Mechanicus Kill-Teams

[Battybattybats]

So Kill Team returns once again, this time though we have our multiple Mechanicus codeci and Heresy rules.

So i thought we need a thread to discuss Kill-Team from a mechanicus standpoint.

I for one am seriously excited to see Dragoons are an option going by the sample Mechanicus kill-team GW has in their store, and where i had been thinking of mainly Rangers and/or Infiltrators the notion of an elite cavalry unit breaking through, then charging deep behind, enemy lines has me extra-excited.

[Doctor Perils]

So Kill Team returns once again, this time though we have our multiple Mechanicus codeci and Heresy rules.

 

So i thought we need a thread to discuss Kill-Team from a mechanicus standpoint.

 

I for one am seriously excited to see Dragoons are an option going by the sample Mechanicus kill-team GW has in their store, and where i had been thinking of mainly Rangers and/or Infiltrators the notion of an elite cavalry unit breaking through, then charging deep behind, enemy lines has me extra-excited.

I had been wondering about starting a small allied contingent of Mechanicum/Mechanicus for my Iron Warriors Legion, the possibility of Dragoons or Ballistarii might be just enough to push me over the edge...

[misterkho]

A combination of rangers (long range support), Vanguard for firepower (a plasma caliver is absolutely horrendous in kill team) and a dragoon is near unstoppable in kill team.

[A D-B]

I'm musing over running five Sicarian Infiltrators. 

[Grand Master Laertes]

I don't know if an errant band of Electropriest would be strong or fun, but I think it would be thematic and nice to see on the battlefield

[gmaleron]

Already planning on running a "Recon/Cav Scout" team consisting purely of Dragoons and Ironstriders.

[A D-B]

I don't know if an errant band of Electropriest would be strong or fun, but I think it would be thematic and nice to see on the battlefield

 

Such a cool idea. (I just wish those guys weren't so totally ripped. Emaciated and blind beggar-priests would have rocked on toast.)

[Grand Master Laertes]

I don't know if an errant band of Electropriest would be strong or fun, but I think it would be thematic and nice to see on the battlefield

Such a cool idea. (I just wish those guys weren't so totally ripped. Emaciated and blind beggar-priests would have rocked on toast.)

Kitbashing the Electropriests with the Empire Flagellants kit from WHFB might be a solution

[A D-B]

I don't know if an errant band of Electropriest would be strong or fun, but I think it would be thematic and nice to see on the battlefield

Such a cool idea. (I just wish those guys weren't so totally ripped. Emaciated and blind beggar-priests would have rocked on toast.)

Kitbashing the Electropriests with the Empire Flagellants kit from WHFB might be a solution

...that's an awesome ide-- HEY, DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME, YOUNG MAN.

But seriously, that is a rad idea. Hmm.

[Hrolf the Cunning]

I don't know if an errant band of Electropriest would be strong or fun, but I think it would be thematic and nice to see on the battlefield

Such a cool idea. (I just wish those guys weren't so totally ripped. Emaciated and blind beggar-priests would have rocked on toast.)

Kitbashing the Electropriests with the Empire Flagellants kit from WHFB might be a solution

...that's an awesome ide-- HEY, DON'T ROLL YOUR EYES AT ME, YOUNG MAN.

But seriously, that is a rad idea. Hmm.

Yoink! Ta.

[Vel'Cona]

Fulgurites or Corpuscarii, though? Or some weird mish-mash of both (which is unlikely given their opposing ideals but not unheard of).

[Xisor]

Sicarians was my first thought too - a huddle of gangling shivs should do the trick nicely. It's also literally what they're supposed to be up to most of the time.

 

That said, doing the kitbash for priests sounds fun. Rather than Flagellants/Electropriests, I was musing on Flagellants/Vanguard. A bit less 'beggar', and much more 'cyber-magi gone a bit mad...'

 

That said, the shambling beggars out of that AdMech/Deathwatch short from last year were pretty swish.

[Magos Takatus]

I think it would be nice to model Electro Priests pale skinned but paint the areas around the electoos as either bruised to raw looking to get across the idea of electrical burns. The default GW paintjob for them looks good but a slightly more grim paintjob might be more appealing to you guys.

 

I like the idea of having a Ranger or two in the kill team. Imagining a cloaked sniper sneaking through cover to pick off anyone trying to get the drop on the Sicarians is quite inspiring.

[Grand Master Laertes]

Fulgurites or Corpuscarii, though? Or some weird mish-mash of both (which is unlikely given their opposing ideals but not unheard of).

I don't like the Fulgurites' weird staves, to be honest, so I would (and will, as soon as I manage to finish painting AT LEAST all the undercoated models sitting on my desk) focus on the Corpuscarii.

EDIT: I was cheking the Doomfire Warlocks from the Dark Elves range... their torsos and arms seem good too for this kind of kitbashing

[Vel'Cona]

Heck, if you can find a way to get those gnarly-maned heads on there too, I think it could work!

[Tyriks]

Do we have rules for the Kill Teams yet? Or are people guessing based on pics GW have put out? I have never played Kill Teams so I'm interested but don't know what to look at.

[Tiger9gamer]

I always thought of Electro-Priests being more Shaolin monk-ish rather than crazy beggars. Something about the whole electricity thing sounds almost zen to me ("all living beings are one with the motive force" and stuff like that.)

 

I ran some kill team stuff before in a custom made campaign some bloke at my local GW made, and I always found the "Oh god so much radiation" approach was fun with some naked vanguard vets taking to the field.

[A D-B]

I always thought of Electro-Priests being more Shaolin monk-ish rather than crazy beggars. Something about the whole electricity thing sounds almost zen to me ("all living beings are one with the motive force" and stuff like that.)

 

Yes and no, consider "beggar" an adjective to describe a part of their theme rather than a set noun to sum them up completely. The thing about them, really - about the Adeptus Mechanicus in general - is that it's not healthy. It's not good for the human body. Even beyond the usual physical degradation of life in the Imperium. In the rest of the model line, you have amputee cyborgs and wounded menials remade and/or fused to vehicles and leaders with vats of chemicals bubbling away on their backs and so on. In the painting guides and a lot of the studio armies they're all even painted with corpse-like skin tones of pale blue or green. 

 

A bunch of jacked dudes (and those priests are absolutely, sculptedly ripped Top Gun beach volleyball scene-style) just doesn't seem all that in keeping with the Adeptus Mechanicus's ethos, or the model line in general. They stand out from every other model in the range, from Cult Mechanicus to Skitarii to the Mechanicum of the Horus Heresy.

 

You (the royal You, not you yourself, T9G) can explain it away as genetic modifications and whatever else, but that's still reaching for an answer to cover what's arguably a mistake, and even so such modifications would be far likelier to result in something swollen and monstrous rather than sculpted and handsome. (Even cooler, think of the robes hiding the unknowable, mysterious bulk of the Myrmidons...). Because, again, the AdMech doesn't improve life, it sustains it, replaces it, or augments it, under the in-universe conceit of "improvement" according to the beliefs of what's essentially a hopelessly ignorant cult. 

[Tiger9gamer]

 

I always thought of Electro-Priests being more Shaolin monk-ish rather than crazy beggars. Something about the whole electricity thing sounds almost zen to me ("all living beings are one with the motive force" and stuff like that.)

 

Yes and no, consider "beggar" an adjective to describe a part of their theme rather than a set noun to sum them up completely. The thing about them, really - about the Adeptus Mechanicus in general - is that it's not healthy. It's not good for the human body. Even beyond the usual physical degradation of life in the Imperium. In the rest of the model line, you have amputee cyborgs and wounded menials remade and/or fused to vehicles and leaders with vats of chemicals bubbling away on their backs and so on. In the painting guides and a lot of the studio armies they're all even painted with corpse-like skin tones of pale blue or green. 

 

A bunch of jacked dudes (and those priests are absolutely, sculptedly ripped Top Gun beach volleyball scene-style) just doesn't seem all that in keeping with the Adeptus Mechanicus's ethos, or the model line in general. They stand out from every other model in the range, from Cult Mechanicus to Skitarii to the Mechanicum of the Horus Heresy.

 

You (the royal You, not you yourself, T9G) can explain it away as genetic modifications and whatever else, but that's still reaching for an answer to cover what's arguably a mistake, and even so such modifications would be far likelier to result in something swollen and monstrous rather than sculpted and handsome. (Even cooler, think of the robes hiding the unknowable, mysterious bulk of the Myrmidons...). Because, again, the AdMech doesn't improve life, it sustains it, replaces it, or augments it, under the in-universe conceit of "improvement" according to the beliefs of what's essentially a hopelessly ignorant cult. 

 

 

that answer was more than I could have hoped for, to be honest. Alright, I can accept that Idea now over the Rob Sander's Shaolin monk style electro-priest (I think that's where I was getting the idea from, as those bastards were jedi-knights compared to everyone else)

 

thanks for the enlightment! (no sarcasm intended) That gives me some ideas for a future sculpting process!

[Xisor]

One defence of the ideal, though certainly special pleading, is that they represent the 'evangelical' sect of Omnissiah's church. Hell, of the lore that was put out last year, one or the most compelling bits, for me was the trinitarianism that was presented.

 

Not just Omnissiah (prophet), Machine God (deity), but with the Motive Force (mystical but practical force). There's nice parallels with lots of the Abrahamic faiths, as well as a huge scope for any wider variety of real-world parallel there. Especially when coupled to the idea that Skitarii may be definitively *not* a secular force. Their whole existence is predicated on and enabled by technical miracles, especially when ramped up by the extra aspects of last year.

 

In that vein, if you 'squint' a bit, then you have an interesting parallel with Pentacostal churches where the Electropriests are concerned (and in contrast to the more monkish/itinerant view that we're most used to for them; including what was actually substantiated in the lore last year!).

 

That is: they're a snazzy, buff, flash 'public face' of the Machine Cult - part brutal enforcer, part PR stunt, part "they believe their own hype" (or part utter fradsters). In any event - flashy uber-church preachers, bringing miracles (and retribution) to the masses.

 

If you view them that way... the buff makes sense. Quite in comprehensive, almost irreconcilable contrast to the withered, awful view of the Mechanicus 'normally'.

 

It's a similar 'incompatibility' that goes a different direction with the Kastellans.

 

I mean, really, with the Mechanicus' own stuff, unless it's STC, we should rarely be seeing the same thing twice on a galactic scale.

 

In the books, we've hit an all-time homogeneity in the representation of the Machine Cult. Even in The Beast Arises, we see Sicarians, Rangers and Vanguards. The intensely visual reference point has diminished the variation (temporarily, whilst people make great use of having the shorthand to refer to), but with a couple of the pieces of the tabletop range (Kastellans and Electropriests), that choice of reference point is quite distinct from the one most people would have imagined previously. (And arguably even what's written down.)

 

Most of the rest is bang on the money, thematically perfect I'd say. But the distinction of Kastellans and priests is the divisive bit. I can see what they were going for though, and don't *strictly* disagree otherwise.

 

---

 

Speaking of all that, and what looks good, are FW Myrmidons a viable Killteam inclusion?

[Magos Takatus]

Okay, I posted a painting suggestion as a Olive branch but that brief description of the themes of the Adeptus Mechanicus have won me over entirely. They would need to be muscular to lift all those augmentations but as you suggest it should look like it's a result of steroid enhancement or grafted on muscle mass. It's almost moving into Haemonculus territory at that point.

 

The protragonist from the Skitarius book's situation in the follow up book is a good example of the Mechanicus "resourcefulness".

[Battybattybats]

Hey folks you missed a possible influence.
Bruce Lee used an electrical device to speed training on his muscles, sending electric pulses into the muscles to make them contract, it's one of the hypotheses behind his heart attack as it's dangerous to use electrical devices on the torso. You can still get such devices and they are still used by some body builders and martial artists. Remember it was using electricity to make dead muscles fire that also inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. So electricity and muscles go together. So the designers i am sure have made these guys ultra-buff in reference to this.

[A D-B]

Hey folks you missed a possible influence.

Bruce Lee used an electrical device to speed training on his muscles, sending electric pulses into the muscles to make them contract, it's one of the hypotheses behind his heart attack as it's dangerous to use electrical devices on the torso. You can still get such devices and they are still used by some body builders and martial artists. Remember it was using electricity to make dead muscles fire that also inspired Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. So electricity and muscles go together. So the designers i am sure have made these guys ultra-buff in reference to this.

 

Interestingly, every doctor I've asked about that (4, to this date) has said it was nonsense. One even rolled his eyes when I asked if those machines worked. I'm not discounting the influence of that in the design process, though again there's plenty of weight against it, including those electrical machines themselves; muscle definition in the final models needn't be the modern human ideal (and in no way can I see why it would be) especially given the source material, since those machines mythically tone muscles, they don't bulk them up. As far as I remember, Frankenstein's electricity was to stimulate the organs more than the muscles, but it's been a while there.

 

I acknowledge your point, Bats, as it's a good one, but you can probably see where my scepticism and disappointment comes from, too. I consider them the only weak/inappropriate models in the entire game line. Especially given their size and health over soldiers that literally train every day of their lives. Even with all of the above reasoning slipped in, none of which is mentioned in any text (and why wouldn't it be?) skinny ripped guys (a la Bruce Lee...) still makes more sense overall than the buff Adonises we have.

[MoGuy]

Are the Electro Priests a real part of the Ad Mech? To me it seems that they get their augments in their respective "churches" and then just simply flock to the battlefields where the Ad Mech forces are present. I don't think they are really soldiers in the sense that a Tech Priest Dominus would be their superior (they would probably do as he commands but more because they view him as a saint/religious figure than their commander).

[Vel'Cona]

But ripped half-naked dudes are so 90s, and as we all know the 90s were the cornerstone of Grimdark and Anti-hero! Just ask Wolverine and Rob Liefeld!