The flesh is weak, but the 11th edition preview detachments for the Adeptus Mechanicus are strong!
The tech-priests of Mars have finally demanded a Faction Focus of their own. The Games Workshop studio has compiled a blurt of binary code that you can read here, or view as a video transmission. Three new detachments have been revealed in this, the penultimate Faction Focus article.
Cohort Acquisitus
The Skitarii legions contain numerous advance and recon forces tasked with unearthing lost archaeo-tech and leading the way for their more heavily armed brethren. This detachment further enhances the already potent auspex rigs and augur-tech of your army’s rangers and infiltrators.
This looks to be a broadly powerful buff for your advance forces. All of these far-ranging units are likely to spend their up close and person with enemy units as a matter of course. Now, with this bonus, all of these units have the chance to increase the all-critical detection range of enemy units by +3. Detection range seems to be a key element of how the new edition will play, so being able to dramatically increase the ability of your big, back-field guns to find their targets is going to be huge.
A horse is a horse of course of course unless it’s also a cyborg-dog. And if it is also a cyborg-dog you can use this enhancement to give a whole unit of them Lone Operative 15″. This means they can easily stay out of the range of enemy fire but also offers a glimpse into a game-wide rules change. Lone Operative was previously a standardized range across all armies in the game but now it can vary unit-to-unit. Interesting!
Finally, a new stratagem for this detachment. For one stratagem any of the units with the RECON AUGURY keyword can gain IGNORES COVER when firing at an enemy unit within 12″. This is going to be great for decimating lightly armored counterpart scouts and recon units.
Lords of the Forge
Tech-priests are integral to so many Adeptus Mechanicus army lists and this detachment lets you enhance and augment your army’s leaders to your heart or replacement cyber-organ’s content. This detachment looks particularly enticing if you know your enemy is going to be bringing a lot of vehicles as you might see from the Death Guard and their Contagion Engines.
This is a solid little bonus for Tech-Priests which vastly increases their survivability with an improved Invulnerable Save and Feel No Pain 5+. That’s all well and good, but even better, they gain a situational choice of debuff. Choose between inflicting a battle-shock roll on enemy vehicles or being able to remain hidden while shooting.
This enhancement grants the bearer an all-new additional relic weapon. This thing hits like a freight train and like any respectable archaeo-tech is as dangerous to the wielders as its target. I love that this enhancement also offers a kitbashing opportunity for those who might want to model this mysterious device.
Actions are going to be a big part of the new edition. These will typically be how you gain benefits or mission objectives for your army but at the cost of your attacks. This stratagem lets you neatly sidestep that dilemma allowing the target to start an action but remain eligible to shoot. “Hands off my sacred toaster,” you’ll tell your opponent before atomizing him, probably.
Luminen Auto-choir
The not-so-humble Electro-Priests get their moment to shine in this final previewed detachment. The rules here seem focused on enhancing the survivability of these hard-hitting-but not particularly tough units.
This core detachment rule provides a pair of offensive and defensive buffs for your Corpuscarii units. Their already respectable ranged attacks gain LETHAL HITS and just being in close combat means the unit can heal itself. Cool stuff that goes a long way to making these units more desirable.
Electro-priests are not particularly resilient units and are very vulnerable to overwatch fire. A tech-priest leading the unit can help you overcome this weakness making the whole unit immune to snap shooting attacks and thereby effectively neutralizing enemy Overwatch.
The last thing your opponents want is to let your Electro-Priests make it into close combat. This stratgem punishes the enemy by giving your unit a surge move when targeted. Your opponent had better kill them before they get there and as we’ve seen above, that’s going to be tougher than ever to accomplish.
And with that, only a single Faction Focus remains. Tomorrow, we’ll be back to discuss the reveals for the Necrons as we move ever closer to the release of the new edition of 40k!
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Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
