Continuation of the strategy “Rough cyborg versus immortal robot” Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II will be released in the spring of 2026, publishers Kasedo Games said. For those keeping track of 40K XCOM, this will sound like a delay, considering he previously mumbled something about a 2025 launch. But then we got to the end of December and there was still no specific date. Is it possible to set aside something that was not dated in the first place?
Yes, actually, since Casedo press release specifically mentions using the time to “further refine the experience in response to player demand since the Steam Next Fest demo” last October. There's also a new trailer featuring SPRING 2026, rendered in confident steel, which details the two playable faction leaders in quite some detail: the post-human Battle Nan Scaevola of the Adeptus Mechanicus and Omninekh, Lord of the Necron.
Oh my god, there are a lot of tech trees and skill unlocks here. And the extra few months will apparently be dedicated to adding even more features, including the re-adding of Admech binary chatter as a language option; in the demo, this was replaced with disgusting human speech, despite the fact that “lingua-technis” was their native language in the first Mechanicus.
“Movement systems are also being improved, with an additional setting that allows the Move action to be automatically selected when switching between units, creating a smoother and more efficient tactical flow,” the statement further reads. Developers Bulwalk Studios will also be working on “resolving performance issues that arose during the demo period” – I haven't played it myself so can't confirm any frame rate fluctuations, although running around the Acivum Redditorium does raise a lot of complaints about having to manually select the “Move” command. Do I have good news for these people about 90 words ago?
I sat and watched developer Bulwalk play Mechanicus II back at Gamescom 2024, and standing back, it looked okay, especially the asymmetry of the two factions. The main machine cult still collects Cognition, a resource they can then spend on special attacks or increasing movement range, but the system has been updated so different units can produce Cognition in different ways, down to the lowly Servant allowing himself to be shot. The Necrons' equivalent, Dominion, is obtained through easier means (such as, ironically, shooting Servitors), but accumulates attack bonuses over time, potentially turning them into a big ol' snowball of scowling roboskulls. However, I couldn't pay too much attention as I kept thinking about this pointless abuse of the original game's soundtrack:
The Omnissiah will help us.
