Editing Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Mechanicum Tactics (section)

===Fast Attack===
*'''Arlatax Battle-Automata Maniple''': One big robot armed with two power blade arrays that have in-built light autocannons, a plasma cannon, and an Utan jump booster (more on that in the Ursarax entry). It has ''Hammer of Wrath (1)'' and an atomantic deflector, giving it a 5++ Invulnerable save and protection from ''Instant Death'', not that it needed much protection from ID since it's Toughness 6 with 4 Wounds. They can reasonably hold their own in combat this edition with WS4, S7 and 3 Attacks base (5 with power blade arrays, 4 with arc scourges) and its Initiative is pretty good for a Mechanicum robot (yes, 4 is good for an Automata). Poor Arly has seen a fairly harsh nerf to his weapons in 2.0, since he no longer gets his awesome S+2 AP2 lightning claws and is now stuck with S-User AP4 ''Breaching (5+)'' power blade arrays, which will be effective against Militia and Auxilia hordes, but inconsistant against MEQs and TEQs. These can be swapped out for arc scourges, which you should do in most cases as they are much better than the power blade arrays, being S+2 AP3 with ''Rampage (D3)'' and ''Disruption (5+)'', allowing them to punch tanks to death and go all out with extra attacks when they are outnumbered by Tactical Marines. The unit can contain two more Arlatax, while a maniple made up of a single Arlatax can become a ''Paragon of Metal''. Arlatax are no longer the auto-take monsters they were last edition, but they can still be effective when used in the right way.
**If you take arc scourges, your Arlatax will gain ''Rampage (D3)'' when he gets outnumbered by two militia bumble-fucks, making them more effective anti-horde/infantry weapons.
***You might find it strange that Arlatax don't have ''Bulky (X)'', despite being big 4 Wound robots. Thing is, Automata can't enter transports or buildings and, as ''Bulky (X)'' makes it much harder to be outnumbered in combat, this would also fuck over any Automata which has access to ''Rampage (X)''. This is probably why no Automata have the ''Bulky (X)'' rule; they neither need it (no Embarking) nor want it (model count during melee combat).
**Arlatax don't have any official FW models, so if you want them, you need to convert them out of a Domitar or something.
***Honestly FW, I love your work (but not your pricing) and a fast, hulking hunched-over long-blade, dakka-clawed, plasma firing, murder-bot is a fucking amazing concept. '''HOW IS THERE STILL NO MODEL AFTER ALMOST A DECADE WTF CHAPS'''

*'''Ursarax Cohort''': A squad of three WS4/BS3 Thallaxii with melee weapons and Iron Man chest lasers. They come equipped with two lightning claws which give them 4 Attacks each and, for every three models, one Ursarax can be upgraded to take two power fists instead, but that Ursarax only has 3 attacks if this option is chosen. Unfortunately, they have seen a bit of a nerf this edition as they are now only S4, meaning they wound marines on 4's with their claws and they can't ID T5 models with power fists and, as stated above, only one model in three can take power fists now. The volkite incinerator in their chests is a 10" range volkite charger when it fires, but in melee it can be "fired" at an Infantry model the Ursarax is in combat with instead of fighting with its claws/fists, in which case it "fires" a S6 AP2 ''Instant Death'' hit against the Infantry unit (I would assume it uses the Ursarax's WS since when it's used in this way as it's classed as a melee weapon).
**Their Utan jump booster can up their Movement to a flat 12", which makes charges easier thanks to the new charge bonuses units get for having higher Movement values and allows them to ''Deep Strike'' and still let them Embark on transports; however, they can't Run anymore, but that's not really a problem. 
***Bit miffed by these guys not having ''Hammer of Wrath (X)''; they had it in the previous edition via their jump packs, all other MEQ jump infantry have it, but these guys?  Could be an oversight?  They've effectively gained an extra attack each via fancy lightning claws over the last edition, but lost HoW, which, to be fair, given their -1S nerf to S4 might be a fair trade. Would you rather take an additional S4 AP- attack at I10, or an additional AP3 attack at I2(!) with ''Shred'' & ''Rending (6+)'', assuming that enough models survive to the Initiative 2 step to take advantage? You decide.
***They've also had their ''Feel No Pain (5+)'' knobbled down to a ''Feel No Pain (6+)'' from HH 1.0. I assume that the missing point was mystically moved to the Thallax Cohort for their new ''Feel No Pain (6+)''.

*'''Vorax Battle-Automata Maniple''': The killer mantis-bots have gotten a lot zippier with non-fixed movement ranges, not only getting ''Scout'', but also having a high speed, ''Fleet (2)'' and the ''Light'' sub-type, so running makes these things cross the board even faster. If you're worried about anything trying to outrun them, each Vorax also comes equipped with two rotor cannons; not the strongest guns, but they ''can'' pin foes while the Vorax charges in with its S-User AP4 ''Rending (5+)'' power blade arrays.
**Each one comes with a lightning gun, which got a pretty decent improvement by being able to alternate between a rather light crowd-clearer and the heavier shot that can go through armour. One in three of the bots can instead replace that with an irad-cleanser, allowing the unit to more reliably take down mobs at the cost of its effectiveness against most things with a decent armour save.
 
*'''Vultarax Strato-Automata Squadron:''' No longer deemed a Vehicle, the Vultarax is now an ''Antigrav'' Castellax with T6, though it's way faster thanks to its Stratos thrusters, allowing it to change its Movement from the basic M8 to an insane M16 on any turn. There are pretty much entirely for harassing at range, with the arc blaster letting it zap through bots and tanks and its two havoc launchers let it shell anything else, especially with ''Djinn-sight'' effectively nullifying cover. This turns the Vultarax Squadrons into mobile harassment units, no longer pseudo-fighters like before, but more along the lines of Land Speeders in how they can attack.
**In one helpful addition, ''Surveillance Protocols'' lets the Vultarax ignore ''Programmed Behavior'' during the charge phase. Of course, these things lack melee weapons of any sort, so it only makes sense that this thing won't automatically throw itself away the moment a Magos with a cortex controller isn't there to stop its suicidal stupidity.
***With the arc blaster being AP5, it's hampered by a decent save (MEQ/TEQ) on any Infantry it wounds (which it is very good at), but ''Disruption (4+)'' makes it brutal against most Vehicles, with a 50% chance to auto-Glance regardless of AV. That's the main reason you take the Vultarax, so you can bypass the decent AV on expensive Vehicles as all of its weapons against MEQ and better, despite the number of hits they can rack up, are still only AP5. Also, the Vultarax lost its power blades from the last edition... not that you really want this in melee.

*'''Mechanicum Tarantula Sentry Gun Battery<sup>Legacies</sup>:''' Remember how everyone laughed at the Legions' Tarantulas for being useless because they had two guns but could only shoot them once because they forgot [[RAGE|'''one single rule''']]? Well, GW's sterling rules writers did that shit again because they're incapable of learning from their mistakes! That's right, you've got a pair of heavy bolters (or lascannons), [[Derp|but can only fire one of them at the closest target they can see]] at a measly BS2. If you sprung for the Hyperios missile launcher, then you're struggling with the fact that you have a ''Skyfire'' weapon that'll only shoot at the closest enemies they can find, even if that enemy isn't flying at all (and no, Assault Marines do not count).

*'''Mechanicum Termite Assault Drill<sup>Legacies</sup>:''' Well, look who fucking came back... [[FAIL|and now cannot be a DT for your Adsecularis,]] meaning you're wasting a Fast Attack slot that could've been spent on more robots. At least they're as useful to you as they are to the Legions, because these give you a singular way of Deep Striking onto the field, especially when supported by the Ordinatus Aktaeus.