Adeptus Mechanicus Codex - April

[MajorNese]

Some kind of morale buff would be good. In the Skitarius novel the techpriests could override the Skitarii's instinct for self-preservation. Why not represent that on the tabletop with a Ld 10, or some kind of Tyranid Synapse type of rule while the Skitarii are within a certain range of a Techpriest? Maybe even a 2 or 3 point strategem to make all of your Skitarii immune to morale for a turn?

 

I also think Kataphrons should just be Ld 10, period.

We can already get Skitarii (which are expendable units) to rerollable Ld8 (Astartes with ATSKNF). Exactly by establishing connection to the techpriest masters (mentioned in the novel, as bad as that one was), and not any random member of the priesthood. Why should a random enginseer override skitarii?

 

Servitors don't have fear per se, but the low Ld reflects their extremely simplistic programming. They are rather overwhelmed/confused by the dynamic of the situation and not programmed to deal with whatever just tore out most of their unit.

And if you want them Ld10, why not go for the Holy Order Warlord trait designed to deal with servitors and make them completely immune? That would be the override you are looking for.

 

Also, the HH dilemma - if every faction is super brave and fearless, why have a morale system at all? "Yes, sure, but my faction is awesome in fluff" is no reason to make everyone immune.

Edited March 25, 2021 by MajorNese

[Magos Takatus]

Also, the HH dilemma - if every faction is super brave and fearless, why have a morale system at all? "Yes, sure, but my faction is awesome in fluff" is no reason to make everyone immune.

 

I seem to recall a few rule editions ago we had that very problem, morale was almost never having an effect because everyone was so well-trained or resilient. 

 

You've proved our army had quite a few options in the toolbox for dealing with morale. Let's see what the new codex brings. :)

[Prot]

Good news everyone!

 

Earlier in this thread I said that one of my big wishlist items was a way to truly integtrate Knights into AdMech without it costing a fortune in CP or screw up the balance of the Forgeworld Dogma.

 

So I just saw a new Metallica Strat in Book of Rust. Basically called "Knight of the Iron Cog" allows you to select one knight for 1 CP pregame. You can add a House Raven Knight to the army and it gains Canticles.

 

This is great news as it indicates we will hopefully all be able to do this. The weird thing is this doesn't say it is limited to 1 time, and since it is a pre game, I have to wonder if you can include multiples? 

 

Regardless I'm just happy to see the ability is coming out and it will be interesting to see how it is treated in the full codex in April.

Edited March 26, 2021 by Prot

[Subtle Discord]

Excellent news, let's hope you're correct.

 

I started dabbling with Knights when it became apparent that my AdMech would really benefit from a large threat to anchor the army. Then the shift to 9th had me toss that idea in the bin. Of all the sub-factions that should be able to synergize reasonably easily with AdMech you'd think it would be Knights, so this would be a welcome change.

[Deffrekka]

 

He's so far beaten me on superior board control I feel bad for having a unit that just  sit there and makes large chunks of his army disappear. I suppose I could attempt to magnetise them into the melee Kastelan build for varieties' sake? 

Yeah, dakkabots are not a very subtle unit. On the one hand, you can wait for the new codex and see if they change a bit for more variety, on the other hand magnetizing is never a bad idea.

 

The thing with the Kastellans is that when you nerf Heavy Phosphor Blasters to Heavy 2 your effect the other units that have them like the Onager and the Stratoraptor. Really the Kastellans shoudl just get Phosphor weapons unique to them as really they dont even look like Heavy Phosphor Blasters. And whilst im certain they will loose double shoot, I dont think they will get that nerfed into the ground. They will probably loose rerolls to hit, but thats more for you Mars players out there that run Cawl. In the game right now with the new Codexes there are still some pretty OP stuff out there or things that are just too good for their cost. Kastellans will probably move more to getting BS3 (because why shouldnt they...), being better in CC with their fists and maybe getting unique guns just for them. Fulgurites will most likely loose access to their 3++ and 2++. Raiders might not have their strat to move away from chargers. But mainly I expect a lot of units to get better and the faction to be reworked. Whether thats a massive rework or a tiny one we will see in April but I imagine Canticles wont stay the same as they are now, same with our Dominus and the new Marshal with how they interact with our army. I dont think they will just be sources of reroll 1s to hit or wound.

 

I think your probably right about our Rangers and Vanguard loosing access to 2-3 of the same special weapon, weve seen this with Blightlords, Plague Marines, Wyches. I do hope we get AP1 on our Galvanic weapons. They are like the only weapon going from 7th to 8th that didnt get AP1 for being an AP4 weapon like Heavy Bolters/Autocannons and the lot. I dont think Radium weapons will get changed, the Metallica warlord trait kind of reinforces that for me tbh. Sicarians of all types, Onagers and Dragoons I really hope get some love. Ive stuck to using Onagers since they first came out, didnt go to the Skorpius and up until 9th they feel pretty unique. They lost something that made them different amongst the other main battle tanks out their and then they all got double shooting turrets or +1 to hit and the Onager just has a fancy invuln.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Deffrekka

[Prot]

Yea Onagers are such cool models but there's a few problems with them:

1 is the loss of unique ability (as you mention) and the arms race has them left doing far too little. They have this great looking platform and just are far too lackluster to keep up with the modern equivalent in other armies.

 

2 is the Skorpius simply has indirect. Admech desperately needed indirect. We have so many flimsy and/or slow units that to be competitive we greatly needed indirect to keep us in those games with hyper aggressive armies. 

 

I have played literally dozens of games using the Skorpius since inception. EVERY time I tried going back to the Onager, I regretted it instantly.

 

3. is the Battalion. We don't see squadrons in our heavies, so the tank chassis takes up a 1 to 1 slot. We need our CP's, and it just means that the heavy slot is just extremely hotly contested for with Admech.

Edited March 27, 2021 by Prot

[Magos Takatus]

The thing with the Kastellans is that when you nerf Heavy Phosphor Blasters to Heavy 2 your effect the other units that have them like the Onager and the Stratoraptor. Really the Kastellans shoudl just get Phosphor weapons unique to them as really they dont even look like Heavy Phosphor Blasters. 

 

 

It's interesting that you mention this, since we discussed this before in a thread. The general consensus seemed to be that the Onager should get a more powerful version of the Heavy Phosphor Blaster since it's much larger than the other versions and it's the sole armament of the Onager (ignoring a bolt-on heavy stubber). If anything the Onager should get the ability to hurl out tons of Phosphor rounds because the tank would have much larger ammo stores and most likely better loading and cooling systems compared to the ones simply bolted onto Kastelans and our flier.

 

My personal preference would be that the double shooting feature on Kastelans be replaced with an accuracy increase so that it could be explained with the background as some improved targeting computer. That way Heavy Phosphor Blaster output would be more consistent across the army and the Kastelans would get the inevitable nerf that GW will hit them with.

 

I hope they don't mess with the special weapon limitations for our basic infantry since I have squad numbers applied as decals on my models and replacing that would be problematic. I guess we will have to see how that one pans out.