Mechanicus - Where to start

[KJB]

Morning all, as I still can't decide on a Legion/Chapter to choose, I've decided to make a clean break and start a small Mechanicum force.  

 

I'm going to pick up the Start Collecting box (which is surprisingly good value) this week and take it from there - Couple of questions though...

 

I've just noticed that there are 2 different Codex books...  

 

Which one do I get first?  Skitarii or the Mechanicus one?

Do I need both? 

Which is best for the Start Collecting box set? Skitarii I assume?

 

Cheers in advance!

[Dosjetka]

The Skitarii Start Collecting! box will give you units from both codecies. The Onager (walker tank) and Vanguard/Rangers are from the Skitarii book whereas the Magos is from the Cult Mechanicus. With the box comes a special formation which allows you to run all of these together and is a good start for a small 500 point force to test the waters. The Skitarii Codex will give you numbers more than anything else whereas the Cult Mechanicus will give your firepower. Most people run both together in games larger than 500-750 points.

 

With that in mind, I'd suggest starting with either pure Skitarii or the Start Collecting! box and then branching out from there. The 1d4chan pages for Skitarii and Cult Mechanicus are good with plenty of advice (plenty of swearing though so probably NSFW).

 

Anyway, someone with more knowledge and experience will pop in shortly to give you better, more in-depth advice but hopefully this has helped you in some way. :tu:

[WarriorFish]

Dos makes solid points. The Start Collecting box is a real steal (further stealings if you buy from an online reseller!) and perhaps just as important in that it gives you a good selection of models that you're almost certainly going to want. A couple of these will start your army off very nicely :tu: The box comes with a data slate to let you use the models out of the box which is cool but you'll want to get the Skitarii codex first as all but the Dominus are from that book.

 

In case you don't know there has been some rumour about a combined Skitarii and Cult codex. Not a particularly strong one so could be anyone's guess if its true but may be worth considering, so perhaps an idea would be to spend your time first assembling and painting models and seeing how the land may lay?

[Dosjetka]

Since WF mentioned resellers (good point, forgot about those), you can get one of them boxes for £37.50 instead of £50! I'd recommend DarkSphere based in London but I'm sure there are others out there which are just as good. :tu:

[DeStinyFiSh]

Start collecting is the best way to start... you know... collecting Ad Mech.

If you can not afford both codices I would recomend Skitarii, they feel more flexible (Scout, Crusader, Special weapons, movement shenanigans etc.) than the very expensive and static Cult units.

The formation from the box is not the best around, but it is solid and allows you to field a proper HQ as your warlord. Skitarii alone do not have a HQ choice at all.

Going forward from there I would recommend maybe buying 1 or 2 more of these boxes (you need Vanguard anyway and Onagers are pretty good as well).

If you like the models maybe Dragoons and / or Infiltrators. Plus 2 Start Collecting boxes this will bring you to ~1000 points easily (for maybe 130-150 bucks if you buy cheap)

And latest then I would try to get some Cult units as well. 2x 3 Servitors plus 2 Robots and you are at ~1650 points (for about 200 bucks).

This way you get for relative little money a nice little army and make your own experience to decide how to proceed.

A knight fits into the Ad Mech concept as well, but for the beginning I would stick to the Skit and Cult units.

And maybe until then the rumoured combined book with new rules and units is out, or the next imperial armour with 40k rules for the cool Mechanicum stuff

[Magos Takatus]

I've not dragged my models to the battlefield yet but I agree the Start Collecting box is a great purchase. The only drawback is that you may end up with a pile of unused Magos Dominus models but they are fun to paint and can probably be rendered down into parts for conversions if you feel adventurous. I bought two Skitarii boxes and two Dominus models (I tested my colour scheme on them), and then I purchased the Start Collecting box when it was released. I've still got a squad waiting to be painted but I'm happy with the results so far. The third Dominus could end up being a gift or I may sell it painted later (since unpainted spares are probably a dime a dozen! :p )

 

With the Skitarii being a fairly small codex with limited options buying more than one Start Collecting box is a pretty wise choice. Now with the Forge World Secutarii conversion kits buying multiple S.C. boxes is even more valid than it was on release. At the current price you might as well buy a Start Collecting box for each Onager you want to field. 

[MoGuy]

 

 

Morning all, as I still can't decide on a Legion/Chapter to choose, I've decided to make a clean break and start a small Mechanicum force.  

 

Good to see the ranks of the followers of the Omnissiah grow again. ^^ Our models beat the Space Marine models by miles. 

 

 

 

The Skitarii Codex will give you numbers more than anything else whereas the Cult Mechanicus will give your firepower.

 

Not sure if that is intended but the way that sentence is phrased it sounds like the Skitarii only give numbers without anything else (so a codex full of Guardmen-esque units) and the real firepower is in the Cult Mechanicus. 

The Skitarii Vanguard are arguably one of the best troop choices in the game and with the new Secutarii Peltasts the Skitarii got some serious firepower added. 

 

But yes, in general, the Skitarii are more numerous and squishier whilst the Cult Mechanicus are fewer in number but tougher. Both codices are bristling with firepower though.  

[CommodusXIII]

At this point I have over 6,000 points of Skitarii, Knights, Titans, etc. I still use the Skitarii Start Collecting! box formation in almost every game. So, I'd definitely recommend that.

[SpiritFox22]

I have to agree with picking up the Start collecting Box for Skitarii.  Overall it's useful and if you go with an online retailer you're getting like the Warstore you end up paying just over the price of the Onager.  I'm honestly saving up to pick up a few as I need Skitarii bodies for my Peltasts and Hoplites.  The mini formation is good since it's basically pick a unit in 18in and everything is twin linked against it.

 

My suggestion"s" for your order of purchases

 

Start Collecting Skitarii x 1-3

Codex Skitarii

Datacards Skitarii 

Vanguard/Rangers box x 2-3

 

I say pick multiple boxes up cause of the discount you get from purchasing the SC over individually.

[DeStinyFiSh]

My suggestion"s" for your order of purchases

Start Collecting Skitarii x 1-3

Codex Skitarii

Datacards Skitarii

Vanguard/Rangers box x 2-3

That would be to boring for me... just 3 different types of models.

[Magos Takatus]

My suggestion"s" for your order of purchases

Start Collecting Skitarii x 1-3

Codex Skitarii

Datacards Skitarii

Vanguard/Rangers box x 2-3

That would be to boring for me... just 3 different types of models.

That's a fair point, I would want more variety too but It would provide a solid core to an army, spare parts for Forge World upgrade kits and there's nothing stopping you from adding units of Dragoons to add a more mobile element to the army. I don't know if this applies to you but assembling and painting that many models would probably tide me over until the next Skitarii/ Adeptus Mechanicus codex surfaces. ;)

[MoGuy]

I would go like this:

 

Codex Skitarii (the codex should ALWAYS be the first thing you buy so that you can look at the units and decide which you like most).

 

After that you'll need at least two troop choices to play your first battleforged (is that the correct term?) game.

 

So you either get just the Start Collecting! Skitarii box, which will provide you with 10 Rangers/Vanguards which you could play in 2x5 squads (but I would advice against that) or you get the box 2-3 times. 

 

Two Tech-Priest Dominus (Domini?) are no waste, since you can take up to two HQ choices for the Cult Mechanicus, so I would keep two. The third dominus you could just sell on eBay if you want to or use it to test your colour scheme etc.

 

Three Start Collecting boxes will give you 30 Vanguard (they are the objectively better/more powerful troop choice since Secutarii Peltasts just invalidated Rangers), 3 Onager Dunecrawlers and 3 Tech-Priests. That's a good core to your army. 

 

From there I would expand with either 1-3 Sydonian Dragoons or 1-2 Squads of Ruststalkers/Infiltrators. Another option are the Secutarii Peltasts/Hoplites which Forgeworld just released. If you don't want to expand your Skitarii more you could instead buy the Cult Mechanicus Codex and some Kataphron Destroyers/Breachers. 

[SpiritFox22]

While I admit my suggestions are a little boring, mostly because you have 3 units that are Skittarii and the other is Cult, it is a strong core build and gives you enough spec weapons to have answer most problems.  At the end of it you'll have 6 Arc rifles and 6 Plasma Cavaliers which for most units you'll dedicate 2 to a squad. 

 

Then again I play 1500-1850 pt games and keep to 1 Skit Maniple for the most part so I'm usually maxing out my troops before moving onto other things.

[Vel'Cona]

The Start Collecting! box is a huge value for the cost, just make sure to build Vanguard and magnetize (or don't glue together) your Onager weapons while you get a feel for how the units play. My suggestion would be x2 Start Collecting (for two 10-man Skitarii Vanguard and x2 Onagers) and then x2 Kataphron boxes. You can play this as a full Skitarii Maniple and a small Cult Mechanicus Detachment so you can take advantage of both army's special rules. You'll need to pick up a copy of each codex, but since they're mini-dexes and a bit cheaper this shouldn't be too bad. This also has the advantage of giving you 1000 points out of the gate!