The Summer season for 40k has come, and with the brand-new Chapter Approved 2025/26 I’ve taken a leap feet-first into the new landscape! I’ve no fewer than six games with the new rules, and I must confess: It’s the best 10th edition has felt yet. Tight games, great tweaks to secondaries, and an overall smooth play experience; I’m incredibly happy that we have this mission pack through next year! With that in mind, I’m gearing up for GT season, with some of the biggest tournaments in my area happening next month, and I intend to enter them with a bit of an off-meta pick. I’ve espoused my love of the Data-Psalm Conclave before, certainly, but there’s never been a time for me to properly showcase it at an event level. With the release of the new Servitor Battleclade, however, this might just be good enough to take to the tournament, and I’ll be grinding practice games nonstop until July 19th. All that being said, let’s take a look one more time at an abundance of Electro-Priests, and get a grasp on why Data-Psalm is my pick for Admech this season!
Data-Psalm is either the least-popular, or second so, in terms of Admech’s detachment choices. In theory, it buffs roughly half of the units in the book, but not a lot of those benefit immensely from those buffs, and the ones that do aren’t very popular takes for the army. For example, I spent a good chunk of hobby time this month painting my 50 Electro-Priests—a statement conjured up by no sane individual.
That being said, with the Battleclade DPC has an X-factor lacked by the rest of Admech as a book, being its ability to play enough cheap trade pieces to crunch nearly any opposing army if given the chance. While we’re only allowed to take 3 of any given unit, as there’s unfortunately no Cult Mechanicus unit with Battleline, that still means we can flood the board with cheap, annoying to remove bodies that hit way above their pay grade. Below is my list, which I’ve refined over my half-dozen games, which does necessitate some amount of explanation. For starters, the obvious: Cawl, Disintegrators, and a Dunerider, some of our best units are seen here as well. I couldn’t fit any more Skorpius chassis, much to my chagrin, so we’ll need to be careful with the ones we have.
The rest of the list meanwhile has a step-ladder of damage profiles, all of which get scarier on the charge. Battleclades and Corpuscariis have D1, Fulgurites and the Dominus D2, and Breachers D3, meaning we can comfortably deal with bodies ranging the Wound spectrum. Additionally, even the lowly Battleclades get to S5 on the charge, meaning we threaten MEQs and TEQs with surprising efficiency, coupled with the extra AP from Conqueror Doctrina. We’re maxing these as much as we can, for the points, as our intent is to trade them aggressively once staged, folding away our damage pieces in return for ones costing more from our opponents.
Finally, the Callidus sees play over Skystalkers here, as we desperately need the ability to not be interrupted in combat, or suffer from Overwatch on the charge. For a fragile army, her Vect aura is pivotal, and gives us extra play in the backlines as well.
In terms of play, the gameplan is fairly simple once you get through deployment. Stage up the board with our little 5-man units, keep Breachers back until a target emerges, and threaten Heroic Intervention with one of the scariest units to ever do it: 10 Fulgurite Electro-Priests with a Dominus granting Fights-First. Deployment however is a far more nuanced series of options, as we only have one transport, and lack any form of Deep Strike beyond the Callidus. In my games, I’ve experimented with starting both 2x5 Corpuscarii and 2x5 Fulgurites in my single Dunerider, depending on whether I feel I get more value from protecting D1 or D2. I also, in one game, started my Rangers in the boat in order to grant Scout 6”, as having Battleline deep into the midboard was a crucial goal. Beyond that, I’ve been keeping 1x5 Corpuscarii and 1x9 Battleclade in Strategic Reserve, as the former’s ability to pop out and reduce move has been massive, and the latter can both shoot and perform an action. That last part, the Battleclade’s action economy, blew me away. What this detachment was missing—cheap trade pieces, secondary scoring—is quite literally entirely available to us now.
In my games against armies like World Eaters, Dark Angels, and Grey Knights, being able to properly stage and bait them to come to the midboard has been critical. Electro-Priests and Battleclade only move 6” natively, and while they’ll often have Assault, all of their best options are available when not Advancing. Nothing in the army, unfortunately, has Advance and Charge, forcing me as a player to walk that knife’s edge between ‘out of position’ and ‘ready to get in’. As a…benefit of sorts, the fact Electro-Priests never use their armor save means they don’t need to care about being in cover, meaning the difference for small terrain pieces and open ground doesn’t exist, even though walls and obscuring ruins are critical.
As far as the other units go, the Technoarchaeologist is Cult Mechanicus, but what matters more is its ability to be an unattached Leader that provides a 12” bubble of no Deep Strike/Reserves. This is critical in our current Death Guard-centric meta, and means that, alongside our countless MSUs, we can screen out a truly obscene amount of ground. If the opponent chooses to drop from the heavens, it will be in front of you, allowing control of the game pace. In a similar vein, Infiltrators keep you from being sent to jail immediately, hovering in front of the line and ideally providing a modicum of protection against lists that aim to never allow you to charge.
Ultimately, my goal is to get enough practice before the GT in order to feel seamless in my play at the tournament. This is a bit of a meta call, and a bit of an unknown pick, so I’m hoping to ride those X-factors to victory even though DPC isn’t the best way to play Admech from a purely numbers-based evaluation. This is not an army made for prolonged fights, and much like my previous competitive experience with Beasts of Chaos, knowing when to make that ‘Go Turn’ happen is going to be the measure between victory and defeat.
Still, with Knights having high-quality firepower, and Death Guard not enjoying the staredown against things making them slower on top of a Deepstrike denial aura, I have faith I’ll be able to make results happen. Even if not, that’s going to be an incredibly fun 2-day experience, and my first 40k GT in quite some time! The event is paint-required as well, which means I fully expect to see some absolutely fantastic armies on display, my own included. That does mean getting 27 Battleclade painted up beforehand, but that’s a fairly small task compared to 50 Electro-Priests.
There might not be quite the buzz about DPC, even after the release of the Battleclade, but given my extensive coverage I’m happy to bring them to an event! Have you seen success with Data-Psalm Conclave in the new meta? Where do you think the best army goes from here, being Death Guard or Knights? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
