The first army I ever started in the Horus Heresy was mechanicum. I had taken several years away from 40K for various reasons, but was still linked into the Freebootaz forum which I was pretty active in. In 2015, a friend pointed me to the Eye of Horus Podcast which was still pretty new and I was excited to find people were playing Horus Heresy. I decided on Mechanicum based on aesthetics, I loved the Vorax and Thallax models.
I started collecting and painting my mechanicum in the fall of 2015. I steadily built them throughout 2016 and brought them to NOVA Open 2016 as my main army. I believe I had about 2500 points of painted mechanicum by then. While I had played a few games over the previous year, I got more games in with my army over the convention weekend than I had in the last year.
After NOVA that year, I began to attend events in Richmond. The 30K scene was hopping, and always pushed narrative gaming. This was the encouragement I needed to start to develop the narrative for my army. Over the years I have added to it, and try to type a narrative for each event I use the army in. It has become a fun way to progress my own narrative and give cause for my mechanicum to be involved in the current event. Below are pictures of my current army (about 5,000 points). I have been going back through and updating my original scheme. The new scheme is the black and red seen on the vulturax, atrapos and thallax. I have also included the narrative for those who want to read further. -Ryan
Magos Prime Achillas was assigned as the defender of forge Epsilon-Alpa-Four of the Forgeworld Aegina. The forge was responsible for the manufacture of Thunderhawks, Fire Raptors and all manner of aerial support required to prosecute the great crusade. Heresy arrived at Aegina when several Forgelords, including his master, declared against the Imperium and the loyal Mechanicum of Mars. After fighting a prolonged delaying action in a hopeless defense and being surrounded on all sides by traitors, Achillas was forced to flee with his remaining loyal myrmidons and his Thagmata cyborgs in a commandeered Thunderhawk.
After evading the traitor blockade through the clever use of the traitors own transponder and communications systems, Achillas and the remainder of his Thagmata were able to link up with scattered loyalist mechanicum forces fleeing from Forgeworld Aegina. Landing the Thunderhawk in the bay of a mechanicum explorator frigate, Magos Prime Achillas immediately sought out the ranking Magos on board to determine the next step in bringing the fight to the betrayers. When Achillas reached the bridge, he was confronted by a number of other Magi in the same position as him, as well as Legiones Astartes who had been on the Forgeworld to represent their Legions needs.
As the Omnissiah willed it, Achillas was greeted by Archmagos Dominus Caledon, whom he had served with on several Explorator Fleet assignments in the past. Immediately recognizing the need to regroup their resources and make contact with Loyalist forces, a plan was set. After some debate, it was determined that the beleaguered fleet would make haste to the Istvaan System, where seven loyal Legions and supporting Mechanicum forces were preparing to bring justice to the Traitor Legions. Forgelords from the Iron Hands, Salamanders and Iron Warriors had all made it off the Forgeworld, and were eager to rejoin their Legions. The loyal Mechanicum elements sought to bring what forces they had mustered to support the fight, and to get directions from the Primarch Ferrus Manus, designated Commander of the Istvaan retribution force. Though communications to the Retribution Fleet were garbled, it was clear the muster was nearing an end and the assault on Istvaan V would be swift and overwhelming. The entire fleet buzzed with the possibility of delivering their own vengeance to the traitors, who sought to undo the work of the Imperium and Mechanicum of Mars.
As the fleet, led by Archmagos Dominus Caledon, entered the Istvaan system, it was clear all was not well. The fleet was immediately hailed by an Alpha Legion cordon and told to stand down. Scattered vox traffic indicated that the assault on Istvaan 5 had failed, and that more legions had turned against the Loyalists. Reports of the death of Ferrus Manus were met with shock, Vulkan and Corax were misssing and unaccounted for. Risking destruction, Caledon ordered his fleet to break the cordon and attempt to rescue the remaining loyalists stranded on the surface. Taking heavy losses to the few frigates at his disposal, landers were able to retrieve dozens of loyalist Salamanders, Ravenguard and Iron Hands survivors. Magos Prime Achillas personally made planet fall with Thagmata Aegina to assist in the recovery effort, further proving his worth by spilling more traitor blood and recovering several surviving squads of Salamanders. Unable to hold off the traitor fleets any longer, Caledon ordered the immediate withdrawal of the remaining fleet, which then transmitted to the warp.
