Adeptus Mechanicus Codex Review - Battle-forged Rules

We continue our coverage of the new AdMech codex today by looking at organizing your forces for war, your detachment options, stratagems, and the different Holy Orders your leaders may be a part of.

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Excuse us, we seem to have some communication issues happening.

BATTLE-FORGED RULES

The Battle-forged rules section of the book makes up nearly a fifth of the book, coming in at 25 pages.  This section details the detachment abilities you receive, the Forge World rules your forces fight under, stratagems available to you, and two pages of Holy Order-- a new addition to building your forces that serve in the same vein as leadership upgrades like the Adeptus Astartes Chapter Command.

DETACHMENT ABILITIES

The beating heart of your force, the flavor by which the galaxy knows your tread.  Common to all AdMech forces are Forge World dogmas (equivalent to Chapter Tactics) and the Knights of the Cog ability.  Additionally, the AdMech Detachment allows QUESTOR MECHANICUS Knights to pick up the KNIGHT OF THE COG keyword if they are part of a Super-heavy Auxiliary Detachment attached to AdMech, permitting the mix of AdMech and Knights that existed in the prior codex without creating the weird disconnect of the last Knight updates.

The codex then proceeds to give rules for the major Forge Worlds and those of your own creation, providing their dogma, unique Warlord Trait, Arcana Mechanicum (relic), and stratagem.  Below are quick highlights for the provided Forge Worlds:

·         Mars

o   Skitarii gain Canticles of the Omnissiah, re-rolling hit rolls, re-use Canticles Warlord Trait, a killer power axe relic, mortal wound-causing stratagem, etc.

·         Lucius

o   Armor bonuses against low damage attacks, increased weapon range, wound-ignoring Warlord Trait, a teleportation relic, a teleportation stratagem (EVERY Astorum player is now crying foul over the new lore in Loyalist Legios stripping that lore)

·         Agripinaa

o   Increased range AP at half range, can do both Hold Steady and Defend when charged outside of Engagement Range, Astartes Company Banner effect for a Warlord Trait, re-roll wound for certain conditions relic, tougher Kataphrons stratagem, etc.

Gotta admit my pants are amazing and I'm ready to take on my enemies.

·         Graia

o   Ignore Combat Attrition, ignore Mortal Wounds on 5+, Warlord Traits for better Heroic Intervention, boosted aura abilities relic, anti-psyker stratagem, etc.

·         Stygies VIII

o   Ravenguard-eque dogma, Warlord Trait for deceptive redeployments, once per battle mortal wound causing relic, Infiltrator-type stratagem, etc.

·         Ryza

o   Blood Angels style +1 to wound in charging/charged conditions, +1 to charge rolls, Warlord Trait for better AP in melee [Seriously, they jacked the Blood Angels here with those three things! – Shadow], a volkite relic, +1 damage plasma stratagem, etc.

·         Metalica

o   Ignoring penalties for Advancing and firing assault weapons, ignoring movement and Heavy Weapon penalties, enemies treated as below half-strength when in Engagement Range, Warlord Trait to create -1 to hit rolls, servo arm type relic, disruptor type stratagem, etc.

That is, admittedly, a TON to digest.  This will be something that we will cover at a later time in the same veins as our Titan Legion reviews for a more in-depth look.  As far as a player’s perspective, what fits the most from the theme of the Titanguard?

In that regard, we’d have to give Mars, Ryza, and Metalica those nods.  The Mars setup is good all-rounders that have bonuses that make the forces extremely versatile and well-round.  Ryza allows players to get stuck in with ground forces to make the enemy pay for getting too close to your beloved Titans.  Metalica is just mean and provides for a gunline force to advance with the God-Machines and still be deadly accurate.

If the existing dogmas and rules aren’t to your liking, then there are the custom Forge Worlds via the Distant Worlds rules.  However, we’ll cover that in another article.  These are essentially Successor Chapter rules for the Mechanicus but with additional restrictions on trait selection, which should hopefully avoid the wild and broken combinations the prior Astartes codex suffered.

STRATAGEMS

Tricks, ploys, traps, and powerful assets meant to keep you in the fight.  Seriously, what’s not to love about a good stratagem, right?  The Mechanicus gains four full pages of stratagems that give you a lot of ways to fight a battle your way. 

·         We’re partial to the Dataspike for causing Mortal Wounds. GET OVER HERE!

·         Tech-Adept is great for patching up torn up Vehicles.

·         Archeotech Specialist allows additional relics to be taken.

The AdMech codex is rich in stratagems that allow for just about everything in the codex to receive some sort of boost.  We have to say that so far this looks like the codex that has the largest amount of useful stratagems that provides a massive toolbox (no pun intended) to work with.

HOLY ORDERS

Character upgrades are a thing in this edition that help to add unique flair to your leaders.  Pay a small points or Power Level cost and you get even more bonuses.    Note that your leaders in a Crusade force (more on that later) cannot start with a Holy Order and must earn it.

All Holy Orders have a regular ability which reduces the cost of a specific stratagem type by 1 CP once per battle.  Additionally, they have progressive abilities that provide additional bonuses that eventually ramp up.  Logi and Artisans are the most likely to run around with Titanguard type forces as they focus on damage-dealing or armor penetration.