Interested in HH and Mechanicum

[Silvereyes]

As the title says. Interested in getting into the Horus Heresy game, and specifically, the Mechanicum faction.

 

Currently play 40K, slowly reading up and getting primed for 11th edition. I still enjoy 40K, but GW's insistence on tournament play really doesn't interest me. Bit fed up of symmetrical L shaped ruins. Some people at my club play HH, and say it is a lot more of a narrative focused game, but more complicated and unbalanced, neither of which I mind. Really, I'm just trying to understand what makes HH so different from modern 40K?

 

As for faction, well, the only one I have any real interest in is Mechanicum. Is the Combat Force a good starting point, possibly even 2 of them? A lot of the range is still in resin, and I know in recent years GW has had a push to make new plastic versions. Is it perhaps worth trying to hold off buying the resin stuff? Can I ally in something like a Knight with my Mechanicum? What sortof model count would you be looking at for a 3000 point list?

 

Sorry for the simple questions. I am genuinely interested in this game, and from the positive stuff my club members tell me about it. I am considering perhaps starting with the Combat Force, building and playing with that, to try and get a start. Although I think I also need a character as well to make it legal?

 

Thank you.

[MDops]

I don't know how much help I can provide, I'm sure others will jump in as well at some point.

 

For the combat force, yeah its a good start. The three units you get in it can be staples for army lists. The Thanatar can be a bit harder to fit into an army list due to the slot its in but not impossible to get multiple.

 

I'm not 100% on knights in 30k but from GW's own mouth the Lord of war detachment can be used to add knights.

 

In terms of model count, I'm going to be somewhat unhelpful, as your probably going to be somewhere between militia on the high end and custodes on the low end. Really depends on your army and what your adding. For example 4 Castellax is about the same as 20 tech thralls.

 

On Plastic vs Resin, yes the plastic will probably be cheaper but if you like the sculpts then there is a chance the resculpt won't have the same appeal.

[SlickSamos]

Good questions!

 

11 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Is the Combat Force a good starting point, possibly even 2 of them?

One seems excellent, two depends vibes but they are a more cost effective way of expanding your force than buying Thralls.

 

11 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Is it perhaps worth trying to hold off buying the resin stuff?

Yes and/or convert models for Characters.  I've also spotted a couple of converted characters for 40k on second hand sites for a reasonable price.

 

11 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Can I ally in something like a Knight with my Mechanicum?

Allying is super encouraging by the rules of this edition. Knights, Militia (with specific army rules), Iron Hands and Iron Warriors make the coolest allies in my opinion!

 

11 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

What sortof model count would you be looking at for a 3000 point list?

Lots if using Thralls, not many if using big bots and tanks...  But maybe around 10 to 20 units?

 

11 hours ago, Silvereyes said:

Although I think I also need a character as well to make it legal?

Yes you will need a number of tech priest type characters - buy these second hand from the 40k ranges is the cheapest approach.

 

You can hit over 1000 pts with 2 Combat Forces and 2 HQ type characters so if using second hand and other retailers you can build it for about £200.  No idea if it'll be any good though...

 

Alternatively a Combat Force, some HQs, and some Skitarii and/or Tech Thralls could be a different starting 1000 pts but is a bit more money depending on what second hand models you can find for the Tech Thralls and Skitarii.

 

Books wise Mechanicum is the first one to read.  Then First Heretic and Betrayer have some fun Mechanicum characters and the books also link together which is always good.  Vengeful Spirit is fine but if you like Knights then it's got some scenes which go into their importance and politics - however for the story to make sense there are a few other books you'd also have to read...

[Silvereyes]

7 hours ago, SlickSamos said:

Allying is super encouraging by the rules of this edition. Knights, Militia (with specific army rules), Iron Hands and Iron Warriors make the coolest allies in my opinion!

 

Oh that's cool. So nothing like the Chaos Daemons debacle in 40K? I can bring in stuff from the Space Marines or Knights etc? The only big hiccup being I'd need to buy their respective books I assume? That's very cool, I wouldn't mind doing that. I do like some Space Marine and Knights stuff, just not enough for me to want to make it my army.

[Razorblade]

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

As the title says. Interested in getting into the Horus Heresy game, and specifically, the Mechanicum faction.

Mechanicum is easily the most fun faction currently so you're off to a good start 

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

Really, I'm just trying to understand what makes HH so different from modern 40K?

A terrible ruleset :D 

It's mostly a thing of where the heart of the game lies. Where 40ks sort of premier format is the gt, and that style of play is thus the norm, the platonic ideal of heresy gaming is something like a narrative campaign weekend. Nothing in the current rules makes the game inherently better at though (and really the rulebook might be a shock coming from 40k)

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

Is the Combat Force a good starting point, possibly even 2 of them? 

That depends on what kind of army you want to run. You'll pretty much always want the catellax, as they're a great bread and butter unit but the other two might be trickier to fit in(they're not "wrong" by any means though)

Personally I'd recommend borrowing a clubmates space marines for a game or two to get a feel of the game, then read the mechanicum book to figure out what you want. If you like the units in the box you can easily buy two or even three copies.

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

A lot of the range is still in resin, and I know in recent years GW has had a push to make new plastic versions. Is it perhaps worth trying to hold off buying the resin stuff? 

There isn't that much resin stuff left actually: 

Myrmidon Secutors are a great unit but their Destructor counterparts (which are out in plastic) can do a lot of tge same things. Vorax are largely redundant with castellax (though I love the look). The middle management techpriest can easily be sourced from the 40k range (or kitbashed from 40k scitarii), and you could probably use servitors from 40k to replace his servo-automata. Domitars and Moirax don't have equivalent units out in plastic but you can easily build a functional army without either. So yes, you can absolutely go all plastic to begin with and add these units if and when they come over.

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

Can I ally in something like a Knight with my Mechanicum?

You can add up to two knights as a lord of war Detachment without further prerequisites. These can then also bring a Detachment of Armigers.

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

What sortof model count would you be looking at for a 3000 point list?

Again that depends on the specific units, but if you're running a core of robots and bring an allied knight you can probably get away with as little as 20 Minis for a standard game

On 6/22/2026 at 2:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

I am considering perhaps starting with the Combat Force, building and playing with that, to try and get a start. Although I think I also need a character as well to make it legal?

You will definitely need characters, not just to unlock the other units but also because they're the heart, soul, bread, butter and cheese of the army, providing a wide array of buffs, healing and otherwise non-existent scoring abilities

[Xenith]

On 6/22/2026 at 1:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

Some people at my club play HH, and say it is a lot more of a narrative focused game, but more complicated and unbalanced

The army building is maybe slightly more complex until you get your head around it, but after that, the game is much much simpler to play - you have a mission, you do the mission. It doesnt change every turn and you dont have a million unique special rules and stratagems you need to remember to use. Things can be unbalanced, but like 40k this is when two peoples expectations of a game are misaligned. If you show up with a friendly one of each 40k list and your oppoent shows up with triple riptides or defilers, you'll have a much worse time than anything heresy can produce. 

 

On 6/22/2026 at 1:33 AM, Silvereyes said:

Is the Combat Force a good starting point, possibly even 2 of them?

It's a really good starting point - even better are the old mechanicum battlegroup or heavy support box which are still floating around in places. From there you just need some models to use as tech priests/magos. I've been using converted 40k skitarii as the lowest level of techpriest, and the new big 40k magos lady as a stand in for a magos on abeyant. 

[Silvereyes]

On 6/23/2026 at 1:41 PM, Razorblade said:

Personally I'd recommend borrowing a clubmates space marines for a game or two to get a feel of the game, then read the mechanicum book to figure out what you want. If you like the units in the box you can easily buy two or even three copies.

 

So on Wednesday, my friend is going to give me a tutorial game. He has 2 armies, so he's letting me use his Blood Angels against his Ultramarines. Looking forward to it.

 

Thanks for all the advice. I'll see how this game goes, and take it from there.

[Trokair]

On a slight Tangent. The 30k Skitarii Army List is a sort of separate mini faction with its own book and a smaller unit roster, but dose include a number of normal Mechanicum units (as a Skitarii version) mainly the tanks.

 

So if you want to test the waters with a small force with less rules to learn initially that might be worth considering, especially if you can source the skitarri battle group box from earlier this year from somewhere.

 

Also while the Skitarii are a semi separate sub faction they can ally into a Mechancium army easily.

Edited June 26 by Trokair

[Xenith]

One thing it's worth saying is that while the game is easier, mech is maybe the most complex faction to play with lots of overlapping rules. Three breast analogy I've heard is that mech is like an undead army in old fantasy, you're reliant on your casters/priest to buff the army and bring stuff back from the dead or repair it, while marine units are a bit more independent.

[Silvereyes]

So just as an update, I did have that tutorial game last week with my friend, and it was fun! Not sure I really understood a lot of it, I really don't grasp how AP works. The fight phase was really fun though! We had 2 characters go toe to toe with each other, and seeing how that played out was actually really cool. Saw a couple of reactions being used, and they seemed really fun too.

 

Saying that though, partly due to a couple of recent bills, and that my model backlog is already quite long, I won't be jumping into Horus Heresy just yet. I will be picking up the Core Rulebook and the Liber Mechanicum soon, and do some reading up on both. If GW decides to release more plastic Mechanicum and a battleforce to go with them in the future, I think there's a good chance I'll pick it up. 

 

I'll update this thread when I'm actually jumping into this. Thank you for all the advice you've given me so far.