Litanies of the Faithful

There comes a time in life where you realize you have made a wrong decision, for me it happens multiple times during a game of Warhammer.

There also comes a time when you realize you’re making the wrong decision on purpose.

I welcome you to join me on a journey experiencing, playing, theory crafting, and losing with the Adeptus Mechanicus detachment: Data-Psalm Conclave.

But what is Data-Psalm Conclave?

Data-Psalm Conclave is a detachment in the Adeptus Mechanicus codex that benefits all things cult-mechanicus, those units being:

• Belisarius Cawl
• Tech-priest Dominus
• Tech-priest Enginseer
• Tech-priest Manipulus
• Technoarcheologist
• Corpuscarii Electro-priests
• Fulgurite Electro-priests
• Kataphron Breachers
• Kataphon Destroyers

Thanks to the latest Dataslate, all of these units now benefit from the army rule too! Amazing!

Now the detachment rule:

At the start of the first battle round, select one of the following Benedictions of the Omnissiah to be active for Cult Mechanicus (listed above) units from your army until the end of the battle:

Panegyric Procession:

Each time a Cult Mechanicus model from your army makes a ranged attack that targets a unit within half range, improve the armour penetration characteristic of that attack by 1.

Citation in Savagery:

Each time a Cult Mechanicus unit from your army is selected to fight, if that unit made a charge move this turn, until the end of the phase, add 1 to the strength and attacks characteristics of melee weapons equipped by models in that unit.

Enhancements:

Mechanicus Locum – 10 points

Tech-priest model only. Gives the bearer a leadership of 6+ and, once per battle, at the start of any phase you can select one friendly Cult Mechanicus unit within 12″ the bearer, that unit is no longer Battle-shocked. (A)

Mantle of the Gnosticarch – 15 points

Tech-priest model only. Each time an attack is allocated to the bearer, change the damage characteristic of that attack to 1. (B-)

Data-blessed Autosermon – 20 points

Tech-priest model only. Once per battle, at the start of your command phase, you can select the Benediction of the Omnissiah you did not select at the start of the first battle round. Until the start of your next Command phase, that Benediction of the Omnissiah is active for the bearer’s unit in addition to the one that is currently active for your army. (B-)

Temporcopia – 25 points

Tech-priest model only. The bearer’s unit has the Fights First ability. (A+)

Strategems:

Incantation of the Iron soul – 1cp

4+ FNP against mortals in any phase, just after you allocate a mortal wound to a Cult Mechanicus model from your army. (C+)

Chant of the remorseless fist – 1cp

+1 to wound for a cult mechanicus unit during your fight phase. (A+)

Verse of vengeance – 1cp

Fight on death on a 4+ for a cult mechanicus unit in the fight phase. (C)

Tribute of emphatic veneration – 1cp

In your movement phase, select one enemy unit within 18″ of a cult mechanicus unit, the enemy unit must take a battle-shock test. If failed, until the start of your next command phase that enemy unit has -1 to hit. (F)

Litany of the electromancer – 1cp

In your shooting phase, select one cult mechanicus unit from your army. Roll one D6 for each enemy unit within 6″ of one or more cult mechanicus models in your unit, adding 1 to the result if that model is an electro-priest. On a 5+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. (D)

Luminescent Blessing – 1cp

4+ Invuln for a cult mechanicus unit in your opponent’s shooting phase. (B+)

But why?

I picked up Ad Mech close to the start of 10th edition after selling my Votann. As they had a very early codex I didn’t get any games in until after I had the codex in my hands, and it sucked. BIG TIME. I put my models away and went back to playing Sisters which had an incredible index and an even better codex.

However! After a year of Ad Mech being boring, not unplayable or bad, just boring, GW announced changes and I had to get on the bandwagon beforehand so people couldn’t call me a meta chaser, obviously.

Ad Mech has 5 detachments, all of which are playable, thematic, and cater to many different strategies and lists. But only one encourages you to bring as many electro-priests as possible and that is the Data-Psalm Conclave (DPC).

Where I’m at right now.

Right now, I’m building lists which focus more on Citation in Savagery, as I believe it is the better of the two game long buffs that DPC has to offer, also melee fun, 10 fulgurites with 30 attacks go hard.

This really encourages bringing electro-priests as they have a LOT of attacks on the charge and buffs the already gas profile of breachers by making their melee deadly alongside their shooting.

However, as with all skew buff detachments (penitent, crusher stampede, green tide etc.) you still need to have ‘the rest of your army’ to score points, control the battlefield and support your hammer units. This is where I’m still figuring things out right now.

At the moment I’m considering removing all the Breachers from my list (I’m only running 6 currently) to replace it with more robust anti-tank and point scoring units.

My initial ideas are two Skorpius Disintegrators and a Tech-priest Engineer. I think Disintegrators synergise well with the DPC as I want to be in the conqueror doctrina more often than not for the extra -1 AP, assault and +1 WS. Disintegrators get native +1 to hit with their Ferrumite anti-tank weapons against vehicles AND monsters, which is huge as Breachers are only anti-vehicle. They also have a 48″ effective range as opposed to Breachers 15″ (they’re alright at 30″ but nowhere near as good). Additionally, if I’m not fighting that battle round, I actually have the option of going back into the protector doctrina. This normally wouldn’t be ideal as Breachers really need assault to get anywhere and shoot with a 5″ move, but taking them out of the list lets me go to protector if I’m only shooting the Skorpius for the turn. After I realized this, it opened a lot of other options for shooting platforms. Potentially adding Dunecrawlers or Ironstriders is a viable option, but they obviously become a lot worse while in the conquerer doctrina, hitting on 4+ or 5+ if the enemy smokes, while the Disintegrator main weapon would still hit on 3+ thanks to it’s ability.

Having the Enginseer allows me to heal a Disintegrator D3 in the command phase, freeing him up to do actions later in the turn. Which is incredibly useful as he has lone operative, letting me sabotage and keep him safe for example. It also gives the tank a 5+ FNP which makes it very strong as Strength 10, 2+ save, with 12 wounds especially if you pop smoke.

Unfortunately, I don’t own these models yet, and Ad Mech is quite expensive. I’m hoping to have them ready for a tournament in September, but it will be a stretch. I’m taking DPC to an RTT next Weekend, with my current list which isn’t great and takes Canis as an ally as I don’t have enough Ad Mech painted up yet (lol). I’ll report back with how I go and my ongoing thoughts on the detachment.

RTT List: (subject to change)

Belisarius Cawl

Cybernetica Datasmith

Syndonian Skatros

Tech-priest Dominus

Tech-priest Manipulus

10x Skitarii Rangers

2x Skorpius Dunerider

10x Corpuscarii Electro-priests

10x Fulgurite Electro-priests

2x Kastelan Robots

6x Kataphron Breachers

Callidus Assassin

Canis Rex