In our Faction Focus series we take a look at the game’s factions and talk about their rules, their units, how they play, and what competitive lists for the faction look like. This is part of a larger series of articles in our Start Competing series. In this article we’re looking at the technofanatical warrior-monks of Mars, the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Why Should You Play This Faction?
Do you want to win games based on the power of the Movement phase, finding big brain plays, and grinding down your opponent’s army in a hailstorm of low-strength, low-AP weapons? Do you want to design game plans around shutting down the thing your opponent does best, or drowning their army in so many wounds and enough durability that they simply cannot roll enough dice to kill your endless waves of machines? Then the Adeptus Mechanicus (AdMech) is the army for you!
Army Rule: Doctrina Imperatives
At the start of the battle round, you can select one of the Doctrina Imperatives below to be active for your army until the end of the round. While it’s active, all units from your army with the Doctrina Imperatives ability gain the associated bonus:
Protector Imperative
- Ranged weapons equipped by models in the unit have the [HEAVY] ability.
- Improve the BS of ranged weapons in the unit by 1.
- Each time a melee attack targets this unit, if this unit has the BATTLELINE keyword or is within 6” of another BATTLELINE unit, subtract 1 from the hit roll.
Conqueror Imperative
- Ranged weapons equipped by models in this unit have the [ASSAULT] ability.
- Improve the WS of melee weapons in the unit by 1.
- Each time a model in this unit makes an attack, if they’re a BATTLELINE unit or within 6” of a BATTLELINE unit, improve the AP of that attack by 1.
Before June 2024, the Adeptus Mechanicus had one of the weakest army rules in the entire game. In the June dataslate, Games Workshop published a significant upgrade to this rule increasing the damage output of the army from utterly anemic to passable, particularly into lower toughness and weak armor save units. This change to the Imperatives also meant that rules which allow you to benefit from both imperatives at the same time (Cantic Thrallnet in Skitarii Hunter Cohort, the Transcendent Cogitation stratagem in Cybernetica, and now the Haloscreed enhancement Cognitive Reinforcement), making it exponentially more valuable.
Now there are two main ways to design a list for this faction. The first is that you focus mostly on the Protector Imperative, bringing shooting units that benefit from the +1 ballistic skill (and possibly heavy as well in a firefight), and then making your frontline Skitarii units even more durable with the -1 to hit in melee. Units such as Pteraxii and Sicarians with access to 5+ Feel No Pain in Skitarii Hunter Cohort, become significantly harder to chew through once you add the -1 to hit in melee when near battleline units. Protector lists typically eschew running combat units for damage and would mostly run them (Sicarians in particular), for move blocking and tagging enemy units, scoring points, or to finish off a wounded unit.
Conqueror Imperative lists on the other hand are usually very heavy on Sicarians, Pteraxii, and Skitarii battleline units, and largely avoid running the typical tanks you see in a Protector list. Vanguard units led by Marshals that disembark from Duneriders and Pteraxii Sterylizors benefit significantly from the shift from Protector to Conqueror, especially access to +1 armor penetration. This style is colloquially known as the “trash style,” and is a style which accepts that damage is not a priority, instead focusing on running overwhelming amounts of bodies to score points, deny points, and jam the enemy in their deployment zone.
Both Protector and Conqueror lists are viable and competitive, with the former typically performing best on tables and formats with less dense terrain and the latter performing best in formats with denser terrain containing large, hidden staging points for all those Sicarian and Pteraxii 40mm bases.
Five Things You Need to Know
- Your game plan isn’t about killing. The priority at the start of every battle round will be scoring and denying points, not killing certain enemy units. If you do end up killing them it’s a bonus, but your focus must be points.
- Your units are expendable. Every single one of them. If you have a good chunk of your army left at the end of the game and you lose, you know that your movement phases and ability to trade units must be improved.
- Staging your units properly is crucial. When you attack an objective to deny points on any given turn, you are also setting up the followup attack for the next turn.
- Don’t forget the core stratagems. Two of your best stratagems are Rapid Ingress on Pteraxii and Heroic Intervention with Infiltrators or Vanguard. These plays can win you games.
- Screening is crucial. When you do go for damage against your opponent, you need to set up a forward screen that protects your damage units so they can activate for another turn. You must create a safety net for yourself. If your shooting units only shoot once before dying, that is usually a losing proposition.
The Detachments
There are six Detachments available to the Admech, and they vary in competitive strength from “absolute garbage” to “very good, actually.” You can find links to the Detachment Focus article for each below. Those articles will go into more detail on the rules for each Detachment, how to play them, and show off a sample list.
The Cohort Cybernetica is all about big robots, extending your army’s Doctrina Imperatives rule to LEGIO CYBERNETICA units. It’s a good buff for those units and offers one of the better stratagem suites in the AdMech Codex, but its detachment rule is one of the worst in the game and Cybernetica units are overcosted and difficult to move against skilled opponents. This is solid at the GT, RTT, and casual levels.
The Data-Psalm Conclave focuses on Cult Mechanicus units, giving you a buff to either ranged AP or melee depending at the start of the game, though to a narrow band of units – think Electro-Priests and Kataphrons. This detachment lacks speed on most units and struggle to offer enough shooting threats if you lean into the melee aspects of it. This is playable at the RTT and casual levels.
The least competitive Detachment in the Codex, the Explorator Maniple, gives your units a bonus when attacking units on or near an objective marker you choose at the start of your Command phase. This is our worst detachment by a clear margin. It’s overly restrictive and its buffs are mediocre compared to our better detachments. There is little incentive to play this detachment over other options.
Released in December 2024 as part of the “Grotmas” Detachments release, the Haloscreed Battle Clade gives players another better “all-rounder” option for the army, letting you buff two units in a Strike Force game with some strong characteristic buffs. This is the second best detachment for the faction and the detachment which can improve the widest range of datasheets. It’s a competitive option at all levels of play.
The Rad-Zone Corps is a remodeled (and improved) version of the army’s Index Detachment, giving you a flexible option that interacts with most of the army’s units, though with a Detachment rule, which simulates dumping a bunch of radiation bombs on the battlefield before the fight, leaves a bit to be desired. This detachment has a few great rules and a lot of subpar ones – especially its detachment rule. It’s competitive at the GT and below levels.
One of the two actually competitive options for the faction, the Skitarii Hunter Cohort gives your Skitarii units Stealth and potentially the benefit of cover and has a host of tools that make your cheap units surprisingly durable and can significantly boost their damage output. This is our best detachment, but also the hardest one to play properly. If you want the challenge of finding galaxy brain plays to win games and keep the momentum in your favor, this is the detachment for you. It’s not ideal for the casual player or someone at the beginner level, but experienced AdMech players will see the best results against equal skill or better opponents with this Detachment.
What Are the Must-Have Units to Start This Faction?
- Skitarii Marshal + Skitarii Vanguard + Dunerider (Can deal consistent damage and control objectives)
- Pteraxii Skystalkers (can use fire and fade for aggressive move blocking)
- Sicarian Infiltrators (can create forward pressure and battle-shock shenanigans)
- Skorpius Disintegrators (the faction’s best anti-tank unit)
- Skitarii Rangers (have the ability to sticky objectives)
How Does This Faction Secure Objectives?
Generally AdMech armies score objectives by pushing the enemy army back with forward screens and pressure such that the objectives you control are far away from the action of the battle. But we do have excellent battleline units in the form of Skitarii Vanguard and Rangers that can easily hold objectives if protected by Sicarians or Pteraxii. The Technoarcheologist is also an outstanding character to make it very difficult to contest our objectives.
How Does This Faction Score Secondary Objectives?
The Skitarii Hunter Cohort is one of the best secondary scoring armies in the game. Not only do you have access to several cheap and disposable units (Sicarians, Pteraxii, Serberys Raiders, Skatros, etc.) to do actions and occupy zones with but the stratagem to go back into reserves at the end of the enemy turn is one of our best stratagems and excellent for late-game scoring.
How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Hordes?
The Skitarii Marshal + Vanguard + Dunerider packages are one of our best anti-horde units, but generally we do not need dedicated anti-horde because most of the faction’s units pump out an absurd number of low-strength, low-AP weapons which are outstanding into hordes. There aren’t many hordes at the top of the competitive meta at the moment, but if that ever shifts, AdMech would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of that shift.
How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Tanks and Monsters?
This is the problem: We have very few units that are strong in this role. Your best option is Kataphron Breachers if the enemy unit is within 15 inches (half range) and you’re willing to spend 380 points on a 6-model unit and a Manipulus. Otherwise from longer range the Skorpius Disintegrator, Onager with Neutron Laser, and Ironstrider Ballistari with Twin Cognis Lascannons are your best anti-tank alternatives. They each suffer from a combination of the following: A relative lack of re-rolls, lack of adequate shot volume, the inability to ignore cover easily, difficulty maneuvering to obtain a line of sight on enemy targets, inconsistent output in a given turn (though they can be consistent over multiple turns, requiring you to keep them alive), or finally needing to be in Protector Protocol for the whole game. “Damage by committee” is the AdMech motto!
What Combos Should You Build Around?
How you build will depend heavily on which Detachment and Imperative you take, but here are some of your best options:
- A Skitarii Marshal with the Battle-Sphere Uplink Enhancement in a Vanguard unit with a Dunerider. This unit can disembark to shoot and provide the battleline aura boost, then re-embark in the Shooting phase to do it all again next turn.
- A Skitarii Marshal with Cognitive Reinforcement Enhancement in a Vanguard unit with a Dunerider. This unit can use the Haloscreed Battle Clade reactive move to re-embark into a Dunerider behind a ruin on the enemy turn.
Are you seeing the theme?
- A Manipulus with Cognitive Reinforcement Enhancement in a Kataphron Breacher unit, set up to do damage and use the Targeting Override Stratagem to turn hit rolls of 5+ into Critical Hits in the Haloscreed Battle Clade Detachment.
- A Tech Priest Dominus with the Temporcopia Enhancement (Fights First) in a Fulgurite unit in the Data-Psalm Conclave detachment.
- A Kastelan Robot unit in the Cybernetica detachment that is given the Motive Imperative (+3 move +1 Advance), Machine Spirit Resurgent (reroll hits), Machine Superiority (ignore modifiers), and Transcendent Cogitation (gain Protector and Conqueror Protocol) stratagems at the same time (not easy to do or necessary to have all of them, but ludicrously efficient when needed).
Final Thoughts
This is not an easy army to play. In fact, the Adeptus Mechanicus are one of the hardest armies in the game to play well. However, devoting yourself to the Omnissiah and attempting to improve with AdMech will dramatically improve your fundamental Warhammer 40k skills. The mantra of “movement is king in 40k” is best exemplified by AdMech, where our lack of outstanding damage output necessitates finding an alternate path to victory. And that path is the holy combination of move blocking and tying up enemy units far away from your held objectives while dealing all the damage you can muster. Success here comes from conducting a symphony of small units and goals tied together by the power of movement. By accepting the Omnissiah’s plan into your own games, you can build and improve upon those core skills which make someone a good Warhammer player. I would also not be surprised to see further love for the Adeptus Mechanicus in the future with Games Workshop dedicated to improving Codex rules, introducing new playstyles with new detachments, and with consistent points updates to all armies.
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