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Winters SEO got his hands on an advanced copy of the Ad Mech Codex. While his review was a bit salty, we got a great look at Traits, Relics, Stratagems, and more. Let’s go over everything that was revealed in the new codex.
Now, there are 28 Stratagems in total, with 20 being unique to the Ad Mech, 7 that are forge world specific, and 1 that is specific to the Questor Imperialis.
These Stratagems are varied with some already appearing to be the ones that will be used the most. Some of these we have already seen from Community posts, so we will not bother with those. Now, Ad Mech do get to equip more than one relic with the Archeotech Specialists. Several focus on the Canticles of the Omnissiah. Gloria Mechanicus, for 2CP, will allow to change a canticle that has already been canted by letting you re-roll or letting you choose a canticle that has not yet already been chosen. Divine Chorus, for 2CP, will allow you to select a canticle that has already been chosen. You must use this Stratagem before determining which canticle will be in effect.
The other Stratagem that focus on canticles will affect Imperial Knights. The reason for this being that Imperial Knights are not able to be blessed by canticles normally. They cannot be part any <forge world> either so… The only way to aid your Knights will be with the Stratagem Knight of the Cog, for 1CP, which allows a your Imperial Knight to gain the Canticles of the Omnissiah for that battle round. The caveat is that the Knight must be within 12″ of Adeptus Mechanicus Character for this Stratagem to be used. Other Stratagems that will affect Imperial Knights are Rotate Ion Shields: For 1CP, it will add 1 to your Knight’s invulnerable save throws for that phase; and Machine Spirit Resurgent: For 1CP, you can use a Knight’s/Ad Mech vehicle’s top damage table row, regardless of how many wounds it has sustained, until the end of the turn. Lastly, there is Benevolence of the Omnissiah: For 1CP, your Ad Mech Vehicle/Imperial Knight can ignore mortal wounds on 5+ for that phase.
Don’t worry, there are plenty of Stratagems to go around. Skitarii get two: Protector and Conqueror Doctrina Imperatives. Protector Doctrina: For 1CP, add 1 to all hit rolls for the Shooting phase for the selected Skitarii unit. Conqueror Doctrina: For 1 CP, add 1 to all hit rolls during the Fight phase for the selected Skitarii unit. Both Stratagems can be influenced by enhanced and broad spectrum data-tethers, which will bump the +1 to a +2 to hit.
Want to hold an objective at all costs? Acquisition at Any Cost will have any selected Ad Mech <Infantry> unit within 3″ of an objective add one to all saving throws and add 1 to all Attack characteristics. It costs 2CP and can be used at the end of any of your turns. Want to make your Fast Attack Dragoons or Ironstirders Advance even faster? Dunestrider, for 1CP, will have you rolling two dice and adding the results together when determining how much further that unit can move.
Now, we have seen several of the forge world Stratagems already. Let’s cover the ones we have not seen. Stygies VIII plays its part of the secretive forge world quite well with their Stratagem Clandestine Infiltration: For 1CP, you can setup a Stygies VIII unit to ambush during the deployment phase. At the beginning of the first battle round but before the first turn begins, said unit reveals itself anywhere on the battlefield and more than 9″ from any enemy models.
Forge world Metalica has Deafening Assault: For 1CP, at the start of any Morale phase, select a Metalica unit and all enemy units within 6″ of that unit must subtract from from their Leadership characteristic for that phase.
Forge world Ryza has Plasma Specialists: For 1CP, a Ryza unit can, at the start of the Shooting Phase, add 1 to wound rolls made for all that unit’s plasma weapons and the increase damage done by said plasma weapons by 1. If the weapon name has the word “plasma” in it, then this Stratagem applies.
There are several more Stratagems out there that we will cover as soon as we got our own copy. From what we can see, these Stratagems do offer solid options for Ad Mech players and do cover the obvious lack of any support for the Questor Imperialis.
Ad Mech are getting a total of 13 Warlord Traits, of which 7 are forge world specific, a total of 15 Relics, with several being forge world specific. and Dogmas, which are a mixture of great and not so great.
The Arcana Mechanicum consists of 15 relics, several of which will be forge world specific. We do several relics that have made a return. Belisarius Cawl cannot equip a relic since he already has one. Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land is one of the better ones. The bearer of this relic can recover one wound and, when using a repair ability on a friendly Ad Mech model, you may re-roll the dice to determine how many wounds are regained. Another good one is The Omniscient Mask. This used to be on Rustsalkers and Infiltrators. The Mask allows any nearby friendly Skitarii units within 6″ to re-roll failed hit rolls on the Fight Phase.
Some forge world specific relics are shown as well. Stygies VIII has The Omnissiah’s Hand: the Stygies VIII model that bears this relic can, during the Fight Phase, roll a D6 for every enemy unit within 1″. On a 4+, that unit suffers a mortal wound. Metalica get the Adamantine Arm relic weapon that is Sx3, -3AP, and 3 Damage. Lucius forge world has The Solar Flare: once per game, at the end of the movement phase, the bearer may teleport instead of moving normally. You can then place the model anywhere that is 30″ from the starting position and more than 9″ from enemy models.
There are 13 Warlord Traits, 7 of which are forge world specific. The forge world specific traits are optional, except in Cawl’s case. He will always have Static Pslam-code. Of the forge world specific traits, Metalica’s Ordered Efficiency jumps out as being the strongest. If a friendly Metalica unit is within 6″ of your Warlord when it Falls Back, it can still shoot during that turn but must subtract 1 from that unit’s hit rolls. Agripinaa has Reinforced Exoskeleton: all damage suffered by your Warlord is reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 1).
Stygies VIII has one that will only be effective if facing the right enemy. Xenarite Studies: add 1 to any wound rolls your Warlord makes against units that do not have the Chaos, Imperioum, or Unaligned Faction keywords. Ryza continues to enhance its weapon powers with First-hand Field Testing: when setting up your Warlord, choose one of their weapons (it cannot be a relic) and increase the Strength and Damage characteristics of that weapon by 1.
Of the standard 6 traits, only Necromechanic jumps out at us. When a Warlord uses an ability to repair a friendly model, that model regains 1 additional wound. There are many options that the Adeptus Mechanicus have to regain wounds,
At last we have the Dogmas. Several have already been covered by Community posts. We’ll just give you the ones that have not. Stygies VIII’s Shroud Protocols will have opponents must subtract 1 from their hit rolls when shooting at Stygies VIII units if they are more than 12″ away. This will give you a better chance of resisting damage while gunning it out. Add to this a +1 from cover and you have an army that will hard to hit as they slowly close in.
Ryza’s Dogma does appears to be quite lackluster. Red in Cog and Claw will have Ryza units re-rolling wound rolls in the Fight Phase. However, if your Ryza force consists of Electro-priests, you can pop the Zealous Congregation Stratagem and choose an Electro-priest unit to fight again at the end of your Fight Phase.
We were able to see some point cost changes and datasheet changes as well for several units. However, it is important to mention that no new Ad Mech units were added with this codex. So, what is out there now for Ad Mech is what you get.
First change we noticed is with Belisarius Cawl. He has the forge world <Mars> keyword instead of having an open keyword. He will only be able to benefit other <Mars> units. His Master of Machines will only be able to heal Imperium units by 1 wound. Since Imperial Knights have the <Imperium> keyword, he can repair them. The Tech-Priest Dominus and Engineseer’s Master of Machines ability does contain the <Questor Mechanicus> keyord and not the <Imperium>. Thankfully, the Tech Priest Enginseer has been made into an HQ choice. So, you can invest in a few Engineseers and Domini since they have an open <Forge World> keyword. Engineseers will be the best options at 40 points per model.
Skitarii Rangers and Vanguards have a slight point reduction. Rangers have dropped from 10 to 8 points per model. Vanguards have dropped from 10 to 9 points per model. Sicarian Rustalkers so a one point increase in power level, 5-6 but no point change per model. Sicarian Infiltrators, sadly, have lost an attack. They now have 2 attacks and their Princeps has 3. This is down from 3 and 4 that were originally seen in the Index Imperium 2. Kataphron Breachers have also seen a reduction in Power Level, from 9 to 8 but no change to points per model.
Sydonian Dragoons have a change to their Taser Lance. It now has -1AP in its profile. Fulgurite Electro-Priests have seen a 1 point increase in points per model, from 16 to 17. The Onager Dune Crawler has had an increase in Power Points from 6 to 7 but no change in points cost.
Lastly, with the Soldiers of the Machine God Trait, all Ad Mech detachments gain the use of Objective Secured. Or they can choose to use a Forge World Dogma.
That is all we have seen that is different from what we have seen in the Index Imperium 2. So far, what we have seen from this codex is that Ad Mech players may need to take multiple detachments, with each detachment taking the advantage of a unique Forge World Dogma. This may change once we get this codex in our hands and explore it more thoroughly.
All in all, the new codex is opening a lot of new options and combinations for Ad Mech players. Make sure you check back in with us throughout the week for the latest updates leading up to the release next Saturday.
What do you think of the Adeptus Mechanicus codex so far? What are you looking forward to the most? Let us know in the comments below!
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