalry units and renders wargear with the word "vox" in it useless until the start of their next turn, while Blind fucks up the target's WS and BS (if they fail the Initiative test, that is). Following up with a melee squad can see that target easily routed.
  • Ephemera Instigare: Target a friendly Mechanicum infantry unit within 12". This unit can immediately move a distance up to twice their base Initiative towards the closest enemy. If you pass a Cybertheurgy check, this unit also gets Hammer of Wrath (1) and Furious Charge (1) until the end of the next Assault phase, making this an ideal option for a melee-equipped pack of Thallaxii.
  • Ephemera Excrusis: An AP3 melee weapon with Rad-phage, Fleshbane and Concussive (3). A pretty sick weapon that can easily soften up any enemies you fight for an incoming pack of Vorax.
  • Portis Fractis: Target one occupied enemy Building, Fortification or Transport within 12". A successful Cyertheurgy check will force them to immediately bail out of their hiding spot and make a Pinning test, screwing over any camping snipers or heavy supports hiding in a bunker or a Rhino carting Tacticals. Doesn't work on Flyers or Super-heavy units.
  • Manos Ruinus: An Unwieldy and Cumbersome S10 AP1 melee weapon with Data-djinn, Armourbane, and Exoshock (3+). A ruinous weapon that'll only see use on tanks and Dreads, but unlike the lascutters that can shoot, this can only be used as a melee weapon.

Added in an Exeamplary Battle and then updated in the Martian Civil War, it represents the Dark Mechanicum and is Traitor exclusive.

  • Animatus Malevolence: Instead of shooting, pick a unit made up of Corrupted Engines within 12", then choose one of the following effects to give it:
    • Move the entire unit the same number of inches as the highest Initiative in the unit, towards the nearest enemy unit.
    • Improve the Invulnerable save of the models in the unit by 1, until the beginning of the controlling player’s next turn.
    • Increase the WS and Initiative of each model in the unit by 1, until the end of the next Assault phase.
      • The model using this power can make a Cybertheurgy check before using this power. If it is passed then apply 2 of the options above to the unit. Failing means that you get nothing.
  • Amthea Excrusis: Mechanical warp bullets that's S5 AP3 with Assault 3, Blind, Deflagrate and Cybertheurgic Focus. Pretty good at maiming MEQ's but with the risk of hurting or killing your borg-boy using it.
  • Viteum Adficio: At the end of your Movement phase, pick a friendly Cybernetica unit within 6" and roll 3d6. For each 4+, the construct loses a wound and the caster heals a wound. This is a bit troubling since you'll lack much in the way of healing those same automata and this could risk them dying if used in the middle of a firefight.
  • Tactus Mors: A melee weapon with AP4 and Haywire. Very dangerous to throw your archmagos up close, so make sure to kit out your bots for melee.
  • Incendium Malefica: Instead of shooting, target one non-vehicle unit (or all if you make a Leadership check, making rolls for each) within 6" and roll a d6. Any rolls that beat the unit's save deals a wound. The archmagos can then target a vehicle within 6" and roll a d6, inflicting Crew Stunned on a 6. Really just here for disruption more than anything.
  • Diabolis Quiritatus: More mechanical warp bullets at S6 AP3 with Assault 3, Data-Djinn and Cybertheurgic Focus. Pretty much here to plink tanks and dent dreads more than anything.

The Orders of High Techno-Arcana[edit]

Your specialised faction rules, which give you additional bonuses and buffs to units. Similar to the Cohorts of the Solar Auxilia or the Provenances of the Imperial Militia, these may be only taken if your army includes an Archmagos Prime (with or without Abeyant), who may choose one High Techno-Arcana option for free. For now it is not possible to have more than one archmagos prime on a detachment that means only one Techno-Arcana per a detachment, so choose carefully. Also if somehow your army (not only the detachment) can includes more than one Archmagos Prime (again, either with or without Abeyant), then each must take a different option, which allows for some degree of overlap within the Detachment.

Your dedicated supports, these guys work on making sure everything stays working at peak performance, if not better. While this doesn't outright improve anything, your Tech-Priests won't complain about having new ways to support your tides of steel and your Archmagos Prime will now become an even stronger Cybertheurgist.

  • Bonds of Vassalage: The Archmagos Prime with this rule must be the Warlord. As a benefit, you can include a Mechanicum Allied Detachment, though any Archmagos Prime in the Allied Detachment cannot take this High Techno-Arcana. For now this is the only exception to take the same faction as the allied detachment. Note that, as said above, Techno-Arcana of the Archmagos Prime of the allied detachment does not apply to your primary detachment and the primary detachment's Techno-Arcana won't affect your allies.
  • Magister Theurgica: The Archmagos Prime with this rule can select an additional Cybertheurgic Arcana available to it.
  • Master Technomancer: Units with Battlesmith (X) gain two extra options when they repair things. One lets the unit use the Battlesmith's BS for shooting and the other gives Vehicles the Power of the Machine Spirit rule.

This option is effecfively successing Legio Cybernetica of 1.0. Take this for when you want to focus on robots and turn them into Line units, better shooters, and joinable units of bodyguards. Generally means that you have less concern about what other unit types are doing.

  • Cohorts Cybernetica: Your Castellax Battle-automata Maniples all become Line units and can therefore claim objectives.
  • Networked Sensorium Protocols: If models with the Automata unit type are within 12" of two or more models with cortex controllers, when those Automata make a shooting attack, they may reduce any Cover Save the target has by -2.
  • Preservation Protocols: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Patris Cybernetica rule and so may join units of Automata. In addition, when joined to a unit of Automata, all wounds that are inflicted upon them must first be allocated to the Automata models, even those with the Precision Shots (X) or Sniper rules. Note that this is the only way to allow your Archmagos to join an automata unit.

The spooky zombie-makers. Their bots might not see any improvements, but their Adsecularis and Myrmidons will now become tougher to remove with a toughness that almost seems to reflect the purity of steel.

  • Incorruptible Flesh: The Archmagos Prime with this rule and any infantry units they join can only be affected by Rending (X), Poisoned (X) or Fleshbane weapons on a natural 6 To Wound, making them hardier than one would expect.
  • Opus Viscera: Units with the Battlesmith (X) rule can now repair infantry. A successful roll lets them either restore a lost wound (though resurrecting a model is impossible) or immediately move a distance equal to twice the unit's Initiative.
  • The Sanguine Hook: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Ephemera Lacyraemarta Cybertheurgic Arcana but cannot select any others.

The guys who build buildings, fortresses and other fortifications in giant forges. Their rules focus on buffing terrain and fortifications.

  • High Enginseer: Tech-Priest Auxilia units may be taken as Troops choices but they must take the Enginseer Techno-arcana if they are to be taken as Troops.
  • Moderati Munitoria: During the battle's set-up but before objectives have been placed, you may move up to 3 pieces of terrain up to 6" as long as they are 2" away from another piece of terrain.
  • Rector Aedificii: Models with the Battlesmith (X) rule may also repair buildings and they can choose to apply a special rule to models they have repaired; that means when they are targeted by an attack that inflicts either Exoshock (X), Breaching (X) or Rending (X) (so choose one, not all three) they are only effected by the rule on a D6 roll of 6.

The closest you can get to tech-assassins. Everyone now has access to the dataspikes and a bit of extra mobility. The biggest winners of this are the Arcuitors, as you can take multiple of them to hunt down specific nuisances. The problem is, you are struggle to found an worthy unit to join. Taghmata is heavy shooting army that is poor in melee, but Malagra makes the magos good at melee, means the magos is not able to earn their point easily. Although Myrmidon Secutor is a serviceable melee unit but that's all and the only other unit that have at least majority WS4+ as well as have a useful melee weapon are the automatas you are not allowed to join. Consider allied legiones astartes or custodes units if you want good melee combatant. And don't forget that some guns of taghmata have the effects that reducing the enemy stats - Blind and Concussive are quite easy to be found. While it is far from reliable, but still it is better than slaughtered effortlessly by even WS4 astartes units.

  • Ictus Insidiae: Characters in this Detachment can upgrade their machinator arrays and servo-arms with in-built prehensile dataspikes for 10 points. The wording is confused, but it seems that you have the prehensile dataspike in addition to your machinator array/servo-arm rather than replace its profile, so it gives one more attack.
  • Interfector Auxilia: Any Tech-Priest Auxilia units may take the unique Interfector Techno-arcana. This gives Tech-Priests and Magos Auxilia in the unit Scout and free prehensile dataspikes.
  • Sacred Mission: One Arcuitor Magisterium can be taken as a non-compulsory HQ choice, losing Hunter Killer but gaining Scout and Court of Executioners. This precludes you from taking another as an Elites choice as normal; the HQ Arcuitor Magisterium still counts as 0-1.
    • Court of Executioners: The Arcuitor Magisterium taken as an HQ choice gains the ability to become a squad of up to three (each extra Arcuitor Magisterium costing 110 points), whose models are deployed together but are then split up after the game starts.
  • Scindex-Malagrus: The Archmagos Prime with this rule improves their WS to 5 and Attacks to 3. In addition, they gain the Preferred Enemy (Characters), Precision Strikes (5+) and Monster Hunter rules, making them specially tooled to murder things. This does not make the Archmagos dance like a legion praetor, but most centurions and sergeants are easy prey.

All-out war is the name of the game here. You take this if you're planning on taking tons of Myrmidons with all the guns you need for mass destruction.

  • Avatar of Destruction: A single Thanatar Siege-Automata Maniple composed of just one Thanatar-Calix can be taken as a non-Compulsory HQ choice. While it cannot take Paragon of Metal, any Myrmidon Secutor/Destructor Hosts within 6" of it gain the Line sub-type and add +1 to the wounds score for combat resolution rolls.
  • The Myrmidon Host: Myrmidon Secutor Hosts and Myrmidon Destructor Hosts may now be taken as Troops choices and Elites choices, respectively.
    • Sadly, ̶as neither unit has a way to get Line on their own, you will either need to crowd them around Daddy Thanatar or use other units to cap objectives.
  • Vessel of Destruction: The Archmagos Prime with this rule now has 5 Wounds and gains the Hatred (Everything) and Bulky (3) rules.

Where the Macrotek builds, the Reductor destroys. Your Tech-Priests now have options to weaken Vehicles and you have the means to demolish the buildings your enemies cower behind.

  • Demolisher: Units with the Battlesmith (X) rule sacrifice their repairing options, instead only getting offensive options for their rule. Now they can deal 1 HP of damage to a Vehicle or Building, deal an automatic unsaveable wound on a Dreadnought or Automata (which they can use even in combat, though it's not worth it for a Dread), destroy one weapon on a Vehicle without dealing a wound, or immobilize the Vehicle without dealing a wound. Incredibly risky since now you're without any options for repairing your tanks and bots.
  • Harbinger of Devastation: Before the objectives are set, pick three pieces of terrain, Buildings or Fortifications. Any Cover Saves they might have offered are now destroyed and now count as Difficult and Dangerous terrain. Any chosen Buildings or Fortifications now add +1 to the Building Damage rolls. This is the way to go when you plan on screwing over any defensive armies to force them to fight on your terms.
  • Secrets of Annihilation: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Artificia Reductor Cybertheurgic Arcana but cannot select any others.

The warp-dabblers among the forces of the Hereteks. These are rather basic in their focus on daemon engines.

  • Mechanika Ætherika: You can take a Decimator as a non-compulsory Troops choice, which is baller as all hell for the firepower.
  • Opus Malefica: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Anima Malefica Cybertheurgic Arcana but cannot select any others.
  • Magos Invocatus: Corrupted Engine units within 6" of the Archmagos Prime can ignore any penalties to their stats barring the obvious wounds/Hull Points.

Assault-focused, but it comes with the issue of lacking any ranged support. In this way, this is similar to the Malagra Techno-Arcana, but this come with no other buffs than the sharp Baraka Blades and the option for an evil assassin.

  • Magos Abominatio: You can take an Infernus Abomination as an Elites choice instead of an ally. Decent choice since traitors lack the Arcuitor Magesterium and this guy is a better pick for crowd-mowing in melee.
  • Armatus Malevolus: Your army's got their own daemon weapons too. For +10 points, you can replace any power weapon or power blade array with Abomination Blades, AP4 Specialist Weapons with Rampage (1), Breaching (4+) and a +1 to hit if attacking models below their starting Wounds. Aside from the Archmagos and Magos, the only things that can benefit from this are the Techpriest Auxilia, the Arlatax and the Vorax and it's uncertain if these replace any built-in guns the latter-two units have with their weapons.
    • This...isn't much, to be honest. Though these rules are a little neat, you're still swinging those things at WS4, the same as any sergeant. Centurions and especially Praetors will laugh at your weird swords and chop you down with their better weapons.

The closest you get to an evil Cybernetica arcana, this gives something akin to freedom for your bots, but it does get a bit dicey with most bots having an average Leadership of 7.

  • Bonds of Corruption: Any Cybernetica units can spend +10 points to get the Corrupted Cybernetica rule.
    • Corrupted Cybernetica: During the Shooting phase, you can have a unit with this rule make a Leadership check. On a failure, they suffer an unsaved wound. On a success, they get to temporarily ignore their Programmed Behavior, but they still need to charge the closest enemy within 12". With a Leadership of 7, this isn't a guarantee, but it will provide a little perk when you do get it off.
  • Magister Malefica: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Anima Malefica Cybertheurgic Arcana but cannot select any others.
  • Malignant Vector: Instead of shooting, the Archmagos Prime can target a friendly Cybernetica unit and roll a d6 to inject with scrapcode. On a 2-3, they get the Corrupted Cybernetica rule for the turn, but a 4+ makes it permanent. While this means you can corrupt plenty of units for free, the proximity and need to roll will make you want to at least pay for any units that'll spend plenty of time away from your main forces.

Similar to the Lacyraemarta, these loons get to do unspeakable things in the name of medical science. However, these guys focus more on prolonging your bots rather than making extra uses for your tech-thralls.

  • Mekanika Exanimate: All Cybernetica units in your army get It Will Not Die (5+), making each bot a good bit more tanky for the fights to come.
  • Magos Necroteknica: The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Ephemera Nekrotek Cybertheurgic Arcana but cannot select any others.
  • Nekromorphic Locus: The Archmagos Prime gets +1 Wound. Hooray.

Armoury of the Omnissiah[edit]

Being a heresy era list, we get some funky wargear that's not found in later eras/outside of the hallowed halls of the machine god. Augments may also be a thing.

Ranged Weapons[edit]

  • Archaeotech Pistol: A rather good S6 AP4 Master-crafted pistol with Rending (3+).
  • Arc Weapons and Lightning Guns: Arc and lightning weapons have seen some small changes from their 1.0/7th edition incarnations, but they are still reliable and solid weapons.
    • Arc Pistol: An S6 AP5 pistol; it's lost Haywire from its 7th edition incarnation, but has gained Disruption (6+) to compensate.
    • Arc Rifle: The standard Arc weapon. With a 30" range, Rapid Fire S6 AP5, and Disruption (6+), it's superior to the bolter that Marines will be lugging around.
    • Arc Blaster: The heavy bolter equivalent, dropping down to a 24" range, in exchange for Heavy 4 shots, Shred and Disruption (4+).
    • Lightning Gun: These have gotten a pretty good buff for 2.0 as they now have two firing modes. The "Arc" profile has an 18" range, firing Heavy 3 S4 AP- shots with Shred for clearing hordes, and the "Strike" profile is an improved version of its 1.0 incarnation, with an 18" range, firing a Heavy 1 S7 AP5 shot with Rending (4+) and Shred, which is capable of dealing with meatier targets.
    • Lightning Lock: Fires a Heavy 1 S7 AP3 Blast (3") at a 36" range, along with the Rending (4+), Shred, and Exoshock (4+) rules on top of that.
    • Lightning Cannon: A super lightning lock with all the same stats and rules, but now firing an improved Large Blast (5").
  • Autoweapons:
    • Heavy Stubber: 36" Heavy 3 S4 AP6. Don't rely on it to achieve much but extra shots are always nice.
    • Rotor Cannon: It has lost Salvo and is now a 30" Assault 4 S3 AP- weapon. Not very strong, but it does have Pinning and Shell Shock (1), making them very good for locking down enemies for another unit to assault.
    • Light Autocannon: 36" Assault 2 S6 AP4 autocannons that are stuck to Arlatax power blade arrays.
    • Autocannon: 48" Heavy 2 S7 AP4 with Rending (6+). Can threaten light armour and infantry by default and with Rending (6+), there is always a chance of it piercing heavier armour.
    • Icarus Autocannon: One of the classic Imperial Knight carapace weapons, coming in at 48" Heavy 2 S7 AP4, with Rending (6+) and Skyfire. The same as the regular autocannon but only good for shooting down flyers or skimmers.
    • Defensor Autocannon Battery: 72" Heavy 4 S7 AP4 with Rending (6+), Twin-linked, Sunder, and Skyfire. The bigger Skyfire autocannon for when that Thunderhawk really needs to take a nose dive.
    • Phaeton Autocannon: An autocannon with two different ammo types, both having a 64" range and a Heavy 2 S7 AP3 profile with Rending (6+) in common:
      • AP Rounds: These rounds have Sunder for cracking open enemy armour.
      • Ignis Rounds: These rounds, on the other hand, have Ignores Cover for digging enemy models out of their hidey-holes.
    • Avenger Gatling Cannon A familiar gun-arm for the Knight Questoris, posessing a 36" Heavy 12 S6 AP4 profile with Rending (6+).
    • Gatling Blaster: 60" Destroyer 2 S8 AP3, Apocalyptic Blast (10"), Pinning, and Shell Shock (1).
    • Macro-Gatling Blaster: The bigger gatling blaster has a 72" Destroyer 3 S10 AP3 profile, with Massive Blast (7"), Pinning, and Shell Shock (1).
  • Bolt Weapons: Ever-present, ever reliable.
    • Maxima Bolter: The basic armament of the Castellax while also being free for Scyllax, it's a 12" bolter with Assault 3 instead of the basic Rapid Fire, meaning that they can always shoot at peak firepower.
    • Kraken Bolter: Coming stock on Scyllax, it's got a longer range of 30" with S4 AP4. Better suited for frontline firepower.
    • Mauler Bolt Cannon: As jacked up heavy bolters, they're 24" Heavy 4 S6 AP4 guns with Pinning. A basic gun for the Castellax to work with, giving them plenty of bite.
    • Defensor Bolt Cannon: A mauler bolt cannon, but it's stuck on a Super-heavy. Though it can't pin, the Ardex-defensor rule lets Knights and Titans fire Overwatch with this gun.
    • Vulcan Mega-Bolter: Only seen on Titans and for good reason. A massive 60" Heavy 15 S6 AP3 bolt-spewer of death with Pinning and Shell Shock (1).
  • Conversion Beam Weapons: Could be seen as inverse Melta weapons, inflicting greater damage at longer ranges. Each conversion beam weapon has three profiles to work with, each working at a specific range set.
    • Conversion Beamer: The basic conversion beam weapon, usually found on your HQs and Myrmidon Destructors. All three range profiles for the beamer are Heavy 1 Blast (3") shots with Blind, with only the S and AP of the shot changing as the range increases; that gives you S6 AP- anywhere up to 18", S8 AP4 from 18" to 42", and S10 AP1 from 42" to 72".
    • Conversion Beam Cannon: Only found on the Knight Moirax, this cannon operates on the same principle as above, shooting Heavy 1 shots with Blast (3") and Blind. Naturally, it's better than the regular beamer, with higher damage increments to boot; S7 AP- at 18" and below, S9 AP4 between 18" and 42", and S12 AP1 from 42" to 72".
    • Heavy Conversion Beam Cannon: The biggest beamer you can get, which can only be used by the Acastus Knight Asterius. It shares its profiles with the conversion beam cannon while improving the regular cannon's Blast (3") to a Large Blast (5"); once again, that gives you S7 AP- up to 18", S9 AP4 from 18" to 42", and S12 AP1 between 42" and 72".
  • Cutting Tools of the Mechanicum:
    • Las-Impulsor: Exclusive to the Knight Questoris, this bad boy fires 12" Heavy 2 shots at S10 AP2, rocking Sunder and Instant Death. That 12" range is fucking pitiful, but you still can make it worth it; see here for more comments.
    • Atrapos Phasecutter: Same 12" range and S10 AP2 as the las-impulsor, but it's Ordnance 1 instead of Heavy 2.
  • Flame Weapons: These remain your reliable templates to cook through crowds of low-Toughness foes but will falter against most armour saves, especially against marines.
    • Acheron Flamestorm Cannon: The Knight Acheron's exclusive ranged weapon, it fires an Ordnance 1 S7 AP4 Hellstorm Template with Shred.
    • Inferno Gun: Only found on Warhound Scout Titans, this goes a step further than the Acheron flamestorm cannon by firing a Destroyer 1 S7 AP3 Hellstorm Template that can extend thanks to Torrent (24").
  • Graviton Weapons:
    • Graviton Gun: The classic graviton weapon. Not useful for killing but good for slowing down units and chipping into dreads and vehicles.
    • Graviton Imploder: An 18" Heavy 2 graviton weapon at AP3 without Blast (3"). Better than the base graviton gun in every way and can actually punch through marine armour.
    • Graviton Pulsar: A Heavy 2 graviton gun with a higher 24" range, regaining Blast (3") after the imploder dropped it.
    • Graviton Hammer: Graviton flamer, anyone? The main pulls here are Grav Wave, meaning charges against the user are disordered, and the template to put a dent in dreads and other machines. Can be used as an S10 AP2 melee weapon with Concussive (2) and Armourbane (Melee).
    • Graviton Ram: Same as the hammer, but at AP4. Like the hammer, it can be used as a melee weapon with the same profile except at AP1.
    • Singularity Cannon: The other arm of the Knight Atrapos and, boy, does it rock. This thing has a 36" range, firing a Heavy 1 S8 AP2 Large Blast (5") along with the Haywire and Concussive (1) rules that are common to graviton weapons. Its unique special rule is Graviton Singularity, which is like Gets Hot, except it's rolled before the gun fires; it deducts a Hull Point on a roll of 1, does nothing on a 2-5, and gives the shot Vortex on a roll of 6. It has the potential to be a bit of a liability, but it can also make an area of terrain deal an S10 AP1 Hit with Armourbane (Melee) and Instant Death to all models that enter it, so it can be pretty awesome as well.
  • Las, Photon and Pulsar Weapon:
    • Las-Lock: The Minié ball muzzle-loaded musket to the lasgun's AK-47. It has a shorter 18" range, being Assault 2 while packing a nasty S4 AP6 punch. As of writing, AP6 is completely useless; S4, however, is not.
    • Multi-Laser: A certain black Irish leprechaun's most cherished las weapon. It has a 36" range, shooting the Heavy 3 S6 AP6 shots Guard players know and love.
    • Photon Gauntlet: The photon pistol. 12" range, shooting Assault 2 S5 AP2 shots with Blind and Gets Hot.
    • Photon Thruster: The bigger photon weapon with a 24" range and Assault 2 S6 AP2, with Blind, Lance and Gets Hot. Its usefulness against TEQ this edition is severely hampered by the additional wound they received.
    • Darkfire Cannon: Found on Castellax and Myrmidon Destructors, it's 36" Heavy 2 S7 AP2 weapon with Blind, Lance and Gets Hot.
    • Defensor Lascannon: Exclusive to the Warlord Battle Titan, it a Twin-linked version of the normal lascannon with the additon of the Ardex-defensor rule, letting the Titan lay down some Overwatch lascannon shots.
    • Pulsar-Fusil: The primary weapon of the Krios Venator Tank Destroyer, it fires some real meaty Ordnance 4 S9 AP2 shots with Pinning at an effective range of 36".
    • Magna Lascannon: The main armament of the Acastus Knight Porphyrion, of which it carries two that are both Twin-linked. Naturally, it has a much-improved lascannon profile, firing 72" Ordnance 2 S10 AP2 Large Blast (5") beams.
    • Sollex Heavy-Las: An amped-up Heavy 3 lascannon used by the Thanatar-Calix with S10 AP2, Armourbane (Ranged) and Shock Pulse.
    • Turbo Laser Destructor: One of the biggest las weapons in your armoury; 96" range, shooting a hearty Destroyer 1 S12 AP2 Large Blast (5") that Ignores Cover. Used to be hilariously underpowered before getting FAQ'd; does S10 AP3 without Ignores Cover sound good for a turbo laser destructor?
    • Laser Blaster: The other biggest las weapon in your armoury, which can be taken by Reaver Battle Titans, Warbringer Nemesis Titans, and Warlord Battle Titans (Carapace Mounted for the latter, Arm Mounted for the former two). It fires a respectable (compared to the post-FAQ turbo laser destructor) Destroyer 1 S10 AP2 Large Blast (5") from 96" away.
    • Volcano Cannon: The classic Titan killer, boasting a 120" range and firing a Destroyer 1 S14 AP1 Large Blast (5") that Ignores Cover. Unfortunately, it doesn't have Sunder.
    • Belicosa Volcano Cannon: A Warlord Battle Titan-exclusive arm cannon with a 120" range that fires a Destroyer 1 S14 AP1 Apocalyptic Blast (10") with Sunder but no Ignores Cover. It used to fire the non-existent Apocalyptic Blast (9"), which has since been FAQ'd.
    • Nemesis Volcano Cannon: The Warbringer Nemesis Titan's unique Carapace Mounted gun (that totally doesn't look like a cock on its back, you guys), firing a Destroyer 1 S14 AP1 Apocalyptic Blast (10") with Sunder anywhere from 36" to 180". Like the Belicosa volcano cannon, it used to fire the non-existent Apocalyptic Blast (9") before getting FAQ'd.
  • Melta Weapons: Short-ranged, but the Armourbane (Melta) rule means that they can roll a second die when rolling for Vehicle Penetration or to wound Automata or Dreads.
    • Thermal Cannon: One of the classic weapon options of the Knight Questoris, it fires a Heavy 1 S8 AP1 Large Blast (5") at a 36" range.
    • Melta Cannon: Exclusive to Reaver Battle Titans and Warbringer Nemesis Titans, the melta cannon has a 60" - effectively 30" if you want to proc Armourbane (Melta) - range for firing Heavy 1 S10 AP1 Massive Blast (7") shots.
  • Missile Weapons:
    • Missile Launcher: A true classic, the humble missile launcher is a Domitar-exclusive and has four rocket types to fire Heavy 1 shots at its 48" range; frag (S4 AP6 Blast (3") with Pinning), krak (S8 AP3), flak (S7 AP3 with Skyfire), and ignis (S5 AP6 Blast (3") that Ignores Cover).
    • Havoc Launcher: Only found on Vultarax, a havoc launcher fires a 48" Heavy 1 S5 AP5 Twin-linked Blast (3").
    • Hunter-Killer Missile: "One shot, one kill" is the name of the game with hunter-killer missiles. These are standard One Shot krak missiles mounted on certain Vehicles and Automata.
    • Whirlwind Launcher: You can exchange the Acastus Knight Porphyrion's Ironstorm missile pod for this; it only has the Hyperios warheads, but Heavy 4 S8 AP3 Twin-linked Skyfire shots will be more than enough for the Porphyrion's anti-air needs.
    • Ironstorm Missile Pod: A horde-clearer for the Knight Questoris and Acastus Knight Porphyrion, the Ironstorm missile pod shoots an Ordnance 1 S5 AP4 Large Blast (5").
    • Stormspear Rocket Pod: Heavy 3 S8 AP3 rockets for Vehicle-slaying, exclusive to the Knight Questoris.
    • Karacnos Mortar Battery: Found on the Karacnos Assault Tank and Acastus Knight Asterius, it's one hell of a dirty bomb launcher; it has a 60" range and fires a Heavy 1 S6 AP4 Massive Blast (7") with Rad-phage, Fleshbane, Barrage, Pinning, Shell Shock (3), Crawling Fire and Ignores Cover.
    • Apocalypse Missile Launcher: The Apocalypse missile launcher lives up to its name, firing a 24"-360" Destroyer 2 S7 AP3 Apocalyptic Barrage. It's only found on Reaver Battle Titans and Warlord Battle Titans.
    • Terrebrax Rocket Battery: The Ordinatus Aktaeus' sole ranged weapon to complement its FUCKHUEG drill. With its 48" range, it can dispense Heavy 12 S7 AP5 rockets.
  • Plasma Weapons: Plasma has taken a nerf in AP but have gained Breaching (X) to make it count as AP2 against non-Vehicle units on a certain roll To Wound. Be warned that while your models can take a Gets Hot wound without dying, all other unsaved wounds received by the squad must first be allocated to a wounded model.
    • Plasma Cannon: Same old Plasma Cannon. 36" Heavy 1 S7 AP4 Blast (3") with Gets Hot now has Breaching (4+). It's good against everything but not great. They're not bad, but photon and melta weapons have usurped its role as the prime TEQ killers with less need for RNG, at least in the Mechanicum army list. That said, Blast (3") makes it excel against blob armies like Militias and Daemons... if there only there were some of those to fight against.
    • Phased Plasma-Fusil: 24" Heavy 3 S6 AP3 with Breaching (4+) and Gets Hot. Still the same old marine killer, but Veterans - Terminators included - and their Legion-specific variants now have two wounds. Pick your targets wisely or your cyborgs and robots could be eating plasma themselves.
    • Plasma Mortar: The primary weapon of the Thanatar-Cavas, it has the same range as a plasma cannon as well as Breaching (4+), but fires an Ordnance 1 S8 AP4 Large Blast (5") that Ignores Cover which you can apply Reactor Overload to.
    • Plasma Blastgun: Only found on Warhound Scout Titans, it has a 72" range and fires an Ordnance 1 S9 AP3 Massive Blast (7"), Breaching (4+) and Reactor Overload included.
    • Sunfury Plasma Annihilator: The biggest and baddest plasma weapon, exclusive to Warlord Battle Titans. It fires a 72" range Destroyer 2 S9 AP2 Apocalyptic Barrage that Ignores Cover, for which you can activate Reactor Overload.
  • Rad Weapons and Irradiation Projectors: Rad weapons contain the Rad-phage rule, which reduces the Toughness of a target unit for the turn. While it can't stack, it will expose the enemy to a more dangerous set of guns, especially if you have something that can deal Instant Death. It also pairs well with melee builds, as the Mechanicum armoury is a bit lacking in Sx2 weapons.
    • Lucifex: A little rad pistol with 8" range and a single S2 AP5 shot. Luckily, it has Fleshbane, so you'll actually have a good chance of wounding infantry and inflicting Rad-phage.
    • Irad-Cleanser: A cancer flamer. Fires an S2 AP5 Template that has the Fleshbane and Rad-phage rules.
    • Irradiation Engine: The heavy cancer flamer. It's a bigger version of the irad-cleanser, as it fires an S4 AP3 Template that has Torrent (12") on top of Fleshbane and Rad-phage.
    • Radium Pistol: Despite not having Rad-phage like other rad weapons, it has seen a buff from its 7th edition rules; even though it's lost Rad-phage, it's gained Brutal (2), which does the same thing but on all successful wounds, not just wound rolls of 6+. Apart from that, it's still an S3 AP- single shot pistol.
    • Radium Carbine: Similar to its pistol counterpartm it lacks Rad-phage but has Brutal (2) to compensate. Apart from that, it's an 18" Assault 3 weapon with S3 AP5 shots. Due to the high number of shots it fires, a squad of these will burn through 5+ armour saves while Brutal (2) will cause problems for 4+ armour saves, since they'll have to make two saves with only a 25% chance they'll successfully make both of them.
  • Volkite Weapons: Certified Martian death lasers. Low AP but superior to bolters in almost every way. The main gimmick for volkite weapons is Deflagrate, which inflicts an additional hit for every unsaved wound caused by a weapon with this rule. Note that these hits aren't affected by any other special rules of the model.
    • Volkite Serpenta: More or less direct energy machine pistols. Still S5 AP5 at 10", they are now Pistol 2. Serpentas may seem underwhelming at first, but their value comes from the fact that they can be dual wielded or paired with squads that have Firing Protocols (X). The new rules for Monstrous Creatures allows both types of Magos to fire all their weapons during the shooting phase regardless of other rules. A decent sidearm for those who can pair Serpentas with rad weapons.
    • Volkite Charger: The rifle of the family, though since it's smaller than a boltgun, it may as well be a carbine. Still the same old MEQ killer firing Assault 2 S5 AP5 shots at 15".
    • Volkite Caliver: The volkite LMG. It has twice the range of the charger with an additional point of Strength and an extra shot at Heavy 3. For the Mechanicum, calivers are only mounted on tanks with few or no upgrades allowed.
    • Volkite Culverin: The HMG variant. Firing 45" Heavy 5 S6 AP5 shots, it's the primary weapon of Myrmidon Destructors, but you'll mostly likely exchange them for less generalized weapons, as other slots can deal with blobs and MEQs instead. Culverins are uncommon secondary weapons for Super-heavies that can't be exchanged for something better.
    • Volkite Incinerator: Curiously usable in melee as an S6 AP2 weapon with Instant Death and Prisoned, a drawback that only makes this usable as a single attack against Infantry. As an ranged weapon, it's got a short 10" range and fires Assault 2 S5 AP5 shots.
    • Volkite Veuglaire: Only seen on the Knight Moirax, this volkite weapon fires at a 30" range with Heavy 5 S6 AP4 shots.
    • Volkite Chieorovile: The unique armament of the Knight Styrix, it has a 45" range and fires Heavy 5 S8 AP4 shots.
  • Exotic and Miscellaneous Weapons:
    • Sonic Destructor: This is the Ordinatus Ulator's primary weapon, possessing a 72" range and firing a Destroyer 1 S6 AP2 Large Blast (5") with the Sonic Wave, Pinning, Armourbane (Ranged), Murderous Strike (5+), and Ignores Cover rules. Sonic Wave, in particular, changes the way models are hit by the sonic destructor; you place the 5" Blast marker at the edge of the Front Hull of the Ulator and move the marker in a straight line away from the Ulator anywhere within its 45-degree firing arc until you reach max range or the marker slides off the table. Any model that was the pieplate passed over suffers one automatic Hit at S6; bigger units - Knights/Titans/Super-heavy Vehicles/Buildings/Fortifications - get hit at S10.
    • Shock Lance: The Knight Lancer's main weapon, primarily used as (what else?) a lance in melee, can shoot an 18" Heavy 6 S7 AP3 Concussive (2) shot.

Melee Weapons[edit]

  • Arc Weapons:
    • Arc Lance: A spear that doubles as both a ranged and melee weapons. Its shooting attack has been described above, while in melee it's S+1 AP5 with Disruption (5+). Either profile can make an arc lance potentially terrifying for Vehicles to encounter.
    • Corposant Stave: A Two-handed S+1 AP4 weapon with Haywire, making it more effective against Vehicles and Automata than Infantry.
    • Arc Maul: The meaner melee weapon in the Secutarii armory and the default option for the Axiarch, this is S+2 AP5 with Disruption (5+).
    • Arc Scourge: An S+2 AP3 melee weapon with Rampage (D3) and Disruption (5+), making it more capable of hitting crowds as hard as it does Automata.
  • Chain Weapons: Got a decent improvement from last edition, now even the humble chainsword gets Shred, improving their effectiveness considerably.
    • Chainsword The ever-humble CCW now has Shred to help get through armour saves.
    • Chainfist: Absolutely devastating at Sx2 AP2 with Armourbane (Melee), but Unwieldy means that this will only swing at Initiative step 1.
    • Chain Bayonet: Basically a weaker version of the Astartes heavy chainsword, it's a Two-handed S+1 AP- chain weapon with Shred.
    • Reaper Chainfist: A S10 AP2 Armourbane (Melee) chainfist exclusively for the Knight Acheron, tailor-made for cutting up Vehicles.
  • Cutting tools of the Mechanicum:
    • Las-Impulsor: It's pretty strong, being S10 AP1 with Armourbane (Melee) and Instant Death, but Unwieldy and Cumbersome severely hinder its usefulness.
    • Atrapos Phasecutter: It has the exact same profile as the las-impulsor, just without Unwieldy... yay?
  • Graviton Weapons: Both melee graviton weapons happen to have shooting profiles too, but both uses come with Concussive; the melee profiles have a better Concussive (2).
    • Graviton Hammer: Your choice of either an AP6 template with Concussive (1), Graviton Pulse, Grav Wave and Haywire, or an S10 AP2 hammer with Concussive (2) and Armourbane (Melee).
    • Graviton Ram: It's either an AP4 template with Concussive (1), Graviton Pulse, Grav Wave and Haywire or an S10 AP1 fist with Concussive (2) and Armourbane (Melee).
  • Paragon Blade: An S+1 AP2 Specialist Weapon without Unwieldy that inflicts Instant Death on a To Wound roll of 6, thanks to Murderous Strike (6+).
  • Power Blade Array: The mantis blades of the Vorax and Arlatax, it's an S-User AP4 melee weapon but Breaching (5+) lets it potentially carve through higher saves.
  • Power Weapons: A step up from the basic chain weapons, but you'll often see these on characters without better tools.
    • Power Sword: S-User AP3 with Rending (6+). Not very powerful, but it can cut through most armor while maybe having a chance to even get past Termie plate.
    • Power Axe: S+1 AP2 with Unwieldy. Slow, but just as dangerous as ever.
    • Power Maul: S+2 AP3, this is the strongest of your power weapons with the only limit being anything with a 2+ save.
    • Power Lance: S+1 AP3 with Reach (1). A decent tool for Challenges, but a well-kitted melee character will want something stronger.
  • Servo Weapons: The ever-traditional servo-arms and the like for the Mechanicum.
    • Servo-Arm: Gives an additional attack equivalent to a power fist (S8 AP2 with Unwieldy).
    • Machinator Array: While weaker against Infantry at S+1 AP2 with Unwieldy, it's giving you two additional attacks with Shred and Armourbane (Melee). It also comes stacked with a flamer and meltagun as well as adding +2 to any Battlesmith (X) rolls you make, meaning that this is very important to anyone seeking to cheese it out for all it's worth because... well, depending on your High Techno-Arcana, you'll have a lot of uses.
    • Prehensile Dataspike: Expect to see plenty of this in a Malagra army. While weaker with S5 AP4, it can beat most things to the punch with Reach (2) and can deal damage with Breaching (4+) and Murderous Strike (6+).
      • Do note that, according to the 2022/09/21 FAQ, you can make all your attacks with any Servo-arm or machinator array a model is equipped with; it's safe to assume it also applies to dataspikes, but discuss it with your opponent before the game starts. Since servo weapons are technically CCWs, you can claim an extra Attack if you are wielding multiple melee weapons and RAW you're still getting the extra attacks for each servo weapon. This makes some Mechanicum characters deceptively dangerous in melee, as your 2 base Attacks may in fact turn into 4 or 5 servo-punches.
  • Shock Chargers: The weapons of your Automata, S-User AP3 is no-frills and capable of taking down Marines pretty easily.
  • Siege Destroyers:
    • Siege Wrecker: Can only be taken by Castellax, replacing one of its shock chargers with an S10 AP2 Specialist Weapon (meaning the Castellax loses the extra Attack from having 2 CCWs) with Sunder, Brutal (2), and Wrecker, the latter letting Penetrating Hits caused by the siege wrecker add +1 to the result of any rolls on the Vehicle or Building Damage charts.
    • Siege Claw: The default melee weapon of the Knight Moirax, Knight Magaera, and Knight Styrix, an Sx2 AP2 CCW with the same rules as the siege wrecker minus Specialist Weapon.

Equipment & Special Rules[edit]

  • Armour of the Mechanicum: Unlike the basic power armour of the Legiones Astartes, the various armours of the Mechanicum are more varied than one would think.
    • Corpus Skitarii: The armour of the Skitarii and Secutarii. It grants a 4+ save and re-rolls for FNP rolls against Poisoned and Rad-phage attacks.
    • Lorica Thallax: The heavy frame of the Thallaxi provides a 4+ save as well, but also forbids them from making Sweeping Advances.
    • Titanshard Armour: The blessed armour of the Secutarii Axiarch, complete with a shard of an actual god-machine embedded in it. Provides a hefty 3+/5++ save and re-rolls for FNP rolls against Poisoned and Rad-phage attacks.
  • Augury Scanner: Prevents any units from Infiltrating within 18" of the bearer. On top of that, the unit not only gets to ignore Night Fighting, but also gets the ability to use the Interceptor Reaction without eating into the Reaction budget.
  • Cortex Controller: Seen on all your magi. Units with the Cybernetica sub-type ignore the Programmed Behaviour while they are within 12" of the model holding the controller. Critical for full control of your Automata, as Programmed Behaviour forces them to only shoot the closest unit or charge when they can.
  • Cyber-Familiar: Provides a 6++ Invuln and allows a unit to re-roll any failed Characteristics tests that aren't Leadership tests, Psychic checks or failed Dangerous Terrain tests each turn. More valuable in that it can boost an existing Invulnerable Save as well by +1, to a maximum of 3++.
  • Mechanicum Protectiva: A 4++ save seen on only the magi, equal to the iron halo of the Astartes.
  • Refractor Field: The ever-vital 5++ Invuln, coming stock on both types of Myrmidons and available to Secutarii Peltast Alphas.

Vehicle and Battle-automata Equipment & Rules[edit]

  • Atomantic Deflector: The 5++ Invulnerable given to all Automata. This not only provides them protection, but any Instant Death hits only deal D3 wounds instead of all of them. The major downside is that dying makes it explode, dealing automatic S8 AP- Hits to anyone within D6".
  • Flare Shield: The protection for the Mechanicum's tanks, the flare shield offers no saves, but instead reduces the damage of any incoming attacks to the tank's Front Armour by -1, improving to -2 for any Blast or Template attacks. The only thing that gets past them are Destroyer weapons.
  • Galvanic Traction Drive: Given to all your Vehicles, this allows them to re-roll Dangerous Terrain tests.
  • Ion Shields: Instead of the redirecting shields of yore, the ion shields in HH 2.0 grant any Knights a 4++ save against any shooting attacks aimed at their Front Armour, and a 5++ when targeting a Knight's Side Armour. This does nothing for against any melee attacks.
    • Ion Gauntlet Shield: The Invuln is now set to a 5++ against shooting attacks that target the Front Armour or Side Armour, but it trades that off for a 5++ save when in melee.
    • Ionic Deflector: The protection for Armigers. This grants the unit a 5++ Invulnerable save against anything and any model with this and a Wounds characteristic gets Eternal Warrior. However, these can explode just as hard as an atomantic deflector, dealing S8 AP- hits to any model within D6+3".
  • Rad Furnace: You've got robots that spread cancer by guns and by merely being in the same room as the enemy. Enemies attacked by a unit with a rad furnace are easier to wound, as the target To Wound requires one lower result than normal (to a minimum of 2+). Combined with rad grenades the weapons that wounds on 4+ suddenly wounds on 2+! If you want to aim ID by rad grenades one lower result to wound is moot, though. In addition users are immune to rad grenades and Rad-phage, and also any weapons with Rad-phage can only cause wounds on a To Wound roll of 6+. Note that despite its fluff it never cause any harmful effect against friendly models, include anyone without a rad furnace on the same unit.
  • Shock Ram: Instead of a normal ram, your big tanks get shock rams, resolving their Ram Attacks at S10 AP2 with Concussive (2) to scare off opportunistic tank hunters wielding meltas. It also has Ram (D6), meaning that each Ram Attack does 1+D6 hits to take out more than just that one guy with melta bombs and a power fist.
  • Void Shields (X): Gives X spare Wounds to the lucky Titan (read: all four Titans in the army list). Any shots targeting a model with void shields instead target the shields, resolving their hits against AV 12. If the hit manages to beat the AV, then it just breaks that void shield and reduces the number of available shields by 1 until there are no more void shields. Void shields have no effect and may not be affected by close combat attacks.

Unit Analysis[edit]

HQ[edit]

  • 0-1 Archmagos Prime: Your head cyborg and the guy you want to bring to almost every game. Like the Legion Praetor, the Archmagos Prime is pretty much essential for your army, as he allows you to bring High Techno-arcana rules for your army. His Feudal Hierarchy rule means you can only bring one of any type of Archmagos Prime, so he will be one of a kind on the table and important to protect. Coming standard with a volkite serpenta, power weapon, a Mechanicum Protectiva and a cortex controller, the sheer amount of options he can be equipped with makes it so you can tailor him for most situations. He can be equipped with a machinator array to improve his Battlesmith (4+) rolls, Heavy weapons to make him a walking gun platform (even more so if you take the Myrmidax High Techno-arcana), a paragon blade and/or chainfist to make him as killy in melee as possible, and even a cyber-familiar to improve his Invulnerable save to 3++. The sky is near enough the limit with this guy when it comes to customisation. He also comes with a bucket full of special rules, having Relentless, Stubborn, Battlesmith (4+) and Firing Protocols (3), allowing him to shoot and repair multiple times in one turn. Master Cybertheurgist allows him to select either the Artificia Cybernetica, Artificia Machina or Ephemera Incursus Cybertheurgic Arcana, and The Orders of High Techno-arcana rule allows for even more specialisation and customisation.
    • He does have some drawbacks, though. Firstly, as you could have guessed, a basic Archmagos Prime is fairly expensive on his own, being 155 points for the standard cyborg commander, and almost all his options will severely ramp up his price; it means you'll have to pour a fair bit of your army's allowance into him.
    • Secondly, while his BS, Strength and Toughness are all set to 5, he comes up short when compared to his Marine counterparts in melee, as he only has WS4 and 2 Attacks base (3 when adding his volkite serpenta and power weapon into the mix), meaning that he's going to be hitting Tactical Marines on 4's and Praetors on 5's, though it is possible to make him more adept at duelling with the right upgrades. Like most Mechanicum units, he's better suited at shooting than close combat, relying primarily on his Toughness and good saves to keep him alive during fights over being able to kill his opponents quickly.
    • As of the 12/2022 FAQ, clarifications to Battlesmith (X) means no more shooting and repairing. In fact, the FAQ states you can't even repair multiple times a turn, so it's only one Battlesmith (X) roll per turn.
  • 0-1 Archmagos Prime on Abeyant: The same as above but mounted on a floating command console. For 30 extra points, your Archmagos Prime gains an extra point of Toughness and 2 Wounds, bringing him up to T6 and 5W. He loses Firing Protocols (3) and Relentless, but that's fine since he gains the Monstrous and Antigrav sub-types which allow him to fire all the weapons he has and count as Stationary when shooting them, as well as letting him float over terrain. Finally, he also gains Pride of Place, stopping him from boarding a transport because the Abeyant is not cheap and he wants to show it off.
  • Magos Dominus: A scaled-down Archmagos Prime, now only costing 75 points. While still very versatile, you'll notice the considerable drop in loadout options as well as the now Marine-tier BS4/S4/T4. While he comes with the Heavy sub-type, he's also only one unit and most likely to be strapped to an Adsecularis Covenant or Castellax Maniple, things that wouldn't care about running away anyway. You're probably going to need that extra kit too, because a power sword and laspistol will only carry you so far. Probably why there's no limitation on how many you can field.
    • Firing Protocols (2) will make your decisions count more, as now you'll find yourself either needing to pick whether you need to fire that gun once or spend both rounds of shooting to repair your bots.
  • Magos Dominus on Abeyant: See above, but now on the floating pimp-throne. He curiously still keeps the Heavy sub-type, giving template protection, but there's not going to be many cases where such can be the case when this guy is now a giant floating target.

Special Characters[edit]

  • Calleb Decima Invictus, Lord of Ruin, Vengeful Archmagos of the Ordo Reductor: Look how far he's come. A Loyalist Reductor Archmagos Dominus with a power axe and bolt pistol, both Master-crafted, as well as a machinator array, all carrying Ignores Cover, Sunder, and Wrecker to demolish tanks and building alike while Hatred (Traitors) and Precision Strikes (5+) make him threatening in melee. On top of his Reductor rules, he also lets those within 6" of him gain Move Through Cover, which can seriously help them go through the wreckage he causes.
    • Calleb can pick up a Scyllax Maniple or a unit of Tech-Priest Auxilia as a retinue, customized as you see fit including grabbing a transport. This retinue will also carry Ignores Cover, Sunder, and Wrecker. The Auxilia have their uses as they provide more repairs if Calleb's too busy with things and can offer an additional buff from their chosen Techno-arcana, to say nothing of their Servo-automata. The Scyllax are there if you really just want him to wreck shit because they're not going to be going anywhere fast.
  • Archmagos Draykavac, Warlord of Cyclothrathe, Sovereign-Prelate of House Atrax, Bringer of Perfection: Horse-face is back and for 240 points he acts as one of - if not THE - best buffing characters for the Mechanicum, though only for Traitors. Armed with a paragon blade, graviton gun, and a statline that would make a Necron Overlord glow green with envy, he's a Traitor character with all the standard Archmagos Prime rules as well as a few extras thrown in. He has a machinator array and Preferred Enemy (Infantry) and his special rule Incursus Cybertheurgist gives him access to both the Artificia Machina and Ephemera Incursus Cybertheurgic Arcana, so he can spit computer viruses and scrap code as he goes. He also quite nicely buffs the army he is in with his Djinn-skein as it adds +1 to the BS of any unit he joins and allows ALL Scatter rolls to be re-rolled as long as he can see the targeted area and is not embarked in a transport or a building, giving added help to artillery-heavy and Deep Strike lists. He can also be a bit of a menace in combat as, while he has no real anti-horde capability, he can pose a threat to single models with his Liquifractor rule. This allows him to exchange all his attacks in combat (all 2 of them, that is) for a single I1 attack that auto-hits his opponent. This attack rolls 2D6, inflicting a number of wounds equal to the number rolled minus the Toughness of the target; e.g., 7 rolled - T4 = 3 wounds, all of which are resolved at AP2. If he hits a Vehicle with an Armour Value, halve the AV of the targeted Vehicle and use that number in place of Toughness when doing the math. For every point over, he inflicts a Penetration; e.g., 7 Rolled - AV6 (half of 12) = 1 Penetrating Hit. Remember, since this attack is used during the Assault phase against a model he is in base contact with, this will be resolved against the Vehicle's Rear Armour.
    • His Warlord Trait, Cruel Taskmaster, turns him into a Cyborg Commissar, as any unit within 12" of him that fails a Morale or Pinning test, he can *BLAM!* a model from the same unit to make it automatically pass the test. In addition, he gives the army an extra Reaction during the Shooting phase.
    • As if that wasn't enough, his unique High Techno-arcana, Stataraga, allows him to be taken as a Troops choice in a Questoris Knights Detachment. In addition to this, he can bring Castellax Maniples and Vorax Maniples as non-Compulsory Troops choices while part of a Household Detachment. Back up your big robots with little robots.
    • He is very tough, and while not the technological monster that Scoria is, he's rocking 5's for his WS, BS and Strength, a 6 for his Toughness and 4 Wounds.
    • Finally, he can be taken on an Abeyant for 25 points extra, which gives him the standard Abeyant rules replacement and bumps his already impressive Toughness to 7 and Wounds to 6.
  • Anacharis Scoria, the Xanophane Tyrant, the Fallen Master, Lord of the Nine Cohorts, the Apostate Magister: The absolute monstrosity of HH 1.0 has returned. Now strapped to his giant scorpion-thing that used to be called an Abeyant, he's now a super-Traitor Archmagos Prime with all three regular Cybertheurgic Arcana with associated Rites and weapons (except those learned from certain High Techno-arcana), Battlesmith (3+) and Move Through Cover. As if having a 2+ save on a T7 W7 beast with a cyber-familiar wasn't bad enough, he also has It Will Not Die (5+), so he can heal himself too. He's also a walking tank, carrying a photon thruster and two archaeotech pistols that he can fire at will while he gets in close to smack them up with his Vodian Sceptre. While no longer the auto-wounding monstrosity of yore, an S+2 AP2 Two-Handed seal of office with Armourbane (Melee), Exoshock (4+) and Murderous Strike (5+) is nothing to scoff at, especially if the enemy also has to contend with Fear (2) if they survive. The one weakness it gained is that, without anything like Brutal (X) to back it up, he will get held up by Terminators and other multi-wound units.
    • His Warlord Trait, Forbidden Protocols, gives a 6" bubble that allows units of Automata to make Reactions despite any insistence otherwise. Adding an additional Reaction each Movement phase means that he thrives on sending his bots over to rip up the enemy while he cackles and sends out whatever technosorcery he slings out.
  • Inar Satarael, Master of the Taghmata Satarael, Synod-Persecutor of Incaladion, the Grief of Zoroastris, the Fleshless LordLegacies: Another Traitor Archmagos Prime entombed in what might as well be called an Abeyant for the sake of rules, this time with the Archimandrite High Techno-arcana. On top of the power axe, graviton imploder and servo-arm, his Abeyant comes strapped with a Twin-linked Maxima bolter, which lets him fire quite a lot at close range, all for 185 points - the same as a stock Archmagos Prime on an Abeyant. He also comes with Feel No Pain (5+) and a 4++ save via his repulsion shield, one that lets him throw an S6 hit right back at whoever shot him if he rolls a natural 6 on his save, but only if it's not part of a Reaction.
    • Satarael uniquely has a chance to be of no benefit to the enemy when slain. Not only can he explode upon losing his last wound, dealing S6 AP- hits to all models within D6" of him, but he also does not confer any VPs on a 4+, meaning that there might be a chance that your enemy just wasted all that firepower on one named Archmagos Prime on Abeyant. Of course, it's still worse for you because you just lost your Warlord; Satarael has the Archimandrite High Techno-arcana, remember?

Elites[edit]

  • Tech-Priest Auxilia: The most customisable and utilitarian choice. You get a unit of 1-3 Tech-Priests with 4-10 Servo-automata. There is quite a lot to do with this unit; the Priests are Infantry (Character, Line) and are able to claim objectives, while the Servo-automata are Automata (Guardian) so will always be allocated wounds first, regardless of any other special rules. The Servo-automata also have a decent range of weapon options, from dirt cheap las-locks up to expensive multi-meltas, and they also bring the average Toughness of the unit to T5.
    • One Tech-Priest may be upgraded to a Magos Auxilia, granting him several stat-buffs including an extra Wound and the ability to take either the Artificia Machina or Artificia Cybernetica Cybertheurgy Arcana.
    • The Tech-Priests in the unit must choose a "lesser" Techno-arcana from a different list compared to the Archmagos Prime.
      • Enginseer: Tech-Priests and Magos Auxilia gain servo-arms for free and, while there are any Servo-automata remaining in the unit, the Priests get Battlesmith (4+).
      • Lachrimallus: Every model in the unit gets Feel No Pain (5+). In addition, friendly units of Adsecularis Tech-thralls within 6" of one or more Tech-Priest or Magos Auxilia with this rule gain +1 to their Feel No Pain (5+) rolls or gain Feel No Pain (6+) if they don't already have it.
      • Reductor: Tech-Priests and Magos Auxilia gain servo-arms for free, while all models in the unit gain the Sunder and Wrecker rules. Additionally, a Magos Auxilia in the unit may replace their servo-arm with a conversion beamer or graviton imploder for 25 points each.
    • As a combined unit of models with the Battlesmith (X) rule and the Automata unit type, this unit is affected by quite a lot of the High Techno-Arcana rules that an Archmagos Prime could take, so there is considerable room for additional function.
    • Tech-Priests and Magos Auxilia with cortex controllers are the go-to unit for ignoring the Programmed Behaviour rule of Automata. The Archmagos Prime and Magos Dominus are too expensive to act as babysitters.
  • 0-1 Arcuitor Magisterium, Assassin of the Prefecture Magisterium, Paternis Malagra: A Loyalist-exclusive techno-assassin. This guy's about as strong as an Archmagos Prime with the same S5 and T5, but exchanges a wound an extra inch of Movement. While they have the Magos-like aspects with Battlesmith (5+) and Firing Protocols (2), they're more keyed towards melee with Monster Hunter and Precision Strikes (5+). To that end, they start with a corposant stave and archaeotech pistol with the option for a servo-arm or machinator array for some more swings at I1. They can also pick up a photon thruster or phased plasma-fusil if you're intending on using Firing Protocols (2) for shooting more than repairs and/or swap their melee weapon for a paragon blade for 15 pts; it can be worth it, but with 2 Attacks base, it's not an auto-take.
    • The Arcuitor Magisterium's Hunter Killer rule lets them get a retinue of Vorax Battle-automata or Arlatax Battle-automata as a single unit, letting them hop around with extra protection, though this will hamper the bots' movement to their new owner.
  • Myrmidon Secutor Host: A squad of 3 Tech-Priests who decided to become their own Necron Destroyers. They are 150 points, bristling with special weapons and want nothing more than to kill all those disgusting fleshy things. They come standard with two Maxima bolters, but you can swap one or both of them out with volkite chargers for free or with graviton guns, irad-cleansers or phased plasma-fusils for some extra points. Don't worry about moving them around, since they have Relentless and Firing Protocols (2) allowing them to march around and fire all of the guns they are carrying and still charge. With their refractor field, 5's for their Strength, Toughness and BS, 4 Wounds and WS4, they are pretty tough; while they only have an Initiative of 2, the Myrmidon axes they carry have are S+2 AP2 with Sunder and Unwieldy, the latter meaning you won't care too much about it. These axes, combined with their 3 Attacks (4 on the Secutor Lord), Hatred (Everything) and Stubborn make them one of the few effective melee units that the Mechanicum have, as they will quite happily cut their way though most marine squads, as long as they don't have WS5.
  • Domitar Battle-Automata Maniple: 145 points and you get one almost-dreadnought armed with two graviton hammers and one back mounted missile launcher, tacked on with Relentless and Hammer of Wrath (1). An additional 4 Domitar can be taken in the same unit and, if you feel like it, one model can be given Paragon of Metal. Each bot has an atomantic deflector, giving them a 5++ Invulnerable save and some protection against Instant Death. Despite having 7's for Toughness and Strength, 5 Wounds and 4 Attacks each, they have a pretty average WS4 and a pretty disappointing BS3. That said, their graviton hammers are template weapons with Haywire in shooting and are S10 AP2 with Armourbane (Melee) in close combat, giving them a pretty clear role as Vehicle punchers, and they should perform well against Militia/Solar Auxilia hordes and tank armies.
    • In a vacuum, these are a decent unit and can perform their role as tank hunters fairly well. However, when compared to Legion Dreadnoughts, they come up very short.
      • It's worth considering that with the Paragon of Metal upgrade, they don't come up short at all; these things are absolute monsters (no pun intended). Not only do they already get a S7 AP- Hammer of Wrath (1) auto-hit at I10 wounding a MEQ on a 2 in Assault, but on the charge they get a sphincter-troubling SEVEN Attacks (3 base + 1 for two melee weapons + 1 for charging + 2 for Rampage (2) because they're always gonna be outnumbered, really) hitting WS4 units on 3's at S10 AP2 with Armourbane (Melee) giving 2D6 Armour Pen versus Vehicles and Concussive (2) for anything with a WS value. If the target fails their Ld test for Concussive (2), their WS is dropped by 2, so for the average WS4 MEQ in the next Assault phase, your Domitar is now hitting them on 2's and they're trying to hit it on 6's. Plus +1W and It Will Not Die (4+) on a T7 Sv3+ platform is legit. A far better candidate for Paragon of Metal than any other Automata (Thanatar Calix might have something to say about that!).

Troops[edit]

  • Thallax Cohort: Ogryn equivalents, they're pretty hardy with T5 and 3 wounds and are also equipped with Incunabulan jet packs and lightning guns. Their stats have been slightly nerfed for 2.0, as they are now S4 standard and have had their Ld reduced to 7, though in return they can take chain bayonets on their lightning guns for 2 points each, giving them S5 attacks with Shred, and now have Relentless, Stubborn and Feel No Pain (6+) standard. Additionally, one Thallax every three models can take a multi-laser, irad-cleanser, phased plasma-fusil, multi-melta or photon thruster. They have a few extra special rules, with Djinn-sight allowing them to reduce Cover Saves by -2 and block enemy Infiltrators from setting up with 24" of the Thallax Cohort, while their Lorica Thallax gives them a 4+ armour save and stops them from making Sweeping Advances. Sadly, they have lost Thallax Augments, so you can't buff them any further outside of your chosen High Techno-Arcana.
  • Adsecularis Tech-Thrall Covenant: The cheapest unit available in 30K just got pricier, becoming 45pts for 10 dudes with Infantry (Heavy, Line). Don't expect the Heavy sub-type to do much for them though, as they only have a 6+ armour save, so they are not likely to be re-rolling anything. Being Heavy really just means they cannot perform Run moves. Additionally, due to The Rite of Pure Thought rule, they cannot perform Reactions or make Sweeping Advances. They have low stats; WS/BS/I are all 2, and their Ld value is 6 so their fighting ability is almost negligible, not to mention they have lost the ability to take carapace armour and all of their options from HH1. However, despite all of these downsides, they are still the cheapest unit in the book with Stubborn and Feel No Pain (5+) giving them added resilience against low Strength incoming damage, while also being able to come in units of up to thirty models. They are an objective-holding unit and, really, that's all you need them for. You can put no more than twenty of these poor bastards in a Triaros Armoured Conveyor or footslog the full thirty to use as 40K Guardsmen or Penal Legions.
    • For added protection, they gain a +1 to their Feel No Pain (5+) rolls while within 6" of a Tech-Priest Auxilia unit that has the Lachrimallus Techno-arcana. Granted, this still does nothing against S6 or above, but it is a desirable bonus if you have several squads who are likely to be subjected to bolter fire.
  • Adsecularis Tech-Thrall Certus CovenantLegacies: Tech-thralls with mitra-locks, good ol' 8" Assault 2 S4 AP6 las-shotguns, now with Shred to make them an actual threat to MEQs, blob units, light Vehicles and maybe even non-Cataphractii Terminators if you spam enough of them... that is, if they're not vaporized by combi-volkite chargers or combi-grenade launchers first, something most Terminators, Veteran Squads and Legion-exclusives will have, if not their own unique weapons; don't expect too much from a unit with worse Ballistic Skill than Guardsmen/Imperial Militia. The entire unit can also exchange their mitra-locks for chainswords if want to use them as actual cannon fodder. A Triaros Armoured Conveyor is probably the best option to get them into Shred range or if you just want another tank for blob killing.
  • Castellax Battle-Automata Maniple: Now Troops choices with no ifs, ands or buts. These trustworthy brutes are plenty capable of taking any abuse with T6, 4 Wounds, and a 3+/5++ save. The Castellax are plenty well-rounded to take whatever role you assign them to; each Castellax is equipped with two shock chargers with in-built bolters, as well as a mauler bolt cannon. Even better, they have a pretty broad list of upgrades available to any role. You can grab multiple Castellax for a full maniple or you can instead make a lone Castellax a Paragon of Metal if you intend to make a superweapon of a bot.
    • While the shock chargers give you plenty to work with, you can instead grab a pair of power blade arrays with in-built bolters if you're looking to sacrifice AP3 for a chance at AP2. If you're looking to total tanks up-close, then you can replace a shock charger and its in-built bolter for a siege wrecker, a lethal S10 AP2 fist with Sunder, Wrecker and Brutal (2). The major drawback of this is that it's quite costly and, as a Specialist Weapon, it loses the extra attack for dual-wielding.
    • The in-built bolters can be freely swapped for Maxima bolters, which works far better for a close-range Castellax by letting it fire an extra shot at a shorter range. Flamers are also available for its arms, which have their uses if you're considering going up against mobs. The mauler bolt cannon, on the other hand, can be replaced by a more suitable anti-tank weapon; you can either buy a multi-melta for up-close tank demolition or a darkfire cannon, one of the few weapons with Lance, for ripping through heavy tanks at long range, but Gets Hot makes it a bit of a gamble.
    • Despite being Troops choices, they lack the Line sub-type and cannot ordinarily claim objectives. Luckily, you can give them Line if your Archmagos Prime has the Cybernetica High Techno-Arcana.
  • Scyllax Guardian-Automata Maniple: Oversized servo-skulls with a 4+ save, BS4, S4, T5, 2 Wounds each and 3 Attacks. They come equipped with Kraken bolters, rad furnaces and Scyllax combat arrays, making each Scyllax considerably armed for their size. Move Through Cover, Relentless and Night Vision give them the ability to float around quite well, but they have the Heavy and Guardian sub-types which restrict their movement, and they need to be joined by Characters if you want them working at full capacity. They have Line, meaning they can score unlike Castellax; however, they are a Support Squad, so they can't act as your Compulsory Troops choice. They come in a unit of 4 which can add additional Scyllax for 25 points to a maximum of 16 in a maniple. All of can swap their Kraken bolters out for Maxima bolters for free or a flamer, volkite charger or rotor cannon for 5 points. The Scyllax combat array has two settings; 'Standard', which is S-User AP5 with Shred, or 'Dismember', which is S+3 AP2 with Cumbersome and Unwieldy, which will hurt their already poor WS but won't effect their Initiative if they aren't joined by a Character since they will have penalties from Guardian anyway. With the rad furnace, it allows them to inflict Instant Death on Marines (if they are lucky enough to hit them). The 'Dismember' setting could also be relatively effective at popping open light tanks. Finally, for every four Scyllax, one of them can take a graviton gun, plasma gun, irad-cleanser or a meltagun for some added punch in shooting.
    • The best way to utilise these guys is to throw a Magos Dominus in with them and take them in a large unit to secure a chosen objective while keeping the Magos Dominus alive; the Magos Dominus is tougher to shift than you would first think thanks to the bonuses from the Guardian and Heavy sub-types of the Scyllax.

Dedicated Transport[edit]

  • Triaros Armoured Conveyer: Dune Train Not quite a CRASSUS, but close. Your only Dedicated Transport has AV 14/12/12, 5HP, and a Transport Capacity of 22! This thing comes standard with a flare shield for all that -1 goodness and is armed with two volkite calivers and a Twin-linked mauler bolt cannon, meaning it can defend itself from infantry in a pinch. It's also equipped with a shock ram so you can live out your dreams of being a Navy torpedo ram and ramming a bunch of walkers (ironically, it's the Martians who are ramming the walkers this time) and, since the ram is S10 with multiple hits, it's arguably the Triaros' best weapon. In addition, Galvanic Traction Drive lets it re-roll Dangerous Terrain tests, so it doesn't pop a track when it rolls over a landmine. It's a fairly expensive Dedicated Transport, in terms of both points and money, but you can style on all those marine players and their little METAL BOXES with your Victorian warship on tracks.

Fast Attack[edit]

  • Arlatax Battle-Automata Maniple: One big robot armed with two power blade arrays that have in-built light autocannons, a plasma cannon, and an Utan jump booster (more on that in the Ursarax entry). It has Hammer of Wrath (1) and an atomantic deflector, giving it a 5++ Invulnerable save and protection from Instant Death, not that it needed much protection from ID since it's Toughness 6 with 4 Wounds. They can reasonably hold their own in combat this edition with WS4, S7 and 3 Attacks base (5 with power blade arrays, 4 with arc scourges) and its Initiative is pretty good for a Mechanicum robot (yes, 4 is good for an Automata). Poor Arly has seen a fairly harsh nerf to his weapons in 2.0, since he no longer gets his awesome S+2 AP2 lightning claws and is now stuck with S-User AP4 Breaching (5+) power blade arrays, which will be effective against Militia and Auxilia hordes, but inconsistant against MEQs and TEQs. These can be swapped out for arc scourges, which you should do in most cases as they are much better than the power blade arrays, being S+2 AP3 with Rampage (D3) and Disruption (5+), allowing them to punch tanks to death and go all out with extra attacks when they are outnumbered by Tactical Marines. The unit can contain two more Arlatax, while a maniple made up of a single Arlatax can become a Paragon of Metal. Arlatax are no longer the auto-take monsters they were last edition, but they can still be effective when used in the right way.
    • If you take arc scourges, your Arlatax will gain Rampage (D3) when he gets outnumbered by two militia bumble-fucks, making them more effective anti-horde/infantry weapons.
      • You might find it strange that Arlatax don't have Bulky (X), despite being big 4 Wound robots. Thing is, Automata can't enter transports or buildings and, as Bulky (X) makes it much harder to be outnumbered in combat, this would also fuck over any Automata which has access to Rampage (X). This is probably why no Automata have the Bulky (X) rule; they neither need it (no Embarking) nor want it (model count during melee combat).
    • Arlatax don't have any official FW models, so if you want them, you need to convert them out of a Domitar or something.
      • Honestly FW, I love your work (but not your pricing) and a fast, hulking hunched-over long-blade, dakka-clawed, plasma firing, murder-bot is a fucking amazing concept. HOW IS THERE STILL NO MODEL AFTER ALMOST A DECADE WTF CHAPS
  • Ursarax Cohort: A squad of three WS4/BS3 Thallaxii with melee weapons and Iron Man chest lasers. They come equipped with two lightning claws which give them 4 Attacks each and, for every three models, one Ursarax can be upgraded to take two power fists instead, but that Ursarax only has 3 attacks if this option is chosen. Unfortunately, they have seen a bit of a nerf this edition as they are now only S4, meaning they wound marines on 4's with their claws and they can't ID T5 models with power fists and, as stated above, only one model in three can take power fists now. The volkite incinerator in their chests is a 10" range volkite charger when it fires, but in melee it can be "fired" at an Infantry model the Ursarax is in combat with instead of fighting with its claws/fists, in which case it "fires" a S6 AP2 Instant Death hit against the Infantry unit (I would assume it uses the Ursarax's WS since when it's used in this way as it's classed as a melee weapon).
    • Their Utan jump booster can up their Movement to a flat 12", which makes charges easier thanks to the new charge bonuses units get for having higher Movement values and allows them to Deep Strike and still let them Embark on transports; however, they can't Run anymore, but that's not really a problem.
      • Bit miffed by these guys not having Hammer of Wrath (X); they had it in the previous edition via their jump packs, all other MEQ jump infantry have it, but these guys? Could be an oversight? They've effectively gained an extra attack each via fancy lightning claws over the last edition, but lost HoW, which, to be fair, given their -1S nerf to S4 might be a fair trade. Would you rather take an additional S4 AP- attack at I10, or an additional AP3 attack at I2(!) with Shred & Rending (6+), assuming that enough models survive to the Initiative 2 step to take advantage? You decide.
      • They've also had their Feel No Pain (5+) knobbled down to a Feel No Pain (6+) from HH 1.0. I assume that the missing point was mystically moved to the Thallax Cohort for their new Feel No Pain (6+).
  • Vorax Battle-Automata Maniple: The killer mantis-bots have gotten a lot zippier with non-fixed movement ranges, not only getting Scout, but also having a high speed, Fleet (2) and the Light sub-type, so running makes these things cross the board even faster. If you're worried about anything trying to outrun them, each Vorax also comes equipped with two rotor cannons; not the strongest guns, but they can pin foes while the Vorax charges in with its S-User AP4 Rending (5+) power blade arrays.
    • Each one comes with a lightning gun, which got a pretty decent improvement by being able to alternate between a rather light crowd-clearer and the heavier shot that can go through armour. One in three of the bots can instead replace that with an irad-cleanser, allowing the unit to more reliably take down mobs at the cost of its effectiveness against most things with a decent armour save.
  • Vultarax Strato-Automata Squadron: No longer deemed a Vehicle, the Vultarax is now an Antigrav Castellax with T6, though it's way faster thanks to its Stratos thrusters, allowing it to change its Movement from the basic M8 to an insane M16 on any turn. There are pretty much entirely for harassing at range, with the arc blaster letting it zap through bots and tanks and its two havoc launchers let it shell anything else, especially with Djinn-sight effectively nullifying cover. This turns the Vultarax Squadrons into mobile harassment units, no longer pseudo-fighters like before, but more along the lines of Land Speeders in how they can attack.
    • In one helpful addition, Surveillance Protocols lets the Vultarax ignore Programmed Behavior during the charge phase. Of course, these things lack melee weapons of any sort, so it only makes sense that this thing won't automatically throw itself away the moment a Magos with a cortex controller isn't there to stop its suicidal stupidity.
      • With the arc blaster being AP5, it's hampered by a decent save (MEQ/TEQ) on any Infantry it wounds (which it is very good at), but Disruption (4+) makes it brutal against most Vehicles, with a 50% chance to auto-Glance regardless of AV. That's the main reason you take the Vultarax, so you can bypass the decent AV on expensive Vehicles as all of its weapons against MEQ and better, despite the number of hits they can rack up, are still only AP5. Also, the Vultarax lost its power blades from the last edition... not that you really want this in melee.
  • Blood SlaughtererMCW: A slashy, traitor only Daemon engine that 40k has thrown out of the pram so now you get it. How generous. It has the Dreadnought unit type, because GW didn't want to make another unit type just for Daemon Engines, and it also has the Corrupted Engine sub-type, and they can come in talons of 3, with each model having 5 wounds and 4 attacks at WS5 making it a pretty good fighting machine. It's S/T6 and it has a 3+ armour save making it decently tough, but more concentrated fire will be able to kill it with not too much difficulty. Luckily it's fast with M9", Move Through Cover and Aetheric Dominion (Heedless Slaughter) which combined with the charge bonus gained from M9" gives these buggers a +2" charge bonus, which combined with Hit and run and Furious Charge (1) allows them to repeatedly cycle charge units to keep up their increased attack potency. The Blood Slaughter is armed with 2 Slaughterer blades (which are identical to Power Swords) making them excellent MEQ mulchers. They also have the option to swap one of the Slaughterer blades out for an Impaler harpoon, but this isn't as good as it looses an attack, it's only BS3 and it the harpoon no longer pulls unit it shot towards it, now it just lets you re-roll charges and reduces the initiative of the unit it shot by 1. Just stick to the oversized power swords.
    • WS5 and AP3 means these things will tear apart marine squads, but will get booty blasted when the square off against Dreadnoughts. Luckily, each one is faster than a Dreadnought and is only 110 points each, so they seem perfect for avoiding more elite units and chasing down and blending troop choices.
  • Mechanicum Tarantula Sentry Gun BatteryLegacies: Remember how everyone laughed at the Legions' Tarantulas for being useless because they had two guns but could only shoot them once because they forgot one single rule? Well, GW's sterling rules writers did that shit again because they're incapable of learning from their mistakes! That's right, you've got a pair of heavy bolters (or lascannons), but can only fire one of them at the closest target they can see at a measly BS2. If you sprung for the Hyperios missile launcher, then you're struggling with the fact that you have a Skyfire weapon that'll only shoot at the closest enemies they can find, even if that enemy isn't flying at all (and no, Assault Marines do not count).
  • Mechanicum Termite Assault DrillLegacies: Well, look who fucking came back... and now cannot be a DT for your Adsecularis, meaning you're wasting a Fast Attack slot that could've been spent on more robots. At least they're as useful to you as they are to the Legions, because these give you a singular way of Deep Striking onto the field, especially when supported by the Ordinatus Aktaeus.

Heavy Support[edit]

  • Thanatar Siege-Automata Maniple: A walking tank of a robot with S8, T8, W7 and a 2+/5++ save with an atomantic deflector. Each Thanatar comes with a Twin-linked mauler bolt cannon for defending itself from crowds when it can't use its preferred weapons. While you can buy up to two additional Thanatar that you have to deploy alongside the first one, their Thanatar Maniple rule means they're ultimately on their own after the game starts.
    • Thanatar-Cavas: The basic Thanatar, it comes with a pair of shock chargers for AP3 melee power, complemented by the Thanatar's stock Hammer of Wrath (1) rule. The plasma mortar provides it with plenty of bombardment, dealing S8 AP4 Large Blast (5") shots with Breaching (4+) and Ignores Cover. Reactor Overload allows the mortar to shoot twice, but the Thanatar-Cavas must suffer D3 Wounds without saves to offset it.
    • Thanatar-Calix: 20 points more expensive than the stock Thanatar-Cavas. The big draw is its Sollex heavy-las, a Heavy 3 lascannon with S10 AP2, Armourbane (Ranged) and Shock Pulse to flat-out demolish tanks. While it lacks the reliability of shock chargers, it comes with a graviton ram, which can either be used as an AP4 Template with Haywire, Grav Wave, Graviton Pulse and Concussive (1) or an S10 AP1 fist with Armourbane (Melee) and Concussive (2) for a more devastating stun.
  • Myrmidon Destructor Host: The real Necron Destroyers of the Mechanicum and the heavy weapon variant of the Secutors, they lack the Myrmidon axe and are instead equipped with shock chargers which, combined with fact they lack Hatred (Everything), makes them less impressive in melee. However, you don't want these guys in melee since then you won't be able to use their heavy weapons; they all come with volkite culverins as their default equipment and they can be upgraded to take conversion beamers, graviton imploders, darkfire cannons or irradiation engines, so they can be kitted out for most shooting roles that you desire. Their 4 Wounds, Toughness 5 and refractor field mean they can be quite hard to shift by shooting attacks and, thanks to Relentless, they can move around and shoot as much as they want.
    • Unlike Dreadnoughts and Automata, Myrmidon Destructor Hosts shouldn't mix and match their weapons. Treat them like Heavy Support Squads or 40K Devastator Squads, i.e., you should give them all the same weapons. As an added bonus, they can take a Triaros Armoured Conveyor, which is very good at dealing with MEQs and blobs on its own.
  • DecimatorMCW: "This Robot is trained to fuck your Dreadnoughts." This Daemon engine got lost in the warp while trying to find its way to Vraks but wound up in the Horus Heresy. This thing is good. It's really good. Firstly, it's a Dreadnought with all the benefits that come with that, as well as having Heavy and Corrupted Engine subtypes, and its characteristics put it on-par with the Leviathan, with S8, T/W7, 5 attacks and WS5 and a 5+ Malefic Aegis save. It comes with Move Through Cover, Furious Charge (2) and Hammer of Wrath (2) which makes it even stronger on the charge, and Ætheric Dominion (Malevolent Artifice) will let it re-roll armour saves against weapons with a Strength lower than 7. It comes armed with 2 Decimator siege claws, which are S User AP2, Brutal (3), and coming with inbuilt Heavy Flamers. It can swap the claws out for either Butcher Cannons (a Twin linked Heavy 3 autocannon) or Soulburner Petards (Small Blast weapons with Fleshbane and Breaching (5+)), but doing so reduces its attacks to 4. While it is a bit of a hand me down, rest happy with the knowledge that you now have a (traitor only) Dreadnought of your very own. What? Marines can take one if they take a Praevian? Fuck.
    • Take a Magos with the Anima Malefica Cybertheurgy and have him hug one of these like it's his own son. Why? Because you can boost this thing to WS6 and I5 and then have it beat up pretty much every Space Marine Dreadnought in the game. Not only will you hit it more, you will hit it first. You won't make Friends doing this, but you will be able to see the horror in you local Legion players eyes when this thing pulls apart their Dreadnoughts with ease.
      • This thing does have the drawbacks of being a bit expensive at 265 points (and really expensive being £85 for all the parts at time of writing), and it can't come in talons so each one will take up it's own slot.
  • Karacnos Assault Tank: The heavy battle tank of the Mechanicum with AV 14/12/12 and a flare shield to ensure that anti-tank weapons won't instantly spell its doom. While it has Sponson Mounted lightning locks to bombard whatever it comes across, the main star of this tank is the Karacnos mortar battery, a massive S6 AP4 chemical bomb launcher that's using the rare Massive Blast (7") pieplate with a whole slurry of rules: Fleshbane, Rad-phage, Ignores Cover, Barrage, Pinning, Crawling Fire and Shell Shock (3). Simply put, you aim this at crowds of infantry and they will disintegrate. That said, like with all ordnance/artillery weapons, Space Marines will likely have a chance to walk away from the initial assault. That's where Crawling Fire comes in, allowing it to slide over to the unlucky foe (if they're trapped, and with that Pinning check, it's a good shot) and hit them again.
    • While all of its weapons are swingy pieplates, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have anything to protect itself up close. Unusually, it has a shock ram, letting it deal 1+D6 Ram Attacks at S10 AP4 with Concussive (3). While this by no means makes it capable of combat, it does mean that you're not hosed against any tank hunters.
    • Expect this to draw a LOT of fire and be ready for anything, as Hazardous Munitions means that any explosions it suffers will be catastrophic, dealing S8 AP4 hits to anyone within 6+D6".
  • Krios Squadron: While not as armoured as the Karacnos at AV 13/12/10, this is the only tank you can take in squadrons, coming with It Will Not Die (6+) to give it some manner of regeneration. It's a zippy tank as well, as it has a very good move speed and the Fast sub-type to make it always go the distance. Aside from the basic armaments of each tank, you can also grab volkite calivers to add some guaranteed incineration on each tank.
    • Krios Battle Tank: Comes with a Hull (Front) Mounted lightning cannon for some crowd coverage that can potentially cause some extra damage to any Vehicles it hits as well.
    • Krios Venator Tank Destroyer: Costlier than the basic tank, but much more reliable at breaking tanks. Less prone to moving, as it exchanges the lightning cannon for a pulsar-fusil, an Ordnance 4 S9 AP2 weapon with Pinning. Not only is it capable of totaling lesser tanks in one go, but it can also lock down anything less.
    • Krios IrradiatorMCW: What? You thought the Mechanicum didn't have enough tricks? Now you have tanks firing fucking radiation at the enemy. This costly thing has its main weapon be an Irradiation Blaster, firing as either an S2 AP5 Hellstorm flamer or a single S7 AP3 shot, both with Rad-Phage and Fleshbane. Firing it as a beam has its own quirks too, as it hits anyone in a straight 16" line from its turret, hitting anyone under it and only stopping for terrain, vehicles, and anything with 6+ wounds. If it scores a pen on a transport, then anyone inside has to eat d6 S2 AP- hits with Fleshbane as well.
  • Knight Moirax Talon: Why yes, the Mechanicum can throw in Armigers as Heavy Support choices. While largely similar to its Questoris kin, the Moirax comes with a rad furnace to spread cancer in melee. They have a pretty flexible loadout in contrast to the fixed loadouts of the Questoris Armigers, with the option to double up on its volkite veuglaires or siege claws with in-built irad-cleansers in any combination, depending on where you want it to stay. If you plan on taking other guns, you can buy lightning locks, conversion beam cannons, and graviton pulsars.
    • Their Greuso Protocol rule gives them a unique Reaction, triggered when an enemy charges a friendly Automata or Knight within 12". This allows the Moirax Talon to shoot at whoever is charging, allowing for Tau-tier supporting fire against any charges.
  • Mechanicum Land Raider PhobosLegacies: The ever-trustworthy build-a-Land Raider returns to its home in the Mechanicum. Sadly, as with the Termite and Macrocarid, it can't be used as a DT, and unlike the Legions you can't take squadrons of them, but your Land Raiders at least have a vast array of different guns you can slap onto it. On top of all the weapons that the marines get, you can also swap out the sponsons for any manner of guns if lascannons don't suit your needs and the hull gun can be replaced with a variety of exotic weapons like the graviton gun or the Twin-linked phased plasma-fusil. You can actually kit this LR out to fulfill a specific job while still transporting, which is something that the Legions can only do in a limited fashion while retaining the same capacity.
  • Macrocarid ExploratorLegacies: Horrendously more expensive than the Triaros or even the Land Raider in the same Legacies doc, but this boy has AV 14 all around and can carry 26 troops, so there's a small space for Auxilia too. Though you lack any of the specialized gear (to be fair, so did the Marines, for the most part), you still retain a lot of insanely powerful guns to slap onto it, from the horde-eradicating irradiation engines and volkite culverins to the marine-cracking Twin-linked phased plasma-fusil and mauler bolt cannons.
    • If you are fielding this, it's because you want it as a heavy assault platform. On top of its heavy firepower, it's also considered an Assault Vehicle, so you can have your packs of Automata and Adsecularis charge straight out of the Macrocarid while it fires away to absolutely demolish whatever it is you sent it towards.
  • Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank BatteryLegacies: We had these? Well, apparently the Mechanicum had what amounted to Whirlwinds stashed away somewhere because they're in the document. Okay, the Whirlwind comparison does feel kind of lazy because these things can swap out their missile launchers for a rather impressive array of artillery and direct siege weapons, meaning you could also make it a Basilisk or Medusa if you saw fit or make it tote a (Gravis? Look, the bullets call it a Gravis array, the weapon's stat forgot that Gravis bit) melta cannon array if you just needed to hunt tanks. If you feel uncomfortable throwing what amounts to Rhinos so close, you can also buy multiple tanks, though they all need to take the same main cannon if you buy more.
  • Ordo Reductor Minotaur BatteryLegacies: This is only really here if you wanted an Earthshaker but want it to actually survive a shot or two at AV 13/12/13 (though having an Open Crew Compartment means any melee strikes will always hit at AV12). While it has the Slow and Reinforced sub-types, you're not really going to need that movement much anyways because Earthshakers could cover most of an entire board anyways. The cannon having Shred and Pinning also make it a decent pick even if it got nerfed to AP4.

Lords of War[edit]

Do note that the Mechanicum Knights are not the same as the Questoris Knights from the Questoris Household army list. The Mechanicum Knights all have It Will Not Die (6+) built into their special rules, and all of them except for the Acastus Knight Asterius also come equipped with a flare shield for added protection, making them cost around 20 more points than their Questoris equivalent.

  • Mechanicum Knight Magaera: The Mechanicum's cheapest Knight, it's an upgraded Knight Questoris armed with a lightning cannon, a Hull (Front) Mounted phased plasma-fusil and a Reaper chainsword which can be swapped out for a siege claw with an in-built irad-cleanser. It has both the It Will Not Die (6+) rule and a flare shield, as well as Night Vison; do be careful about having too many units being near it if it blows up, since its explosion blast is resolved at AP3. The lightning cannon is a very good weapon in HH 2.0 as Large Blast (5") AP2/3 weapons are all but extinct, so being able to vaporise a unit wearing power armour with a single shot is worth its weight in incense these days, and for 400 points, will happily fit in most games.
  • Mechanicum Knight Styrix: The Magaera's brother, having all the same rules but being equipped with a volkite chieorovile and Hull (Front) Mounted graviton gun instead for 10 points more than the Magaera. It can exchange its Reaper chainsword for a siege claw with an in-built irad-cleanser. Like the Magaera, the Styrix causes an AP3 blast if it explodes. The volkite chieorovile is less impressive than the lightning cannon, being Heavy 5 S8 AP4, which will make it very good at clearing Solar Auxilia and Milita hordes, and it should perform well as a medium anti-armour option, but it lacks the MEQ melting capability of the lightning cannon.
  • Mechanicum Knight Atrapos: The only Cerastus pattern Mechanicum Knight (the tall ones) and 100 points more expensive than the two Questoris pattern Mechanicum Knights, but it's stronger, faster, and carrying heavier weapons, as well as hitting everyone with an AP1 blast if it explodes. Equipped with both an Atrapos phasecutter and a singularity cannon, this thing is the bane of TEQs and tanks. The phasecutter has both a ranged and melee profile, with it having a 12" range Ordnance 1 S10 AP2 shot which should punch a hole in most tanks, and its melee option is S10 AP1 with Instant Death and Armourbane (Melee) (technically just Armourbane according to its profile, but it should be obvious the writers just forgot the (Melee) part), but it's not great at fighting non-Vehicles since it also has Cumbersome now. The singularity cannon is the real great weapon here, as it shoots S8 AP2 Large Blast (5") shots, making it one of the few guns in the game that can effectively deal with units of Terminators at range. Praise the Omnissiah! The singularity cannon also has Haywire and Concussive (1), which is great, and the Graviton Singularity rule, which is like Gets Hot except it's rolled before the gun fires; it deducts a Hull Point on a roll of 1, does nothing on a 2-5 and gives the shot Vortex on a roll of 6. It has Flank Speed like the other Cerastus pattern Knights if you want to increase the Atrapos' movement at the cost of shooting and Macro-extinction Targeting Protocols, which gives all of its guns Twin-linked when targeting Super-heavies, Titans, Knights or Monstrous units, making it a decent Greater Daemon hunter and anti-LoW choice.
    • Despite gaining both a flare shield and It Will Not Die (6+), the Mechanicum version of the Atrapos costs the same as its Questoris variant.
  • Mechanicum Acastus Knight Asterius: A Knight that rivals a Warhound Scout Titan in size, firepower and price, costing 625 points. It's got an Armour Value of 14/13/12, 9 Hull Points and is armed with two Twin-linked heavy conversion beam cannons. However, the real kicker is the fact it's armed with a Karacnos mortar battery, making the Knight extremely effective against both tanks and Infantry. It also has two Hull (Front) Mounted volkite culverins, just in case the dirty bomb launcher and giant cannons weren't enough firepower for you. Night Vison means those pesky Night Fighting rules won't phase it and Catastrophic Explosion means that anything caught in its death explosion will eat an AP2 hit.
    • Unlike the other Mechanicum Knights, the Mechanicum Acastus Knight Asterius is the exact same as the Questoris Acastus Knight Asterius.
  • Ordinatus Ulator: For a mighty 1075 points, you get a giant sonic cannon mounted on what is essentially a stripped down Baneblade chassis (but with better AV than the actual Baneblade now). Despite seeing a bit of a nerf, it's still as terrifying as ever. It's a Super-Heavy with AV 14/13/13, 14 Hull Points, It Will Not Die(5+) and Reinforced Structure (a 5++ against shooting attacks), making it a very tough self-propelled gun. Its Ordinatus dispersion shield now only works during the first turn for attacks against the Front and Side Armour, with any indirect attacks that hit the Ordinatus reducing their Strength by 2 to help stop it being shot off the board on Turn 1, since that will be everyone's game plan when they see it. It has three volkite culverins, one Hull (Rear) Mounted and two Sponson Mounted, but the real reason you are bringing this thing is its main gun, the sonic destructor. Having seen a bit of a nerf, it's now a flat S6, increasing to S10 when it hits a Super-heavy, Knight, Titan, Building or Fortification, though it can still ruin an entire section of your opponent's army like nobody's business. Its Sonic Wave rule means you don't place the weapon's Large Blast (5") pieplate like normal artillery weapons, but you instead use it to draw a straight line from the front of the Ordinatus to its maximum 72" range, and every model (including flyers) that is under that 5" wide line, eats a Destroyer 1 S6 AP2 hit with Armourbane (Ranged), Pinning, Murderous Strike(5+) and Ignores Cover. Find the area where the models are bunched together and watch this thing clear a choke point like a shotgun clears a trench.
  • Ordinatus Aktaeus: THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!... *Ahem* I mean, for 800 points you get a Super-heavy transport with 14 Hull Points, AV 14/13/13 and 42-model Transport Capacity with a Transport Bay for Automata. The Mole (that's what Imperials called it) is armed with a Terrebrax rocket battery, which is a Heavy 12 autocannon with AP5, along with It Will Not Die (6+) and Reinforced Structure, making it a hard nut to crack. Its main armament is its giant Aktaeus class seismic excavator macro-drill, which now, once per game, can create an earthquake at the end of a turn. Pick a point 6" from the front of the Mole, and everything with 6" multiplied by the current game turn (except the Mole) suffers D6 S7 AP4 Pinning hits. After this, the Mole can not move again for the rest of the game. Overall, this attack isn't great, but it can help clear out the surrounding area. It's odd that it just sets off an earthquake and then taps out instead of using the drill like a ram, but clearly the Mechanicum (and GW) think they're onto something with their man-made earthquakes. Where the Mole really shines is the fact that it has Subterranean Assault, allowing it to Deep Strike its 42 Transport Capacity into your enemy's rear-line, and Terrestrial Disregard, which lets you place an Apocalyptic Blast (10") on the table at least 1" away from Impassable Terrain and enemy models and then place the Aktaeus' hull over the centre blast template and place it on the table. With that done, every model and Fortification within 6" of the Aktaeus takes as S10 AP2 hit and must make a Pinning test, while the area under the Apocalyptic Blast (10") becomes Dangerous and Difficult Terrain for the rest of the game. While the Ordinatus Aktaeus is not as lethal as its sonic brother, it is a great super-transport for your army and it can effectively disrupt your opponent's forces when it arrives and drills them. Also, it looks awesome.
    • This thing is absolutely great in a Subterranean Assault army; with the main force in the Mole and the rest being transported in Termite Assault Drills, they can all pop up in your enemy's defences and start causing chaos.
  • Kytan Daemon EngineEMCW: Remember this thing from Forge World? Because 40k doesn't so it's yours now. Apparently first encountered at Sarum, the Kytan is here and his one and only job is to skullfuck your opponent's Lords of War. It's a Traitor only, 420 point Knight and Corrupted Engine with AV13/12/12, 8HP and a 14" movement, on top of which he has a 5++ Invulnerable save from Malefic Aegis His BS is a pathetic guardsman 3, but he has a mighty WS6 meaning he'll happily pull apart other Super-Heavies in his weight category. To add to his movement he has the Flank Speed rule allowing him to forgo shooting to race up the table and charge whatever has caught your eye (which he'll need to because of his domain). He only has 4 attacks, but he comes with Rampage (D3) and HoW (4), so he'll get extra attacks when he runs face first into a group of infantry, and he also has Æetheric Dominion (Heedless Slaughter) which gives him those bonuses to his charge rolls and combat resolution. Speaking of combat, he comes with 2 weapons. His Kytan Gatling Cannon is a Heavy 18 with Pinning and Shell Shock (1), but the real draw is the Cleaver of slaughter, a S10, AP2 Brutal (3) melee weapon with Shred just for good measure. This weapon and his WS6 will put the fear of Khorne into your opponent's elite units and knights. Overall, he's a solid LOW choice, pretty much beating out any other melee knight option you would consider, and unlike the other "knights" he'll kick the shit out of Space Marine Dreadnoughts.
    • Since he's a "knight" he also gets extra stomp attacks, so even after he's finished swinging his axe he can start stomping on anyone he missed.
  • Greater Brass ScorpionMCW: The other hand me down Forge World model that 40k doesn't want anymore. It shares a lot of rules with the Kytan as it is also a Traitor only, Corrupted Engine and Knight (getting really fast and loose with what counts as a Knight there GW), as well as also sharing HoW (4), Rampage (D3), Æetheric Dominion (Heedless Slaughter) and a 5++ Malefic Aegis save. The Brass Scorpion is a bit tougher than the Kytan being AV13/13/12, but he also has a slightly worse WS of 5. Where he really starts to differ is his arsenal as this thing is nearly bristling with guns, armed primarily with a centreline Despoiler cannon (Ordinance 1, S10 AP3, Small blast (3"), Sunder, Rending (5+), Brutal (3)) which is pretty decent at killing tanks, and is absolutely murder against most monsters, he also has a tail mounted Scorpion Cannon (Assault 9, S5 AP4, Pinning, Shred) and 2 hull mounted Hellmaw Cannons (S7 AP4, Torrent flamer) which both will dissolve blobs of GEQ's. Finally, he does have his 2 big meaty claws, which are both S10 AP2 with Brutal (2), making him a very good Dreadnought mulcher in melee, and he'll also get Stomp attacks after. A slightly more exotic LoW choice, but still a good one.

Divisio Tactica: The Titan Legions[edit]

Titans can be taken in two ways: either as a Lords of War choice in another army, or by using the Titan Maniple Detachment as an Allied Detachment, which counts as a Mechanicum army for the sake of faction and allies. Being taken as their own Detachment is notably the only way you can field the Secutarii in any manner, as they're not considered part of the traditional Mechanicum hierarchy (and anyone familiar with 9E can share their frustrations about how they don't share the precious keywords).

Titan Maniple Detachment: Requires 1 Lords of War unit OR 1 unit of Troops (either Peltasts or Hoplites). 2 HQs, 6 Troops and 3 LoWs can be added.

  • If you read the slot allowance carefully, you'll notice that the optional +2 HQ/+6 Troops/+3 Lords of War choices are static regardless of your Compulsory choices. That means two things:
    • If your Compulsory choice is a Lords of War unit, a full Detachment would have 4 Lords of War, 2 HQ, and 6 Troops.
    • If you took a Troops unit as your Compulsory choice, a full Detachment would have 3 Lords of War, 2 HQ, and 7 Troops.
  • Confusion aside, it's probably best to just build the Detachment based on the diagram, which shows 3 Lords of War slots, 2 HQ slots, and 6 Troops slots, giving you a decent balance of units (one Axiarch for three Hoplite/Peltast Phalanxes and a minimum-sized maniple according to fluff and Adeptus Titanicus rules). If you're hellbent on taking four Titans or seven Secutarii squads, however, you should go and ask your opponent which interpretation is the most fair... or don't.

HQ[edit]

  • Secutarii Axiarch: A support hero, he's pretty much marine-strength with S4 T4; his Titanshard armour gives him a 3+/5++ save that can re-roll FNP rolls against Poisoned and Rad-phage hits, while the Kyropatris field generator lets him re-roll armour saves of 1 and reduces the Strength of any incoming attacks by 1 if he's accompanying a unit of 10+ Secutarii. The main purpose you grab him is for his Binaric Stratagems, which gives all Secutarii in his Detachment one of four rules (Feel No Pain (5+), Move Through Cover, Wrecker, or Preferred Enemy (Infantry)), allowing them to specialize a bit. Strangely, despite being BS5, he's largely stuck with pistols, with the basic ones being a radium pistol or volkite serpenta. Even if you go for the Hoplite Phalanx's arc lance and mag-inverter shield, your maximum shooting range is only 12".

Troops[edit]

  • Secutarii Hoplite Phalanx: The marching line of shields and spears, the Hoplites are pretty well-protected with a 5++ Invulnerable, Feel No Pain (6+) and their Kyropatris field generators. Each one comes with an arc lance, capable of both shooting with Disruption (6+) or fighting with Disruption (5+), all at AP5. That said, their melee prowess is sadly limited, as S3 (S4 with the lances) isn't very good, while their WS3 means punching marines is well out of their depth.
  • Secutarii Peltast Phalanx: Not as protected as the Hoplites unless you buy that refractor field, but more consistent in their shooting dedication. Each one comes with a galvanic caster with flechette ammo, giving them Rapid Fire S3 AP6 shots with Shred to handle most crowds, and ignis ammo, which are Assault 2 S2 AP5 rounds with Blind and Ignores Cover. They can add onto this by buying hammershot ammo, a bit stronger at S4 AP3, but benefit most from their 30" range and Molecular Dissonance, which lets them auto-wound any non-Vehicle and non-Primarch units on a To Hit roll of 6. The Alpha can add some extra support if you decide to trade in his caster for a free radium carbine or an arc rifle. In addition to Feel No Pain (6+), Peltast Phalanxes have Blind Barrage, giving them a single-use attack that gives an allied unit that isn't a Vehicle, Knight, Titan, or Monstrous unit the Shrouded (4+) save, a pretty strong defense.

Lords of War[edit]

  • Warhound Scout Titan: The most lightweight of your Titans, gaining the Fast sub-type and AV 14/13/12 with only two void shields protecting it. This is also your cheapest Titan, if you consider 725 points cheap - at the very least, it can be taken alongside a 3000-point army of some substance. Expect to use that mobility a lot because it can only shoot things.
    • Each arm can take from the same list of guns, all for free. The Vulcan mega-bolter provides a massive flood of firepower, seeking to eradicate mobs and drown bigger things in a bucket of dice. The Twin-linked turbolaser destructors provide S12 AP2 Large Blast (5") shots with Ignores Cover to bombard enemies, with Destroyer 1 being capable of overwhelming even multi-wound models like Terminators. The plasma blastgun isn't quite as dangerous, being Ordnance 1 with only S9 AP3, but it gets Breaching (4+) and Massive Blast (7") to overwhelm units with 2+ saves; Reactor Overload can let it fire a few extra times at the cost of HP. The inferno gun gives you a jacked-up flamer with Destroyer 1 and the Hellstorm Template, as well as a massive Torrent (24") range for a surprising amount of coverage when eradicating crowds.
  • Reaver Battle Titan: The medium Titan for the medium price (for a Titan) of 1500 points, it stands firmly as a compromise between the Warhound's speed and the Warlord's toughness. Having AV 14/14/13, 18 Hull points, and four void shields, it can take fair bit of damage thrown its way, but don't be negligent with its survival; prioritise anti-Super-heavy weapons first, then the big blobs of infantry you want to vaporise.
    • It comes armed with a Carapace Mounted Apocalypse missile launcher that fires Destroyer 2 S7 AP3 Apocalyptic Barrage shots; all of its Arm Mounted weapons are free to swap out and equip (points-wise; money-wise, they are all expensive. FW's not running a charity here.) Its weapons aren't as big as the Warlord's, but they are all still very effective as both infantry and vehicle killers, with the melta cannon probably being the best all-rounder gun.
  • Nemesis Warbringer Titan: Now we get to the true heavyweights. This behemoth comes with a full six void shields, AV 15/14/13, and 24 Hull Points; you can easily take some blows from even another Titan before collapsing. While it lacks the Warlord's LoS blocking shenanigans, it does have a 6++ Invuln against guns via Heavy Structure.
    • By this point, just having arm weapons won't do (though you still have them and they're all great and terrible). You'll need a full list of firepower on your Warbringer. Your Carapace Mounted weapon is a choice between the Nemesis quake cannon for a Destroyer 1 Apocalyptic Mega-blast or the Nemesis volcano cannon if you plan to annihilate heavy tanks. For defense, the Warbringer has two Hull (Front) Mounted defensor bolt cannons, one Hull (Rear) Mounted defensor bolt cannon, and two Carapace Mounted defensor autocannon batteries. The three defensor bolt cannons have the Ardex-defensor rule, allowing them to fire Overwatch on straight up anything with firepower that can outpace even the Warlord. Even better, those autocannon batteries have Skyfire, so you can even gun down Stormbirds to make up for the batteries' lack of Ardex-defensor.
  • Warlord Battle Titan: 3000 points means that this thing won't be visible anywhere but the most massive of games, and it's going to cost you several children to afford it. One thing you won't be worrying about is losing it anytime soon, as it's not only toting six void shields, but also gains a lot of resistances, with Towering Monstrosity making enemies unable to target anything near it and making them unable to hit it on a 6+ (5+ for Knights) and Reinforced Structure giving it a constant 5++ against shooting. Combined with its monstrous AV 15/15/14 and 30 HP, it'll require an entire army just to take it down.
    • As befits such a behemoth, the Warlord doesn't have just its arm cannons to count on, even though all of those options are some flavor of instant obliteration. Your Carapace Mounted weapon is a choice between two Apocalypse missile launchers for Apocalyptic Barrage fuckery or two laser blasters if you just straight up want something big dead. The Warlord has two Hull (Front) Mounted defensor bolt cannons and two Hull (Rear) Mounted defensor lascannons, all with the Ardex-defensor rule for firing Overwatch against anything that tries to storm the Warlord at any angle, be they an unlucky band of combi-melta Termies trying to break a seeming weak spot or a bumrushing Knight trying to break you from the front.
    • You can replace its arm guns with Arioch power claws, each one giving you blows that chainfists wished they could make while also being mounted with Vulcan mega-bolters so it can still fight crowds.
      • Titans are not Knights and vice-versa; the Reaver can bring along its own Titan power fist which, at S14 AP1 with Sunder and Destructor, is a very capable melee tool in its own right that can take care of your punchy Titan needs, freeing up your Warlord to be the best walking gun platform it can be. Now, if only the AT Reaver chainfist had rules for 30K's larger scale...

Allies[edit]

Legiones Astartes[edit]

Imperial Army[edit]

Agents of the Emperor[edit]

Knights-Errant[edit]

Legio Custodes[edit]

Sisters of Silence[edit]

Agents of the Warmaster[edit]

Cults Abominatio[edit]

An evil mirror of the Assassinorum, the Cults Abominatio are even less caring about their methods of waging war, binding subjects to all sorts of daemons for disastrous results. As with the assassins, they are considered a non-compulsory choice for a Traitor army and are considered Distrusted Allies. Their Abomination sub-type makes them unable to be joined by anything and unable to be the warlord but they ignore all movement penalties when moving or charging through terrain and ignore Dangerous Terrain. They also gain the "Empyreal Shift" reaction, letting them roll a Ld check if they're charged, shot at, or if an enemy moves within 12" of them. On a pass, they can immediately teleport 12" in any direction, but a failure makes both them and the enemy that triggered the reaction take d6 unsavable wounds.

If you take the Malanima Techno Arcana from the Martian Civil War, you can also add one in as an Elites choice. That said, it's not necessarily the brightest move since the Techno-Arcana offers little in return.

  • Infernus Abomination: A hideous human merged with a daemon, this thing is essentially an assassin with a 4+/4++, Adamantium Will (3+) and the ability to regenerate wounds every turn. His lone gun makes it only usable on neighboring infantry squads, as it's a point-blank Assault 2d6 gun with Fleshbane and no AP. In melee, however, it isn't quite as hosed as the loyalists as its lone melee weapon has multiple profiles between a Hammerblade made to cleave through MEQ and TEQ, a nimble Spinelash to beat enemies to the punch, and Talon-Rakes best suited for mowing through hordes.
    • So how does this stack against an Arcuitor? Sadly, not too well. For one, the Abomination is weaker than the Arcuitor with the one concession being that it is a lot more mobile due to being Light and having Scout. In combat, it's not much better, as taking a Paragon Blade, while handy, lacks the utility of the fleshwarped weapons, but the Arcuitor can take actual guns that can punch through armor like the Phased Plasma-Fusil. In the end, the only value the Abomination provides is in its murdering potential while the Arcuitor has more to work with, even before considering its ability to join a squad of Automata.
Warhammer 30,000 Tactics Articles
General Tactics
Legiones Astartes
Mechanicum
Imperial Army
Agents of the Emperor
Agents of the Warmaster