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Age of Darkness-Warhammer 30k/2.0 Tactics/Mechanicum Tactics

2022-08-25T16:16:57Z

2001:8003:1C20:8C00:A8CD:9467:E3:941A: /* Special Characters */

''From the [[Heresy|weakness of the mind]], Omnissiah save us'' 
''From the [[Dark Mechanicum|lies of the Antipath]], Circuit preserve us'' 
''From the [[Men of Iron|rage of the Beast]], [[Pauldrons|Iron]] protect us'' 
''From the [[NSFW|temptations of the Flesh]], Silica cleanse us'' 
''From the [[Horus Heresy|ravages]] of the [[Chaos Gods|Destroyer]], [[Machine Spirit|Anima]] shield us'' 
''From this [[Imperium of Man|rotting cage of biomatter]], [[Omnissiah|Machine God]] set us free''.

Ave Omnissiah!

These are the current rules for the Horus Heresy era Mechanicum, featured in Liber Mechanicum – Forces of the Omnissiah Army Book.

== Why Play The Mechanicum? ==
[[File:Belicosa_Potentis_Omnissiah.png|400px|thumbnail|right|Start at the top, and requisition your way to the bottom.]]

You've seen the models, right? For the first time since Rogue Trader, the followers of the Machine God can take to the field en masse! You can embody the grimdark universe of Warhammer <s>40,000</s> 30,000 with your exotic Martian death-rays, terrifying Battle-automata and horrific Cybernetic monstrosities.

Also? Robots.

At the beginning the force used to be divided between the three ordos of the Mechanicum: the footsloggin MCs of the Legio Cybernetica, the more complete Taghmata (vanilla) and the extremely limited Ordo Reductor. This led to question why would anyone ever use Reductor when the Taghmata list [[Fail|had better siege]] engines. The most recent update, however, offers you six Orders of High Tecno-Arcana to choose from.

The list is still fairly small, with limited unit choices, but a large amount of flexibility within many of these units, and many units have been yeeted in 2.0. Furthermore, almost all the models are FW resin. Be warned, this is a slippery slope that may result in the loss of financial security, family, friends and house...

Also, '' '''BIG''' Robots''!

Unusually for Forge World, the Mechanicum is one of the cheapest armies to get in to. It's possible to start an army with a single Magos, and a pair of Castellax or small Thallax Cohorts (Adsecularis if you really want to break the mold!). The army lists, whilst capable of standing alone, are intended to be used as allies for the Legion army list. As a starting point for a new army, this is ideal, as you need even less to get have something you can field. Mechanicum units provide you with some unique possibilities for conversions, too! Take a cursory glance around Coolminiornot or a painting forum and you'll find some damn fine examples. Of course, if this is not your thing, Forge World's own models are more than capable of satisfying any model fanatic.

==Special Rules==
===Advanced Reaction===
*'''Advanced Reaction - "Scornful Fire":''' Triggered when the enemy shoots a unit containing an Independent Character. This unit can immediately shoot that enemy if they're within 12".

===Army Special rules===
*'''Disruption (X+):''' The common rule for Arc weapons, this gun will deal instant glancing hits on vehicles and auto-wounds dreads and automata on an X+ to hit. If you played in the pre-8th days of 40k, this rule should be giving you uncomfortable shudders of the old Gauss guns.
*'''Data-Djinn:''' Weapons with this rule will not hurt any enemies that lack the Vehicle, Automata or Dreadnought unit types.
*'''God-Engine:''' Your Ordinatus and titans are all-out immune to psykers and cybertheurgy, not to mention ''Haywire'' and ''Disruption (X+)'' - any weapons using those rules must use their base Strength to wound your superheavies. In addition, any units within 12" of this God-Engine count as ''Fearless'', which is a serious buff for your troops.
*'''Paragon of Metal:''' The special character upgrade for a lone Automata (Cybernetica) unit. This unit replaces the Cybernetica subtype with the Paragon Subtype as well as +1 to Wounds and WS, ''It Will Not Die (4+)'', ''Precision Strikes (4+)'', ''Precision Shots (4+)'' and ''Rampage (2)''. Simply put, this is a Primarch made of steel.
*'''Patris Cybernetica:''' Allows the Independent Character to join a unit with the Automata type or Monstrous subtype. Note that this won't work on anything else with the Monstrous subtype or Automata type, meaning your Magi on Abeyants can't fly alongside their pet Vulturax despite wishing to.
*'''Reactor Meltdown:''' As expected from a Titan, if it catastrophic damage, it explodes in fantastic fashion. ''Magna'' (Reserved for the Warhound) makes the explosion deal Destroyer hits, ''Major'' makes those Destroyer hits AP2 and ''Maxima'' (For the Warlord) doubles the range of this explosion.

===Warlord Traits===
All generic Mechanicum Warlords from all three lists have the option of getting a Warlord trait from one of the charts in the main rulebook, or rolling on their own unique chart:

#'''A Soul of Cold Iron:''' The Warlord and any unit with 6" may still declare charges if they are under the effect of ''Pinning'' but are still subject to Snap-Firing. He also allows an additional reaction during the movement phase.
#'''The Logic of Victory:''' If the warlord has not shot, or is not locked in combat the whole army may make an additional reaction in all phases of the following turn. In addition the Warlord and a unit he is attached to gain +1 WS and BS during reactions, and +3 Movement and Initiative during movement based reactions.
#'''The Science of Slaughter:''' For each turn this Warlord is locked in combat (so staring on the 2nd round) he gains +1S and Strength for each round of combat he is in. After he has left the combat, his Strength and WS return to normal. The army may also make an additional reaction during the Assault Phase.

===Cybertheurgy===
[[Omnissiah|Psychic powers for machines]]. No, seriously. They're pretty much running the same rules as Psychic powers, only now you have your own unique ''Cybertheurgist'' unit sub-type. In addition, failing a Cybertheurgy check only deals 1 wound to the cybertheurgist, a fairly light injury for most magi but this becomes d3 wounds for vehicles or automata.

<tabs>
<tab name="Artificia Machina">
*'''Animatus Integro:''' Allows the Cybertheurgist to apply ''Battlesmith (X+)'' to anything within 12", extending their support range considerably as they don't need to contantly be touching things to repair them. If you pass a Cybertheurgy check, this makes a second repair as if you had rolled for Battlesmith repairs twice. It goes without saying that repairing your bots and tanks is a necessity, so being able to restore 2 HP/wounds or fixing a wound and a lost weapon is a massive gift.
*'''Animatus Excindor:''' A wild 12" Assault d6 S1 AP1 gun with ''Haywire'' and ''Data-Djinn''. This is basically devastating on any tanks or Automata you come across, though the swingy Assault d6 won't guarantee any kills and it's a waste against Terminators.
</tab>
<tab name="Artificia Cybernetica">
*'''Cybernetica Exortus:''' Instead of shooting, you can target a unit with at least one Automata unit within 12" and make a Cybertheurgy test. If successful, you can apply a buff to the entire unit (Re-roll charge distances, ignoring the first wound from the shooting phase, +1 BS, overriding Reaction restrictions). Note that this only requires one model in the unit to have the Automata type, meaning that this can even work with Techpriest Auxilia who lost more Servo-Automata.
*'''Mordeo Cogita:''' An instant-kill 12" Assault 1 S10 AP1 gun with ''Instant Death'' and ''Data-Djinn''. Pretty much custom-made to eradicate lone tanks and automata, but you'll need to guarantee that you're actually going to hit them in the first place.
</tab>
<tab name="Ephemera Incursus">
*'''Ephemera Perfidiae:''' Target one enemy vehicle or automata within 12" and you can make it shoot at its friends as snap shots because you managed to hijack its brain. If you make a successful Cybertheurgy check, these shots are made at the Cybertheurgist's base BS, not counting as snap shots. Whichever you choose, you just pissed off that engine so hard that it now gains ''Hatred (Cybertheurgists)'' for the rest of the game.
*'''Ephemera Exocluo:''' A 24" Assault 6 S3 gun with ''Data-djinn'', ''Blind'', and ''Vox Silence''. While this won't hurt anyone, Vox Silence knocks enemy Leadership and Blind can hit them pretty hard nonetheless. Following up with a melee squad can see that target easily routed.
</tab>
<tab name="Ephemera Lacyraemarta">
*'''Ephemera Instigare:''' Target a friendly Mechanicum infantry unit within 12". This unit can immediately move a distance equal to twice their Initiative bonus towards the closest enemy. If you pass a Cybertheurgy check, this unit also gets ''Hammer of Wrath (1)'' and ''Furious Charge (1)'', making this an ideal option for a melee-equipped pack of Thallaxi.
*'''Ephemera Excrusis:''' An AP3 melee weapon with ''Rad-Phage'', ''Fleshbane'' and ''Concussive (3)''. A pretty sick weapon that can easily soften up any enemies you fight for an incoming pack of Vorax.
</tab>
<tab name="Artifica Reductor">
*'''Portis Fractis:''' Target one occupied enemy building, fortification or transport within 12". A successful Cyertheurgy check must immediately bail out of their hiding spot and must make a pinning check, screwing over any camping snipers or heavy supports hiding in a bunker or a rhino carting tacs. Doesn't work on flyers or superheavies.
*'''Manos Ruinus:''' An ''Unwieldy'' and ''Cumbersome'' S10 AP1 melee weapon with ''Data-djinn'', ''Armourbane'', and ''Exoshock (3+)''. A ruinous weapon that'll only see use on tanks and dreads, but unlike the lascutters that can shoot, this can only be used as a melee weapon.
</tab>
</tabs>

===High Techno-Arcana===
Your specialised faction rules, which give you additional bonuses and buffs to units. Similar to the old Provenance of War that Imperial Auxilia used to get, these may be only taken if your army includes an Archmagos Prime, who may choose one High Techno-Arcana option for free. If your army includes more than one Archmagos Prime, then each must take a different option, which allows for some degree of overlap within the detachment.

<tabs>
<tab name="Archimandrite">
Your dedicated supports, these guys work on making sure everything stays working at peak performance, if not better. While this doesn't outright improve anything, your Techpriests won't complain about having new ways to support your tides of steel and your Archmagos Prime will now become an even stronger Cybertheurgist.
*''Bonds of Vassalage:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule must become the warlord. As a benefit, you can include a Mechanicum allied detachment, though any Archmagos Prime attached to that one cannot take this Techno-Arcana as well.
*''Magister Theurgica:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule can select another discipline of Cybertheurgy.
*''Master Technomancer:'' Units with ''Battlesmith (X+)'' gain two extra options when they repair things. One lets the unit use the Battlesmith's BS for shooting and the other gives vehicles the ''Power of the Machine Spirit'' rule.
</tab>
<tab name="Cybernetica">
You want to focus on robots and have them as Line units, better shooters, and making them joinable units of bodyguards. Generally meaning that you have less concern about what other unit types are doing.
*''Cohort Cybernetica:'' Your Castellax Battle Automa Maniples all become Line units and can therefore claim objectives.
*''Networked Sensorium Protocols:'' If models with the Automata unit type are within 12" of two models with Cortex Controllers, when those Automata make a shooting attack they may reduce any cover save the target has by -2.
*''Preservation Protocols:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the ''Patris Cybernetica'' rule and so may join units of Automata. In addition, when joined to a unit of Automata, all wounds that are inflicted upon them must first be allocated to the Automata models first, even those with the ''Precision Shots (X)'' or ''Sniper'' rules.
</tab>
<tab name="Lacyraemarta">
The spooky zombie-makers. Their bots might not see any improvements, but their Adsecularis and Myrmidons will now become tougher to remove with a toughness that almost seems to reflect the purity of steel.
*''Incorruptible Flesh:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule and any infantry units can only be affected by ''Rending'', ''Poisoned'' or ''Fleshbane'' weapons on a natural 6 to wound, making them hardier than anyone would expect.
*''Opus Viscera:'' Units with the ''Battlesmith (X+)'' rule can now repair infantry. A successful roll lets them either restore a lost wound (Though resurrecting a model is impossible) or immediately move a distance equal to twice the unit's Initiative.
*The Sanguine Hook:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Ephemera Lacyraemarta discipline of Cybertheurgy but cannot select any others.
</tab>
<tab name="Macrotek">
The guys who build buildings, fortresses and other fortifications in giant forges. Their rules focus on buffing terrain and fortifications.
*''High Enginseer:'' Techpriest Auxillia units may be taken as Troop Choices but they must take the Enginseer Techno-Arcana if they are taken as troops.
*''Moderati Munitoria:'' During the battles set up, but before objectives have been placed you may move up to 3 pieces of terrain up to 6" as long as they are 2" away from another piece of terrain.
*''Reactor Aedificii:'' Models with the ''Battlesmith (X+)'' rule may also repair buildings and they can choose to apply a special rule to models they have repaired, that means when they are targeted by an attack that inflicts either ''Exoshock'', ''Breaching'' or ''Rending'' (so choose one, not all three) they are only effected by the rule on hit rolls of 6.
</tab>
<tab name="Malagra">
The closest you get to tech-assassins. Everyone now has access to the data-spikes and a bit of extra mobility. The biggest winners of this are the Arcuitors, as you can take multiple of them to hunt down specific nuisances.
*''Ictus Incindiae:'' Characters in this detachment can upgrade their machinator arrays and servo-arms with prehensile data-spikes for 10 points.
*''Interfector Auxilia:'' All Techpriest Auxilia units must take the unique Interfector Techno-Arcana. This gives all models ''Scout'' and prehensile data-spikes.
*''Sacred Mission:'' One Arcuitor Magisterium can be taken as a non-compulsory HQ choice. This does not preclude you from taking another as an Elite as normal.
**''Court of Executioners:'' Instead of their usual ''Hunter-Killer'' rule, they instead get ''Scout'' and the ability to become a squad of up to three (each one costing 110 points) that are deployed together but are then split up after the game starts.
*''Scindex-malagrus:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule improves their WS and Attacks to 5. In addition, they gain the ''Hatred (Independent Characters)'', ''Precision Strikes (5+)'' and ''Monster Hunter'' rules, making them specially-tooled to murder things.
</tab>
<tab name="Myrmidax">
All-out war is the name of the game here. You take this if you're planning on taking tons of Myrmidons with all the guns to destroy.
*''Avatar of Destruction:'' One Thanatar-Calix automata can be taken as a non-compulsory HQ choice. While it cannot be a Paragon of Metal, any Myrmidons within 6" of it gain the Line sup-type and add +1 wound to combat resolution rolls.
*''The Myrmidon Host:'' Myrmidon Secutors are now Troops choices and Myrmidon Destructors are now Elites choices.
**Sadly, only the two compulsory Myrmidon units are deemed Line units, so the rest of the slots will either need to crowd around daddy Thanatar or be used for other units.
*''Vessel of Destruction:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule now has 5 wounds and gains the ''Hatred (Everything)'' and ''Bulky (3)'' rules.
</tab>
<tab name="Reductor">
Where the Macrotek builds, the Reductor destroys. Your Techpriests now have options to weaken vehicles and you have the means to demolish the buildings your enemies cower behind.
*''Demolisher:'' Units with the ''Battlesmith (X+)'' rule now have offensive options for their rule. Now they can deal 1 HP of damage to a vehicle or building, deal an unsavable wound on a dreadnought or automata, destroy one weapon on a vehicle without dealing a wound or immobilize the vehicle without dealing a wound. Now your enemies aren't worried about those Techpriests because they can fix their tanks, now their land raiders might suddenly stop dead in their tracks or lose their precious sponson guns.
*''Harbinger of Devastation:'' Before the objectives are set, pick three pieces of terrain, buildings or fortifications. Any cover saves they might have offered are now destroyed and now count as difficult and dangerous terrain. Any chosen buildings or fortifications now add +1 to the building damage rolls. The way to go when you plan on screwing over any defensive enemies and forces them to fight on your terms.
*''Secrets of Annihilation:'' The Archmagos Prime with this rule gains the Artificia Reductor Cybertheurgy discipline but cannot select any others.
</tab>
</tabs>

==Armoury of the Omnissiah==
Being a heresy era list, we get some funky wargear that's not found in later eras/outside of the hallowed halls of the machine god. Augments may also be a thing.

===Ranged Weapons===
*'''Archeotech Pistol:''' S6 AP4 Master-crafted pistol with Rending (3+).
*'''Arc Weapons and Lightning Guns:''' Arc and Lighting weapons have seen some small changes from their 1.0/7th edition incarnations, but they are still reliable and solid weapons.
**'''Arc Pistol:''' A S6, AP5 pistol. It's has lost Haywire from it's 7th incarnation, but has gained ''Disruption(6+)'' instead.
**'''Arc Rifle:''' The standard Arc Weapon. With a 30" range, Rapid Fire, S6, AP5 and ''Disruption(6+)'', it's superior to the Bolter that Marines will be lugging around.
**'''Arc Blaster:''' The Heavy Bolter equivalent, dropping down to a 24" range, in exchange for Heavy 4 shots, ''Shred'' and ''Disruption(4+)''.
**'''Lightning Gun:''' Have gotten a pretty good buff for 2.0 as they now have two firing modes. The first is a fires 18" range, Heavy 3, S4, AP- shots with ''Shred'' for clearing hordes, and the second is an improved version of its 1.0 incarnation, firing a 18" range, Heavy 1, S7, AP4 shot with ''Rending(4+)'' and ''Shred'', which is capable of dealing with meatier targets.
**'''Lightning Lock:''' Fires a single Small Blast(3), S7, AP4 Heavy shot at a 36" range and having the ''Rending(4+)'', ''Shred'', ''Exoshock(4+)'' rules on top of that.
**'''Lightning Cannon:''' A super lightning Lock with all the same stats and rules, but at an increased AP3 and Large Blast(5).
*'''Autoweapons:'''
**'''Heavy Stubber:'''
**'''Rotor Cannon:''' Lost Salvo and is now Assault 4, S3 AP-. Not very strong but it does have Pinning with Shell Shock (1), making them very good for locking down enemies for another unit to assault.
**'''Light Autocannon:''' S6 Ap4 Assault 2.
**'''Autocannon:'''
**'''Icarus Autocannon:'''
**'''Defence Autocannon Battery:'''
**'''Phaeton Autocannons:'''
**'''Avenger Gatling Cannon'''
**'''Gatling Blaster:'''
**'''Macro-gatling Blaster:'''
*'''Bolt Weapons:''' Ever-present, ever reliable.
**'''Maxima Bolter:''' The basic armament on the Castellax (and free on Scyllax), it's a 12" bolter with Assault 3 instead of the basic Rapid Fire, meaning that they can always shoot at peak firepower.
**'''Kraken Bolter:''' Default on Scyllax, it's longer-range with 30" with S4 AP4. Better suited for front-line firepower.
**'''Mauler Bolt Cannon:''' Heavy Bolters +1, they're Heavy 4 24" S6 AP4 guns with ''Pinning''. A basic gun for the Castellax to work with plenty of bite to work with.
**'''Defensor Bolt Cannon:''' A Mauler Bolt Cannon, but it's stuck on a superheavy. Though it can't pin, the ''Ardex-Defensor'' lets these knights and titans fire Overwatch with this gun.
**'''Vulcan Mega-Bolter:''' Only seen on titans and for good reasons. A Heavy 16 S6 AP3 barrel of death with ''Pinning'' and ''Shell Shock (1)''.
*'''Conversion Beam Weapons:''' Could be seen as inverse Melta, inflicting greater damage at longer ranges.
**'''Conversion Beamer:'''
**'''Conversion Beam Cannon:'''
**'''Heavy Conversion Beam Cannon:'''
*'''Cutting tools of the Mechanicum:'''
**'''Las Impulsor:'''
**'''Attrapos Phasecutter:'''
*'''Flame Weapons:''' Remain your reliable templates to cook through crowds of low-Toughness foes but will falter against most armor saves, especially against marines.
**'''Acheron Flamestorm Cannon:'''
**'''Inferno gun:'''
*'''Graviton Weapons:'''
**'''Graviton Gun:'''
**'''Graviton Imploder:'''
**'''Graviton Pulsar:'''
**'''Graviton Hammer:'''
**'''Graviton Ram:'''
**'''Singularity Cannon:'''
*'''Las, Photon and Pulsar Weapon:'''
**'''Las-Lock:''' The Mini-Ball muzzle-loaded musket to the Lasgun's AK47. Shorter 18" range, Assault 2, and packs a nasty S4 AP6 punch. Of course, as of current, AP6 is completely useless, but S4 however is not.
**'''Multilaser:''' 36", S6 AP6 Heavy 3 Guard players know and love.
**'''Photon Gauntlet:''' The photon pistol. 12" Assault 2 with S5 AP2 with ''Blind'' and ''Gets Hot!''.
**'''Photon Thruster:''' 24" S6 AP2 Assault 2 with ''Blind'', ''Lance'' and ''Gets Hot!''. Its' usefulness against TEQ this edition is severely hampered by an additional wound they received.
**'''Darkfire Cannon:''' 36" S7 AP2 Heavy 2 with ''Blind'', ''Lance'' and ''Gets Hot!''.
**'''Defensor Lascannon:'''
**'''Pulsar-fusil:'''
**'''Magna Lascannon:'''
**'''Sollex Heavy-Las:''' An amped-up Heavy 3 Lascannon with S10 AP2 and ''Armourbane (Ranged)'' and ''Shock Pulse''.
**'''Turbo Laser Destructor:''' 96" S10 AP3 (!!!) Destroyer 1 with Large Blast. Hilariously underpowered.
**'''Laser Blaster:'''
**'''Volcano cannon:''' 120" S14 AP1 Destroyer 1 with Ignores Cover and Large Blast. Doesn't have Sunder.
**'''Belicosa Volcano cannon:''' 120" S14 AP1 Destroyer 1 with Sunder and Apocalyptic Blast 9". Yes, this template doesn't exist. Doesn't have Ignores Cover.
**'''Nemesis Volcano cannon:''' 36-180" S14 AP1 Destroyer 1 with Sunder and Apocalyptic Blast 9".
*'''Melta Weapons:''' Short-ranged, but the ''Armourbane (Melta)'' rule means that they can roll a second die when rolling for vehicle pen or to wound Automata or Dreads.
**'''Thermal Cannon:'''
**'''Melta Cannon:'''
*'''Missile Weapons:'''
**'''Missile Launcher:'''
**'''Havoc Launcher:'''
**'''Hunter-Killer Missile:'''
**'''Whirlwind Launcher:'''
**'''Ironstorm Missile Pod:'''
**'''Stormspear Rocket Pod:'''
**'''Karacnos Mortar Battery:'''
**'''Apocalypse Missile Launcher:'''
**'''Terrebeax (?) Rocket Battery:'''
*'''Plasma Weapons:''' Plasma has taken a nerf in AP but have gained ''Breaching'' to make it count as AP2 against non-vehicle units on a certain roll to-wound. Be warned that while your models can take a ''Gets Hot!'' wound without dying, all other unsaved wounds received by the squad must first be allocated to a wounded model.
**'''Plasma Cannon:'''
**'''Phased Plasma-Fusil:''' 24" S6 AP3 Heavy 3 with ''Breaching (4+)'' and ''Gets Hot!''.
**'''Plasma Mortar:'''
**'''Plasma Blastgun:'''
**'''Sunfury Plasma Annihilator:'''
*'''Rad Weapons and Irradiation Projectors:''' Rad-weapons contain the ''Rad-Phage'' rule, which reduces the Toughness of a target unit for the turn. While it can't stack, it will expose the enemy to a more dangerous set of guns, especially if you have something that can deal Instant Death.
**'''Lucifex:''' A little Rad Pistol with 8" range and a single S2, AP5 shot. Luckily it has ''Fleshbane'' so you'll actually have a good chance of wounding infantry and inflicting ''Rad-Phage''.
**'''Irad Cleanser:''' A Cancer Flamer. Fires a S2, AP5 Template that has the ''Fleshbane'' and ''Rad-Phage'' rules.
**'''Irradiation Engine:''' The heavy Cancer Flamer. It's a bigger version of the Irad Cleanser, as it fires a S4, AP3 Template that has ''Torrent'' on top of ''Fleshbane'' and ''Rad-Phage''.
**'''Radium Pistol:''' Despite not having ''Rad-Phage'' like other Rad Weapons, it has seen a buff from it's 7th edition rules as even though it's lost ''Rad-Poisoning'', it's gained ''Brutal(2)'', which does the same thing but on all successful wounds, not just wound rolls of 6+. Apart from that it's a S3, AP- single shot pistol.
**'''Radium Carbine:''' Similar to it's Pistol counterpart it lacks ''Rad-Phage'', but has ''Brutal(2)'' instead. Apart from that it's an 18" range, Assault 3 weapon with S3 AP5 shots. Due to the high number of shots it fires, a squad of these will burn through 5+ armour saves and ''Brutal(2)'' will also cause problems for 4+ armour saves since they'll have to make two saves with only a 25% chance they'll successfully make both of them.
*'''Volkite Weapons:''' Certified Martian Death Lasers. Low AP but superior to Bolters in almost every way. The main gimmick for Volkite Weapons is ''Deflagrate'', which inflicts an additional hit for every unsaved wound caused by a weapon with this rule. Note that these hits aren't affected by other Special Rules of the model.
**'''Volkite Serpenta:'''
**'''Volkite Charger:'''
**'''Volkite Caliver:'''
**'''Volkite Culverin:'''
**'''Volkite Incenirator:''' Curiously usable in melee as a S6 AP2 weapon with ''Instant Death'' and ''Prisoned'', a drawback that only makes this usable as a single attack against Infantry. As an assault weapon, it's a short ranged 10" Assault 2 gun with S5 AP5.
**'''Volkite Veuglaire:'''
**'''Volkite Chieorovile:'''
*'''Exotic and Miscellaneous Weapons:'''
**'''Sonic Destructor:'''
**'''Shock Lance:'''

===Melee weapons===
*'''Arc Weapons:'''
**'''Arc Lance:''' A spear that doubles as both shooting and Melee. Its shooting attack is a 12" Assault 1 S6 AP5 shot with ''Disruption (6+)'' while in melee it's S+1 AP5 with ''Disruption (5+)''. Either one can make them potentially terrifying for vehicles set upon.
**'''Corposant Stave:''' A Two-Handed S+1 AP4 weapon with ''Haywire'', making it more effective against vehicles and automata than infantry.
**'''Arc Maul:''' The meaner weapon in the Secutarii armory and the default for the Axiarch, this is S+2 AP5 with ''Disruption (5+)''.
**'''Arc Scourge:''' An S+2 AP3 melee weapon with ''Rampage (d3)'' and ''Disruption (5+)'', making it more capable of hitting crowds as hard as it does automata.
*'''Chain Weapons:''' Got a decent improvement from last edition, now even the humble chainsword gets ''Shred'', improving their effectiveness considerably.
**'''Chainsword''' The ever-humble CCW now has ''Shred'' to help get through armour saves.
**'''Chainfist:''' Absolutely devastating at Sx2 AP2 with ''Armourbane (Melee)'', but ''Unwieldy'' means that this will only swing at Initiative 1.
**'''Chain Bayonet:''' Formerly '''Heavy Chainblade'''. It's a Two-Handed S+1 AP- chainblade with ''Shred''.
**'''Reaper Chainfist:''' S10 AP2 ''Armourbane''. For cutting up Vehicles.
*'''Cutting tools of the Mechanicum:'''
**'''Las Impulsor:'''
**'''Atrapos Phasecutter:'''
*'''Graviton Weapons:''' Both melee Graviton Weapons happen to have shooting profiles too, but both uses come with ''Concussive'' in some form.
**'''Graviton Hammer:''' Your choice of either an AP6 template with ''Concussive (1)'', ''Graviton Pulse'', ''Grav Wave'' and ''Haywire'' or an S10 AP2 hammer with ''Concussive (2)'' and ''Armourbane (Melee).
**'''Graviton Ram:''' It's either an AP4 template with ''Concussive (1)'', ''Graviton Pulse'', ''Grav Wave'' and ''Haywire'' or an S10 AP1 fist with ''Concussive (2)'' and ''Armourbane (Melee).
*'''Paragon Blade:''' S+1 AP2 Specialist Weapon ''without'' Unwieldy that inflicts Instant Death on a wound roll of 6.
*'''Power Blade Array:''' The mantis blades of the Vorax, it's an AP4 melee weapon but ''Breaching (5+)'' lets it potentially carve through higher saves.
*'''Power Weapons:''' A step up from the basic chainweapons, but you'll often see these on characters without better tools.
**'''Power Sword:''' An AP3 with ''Rending (6+)''. Not very powerful but it can cut through most armor with a chance to even get past termie plate.
**'''Power Axe:''' S+1 AP2 with ''Unwieldy''. Slow but just as dangerous as ever.
**'''Power Maul:''' S+2 AP3, this is the strongest of your power weapons with the only limit being anything with a 2+ save.
**'''Power Lance:''' S+1 AP3 with ''Reach (1)''. A decent tool for challenges, though a well-kitted melee character will want something stronger.
*'''Servo Weapons:''' The ever-traditional servo-arms and the like for the Mechanicum.
**'''Servo-Arm:''' Gives an additional attack equivalent to a power fist (S8 AP2 with Unwieldy).
**'''Machinator Array:''' While weaker against infantry at S+1 AP2 with Unwieldy, it's giving you two additional attacks with ''Shred'' and ''Armourbane (Melee)''. It also comes stacked with a flamer and meltagun as well as adding +2 to any ''Battlesmith'' rolls you make, meaning that this is very important to anyone seeking to cheese it out for all it's worth because...well, depending on your High Techno-Arcana, you'll have a lot of uses.
**'''Prehensile Dataspike:''' Expect to see plenty of this with a Malagra army. While weaker with S5 AP4, it can beat most things to the punch with ''Reach (2)'' and can deal damage with ''Breaching (4+)'' and ''Murderous Strike (6+)''.
*'''Shock Chargers:''' The weapons of your automata, AP3 is no-frills and capable of taking down marines pretty easily.
*'''Siege Destroyers:'''

===Equipment & Special Rules===
*'''Armour of the Mechanicum:''' Unlike the basic power armor of the Adeptus Astartes, the various armours of the Mechanicum is more varied than one would think.
**'''Corpus Skitarii:''' The armour of the Skitarii. 4+ save and re-roll FNP rolls against ''Poisoned'' and ''Rad-Phage'' attacks.
**'''Lorica Thallax:''' The heavy frame of the Thallaxi provides a 4+ save as well, but also forbids them from Sweeping.
**'''Titanshard Armour:''' The blessed armour of the Secutarii Axiarch, complete with a shard of an actual god-machine embedded in it. Provides a hefty 3+/5++ save and re-roll FNP rolls against ''Poisoned'' and ''Rad-Phage'' attacks.
*'''Augury Scanner:''' Prevents any units from deep-striking within 12" of the bearer. On top of that, the unit not only gets to ignore Night Fighting but also gets the ability to use the Interceptor reaction without eating into the reaction budget.
*'''Cortex Controller:''' Seen on all your magi. Cybernetica units with the Programmed Behavior rule ignore it when within 12" of the Controller. Critical for full control of your automata, as Programmed Behavior forces them to only shoot the closest unit or charge when they can.
*'''Cyber-Familiar:''' Provides a 6++ Invuln and allows a unit to re-roll any one test that don't involve Leadership or Dangerous Terrain each turn. More valuable in that it can boost an existing Invulnerable Save as well.
*'''Mechanicum Protectiva:''' A 4++ save seen on only the Magi, equal to the Iron Halo of the Astartes.
**'''Refractor Field:''' The ever-vital 5++ Invuln.

===Vehicle and Battle-automata Equipment & Rules===
*'''Atomantic Deflector:''' The 5++ Invulnerable given to all automata. This not only provides this protection, but any Instant Death hits instead only deal d3 wounds instead of all of them. The major downside is that dying makes it explode, dealing S8 hits to anyone within d6".
*'''Flare Shield:''' The protection for the Mechanicum's tanks, the Flare Shield offers no saves, but instead reduces the damage of any incoming attacks to the tank's front by 1 (by 2 for any Blast or Template attacks). The only thing that gets past them are Destroyer weapons.
*'''Galvanic Traction Drive:''' Given to all your vehicles, this allows them to re-roll Dangerous Terrain tests.
*'''Ion Shields:''' Instead of the redirecting shields of yore, Ion Shields of HH2.0 grant any Knights a 4++ save against any shooting attacks aimed at the front, and a 5++ when targeting a Knight's sides. This does nothing for any melee attacks.
**'''Ion Gauntlet Shield:''' The Invuln is now set to a 5++ against shooting from the front or sides, but it trades that off for a save when in melee.
**'''Ionic Deflector:''' The protection for Armigers. This grants the unit a 5++ Invulnerable save against anything, including giving Eternal Warrior. However, these can explode just as hard as an Atomantic Deflector, dealing S8 hits to those within d6+3".
*'''Rad Furnace:''' You've got robots that spread cancer by guns and by merely being in the same room as the enemy. Enemies attacked by a unit with a Rad Furnace are easier to wound, as the target to wound is 1 less but this can't stack with Rad Grenades or anything with Rad-Phage. You also get protection from Rad-Phage, as any weapons with Rad-Phage can only trigger those effects on a 6+.
*'''Shock Ram:''' Instead of a mere ram, your big tanks get Shock Rams, making their rams S10 AP2 with ''Concussive (2)'' to scare off opportunistic tank hunters with meltas. It also has ''Ram (d6)'', meaning that each ram does 1+d6 hits to take out more than just that one guy with melta bombs and a power fist.
*'''Void Shields (X):''' Gives X spare wounds for the lucky vehicle (usually titans and Ordinatus). Any shots targeting a model with shields instead targets the shields, resolving their hits against AV 12. If the hit manages to beat the AV, then it just breaks that shield and nothing more.

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Archmagos Prime:''' Your head Cyborg and the guy you want to bring to almost every game. Like the Space Marines Praetor, the Archmagos is pretty much essential for your army as he allows you to bring Techno-Arcana rules for your army. His ''Feudal Hierarchy'' rule means you can only bring one of any type of Archmagos Prime, so he will be one of a kind on the table and important to protect. Coming standard with a Volkite Serpenta, Power Weapon, a Mechanicum Protectiva and a Cortex controller, the sheer amount of options he can be equipped with makes it so you can tailor him for most situations. He can be equipped with a Machinator Array to improve his ''Battlesmith'' rolls, Heavy weapons to make him a walking gun platform (even more so if you take the Myrmidax Techno-Archana rules), a Paragon Blade and Chainfist to make him as killy in melee as possible and he can even take a Cyber-familiar to improve his Invulnerable save to 3++. The sky is near enough the limit with this guy when it comes to customisation. He also comes with a bucket full of special rules having ''Relentless'', ''Stubborn'', ''Battlesmith (4+)'' and ''Firing Protocols (3)'' allowing him to shoot and repair multiple times in one turn. ''Master Cybertheurgist'' allows him to select either the Artificia Cybernetica, Artificia Machina or Ephemera Incursus Cybertheurgy rites, and the ''High Rites of Technoarcana'' allow for even more specialisation and customisation.
**He does have some drawbacks though. Firstly, as you could have guessed, a basic Archmagos is fairly expensive on his own, being 155 points for the standard Cyborg, and almost all these options will severely ramp up his price and it means you'll have to pour a fair bit of your army's allowance into him.
**Secondly while his BS, Strength and Toughness are all 5's, he comes up short when compared to his Marine counterparts in melee, as he has WS4 and only 2 attacks base (3 when adding his Volkite Serpenta and Power Weapon into the mix), meaning that he's going to be hitting tactical marines of 4's and Praetors on 5's, though it is possible to make him more adept at duelling with the right upgrades. Like most Mechanicum units he's better suited at shooting then combat and he relies primarily on his toughness and good saves to keep him alive during fights, over being able to kill his opponents quickly.

*'''Archmagos Prime on Abeyant:''' The same as above but mounted on a floating command console. For 30 points extra your Archmagos gains an extra point of toughness and 2 wounds bringing him up to T6 and 5W. He loses ''Firing Protocols'' and ''Relentless'', but that's fine since he gains the ''Monstrous'' and ''Anti-grav'' sub-types which allow him to fire all the weapons he has and counts as stationary when shooting them, as well as lets him float over terrain. Finally, he also gains ''Pride of Place'' that stops him from boarding a transport, because the Abeyant is not cheap and he wants to show it off.

*'''Magos Dominus:''' A scaled-down Archmagos Prime, now only costing 75 points. While still very versatile, you'll notice the considerable drop in loadout options as well as the now Marine-tier BS4/S4/T4. While he comes with the Heavy subtype, he's also only one unit and most likely will strap him to Adsecularis or Castellax, things that wouldn't care about running anyways. You're probably going to need that extra kit too, because a power sword and laspistol will only carry you so far. Probably why there's no limitation on how many you can field.
**''Firing Protocols (2)'' will make your decisions count more, as now you'll find yourself either needing to pick whether you need to fire that gun once or spend both rounds of shooting to repair your bots.

*'''Magos Dominus on Abeyant:''' See above, but now on the floating pimp-throne. You curiously still keep the Heavy subtype, giving template protection, but there's not going to be many cases where such can be the case when this guy is now a giant floating target.

====Special Characters====

*'''Calleb Decima Invictus, Lord of Ruin, Vengeful Archmagos of the Ordo Reductor:''' Look how far he's come. A Reductor Archmagos Dominus with a MC power axe and bolt pistol as well as a machinator array, all carrying ''Ignores Cover'', ''Sunder'' and ''Wrecker'' to demolish tank and building alike while ''Hatred (Traitors)'' and ''Precision Strikes (5+)'' make him threatening in melee. On top of his Reductor rules, he also lets those within 6" of him gain ''Move through Cover'', which can seriously help them go through the wreckage he causes.
**Calleb can pick up a pack of Scyllax or Techpriest Auxilia as a retinue, customized as you see fit including grabbing a transport. This retinue will also carry ''Ignores Cover'', ''Sunder'' and ''Wrecker''.

*'''Archmagos Draykavac, Warlord of Cyclothrathe, Sovereign-Prelate of House Atrax, Bringer of Perfection:''' Horse-face is back and for 240 points he acts as one of, if not THE best buffing characters for the Mechanicum, though only for Traitors. Armed with a Paragon Blade, Graviton Gun, and a statline that would make a Necron Overlord glow green with envy, he's a ''Traitor'' character with he has all the standard Archmagos rules as well as a few extras thrown in. He has a Machinator array and ''Preferred Enemy (Infantry)'' and his special rule ''Incursus Cybertheurgist'' gives him access to both the Artificia Machina and Ephemera Incursus so he can spit computer viruses and Scrap code as he goes. He also quite nicely buffs the army he is in with his ''Djinn-skein'' as it adds +1 to the BS of any unit he joins and allows '''ALL''' scatter rolls to be re-rolled as long as he can see the targeted area and is not embarked in a transport or a building, giving added help to artillery heavy and Deep strike lists. He can also be a bit of a menace in combat, as while he has not real anti-horde, he can pose a threat to single models with his ''Liquifractor'' rule. This allows him to exchange all his attacks in combat (all 2 of them) for a single I1 attack that auto hits his opponent. This attack rolls 2 D6, and he inflicts a number of wounds that is equal to the number rolled, minus the toughness of the target (e.g. 7 rolled - T4 = 3 wounds), which are resolved at AP2. If he hits a vehicle with a Armour Value, half the AV of the targeted vehicle and use that number in place of toughness when doing the math. For every point over [[/d/|he inflicts a Penetration]] (e.g. 7 Rolled - AV12 halved(6) = 1 Penetrating hit). Remember, since this attack is used during the Assault phase against a model his is in base contact with, [[Anal_Circumference|this will be resolved against the Vehicles rear armour.]]
**His Warlord Trait ''Cruel Taskmaster'' turns him into a Cyborg [[Commissar]], as any unit within 12" of him that fails a moral or pinning test, he can {{BLAM|'''*BLAM!*'''}} a model from the same unit to make it automatically pass the test. In addition, he gives the army an extra reaction during the shooting phase.
**As if that wasn't enough, his unique High Techno-arcana ''Stataraga'' allows him to be taken as a troop choice in a Questoris Knights Detachment. In addition to this, he makes Castellax and Vorax non-compulsory troops while part of a Knight detachment. Back up you big robots with little robots.
**He is very tough, and while not the technological monster that Scoria is, he's rocking 5's for his WS, BS and strength, a 6 for his toughness and 4 wounds.
**Finally, he can be taken on an Abeyant for 25 points extra, which does the standard abeyant rules replacement and bumps his already impressive toughness to 7 and wounds to 6.

*'''[[Anacharis Scoria]], the Xanophane Tyrant, the Fallen Master, Lord of the Nine Cohorts, the Apostate Magister:''' The absolute monstrosity of HH1.0 has returned. Now strapped to his giant scorpion-thing that used to be called an Abeyant, he's now a super-Traitor Archmagos Prime with all known Cybertheurgy Rites (except those he can't learn from other disciplines), ''Battlesmith (3+)'' and ''Move Through Cover''. As if having a 2+ save on a 7W T7 beast with a cyber-familiar wasn't bad enough, he also has ''It Will Not Die (5+)'' so he can heal himself too. He's also a walking tank, carrying a photon thruster and two archaeotech pistols that he can fire at-will while he gets in close to smack them up with his Vodian Sceptre. While no longer the auto-wounding monstrosity of yore, a S+2 AP2 Two-Handed weapon with ''Armourbane (Melee)'', ''Exoshock (4+)'' and ''Murderous Strike (5+)'' is nothing to scoff at, especially if the enemy has to also contend with ''Fear (2)'' if they survive. The one weakness it gained is that without anything like ''Brutal'' to back it up, he will get held up by Terminators and other multi-wound units. Also for some reason he has Firing Protocols (3) despite being able to shoot all his ranged weapons thanks to the Monstrous sub-type, what does this mean? Don't know, stellar rules writing.
**His Warlord Trait, ''Forbidden Protocols'', gives a 6" bubble, allowing units of Automata to make reactions despite any insistence otherwise. Adding an additional reaction each Movement phase means that he thrives on sending his bots over to rip up the enemy while he cackles and sends out whatever technosorcery he slings out.

===Elites===
*'''Techpriest Auxillia:''' The most customisable and utilitarian choice. You get a unit of 1-3 Tech Priests with 4-10 Servo-Automata. There is quite a lot to do with this unit, the Priests are ''Infantry (Character, Line)'' and are able to claim objectives, while the Servo-Automata are unit type ''Automata (Guardian)'' so will always be allocated wounds first, regardless of any other special rules. They Servo-Automata also have a decent range of weapon options that range from dirt cheap las-locks up to expensive Multi-Meltas, and they also bring the average toughness of the unit to T5.
**One Tech Priest may be upgraded to a Magos granting him several stat-buffs including an extra wound and the ability to take either the ''Artificia Machina'' or ''Artificia Cybernetica'' Cybertheurgy options.
**The Tech Priests in the unit must choose a "lesser" Techno-Arcana option from a different list compared to Archmagos Primes.
***''Enginseer:'' the Tech Priests gain Servo-Arms for free, and while there are any Servo-Automata remaining in the unit the Priests have ''Battlesmith (4+)''.
***''Lachrimallus:'' Every model in the unit has ''Feel No Pain (5+)''. In addition, friendly units of Adsecularis Tech-Thralls within 6" of one or more Tech Priests with this rule gain +1 to their ''Feel No Pain'' rolls.
***''Reductor:'' the Tech Priests gain Servo Arms for free, while all models in the unit gain the ''Sunder'' and ''Wrecker'' rules. Additionally, a Magos in the unit may replace their Servo-Arm with a Conversion Beamer or Graviton Imploder for 25 points.
**As a combined unit of models with the ''Battlesmith (X)'' rule and the ''Automata'' unit type, this unit is affected by quite a lot of the High Techno-Arcana rules that an Archmagos could take, so there is considerable room for additional function.

*'''0-1 Arcuitor Magisterium:''' Loyalist-exclusive techno-assassin. This guy's about as strong as a Magos with S5 T5 W2 but exchanges a wound for some extra speed. While they have the Magos-like aspects with ''Battlesmith (5+)'' and ''Firing Protocols'', but they're more keyed to melee with ''Monster Hunter'' and ''Precision Strikes (5+)''. To that end, they've started with a Corposant Stave and Archaeotech Pistol with the option for a Servo-Arm or Machinator Array for some more swings at I1. They can also pick up a Photon Thruster or Phased Plasma-Fusil if you're intending on using those Firing Protocols for shooting more than repairs and/or swap their melee weapon for Paragon Blade for 15 pts, which can be worth it, but with 2 attacks base it's not a auto-take.
**The Arcuitor can attach themselves to a retinue of Vorax or Arlatax as a single unit, letting them hop around with extra protection, though this will hamper the bots' movement to their new owner.

*'''Myrmidon Secutor Host:''' A squad of 3 Tech-Priests who decided to become their own [[Necron Destroyer]]s. They are 150 points, bristling with special weapons and want nothing more than to kill all those disgusting fleshy things. They come standard with two Maxima bolters, but you can swap one/both of them out with Volkite Chargers for free or with Graviton guns, Irad-Cleansers or Phased plasma-fusils for some extra points. Don't worry about moving them about since they have ''Relentless'' and ''Firing Protocols(2)'' allowing them to march around and fire all of the guns they are carrying and still charge. With their Refractor Field, 5's for their Strength, Toughness and BS, 4 wounds and WS4 they are pretty tough and while they only have an Initiative of 2, the Myrmidon Axes they carry have S+2, AP2, ''Sunder'' and ''Unwieldy'' means you won't care too much about it. These Axes combined with their 3 attacks (4 on the Secutor Lord), ''Hatred(Everything)'' and ''Stubborn'' make them one of the few effective melee units that the Mechanicum have, as they will quite happily cut their way though most marine squads, as long as they don't have WS5.

*'''Domitar Class Battle-Automata Maniple''': 145 points and you get one almost-dreadnought armed with two Graviton Hammers and one back mounted missile launcher, and coming with ''Relentless'' and ''Hammer of Wrath(1)''. An additional 4 Domitars can be taken in the same unit and if you feel like it, one model can be given ''Paragon of Metal'', and each bot has an Atomantic deflector, giving them a 5++ Invulnerable save and some protection against Instant Death. Despite having 7's for Toughness and Strength, 5 wounds and 4 attacks each, they have a pretty average WS4 and a pretty disappointing BS3. That being said their Graviton Hammers are template weapons with ''Haywire'' in shooting and are S10, AP2, ''Armourbane'' in melee giving them a pretty clear role as vehicle punchers, and they should perform well against Militia hordes and tanks (when they actually get rules).
**In a vacuum these are a decent unit and can perform their role as tank hunters fairly well, however when compared to the Space Marine Dreadnoughts they come up very short.

===Troops===

*'''[[Thallax|Thallax Cohort]]:''' Ogryn equivalents, being pretty hardy with T5 and 3 wounds and are also equipped with jump packs and Lighting guns. They're stats have been slightly nerfed for 2.0 as they are now S4 standard and have had their Ld reduced to 7, though in return they can take Chain Bayonets on their Lighting Guns for 2 points each, giving them S5 attacks with ''Shred'' and now have ''Relentless'', ''Stubborn'' and a ''6+FNP'' standard. Additionally 1 in 3 can take either a Multi-laser, Irad-cleanser, Phase plasma-fusil, Multi-melta or a Photon thruster. They have a few extra special rules, with ''Djin Sight'' allowing them to reduce cover saves by -2 and no enemy unit can be set up with 24" of them, and their Lorica Thallax give them a 4+ armour save and stops them from Sweeping Advancing. Sadly they have lost Thallax Augments so you can't buff them any further outside of your chosen Tecno-Arcana.

*'''Adsecularis Covenant:''' The cheapest unit available in 30k just got pricier, 45pts for 10 dudes with ''Infantry (Heavy, Line)''. Don't expect the Heavy subtype to do much for them though, as they only have a 6+ armour save, so are not likely to be rerolling anything. Being Heavy really just means they cannot perform Run moves. Additionally, with the ''Rite of Pure Thought'' they also cannot perform Reactions or make Sweeping Advances. They have low stats; WS/BS/I are all 2, and their Ld value is 6 so their fighting ability is almost negligible, not to mention they have lost the ablity to take Carapace amour and all of their options from HH1. However, despite all of these downsides, they are the cheapest unit in the book, they are all ''Stubborn'' and they have ''Feel No Pain (5+)'' so they have some added resilience against low strength incoming damage, and can come in units of up to thirty models. They are an objective holding unit, and really that's all you need them for.
**For added protection, they gain a +1 to their ''Feel No Pain'' rolls while within 6" of a Tech Priest Auxilia unit who have the ''Lachrimallus'' ''Techno-Arcana'' upgrade. Granted, this still does nothing against S6 or above, but is a desirable bonus if you have several squads who are likely to be subjected to bolter fire.
**Mitralocks are not in the book for some reason, [[Derp|despite being available on FW site]]

*'''Castellax Class Battle-automata:''' Now troops with no "ifs", "ands" or "buts". These trustworthy brutes are plenty capable of taking the abuse with 4 T6 wounds and a 3+/5++ save. It's plenty well-rounded to take whatever role you assign it with two Shock Chargers and built-in Bolters as well as a Mauler Bolt Cannon. Even better, they have a pretty broad list of upgrades available to any role. You can grab multiples for a squad, you can instead make a lone Castellax a Paragon of Iron if you're intending to make a super-weapon of a bot.
**While the Shock Chargers give you plenty to work with, but you can grab a pair of Power Blades if you're looking to sacrifice AP3 for a chance of AP2. If you're looking to total tanks up-close, then you can replace a hand and its strapped-on bolter for a Siege Wrecker, a lethal S10 AP2 fist with ''Sunder'', ''Wrecker'' and ''Brutal (2)''. The major drawback of this is that it's quite costly and as a Specialist Weapon, it loses the extra attack for dual-wielding.
**The arm-bolters can be freely swapped for Maxima Bolters, which works far better for a close-range Castellax by letting it fire an extra shot at a shorter range. Flamers are also available for its arms, which has uses if you're considering going up against mobs. The bolt cannon in the meanwhile can become more anti-tank by either buying a Multi-Melta for up-close tank demolition or a Darkfire Cannon, one of the few weapons with ''Lance'' so it can rip through heavy tanks at long-range but ''Gets Hot!'' makes it a bit of a gamble.
**Despite being Troops, they lack the Line subtype and cannot ordinarily claim objectives, though can be if your Archmagos Prime has the Cybernetica High Techno-Arcana.

*'''Scyllax Guardian-Automata Covenant:''' Oversized Servo-Skulls with a 4+ save, BS4, S4, T5, 2 wounds each and 3 attacks, that come equipped with Kraken Bolters, Rad Furnaces and Scyllax Combat Arrays, they are quit considerably armed for their size. ''Move Through Cover'', ''Relentless'' and ''Night Vision'' give them the ability to float around quite well, but they have the ''Heavy'' and ''Guardian'' Sub-types which restrict their movement, and they need to be joined by characters if you want them working at full capacity. They have ''Line'' meaning they can score unlike Castellax, though they are a Support Squad so they can't act as your compulsory choice. They come in a unit of 4 which can add additional automata for 25 points to a maximum of 16 in a squad, and all of them can swap their Kraken Bolters out for Maxima Bolter for free or a Flamer, Volkite Charger or Rotor Cannon for 5 points. The Scyllax Combat Array has two settings; "Standard", which is S-User, AP5 and ''Shred'' or "Dismember", which is S+3, AP2 with ''Cumbersome'' and ''Unwieldy'' which will hurt their already poor WS, but won't effect their Initiative if they aren't joined by a Character since they will have penalties from ''Guardian'', and the with the Rad Furnace, it allows them to infect instant death on Marines (if they are lucky enough to hit them). The "Dismember" setting could also be relatively effective at popping open light tanks. Finally for every 4 robots, 1 of them can take either Graviton Gun, Plasma Gun, Irad-Cleanser or a Melta gun for some added punch in shooting.
**The best way to utilise these guys is to throw a Magos in with them and to take them in a large unit to secure a chosen objective, while keeping the Magos alive and being tougher to shift than you would first think thanks to the bonuses from ''Guardian'' and ''Heavy''.

===Dedicated Transport===
*'''Triaros Armoured Conveyer''': <s>Dune Train</s> Not quite a [[Crassus Armored Assault Transport|CRASSUS]], but close. 14/12/12, 5HP, and Transport Capacity of 22! The thing comes standard with a flare shield for all that -1 goodness, and is armed with two Volkite Calivers and a ''Twin-linked'' Mauler Bolt cannon, meaning it can defend itself from infantry in a pinch. It's also equipped with a Shock Ram so you can live out your dreams of being a navy Torpedo ram and ramming a bunch of walkers (ironically it's the Martians who are ramming the walkers this time), and since the Ram is S10 with multiple hits it's arguably the Triaros' best weapon. In addition ''Galvanic Traction Drive'' lets it re-roll Dangerous terrain tests, so it doesn't pop a track when it rolls over a landmine. It's a fairly expensive Transport, both points and money wise, but you can style on all those marine players and their little Metal Boxes with your Victorian warship on tracks.

===Fast Attack===
*'''Arlatax Battle-Automata Maniple''':

*'''Ursarax Cohort''': A squad of three Thallax's with melee weapons and Iron Man chest lasers. They come equipped with either 2 Lighting Claws which gives them 4 attacks each and for every three models, one can be upgraded to take 2 Power fists, but they only have 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 Instant Death T5 models with Power Fists and as stated above, only one model in three can take Powerfists 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 it's claws, 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 make their movement to a flat 12", which makes charges easier thanks to the new charge bonuses units get for having higher movement values and it allows them to ''Deep Strike'' and still lets them embark on transports, however they can't run anymore but that's not really a problem.

*'''Vorax Class Battle-Automata''': 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 Subtype 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 a Rotor Cannon, not the strongest gun but one that can pin foes while it can charge in with its S6 AP4 ''Rending (5+)'' Power Blade Array.
**Each one comes with a Lightning Gun, which got a pretty decent improvement by being able to alternate between rather light crowd-clearer and the heavier shot that can go through armor. One in three of the bots can instead replace that with an Irad-Cleanser, allowing the unit to more reliably take down mobs but at the cost of its effectiveness against most things with a decent armour save.

*'''Vultarax Strato-Automata:''' No longer deemed a vehicle, the Vulturax is now deemed 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 while it's twin Havoc Launchers let it shell anything else, especially with Djinn-Sight effectively nullifying cover. This turns the flying tanks 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 isn't there to stop its suicidal stupidity.

===Heavy Support===
*'''Thanatar Class Siege-Automata Maniple''': A walking tank of a robot with S8 T8 W7 and 2+/5++ with an Atomantic Deflector. Each also comes with a TL Mauler Bolt Cannon so it can defend itself from crowds when it can't use its preferred weapons. While you can buy up to three Thanatars, they're ultimately on their own after the game starts.
**'''Thanatar-Cavas''': The basic Thanatar, this comes with a pair of Shock Chargers for AP3 melee power, complemented by the Thanatar's stock ''Hammer of Wrath (1)''. The Plasma Mortar provides it with plenty of bombardment with S8 AP4 Large Blasts with ''Breaching (4+)'' and ''Ignores Cover''. ''Reactor Overload'' allows this cannon to shoot twice, but must suffer d3 wounds without saves to offset it.
**'''Thanatar-Calix''': 20 points more expensive than the stock Cavas. The big draw is the Sollex Heavy-Las, a Heavy 3 lascannon with S10 AP2, ''Armourbane (Ranged)'' and ''Shock Pulse'' to flat-out demolish tanks. While it lacks the reliability of Shock Chargers, it comes with a Graviton Ram, which can either be used as an AP4 Template with ''Haywire'', ''Grav Wave'', ''Graviton Pulse'' and ''Concussive (1)'' or a S10 AP1 fist with ''Armourbane (Melee)'' and ''Concussive (2)'' for a more devastating stun.

*'''Myrmidon Destructor Host''': The real Necron Destroyers of the Mechanicum and the heavy weapon variant of the Secutors, they lack the Myrmidon axe and are instead equipped with shock chargers which combined with fact they lack ''Hatred(Everything)'' makes them less impressive in melee. However you don't want these guys in melee since then you won't be able to use their heavy weapons, as they come with Volkite culverins as their default equipment and they can be upgraded to taking Conversion Beamers, Graviton Imploders, Darkfire cannons or Irradiation cannons, so they can be kitted out for most shooting roles that you desire. Their 4 wounds each, Toughness 5 and Refractor field means they can be quite hard to shift by shooting attacks and thank to ''Relentless'' they can move around and shoot as much as they want.

*'''Karacnos Assault Tank''': The heavy battle tank with 14/12/12 and a Flare Shield to ensure that anti-tanks weapons won't instantly spell its doom. While it has Lightning Locks to bombard whatever it comes across, the main star of this tank is the Karacnos Mortar Battery, a massive S6 AP4 chemical bomb that's using the rare Massie Blast template with a whole slurry of rules: ''Fleshbane'', ''Rad-Phage'', ''Ignores Cover'', ''Barrage'', ''Pinning'' and ''Shell Shock (3)''. Simply put, you aim this at crowds of infantry, it will disintegrate, though like with all ordinance Space Marines will likely have a chance to walk away from the initial assault. That's where Crawling Death comes in, allowing it to slide over to the unlucky foe (if they're trapped, and with that Pinning check, it's a good shot) and hit them again.
**While all of its weapons are swingy pieplates, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have anything to protect itself up close. Unusually, it has a Shock Ram, letting deal 1+d6 ram attacks at S10 AP4 with ''Concussive (3)''. While this by no means makes it capable of combat, it does mean that you're not hosed against any tank hunters.
**Expect this to draw a LOT of fire and be ready for anything as ''Hazardous Munitions'' means that any explosions it suffers will be catastrophic, dealing S8 AP4 hits to anyone within 6+d6".

*'''Krios Squadron''': While not as armored as the Karacnos at 13/12/10, this is the only tank you can take in squadrons and it comes with ''It Will Not Die (6+)'' to give some manner of regeneration. It's a zippy tank as well, as it has a very good move speed and the Fast subtype to make it always go the distance. Aside from the basic armaments of each tank, you can also grab volkite calivers to add some guaranteed incineration on each tank.
**'''Krios Battle Tank:''' Comes with a Lightning Cannon for some crowd coverage that can potentially cause some extra damage onto any vehicles it hits as well.
**'''Krios Venator:''' Costlier than the basic tank, but much more reliable at breaking tanks. Less prone to moving, as it comes with the Pulsar-Fusil, an ordinance weapon with S9 AP2 ''Pinning''. Not only is it capable of totaling lesser tanks in one go, but it can also lock down anything less.

*'''Knight Moirax Talon''': Why yes, the Mechanicum can throw in Armigers as Heavy Supports. While largely similar to its Questoris kin, the Moirax comes with a Rad Furnace to spread Cancer in melee. These have a pretty flexible load out in contrast to the fixed loadouts of other Armigers, giving an option for either Volkite Vegulaires or Siege Claws w/ Irad Cleansers in any combination depending on where you want it to stay. If you plan on taking other guns, you can buy Lightning Locks, Conversion Beam Cannons, or Graviton Pulsars.
**The Greuso Protocol is a unique reaction available to the Moirax, triggered when an enemy charges a friendly Automata or Knight within 12". This allows the Moirax to shoot at whoever is charging, allowing for Tau-tier supporting fire against any charges.

===Lords of War===
Note: the Mechanicum Knights are not the same as the Questoris Knights from the Questoris Household army list. The Mechanicum Knights all have ''It Will Note Die (6+)'' built into their special rules, and all of them except for the Acastus Knight also come equipped with a Flare Shield for added protection, and cost around 20+ more points than their Questoris equivalent.

*'''Mechanicum Knight Magaera''':

*'''Mechanicum Knight Styrix''':

*'''Mechanicum Knight Atrapos''':

*'''Mechanicum Acastus Knight Asterius''':

*'''Ordinatus Ulator''': For a might 1075 points, you get a giant sonic cannon mounted on, what is essentially a stripped down Baneblade chassis (but with better AV than the actual Baneblade now), and despite seeing a bit of a nerf it's still as terrifying as ever. It's a ''Super-Heavy'' with AV 14/13/13, 14 Hull points, ''It Will Not Die(5+)'' and ''Reinforced structure'' (a 5++ against shooting attacks) making it a very tough self-propelled gun. It's Ordinatus dispersion shield now only works during the first turn and attacks against the front and side armour and any indirect attacks that hit the Ordinatus reduce their Strength by 2, to help stop it being shot of the board turn 1 since that will be everyone's game plan when they see it. It has three Volkite Culverins, one rear and two sponson, but the real reason you are bringing this thing is its gun, the Sonic Destructor. Having seen a bit of a nerf it's now a flat S6 (increasing to S10 when it hits a Super-heavy, Knight, Titan, Building or fortification), though it can still ruin an entire section of your opponents army like nobody's business. Its ''Sonic Wave'' rule means you don't place the weapons Large Blast(5") template like normal artillery weapons, but you instead use it to draw a straight line from the front of the Ordinatus to its maximum 72" range, and every model (including flyers) that is under that 5" wide line, eats a Destroyer 1, S6, AP2, hit with ''Armourbane'', ''Pinning'', ''Murderous Strike(5+)'' and ''Ignores Cover''. Find the area where the models are bunched together and watch this thing clear a choke point like a shotgun clears a trench.
**A (possible) writing oversight is that the Sonic Destructor remains S6 when it hits Dreadnoughts and Non-Super Heavy vehicles, [[Fail|meaning a Rhino will be less likely to be glanced or penned than a Fellblade or Warhound titan]].

*'''Ordinatus Aktaeus''': THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!... *Ahem* I mean, for 800 points you get a Super-Heavy transport with 14 hull points, AV 14/13/13 and that can carry 42 passengers and it has a Transport Bay for Automata. The Mole (that's what Imperials called it) is armed with a Terrebrax rocket battery, which is a 12 shot Autocannon with AP5, and it has ''It will Not Die(6+)'' and ''Reinforced Structure'' making it a hard nut to crack. Its main armament is its giant Macro-drill, which now once per-game can create an earthquake at the end of a turn. Pick a point 6" from the front of the Mole, and '''everything''' with 6" x the current game turn (except the Mole) suffers D6 S7 AP4 ''Pinning'' hits. After this the Mole can not move again for the rest of the game. Over all this attack isn't great, but it can help clear out the surrounding area. It's odd that it just sets off an earthquake and then taps out instead of using the drill like a ram, but clearly the Mechanicum (and GW) think there on to something with their man-made earthquakes. Where the Mole really shines is the fact that it has ''Subterranean Assault'' allowing it to deep strike its 42 transport capacity into your enemies rear-line and ''Terrestrial Disregard'' which means you place an Apocalyptic Blast(10") on the table at least 1" away from impassable terrain and enemy models, you then place the Drills hull over the centre blast template and place it on the table. With that done every model and fortification within 6" of the drill takes a S10 AP2 hit and must make a Pinning test, and the area under the 10" blast template becomes Dangerous and Difficult Terrain for the rest of the game. While this Ordinatus is not as lethal as its sonic friend, it is a great super-transport for your army and it can effectively disrupt your opponents forces when it arrives and drills them. Also it looks awesome.
**This thing is absolutely great in a Subterranean assault army, with the main force in the mole and the rest being transported in Terrax Assault drills, they can all pop up in your enemies defences and start causing chaos. [[Derp|What do you mean "the Mechanicum book doesn't have rules for assault drills?"]] [[Rage|WHAT DO YOU MEAN, "ONLY MARINES HAVE RULES FOR THEM?"]]

==Divisio Tactica: The Titan Legions==
Titans can be taken in two ways: either as a Lord of War choice in another army, or by using the Titan Maniple Force Organisation chart, which counts as a "Mechanicum" army for the sake of the faction and allies.

<s>Its also worth pointing out that according to p10 of the Liber Mechanicum ''"no variant of the Mechanicum army lists may be allied with one another as part of the same army"''. Because the Titan Legion units on p66-72 may only be taken in these two ways, there seems to be no means of taking Secutarii alongside other Mechanicum forces.</s> This is a misreading. All Allied Detachments are Optional Detachments, but not all Optional Detachments are Allied Detachments. RAW, the Divisio Tactica rules state that any Primary Detachment using the Crusade Force Organization Chart - ie, a Mechanicum Taghmata army - can take a Household or Titan Maniple Detachment as an Optional Detachment. Since you're not Allying anything, rules concerning Allies can't apply. Gotta love it when they outsource to ESL hacks - thanks Anuj!

'''Titan Maniples:''' requires 1 Lord of War OR 1 unit of Troops (either Peltasts or Hoplites). 2 HQs, 6 Troops and 3 LoWs can be added.

===HQ===
*'''Secutarii Axiarch:''' A support hero, he's pretty much marine-strength with S4 T4 while his Titanshard Armour gives him a 3+/5++ save that can re-roll FNP rolls against ''Poisoned'' and ''Rad-Phage'' hits while the Kyropatris Field Generator lets him re-roll armor saves of 1 and reduces the strength of any incoming attacks by 1 if he's accompanying a unit of 10+ Secutarii. The main purpose you grab him is for his ''Binaric Stratagems'', which gives all Secutatrii in his detachment one of four rules (''Feel No Pain (5+)'', ''Move Through Cover'', ''Wrecker'', ''Preferred Enemy (Infantry)''), allowing them to specialize a bit.
**Strangely, despite being BS5, they're largely stuck with pistols, with the basic ones being a Radium Pistol or Volkite Serpenta. Even if you go for the Hoplite's Arc Lance and shield, your maximum shooting range is 12".
***Speaking of that shield, unlike the Hoplite Alpha, the Axiarch can't keep it while swapping out the lance. While one can argue that it's for the sake of balance (and it might if you could also take the arc maul), you also can't take any of the guns available to the peltast, including even the galvanic casters.

===Troops===
*'''Secutarii Hoplite Phalanx''': The marching line of shields and spears, the Hoplites are pretty well-protected with a 5++ Invulnerable, ''Feel No Pain (6+)'' and the Kyropatris fields. Each one comes with an Arc Lance, capable of both shooting or fighting at AP5 and ''Disruption (5+)''. That said, their melee prowess is sadly limited, as S3 (S4 with the lances) isn't very good and at WS3, punching marines is well out of their depth.

*'''Secutarii Peltast Phalanx''': Though not as protected as the Hoplites unless you buy that Refractor Field, but more consistent in their shooting dedication. Each one comes with a Galvanic Caster with either S3 AP6 Flechette shots with ''Shred'' to handle most crowds or the short-ranged S2 AP5 Ignis Shots more meant to ''Blind'' and ''Ignores Cover''. They can add onto this by buying Hammershot Rounds, a bit stronger with S4 AP3, but benefit most from their 30" range and ''Molecular Dissonance'', which lets them auto-wound any non-Vehicle non-Primarch units on a 6+ to-hit. The Alpha can add some extra support if you decide to trade in his caster for a free Radium Carbine or an Arc Rifle.
**Their special rule is ''Blind Barrage'', giving them a single-use attack that gives an allied unit that isn't a vehicle, Knight, Titan, or Monstrous the ''Shrouded (4+)'' save, a pretty strong defense.

===Lords of War===
*'''[[Warhound Scout Titan]]''': The most lightweight of your Titans, gaining the Fast subtype and AV 14/13/12 with only two Void Shields protecting it. This is also your cheapest titan, if you consider 725 points cheap - at the very least, it can be taken alongside a 3000-point army of some substance. Expect to use that mobility a lot because it can only shoot things.
**Each arm can alternate between the same list of guns, all at the same price. The Vulcan Mega Bolter provides a massive flood of firepower, seeking to eradicate mobs and drown bigger things in a bucket of dice. The TL Turbo Laser Destructor provides a Large Blast to bombard enemies, with Destroyer being capable of overwhelming even multi-wound models like Terminators. The Plasma Blastgun isn't quite as dangerous, being Ordinance and only being S9 AP3, but it gets ''Breaching (4+)'' to overwhelm AP2 and uses a Massive Blast - and Reactor Overload can let it fire a few extra times at the cost of HP. The Inferno Gun gives you a hyped-up Flamer with Destroyer and the Hellstorm template as well as a massive ''Torrent (24")'' range for a surprising amount of coverage when eradicating crowds.
*'''[[Reaver Battle Titan]]''':
*'''[[Nemesis Warbringer Titan]]''':
*'''[[Warlord Battle Titan]]:''' 3000 points means that this thing won't be visible anywhere but the most massive of games, and it's going to cost you several children to afford it. One thing you won't be worrying about is losing it any time soon, as it's not only toting ''SIX'' Void Shields, but also gains a lot of resistances, with ''Towering Monstrosity'' making enemies unable to target anything near it and making enemies unable to hit it on a 6+ (5+ for knights) and ''Reinforced Structure'' giving it a constant 5++ against shooting. Combined with its monstrous AV 15/15/14 and 30 HP and it'll require an entire army just to take it down.

[[Category:Warhammer Tactics/30k]]
{{Warhammer_30k_Tactics}}

Hearts of Iron

2022-08-24T17:52:47Z

2001:8003:1C20:8C00:A8CD:9467:E3:941A: /* Hearts of Iron 4 */

{{/vg/}}

The grandest of Grand Vidya Gaem of Grand Strategy in Grand World War 2, made by the equally grand Paradox Interactive. Its contribution to /tg/ can be counted as: Expanding the [[Nazi Equipment]] page, inspiring Games Workshop and every little Tabletop gaming company about Dieselpunk, Mecha and Cold War ideas, and especially long nights of greasy, soda-drenched Axis and Allies sessions.

Once upon a time, Paradox released Europa Universalis 1 and 2. Then they realized that the same grand strategy board can be used for a steamy session of World War 2 armchair generaldom, and Hearts of Iron 1 was born. As usual of Paradox Interactive, the sequel which was made months after the first was received with great approval.

Gameplay aside, the later games created quite a [[Skub|bit of argument about "whitewashing" WW2]], all the atrocities against civilians being toned down. In earlier games of 1 and 2 when Nanjing is taken, the Japanese massacre the city and [[FAIL|ravage the whole region's infrastructure and generate global infamy, likely drawing all democracies against them]], and "[[/pol/|closed societies]]" like Nazi Germany or Japan antagonize the conquered population and have a ''very hard time'' exploiting non-racial territories(unless they reform their societies,e.g stop being Nazis or spend enough garrisons to keep the population down-usually making the territory a cost drain without a puppet government). In the third game, all conquered land has a resistance movement that slowly dies in 20 years in time with sufficient garrison duty. In the fourth game, non-core resistance is more or less equal to all conquerors but can be slowly melted with spies and unique "soft hand" occupation methods. Thank God Holocaust doesn't happen at all in any of the games, in any form - but in the fourth game you can simulate it with "Brutal Oppression" occupation level, but just like IRL it's self-defeating and dumb. And while the Great Purge does happen and you are even penalised for ''not'' doing it as Soviets in HoI2, Holodomor also doesn't exist. Also, Germany doesn't use the Nazi flag. And you will get perma-banned if you post on the official forum a screen with a game modded to give them the proper flag. Reached truly ridiculous levels with ''Darkest Hour'', an official game based on HoI2, which does give Germany a correct Nazi flag - you ''still'' get perma-banned if you don't pixelate it.

----
==Hearts of Iron 1==
Virtually a footnote in Paradox and series history within just few years after release. The map is more or less EU's own, same with game engine, not that graphics mattered to the average Paradoxian. Played from 1936 to 1949, the faction with the highest victory points (meaning cities held with corresponding values by the faction members) wins when the timer hits new year of '50. Basic resources like coal, steel, oil and rubber are extracted daily and stockpiled, tradeable and exchangable. Mirroring real life, the Axis members need to find some rares and oil *fast*. The games were railroaded more or less, though some policy changes let the players change a few state properties if they kept grinding. Still, the hard-coded scripts kept happening, which became hilarious like a defeated democratic Japan before 1942 STILL re-enacting Pearl Harbor by default and declaring on the USA even when said US conquered her before 1942.

The original HoI introduced few lasting game mechanics and concepts that either stay to this day or definied the series for a looong time. First and foremost, WW2 ''must'' happen, it's hard-coded. Each country has Industrial Capacity (IC), which is an abstraction of its industrial and economic potential for the purpose of fuelling the war machine. Manpower combined with IC allows to produce new units, at division-tier, with potential support batallions. Technology for military hardware has to be researched in an extensive tech tree. Resources have to be shipped from colonies/overseas territories. Part of the industrial capacity is by default tied by your civilians, who need basic goods or will start to protest against your regime. All units require ubiquitous supplies (which have to be continously produced, tying part of IC, too) to fight efficiently and if they have any sort of motor-driven vehicles, also oil. And everything takes forever to build, so it's usually just plain easier to conquer someone and use their industry for your own military than try to build your own, while loss of few divisions can be a serious, often irreplacable problem. Also, while nukes are eventually possible to deploy, they are strictly end-game stuff that requires copious technological investments that could be spend on more pressing matters.

The game as a whole was extremely bare-bone basics and even when compared with HoI2 feels like a tech demo of a high concept rather than an actual game. The most notable element from it is the way how research was concluded. Rather than having some sort of arbitrary decision about research slots, tech groups or whatever, each country could assign any given amount of its economy (represented by the size of useful IC) into research. This meant that Germany could start researching all the Wunderwaffe projects by mid-game, because it simply had half of Europe under its heel. And potentially any country that did enough conquering could simply tech up by the virtue of being simply rich, rather than having pre-definied research capacity. Also, each element had to be researched separately, often in co-related research, so deploying new tanks meant you had to develop new industrial technologies, new radios, new doctrines, new guns ''and'' various bits of the tank itself, all in separate technologies, to finally get access to the final result, rather than picking "Early War Medium Tank" technology and be done with it the moment research is finished. Ironically, the unique research system was dropped entirely from the series and never returned, replaced with much streamlined and pre-definied tech trees, where certain countries simply have better capacity to conduct research regardless of any factors, while you can forget about technological advances as anyone outside of the "big" nations.

==Hearts of Iron 2==

This is where the fun begins. While the original was mostly an experiment, HoI2 came out as a fully-fledged game on its own, with greatly expanded concepts and details from the first game. For starters, it means there is any point at all in playing as anyone who isn't a major power.

First, the improvements and changes. Technology and research got completely reworked. Now each country has both research slot (based on IC: 1 plus 1 for each 20 IC) and native tech-teams, that come with specialities in various fields, along with level of competence, affecting general pace of research - and all of it hard-coded, based on "importance" in war, rather than reality(a little wiggle room exists: they can gain or lose skills in random events). Once researched, units have to be upgraded, which takes time and IC - and the more obsolete the unit, the cheaper, the lower levels of catching up are. A new production model makes its debut, with gearing bonus - the longer the same thing is produced in a row, the cheaper and faster it is to crank up another unit of it, making it a strategic choice between trying to shit out as many units at once, or a continuous row of progressively cheaper stuff. Logistics start to matter, since local infrastructure and crude counter of "Transport Capacity" affect how much supplies reach your troops and how much supplies can be shipped at all, being a hard-counter on simply building more divisions and throwing them all at the enemy. Air force is worked out to matter and becomes an important part of gameplay. Politics start to play an important role in the game, with ministers, political sliders and general type of government being an important part of running the show and possible choices. This is also the moment when absolute gorillion of real-life politicians and commanders get implemented into the game, something that HoI will remain famous for next decade or so. Money is introduced, as a by-product of running your civilian industry. Infrastructure of all kinds and sorts gets far more nuanced than in the original, too, meaning it's more than just pushing "Build X" button mindlessly.

Combat-wise, the whole thing got overhauled into a much better engine. You no longer pile doom stacks, because first you must make sure you can afford to field so many troops, then co-ordinate them with proper commanders and HQ in the field, which means you have to build your forces accordingly. Airstrikes now matter a lot and while not essential, they can allow punching far beyond your weight on the ground - not to mention having the ability to disable enemy industry by fire-bombing it into pieces. Since your units can't be piled up without any limits, adding support brigades to them now matters more than ever, even if support itself is undercooked mechanics. Except for artillery. You can't go wrong with adding more artillery to your divisions. Special units - marines, paratroopers and mountaineers - start playing a significant role in the game, too. Conquering land is half the success - you then need to police it with garrisons. Sinking convoys now can absolutely butt-fuck your enemies, since their troops will end up starved due to lack of supplies, along with no ammo to effectively fight back, while their industry will be unable to operate thanks to shortages. Oh yeah, and naval combat is a thing now, rather than a best ignored gimmick.

Overall, this is where the series truly picked its own identity and started to spawn mods within quickly growing community.

Hearts of Iron 2 had several expansion packs as well:
* '''Doomsday''' expanded the game into 1960s of the Cold War, miniaturized nukes fit into rockets and more "secret weapon" techs like early helicopters, satellites for easy Victory Points and weather forecasts and a new campaign starting possibility: World War 3.
* '''Armageddon''' brought naval modules similar to brigades, made for ships from calculating computers to torpedo launchers and AA batteries.
*'''Arsenal of Democracy''': HoI 2 sans mods still lacked realism, so a good part of Paradox Interactive and massive fan feedback made this little gem. Basically it's a HoI 2 (with all expansions) remake with exact same graphics, but massive overhaul sold as a separate game with every small problem and disliked feature in HoI2 solved. It has an even more detailed mod as well, called C.O.R.E which is still unanimously seen as "The most detailed WW2 game mod today". AI wasn't only "polished" to the point of inhuman ferocity, but also boosted/modified with so many AI specific scripts (when player Germany invests in massive ship tonnage, the Allied AI automatically changes its behavior into a continent wide blockade and fortifies the British Islands, forcing the player to adapt) that it proved to be a serious adversary, particularly late game when all autocracies drifted towards the Axis, and the rest to Allies and Comintern in a planet-wide showdown. The difference is now that population, army and research teams have money budgets like a modern state and the IC had an auto-slider to allocate money production per day and spare us the headache as well as avoiding generating useless stacks of cash when an angry population was placated with consumer goods; now the player can pay automatically into "civic spending", avoiding losing IC to unrest if he has stockpiled cash from world trades. Excess manpower also generated taxes, which would reduce the need to allocate IC to the consumer economy if you kept your people alive and out of war.
*'''Darkest Hour''': The Big Kahuna. Overengineered to the point that it neared [[Victoria]] in spreadsheet value. ANOTHER remake of Hearts of Iron 2, its "National choice" tab had immense detail from inflation to public works and the possibility to change history, since now events were triggered by players such as never choosing to give Poland the Danzig Ultimatum (which would carry over to HoI 4 as "Focus Tree"). Generally speaking, from a modern perspective this is your go-to HoI experience, being the most complete, balanced and in the same time playable without prior experience with the series game that still offers a challenge, rather than treating you like a brain-dead infant (which is what HoI 4 does routinely).

==Hearts of Iron 3==
Logistics Autism: The Game. You'll either love it from the first second, or you will hate it for the rest of your life. And even if you hate it, HoI3 is still considered to be the last competent, fully finished game released by Paradox under their old company policies of "let's make a decent base game and then keep improving it with expansions based on community feedback", rather than post-[[Crusader_Kings| CK2]] policy of "shit out as many overpriced DLCs as we can before anyone notices we are charging for cosmetics and a new button to click". Comes with an oddball prototype of the 3D engine, but thankfully you can still stick to military tokens instead of watching poorly rendered soldiers.

This game decided to double-down on everything introduced in HoI2. Smaller, more numerous provinces? They went from regions and even state-sized things to ''county''-sized, so you're fighting town by town, rather than region by region. Logistics? Forget the TC counter, now you have to account distance, infrastructure level of each province on the way, the fact the transport trains and trucks don't run on air, so they will eat up supplies along the way. Oil? What are you, an idiot? Refine that shit into fuel first. Divisions having support brigades? Now you are assembling them from up to 5 brigades whole, and what you put inside of it will greatly alter their on-field performance. And it's not that you can just get bunch of tanks together, because without proper support, they will be torn apart by bunch of rusticks with oversized artillery. Politics? Have you considered how cohesive your government is and how united your general populance behind your leaders is? Upgrades and technology? Now you don't even research "new division tech", you need to research every piece of their equipment separately, along with support stuff, then upgrade each of those elements separately, too, so simply rushing the tech isn't going to do you any favours if you are in the middle of already fighting a war. HQ unit and command? You now have entire theatres to arrange, going from corps level all the way to theatre HQ, adding units - and better hope they are within radio range of nearby HQ, or the pile of bonuses from various commanders won't even apply to you. Because you remembered to research and equip radios, right? Tech-teams are gone, replaced with ubiquitous "Leadership" counter you have, which you spend on research (along with diplomacy, espionage and officers training), which grants you theoretical knowledge as by-product, making future research easier, while decaying slowly back to zero. Same with gearing bonus, which is replaced by practical knowledge, affecting all future production. Your divisions not only require raw manpower for rank and file, but you also need trained officers to command them, so make sure you dedicated enough of brains to leading people in the field, or you will see why the Great Purge was so bad for Soviets first-hand. Country got defeated? They are now government in exile, because their alliance is still around and kicking, making occupation far harder than before. Alliances and allies? Send them some of your IC as lend-lease, along with a loicense for new, shiny tanks and planes.

Generally speaking, the game became one, fuck-huge spreadsheet to manage, with variety of factors to consider and expansions adding further details to it. AI became far more competent, to the point where if you arrange your divisions properly and set up the command chain for your units with right people in right places, you could set things to auto-pilot and your army would win the war by itself (why would you want for AI to fight the war for you in a strategic warfare game is another question). You could also redistribute things like industry or research to AI, if it's too much for you to handle and just focus on commanding troops - and the AI will easily manage. This of course means the AI you are facing is significantly more challenging, especially when you aren't fighting about some fourth-rate pushover with barely any troops to field. The logistics and anything related with them meant you had both tactical and strategic choices in the game of great importance. Can't or don't want to invade the UK? Bomb the fuckers to the ground and sink every convoy even gets close to the Island, until they will simply collapse from war-wearness and lack of industry to keep their war machine going. Japanese trying to invade China? Blow the fuck up Chinese ports and watch as IJA gets butt-fucked by lack of supplies flowing to the continent. Planning to take over Siberia? Well, it would be a really bad thing for Soviets if their Trans-Siberial Railroad got obliterated in few important choke-points.

The fanbase became divided. The game was fuck-huge and this wasn't exactly to everyone's liking that you have gorillion of provinces to conquer, while the logistics system wasn't everyone's favourite either. Especially since in the same time HoI2 was receiving it's final expansions, so there was a direct comparison with more toned-down system for doing the same shit. Considering where you are, chances are you are autistic just enough to get the appeal of HoI3 without seeing it as a bad thing, but feel warmed that the game was divisive on how autistic one must be to play it.

Just like HoI2, it received bunch of expansions:
* '''Semper Fi''': Generally speaking, a quality of life expansion, focusing on making the game more playable and easier to manage, rather than some big sweeping changes in the gameplay. Most notably for rewiting AI scripts to make sure it knows how to play the game in all extent
* '''For the Motherland''': War goals and strategic resources (separate from resources used by your industry and granting general bonuses) get introduced. Also included: partisan and governments in exile spamming commandos in their former territories.
* '''Their Finest Hour''': Completely reworked division assembly aspect of the game, pretty much forcing players to mix various units, rather than just building mono-stack divisions, to get combat bonuses. Leaders with correct traits are far more important, too.

==Hearts of Iron 4==

tl;dr Buy all the DLC's if you want to enjoy it like Darkest Hour. And wait a decade. It started shit, now is getting better, but CPU-hungrier...

For the Old Guard of Spreadsheet-Masochism, the game came as a shock to some since it looks less like a spreadsheet war simulator with harsh numbers and more like a RTS/RPG hybrid game with many things made abstract, and countries' historical specialties being buffs and debuffs called "National Spirits". No longer bound by real life resource crises with the possibility of changing the worst excesses of WW2 through common sense and friendship in multiplayer, the game was noticeably more [[Noblebright]] and extremely streamlined with a heavily modular unit design, having taken some Acceptable Breaks From Reality. Now all economic activity in a country is named "civilian industry" which is completely upkeep-free, doesn't consume resources and builds infrastructure out of thin air (and can build more of itself too). Considering all civilian industry now needs is time to grow, any carebear roleplayer can make a world where absolutely no one attacks the other (save for Spanish Civil War) and simply pump up civilian infrastructure and industry and make heaven on earth.

Combat is attempted to be streamlined with a "Battle Planner" system which makes armies automatically move and do things that would take hours of clicking by human users. On wide plains of Asia and open areas, it works like an angel. Put one lake or gimmicky US Canadian border, or God forbid the Asian island chains, it turns into total shit, meaning you still have to do things manually unless you want to watch AI struggle with your forces or pile an entire army group to that spot near the US border lakes and lose it to encirclement. Said that, due to general incompetence of AI (even for Paradox's low standards), it's still a a simple production management simulator and General's ability clicker a-la RPG when war kicks in, because front-wide offensive is more than enough in 99% of cases. There aren't even artillery barrage orders to reduce neighboring fortifications anymore(a real-life tactic in Siege of Berlin and Stalingrad), which have become meme level AI doorstoppers, [[Fail|and artillery is now just a bigger gun which is used in close combat rather than allowing the army unit to bombard without direct combat]]. Airplanes are useless unless the enemy units are clashing with you or your allies(at which they deal small amounts of damage to enemy combatants...occasionally...), making [[What|real life air raids on barracks and units in transit...simply a non-issue.]]

The game streamlined the fuck out of everything that made core HoI gameplay for previous 15 years. Commanders are omnipresent, magically teleporting 24(or 30) division overseers with no special mobile HQ's, five commander answering to one easily promoted Marshal. Handful of researches, handful of division types, handful of governments and just one, win-all tactic: autistically memorizing all the timed actions/focus/exploits to strike at the best majors, avoid automatic AI declarations by keeping certain territories under certain nation's control and stay out of Hitler's European tardrage until you eat everyone. You don't even need to be sober. It's a running joke to post AARs with such superpowers like Liberia, Luxemburg or Bhutan conquering all of the world by the '42 mark. And they are rarely done by some sort of hardcore, high skill players. How bad AI is? You can load a '39 game as Poland, who got pwned in less than 30 days irl (and when run by AI, is dead in 15), go into ''defensive'' war as you fortify around Warsaw a massive circle with one opening and simply watch as Germans will bleed to death by throwing their army at your ad-hoc defensive, losing 2+ million people, while you sit and watch the show, and worse, use scavenger teams to loot German attacker equipment. Offensive? Who needs it against such dumb AI. Thus, if you ever wanted to paint a beige-brown map in your particular shade of beige-brown, this might be a game for you. Multiplayer is meanwhile all about piling up all the loopholes and game logic abuse you can find about against the other player (and expecting the same), because playing fair is a sign of weakness and will get you steam-rolled within an in-game week.

To add insult to injury, while initially Paradox threw out the baby with the bathwater in their streamlining, over the course of the next few years, they kept adding back old gameplay elements. Only this time, behind the paywall of DLCs and making sure to never include those "new" elements as free, baseline gameplay. So while there was no supplies or oil/fuel initially (which broke the game completely since Axis only needed oil to build and not to maintain), fuel then made a return in a DLC. So while there was no design of your ships (which made spam of specific models the only strategy), ship design made a return in a DLC (which meant spam of ''different'' models for different reasons- not that you'll have the time to spam anything but fast-and-furious destroyers and subs). So while there was initially no espionage, it made a return in a DLC. Armored Cars? Off-battlefield railgun artillery? Dee Ell See. [[EA]] and people managing Sims franchise would be proud of the shit Paradox is doing with the DLC system. If this was your entry point for the series, you should feel bad for yourself for being ripped off, and could try either vanilla HoI2 or Darkest Hour (but the second one might be too much if you are completely new, start with HoI2 and advance to Arsenal of Democracy, then Darkest Hour). If you are an old grog who still remembers HoI1 or at least HoI2 premiere, you probably felt like shit on sole announcement of this game being in production.

Fluff and civilian industry aside, all arms production by military factories consume resources like steel, tungsten and chrome, and traded for which is streamlined into 8 resources per civilian factory, adding to the exporter's industrial output rather than calculating the trade in fiat money. Countries automatically use up some of their civilian industry value to placate its domestic economy which can be reduced by policies, war bonds, unique bonuses(like historical taxes) and stability. A mana-like abstract resource named Political Power defines all state decisions from diplomacy to triggering events, which is influenced by the country's stability and having strong politicians.

Governments are extremely simplified to the point of simply being teams: Communist, Fascist, Democratic and Non-Aligned (generic: kings, generalissimos, minor nations' conservative republics and even anarchist city councils fit here) rather than the modular government styles of HoI2 and 3, which would show dozens of possible gameplay styles from three issues (Nazism being state economy/no elections/right wing, Stalinism state controlled/no elections/left wing, Italian Fascism Free Market/Right Wing/Totalitarian, Social Conservative Free Market/Right Wing/Elections et cetera with ALL different bonuses and gameplay styles) Basically fascists are the offensive country that can declare wars, recruit and gear up as much as they want to eat others, democracies need fascists to declare wars and act touch so they can ramp up their industry and army in response, and communists who are "Fascism Lite" with less military and more subversive, industrial bonuses who can also start wars. Non-Aligned are just plot-driven morons with none of the strengths but with all the weaknesses of all three except specific monarchy or anarchy based Plot powers.

Resources are now similar to Civilization 5 and 6: They are not stockpiled, but constantly produced in controlled areas and can be bought and sold as 8 output units per civilian industry cost (less if the exporter is a puppet country). What the player can stockpile is equipment to build said units rather than raw material itself. Even supplies do not need production anymore, but your capital territory produces an infinite amount, with delivery </s>being virtually a non-problem, breaking the ''entire'' concept of World War 2.</s> depending only on local infrastructure connections. Latest updates made it ''very'' dangerous to be out of supply, but there is always a quietly cheating AI for a division or two. Latest DLC finally made supplies a thing as railroads are the main arteries, and roads are capillaries and rushing into Russia will *obliterate* all but the most heavily mechanized supply chains because the fucking communists can destroy railways as they retreat and force the player into painstakingly rebuild like Simcity on crack.

Railroaded Events could be downplayed and changed, such as postponing the death of Atatürk (seeking treatment) or Spanish Civil war can be manipulated with the last DLC's. The rest of the events are defined by "National Focus", which is a streamlined version of "National Choice" of Darkest Hour and work as a plotline and decisions mechanism. Spending political power for about a month, now changed to 70 days(which COMPLETELY broke the game, because some pencil dick newly hired developer wanted "radical changes"), the played country can complete an action of sorts which triggers an event. For "generic" countries, this can be a few free instant civilian/military factories or quick infrastructure build, free tech boosts for specific areas, political leanings for specific sides or bonuses. For "special/significant" nations, unique "Focus trees" can start series of events and start plotlines, and ultimately change the flow of history. For example, the United States can either continue with the New Deal (taking a centrist and/or leftist position), or return to Gold Standard (centrist and/or right-wing, possibly even fascist or Neo-Confederate). Each choice limits the US to certain decisions, and further advances in Focii require certain conditions to advance, or bypass decisions entirely. The problem is, while Paradox tried a haphazard prevention at Railroading, it did not stop the retards from still making the AI choosing '''focuses''' after defeat and puppeting, leading to extremely stupid situations where a puppet Bulgaria still funds IMRO rebels in Macedonia, who have an almost magical way of inflicting 100% attrition to everyone passing by. Even modern superheavy tanks. And yes, National spirits are not only retarded but also made with the broadest brush in history: since they accept an entire nation no matter how large or small it is, a hydroelectrical Dam in Portugal can magically improve its economy as it encompasses the world merely due to the dam being in portuguese territory, even though the factories are in an obscure Siberian island chain or in the ass-end of China.

Even better, many "generic" countries are often bigger and more populous than "special" countries. Paradox made sure special fan countries only could reach their peepeepoopoo nazbol Byzantium/Turan/Totoman/Muh Fossil Monarchy memeruns with...yes. Paid DLC's.

Overall, countries were now far less historically accurate, but more "multiplayer balanced", with limitations such as civil wars due to sudden regime changes or release of colonies. Multiplayer and ahistorical paths is where HoI 4 attempts to shine(and does a bit). For example, Germany can immediately decide to depose Hitler in a coup or go as usual OTL. After Hitler is whacked, the next focii opens up a whole new set of possibilities like establishing elections or bringing back the Kaiser. If so, the WW1 can be re-enacted under the Kaiser (Ach scheisse, jetzt geht's wieder los), or establish a new, benevolent, centrist faction called "Central European Alliance" and resist the incoming Soviets as a second, more conservative Allied Nations. Or play Hitler and don't declare war at all, simply turning susceptible countries into fascist friends via coups.(Maybe the real Fascism was the "Völkisch" we made along the way!)

Later DLC's made sure all countries can go into alternate timelines, now including Russia which can turn into a fascist Tzardom, a constitutional one, or into two alternate interpretations of Communism (Trotskyite expansionism or Bukharinite progressivism). Pay up, of course.

One of the game's only early saving graces, customizable divisions are no longer bound to the 10000 soldiers or even being pure infantry or mobile. The centerpiece of the divisions are several brigades, usually six or more, with supporting battalions much like HoI2's support brigades up to five. The division's size determines its width, determining the amount of soldiers seeing combat per attack (was 40 width, now shit's changed), support battalions taking up none. (which encourages to use them as diversely as possible) The important part however, is now [[Experience points]] are a resource. Its gained by fighting, having your officers chosen as cabinet members, drilling the corresponding unit in open terrain per Wargames (eats up fuel and replacement parts), or sending military attaches to countries at war to siphon some of the fighting experience as your observers take notes. Last one gives the host country a bonus as well, and makes the enemy they are fighting very angry at you. Experience is consumed every time you add/remove/change a brigade or battalion to a division design. Just be sure you stocked up a lot of AA-gun carriages when you added a supporting AA-battalion to the infantry division design that constitutes your entire army. As for the divisions, they can now be spread with a brush of hand across frontlines and given automatic advance orders, so the player doesn't have to click for hours - unless, of course, there is a slightest terrain blocker and the army becomes automatically retarded. Needless to say, this made land combat easier, and faster to organize to watch the screams of gunfire and bombings with a glass of wine and Sabaton blaring in the background. Paradox, cheeky DLC fuckers that they are, put Sabaton songs as a purchasable. Because they apparently never heard about Alt+Tab. Then they proved they've completely lost their marbles by adding a DLC with handful of radio speeches by Allied leaders. You know, public domain stuff. And only Allied leaders, because [[/pol/ | who]] would want to hear the scary Hitler blasting something about conquering Eastern Untermenschen or Stalin spreading the glorious revolution, especially when it wouldn't be in English anyway.

The player no longer builds wholesale divisions with the industry, but produces individual weapons, tanks, artillery and materiel to slap them together with manpower into custom divisions. This sounds ominous at first, but once the production lines are well understood, it becomes just a question of changing a bit of production numbers once a month or so(and AI can design its armies quite decently, barring a few horrible abortions of reserve garrison debacles). This new feature is much more flexible than the old methods, allowing the player to produce mountains of armaments in peacetime, and only starting training at the time of his choosing and making unique solutions for unique situations around the world, such as using up idle Special Forces capacity to turn that 10 division army into mountaineers when mountains are in sight. It also allows bigger players (we are looking at you, USA) to produce mountains of guns, tanks, jeeps and ship them to friends who could simply maintain said guns with now abstract "supplies", a.k.a Lend Lease. Plus you can use "acquired" materiel from conquests, more so if your attacking armies have "maintenance battalions" repairing captured equipment, since defeated enemy units leave some equipment behind which can be used to outfit your divisions, ESPECIALLY when the divisions are encircled. OR you convince the bigger countries to give you production licenses, so that you can avoid researching that obscure unit down the research tree or have no time to research a tank when Roosevelt, Stalin or Hitler can give you Sherman/T-34/Panther designs for the cheap price of a few civilian factories working for them as long as you keep the license! Plus you can research the licensed unit's national equivalent faster and discard the license when done.

Sounds perfect for multiplayer, sadly is an absolute horrorfest for the AI who, in its silicon glory, designed a staggering swarm of 1-Brigade cavalry supported by a single HEAVY SELF PROPELLED brigade...as the United Fucking States who by now was 100% motorized and bumrushes you like Age of Empires on crack...Or designs a pure 39 width artillery-cavalry mix as Germany and LARP's Napoleonic Era. Later patches made sure the enemy designed powerful and functional divisions, but still occasionally shits out 1-2 brigade light infantry clogging the battlefield and gets shot to shit. Worse, as DLC's advance, each one being made by a cheaper, dumber and more spiteful third party Paradox could pay with their overblown Euro currency, balance is getting worse, focuses the DLC developer fanbois make to advertise his shithole of a country get more unbalanced, and the game becomes like a smudgier text with every penstroke.

Now burn all that you read and forget it. The game is completely remade, much to the chagrin of neckbeards having to re-learn meta.

The newest DLC, "No Step Back", FINALLY brings back and adds things that should have been added and then pisses all over it in typical Paradox fashion. Like a logistic system that is now beyond harsh, trains, armed trains, disposable temporary artifical docks, logistics strikes on turtling enemies, tank designs and fucks 5000$+ supercomputers in the ass because Paradox finally gave up on coding and sells mods all but in name as "DLC" without a care in the performance spike, much like the faggots running the TNO shitshow.

More DLC's. "Blood Alone" will bring much needed content for Italy, and...Switzerland and Ethiopia.

At least the game is no longer for toddlers! (though now many earlier achievements will be mathematically impossible to do)

Changes include:

1-Infantry is no longer your bread, butter, and bread(and butter) knife after the game hits the 40's. Come the 40's, it won't even do the meme "orgwall" effectively anymore without good Anti-Tank and AA cannon support added. On offense post 1940, stereotypically sending trillions of bugmen armed with rifles, personal mortars and grenades can be ruinous due to harsher supply effects and can be cost effectively stopped by very thick armored close range howitzers, and post the Spring of 42-43, [[Manticore Rocket Launcher|motorized rocket artillery]] go brrr. You will have to think and adapt now, even if you go pure infantry, past 41 mark they will need supporting AA, AT and engineering to be a decent defender, free personal AT upgrades will only take them so far. On offensive, they can still hold ground, but as attackers you'll at least definitely need to add line artillery, if not self-propelled heavy armor artillery or said motorized rocket artilleries to be of any use.

1.2-Speaking of adapting, build your own fucking tanks. Expect tears and rage when people fail at math or discover a meta by accident. Rotation turret(more expensive-offense oriented) or superstructure(like a tank destroyer, cheaper but bad on attacking on its own)? How many men will be manning the guns? What is the tank's main armament? Rivet your armor or weld it? What is the suspension, Christie, Bogie, Torsion, Interleaved wheels? The drive engine? Repeat the "Schachtellauffwerk"(Interleaved wheels) debacle or use just Torsion bars? Smoke grenades or wet ammo canisters to avoid ammo blowouts on hits? [[Baneblade|How about a Tiger with sloped armor and 4 heavy machine guns and 2 turrets?]]

2- Doctrines (Universal combat buffs) cannot be researched in scientific institutions but must be "developed" spending experience points, doing by learning. Which is probably the best and most logical/realistic part of the new meta.

3- Supplies now use two separate infrastructures and have flow limits. Railways for "arteries" where supplies are carried by trains to "hubs" and roads which take the supplies to the units, or "normal infrastructure" for "capillaries". You need trains for railroads, nothing/trucks for roads, and convoy ships to transport by sea. Do produce a lot of trucks and cargo ships: horse carriage supplies are horrid, you know what happened on Ostfront. And yes, you will devote a good chunk of your military industry to pure logistics now (trains and trucks), and always devote civilian factories as frontlines expand and rails need to be laid. Transport planes can now make or break a desolate battlefield with supply drops. And even if you had a maxed out railroad, millions of planes, trucks and depots, there is STILL a limit how much supply can flow through a region. Entire wilderness regions with no railroad? Have fun pushing an army group through there without losing years of materiel to attrition only to die horribly with a sneeze; which also gives weaker, desolate minors a fighting chance to keep supply lines narrow... only to eventually buckle and go crunch, [[Victoria|and be railroaded into weakness]] since building infrastructure now takes at least five times as much effort. It goes without saying Chinese factions depending on ox carts are fucked against Japan now.

4- Combat width is no longer multiples of 20 but MANY multiples of 12 and width capacity is dynamic for certain terrains. Most for urban cities and plains, least for swamps etc. Plus there is a new value, "coordination" which defines damage dealt in an optimized way, meaning smaller, well trained infantries with radio support can melt a [[Tarpit]] army without taking ANY hits if extremely well coordinated.

5- No airforce while your enemy has even one plane? Fuck you. AA guns can (and in late game, MUST even with complete fighter coverage) protect your attacking army but when the enemy planes strafe every transport truck and train and horse cart in the countryside your men will starve. Germany can lose to Poland if all its trains are bombed by Polish planes which WILL happen. During combat, cover EVERY region which will transport supplies or keep combat units with planes, static AA emplacements and radar. Or die miserably eating your shoes and throwing rocks at enemy. Even WW1 Biplanes can threaten an unguarded supply line with gun/bomb strafing.

7-The AI has finally the means to manage his country, set up radar, infrastructure, good meta divisions and produces and cracks NUKES like fireworks. Maintain air supremacy or [[Exterminatus|get fucking glassed]]. And it can think; nukes targeting the one dock where your entire fleet is being repaired is not pleasant. A very unpleasant side effect being now that minors are doomed to be minors in single player. You can no longer exploit that much. China in singleplayer went from the beast of Asia to a paper tiger that keels over with one punch even when all the warlords submit as vassals.

The braindead AI meme is gone now: you can no longer go roughshod on French with just 12 divisions of light tank popguns or conquer the world as Luxembourg in 1945, and have to invest in planes by any means necessary lest your trains get fucked up and actually direct divisions to punch through and avoid being flanked. Playing [[Nazi|the funny moustache man happy adventure]] on single player won't be the same fun blitz thanks to finally upgraded AI (hopefully it doesn't cheat but crossing fingers). Expect Dutch and British marines landing from multiple locations on German soil the moment France is threatened, Poland going Kamikaze on your supply lines with planes(they'll die but still bang you up so badly France can kill you), AI actually using commander abilities and trying to encircle the player, as well as your Reichsmarine getting dock bombed from day one. On a worse note, tanks are either cost-ineffective unbreakable mountains or little more than iron plated gun cars. Light tanks are now mostly only useful with specialized equipment as recon and no longer frontline raiders, though a dozerblade and flamethrower can make them urban nightmares, particularly when paired with specialist infantry.

So yeah, we got reshuffled division widths, Meta-using AI, niche tanks, minor nations doomed to weakness and punitive levels of logistics now.

At least they've [[Fail|FINALLY]] made Armoured Trains carry AA guns.

==Notable Mods==

[[File:TBbJJbA.jpg|right|800px|thumb|At least it is not a Hapsburg Family Tree]]

As with any other Paradox game, modding is a big part of it, to the point that some say that people don't buy HoI4 to play HoI4, they buy HoI4 to play Kaiserreich. Mods can be generally divided into two broad categories: "alt-hist wankfest" (''especially'' prominent for HoI4) and "other".

For simplicity's sake, let's start with "other":
*'''BlackIce''' - preferably the HoI3 version, as the one for HoI4 is still in early stages of development. Unlike other mods listed below, this one is strictly historical. It's main appeal is in taking already (in)famously autistic HoI3's gameplay and asking the question "what if we try to salvage it, while keeping it historical". The results is a mod that reinvents the wheel, utilising to full potential all the game mechanics in meaningful way rather than just having them and throwing at player a historical challenge of fighting the war as any of the country would, with thousands of thousands events going on for everyone, based both at starting reality and actions performed by player.
*'''Equestria at War''' - An oddball of the bunch, a My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic HoI4 mod about the Post-Season 8 Ponies about to experience the horrors of industrialized warfare fighting against the Changeling blitzkrieg on one side of the ocean, while the mass of Griffon Empire remnant states are trying to restore said Empire in their image on the other side, plus the a planned continent that is combination of Africa and Asia containing a mix of tribal nations and ancient fallen empires. On one hand: It is actually one of the better mods for HoI4, with the amount of well-designed content off the charts. On the other: [[HERESY|Ponies]].
*'''FODD''' - '''F'''all'''O'''ut '''D'''ooms'''D'''ay mod. As the name implies, this is an old one and lion share of development happend before Bethesda got their hands on Fallout franchise or its lore. It's a total overhaul mod, changing the game completely to support Fallout setting, picking off soon after Fallout 2 ended, with some elements from Tactics thrown in for good measure. It has atypical gameplay, as at the game start, most countries control at best three provinces (usually just one), map is reduced to North America (with its own, far more detailed map) and almost everything starts as controlled by "Wasteland", having to be settled first. Countless flavour events, even for minor nations, along with solid, HoI2 gameplay and making sure things work out within given premise. Eventually migrated to Darkest Hour and added some of New Vegas elements under overwhelming player's demand, but still refused to even touch Bethesda-made content before being wrapped up.
*'''HPP''' - another mod for HoI3, which is widely considered to be unofficial expansion, rather than a mod. Bunch of quality of life stuff combined with slight rework of certain mechanics and improved AI, without retooling too much of the game proper to qualify as a total overhaul mod. Also includes extra flavour to the game and a ''small'' bit of wiggle space for alternative history.
*'''Old World Blues''' - A total overhaul mod set in the Fallout universe relatively shortly before the events of New Vegas plus fuckton player content such as Latin America under a gas company's A.I, voodoo ghoul drug lords and priestesses. Canada is run by power-armor-viking-pirate clans emulating Ragnar Lodbrok, Caesar's Legion is in pre-White Legs debacle attacking the Hangdogs and NCR is dealing with nearby tribes and squatters. If you like post-Bethesda Fallout, you will enjoy this mod.
*'''Millennium Dawn''' - A mod set in modern day with 2000 and 2016 start dates. The best thing ever for some, while for others it is an example of the folly of trying to fit Modern Day setup into an engine designed for WW2. Merged with a mechanically very different modern day mod called Modern Day 4 in summer 2019, which received harsh criticism, and several "Classic" mods by different people were created to fill the void. Currently on the back burner following the TNO fiasco discussed below.
*'''[[Unification Wars]]''' - [[Awesome|Yes]]! As true as possible to everything garnered from 40k's [[Fluff]].
*'''War of the Worlds''' - Exactly what it says. H.G Wells' literary and Jeff Wayne's musical lovechild made into the game. Martians come in around 1938'ish and land in New Jersey, Grovers Mill. Unbalanced as fuck but it's Martians we are talking about. Martians can become communists and take earth with humans as a servant race(even employ a human minister to suppress and recruit auxiliaries), or go full fascist and eat humans for sustenance, driving every rival nation into panic and full scale war.
*'''HOI4 Beyond Earth''' - It's [[Awesome|Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri mixed with Civilization: Beyond Earth and new, expanded lore on top of it]]. Based on the backstory of the games instead of the "OG plot" proper, the game puts you on the shoes of a leader on the 23rd century after the "Great Mistake" fucked over with humanity and left Earth in ruins, with solutions running gamut from trying to maintain the status-quo and promoting peace in the planet, to reunifying humans under a single banner, to outright pulling a "LOLnope" and leaving Earth for new pastures, as a final war looms, one which promises to be [[Exterminatus|truly the last one humans will inflict on each other]]. Stated for release mid-2022, has been well-received in the community for the promising lore and the "Grimdark yet peppered with glimpses of hope" tone of it.

Alt-hist wankfest:
*'''1964 Mod''' - Arsenal of Democracy mod, made after the end date a multiplayer session, every major power played by very skilled human players over several weeks (The AAR that led to it is named "Democracy's Last Legs", found at the Paradox forums). Around 1964, Germany won... kind of. Nazis died out when its human player changed the government to a conservative one simulating erasing the SS and turning it to a technocracy. USSR was defeated, Germany released a puppet monarchist Russia and USSR retreated to the east as Lavrenti Beria used the German peace treaty to conquer China and Asia, turning it to a Pan-Asian Communist Empire. Japan, losing its Asian holdings shat its pants and buddied up Uncle Sam who itself went through a civil war after New York got nuked by Germans, and vice versa. Every capital city is nuked so hard in the conflagration that 1964 is as expansion prone as 1936 due to the devastation and losses, as well as Germany's many released countries to avoid rebellion and manpower waste. Oi Blyad, eto snova my!
*'''Kaiserreich''' - When people think about Hearts of Iron mods, it is most likely that they think about Kaiserreich. Initially starting out as ''All The Russias'', a mod about the Russian Civil War with dozen of sides, it soon evolved into a "What if Germany won WW1?" scenario where USA did not join the Great War, which along with other reasons will lead to the 2nd American Civil War, and where the Bolshevik revolution failed in Russia, but an ideologically similar but different Syndicalist revolutions succeeded in France and Great Britain, with the defeated governments fleeing to North Africa and Canada respectively. And then in 1936, the delayed Great Depression hits, and the already fragile and delicate power balance goes out of the window.
**'''Fuhrerreich''' - There is an event in Kaiserreich which describes a book about "What if Germany lost the Weltkrieg?", which mirrors the OTL but with in-universe's pro-monarchistic bent and with syndicalism coloring the view on communism, and this mod is basically that, meta of a meta.
**'''Kalterkrieg''' - Post 2nd Weltkrieg mod where most of major Syndicalist powers were defeated and the world settled into a Cold War between the Reichspakt and the Entente, with the 2nd American Civil War STILL ongoing.
**'''Kaiserredux''' - Submod, later separate fork to Kaiserreich focusing more on fun and "wacky" scenarios over the realism of the "main" mod. Notable for expanding the American Civil War into a bloated shitfest with 6 main factions in total that can end with even ''more'' states like Texas, Alaska, Arizona and the city of New York seceding alongside Black and Indian revolts, with potential unifiers ranging from [[Noblebright|surprisingly stable, progressive and free]] to completely [[Grimderp]] situations like an america reunified by [[SJW|The Nation of Islam who deports and genocide white people while promoting black supremacism and instigating an even more fundamentalistic version of the Sharia Law]] or [[/pol/|The Old Klan, a bunch of rabid racists who create a white supremacist personality cult while persecuting catholics and treating women like 18th century america]]. Other iconic paths include those restored from OG Kaiserreich that were removed for being too "unrealistic" like [[Communism|Stalin controlling Georgia]] or Roman von Ungern-Sternberg LARPing as [[Genghis motherfucking Khan|Genghis Khan]] in Mongolia. Also, it's infamous for running '''horribly''' even on good PCs and being unplayable by the lategame unless you have absurd specs and/or lower the settings.
*'''The New Order: Last Days of Europe''' - [[/pol/|What if the Nazis won]], gone full [[Grimdark]]. Released 21 July 2020, the mod is a remake of HoI4 in a terrifying fashion with countless new features, from money & taxes to new tickers and gauges for separate factions which became prominent in minigames for alternate faction plots. Lots of [[Fluff]](each nation has more text-events than the base game total for every nation combined), almost no [[Crunch]] unless you play a Russian warlord to reunite Russia. Famous for "Superevents", plot-wise critical events with the jingle of a Leitmotif, a cinematic picture and a big-ass explanation. Many nations have the chance to start a nuclear war and end human civilization; it's one nation's ''win condition''. (Happily, there is an option to prevent this escalation from happening randomly.) Suffered a massive shakeup [[Not as Planned|after a devbuild was leaked...]] resulting in accusations of cronyism, Pro-Soviet revisionism and general power abuse amongst the devteam, and their response was to <s>calmly explain themselves</s> [[Blam|silence all dissent]], which was only exacerbated when evidence came forth of the devteam grooming minors. Development has gone back to normal after a small purge, releasing a massive update overhauling and expanding the base game’s economic mechanics.
*'''Red Dawn''' - The Soviet Union wins the Cold War (point of divergence being the Korean War), only to find out that their victory is hollow. Per typical leftists, now everyone fights over the concept of "True Communism" and create their own factions. The US is a balkanized mess made up of racists, leftists, social liberals, rightists, corporatists and every other political view imaginable. Oh, and Bernie Sanders is a [[Just as Planned|mastermind with a secret agenda]].
*'''Red Flood''' - What if NO ONE won WW1? Communist Third International is in every continent and they clearly plan to flood the world with red conscripts, facing reactionary right-wing governments and futurist crazies and Russia is balkanized. Iconic for its "le happy Goebbels" portrait of a communist Germany, a moderate, non-racist Hitler defending Austria vs extremism (later clobbered when it started attracting actual fascists and people unfamiliar with the backstory of other mods it was referencing) and a batshit insane [[SJW|futurist, anti-modernist]] France bent on world conquest with [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] and caveman variations in the beginning.
*'''Road to 56''' - A Frankenstein amalgamation of mods made into a megamod that gives every nation a unique focus tree, and makes everyone act ahistorically. Has funny bugs, still very popular.
*'''Thousand Week Reich''' - What if the Nazis "kinda" won after UK throws in the towel and signs White Peace after Dunkirk, but the Reich barely held together? Is TNO's lighter and softer version. German civil war can be avoided, Japan is defeated, China is the new rising power thanks to ''massive'' nuclear bombing of the Japanese archipelago, which can devolve into communism, or fascism and invaded again. Italy is, as usual, flip-flopping.
*'''Disaster: Death of Peace''' - Red Flood alike mod; less meme insanity, more grimdark. '''Every''' major(or even average) country is balkanized when Versailles Conference ends up in a brawl. Even USA. Since the devs are Turkish, expect a dozen superevents for that already tiny shithole balkanized over9000 times.