Adeptus Mechanicus General

How are these guys shaping up in 8th ed? Im looking into start a new army, is the start collecting box worth it?

Its always worth it, it actually has a ridiculous discount on the contents:

71% free extra value.

As for how 8th is treating us? Not to bad, not to great.

Lost Doctrinas.
Canticles are now much weaker.
Arc rifles and Plasma cavilers both took a massive hit in effectiveness but also in price.
Everything is a bit cheaper.
Ironstriders now looks insane with 4 autocannon shots each (also moved to Fast Attack, freeing up Heavy Support slots for Baymaxs and Onegars.)

Shooty Kastelans seem great, but I'm still painting mine so I haven't tried them yet. Rangers are shit, go 100% vanguards

They have been nerfed quite a bit sadly

t. An idiot

Do you know where I could get a sample list for 8th ed out of this box? I was looking at HQ, 2 5 man vanguard units and Dunecrawler with a Neutron laser?

Would that be any good?

They're not really better or worse, just a bit different.
Skitarii took a bit of a nerf to basic guns and durability, but special weapons are now way cheaper. Plasma is entirely reasonably priced and Arc Rifles are kind of an "eh, why not" option at 4pts each.

Arquebi are perhaps the best snipers in the game short of spamming Vindicares for way more points and also work OK on light vehicles, Onagers with Neutron Lasers are pretty much unparalleled tankbusters and will eat anything that isn't backing loads of health with a 3++ or similar for breakfast and a single 110pt Phosphor Kastelan can change protocols into a turret that fires 18 S6 AP-2 shots that Ignore Cover. Dragoons and Ironstriders are a fair bit better and can be used to harass and lock up enemy shooty units - force them to fall back away from your tin men.

We can't just spam Skitarii non-stop anymore because their guns were nerfed and are less tough, plus HQ taxes really start to bite with only 135ish-pt Domini, but our heavier options are insanely good at their jobs and we're about to get a nice big pile of loot in IA14. I'm hopeful.

So what special weapons should i take on vanguard? Also whats a good load out for TP Domini now? Im super pumped for new forge world stuff though

We're strong, but our units have less personality overall.

Also we don't really have any cheap support HQ, which is a bit of a problem for arranging some of the detachments as you have to double or triple up on primary HQs.

Vanguard get plasma calivers or Arc Rifles if you're being a cheapskate, no real reason not to drop 12 points on Arcs now.
Re. Domini, certainly Macrostubber over Phosphor, and pick either one of the primary weapons. Erad Ray is expensive, but is damn strong and Volkite is just a nice little gun, nothing special.

This is my list so far from the start collecting box

Tech Priest Dom 125pts

5 Vanguard (50) + 2 Plasma Caliver (28) 78pts

5 Vanguard (50)+ 2 Plasma Caliver (28) 78pts

Dunecrawler (90) + Neutron laser/Cognis heavy stubber (45) + Cognis heavy stubber (8) 143 pts

Total = 424

What do you think?

So, I'm looking to expand my admech army. I've got about 200$ set aside, and I have secured a 20% storewide discount on all their products and orders. Although, I am curious on what to get next. Here is what I have currently:
2 Onager/w Neutron Laser
2 Dominus, both with macrostubber, 1/w vulkite, 1/w ray
30 Vanguard(3 squads, 1/w plas cavaliers, 1/w Arc Rifles, all have omnispex/data tether.)
5 Infiltrators/w Flechette+Tasers
3 Kataphron Breachers/w Torsion cannon and Hydraulic claw
1 Dragoon/w Taser and Serepentia


Any suggestions on what to add? I am also looking into seeing what other factions I can add into it, like Sisters of Silence or Inquisition, or even Custodes, to help with things like close range attackers/psykers.

How many plas cavaliers are there in each box?

Only one of each special weapon in each box.

It's bullshit.

Yeah, true; But by the time you've formed a few core units and made up some Peltasts, you'll have spares.

Hell when Cyraxus comes out maybe even Hoplites will be decent now. Who knows?

Rangers are only really good for 3 babysitting Transuranic Arquebi, sadly.

With a single box of rangers whats a good setup for two 5 man squads?

Of vanguards that is

There isn't really a good one box setup.

With two boxes and a Peltast upgrade set you could make 10 Peltasts and two 5 man squads with two special weapons each.

Dominus needs to pay 10pts for Volkite and Macrostubber, and the Crawler needs to buy the stubber that comes with the laser separate from the laser, so that's actually a 442 list.
I would recommend getting an Omnispex for the Vanguard squads, too, they're handy.

Only one of each special weapon, though, so you'll need to hit up eBay before you have that many plascals.

Cheers for that man, wasn't sure as I haven't been playing for a while. i thought the Volkite/Macrostubber were standard war gear now though?

They are, but you still have to pay for it. Anything listed in the wargear tab.

Some basic equipment like Electropriest and Skitarii weapons are free, but always check because some aren't. usually the ones you can swap.

You have to buy all the wargear in 8th, even the standard items

Oh I didn't know that, certainly an interesting change, might make list building on the fly a bit harder though.

I'm pretty unhappy about how dragoons look now. They're more surviveable but 15pts more expensive and they get less attacks. Ill bring them next week and see what happens but im not optimistic.

Man, I hate only getting one of each special weapon in a box. I picked up a box of Skitarii to make a kill team for SWA and ended up having to drop an extra $25 including shipping to get two more calivers and their associated backpacks+diode baubles. I need to pick up the stuff to whip up sets of molds next time I buy a new box so I can just make special weapons as I need them. Nobody at my local store plays AdMech other than me and every bitz site is either perpetually out of Skitarii stuff or they charge out the ass for it, and as much as I love the army, I just can't justify nearly $80 in Ameri-dosh for one squad of basic troops.

Don't do this. Peltasts don't have rules for 8th until IA14.

>using points when GW will retcon them at will
>not just using Power Levels since they can't be changed

I haven't read the 8th leaks or seen any of the community posts. How does this new power level system work out, anyway? Would you mind explaining?

>71% free extra value
Might be because some of the included products have really inflated costs.

Buy a second box, and build a unit of 10x Vanguard with 2x PlasCal 1x Ion and a unit of 10x Rangers with 2x Transuranic 1x Ion.

Do do this, Peltasts have so many types of ammo they'll have a good one no matter how their rules are handled.

Power Level is kinda bullshit given how vague it is sometimes. No reason not to have max wargear on everything, really easy to abuse.
Also, what makes you think they won't be changed? They're about Points/20, so I'd expect them to be adjusted along with points.

There's no magic bubble of awesome about a really blurry and indistinct points system, and it's not like listbuilding is exactly hard with either.

>How do power levels work

Each unit is given an arbitrary number that either represents how strong they are without upgrades, or how strong they are with upgrades maxed. There is no consistency in this from the factions I've looked through so far, and it seems really easy to power game.

Basically, every unit comes with a 1-2 digit number in the corner that designates the Power Level for the minimum-sized unit, and there's a list of options to increase its size by increasing its Power Level. You're then free to pick whatever upgrades you want from the legal options to give to the unit.

You then add up the Power Levels of all the units in your army to determine your overall Power Level for the game, just like you add up Points Costs for all your units to determine your overall Points Cost for the game.

But, because Power Levels are written on the actual unit rules, GW can't retcon them at will like they can the Points Costs.

The AdMech Start Collecting box is on the higher end, worth 21 points.

Wow. That sounds fucking dumb.

The devil is in the details, I guess. That makes it sound like AoS's point system, which isn't so bad. AoS has its perks. As much extra shit as you can take for free would benefit several armies way more than the rest unless 8th is more balanced across the board than 7th was.

I think the purpose it to make it easy to whip a list together for casual games at an LGS or something. Seems cool but points seems more fair and is probably gonna still be used far more.

We use PL for the test games because it's faster and battlescribe isn't there still, we justy try not to powergame the wargear options and give the units the standard gear

do people actually use the power levels. Everyone at my meta completely ignores them as they seem meaningless.

People told me the same about oblits and I bought 6 just before GW decided to nerf them and take away Legion Rules from me.

I doubt they're gonna be used much desu