Litanies of the Faithful

I’ve been fielding the Adeptus Mechanicus in 10th edition for quite a few months now. So, I thought it would be a good idea to do what any narcissistic, self-important, arrogant person would do and write the definitive tier list for each AdMech unit, putting them on a scale from 1-28 (the current number of datasheets in the AdMech codex, I did combine a few of them for redundancy reasons).

No, I’m not using that stupid table tier list with rows from S, A, B, C etc. I KNOW exactly where each AdMech unit should rank because I am a COMPETITIVE player, and I know better than you. Sorry but if you disagree with me, you are wrong.

Anyway, let’s get started.

NB. There is a list of rankings at the bottom of this article, feel free to peruse them and be amazed, confused, and enraged before you dive into my justifications.

28. Archaeopter Fusilave

Every time I go into the WH 40k app, make an Admech list, and type ‘useless sack of shit’ into the search bar, this unit comes up.

EVERY DAMN TIME.

It’s genuinely worthless.

27. Sydonian Dragoons With Radium Jezzails

Now, I’m normally not one to shit on a datasheet but this is a shit datasheet.

Its only function is to do actions, but it’s a vehicle so this can be difficult with movement, there is pretty much no reason to take this unit unfortunately.

26. Kataphron Destroyers

It’s like they took everything that makes Kataphron Breachers mid-tier units and removed it from the datasheet.

Kataphron Breachers get full re-rolls to HIT while within 6″ of battleline, destroyers get 5+ to hit on overwatch. I’m pretty sure full-rerolls to hit on 6’s works out mathematically better than a 5+ to hit with no re-rolls (averaged out it’s pretty much exactly the same meaning their ability is big poo).

Their weapons are also worse than Breachers and at 5″ they’re slow as hell, and they don’t get power fists.

25. Serberys Sulphurhounds

Sulphurhounds are actually pretty gas but they’re expensive and I don’t own any so, they’re actually shit.

On paper, they look, confusing.

It’s a fast mounted unit with bad anti-infantry shooting and bad anti-chaff melee that has a poor defensive profile and does mortal wounds on the charge (on a 4+ for each model in engagement range), with a maximum unit size of 6.

So, on average you do 2-3 mortal wounds on the charge, kill nothing in melee and lose your entire unit in return. Sounds like something an AdMech player would do.

If they didn’t exist in the AdMech codex no one would be saying ‘oh man, we could really use a unit like this’.

I really want 18 of them.

24. Archaeopter Stratoraptor

It’s a 185 point model with two storm bolters, two heavy bolters and a single lascannon shot.

It’s T9, 10 wounds, 3+ save, no invuln, 0 OC.

While there are worse units you could bring, this one is pretty bad.

The planes are very cool models though, and still represent some sort of threat to your opponent. Unless you rapid ingress it, it’s not moving until turn 3, and they’re fairly straightforward to play around.

Will fliers ever be good in Warhammer again? Probably not.

23. Sydonian Skatros

I desperately want this model to be good, stilt man is very cool and always perplexes your opponent when you put him on the table.

“So, what does that model do?”, “oh, literally nothing”

I took the Skatros to an 8 game GT, just with the enhancement to increase my Rad-Zone bombardment aura, and he missed almost every time I shot the unit.

He did manage to hit a unit of crisis suits and battle-shock them causing my opponent to fail sabotage which was excellent, and he took the last 2 wounds off Saint Celestine.

It’s not all bad news, but the news is still pretty bad. Would I run 3 of these models? Absolutely.

22. Archaeopter Transvector

Read Archaeopter Stratoraptor but replace the lascannon and heavy bolters with more storm bolter and transport capacity.

While it is an epic meme to rapid ingress your plane and drop 10 Skitarii on your opponent’s home point in your turn 2 (if you go second) or turn 3 if you’re going first, without capture enemy outpost it’s a bit stupid.

21. Pteraxii Sterylizors

Now I’ve played a lot of Sisters, and when I saw AdMech also had a flying flamer unit, I was pumped. Then I read the datasheet.

No scoot and shoot? Lame

Re-roll wounds and potential -1 AP flamers in Conqueror imperative though, spicy.

I think Pteraxii are an excellent unit, the only reason they aren’t higher on this list is because I don’t play SHC. I don’t think AdMech has a chaff clearing problem, and I would much rather scoot and shoot on my unit than flamers.

Although, the reason Seraphim were so good in Sisters is because they could entirely clear chaff off an objective with their flamers, then scoot onto it. I’m not sure that the Skystalkers have the output to do that.

I haven’t used these units much, maybe after I start playing with them my opinion will change. A unit of two of them in Rad Zone could be really good, guaranteed 18″ movement with re-rolls to wound against a target on an objective, with guaranteed re-rolls if a battleline unit is also within 6. I have to print me some of these bad boys.

20. Fulgurite Electro-priests

I want these to be good man, I desperately do.

I was grinding DPC for so long with a unit of these in a Dunerider led by a Dominus with the fights first enhancement. 30 attacks on the charge hitting on 2’s with Dev wounds, then the unit has a 5++/4+++ (can give them a 4+ invuln with a stratagem) meant they were incredibly tanky.

I love this unit, but they’re so slow and need a Dunerider, but a transport is also wasted on them when a unit of Vanguard in a boat with a Marshall and jump out and just do more damage. Also, their output drops dramatically if you ever have to go into protector imperative or they’re not charging.

Maybe their points will drop so low that I can spam 30 and make it viable, only time will tell.

19. Tech-priest Dominus

I think this is probably the second worst character option we have behind the Skatros. If it could lead Kastelan robots, it would be good though.

Giving a unit a 5+ FNP is a very good ability, but outside of Fulgurites or Corpuscarii the only unit you’re really attaching this thing too are Kataphrons, and they tend to get way more value out of a Manipulus.

The Data-spike ability never works anyway so I’m not even going to discuss that.

18. Sydonian Dragoons with Taser Lances

Idk, they wound walkers on a 2+? That’s pretty good. They’re just not my cup of tea.

I think they have the potential to be quite good, they just get so much movement. Potentially 16″ then a charge? Quite nice. I don’t have much experience running these but when I get 2 more painted up, I’ll be able to field a squad of 3 and do some limit testing.

The ability to fall back and still charge is very nice too. Once again, I don’t run SHC, so I don’t get much value out of units like this. I can see how they would be good in Rad Zone though and potentially Cybernetica, more testing needs to be done, I just like other units more.

17. Serberys Raiders

• Scout 9″
• Move 12″
• Reactive move
• 60 points

Solid scoring unit, very nice I like.

16. Skorpius Disintegrator

Big gun tank, very nice and cool.

I like the Blistering Salvoes ability, it lets you stay in conqueror and hit on 3’s with the main gun, or protector and you can still move and hit on 2’s. It has enough small guns to chew through chaff and enough big guns to take down an Armiger by itself.

They’re also incredibly tanky on a 2+ save, sitting in cover or popping smoke will make it difficult to remove. You can also give it a 5+ FNP with an Enginseer making it basically impossible for your opponent to destroy without some serious firepower.

Given than in Cybernetica you can also blank a damage per battle-round these things are virtually indestructible, very neat. I’ll take 3 thank you.

15. Pteraxii Skystalkers

AdMech’s only source of the grenades keyword.

AdMech’s only source of the grenades keyword.

AdMech’s only source of the grenades keyword.

AdMech’s only source of the grenades keyword.

14. Tech-priest Enginseer

• Heal robot
• Do action
• Lone op while near robot
• More attack if robot die nearby

I like him, triple Enginseer also babysitting Disintegrators, “Wait, why do all your tanks have 5+ FNPs”, shhhh go to sleep. Only 3 wounds mean he dies when your disintegrators explode though, not so neat.

13. Skitarii Marshal

Good in SHC, don’t run them in other detachments.

I don’t really run this model because I don’t play SHC (yet), but he pretty good, re-roll hits and removing battle-shock is very good. Can only use battle-shock rule on Skitarii units, this faction man I swear to god.

12. Kataphron Breachers

One of THE most POWERFUL shooting units in the game at full effectiveness. They’re also thicc as hell.

At full power (assuming Rad Zone for the peerless eradicator enhancement), they shoot 24 shots, sustained 1 and lethal hits, with full re-rolls to hit, anti-vehicle 4+, hitting on 4’s with -3 AP 3 damage.

On average, this unit kills a knight in a single shooting activation.

They are piss weak though, a single exocrine can kill the entire Breacher unit with one activation, any 3-damage weapon just destroys this unit. They are also incredibly slow meaning you need to be in conqueror for them to be effective, and their full-effectiveness range is 15″ meaning you need to be really close to the enemy.

Are they still good though? Incredibly, the combination of sustained hits and lethals + full re-rolls means that you’re killing something in shooting, and then also probably killing something in your opponent’s movement phase due to overwatch.

They are a drug, and I’m abusing the hell out of them.

11. Ironstrider Ballistarii

I didn’t think these were that good, turns out 6 lascannon shots with sustained hits is pretty good no matter how you swing it. That’s it, just 6 lascannon shots on a mobile platform.

Who knew that would be good right?

10. Belisarius Cawl

Cawl is actually sick, not only does the model look amazing, the unit in the game also puts in work.

Putting a lone operative model (within 3″ of an AdMech unit) near your breachers (which are behind a wall), but sticking out onto a point with 4 OC at T8, 10 wounds with a 2+ save, 4+ invuln is just asking for trouble. If they charge Cawl? You heroic with your thicc boys, or a unit of fulgurites with fights first.

He can control so much space, score points and your opponent has to really commit something big to taking him down.

He gives out an aura of battleline or re-roll 1’s to hit which makes him very useful in a shooting castle. Overall, 10/28 would smash.

9. Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard

• Battleline
• OC
• Led by a Marshal and jumping out of a boat do lots of damage
• Aura which is essential for AdMech
• Ignores cover (huge)

Every list should run at least 30 of these minimum or you’re going to struggle and have a bad time. SHC builds lists around these models, but in the other detachments they are just a tax that needs to be paid to play the rest of the game.

Do I like taxes? No. Do I like all my units to function? Yes.

Guess I’m paying my taxes.

8. Technoarcheologist

NO DEEPSTRIKE WITHIN 12″ FOR 45 POINTS.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

7. Sicarian Infiltrators

• Infiltrate

They infiltrate, and they force battle-shock.

Infiltrating units are OP in 40k in general, and AdMechs are even better because if they’re charged and you can battle-shock your opponent their unit becomes useless in your turn, making it an easy target to kill or score secondaries from.

They have a lot of shots, but basically do no damage, otherwise they’re very good. Every AdMech player should be running at least one unit on 5 in their lists.

6. Kastelan Robots & Cybernetica Datasmith

• Big dummy thicc robot men
• Big Powerfists with 6 attacks -2 AP, 3 damage, and flamers
• 40 shots if you take the guns (pew, pew)
• little bro to lead em

Kastelan robots are the COOLEST looking models in the AdMech range (except for Sicarian Ruststalkers).

They may be expensive on points, and slow, and vehicles, and not very good, but God damn are they cool.

You can also spend 6 CP on them in a single turn in Cybernetica Cohort using 6 different stratagems to make one single ULTRA UNIT.

They can be quite beefy boys too, at T9 (T10 if in Aegis Protocol) with a 2+ save, 5+ invuln and 7 wounds, they’re very hard to chew through. You can also give one model (not the unit) a 5+ FNP with an Enginseer, basically forcing your opponent to destroy four tanks to get through the unit, woof.

It is just a shame that they don’t get the army rule in any detachment other than Cybernetica Cohort, guess that’s what I’ll be running for a while now I have 8 robots, whoops.

5. Sicarian Ruststalkers

I think Ruststalkers are the coolest looking models in the AdMech range. Cute little robot assassins that are way better than I have ever given them credit for.

These things do absolute work in the conqueror imperative. The weight of attacks they get in a 5 man, 25 in melee, with devastating wounds, and the leader having anti-infantry 3+ for his 5 attacks, and being 5, -1, 1 anyway means a 5-man unit is reliably picking up any 10-man, 1 wound infantry unit in the game and doing serious damage to other units.

Also having precision on all of their attacks means you can reliably take out any infantry character with dev wounds alone.

Bringing a 10-man unit? Now you have two Princeps meaning you have 10 attacks with dev wounds and anti-infantry 3+, crazy!

And the unit gets +1 to advance and charge or +2 if you’re within 6″ of battleline. In SHC you can run and charge giving the unit a potential 16″ move with +2 to charge, or a 7″ charge when coming in from strategic reserves.

Stealth built in makes them tankier than they deserve to be, T4 with 2 wounds and a potential 5+ FNP in SHC makes Ruststalkers a serious threat.

In SHC, I think the play would be to run 2 5-mans and a 10-man, while in other detachments you could probably get away with 2 5-man units for skirmishing potential.

They are beyond useless in protector imperative though.

4. Tech-Priest Manipulus

This character does so much damn work, like giving units lethal hits, to pretty much any unit in the book (except Ruststalkers, Infiltrators, Kastelans etc…), really not pretty much any unit.

But oh lord this leader takes the Breacher brick and makes it immense. Giving them lethal hits with 24 hits and full re-rolls means you should be getting 7-8 wounds through before you even roll your wound rolls, at -2 (potentially -3), 3 damage this takes at least 12 damage off bigger targets or 4 TEQ’s just in the hit roll phase, nuts!

As well as this, the Manipulus has the ability to give a unit a 4+ invuln for a phase, and as Breachers are only likely to survive a single phase before they get minced this can come in handy.

The flamer was cute before they nerfed the Rad-Zone enhancement, and the lance gives you 1 extra breacher shot essentially, or if you’re leading Corpuscarii with the Manipulus you can slow an infantry unit from 36″ away which is pretty funny.

The Manipulus is great in AdMech because often time you end up rolling a crap ton of dice but never wound anything, the Manipulus lets you get around that.

I haven’t experimented with the Manipulus with Destroyers or anything (because they’re crap), but even so I think this unit is best suited with Breachers or Corpuscarii.

10/10, turns out Lethal hits is a busted AF ability.

3. Skorpius Dunerider

Did you know that the Skorpius Dunerider actually have a 5+ invuln, like all other admech units do, wait it doesn’t? Oh shit, I just lied to my first three opponents at the Geelong town open.

I was so dirty on this unit when the codex first came out, but I was definitely spoiled.

The Dunerider has the fire support ability which means that you re-roll wounds in the same turn you disembark the transport, if you shoot at a target that the transport has already shot out. But the transport only has a single gun.

Which meant you can’t ‘choose’ your target, it was just ‘you both shoot at the same thing’, and with two chaffish clearing units, sometimes the boat would just kill the unit first meaning your Skitarii were left without a buff, lame.

Meanwhile, the sisters Immolator used to give the same buff, but the Immolator had multiple guns, which meant you could shoot the heavy bolter at one thing, and the melta at another, doing damage and also choosing the target you wanted re-rolls against. This is stronger, but as the Dunerider only has one gun, is irrelevant.

18 shots at 4-0-1, sustained, twin-linked is pretty good though, and can even be used to overwatch a unit on 1-2 wounds, very noice.

2. Corpuscarii Electro-priests

There is no better feeling in the 41st Millenium that shooting hot loads of sticky Jazz onto your opponents from 12″ away. Corpuscarii Electro-priests are the absolute GOAT of the Adeptus Mechanicus codex, they are the glue that holds the army together.

They have sustained hits 2 in both shooting AND melee? That is literally 100% better than sustained hits 1, by MATHEMATICS.

Slap a Tech-Priest Manipulus in there and BOOM, you have lethal hits now too??? Now we’re cooking with gas.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thrown like a little rock at someone, and it kinda pings off em, and they look at you like you’re a bit of a dickhead. Now imagine that except it’s 10,000 rocks and some of them go in your eyes, and ears, and mouth. That’s what it feels like to be Jazz’d up by my Jazz priests.

They also have the ability to suppress the movement/advance/and charge distance of a unit by 2″ for a turn, and the Tech-Priest Manipulus can use his lance to dish this tasty snack out at 36″, absolutely ridiculous!

So, they’re pretty good I guess, but they’re not as good as

1. Canis Rex

Canis Rex is the best unit in the AdMech codex.

Canis Rex is my dad. He takes care of me, provides me with emotional support and walks through walls.

He is undoubtably the best model/unit/vehicle/character/infantry in the AdMech codex, he just isn’t mounted.

Final ranks (According to God, who speaks through me)

1. Canis Rex

2. Corpuscarii Electro-priests

3. Skorpius Dunerider

4. Tech-Priest Manipulus

5. Sicarian Ruststalkers

6. Kastelan Robots & Cybernetica Datasmith

7. Sicarian Infiltrators

8. Technoarcheologist

9. Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard

10. Belisarius Cawl

11. Ironstrider Ballistarii

12. Kataphron Breachers

13. Skitarii Marshal

14. Tech-priest Enginseer

15. Pteraxii Skystalkers

16. Skorpius Disintegrator

17. Serberys Raiders

18. Sydonian Dragoons with Taser Lances

19. Tech-priest Dominus

20. Fulgurite Electro-priests

21. Pteraxii Sterylizors

22. Archaeopter Transvector

23. Sydonian Skatros

24. Archaeopter Stratoraptor

25. Serberys Sulphurhounds

26. Kataphron Destroyers

27. Sydonian Dragoons with Radium Jezzails

28. Archaeopter Fusilave