After reviewing both the general Taghmata Omnissiah and the sub-faction of the Legio Cybernetica, I will now cover the other sub-faction available to 30k Mechanicum players: The Ordo Reductor. This Ordo represents the powerful yet disparate bands of the Mechanicum that fought in the darkest corners of the Emperor's and the Omnissiah's light, forging the Great Crusade onwards until the Age of Darkness fell. The Ordos Reductor took both sides in this fight and brought with it not only the esoteric engines of war that the Mechanicum are known for, but also great tanks of destruction drawn from the graveyards of battlefields littered with the dead of both the Legiones Astartes and the Solar Auxilia; great and vast artillery pieces that shake the earth. The metal men have little fear of death from above and walk through the ashen field of war with not a flicker of mercy.
Ordo Reductor: Special Rules
Like the Legio Cybernetica, the Ordo Reductor has several special rules and requirements that help define the flavour of the force, these are listed below:
The Master of the Covenant: The compulsory HQ for an Ordo Reductor Force must be taken from any of a Magos Reductor, an Archmagos Reductor or Caleb Decima.
Walkers in Ruins: All units in an Ordo Reductor War covenant are immune to pinning from enemy attacks and ignore any penalties for moving/charging through cover if it is rubble, ruins, minefields and trenchworks. This includes difficult and dangerous terrain tests.
Engines of Destruction: Additional force organisation options are available in a Magos Reductor, Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank Battery, and Ordo Reductor Minotaur Battery.
Patterns of Force: Compulsory troop choices must be fulfilled by Thallax cohorts and an Ordo Reductor War Covenant can never have more than half of its units fulfilled by Battle Automat. I.e. in a 10 unit army, only 5 can be made up from Battle Automata.
Walkers in Ruins in combination with the enhanced levels of Thallax you will necessarily have in an Ordo Reductor force (because of Patterns of Force), makes for some very potent and very mobile jet pack infantry that are not suffering though a lot of terrain you will find on a 30k or 40k battlefield. Engines of Destruction is a wonderful rule and I will go into why in more detail below when we look at those units.
Alternative Force Organisation Chart: The Matrix of Ruin
The Ordo Reductor comes with its very own unique force organisation chart. This has the following structure:
Required Slots: 1 HQ, 2 Troops, 2 Heavy Support
Optional Slots: 3 Troops, 2 Elites, 2 Fast Attack, 2 Heavy Support, 2 Lords of War
Restrictions: Allied detachments and fortifications are not allowed and all units must be taken from the Ordo Reductor War Covenant abiding all the additional restrictions (e.g. Thallax as compulsory troops) and must also all be taken from either a loyalist or traitor faction.
The Unfettered Wrath of the Machine: All tanks count as scoring in Age of Darkness Games when in the opponents deployment zone. All Tanks count as Objective Secured in Maelstrom of War games when in the opponents deployment zone.
This alternative force org further pushes the use of an aggressive playstyle that also makes use of the additional Ordo Reductor Specific Units as these are Tanks. This can make for a devastating army as you drive forward pounding the enemy and using pretty resilient tanks to score objectives with T5 W3 jet pack infantry bouncing around everywhere as your basic troops. As you will see from the unique Reductor options below this is fantastic.
Ordo Reductor: Unique Units
Arch/Magos Reductor
Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank Battery
85 point takes with a 12:10:10 3HP BS4 profile taken in squads of 1-3. These come standard with a whirlwind launcher that you will want to swap out for the following upgrades:
Demolisher Cannon - S10, AP2, Ordnance 1, Large Blast, 24 inch range
Quad Lascannon - S9, AP2, Heavy 2, Twin-linked 48 inch range
Dual Melta Cannon - S8, AP1, Heavy 1, Blast, Melta, Twin linked, 24 inch range
Earthshaker Cannon - S9, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast, 36-120 inch range
Medusa Cannon - S10, AP2, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast, 36 inch range
Medusa Cannon (Phosphex) - S5, AP2, As above except Poisoned 3+, Crawling Fire and Lingering Death
Mars-Colossus Bombard - S7, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Massive Blast (7inch), Concussive, Pinning, 12-72 inch range.
The whirlwind can also take Hyperios missile upgrades but as they have skyfire and would therefore be rubbish at round targets and the play style Ordo Reductor pushes is moving on an offensive I would leave these off. and Always pick one of upgrades above.
The two stand out choices in the list above are the Medusa Cannon (both options) and the Mars-Colossus Bombard. Both have good range when you consider you are an army moving forward and both will benefit from line of sight from a Cyber Occularis as they are barrage. The Medusa cannon can destroy tanks with its S10 AP2 (especially if granted Master of Destruction) and Phosphex will ruin any infantry mans day pretty hard.
The Mars Colossus is death to marines and is absolutely brutal.
These tanks also have the option of taking Siege Plating with grants AV13 on the front. Whilst nice I feel this is points not worth taking as you cannot take armoured ceramite and are AV10 at the side and rear anyway so your survivability will not increase significantly for points spent. You can however take a Blessed Autosimulcra which grants a restored hull point a turn on a roll of a 6.
Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank Battery
These are absolute monsters compared to the tanks above and are priced appropriately rocking at 205 base. But they are deserving of it!
BS4 13:12:13 for AV and 5 HP (5!!!) These suckers come with a Flare Shield for their arse (-1S to attacks and -2 for blast/template attacks hitting that facing), Extra armour, and a Blessed Autosimulcra as well. Additionally these guys CAN take armoured ceramite as well as an Auxiliary drive if needed (though you should be keeping a battle smith with machinator array near these guys for 3+ repairs). Other than those upgrades you can take a few pintle mounted weapons I won't bother with as they are not all that important and I don't recommend pimping these guys out due to their already high cost.
There main and only available main weapon (compared to the all you can eat buffet of death above) is the Dual Earthshaker Cannon.
Dual Earthshaker Cannon - S9, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Twin-Linked, Massive Blast (7") Range of 24-120 inches.
This gun can only fire barrage but it is twin-linked AND you must pair it with cyber occularis for line of sight shenanigans. These are horrible and will wreck face, again if you add Master of Demolitions to them then they can blow vehicles on a 6.
Additionally the strange AV configuration has been addressed and so no striking AV13 in close combat, the weakest side AV of 12 will be hit in close combat instead.
Overall
Death Comes in many forms. With the Ordo Reductor it usually rains down from the sky as great behemoths of metal crush the ground in front of you. The Ordo Reductor gives a wonderfully flavoured army choice to anyone collecting 30k Mechanicum and making the compulsory requirements to field their unique units are not difficult meaning you will not have to re-design your collection to have these as alternative options in your overall army collection.
I personally would love to have a unit or two of medusa cannon tanks in my back line pushing forwards and as soon as I can afford them I will!
I hope this has been useful as always :)
Peace out,
Rob
Required Slots: 1 HQ, 2 Troops, 2 Heavy Support
Optional Slots: 3 Troops, 2 Elites, 2 Fast Attack, 2 Heavy Support, 2 Lords of War
Restrictions: Allied detachments and fortifications are not allowed and all units must be taken from the Ordo Reductor War Covenant abiding all the additional restrictions (e.g. Thallax as compulsory troops) and must also all be taken from either a loyalist or traitor faction.
The Unfettered Wrath of the Machine: All tanks count as scoring in Age of Darkness Games when in the opponents deployment zone. All Tanks count as Objective Secured in Maelstrom of War games when in the opponents deployment zone.
This alternative force org further pushes the use of an aggressive playstyle that also makes use of the additional Ordo Reductor Specific Units as these are Tanks. This can make for a devastating army as you drive forward pounding the enemy and using pretty resilient tanks to score objectives with T5 W3 jet pack infantry bouncing around everywhere as your basic troops. As you will see from the unique Reductor options below this is fantastic.
Ordo Reductor: Unique Units
Arch/Magos Reductor
In the basic Taghmata you have the option of taking multiple types of Magos ranging from the lowest ranking of these higher castes of machanicum society to the ranks of Archmagos. The Archmagos and Magos Reductor is unique to the Ordo Reductor War Covenant.
Stats
WS BS S T W I A LD Sv
Magos Reductor 4 5 4 4 2 4 2 9 3+
WS BS S T W I A LD Sv
Archmagos Reductor 5 5 5 5 3 4 2 10 2+
WS BS S T W I A LD Sv
Archmagos Reductor 5 5 5 5 3 4 2 10 2+
Equipment
Power Axe, Lucifex, Machina protectiva.
The Magos Reductor comes in at a little overpriced at 125 points with the Archmagos costing +35. I dislike that the profile specifies a power axe as I like to take a power sword and have AP2 attacks coming from some of the special wargear available (like a machinator array). These guys either have a 3+/4++ or a 2+/4++. The lucifex is a nice touch with the following profile:
Special Rules
Stubborn - does what it says on the tin, but help ensure he won't break with that LD10
Battlesmith - this allows you to work like an enginseer and restore hull points, repair weapons and repair immobilised results on a 5+ instead of shooting.
Independent character - well what did you expect...
Master of Destruction - All the Arch/Magos attacks have the sunder special rule and additionally any rolls on the vehicle or building damage table have +1 in ADDITION to any bonuses granted by open topped or weapon AP.
OR the Arch/Magos can confer this special rule to any heavy or ordnance weapon within 6 inches including any vehicle they may be embarked upon.
Bodyguard - May take a single unit of Scyllax Guardians or Tech priest Auxilia (with the Reductor upgrade) as a bodyguard that counts as taking up the same HQ slot as the Arch/Magos.
Master of Destruction - All the Arch/Magos attacks have the sunder special rule and additionally any rolls on the vehicle or building damage table have +1 in ADDITION to any bonuses granted by open topped or weapon AP.
OR the Arch/Magos can confer this special rule to any heavy or ordnance weapon within 6 inches including any vehicle they may be embarked upon.
Bodyguard - May take a single unit of Scyllax Guardians or Tech priest Auxilia (with the Reductor upgrade) as a bodyguard that counts as taking up the same HQ slot as the Arch/Magos.
The Archmagos also gains Relentless and must also be your warlord if taken and also gains access to a Djinn-Skein for +25 points. This is a must buy if you are going full on Tank Reductor.
Upgrades
I won't list all the upgrades here as they are many and varied and they are shared by all of the HQ choices more or less, so I will cover them in depth when I review all the generic HQ choices for the Taghmata. However I will cover a few upgrade options below as they are excellent with any mechanicum HQ.
Abeyant - an abeyant can take many forms and serves an essential survival purpose for the Archmagos. This could be as a life support system, or a massive mechanical body impervious to small arms fire, or even a delicate floating platform with a shield around it.
An abeyant grants +1 wound, it will not die, move through cover, very bulky, and hardened armour (important for zone mortalis games mostly). Wow, a 4 wound, 2+/4++ IWND T5 HQ with move though cover.... Awesome.
Cyber-familiar - wait did I say a 2+/4++ above??? Well strike me down and call me a liar... if you take a cyber familiar it improves your invulnerable by +1 (to a maximum of a 3++). SO now you have a 2+/3++ T5 HQ with IWND!
This gem also allows you to re-roll any characteristic tests that are not LD or Dangerous terrain. So strength and toughness tests really, but mainly this is for getting you that all important 3++.
Machinator array - Wait wait wait, did I say T5?? Well forget that! With a machinator array you get +1 toughness! As well as having an in built flamer and inferno (melta) pistol! You can fire both of these in the shooting phase OR you can fire on of them and another ranged weapon you have.
Additionally the array also grants an extra TWO attacks in close combat with a +1 strength, shred, armourbane, unwieldy profile. Remember these are two attack IN ADDITION to your normal ones. Double additionally, the array grants +2 to any battlesmith rolls you make, therefore restoring hull points on a 3+!!
Cyber-Occularis - Basically servo skulls with the profile below that allow barrage units to draw line of sight from them if the warlord has Djinn Skein and with the Barrage options available to the Ordo Reductor these are a very strong must include for absolute synergy.
Cyber-Occularis - Basically servo skulls with the profile below that allow barrage units to draw line of sight from them if the warlord has Djinn Skein and with the Barrage options available to the Ordo Reductor these are a very strong must include for absolute synergy.
WS BS S T W I A LD Sv
Cyber Occularis 2 3 2 3 1 4 1 9 3+
Jet pack infantry with stealth, fearless and a twin linked las pistol. These buggers also have Warning Relay - granting interceptor to units within 3 inches and also Augur Sweep which reduces enemy cover saves by -1 if they are within 12 inches of the Occularis.
Jet pack infantry with stealth, fearless and a twin linked las pistol. These buggers also have Warning Relay - granting interceptor to units within 3 inches and also Augur Sweep which reduces enemy cover saves by -1 if they are within 12 inches of the Occularis.
Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank Battery
85 point takes with a 12:10:10 3HP BS4 profile taken in squads of 1-3. These come standard with a whirlwind launcher that you will want to swap out for the following upgrades:
Demolisher Cannon - S10, AP2, Ordnance 1, Large Blast, 24 inch range
Quad Lascannon - S9, AP2, Heavy 2, Twin-linked 48 inch range
Dual Melta Cannon - S8, AP1, Heavy 1, Blast, Melta, Twin linked, 24 inch range
Earthshaker Cannon - S9, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast, 36-120 inch range
Medusa Cannon - S10, AP2, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Large Blast, 36 inch range
Medusa Cannon (Phosphex) - S5, AP2, As above except Poisoned 3+, Crawling Fire and Lingering Death
Mars-Colossus Bombard - S7, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Massive Blast (7inch), Concussive, Pinning, 12-72 inch range.
The whirlwind can also take Hyperios missile upgrades but as they have skyfire and would therefore be rubbish at round targets and the play style Ordo Reductor pushes is moving on an offensive I would leave these off. and Always pick one of upgrades above.
The two stand out choices in the list above are the Medusa Cannon (both options) and the Mars-Colossus Bombard. Both have good range when you consider you are an army moving forward and both will benefit from line of sight from a Cyber Occularis as they are barrage. The Medusa cannon can destroy tanks with its S10 AP2 (especially if granted Master of Destruction) and Phosphex will ruin any infantry mans day pretty hard.
The Mars Colossus is death to marines and is absolutely brutal.
These tanks also have the option of taking Siege Plating with grants AV13 on the front. Whilst nice I feel this is points not worth taking as you cannot take armoured ceramite and are AV10 at the side and rear anyway so your survivability will not increase significantly for points spent. You can however take a Blessed Autosimulcra which grants a restored hull point a turn on a roll of a 6.
Ordo Reductor Artillery Tank Battery
These are absolute monsters compared to the tanks above and are priced appropriately rocking at 205 base. But they are deserving of it!
BS4 13:12:13 for AV and 5 HP (5!!!) These suckers come with a Flare Shield for their arse (-1S to attacks and -2 for blast/template attacks hitting that facing), Extra armour, and a Blessed Autosimulcra as well. Additionally these guys CAN take armoured ceramite as well as an Auxiliary drive if needed (though you should be keeping a battle smith with machinator array near these guys for 3+ repairs). Other than those upgrades you can take a few pintle mounted weapons I won't bother with as they are not all that important and I don't recommend pimping these guys out due to their already high cost.
There main and only available main weapon (compared to the all you can eat buffet of death above) is the Dual Earthshaker Cannon.
Dual Earthshaker Cannon - S9, AP3, Ordnance 1, Barrage, Twin-Linked, Massive Blast (7") Range of 24-120 inches.
This gun can only fire barrage but it is twin-linked AND you must pair it with cyber occularis for line of sight shenanigans. These are horrible and will wreck face, again if you add Master of Demolitions to them then they can blow vehicles on a 6.
Additionally the strange AV configuration has been addressed and so no striking AV13 in close combat, the weakest side AV of 12 will be hit in close combat instead.
Overall
Death Comes in many forms. With the Ordo Reductor it usually rains down from the sky as great behemoths of metal crush the ground in front of you. The Ordo Reductor gives a wonderfully flavoured army choice to anyone collecting 30k Mechanicum and making the compulsory requirements to field their unique units are not difficult meaning you will not have to re-design your collection to have these as alternative options in your overall army collection.
I personally would love to have a unit or two of medusa cannon tanks in my back line pushing forwards and as soon as I can afford them I will!
I hope this has been useful as always :)
Peace out,
Rob
Thanks man#
ReplyDeleteNo worries, glad it helps in any way :)
DeleteI'm working on my reductor army and just finished my medusa cannons. still working on the rest of my list.
ReplyDeleteMedusas are nasty in the numbers you can take in a recutor!
Delete