Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Cult Mechanicus (section)

==Unit Analysis==

===HQ===
*'''Techpriest Dominus:''' A sweet update of the old metal Imperial Guard model, strangely unlike the Skitarii codex fluff-wise it seems these Techpriests find it better to lead by example than saving their necks from commanding from a ship in orbit. You know he's the big cheese because he has both [[Pauldrons]] and a [[Hats|hat]]. Right off the bat he is a pretty impressive servant of the Machine God, possessing a 2+ Armour Save, a 5+ Invulnerable, 3 Wounds and Feel No Pain. As standard he comes with a Power Axe, the only Volkite weapon in 40k and a Macrostubber. That's a lot of Anti-Infantry shooting, right there. He can then replace the Volkite Blaster with an Eradication Ray, both of which he can fire on the move since he's Relentless. He can also replace the Macrostubber for a Phosphor Serpenta. And with the Mechadendrite Harness, he can shoot all of those in a single shooting phase.
** He slices! He dices! And he just won't fucking die! He has two decent guns, two decent close combat weapons, a special rule that helps the Mechanicus/allied vehicles and a piece of equipment that gives you a meta-advantage by revealing mysterious objectives. Except for Psykers (who are crapshoots as to their effectiveness), this guy may well be the best generic HQ in the entire goddamn Imperium. Take one now. I don't care if you play Space Marines. Take. One. (And with the dominus maniple you can take one, a squad of vanguard, and the godly firepower of a ONE, JUST ONE DUNECRAWLER.)
** The standard loadout is mainly anti-infantry shooting and also contains AP2 assault / Haywire assault to deal with troublesome foes. In other words, this build feels right at home with the new Electro Priests.
** The Dominus also comes with the Master of the Machines special rule which combos out with the Mechadendrite harness to swap out up to one of the model's shooting attacks to use an upgraded version of the usual tech priest ability to repair hull points or a Weapon Destroyed/Immobilized result suffered earlier in battle. Instead of being able to do it on a 5+ he may do it on a 2+ as well as restore wounds the same way as if they were hull points! It is definitely recommended to stick this guy in a squad of Kataphrons because they contain multi-wound models. In fact, you can use this ability to restore his own wounds as a super IWND! However, the Wound restoring function only works on Models from the Skitarii or Cult Mechanicus books - so no fixing up Chapter Master Smashfucker if he takes a hit. But imagine it on a Knight from...oh I dunno, the hella sweet Adeptus Mechanicus War Convocation formation (see below).
*'''Belisarius Cawl (Fall of Cadia):''' The big bad Archmagos Dominus. Like Celestine and Greyfax, he can be taken as an HQ in any Combined Arms or Allied detachment for Armies of the Imperium, or replace a Dominus in any Cult Mechanicus formation. Costs 200 points and has a Monstrous Creature statline of S5 '''T6 W5''', with WS/BS 5, but only 3 Attacks at 3 Initiative while not being a Monstrous Creature. However, this matters little, as his equipment and special rules are full of Mars-pattern hard cheddar. For starters, like any Dominus, he has artificer armour, refractor field and Feel no Pain, the last of which is re-rollable if he is the Warlord, basically making him immune to small arms fire and able to easily tank plasma blasts. Bear in mind that he does ''not'' have Eternal Warrior and his invulnerable save is only 5+. So a lucky Force hit is all that's needed to drop Cawl. Also like any Dominus, he can regenerate lost wounds, but instead of using Master of Machines, which he does not have, he now just up and [[What|regenerates D3 wounds each turn]]. Out of his pool of five. [[Rage|And he can also be repaired by a Dominus in his unit.]] This he needs, for his weapons are devastating. First, an Arc Scourge, an S+1 AP 4 Melee, Master-crafted, re-rollable Haywire stick tailor-made to wreck any vehicles he comes in contact with. A Master-crafted Power Axe comes in handy when he needs to kill 2+ armoured enemies, and gives him +1 Attacks for two CCWs. When he is overwhelmed, though, he can use his Mechadendrite Hive to do 2d6 S4 AP- attacks as well as a dataspike poke both at I10 in close combat, a bit like Anzion's Pseudogenetor, to clear out blobs. His ranged weapon, though, is the most powerful one. Solar Atomiser, the Mechanicus' version of a meltagun, is an astonishing 12" S 10 AP 1 Assault D3, Master-crafted, Melta gun that is almost equivalent to a portable melta-vet squad. His army-enhancing special rules are an icing on the cake. He allows access to the new Arcana Mechanicum table for use by other potential relic-bearers. Scryerskull allows him to uncover a single Mysterious Objective in a turn. While he lost Master of Machines, he still has Canticles of the Omnissiah, enhanced by the new Canticles of the Archmagos. These work as usual, scaling in power with more Canticles of the Omnissah units singing along, but they also affect all Imperial vehicles within 12" of him. There are three of them:
**'''Harmony of Metallurgy''': 1-3 CotO units are granted a single IWND roll, 4-7 are granted two rolls, and 8+ are granted three IWND rolls to recover their Wounds and Hull Points. This more than makes up for the fact that Cawl does not have Master of Machines. Affects himself, too, so he can potentially recover 4 wounds in a single turn. No info as of yet on whether this stacks with existing IWND.
**'''Word of Neutralisation''': 1-3 CotO units increase their BS by 1, 4-7 increase their BS by 2, and 8+ increase their BS by 3. We herd you liek Doctrinae Imperatives, so we gave you a Doctrine in your Canticle so you can wipe out enemies while you are charging them. Compensates nicely for the generally bad BS of Cult Mechanicus units, allowing you to land a devastating alpha strike, and can severely increase the amount of firepower that IG/AM tanks are pumping out.
**'''Warhymnal of Fortitude''': 1-3 CotO units now have a 6+ Invuln, which is increased to 5+ for 4 to 7 units and to 4+ to 8+ units. Pretty much the Blessing of Binharic Deliverance by another name, and is equally [[Awesome|awesome]]. (Give a Knight a 4++ on the turn he gets into combat, or give a Knight Warden/Crusader +3 BS for a turn to really kill those units...)

===Troops===
Unlike most armies, your Troops are not cheap. They aren't even cheap compared to the rest of your army. They are only Troops because fluff-wise, they are fielded by the millions and a Dominus pays them no more heed than a Space Marine does the Bolts in his magazine; that is, it's inconvenient when they run out at a critical moment but they're absolutely expendable. What this means is that your Troops have obscenely powerful guns and very high, very defensive stats.
*'''Kataphron Destroyers:''' A Servitor mounted on Tank Treads (which is, as it turns out, a nod to the Skitarii Praetorians which pop up a few times in the fluff) with a big Plasma Gun and a rapid-fire Phosphor gun. With BS/WS3 and S/T5, they're pretty tough. They can't run, but you'd never want to because they can certainly dakka--each model can fire up to two weapons, and they have a rule that can best be described as "Relent-Effectively-None:" Relentless in all but name. They can also exchange their Plasma Culverins for ''the [[Grav-weapons|grav-gun]] to rule them all''. This upgrade in particular is free and pretty much a no-brainer unless you know beforehand that you're facing Daemons. The other upgrade costs 5 points and exchanges the Phosphor gun for a Cognis Flamer. For 55 points each, with unit sizes from 3-12, these things pack a ridiculous amount of firepower and can certainly take the hurt. Except for their 4+ armor, which sucks.
**When taken with both upgrades, they make for truly excellent Overwatchers that no one sane will charge with anything that's not cannon fodder. 6 shots each make it very likely that you hit something and then on top of that, you have three auto-hits each thanks to the Flamers.
**The guys are also a great answer to Wraithguard. 30" guns give you a comfortable range advantage against them, your guns hurt them real bad and once the Wraithguard is gone, there ''will'' be something else to blow up.
**While Cult Mechanicus lacks any true anti-air, you can improvise with these guys. Grab three and throw in a Dominus with Raiment of the Technomartyr (If you have Belasarius Cawl in your army take the Memento-Mortispex instead for actual skyfire, or if there are no flyers you always have monster/tank hunter instead). The cognis means you'll average 1HP of damage a turn, with a 1/3 chance of wrecking it thanks to immobilized. Both the Volkite and the Phosphor blasters have a chance of doing damage as well, potentially reducing the jink save. Works even better against FMC. Improve by using the Benediction of Omniscience Canticle (up to 66% increase in output), or including more men. A 6 man squad would down a 3HP flyer 68% of the time, inching past 75% with the blasters. Not bad for sure, but you might want to consider their brothers below instead though.
**Another good use of these guys is to throw a 6 man unit in an imperial bunker, they can all fire out, their 30" range will mean that their immobility won't be a problem, and they will be protected by an av 14 building, possibly with a void shield. 
**Plasma servitors are actually amazing with the new Haemotrope Reactor. I'm serious, holy shit. For 200pts you can have a squad that pumps out 6 s7 ap2 large blasts a turn. The worse gets hot isn't much of a problem as you have two wounds and the BoO canticle. ''Or just take a War Convocation and drop 6 large blast plasma shots without giving a shit about losing wounds.''
*'''Kataphron Breachers:''' A  heavier armoured Servitor mounted on Tank Treads with a big Arc Cannon. Has 3+ compared to 4+ of the Destroyers, but despite the better save and a close combat weapon, '''do not''' mistake them for a close combat-unit. They're not. They're vehicle- and fortification-''breachers'' par excellence, though. They have a 2-shot 36" Haywire gun and a Haywire CCW, the latter of which is quite underwhelming. As a free upgrade, they can exchange the gun for a Torsion Cannon. Much more interestingly, they can take a different CCW that can exchange all the Servitor's attacks for one at S10 AP2, which you will always do, since the stupid things only have one attack anyway.
**Though not as good as their destroyer counterparts these guys are still decent. Their standard load-out seems to be anti-vehicle, with options to lean them toward anti-Monstrous Creature. Thing is, unless you run mono-Cult Mechanicus, you will definitely have better anti-tank, though admittedly, being able to administer Haywire over 36" is quite a skill to have. What other unit can ''reliably'' wreck Monoliths and Land Raiders from across the table? And as for anti-MC? Well, the gun doesn't help with cover and invul saves, which all the MCs rely on anyway and the CCW is 1 attack at WS3 each. Anything but a Daemon Prince will not be impressed and those guys will safely fly over them and laugh at them.
**These guys are even better at anti-air shenanigans. A 3 man squad with cognis, keeping their Heavy Arc Rifles, average 1.66 HP of damage, and up to 2.77 with Benediction of Omniscience. A 6 man squad will cause 3 HP of damage 87% of the time, and the pen chance means total destruction of a 3HP flier over 90% of the time, a very respectable performance. Not as good against FMC though. Fortunately, these anti-air solutions are very non-committal. Get a 4 man group of both Breachers and Destroyers and have the Dominus move between them as needed, and be sure to save your Benediction of Omniscience for when it matters.
**Does someone have a Land Raider that needs to be gone yesterday? Need 1800-Monolith-Removals? Heavy Arc Rifle paired with The Scryerskull Perspicatus and the BoO at full level is incredible. 75% chance to hit and 97% chance to glance or better? Thats an AVERAGE of 4.5 hull points stripped. For a 3 man Breacher Squad. Even with no re-roll you're averaging 3 HP a turn with only the Scryerskull Persp.

===Elites===
:For most armies, the Elites slot is filled with either sledgehammers or surgical tools. Yours lean more in the surgical tool direction. Both units have their jobs. Use them correctly and they are extremely scary. Use them incorrectly and they will be nothing but very expensive cannon fodder.
::'''An Alternate Take''' - Unless you are allying them with something that can give them a ride or taking them at max unit strength, leave them at home. Any army that can shoot will rip them a new one (5++ isn't very good against anything that can [[Tau|decently]] [[Imperial Guard|overwatch]]), and it leaves more points for Kataphrons, Techpriest Domini, and Kastelans. Unless, of course, you use one of your allies and requisition their own personal [[Land Raider | Land Raider]].
* '''Fulgurite Electro Priests''' - The Omnissiah demands that you jam! This unit starts at five models and can be reinforced up to twenty. These guys come with the biggest Rave Stick you've ever seen - which is a two-handed Power Maul that deals Instant Death on a To Wound roll of 6. On top of that, these guys have Strength 4 Hammer of Wrath on the charge and can charge though cover with no penalties, though their biggest selling point is that they have a 5+ Invulnerable, which can become a 3+ Invulnerable if they ever wipe a Unit out in combat. Oh, and Zealot and Feel no Pain.
** The Fulgurites have two things going for them. First, they have a high number of high Strength attacks that can cause Instant Death. This predestinates them for MC hunting and grabbing hold of those multi-wound Infantry units. Nobs and Tyranid Warriors for example happen to be absolutely terrified of the Electroleech Staff. Second, they can buff their Invul Save up to stupid levels by doing ''what they're best at anyway''.
** Keep in mind that the chance for these guys to actually wipe a unit rises exponentially the larger your unit is. Sure, 20 of them cost 360 points, but a 20 strong block of 3++ Fearless and Feel no Pain is pretty much impossible to bring down, especially since they are still Imperium and can hide all sorts of [[Chapter Master Smashfucker | nasty Independent Characters]].
** Take grey knights if you plan to take a lot of these guys as sanctuary can take the 3++ to a 2++, and hammerhand with invocation of machine might means you get 3 s10 attacks per priest. (aka: hey titan/land raider/ any vehicle! Bye!)  
* '''Corpuscarii Electro Priests''' - These Priests swapped their Rave Sticks for Gauntlets that grant +1 Strength in combat and can be used as a 12" Assault 2 Strength 4 Twin-Linked gun. The attacks/shots all come with the same Tesla/Taser/whateveryoucallit rule that a To Hit roll of 6 makes two additional hit (doesn't count with Snap Shots). Basically, they are there for cherry tapping the opponent to death. And just like the Fulgurites, they come stock with the 5++, S4 HoW, pseudo-Frag Grenades, Zealot and Feel no Pain.
** While these look unimpressive and the fact that they are pretty slow is another hindrance, they are actually pretty amazing. They can throw out so many shots and attacks that anything and everything buckles under the stress. Also, Feel no Pain and 5++ actually makes them way more durable than they appear. Throw in a Tech Priest Dominus to soak up the High Strength terrible AP shots headed their way and they ''will'' reach effective range. And when they do, anything not T8 ''will'' go down in electric fire.
** Keep in mind that, ''in theory'' a single Corpuscarii in a Numinous Conclave with Canticle of the Electromancer who shoots and then charges can cause a potential ''twenty-two'' S4 hits (9 from shooting, 9 from attacking, 1 from Hammer of Wrath, 3 from the Canticle). On average, it's still 11.75 hits.
*** They're also pretty much designed from the ground up to be used with the Electromancer Canticle: ten of these chaps with a Dominus, if taken in an army of three other units (roughly 900pts give or take if you pick one of each) gives you the chance to fire 25 S4 AP- shots and then seriously assault some mugs.  Twenty shots are twin-linked (and should generate another six hits), five are BS5 (along with three S6 AP5 Deflagrate shots), activate the Electromancer canticle and your eleven-strong mob of tech-savvy psychos puts out 10 free HOW hits, 30 attacks from the Priests (which statistically should generate another five hits), four S6 AP2 I1 attacks from the Dominus aaaaaaaand another 22 S4 AP- Canticle hits for having 11 models in the combat.  That's 32 S4 AP- hits, not attacks; ''hits'', before most other units even get to swing, followed by 30 attacks, followed by 4 AP2 attacks, with decent dakka before that, just to make sure you know.  Dem's like Orky numbers o' dice, even if you lose a Tech-Cenobite or two to overwatch.

===Fast Attack===
*It's the 40K Mechanicus, they are not "fast", they're tough-as-hell plodding deathbots. In any event, you're probably also playing Skitarii if you're running Cult Mechanicus, so if your strategy requires speed you have access to Sicarians or Ironstriders. You can take these out of regular FOC as well thanks to formations; either one Infiltrator/three Ruststalker squads or one Ballistarii/two Dragoon units in the case of Ironstriders. Both come with special rules that allow them to synergize well with Cult armies.

===Heavy Support===
*'''Kastelan Robot Maniple''': Sweet Omnissiah! A squad of monstrous creatures that come with a Tech-Priest Datasmith. Massively expensive if you want to go for a full squad of six. Each robot has Toughness 7 and three wounds, as well as a pair of power fists and a torrent flamer. You can replace these for heavy phosphor blasters (twin linked if you swap the fists), which do the Luminagen thing of reducing cover and assisting with charge distances. You probably want to swap the fists, since they have S6 AP2 smash as monstrous creatures anyway, and will hit before anybody else's Power Fists. The Datasmith boosts the squad with battle protocols, which give the robots the Feel No Pain rule by default, but can be swapped to either let them fire twice with their shoulder guns if they don't move or double attacks if they don't shoot at all. Remember, though: if you lose the datasmith, you can't change the protocols, meaning they could be stuck in place or without guns for the rest of the game.
**Remember that this is a unit of Monstrous Creatures so no transports or Independent Characters for you (outside of the TPD joining in one formation, anyway)
**The datasmiths should not be forgotten, they've got artificer armour, refractor fields, FnP and a near-MEQ (T4, praise the Machine God) profile making them quite resilient on their own, as well packing an Armourbane S6 AP2 pistol, a dataspike and a power fist for popping tanks or high value troopers. You can buy two more of them if you were worried about the squad ever being left uncommanded and unable to change battle protocols. However, keep in mind that shooting attacks are resolved against the toughness of the '''majority''' of models in a unit, so if you have more Datasmiths then Kastelans then the entire squad has to use their wimpy T4 instead of the awesome T7.
**They also have a nasty trick where if they roll a 6 on ''any'' saving throw against a shooting attack, the attack hits the firer instead. It doesn't work against Blasts, Templates, or psychic shooting attacks. Still, that means that the guy trying to shoot you with a lascannon might end up blasting himself right in the face by mistake, thus keeping you safe and getting rid of a potential threat at the same time. I mean I have seen a deathmark headshot itself so it's pretty amusing for an army of unfeeling robots.
**Note that the activation for the protocols is extremely weird. You choose to switch them at the end of your turn, but the changes only take effect from the start of your next turn.
**Never actually rely on your protocols with these guys. To say they aren't worth it is an understatement. They are, however, excellent for playing mind games with your opponent. Say you activate the shooting protocol. Your opponent now has one turn to decide whether to try to destroy them (while they still have Feel No Pain) or to tie up a unit he otherwise wouldn't have bothered to tie up in melee, which would keep the unit save that he might otherwise have charged.
**With clever loadout and usage, this unit is pure bullshit. For 290 points you have a unit consisting of datasmith and six T7 wounds with 3+, (5++ against shooting) and FNP if you so desire (to say nothing of bullet-deflecting) that are pretty fucking tough to kill. Whole gunlines ill-equipped for massed high-toughness cannot give them more than 1 or 2 wounds. Tau in particular have literally no answer besides horde of Kroot who wound on 4+ and can snipe the little guy to prevent Protocol changes. As for broadsides, hammerheads and riptides? In a standoff (point for point) there is same chance that you deal a wound to these robots as you do to yourself WITH YOUR OWN WEAPON. The only answer I see is to just tarpit them with truly stupid amount of bodies -- even SS/TH Termies can struggle to kill them. Also anything with force, but you have to wound T7 first... Of course you cannot ignore them as for few pennies they can put out 12 S6 AP3 shots of which 6 are twin-linked. Also 2 attacks per robot at S6 AP2 that strike at I2, so before any heavy melee weapon. Have fun with that.
**Giving the Datasmith the Robe of the Technomartyr makes these robots pretty decent as an ad hoc anti-air unit, especially against flying monstrous creatures and lighter aircraft.
**Weaknesses to watch out for:
***'''Cost:''' These fuckers cost a small goddamn mountain of points, and despite their toughness have a very limited pool of wounds. Every attack that gets through hits these guys HARD, and you had best believe they'll be a bullet magnet right from the start. While you certainly can use that to your advantage, drawing fire from more fragile units, it's very difficult to justify using them as a [[Distraction Carnifex]] given their obscene price. The Datasmith, who is basically a MEQ with a 2+ and a meltagun, is 50 points all by himself. They cannot just charge in and start soaking hits, because they are by no means bullet-sponges.
***'''Cost Again:''' Only available two at a time with a Datasmith for $70!
***'''Poison:''' The bane of anything with a toughness value that is not gargantuan. Dark Eldar can have some pretty nasty tricks and with their transports they can ignore any shots bounced back by the robots' reflective shield. 
***'''Instant Death/Force:''' All it takes is one successful wound to drop a robot. The invulnerable save is only useful against shooting and feel no pain is negated by instant death. Combine psychic shenanigans, toughness 7 will not save robots long from death.
***'''Weight of Attacks:''' While they are relatively hard to kill in terms of fleshy things, they'll still go down if hit enough. Their weapon skill is an OK 3 and can be mitigated by changing doctrines and popping canticles but those are more circumstantial than standard. Granted, with or without cognis, the robots have a pretty mean overwatch, tarpitting is a very real and effective threat. Chances are that the robots will die before the tarpit does.

===Lords of War===

*'''[[Ordinatus|Ordinatus-Minoris Macro Engine]]:''' A quick look at the forgeworld store page shows these engines of annihilation can be taken as LoW choices for the 40k Admech lists. Comes in two flavours, and If you ever run them against someone, they're probably not your friend. Each Ordinatus comes with three Volkite Culverins, Blessed Autosimulacra, Anabaric Claw, Armored ceremite and a Ordinatus Dispersion shield. Oh and 14/13/13 with 14HP and is a super heavy. But if it explodes anything under will probably die as it utilises it's own destruction chart which every one of the results always has a Destroyer hit. The Dispersion shield is the big thing on this machine.  Basically it's a super Flare Shield that loses effectiveness overtime but will always have an effect. Turn one :-3 Strength to shooting attacks and rolls on the D chart, Turn two: -2 Strength to shooting attacks and D Chart and Turn three and subsequent turns -1 Strength to shooting and D charts. Basically don't shoot it with D as you'll never be stripping off those hull points.
**''Ordinatus Sagittar'': Because fuck that model (or that unit), it didn't deserve to be on the table, even at that distance.  A 180" Strength D weapon with an Apocalyptic Blast that royally fucks over vehicles might seem OP, but that's because it is, though at its extremely expensive cost it will need some protection, though if you fight Marines often, and combined with its dispersion shield, it can easily make its points back by turn 3 so long as you keep its guns pointed where they belong, at the priciest unit within 180".
**''Ordinatus Ulator'': The one displayed from FW Open day, This big ass sonic projector will have people kicking you in the nuts every time you shoot it. 72" Range Strength X AP2 Pinning Armourbane Instant Death Ignores Cover Ulator Sonic Wave. Place down a Massive blast template(7") at the edge of the hull. Direct it at an enemy (Has to be enemy first and can hit friendlies) and draw a straight line using the Massive blast template. Anything that gets partially touched by it takes a hit from the following Table.  (This also includes Flyers. Yes. Even Flyers.)
***The Ulator is one of the few things in the game that is effective against everything that isn't a Primarch (or that has Eternal Warrior).  You can effectively use it to fill in any hole your army develops, lost Anti-tank?  Strength 8-10 with Armourbane at AP2.  Hordes got you down?  Strength 5 ID Massive Blast template will thin them out.  Air defence gone?  Just shoot those fliers down.  Your opponent brought their Baneblade(s) (or their variants)?  You shoot them with Strength D, and on top of all of this, you literally CANNOT miss a single shot you ever fire.
***A very risky but potentially very powerful tactic is to move your Ulator midfield or even up into the enemy's deployment zone, and shoot his entire army sideways. This is known militarily as Enfilade fire. Generally keep it on your flank so you can make the most out of these 72" , and maybe give it a Knight for protection.