Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Adeptus Mechanicus
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This is the current 10th Edition's Adeptus Mechanicus tactics. 9th Edition Tactics are here.
Why Play Adeptus Mechanicus
Pros
- Doctrina Imperatives are no longer limited to one use per battle, though their functions have been heavily changed to emphasise advancing toward the enemy DZ or staying in your own.
- Like most 10th ED armies, the army got simplified. We no longer require 9000 IQ and a table of rule interactions to play - the buffs are easier to understand, you just need to know how to use them.
- A couple of our units have been buffed - Vanguard can now contest objectives more easily, and Cawl is vaguely useful after 9th nerfed his abilities.
Cons
- Your Vanguard are essentially Guardsmen now, dropping from their previous T3 BS3+, Sv4+ 5++ statline to T3 BS4+ Sv5+ 6++ (A.K.A.: Cadian Shock Troops, except with a shitty invulnerable and no Orders) No word on the Rangers or further changes, but that doesn't exactly bode well for a traditionally shooty army meant to be between IG and SM in stats.
- Aggressor and Bulwark Imperatives have been relegated to Stratagems that can only affect one unit, rather than the army-wide boost-nerf combinations they were in 9th.
- Despite being simplified, we're still a finesse army. If you get caught using the wrong Imperative at the wrong time, the opponent can (and usually will) walk all over you.
- Our Index is a burning dumpsterfire of badly written rules and heavily nerfed stats.
- Tech-Priests (barring the Enginseer) can't repair anything.
- The Kastelan bots now need to make a 50/50 leadership test to get a buff.
- Our Rusties got kicked down to WS4+ while their blades were nerfed to -1 AP, knocking them out of their previous roles as MEQ blenders.
- Unit sizes have been changed at random, with Skitarii being reduced to 10 models per unit. Not "minumum ten models per unit", **only** ten models per unit. Weapons are also violently incoherent in their rules, such as the arc rifle sometimes having devastating wounds and oher times not.
- The stratagems are subject to numerous ifs/buts, like only taking place in a specific phase, stance, and unit.
- The Detachment rule is complete shit and actually helps your opponent in some cases, due to the effect of the mortal wounds on armies like Sisters or Dark Angels.
Skub
- Our codex releases relatively early, in Winter 2023. GW's certainty of being bastards over the price aside, this may be good or bad for us depending on our state at launch under the initial "Index" rules.
Faction Rules
- Doctrina Imperatives: No longer restricted to once a game, you can pick one of two doctrines each turn.
- Conqueror Doctrine: All of your guns gain Assault and improve their AP by 1 against targets in the enemy DZ, the latter of which is the big deal.
- Protector Doctrine: All of your guns gain Heavy for that accuracy bump when immobile while any ranged attacks against your units within your DZ have their AP reduced by 1.
Detachments
Rad-Cohort
Special Rules
- Rad-Bombardment: What better way to show what this detachment means than by blasting the board in radiation? On the first turn, your enemy has to choose between either going to cover or standing firm; going to cover makes the unit battle-shocked, but standing firm requires you to roll a d6 for each unit inside their DZ and dealing d3 MWs on a 3+. On every turn afterward, any units still within the DZ must roll a d6 and suffer a MW on a 3+.
Stratagems
- Aggressor Imperative (1 CP): When you have the Conqueror Imperative active, you can have one Skitarii unit charge after advancing.
- Bulwark Imperative (1 CP): When you have the Protector Imperative active, one Skitarii the enemy tries to shoot will get their invulnerable save boosted to a 4++.
Equipment
Unit Analysis
Characters
Epic Heroes
- Belisarius Cawl: With the many bumps to tanks and monsters, Papa Cawl has now pretty much been relegated to a small monster at T8 W10. Fortunately, this seemingly unimpressive statline is backed by a 2+/4++ save that heals d3 wounds each turn and gains the Lone Operative rule when he's next to other AdMech units, letting him be bubblewrapped in Skitarii.
- The Solar Atomiser pretty much gives you a single gun that can demolish terminators and punch holes in tanks with shocking ease. In melee, he'll be relying on the S8 AP-2 D2 axe for fighting. Aside from that he has an S5 AP-1 Arc Scourge that has Anti-Vehicle 4+ and Devastating Wounds to make it a lot more threatening against the odd tank and an array of Mechadendrites that 2d6 S4 attacks.
- Cawl shows that canticles are now tied to the character than a single universal set, and for him these all give a 6" bubble. Invocation of Machine Vengeance lets units re-roll hit rolls of 1, Mantra of Discipline lets them re-roll Leadership and Battleshock tests, and Shroudpsalm gives units Stealth.
Battleline
- Skitarii Rangers:
- Skitarii Vanguard: Now with 5+ armour save and 4+ BS, because fuck you. Their radiation seems to make more use for them, as this makes a 3" bubble that makes any non-vehicle units inside it reduce the OC of each model in it by 1, so an OC of 2+ per model will generally be mandatory to cap anything near them. Their stock Arc Rifles gain a bit of an edge against vehicles thanks to having Rapid Fire 1, Anti-Vehicle 4+, and Devastating Wounds to bolster 30" A1 BS4+ S8 AP-1 Dd3. The Plasma Caliver remains powerful due to its 30" A2 BS4+ S7 AP-2 D1 -> S8 AP-3 D2 in hazardous mode, while the Radium Carbine has Anti-Infantry 4+ to give it a bit of an edge over any tough infantry. The Transuranic Arquebus remains the sniper - Precision and Heavy with 36" A1 BS4+ S7 AP-2 Dd3.
- Arc Rifles will often be better than Plasma Calivers even against tough monsters and the like due to the incredible power of devastating wounds, provided you get to within 15". For example, both weapons will hurt a T9 Sv2+ W10 Screamer-Killer the same amount, but the Arc Rifle won't make you take a Hazardous test.
- The Omnispex remains valuable by letting their guns ignore cover while the Enhanced Data-Tether gives you a chance to refund CP after using a strat on them.
Infantry
- Sicarian Ruststalkers: Adds +1 to Advance and Charge rolls. Even better is that when they're within 6" of a friendly Battleline unit, they add +2 to those rolls instead, making mid-range Skitarii into slingshots.
Vehicles
- Onager Dunecrawler: M8 T10 2+ Save W11 Ld 7+ OC 3 with 4+ Invulnerable and ability to ignore terrain that are 4" or less during Movement.
- Eradication Beamer: 36" A1d6 S9 AP-2 D2, with Blast and Sustained Hits D3 with Heavy to improve its BS if it sits still; can change to 18" for AP-3 and D3 Mostly the same as last edition beyond a few minor tweaks, though the Sustained Hits D3 makes it even swingier than before.
- Daedalus missile launcher: 48" A1 S10 AP-2 D6+1, with Anti-Fly 2+, BS 4+. Dedicated AA in edition where Flyers aren't very good. Paired with...
- Icarus array: 48" A6 S8 AP-1 D2 with Anti-Fly 4+, Twin-Linked, BS4+. Numerous shots with good damage, but don't rely on it to kill MEQ.
- Heavy phosphor blaster: 36" A3 S6 AP-1 D1, with Ignores Cover, BS 4+. You can't mount it on Onager, why is it in the list?.
- Neutron laser: 48" A2 S16 AP-4 D6+1 with Blast and Heavy, BS 4+. Look at it, an actual gun with an actual chance to shoot if you're standing still!
- Twin Onager heavy phosphor blaster 36" A4 S6 AP-1 D2, Ignores Cover, Twin-Linked, BS4+. Icarus is better.
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