MindOfMetal's review of the Taghmata

[MindOfMetal]

I wanted to give this a try but I don't know if I have done this in the right way.  Please tell me if I have so I can change it ASAP.

 

Firstly, the idea behind this is just to put down in writing my views on some of the units in the Taghmata list.  Its not comprehensive by any means and these are just my ideas.

 

If I have done this even vaguely correctly and there is any call for it, I will try for some more units.  Firstly I want to start with the Magos Prime.

 

 

Magos Prime

These are your primary commanders, the leaders of the army.  There are a ton of wargear options you can take for this guy, plus having to think about your Techno-Arcana.

He comes in two flavours, basic magos prime or archmagos.  For 35pts extra I really don’t see many times that it’s not worth taking him as an archmagos.  The extra toughness and wound I find often are enough to keep him alive and the extra weapon skill and leadership doesn’t hurt either.  However, you can only take one in the army. 

The techno-arcana are what give the model flavour and will help to determine the wargear he takes.  Also, does tend to depend on how you are building your army.

I will be basing all of my reviews on an Archmagos prime.  You could spend points on getting 2 magos primes but I wouldn’t recommend it.  Most of the stuff in the Taghmata list is incredibly expensive, HQs included.  I would stick with one and spend the points on other things.

 

Archimandrite: The first of the techno-arcana and can only be taken by  the archmagos.  Fluffwise, these are the main tech priests in the army.  It gives him the ‘Master fabricator and Unmatched reserves special rule. 

Master fabricator is a relatively situational special rule; but fantastic when it works.  It gives all mechanicum vehicles the ‘it will not die’ special rule.  The Taghmata don’t have a lot of vehicles and none of them are cheap.  However, a lot of the vehicles are pretty good and being able to give Mechanicum Knights (all 3 variants) It will not die is something that won’t earn you many friends but will undoubtedly be pretty effective.

Unmatched reserves again does depend on your army, it gives you +1 to your reserves rolls.  There are a couple of units this works well with (Thallax being jump pack infantry), but it really depends on what you want in your army.

Overall, not my favourite techno-arcana but powerful depending on the army. 

 

Malagra:  These magos primes are the close combat variant, the ones meant to hunt down the admechs enemies and beat them in the face.  This guy gets the ‘mech assassin’ special rule and a few other more well-known ones.

The generic special rules are preferred enemy (characters) and monster hunter.  Have a guess who you are expected to be trying to track down and kill with this guy.

Mech assassin increases your WS and A by 1.  This unfortunately doesn’t raise your initiative.  As a combat character, expect to not hit first against most other combat characters.  However, you can get to be incredibly durable.  Give him an abeyant (+1 wound and ‘it will not die’), a machinator array (+1 toughness and some funky attacks) and a cyber familiar (a 3++ save) and you have a model who will not go down easily.  The only question is how fast you want to be hitting (your options are Initiative 3 or Initiative 1).

Not a bad, but an expensive one to make him work well; especially when I would have to put him in a unit of something to make sure he gets into combat.  Also, one of the 2 techno arcana that don’t buff the army.

 

Myrmidax: Big poppa myrmidon.  Likes to shoot a lot of things, a lot.  Similar to the Malagra, just shooty orientated.

Gets hatred versus everything, fusillade attack (can shoot two guns), relentless and lumbering advance (can’t run or making sweeping advances).

Also gets deathly aim, which makes him precision shot on a 5+.  This gives him the potential for being a nice little character killer depending on what you take (I would recommend 2 Phased plasma-fusils as 6 s6 ap 3 shots at 24 inch range that don’t get hot aren’t anything to sneeze at).

Again, a pretty reasonable choice but a lot of points.  I would say that it works best in a unit, probably a Myrmidon secutor unit; as they do fairly similar things. 

 

Lachrimallus: The thrall master.  Needs thralls, does good things to them too.

This one has a special restriction, but not exactly a bank breaking one.  A primary detachment with one of these has to have an Adsecularis unit.  Which isn’t a shame, as I would say that the Adsecularis are probably going to end up in most lists.

He also gains feel no pain (5+) as well.  Considering how tough and resilient you can make your magos anyway, this is just icing on the cake.

Ruthless assault is probably the main reason to get this guy.  If an adsecularis unit is destroyed, on a 5+ you get them back as ongoing reserves.  To be honest, I find this a little underwhelming if you assume average roles.  You would need at least 3 adsecularis units in order to expect any of them to return.  I can imagine a lot of people seeing this guy and thinking he is amazing, but I think ruthless assault should be an after thought, not something to build an army around.

 

Ordinator: The artillery guy.

Has the tank hunter and wrecker special rule.  Also has a once per game bombardment attack.

The tank hunter and wrecker can be pretty nice, especially when considering some of the weapon options he can take.  You can outfit him to be a ranged tank hunter pretty easily and it wouldn’t be too hard to make him relentless either.  The problem is that the taghmata have a lot of tank hunting units as it is. 

The bombardment is pretty nice.  Unlimited range, s8 ap3 and a pinning large blast, ordnance d3.  This would be very useful if going up against a horde army; even MeQ wouldn’t enjoy being shot at by that.  Only problem is that it’s one use only.

Personally, I don’t rate the Ordinator.  It looks weaker compared to some of the other techno arcana.  I definitely wouldn’t consider this guy as your main HQ choice, at best a secondary one.

 

Macrotek: The builder.

This guy comes with High Enginseer and Reinforced defences.  Both of this rules has a lot of potential in my mind.

High Enginseer allows you to reroll failed Battlesmith rolls and take ‘Enginseer’ Tech-Priest Auxilla as a troop choice.  Rerolling failed battlesmith rolls has a lot of potential.  I see this guy with at least a machinator array and cortex controller sticking with a unit of Castellax.  With the machinator array he is healing a wound back on a 3+ rerollable every turn.  The Castellax will benefit from this guy being with them and you’ll have created a fairly meaty unit in general. 

The reinforced defences is a nice little rule too.  It allows you to take one more fortification than normal.  In my mind, vengeance weapon batteries fit really nicely for this.  I have used the battlecannon version in games with my mechanicum before and managed to achieve pretty reasonable results by using them.  I would also suggest the quad Icarus lascannon versions, for a bit of anti flyer (which is something this army might struggle with).

 

Djinn-skein

Not a techno arcana, but an upgrade to your Warlord.  This can only be taken by an Archmagos Prime, so using this can get a bit costly; but then so can anything to do with the Taghmata. 

For this to work well, you need to purchase some Cyber-Occularis.  These are floating uber servo skulls with a load of special rules.  However, they can be targeted separately (but considering the amount of scary things Taghmata can field, I can imagine people not putting them that high on the priority list, until they get used to them).  At basic, they give your models within 3” Interceptor.  They also get auger sweep; which reduces enemy cover saves in a 12” bubble.  The fact that it is jet pack infantry means it’s incredibly mobile, meaning you can get them to where you need them with some ease.  It’s also surprisingly durable and has a 3+ armour save.

 

The reason Cyber-Occularis are so useful, is because 2 out of the 3 uses of Djinn-skein can use them as well as your Warlord.

 

The first use (which can use Cyber-Occularis) is that you can nominate a single unit to gain +1BS that is within 6 inches.

 

The second use is that the Archmagos (only) acts as a teleport homer; your deepstrikers don’t scatter if arriving within 6 inches.  Useful with Thallax and Ursarax possibly, but I would worry about not having the models on the board to start with.

 

The final use is that your barrage weapons can use the Archmagos or his Cyber-Occularis to draw line of sight.  Not bad if you plan on taking Thanatar siege automata.

 

(Thank you if you've read to the end, please leave any comments about this)

[GrandMasterAralia]

Very interesting read!

 

I think the AdMech is super cool, and would very much like som more unit run downs, if you would care to write them. You did a very good job at describing the Magos :)

 

on a side note, do you think that an AdMech army has any place in general 40k?

[MindOfMetal]

The Taghmata is stupidly resilient at low point games, to the point that you can build armies that are next to unkillable.

 

However, unit count is one of the balancing figures for this.  Everything in the list is so expensive that you aren't going to have a high unit count; which means struggling to secure objectives. Unless you take allies, you have no psychic phase either.

 

I've only managed one 7th ed game with them against 1000pts of Nids, with 2 flyrants.  I won 13vp to 1vp.  

 

Some people I've played against with my admech say they have no place in 40k, that 30k armies should stick to fighting other 30k armies.  Personally, I think they do but only if you are open with your opponent about what they can do before the game.  Most players won't anticipate how this army performs, even with a bit of warning before hand.

 

I might try a bit for the Castellax, tech thralls and Ursarax (3 of the units I'm currently using in a campaign)

[MindOfMetal]

Ursarax Cohort

The Thallax slightly angrier cousin. Unlike the Thallax, these are Jump Infantry instead of Jet Pack, which should help you with deciding a role for these guys.

These are a combat choice, but I don’t see it being worthwhile being too aggressive with them. Like with most jump infantry, they have the speed to hopefully pick and choose their fights. I would definitely recommend doing this with them. They have a high toughness; but also a low initiative and high points cost per model too. When I have used them, it’s usually to finish off a target that I’ve already softened up with battle cannons or mauler bolt cannons.

I usually run my cohort as 2 with lightning claws and one with power fists. So far this has worked well for me at 1000pts. 8 attacks on the charge with lightning claws and 4 from power fists is respectable and enough to even give terminators pause.

Now for the volkite incinerator . The beam mode is respectable. Even without deflagrate working, it’s an assault 2 gun at str5 ap5. The 10 inch range isn’t too much of a problem as most of the time you’ll be using it to further soften up an assault target. All the deflagrate does is help this even further, which is never a bad thing. The other mode is blast, the ‘iron man chest laser’ version. This will replace your close combat attacks with a single AP2 attack that inflicts instant death. This is pretty nice, but is only usable against infantry, jump infantry and jet pack infantry. Pretty situational, but the chance to instant death the enemy warlord isn’t bad, but I wouldn’t rely on it.

There is one definite improvement that Ursarax have over Thallax on how tough they are is that they have a 5+ feel no pain; compared to the Thallax 6+. This should help them survive a little longer. However, like the Thallax they don’t get fearless; but instead have leadership 8 with stubborn.

In conclusion, Ursarax are a pretty good support unit for the army. The way I would recommend using them is to wipe out weak units while your battle automata.

Here is one of mine, as there aren't any official models yet

[Dark Bjoern]

I read all this with great interest. My own Thagmata still waits for it's first blood.

[MindOfMetal]

I am glad to help in any way I can. I have only played my second game of 7th with my Taghmata, played some in 6th. Managed a win against a Tau army. Ursarax did very well and took out Shadowsun and her crisis suit bodyguard.

 

It was close but Taghmata are incredibly tough to kill.

 

Next reviews to be either castellax or adsecularis.

[Dark Bjoern]

Castellax would be interesting.

[GrandMasterAralia]

Very informative.. keep up the great work! :)

 

And nice conversion of the "slightly angrier thallax" hehe... is that the body of some Tau infantry you've used with Cataphractii terminator lightning claws, and thallaxi legs?

[MindOfMetal]

It is indeed; its the stealth suit torso. I use a flamer canister to join the body to the legs.

[GrandMasterAralia]

Very creative! :)

[MindOfMetal]

Castellax Battle Automata

One of the main reasons I fell in love with the Mechanicum list. 

Don’t get me wrong, before there was a dedicated list for them I always liked the idea of an adeptus mechanicus army.  Like so many potential army ideas Games Workshop could have produced (Adeptus Arbites, Genestealer cults, a decent set of rules for Harlequins), the adeptus mechanicus seemed to be something consigned to the fluff. 

Then Betrayal came out.  The Ordo Reductor list came out.  It was a nice start, the Thallax seemed like fun but to me it was lacking a lot.  Then Massacre came out with the Cybernetica.  I saw the Castellax models and got a copy of the rules and thought they were good, but still not there yet.  I started playing Castellax using the Cybernetica rules; they were very powerful and as allies to my Iron Hand legion made for a very effective deathstar at 1500pts.  Then Taghmata came out and had the variety that the other two lists seemed to lack.

 

For a unit with a relatively low set of options, there is an awful lot of variety available for the Castellax.  At the moment, I tend to run units with the same heavy weapon in them.  This isn’t to say that mixing won’t work, but I’m just not sure about it.

 

First of all we have the Mauler Bolt Cannon.  This is the weapon that the Castellax comes with as standard.  This is a solid choice of weapon, being able to take out MeQ  fairly reliably, even with the relatively short range of 24 inches.  The pinning is a nice little extra, but I wouldn’t rely on it.

Second is the Multi Melta. 

 

Lastly out of the heavy weapons is the darkfire cannon.  Personally, I really like this.  To start with, its 60 inch range allows it to usually shot at anything it can actually see.  Compared with the other 2 options, this is a massive range increase.  Secondly, str 7 and ap2 with 2 shots.  Causes blind and has lance.  This gun was built for sniping, which mounted on a monstrous creature is pretty nasty.  I have used this reliably to kill tanks and blind a number of opposing units.  Then we have the problem in that this weapon is gets hot. Admittedly, considering the number of wounds a castellax has, not overally problematic but still a bit of a nuisance.  My initial experience of darkfire was using it with a paragon of metal.  This allowed me a relatively tough, solo tank hunter in 6^th.  Haven’t tried it in 7^th yet.

 

A castellax also comes as standard with 2 bolters, which can be upgraded to flamers.  I tend to do this mainly due to overwatch purposes and the fact that half the armies I face at the moment aren’t marines, so flamers tend to hurt a lot.

 

Castellax also get a number of optional wargear, that if one takes then they all must; searchlights, infravisor, frag grenades and enhanced targeting arrays.  Infravisors give you night fight, but more susceptible to blind.  Enhanced targeting arrays are probably my favourite option.  For 15pts a model, you can give your castellax BS5 and lower the cover save of opposing models by 1.  The downside is that its 15pts a model and if you buy it for one then you must buy it for the entire unit.  With everything being so expensive anyway in the Taghmata, I like the idea of at least trying to save points.

 

Castellax also have a lot of rules that make them incredibly resilient.  You can reliably throw a decent size unit (3+) in the way of things and expect enough to survive to smash things.  I won’t go too much into the detail as I partially don’t think it’s all that relevant; but in the 12 games I’ve played I have lost 4 Castellax (out of around 45 used across those games).  Have a properly tooled up Magos Prime or Magos Dominus helps a lot though.

 

The last pieces of equipment worth mentioning are the Automata power blades and siege wrecker.  The power blades are an ap2, rending close combat weapon which replaces the ap2, concussive close combat weapon you already have.  In general, I tend to leave my Castellax with concussive, but I hope to be experimenting with the Power Blades soon.  I can imagine them working well with the multi melta, allowing for a more aggressive, tank hunting castellax.

 

Programmed Behaviour is a special rule of theirs that needs a mention.  Methodical: If they aren’t within 12 inches of a cortex controller they can’t run or sweeping advance.  The running thing generally isn’t a problem for me, as shooting is what I prefer them to be doing.  The sweeping advance doesn’t make a huge difference most times either.  Target Priority: They must target the closest enemy model within 12 inches and line of sight that it is able to harm.  If you want to shot something else then you can try to move away from an enemy so that you’re further than 12 inches, or you can just shoot the enemy.  Onslaught: They have to charge an enemy unit within 12 inches if possible; if they shot at one.  Fire Protocols: May fire upto three weapons in the shooting phase.  Programmed behaviour can be awkward, meaning that sometimes your opponent might be able to lead your Castellax astray.  Usually though, anything they shoot at is going to be reasonably hurt and anything they charge is going to get hurt too.  Overall, not a huge problem; at worst a nuisance.

 

Those are most of the special rules and equipment I believe are worth mentioning.  There is a lot more to them than this, but I did want to spend some time talking about some of the ways I see them being used.

 

At the moment I run a squad of three Castellax, each with dual flamers.  In this squad is a Macrotek Magos Prime.  This squad is incredibly durable, with the Magos Prime able to repair words on a rerollable 3+.  I’ve found that it’s rare to lose one of the Castellax; in a recent game against Tau I lost one after about 5 turns of them being shot at.  This unit is my most powerful; it’s there to smash face and to also be a bullet magnet.  Units of Castellax can range from 1 to 5 models, but if I wanted a decent size squad I would look at around 3 models.  4 to 5 models tend to get really expensive, ending up at around 500pts.  To be honest, 4 to 5 Castellax in a unit in a game outside of Apocalypse is a bit of overkill.  3 I find works well, makes it incredibly powerful but not such a massive points sink that you have nothing else in the army. 

Units of 2 could work well for tank hunting purposes, with darkfire cannons or multi meltas.  I haven’t tried them yet but plan to. 

 

Solo Castellax and ones with Paragon of Metal I find tend to work in similar ways; but Paragon just does it a bit tougher.  Castellax work well together, but I find that solo Castellax are there to fulfil a missing part of the army.  I tend to think of solo Castellax as tank hunters and I would usually equip them to do this.  I find that a darkfire cannon and enhanced targeting array work nicely too, allowing them to snipe things as range.  Also, the range on the darkfire allows you to use these to sit on objectives which can be especially useful for the new tactical objectives.  You’ll end up with a tough model securing or at least contesting an objective that has the range to threaten virtually anything it can see.  If you combine this with a squad of 3, you can cause your opponents definite target priority issues; do they shoot the solo Castellax sitting on an objective or do they shoot the bigger unit of them that’s stomping around the board.

 

Final Words: Castellax are awesome, but be careful with them.  They will go down to lots of dice if you don’t support them.  I don’t think I would take a Taghmata list without a unit of Castellax to bodyguard my Magos Prime (unless I finally get round to building the Iron Man/Warmachine Magos). 

[Dark Bjoern]

Thanks alot. Very helpful. I hope that FW will release the darkfire cannon castellax.

[MindOfMetal]

I hope so too, I want at least one more.  My conversion is passable, but its not great; just added lascannon parts to a Mauler Bolt Cannon without the ammo feed and ammo box.

[MindOfMetal]

Any requests for a next unit review? Otherwise it's most likely just going to be Adsecularis (in a couple of days, as work is going to be stupidly busy for the next few days).

[GrandMasterAralia]

Yeah.. Adsecularis would Be nice.

 

can we maybe see your list?

[MindOfMetal]

At the moment I am in an escalation campaign-we are currently at 1000pts.  This wouldn't be a list I would normally use, but I've had success with it so far.

 

Archmagos Prime

Cortex Controller

Machinator Array

Macrotek 

Rad Grenades

 

3 Castellax 

5 flamers 

 

Ursarax Cohort

1 with dual powerfists

 

2 Vengeance weapon batteries

Both with battle cannons

 

15 Adsecularis

Rite of pure thought

Induction chargers

 

15 Adsecularis

Rite of pure thought

Induction chargers

 

The basics of the list are the adsecularis are there to camp on objectives.  I go with 15 and rite of pure thought to make them survive a little while longer; the only way to stop them securing an objective being to wipe them out.

 

The castellax are there as the big threat, they wander round and take down the big stuff and generally get shot at a lot.  They do this really well.  They also bodyguard the Archmagos, who in turn repairs them (3+ rerollable battle smith roll) and gives them the bonus of rad grenades.  This unit generally draws a lot of attention.

 

The ursarax were a gamble for me, I hadn't used them before this.  As I mentioned above, they tend to be the unit I get to wipe out soft targets. In my last game, against Tau, I used to them to take out Shadowsun and her bodyguard of 3 crisis suits with plasma blasters and fusion guns.  I've played that Tau army at a lower points level (this guy being at the top of the league at the end of the last round).  I've seen others lose the game directly because of the actions of that squad.  I used my Ursarax to wipe them out on turn 2, which swung the game massively in my favour.

 

The vengeance weapons are a bit of an underdog unit for me, but I do love them.  Initially I was told they wouldn't be very good, that I was more likely to kill my own models with them.  The first game I used them, they wiped out 500pts of blood angels in 2 turns.  Considering it was a 750pt game and they only thing left was a storm raven.  They are a bit of a terror weapon-people often try to avoid them as much as possible.  By using these I help to control my opponents actions a little.  Also, macrotek allows me a second fortification (which will probably be a firestorm redoubt for anti air).

 

This wouldn't be the army list I would try at 1500pts, but I had complaints about my cybernetica previously so I thought a bit of variety would make it fairer on others.

 

Hope that helps.

[Chronozoah]

I too have noticed that the cost associated with modifying the Magos Prime seems to escalate drastically. It seems that it should be tailored to a specific role and that restraint be exercised when preparing. Most of my builds for the Magos end up around the 200 pt + mark without taking all the options I would want or require. Such is the curse of having so many options, a great deal of which seem useful or viable in some capacity.

 

I look forward to further entries, in particular regarding the Thallax, Tech-Priest Auxillia and Myrmidon Destructors, although I have to particular preference with regards to order.

[MindOfMetal]

I definitely agree with keeping them around 200pts, its far too easy to go over board. My usual wargear is abeyant and machinator array, expensive but helps keep him alive.

[GrandMasterAralia]

I've been trying to find where in the HH books it says that you can repair battle automata? Isn't battlesmith only useable on vehicles?

 

oh yeah the myrmidons are awesome models! Especially the secutors! Love to get some tactica on these guys. What guns to give them? I was trying to list-build a secutor deathstar with a malagra archdominus beatstick transported in a AdMech landraider, but apparently the transport doesn't have assault vehicle, is this a typo? Was thinking of volkites for the whole group, so they won't totally wipe out a squad before assaulting (if the AdMech landraider had assault vehicle that is). If it doesn't, might as well throw rad cleansers on them all and irradiate the crap out of the enemy!

 

aargh! 30k weaponry is AWESOME! :D

 

/edit. What models are you using as adsecularii? I was thinking about the chaos cultists with autoguns, and just filing off chaos iconography, replacing it with greenstuff cogs maybe, and adding a bunch of tubes and wires (I've heard that the thick guitar string is very good as a cable :))

[badgermeister]

i cant believe you havent taken a cyber familiar - or is this not in the taghmata list (im away from home 'sans codex')

 

3++ is so nice to have :)

[Chronozoah]

I definitely agree with keeping them around 200pts, its far too easy to go over board. My usual wargear is abeyant and machinator array, expensive but helps keep him alive.

No Cyber Familiar for the 3++ save?

I've been trying to find where in the HH books it says that you can repair battle automata? Isn't battlesmith only useable on vehicles?

I believe there is a ruling in Massacre which allows for the repair of battle-automata via battlesmiths. I'll double-check that, though.

oh yeah the myrmidons are awesome models! Especially the secutors! Love to get some tactica on these guys. What guns to give them? I was trying to list-build a secutor deathstar with a malagra archdominus beatstick transported in a AdMech landraider, but apparently the transport doesn't have assault vehicle, is this a typo? Was thinking of volkites for the whole group, so they won't totally wipe out a squad before assaulting (if the AdMech landraider had assault vehicle that is). If it doesn't, might as well throw rad cleansers on them all and irradiate the crap out of the enemy!

Volkite Culverins seem like a solid option for Myrmidon Destructors. 12 S6 shots with Delfagrate will mulch infantry groups and stand a fair chance of glancing some of the lighter vehicles, although there are other weapons far more suited to the latter task. I'm also looking forward to testing Conversion Beamers for long-range sniping and Irradiation Engines.

[MindOfMetal]

GrandMasterAralia: I'm pretty sure its in Massacre, have a look at the rules section just before the Astartes generic list extra units.  I have a load of steampunk non GW/FW models that I use as adescularis, which I am looking to replace sooner or later.  I would probably use converted Cadians if I wanted GW legal models and just convert and green stuff all over them.

 

badgermeister: In bigger games I do take the cyber familiar, but I was trying to save points at 1000pts.  This is for the Taghmata list, so the Magos Prime automatically get the 4+ Invunerable save.

[badgermeister]

i had a 3++ Arch magos go at it for 3 turns in combat against an EC Praetor with paragon blade all thanks to that cyber familiar - it made a massive difference for me

[Chronozoah]

Inquiry: do you have an estimate for when your next unit review will be finished?

[MindOfMetal]

In real life I am a teacher and have just broken up for the summer (the joys of more free time).

 

I'm about half way through adsecularis.  Then I have thallax and thanatar to do.  Should be able to get them out a bit quicker due to the summer holidays.