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Hello Dakkadakka members. I was hoping to start a 40K Skitarii army when I found out about 30K Mechanicum. Are the gamestyle and rules completely different?

I'm hoping to get an Archmagos as the centerpiece model for my army. Are there any other Mechanicum players out there who can give advice on assembling such an army?

For the Omnissiah!

You'll want to pick up the mechanicum red book.

In the Mechanicum there three army lists: Ordo Reductor, Cybernetica, and Taghmata omnissia. They have been homogenized a bit but still have a distinct flavour. Several flavours of magos prime. There are a lot of good options in the Mechanicum army; What do you want your army to do/look like? Lots of tanks? Robots? Bodies? What's your cup of tea?

They're more like the 30K equivelant of Cult Mechanicus rather than the Skitarii, who may or may not end up with their own rules for 30K, so big, tough and with lots of shooting but thanks to inclusions like the Triaros Armoured Conveyor and the Thallax, Ursurax and Vorax have a greater degree of mobility.

Yes, the gamestyle and rules are completely different - there has been some crossover with graviton weapons (you'll be familiar with the 'graviton imploder') but there are no doctrina imperatives or canticles of the omnissiah.

Models with a cybernetica cortex need either the 'paragon of metal' upgrayedd, or an HQ choice with a cortex controller within a certain distance to keep it functioning as you want it to. (it may just go for whatever enemy inside 12" which is closest - even if the assault target is 12" away. this can be funny with outflanking vorax.)

Mechanicum forces have a dedicated transport - the triaros which is a rather good transport for the points

The downside of the mechanicum is that points costs can rack up pretty quick; but there are ways around that, like using thralls as troop choices for objective capping.


The main difference for me is that all the unit choices are really cool and have some nice tricks and playstyles, but also have an obvious drawback - unlike the 'adeptus mechanicus', there are no free buffs.
It's a bit like a cursed wishing-well; you get your wish but theres a catch....