Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Ad Mech – Holy Heck Break Out the Diagrams!
Goatboy here and we’re going to go over the good and bad of 40K’s newest codex – Adeptus Mechanicus.
Holy heck – this new AdMech book is pretty nutty. If you are new to this game you should steer clear of this book. It is an expensive army, a difficult army, and it will be so easy to accidentally “cheat”. It feels like you need to really to have a crazy chart set up, a ton of practice, and patience to know your models are gonna break all the dang time.
It’s one of those books that just feels like too many ideas got thrown into the hat and we have this complex tome that can be a monster in the hands of someone who is extremely good, careful, and calculating – but meh for everyone else. Which feels a shame as it is a neat looking army. It is just crazy hard. I am thankful they don’t have a complicated Psychic phase as every other phase will need a super detailed cheat sheet.
We’re going to go fast over the major highlights of the codex. It isn’t my type of army and while I like the models I would never invest in getting all of these. I will just hear the complaining from a good buddy that has an amazingly painted yellow version of the cyborgs of Mars.
Hail Mars
The Mars version of the army seems to be the “best” right now as well as the easiest. You take pretty much whatever you want and everything sorta keeps working. This is helpful as you need fewer diagrams to know when something gets some kind of aura, stratagem, or spell-targeted warlord rule. It adds up and seems to work which means everyone will be Mars most of the time. I am sure some players will figure out an amazing fast assault version but Mars can do it not as well and shoot the ever living heck out of you in the process.
I am thankful that Cawl doesn’t seem to be needed most of the time in the army so you end up going into different directions for leadership. He is still easy to throw in as he is a Supreme commander and most likely an example of what will be coming for other books’ big badass characters of destruction. With Cawl either not needed or set up to take a single detachment himself it gets easy to get all the other HQ options for book.
Heck, you now get a ton of them which is awesome. I remember when we only saw one and Cawl himself in most games but now there are all kinds to pick from. They all sorta look the same with robes, either skinny or fat, and lots of weird arm thingies. I like the new Skitarii Marshal – aka the Lt. for the robosexuals. It seems to be what will show up for most other armies out there as it seems to be a common Aura they want on the tabletop. Maybe Chaos can get two types of Aspiring Champions eh?
Hot Units & Wargear
From here most of the stuff that wasn’t good got a boost and the stuff that was too good got a nerf. The Ironstrider Ballistarii seem amazing right now so those will show up. Isn’t it crazy how giving a gun an extra shot does wonders for it. 2 shot Lascannons the have a guarantee of 4 damage is very powerful. You see it in Dark Eldar and the Admech got it too. Heck the walkers feel like Transports without the Transport capacity. The Pteraxii Sterylizors seem hot too as well as the Serberys Sulphurhounds with very accurate pistol fire. Throw on the plus 1 to strength and range options and you got a mean little 10 man sniper unit that can cause mortal wounds and some extra damage.
There is an amazing relic, The Skull of Elder Nikola that feels like a once-in-a-game power but somehow works all the time. It does an Aura based mortal wound output and you can throw it on those jump Skitarii guys with Flamers to cause some mean options to specific armies. Heck, I would just throw it on there and when you run into some raiders, vehicles, etc you can jump down, cause mortal wounds, then flamer some guys, and hop away.
Keywords, Keywords, Keywords
I really don’t like how they have such a reliance on Keyword interactions. We all wanted Keywords to help balance things but this book goes crazy with it. Things get keywords sometimes, lose them other times, and become active whenever you decide to let your character complete an action. I know this is thematic with your Leader uploading some data and learning space karate but it really makes this a hard book to control. We all know the abilities that start off strong without needing to be upgraded will be the best as you don’t forgot to hit the download button to get your new cheat code.
The Verdict
Overall I think this book is too much 9th edition and has me worried for the upcoming Sisters book. The last book was very complicated too and if this book shows it – GW is not slimming down their new armies’ rules. I just hope we don’t have even more weird interactions with Faith, Prayers, songs, and whatever other nonsense comes out of Nottingham this coming year.
All Hail the Omnissiah – and bring a calculator – you’ll need it.
