Skitarii Killteam

[Spaniard]

Hello all,

 

So I got a kill team tournament coming up next month. I am not looking to win but I would love to try these guys out in the tourney. This will also be my first playing time with this codex, I know  a bit crazy but with school going on I haven't actually had the time to get a army together and play. So i got a couple of squads of vanguards so far and I just got a box of the Sicarians but I don't know which squad would be more efficient to make for kill team. We will playing with the herald of ruin kill team rule set. Any help would be appreciated.

[N1SB]

Hi, thanks for asking for our opinions.  It happens I have some experience because we play a lot of Kill Team here.  We've been toying with the Skitarii for Kill Team since the White Dwarf article came out, and while I'm familiar with the Herald of Ruin Kill Team and lists, we happened to use GW's Kill Team supplement.  They're similar in most respects, but there's some differences, and I'll focus on the Herald of Ruin rules.

 

 

We love the Vanguard in Kill Team especially - for skirmish, the Skitarii Vanguard really proved their worth, more than other units, and they are surprisingly amazing, so it's not just going for the cheapest unit.  Vanguard on paper seem good at mid-range gunplay, and they are due to the sheer volume of shots they can put out, but they actually are decent in hand-to-hand as well due to...

 

 

Doctrina Imperatives - my reading of the Herald of Ruin's Skitarii Kill Team building list is that you can use them.  Vanguard spam really benefits from these because they'll be like a tide, and at the beginning they'll lean on the higher Ballistic Skill doctrines, then gradually shift towards Weapon Skill.  Though they have low Initiative compared to, say, a Marine, the option to increase their WS makes them hard to hit.  Then when they get a chance to hit back, the Rad Saturation makes them dangerous against Marines.  It throws people off, it's really fun to see the surprise on their faces when they think they'll overrun you and you turn the tables on them.

 

 

It's not just the fact that Vanguard are great for their points cost and that they get Doctrina Imperatives, but it's also the meta of Kill Team.  In these sort of skirmishes, it usually ends up as a huge brawl in the middle as people fight over key locations, like objectives or pieces of cover near the objectives.  Mid-range lethality is more helpful than long-range or melee, and that's what Vanguards do.  Rangers, Dragoons, they're all good for their roles, but Vanguard seem most adept as these fully-rounded Kill Team guys.

 

 

Now, final advice, here's 3 things that we've seen catch new Kill Team players off-guard:

 

 

The Horde - people think of Kill Team as taking this Veteran squad and loading them for bear, but it turns out because units can be picked off individually, you're better off going for more models on the table.  Scout hordes are actually very popular as we played more and more; they're cheap and they come with 4+ saves, frag and krak grenades, usually bolters or sniper rifles.  Imagine taking on nearly 20 scouts, and if you feel confident, then you're in good shape.  You may need -some- Rangers to counter-snipe if you face a Sniper Horde.

 

 

Vehicles and 2+ armour - you WILL need something that can take on Vehicles and sadly Skitarii don't bring grenades.  The optimal way is to make sure everyone has Krak or similar, so you don't rely on just the 1 guy who has Heavy Weapons (because he's usually the 1st target).  Skitarii don't have access to Krak or Haywire.  You're going to have to bring some Skitarii special weapons and enough so if you lose 1 of them, you can still go on.  I actually think Vanguard spam can deal with 2+ armour by sheer volume of shots.

 

 

Fear Itself - there's a Rout Test in the Harbinger rules, similar to GW's Break Test.  At half-strength, they need to take Ld checks or lose the game.  When people try to do highly wargeared, low model count teams, this is what usually ends up losing the game for them.

 

 

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So my suggested list is to take at least 15 to 20 Vanguards, give them some wargear to deal with Vehicles (as there are Vehicles in the Harbinger lists), and maybe some Rangers to counter-snipe.