This is a comprehensive guide on playing Adeptus Mechanicus and how to properly build your economy in the most optimal way
Introduction
This guide will teach you how to both play Adeptus Mechanicus and properly build your economy in the most optimal way possible. Everything you learn here will also be applicable to every other faction in the game. So even if you’re not a fan of Adeptus Mechanicus I highly recommend all players of all factions to read this guide at least once to learn how to properly build your economy.
This guide was made for standard pace. All the data and spreadsheets in this guide was gathered from standard pace games.
Faction Overview
The main faction gimmicks of Adeptus Mechanicus’s are these four things:
1. You can build 1 additional building on each tile than normal.
2. The same building in each tile gives a bonus where as different buildings in each tile gives a malus.
3. Buildings in adjacent tiles give a bonus.
4. Adeptus Mechanicus has an active ability called Power Surge that gives a 35% bonus to all buildings in a tile for 6 turns.
Because of these 4 gimmicks, the Adeptus Mechanicus holds the title of strongest economy in the game and as a result also holds the title of the strongest endgame faction in the game. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the Adeptus Mechanicus’s economy is literally twice the strength of a normal faction. From direct measuring, endgame Adeptus Mechanicus has about 40% more flat resource income and 40% more loyalty than other factions, resulting in a whopping 96% more resources than other factions. So if you like playing the strongest endgame faction in the game then you should definitely play Adeptus Mechanicus.
Another reason to play the Adeptus Mechanicus is the lore. At first I did not like the Adeptus Mechanicus because they excessively utilize lobotomized humans for everything, which is too cruel for me. But turns out they can also just vat-grow blank humans and program things into their brain from there. So no lobotomy here if they so choose. Their Skitarii similarly can be both lobotomized humans or vat grown blank humans.
In addition, if you listen to them talk, the Adeptus Mechanicus units are far more robotic than the other robot faction in the game: the Necrons, who act like a bunch of Egyptian warriors squabbling about honor, beasts, gods, and traditions and never about science, technology, or knowledge.
Which means in my opinion, despite all the flesh, Adeptus Mechanicus is the true robot faction of Warhammer 40k. Which is something I really like. I feel bad if my sentient troops die a horrific death, but non-sentient bio-robots? I could march them all to their deaths with reckless abandon and not give a damn.
There are also other minor things in lore. They possess the ability to convert any matter into any other matter. Their knights possess micro fabricators that can build bullets out of what seems to be thin air. Tech-priests will never die of old age, etc.
There’s a lot more to the faction than what I described here. They have tons and tons of books dedicated to them. So if you like any of this then you should definitely play Adeptus Mechanicus.
Map Settings & Game Overview
In your typical Gladius game, in the first part of the game there’s no combat as you spend a lot of time just building up your economy. Then the AI will find you and bear its full stockpiled army on you and this is the most difficult part of the game. After you fend that off the AI is basically defeated as it will now only send a trickle of units towards you in a steady stream which marks the beginning of the clean up phase of the game.
The map settings basically determine only 2 things: the timing of the full scale war and the size and strength of the AI army. So basically, you set your game up based on what you’re in the mood for. Early war or late war, and how much low tier unit combat you want to see.
In my opinion these four map settings are the most important. Map size, AI Count, Wildlife Density, and AI Difficulty.
Map Size, AI Count, and Wildlife will basically determine when you will have your full scale war. Larger map = later war. Denser Wildlife = later war. Higher AI Count = earlier war. For example, playing on a huge map with only 1 Impossible AI and Very High Wildlife will not result in contact with the AI even after 200 turns. So if you just plan on taking your sweet time amassing an endgame army before choosing to fight, this is the setting to use. Conversely playing on a tiny map with only 1 impossible AI and Very High Wildlife will result in contact much earlier. This setting is not that consistent however as I’ve had games where I met the AI at turn 50 and games where I meet the AI at turn 100.
The main difference between Ultra-Hard and Impossible Difficulty is tech speed. While Impossible difficulty will throw more units at you, you really won’t notice it as Ultra Hard already saturates the map with units. You will however notice the significant faster tech speed of the Impossible AI. I’ve had an Impossible Chaos AI throw a Defiler at me as early as turn 55 and an Impossible Necron AI throw an Obelisk at me as early as turn 59. Conversely with Ultra Hard AI,I have yet to see one throw a T9 unit at me before I get mine out first.
So if you want an early war with the AI I recommend playing on Ultra-Hard because while you can indefinitely hold out against an Impossible AI’s horde of low tier units, no amount of low tier units of your own can take out a high tier unit. So if the AI gets a high tier unit like an obelisk out before you, you will be forced to sacrifice your entire army to stall for time to get your own high tier units out, which will fail because since you are also severely outnumbered, none of your besieged cities will have an opportunity to heal even with your newly produced high tier units, causing an economic death spiral that will result in your defeat. So if you want a war at turn 30, play on Ultra Hard. If you just want to rush to endgame units, play on Impossible.
The game settings I play at are either a free for all of me and 9-10 Ultra Hard AIs on a small or medium sized map, or a 1v1 against an Impossible AI on a Tiny map, with me increasing or decreasing the Wildlife Density to make the game easier or harder. I don’t like having 9-10 AIs on a tiny map because without room to make multiple cities, the Ultra Hard AIs never reach their full strength.
I don’t recommend playing against anything lower than Ultra Hard. I have yet to see a Very Hard AI bring out their endgame units, ever, in all my years of playing. I have pretty much a 100% win rate in my 1v1 Impossible games even when I restrict myself only to a single city so I guarantee you that after you finish reading my guide, anything under Ultra Hard will not challenge you even in the slightest bit.
In my experience the Ork AI is the strongest AI. In all the free for alls I’ve done, I’d say they won pretty much 90% of the time and they were always the endgame stockpiled army I had to face.
I’d say Astra Militarum AI is about 2nd strongest because when Orks didn’t win the free for all, it’s usually AM.
Conversely Eldar, Tau, and Tyranids are the weakest AIs in my experience. Eldar can’t make new cities and the AI is very good at popping all the webway gates asap so they are always severely outclassed. Tau’s utopia mechanic murders all economies in the game and AI Tau’s economy is not spared from this fate making them one of the worst AI controlled factions in the game. Tyranids incompetence came as a surprise to me but the reason in my opinion is because of the terrible AI rather than the weakness of the faction. Last time I saw them they spammed an ungodly sea of malanthropes which don’t do anything. Let me just say, I’ve seen an Impossible Tyranid AI lose to Ultra Hard AIs. AI Tyranids are very weak.
And the rest are all kinda the same. I haven’t seen any of them win or lose more. Space marines to my surprise make it to the endgame most of the time despite being restricted to a single city but I’d still put them on the lower end of the spectrum because of it. For Necrons similarly I’d put them on the lower end of the spectrum because of the fact that they can’t make multiple cities without cutting through hordes of wildlife or incurring the wrath of multiple AI.
Unit Overview
The Tau has been chosen as the target dummy of this section because they have a healthy mix of all 3 unit types: Infantry, Vehicle, and Monstrous Creature, throughout their entire roster allowing you to see how well each unit does against low/high tier units of all unit types. The Tau has also been chosen because they house the strongest unit in the entire game: The KV128 Stormsurge.
The numbers indicate what percent of the unit’s maximum health they would take out with an attack. So 100 means the unit will die in one hit and 5 means the unit will only lose 5% of its health.
The green parts of the spreadsheets indicate your unit’s damage against the Tau units, and the red parts indicate the Tau unit’s damage against your units. Some units have a second column of green indicating how much damage Adeptus Mechanicus units would deal against them when they have as many defensive battlesuit support systems as possible on them, and some units have multiple columns of red indication how much damage their abilities would do against your units.
All units used in the testing were at level 10 with max morale and with all techs researched.
Infantry v.s. Vehicle
Adeptus Mechanicus Infantry are glass cannon anti-units. As in each unit has extremely high damage against specific unit types, but extremely low damage against all other unit types and also suffers from very frail defenses.
Adeptus Mechanicus Vehicles are conversely tanky all-purpose units. As in each unit can take a lot of punishment but deals unimpressive damage against all unit types equally.
The main benefit of Adeptus Mechancius infantry builds is the Kataphron Destroyer timing. As no tier 1-6 unit in the Adeptus Mechanicus roster has even a remote chance in hell of taking down a high tier unit, getting the Kataphron Destroyer an entire tier earlier than the vehicle build’s equivalent is tremendous because the time it takes to get from tier 7 to tier 8 is no joke. By the time vehicle builds get their first Skorpius Disintegrator out infantry builds would already have a full army of Kataphron Destroyers out. So if you plan on waging the earliest war possible against an Impossible AI you go Infantry.
The main benefit of Adeptus Mechanicus vehicle builds is its synergy with the Knight Crusader. The Knight Crusader is your strongest unit by far and once you research it there is literally 0 reason to build anything else even if you go an infantry build. The Knight Crusader uses ore for upkeep just like all other Adeptus Mechanicus vehicles so a vehicle build can just switch to pumping only Knight Crusaders out without any difficulty. Infantry builds on the other hand, cannot. Because of the way the Gladius economy works, infantry builds will be forced to build mostly Kataphron Destroyers even after the Knight Crusader is researched and will also be forced to produce a lot less Knight Crusaders compared to vehicle builds. The reason is the vast bulk of your economic growth is going to come from loyalty buildings which means if you have mostly food buildings, then the loyalty buildings are going to boost mostly food. Trying to make a ton more ore buildings instead of loyalty buildings in this situation results in suboptimal growth which will stall your economy greatly. All in all, it’s a nightmare.
A second benefit of Adeptus Mechanicus vehicle builds is that vehicles can take hits without losing their damage output. As single model units, they could be at 0.1 hp and still deal their full damage every turn where as infantry, being multi-model units, will lose damage even after a scratch. So while the Knight Crusaders and Skorpius Disintegrators can stand their ground on the frontline until they’re almost dead, Kataphron Destroyers will have to retreat after only taking 1 hit to heal up.
I would not recommend going both Infantry and Vehicles. First, you need more unit production buildings and early game, every resource building matters so just by building more unit production buildings you’re hurting your economy. Also the units play very differently. Adeptus Mechanicus Vehicles like to reach a critical mass of units and focus fire units to death with their tremendous range where as Adeptus Mechanicus infantry like to go in, unleash their payload, and retreat to heal while a second infantry takes their place in the frontline. So if you mix the two up, you will not reach the critical mass of vehicles nor have the sufficient anti-units to replace retreating wounded ones.
Infantry
Skitarii Vanguard
The bread and butter of all infantry builds. They are extremely cheap for their effectiveness. They are what makes Adeptus Mechanicus infantry builds viable. They are a serious contender for best low tier unit in the entire game and they remain useful even at tier 6. Spam them endlessly. Their Achilles Heel however is overwatch. As essentially melee units, running into an enemy army will result in their deaths so its better to play defense with them than offense.
Skitarii Ranger
They are worse than Vanguards against infantry but are better than Vanguards against monstrous creatures. They also have range 3 but at the same time they cost twice that of a Vanguard without being tankier. So only build Rangers once you have enough Vanguards to not only fill up the entire frontline, but also to replace wounded ones until they’re healed up. Like the Vanguard they’re better for defense than offense because moving halves their damage output.
Serberys Sulphurhounds
In my opinion this unit is useless. It’s essentially melee like the vanguard, but costs more, deals less damage, and most importantly, requires research. Adeptus Mechanicus has so many techs they need researching to the point delaying all of them for anything is a huge cost that this unit fails to pay back. Skip.
Sicarian Infiltrators
A melee unit that costs twice that of a Vanguard yet is barely tankier and deals a minor amount more damage. Its main benefit is that it ignores overwatch but at the price of 2 Vanguards I’d rather just sacrifice a Vanguard and eat up several overwatch shots for my other Vanguards than use this unit. This unit however is a straight upgrade to the Vanguard so if you are swimming in resources, it’s not the worst idea to start building this unit but in my opinion, because this unit’s research contests 4 other mandatory techs, I’d recommend you skip.
Kataphron Breachers
Your first anti-vehicle unit. Does even more damage against vehicles than Onager Dunecrawlers. The envy of vehicle builds, having a healthy mix of Breachers, Rangers, and Vanguards will have all your bases covered. A mandatory unit because all your other infantry unit cannot scratch vehicles, not even the T6 Pteraxi Sterylizers.
Pteraxii Sterylizors
Your jump infantry. A straight upgrade to the vanguard yet a wholly unimpressive unit. It’s not tankier than the Vanguard, eats up overwatch shots just the same, and costs twice as much as a Vanguard. Only build if you’re swimming in resources.
Kataphron Destroyers
The true envy of vehicle builds, this unit is the reason why you go Infantry builds. He is the earliest unit you have that can kill high tier units and as an anti-everything unit, there is literally no reason to build any other infantry than this one once you research it. Fragile as hell though so always keep a Tech-Priest Manipulus next to it at all times to keep it healthy and shooting at full power 24/7.
Vehicles
Ironstrider Ballistaurius
This unit is a contender for strongest tier 1 unit in the game. It has range 3, excellent movement, tanky, single model, and no penalties for moving and shooting on the same turn. On a flat map where all your Ironstrider Ballistauriuses can focus fire on the same target they become impregnable. Don’t be afraid of making too many of them because they are pretty much just as cost effective as Onager Dunecrawlers, sometimes even more cost effective.
On the other hand, on maps where they can’t shoot anything further than what’s directly in front of them, their effectiveness takes a nosedive.
Skorpius Dunerider
Your transport unit. Transport units aren’t really used to transport infantry. They’re used to keep wounded ones from dying or impeding the rest of your healthy infantry from reaching the frontlines. Against Ultra Hard and Impossible AI you are not going to go on the offensive until you have a critical mass of Knight Crusaders so I recommend you skip this unit against them.
Kastelan Robot
Just as or more cost effective than Ironstrider Ballistauriuses for defense, but does the same damage as one against everything except low tier infantry. Personally I’d just grab two Ironstrider Ballistauriuses than ever build a single Kastelan Robot.
The main thing that kills the effectiveness of this unit is its requirement of energy to purchase and use of energy as upkeep. No other vehicle unit does this so growing your energy income instead of your ore income just for this unit is terrible. In addition, it is extremely difficult to grow your energy income early game as your first round of Hab Fanes and additional Artisan Constructorums will make you struggle to stay above 0 energy well into the mid game.
The only reason I’d ever build Kastelan Robots is either because I want to because I like robots, or because I intend to win the game with the Archaeopter Stratoraptors as they also use energy as upkeep. The latter never happens so my recommendation is to skip this unit.
Onager Dunecrawler
Straight upgrade to the Ironstrider Ballistaurius and a decent anti-air unit. They are just as cost effective if not more than Ironstrider Ballistauriuses so start building these instead of Ironstrider Ballistauriuses the moment you research it. Can’t handle high tier units so keep that in mind.
Skorpius Disintegrator
Your first unit that can kill high tier units. He comes out a little too late however, and Knight Crusaders are just around the corner. Still though, you will be switching production to this unit the moment you research it because you really, really, really need something that can handle high tier units right now.
This unit is a straight upgrade to the Onager Dunecrawler and is more cost effective than the Onager Dunecrawler in both tankiness and damage so there is literally 0 reason to build any other unit than this unit once you research it.
Knight Crusader
The ultimate unit of the Adeptus Mechanicus. While it’s not the strongest endgame unit in the game, it is backed by the strongest economy in the game allowing you to outnumber all other endgame units in the game by at least a factor of 2. Effective against all with no weaknesses, once you research it spam only it.
Other Units
Cybernetica Datasmith
Your city builder, your tile clearer, and your non-hero healing unit. Personally if I go the vehicle build, I spend 100% of my excess food on this guy. By endgame I’m swimming in both a sea of Knight Crusaders and a sea of Cybernetica Datasmiths clearing every wireweed and forest from the map while simultaneously fully surrounding my near dead Knight Crusaders and healing them.
Fulgurite Electro-Priests
The sole purpose of this unit is to get the Adeptus Monotonous achievement and literally nothing else. There is literally no reason to build this unit over Skitarii Vanguards or Ironstrider Ballistauriuses.
Archaeopter Transvector
Completely inferior to the Kastelan Robot in combat while costing the same, and at tier 7 you should be spamming Kataphron Destroyers which are too bulky to be worth using in transports so I would skip.
Archaeopter Stratoraptor
Decent unit, but it suffers from the fact that it’s on the same tier as Skorpius Disintegrators, the fact that its upkeep is energy instead of ore or food, and it requires its own separate production building. The Skorpius Disintegrator costs the same as this unit and outperforms it in everyway except against air units and doesn’t have any of the drawbacks so whether you go infantry or vehicle, there is no reason to build this unit over the Skorpius Disintegrator.
I will say I see myself building this unit if all my cities are building 1 Knight Crusader every turn. Rather than build a new city for more Knight Crusaders I’d probably start building this unit. However, if I’m building 1 Knight Crusader from every city every turn then I’ve pretty much won the game so out of sheer laziness I’d probably just not do anything.
Skitarii Marshal
This unit increases damage of all nearby infantry by 17%, and can increase damage of a single infantry by 75%~125% every 2 turns. However, as a hero, he has a hefty influence cost and as Adeptus Mechanicus, you really don’t want to be building even 1 influence building. I’d rather get a second Tech-Priest Manipulus than this unit especially since I don’t think that extra 17% damage aura will allow Skitarii Vanguards to 1 shot what normally takes 2 shots to take down, or 2 shot what normally takes 3 shots to take down.
Tech-Priest Manipulus
The best hero in the Adeptus Mechanicus roster. I spend 100% of my influence on this guy. Its 24hp a turn heal is absolutely game changing. If my influence income is 13 I build a Tech-Priest Manipulus and knock it back down to 7. Early to mid game you can only afford 1 or 2 but come endgame you will be swimming in an insane amount of influence just from your Manufactorum Cyberneticas and Loyalty buildings allowing you to literally flood the map with them. With a massive Knight Crusader army being backed by a sea of Tech-Priest Manipuluses, nothing stands a chance against the Adeptus Mechanicus.
Tech-Priest Dominus
This is a very interesting unit. It increases your vehicles’ damage by a decent 35%, but because its range is only 1 tile you’re not getting more than 2-4 buffed. And I prefer to have a 4th vehicle unit rather than 3 buffed by this unit. On the other hand, once this unit hits level 6 it pays for itself. You get 12 research and 12 influence per turn and this unit costs 4 food and 8 influence a turn. So this unit’s cost is really an opportunity cost.
Personally I’d skip. I’d rather get Adjacency Integration researched than this unit, I don’t want to delay all my other researches to get both, I’d rather have a Tech-Priest Manipulus as my first and second heroes rather than this unit because 2nd one only costs 80 more influence than this unit while having less upkeep, and that 24hp heal per turn is absolutely game changing, and by the time I can afford a 3rd hero I’m already at Knight Crusaders.
Only build this unit it if you specifically want a combat hero decked out with Jokero Encampment equipment. Otherwise it’s always better to just grab more Tech-Priest Manipuluses.
Gladius Economy
The bottleneck for all economies in Gladius is population growth speed. Meaning neither building construction time nor cost of each building matters. The most optimal way of building your economy is making sure each building you build results in the most amount of gain to ensure we get the most out of each and every pop because population growth speed is the bottleneck of your economy.
So lets say each resource building increases your income by 6 and decreases it by 1 (upkeep) and 1% (pop loyalty). And each additional loyalty building increases your income by 6% and decreases it by 2 (upkeep) and 1% (pop loyalty). When is it better to build a resource building and when is it better to build a loyalty building?
To find the answer first we model the problem as an equation with only two variables
If you noticed, I have not included adjacency, monolithic building, or power surge bonuses. The reason is because I have no idea how to put those in. It might interest you to know that from my own direct testing, their exclusion do not make a difference. Following my recommended ratio of resource buildings to loyalty buildings is still either the most optimal or virtually the most optimal ratio even without putting those bonuses directly in the equation.
If you also noticed I also merged all the food, ore, and energy buildings into one. I tried to separate them at first but the resulting equation was so long and complicated I had to simplifiy it this way. On the plus side, you can use these equations for all the factions including Tyranids.
Influence is not included because I find myself never caring about influence. If I happen to have enough for a hero I build a Tech-Priest Manipulus. If not I don’t care. If I build 1 Influence building I need to build 4 because of how Adeptus Mechanicus works and I rather have 4 more ore buildings than an extra Tech-Priest Manipulus.
We then use Excel to brute force the results and highlight the most optimal growth.
If you notice, from 15 resources and 4 loyalty onward, the most optimal growth falls into a repeating pattern of 5 resources to 7 loyalty. In other words, after building 15 resource buildings and 4 loyalty buildings, the most optimal way to grow your economy is to keep all newly built resource and loyalty buildings at a 5:7 ratio. So at 20 resources you should have 11 loyalty. At 25 resources you should have 18 loyalty. And at 30 resources you should have 25 loyalty.
But wait! What about multiple cities? What about multiple Manufactorum Cyberneticas and Genetor Caropraediums? What about multiple Sub-Cloisters? What about less than 4 research buildings?
Rather than make a separate spreadsheet for each and every scenario I made a calculator. I’ll share it with you. Here are my upgraded formulas
On your choice of Excel program, recreate the following image identically
And on that highlighted tile B7, input this equation EXACTLY
=IF((78*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))/100)+6*$B$3*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))/100)+18*($A6+1)*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A6+1)+5*($B6+2))/100)-20-10*$B$3-7*$B$2-9*$B$4-7*($A6+1)-10*($B6+2))/3>(78*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))/100)+6*$B$3*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))/100)+18*($A7+1)*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*($B6+1))/100)-20-10*$B$3-7*$B$2-9*$B$4-7*($A7+1)-10*($B6+1))/3,$B6+2,IF((78*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))/100)+6*$B$3*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))/100)+18*$A7*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-$A7+5*($B6+1))/100)-20-10*$B$3-7*$B$2-9*$B$4-7*$A7-10*($B6+1))/3>(78*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)/100)+6*$B$3*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)/100)+18*($A7+1)*(1+IF((4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)>0,1,2)*(4-6*$B$1-$B$3-$B$2-($A7+1)+5*$B6)/100)-20-10*$B$3-7*$B$2-9*$B$4-7*($A7+1)-10*$B6)/3,$B6+1,$B6))
For those of you who don’t own an Excel program I’ll give you the most relevant tables in my experience in the next section. I won’t give you every possible table because that’s just excessive.
I’d just like to point out loyalty buildings don’t actually cost more than resource buildings. resource buildings cost 30 and take 2 turns to build. Loyalty buildings cost 50 and take 3 turns to build. Because population growth speed is the bottleneck, the extra turn to construct the loyalty is irrelevant, and 50/3 = 16.7 ore per turn and 30/2 = 15 ore per turn, meaning there really isn’t an increased strain on your economy. Both buildings consume only 15-ish ore per turn. So in other words, loyalty buildings aren’t really more expensive than resource buildings in practice.
Economy Tables
In my experience, these are the most useful tables
0 Research
0 Manufactorum Cyberneticas
This table is what all your 2nd and 3rd cities are gonna follow until your economy exceeds +165 ore per turn.
0 Research
4 Manufactorum Cyberneticas
This table is what all of your cities are gonna follow at the end. Once you got all your key researches you should shutdown your 4 research buildings in your 1st city and once you exceed +165 ore per turn you should build 4 Cybernetica Manufactorums in your additional cities.
1-4 Research
2 Manufactorum Cyberneticas
Only my first city has research and I initially build all my Cybernetica Manufactorums only in my first city to make looking up these tables easier.
I am at 2 Manufactorum Cyberneticas for the entirety of my early game and I don’t build more until I am at 4 research.
Single City Tables
Two Cities Tables
Three Cities Tables
Tips on making looking up these tables easier
1. Only have one city with energy and food. The other cities are pure Ore only.
2. Follow the table as closely as you can until you build 15 resource buildings but from then on don’t build 1 building at a time but instead 1 hex at a time. So if you need 1 more loyalty building, build 4 instead. And if you need 1 more resource building, build 4 instead.
3. Just decide that you’re just gonna start at 15 resource, 5 loyalty, and end at 40 resource and 40 loyalty. And just do that instead of looking up tables. Might help to memorize the following pair of numbers.
15:5
20:12
25:19
30:26
35:33
40:40
4. Always build the same number of cities every game and just memorize the tables.
5. Print the tables out and have them next to your monitor while you play.
I will repeat again that all of these tables work for all the factions and not just Adeptus Mechanicus.
Build Order
My general 1st city build order is
1. 1 research (2 if going more than one city)
2. 1 ore (2 if going 3 cities)
3. 0-3 more research depending on what I’m trying to do.
4. Subcloister if I’m going more than 1 city
5. 0-2 Manufactorum Cyberneticas if I can
6. Energy or Shelter. Shelter if I can get away with it otherwise Energy.
***Total buidlings built at this point should be 5. As in my population part of my city should read 6/6 (6 required). If going 4 research I might have to break this rule though.
7. 1 Artisan Constructorum
8. Shelter and Energy to stabilize my economy
9. Build until I have 2 Manufactorum Cyberneticas
10. Shelter to get my pop cap to 18
11. Grow my economy until I can support 2 Manufactorum Cyberneticas building Onager Dunecrawlers without pause. Requires 20 ore per turn + 15 for every city I have. So +35 for single city, +50 for two cities, and +65 for three cities.
12. Build up to 4 Research
13. Endlessly grow my economy.
14. Build up to 4 Manufactorum Cyberneticas.
15. Continue to endlessly grow my economy
16. Build up to 4 Manufactorum in my 2nd and 3rd cities
17. Continue to endlessly grow my economy
Additional cities build orders
*1. 1 Artisan Constructoroum. If I can’t afford one I stall my unit production to save up and move onto step 2. I never stall my building production for anything.
2. 3 resource buildings
3. Shelter
4. 2 more buildings
5. Shelter
6. Endlessly grow my economy.
Power Surge priority
1. 4 Ore
2. 4 Loyalty
3. 3 Ore
4. 3 Loyalty
5. 2 Ore
6. 1 Artisan Constructorum
Economy is your bottleneck so we don’t Power Surge our research buildings unless specifically skipping everything to rush Knight Crusaders.
This is my research order for vehicle builds
T1:Thermo-Exchange Efficiency
T1:Manufactorum Cybernetica
T2:Sub-Cloister
***T2:Tech-Priest Manipulus
T2:Hab Fane
T3:Adjacency Integration
T3:Protoservitor Cradle
T4:Artisan Constructorium
T4:Mavoraforming
T5:Onager
T5:Triplex Necessity
T6:Heavy Stubber
T6:Fidorum Voss Prime
T7:Reclamator Protocols
T7:Agripinaan Ablation
T8:Skorpius Disintegrator
T4:Lucian Specialization
T8:Skriptorum Ordinatus
T9:Knight Crusader
T9:Hive World Approval
T10:Blessed Conduits
T10:Icons of the Omnissiah
T10:Twin-Linked Icarus Autocannon
T6:Hammer of Wrath
T4:Dogma Metalica
T8:Solar Reflectors
T4:Soylens Acquisition Teams
T9:Optate Restrictions
T10:Terran Generalism
I research Tech-Priest depending on whether I want an early war or late war. If early war I get one out asap. If late war I delay it until at least Onagers are researched.
The bottleneck is economy not research. My 4 research buildings outpace my economy just fine so we power surge ore instead of research and we skip Stygian Enlightenment in favor of Triplex Necessity. I might change my mind on this however and choose Stygian Enlightenment for slightly earlier Skorpius Disintegrators.
Lucian Specialization is researched after Skorpius Disintegrators because we really need Skorpius Disintegrators out asap and Lucian Specialization only gives +1-3 early game so there’s no real point in grabbing it so early. In addition, your economy can’t support nonstop Knight Crusaders just yet and Skorpius Disintegrators are good enough for now so we grab Lucian Specialization at this time. If I went Stygian Enlightenment then this is also when I woudl research Triplex Necessity.
When i follow my algorithm, my army looks like this.
Please note the following numbers assumes a WORST CASE SCENARIO. I intentionally built my cities on grass terrain as it’s the worst terrain for the vehicle build, and I intentionally avoided utilizing any outposts.
Your numbers should always be higher than what I have here.
I did however utilize all the rock terrains near me.
Also note that the First Turn column is not when I first research the unit, but when I actually produce the unit. The reason for this delay is because of my struggling economy.
So as you can see, how many research buildings you choose to build at step 3 of my algorithm has the biggest impact on the game. So if you want an early army build less research buildings at step 3 and if you want earlier endgame units build more research buildings at step 3.
So pick a build, set the map up so you engage the AI when your chosen build is at its strongest, and have fun. Personally I only go 2 cities because single city can’t afford a Tech-Priest Manipulus and also suffers a severe economic stall when you have to build an Artisan Constructorum and a Hab Fane back to back, and also because 3 cities is too much management, lacks an early game army, and 100 Knight Crusaders is just excessive overkill.
Miscellaneous Tips
Beating 1v1 Impossible
On a tiny map with very high wildlife, just build 4 research buildings and power surge them until Knight Crusaders. Then build Knight Crusaders. You can’t lose. If for some reason the AI keeps fighting you before turn 80, just make the map size bigger. On a Huge map even after 200 turns you’ll be untouched.
Single city Adeptus Mechanicus will beat any Impossible Difficulty AI if left alone for 80 turns so you can also grab the Chapter Approved achievement with this method if you want.
Adeptus Mechanicus Quest
I play with Quests off because the AI doesn’t go for quest victories themselves, and I want to fight the AI factions rather than an ungodly horde of random grey mobs. The defend missions are the worst because you can’t end it early and have to endure the grind for so many turns.
Anyways, if you follow my guide the quest should be a complete cakewalk.
Adeptus Monotonous Achievement
100% of the reason I play this faction is because I like robots so I lack the motivation to get this achievement. There is another guide here on steam that details how to get it so I recommend looking it up.
General strategy seems to be
1. 1v1 Eldar on a tiny map
2. Very High Wildlife
3. Very Low Webway Gates
4. Very low land mass.
5. Use Debug Console to remove fog of war, memorize the AI’s position and all the Kastelan Robot locations.
6. Bum rush Cybernetica Datasmiths and grab Kastelans as early as possible.
7. Prevent the AI from founding a second city.
Or something like that. I recommend you look up the other person’s guide. He even includes a world seed.
I hope you enjoyed my guide. Thanks for reading.
