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The Adeptus Mechanicus are the creepy, tech-savvy and tech-crazy priesthood without whom the Imperium would utterly fail. Theirs is the strangest religious dogma that is widely accepted as a specific sect of the Imperial Cult. Basically people turn a blind eye to the differences and everyone gets their tech looked after!

This is Warhammer 40,000, a tabletop wargame and I am doing my own review on the Warhammer Community preview. By doing these I give some other players a more in-depth idea of how these rules work or why they are written a certain way and I get to LEARN them really well!

Eye Candy

An Adeptus Mechanicus army actually has quite a few models in them but they are generally a bit better quality per person than an Astra Militarum army. In the robes on the gantry you will spy some Skitarii, who make up the bulk of the armies commanded by the priesthood.

Mechanical horses, tanks and a very steampunk flier... these nerds have great style!

Army Rule - Doctrina Imperatives

Right, onwards to the Army Rule. An Army Rule is something that ALL Mechanicus armies will have, regardless of the Detachment they are fielded in.

Simply put, at the start of any Battle Round (This means regardless of who goes first, before the player who goes first plays) you select one of two Imperatives for your army to choose. Everyone with the Doctrina Imperatives Army Rule will then be affected by one or the other.

One is Defensive - Protector Imperative

• Ranged Weapons gain the Heavy ability. This is a USR(Universal Special Rule) which means that if the unit remains stationary in the Movement phase, they will get a Plus 1 to Hit
• If your unit is inside your Deployment Zone and is hit by a ranged weapon, reduce the Armor Penetration of the attack by 1.

The other is Offensive - Conqueror Imperative

• Ranged weapons gain the Assault ability. Another USR. This one means that your unit can move and run (An Advance move where you roll a D6 and add the units' M characteristic) AND you still get to shoot!
• If you target enemies in their Deployment Zone with a ranged weapon, add 1 to your weapon's Armor Penetration!

This is a crazy good Army rule. Depending on what you can expect from the shooting of the enemy, you can choose to reduce their ability to shoot at you while you get better at digging in and shooting.

Or you can sprint forward, still shooting everything, as well as deal extra damage to units the opponent is trying to keep dug in.

Detachment Rule - Rad-Cohort

Even MORE scary is the Rad Cohort.

At the start of the first Battle Round your opponent must choose to either take cover or to stand firm.

If you take cover, your unit starts the game Battle-Shocked. Which means they have an Objective Control of 0 and cannot use Stratagems.

If you stand firm you the Mechanicus player rolls a die per unit. On a 3+ that unit suffers D3 mortal wounds!

After this, every battle round's start for each enemy unit in the enemy's Deployment Zone, the Mechanicus player rolls a D6 and on a 3+ the unit suffers 1 Mortal wound.

This is crazy, meaning with Conqueror Imperative AND Rad-Cohort, enemies are not going to do well sitting in their deployment zones!

Unit Spotlight - Skitarii Vanguard

This unit is the bread and butter of the Mechanicus.

They have the same toughness and Armor as Guardsmen, but have a 6+ Invulnerable Save.

They are Rad-Saturates which means that within 3" of them an enemy loses 1 OC per model.

There is a Wargear option that refunds you 1CP after you use a Stratagem on them on a roll of a 5+.

Another wargear ability is an Omnispex with gives you Ignores Cover USR to the ranged weapons in the unit.

I am not sure who gets what gun but they have options for some serious damage output for such a humble Battleline unit.

Small tidbit

This is not a whole Datasheet. The Battle-nerds have a unit called Sicarian Ruststalkers and they have this rule: Optimised Gait.

In a nutshell Plus 1 to Advange and Charge rolls but within 6" of Battleline units add 2 to Advance and Charge rolls!

Unit Spotlight - Creepy Crawly!

Belisarius Cawl is the Fabricator General of Mars and one of the High Lords of Terra. He is technically so augmented and huge that he now counts as a Monster!

He has a lot of stuff on him.

• A really nasty gun

• Some big attacks as well as additional Extra Attacks

• High stats, toughness and great armor and invulnerable saves.

• The Ability to self-heal D3 wounds per Battle Round

• Canticles of the Omnissiah which gives you the ability to choose 1 of the following per Player Turn.

  • 6" of this model, get Plus 1 to Hit
  • 6" of this model, re-roll Battle Shock tests
  • 6" of this model, units gain Stealth USR

Without knowing points costs he seems very solid and useful. He seems like a no-brainer for a unit to include in your army!

Weapon Spotlight

The Eradication Beamer seems to be mounted on the Dunecrawler and has 2 firing modes. It is a no-brainer though because instead of an anti-infantry and anti-tank option, the one is just stronger at closer range and more dispersed at longer ranges.

Stratagems

Only possibly if you are in Conqueror Imperative, a unit can charge after Advancing. This actually means they could Advance move, shoot with everything, and then charge! Very powerful!

Like two sides of a coin, this Stratagem is only possible when you are in Protector mode.

You select a unit that is the target of attacks but the attacks have not yet been made. That unit now gains a 4+ invulnerable save until the end of the turn!
Amazing!

And that's it.

So far we can see some tough units but some major buffs while the Rad Cohort leaves some passive damage spread every Battle Round to the enemy!

I am looking foward to seeing the rest of their army!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa