40K Admech Unit Focus: The Leaders

One of the most fascinating aspects of 10th Edition 40k has been its Leaders, now acting more as buffs to existing units than units in their own right.  Of course, there are still named characters acting on their own, but for the majority of the Adeptus Mechanicus’ arsenal, these blessed of the Omnissiah exist within the contexts of the units they’re able to lead.  For some, this is an immense boon!  For others, this spells disaster outside of more niche versions, and even still, there’s an odd option which seems to have lost relevance only since the most recent dataslate.  Following the most recent shakeup, and the introduction of an alternate detachment to Skitarii Hunter Cohort that actually looks to be potentially seeing top table play, it’s important to view this army’s structure from the head-down, beginning with those that help make our best units even better.  Strap in, as we look at the Leaders of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

Quaint as it may seem, our least expensive Leader option is also by a wide margin, our best: The Skitarii Marshal.  While it may feel off to begin a list with three of this model, don’t be fooled — lacking this official in duplicate or even triplicate can spell disaster for your damage output.  One of the foundational aspects of Admech in 10th is the so-called ‘VG Combo’, being a unit of Skitarii Vanguard (with all weapon options, sometimes dropping the Arquebus), led by a Marshal, getting out of a Skorpius Dunerider.  This modest bomb costs you only 215 points, and provides one of the most effective anti-infantry — frankly anti-objective play — units in the game.  By getting out of a Dunerider, your unit can safely utilize the Vanguards’ OC denial ability, alongside rerolls to both hit and wound, against nearly any infantry of Marines or below, and coupled with reasonable firepower often provided at AP1 with Ignores Cover, this quickly stacks up!

Furthermore, all of our truly-playable detachments each have a unique synergy with this package.  In SHC, it’s fairly obvious, as this brick is provided Stealth for even more survivability, while in Rad-Zone, accessing Lethal Hits makes their rerolls pack a PUNCH with 3 shots apiece.  Finally, in Haloscreed, you can look forward to building your own Battle Sphere Uplink (The best enhancement from SHC) by accessing a 1CP Stratagem to re-embark into their boat, allowing you to continue moving up the board, and getting the Wound rerolls from your Dunerider once more.  The only caveat, of course, is that taking 3 incurs a greater threat of an enemy Assassinate Secondary, which might be the main reason to only run 2 of the combo (That, or you can’t fit a third boat).  Truly, the Marshal is the apex of our leadership…but what comes next?

Via Forge Brush

In the other corner of the ring, we have the gruesome twosome of the Tech-Priests Manipulus & Dominus, each costed about double that of a Marshal, with significant upsides…and downsides.  Crucially, what you attach these priests to often doesn’t cost enough to make their ‘upgrade’ worthwhile, as it regularly can be more efficient to simply run more of whatever they’d have led.  Of course, there are fun ways to use these units, and even older competitive lists would run a Kataphron Breacher bomb led by a Manipulus, but really these were bandages to more significant Admech issues.  No longer.

Inloaded Lethality is a brand-new enhancement coming to us in Haloscreed, and it might just remind players of the original Admech golden child of 10th: The Omni-Steriliser.  In much the same way you often hid this bomb of damage inside an otherwise inoffensive unit, players everywhere are attempting to figure out how to bury the lede on this character combo.  But what’s it do?

Via Goonhammer

Inloaded Lethality adds 3 to the Attacks and 1 to the Damage of the wearer’s Melee weapon, and only works with the Dominus & Manipulus.  This means, using the Manipulus as an example, you’d be hitting with 7 Attacks, Strength 6, AP2, Damage 3, with Lethal Hits.  Coupled with Conqueror, that now hits on 2s, with AP3, and suddenly you’re chunking out things as big as Custodes with reasonable effectivity.  With the Dominus, you trade Lethal Hits for an extra AP, which does make it better against some targets but broadly we’re speaking about the Manipulus here.

What have people been including this Inloaded terror in?  The two major camps have been that of Corpuscarii, to help raise the floor on the Crit 5+ bomb that exists there in Haloscreed, as well as a 3-man unit of Breachers, to act as reasonable ablative wounds which don’t cost as much as the full 6-model pile.  My take, however?  Vanilla as it may be, I feel the solution might just be more Vanguard.  No tricks, or funny units which you’d not take otherwise, instead simply adding to what the army does best, and ceasing to care about needing to keep things in ‘wifi range’ for their full damage.  50-Skitarii lists have been good very recently, and there’s some great reasons to try a split of 10 Rangers/40 Vanguard in Haloscreed, now that the dust is settling.  Give it a go!

Via KC Holt

Next comes the ugly ducklings, who haven’t yet fully moulted into swanlike competition.  I’m of course speaking on behalf of the supreme archmagos dominus of Mars, Belisarius Cawl, and the oft-forgotten Cybernetica Datasmith.  To briefly touch on the latter, the fact they must be tied to the use of Kastelan Robots means their quality is linked directly: Not great news, there.  I love the Robots, but even in Haloscreed, where they’ve been given the best fighting chance yet in 10th, taking them still feels like too much of a pointsink.  Cawl on the other hand feels like a pile of ‘what-if’, with so much potential wrapped up in just slightly too high a point bracket.  Extra Battleline keyword to throw around is fantastic, but if you’re on the requisite 30-50 Skitarii…how necessary is that?  Furthermore, keeping him in range of something like a Disintegrator for the rerolls is much harder than one might think, as you maneuver them into firing lanes.  People keep saying, “Oh, if he were only 130…120…etc he’d be playable!” but at that point he becomes unfair for his points, and the race to the bottom is not a place Admech cares to dwell.  Jury’s out on these two, but they’re at least gorgeous models.

Via Goohammer

Finally, the oddities, Leaders which I have a hard time placing because they were certainly good at points in 10th, even if their time in the spotlight has since fled.  First, the victim of the most recent update: The Technoarchaeologist.  From going to a cautious maybe after being mandatory for so long, as a piece to deny 3” Deep Strike against meta threats like Grey Knights, lo how the mighty have fallen.  This was a weird tech piece, often taken alone, and situated safely in a place where all he had to do all game was stay alive, and perform an Action Secondary or two.  For 45pts, I still like the Techno, but given the threat he’s intended to deal with has since passed, there’s plenty of reasons why you’d save those points for more bulk in your list.  The Enginseer meanwhile is a similarly perplexing case — While it made for a supremely designed Radial Suffusion bearer in Rad-Zone, and Feel No Pain on your Skorpius(es) and Onagers feels great as a means to push them up the board, I’m on the fence, still.  This would have been an easy A+ if it could hold Inloaded Lethality, but perhaps for that exact reason, the Enginseer isn’t made to carry that enhancement.  Bummer.  There are versions of lists which use this model, certainly, if you aim to threaten the midboard with a Vehicle, but in lists which don’t directly justify its presence, this is probably a skip.

Via Warhammer Community

So, that’s a brief overview of the Leaders’ positions in Admech, following the close of 2024!  I’d say this was quite the fine year to be an Admech player, once they got the kinks sorted out!  What Leader layout are you using in your games?  I’d love to hear what you’ve been brewing in the comments below!