Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Horus Heresy Review: Ordinatus-Minoris Macro Engine

Background.
They're big. They're old. They're very powerful. And they kill things. Frequently. They are legends. Entire mechanicum cults have grown up around them, but even in30k, those in the cults do not possess a full understanding of their inner workings. And more importantly than all of this: they are available to deploy in 30k Mechanicum armies as Lords of War.

Strengths.
As a superheavy they feature a lot of hull points each (14 to be precise) and have a nice front, rear and side AV values to boot.

But where it is really at are the unique weapons. The Sagittar comes with a Belicosa Volcano Cannon more commonly seen on titans with a divinely large pie plate. Whereas the Ulator class comes with a sonic disruptor that sends out a wave of destruction 7" wide from the cannon to the edge of the board and hits everything in said line. Its strength varies as a function of the type of target (infantry get a S=5 hit, super heavies suffer a D class hit). In this way, and if played well, the sonic disruptor is incredibly powerful -- much more so than the volcano cannon in many way. But equally, my preference would be the volcano cannon just for sheer reliability of D class hits all the time.

The engine comes with a 6+ invulnerable save and what is called an ordinatus dispersion shield. Like a hybrid of a flare shield and a void shield, it provides a modifier to both the S of incoming shooting attacks and a negative modifier to rolls on the destroyer table against it.

Weaknesses.
The dispersion shield is imperfect. Over time, its effectiveness will degrade. The negative modifier to the S and D roll table goes from -3 to -1 over the first 3 turns as it starts to wear thin and burn out. This is clearly a degrading effect, and very fluffy. But its also one to watch out for.

Finally, its worth noting that a meltdown can be very spectacular if it happens with a large radius and high S bound to hit nearby models. Beware.

Builds.
Well, there's only 2 variants so far for the macro engines: the Sagittar and Ulator. Both have their own strengths. I prefer the Sagittar myself just from the angle of reliable D class hits with a huge pie plate and costing less (points value). The sonic disruptor could be amazing though, there's no denying it. And its worth the additional points. Its just my personal preference that I like the volcano cannon more. That's all. 

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