Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Battle Group

After the Solar Auxilia Battle Group and Legiones Astartes Battle Group, we now have a third Battle Group covering the core of the next faction in plastic - the Mechanicum!

This is a huge step for this army, while Solar Auxilia could re-purpose plastic kits for tanks, the Mechanicum only had the Scitarii as a plastic kit, the entire remaining range was resin. And they did not just add a kit or two, but a whole bunch and put them together right for the start of this impressive Battle Group.

For 130 GBP / 170 EUR RRP the Mechanicum Battle Group covers all new plastic kits for:

• 20x Adsecularis Tech-thralls
• 6x Thallax Cohort
• 2x Castellax Battle-automata
• 1x Triaros Armoured Conveyor

The set was previewed in May during the Preview Show on Twitch and Warhammer Community.

Broad variety of items in this kit, but the "usual" layout with a proper core of infantry, at least one medium sized model and a transporter. With Land Raiders and Dracosans with the Astartes and Solar Auxilia, the Mechanicum has the Triaros, and overall a huge amount of plastic sprues. And similar to other sets, the inner box has the painted miniatures on the sides.

Beyond the sprues you will find the assembly instructions, three (!) sheets for decals (a Mechanicum Macro-Constructs sheet with 394 decals, and two Mechanicum Construct sheets with 558 decals) and a bunch of bases.

The instructions provide you with the assembly instructions, along with all the options and variants for the included units. As none of these units are new, you find the rules for all of them in the Liber Mechanicum.

And as mentioned above, you receive a lot of sprues. A very satisfying amount of sprues. And to give you an idea about the size, here is a comparison with a Mk 3 Marine.

The core of the box is made up from a set of 20 Adsecularis Tech-thralls. You can either build them as a huge single unit of 20 or two units of 10 each. Depending on your decision you have between 75 to 90 points of core units.

The sprue is included four times and just like the other core / infantry kits from the Horus Heresy are designed in a way to build five models. You have a solid 10 heads per sprue, and the Thralls are placed upon 25mm round bases. As the Tech-thrall covenant has no options beyond filling up the units by another 20 models, there are no other weapons beside the las locks included.

The Thallax Cohort, as you have 6 of these in the box, you can either go for a large unit or two of 3 each. This will add between 236 to 330 points, again in core units.

These are split interestingly, as you receive one sprue with the feet and legs for 6 models, and the second one two times with the upper bodies and weaponry. While Lightning guns are the standard weaponry, you have the options for Multi-Melta, Phased Plamsa-Fusil and Photon-Thrusters. All of them are placed upon 40mm round bases.

A duo of Castellax Battle-Automatas create a neat maniple, either as two units of one, or a single unit of two. These will provide between 180 and 287 points, depending on your configuration.

The two models are spread across three sprues, one for the weapon system and two for the bodies, along with two 60mm round bases. The sprues provide you with two Mauler Bolt Cannons, a Darkfire Cannon and a Multi-Melta, four shock-chargers (with the variants of flamers and bolters) and two power blade arrays. Notice you can upgrade one of the models with the power blade array, and there are no parts for the Siege Wrecker (which means this option still has no official build).

And the transporter in this set, Triaros Armoured Conveyor, a tracked vehicle build from four sprues, and at 135 to 145 points.

You get two identical sprues for the track sections, and two individual ones for the core body. And while the unit only has one option, two hunter-killer missiles, all the other items are non optional and fixed standard equipment for the Triaros, covering Flare Shield, Volkite Calivers and a twin-linked Mauler Bolt Cannon.

It is very likely we will see this one being used with a further upgrade to be converted / built into a Karacnos Assault Tank.

I will cover the units and models from this battle group in individual reviews, to give you a deeper insight on what you can build from these sprues and what to expect.

Conclusion

These Battle Groups provide you with a very reasonably priced and solid starter for your journey into the Horus Heresy. Savings are difficult to pint out as we don't have the individual prices yet, but with the other boxes, we can derivate the rough prices. The Tech-thralls are likely to be 62,50 EUR just like the Auxilia infnatry, Triaros at 72,50 similar to the Dracosan, the Castellax likely to be 55 EUR like the Hermes Sentinel and the Thrall Cohort likely to be 55 EUR for the set of 6 as well. This would add up to a RRP of 245 EUR, just like the Astartes Battlegroup.

Regarding the point values, depending on your configuration and splits into smaller units, you can build between 626 to 852 points from a single battle group.

As mentioned above, detailed reviews of the items will be posted on this blog.

Warhammer 40,000 and The Horus Heresy are brands by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.