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I'm on my phone so can't be as verbose as I would like, but how is 30k in terms of balance? I've heard good things about its balance, but have also heard the faction i'd want to do, Mechanicum, is generally considered too strong. I'd like to NOT repeat 40k if possible and only want to make the jump to 30k if balance is more present.

From there, what books do I need? I see that there is a partial Mechanicum Book but I guess it only spans the first few Horus Herasy books and i'd need other books for newer releases? Also, is their a 30k equivalent of "The Big Rulebook"?

Thanks so much guys!

7th ed rules, 8th next summer

Follow link for the 4 "army books" and descriptions of what is in each.
https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/en-NZ/The-Horus-Heresy?N=102786+4294964959&Nu=product.repositoryId&qty=8&sorting=rec&view=table&categoryId=cat2210033

These might help too:

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Space_Marine_Legion_List_(30k)

https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Mechanicum:_Taghmata_(30k)

As FeindusMaximus said 30k uses 7th ed rules with a few differences.

For Mechanicum you'll need the Mechanicum Red book which covers all of their units throug Book 5 ( so there are a few new units in book 6). Typically some new units get added with each book so you'll need access to them somehow as they come out if you want to run any of the new units.

I can't really speak to the balance as I've only played Mechanicum and in my experience Marine players tend to complain everything that's not MEQ.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:
I'm on my phone so can't be as verbose as I would like, but how is 30k in terms of balance? I've heard good things about its balance, but have also heard the faction i'd want to do, Mechanicum, is generally considered too strong. I'd like to NOT repeat 40k if possible and only want to make the jump to 30k if balance is more present.

From there, what books do I need? I see that there is a partial Mechanicum Book but I guess it only spans the first few Horus Herasy books and i'd need other books for newer releases? Also, is their a 30k equivalent of "The Big Rulebook"?

Thanks so much guys!

I did the same thing, but I've been working on making it so my Space Marines can be used in both 30K and 40K...still 40K is insanely unbalanced ATM depending on the codex. I've been working on Space Marine lists that don't use Gladius just because I think it's an illusion of choice ATM. 30K seems better in term of balance, and the battle reports I've been watching online are fantastic. Nice to see they're rolling in stuff that's not Space Marines too.

My local group has a pretty big 30k group with a dedicated Mechanicus player, and while that army is good I would not say it is OP.

I haven't played a dedicated 30k game (just vs. 40k armies so far) but I've watched dozens of batreps online and it appears MUCH more balanced. That's the whole reason I got into 30k, really, was the balance and fluff. The missions are much more of a crapshoot and there always seems to be a way to make up the points that your opponent has an advantage of getting. I've seen plenty of mechanicum players lose to marine players and vice versa. The overall feel of 30k, to me, seems to be a "we all have very destructive toys" - basically every army has access to very awesome units (while staying true to the fluff) in that everything is deadly to basically everything. Of course there's typical armor vs bodies meta that will dictate how effective one particular list will be, but there never seems to be a time where you're completely screwed from the get-go.

As long as you don´t spam stuff like Irradiation Engines, Phosphex Medusas, Thanatar and something like that, it ist better balanced. Way better.
All three Mechanicum-lists are very good and have strenghs and drawbacks.

Cybernetica has a "little" problem with objectives. So you just kill everything or add a truckload Adsecularii.
Taghmata with its flood of options can be quite overwhelming.
Ordo Reductor has no allies, fortifications and they don´t like or trust automata in any way, but love tanks. And are a little crazy...

I tend to use very fluffy(thou sometimes experimental) lists. So I don´t play waac.

And there is something I observed:
Mechanicum works best as a list, if you think like an Archmagos. No joke! You create a strategy, build your list accordingly and field it like an Archmagos would....

30k is very balanced mostly because if you want to go OP with your army list you can do it with any faction easily as all of the toys are amazing, generally you will find that 30k players dont do this as its a more fluff based game with many people keeping there armies based on something they know of the legion.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also while mechanicum can be very cheesy they have a limit to what they can bring at higher end, especially with the release of the new legion army list.

Yup, 30k is much more restricted in terms of lists and detachments and that sort of thing, so they've done a much better job of balancing everything. They also rebalance things quite often.

The basic rules are just the 7ed 40k Rulebook. You then need the Red Book (Codex) for your Faction - in this case the Mechanicum Taghmata book.

It's also useful to have the current Horus Heresy FAQ - a free download from the FW site.

New units are released in each new 'Black Book' but often they're also available to download from the website. Currently, the only units missing from the Mechanicum Taghmata book are those from Book Six - a Xana special character, the Artlatax Battle Automata and Ordinatus Machines.

 ArbitorIan wrote:

Currently, the only units missing from the Mechanicum Taghmata book are those from Book Six - a Xana special character, the Artlatax Battle Automata and Ordinatus Machines.

Not completly right, the Ordinatus is in the book, only Xana is missing.