As usual, before I begin, I'll probably touch a bit on the lore. There's...no change, so far as I can tell. It's mostly copy-pasted from the 2nd edition Liber Mechanicum and the 1st edition's old black books. There are a few subtle differences, though, in terms of names...and numbers! Hah!
Do you remember in my Retrospective article about the Legio Cybernetica where I attempt to estimate the numbers based off various Apocrypha lore? So each maniple consists of 3-5 robots, and each cohort is composed of 100 or less maniples. On the upper end, you have like 500 robots per cohort, and with thousands of them, that means at least 1-2 million robots on the lower end.
As it turns out, I have grossly underestimated the number of automata.
In the new Liber Mechanicum, we have actual, hard numbers. The Legio Cybernetica is broken down into myriad self-contained and independent units known as Cohorts, and...guess what? Each cohort is formed of roughly 25,000 battle-automata and a cadre of a few hundred tech-priests and magi bound to the Cohort and commanded by a single Archmagos. Each Cohort also commands their own support networks, mobile workshops, transports, battlefield vehicles, orbital landers and even star vessels. Considering there were several thousand Cohorts active during the outbreak of the Horus Heresy, that means we have at least 50 million battle-automata running around the galaxy.
Holy Omnissiah...a minimum of 50 million battle-automata, and maybe over 100 million battle-automata. If there are like 10,000 Cohorts, wouldn't that mean like 250 million battle-automata? Nah, surely we don't have that many, right? Maybe 125 million would be a good estimate. Still an immense number of robots in the Imperium.
Wow. Omnissiah on Mars. My mind has been blown. The sheer scale of all this...
Anyway, another thing. We no longer have Legiones Skitarii or the Skitarii Legions. There's been a subtle change in their nomenclature, and now they're known as Skitarii Covenants, or the Skitarii Conclaves instead. Known as the Mechanicum Protectors, they are not members of the priesthood and instead follow their own unique martial traditions and sub-cult of the Omnissiah. The Skitarii Covenants follow their own secretive oaths rather than the authority of any Forge World and bowed only to the Fabricator General. Presumably of Mars, not just any random Forge World Fabricator General.
The Titan Legions or Legio Titanicus have also been changed to Titan Orders. Not Legions. Orders. I think they're trying to distinguish between the Legiones Astartes or Space Marine Legions from the other forces, and using Legions for everything like Legiones Skitarii and Legio Titanicus will make everything confusing (really? I don't think so). They want to individualize each force, so now the Skitarii Legions are Skitarii Covenants and Titan Legions are Titan Orders.
Right. Okay...bro. Whatever you say. Honestly, it's not a major retcon. It doesn't really change anything. However, I'm looking forward to whatever they're cooking for the Skitarii. We had their reveal a couple of months ago about plastic Skitarii models for Mechanicum, and the renaming of Skitarii Legions to Skitarii Covenants might be significant there. Who knows? I certainly don't. We'll have to ask the Foil. Someone hop onto Valrak's stream and poke him about this. I wonder if his whispers in the warp mentioned anything about Skitarii in the Horus Heresy.
Anyway, back to list-building. Like the Knight army I have yesterday, I think I actually have more than enough to put together a 3,000-points list without allies. No Solar Auxilia teaming up with my automata because there's no room for them, not if I want to bring my Mechanicum Knights along. Oh, the horror!
I start with my Archmagos Prime, which is the new plastic model from last year, with his Thanatar buddies. He's equipped with a cortex controller, cyber-familiar, machinator array, corposant stave, volkite serpenta, Overcharged Reaction and conversion beamer for 220 points. He's backed up by a Magos who also has a cortex controller, cyber-familiar and Overcharged Reaction, but this Cybernetica Magos has a power sword, Archaeotech pistol and servo-arm instead, for 175 points. They're supported further by 2 Tech-priests with cortex controller, cyber-familiar, power axes, servo-arms and Overcharged Reaction, for 90 points each.
My Castellax Destructor Maniples are 190 points for the multimelta and power blades ones, and 180 points for the duo with Darkfire cannons. That's the Heavy Assault slot. The Archmagos with the Cybernetica Techno-arcana will unlock the Apex Command maniple for me, which will let me field a 150-point Castellax Battle Maniple, a single Domitar battle-automata for 100 points, and the 245-point Thanatar-Calix siege-automata. The Logistical Benefit will unlock the Thanatar-Cavas siege-automata, which is 225 points. The automata are backed up by an Armor detachment of 2 Krios Venators that cost 350 points in total. Our Lord of War is a Cerastus Knight Atrapos at 600 points. I'll give him Medicant Affiliation, so that I can unlock 4 Armiger slots, which I'll fill with an Armiger Moirax with dual conversion beam cannons for 205 points and a second Armiger Moirax with 2 lightning locks for 175 points. That brings me up to 2,995 points.
I have like 4 Characters for the 3 Castellax maniples and 1 Thanatar, while the Domitar and remaining Thanatar will have Paragon of Metal. No idea what to do with the logistical benefit, only thing I can do now is improve the intelligence of the Tech-priests or something.
Well, that's that. The only thing I can do now is wait for plastic Domitar automata.
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