FW AdMech experience

[Dark Bjoern]

Praised be the Omnisiah!

I plan to buy some of the fine AdMech stuff from FW. Now i've some questions about them. Specially the Thallax and the Castellax. What are your experiences with them? How useful are they?

And what about the new Myrmidon Secutors? Your thoughts about them?

[Flint13]

Couple of helpful points.

 

-For 100pts (as the Enhanced Targetting Array should pretty much be considered manditory) Castellax are the mainstay of your army and will do amazing things. I use a group of 3 with bolt cannons and 2 flamers, a group of 2 with multi meltas, a single one with the paragon of metal (the only without the Array upgrade) and a single with the darkfire cannon to snipe small things. That's 800-ish of my 1500 pt list, and I have never felt they have served poorly.

 

-A dominus (I normally don't find the Archmagos upgrade worthwhile) kept decently cheap, but protected nearby will keep those Castellax functioning properly and in good repair.

 

-I always spend the few points on an Enginseer Adept as well, since my elites slots aren't really that full up.  Crazy cheep, even when you give him a buddy and a few extra servitors. He gives another repair roll (two if you add a second adept). Just don't treat him as anything besides the mechanic he is, and see any casualties he causes as a happy bonus. Pretty darn well protected with a majority tough 5 from his automata bodyguard. 

 

-For me, I definitely prefer the Myrmidon Destructors in Heavy support to the Secutors in Elites, so I'm afraid I can't provide direct commentary on them. But consider, the Destructors share the same stats (including relentless!) but have access to much more destructive heavy weapons and the Preferred Enemy (Everything!) special rule. This means they shoot with BS5, re-rolling misses, which is crazy good! I have had *spectacular* results with groups of both 3 and 6 normally with Volkite Culverins. I find these are very important. Your Thallaxi and Castellax are great for killing heavy armor and elite infantry, but since the Admech typically has a pretty low model count, shredding cheap infantry is very important since they can get bogged down easily. 4 Str 6 shots with the deflagerate rule will trash guard, tyranid and even give mid level tau and whatnot a good thrashing.

 

 

-The thallaxi are very quick moving jetpack infantry. This gives them good threat range. Also, three wounds and tough 5 makes them far more resilient than their 4+ and 6+FNP look on paper. Just be sure not to add too many extras to the squad. If you're going close combat oriented, a couple of heavy chainblades and the Ferrox upgrade. If you wanted anti-tank, a single multi-melta will do, though the Castellax do multi-meltas better (if slightly less mobile) in my opinion. If you want to specialize them, most folks ally in the Betrayal Mechanicus list so they can stay as scoring troops instead of getting shuffled to fast attack or heavy support. 

 

Hope that helps skim the surface! Let me know if there's anything else I can help with.

[Dark Bjoern]

Ave Dominus Nox.......i mean Praised be the Omnisiah!

For the Castellax i planned exactly the same composition.

For the Tallaxi squad i planned 6 Thallaxi with two Multimelta.

My plan is a 2000 points with two Knights, an Archmagos, 6 Secutors, 5 Castellax and 6 Thallaxi.

 

Thanks for the help, Flint. Sounds we have the same likings relating our armies. NL, AdMech!

[*Furyou Miko]

Reductor Thallaxi are incredible. The Archmage upgrade for the Magos Reductor is much more useful than it is for the Cybernetica, by the way.

 

Also, access to Mechanicum Land Raiders makes him a much nastier assault unit, especially with a nice retinue of servitors.

[Dark Bjoern]

I'm curious about the AdMech list in HH3.

[Ouroboros13]

I'm curious about the AdMech list in HH3.

It is magnificent.

 

Extremely extensive; includes almost everything from the Ordo Reductor and Legio Cybernetica lists plus a whole lot more. Independent Character HQs with funky new powers. A Traitor Mechanicum Special Character. Two new kinds of battle-automata, one smaller and faster than the castellax (Vorax), one much bigger and tougher (Thanatar). Close-combat variants of the Thallax (called Ursarax). The Krios Battle Tank, in both infantry killing and tank killing flavors. Cool new options for Tech Priest Auxilia and Tech Thralls Adsecular.

 

Oh, and Knights. Including Lancers.

 

I'm really very very happy. If you like Mechanicum, HH3 has you covered.

[*Furyou Miko]

Does it include Mechanicum Land Raiders and Thallaxxii troops?

[Ouroboros13]

Does it include Mechanicum Land Raiders and Thallaxxii troops?

 

Yes! The Land Raider rules are not reprinted, but it points you to book 1 and tells you that you can take the Mechanicum Land Raider as Heavy Support. Thallax are in, but Taghmata Thallax don't have access to the Ferrox upgrade; just Destructor, Empyrite and Icarian. Icarian Thallax are Heavy Support for Taghmata, but the other two (and Thallax without an Augment) are Troops.

[Blackmashoo]

could u plz list the mechanicum army from book III with all the new and old hq,elite,troop,fast,heavy,LOW plz

[Haranin]

check out BOLS or faeat

[Ouroboros13]

could u plz list the mechanicum army from book III with all the new and old hq,elite,troop,fast,heavy,LOW plz

Sure.

 

HQs: Magos/Archmagos Prime, Magos Dominus, Archmagos Satarael, Magos Caleb Decima*

Elites: Tech Priest Auxilia, Myrmidon Secutors

Troops: Tech Thralls Adsecular, Castellax Battle Automata, Thallax

Fast Attack: Crusade Fleet Support Wing*, Tarantula Sentry Guns*, Vorax Battle Automata, Ursasax

Heavy Support: Myrmidon Destructors, Thanatar Siege Automata, Krios Battle Tank, Mechanicum Land Raider*

Lords of War: Knight Paladin, Knight Errant, Knight Lancer, Minotaur Heavy Artillery Tank*, Falchion, Warhound*, Reaver*

 

Units marked with an Asterisk are available to the Taghmata Omnissiah list, but are detailed in a previous book.

[Blackmashoo]

thank u <3

[IamJacksUserName]

That is it. It is now official. I NEED to start playing 30k. I have been waiting for a legitimate adeptus mechanicus army since I started 40k back in the mid 90's. It finally appears there are enough options to make it happen. Now if I could just win the lottery, I could afford to purchase my dream army.

[Telhdrat]

I've had only three games with my mechanicum but all the mechanicum units I used (Castellax, Thallax, and Magos Dominus) worked quite nicely. The thallax were quite agile, and surprisingly tough troops, and the only issue I had with them was their shooting. It's high strenght and quite powerful, but they definitely were lacking in the volume of shots they put out for their points. However, this would probably be easily fixed by giving them a special weapon, something I didn't do for model reasons.

 

The Castellax were really great. They are really tough and have decent firepower, but having a Magos nearby is quite essential. Not only does he give them very nice boosts, a clever opponent can easily exploit their programmed behaviour rule if no one with a Cortex Controller is nearby. I found this out the bad way, because I foolishly didn't check the range for a single automata when deploying , and it then spent the rest of the game chasing the nearest enemy (and eventually dying) after an enemy bike squad turboboosted next to it.

 

Personally I wouldn't give them the targetting arrya if using the bolt cannons, since the difference in the number of wounds they inflict is quite minimal compared to the point cost. For the other weapons, especially the multimelta, I'd probably consider giving it.

 

The Magos was generally spent the game hanging with one squad of the Castellax, boosting them with his warlord traits and cyberthurgy. He also proved himself in combat a couple of times, including killing an eldar wraithknight, and I hadn't even given him the full set of cc upgrades. So, yeah he was pretty good as well, and considering all the options I didn't give him, I'd say he has a lot more potential.

[Ouroboros13]

I've had only three games with my mechanicum but all the mechanicum units I used (Castellax, Thallax, and Magos Dominus) worked quite nicely. The thallax were quite agile, and surprisingly tough troops, and the only issue I had with them was their shooting. It's high strenght and quite powerful, but they definitely were lacking in the volume of shots they put out for their points. However, this would probably be easily fixed by giving them a special weapon, something I didn't do for model reasons.

 

The Castellax were really great. They are really tough and have decent firepower, but having a Magos nearby is quite essential. Not only does he give them very nice boosts, a clever opponent can easily exploit their programmed behaviour rule if no one with a Cortex Controller is nearby. I found this out the bad way, because I foolishly didn't check the range for a single automata when deploying , and it then spent the rest of the game chasing the nearest enemy (and eventually dying) after an enemy bike squad turboboosted next to it.

 

Just to check; you know that Programmed Behaviour still gives you complete control of your Castellax during the movement phase? Generally, you can either move backwards to get more than 12 away from the enemy and therefore be free to shoot as you like come the Shooting phase or you are close enough to move towards the enemy and be almost sure of a successful charge. 

 

Obviously, this might not be the case if you are surrounded by enemies or if there is lots of difficult or impassable terrain slowing you down or penning you in. But generally, being able to move freely gives you a surprising amount of control even over your uncontrolled Castellxii.

[BassWave]

Anyone have experience with cc Thallax? Are they decent?

[Flint13]

I've had only three games with my mechanicum but all the mechanicum units I used (Castellax, Thallax, and Magos Dominus) worked quite nicely. The thallax were quite agile, and surprisingly tough troops, and the only issue I had with them was their shooting. It's high strenght and quite powerful, but they definitely were lacking in the volume of shots they put out for their points. However, this would probably be easily fixed by giving them a special weapon, something I didn't do for model reasons.

What do you find to be the best target for their shooting? Light vehicles are what I typically aim at since there's a dearth of autocannons in Admech lists. It's just such an odd weapon, target priority eludes me.

Anyone have experience with cc Thallax? Are they decent?

I really love using them for CC. Unfortunately, Admech seems to struggle to combat large numbers of smaller troops (guard, tyranids, etc) but do great against vehicles and elite infantry. I always include a group of 6 thallaxi with the ferrox upgrade and three heavy chainblades as part of my army to help alleviate this and provide another scoring unit.

They are quick, so should (hopefully!) get those sweet, sweet rage bonus attacks. Thats 12 str 5 and 12 str 7 attacks on the charge, all of which rend. That has enough volume to break down larger units, and high enough strength and the occasional rend to kill tough stuff or vehicles. Once in a great while, my group of 6 have gotten bogged down by sheer numbers (a giant guard blob) and once bounced off assault terminators (but that was my fault ) but otherwise add some terrific melee punch. Otherwise, we'd have to rely on a single Paragon Castellax for the melee business. Shame we can only have one.

[BassWave]

Thanks for the tip Flint. I'll definitely be building a squad then.

[Telhdrat]

What do you find to be the best target for their shooting? Light vehicles are what I typically aim at since there's a dearth of autocannons in Admech lists. It's just such an odd weapon, target priority eludes me.

 

As I said I've only played three games with them, but yeah light vehicles do seem like a good target for them. I think they'd be good against monstrous creatures too, and also at least okay against most of the Mechanicum units ( tech thralss being the obvious exception). Rapier and other artillery are probably a good target too, as the gun negates the high toughness that usually protects the low model count artillery units.

 

My experience about melee with the Thallax was that even in small squads and without cc upgrades, they seem to be able to hold their own against many units. Giving them ugprades like Flint suggests will probably make them quite deadly, though I'd still steer clear of the most dedicated assault units like the mentioned assault terminators.

[Flint13]

I did just realize their lightning guns have shred and rending, so killing light/med vehicles looks more appealing with monstrous creatures a close second. Don't think they have quite the volume of shooting attacks to generate many rends though, which is why I would look for transports and such first.

 

But yeah, six Thallaxi with the Ferrox upgrade and 3 heavy chainblades are my absolute favorite so far. 

 

That is until I saw the Ursarax variant in Extinction... a short run down of awesome points:

-WS4

-Frag Grenades

-Two Lightning Claws, can trade in for two powerfists for a pittance. 

-FNP 5+

-Can trade lightning claw attacks in for a single S6AP2 instant death attack against infantry.

[BassWave]

Are usarax a thallax variant?

[Uberlord Gendo]

Usarax are a FA unit based on Thallax technology.

 

I find castellax cc and Myrmidons a good solution to hordes.  Now that Myrmidons can take Triaroi, we can get them to the front line quickly and then let them go crazy with irad weapons.  Alternatively, there's not much that can take multiple, accurate full power coversion beamer blasts.

Similarly, Auxilia are looking good for that purpose, between heavy bolters and rotor cannons depending on how mobile you want them.

 

I think it all comes under the heading of thinking like a magos of your chosen arcana, sort of like how Dark Eldar requires you to think like an archon.

[Tiger9gamer]

I'm really interested in the Usrax, especially as elites with maybe a CC build praetorian. I don't have the book though, So i don't really know the point costs.

 

 

What about the Krios guns? can they hit well enough and take out enemy armor?

[Grey Mage]

The Tech Thralls with two shot lascarbines seem like a good, cheap scoring unit to me- and the veritable 'send in the next wave' ability you can give the archmagos means that theyll more or less be right back in position in the backfield the turn after they die. The biggest problem with them is finding a cost effective way of modeling a 5 pt mostly-robotic cyborg.

[CommodusXIII]

If you don't want to go Forge World (I love the models, the price tag... not so much) you could try kitbashing Guardsmen with Necron parts and plasticard to build bionic limbs.  Cadians would look more like Tech Guard while Catachans would look more like menials/conscripts from the underforge.