Choosing a Codex

[dogfender]

Well I have had an interest in the Ad Mech for quite awhile, actually since the first 'GK' codex. The problem is what codex do you use to represent the AM?

Here are a couple options I am currently juggling for an exploratory force:

 

GK + allies, Necron, DE, or IG (not to fond of the throngs and throngs of troops)

Going with GK's has its drawbacks, troops. But the Dreadknight, Inquisitors + henchmen have a lot going for them, modeling wise. And in the case of the troops, they could just be robots from pre-heresy.

 

Adding in allies like necrons, de or IG add in some extra unit features that the GK lack but also include an extra HQ option, allowing further conversion possibilities.

 

-or-

 

Chaos Marines

The new codex has a lot of things that could make for some interesting count as AM units. Forgefiend/ Maulerfiend, Defiler, Helldrake, Warpsmith, and obliterators have tremendous potential.

Oh I forgot cultists as skitarii.

 

Well if anyone has some suggestions let me know. I am primarily looking to make a fun list with loads of fun and crazy devices.

[Crimson Hawk]

IMHO, the best choice is GK. Take Cotaez, Acolytes as Skitarii, Servitors, and ally in IG to take lots of crazy Ordo Reductor artillery, as well as actual Techpreists.

[dogfender]

Yeah Cotaez is good for that. But I guess I should have mentioned I don't want to take any special characters. No one in the gaming group plays with them. I would much rather not rely on having one for their 'gimmicks'.

[*Furyou Miko]

Then your best bet is to go Guard with Space Marine allies. Field Stormtroopers as your augmented Skitarii, Veteran squads as your basic Tech-Guard, give your Sergeants 'Servo-arm' powerfists, and use the Marine allies to represent the more esoteric stuff. Claim a Master of the Forge as your Warlord, take a Primaris Psyker and two Techpriests as your Guard HQ... well, that's how I'd do it, anyway.

[Orlunu]

Would certainly say that the new chaos codex is ideal if you are going for a single codex, but I reckon AdMech are always better with an allied codex. It allows a wider variety of units. For the primary dex it depends on how elite you want them to be; SoB, SM and GK are all very viable options.

 

As for allies, I've recently been set thinking by a surprisingly good interpretation I saw using the Eldar codex. Wraiths as robots, walkers and avengers as skitarii, banshees as hyperactive tech-assassin murder machines. Don't have the BBB on me, but I believe that eldar can ally up with pretty much everyone.

 

I personally will be going SoB with Space Elf backup.

[Head Mook]

I've chosen the Eldar to represent my Ad Mech and while not the most competitive, they offer a LOT of neat options that the Imperial codecies can't match: "wierd" technology, Jetbikes, grav tanks, ultraspecialization (feels very 'ad mech' to me), and a variety of monstrous creatures, walkers, skimmers and Troops (FIVE varieties of Troops. Only the Guard can come close to matching that flexibility I believe.)

 

All of these options means that ANYTHING you can think of to include in an Adeptus Mechanicus army will have a model/unit with a ruleset to suit you. Except treaded vehicles. That will require some lesser technology from somewhere else. (But really, who drives anywhere in 6th?)

 

They have a lot of ally options, which is good because they also make a great allied detachment. You can take advantage of that ultraspecialization to fill gaps in your main detachment. Want monstrous creatures? Why not two? Wraith Lord AND Avatar! Need Line breakers or flexible scoring? Jetbike Guardians! Durable scoring? 10-man Wraith Guard unit or Pathfinders! Psychic defense? Farseer is the best in the game. Want to just kill something? 10 Fire dragons and a Farseer with Guide!

 

So yeah, I may be a little biased but I think the Eldar offer a lot of unique opportunities!

 

Regardless of what Codex you choose, I would keep internal consistancy in mind for the sake of your opponents. What do I mean? If Units X and Y are counts-as Marines and therefore are both armed with bolters, try to make sure all bolter equivalents in the army are reasonably similar. It will also help you in tournament settings!

[dogfender]

Ive thought about it a lot and my list might become IG with allied GKs.

 

The IG will let me have the more human feel to the army by representing the skitarii. The allied GK will represent the more bionic aspect of the Ad Mech. It will include an Inq and retinue and the one 'out of place' gk marine squad can be modeled as robots, praetorian, etc. I can also still get a dreadknight and a techmarine from them too.

 

Lots to think about and play around with list wise before I make any solid plans. =)

[DarKHaZZ13]

I was toying with this one myself.

 

I can't abide by Eldar/Necron as allies/Single use lists. Grav technology isn't the most widespread in the imperial. Admittedly if anyone in the imperial was likely to have it, it'd be the ad-mech, However, I still don't think it would be on a large scale. This has given the Ad-mech a similar character to the imperial guard in quite a lot of black library bookd ie; not really that fast: foot slogging or tank bound (excluding titans and the like, obviously, which are mega quick...).

Similarly, non-imperial weapons don't sit well with me. Granted you can change the aesthetics, but they still seems too Alien. The Ad-Mech is part of the Imperium, and supply's its armies. As such the vast majority of their weapons systems; especially at infantry level, would be very similar...if a little different.

 

So personally I'd go with a Imperial/Renegade Codex approach.

 

I'm yet to read the new C:CSM, so I can't comment

 

I like the allies approach. I also like the GK route. The problem is, unless you are willing to settle for your army not being a coherent unit, then they are are out (allies of convenience in the the BBB). It isn't the end of the world, but it irks me.

As does having to take Coteaz to maximise it's potential. If any of the GK characters fit the bill it would be Karamazov or Valeria.

 

Regardless, I think the best bet is probably GK allied with IG. You can easily use Terminators as Praetorians. As for the PAGK: they can be an elite Space Marine attachment (Iron Hands/Sons of Medusa)

 

Post some stuff if when get some done.

 

++EDIT++

Additional.

I know I just said I couldn't see the Imperial aspect working very well... but then I read this

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...=267518&hl=

 

peaceout

[dogfender]

Thanks for the tips. So far I have settled with IG as the bulk army with allied GKs.

 

The IG supply the bulk Skitarii troops with cheap chimera bunkers, a command squad as a sort of AM magus that is more observant and orders the battle field at a distance, and possibly a vendetta or some sentinel walkers. The GK list adds an inquisitor with a grip of servitors, a dreadknight, and praetorians either as a terminators or regular gks troops, and of course a techmarine. While the tech is fairly only has a wound or so, he does come loaded with awesome grenades, and adds some flavor.

 

I would have liked to add in some enginseers to the IG part of the list, but I can't see them being to useful for their points. They would be more of a fluffy addition.

[Uaronain]

May I ask why the love for GK for use as Ad Mech? I just dont see super marine psykers as Ad Mech is all. And the thought of using Eldar necron or CSM as Ad Mech is irony :D If you look at the beliefs of the ad mech you gotta use IG and SM as allies for tougher units IMO.

 

If you want servitors just grab a tech marine or a MoF as a HQ. I use Legion of the damned as my praetorians. Great saves, heavy weapons can fire and move etc. The MoF gets a conversion beamer! just a thought use imperium tech for an imperium faction. Dont listen to those heretics!

 

■The alien mechanism is a perversion of the True Path.

■The Soulless sentience (i.e. Necrons) is the enemy of all.

■The knowledge of the ancients stands beyond question.

[*Furyou Miko]

Uh, Uaronain? You do realise that Necrons aren't soulless, right?

 

Most of the AdMech would love to get their hands on the secrets of Biotransferance.

 

A) It's existing tech so it's not invention

:yes: It replaces frail flesh with unyielding machine

C) Of course it's human-based. All the pictographs on the tombs we got the info from describe basic, small and scrawny humanoids, so they must be human!

 

Also, I believe he wants to use GK allies because of the access to Inquisitorial Henchman squads, rather than the super-psyker space marines.

[Uaronain]

You read much about the Ad Mech? They seem to have a paticular dislike for the necrons.

 

it may be existing tech but it is not Ad Mech tech, one of the warning of the Priesthood of Mars I posted :P

 

I still think IG + C:SM is the way to go haha but I am biased :lol:

[DarKHaZZ13]

Yeah. Inquisitorial henchmen are a major lure. Elector priests, tech guard, combat and/or ranged skitari, servitors, tech adepts, combat droids amongst many others are representable via henchmen. It offers a verity that IG/C:SM lacks.

Not only that, Dreadknights make excellent knight titans.

 

Also while ad-mech might despise the necrons as a race, they are overly curious about them. Quite a lot of the (old) fluff is about ad-mech exploration teams investigating necron tomb worlds (In the old necron codex). Another example being Hammer and Anvil by James Swallow, where the ever probing ad-mech awaken a tomb world on sanctuary 101.

 

Don't get me wrong, I totally agree about the imperial tech idea... I wrote about it on my B&C blog (check my sig). But I wouldn't discount using non-imperial lists.

Ad-mech do have access to more diverse technology and a swath of cybernetica units that are both fairly difficult to represent with C:IG/C:SM

[Uaronain]

Read your blog and tend to agree with what you said there. I think they should just go ahead and make a codex for them right after the BT and SoB :P

[Head Mook]

I just want to throw my hat into the ring on the Non-Imperial Codex debate.

 

I think that non-Imperial codecies have a lot to offer the Adeptus Mechanicus in terms of flavor. The Ad Mech incorporate technology not widely available to the Imperium at large, so to simply say that "because the Mechanicus provide the Imperium with weapons they should therefore be limited to those weapon patterns" is an over simplification of their views on tech orthodoxy.

 

The armies you choose to put on the table are representations of a massively diverse organization, and don't need to be any more symbolic than "These are the forge guardians of this particular magos" or "these are the technological horrors unearthed by an explorator fleet, and kept secret for a rainy day". As Ad Mech players we can set our own limits in ways that no other army concept can.

 

Not even the Imperial Guard has the same variety we do. Why? Because we make all of their weapons, and we make them all exactly the same. Skitarii are the unique creations of the forgeworld or magos that spawns them, and combined with the lost and hidden technologies that the Adeptus Mechanicus control this leaves massive amounts of room for customization within our collections. Things like anti gravity technology, imperial robots, and all the rest are very rare but in all the Imperium who is the most likely to have them? The Adeptus Mechanicus.

 

I do think, however, that it is important to keep yourself firmly within the uncanny valley of Imperial familiarity. What do I mean by that at the modelling level? The root of the technology the Ad Mech employs is Imperial, so our conversions should be based in Imperial bitz. If the army is consistent with the Imperial theme, then changes to the models and weaponry are more easily assimilated.

 

As an example of this policy in practice I want to go over how I created my Skitarii's weaponry. The Skitarii are counts-as Dire Avengers. This means they're armed with a Dire Avenger Shuriken Catapult, and I chose to emulate the most iconic weapon in 40K (aside from the chainsword), the Bolter. A quick comparison of the weapons reveals more simularities than differences. I'll also include the Storm Bolter profile because it helped me bridge the gap.

 

Bolter: 24" S4 AP5 Rapid Fire

DA Catapult: 18" S4 AP5 Assault 2

Stormbolter: 24" S4 AP5 Assault 2

 

So essenitally what I was dealing with was a short range Storm Bolter. I still wanted to use the Bolter as the base of the conversion, so I had to decide how to best represent "Assault". The answer was "More dakka" so I popped a drum magazine on there, made a couple of cosmetic changes and called it a day.

 

What I'm left with is a limited use pattern of a bolter weapon particular to the Skitarii of my forgeworld. It is definitely Imperial tech, easy to reproduce, makes my Skitarii unique and helps me maintain internal consistency.

 

This is the kind of process which can negate the difficulty in finding a ruleset you love, but themes you hate. Your imagination is the limit, but if you employ logic and reason in planning your conversion you can create some very cool stuff.

[BassWave]

Surprised no one has also mentioned dark eldar. They have a lot of cyborg creatures and mad scientists already.

 

I personally will be doing gk henchmen with dreadnoughts representing robots, and dreadknights as knight titans. I'll be using dark eldar warrior bodies with spikes removed, adding bionic arms from anvil industry and a few cloaks added for my skitaari. I was inspired by head mook's conversions especially the head :P

[Head Mook]

I was inspired by head mook's conversions especially the head

 

Can't wait to see the DA Skitarii! Shoot me a message when you've got them available for viewing :P

[Cmdr Shepard]

I don't know if someone mentioned it before but why don't use the Mechanicum mini-army list from FW Horus Heresy Betrayal?

 

There are very few units but it's better than most "proxies" we are forced to use to represent AdMech.

 

We have HQ, one Troop unit, Land Rader dedicated transport and a flyer.

 

It's still better then nothing, right :)

[*Furyou Miko]

Technically there's an Elites choice and a Heavy Support choice, too, although we do have to basically file the aquilas off them.

 

On the subject of the Betrayal Ordo Reductor list, can anyone give me a page reference for the Blessed Autosimulacra special rule the Mechanicum Land Raider has? I've read the book forward and back and I can't find what it actually does.

[Cmdr Shepard]

Technically there's an Elites choice and a Heavy Support choice, too, although we do have to basically file the aquilas off them.

 

On the subject of the Betrayal Ordo Reductor list, can anyone give me a page reference for the Blessed Autosimulacra special rule the Mechanicum Land Raider has? I've read the book forward and back and I can't find what it actually does.

 

Apparently it's not defined anywhere. Is it a typing error or will they introduce the rule in the next books? We have to wait, I suppose

 

The Elite/Heavy Support choices seem to be included for the purpose of the Isstvan III campaign where they reppresent a part of the Mechanicum order of battle.

 

Anyway I don't see any problem in using it outside Isstvan campaign. :lol:

[*Furyou Miko]

Well, it says "Use Techmarine Covenants to represent surviving Myrmidons", so... heh. I guess Myrmidons are equivalent to Veteran Marines?

[Cmdr Shepard]

Well, it says "Use Techmarine Covenants to represent surviving Myrmidons", so... heh. I guess Myrmidons are equivalent to Veteran Marines?

 

Sure. I don't see problems in doing that :P...but I'm very friendly towards the lists from Betrayal book.

Anyway even at my local gaming group many players starts to "accept" FW list like this one. The general consensus is "If we agree to play against the most over powered GW stuff we can play against Betrayal lists" which are, I say, very balanced.

I wish every Codex would be like the Legiones Astartes army lists.

 

By the way any idea on how modelling Thallax Cohorts?

[*Furyou Miko]

I'm working on a squad at the moment, actually.

 

So far I've been using Tactical Marine and vehicle Tech Marine torsos, tactical marine pelvises and Necron Warrior arms and legs, with scavenged Dark Eldar pilot heads. I haven't figured out the Lightning Gun yet, but my Photon Thruster is a Gauss Flayer crossed with a Dark Eldar Blaster, and my Multi-laser is a Gauss Blaster crossed with a Valkyrie Multi-laser.

 

I've cut the vents off SM backpacks and attached them to the backs of the thighs and the Jump Assist orbs directly to the Marine rear torsos, then covered the tops of the arms with Marine shoulder pads. Looks pretty good on a 30mm base.

 

I apologise for the poor photo quality;

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/KaguraHakubi/IK%20and%2040K/My%20Projects/Thallaxi_zps79b181cf.jpg

 

Edit: lol, and now I realise that two of those have the other method I experimented with, just attaching the Necron legs straight to the Marine torso. The multi-laser guy has the method described above.

[BassWave]

I don't know if someone mentioned it before but why don't use the Mechanicum mini-army list from FW Horus Heresy Betrayal?

 

There are very few units but it's better than most "proxies" we are forced to use to represent AdMech.

 

We have HQ, one Troop unit, Land Rader dedicated transport and a flyer.

 

It's still better then nothing, right :)

 

I haven't taken a look at it yet.

 

The reason I want to use the GK book is the fact that I am wanting to create a knight titan house. The GK dex is in my opinion the best book to represent that.

[miteyheroes]

Amazing Thallax! I like :D

 

The reason I want to use the GK book is the fact that I am wanting to create a knight titan house. The GK dex is in my opinion the best book to represent that.

 

Or Chaos Space Marines, Forgefiends and Defilers can cover the Knights pretty well.