Litanies of the Faithful

I have gathered a bunch of other men’s flowers
Only the ribbon that binds them is my own

Is what I would say if any flowers had been gathered for Data-Psalm Conclave.

Well, I’m back to cope. The last time I wrote an article on this matter was October 10th 2024, wherein I crashed out and said I would be playing Explorator Maniple instead.

This just in, I did not play Explorator Maniple.

Since October 2024, the Adeptus Mechanicus has received a plethora of buffs so I thought it time to revisit this detachment and see how it would hold up in todays meta.

On the 4th of April I attended an RTT with a DPC list. It was mostly a meme, but also not.

List:

• Belisarius Cawl
• Cybernetica Datasmith: Temporcopia
• Tech-Priest Dominus
• Technoarcheologist
• 2×10 Skitarii Rangers
• 1×10 Skitarii Vanguard
• Skorpius Dunerider
• 1×5 Corpuscarii Electro-Priests
• 1×10 Fulgurite Electro-Priests
• 1×4 Kastelan Robots
• 1×5 Pteraxii Skystalkers
• 1×9 Servitor Battleclade
• 1×5 Sicarian Infiltrators
• Culexus Assassin
• Knight Castellan

This list has, things for it.

The meme is the Datasmith with the fights first enhancement on it. I find that Kastelan Robots are very difficult to play outside of Haloscreed and if your opponent can shoot them to death it is hard to get value out of them. On the flipside, if they can’t shoot them to death, they’re basically impossible to deal with. I don’t really like playing Warhammer like this though, but it was fun for an RTT.

Cawl now with Oath and other useful buffs, Pteraxii, Rangers/Vanguard and Infiltrators are all solid units that would be in every Ad Mech list. There is a bit of spice, but I think that DPC has tools – that I’ve probably talked about before – you can lean into to make the detachment more enjoyable to play.

The newish Kill Team unit, the Servitor Battleclade is NUTS.

I am always – at this point – taking Citation in Savagery in this detachment, and will be in Conqueror Imperative.

The Battleclade has a LOT going for it. For starters it can advance and action, and then it can also shoot.

Shooting: The unit has

• Heavy Arc Rifle
• Heavy Bolters
• 3x Flamers
• Mechanicus Pistol
• Melta Gun
• 2x Phosphor blasters

Although I will be in Conqueror, this synergises really well with Cawl’s Oath aura, allowing you to get a lot of value out of the unit, especially if you put it in a Dunerider and are re-rolling wounds.

Combat: The unit has

• 4x Dataspike attacks at 4-0-1 on the Underseer
• 2x Servo-Claw attacks at 4-0-1 on the Servitors

However, on the charge, this unit puts out an extra 9 attacks, totalling 29 attacks at 5-0-1, with +1 AP being near battleline and potentially +1 to wound from Chant of the Remorseless Fist.

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Wow, this is actually pretty shit”. But this unit costs 60 points.

60 FUCKING POINTS. It’s nuts out here innit.

This unit is better value than almost every other armies skirmishing/scoring units and will allow you to be trading up most of the time, they’re just a bit slow innit. I really like these in a Dunerider for the re-roll wounds, but if you’re getting value out of re-rolling strength 3 flamers, the 18 stubber shots from the transport has probably already killed the unit.

Putting a Technoarch with some Battleline not only gives you a nice 12″ no deepstike buffer, but also gives them +1 atk and str on the charge because it gives them the Cult Mechanicus keyword. I just find this funny, I’m unsure how solid it is.

A Dominus with 10 Fulgurites can be nasty, on average you’re getting like 8-10 damage in Devs, but you can spike. In the next iteration of the list I’ll be giving these guys fights first which can help with the durability problem.

Now to my final pieces of technology and the real reason I’m not running fights-first Kastelans.

I have a Knight Castellan in my list, and a Culexus assassin I guess.

The lists I play, especially this list, tend to remain in conqueror for the entire game without much thought. This means I heavily utilize Cawl’s Oath aura to reliably remove units in shooting, and don’t normally need the boon in combat due to +1 WS.

Although Cawl’s aura of Stealth and OC is incredibly strong, I usually try to create a board state where OC isn’t important at the start of my command phase and I’m attacking, hence requiring Oath.

This is where I find the value in a big Knight. It projects so much potential threat across the board and not only gives you more room to breathe and stage with your units, but also allows you to semi-reliably pick up transports/bigger tanks without utilizing your oath of moment.

Could this just be 2 Disintegrators or 6 Laschickens instead? Sure, but, fuck you big knights have aura and it makes my list look cooler.

The Culexus having a 6″ Deep strike is pretty funny. It forces battle shock once per game in a command phase which can genuinely be useful, and it has grenades. Allowing you to 6″ and do 3 mortals on average to a target. This isn’t bad, it could just be another Dunerider, but it gives you a potentially very strong and threatening lever to pull. Also if you pair into a psyker heavy army it’s hilarious.

I also have some Corpuscarii for scoring, extra trash units and because snails are cool.

How did the RTT go?

I’m a bit of a sweat, although I wasn’t battle-ready for this RTT I ended up 4th out of 18 players. The list honestly worked really well, but I am afraid that if I take the Kastelan’s out I will lack the D3 damage often required in the game today, but I have a potential solution for this.

It honestly felt incredibly playable, at least compared to the last time I played DPC.

My first game was into 5 big knights, 3 with the big Melta thingos. I thought I was cooked. It actually turned out really well for me, I utilized Cawl aggressively early on and got 3 wounds through against a Lancer, did 14 damage lol. From here it was all downhill for the Knights. I had tabled him by turn 3 thanks to some lucky shooting from the Castellan. I wasn’t sure where all the damage was coming from, but it was there I guess.

Game 2 was into AM, lost by a point, but was down 10 for battle-ready. If I had won this game, it was likely I would have gotten a more challenging pairing turn 3 and went down anyway. Had I scored the 92 in round 1 for battle-ready I would have probably lost round 2 given the other players in attendance. The list still felt fine though. I was able to effectively trade with the AM army – which was mass infantry – and make it challenging for him to engage.

Game 3 was into CSM, Creations of Bile mass Possessed and Chosen. This is a match up where thanks to the Castellan’s towering and Kastelan robots fights first made it impossible for my opponent to stage, and interact with my army. While this was pretty funny for me, it was not funny for my opponent. I did feel like if I didn’t have the fights first robots in this match up it would have been considerably more difficult. But I think it’s too much with the Castellan to include them in the list.

Overall I didn’t really feel like I was missing out, it was a fun list to play.

Where to next

Leaning into what is good and finding a budget replacement for D3 damage. I’ve landed somewhere here.

• Belisarius Cawl
• Tech-Priest Dominus: Temporcopia
• Tech-Priest Enginseer
• Technoarcheologist
• 2×10 Rangers
• 1×10 Vanguard
• Skorpius Dunerider
• 2×5 Corpuscarii
• 1×10 Fulgurite
• 1x Onager (Erad Beamer)
• 1×5 Skystalkers
• 3×9 Servitor Battleclade
• 1×5 Sicarian Infiltrators
• Culexus
• Knight Castellan

I’m unsure if this is better, or worse, than my last list. My last list was like, yeah, and I wasn’t sure where the damage was coming from but it did come, and I know that you don’t even need to kill stuff to win games of Warhammer. I think the Robots provided an adequate anti-charge anti-attack me threat that I am missing. But I also have waves and waves of robots that can hold the line while I counter attack by activating 10 different units.

So long as I utilize the Fulgurite’s effectively to get a couple of activations I think this list has enough leg. I will have to test it at least once before submission though, probably.

We’ll see.

Kataphrons? Nah. Dunno, just nah.

Thanks for reading, I’ll let you know how this turns out.

xoxo