40K: Ad Mech Forge World Focus: Mars
Games Workshop shows off some of new info on the upcoming Codex: Adeptus Mechanicus starting with Forge World: Mars!
Stoic, silent, and deathly efficient, the cogitators of Mars have been hard at work in the reds sands. Soon, the Adeptus Mechanics will get a brand new Codex and with lots of new rules. Today, Games Workshop is teasing some of those new rules. Let’s take a look at one of the seven Forge Worlds that will be featured in the book: Mars.
via Warhammer Community
Adeptus Mechanicus armies benefit from a powerful forge world dogma – equivalent to Legion Traits or Chapter Tactics – which apply to every unit in an Adeptus Mechanicus army, not just your infantry! Mars’ forge world dogma is Glory to the Omnissiah, a trait that’ll make your army very powerful, if unpredictable.
In the current Index, Canticles is a chart of 6 “buffs” that can apply to any unit with the special rule. They include things like +1 strength or re-rolling 1s – things along those lines. Will the chart remain the same? If so getting two of those buffs randomly sees like it could be useful to me!
The Glory to the Omnissiah allows you to roll two dice and get the benefits of BOTH results. If you roll doubles, then unfortunately you just don’t get the benefit. That’s pretty neat and really gives you a reason to bring this guy:
Belisarius Cawl is perhaps the most venerated Tech-Priest in the whole Imperium, and he makes for a superb leader to any Mars army, his Archmagos ability helping to ensure that you roll the Canticles of the Omnissiah that you need as well as ensuring you never end up with a duplicated result.
It doesn’t sound like Cawl’s Archmagos ability has changed much. Previously it allowed you to add or subtract 1 from your Canticles roll. That seems to combo extremely well with Glory of the Omnissiah.
Warlord Trait: Static Psalm-code
Cawl also has a specific Warlord Trait (we’re going to bet that there are 6 total) called Static Psalm-code that increase any aura abilities by 3″ for your Warlord. That sounds pretty good in general. If the Ad Mech get abilities like we’ve seen you can count on some type of re-rolls to hit/wound. Heck, it could be something different like the Death Guard where it’s a unit that causes a debuff to your opponent’s units. Whatever it is, an extra 3″ could be pretty useful! Using Cawl’s abilities from the Index as a baseline, Lord of Mars would allow him to give units within 9″ a re-roll to hit in the shooting phase. With the right unit that could be devastating…
Corpuscarii Electro-Priests can throw out a terrifying amount of firepower; a unit of 20 with re-rolls to hit from Belisarius Cawl being nearby will inflict, on average, a colossal 80 strength 5 hits on any given enemy unit; combine this with the Wrath of Mars stratagem and you’ll deal an additional 13(!) mortal wounds as well as any other damage!
Well – that answers that! That’s a pretty brutal example of how you can use Cawl with the right unit to really amp up the damage. And if you REALLY want to take that damage up one more notch check out this Stratagem: Wrath of Mars.
Using the example above – if you get 80 hits on a unit and you roll statistically average, you’re going to generate 13 mortal wounds. That’s before you get any other bonuses/re-rolls factored in. I don’t care who you are – that’s going to sting!
This is just the first Forge World of the Ad Mech to get the spotlight – what do you think so far? Are you excited about the Robot-men from Mars?
