Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Castellax Battle-automata
The third infantry unit from the new Mechanicum Battle Group are the Castellax Battle-Automata. Another former resin kit, recreated in hard plastic.
While being quite bigger and carrying a heavier punch than the tech-thralls and thallax cohort, these still count as a troop choice and you can use a single miniature as a maniple of its own and add up to 4 further Castellax Battle-Automata to that unit.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Thallax Cohort
The next bigger unit from the Mechanicum Battle Group after the Adsecularis Tech-thralls are the Thallax Cohort.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Mechanicum or the individual units, these are no robots, but heavily augmented cyborgs. While the Tech-thralls are almost lobotomized in the process of their creation, the Thallax retain a degree of their independent human thought. The Lorica Thallax which encases their major organs and nervous system, replaces the skeleton and limbs entirely, with an armoured mechanical system.
Horus Heresy – Mechanicum Adsecularis Tech-thralls
Let's start with the individual reviews of the content of the Mechanicum Battle Group for Horus Heresy. You saw the unboxing of the entire boxed set, and we will go through the individual kits one by one, begining with the Mechanicum Adsecularis Tech-thralls.
The Tech-thralls form the core of the infantry, as an expendable mass, as these cyborgs are armed with basic weapon systems and often created from prisoners or criminals.
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.
Legions Imperialis – Vanguard Miniatures
Back in 2020 we did a review on the Vanguard Miniatures and their range of metal (!) miniatures for Epic. The range is called Defeat in Detail, is available in 3, 6 and 15mm and covers the Novan Commonwealth (Imperium), Cybershadow (Mechanicum) and even some Xenos races.
But as we now have access to the Legions Imperialis range, we want to compare the metal models with the plastic, beginning with their Novan Elites vs. the Legiones Astartes. Pretty close in size, would work at regular games distance.
Adeptus Titanicus – Mechanicum Cerastus Knight Atrapos
A second type of Mechanicum Knights can be found among the Cerastus Class, the Cerastus Knight Atrapos. Adding not only a new option for the Mechanicum in Adeptus Titanicus next to the Questoris Styrix and Magaera, but adding a fourth class of Cerastus after the Lancer, Acheron and Castigator.
As you can see from the box, this is a Forge World release and this comes with a few differences compared the "regular" Adeptus Titanicus range. Major point is, that these are only available directly through Forge World, so you have to order them either at Forge World directly or at a Games Workshop events (and at Warhammer World). With Games Workshop and Forge World still adapting to the current situation, it may take a while for these kits to be delivered and they may be out of stock from time to time. But Forge World is customer orientated, so shipping towards Europe is 12 EUR flat and free if you order for more than 90 EUR, and a really convenient service is that their orders are shipped DDP (delivery duty paid, so you don't have to pay customs or service charges). At a price of 50 EUR for the pair of Cerastus Knight Atrapos you're already half way there for free shipping. Another difference with these compared to other kits from the Adeptus Titanicus range, the Atrapos are cast from resin and not injection mould plastic or finecast. But more on that further below.
Warhammer 40,000 – Skorpius Disintegrator and Dunerider
With the updated Apocalypse rules for Warhammer 40,000 the Adeptus Mechanicus receives a battle tank and armoured transporter of their own, the Skorpius. It can be build either as a Skorpius Disintegrator or Skorpius Dunerider.
I'll cover a couple of vehicles this week, as announced in an earlier post, not with Apocalypse in mind, but the idea of using and partly converting these kits into industrial or utility vehicles, to be used in the 40k setting, like Necromunda or Inq28 (or a special Kill Team mission), or general sci-fi games.
Adeptus Titanicus – Reaver Battle Titan with Melta Cannon and Chainfist
Games Workshop starts into the new year with a new supplement for Adeptus Titanicus, Titandeath. Along the release of the book, you now have the chance to buy the weapon sprue from the Warlord Titan with Plasma Annihilator and Power Claw, and a Reaver Titan with Melta Cannon and Chainfist, that we're going to unbox today.
You'll find the reviews on the earlier released Reaver Titan with Gatling/Laser Blaster and Power Fist, Warhound Scout Titans and both Warlord Titans on my blog as well.
Adeptus Titanicus – Warlord Battle Titan
The final part of my Adeptus Titanicus coverage is this "double feature" of the Warlord Battle Titan, one variant with volcano cannons and one with plasma annihilator and power claw.
The Warlord - currently - marks the heaviest of the available battle titans for Adeptus Titanicus, is only outclassed by the even larger Emperor Class Titan. Even though the Reaver and Warhound are much smaller and less material consuming to produce, the Warlord Titan is the most numerous of the Imperial battle titans. And they are kept in service for millenniums, some date back to the Great Crusade or even the Dark Ages of Technology. There are / were several patterns and marks of the Warlord Titan. The original mark of the Warlord covered a beetle like carapace and that design was kept from the first edition until the late 80s and can be found in first plastic model of the Warlord Titan. It was succeeded by a more bulky carapace variant, that was available for a brief amount of time, as Epic 40.000 was already developed and Space Marine was about to get pulled. This variant is strongly influenced by the early artwork of the Warlord Titan. In the late 90s, a Mark 3 (Epic 40k) variant of the Warlord Titan, that was classified as a Lucius pattern of the Warlord, and was available as a multi part metal kit. The newest incarnation is called Mars Alpha Pattern and produced by Forge World for 28mm as a resin kit and by Games Workshop as a 6/8mm plastic kit.
Adeptus Titanicus – Reaver Battle Titan
The second titan of the Adeptus Titanicus coverage is the Reaver Battle Titan,
The Reaver counts as an medium class battle titan, almost twice as tall as a Warhound but still a lot leaner and smaller as a Warlord. Similar to the Warhound and Warlord, the Reaver has different produced patterns, but more dominantly different Marks of its design. The design of the Reaver is quite consistent, did not change that much during the decades, "just" more modern. A Lucius Pattern was produced by Forge World for Epic 40k in the late 90s, but that is a relatively unknown fact. It is more commonly know for the different Marks of the Mars Pattern. A Reaver is commanded by a Princeps and between 2 to 5 Moderati (Primus, Steersman, Navigator, Sensorius, Oratorius), along with an extended crew of multiple servitors and such. Models of the Reaver were available in different Marks for a long time and in the lore it is mentioned, that it might even pre-date the Warlord Titan.
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