Ad Mech in 8th Edition

[MagicHat]

Dominus is any AdMech model, Enginseer is Forge World and Astra Militarum Vehicle (which include Kastelan now) and Datasmith is only Kastelan.

[Vel'Cona]

Repair abilities in general are semi-pants, unless the model has 10+ wounds.  It's too easy to have that model removed before you can get the healing ability off in most cases.

[Teun135]

Repair abilities in general are semi-pants, unless the model has 10+ wounds.  It's too easy to have that model removed before you can get the healing ability off in most cases.

I have had great use for the repair abilities on Onagers in particular, but not much else. I run the Onagers in a pair, so they get awesome invul benefits, then use repairs to keep them topped off on wounds. It really forces the foe to prioritize killing one at a time, which allows the rest of my army to pick his apart. It's a nice boost to survivability since FNP isn't a thing anymore.

[munocat]

Robots are vehicles, so tech priest and heal them. Data smiths can only heal robots.

[Charlo]

SO...!

First ever game of 8th played as well as my first ever with full Ad Mech.

Happy to report a... VICTORY FOR THE OMNISSIAH.

Used the list I posted earlier:

Hidden Content

Taking a Battalion with the following for 97 Power and a total for 6 command points.

Cawl
Dominus - Stubber & Volkite
10 Vanguard - 3x Plasma, Taser, Phosphor Pistol, Omnispex
10 Vanguard - 3x Arc, Data Tether
10 Vanguard - 3x Aquebus, Data Tether
3 Breacher - Torsion Cannons
3 Destroyers - 2x Grav & Phosphor, 1x Plasma & Flamer
2 x2 Kastellan - 3x Phosphor
2 Datasmith
Aegis Line - Quadgun

Here is deployment:

 

I gotta say... An Ad Mech force looks AWESOME on the table, even mostly unpainted :P

We played Only War

You can't see his Helldrake on the far right and his terminators and lord at the back are in reserve. The Iron circle was a Daemon Prince with wings.

Otherwise on top of that he had:

3 blobs of Marines, one with Melta, one with plasma, one with an autocannon and a flamer.
Hellbrute with Melta and flamer
Dakka Forge fiend
Contemptor with Kheres and Heavy Flamer.

He took first turn too, but all that happened was a couple wounds on left hand robot, 1 destroyer and a single skitarii vanguard in the Arc squad.

For Canticle I chose the morale one. My (very lengthy) shooting phase saw me decimate a squad of marines and kill the Helldrake. Wound here and there in the contemptor. I also made sure to switch to double dakka protocol for the next turn...

So his terminators arrived and the Daemon prince gets very close to the breachers now. He casts a warptime on them all but guaranteeing the charge on my aquebus vanguard. His shooting culls a few vanguard from the sniper squad and then it's charge time. Terminators slam into the snipers, contemptor into the arc rifles and the prince into my breachers. Breachers are massacred and the snipers are locked in combat as are my Arc Skitarii.

In 7th, not ideal... In 8th however... FALL BACK!

For Canticle I choose reroll 1s to help out the Kastellan on the far left. Skitarii retreat leaving the contemptor and terminators vulnerable to some serious dakka. My combined shooting chips a couple wounds from the prince, murders the contemptor and most of the terminators. Plasma Skitarii charge the terminators, killing one and wounding the final. The Dominus decided to have some fun and go for the weakened prince (after scoring s mortal wound with his volkite, CHOOM), but is cut down without much of a fight. Oops.

Rest of his army is bearing down on me now, with the lord arriving to bolster the large melta marine squad now in position to charge my plasma vanguard engaged with his terminator. I lose a Kastellan to the Hellbrute's Multimelta and then the other to it's big fist which explodes and does a wound. Forgefiend kills 2 of my Grav Destroyers. Marine squad charges my vanguard, killing a few but they strike the terminator, failing to kill him. Prince smites Cawl for 3 and then charges in and wounds with 4 2D attacks but I luckily pass 3 out of 4 4+ saves! Cawl then unleashes 9 tentacle hits and a couple of axe ones that take the prince down to 1 wound!

So my turn 3, plasma vanguard fall back out of combat, exposing the large marine squad that I then completely cull with Phosphor (36 shots rerolling to hit daaamn). The data Smith's pop a couple wounds from the Brute but then Cawl lays down a decisive blow, his hive of mechadendrites laying the Daemon prince low!

We then called it as I had 2 objectives and slay the warlord for D3.

Overall very fun game and 8th is just smooth! We both totally forgot about strategems though, aha!

Without Cawl my army would have been awful though. His rerolls helped me massively.

I also definitely need some close combat unit's for counter charges (fist & flame robots), ranger's for range and some Onagers for raw power.

...maybe some dragoons too for speed.

Edited July 6, 2017 by Charlo

[Redtoof]

Had a game with my mechanicus yesterday, also vs chaos. I will be posting a bit of a bit rep later. I found repairing very useful, though slightly disappointed the dominus' self repair happens at a different time, so we can't have a dedicated 'repair phase'. Also can confirm, Robots and Onagars are very good.

[Charlo]

Katsphron behind and aegis line proved nicely resilient too. I think with bots and Onagers also on the table the Kata will be a lower target priority and be able to just maul targets all day.

[Tiger9gamer]

word of advice: spartans hurt. a lot.

 

played a game yesterday on a city fight board and holy carp the obliterators and the spartan wrecked my onagers, and by turn 2 I only had 1 left out of four! I foolishly shot at a fire-raptor instead of a spartan, and my word of advice for you today is to shoot anything with 4+ lascannons on it.

 

also, when fighting on city fight try and find the best LOS for shooty kastellens. again, obvious but  still a pain when dealing with LOS blocking ruins and teleporting terminators. for 2 turns 440pts being unable to shoot was harsh, but once they could shoot they cleared out 10 terminators with ease.

 

City fight is not the best for our heavy support.

[lancerusso]

word of advice: spartans hurt. a lot.

 

played a game yesterday on a city fight board and holy carp the obliterators and the spartan wrecked my onagers, and by turn 2 I only had 1 left out of four! I foolishly shot at a fire-raptor instead of a spartan, and my word of advice for you today is to shoot anything with 4+ lascannons on it.

 

also, when fighting on city fight try and find the best LOS for shooty kastellens. again, obvious but still a pain when dealing with LOS blocking ruins and teleporting terminators. for 2 turns 440pts being unable to shoot was harsh, but once they could shoot they cleared out 10 terminators with ease.

 

City fight is not the best for our heavy support.

City Fight is fantastic for our infantry fortunately.

 

Sicarians though - I think forge world is all sorts of overpowered

[DeStinyFiSh]

I am still not impressed by Ruststalkers... You need to fish for those 6es to do something, otherwise your CC attacks are the same as some bolter shots...

[Vel'Cona]

 

Sicarians though - I think forge world is all sorts of overpowered

 

Agreed.  It's a shame that ITC seems to be favoring allowing FW, because IMO their poorly-written, rushed out rules smack of pay to win tactics and it's a shame that player tiers will be decided by wallet sizes.  :(

[lancerusso]

I bring Data! Glorious Data!

 

Went up against the boys in red (Blood Angels) on Monday. 2000 Point game, spoils of war.

 

I ran a brigade (12 CP) at 1993 points with:

HQs:

Cawl 250

2 Tech Priest Domini 135 +145 (one with macrostubber and volkite, one with erad ray and serpenta)

 

Troops:

2 x 5 man vanguard, no upgrades 100

2 x 5 man vanguard with 2 arc rifles and omnispex each 130

2 x 5 man ranger squads with 2 arquebuses and an omnispex each 214

 

Elites:

1 Cybernetica Datasmith 52

2 x Enginseers 104

 

Fast Attack:

2x Autocannon Striders 150

4 x Taser Dragoons with serpentas 296 (two lone, two in a squad)

 

Heavy Support:

3 Onagers: One with neutron laser and two cognis stubbers 151

One with an Icarus array and a cognis stubber 138

One with a Twin Heavy Phos blaster and a cognis stubber 128

 

He ran, as best I can remember:

 

Lemartes

 

3 X 10 man tac squads, not even combat squadded

1 x 5 man tac squad

 

assorted power fist, melta and plasma in there

 

2 Death Company with Jet Packs

1 Death Company in a Rhino

Mixed power/Chainswords and the occasional sargeant with power fist

with assorted melta/plas pistols

 

5 Man devastator with missile launchers

 

1 Imperial Knight with Thermal Cannon, Gauntlet, stubber and rocket pods

 

 

He got turn 1: He advanced marines and jet packs forward into a huge terrain piece we played on. Moved the knight forward and took 5 wounds off my neutron laser. Devastators took out the sargeant and 1 ranger in one of the arquebus squads. Some damage on striders.

Advanced rhino onto objective in midboard, lemartes moved between two death company jet pack squads, pretty close to the front line.

 

My turn 1:

 

Terrible line of sight and the knight being only able to move down this one channel meant it was a simple game for my onagers- full broadside that thing!

Neutron laser, with command pointing a to wound re roll, got three wounds, one saved. Rolled two sixes, so half the knight was gone already.

Icarus array did the same, phosphor fired at some marines (should have tried to pick of some devastators tbh).

 

Ironstriders unloaded onto the rhino, and I charged a dragoon and an enginseer into it too. It was dead by the end of the turn.

 

Another dragoon moved forward to charge lemartes, who was very easy to line up to due to a gap in his lines.

 

Squad of two dragoons moved forward to charge and speedbump the knight. One of them died to overwatch, then they failed charge. Whoopsie!

 

http://i.imgur.com/T06erHT.jpg

 

First arc squad fired at the rhino. Second squad, supported by the volkite TPD fired at a jetpack squad.

 

two squads of advanced skitarii that were firmly placed in ruins now, unloaded into a five man death company squad. He whiffed his saves against my lucky rolls and lost four guys.

Fifth and final guy was killed by left over fire from the rangers' rifles- and I aimed all four arquebuses at Lemartes. Resulted in two wounds on him.

 

Datasmith moved forward with the bare skitarii for heroic intervention purposes.

 

Cawl and other enginseer healed vehicles, and otherwise stayed put to provide rerolls. Last TPD permanently providing snipers with reroll 1s.

 

Dragoon charged lemartes succesfully. 3 wounds. He rolls 3 ones on his saves. Lemartes no more. Rhino crushed by servo arm.

 

Gain 1 VP (d3 with a cp reroll, do'h)on dominate, got first blood and slay the warlord, as well as capture an objective.

 

His T2:

Death company charges my TPD and arc squad. Another DC charges dragoon and enginseer heros in to help.

http://i.imgur.com/xNLz373.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/gW5SsXG.jpg

Knight advances some more, but fails his charge!! Saved his woundings on my invulns- but he got my onager to 1wound

 

the huge 10 man tac squads rinse through my skitarii, wiping 1 5 man squad and leaving the other with 3 guys. Devastators fire at my snipers again and do very little (killing 1 range, I suggested he fired at the damaged two man sniper squad, but he declined to overkill it).

Another 10 man tac squad shoots and charges the dragoon that killed lemartes.

 

rhino DC slays my dragoon, enginseer keeps pace.

 

My turn:

Datasmith charges the tac squad tied up with the dragoon- he is hench and slays a bunch, but the dragoon dies. This guy ends up staying here till turn 4.

http://i.imgur.com/d4Ilg2y.jpg

 

TPD, fearful for his life, falls back to let the icarus array rip through the jet pack DC. I managed to roll legendarily for my skitarii saves and keep the arc squad mostly intact!

http://i.imgur.com/rcTJMYT.jpg

 

I fire the two other onagers, both autocannons, laspistols, and a bunch of spare arc shots at the knight- but I had to resort to my snipers- and the very last sniper shot pinged away the last two wounds off the Knight:

http://i.imgur.com/TCYLnDx.jpg

 

My favorite gang of guntoting cyborgs:

http://i.imgur.com/ZPtK8Z4.jpg

 

 

The three man vanguard squad advanced onto an objective for another VP, and I gained 1 more from kingslayer (2points on d3! I didn't dare reroll it). They were subsequently wiped by a tac squad, to valiant chants of 'Survival is Nothing! Data is all!'

http://i.imgur.com/XUrBaVO.jpg

 

This game definitely reminded be of the value of CC speed bumps for a shooty army, but I'm playing 1750 soon with a very similar list and I can't afford more than one dragoon- and I'll probably use the sniper variant. I will use my skitarii vanguard as more bubblewrap.

 

The elite characters impressed me too. Even without kastellans, the datasmith was valuable (especially for the cheapest elite choice, easy brigade building).

 

Most fun I've had with 40k for a long long while.

Apologies for the crap phone camera quality- at least you get some pictures

Edited July 12, 2017 by lancerusso

[Silentz]

I also played a game last night against Orks and used an interesting tictac I thought I would share.  It would work partcularly well if you're against a heavy alpha strike and expect to go second. 

 

Paid 100 points for an Imperial Bunker in a Fortification Network detachment. 

 

When I deployed it, I started with Belisarius Cawl, my Tech-Priest Dominus and a unit of Rangers with 2 Transuranic Arquebus inside. 

 

Benefits:

1. Reduced my drop count for those units from 3 to 1 - more chance to go first.
   
2. Protected my HQs/Warlord from a turn 1 alpha strike
   
3. Gave my HQ's a free 3" movement boost - they get to disembark on turn one - deploy up to 3" away, move 6", advance d6"... so they can pretty easily slot straight into their ideal buff bubble zone near the Kastelans and Onagers
   
4. Snipers are totally protected - they stayed in there almost the whole game - took 4 wounds off the opponent's Warlord in T1 and made him hide the whole game. Great psychological warfare to have 2 S7 mortal wounds dealing snipers with a view across the board!
   

 

I am not 100% sure it's worth the 100 points - you could buy an extra Kastelan for 110... but I don't think it's ridiculous. 

 

 

 

The game went as follows...

I had the chance to go fist but let Orks start, as they deployed out of range/los of most of my guns.

T1, 6 dakkajets killed all my electropriests and 2 units of 5 vanguard, plus put 2 wounds on Cawl and 3 wounds on my Icarus Onager.  

I then healed all that damage and went to work blowing up dakkajets.

 

T2 He Da Jumped 30 boyz into my backfield. I thought at this point he was going to charge them into my unprotected flank and ruin me... but he didn't.

 

He made (to me) a critical mistake of being too careful with his ork boyz - he'd overextended in previous games and run out of steam near then end - plus it was "tactical escalation" so all the cards come out at the end.  Anyway, this let me get my Kastelans into shooty mode and they just started deleting orks left and right for a comfortable win.   If he'd been superagressive with the boyz and focus fired the dunecrawler (my main AA) it could have gone differently. 

Edited July 13, 2017 by Silentz

[Charlo]

 lancerusso - really intrigued by Taser Dragoons, they seem like the perfect "fire and forget" unit, S8 combat attacks with a chance to do a lot of hits with 2D!

 

Sniper ones look a bit useless on paper though, giving up all of their speed (forcing a -1 to hit on sniper) just for a 2 shot S5 AP0 weapon?

Edited July 13, 2017 by Charlo

[lancerusso]

lancerusso - really intrigued by Taser Dragoons, they seem like the perfect "fire and forget" unit, S8 combat attacks with a chance to do a lot of hits with 2D!

 

Sniper ones look a bit useless on paper though, giving up all of their speed (forcing a -1 to hit on sniper) just for a 2 shot S5 AP0 weapon?

Radium jezzails ARE mortal wound snipers though.

 

Also they're 11 points cheaper without the serpenta. That's actually a lot and I can't find a way to bring a taser in my 1750 list

[Ammonius]

Silentz -

Re: Fortifications. That's a fix for the deployment problem due to lack of transports. More than one way to skin a cyber-felid!

 

I need to look at the other fortifications, and see if something along the lines of the Firestorm Redoubt with punisher cannons could help with the Tyranid/Ork/Conscript swarms while providing the same benefits you describe, all while being points efficient.

[DeStinyFiSh]

I had a pretty fund game against Chaos yesterday. I wanted to test our chicken walkers, so I put all 6 I have on the table.

My List:

 

Spearhead Detachment

Carl

3 x 5 naked Vanguard

Datasmith

3 Laser Onager

1 Icarus Onager

2 Kastellans with Fist & Flamer

 

Outrider Detachment

Dominus

10 Fulgurite E-Priests

4 x 1 Dragoon

2 x 1 Ironstrider with Autocanon

 

 

Chaos had Abadon, Termi-Psycher and 10 Terminators in reserve

3 x 10 Cultists

3 x 5 Havocs

2 x 5 Choosen (4 Melter 4 Flamer)

1 Rhino

2 x 3 Bikes

 

 

So as usual, Carl and Onagers are amazing... up to the level that you feel sorry for fielding them, but at the moment we do not have many options, do we?

It has been the first time for me fielding Kastellans with fists, and I have to admit they are scary as hell ! They killed 5 or 6 Terminators, the Sorcerer and took 4 wounds of Abadon before he slayed them after 3 Battlerounds. Will for sure field them again in the future.

 

E-Priests got kiilled in Chaos turn 1. 40 Bolter shots from the terminators, reroll failed hits because of Abadon nearby... no chance. But all of this firepower would have killed "only" 13 of them, so not as much overkill as I would have expected.

A shame, I screened them with some Vanguard and Dragoons a thought they are safe, but since you can shoot at one unit and charge another this has not helped them at all.

 

The Vanguard did a great job of screening my more expensive units and cover ground so that there was no room to teleport in the Terminators. They also killed a bike here and there and soaked up some firepower. 150 points well invested

 

The Dragoons are realy good speedbumps. Due to the large base they can block a lot of room. They are kind of cheap, more durable than infantry, can change position quickly and they can hurt stuff. I think you get a good value for what they cost.

Also one of our few faster units.

 

Ironstriders have been great as well. 4 shots each dealing 2 damage is nice, especially against Terminators and Bikes and the likes.

I also made use of the cognis rule. At the very end I had to advance to move up the field as quick as possible, and thanks to hitting on 5s I killed 1 or 2 extra Cultists

 

In the end it was a draw.

Chaos had First Blood and Slay the Warlord as well as 1 Objective (3 VP)

I had Linebreaker and Slay the Warlord as well as 1 Objective (3 VP)

 

The Chicken Walkers have been fun to use, but it is kind of a shame that most of my lists are based on at least 3 Onagers and 2 Kastellans plus Carl...

Edited July 17, 2017 by DeStinyFiSh

[Teun135]

I had a tournament over the weekend and I took my pure Ad Mech 2k list to the event! It was a simple 3 round tournament, of which I only got to play 2 rounds due to family reasons, but my list did well by my standards.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWmsKh0h1kp/

 

 

I took:

A Battalion consisting of-

Cawl

1 Dominus

4 groups of 5 Skitarii Vanguard with at least 1 Arc Rifle in each squad

3 Kataphron Destroyers with Heavy Grav and Cognis Stubbers

2 units of 5 Fulgurite Priests

 

And a Spearhead consisting of-

1 Dominus

2 Onagers with Neutron Lasers and Extra Heavy Stubbers

1 Pair of Kastelans with Fists/Combustors

1 Pair of Kastelans with All of the Phosphor

1 Datasmith

 

 

The event was organized on the fly by the TO creating missions right out of the new Mission Card Deck. We used the Twist cards with each mission, adding some neat rules to the games.

 

First match was against Necrons with 3 groups of 20 warriors, some destroyers, a few lords, and a Pylon. Necron are pretty strong now! Our mission objective was something about a comet, coming down on the 3rd turn in a random table quarter. Dawn of war deployment. The twist? That was the fun part... it was raining orbital debris, meaning that on each player turn we got to roll 3d6. On each roll of 6 that player could pick a unit and apply d3 mortal wounds to it. So yeah... we picked nothing but characters usually.

 

   

 

We also played using one ITC ruling in particular: rather than the fewest deployments automatically going first, that player instead received a +1 to the "going first" roll. So in this game, I actually rolled better and was going first! ...Until my opponent rolled a 6 on the seize roll! Doh!

 

First thing he did was snipe my Datasmith with the meteor shower Twist mechanic. Oh well, guess my Kastelans are stuck on Aegis for the battle!

 

He targeted my Onagers first, which was exactly what he was supposed to do. He killed one in the first turn of shooting, which really hurt my ability to take down his gigantic Pylon. My return fire from the surviving Onager did 10 wounds to it in a single round of shooting, so it was disappointing that the other had died before I had gotten a chance to repair it. My Kataphrons with their Heavy Grav did a number on his destroyers, at least, pretty much wiping them.

 

The terrain was too dense to move very well, but we eventually ended up fighting over the center of the table while waiting for the objective to arrive. When it finally did, it was in his table quarter that already had a massive group of warriors surrounding it. There was literally no way I would have made it over there in time. No Secondary Objectives were active, so even though my ploy (of Heroic Intervention'ing a Dominus into combat just so I could make him fall back during my turn and make the Necron Warlord eat a ton of Phosphor shots) ended up murdering the opponent's Warlord, it didn't make a difference to my overall score.

 

 

 

During my 2nd game, I faced.... 2 Stompas. That was it. This guy knew it was not the optimal list, but he is a typical Ork player and just wanted to do it to have fun. And we did!

 

This mission was interesting. 4 Objectives scattered across the board, with a deployment that was very unusual. I think it was called Ambush or something, with one player deploying in the middle, with the other player having 12" deployment from the short board edges only. I won the roll off to pick deployment, so I picked the outside edges. I knew it would be better to have him split up rather than having all my ducks in a single basket. That's the expression, right?

 

 

 

The twist was that you added 2 to all movement values, and 1 to advance / charge rolls. This turned out to be crucial... we had the game tied the entire game, right up to the very end when I advanced my Skitarii, needing to get 7 inches of advance movement to tie the game, and I rolled a 6! Whew! I ended up taking out only a single stompa, but I also reduced the 2nd down to less than 15 wounds before the end of the game, and probably would have tabled him had the game gone on.

 

Even though the game was tied, a family issue came up (it was a hot day and the GF wanted ice cream) so I told the TO that I had conceded and my opponent had won the match. He had gotten First Blood, after all! If we needed a tiebreaker, that was a good one. So that boosted his score for the next pairing.

 

...and I went with my significant other to secure the rich creamy deliciousness of a Dairy Queen Blizzard.

 

 

 

All in all, they fulfilled my expectations. I didn't get tabled, despite my low model count, and in fact I held my own quite readily in most situations. It usually came down to weird mission mechanics denying me the chance of winning. Canticles are great... Cawl's ability to modify the roll meant that I was able to keep Shroudpsalm up quite a bit, which helped against all the shooting coming their way. Kastelans are awesome... I love the mortal-wound causing reflects. Onagers are scary with their Neutron Lasers. Kataphrons are not terrible... just kinda expensive this edition. I wish they had received a few more wounds per model to make them worth it, now that many weapons not only deny their save, but cause multiple damage.

Cawl is a beast. Set him with your Phosphor-hands and get rerolls for dayyyyyys! If anybody gets close to him, zap them with his Atomizer and cackle maniacally in binary as they break down into their constituent pieces.

[Ammonius]

Thank you for your data! 

I know I need to keep myself from forgetting that Onagers and Kastellans may not be track stars, but they are faster than average. Running/Gunning robots definitely have their place alongside Turret mode ones.

[lancerusso]

To contrast, I played in a 1750 tourney with a list I've played previously above and lost two games. Didn't play the game so I could have an ice cream with my SO as well!!

 

First game was vs three knights, two of which were forge world... He won, but in retrospect it was impossible for him to get the objectives he did since the knights can't get to higher floors or just move and attack throught buildings.

 

Second game, vs crons warrior squads with two lords, cryptek and ctan. He wiped three skitarii troop squads on his first turn and I got uunlucky on my rolls despite CPs, and he got lucky on his saves. Ran out of time turn 2 and it ended 9-0 to him...

[Baluc]

I think if you aren't including a knight of some variation im a admech list you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

Its has too many strengths that complement admech weakness. Its cost is actually a boon as it lets us get our deployments lower so we aren't always going second.

[Teun135]

I think if you aren't including a knight of some variation im a admech list you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

Its has too many strengths that complement admech weakness. Its cost is actually a boon as it lets us get our deployments lower so we aren't always going second.

I can't say I agree. That may be your opinion but it isn't one I share. I'd rather take more Onagers. Also, going second is not always a bad thing. If you are careful in your deployment and plan contingencies, you can actually get more firepower out of going second as more opposing units will be in mid-range rather than long range.

[DeStinyFiSh]

 

I think if you aren't including a knight of some variation im a admech list you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

Its has too many strengths that complement admech weakness. Its cost is actually a boon as it lets us get our deployments lower so we aren't always going second.

I can't say I agree. That may be your opinion but it isn't one I share. I'd rather take more Onagers. Also, going second is not always a bad thing. If you are careful in your deployment and plan contingencies, you can actually get more firepower out of going second as more opposing units will be in mid-range rather than long range.

 

 

Same here.

 

If you want to field a strong list you will focus on Onagers and Kastellans anyway plus Carl, so your list will automatically be kind of small.

Knights are amazing, but imho not an auto include at all.

[Baluc]

I'm curious if either of you have come up against DE yet? Or Genestealer cults? You will change your opinion on moar onagers quickly when they get charged and taken out the game by a venom before they have had a chance to shoot. DE are possibly the army of the edition at this point, Low deployment, tons of Ap-4, infiltrating/12" move mortal wound generators. They get better with a sprinkling of Craftworld units like the Farseer, allowing them to re-roll wound rolls with Dark Lances, Blasters and haywire.

With invulnerable saves on basically everything, and the ability to heal we are difficult to remove with the alpha strike, but we pay for that in the maneuver aspect of the game, armies that can abuse the movement and charge phase will need to be closely monitored. 

Admech seem to struggle in any situation where you need to move, and get on objectives or stop your opponent from getting on objectives, unless you build for it. Most lists I am seeing around 2k are 13+ deployments which is always going second territory, since we don't have transports to deploy multiple characters at once. Going first is about isolation, and board control, it gives you the option to choose the match ups that will determine the game. It takes a whole lot of discipline to go second and change the course of the battle once set, ignoring Admech doesn't have many units that let you completely change the position of your army it is usually difficult to do with even the most flexible armies.

 

Admech are an extremely powerful shooting army, but the ruleset has many mechanics to mitigate this, just be careful or you will start seeing your results trend downwards as people discover new tricks and methods to negate your advantages. And, we have a startling weakness against Psykers of any kind, to the point where I was getting dominated by 2 Astropaths. -1 to hit on the Icarus I was fielding, and cover on 2+ save Bull Ogryns, every turn. 

 

Knights provide all the flexible rules Admech don't have, the ability to leave combat, move through/over intervening infantry units. Operate independent from the Characters bubble zone, and strong consistent combat ability. Having run through 3 of the plastic knights so far, I will definitely say they have been my best operational unit. Letting me do things an Admech army isn't generally capable of, and taking a lot of pressure off my long range units. 

 

Second best has been my unit of 3 ballistarii with autocannons that I swapped my Kastellans out for, once I played a few games against faster armies. Don't get me wrong I do include 3 Onagers because they are incredibly cheap especially with the stock eradication beamer, but their strength is the durability/price combination. IF the price goes up in our book I'll probably drop one rather than make space.

 

Ironically I found Kastellans to be almost too tough turn 1. People would ignore them or they would be targets for units that generate mortal wounds turn 1. Then when I switched protocols they become targets for combat units. I briefly went from a 2 man unit to a 3 man unit that I would keep in Aegis the whole game, dropping the datasmith and it worked well, so it may be a concept I revisit in a bit. 

 

Actually writing that all down I wonder if anyone has played Admech in Battlefleet: Gothic. I quickly ran into many of the same issues in that game that I have run into here. Being largely static, and camping the best firing solutions, or having staged set-piece movement. Eldar were always a problem for me in that game since they could avoid the worst of my guns with directionality.

[lancerusso]

 

 

 

 

I think if you aren't including a knight of some variation im a admech list you are doing yourself a disservice.

 

Its has too many strengths that complement admech weakness. Its cost is actually a boon as it lets us get our deployments lower so we aren't always going second.

I can't say I agree. That may be your opinion but it isn't one I share. I'd rather take more Onagers. Also, going second is not always a bad thing. If you are careful in your deployment and plan contingencies, you can actually get more firepower out of going second as more opposing units will be in mid-range rather than long range.

Same here.

 

If you want to field a strong list you will focus on Onagers and Kastellans anyway plus Carl, so your list will automatically be kind of small.

Knights are amazing, but imho not an auto include at all.

Yeah, knights have no synergy with an ad Mech list. Just because they fill a gap in our unit list doesn't mean they are worthwhile bringing.