Detachment Focus: Data-Psalm Conclave

In our Detachment Focus series we take a deep dive into an army’s Detachments, covering what’s in them, how they play, and how they’ll fit into the broader meta and your games. In this Detachment Focus we’re looking at the Data-Psalm Conclave Detachment for the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus launched with five Detachments, each of which offered a different play style for the army, and three of which focused much more heavily on a specific subgroup of units. The Data-Psalm Conclave is the yin to the Skitarii Hunter Cohort’s Yang, offering a Detachment rule that benefits and improves the army’s CULT MECHANICUS units to the exclusion of its Skitarii. So if you’ve been looking for a Detachment which emphasizes Electro Priests and Kataphrons, this certainly gives you an option – though not necessarily a competitive one.

Detachment Overview

The Data-Psalm Conclave detachment provides an alternate Mechanicus playstyle that rewards running mostly or entirely Cult Mechanicus units rather than the more common Skitarii units. It does so by offering one of our best detachment rules that offers a real damage boost–something rare in this book. Ultimately the strength or weakness of this detachment is largely in the hands of the Cult Mechanicus datasheets, which are limited in number. Let’s dive into the detachment and then in the list section analyze how effective the Cult Mechanicus units become when the proper buffs are applied!

Detachment Rule: Benedictions of the Omnissiah

At the start of the first battle round select one of the following Benedictions of the Omnissiah to be active for CULT MECHANICUS units from your army until the end of the battle.

• Panegyric Procession: Each time a Cult Mechanicus model from your army makes a ranged attack that targets a unit within half range improve the AP of that attack by 1”
• Citation of Savagery: Each time a Cult Mechanicus unit from your army is selected to fight, if that unit made a charge move this turn then it gets +1 to its Strength and Attacks for melee weapons until the end of the phase.

These are both two real buffs that are very impactful in elevating the damage output of Cult Mechanicus units in shooting or combat. If you switched the term Cult Mechanicus with Skitarii, this would likely be the detachment to play over Skitarii Hunter Cohort when considering the June 2024 Admech update. Speaking of which, the June update offered several critical buffs to the anemic Cult Mechanicus datasheets. First, the army rule became better, but coupled with that, units like the Tech Priests and Electro-Priest units actually gained the army rule which they originally did not. These changes dramatically improved the playability of the Data-Psalm Conclave. Let’s look at the detachment rule in detail.

For Panegyric Procession, one of the best units to benefit from the ranged buff is Corpuscarii Electro-Priests. When combined with the boost from Conqueror Imperative, you can have these fanatics pop out of a Dunerider, hitting on 3s with sustained hits 2, re-rolling to wound if the Dunerider hit your target, and with AP 0 elevated to AP-2 if you are near a battleline unit and your target is within half range. Ignoring cover on the target is the last missing piece of this puzzle, but to do that you have to dip into Imperial Allies and bring a Sororitas Immolator – and that’s a bit much.

Our other option is the Kataphron variants. Breachers are already a mainstay in many archetypes and in this detachment they can get up to AP-4 while in Conqueror Imperative and shooting at targets within half range. Or they can elevate their combat prowess to the level of a serious unit if the enemy gets within a reasonable charge distance.

Destroyers on the other hand become more interesting, with the extra AP opening up the possibility of taking Grav over Plasma. If the Haloscreed enhancements were swapped into this detachment, you would likely see two of these units hit the table – one with the re-roll hazardous and extended range and one with the double protocol. Unlike Breachers however, they do not benefit much from the combat half of the Detachment rule.

Which leads us to Citation of Savagery, buffing both the strength and attacks of melee weapons. The aforementioned Corpuscarii benefit nicely here, becoming a unit that can shoot away chaff and then charge into a different unit to finish it off. While Fulgurites, with a pitiful two attacks on their datasheet become much more palatable with three attacks and going to strength 7 so that with the stratagem for +1 to wound they can wound common toughness 6 units on a 2+. Breachers and Tech Priests also become more respective with these buffs.

Overall this is one of the best detachment rules you’ll have access to in that it shores up the obvious weakness of the army: Doing damage to durable enemy units, and this Detachment offers two paths for doing so. But that also ends up being one of its biggest weaknesses, in that that part of the Cult Mechanicus roster wants to always have Panegyric Procession active, while the other half wants Citation of Savagery. The easiest boost to this ruleset would be to allow both to be active all game for the Cult Mechanicus units. As is though, you’ve got to choose.

Enhancements

All of the following enhancements are for tech priest models only.

• Mechanicus Locum (10 Points) – The bearer gets a 6+ Leadership Characteristic and once per battle at the start of any phase can select a cult mechanicus unit within 12” that is battle shocked to remove that status.
  This enhancement insults me. Not because it’s bad, but because it begs the question as to how in the great vast universe of the Omnissiah are Tech Priests leadership 7? A mind that can conjure such techno-heresy has earned their place as a servitor on my Ark Mechanicus. More seriously, the ability to un-battle-shock a unit is valuable even if only one per battle and if you have an extra 10 points I usually slot this into my list.
• Mantle of Gnosticarch (15 Points) – The bearer reduces all incoming damage by 1.
  If our Tech-Priests were more durable or were more necessary to keep alive because of their damage output this would be seen, but the best you can do is a Dominus in a Fulgurite unit, throw in this enhancement, but why I am going through the trouble of doing this in the first place?  Good armies still mow down such units. Sororitas make use of such a rule in the Martyrs detachment where a Canoness that can pop a 2+ invulnerable save once per game and stand back up with a stratagem makes excellent use out of it.
• Data Blessed Autosermon (20 Points) – Once per battle at the start of your Command phase you can activate this to activate the other benediction (the one you didn’t choose at the start of the battle). This second Benediction becomes active for the bearer’s unit until the start of your next Command phase.
  Why is this once per battle? Mental Note: I haven’t forgotten about making this techno-heretek my personal servitor. Once per battle? Come on, this is a rule to encourage you to take this detachment and elevate a key unit and its once? So disappointing.
• Temporcopia (25 Points) – The bearer’s unit has the Fights First ability.
  While pricey at 25 points, this enhancement is excellent on a unit of Kataphron Breachers or a priest in a Fulgurite squad protecting your objective and threatening to heroically intervene. I almost always take this one.

These are fairly good enhancements with Temporcopia (God I miss my Skitarii Veteran Cohort and making Princeps pseudo-characters. Omnissiah bless whoever wrote the Ninth Edition Codex) being the auto-take for me since it’s such a rare and powerful rule in the Mechanicus corpus. Autosermon should be the auto-take but once per battle for 20 points can be difficult to justify when you are finishing off a list. The mantle is rarely seen, while Locum is a nice bonus if you have spare points.

Stratagems

The six Stratagems in this Detachment are all priced at 1 CP and can only be used on CULT MECHANICUS units. 

• Incantation of the Iron Soul (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in any phase when your Cult Mechanicus unit takes a mortal wound. They gain a 4+ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds until the end of the phase.
  A solid stratagem against the handful of armies in the game that can put out a large amount of mortal wounds in a phase (Thousand Sons for example). Otherwise, most mortal wounds are nickel and dime, with a Grenade in the shooting phase, tank shock in the charge phase, etc. In those cases it is rarely worth it to use this stratagem, especially on the Priest units that have a 5+ FNP already.
• Tribute of Emphatic Veneration (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used at the start of your Movement phase to force one enemy unit within 18” of a Cult Mechanicus to take a Battle Shock Test. If the test is failed, models in that unit must subtract 1 from their hit rolls until your next command phase.
  Why oh why must this be used the start of the Movement phase? If this was the start of your command phase you could try to battle shock an enemy unit to swing an objective in your favor or the hold more primary from Purge the Foe. Now infiltrators near battleline will add a -2 to LD and Battle-shock tests aura to make this more reliable to turn off defensive stratagems, so there is use in many games.
• Chant of the Remorseless Fist (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase to give your CULT MECHANICUS unit +1 to its wound rolls.
  Excellent stratagem which is particularly utilized on your Priest units or Kataphron Breachers. Combined with the extra attack and strength on the charge, this stratagem generously grants the Mechanicus a true damage dealing melee unit.
• Litany of the Electromancer (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Shooting phase. Roll a D6 for each enemy unit within 6” of one or more models from a Cult Mechanicus unit, adding 1 if any of those models is an ELECTRO-PRIEST. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
  A cute stratagem to chip off wounds from durable units, but I rarely find myself using it in practice. Could be situationally useful in a scenario where the enemy has multiple wounded units relatively close together.
• Verse of Vengeance (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in the Fight phase after your Cult Mechanicus unit is picked as a target. When models in that unit die, on a 4+ they fight on death.
  Fight on death is a great type of stratagem to have access to. It has two downsides though. First is that its on a 4+ so quite unreliable. Second, the Citation of Savagery rule only actives when your charge and since you are not selecting the unit to fight you cannot add in the +1 to wound either. Bringing our units back down to below par in combat. Can be situationally powerful like into a fight first enemy unit if there is not a way to shoot it.
• Luminescent Blessing (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent Shooting phase after they pick a Cult Mechanicus unit as a target. That unit gains a 4+ invulnerable save for the rest of the phase.
  A solid stratagem, especially on Kataphrons and Priests, elevating their durability when combined with the Dominus who is usually the lesser seen brother of the Manipulus. Being able to get the FNP boost and a 4+ invulnerable save is quite valuable for our units, its unfortunate this is shooting phase only, however.

Thankfully all of these are 1 CP. No single stratagem here is what defines this detachment or elevates it to a top tier detachment. When taken as a whole, there are a lot of situational or limited use abilities among these stratagems. Chant of the Remorseless Fist stands out as the most spammable stratagem here, especially for lists that lean towards Conqueror and Citation of Savagery.

Playing This Detachment

While the Data-Psalm Detachment provides solid buffs to the Cult Mechanicus units in the Mechanicus Codex, and presents lists that will look significantly lighter on Skitarii units that any other detachment, it ultimately will still lean on the broader strengths of Admech. Namely, engineering a game-state that is very trade oriented, using cheap Skitarii units like Infiltrators and Serberys Raiders to secure objectives, points and force a reaction, while the Cult Mechanicus units lie in wait to offer damage as needed.

The big questions for this Detachment are 1) Is this a Conqueror+Citation of Savagery list or a Protector+Panegyric Procession list?  2) How many Kataphron units do you take considering their large base size and relatively high points costs, especially Breachers? 3) How many Priest units and what combination of Fulgurites vs Corpuscarii?

The Detachment overall leans heavier on melee buffs with Citation in Savagery combined with access to +1 to wound and in some scenarios you can fight on death. These are all good rules for melee units. However, our melee units in Cult Mechanicus are quite slow. Priests generally require transports for mobility, while Kataphrons are clunky and can only really charge off a Rapid Ingress or if the enemy is already in front of our army. So while the combat buffs are stronger overall, its not easy to apply them. This detachment is really crying out for an advantage and charge stratagem to help with the speed problem, which is especially pronounced on US Open format where enemy units can 1” block ruin walls.

Which leaves us with my preference–a list that leans heavier on shooting than combat, but can elevate shooting units into combat threats with the buffs available here if needed (see my sample list below). In that list, I think Breachers are worth it, but instead of 1-2 large expensive brick units, I have gone for 3×3 for more activations and the ability to trade them for shooting and combat damage without feeling that I am throwing away my best damage tool by charging. Corpuscarii stand out as a much more flexible tool than the Fulgurites because they shoot decently hard in this detachment and then also gain valuable from the charge buffs as required.

Strengths

• This Detachment creates dramatically different looking lists from other Admech detachments
• Actual melee buffs for an army starved of them
• Actual damage buffs in an army of mostly tricks and movement shenanigans (imagine this detachment rule with Skitarii as I mentioned!).

Weaknesses

• The strongest set of rules are melee-oriented and Cult Mechanicus melee is painfully slow and hard to apply.
• Limited roster of Cult Mechanicus datasheets to benefit from these rules.
• Our Tech-Priests are quite lackluster characters for the most part. With stronger leading bonuses to further elevate the units they join, this detachment would gain significant power.

A Sample List

There just haven’t been any really successful lists for Data-Psalm Conclave at major events; the closest recent list we could find was a 3-2-1 finish from Steven Fox at Warzone Houston in September. As such, Richard has opted to provide his own take on a Conclave list.

Richard's List - click to expand

Data-Psalm is not really designed as a list to reach out an get aggressive on the opponent’s half of the board. It’s designed to be a midfield control army and so I have focused on bringing units that fit that theme. The fight first Dominus and his Fulgurites act as a heroic intervention threat behind a ruin, while Infiltrators, Raiders, and Pteraxii force interaction from the enemy. 

The Skitarii Vanguard units led by Marshals and the Corpuscarii clear the easy to kill infantry units and dominate the OC battle. Meanwhile the Kataphron units are traded each turn, with some using Rapid Ingress to arrive in range, to cripple key targets for the Vanguard to finish off if needed. 

No single unit here is key to the plan and everything, unlike a 6x Kataphron unit with Manipulus, is able to be traded as needed without hurting the overall game plan. If you really want to run more Corpuscarii you can cut down on the Marshal+Vanguard units to your taste, but having battleline units nearby is critical for games you sit in Conqueror.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Data-Psalm is an interesting detachment with some very solid rules. The detachment ability is strong, but it is held back by the fact that the Cult Mechanicus datasheets go from below average to solid with these buffs rather than from solid to great. Kataphron Breachers are the one exception here, but their high points value, short half-range and large base size make them harder to use in practice than desired. The lack of mobility options here makes sense compared to the Skitarii focused rules in other detachments, but movement is king in Warhammer and the lack of advance and charge really prevents this detachment from becoming the melee trading powerhouse that it could be with a little more love and insight. 

As I have mentioned, if this Detachment could work on any of our Admech units, it would very likely be the most played detachment because it offers the thing that the Admech Codex really dropped the ball on, which is consistent and powerful damage buffs. Those buffs were stripped from Admech in the 9th to 10th transition, but this detachment offers two great options. But gate keeping them behind the lackluster Cult Mechanicus units ends up preventing Data-Psalm from being a true competitive option for now.

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