Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Adeptus Mechanicus (section)

==Why Play Adeptus Mechanicus==
Because you like [[Necrons|Cyborgs]], [[Cryptek|technosorcery]], and some of the scariest guns in the Imperium. Alternatively, because you want to play a bunch of [[Trazyn_the_Infinite|greedy hoarders]] that make the Blood Ravens seem positively philanthropic in comparison.

'''Pros'''
* Incredibly flexible - you can adapt to the board on the fly with your Canticles and multiple-choice specializations.
**Canticles of the Omnissiah traits have been buffed to be actually useful (instead of gunning for shroudpsalm every round) and Doctrina Imperatives--a new rule that gives a buff and debuff army wide. Do note that they only affect Cult Mechanicus and Skittles, respectively.
* Durable across the board. For infantry alone, a basic Skitarius is T3 4+/5++ W1 and already shares the troop slot with T5 W3 2+/6++ Kataphron Breachers. Everything outside the troop slot has at least an extra wound on this profile.
** Abundant invulnerable saves with the entire roster having at least 5++.
** Shroudpsalm on demand ensures cover saves for your entire army, even if the opponent gets an angle on you or if there's no terrain on the board.
* Mobile - practically everything in the army tags at least one of the following and usually more:
** Is loaded with Assault weapons.
** Has an 8" or 12" move.
** Has deep-strike or pre-game move.
** Ignores penalties for moving with Heavy weapons.
* Wonderful models, with the entire range having started in late 7e, fully in plastic (*cough* servitors) and most kits being bountiful with spare bits.
*Knight of the cog allows you to take a knight in your army for each detachment you have (FAQ needed to see if it costs 3CP or 1CP, check back later).
* Some of the best Troop and Heavy Support units of any Imperium faction.
* Some good buffs from 8th edition to make shelved units like Infiltrators and Ruststalkers playable. Ironstriders in particular have gone from almost unusable to one of the best fast attack options for the faction. Praise the Omnissiah!
* A well-balanced army with some strong options post-nerf.
* Models have an incredible level of detail that will always look impressive and reward skilled painters. 

'''Cons'''
* A ''lot'' of rules. You have your canticles (which only affect Cult Mechanicus), your doctrinas (Which only affect Skitarii), the Skitarii WLTs (which have to be declared each Command phase), the new marshal that allows you to ignore the negatives on one unit with the doctrina, our flying transport being a CF of dumb rule writing, AND we have core keyword bingo! Bring a sheet of rule interactions with your games and a list of all the buffs you can get in the Command phase, because confusion '''will''' occur and you '''will''' miss multiple buffs if not careful.
* No psykers and no direct defense against them, unless you're from Graia, soup in the Inquisition, or have your snipers blow every witch off the board on the first turn. Obviously the terrain used in the battle impacts the viability of that last option.
** As a consequence of the above, you have no reliable source of Mortal Wounds as your only sources of them are 6s on wound from various units and through stratagems. But BOY OH BOY, do you get those MWs on 6s if you play the right strats and take the right units!
* Poor leadership across the board makes Morale relevant for once and forces you to either run MSU or pay for data-tethers and play your infantry around the broad-spectrum ones (though there are a couple really good strats to completely ignore this for multiple units near an objective marker).
* Your generic HQ sculpts have very little room for customization; sure, they have options but it can be really difficult to tell which gun is which from across the table, meaning they will all tend to look the same. Resorting to kitbashing or aftermarket parts can get around this a little.
* Very crowded Fast Attack slots with many good options competing for them - you're going to have to think long and hard on what you're gonna go with, or shell out the cp for an Outrider detachment to build your strategy around.
* Remember those abundant 5++ and 6++ invul saves? In 9th you have almost no 4++ and absolutely no 3++ in the whole Codex.
* Extremely schizophrenic meta position. They started 9th with OP [[cheese]] like CORE Ironstrider spam, got castrated by GW's October 2021 FAQ and the lack of rebalancing for an entire year, then Geedubs invalidated most all the nerfs in the 2022 dataslates, rubber-banding them back to the start (albeit still with the third lowest win rate in the game.) 
** 10th Edition's faction focus kicked the Vanguard in the dick by dropping them to an Imperial guardsman statline (BS4+ Sv5+ Invuln 6+) from their previous halfway point between marine and guardsman (BS3+ Sv4+ Invuln 5+), with almost no buffs to compensate. No word on the Rangers or other unit changes, but that doesn't exactly bode well for the cog-boys' future in the meta.
* The high level of detail is a double-edged sword, taking a long time to paint. Long spindly protruding bits mean you will break something off at some point.