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

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*'''0-1 Archmagos Prime:''' Your head cyborg and the guy you want to bring to almost every game. Like the Legion Praetor, the Archmagos Prime is pretty much essential for your army, as he allows you to bring High 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 (4+)'' rolls, Heavy weapons to make him a walking gun platform (even more so if you take the ''Myrmidax'' High Techno-arcana), a paragon blade and/or chainfist to make him as killy in melee as possible, and even 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 Cybertheurgic Arcana, and ''The Orders of High Techno-arcana'' rule allows for even more specialisation and customisation. 
**He does have some drawbacks, though. Firstly, as you could have guessed, a basic Archmagos Prime is fairly expensive on his own, being 155 points for the standard cyborg commander, and almost all his options will severely ramp up his price; 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 set to 5, he comes up short when compared to his Marine counterparts in melee, as he only has WS4 and 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 on 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 than close combat, relying primarily on his Toughness and good saves to keep him alive during fights over being able to kill his opponents quickly.
**As of the 12/2022 FAQ, clarifications to ''Battlesmith (X)'' means no more shooting and repairing. In fact, the FAQ states you can't even repair multiple times a turn, so it's only one ''Battlesmith (X)'' roll per turn.

*'''0-1 Archmagos Prime on Abeyant:''' The same as above but mounted on a floating command console. For 30 extra points, your Archmagos Prime gains an extra point of Toughness and 2 Wounds, bringing him up to T6 and 5W. He loses ''Firing Protocols (3)'' and ''Relentless'', but that's fine since he gains the ''Monstrous'' and ''Antigrav'' sub-types which allow him to fire all the weapons he has and count as Stationary when shooting them, as well as letting him float over terrain. Finally, he also gains ''Pride of Place'', stopping 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'' sub-type, he's also only one unit and most likely to be strapped to an Adsecularis Covenant or Castellax Maniple, things that wouldn't care about running away anyway. 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. He curiously still keeps the ''Heavy'' sub-type, 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 Loyalist Reductor Archmagos Dominus with a power axe and bolt pistol, both ''Master-crafted'', as well as a machinator array, all carrying ''Ignores Cover'', ''Sunder'', and ''Wrecker'' to demolish tanks 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 Scyllax Maniple or a unit of Tech-Priest Auxilia as a retinue, customized as you see fit including grabbing a transport. This retinue will also carry ''Ignores Cover'', ''Sunder'', and ''Wrecker''. The Auxilia have their uses as they provide more repairs if Calleb's too busy with things and can offer an additional buff from their chosen Techno-arcana, to say nothing of their Servo-automata. The Scyllax are there if you really just want him to wreck shit because they're not going to be going anywhere fast.

*'''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 all the standard Archmagos Prime 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 Cybertheurgic Arcana, 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 no real anti-horde capability, 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, that is) for a single I1 attack that auto-hits his opponent. This attack rolls 2D6, inflicting a number of wounds equal to the number rolled minus the Toughness of the target; e.g., 7 rolled - T4 = 3 wounds, all of which are resolved at AP2. If he hits a Vehicle with an Armour Value, halve 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 - AV6 (half of 12) = 1 Penetrating Hit. Remember, since this attack is used during the Assault phase against a model he is in base contact with, [[Anal_Circumference|this will be resolved against the Vehicle's Rear Armour.]]
**His Warlord Trait, '''Cruel Taskmaster''', turns him into a Cyborg [[Commissar]], as any unit within 12" of him that fails a Morale 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 Troops choice in a Questoris Knights Detachment. In addition to this, he can bring Castellax Maniples and Vorax Maniples as non-Compulsory Troops choices while part of a Household Detachment. Back up your 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 gives him 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 HH 1.0 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 three regular Cybertheurgic Arcana with associated Rites and weapons (except those learned from certain High Techno-arcana), ''Battlesmith (3+)'' and ''Move Through Cover''. As if having a 2+ save on a T7 W7 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, an S+2 AP2 ''Two-Handed'' seal of office with ''Armourbane (Melee)'', ''Exoshock (4+)'' and ''Murderous Strike (5+)'' is nothing to scoff at, especially if the enemy also has to contend with ''Fear (2)'' if they survive. The one weakness it gained is that, without anything like ''Brutal (X)'' to back it up, he will get held up by Terminators and other multi-wound units.
**His Warlord Trait, '''Forbidden Protocols''', gives a 6" bubble that allows 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.

*'''Inar Satarael, Master of the Taghmata Satarael, Synod-Persecutor of Incaladion, the Grief of Zoroastris, the Fleshless Lord<sup>Legacies</sup>:''' Another Traitor Archmagos Prime entombed in what might as well be called an Abeyant for the sake of rules, this time with the ''Archimandrite'' High Techno-arcana. On top of the power axe, graviton imploder and servo-arm, his Abeyant comes strapped with a ''Twin-linked'' Maxima bolter, which lets him fire quite a lot at close range, all for 185 points - the same as a stock Archmagos Prime on an Abeyant. He also comes with ''Feel No Pain (5+)'' and a 4++ save via his repulsion shield, one that lets him throw an S6 hit right back at whoever shot him if he rolls a natural 6 on his save, but only if it's not part of a Reaction.
**Satarael uniquely has a chance to be of no benefit to the enemy when slain. Not only can he explode upon losing his last wound, dealing S6 AP- hits to all models within D6" of him, but he also does not confer any VPs on a 4+, meaning that there might be a chance that your enemy just wasted all that firepower on one named Archmagos Prime on Abeyant. Of course, it's still worse for you because you just lost your Warlord; Satarael has the ''Archimandrite'' High Techno-arcana, remember?