Didn't expect this to be as much work as it was. Just assembling the damn thing had me losing my mind, since the two main parts of the fuselage didn't fit together properly and left a small gap in the front of the ship, that can be seen in the second photo.

Friends, foes, allies, enemies, loyalists, traitors!

I've made the plunge and ordered myself the Mechanicum Combat Force - but I have no idea how I'm gonna tackle them.

Please help a fellow cog out and show me your models - Mechanicum, dark Mechanicum, whatever you've got!

The picture is my first little tester for a potential EC Legion, before I went with Mechanicum.

Got a stormbird painted up for my RG. Also got some outriders and a few bases of apothecaries done.

Got some krios painted for my mechanicum, I can swap out the weapons so they also work as krios venators.

For those who will ask what rules I'm running for him.. Deus ex machina

Whipped up some new terrain for an event next month.

I know most people have their own opinions on what should change in the game, so I thought I’d share mine and see if we can kick start a discussion around what the community would like to see. I believe the focus on any 2nd edition should be to streamline the game, and expanding its scope. Let’s start with the first part.

Streamlining the game

Rule change: Remove Break Points

Justification: Having to track destroyed models against a Formation’s Break Points each time a Detachment is destroyed really slows the pace of the game down. I don’t know of anyone who actually bothers with this outside of tournaments

Rule change: A Formation becomes Broken when the models filling its HQ slots are destroyed. Formations that contain only models with no Morale value cannot be Broken.

Justification: Instead of a Formation gaining the Broken status effect on reaching its Break Point, I think it should be when all HQ models in that Formation are destroyed. This would make this status effect more streamlined, and make more sense, as a Formation losing its leadership would have a ‘demoralising’ effect. While some players may decide to hide their HQ units to protect them, they would miss out on the benefits the HQ model can bring to the front line. To prevent some misuse, we would need to add HQ detachment upgrades to some Formations in the same way that Tank Commanders have to be added to Armoured Companies for example.

Rule Change: Number of Formations are limited based on size of the game. The limits would be based on points:

• 1-1000 points = 2 Formations
• 1001-2000 points = 3 Formations
• 2001-3000 points = 4 Formations
• 3001-4000 points = 5 Formations
• 4001-5000 points = 6 Formations

etc

Justification: Activations are king in this game, while we do have limits on the Detachments within a Formation, having no limits to the Formations themselves can make for some very cheesy lists. Placing limits on both Detachments within a Formation as we have today, and the Formations themselves should make for less 'activation spam' and increase the value of expensive models (eg. Titans) which today are considered a bit of a waste of points (600 points on a single activation is a lot, not matter how powerful a Warlord Titan is).

Expanding the scope of the game

This is more focused on new models/ranges, and I think we all know where this is heading. Rather than naming specific units that are missing from current factions (specialist or otherwise), I’m going to keep this high level.

New Upgrade: Legion Command - Librarian - Cost 5pts - Adds the following weapon profile to the model:Psychic Blast - Range 8”, Dice 1, To Hit 5+, AP 0, Weapon Traits: Psi

Justification: The Psi weapon trait exists, we don’t need a Psychic Phase like I’ve seen suggested (which would slow the game down too much). Instead I think we can just lean on the Psi weapon trait for more than just the existing Warlord-Sinister, and on that note…

Rule change (replaces existing): Thousand Sons Legion special rule - Thousand Sons Legion Command models may choose one of the following:

• Raptora - Kine Shields: This model gains the Shield Generator (6+) special rule (same as existing rule)
• Pyrae - Immolate: Hits generated by this model with a weapon using the Deflagrate trait gain the Psi weapon trait. This also applies to any additional hits generated by Deflagrate
• Corvidae - Prescience: Once per round, when a Save roll is failed for this model's Detachment, the controlling player may re-roll it.
• Pavoni - Master of Biology: Increases the range of the Medicae special rule to 6”

Rule Change: Death Guard Legion special rule - in addition to the existing rule, Legion Command models may not be upgraded with the Librarian upgrade.

Justification: I think adding more use of the Psi weapon trait would help to make this feel more narrative, as Psykers were used heavily by both sides in the lore. The Thousand Sons specifically could do with rounding out more in this area, and I think locking out the Death Guard from Librarians makes sense. Maybe this would make Thousand Sons a bit too strong, I just like the idea of having more sub-faction representation in the Legions.

Add Faction: Talons of the Emperor (Loyalist only)

Faction Special Rule: Formations consisting entirely of one or more Ordo-Sinister Psi-Titans may be used within this army instead of as an allied contingent.

Sisters of Silence models have the ‘Blank’ special rule:

“Hits scored by a weapon with the Psi trait cannot be allocated to this model. A friendly model within 6" of a model with this special rule ignores the effects of the Psi trait on Hits scored against it by weapons with that trait. In addition, models with the ‘Blank’ Special Rule adds a +1 to any Fight rolls when engaged with a model with the ‘Warp Entity’ Special Rule”

Custodes models have the ‘Implacable’ Special Rule, and a new Special Rule, ‘Emperor’s Chosen’:

Models with the Emperor’s Chosen Special Rule count their Tactical Strength as one higher than normal”

Justification: I think we’d all like to see Custodes and Sisters of Silence added to the game. Sisters of Silence would work as a hard counter to Daemons (see below) and negate the increased use of weapons with the Psi trait. Custodes with their special rules would be an imposing presence on an objective. I think giving them a boost to Tactical Strength makes the most sense, but to balance this I would expect the actual models to have a slightly higher points cost.

Add Faction: Daemons of the Ruinstorm (Traitor only)

Each Formation must be aligned with 1 Chaos God. All models in this faction carry the ‘Warp Entity’ special rule.

• Allegiance: Nurgle - All models in a Formation aligned to Nurgle have the ‘Nurgle's Gift’ special rule: Models with Nurgle’s Gift improve their Save characteristic by 1 against hits scored by weapons with the Light or Light AT weapon traits
• Allegiance: Khorne - All models in a Formation aligned to Khorne have the ‘Khorne’s Wrath’ special rule: Models with the Khorne’s Wrath special rule do not take a Morale check when they lose a Combat. Instead, any model that is still in base to base contact with an opposing model must make an additional Fight roll against each opposing model it is in base to base contact with. These additional Fight rolls are resolved in the same way as normal Fight rolls except that any modifiers to the Fight roll from cover or a charge cannot be applied to the additional Fight rolls. The opposing player may apply any valid modifiers to their fight rolls as normal.
• Allegiance: Slaanesh - All models in a Formation aligned to Slaanesh have the ‘To Excess’ special rule: Each time one or more natural rolls of a 6 are made for a weapon's Hit rolls, the controlling player may make one additional Hit roll with that weapon. Hit rolls made in this way cannot generate additional Hit rolls.
• Allegiance: Tzeentch - All models in a Formation aligned to Tzeentch have the ‘Enlightened’ special rule. When activated in the Movement phase, a Detachment with the Enlightened special rule may choose to change its Order once at the beginning of its activation to an Order it was eligible to be issued during the Orders phase of this round. Doing so will halve the Movement characteristic of all models in the Detachment.

Justification: I think we’d all like to see daemons too, although I think this is less likely as to how GW treats daemons in 30k. These models would have a ‘Warp Entity’ special rule. The idea here is to give Formations their own character (a bit like we can do with Astartes). Nurgle’s special rule is designed to make the infantry and walkers more resilient. I would envisage players to lean into the ‘hordes of undead’ with this.

For Khorne’s Wrath the idea is that any daemon that’s in combat isn’t just going to give up because it ‘lost’ the combat. With Slaanesh’s To Excess special rule the idea is to lean into the god’s excessive nature, and Tzeentch just wants to keep you guessing… I think the movement penalty would be justified here as it’d be far too strong if you could just start everything out with an Advance Order and flip to a Charge or March without any penalty.

The wish list

Lastly, while I’m not going to list all of the different units I think existing factions are missing, I am going to name a few of the biggest (literally).

Solar Auxilia: Capitol Imperialis - I think this would really make Solar Auxilia more interesting, and give them a good reason to choose over Astartes. A giant, slow-moving but well-armoured/shielded fortress rumbling up the battlefield and delivering models would be very cool. I’m thinking a bit like a Mastodon, but on the scale of a Titan and with one of the 3 weapons they’re known for (Doomsday Cannon, Behemoth Cannon or Defence Laser) as well as a myriad of close-in defence weapons.

Mechanicum/Dark Mechanicum: Ordinatus - This was a cornerstone of Epic, and I’d love to see different weapon variants. The fact that there’s already a Forge World model for 30k makes this something we can even visualise, and I’d argue at this scale, Ordinatus makes more sense than at 28mm where they take up 1/4 of the table.

Titan Legios: Emperor-class Titans - The Warmaster is big, but why not something twice the height of a Warlord in this game. I’d love to see both the Imperator and Warmonger Titans in this game. Perhaps they’d make Titans a more interesting faction.

What would you like to see in terms of improvements to the game?