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What do you think are the best performing units in Adeptus Mechanicus and why do you think that? Do they need a specific Forge World to be the best? Do they all work well together?

Kastelans, Onagers, Cawl, Dragoons. AdMech is a mess of a book, fueled by GW being grumpy about releasing a non-Space Marine codex.

I'm surprised Dragoons aren't a little higher.

@Verviedi -

I'm still getting my DG together, so I haven't looked at updating my Skitari/Mechanicus army to 8th yet. What is it that you don't like about the book?

Crap warlord traits, generally crap stratagems, crap relics, only two viable forgeworld dogmas, typos copy/pasted over from the Index, even in the collector’s edition, and Kataphrons, Ruststalkers, and Servitors are worthless.

Carnifices got rules for every cosmetic carapace choice, Dunecrawlers lost rules for their clearly modelled options that existed in Codex: Skitarii. Nearly everything we have is overcosted, with the exception of the top units, which are reasonably priced.

Best models in the game, though.

See: Tactica Mechanicus.

 Verviedi wrote:
Crap warlord traits, generally crap stratagems, crap relics, only two viable forgeworld dogmas, typos copy/pasted over from the Index, even in the collector’s edition, and Kataphrons, Ruststalkers, and Servitors are worthless.

Carnifices got rules for every cosmetic carapace choice, Dunecrawlers lost rules for their clearly modelled options that existed in Codex: Skitarii. Nearly everything we have is overcosted, with the exception of the top units, which are reasonably priced.

Best models in the game, though.

See: Tactica Mechanicus.

That's all pretty of topic. This thread is about the best units in Admech.

Looks like Robbie and Cawl followed by the onager. Why the on ager?

 Verviedi wrote:
Kastelans, Onagers, Cawl, Dragoons. AdMech is a mess of a book, fueled by GW being grumpy about releasing a non-Space Marine codex.

Please GW restricts Space Marine chapter tactics to infantry, dreads and bikes. meanwhile elder and Imperial guard....

Let's be honest here, it ain't the marines that are the favored child, it's the bloody space elves, they've been constantly top tier since 6th edition

Any chance we could discuss the best units in Admech? There are loads of threads about the other topic.

Kastelans and Dragoons. Dunecrawlers are okay, but become more and more irrelevant with each tank that gets to shoot twice in one turn that ends up getting released.

Kastelans can put out a high concentration of firepower, but are immobile, incapable of fighting in close combat, and need Cawl support (this is also the only reason you'd ever take Cawl), which gives them a pretty massive price tag, so you really have to build around their cost and their need for constant babysitting.

Dragoons are quirky, mobile, and resilient, acting as deepstrike deniers, objective grabbers, and modest assault units (just don't sick them on anything dedicated to CC, they'll lose hard). They're cheap, annoying to kill, and fulfill a lot of roles.

That's it. That's the entire worth of the Admech codex. Nothing else in the book is even worth considering, and the options above aren't really anything spectacular.

Drager wrote:Any chance we could discuss the best units in Admech? There are loads of threads about the other topic.

You appear to be new to internet forums. Welcome.

Drager wrote:What do you think are the best performing units in Adeptus Mechanicus and why do you think that? Do they need a specific Forge World to be the best? Do they all work well together?

First of all the answer when you get down to it is Cawl. That is because of the extra large 9 inch all re roll, if you choose, bubble he creates around himself. However using him to the fullest requires you to use the mars dogma, which is a good dogma though I find it to limiting do I will talk about my top three non Cawl units.

Kastelans: good stats, good weapons though still with flaws like the relitivky low Ws and Bs but generally the best way to play is the load up with three heavy ph blasters, park them in a good spot, go protector and fire away. I personaly find that keeping them in aegis with lucius and rushing forward to hit them with there fists works better but that is just me.

Dunecrawlers: awesome walking tank. Slow, a problem with most of their units but not a big issue. All three of there main guns are good though some, aka neutron laser, are better then others but no real stinkers

And my personal favorite the kataphron destroyers. Holy hell these things. I recently went to a tournament with an suboptimal list but with two units of these, one with plasma the other with grav, and they consistantly produced results. Plasma near a dominus supercharging killed so many things. The grav is good to though not as since the STR 5 hurts it but against elite infantry and hoards they work very good.

What's the range of the Destroyers and are they used as a gunline?

I voted for Kastelan Robots. But Cawl seems to be on par.
I always had a hard time to remove Robots with my Necrons and BA.

Cawl, Kastellan Robots, Dune Crawlers and the odd repair man all tend to make a pretty horrific gun castle that can shoot most armies (almost) off the table.

However, in my humble experience, AdMech players often lose because they double down too much on these units and don't bring enough units to range out and play a bit of an objective game.


A large number of games vs. AdMech that I played came down to my army getting near-tabled by the end, but after having ruled the table for 3-4 turns and the AdMech never moving much beyond their deployment zone, especially if you threaten them with a bit of fast moving cannon fodder, winning by obscene leads in points and a few hidden scouts or something the AdMech couldn't get to, especially as they have (compared to Astra Militarum) no no-LoS-firepower to speak of.

Bring those Dakka-Robots and Crawlers and Cawl, but remember to add a few Fist-Bots or Dragoons or even Infiltrators, etc.. to be able to play across the entire table.

Ironically, the Admech codex is better to run with my ISHTAR than to make a standalone army out of. The Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land plus the Necromechanic warlord trait plus the Tech-Adept stratagem on a regular HQ Enginseer gives a solid chance of 6-8 repaired tank wounds per turn.

Which is a pity, because I'd rather play my traitor Cybernetica from 30k, or loyalist Myrmidon Cult, but there are no Castellax, Vorax, Thanatars, or Vultarax in 40k, nor are there Myrmidax Magi and Archmagi, Myrmidon Secutors, or Myrmidon Destructors.

I'm going to pusher rangers as the unsung heroes of our army atm. While they may not be one of the hordes people build armies around, they are really good for their cost.