Litanies of the Faithful

It’s not cool, it’s not fun, it’s not hip. Am I just a contrarian? Perhaps. Is this just my opinion? No, it’s factual analysis, duh.

Over the last weekend, there were 13 Ad Mech players across the events that Meta Monday picked up, which is like at least 5 rounds and 25+ people or some rubbish I’m not sure, smaller events are left out though.

Of those 13 Ad Mech players, ELEVEN WERE PLAYING SHC. This is far too many, and I for one am sick of the discrimination and blatant exclusion of the other detachments. There wasn’t a single Rad-Zone OR Explorator Maniple player. To be fair, Explorator Maniple is shit and I’m not playing it either, but Rad-Zone is still cool man I swear.

There was a single player on Cohort Cybernetica, and another absolute Chad playing DPC, let’s have a squiz at the lists.

NB. While there are a lot of other events Meta Monday don’t cover; I take the stats from their website to get an idea of who is playing Ad Mech and how the various detachments performed over the past weekend. This won’t be an accurate representation of how the faction is performing in the meta, but it’s fun to talk about.

The lists:

GUTI Majestic Beasties IV (2024)

Lucas Audette 2 – 3 Cohort Cybernetica KING

• 2x Cybernetica Datasmith
• Tech-Priest Enginseer: Necromechanic
• Tech-Priest Manipulus
• Technoarchaeologist
• 2×10 Rangers
• 1×10 Vanguard
• 2×1 Ironstrider Ballistarii
• 2×2 Kastelan Robots
• 6x Kataphron Breachers, 5 Arc rifles, 1 Torsion Cannon
• Onager Dunecrawler w/ Phosphor Blaster
• 5x Pteraxii Sterylizors
• 5x Sicarian Infiltrators
• 2×5 Sicarian Ruststalkers
• Skorpius Disintegrator

Ok Lucas, I see you’ve been cooking here. Having started playing this detachment myself I see some similarities between my lists and Lucas’s. The inclusion of the Technoarcheologist is always a staple, the Tech-Priest Enginseer: Necromechanic to blank a damage is also an auto-include in every Cybernetica list. Including infiltrators, Pteraxii, and Ruststalkers allows Lucas to score secondaries and skirmish around the board while screening opponents deepstrikes and movement. The Breachers, well they’re Breachers and do BIGDAM, but otherwise receive no buffs in Cybernetica. 30 Skitarii form a good core of Battleline to buff the rest of his units and give the Breachers re-rolls, and the Onager has a great anti-MEQ gun.

However, we differ on a few points. I would always run the Kastelan’s as units of 4, I find two just drop in value too much as soon as one Robot dies and is no longer a real threat. That being said, 4 robots do cost 380 points + the leader for 415 which is a bit ridiculous. Also, I understand that Breachers are insane, but they just don’t vibe with Cybernetica. I’m probably wrong, but I could rather have more thicc vehicles in my list than thicc Breachers.

Would I play this list? Absolutely. Often when I find a detachment like Cybernetica Cohort I tend to skew too much in one direction (Think Penitent host for the Adepta Sororitas). I think Lucas has the right idea here by limiting the number of thicc vehicles and also taking the Ad Mech gas, Breachers. I’ll have to re-think my Cybernetica lists a wee bit, so I am big shoot less, and score points more.

Beer and Pretzels Open Teams Tournament 2024

Michael Robb 3 – 2 DPC QUEEN

Team captain of the Powerbottoms

• Tech-Priest Dominus: Temporcopia
• Tech-Priest Dominus: Mechanicus Locum
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Data-blessed Autosermon
• Technoarcheologist
• 10x Skitarii Rangers
• 30x Skitarii Vanguard
• Skorpius Dunerider
• 5x Corpuscarii Electro-Priests
• 2×6 Kataphron Breachers, 3x Arc Claw, 3x Hydraulic Claw (One unit with 6x arc rifle, one unit with 3x arc rifle and 3x torsion cannon)
• 5x Pteraxii Skystalkers
• 5x Pteraxii Sterylizors
• 5x Sicarian Infiltrators

Michael, you were almost a man that was close to my heart, almost, but you’ve betrayed me by the distinct lack of Fulgurite Electro-Priests in your list. Are they a bad unit? Yes. But still, I expected more.

Once again, I have fallen prey to my own hubris. Before me I see a well-balanced list capable of holding points, destroying the enemy with focused Breacher fire, and scoring secondaries. While when I look in my WH40k app I see endless DPC lists each with 30 Fulgurite Electro-Priests. What have I become?

I like this list, however I’m not sure that I’m capable of holding that much power in my hands. 12 Breachers? That’s 100% more Breachers than I normally play with, madness. Outside of these Fragile units however, this list doesn’t have any real punch. The punch of 12 Breachers is pretty grand, but they are susceptible to being screened, tied up in combat, and are easy to avoid having a 5″ move. This is rectified somewhat by the split in melee weapons allowing them to punch down vehicles and infantry, a smart move. Splitting the ranged weapons on the other unit gives them a wider range of targets to be good into as well, because you often don’t need the power of 6 full breachers shooting a rhino, for example. A Dominus with Temporcopia (fights first enhancement) is an essential part of this list, meaning the Breachers get a chance to swing first if charged. Breacher output in Melee is actually very good, so this makes the unit incredibly strong also having a 4+ invulnerable save as a stratagem in DPC and a 5+ FNP.

This list is the antonym to my usual DPC lists which are focused on Electro-Priests, with a Breacher brick stuck in the middle. I like the Pteraxii and Infiltrators for scoring, 40 Skitarii and a Technoarcheologist for always having re-rolls on Breachers and screening.

The only caveat to this list is that it was taken to a team’s tournament, so it’s possible the 12 Breacher skew is a result of this. I’m not sure how well it would perform in singles, but I still think it has legs.

That’s all for the cool guys this week, please stop playing SHC so I have more to write about.

Love you,

Ryan