This section of Codex:
Cult Mechanicus lists wargear (including
Melee Weapons,
Ranged Weapons,
Flamer Weapons,
Armour,
Special Issue Wargear,
Arcana Mechanicum and
Arcana Mechanicum (Gathering the Storm)) used by Cult Mechanicus, along with the rules for using them in your games of Warhammer 40,000.
Profiles for the following melee weapons can be found in the Warhammer 40,000 rulebook:
| During the Cyberghoul Wars, the burrowing Daemon machines of Warpsmith Votogr Bolga were met talon to talon by Metalica’s servitor defenders. It was the invention of the arc claw that turned the tide – a potent delivery system for the most sophisticated scrambler technology the Adeptus Mechanicus could devise. |
| The dataspikes favoured by the agents of the Adeptus Mechanicus can stab into the cortex of enemy machines and steal their secrets within a couple of heartbeats. |
Dataspike:
When a model equipped with a weapon that has this special rule makes
Melee attacks, it makes an additional attack with this weapon at the Initiative 10 step. This does not grant the model an additional
Pile In move.
| The powerful capacitors built into the length of each electroleech stave allow them to drink every iota of electric force from those they strike – be they living foeman or blasphemous machine. |
Electroleech:
Any
To Wound roll of 6 made by an
electroleech stave has the
Instant Death special rule.
| Corpuscarii wear metal apparatus around their wrists that channels tremendous electrostatic potential from dorsal generators. This can be discharged in a cascade of killing lightning. |
| The hydraulic claws of Kataphron Breachers are driven not only by powerful pistons, but also sanctified oils that are collected, drip by drip, from God-Machines at rest. The Tech-Priests’ belief is that in maintaining this process, they confer some of the Titan’s strength to their servitors. One who has witnessed the ruin wrought by a hydraulic claw will be hard pressed to refute it. |
Iron Grasp:
When a model equipped with a
hydraulic claw makes its close combat attacks, it can choose instead to make a single Grasp Attack. If it does so, roll
To Hit as normal, but resolve the Attack at double the model’s Strength (to a maximum of 10) and AP2.
| The raw might of the motive force dances between the splayed claws of the arc scourge. A potent weapon of technobanishment, this weapon is designed to target heretic war engines and exorcise their machine spirits with jolts of agonising lightning. |
Machine Scourge:
A model equipped with this weapon can re-roll the result when rolling to determine the effect of the
Haywire special rule.
| Hissing and slithering like a nest of mechanical snakes, the mechadendrite hive engulfs the foe in dozens of steel tendrils. Lashing, stabbing and throttling, the mass of mechadendrites disassembles its victims with horrific speed. |
When a model equipped with a mechadendrite hive makes
Melee attacks, it makes an additional 2D6 attacks with its mechadendrites, and a single attack with its dataspike, all at the
Initiative 10 step. These attacks do not grant the model an additional
Pile In move.
| Tech-Priest Enginseers and their Servitor minions often sport powerful servo-arms. These mechanised limbs can be turned with equal ease to complex battlefield repairs, or crushing the life from the foe. Though these weapons are slow to strike, once the blessed hydraulics of the servo-arm’s claw have locked in and begun to squeeze, foes face a hideous and inexorable death. |
| The eradication ray spells death to any caught in its pallid light. Those on the periphery of its cone-like emanations find themselves discorporating, melting like smoke into nothingness. Those unlucky enough to be close to the muzzle are simply rubbed out of existence. |
One shot from an eradication ray has a different profile depending on how far the target is from the firer. If it is not clear which of the profiles to use, the
controlling player can choose.
| The gamma pistol is entrusted only to the truly blessed. The beam of ionizing radiation that leaps from its muzzle can reduce a man to a blackened shadow in a second, but this is a waste of its true strength – those able to tame its savage machine spirit can cut holes in an Aquila Strongpoint if necessary. |
| Devised to slay the Daemon machines of the Dark Mechanicum, the heavy arc rifle is powered by ancient Martian electrotech. It sends out shallow parabolas of crackling energy that revolve around each other, forming triple helixes as they blast forth. Should these ground upon a metallic target they will swiftly overload its circuits and banish its animating spirit to the ether. |
| The graviton technologies used by the Adeptus Mechanicus are fearsome indeed. A target hit by the heavy grav-cannon’s invisible field will be stunned and likely crippled, or even crushed under their own exponentially increased mass until all that is left is an oozing disc of biometallic waste. |
| The macrostubber is an antique pistol able to hurl out a thunderous cloud of solid slugs. Though the pistol’s weapon-science is relatively blunt, the sight of its bullet stream chewing the flesh of the foe offers an undeniable charm to even the most jaded Tech-Priest. |
Burst Pistol:
A weapon with this special rule fires five shots when fired, but is otherwise treated as a
Pistol.
| Phosphor weapons range from the hand-held serpenta favoured by many Tech-Priests to the heavy phosphor blaster mounted upon Kataphron Battle Servitors. The burning white spheres that shoot out from phosphor weapons cling tenaciously to their targets, sizzling wildly as they melt into flesh or burrow through armour and exoskeleton alike. More often than not, it is these luminagenic orbs that deal the death blow. Even if a target proves tough enough to survive the burning pain, the phosphorescent glow these spheres exude can guide an ally’s volley to strike the same target. |
Luminagen:
A unit that suffers one or more unsaved Wounds,
glancing or
penetrating hits caused by a weapon with this special rule counts its
cover saves as being 1 point worse than normal until the end of the phase. Furthermore, units can re-roll the dice to determine their
charge range against the afflicted unit until the end of the turn.
| Plasma culverins sacrifice the range of their cannon-pattern equivalents in exchange for a higher rate of fire. Only the Adeptus Mechanicus dare coax such rampant destruction from their plasma weaponry, yet to the adepts of Ryza in particular, the scars they leave on wielder and war zone alike are considered quite normal. |
| The tri-sectional barrel of the torsion cannon is amongst the holiest of Mars’ weapon technologies. When energised, it sends out three synchronous gaol-fields that hold sections of the target in place. As the sections of the cannon’s barrel turn counter to one another, the matter grasped in the fields is mercilessly twisted, subjected to an impossible torque that rips, buckles and ruins alien monstrosities and enemy war engines alike. |
Gravitic Contortion:
Each time a non-vehicle model suffers an unsaved Wound from this weapon, it loses D3 Wounds instead of only 1. Each time a vehicle model suffers a
penetrating hit from this weapon, it loses D3 Hull Points instead of only 1.
| Favoured during the Great Crusade before the Terran boltgun drove them into decline, volkite weapons impart so much thermodynamic energy to the target that those under their shimmering rays simply combust. Such unfortunates burn to cinders in explosions of jetting flame, frequently taking nearby comrades to the grave with them. |
Deflagrate:
After normal attacks by this weapon have been resolved, count the number of unsaved Wounds caused on the target unit. Immediately resolve a number of additional automatic Strength 6 AP5 hits on the same unit equal to the number of unsaved Wounds. Models in the target unit must still be in range in order for these additional hits to take effect. Any further Wounds caused as a result of this special rule do not cause any further hits.
All of the following weapons are
Flamer weapons for the purposes of any special rules that interact with Template weapons as described in Warhammer 40,000: The Rules.
| The spark-like anger of the cognis flamer’s machine spirit has been fanned to a roaring blaze. When under duress it will fight with incendiary wrath, even should its wielder be distracted. |
Cognis Flamewall:
If a
Flamer weapon with the Cognis Flamewall special rule fires
Overwatch using the
Wall of Death rule, it automatically inflicts 3 hits rather than D3.
| Typically mounted atop the Kastelan Battle Robot, the incendine combustor hurls out great gouts of burning, thrice-blessed promethium. Laced with Magos-blessed unguents and ignited by a flame lit from the Perpetual Forge, each holy fire-thrower can turn a technoheretic into foul tallow in a matter of seconds. |
| The armour worn by the more warlike priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus makes even the advanced Mark VIII power armour of the Adeptus Astartes seem basic by comparison. Each suit of war plate is a work of art, its electrofibre bundles and ceramite plates customised to the wearer via a hundred cybernetic interfaces. For many of the Omnissiah’s faithful it is nigh impossible to determine where the armour ends and the wearer begins. |
Artificer armour confers a 2+
Armour Save.
| The robotic automata of the Legio Cybernetica are not clad in hyperdense metal so much as constructed from it. No trace of meat nor bone can be found within their hardy metal frames. Even krak grenades detonate against them with little more effect than a hivejuve’s hurled firecracker. |
Kastelan battlehide confers a 3+
Armour Save.
| Though the torso and head of the Kataphron Battle Servitor hints at its fleshy past, the rest of its frame is a titanium-laced fortress of metal and plasteel that turns aside bullet and blade alike. Cybernetically reinforced to fit their role as close assault operatives, each Breacher is capable of driving right into the firepower of an entire squad and still emerging intact. |
Kataphron breacherplate confers a 3+
Armour Save.
| The weapon systems of the Kataphron Destroyer generate so much heat that their cabling is necessarily exposed – to armour their wielder in heavy breacherplate would doom it to swift burnout. Nonetheless, its cyborgised anatomy and heavy steel treads provide a great deal of protection against small arms fire. |
Kataphron demiplate confers a 4+
Armour Save.
| The technocrats of the Adeptus Mechanicus are past masters of energy conversion. It was their order that devised the conversion field, a spherical projection of transformative force that can turn an incoming burst of energy into harmless light. |
A conversion field confers a 4+
invulnerable save. At the end of a phase in which the bearer passes one or more invulnerable saves granted by the conversion field, all units within D6" of the bearer must test as if they had been hit by a weapon with the
Blind special rule. Friendly units can re-roll this test.
| Digital weapons, miniaturized guns commonly worn as jewellery upon the finger by Inquisitors and influential Rogue Traders alike, are often implanted directly into the primary manipulator digits of the Adeptus Mechanicus. One so blessed has the power of sudden death at his fingertips. |
A model armed with digital weapons can re-roll a single failed
roll To Wound in each
Assault phase.
| The gilded skulls of particularly devoted archivists are often posthumously repurposed as infoslaves, servo-skulls that record everything their highly advanced autosenses perceive on their master’s behalf. |
A model equipped with an infoslave skull adds 1 to its Leadership and gains the
Acute Senses special rule.
| The metal cables and spidery armatures that augment the Tech-Priests of the Cult Mechanicus can fulfil a hundred different tasks, from stealing the secrets of unhallowed cogitators to punching into the eye sockets of nearby assailants. Most commonly, they allow their wearers to wield a profusion of advanced weaponry. |
A model with a mechadendrite harness can fire all of its ranged weapons in the
Shooting phase. In addition, a model with a mechadendrite harness is also equipped with a
dataspike.
| Considered essential by many lesser Tech-Priests, the refractor field distorts the image of the wearer with a shimmering cloak of energy. Incoming attacks that strike the field will be refracted into multispectral bursts that dissipate into harmlessness. |
A refractor field confers a 5+
invulnerable save.
| The Adeptus Mechanicus take the assessment and exploitation of battlefield resources very seriously indeed – so much so that many of them continue their work in this role beyond the point of death. |
At the start of each of your turns, a model with a Scryerskull can choose to identify a single
Mysterious Objective anywhere on the battlefield.
| Tech-Priests extend their lives by a variety of means; rejuvenat treatments, anti-agapic elixirs, contrachron symbiotes – some even carry exomantic stasis fields that hold them in suspended animation whenever the wearer’s life force is in immediate danger. |
While a model equipped with a stasis field has
Gone to Ground, it gains a 2+
invulnerable save, but its Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill characteristics are reduced to 0.
| Nimbuses of pure energy surround all Electro-Priests, crackling from their bare skin to coalesce into sparking pockets of electromagnetism that hover like will-o-the-wisps above a drowned corpse. When incoming projectiles or energy beams threaten an Electro-Priest these tiny voltaic ghosts will often intercede, shattering or dissipating the threats in puffs of burning ozone. When the wearer of the field charges the foe, those same voltagheists ground upon nearby enemies in bursts of electric force. |
A voltagheist field confers a 5+
invulnerable save. Furthermore, a model with a voltagheist field has the
Hammer of Wrath special rule, resolved at Strength 4, and does not suffer the penalty to their Initiative for
charging enemies through difficult terrain, but fights at its normal Initiative in the ensuing combat.
Arcana Mechanicum are items of miraculous power crafted long ago by the Cult Mechanicus and borne to war in the furtherance of their cause. Only one of each of the following relics may be chosen per army.
Only one of each item of Arcana Mechanicum may be taken per army. A model may take one of the following:
1 May only be taken by a Tech-Priest Dominus.
| Appearing as a nest of mechadendrites, this unsettling device can be set to dissect a nearby alien organism with startling speed and efficiency even in the midst of battle. Blood flies, paralytic elixirs are administered, skin is peeled from muscle and muscle parted from endoskeleton. The wearer watches with scientific interest as his device swiftly concludes its autopsy, filing away observations upon the biomechanics of the foe until the specimen collapses in a mess of laser-sliced viscera and drilled bone. |
When a model equipped with Anzion’s Pseudogenetor makes its close combat attacks, make D6 additional Attacks using the following profile in addition to any other close combat attacks it makes:
Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land
| This rod’s runic tip can impart blessed energy to anything metallic that the wielder strikes with sufficient vigour. Those cyborgs and engines so struck will stitch themselves back together as if repaired by the hands of the Technoarcheologist himself. |
The bearer of the Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land, and his unit, have the
It Will Not Die special rule.
Mask of the Alpha Dominus
| The wearer of this mask can override the programming of nearby battle constructs with an imperious binharic blurt. Such is the force of the mask’s demands that it reduces the former doctrina wafer to a smoking wreck. The Alpha Dominus considers it a small price to pay, for his maniple can go from a braced firing stance to a destructive rampage in the blink of an eye. |
The bearer can use the Mask of the Alpha Dominus at any time to instantly change the
Battle Protocol of a friendly
Kastelan Robot Maniple or
Cohort Cybernetica Formation within 12" of the bearer. The new Battle Protocol becomes active immediately. However, the unit or Formation cannot use the Battle Protocol that they changed from for the rest of the battle.
Raiment of the Technomartyr
| This baroque suit of artificer armour contains dozens of eager machine spirits that buzz within its fibre bundles like stinging insects. The Tech-Priests consider the resultant discomfort of little import, for at a simple conjuration, these spirits swarm out in a sparkling cloud to inhabit the weapons of those nearby. Guns that have been graced by one of these excitable animas can pour volleys of fire into the enemy even when their wielders falter. |
The Raiment of the Technomartyr confers a 2+
Armour Save. Furthermore, all ranged weapons carried by models with the
Cult Mechanicus or
Skitarii Faction in the bearer’s unit have the
Cognis Weapons special rule.
The Scryerskull Perspicatus
| This tiny servo-skull reads the battlefield as a cascade of binary code. Those who gather and process its papery expulsions see not only the treasures of the battlefield, but also the weaknesses of those enemy vehicles found wanting in the Perspicatus’ sight. |
At the start of each of your turns, a model with the Scryerskull Perspicatus can choose either to identify a single
Mysterious Objective or to scry an enemy
vehicle anywhere on the battlefield. If you choose to scry a vehicle, any friendly units with the
Cult Mechanicus or
Skitarii Faction re-roll failed
armour penetration rolls against that vehicle, and can choose to re-roll
glancing hits scored on it in an attempt to instead get a
penetrating hit, until the start of your next turn.
| The Uncreator Gauntlet was originally devised to reverse-engineer lost technologies. When laid upon a machine, xenotech fields are released that cause the construct’s chronology to be wound back. If the timing is accurate to the picosecond, the temporal anomaly can rejuvenate the machine to the prime of its operative lifespan – or go on to reduce it to a neatly-arrayed pile of component parts, each ready for the Tech-Priest’s inspection. |
A model equipped with the Uncreator Gauntlet can use it in the
Fight sub-phase instead of making its normal close combat attacks. To do so, nominate a
vehicle model (friend or foe) in base contact with the bearer. If you choose an enemy vehicle,
roll To Hit with a single Attack. If the attack hits, or if you chose a friendly vehicle, roll a D6 and consult the following table:
| D6 | Result | | 1 | Your opponent chooses for the vehicle to regain 1 Hull Point lost earlier in the game or lose 1 Hull Point*. | | 2-3 | Choose for the vehicle to regain 1 Hull Point lost earlier in the game or lose 1 Hull Point*. | | 4-5 | Choose for the vehicle to regain D3 Hull Points lost earlier in the game or lose D3 Hull Points*. | | 6 | Choose for the vehicle to regain D6 Hull Points lost earlier in the game or lose D6 Hull Points*. |
|
* Invulnerable saves can be attempted against each Hull Point lost in this manner.
| Using a complex focussing array of Cawl’s own design, this weapon concentrates thermic energy and melta-waves into a short-ranged but utterly unstoppable blast that can melt through an enemy war engine in seconds. |
Arcana Mechanicum (Gathering the Storm)
Characters that can normally take a relic (or equivalent) and have been selected as part of a
Conclave Acquisitorius Formation, a
Grand Convocation Detachment, or are in an army that includes
Belisarius Cawl, can select one of the following Arcana Mechanicum. Only one of each of the following relics may be chosen per army.
| Fashioned from the augmetic cranium of the late Lexio Arcanus Morbidius D’Agrabax, this elaborate servo-skull contains a singularly powerful cogitator array. Fitted with multispectrum auspex actuators, the skull retains a ghost of D’Agrabax’s obsessive personality and compulsive attention to detail. It can pinpoint and highlight the slightest weak spot in the defences of even the most formidable foe, revealing the enemy’s secrets in chattered binharic bursts. |
At the start of each of your turns, choose one of the following special rules to apply to the bearer and their unit (or their weapons, as appropriate), until the start of your next turn:
Cognis Weapons,
Monster Hunter,
Skyfire or
Tank Hunters.
Numinasta’s Casket of Electromancy
| This device was crafted by Electromagos Dominus Valstokh Numinasta. Threaded with micro-emitter vanes and electooscripture, the casket gathers and trammels the leaping dataghosts of the motive force. When its sacred polarity is reversed, the device spews forth an enraged storm of electrogheists and voltaic wraiths that descend upon the unclean machineries of the alien and the heretic with murderous fury. |
Once per game, the bearer can choose to unleash Numinasta’s Casket instead of using another ranged weapon. This attack automatically targets and hits all enemy units (including
Flyers and
Flying Monstrous Creatures) within range of the attack, regardless of
line of sight.
| This heavy, cog-toothed amulet has, at various times, been worn around the neck of worthy bearers, slotted into the flesh-sockets of influential Technomagi, and even incorporated within the workings of blessed engines of war. Considered deeply sacred, the device projects a crackling field of the Omnissiah’s blessings that shields the worthy and the auto-pious from harm. The machine spirits of the Omnissiah’s Grace are proprietary and aggressive, integrating with any existing shield-devices its bearer already possesses and amplifying their effects significantly. |
The bearer has a 6+
invulnerable save. If the bearer already has an invulnerable save, it is improved by 1, to a maximum of 3+.
| A bizarre weapon based around utterly prohibited lore from before the dawn of the Imperium, the quantum annihilator harnesses the potential energy locked within the victim’s subatomic makeup. These energies are unlocked in devastating waves that cause the victim’s own corporeal form to obliterate itself in a spectacular explosion of released potential energy. |
Replaces one of the bearer’s ranged weapons.
Quantum Paradox:
Each time the bearer fires this weapon, roll 2D6 to determine the Strength of all its attacks that turn, after the target unit has been chosen. If the roll is above 10, any successful
rolls To Hit will automatically wound non-vehicle targets and gain the
Instant Death special rule, and will automatically inflict a
penetrating hit against
vehicle targets.
| At the heart of this arrangement of pipes, gauges and cogged mechanisms hangs a microscopic particle of blessed dark matter. The sacred energies that pulse from that particle are channelled through the ancient device, manifesting as shock waves of divine power that drive back the foe. |
Any unit attempting to charge the bearer or their unit must subtract 2 from its
charge range (to a minimum of 0). This effect is cumulative with any other modifiers to charge range that may be applicable.
| A figure from ancient Martian data-lore who glowed with cleansing light, Saint Curia is the patron of Radsmiths and Biologis Eradacati across Mars and beyond. Created by the Conclave Genocidius in honour of the saint, the Autopurger spews forth billowing clouds of highly irradiated incense smog that proves quickly inimical to biological organisms. |
Models
charging the bearer and their unit do not gain
bonus Attacks for charging. In addition, all models in any units that are
locked in combat with the bearer and their unit must pass a
Toughness test at the
Initiative 10 step. The unit suffers one Wound for each Toughness test that is failed. Saves can be taken as normal against Wounds caused in this manner.
