Warhammer 30K: Liber Mechanicum – The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Today we’ll turn a critical eye toward the Liber Mechanicum offerings and explore the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of our favorite toaster loving tech-magi.
Liber Mechanicum is upon us and there hasn’t been this much excitement for the vaunted Tech Priests of Mars since Fires of Cyraxis (too soon?). This is the first major update to the Mechanicum line since Alan Bligh’s death in 2017; with few updates other than small additions in the 30k Black Books, single unit PDFs and eventually a culmination of existing rules in the Tagmata red book, there is plenty of content in Liber Mechanicum to make it a must buy for any would be disciple of the Omnissiah.
Liber Mechanicum covers point’s costs, army rules and force orgs for Mechanicum, Titans and Imperial Knight units for the Horus Heresy 30k 2.0 rules system. It is important to note that this index depicts the Mechanicum and Mechanicum adjacent units as they were at the start of the Horus Heresy which begs the question, will there be a Liber Dark Mechanicum follow up?
The Good
1. Mechanicum Army Flexibility
One of the best parts of the Mechanicum army is the flexibility you have in building lists. Army strategy revolves heavy around your build-a-magos HQ and what Orders of High Techno-arcana (OoHTA) you opt into. Some of the more interesting Orders Include: Myrmidax, Cybernetica and Reductor, honorable mention to a more situational Macrotech. You can take nearly any type of army to the field with Mechanicum and have a great time. Want to play tanks, done; how about robots, have at it; infantry horde, no problem; how about elite heavy infantry, got you covered. There is a build for every desired playstyle.
2. Thanatar, Secutor Destructor, Krios Venator and Karacnos Assault Tank OH MY
These might be some of the strongest offerings from the Mechanicum units, the downside of course is that they are all in the Heavy Slot, though this can be modified depending on what OoHTA you go with.
3. Thallax and Triaros Conveyor
Thallax are one of the best units in the book and the fact that when played as Cybernetica they pickup Line /chef’s kiss. They can also be tricked out with a variety of weapons making them extra potent and versatile. The Triaros Conveyor while pricey for a transport comes with a huge transport capacity of 22, volkite calivers, twin-linked mauler bolt cannon and flareshield for 135pts. It will definitely get your toasters where they need to go.
4. Knights and Titans
They are still great, thematic and command all the respect in large games as you would expect them too. Imperial Knights mix things up by adding the option to have different pilots commanding your knights, these offer different abilities and stat bonuses to already formidable Knight chassis’. Additionally official Imperial Knight army list rules offers existing 40k players a way to bring over their IK armies into Horus Heresy.
The Bad
1. Armiger Tax
The Questoris Knight force org takes existing functional armies from HH 1.0 and places a tax on running Questoris Knights by forcing commanders to bring 2 armigers for each large knight. The caveat is that these Armiger knights cannot be Moirax knights even though they have the Armiger keyword. Simply put, in real life dollars, it’s more expensive to run a knight army and there is a possibility your already existing army will require more purchases to make a legal list. Keep an eye on the secondary market if you’re coming up short on Armigers.
2. Still Resin
The overall Mechanicum army is still a Forge World produced line meaning that nearly every miniature is going to be expensive, scarce and resin. GW has shown a willingness to convert Forge World designs to plastic and I have no doubt that some of the Mechanicum units will find their way to plastic…when? I have no idea. Given the amount of Legions that can ally in a Mechanicum force I believe we’ll see, Thallax, Castellax, and possibly Thanatar eventually. It would have been nice had GW/FW released a plastic mechanicum unit alongside the Index release as an acknowledgement that other armies beyond Astartes Legions should expect releases and are getting attention.
3. Brutal Weapons
There isn’t a single weapon included in this book that has Brutal included as a keyword. It’s going to take a lot to take down things such as Primarchs, Terminators or Dreadnaughts.
The Ugly
1. A Severe Lack of AP2/3 Shooting
The previous edition of the Mechanicum codex was chopped full of potent shooting options with very few bad options. Those days are well behind us as the overall lethality of the book has gone down significantly. From my perspective legion units such as Terminators, Contemptor dreadnaughts, and aggressive in your face primarchs still pose a challenge for any Tech Priest; there are few removal strategies for these common units. Your best bet is loading up on Rad weapons to lower the toughness of those units before engaging with other range weapons that might be able to double them out or improve your wound rolls. Another option might be taking Artificia Cybernetica from Cyberthurgy. This grants your magos a S10 AP1 gun that will Instant Death Automata and Dreadnoughts. I believe this is a must take with the amount of Dreads floating around from the Age of Darkness boxes and recent release of Leviathan’s.
2. Few Worthwhile Close Combat Options
Mechanicum forces are not well known for their prowess in CC and prefer a ranged approach combined with incredibly tough units that are hard to shift. The main problem with the Mechanicum close combat offerings are that they are low Weapon Skill and low Initiative for the most part. Meaning they get hit easily, they hit back infrequently and there is a real possibility they are dead before they get to strike. In a universe where World Eaters and Space Wolves, can rush across the board in 2 turns, it leaves our toaster enthusiasts with few options to deal with such aggressive armies that may not even bother to shoot you and trigger Return Fire or Scornful Fire. Notable exceptions include Anacharis Scoria, Myrmidon Secutors, Domitar Battle Automata
3. No Reactions for Automata
I think this is one of the big misses of the book. Reactions are the new hotness in HH 2.0 and they add distinct flavor to armies. The other main purpose is to let players engage with their opponents outside of their own turns. That being said, one of the main drawbacks to playing with automata units is that they do not come standard with the ability to do reactions. That being said, Anacharis Scoria grants reactions to automata units, this however makes him a near auto include in Cybernetica army lists.
The Verdict
All said and done I think that this book will be an automatic purchase for anyone with Mechanicum, Knights or Titans who is looking to play them in 30k. While Mechanicum has certainly lost a step from the previous edition, I don’t think this supplement makes them unplayable, but it certainly isn’t going to encourage people to run out and drop a mortgage payment on a new FW resin army. The bottom line is that the armies in this book play as they should narratively and thematically. Plenty of 40k refugees will pick up this book to get into 30k as well.
~All Hail the Omnissiah!
