The cogs of war turn ever onward! The Mechanicum arrives in Legions Imperialis via its brand-new Battle Group. This review dives into the details of the sprues, exploring the build options for the cybernetic warriors and mechanical monstrosities that will soon march to war in epic scale.
The new Legions Imperialis Mechanicum Battlegroup will be available for pre-order starting Saturday, 19 October 2024. The pre-order period lasts two weeks, with the official release date set for 2 November 2024.
The Mechanicum Battle Group unboxed
The Mechanicum Battle Group contains 146 individual miniatures on 48 sculpted bases, plus four Triaros Conveyors without bases. The models are distributed across four different medium-sized sprue frames. Each sprue is duplicated twice in the box as usual with Legion Imperialis kits, resulting in a total of eight sprue frames. Unfortunately, no transfer sheet is included.
Mechanicum Infantry
The (identical) sprues 1 and 2 build the following array of models, all on 25mm round bases:
- 2 Tech-priest Auxilia units
- 2 Archmagi Primes on Abeyants
- 2 Myrmidon Secutors
- 4 Myrmidon Destructor hosts
- 4 Ursarax cohorts
- 8 Thallax
- 10 Adsecularis Tech-thralls bases
The Mechanicum infantry continue the Legions Imperialis tradition of small moulded rocks between their tiny legs to help attach them to the sculpted urban bases (see our review of the core set for more on Legions Imperialis bases). Most models are single-piece castings and thankfully visible undercuts are almost a non-issue. Thallax and Ursurax are two-part, allowing you to interchange and rotate their upper and lower bodies for more posing options.
Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of the sprue images (inc. backsides) can be downloaded here.
Mechanicum Battle-Automata
On the (identical) sprues 3 and 4 you’ll find the larger automata of the Taghmata. You’ll get:
- 2 Arlatax Battle-Automata (on 25mm bases)
- 2 Domitar Battle-Automata (on 25mm bases)
- 2 Vultarax Stratos-Automata (on 32mm bases)
- 2 Vorax Battle-Automata bases (32mm)
- 4 Castellax Battle-Automata bases (32mm)
The models are multipart and very detailed, I can also spot no visible undercuts at all. The Castellax and Vorax constructs have interchangeable arms, bodies, and legs, so that there are almost infinite combination possibilities.
Mechanicum Thanatar Siege-Automata
This kit comes on two identical sprues and builds 8 Thanatar Siege-Automata in total, all on 32mm bases. 4 models can be build with Plasma mortars, while the other 4 get a Sollex heavy-las. Arms are interchangeable, and you get enough arms to equip all 8 models with either close combat option. Upper and lower bodies are interchangeable als well. If you’re familiar with other Legions Imperialis walker and vehicle kits you’ll know the obscene amount of detail they cram on such tiny models. However, the models are also very complex, despite their small size they consist of 12 to 13 components each.
Patreon bonus content: Ultra high-res, uncompressed versions of the sprue images (inc. backsides) can be downloaded here.
Mechanicum Triaros Squadron
The final two identical sprues build 4 Triaros Conveyors in total. The Conveyors are some of the largest tanks in Legions Imperialis yet and have a very high level of detail, with sharp casting quality down to even the tiniest rivets. Each Conveyor is made up of 15 different pieces, with two additional optional rocket pieces.
How to get
The Mechanicum Battle Group has an RRP of £95 / 125€. This is cheaper than previous Battle Groups, though you only get 8 sprues of models in this, not 10. Please note that this box is marked ‘while stocks last’, although previous Battle Groups are still readily available at the time of writing.
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I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.
8.0Score
Pros
- 52 bases/models covering the entire Taghmata core
- High level of detail and sharp casting
- Infantry is pretty much undercut free
Cons
- Larger automata and the Conveyors are quite complex fiddly builds
- No transfer sheet included
Final Verdict
Legions Imperialis continues to receive strong support from Games Workshop. With the Mechanicum Battle Group, a third faction is now entering the battlefields of the Horus Heresy. Or perhaps even a fourth, as the 'Rise of the Dark Mechanicum' expansion book allows you to recruit these models for the Dark Mechanicum as well, who can field their own unique war machines. The models in the Battle Group maintain the high level of detail and complexity of previous Legions Imperialis releases, and thankfully, the designers have managed to almost completely eliminate visible undercuts on the infantry models this time.
Great review, I am pretty excited to try using some of the larger models from here to kitbash ‘normal’ scale models in the 40k universe. Primaris plasma mortar!