We were on the cusp of the next Warhammer 40k Psychic Awakening book, Engine War, before the great COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.

Engine War will focus on the armies of the Adeptus Mechanicus, Imperial Knights, Chaos Knights and Daemons. Alongside the release of the book we are getting a whole bunch of reinforcements for the Ad Mech!

This week over on Warhammer Community they are previewing some of those new units. As the Sprues & Brews Mechanicus fanboy, I decided to type up what I thought of these teasers so far.

Sulphurhounds

We are getting two new mounted units, and the first one to get a focus on is the Sulphurhounds.

These are Vanguard on giant mechanical dogs, and are aimed with what looks to be Dual Phosphor Blast Pistols. The preview reveals that this unit can advance and still shoot its pistols, which coincidentally includes the mount’s weapon:

Yes! The mount has a nose-mounted flamer! -1 rend too which is very tasty, and as its a pistol too so can be used in combat.

Serberys Raiders

The alternate build for these are known as the Serberys Raiders. Whereas the Sulphers are Vanguard, the Serberys are Rangers with rifles. That is of course, aside from the Alpha of the unit who can instead be equipped with a Archeo-revolver.

Not looking out of place in the hands of Dirty Harry, this pistol not only looks awesome, but has a great stat line too.

The Raiders mount has the same nose-mounted flamer too.

Pteraxii Skystalkers

So we come to the brand new jump pack troop choice for the Adeptus Mechanicus. Again a dual kit, the first of which in the preview is the Pteraxii Skystalkers.

I had hoped these would be armed with a ‘sniper’ styled weapon, giving the Ad Mech a fast, character killing unit. This however, appears not to be the case, as the gun previewed for these guns is the Flechette Carbine.

This weapon has the same stat line as the Infiltrators Flechette Blasters, just with an increased range of 24″ over the Infiltrators 12″ range.

Whilst still being Strength 3, that is a lot of shots, and with them being assault means you could advance and shoot with the -1 penalty (negated by Protector Doctrine Imperative should you wish). It also gives Forge World Mars players another unit to use Wraith Of Mars stratagem on (6s to wound do a mortal wound in addition).

Additionally, one of the winged Skitarri from the Skystalkers can be armed with a Phosphor Torch.

A 12″ Strength 4 flamer, with D6 shots and -1 rend. Nice!

We aren’t done there yet though, as they do also have a close combat attack in the shape of the talons on their feet. The article doesn’t state if the close combat variant of this kit also gets this close combat attack, although I would imagine they would.

Archaeopter

Now this thing looks awesome! Finally the Mechanicus get a flyer, and what a weird and wonderful thing it is!

It’s certainly dividing opinion, however I think it looks fantastic and cannot wait to get my hands on one. But what to build it as?

The Archaeopter can be built in three different flavours; a Gunship, Transport or Bomber. Thanks to WarCom, we’ve had a teaser of the three versions.

Transvector

The troop carrier build still comes armed with a bunch of Cognis Heavy Stubbers and what also appears to be either missiles or perhaps some kind of decoy flare system (something like Smoke Launchers perhaps?).

Whilst it doesn’t have any real heavy firepower, it will be handy for getting those foot troops where you want them to be fast. I did hope we may have had the transport capacity announced, however sadly this hasn’t been the case. Based on the size of the hull many on social media are speculating a capacity of 5, whilst others are more hopeful than its 10.

Stratoraptor

For those who crave more firepower, you have the Gunship variant, the Stratoraptor.

Armed with two Heavy Phospher Blasters (as seen on the Kastelan Robots), twin Cognis Lascannons and two Cognis Heavy Stubbers, this thing is going to enjoy shooting your foes. Let us not forget Ad Mech fans that Cognis weapons, with the help of the stratagem Cognis Overwatch, allows you to fire at full Ballistic Skill at anyone foolish enough to want to charge you (I’m look at you Mortarion and Flying Hive Tyrants!).

Fusilave

Then we finally have the Bomber version, for those that want nothing more than to fly over their enemies and dropping death from above.

Armed with tectomagnic bombs, which ‘which cause seismic shock waves when they land’ as WarCom describes is a weapon we haven’t seen yet in the current Codex, so we have unfortunately no idea what they do! Again, the flyer is also armed with Cognis Heavy Stubbers for some more dakka.

And that’s all we’ve seen so far!

Normally when we see these kind of posts we see an announcement on the following Sunday that the book would be up for preorder the following week. Now, with the current restrictions in place and the factory being shut down (although the warehouse has now re-opened) this may not follow the normal protocols, but it isn’t out of the realms of possibility as the stock maybe ready to ship.

Psychic Awakening Engine War and all the above new units will likely be released in one wave. I’m also hoping we see an individual release of the previously Kill Team exclusive Tech-Priest Manipulus.

Published by David Jennings

Born and raised in Crewe in Cheshire, Dave is a geek through and through. Enjoys designing and managing websites. View all posts by David Jennings