In time I'd like to develop an Adeptus Mechanicus Ordo Reductor list, I suggested it a couple of years ago and some people were interested, but I never got further than that. The Ordo Reductor are a specialist siege-attackers branch of the AM, which has very occasionally been mentioned (they fight in the 2nd War for Armageddon for example).
They're a list I like the idea of and there's plenty of opportunity to make them different and interesting, but not much is known about, so this is necessarily pretty speculative. The below is just an initial tentative list of ideas for what could be in the list for the moment, with no structure or points yet. I'd want them to be very powerful in some ways and very weak in others and overall a challenge to play well.
Overall themes: siege attackers for the very largest and deadliest sieges, huge guns and artillery, even rarer and/or more siege specific kit than the AM list
Advantages: selection of very deadly artillery, guns and Siege Titans; defence lines, tunnelers, or Spartans for infantry; all vehicles and war engines (bar the Siege Dreadnoughts or Ordinatus Majoris) have a 4+ Reinforced Armour save.
Disadvantages: expensive formations and no cheap formations causing very low activation counts; infantry must take transports or defence lines boosting their costs; mostly slow units; probably no scouts; no aircraft; no Warhounds and other Titans are specified siege configurations rather than customisable.
Discussion of what would included and not compared to the core AM list:
- Infantry - Hypapists, the ones with multiple heavy weapons, Praetorians and Tech Characters as normal, however they must compulsorily take either defence lines (same or similar rules to trenches) or transport vehicles.
- Transports: Termites, Moles and Hellbores - all very fitting to burrow underneath enemy fortifications and it would be good to allow Imperial players to use these classic models which otherwise I don’t think are used in any Imperial list (that I know of). Plus also Spartans and Land Raider Achilles - the background from Forge World for these units specifically states them to be used by AM armies generally in larger/deadlier battles (the Spartan) or the Ordo Reductor specifically (the Achilles).
- Artillery: Minotaur Artillery Tank - their background describes them as extremely ancient technology by Imperial standards, as well as very high-tech, difficult to maintain and rare and so saved for specific siege regiments. Overall they fit the list perfectly. See here for their background. The stats are in the Vraksian Renegades list, under chaos in the compendium (they’re an imperial vehicle that the renegades found in the armoury that fell to the renegades). Perhaps other artillery too, though I’m not sure there’s anything else that would be fitting.
- Field Artillery: Thunderfire Cannons instead of Rapiers or Mole Mortars- they're a powerful, high tech weapon requiring a tech-skilled crewman and it makes sense for the Ordo Reductor to use them, particularly as we know they use the Land Raider Achilles, which uses a Thunderfire for its main gun.
- Other units: Siege Dreadnoughts (statwise as per the SM ones, though with AM inside them and obviously no ATSKNF) - very old 80s background mentions the Ordo Reductor field Siege Dreadnoughts (whether they'd look like SM Siege Dreadnoughts or be a different design would be up to individual modellers).
- NO Robots - they use Siege Dreadnoughts instead
- NO Sentinels – far too fragile
- Valdor Tank Hunter - its background describes it being commonly fielded by the AM: [quote=”Forge World”]Valdor Tank Hunter, an ancient design based on the Malcador chassis, it is built round a powerful neutron laser weapon able to make a mockery of the strongest armoured defence. Although more common in the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the arcane technology used in their construction makes these tanks revered relics within Imperial Guard armoured companies[/quote].
Considering how speculative much of the Ad-Mech list is, it surprises me that its developers choose to ignore the cues from FW on the units that are used by the Ad-Mech, considering they will likely release a range and rules for them at some point in the next few years and it would surely be better to be closer to that where we can. - NO Machariuses – they’re not siege specific and I think it’s a terrible idea for Machariuses to be in the core Ad-Mech list(s) in the first place.
- The Leman Russ Executioners and Machariuses are gone from the list but I reckon it could be good to include a siege superheavy. I’d have included the Stormsword, but they’re mostly battlefield conversions from wrecked Shadow Swords, apparently “not an official STC design, and the more conservative elements within the Adeptus Mechanicus look down upon those regiments who deploy them.” Not really appropriate for AM then. The next best alternative could be the Hell Hammer maybe? I believe there was a suitable a proxy ages ago and Black Legion’s proposed stats which I looked up and copy and pasted from another thread (I’m not sure how accurate they are) are:
Hellhammer
Type Speed Armour CloseCombat Firefight
War Engine 15cm 4+ 6+ 4+
Weapon Range Firepower Notes
Hellhammer Cannon 30cm 2BP Disrupt, Ignore Cover, Fixed Forward Arc
Twin Heavy Bolter 30cm AP4+
2 x Lascannon 45cm AT5+
2 x Twin Heavy Flamer 15cm AP3+ Ignore Cover
Damage Capacity 3. Critical Hit Effect: The Hellhammer's magazine explodes. The Hellhammer is destroyed, and any units within 5cm of the model suffer a hit on a D6 roll of 6.
Notes: Reinforced Armour. - Ordinatus Majoris - super powerful weapons are appropriate here.
- NO Ordinatus Minoris – probably too fragile to be included?
- AA - Praetor (armed with the AA missile option, ignoring the alternate ones they can go for in 40k) is the best AA unit for the list I reckon, since its 2DC Reinforced Armour. Otherwise AA would just be on the Majoris (if the AA Heavy Bolters stay in it’s stats) and possibly Carapace Multi-Lasers on the Siege Warlord.
- NO Warhounds available - speed not as useful in a siege and just too fragile
- Reaver (Siege Configuration) with a tentative fixed armourment of Corvus Assault Pod, Siege Hammer (as per powerfist that also has disrupt on its CC EAs), Inferno Canon.
- Warlord (Siege Configuration) with a tentative fixed armourment of Quake Cannon, Plasma Destructor, Volcano Cannon, Barrage Missile and maybe.
- Imperator (Siege Configuration - though a proper distinct name for it would be better as per the Warmonger) with a tentative armament of a giant Melta-weapon on one arm, Corvus Assault Bridge on the other (probably including some kind of weapon too), Flame weapons in place of Battlecannons as the turret guns. With the existing Imperators we have the generalist mid-range Imperator and the extreme long range support-titan Warmonger, so there a gap that could be filled by a short ranged Imperator (when they introduced Emperor Class Titans with Titan Legions there were meant to be various different configurations they were thinking of releasing).
- NO spacecraft - the kind of huge siege assaults the OR would b get called out for would often involve them taking on a fortress defended by numerous Defence Lasers (or their Xenos equivalents), making using spacecraft above that area of the world too risky.
Thoughts, opinions, ideas and feedback welcome?
I'd like to finish it up properly and try it out but will only be able to test it using nearly everything proxied or late in the year (once I buy a computer over here and I’m waiting on the upcoming Windows 8 ones) by VASSAL.
|
The list would need a large amount of work and testing to balance, but I think it has potential and would be a different style of army to play. 
)