Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus

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Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus is a turn-based strategy game about the Adeptus Mechanicus finding a Necron Tomb World and trying to ensure that shit doesn't hit the fan too hard. The story for the game was written by Ben Counter and it's one of the few good 40k video games alongside the likes of DOW and Battlefleet since Gw started handing the licences out to everyone who asks.

Setting

Set some time after the creation of the Great Rift, Magos Dominus Faustinius, the commander Ark Mechanicus Caestus Metalican, discovers an old transmission from the planet of Silva Tenebris sent by a magos, who reports of an intriguing discovery on the planet. As a squad is sent down to the planet, they discover a Necron tomb, and that the magos who sent the message managed to wake them up, with your squad accelerating the process. Unable to receive reinforcements due to the Warp rift, the members and crew of Caestus Metalican must do everything they can to stop the Necrons from completely waking and causing troubles for the Imperium at large.

Cast & Enemies

The Crew of Caestus Metalican

Aside from the Magos Dominus, the other important characters, and mission givers, are:

• 'Tech-Acquisitor Scaevola '

"Calculating mission: +++Technology +++Artifacts +++Materials. Benefit > Risks. /Request/ Mission commencement."

Your very mechanical, as in removed her emotions completely and talks like a computer, advisor. Perhaps the most stereotypical of all Techpreists seen so far in any book or game since, her speech patterns are almost like crude computer code than proper English. She lusts after alien technologies, doesn't care at all about the lives of her underlings, and in the pursuit of her missions it quickly becomes clear she just wants lots of shiny technology, and doesn't care about where it comes from or how many Skitarii have to die to get it.

• Lector-Dogmatix Videx

"And when at last he came upon the vehicle, he perceived the distress of the engine therein and forthwith struck the rune and it was good."'

Imagine your highly religious grandfather, or just an old, religious person, and you've just about got Videx. The opposite of Scaevola, in that his augments enhance his emotions and is more focused on the priest part of tech-priest. Acts as the spiritual advisor and is generally quoting one of the over 560,000 books stored in his mind. It's... difficult to say mow much his methods work, as broadcasting binary prayers and filling the Necron tombs wit incense smoke probably shouldn't do a damn thing. Yet, oddly enough, such methods work much more often than they should.

• Sub-Domina Khepra

"I dread to think of the cost. But if it is your wish, Magos, it shall be so."'

The leader of the Skitarii of the expedition. She hates those who would regard them as just mooks to be thrown into the grinder. Her missions involve helping her skitarii in fighting against the Necrons better. In short, the most understandable and likeable leader, who is not afraid to throw shade to the others.

• Quartermaster Rho: The person in charge of your ship and its supplies, and is prone to redundancies in his speech. He gives missions to ensure you've got enough supplies and that your ship can function.

• Prime Hermeticon Caprix

"Sharpen the spears. Bay the hounds. The hunt is on."

The one in charge of seeking high priority targets, and giving missions to kill them. Acts like a really weird hunter and speaks in one of the most ridiculous manners ever to be uttered by a Skitarii.

• Servo-Skull Reditus: An unusually chatty Servo-skull who probably drifts a bit close to tech-heresy canonically, but he narrates the intro so we'll let him off. Formerly a Magos Dominus before becoming a floating head, and may actually BE the former Magos floating around as a skull.

Cohorts

• Servitor: Your initial troops. Cheap and expendable. They cost 0 Blackstone and also give CPs if they get damaged. Useful as a meatshield.
• Skitarii Vanguard: A mid to late game ranged unit. Pretty good, considering that they can be leveled up to have two physical damage attacks every three turns. Unlike the Ranger, they do not reveal enemy stats after firing.
• Skitarii Vanguard Alpha:A piece of trash that is a step down and then some from the frickin Vanguard. These things suck, and are just about useless besides counters to flayed ones, which a Servitor will do you so much better than these things. Avoid them if possible, let them die of you can.
• Skitarii Ranger: An early to mid game unit, these bad boys are your early standard infantry. They use energy damage, but reveal enemy stats, and can be leveled up to have an ability that disables an enemy attack temporarily.
• Skitarii Ranger Alpha: The less sucky version of the Skitarii Vanguard Alpha. Unlike that worthless trash, it can actually do crap. It has an area of affect sword attack, which allows you t deal damage to multiple units at close range at once. Get these, as they are a good investment.
• Kataphron Battle Servitor: Kinda meh. While they do great area of affect damage, they generally suck bringing down anything better than a flayed one. Combine this with their lack of range that can even damage you if you are not careful, and are too big to fit in some places, along with huge size and deployment cost. They are useful in the Tomb Of Ubjao but that's about it.
• Kastelan Robot: The big boys! What their flamethrower doesn't kill, their punch will. They can be quite expensive to call upon unless you go for secutor build to drop them (for free) on unsuspecting necron. They got good defence and can be used as cover (its not optimal in most case, but still good to know). Overall a great late game troop, but at the stage of the game that you will use them your techpriest should already be strong enough that they feel kinda overkill.

Necron Characters

• Overlord Szaregon:
• Vizier Mehlob:
• Grand Architect Neftusk:
• Ubjao, the Corrupted King: The third boss. This is what happens when Necron Lords get infected with the Flayer Virus. Went completely insane- arguably worse than the Destroyer Lord. All he does is summon more and more flayed ones as you go up a spiral path to get to him. Every Flayed One you kill raises his max health. Have fun!
• Void Admiral Agrolekh: The first Necron character your crew encounters, and the commander of the dynasty's space fleet. He's a Destroyer Lord armed with a warscythe. His Nightmare Shroud makes him shift his formidable defense stat between Physical and Energy every round. Pound on him with the appropriate damage type. Relentlessly. Or- wait until the turn he's at 0 defense vs whatever you stack the hardest, and kick his ass then.
• Lord Astronomer Ekropis: A coward. He has a special snowflake ability where whenever you try to hit him, he will just use one of his freaking soldiers to protect his shiny butt, while he hides away in some corner. He also likes to toy with you and mock you, and first introduces you to a new type of Immortal. Very annoying, very obnoxious. His death doesn't just glorify the Omnissiah: It makes the Omnissiah break out a few kegs and call his friends Mork, Gork, Emperor, and Sly Marbo to celebrate the death.

Necron Units

• Warriors: The first enemy you will encounter. They cant melee attack, and are relatively slow. They can spawn with both physical and energy armour.
• Flayers: The basic melee enemy. Will rush towards you to hack at your troops. They have very low health and dont spawn with any armour.
• Immortals: An improved ranged enemy. His tesla carbine punishes you hard as it can do a fuckton of dmg to a single target or an area blast that also slows. They have decent health and usually spawn with atleast 2 points of energy armour.
• Deathmarks: A sniper unit, they can phase shift around the map and do so automatically when they get hit, they also get overwatch, which means they shoot units that move in their firing arc.
• Triarch Praetorians: One of the first actually dangerous enemies, that can take a low level techpriest in a 1v1. They use jetpacks to move around the map super fast, and have quite strong melee attacks. They also have a little shitty beam ranged attack. They usually spawn with both kinds of armour.
• Lychguard: One of the strongest enemies you can face. The Lychguards are a melee enemy that have a bunch of HP and a crap load of energy armour. They also have a nasty ability called "Counter-attack", which does exactly what you think. If you melee attack them, they simply strike back, HOWEVER if your ranged units attack them, they walk towards you and try to close into melee range. If you want to deal with them just snipe them from range.
• Vargard: Annoying bastards. They carry war scythes and teleport themselves to swap places with other nearby Necrons. This trick is not exclusive to a certain cowardly Necron Lord.
• Crypteks: A necron support unit. They dont do much on their own, having only a weak melee attack, but they can heal fellow necrons, give them armour and steal your cognition. They spawn with both kinds of armour.
• Destroyer: A big 4 tile beefy enemy. They have the same kind of attacks as the Immortals but they are much beefier. They need to charge their attacks, but they also get two moves in one turn. They usually spawn with 3-4 points of energy armour.
• Heavy Destroyer: Basically the Destroyer with a bit more damage and more health. You dont meet these very often and they arent that much stronger than their lighter buddies.
• Canoptek Scarab: The small, annoying enemy. Can repair enemy troops and his attacks cause acid damage to your troops every time it's their turn. They have pitiful hp and no armour.
• Canoptek Spyder: A decent threat, the Spyder can spawn Scarabs and melee attack. They are usually quite tanky and fairly hard to kill. They get both kinds of armour.
• Canoptek Acanthrites: An enemy with sucky melee attack that exists simply to steal your cognition. Kill these obnoxious things so that you can use the cognition for the Emprah Omnissiah.
• Canoptek Wraith: