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

==Starting Your Army==
=== Buying ===

There is a new Start Collecting Box and it is pretty awesome. You have your standard unit of 10 Ranger/Vanguards and a Enginseer, not the coolest thing ever. But then you get a Skorpius. A few of these and you have your infantry of choice and either their rides or the best Mechanicus tank lined up and ready to go.

=== Army Composition and tactics ===
There are some starter list archetypes as an example. Open the fourth one if you dare.
<tabs>
<tab name = "The Navy">
Take a bunch of D-Day landers (transports), fill them with infantry, storm the beaches, rush to the objectives and hold them. Often a custom FW. This is our mechanised option and the TAC variant and is often supported by some backfield artillery fire in a second Stygies detachment. (Cawl isn't worth it if you can't feed him enough units to buff so the survival option is generally better.) A nice all-round option, but the more specialist options may outperform it if played correctly. This style also has the advantage of letting you lean more into infantry or vehicles, giving you more flexibility in how you want to grow your list. Unlike with the Skitarii horde, if the lascannons are hitting your boats they're not hitting your artillery. Its downsides are that it is not as killy as the crusher and not as great at the mission as the horde but neither does it have their weaknesses.
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<tab name = "The Infantry">
Take 6 large units of Vanguard, 3 max units of Raiders, 3 units of 10 Hoplites and some Corpuscarii reserves, and we have the core of a Skitarii horde. Take in Ryza or an expansionist Forgeworld and swarm the objectives - this is the board control list. You're gonna be a lot less shooty than the others, but you're not limited by the need to play within buff range. While our infantry is pretty solid for its points meaning they can hold the board and objectives. This is a build designed to play the mission, not kill your opponent. The other problem with the horde is that if you try and add one or two vehicles to it, all your opponents' lascannons or equivalent will target them and they will evaporate, whereas if you have no vehicles, the lascannon are wasted on a Vanguard. In practice this means ignoring our vehicle options.
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<tab name = "The Ranger Firing Squad">
Something to note before even considering attempting this is that this setup is not meant to be the entire list, but a nice backbone for any firing line you may set up. It does require aura/placement synergy between four (optionally five) units to turn a standard block of 20 Rangers into a downright disgustingly lethal shooting unit that can absolutely blend MEQs and butcher anything short of a Knight statline.

This setup requires the following:
*To start, a block of 20 Skitarii Rangers to form the 'Ranger Firing Squad' part of the setup. Everything else is only there to buff these guys, so paying some extra points for wargear isn't a terrible idea. +10 points for the Omnispex to ensure that what you're shooting at will get hit and another 10 for the Enhanced Data-Tether will help with morale, in the unfortunate event that whatever you send your withering hail of firepower at has enough working limbs left during their turn to shoot back.
*A Tech-Priest Manipulus' Galvanic Boost ability will substantially buff their guns, making them go from 30" AP-1 to 36" AP-2. The extra range will help with shooting without needing to worry about taking shots back, and the extra AP point will go a long way to ensuring that whatever you hit will die. In addition, you should give this unit either the Magi or the Artisans Holy Order. Magi will give your Rangers an extra hit on unmodified 6's, which is great. Artisans will bump up the Rangers' rifles to Strength 5, which means you'll be wounding MEQs on 3+. 
*A Skitarii Marshal given the Exemplar's Eternity Relic will give your Rangers the ability to reroll hit rolls and wound rolls of 1, which is obviously useful.
*A Tech-Priest Enginseer will be a carrier for whatever Holy Order you didn't give the Manipulus, meaning that both of them combined will buff the guns to an insane degree. It is a lot of points, though, so it may be a good idea to make him pull doubletime on an Onager or something, which is why I prefer to use an Enginseer for this over a Technoarchaeologist.

This is already very good, but can be made even better. The Galvanic Volley Fire Stratagem increases your output of fire by 50%, leading to 60 shots from a full unit, while the Protector Doctrina will let your Rangers hit on 2+. Finally, taking another Enginseer (or Technoarchaeologist) and giving him the Logi Holy Order will let your Rangers shrug off AP-1 and AP-2, which has the potential to completely kneecap your opponent's shooting. Keep in mind that doing that last bit will add another 95 points to this setup, so it's your choice as it isn't strictly needed.

*Finally, the Forge World buffs. Most of these are pretty nice, but you can choose whichever. Agripinaa will improve your guns' AP by -1 when firing at a target within half range, which may bump up your guns to AP-3. Lucius will give your guns an extra 3" of range and a free +1 to the Armor Save when shot at with a Damage 1 gun when out in the open, which is handy. Mars will let you reroll a hit and wound roll (the damage roll reroll is useless here), which is nice, but the real benefit is getting access to Canticles and the Wrath of Mars Stratagem. Metalica will let you move and shoot without penalty. Stygies VIII gives you the benefits of Dense Cover if being shot at from over 12" away. Ryza is useless.
*Custom Forge Worlds are also pretty good here. The Rad-Saturated Forge World debuffs ranged attacks that hit your guys with -1 Strength. The main buff from the Expansionist Forge World isn't great, but the Acquisitive Reach secondary trait gives your Rangers' rifles an extra 6" of range. Finally, the Reignited Forge World is essentially just a worse Agripinaa, but take it for the secondaries if you like.

In the end, we have turned a group of 20 infantry firing 40 shots at BS3+ 30" S4 AP-1 D1 into 20 infantry (potentially ignoring AP-1 and AP-2) firing 60 shots at BS2+ 36" (or 39" or even 42") S5 AP-2 (or AP-3, depending on the Forge World) D1, with rerolls of 1 to hit and wound with exploding hits on 6s, which statistically gets you 70 hits from 60 shots, all for the low price of 435 points (not including wargear). If you really wanted to be That Guy, leaving out the Logi carrier and putting the first Enginseer into Brotherhood of the Cog means that this setup is technically legal for a 500 point Patrol Detachment.
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<tab name = "The Skittle Rad-Horde">
This setup requires the following:

* Rad-Saturated Forge World with Scarifying Weaponry: SW is pretty much the only useful dogma for the RSFW, and the sheer number of Vanguard in this list make heavy use of its +1 to Strength and AP.
*Four bricks of 20-model Skitarii Vanguard, with two plasma calivers on two of the bricks, two arc rifles for each squad, and an omnispex on all of them. These guys are the backbone of your gunline; the arc weapons and plasma calivers will tear chunks out of vehicles and do some manage to TEQs, while the carbines can be combined with Enriched Rounds once per shooting phase to near-delete a MEQ unit.
* Three Skitarii Marshals: one with Exemplar's Eternity and Firepoint Telemetry Cache, one with Programmed Retreat and The Cage of Varadimas, and one with Multitasking Cortex.
** The Marshal with Exemplar's Eternity sits centre-board with the Plasma Caliver Vanguard squads, providing re-rolls on 1s to hit and wound along with persistent Light Cover on one squad. This guy is there to let you constantly supercharge your Plasma and get the most out of your Enriched Rounds, while also giving them (essentially) Armour of Contempt against AP-1 weapons.
** The Programmed Retreat Marshal stays with any squad pushing up the board. The CoV coupled with the Vanguard's -1T in Engagement Range will make them a little more survivable in a frontline brawl, and whatever's left of the unit can proceed to shoot back once they Fall Back on the next turn.
** The Multitasking Cortex Marshal stays with the Skitarii you have sitting on any objective markers. This guy is here to ensure you can score VPs from Actions without leaving one of your 20-man bricks unable to shoot for the rest of your turn.
* Two Archaeopter Fusilaves with Chaff Launchers: These are here to slow down powerhouse units with the Arc Bomb strat and dish out mortal wounds on a 4+ to squads they fly over. They'll also help absorb attacks aimed at mid-board units for a while, with the chaff launchers helping to decrease and can be kamikazed (via Machine Spirit's Revenge) into enemy lines when badly damaged for extra mortals. 
* About 5-7 Ironstrider Balistarii, with 2-3 Dragoons as backup: The Ironstriders are here to do the heavy lifting on anti-armor, since their lascannons outperform the Onager's "Delete This" gun (the Neutron Laser) on pure points-per-damage. The Dragoons are here to achieve midboard control and threaten your opponent's troops (vehicles included) with long-range charges through the Dunestriders strat followed by a charge.
** Depending on how terrain-dense the board is, you may want to swap the Dragoons out for more Balistarii, since it's a pain in the ass to move Dragoons around on a terrain-dense board. Also consider that Ironstriders won't last long in an open slugging match, so play the angle game for all you're worth.
* 5 Pteraxii Skystalkers: These guys are here as objective scorers and harassment units. Drop them from deepstrike onto unclaimed objectives or on your enemy's flanks, then use them to harass their units before they're destroyed/fuck off back into deepstrike. 
</tab>

<tab name = "The Tournament Crusher/The Friendship Ruiner">
The core of the best theorycrafted Admech lists revolve around a Lucius Battalion with multiple 20-man Skitarii bricks of Vanguard and Rangers (swap out for either depending on your local meta) and a Mars or Data-Hoard (Auguries) Outrider detachment to slot in Lascannon Ironstrider Ballistarii. Lucius with the multitude of durability buffs they can give to your basic skitarii makes them nigh-unstoppable to just march around the board, gunning down other infantry and even vehicles/monsters if you start investing command points into them, and just literally not dying. Mars/Data-Hoard, on the other hand, pumps up your lascannon Ballistarii to absurd levels of efficiency, giving them canticles or 6++ and re-rolls to hit. Slot in a unit of Infiltrators or a big brick of Serberys Raiders for a spicy Wrath of Mars platform.
*Important to note that you will commonly spend an additional four command points to buy additional warlord traits and relics, and get both the Logi and Artisans Holy Order upgrades. You'll be starting with very few command points, but the pure efficiency this Admech list archetype puts out makes it beyond manageable. 
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</tabs>

=== Modeling Tips ===
<tabs>
<tab name = "Kastelan Robots">
Kastelan Robots are still derpy Baymaxes. And as mentioned before electro-priests look like ass. You might be screwed on the priests, but we do not need to settle for the derpbot 9000. 
* The cheapest and easiest way to improve their look is to simply rotate the head 180 degrees and lower them further into the torso. That will give you a much cooler domed head with a smaller silhouette, and a more sinister and inhuman appearance.
* wargameexclusive.com makes alternate resin heads for Kastelans. Or pretty cheap Penitent-Engine-looking alternatives if you wanna go that way. If you like those models, they also make a female Dominus (Domina?) and Kataphrons WITH LEGS. And a pin-up version of the Tech-Priests and some Skitarii for [[Promotions]].
* Forge World does make the Castellax which looks godly (and a little bit like the Hulkbuster) but is a tad expensive. You can kitbash a Datasmith with a spare TPD (every Admech player should have a ton left over from SC and Forgebane boxes) and some Skitarii/Sicarian bits. Keep in mind when (if) the 30k dataslates drops you will need to do some work to make your Castellax and kit-bash Kastelans stand out from each other. 
* Or if you have some Kataphron bits left over conversions may solve some problems. Flip the head around to the smooth side, leave the thigh armor off and your Kastelans start looking better. 
** Gluing the barrel of the Heavy Grav Gun in place of the Incendine Combustor for a good-looking shoulder gun. If you have any Grav-guns from Space Marines left over (please say you do) glue them to the back of the Power Fists and voila. Even better, use the grav-bit from combi-weapons. Take two, glue onto the back of the fist, then grab the armor off the top of the razorback turret and glue over the grav.
* Glue the "three sensors" bit from the sensors/comms of the Icarus Dunecrawler kit onto the Katelan's face plate for the Armored Trooper VOTOMS look. 
*There's also a shapeways store for bits that resemble FW Castellax. Link here:https://www.shapeways.com/shops/stahlgeist-eisenfabrik
*New Years Open Day 2019 at Warhammer World revealed new "Ambot" sculpts for Necromunda, seen here: [https://youtu.be/I9IqHwCa62k]. A few gun swaps, as these come with wrist bolters and no shoulder cannon, and you'll have suitably bad-ass robots, finally. Just keep in mind the Ambots are significantly shorter than the Kastelan, however each Ambot kit comes with twice the amount of legs required so some converting can make them tall enough.
</tab>
<tab name = "Electro-Priests">
For the Electro-priests take some Servitors. Grabbing the Extra Arc claws and Hydralic Fists and put those on and you have electric dudes with melee weapons.
* For the Corpuscarii Priests using the Heavy Bolter Servitor and replacing the barrel with an Arc Rifle might be enough.
* Mix the Electro-priests kits with some Empire Flagellants for good looking fanatics.
* If you have any Ranger heads left over from a skitarii troops box, a bit of crafty knife work to flatten the joint can make excellent alternatives for electro-priests.
* Another option are the Negavolt Cultists from Blackstone Fortress, if you want a more creepy, servitorish look.
**Alternate Route: Use this for both budget and style, you see those Skitarii you have lying around? Go onto Forge World and check out the Hoplites kit, while using Hoplites as counts as might cause issues with certain players. They look better than the original "gym bro" models, are cheaper than buying two kits of priests, and it makes a lot more sense.
</tab>
<tab name = "Kataphron Breachers">
Blackstone Fortress comes with UR-025, an Imperial Robot model. Snap off the Assault Cannon barrel and stick some leftover Kataphron guns for Breachers.
</tab>
</tabs>
==== Hereteking It Up ====
<tabs>
<tab name = "Overview">
Every techpriest makes ''compromises'' with their given situation. You're no different, you think a gun or a bit looks a little ''weak'', you find some aspect ''lacking'', you need your army to have a bit more ''something'' to it. Do not worry, for the Omnissiah has planted some wonderful gifts within some dusty tomb upon some backwater planet.

Simply put, kitbashing Necron bits onto your dudes is significantly easier than you imagine. Despite being completely new to the hobby, I managed to add a bunch more charm and stuff to my dudes. All the while remaining completely budget. In this section I'll cover how you can use these ''STCs'' to your advantage.
</tab>
<tab name = "Skitarii">
*Special Weapon spam is very common with Skiitari, issue is that only one of each type is given. Necron players tend to have a lot of extra guns lying around. As such lets just use theirs!
**For plasma the Deathmark guns work the best in my opinion. While over sized, the sleek design combined with the cooler look makes them the best candidate for a Assault weapon. Clip off the arm resting the weapon at the hand, while it may be a bit skuffed, it will fit seamlessly with any mechanicus arm you have. Cut off the hand holding the gun under. Then just glue the sucker on!
**For Arc Rifles we use the Tesla Carbine. Once again the size might be an issue but the look is ''blessed'', very similar process. Go ham.
**The Super Sniper Rifle is trouble. Haven't done this myself but a gauss flayer might work.
</tab>
<tab name = "Kataphrons">
Kataphrons can bring some pretty eh responses from people, whether it be the treads, heads, or the things that make xenos deads. There are things to improve upon it.
*The Treads are the hardest part to change. A destroyer base could be used but i found the process to be rough. A heavy destroyer might work but then it all starts to be expensive. At this point your on you own. May the Machine God be with you!
*Kataphron heads have been described as "too Fleshy" by many friends of mine. As such one can use the Death Mark or Destroyer heads instead. They're completely metal, fit better than you'd expect, and also are hilariously heretekal and will manage to piss off both your local Necron player and every Imperium nerd around you.
*The killy bits are meh, the only main gun I have issues with are the Arc Rifle. Meanwhile the side guns for the Destroyers look... weak. For the Arc rifle a Tesla Cannon or Gauss weapon could work. For the Destroyer side guns a Gauss Blaster looks '''MUCH''' better. 
*If the model itself doesn't jive with your machine spirit, you could always go for Myrmidon Destructors and then start gluing Necron bits to it. Though this might be more costly.
</tab>
<tab name = "Knights.">
Imperial Knights are a very thematic and useful ally for us, especially with our desperate need for durability...
Lets tek 'em up! (Specifically armigers, you'll need special kits for the big bois...)
*Name of the game is canoptek, specifically canoptek spiders. Get the backs and glue those on, the face is nice, the legs are eh, and the guns are perfect! Look up Canoptek Knights for examples.
</tab>
<tab name = "Misc.">
**Gauss weapons can be deconstructed to grab the pylon looking bits in them. They make good props and can fit onto more then you can imagine, them make good backpacks.
**Necron torsos, chest plates, etc. Are good terrain pieces, they can also be used to additionally fortify Kataphrons.
**See those Flayed Ones? Now look at those Rust-walkers, go ham.
**The C'tan Void Dragon's wings could be placed upon a Dominus. Praise the Wings of the Machine God!
</tab>
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