Thanks go to Games Workshop for providing us with a look at the book for review.
Table of Contents
Background
As with the other campaign books there is a long section describing the culture on Mars, the conflict that starts up and how it plays out. This very closely follows the plot of Graham McNeill’s “Mechanicum” Horus Heresy novel.
Horus manages to persuade Mars’ Fabricator General, Kelbor “I’m sorry Emperor, I’m afraid I can’t do that” Hal, to join his cause, partly by offering access to forbidden warp tech.
What follows is an apocalyptic civil war full of nuclear detonations, volcanic eruptions and machines driven mad by the scrap code unleashed by the Dark Mechanicum.
A lot of the story, as with the Mechanicum Novel, plays out around the Magma City. Fans of the book will be pleased to see a campaign intended to play out the events of the book. Previous 30k publications haven’t necessarily followed the novels as closely as this and I think this is a nice touch.
You also get sections describing the Armies of Mars and the Dark Mechanicum. The Taghmata has been described in various other sources before but here we get new information about how the Dark Mechanicum are organised, or not, and how their various mad designs coalesce into something similar enough that GW can make models of them – the new Stalkers.
Legions Imperialis Campaigns
Serperos ‘Overlord’ Heavy Stalker Maniple. Credit: Warhammer CommunityThe Collegia Titanica
This book lets you take Titans as your main army, presenting you with a bunch of Titan Maniple formations to do so. None have any special rules so they’re just a bunch of Titans and sometimes a few Knights. Most are duplications of maniples from Adeptus Titanicus, minus all the special rules that make maniples meaningful in that game.
As your primary army, the Titans and Knights in a Collegia Titanica army don’t use up your allies allocation. You can still take allies and you might want to, as Titans struggle to claim objectives. You can take this list as allies too, though there’s no point in doing so as you can already take them freely up to the point limit, without worrying about these maniples.
These formations allow you to have pretty much any titans you like, with the exception of Warlords, inexplicably. They are only available in the Axiom Maniple (with a Reaver and Warhound) or as back up for a Warmaster in a Purgigatus Heavy Maniple. Where are my Warlords?!
Collegia Titanica Formations
No need to discuss these in great detail. Here’s what you get in each one:
- Axiom Maniple: Warlord, Reaver and Warhound(s) plus optional Reaver and two knights.
- Lupercal Light Maniple: Two sets of Warhounds plus a couple of optional Dire Wolves and a Knight
- Purgigatus Heavy Maniple: A Warmaster. You can also have another Warmaster, a Warlord and one or two Warbringers if you want.
- Ruptura Battleline Maniple: Two compulsory Warbringers, plus up to three optional Reavers and a knight.
- Ferrox Light Maniple: A Reaver and set of Warhounds, plus optional second Reaver, Dire Wolf and Knight.
- Corsair Battleline Maniple: Between two and five Reavers, plus optional knight.
I guess the upside of this is that it’s an easy entry point into Legions Imperialis for Titanicus players. If you’ve got a Titanicus army and the LI starter set, you’re good to go. On the other hand if you’ve got a Titanicus army then you could use it to play Titanicus, which seems like a far more attractive option.
Thundercloud: This is where I’m going to step in with some criticism on the design choices. Currently Titans are very much a big turret with a lot of guns and a reasonable number of damage points and some void shields. Titans in LI are subject to the same vulnerabilities they had in Space Marine 2nd edition, getting surrounded by infantry and punched to death by their tiny hands (though even more so as there’s no hit allocation chart to divert hits to less vital systems).
Titans suffer in LI from not being terribly interesting and this doesn’t solve it. The maniples have no attached special rules (as they do in Titanicus, and coming up with LI versions of those rules would not have been super difficult) so Warhounds in a Lupercal Maniple, where they are meant to be skirmishing scouts, behave in exactly the same way as those in a Ferrox Maniple, where they are meant to be supporting medium titans.
I really enjoyed Adeptus Titanicus, and if you and your opponent have a bunch of titans I’d recommend just playing that instead. I think not adding character through maniple or legio rules to the titan list (even if they’d just added a Loyalist, Traitor and Blackshield trait) is a missed opportunity to let players personalise their forces, make Titans a more interesting army to play, and add some buffs to balance them against combined arms forces and their hordes of tiny handed infantry.
Collegia Titanica Formation of Legend
The Loyalist Legion Tempestus Demi-maniple Aeterna is notable for being pretty much an entire army by itself. The compulsory elements, at 955 points, comprise a Reaver, a Questoris Banner comprising a Knight Errant and a Gallant, and six Krios Venators. You can spend a further 1,165 to add a couple of Warhounds, a Banner of two Knight Lancers and a Squadron of four Vultarax. Once per game a titan can fire one of its guns a second time when it finishes its activation, which is nice but maybe not a good enough reason to get all these models together, unless you already have them.
The Questoris Familia
This is a Knight Household list, kind of like the Titanica one above except that it does actually bring you a few new rules. It could be quite fun if Questoris and Cerastus Knights weren’t so catastrophically over-priced. Even so, it might have some play.
You can take Detachments of Armigers and Moirax on their own in this list, rather than as add-ons for bigger Knights. This is cool because Armigers are fairly decent little units. They also get their Tactical Strength increased to 3, meaning they might be able to hold an objective for you.
Questoris Familia Formations
There are four Formations for the Knight Households, with pretty variable levels of usefulness.
- Barony Guard Lance: two Questoris banners and one Cerastus, with options to add another Questoris, Cerastus and two Armiger banners. After deployment you can pick one of your compulsory Knights to be a Baron, gaining +2 CAF and an extra Wound.
- Vanguard Lance: two compulsory Cerastus and one Armiger Banner, plus up to two more Cerastus and Armiger Banners. All Detachments in the Formation get Forward Deployment, which is actually pretty awesome. The option to move all your knights 8 or 9” forward means they can potentially charge on turn one, causing a certain amount of chaos in your opponent’s lines.
- Bastion Lance: this is where you get your Acastus Knights. It starts out with two of them and a Questoris, with the option to add another Questoris and a couple of Armigers – though there’s little reason to do so as they don’t get any special rules. This is purely for your murder turtles.
- Bonded Household Lance: Two Compulsory Questoris, with the option of adding another Questoris, an Acastus, a Cerastus and two Armiger banners. The only special rule is that all the Questoris have to be Styrix or Magaeras and the Armiger slots have to be Moirax, though for some reason the Cerastus and Acastus aren’t forced to upgrade. In any case there’s no point ever taking this lance as you’re free to upgrade other knights if you want, so you may as well take them in a Formation that does something.
I’d be interested to try out a Vanguard Lance as an allied Formation. Two Cerastus and a couple of Armiger Banners would fit easily in your allocation at 3k so you could have a bit of fun with that. Unfortunately it’s too expensive for 2k games, just.
The Mechanicum Taghmata
Here we go then, a whole new faction for Legions Imperialis. The Mechanicum Taghmata feel like a real change to what we’ve seen before from the Legion and Solar Auxilia armies.
Mechanicum infantry and tanks are relatively conventional, though they do have unique abilities that set them apart. The real difference though is the having the various Cybernetica robots, which are all Walkers or Cavalry with two wounds, and the Triaros Conveyer, which is a cheap transport that can carry them.
Mechanicum armies will be able to move tough Detachments of robots around the battlefield, which will provide some interesting challenges to both sides. We aren’t sure the robots themselves are especially powerful, but they look ok. A single two-wound robot base costs roughly what you’d pay for two dreadnoughts, meaning they tend to be tougher than dreadnoughts but a bit less dangerous, for equivalent points costs. They are also somewhat limited in the orders you can give them, though actually most can do the things you’d want them to do, and a nearby Tech Priest can give them any order they like.
Many of these units start out with just a single base but can be expanded beyond that. Expect to see single robots wandering the battlefield at times, but also quite chunky units of multi-wound walkers that will be tough to get rid of.
Robots and Tech Thralls boast a Morale value lf “-” (which I’ll call Fearless from now on so I don’t have to keep typing ““-””). This means they are never affected by Morale Tests and don’t Withdraw if they lose a combat. I think this still applies if a non-Fearless Tech Priest joins one of these units as the rules say to use the best morale value in the unit. Shifting dug-in Mechanicum forces is going to be a challenge. They are still subject to having their Formations Broken, limiting the orders you can give them – quite a lot in the case of your robots.
They have entirely different weapons to the Legions and Auxilia. Many of them ignore cover and quite a lot can destroy structures. Infantry will not enjoy finding their structures collapsing and flooded with radiation.
The army suffers some limitations due to not having a huge model range. They don’t have any aircraft or even a skyfire gun on any of their units, for example. Don’t expect to find things like infiltration or Deep Strike either. This is an army that deploys conventionally and fights its way across the battlefield, leaving behind a ravaged and irradiated landscape that will be uninhabitable for centuries.
Oh and you can have Titans in the army, and knights if you want I guess. They’re all part of the happy Mechanicum Family.
Mechanicum Special Rules
The first special rule is that Mechanicum Formations can include Titans and Knights. As these will be part of your Primary army there’s no limit on the points you can spend on them. Unlike the Collegia Titanica and Questoris Familia lists, the Formations don’t specify which titans and Knights you can take in each slot. In theory you could take a fairly cheap Formation with a titan worth a lot more points than the other units it contained.
All your Tech Priests can join Infantry, Walker, Cavalry or Vehicle Detachments in their Formation if those units have the Cybernetica Cortex rule. Usually Commanders can only join units of the same type they are.
A Support slot of Tech-Priest Auxilia can include up to two more bases, all forming their own Detachments (and potentially joining others as above) rather than acting as one.
Cybernetica Cortex (X) limits your robots to only the orders in brackets, such as Cybernetica Cortex (Advance, March) for the Castellax – who therefore cannot normally be ordered to Charge or First Fire. If one of the robots is wholly within 8” of a Tech Priest and their Cortex Controller then this restriction is removed.
Mechanicum Taghmata Formations
There are four Taghmata Formations, themed around different factions within the Mechanicum. They’re pretty self-explanatory really, though spelling their names is more of a challenge. There’s a tank one, a robot one and so on. Notably, unlike the Legion and Auxilia Formations we had at launch, they all include only Detachments that you can fill with stuff in this book. There are no Heavy or Light Armour slots, and no flyers, awaiting potential future releases. This may mean that this is the full Mechanicum release with no more units planned, or I could just be reading too much into things.
Autokratorii Regiment
We start with the Taghmata’s armoured company. Three Battle Tank slots are compulsory and can be filled with Karaknos, Krios or Krios Venators. One of these vehicles can be upgraded with a Cortex Controller for 10 points. The formation can be expanded with an HQ, there support, two transport and one more Battle Tank Detachment, plus either a Titan or a couple of Knights.
Legio Cybernetica Cohort
Your robot formation. It starts with an HQ, a Core and two Support slots. It can be expanded a lot with two more HQs, a Support, a Vanguard, two Core and two Transport Detachments. You can also add either two Vanguard or two Support Detachments, and a Titan – but no Knights.
The special rule here is that all detachments apart from Core, Transport and Titans have to be robots or must have a Cortex Controller. Those controllers have a 12” range rather than 8”. Those controllers work on units from other Formations so you might potentially want to take some of those other HQs to gain the benefit.
Taghma Sub-cohort
The Demi-company equivalent with a bit of everything. You start with an HQ and two Core Detachmebts that have to be Tech Thralls, along with two Support Detachments. You can add one more HQ, Core, Support, Bastion, Vanguard, Battle Tank and Transport, plus a Titan or two Knights. Infantry and Walkers can be given Triaros as Dedicated Transports. That is the only way you can put Thanatars in Triaros, as otherwise they don’t both exist in the same Formation.
Ordo Reductor Subdivision
If you just want to blow things up, this Formation comprises an HQ, Support and two Bastion Detachments. It can be supplemented with another HQ, two more Support, a Bastion and a Battle Tank. You can have a Titan and a single Acastus Knight – which is the only time the type of Knight you can have is specified. This Formation probably exists because they realised they were selling Thanatars in boxes of eight and you’d need a way to field them all.
Mechanicum Taghmata Detachments
There’s a lot of stuff here, with a whole new faction, so let’s dive in.
HQ Detachments
Archmagos Prime (with or without Abeyant). Strictly speaking this is two Detachments but it’s the same person, filling your HQ slots. They have Battlesmith, Commander, Cortex Controllers and a 5+ Invulnerable save. They come with a fairly inoffensive Volkite Serpeta, supplemented with a much nastier Meltagun if you take the Abeyant. The Abeyant also grants a 6” move instead of 5” on foot, one better CAF and a second Wound, though at 45 points instead of only 25 on foot. You’re taking these guys for their Cortex Controllers mainly, so you might want to take the budget option, but the Abeyant is nice if you can afford it.
Core Detachments
Adescularis Tech-thrall Covenant. Your techno-zombies are absolute trash, with a 6+ save, a 6” range Light gun that only hits on a 6 and -1 CAF. You won’t care because they’re Fearless, meaning they’re very good at their jobs of screening and holding objectives. They still feel a bit pricey, costing the same as Assault Marines, but any cheaper and things might have got weird with the number of activations you’d have.
Thallax Cohorts come as just two bases, for nearly the price of four bases of Thralls. That’s fine as they have very respectable firepower with their Lightning Guns and Plasma-fusils, as well as mobility thanks to a 7” move and Jump Packs. Possibly a bit of a glass cannon, with low durability for their cost and weak melee, but good for shooting and claiming objectives.
Support Detachments
Tech-Priest Auxilia are a bit of a weird one. They’re basically cheaper, bad versions of your HQs. They do the job of leading your robots around perfectly well but they’re less fighty – which might be fine because that’s what the robots are there for. You can have up to three of them per Support slot, as already mentioned, but you could also just decide to take more HQs, as the Formations tend to have quite a lot of slots for those.
Myrmidon Secutor Hosts are expensive, very elite infantry. 5” move, 4+ save, +6 CAF(!) but an actual morale stat and 1W. Their Maxima Bolters give two Assault, Light shots at 8”, hitting on 5+, so they can do a fair amount of damage up close.
Myrmidon Destructor Hosts come with either very dangerous Conversion Beamers (1 shot, 4-22” range, 4+ to hit at -2 AP) or rather less dramatic Volkites (2 shots, 12”, 4+, AP0 Deflagrate, Light).
Each infantry sprue comes with a base of Myrmidon Sectors and one of each type of Destructors. You might be able to get away with using them as the “wrong” type, though actually converting the models would be difficult.
The Arlatax Battle-Automata Maniple is made up of between one and six really nice robots, starting at 40 points but then heavily discounted, so six cost only 185 points. They’ve got a 7” Jump Pack move, a 4+ save, 6++ and CAF of +6. Like most robots they have 2 Wounds and they’re Armoured. They produce a lot of Light-AT shooting between an Autocannon and Plasma Cannon. Their Cortexes let them have Advance and Charge orders, which are what you’ll probably want them doing, which is good because they’ll tend to outpace your priests.
You also get one to six models in a Domitar Battle-Automata Maniple, also heavily discounted so one costs 35 and six cost 170. They’re very like the Artlatax. They only move 5” and have a +4 CAF but they pack Missile Launchers with the two usual profiles and Graviton Hammers, which give them Wrecker (1) with a -2 save modifier. In theory you can use these to knock over buildings and they are allowed to advance into contact rather than charging, meaning they can have a crack at it after getting out of a Triaros. Having only a -2 AP on those hammers means they might just bounce off, however. They are also programmed to Advance or Charge, which is fine.
The Castellax Battle-Automata Maniple comes as a unit of two for 70 points, potentially expanding up to eight for 250. Extra robots are much less discounted than with the Arlatax and Domitar, meaning those are actually cheaper if you want big units – though they do cap out at six. They’re fine, with the same profile as the Domitar but Mauler Bolt Cannons (8”, 3 shots, 5+ to hit, -1AP and Light AT), plus bolters, providing respectable anti-infantry fire. They can only Advance or March, so I suppose you could take them without a transport and run upfield, though really a Triaros is way better at getting them into range to shoot up infantry. I think these are slightly overpriced.
Vanguard Detachments
The Ursarax Cohort is just two bases, for 20 points. They’re a lot like Thalaxii, though with +3 CAF and relatively weak shooting from their Volkite Incinerators. They’re mostly useful as a very cheap, fast, Infantry detachment for grabbing objectives, but they’re far from useless in a fight.
The Vorax Battle-Automata Maniple is a bit different from the other robots we’ve seen so far. You get a unit of one for 40 or up to four for 145 points, so not a huge discount. The fun thing is they have 7” moves and Forward Deployment, meaning they can reach far into the midfield from turn one. They only have +3 CAF but this is more than made up for by having Rend on their Power blade arrays. They’re the only non-armoured robots so they don’t want to get involved in shoot-outs with infantry, despite having a serious amount of close-range anti-infantry firepower.
Vorax are only programmed to Charge or March, which means they actually can’t shoot their guns when out of control range – which is where they’ll often end up due to Forward Deployment. It isn’t clear what happens if you forget (or “forget”) to give them an order. Usually they’d end up with an advance order but that seems wrong here.
I think you use Vorax as an aggressive screen. Deploy single units of them forward, preferably out of sight and on Charge orders, ready to jump on things like infantry who’ve just disembarked.
Vultarax Stratos-automata Squadrons are another interesting one. Skimmers with a 9” move and Outflank they’re great for zooming around, and pretty cheap at 35 points or 120 for a maxed-out unit of four. Their Arc blasters (10” and Neutron-flux) and Vultarax havoc launchers (15” Light AT) both have two shots, hitting on 4+ with no AP. Only +2 CAF so leave melee to the Vorax. Programmed to Advance or Charge they’re quite a nice little speedy fire support unit, which you could use to threaten back-field objectives later in the game.
Bastion Detachments
The Thanatar Siege-Automata Maniple is your only Bastion. They’ve got a 4+ save, +4 CAF, 2 wounds, 6++ and Armoured like the Domitar and Castellax, with only a 4” move. They’re significantly more expensive than the other robots, starting at 110 for two and going up to 295 for six of them – so not hugely discounted relative to their cost.
Thanatars come with an excellent Plasma mortar, with one shot at 18” range, 3+ to hit and -3AP. It has Demolisher and Ignores Cover (though no version of Barrage, surprisingly), so it can knock buildings down or just kill the people inside, as required.
For 5ppm you can “upgrade” to have a Sollex heavy-las, with one 22” range shot, hitting on 4+ with -1AP and Armourbane. That comes paired with a Graviton ram with Wrecker (2) but no AP, meaning it’ll tend to just bounce off buildings. This seems much worse than the Plasma mortar, which is just a better gun than the laser and can also blow buildings up without needing to waddle up to them. The laser’s slightly longer range might mean you can First Fire more often, but then why have the Graviton ram at all?
All versions also have a Mauler bolt cannon, providing 3 8” range 5+ to hit -1AP Light AT shots. Those don’t synergise well with either main gun unfortunately but extra dakka is no bad thing.
They’re programmed to Advance or First Fire, which is what you’ll want them to be doing.
Battle Tank Detachments
The Karacnos Assault Tank Squadron is a bit of a monster. 8” move, 3+ save, 0 CAF, 3+ morale and 1W are all very standard for a battle tank, though it’s arguably a bit weird these things have one wound when much smaller robots get two. It’s got Point Defence Lightning locks, with a couple of 5+ -1AP shots at 12” but the main story is the Karacnos mortar battery. That gets two shots at 30”, hitting on 4+ with -1AP, with Barrage and Ignores Cover.
You can buy them in single units for 40 points or up to four for 140. That’s the same as a Basilisk Detachment but you get a second shot (plus better save and sponsons) in exchange for having a much shorter range. A few of these hidden near the midfield could be quite oppressive, as there’s really nowhere to hide from -1AP shots with Barrage and Ignores cover.
Krios Battle Tank Squadrons come with three tanks for 100 points, with the option of going up to nine of them for 270 – which isn’t much of a discount. Same base profile as the Karacnos but different guns. Their Volkite sponsons give you one 12” 4+ shot with no AP but Accurate, Deflagrate, Light and Point Defence. Then you have a choice of a Lightning Cannon (22” two 5+ shots at -2AP) or Irad-scourer (16” two 4+ shots at -2AP with Light AT and Ignores Cover). Overall I find these things kind of fine, but they don’t really bring anything unique to the army.
Krios Venators come in smaller units of two for only 60 points, going up to 8 vehicles for 220 – so again not much of a discount. But a little cheaper than the standard version. They have the same basic profile and sponsons but their main gun is the Pulsar-fusil. This has one 12” 3+ -3AP shot with Anti-tank. Again it’s ok and that is a good amount of AP, but it’s hard to imagine these doing well against Leman Russ, let alone infantry armies.
Transport Detachments
The Taghmata ride around in Triaros Armoured Conveyers, which are fantastic for their low price of 15 points each. They have the same very average 8” move, 3+ save, 0CAF and 3+ morale as the other vehicles, the same Volkites except without Point Defence and also a Twin-linked Mauler Bolt Cannon, for three 8” 5+ -1AP Light AT shots. They have a load of shooting for a transport, equal to a base of Castellax if not better.
They are Large Transport (4), so they can each carry a whole Detachment of four Thrall bases or pretty much anything else you want. Crucially, it can carry Walkers, with each taking up two spaces. Unfortunately it isn’t an Assault Vehicle, so the stuff inside won’t be able to charge out, but even so this is an extremely good price for such a capable unit.
I think the Triaros will make or break this faction. The really unique thing Mechanicum can do is move units of Fearless walkers around the battlefield and plonk them down where they’re needed, thanks to these things.
Mechanicum Taghmata Formations of Legend
The snappily-named Exsomnis-tercia Cybernetica Cohort is requires a really large number of Castellax. The core of it is an Archmagos on Abeyant, three Domitar, two Detachments of six Castellax and four Vorax. You can add on three Tech-priest Auxilia, another dozen Castellax bases, three Domitars, four Vorax and four Thanatars with plasma Mortars.
They have to be Loyalist and the robots can change their orders when they activate, which is always really useful. To do this they need a friendly robot within 6” to have done that order. If so, they don’t need to have that order in their Cybernetica Cortex (X) list. Changing orders is always a great option to have, though here I think it’ll be tough to pull off due to needing to be within 6”. In total it all comes to 1570 points, so at least you won’t have to get too much other stuff if you get this.
The Dark Mechanicum
Here is a faction we haven’t ever really seen on its own before, bringing a set of new models and rules. The highlight of these are the warp-tainted stalkers that the Emperor had locked away in the vaults of Moravec, for some reason choosing not to destroy them and to give Horus the keys to the vault.
These spidery constructs come in four different flavoursas we’ll see, but basically there’s a command one, a melee one, a shooty one and a great big one. They are scale 2 or 3 Vehicles rather than walkers, all with two wounds and most with shields on top of that. There are also much smaller “swarmers”, which I think are kind of like the wriggly robots in the Matrix.
The Dark Mechanicum works a lot like the Taghmata list and shares most Detachments. You can have any of the Mechanicum detachments apart from Automata and the Krios Venator – which may be a mistake as I can’t see why it shouldn’t be included.
Dark Mechanicum Special Rules
Construct Shields protect most stalkers. They are like Void Shields except a bit weaker, so AP0 hits from Light AT or Anti-tank weapons (though not un-typed weapons) cause them to drop. If you have a Detachment with multiple models their shields merge so you have to knock down all of the shields before you can start allocating hits to models. And bear in mind that the defender gets to assign the order in which hits are resolved, so you can take a volcano cannon shot on the shield and let the lighter weapons hit your armour.
The Networked Anima rule is kind of the dark equivalent of a Cortex Controller. Dark Mechanicum Formations provide special rules to Detachments within 8” of a model with the Noosphere Controller special rule that’s part of their formation. This tends to mean that the more conventional Mechanicum forces don’t gain much benefit from their Formations, as they don’t have this rule.
Also, Dark Mechanicum Formations can include Titans and Knights, just as the Taghmata do.
Dark Mechanicum Formations
Terror Protocol Cohort
An HQ, a Vanguard and two Core Detachments that have to be Errax Stalkers. You can expand this with two more Core Detachments, two more Vanguard and either a Warhound Pack or a Knight.
Command – Urgency: Networked Anima units that activate within 6” (not 8” as stated above, curiously) of a Noosphere Controller, add 2” to their move stat for the round. Errax want to be close to the enemy and this will let them do scarily long charges of up to 20”, while any Swarmers you take will have an 18” charge – though they’re far less scary in melee.
Purge Protocol Cohort
One Heavy Armour and two Light Armour Detachments for your compulsory stuff, which will have to be Stalkers as there aren’t Taghmata units for those slots. You can take a couple of Battle Tanks, an HQ, either two more Heavy or Light Armour Detachments and a Titan.
So this is your Formation for taking loads of shooty Stalkers. The Command – Exterminate rule lets you reroll 1s to hit against a target marked by being shot by the Formation’s HQ, so it’s good for taking down single targets or large enemy Detachments. There’s no mention of a range at which this works, so I assume it defaults to units within 8” of the controller.
Swarm Protocol Cohort
Three Vanguard detachments, which you’ll probably fill with Swarmers though you don’t have to. Then optionally three more Vanguards, two Light Armour and a Knight.
This formation has the most special rules of any. For starters, Swarmers can be upgraded to have a Noosphere Controller and a 6+ invulnerable, at 15 points for a Detachment. Swarmers also get Infiltrate, which is fantastic and the Command – Overwhelm rule causes them to count as Scale 2 for the purposes of pinning enemy units (and stalkers Scale 3, technically, though you only get the shooty ones here), though the swarmers themselves can still be pinned by Scale 1 enemies.
Infiltrate is so good that you’ll want all your swarmers to be in one of these formations. You probably don’t want much other stuff as the special rules aren’t relevant to them.
Dark Taghma Sub-covenant
This is very similar to the Mechanucum Taghma Sub-covenant, starting with an HQ, two Tech Thrall Detachments and two Support. The optional add-ons are a little different so you can have another HQ, a Core, Support, Vanguard, Battle Tank, Light Armour and Transport. Finally you can have a Battle tank or Heavy Armour and a Titan or pair of Knights.
There’s no Command protocol here. Instead your Detachments can have Triaros as dedicated transports. These are still excellent even without robots to put inside them.
Dark Mechanicum Detachments
We get five new Detachments for the Dark Mechanicum, each with a different unit type. This means you have a fairly restricted choice in what you use to fill out Formations.
On the other hand you do quite often have a choice of the weapons you give your models and here I think the design team have done a good job, because it’s not totally obvious which are best. You might have to choose between range and damage, or between Point Defence and Ignores Cover, for example.
HQ: Scintillax ‘Cyclops’ Noospheric Stalker Network
These things are your command Stalkers and the only models with the Noosphere Controller rule. They also have one Construct Shield, and like all Stalkers they are Nimble and Traitors. They move 7”, have 3+ saves, +3 CAF and 2 wounds. You get one for 75 points and can have as many as six for 395.
These are by no means your most dangerous Stalkers, armed generally with lighter versions of the guns the others have, and they’re relatively expensive. As such you’ll need to balance how many you take as you’re really buying durability, not killing power. Their job is to keep the other Stalkers buffed with their aura, so you might often be trying to hide them rather than use their weapons.
They aren’t useless but their Scintillax lascutters (1 shot, 4”, 3+ to hit -3AP Anti-tank bunker buster), Exo-planar cannon (2 shots, 10”, 4+ -1 Light, Ignores Cover, Shred) and Storm lasers (3 shots, 15”, 5+ -1AP Light AT, Rapid Fire, Shieldbane) are all lesser versions of what other Stalkers bring, usually on a cheaper platform.
Core: Errax ‘Butcher’ Assault Stalker Cohort
These are your assault Stalkers and I’m not totally convinced by them. Their 8” Nimble move certainly projects a threat a long way and +6 CAF is decent, but at 45 points each they cost more than most infantry detachments and will struggle if outnumbered – which they will often be. They only have a 4+ armour save, though they have a Construct Shield and 2 wounds.
You can get these in huge units of up to nine of them for 355. I don’t know if the best approach is to run loads of individual ones to tie things up but it would be interesting to see a tide of these swarming towards the enemy. It would be a bit of a test of the enemy’s firepower but could have problems if you came up against too many lascannons and missile launchers I think.
Vanguard: Harpax ‘Swarmer’ Scout Host
These are like Tech Thralls, only far better. For the same price as Thralls (actually a little more if you increase the unit size) you get a 7” Jump Pack move, 6+ save, +1 CAF and one of two guns. Exo-planar repeaters have a 10” 5+ shot with 0AP, Light and Shred, which I think means an armoured Walker has to reroll both failed and successful saves! Harpax Lascutters have a 4” shot on a 5+ with -1AP Anti-tank and Bunker Buster, meaning they can destroy structures.
They aren’t very good but they’re cheap, Fearless and you can make them Infiltrate with the Swarmer formation, so do that. It’ll be a pain for your opponent to get them out.
Light Armour: Tenebrax ‘Archer’ Battle Stalker Cohort
These are like a shooty version of the Butchers. They don’t have any shields and get only +1 CAF but have a Storm laser flenser with a 22” range, 3 shots on 4+ with -1AP, Light AT and Shieldbane. They’re pretty bad news for enemy infantry and walkers, and probably for tanks with anything worse than a 2+ save.
They have a choice of secondary weapons, all of which are Light, so I think it’s probably best to go with the Maxima bolters, as they have Point Defence and then it could defend itself while still shooting enemies far away. The Exo-planar cannon does have 2 4+ -1AP shots with Ignores Cover and Shred, but its 10” range puts your fragile Stalkers pretty close to the enemy. The Volkite Culverin option, with 14” range, might be a good choice too. These choices matter, so it’s a little awkward they’re tiny guns hidden underneath a many-legged construct.
Heavy Armour: Serperos ‘Overlord’ Heavy Stalker Maniple
Units of these will be tough as each one has two shields and a 2+ save, though still only 2 wounds like their much smaller kin. They have a 7” move and +3 CAF. You get two for 175 points and up to 6, which will cost you 475.
You have two choices for the main and secondary weapons. Exo-planar bombards and Storm laser arrays both have 15″ range and hit on 4s with -1AP. The bombard has 3 shots, Bypass, Ignores Cover and Shred while the Storm laser has 5 shots, Light AT, Rapid Fire and Shieldbane. I think I prefer the storm laser as it averages around twice as many hits, though the bombard is nasty against infantry in cover.
The secondary weapons are either Serperos lascutters, with just 4″ range, one shot hitting on 2+, -3AP, Anti-tank, Bunker Buster (so -6AP vs structures), Engine Killer (1) and Rend. Alternatively you can get an Irradiation Engine with 10″ range, 3 shots on 4s at -3AP, Ignores cover and Light AT.
The obvious choice is probably the two Ignores Cover guns but I think there might be play in equipping these for melee. It’ll be tough to stop them crossing the board and they’re nasty when they get there. There is a risk of getting swarmed by infantry though in either case, as they don’t have all that much range on any of their guns. It looks like they’re on 60mm bases, which will make them quite unwieldy on the board, especially if you go for big units.
Dark Mechanicum Formations of Legend
Sibilans Taghma
Another huge Formation of Legend, at 944 points for the compulsory Detachments and another 727 for the optional stuff.
Compulsory Detachments are 4 Scintillax, 2×8 Tech-thralls, 6 Serperos with Ignores Cover guns and 6 Myrmidon Secutors. You can add another 8 Tech-thralls, 2×6 Myrmidon Secutors and another 6 identical Serperos. The Myrmidons all have Triaros transports.
These guys have to be Traitor. All your Networked Anima units (the big Serperos) get to add 4″ to the range of all their weapons while within 8″ of the Scintillax HQs, which is probably quite significant.
It’s worth noting that you get one sprue of Myrmidon Secutors per sprue, so fielding 18 of them is a bit much if you’re not going to proxy the Destructors as them. You’d also be left with a ton of Thalaxii and stuff.
Conclusion
This is our favourite of the campaign books so far. Where the previous two both added a few new units to the existing factions, here we get a whole new faction (or two) with a full complement of Formations and Datasheets. There’s nothing at all here for Legions or Solar Auxilia so you don’t need the book if you aren’t playing Mechanicum.
The designers seem to have mostly done a good job of internal balance. Previously it’s tended to be pretty clear what gun to pick for a vehicle but here there are real pros and cons for all the options rather than one that stands out, which is great.
It’s interesting to have so many new models with two wounds. I think it makes sense that they do, but it makes it weird that most tanks just have a single wound. It’s pretty weird to see a 2-wound Domitar next to a 1-wound Triaros, which is far bigger and can carry two Domitars inside. It raises a lot of questions about consistency when comparing walkers with each other, and in design terms it may have been better to have some robots be one wound (things like the Domitar, roughly the same size as the Contemptor which is 1 wound) one some 2 wounds (like the Castellax base of 3 models) in order to have a spread of unit types and thus points costs.
This book seems to have avoided some of the problems that have hit the balance between other units in LI, but unfortunately all those problem units still exist and that’s the situation this new stuff will step into. We hope to see some attempts to rebalance things a bit in future.
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