Starting small Mechanicus army

[awilden]

Hi all, I was looking at starting up a small mechanicus army to go along with Cawl (that i got from the triumvirate of the imperium box I bought for my fiance - she didn't want cawl just the rest of the models).

I was scouting ebay for cheap boxes, and looked at something roughly like this;

 

1x cawl (have obviously).

1x start collecting (priest, 10 vanguard/rangers, 1 dunecrawler) + 2x vanguard/rangers.

1x irontrider/dragoon.

1x electro priests (at first wasnt keen on the priests, but they've grown on me and i do quite like the models).

1x knight warden (one of the major reasons to fill out ad-mech).

1x datasmith + robots (love the look of the robots).

 

Is there any other recommendations to add/remove before getting them? I did mainly look at the models I like first (I liked the thought of a knight the most, and then a smaller band to support him, that's how my fluff wise explanation is leaning).

[Silentz]

Looks like a fun army.

 

I would go for 2 start collecting instead of 1 plus 2 boxes of skitarii...  will give you enough troops and 2 onagers, and will probably be cheaper.

 

The knight... is in a weird place because the Reaper Chainsword is not as good as the Titanic Feet against anything but they heaviest of opponents... so the Crusader "all the guns" build is basically the best one.  You can build that out of the Warden kit though.

 

My only comment/criticism is that for most armies (IRL as well) there's a maxim of "Two is one, and One is none".   So if you take one of everything you will find that it gets murdered really quickly. "Take spares" 

 

 

Maybe start by thinking about the FOC...  you have listed... (ignoring the Knight)

 

2 HQ

3 Troops

3 Heavy Support

1 Fast Attack

2 Elite

 

So you can make a Batallion but that's it.   If you bought a Tech-Priest Enginseer (3rd HQ) and one more elite... OR dropped the electopriests and went with 3 ironstriders... you can make a Spearhead, Vanguard or Outrider as well. 

 

If you just want one of everything for the fun and variety of painting then go right ahead, of course!!

Edited September 28, 2017 by Silentz

[Vel'Cona]

I pretty much echo everything Silentz put in, but I'd say if you're going to go for Epriests you may want to hold off until you build the foundation of the army first.  You really need a decent pile of them to get results; 5 won't be able to do much even with good Dogma selection.

[Magos_Adephus]

Vel has a great point. You need at least 10 to dish out mortal wounds reliably, and you need to get them to wipe out a unit of something very quickly to make them more survivable. And believe me, you'll need that 3++ with how slow you'll be moving. If you want a solid melee hitter then get a second Dragoon and use them as a hunting pack to wreck light armor, infantry, and greatly harass heavy armor and characters. If you do want to run EPriests in future, consider a small detachment of Priests from either Lucius or Stygies to deep strike them into position to do some damage.

 

Silentz is also right about the Onagers. Neutron Lasers is possibly the best truly heavy weapon in 8th right now, both because it's power and it's low cost compared to units of similar roles and strength. Having two in a battalion is an investment that will pay off very quickly.

 

Other than that you look pretty solid. Keep in mind, if you're taking Cawl you have to use Mars' Dogmas and such, which means a lot of Canticle shenanigans, so brush up on tactics on how to make the most of Cawl's abilities and the Canticles.

[awilden]

Thank you all for the replies :-)

 

I'll definitely take all the suggestions on board, might see how i can go with 2x collecting boxes (have to see what i can ebay), the extra dominus is an option which is fairly easy to find on ebay cheap, and the two of everything makes sense ill just have to see what i can get a hold of (and not break the bank entirely lol).

 

one quick thing, what is the general consensus (with regards to 8th at least), for electro priests and ironstriders/dragoons, what is the best configuration? from the 3++ talk i take it the stave priest is better? and for the chicken walkers, shooty or the lancer one?

[Yoda79]

Atm one of the best lists we try to make work is

 

https://www.frontlinegaming.org/2017/09/24/incontrols-admech-list-and-tactics/

 

Lots of robots lots of dragoons. Mars Stygia.

 

Cawl with 4-6 Robots range roll 9-18 shots / robot amd reroll all and use wrath of mars stratgem for mortals.

 

A big unit of 3-6 dragoons stygia can infiltrate and use stratagem that gives them with their data thether +2 hit and 4+ taser explode for extra hits.

 

If you gonna take a knight then keep in mind you ll need a stygia or lucius dogma dominus hq to baby:cuss the knight. Extra healing for warlord trait extra healing from relic and stratgem. Crusader knight is the best option for ad mech.

 

Onagers i use neutronagerd only. Troops stock for detachments low cost and cp s. 2* batt seems to be famous atm?

 

Snipers also work. Datasmith can pretend to be enginseers .

 

Priests are complex. You need a plan for them. So far its being know a 20 man range priests lucius for deep strike and pew pew. Or a 10+ staff priests for infltrate. New gem 3 cp makes priest fight twice in melee. So its expensive but makes a tactic on its own. If you just want to see them you can add 10 range as screener on your onagers short range but good overwatch. Or counter unit of 5 -10 . Hide them los and counter assault any threats.

 

Enjoy

 

P.s Robots if you find buy till 4-6. Start collecting *3 can be a good deal. Even two but not bad if 3. Troop options onagers etc.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Yoda79