The Imperium is as hard-pressed as it has ever been, and the Adeptus Mechanicus are forced to take their defence into their own hands, pincers, or prehensile mechadendrites. The Tyranids are quite happy to devour what flesh remains, and the loss of any forge world would spell disaster for the Imperium’s war effort.
Into this new age of war march the Skitarii legions and maniples of esoteric battle-servitors, guided by the machine-like intellect of the Tech-Priests. Their strange and wonderful weapons have had a fair few upgrades in the new edition, so today we’re taking a look at their new toolbox.
Overview
The Adeptus Mechanicus remains one of the premier shooting armies in Warhammer 40,000, with their distinctive technology giving them all sorts of tricks on the battlefield. In particular, the brilliant tactical skills of the Tech-Priests improve Battleline units in close proximity, working together as a cohesive whole – just like the great machines of Mars.
Faction Rules
Moving slowly from a carefully coordinated defence to an all-out attack is the strategy here, as cyborgs and automata are reprogrammed on the fly to respond to enemy tactics.
Doctrina Imperatives let you adapt to the enemy battle plan either by shoring up your defences early on, or going for a knockout blow against a foe playing too safe.
To further coax an entrenched opponent out of their comfort zone, Rad-Cohort Detachments turn their deadly radioactive weaponry against entire sectors of the battlefield. A heavy pre-battle Rad-bombardment is the perfect way to throw plans into disarray and deny backline objectives, as the fallout punishes anyone who thinks they’ll be safe holding the fort.
Unit Spotlight
Forge worlds are often saturated with radiation as a result of their industry, but instead of being seen as a deadly affliction, this invisible gift is turned into a powerful weapon against the enemies of the Omnissiah. The sheer presence of Skitarii Vanguard squads disrupts and debilitates those who get too close.
As Battleline squads, you can take twice as many Skitarii Vanguard and Rangers as other units in your army, but the benefits don’t stop there. Several other Adeptus Mechanicus units have abilities that improve when they’re near their Battleline comrades – such as Sicarian Ruststalkers, who double their bonus to movement and charge distances from Optimised Gait. This gives Adeptus Mechanicus infantry the feeling of a well-oiled machine.
This synergy is the brainchild of the vaunted Tech-priests, and none have had quite as much impact in recent times as Belisarius Cawl. Putting aside his 10,000-year project to create the Primaris Space Marines, he’s a phenomenal battlefield commander, and can adapt to lead his phalanxes to victory.
Weapon Spotlight
Many of the weapons carried into battle by the Omnissiah’s servants aren’t found anywhere else in the Imperium, as they make use of strange technologies guarded jealously by Mars. The impact these weapons can have is often mesmerising, as crackling death beams turn organics into slurry or burst them into constituent atoms with only the faint smell of ozone left behind.
One such weapon is the Eradication Beamer – a large directed energy weapon mounted on the Onager Dunecrawler. While its raw statistics are largely similar to its previous incarnation, the addition of Sustained Hits D3 piles on plenty of extra attacks when the blast hits its mark.
Stratagem Spotlight
Stratagems further reinforce these deadly technologies, amping up the power of weapons and bombarding vulnerable objectives. In particular, two Stratagems further enhance the Doctrina Imperatives army rule by granting powerful effects only usable in one mode or the other.
Aggressor Imperative goes all-in on a headlong assault into enemy lines, following up a barrage from your Assault weapons by charging full-speed into close combat. Likewise, Bulwark Imperative shores up a critical unit’s defences even further, turning Vanguard and Rangers into immovable objects even as they lay down fusillades of disciplined fire.
The Word from the Studio
“The Doctrina Imperatives army rule keeps the feeling of an army of cyborg warriors influenced by their Cult Mechanicus masters, but in a more simplified way than previous versions,” explains Stu from the Warhammer Design Studio. “Previous incarnations of the Adeptus Mechanicus have felt quite complex – somewhat fitting for their mad genius rulers – but less good for us mere mortals playing them on the tabletop!
“It still represents the Tech-Priest masters augmenting and adapting their warriors’ abilities, and units have been designed to work together to give a diverse, combined-arms feel to the forces of the Machine God. My particular favourites are the Kastelan Robots, as they’ve kept their slightly clunky robot ways which rely on nearby Datasmiths to reprogramme them mid-battle.”
Black Library
The Adeptus Mechanicus appear in many Black Library stories – the arch-inventor Belisarius Cawl has a major role in Dark Imperium by Guy Haley – but to get a real handle on the oddball tech-adepts of Mars, you can’t go wrong with the Adeptus Mechanicus compilation by Rob Sanders. This tome pairs the books Skitarius and Tech-Priest together into an in-depth look at Mechanicus life, following a commander of the cyborg Skitarii and a Magos-Explorator taking on the Iron Warriors.
Further still, The Omnissiah’s Chosen collects five short stories of the Adeptus Mechanicus at war, against myriad foes across the galaxy. They may even have to come into conflict with their erstwhile allies, but that’s no concern for the followers of the Machine God – their cold logic will prevail, naturally.
Want to learn more about the factions of Warhammer 40,000 and their rules in the new edition? Check out more of our ongoing series to scope out the opponents you’ll be meeting on the battlefield.
