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Hi

After having more or less enough of stuff for my alpha legion:
spartan + 10 terminators
around 50-60 marines
3 rapiers
sicaran
achilles
fire raptor
eagle
2 drednoughts
8 drop pods
leviathan will be ordered somewhere in near future

I was thinking about expanding into mehanicum. Actually my first thought was to buy myself Warhound, lol, but then I thought that's a lot of $$ that will see table only few times I guess. No point in bringing him every game I play, and most of the time we don't even play 3k + pts games. He might even be a bit OP, and if I bring one, and enemy bring other one, then it's basically which titan gets first turn probably wins, and thought of that simply doesn't seem that much fun to me.

There are other legions, but for now, I am more than satisfied with my alphas, and mehanicum seems like a whole other beast.

Triaros looks really nice, and game wise he seems more than solid! I was thinking about getting 2 of these, and probably some myrmidons to go inside? I also really dig myrmidon models, and although a bit expensive, they seem to get job done with that much shooting.
3 krios venator seems like a solid AT option, 12 S9 ap2 ordance shots will probably kill enemy vehicle per turn, and flare shield adds a bit protection to them. There is also option on 3 dark fire lance castellax for around same price, dunno do I need them too or are they better than venators?
Thanatar is great model, game wise, dunno, he looks solid?
I also like myrmidon destructors for some long range fire power.
Scyllax look really nice, but I can't really find use for them on game,
Tech thralls way too much money for too little points, and I also quite dislike models.
Thallax and castellax are nice looking, not sure how do people find castellax after price increase?
There is magos with rad cleanser and one on floating throne thing. WHich one is better to pick up?

Do you have any must have units that you never leave home without?
Is mehanicum competitive with new red book? No one has them in my area, so I can't really say anything about them.
There is dark mehanicum that is also coming out, making it basically 2in1 faction, I guess that you can play your mehanicum as good/bad with same models. New models also look great, so thats also a big plus, can't wait for that drone to be released.

Other postive thing about mehanicum is that I can ally them with my legion, castellax can be used with praevian, I can potentionally take small ally force with venators for AT, some triaros with troops inside, for more of a mech army, which also looks like interesting option.

I was thinking about expanding into mehanicum. Actually my first thought was to buy myself Warhound, lol, but then I thought that's a lot of $$ that will see table only few times I guess. No point in bringing him every game I play, and most of the time we don't even play 3k + pts games. He might even be a bit OP, and if I bring one, and enemy bring other one, then it's basically which titan gets first turn probably wins, and thought of that simply doesn't seem that much fun to me.

Depends, I think. A Titan-off is very much who shoots first wins, but you have some scope to balance it. Everyone complains about the Warhound Titan, but generally what everyone's actually complaining about is a Warhound-Titan-With-Double-Dual-Turbolasers. You don't have to take destroyer weapons. A Leviathan Detachment with titans actually using 'normal' guns and even (gasp!) close combat weapons might actually be fun to face.

A Plasma Blastgun and Vulcan Megabolter isn't actually that bad. I mean....it is - it's got a freakin' titan;s main armament - but a plasma blastgun isn't discernably more terrifying than a Typhon's siege cannon, available on a tank half the price.

For that matter, take a Vulcan and an Inferno Cannon. That'll catch people by surprise. You never know, the Jackal-Pattern might be something you like using (right up until the first time you face a big terminator squad!)


....Anyway, back on topic.


Mechanicum are a very solid army. They have the big advantage of being one of the few armies with reliable access to genuinely fearless troops, making them good for providing expendable skirmish screens, and have most of the 'monstrous creatures', who are just as nasty in 30k as 40k.

Krios Venator and Castellax.....you don't need both. It's a matter of taste. The Krios are harder to kill at range, the Castellax much harder to kill up close (unless you let an astartes dreadnought in amongst them!) - meaning you can press forwards with them and threaten midfield objectives. They aren't, sadly, scoring units (Cybernetica Cortex units never are) but they can still contest objectives and/or just kill whoever's currently occupying it.

The Thanatar - either pattern - is great long-ranged fire support. A lone Thanatar is a good choice for the Paragon Of Metal upgrade - he doesn't need a 'babysitter', can be parked on your home board edge and plasma mortar enemy units out of cover.

Thallax are amazing. They are pretty much terminator equivalents in toughness and firepower, faster but need to avoid melee. Think tau batlesuit and you're not far off. They excel at digging people out of cover (a common theme for mechanicus units and pairs well with Alpha Legion - drive them into the open with mechanicus units and then riddle them with banestrike rounds)

Myrmidon Destructors...... depends on what enemies you face. If you expect to see solar auxilia or militia, then volkite Mryrmidons are just about the most lethal crowd control units in the game.

How are thallax amaizing? Yea, they are quite durable, but S7 single shot weapon? Even if you give them 1 in 3 special weapon, you will probably kill a marine per turn, 2 if you get really lucky. if you manage to get side shots to some vehichles, you might blow something if you are close enough. Despite being quite durable, I don't actually see them killing stuff. I never faced them, so maybe it's their suitability that counts, hope not to get vindicator shot.
Thudd gun battery can basically remove one unit of them per turn.

Those expandable skirmish screens are really nice, BUT I really don't like models, and they simply work out to too much $ per point.

Well, with krios and castellax you can remove 2 vehichles per turn. And darkfire also works just as well vs terminators, although a bit expensive for that.
Seems to me, that infantry spam in not that effective if you play marines, there is just too much stuff that simply removes them so easily. Last game I mooped floor with iron warriors, and I didn't even use 2 squads of veterans I had in rhinos, rest of the army was enough to deal with his whole army, marines were simply not needed. They are kinda just tax with all the options available.

 smurfORnot wrote:
How are thallax amaizing? Yea, they are quite durable, but S7 single shot weapon? Even if you give them 1 in 3 special weapon, you will probably kill a marine per turn, 2 if you get really lucky. if you manage to get side shots to some vehichles, you might blow something if you are close enough. Despite being quite durable, I don't actually see them killing stuff. I never faced them, so maybe it's their suitability that counts, hope not to get vindicator shot.
Thudd gun battery can basically remove one unit of them per turn.

Those expandable skirmish screens are really nice, BUT I really don't like models, and they simply work out to too much $ per point.

Well, with krios and castellax you can remove 2 vehichles per turn. And darkfire also works just as well vs terminators, although a bit expensive for that.
Seems to me, that infantry spam in not that effective if you play marines, there is just too much stuff that simply removes them so easily. Last game I mooped floor with iron warriors, and I didn't even use 2 squads of veterans I had in rhinos, rest of the army was enough to deal with his whole army, marines were simply not needed. They are kinda just tax with all the options available.

very durable
very mobile
can actually score in 30k unlike almost everything else in the mechanicum list
can take 2-shot blinding AP: 2, MMs, and other weapons
can take one HELL of a marine hunter
can purchase tank hunter or rage for the unit. (pair rage with heavy chain blades, and you have some deadly units)

Beyond that, 30k is not a minmax game. You're (seemingly) supposed to bring what you think is fluffy/looks cool/you just like in general.

You mention infantry spam not working, though nearly every game I play it goes just fine. Infantry spam is both effective and fluffy, unless you're pulling the faux-TFG move and bringing the "I brought 2 squads of vets, 3 fire raptors, and 27 of X unit since they are really good ATM" special.

Beyond that:
all of the robots are generally really good no matter the loadout, Tech thralls aren't meant to be amazing, but they are the single cheapest objective holder/compulsory troop filler in the game, and they can be made pretty spooky with assault 2 weapons on a fearless platform, as such they are great for tying up CC squads or dreadnoughts for multiple turns.

I LOVE the myrmidon models (both destructors and the stabby ones). Sadly, I like ursurax more in every way over the stabby myrmidons :(

While infantry spam is in theory is nice, my enemy usually has several large blast s8+ blast that deal very effectivly with them so it's not really viable for me to run.
Don't get me wrong, I find tech thralls great, I just don't like models at all, I would run 40 of them every day, but that's too expensive $$ for me.

 smurfORnot wrote:
While infantry spam is in theory is nice, my enemy usually has several large blast s8+ blast that deal very effectivly with them so it's not really viable for me to run.
Don't get me wrong, I find tech thralls great, I just don't like models at all, I would run 40 of them every day, but that's too expensive $$ for me.

Gotcha on the tech thralls, but that's nothing that can't be mitigated with some clever conversions

in reguards to infantry spam: depending on your point level, there's still a limit to the amount that they have, and if you space your models right, beyond lucky scatters they will only be hitting TOPS 8 dudes. But in my mind, if you are relying ONLY on tac squads, you're playing a bit odd, generally, most armies should have some form of 'scarier' models to eat shots (in my case, I back 2/3 20-man tac. squads with terminators/rapiers/dreads as those 3 are much more spooky targets)