Kill Team Guide: Tricks with Adeptus Mechanicus Tactics

Adeptus Mechanicum are nicely balanced in Kill Team, coming in as quirky Jack-of-all trades. Whilst you might look at them as a shooting force they’ve got surprising punch in melee, and are just a little fragile compared to Space Marines. Their tactics reflect their all-around nature, so lets see what tricks we can pull from them.

Canticles of the Omnissiah

You can choose a Canticle at the start of each battle round, but you can only choose it once per battle. Alternatively roll for it, and it works even if the Canticle has been chosen before.

1. Incantation of the Iron Soul: reroll failed Nerve tests.
2. Litany of the Electromancer: enemy models within 1-inch of models in your kill team take 1 Mortal Wound on a d6
3. Chant of the Remorseless Fist: Re-roll Hit rolls of 1 in the Fight phase.
4. Shroudpsalm: Targets of shooting attacks in cover gain an additional -1 To Hit.
5. Invocation of Machine Might: +1 Strength
6. Benediction of the Omnisiah: Re-roll Hit rolls of 1 in the shooting phase.

It’s straightforward enough, allowing you certain advantages in certain situations.

Obviously Shroudpsalm and Benediction of the Omnissiah will be helpful for shooting, and are probably your best early game Canticles. If you have Initiative go for Benediction to capitalise on the alpha strike, and if you don’t go for Shroudpsalm to mitigate incoming fire. Benediction is also one of the few ways you can fire your plasma calivers in relative safety, although a Sniper specialist does roughly the same thing.

Chant of the remorseless, Invocation of Machine Might and Litany of the Electomancer are your mid-game melee Canticles. Litany is a bit risky so you’re better off going for the other two, although you might get lucky if your models are buried in a horde. You don’t roll for each of your models though, so ganging up on one enemy in melee isn’t going to increase your chances of this going off.

Invocation works best when you have a powerful melee unit in combat and are prepared to spend Command Points on the Conqueror Doctrina. Chant is a bit more generalist, and slightly weaker in raw numbers. However, it is better than Invocation when you have Sicarians fighting Toughness 3 models (since Invocation has no actual effect).

Incantation of the Iron Soul is useful in late game, provided you’ve lost all of your data-tether models, or just didn’t take any.

Tactics

• Tactic: Conqueror Doctrina Imperative
• Use when you select a model to fight in the Fight phase
• Add 1 to Hit rolls
• If within 6-inches of a friendly data tether model add 2 to Hit rolls
• Cost: 2CP

This is a fairly straight forward tactic, to be used when you have a melee beast in combat and want to make sure everything hits home. It is expensive though, and probably only worth the CP if you are next to a data tether… which is of dubious use.

Let me explain. Your best combat models (Sicarians) only need a +1 to Hit to reach maximum potential (as rolls of 1 always miss). The model that best uses this is the Alpha, and that’s only two attacks.

Still, using this with a Taser Goad equipped Sicarian Infiltrator is just terrifying. Each 6+ roll counts as 3 hits, which on the Infiltrator comes in a Strength 6. Nasty.

• Tactic: Protector Doctrina Imperative
• Use when you select a model to fight in the Shooting phase
• Add 1 to Hit rolls
• If within 6-inches of a friendly data tether model add 2 to Hit rolls
• Cost: 2CP

On the surface, really good. No argument with that really, but don’t fall into the trap of thinking this makes plasma weaponry safe. Unmodified 1s cause them to explode, and this does not allow you to re-roll that 1 away. Bendiction of the Omnissiah will do that for you though, as will a Sniper Specialisation.

You’ll be using this to both counter the effects of cover and still increase your accuracy, the +2 if near a data-tether making this more useful than the Sniper Tactic. Then again though, that use becomes redundant if you simply bring along a model with an Omnispex.

Other synergies include the Demolition specialist and wounding models more effectively in cover, which sadly is not possible as AdMec don’t have access to Demo Specs.

Other than general accuracy increases, which are available more cheaply elsewhere, no weapon really works well with this. Most special effects for AdMech weapons trigger on Wound rolls not Hit rolls.

• Tactic: Dune Strider
• Use this in the Movement phase when a model Advances
• Roll two die and pick whichever result
• Cost: 1CP

More manoeuvrability is great. About the best model to use this on would be Vanguard, who field some of the only Assault weapons in the AdMech line up and will still get off 1.5 hits after advancing. You might have better things to spend your CP on, but don’t forget this is more reliable for getting models to advance quickly than using a Tatical Re-roll.

One interesting trick is to use this on a Heavy Spec plasma caliver carrier. They can advance without penalty to get around cover to get off that shot. I mean, you don’t have to overcharge plasma in Kill Team, since there’s only a few multi-wound models. It just helps!

• Tactic: Gloria Mechanicus
• Use this after rolling for a Canticle
• Roll again to determine your Canticle
• Cost: 1CP

Kind of interesting. If you’re desperate for a particular Canticle you can burn your CP to re-roll to get the one you want. This effectively doubles your chances (from 1-in-6 to 1-in-3). You can also use a Tactical Re-roll on top of this (tuning your chances into 1-in-2). Something to consider if you really need to overcharge your plasma calivers for a round.

Suggestions

In the Schools League you’re only allowed to pick 5 Tactics, and frankly I think all of these tactics have a place. You need to specifically build into it though, tuning your Tactics to your squad composition.

However, if pushed I’d say the two Doctrina Tactics should make your list (provided you have shooting/melee focused models to use them). Dune Strider is an interesting Tactic in the right place, but whether it is more useful than the Specialist Tactics or not depends on what Specialists you’ve brought, and what strategy you’re using.

You know, I’m not going to suggest more at this point, as I genuinely don’t know. The AdMech tactics are generally useful to every model but haven’t really leant themselves to some cheesy combos. Please let me know if I’m missing something in the comments below.

Until next time!

Thanks for reading.

If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.

If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!

If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make there, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!


Element games gives you usually 20% off all 40K purchases, and I get 5% of your purchase.
KB Silk is my own business, selling authentic silk scarves. If you're looking for a present then this is your one stop shop.