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Alongside the elite Skitarii regiments, whose allegiance and command was owed ultimately to Mars, and the Collegia Titanica, which comprised the planet-shattering Titan Legions, both of which organisations operated separate military traditions of their own, the Taghmata formed the great trinity, the ‘Triad-Magna’, of the Mechanicum’s power during the Great Crusade. Besides these three there stood the ‘lesser’ independent and allied divisions of the Mechanicum such as the Knight Houses, the Ordo Reductor, the Explorators and the Legio Cybernetica, among others. Each was a great power in its own right, but all were dwarfed, both in scale and reach, by the great three. I Folks, As the plasticized HH era Mechanicum is likely to hit the shelves soon (sooner than later I hope), some debates come back on the scene about if (or not) these plastic keits will be usable in 40k. My opinion is that they will not*. At least if we talk of bridging the two temporal line allowing reuse of models by means of rules set in each gaming system. I copied as a header an extract of the limited amount of Lore included in the Liber Mechnicum as an illustration to my point. Shall the HH era Triad-Magna be set as a seed for the split of work between the army lists in both setting, we clearly end up with segregation from the Lore n the factions taht may support Skitarius being something distinct from all the feudal Taghmata. And the latter ha sprobably not passed the heresy, being cleaned and purged in the time lap up to 40k era (because of war attrition or action of Arcuitors). The "gathering retinues" of powerful warlords and serving feals that used to be the Taghmata is maybe not over but secondary in the Indomitus era. This one will focus on Skitarius only, ie the "regulars" of the AdMech. And I guess it is fine like that. So, am I advocating in direction of getting a strict segregation and treating the idea of crossed used unts as a born-dead idea? Not necesarily. Indeed the rest of the header also introduces the "lesser" branches. and these lesser branches play a role in the Skitarii forces as supporting unit. Let´s see: Corpuscarii and Kastelan are part of a clergy branch and Legio Cybernetica. They are not Skitarius. So, there is already an existing status that imlies a kind of permeation of the Skitarius with outer units. This is the mouse hole I think we may use as hopium for integration of some, in limited extend, HH range models into the 40k range. Wish list. In my opinion, options that might be acceptable are rather limited but one might consider: Magos on Abeyant - 40k illustrations portfolio sometimes include hoovering Magos, so, why not. Myrmidions - They are a lesser order and they are rpesented like that in the 40k lore associated to Skitarii legions. SO they only have to step on the stage. Yet, would it be Secutor or Destructor or both? Ordo Reductor - Skitarium needs a Titanic model that is not a Knight and would be Siege oriented. They do not need it for game reason if Knights fulfill the role but for fluff. And rule of kool. Krios tanks as these are marked as (I quote) "never [being] seen [in] service outside the Taghmata and Skitarius". Beyond that point we might then get the usual use as proxies for Magos´model and eventualy Castelans as archaic Kastelans (or part of one of these wandering Maniples that comes out of nowhere and go back there after) , but I would not expect much. And being proxies, so, no dedicated rules. Otherwise I do not see much room for the rest as, mostly, all HH entries would be redundant with existing Skitarii entries (although Skitarii are not as bulky and punchy than Ursarax or Thallax, but it is not what we meant for or look for). Of course as a wish list, I´d personaly like to see more Automatas (Vulturax or Thanatar), Arcuitor, Secutarii inc. Arxiarch... But I do not think this will happen (although I wish I´d be wrong). In the case of Secutarii (one will underline they are available through Legends except the Arxiarch), I even think that they are in a dead end alley even for HH. As you cannot ally Admech with Admech in HH setting and as Titans (which is the only way to field Secutarii) are considered as AdMech, you just can`t have them except playing an Astartes Legion or Solar. Limited scope indeed. Alternatively Skitarii may have plenty of room for their own units,(see for example list on Lexicanum fed from references from GW and Black Library) such as bulky bodyguards, Ogryn VAT servitors... Or anything else: afterall, neither Pteraxii nor Skratos were foreseen. Now, in case nothing from above would happen in the short/medium range (or at all) , what about trying up some House rules? Let's see what I cqn cook for the Abeyant and the Myrmidons in next instalments of this Blog. See you soon. *with exception of Knights.

Hi folks, hope 2023 ended well and that 2024 will reserve some nice hobbying surprises for all of you. As far as I am concerned, 2023 has been a very busy hobbying year. As much or even busier than Lock-down period. The Call-to-Arms 2023 Challenge is certainly partly responsible of that state of fact ( ), even if no one forced me to enrol myself. Yet it has been a really good (and potent) catalyst. But back on the topic disclosed in the tieel: How will 2024 (potentialy) be on my hobby Agenda? First of all - It will NOT be a New Year/New Army. I have not reached the state I want for the stuff started last year (AdMech) and I want to finish it. I also want to close the loop(s) with the Saim-Hann force I mustered in the early 2000´s and painted this summer. Plus getting my IG auxillia filled with a couple of units more in order to get it playable on its own. So, no, no new army this year (even if my IG force might be based on minis kit bashed from GSC, Necromunda gangs or other things...). Second - No planification. What a word. What a concept. I will certainly not dress up a Primavera Planning. I am indeed a kind of compulsive buyer and newly released miniatures that were off radars may bend the trajectory of my critical path. So, no Planning. No Roadmap neither, as I am not a master of the clocks. But not getting any Planification does not mean that there is no Plan. So third and last - the Plan (a.k.a. January Wish List): on Top of the List - Keep in mustering more AdMech. I wish getting some additional supporting units around my Rangers/Vanguards and Kataphrons core. To give some relief to the whole stuff, the new Patrol box could be a good start, plus a Freeblade (either an Armiger Talon or a FW AdMech Knight - just because it is cool looking) on Second place - Paint all these tiny marines and squats from the 90´s. on Third position - The Old World - Start cleaning my pile of shame from my WFB time - But this is part of a different journey that will not belong to this Blog. on Fourth position - Keep on feeding this Blog - Let´s try to target 25 to 30 contributions for 2024, i.e. a minimum of 1 every 2 weeks. and Lastly - From an opportunistic point of view, gather some aditionnal units to fill the ranks of the embryos of Saim-Hann and IG forces I already have. This is the master plan that will probably suffer some changes as the weeks are passing by and as new releases will see the light. Or if I step in a FLGS... I am already lurking on the mid height platforms from the last KT environment and I saw a pair of old Kill Zones boxes forgotten on a shelf. This may be a source of distraction... But in all case the Master will be my wallet. And I may need to change the car this year, so... As the only thing sure is that (battle)plans rarely survive the first encounter with the enemy, every thing above is likely to be obsolete by tomorrow. And you, how are you planing your 2024 hobby year?