We're all in a buzz over the awesome Dark Mechanicum miniatures shown in last week's Warhammer Day Preview and Heresy Thursday reveals, but despite how awe-inspiring it is to see the sinister works of Kelbor-Hal in the flesh after all this time, we can't forget that there's loads more to come from the Rise of the Dark Mechanicum expansion book. There are rules for Mechanicum formations, their Collegia Titanica and Knight Household allies, and more for us to chew into, but today we're lifting the lid on the new Escalation Campaigns and the fateful Grand Clash siege of Magma City.
Escalation Campaigns follow a familiar format – teams of players battle over several mission cycles, each one two or three games long, with more intricate Flashpoint Missions between them and a glorious Grand Clash at the end. Where these campaigns differ is that each cycle has a steadily increasing points limit, growing from a humble force into a mighty legion over the course of gruelling battles.
This is a great way to build your collection as you play, or even start a brand new army project from scratch with reinforcements arriving as the campaign heats up. The final battle then pitches everybody taking part in a titanic clash for ultimate glory, with Flashpoint battles completed along the way giving useful boons to victorious players.
FLASHPOINT – RIVER CROSSING
Flashpoint Boon
During the Grand Clash, each player from the Faction that
was victorious during this Cycle may choose a Formation
they control. All units in that Formation gain the Forward Deployment special rule.
FLASHPOINT – DEPOT RAID
Flashpoint Boon
During the Grand Clash, the Faction that was victorious
during this Cycle gains access to an Artillery Bombardment.
At the start of each Combat phase, before any activations are resolved, the Faction General may fire a bombardment using
the profile below, measuring from any point on the Faction’s battlefield edge:
Artillery Bombardment
Range: 200″
Dice: 2
To Hit: 4+
AP: -2
Traits: Heavy Barrage
The Fall of Magma City is an epic, multi-stage battle that tasks the traitorous team with expanding their beachhead into three separate Conquest Areas, while loyalist forces try to stem the unending tide. And we mean unending – attacking forces that fall in battle can be returned to the field so long as enough of them are waiting in the wings to group up.
GRAND CLASH
THE FALL OF MAGMA CITY
Overwhelming Numbers
To represent this, when an Attacking Detachment is destroyed, place it to one side. At the start of the round if an Attacking player has three or more destroyed Detachments set aside, they may return them all to the battlefield.
The returning Detachments form a new Formation – this is an ad-hoc Formation, so has no special rules and does not have to match a Formation from any Army List. The returning Detachments are given Orders as if they were in Reserve and move onto the battlefield from the Attacker’s battlefield edge. If a Detachment can enter Reserve using the Deep Strike special rule it may do so, but otherwise must move on from the battlefield edge.
In the face of such odds, the defenders have brought some massive pyramidal defence cannons online. Scattered throughout the territory, they must desperately hold until time runs out.
This historic battle is the perfect place to deploy the three new Formations of Legend found in Rise of the Dark Mechanicum, which each tackle a different element of the forces fighting over Magma City. Representing the Dark Mechanicum, the Sibilans Taghma was one of the first fighting units to pair the sinister noospheric control networks of the Scintillax stalkers with the cold efficiency of a tech-magos. A combination that was soon replicated across Mars as Kelbor-Hal witnessed the tally of men and machines the Sibilans Taghma reaped.
If all of these juicy rules have you considering a change of allegiance to the corrupted forge-fanes of the Dark Mechanicum, come back later this week as we have a look at what drove their radical tech-magi towards the embrace of traitors, and how Horus managed to win the Fabricator General himself to his side.
