Myrmidon
Myrmidons are what happens when a Tech Priest gets too trigger happy and are sent in what can be described as the militant branch within the ranks of the Adeptus Mechanicus of the Imperium. They are also known as siege engineers or war savants. They are awesome in that they can spew an unholy amount of Dakka while still frighteningly competent in close combat.
History
Apparently the origins of the organization are traced to pre-Imperial times as they stood as part of the armed forces of the Mechanicum of Mars when it was still a nation on its own. According to legend, they were reported to have entered into the Calixis Sector during the Angevin Crusade for reasons of their own. Their duty was the protection of the Cult Mechanicus strongholds within that region of space. Their base of operations within that area is within the Lathes system which serves as a mustering ground for the Myrmidons, who often are dispatched in small bands to reinforce the defenses of the Mechanicus as well as to seek out and destroy their enemies. Whilst they are largely independent, they are linked to the Archmagi of Lathe who serve as guarantors of their dominion.
Overview
Myrmidons are noted to be fucking scary and deadly. They are both masters in Dakka and Choppa and are thus, considered as expert killers, weapon masters and destroyers. They are often sent at the behest of the Archmagi of Forge Worlds to accompany Explorators during their expeditions of dangerous sectors of space as well as aid in the capture of the most dangerous of Xenos specimens to experiment and maybe do battle against each other (Who knew the Mechanicus are fans of Pokemon?). Sometimes, members of the Myrmidon are sent on missions involving renegade Techpriests who are accused of the foulest of techno-heresies (Such as inventing new untested stuff without authorization of the Magos, defiling STC and Archaeo-Tech, abusing the Machine Spirit of rare weapons of war and fapping to images of women getting defiled horribly rather than fapping to the curvatures of a toaster) and are thus targeted with extreme prejudice. To aid them in their tasks, some of these Myrmidons are known to carry ancient and powerful weapons that are relics of the distant past and are augmented heavily in Dragon Scale Armour for defense.
Members of the Auxilia Myrmidon are noted as being towering figures who possess numerous hardpoints for weapons of arcane design. They are great war makers with knowledge of siege craft, devastation and weaponry making them without any peer that can match their abilities. Whilst they are few in number, they are heavily augmented with the most powerful of their ranks being nearly impossible to kill. They are a source of fear and awe amongst the worshipers of the Machine God and are cybernetically reconstructed to a level beyond that of Enginseers and precepts.
They will fuck your TEQ's like half-melted butter, you have been warned.
Ranks
Due to being more of a militant group. Myrmidons have their own specialized rank to denote seniority and experience.
- Secutor
- Myrmidon
- Centurius
- Tribune / Magnus
- Magos Militant
- Destructor
Of course, the most well known of them are the Secutors and Destructors.
Secutor
Secutors devote themselves to the art of warfare with a fervor other Tech Priests normally reserve for tinkering with ancient technology. To them, the protection of the technological mysteries of the Machine Cult, from those who would misuse them, is a far greater concern than anything else, including human lives and the other concerns of the Mechanicus.
Secutors often have extensive martial enhancements such as pistol-armed mechadendrites, brutal close combat weapons and the special machinator array that vastly enhances their bulk, armours up their internal organs and increases the ability for weapon systems to interface with their implants.
Some Tech Priests become secutors because of a hatred of tech-heretics and love of war and conflict, while others are fascinated by the intellectual challenges of warfare, strategy or perhaps a love of weaponsmithing. Others, of course, merely use the path of the Secutor as a mean to further their political power, not minding extensive grafts of siege weaponry to their body if it means coming ahead in the Adeptus. At the behest at their Archmagos masters of the Forge World they hail from, Secutors are sent along with explorator fleets, Imperial Guard regiments and Rogue Traders to retrieve ancient technology, often where such retrieval is made extremely dangerous by the presence from xenos or Chaos forces, and the martial skill of a Secutor is needed to ensure the protection of tech-treasures.
In the Horus Heresy tabletop, these are some tough, mean, sons-of-bitches. T5 W2 3+/5++, 120 points for 2 Secutors + 1 Lord without the weapons. Can add 7 Secutors (+35 pts each) and must equip two weapons on each (ranges from +10 pts to +20 each, doubles don't twin-link). Can fire the two weapons in a single phase at the same target, Relentless but cannot run or make a sweeping advance. Annoyingly not that great an option as they cost so many damn points: At cheapest a squad will cost 180 which will give them either a combination of 2 Maxim bolters, 2 Volkite chargers or 50/50.
You may notice both are assault weapons and the squad as standard comes with a Power Axe, so one could potentially use them as a sort of heavy assault trooper; a job that is immensely better performed by the Castellax automata. At an average cost of 75 per model for 2X Phased Plasma-Fusils you can get an extremely unpleasant marine killer! Unfortunately, this is its only especially useful set-up.
Destructor
Destructors or Myrmidon Destructors are heavy Tech Priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus who have joined the Auxilia Myrmidon and become long-range weapons specialists dedicated to the art of destruction. They specialized particularly in the destruction of enemy armored and fortified emplacements, and wielded all manner of esoteric and arcane weapons, against which conventional defenses offered little protection. Thus they are outfitted with heavy weaponry that can melt your tanks into molten soufflé and vaporize your troops into a charred crater. They have vastly augmented their bodies with bionics and heavy weapons such as the Volkite Culverin, Conversion Beamer, and Irradiation Engine.
As with the rest of their Myrmidon brethren, the Destructors became an increasingly important faction on many Forge Worlds on both sides of the divide of the civil war during the Horus Heresy, particularly on those Forge Worlds which became isolated and were forced to rely on their own defenses, and on those, such as the worlds of the Anvillus System, where war was all but constant and planets changed hands back and forth in repeated tides of bloodshed.
Destructors are often best used to take on heavy units and tanks if Kataphrons aren't available in your army table.
On the Horus Heresy tabletop, these are similar to the Myrmidon Sectors, but have Preferred Enemy (Everything!), which is pretty great at BS5, though they can only pick 1 weapon. Also, their models are freaking awesome. Their options are all more specialized to targeting a specific type of enemy and as such it's best to give them all one type of weapon rather than picking and choosing between several (with the exception of Irradiation Engines), give them all Volkite Culverins to watch Orks and Guard (or any 5+ save unit) cry all day long, on average without cover saves you'll actually kill more models than you shoot. Photon Thruster Cannons are good at forcing Primarchs to take a lot of saves and chip away at Terminator squads thanks to their AP2 and incredible range. Irradiation Engines are your Marine removers, giving the whole squad these is overkill (remember that Torrent weapons can be placed differently to a standard Flamer), and considering how much 2+ armour there is in 30K it's better used alongside the Photon Thruster, either to remove the 2+ Sergeant before nuking the squad, or using it to wipe the squad and exposing the Sergeant before shooting him. Lastly Conversion Beamers are only really the optimal choice if you're up against other Mechanicum where you'll likely be facing a lot of high Toughness monsters and the S6 from the Photon Thrusters doesn't quite cut it, but at that point you're better off with a Thanatar.