[HH1.0] Mechanicum Tactica

[Chaeron]

I'm rather new to 30k but I really like the models and the time period. My question may seem silly as a result. How viable would a 2k list based around Ursurax and Krios Venators be?

Never a silly question when it comes to the Heresy!

 

Venators are great - excellent output and can cause serious damage. Ursarax are very cool and can be very effective - but you need to consider how they get close and potentially having ablative bodies to soak up wounds, meaning larger and more expensive squads. I’d tend to only field them in things like Zone Mortalis for that reason, but definitely a cool option.

 

I suppose it depends whether you go Cybernetica or Reductor too... have a play with some lists and see what you like!

[Imren]

Be careful to rely too much on vehicles with powerful guns in 30k, unlike present day 40k, vehicles in 30k can be destroyed with one lucky shot. Also there are many (some cheap) counters to powerful vehicles, typical ones are meltagun equipped vetererans infiltrating or deepstriking (with a warmonger or other legion special rule) or delivered in a vehicle (i.e. drill).

 

If you rely on vehicles with powerful guns you need babysitting units that scare off very mobile anti-vehicle units that needs to get close to kill vehicles. Which forces you to adapt your playstyle and list a bit.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Well mechanicum can intercept deepstriking and push back infiltrate. They're also so undercosted that it's easy to flood the board with models to provide support, many of which can out melee legion units or just tie them up for ever.

 

Like a venator is front av 14, fast and has a 4 shot ap 2 ordnance gun for 150; Adsecularis are 65 for 20; thallax are 40pts per model.

[Brofist]

Personally I don't rate thallax very highly, despite the amazing models. They aren't bad or anything, but their damage output is mostly tied to their special weapon so the output is low and to make it high you need to baloon the size of the squad. I haven't seen a thallax heavy list do well.

 

Jet packs do give them a gimmick ability, certainly, but while you can recreate the "fish of fury" from old editions by pairing them with a tractor I wouldn't say its particularly harsh or anything. 6 thallax with special weapons and a transport run more than 400 points for something that gets you x6 ap3 shots or x4 ap2 shots. I'm sure you can come up with higher damaging ways to spend all those points. Point being, its cool and not terrible, but its best reserved for a few units in your army and not to be what you build your army around.

[SkimaskMohawk]

Personally I don't rate thallax very highly, despite the amazing models. They aren't bad or anything, but their damage output is mostly tied to their special weapon so the output is low and to make it high you need to baloon the size of the squad. I haven't seen a thallax heavy list do well.

 

Jet packs do give them a gimmick ability, certainly, but while you can recreate the "fish of fury" from old editions by pairing them with a tractor I wouldn't say its particularly harsh or anything. 6 thallax with special weapons and a transport run more than 400 points for something that gets you x6 ap3 shots or x4 ap2 shots. I'm sure you can come up with higher damaging ways to spend all those points. Point being, its cool and not terrible, but its best reserved for a few units in your army and not to be what you build your army around.

I tend to agree that their shooting isn't great, but I used mine as kind of flex melee units to fill out on scoring and to take side objectives. I didn't use transports for them either; the more varying targets with profile discrepancies the harder it was to efficiently target units for my opponents.

 

And while 175 for chainblades and ferrox isn't the cheapest, it's a lot more than you get for a marine equivalent melee troop.

[Brofist]

Word. A unit or two of thallax, properly equipped for a job, can compliment most lists. What I would discourage is going heavier than that. In how they are designed and balanced, you're just going to get better mileage out of a more diverse list vs spamming more thallax.

[SkimaskMohawk]

For sure, totally agree.

[Chaeron]

Personally I don't rate thallax very highly, despite the amazing models. They aren't bad or anything, but their damage output is mostly tied to their special weapon so the output is low and to make it high you need to baloon the size of the squad. I haven't seen a thallax heavy list do well.

I’d echo this: not sure what others have found, but there’s a ‘fear factor’ about them in my experience which I don’t think is warranted given their output and that they’re relatively squishy. However, I love the models and they work well at lower points values generally (or where one can fit in a couple of larger squads as a distraction) - I’ve used effectively at 1000pts and 4000pts, and I would like to use them more in an ideal world.

 

Perhaps in that Myrmidon Cult list I keep wanting to do?!