[HH1.0] Mechanicum Tactica

[Meduson]

Apologies if this has been discussed earlier in the thread...but I've been looking at Scyllax for a while now. The models are great and the rules seem decent to me. I just can't figure out how to use them, was thinking of running them in a Triaros to assault a tough unit with rad furnaces/combat arrays. Has anyone had any success with them? And how do you run them?

[Charlo]

I'd say they work in numbers with some good special weapons.

 

Jumping out of a Triaros, letting loose with shooting and then charging when they can.

 

Probably not a bad idea to have a ridiculous Magos Tanking for them if you're facing massed AP4?

[Flint13]

AP4 is in such an odd spot.

 

It seems like all the sources you'd see massed Ap4 are kinda niche aren't they? Imperial Fist heavy support, the Preadator RoW, jetbikes, World Eaters...

[Charlo]

True that!

 

Works for massed AP3 then too - ap2 may be a bit riskier....

[Meduson]

I'd say they work in numbers with some good special weapons.

 

Jumping out of a Triaros, letting loose with shooting and then charging when they can.

 

Probably not a bad idea to have a ridiculous Magos Tanking for them if you're facing massed AP4?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Possibly flamers/volkites with some special weapons in there? AP4 could be very scary to deal with, I would just prioritize my bigger stuff towards the dangerous stuff before the Scyllax jump out. Probably would add a magos to beef them up.

[MindOfMetal]

Had a recent game against a knight army-used a Scoria based cybernetica army with an Arlatax and his Homonculex, but with arc scourges. Managed to walk through an errant and kill an undamaged atrapos with only the lose of the standard Arlatax. That +1 Initiative to all automata Scoria worked so well with the two of them meaning they were hitting first.

 

[Fangbanger]

How do most people arm thier castylax?

 

For my legio cybernetica force I'm thinking of just 2 X 2 with DF cannons and the targeter, nothing more. Is that wise or should I arm the squads differently? Also thoughts on the combat blades..?

 

Cheers!

[Flint13]

A couple of points that I've found personally.

 

- Power blades are hella worth the 10pts. We pay that 10pts for digilasers on a praetor for +1 attack, so I think it's more than worth it for that and a little extra vehicle damage on a giant, stompy robot.

 

- it always pays to have a single siege wrecker in every squad. Four str10 attacks charging a knight or bunker is money. Castellax tend to get tar pitted more than outright killed, so being able to effectively damage big stuff or ID 2W terminators before they can swing is also handy.

 

Also, it would help to have a few more details on the force you're including them in. If you've got plenty of horde control in other slots, the DF lances are perfect, but otherwise I'd keep the stock mauler cannons and add a single flamer on each automata.

Edited April 9, 2016 by Flint13

[Fangbanger]

So I'm thinking of:

 

Legio cybernetica

 

Scoria

 

2 X castylax with dark fire

2 X castylax with dark fire

6 X Thallax with melta bombs and 2 X plasma

 

3 X arlatax (when they get models)

 

Thanatar

 

Maybe some secutors in a triaros or some vorax to make a good 2000 points until I get the arlatax

[GogglesDown]

You only have one scoring unit so you may want to split the thallax or add another squad.

[Fangbanger]

i thought they'd score in a cybernetica list.

 

Oh well

[fedratsailor]

cybernetica just makes them compulsory troops, everything else stays the same

[Terminus]

I like either targeted and darkfire cannon for long range, or maulers with two flamers and power blades for mid/close ranges. I leave shock charges on one for the concussion.

[Fangbanger]

Cheers guys

[Terminus]

Just to follow-up on the previous point, I usually avoid targeting arrays on Mauler castellax, because I tend to take 3+ in a big scary blob and those costs add up quickly (480 points already for 4 bots with 8 flamers and 2 sets of power blades).  As much of the threat is from their melee and flamers (come overwatch me, I dares ya!), so that 45+ points saved buys me the flamers and power blades.  When Castellax were 20 points cheaper, it was easier to justify targeters on everything.  Even then, though, it was like... 60 points for targeters, or 85 points for another Castellax. 5 BS4 maulers hit as often on average as 4 BS5 maulers, with a higher damage ceiling, especially if you had an Archmagos with a Djinn-skein.

 

Now that we actually have Independent Characters who also have Cybertheurgy, it's a damn shame everyone is so anti-relics after the latest FAQ. Although I guess I get it, it was annoying to see phase walkers and void harness generators in almost every list.  Reminded me a bit of 4th-5th WFB generic magic items, with the Crown of Command an automatic buy for all armies.

Edited April 10, 2016 by Terminus

[Thudslugx]

I have a question about a scoria list in a small breaked.

 

I thinking about

Scoria

Thallax Destructor

Thallax Destructor

Hemoculux

Myrmidon Destroyers with vulkites

 

 

My idea was same tankhunting jetpacks ,

scoria with Bodyguard search his way up to the enemyline.

And same backfield infantery Killer.

So what u think is this playbel ? In my opinion it sounds funny.

[Mango Polo]

You'll have quasi no board presence due to every model being fairly expensive, and in turn this makes the thallax easy pickings for the enemy.

Putting Scoria with the Haemonculex is wasting the latter's speed, leaving you with two very slow models trotting up the field. Haemon is basically a great distraction by itself, assuming there's multiple other threats coming at the same speed. Right now... there are none. Consider some Vorax?

 

Anyway how many points are you looking at? I thought a lot about Scoria and he's like a Primarch: it might be tempting to bring him at low points level, but it's a waste of his abilities.

Edited April 16, 2016 by Mango Polo

[Thudslugx]

At the Moment the guys a fokus at 1000 point Tournaments, what a joke for 30K is.

Future steps are 2000 points then 2500. But at the Moment i try to get a funny hard hitting allround army for 1000points.

There are some armoured Ravenguard, Salamanders, troopy DG and Termi SoH. A have a 3000 point army of night Lords. But I Start the Projekt of Mechanicum at the same like the others. And I really like the Models. Love the Myrmidons.

 

Edit :And the Important thing it is you can't changed units out. So the 1 K list should be the first step to 2,5 K and I would play at 2k with scoria.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Thudslugx

[Mango Polo]

Oh that explains the list then. But wow that's tough, Scoria himself already eats a huge chunk of your 1k points.

 

I'd say look at Vorax to replace the Haemonculex (I think it's 3 Vorax = same points as Haemon?). You can put Haemon back in later, but at such low points they'll perform better IMO.

[Thudslugx]

Yes he eats much but I hope that he will be Beast. I can Swap 2 vorax with Bio shots for the haemoculux. But 2 vorax realy worth it ?

 

 

Edit: Other Question whats about Ursarax? I can Swap the Haemoculux for 3 Ursarax out. Did anyone have play the Ursarax? I would they go with scoria and before they are a enemylines left scoria alone, charge in and cast before rite of the beast of them.

And when Powerfist or Claws?

Its s10 on i2 or s6 on i3

Edited April 22, 2016 by Thudslugx

[Terminus]

Power fists' unwieldy rule always reduces it to 1, and anyway, as they are not automata, they can't benefit from his shenanigans. I feel you have plenty of AP3 stuff to toss around in the list, and S10 AP2 melee is no joke. You always have the chest laser if you want to kill something with AP2 I3 instant death attack.  They are already stupid expensive, may as well make it worse with power fists.  Their price hike and the debacle that are the Domitars/variant Thanatars are the only things I dislike about an otherwise excellent book.

 

They are not an ideal match with Scoria because they are jump infantry and he is not.  I think again the Vorax are probably the best place for him for delivery.  That or a Kharybdis LOW with your melee buds of choice.

 

---

 

By the way, has anyone gotten more experience with Secutors?

 

My first attempts had 6 graviton guns in the unit, but it often felt like tremendous overkill against typical vehicles.  I don't even see Spartans that often anymore, and in any case, by the time I'm shooting it with Secutors it has done its job of threat delivery.  Typhons are out of their reach, so that only really leaves Knights for this attack profile. Against other targets, the gravitons acted as control tools at best.  It was also a bit wasteful of their BS5. I also had a couple of instances where I wished I had some overwatch fire to discourage assaults against them.

 

What do people think about a unit that's mixed plasma and grav guns?

 

My original plan was to make a unit with double plasma and a unit with double grav. This would mean for a single unit I would have to roll them 4-strong.

 

For example, 4 guys, two with graviton guns, two with plasma guns. So you have 4 auto-glances and 12 S6 plasma shots, which should actually function better against AV12 and lower. It would also give me quite a bit of anti-infantry/monstrous creature kick (even some anti-flyer there with snap shots).  Now they can disembark from their Triaros, hose down a unit with BS5 S6 AP3, and mire them in difficult terrain from the grav guns. Then on the opponent's turn they have to deal with a bunch of difficult terrain checks, AND more AP3 plasma overwatch fire. If the opponent is equipped in some extreme manner that makes one gun less effective (no armour, or all armour), those guys could go up front to die first and preserve the more valuable weapon.

 

Alternatively, if I arm each one with a plasma and grav gun, I could run them at three strong. They would now need 2 turns or assistance to kill 4+ HP vehicles, but can still threaten a much wider variety of targets while remaining economical.  I would be able to field 2 such units, so they could assist each other or split their fire. Because as soon as that Macrocarid explorator hits the store, I'm buying it and 3 more myrmidon destructors so I can run my 15-Myrmidon list.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Terminus

[Daemon2027]

Hey guys I've been thinking about starting a Taghmata Omnissiah army. With the Archmagos is there any thing I should avoid or should be included. I'm thinking of going with a Malagra. For Malagra I'm guessing it's best to keep cc focused maybe paragon blade, but would an IRad engine be a good idea? It's very easy to throw points at these models.

[Flint13]

If you're going with a close combat focus, I think you might have a better time with a Myrmidax instead. That hatred re-roll for the entire unit he's with always payed better dividends for me than the extra attack. The +1 WS puts your Archmagos to WS5, which is hitting pretty much every character on a 4+ (50% chance) where a hatred re-roll at WS4 gives you 75% chance. Lastly, it makes him a bit expensive, but having two mid-tier shooting weapons is pretty boss. 

 

So the neat thing for us as mechanicum is getting a bunch of upgrades cheaper than the Astartes equivalent. They have to pay 10pts for digilasers, we have to pay 10pts for a paragon blade to pair with a chainfist for an extra specialist weapon attack. Too, we only pay 5 points for a mastercrafted weapon, which is money.

 

I think the best thing you can do though, is to first set yourself a points limit, then build an Archmagos within that limit. They can easily go up to 350pts if you want to load him for void-bear. 

 

The way I build mine is with Myrmidax, paragon blade, chainfist, master crafted weapon, machinator array, abeyant, rad grenades, cyber familiar and depending on points a couple of volkite chargers or phased plasma fusils and an occularis or two.  

[Daemon2027]

That does sound like a good build, I was thinking about phased plasma fusions as an option to, I'll probably stick them on my Thallax squads. Can the Magos take jet packs and move with the Thallax, or would that be a waste?

[Reyner]

That does sound like a good build, I was thinking about phased plasma fusions as an option to, I'll probably stick them on my Thallax squads. Can the Magos take jet packs and move with the Thallax, or would that be a waste?

I think you have the option of Jet Pack or Machinator Array - mobility or increased durability. (May be wrong of course I haven't got the newest red book for Mech yet).