Skitarii: Best allies?

[Sawtooth]

Limiting this of course to Imperial armies, what do you think make the best allies for the new Skitarii? Do you think they function better as a primary or an allied detachment?

I've considered Imperial Guard, perhaps to form a sort of anvil formation to the more precise Skitarii. Beyond that, I'm not really sure and would love some input.

[abraxus]

I'm allying with Clan Rakaan, just to get a beast of a close combat dude, a mortis Castellax (converting a castellax into a count-as Mortis contemptor), a predator annihilator (conversion, maybe use a Krios if I can afford one), and a cheap scout squad for troop tax.

[jeffersonian000]

Knights.

 

Pew Pew Stomp Stomp Stomp

 

SJ

[CommodusXIII]

Knights.

 

Pew Pew Stomp Stomp Stomp

 

SJ

Reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy looking forward to this. :D

[jeffersonian000]

 

Knights.

 

Pew Pew Stomp Stomp Stomp

 

SJ

Reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy looking forward to this. :D

They Walk! They Walk!

 

SJ

[Battybattybats]

The most fluffy are Knights.

And i know you said Imperial but for canon reasons i'm going to add the unexpected:

TYRANIDS!

Yes, i said CANON.

In the Imperial Knight Companion there is an account of a rogue Magos with Skitarii being hunted by Loyal Skitarii and a Knight. When they catch up with the rogue they find the rogue Magos has found a way to control a Tyranid swarm! So there is a Knight and Skitarii fighting Skitarii and Tyranids. And that's from a recent GW book.

There's earlier stuff that could also allow this, the Imperial Knight House Mortimer has a Genestealer logo for their House emblem leading many to believe they were taken over by a Genestealer Cult and at least one Black Library story has discussed members of the Mechanicus crossing lines researching Tyranids, but the Imperial Knight Companion gave us a specific example of Skitarii and Tyranids on the same side. As well as Skitarii fighting Skitarii.

Though i might do it as a one-off for fun as I have played Tyranids since 2nd ed and Genestealer Cults before that personally it's Knights that i'll be allying with, and in friendly games also my Forgeworld Taghmata Omnissiah. Hopefully we'll get 40k rules for Taghmata from Forgeworld before too long too.

[Nehekhare]

Do you think they function better as a primary or an allied detachment?

 

since for the lack of an HQ they cannot fulfill the compulsory choices of an allied detachment, I'd say primary - but then you would need to make an alpha your warlord.

This is great for a big vanguard unit with 3 plasma calivers (and a pater radium) since it adds pref enemy, but above 750pts it isn't really viable.

 

I predict we'll see a lot of Skitarii Maniple Detachments (Arc Vanguard + Onagers) used in conjunction with Adamantium Lance Formations and/or Imperial Armies that provide Transports for them (Inquisition Chimaeras, BA/SW Drop pods, SM Stormwing formation).

 

But let's see what the rumoured Cult Mechanicus Codex will bring...

[Nrthstar]

Maybe not the best, but I'll be running my Skitarii with wolves as a secondary detachment.  I love giving my wolves something more unpredictable for my enemy to struggle with, and with the sheer variety of weapons the Skitarii definitely bring it.  Plus, easy to drop them into razors/rhino's or drop pods with my wolves.  

 

I can't imagine making any of the Skitarii a warlord.  A T3 warlord with two wounds, doesn't sound appealing to just hand points over to my opponent.  Even though some of their warlord traits are pretty cool.

[Vel'Cona]

The lack of transports is a real problem that keeps Skitarii from being a consistent force, IMO.  Nehekhare has it right when he says they need an ally that can give them a ride, such as it were, because walking Skitarii are dead Skitarii.  It's a big oversight that could have so easily been fixed with an alternate Onager model or simply having FA options for AdMech Rhinos/Chimeras/etc.  From a background perspective, it makes complete sense as these STC vehicles have been used by AdMech forever; you wouldn't even need to convert them, really.

 

With that in mind, I'm planning on using my BA DPs and Rhinos to make my Skitarii effective as a primary detachment.  The problem remains that our Warlords are still squishy as heck, so here's hoping AdMech won't be too far down the road.

[CommodusXIII]

I picked up my Skitarii to supplement/replace my Imperial Knights in low-point battles.  At smaller scales, squishiness isn't much of a concern - either the enemy is equally squishy, or they have less points to spread around to other units.  At larger scales, my Skitarii drop to ally status and my Imperial Knight warlord... well, I don't really worry about him too much.

[Urauloth]

Maybe not the best, but I'll be running my Skitarii with wolves as a secondary detachment. 

 

Same, same.

 

The answer is Blood Angels, though. Load a few vanguard squads in BA fast attack drop pods and go to town with 3-shot special weapons in support of an imminent death company charge.

[heron]

I am planning on running mine with Knights and/or Adepta Sororitas. I have been using sisters and knights for about 8 months and really like the combo, and if you have read any of the James Swallow sororitas books, it always seems like the sisters get saddled with an arrogant controlling tech magos on their exploits.

I haven't tried it yet, but in theory the Sisters bring a few things to the table that add well to the Skitarii- more cheap units of troops, lots more shooting, lots of melta, 3+ saves, fast jump troops that can support a dragoon in melee, a great flyer in the form of the Avenger, and in my army at least, the possibility of 1-3 Arvus Lighters to cart some Skitarii around.

Add a Knight Acheron or Castigator into the party and we are good to go!

[munocat]

I have a game this Monday, I will run them with space wolves, because the demon player I am playing has not experienced the awesomeness of my TWC, with my pimped HQ. His strategy is going to use lots of pyshic and summoning. My answer, is a Culexus Assassin, in a landraider, as long as he or the landraider is are with 12" then no pyshic power can effect them. Also if I can get my assassin close to his pyshic blob, they will get there powers of on 6's but any unit that has any power on them, when they move within 12" that power becomes nulled.

 

My skartarii job is to take care of two defilers

 

my choices for allies in order of choice

Imperial Knights

Inquisition

Iron hands

Space Wolves.

[Kilofix]

I'm thinking for Fluff reasons, if I wanted to add a small Mechanicum 'handler' group to my Skitarii I could use:

 

SM MotF modeled as the Magos

SM Scouts modeled as Thrall

SM Centurions Devs modeled as Myrmidons

SM Dreadnought modeled as Castellax

 

Sound ok?

[Ordo Machinum]

SELECTED: DENTRICA I OF I

ENGAGE NEURAL CONGRESS – WIRELESS AUTOSHUNT ACQUIRED

UPLOADING… + ALLIES +

 

I'm thinking for Fluff reasons, if I wanted to add a small Mechanicum 'handler' group to my Skitarii I could use:

SM MotF modeled as the Magos
SM Scouts modeled as Thrall
SM Centurions Devs modeled as Myrmidons
SM Dreadnought modeled as Castellax

Sound ok?

 

Sounds great.

 

There is little standardization of Skitarii across the Mechanicus, as each individual regiment is the personal army of a particular Magos.

 

For example, the Skitarii of the Titan Legion Legio Invicta are gene-bulked humans with weaponized limbs and augmetic armour, whereas a different type of Skitarii investigated the dead world of Tarsis Ultra, and were seen to be wearing something similar in both function and design to Terminator armour.

 

[ref. The Heraclitus Effect (Short Story) by Graham McNeill]

 

I was thinking of attacking some of my old astartes models to determine what can be salvaged for such purposes.

[skeletoro]

A fortification with an escape hatch is a good alternative to a transport. With the 12" hatch clearance, the 6" disembark move, and an 18" range, you're unlikely to need much more, at least if you're talking vanguard. I guess one issue is the limited spammability, though this can be addressed somewhat by using multiple detachments.

 

Also curiously, by using a battle maniple (which is a formation) you can go unbound without necessarily losing a lot.

 

What I want to know is whether an unbound army can take a bunch of triaros armoured conveyers.

[CommodusXIII]

I'm not sure how well 30K and 40K integrate, but in my meta they're kept as separate game systems.

[skeletoro]

Yeah, good point. In my meta we treat 30k as just another source of army lists (and typically use a CAD for them, or else tack ObjSec and 40k scoring rules onto the Age of Darkness FOC to allow play against non-AOD lists). But of course not everyone is going to do it that way and that's fine too.

 

Leaving that question aside...

 

What I was really wondering about was whether an unbound army can take models that are normally only available as dedicated transports, by themselves. Example: a codex space marine drop pod (or blood angels, space wolves pods before their latest codex update made them available as fast attack).

 

For those of us that DO mix and match 30k and 40k, it'd present a really cool ride for vanguard, I reckon. For the rest of us, let's keep our fingers crossed and hope that the next Imperial armour is IA14: War Machines of the Adeptus Mechanicus... with rules for 40k versions of 30k mechanicum vehicles.

 

I'm reaaally hoping for that :)

[CommodusXIII]

You can only take units that have independent entries.  Even though they have their own entry, technically, dedicated transports cannot be taken alone - only as an option for another unit.  That's why there are a lot of people looking to Blood Angels or Space Wolves as a source of drop pods, as for those Codices they're listed as Fast Attack units rather than Dedicated Transports.

 

EDIT:  If it helps, think of Dedicated Transports as a unit upgrade rather than a unit themselves.  Now, once they're on the table they can act independently.  For the purposes of building a list, thought, they're dependent on a unit to purchase them.

[skeletoro]

I think you may be right. In a way, taking a dedicated transport alone would be like taking the missile launcher tactical marine alone.

 

I'm still a bit iffy on it though. There's a disanalogy in the above comparison. Missile launcher bill doesn't have a separate dataslate or unit entry. The pod does - it just doesn't have a FOC designation.

 

In battleforged armies, an undedicated space marine drop pod is illegal, presumably because it doesn't fit into any detachment. To fit into a detachment it would either need to have a FOC designation (like a space wolves pod) or else fit into a (hypothetical) formation that specifically said it contained drop pods.

 

But I'm not sure it even needs a FOC designation to fit into an unbound army. Perhaps a dataslate/unit entry/points cost is enough? Hmm. I am going to comb through the rulebook.

 

Note: my motivation here is to enable my wife to use a triaros in casual games - obviously we're free to houserule if we wish, but it'd be convenient if we didn't have to. It's not a cheap model and it'd be nice to be able to field it outside of our family games ;)

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Grey Knights are a pretty solid Ally choice. They have Rhinos, Razorbacks and Ravens in FA  (no drop pods though). Dreadknights provide a fast close-combat punch and an anti-infantry firepower platform (can do a bit of anti-vehicle work too), Interceptors as a fast flanking assault unit, Terminators as flexible Troops. 

 

GK also have access to Divination, which is a powerful and flexible lore. 'Forewarning' onto the lead Onager in a squadron, when combined with the shielding buff from the other two Dunecrawlers, puts it up to a 2+ invul which is hilariously strong. 'Perfect Timing' on a unit of Vanguard packing 3x plasma calivers would be brutal. So is 'Precognition' adding Counter-Attack and full Ballistic Skill on Overwatch (turn on Protocols and laugh as you fire at BS5 against charges). 'Prescience' is great on top of Protocols, BS5 and re-rolls to hit is pretty much guaranteed. Also, GK have unique usage of 'Sanctic', which can allow for some pretty hilarious combos as well. 

 

GK also bring a Turn 1 assault that matches well with the slow shooty advance of Skitarii. While the Grey Knights distract the enemy and cause carnage early on, you can advance under much less fire and finish the job with superior firepower. 

[Charlo]

I'm thinking for Fluff reasons, if I wanted to add a small Mechanicum 'handler' group to my Skitarii I could use:

 

SM MotF modeled as the Magos

SM Scouts modeled as Thrall

SM Centurions Devs modeled as Myrmidons

SM Dreadnought modeled as Castellax

 

Sound ok?

 

Taking the Gene Bulked humans idea, would love to see some Ogryn bodies (with the Armour and riot shields) mixed with the Centurion and Skitarii kits, could make for some awesome Myrmidons D:

[Tiger9gamer]

I actually had an idea: Legion of the Damned standalone codex

 

 

The Legion can deepstrike and hit the enemy where it hurts while your skitarii walk up the field to finish them off or get objectives.

[Nrthstar]

I actually had an idea: Legion of the Damned standalone codex

 

 

The Legion can deepstrike and hit the enemy where it hurts while your skitarii walk up the field to finish them off or get objectives.

 

 

Same here, I just pulled out my Damned squad to run a three way Wolves/Skitarii/Damned with lots of deep strike to give so many targets my enemy won't know what to hit.  I was really excited about all the Haywire so i could better handle knights, but now that Eldar got such a big buff, I'm stoked for Rad Carbines mixed with plasma to handle the incoming eldar knights.

[Charlo]

I'm thinking for Fluff reasons, if I wanted to add a small Mechanicum 'handler' group to my Skitarii I could use:

SM MotF modeled as the Magos

SM Scouts modeled as Thrall

SM Centurions Devs modeled as Myrmidons

SM Dreadnought modeled as Castellax

Sound ok?

Taking the Gene Bulked humans idea, would love to see some Ogryn bodies (with the Armour and riot shields) mixed with the Centurion and Skitarii kits, could make for some awesome Myrmidons D:

So, I got photoshopping and mocked this up.... If the base size on the Centurions and Ogryns are the same this is seemingly to scale... Oh dear...

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah177/nevscorner/myrmidon_zpswvcf5lxt.jpg

I think there is potential in mixing the kits though, especially with some of the Skitarii parts.

Or is it time to put the digital paintbrush down?