Litanies of the Faithful

Hello fellow Magos.

Earlier this week I received a comment from Mike, who asked if I could write up some beginner 1k & 2k point Ad Mech lists using a variety of units that blend well together, so that is what Tech-Priest Tuesday is going to be about today.

I’m not really sure what beginner means though. It is that they are a beginner to tabletop gaming, Warhammer 40k, the Adeptus Mechanicus, or list writing?

Regardless, I am going to give my thoughts on my own interpretation of this question and I hope Mike finds this article useful.

My own interpretation of a beginner 1/2k Warhammer list would follow these principles:

• A straight forward gameplan
• Redundancies
• Limited gameplay decisions

Straight forward gameplan

We are not aiming to flood the board with bodies in SHC, we are not jailing our enemies with max Pteraxii, we are composing lists of high value units with solid, repeatable and reliable synergies.

Redundancies

The caveat to a beginner list being the army rule – Conqueror/Protector Imperative – and being able to use your battle-line accordingly to maximise the value of those effects. In this instance, the redundancy comes from including 1-2 extra battle-line units than you would typically need to get the value from this rule.

Limited gameplay decisions

These lists will be designed with Conqueror or Protector Imperative in mind and you should be able to remain in that Imperative for the entire game and still have your army be effective and efficient. Other than the army rule, the only other decision to make is your Invocation of Machine Vengeance (full re-rolls to hit) target if you’re running Cawl.

Detachment

I would highly encourage running these lists in the Eradication Cohort detachment. Due to our decision of remaining in a single Imperative for the game you’ll have a very simple detachment rule to memorize – Skitarii models re-rolling 1’s to hit in Protector, or wound in Conqueror.

The Stratagems and play patterns of this detachment are straight forward and simple. Once you’ve had a few games under your belt you can try the same lists in the Haloscreed Battle Clade detachment which gives you a lot more agency in your decisions.

Lists

I don’t like the idea of writing a full list and saying ‘this is the way’. My ideology for list building is to create a base of units with good synergies that allow you to effectively play the primary and secondary game. This doesn’t usually take a full 2000 points to achieve. From there, you can flex the rest of the list out depending on unit preference, local meta, and style.

I have units I enjoy using, units I don’t really enjoy using, and stuff I don’t own. When you make the decisions in your list building you will play better, and enjoy the game more.

Now listen to exactly what I say – 1k lists

Conqueror (+1 ap within 6″ of battleline, assault, +1 WS):

Base

• Tech-Priest Manipulus
• 2x Battleline – Rangers or Vanguard
• Dunerider
• Infiltrators (at least 1×5)
• Kataphron Breachers – Heavy arc rifle (1×3)

This is 550 points and a good start to a 1k Conqueror list. Infiltrators allow you, to, infiltrate beyond your deployment zone and score secondaries early on. Battleline Skitarii sticky your deployment zone objective and push forward to contest enemy objectives and spread your army buff which in turns gives the Kataphrons full re-rolls to hit. Kataphrons are your punch unit, and on average will kill an armiger, rhino or light tank (think Gladiator Lancer) in shooting, a good break-point to have. Lastly a Dunerider synergises well with your Skitarii, extending their threat range and adding anti-chaff shooting to the list.

550 points, and we can play the game. 450 points left over. You could almost just double each unit and have a 1k point list ready to go, or you could add units of your own preference. I might add a unit of Corpuscarii in a Dunerider, because I like that unit, or a Skorpius Disintegrator, although this doesn’t synergise that well with being in the Conqueror Imperative.

This list is more aggressive, asking you to make plays and attack your opponent to progress the game.

Although expensive, Cawl can be worth bringing to 1k point games, but for the same points you could get 2x units of Infiltrators and a Servitor Battleclade unit. It just depends on how you want to play the game.

Protector: (-1 to hit in melee within 6″ of battleline, heavy, +1 BS)

Base

• Tech-Priest Enginseer
• 2x Battleline – Rangers or Vanguard
• Onager Dunecrawler
• Infiltrators (at least 1×5)
• Ironstrider Ballistarii (1×2)

This base is a bit more expensive at 625 points. Once again we use Infiltrators for scoring, and Ironstriders for damage. Their innate ability to advance/fallback and shoot is beneficial when your army is in Protector Imperative. The Enginseer & Dunecrawler combo can be incredibly difficult to crack in shooting with the 4+ Invulnerable save and 5+ FNP, alongside the battle-line giving it -1 to be hit in melee.

This list plays a more defensive, safe, shooting style.

With 375 points left over you could add another unit of Ironstriders, some more scoring units or whatever makes your heart sing.

That will be all for today, next week I’ll go over a few 2k lists, as well as what I plan on playing at a tournament in a month or so and my ideas behind it.

Thanks for reading xoxo