Skitarii and Mechanicum HARD DATA review

[Tiger9gamer]

Keep in mind that units in the Skitarii maniple have crusader for those sweet run re-rolls.

I definitely had forgotten that!

Tiger9, I'm painting up some Kastelans right now and I cannot wait to field them! I don't know if I will get to play this week due to a stupid work schedule, but I am hoping to see them on the table. The more I look at their stats the more excited I am and the more I want to buy them buddies!

What did your Onagers have? I haven't had a chance yet to run a squadron of them with Heavy Phosphor Blasters but I ran a solo Phosphor one and it did some solid work against the XV-88s (those are the same as crisis suits, right?), but when he gets a second Start Collecting box and is fielding more of them, a squad will be very nice. Then again some shooty Kastelans might do the trick a little better. I guess we will see!

I like big cannons so all neutron lasers, though the one time I shot full blast my opponent rolled like a god and saved every neutron hit I got with cover saves... my stubbers did more than the lasers! but one did manage to murder two crisis suits at once turn two (before they were killed in melee... stupid onager Gauntlet.)

[DeStinyFiSh]

Regarding the Cohort Cybernetica:

My opponents hate them ! No one ever managed to kill more than 1 or 2 of the big guys, in return they can wipe out 2 or more units a turn without any bigger problems.

But I need to say that Super Heavys and D Weapons are pretty rare, I guess the expensive Robots are apretty welcome target for these weapons.

Regarding the Onagers:

I get a 4th Onager this week and fully magnetize him. Then I have got 1 with Icarus and 3 magnetized, but I always run them with Neutron Laser and additional Stubber anyway

I also made the experience that the stubbers are more brutal than the small blasts, especially against Eldar Jet Bikes. When good positioned you will hit only one of them, S10 is overkill and a 50% jink can easily ruin your day. 6 Stubber shots per walker with BS 4 and more can realy hurt them.

[gmaleron]

Hello once again fellow Skitarii Commanders and Tech Priests! Once again I return having gathered some Hard Data against some opponents that many feel to be our bane, the dreaded Tau and Eldar. Prior to both matches I told my opponents that I wished to test out my army against some of the stronger builds and units they had to offer and they both delivered. Against the Eldar I faced a Wraithknight, Scatter Laser Jetbikes and a Farseer with Council while against the Tau it was a pure suit army with a Deep Striking Formation made up of Crisis, Broadsides with relentless and a Commander Suit, a Stormsurge and some Marker Drones in a Formation. I fielded the following list yet again proxying most of it (I PROMISE I have almost completed this list, only need to buy and build 7 more Dragoons/Ironstriders and am getting 2 more this weekend):

 

2 SKITARII MANIPLES:

 

TROOPS:

 

-x5 Vanguard *Alpha Here*
*w/ x2 Arc Rifles, Refractor Field, Omnispex

 

-x5 Vanguard
*w/ x2 Arc Rifles, Omnispex

 

-x5 Vanguard
*w/ x2 Arc Rifles, Omnispex

 

-x5 Vanguard
*w/ x2 Arc Rifles, Omnispex

 

FAST ATTACK:

 

-x3 Sydonian Dragoons
*w/ x2 Phosphor Serpentas

 

-x3 Sydonian Dragoons
*w/ x2 Phosphor Serpentas

 

-x3 Sydonian Dragoons
*w/ x2 Phosphor Serpentas

 

-x3 Sydonian Dragoons
*w/ x2 Phosphor Serpentas

 

HEAVY SUPPORT:

 

-x2 Ironstridersquads
*w/ x2 Cognis Autocannons

 

-x2 Ironstridersquads
*w/ x2 Cognis Autocannons

 

-x2 Ironstridersquads
*w/ x2 Cognis Autocannons

 

-x1 Onager Dunecrawler
*w/ Neutron Laser and Cognis Heavy Stubber, Cognis Heavy Stubber, Cognis Maniple

 

TOTAL ARMY: 1500 POINTS

 

BREAKDOWN OF BATTLES:

 

Against the Tau it was a Malestrom Mission with standard Deployment however we both knew that with the forces involved it would most likely just devolve into a bloodbath with focus on Objectives being second. All he had to start off on the table was the Stormsurge and the Marker Drones both hiding in area terrain in the center rear of his deployment zone with the Drones bubble wrapping his Stormsurge (he had heard of how fast my Walkers actually were). Myself I deployed everything I possible could as far up as I possible could and Scouted everything forward as I had the first turn, he failed to Sieze the Initiative. It should be noted that HAD he gotten the First Turn the game probably would have ended very differently.

 

Against the Eldar it was the Diagonal Deployment with it being another Malestrom Mission. He deployed his Wraithknight in the center of his line as far up as possible with Scatter Bike units scattered all around using Hills and Area Terrain/Trees as cover with the Seer Council and Farseer Hanging back but within casting range of the Wraithknight. Myself I stuck to my guns and kept the vast majority of my army up as far forward as possible except for a few Ironstrider units hanging back to hold objectives. I also Scouted all of my Vanguard forward as yet again I had First Turn.

 

UNIT BY UNIT BREAKDOWN:

 

First Turn:

 

I am putting this here because frankly I would not have won either game I feel if I did not get First Turn in both matches. I feel that with an aggressive army like this or Ad Mech/Skitarii armies in general against Top Tier Codex armies that going First is rather important so we can bring our Firepower to bear and cripple the enemy to actually have a chance in the attrition over the course of the game to come. I recommend perhaps taking Coteaz or other units that help with Seizing the Initiative to give us a better chance when going first.

 

Vanguard:

 

As usual these guys did not disappoint, in particular against the Wraithknight during the second game where thanks to their Radium Carbine Rules they were able to put several wounds on it in the first turn before being obliterated by the Scatter Bikes. Against the Tau they contributed to wiping out his Marker Drones and did some damage to his Suits when they arrived from Deepstrke. Against the Eldar it was the first time an opponent had actually paid any attention to them as generally everyone focuses on my walkers, this actually also helped me get the win as it enabled my Dragoons to get into combat relatively unscratched and helped them last while chasing the bikes around the board.

 

Dragoons:

 

I know I say this a lot already but man I LOVE these guys, once again they were able to carry me to victory due to their speed and surprising durability. Against the Tau the highlight of the game was when I charged two squads of them into combat against his Stormsurge where they proceeded to grind him down over the course of three turns of combat. Only one Dragoon walked away from the struggle but boy was it EPIC! The other two units performed well against his Deep Striking Suits despite taking heavy casualties, at the end of the game only 4 were still standing.

 

Against the Eldar for the most part they spent the game chasing down Scatter Bike squads and slaughtering them once again taking heavy casualties. The fight against the Wraithknight was somewhat anti-climatic as thanks to some good rolling by my Vanguard and Ironstriders and bad rolling by my opponent allowed the two squads of Dragoons who charged him turn 1 to kill him with ease. I barely won this match (9-8) I absolutely HATE how maneuverable Eldar Jetbikes are, even with my Dragoons it was a pain to catch them lol.

 

Ironstriders:

 

These guys performed solidly in both games and definitely think running them in pairs is the way to go, gives them so much more flexibility against MSU armies, especially the Eldar. Against the Tau they were instrumental in crippling his Marker Light support and even succeeded in putting a few wounds on the Stormsurge before being completely wiped out by his deep striking suits...missile pod Broadsides HURT. Their maneuverability against the Eldar was a great asset as well as it enabled me to get to objectives and get points in what turned out to be a very close game, they also helped put a whole lot of unexpected hurt on the Wraithknight Turn 1.

 

Dunecrawler with Neutron Laser:

 

For the most part he just succeeded in killing a few models here and there but did have two big moments one against each opponent. He was able to shoot, charge and kill the one unit of Scatter Bikes in my deployment zone ensuring he didn't get Linebreaker which helped me hold onto the close win and against the Tau he was able to pick off all three of my opponents Relentless Broadsides in two turns. Looking forward to running more of them.

 

Bottom line in particular I feel against Tau this army and Ad Mech/Skitarii in general will have a rough time, especially with the match I have planned this upcoming weekend where instead of suits I will be facing massed ranks of Fire Warriors and Smart Missile Devilfish...its going to be rough. Eldar I am starting to think more and more we are quite similar in a lot of ways, in particular how we are both glass cannon armies for the most part so whoever hits first and hardest usually wins. Hope this helps guys and enjoy the read!

[Tiger9gamer]

Great reports, Gmaleron! Always cool to see that your IronStrider Maniple is doing well!

 

Question for everyone else though: How do you protect your vanguard? Mine always seem to die fast when the opponent just glances at them, so I have no clue personally.

[DeStinyFiSh]

Great reports, Gmaleron! Always cool to see that your IronStrider Maniple is doing well!

Question for everyone else though: How do you protect your vanguard? Mine always seem to die fast when the opponent just glances at them, so I have no clue personally.

Cover?

But serious, I know what you mean... The short range forces you to walk up the field with a fragile non CC unit. I personally haven't found a way to protect them yet.

At the moment I like running my Skitarii together with some Cult units. Because of the long range fire power of the Servitors and Kastelans the opponent is more often forced to move towards you. In this case the Vanguard can stay back and welcome the enemy.

In a mono Skitarii list this does not work, since the most destructiv units you have got are CC (Infiltrators / Dragoons) or mid range weapons (Vanguard / Plasma / Arc), except the Onager.

[Tyriks]

I've had some success with forcing the enemy to go first and putting everything out of line of sight, or dangling a juicy target but hiding everything else.  Usually he starts moving forward (but has few/no targets so I don't lose anything) and then pop bs+3, jump out and fire.  It is so devastating that usually it takes my opponents a turn or two just to get back in the game (I have yet to play over 1k points though so that might be why this works so well).  They tend to panic a little and make bad decisions like just run away to save units or resign themselves to lose things they could save.  

[Nostramar]

Fellow adepts!

I’ve recently pitted the forces of the Red Planet against the unholy union between the Tricksters of Cegorach and the Children of Guilliman. Several battles ensued over the course of two days. Some against both opponent, and at other times the Marines were singled out.

 

 

The First battle pitted two units of five Skitarii Vanguard, and a Cohort Cybernetica against the Marines.

The Cohort consisted of three ranged Kastelans, all phosphor and a single powerfist and pintle flamer. The Tech-Priest had the Autocaduceus of Arkan Land.

 

The Mission was 2/3rds of a board, with 6 objectives. The Vanguard succeeded in holding the objectives, and held morale despite severe losses during the course of the five rounds of combat.
The Cohort, albeit massively expensive in resources, did a fantastic job in deterring the marines from my objectives. The ability to distribute their shooting is fantastic. After a couple of rounds, the enemy general became aware that he would be unable to sustain the massive losses, and therefore opted to charge 10 marines (pistol/knife) and a Captain towards the looming robots. The ensuing overwatch destroyed six marines – praise the Omnissiah!
The entire combat lasted for two turns – the captain with his burning blade, and relic shield proved hardy to kill, and laid low two datasmiths, however he eventually perished to the power axe of the Tech-Priest.
All in all the marines eventually managed a meagre point more than myself, however another round had seem them removed in their entirety from the field of battle.
 

Worth mentioning is that the leading Tech-Priest Dominus arrived well equipped with Layered Psalm-Code: a warlord trait granting a great deal of additional utility.

 

 

Second battle can easily be summed up: we were victorious.

We found ourselves surrounded by the foe during the second engagement (as per one of the Space Marine supplement books). The combined Skitarii and Cult host had to deploy centrally, with at least 5 or so inches between each unit.

The enemy arrived from every direction, outflanking us.

Deployment saw little of the blessed overview of the Omnissiah, since the ruined manufactorium had the troops cramming together as closely as allowed (again, not being able to deployed within 5, (or 6?) inches is a curse).

Heavy deployment of two Kastelan Maniples ensured the entire side of the battlefield – for the foe have witnessed the destructive power, and range, of the phosphor weaponry. The other side had two units of three Haywire Breachers, and a single unit of six Grav Destroyers. Two units of ten Vanguard, a neutron Dunecrawler, and an Ironstrider secured most of the buildings, or were simply unable to get to cover before the enemy appeared on the horizon.

 

 

The battle turned early in the favour of Mars, when Chief Librarian Tigerius faultily disembarked his rhino within 10 inches of a covered Culexus assassin – this caused much havoc for the tactics of the space marine captain.
The unit of six Destroyers, all armed with graviton, spelt death for the marines shielding Tigerius.
Eldar trickery disposed of a Neutron Dunecrawler and an Ironstrider before they managed to fire any shots.

All in all, none of the foes managed to cross into the central deployment zone of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Our losses were minimal.

 

The technologically superiority of our battle-servitors is without equal, although their utility when it comes to speed is lacking. The sheer firepower of the graviton is amazing, and the reliable damage output of the haywire weaponry to armoured carriers and machines is fantastic.

 

 

Third battle was a very short one.

I granted the ground forces use of an Elimination Maniple (Powerfists/flames and graviton), and a Holy Requsitioner formation (all haywire). Strategic placement and cold calculating cunning saw the Omnissiah’s forces secure much field. The Marines had to hastily retreat from combat after the deepstriking Dominus and his honour guard, not only destroyed a dreadnought and most of a unit but also secured two objectives.

 

 

The Quest for Knowledge continues; comprehension is the key to all things.

[DeStinyFiSh]

I had 2 more games recently, 1 against Daemons, 1 against Tau. I won both games big times

The list against Daemons was a Skitarii list with an added CM Elemination Maniple.

Here the new data (it does not make sense to point out the same again and again:

Infiltrators: It was the first time I used the Infiltrators to outflank. It was good to get behind his advancing demons and decimating his Horrors to lower is psy level. I will use them this way more often when I get the feeling there will be some backfield camping units. Most of the time setting them up will be more usefull I guess, especially since you could always end up on the wrong side. The Infoslave Skull could help, but if I got 10 points spare I prefere boosting the Inv saves of my leaders.

Rangers: I had 5 Rangers with 2 TAs. Still, they are not reliable and could be a little cheaper, but from a tactical point of view I have to admit they make a lot of sense.

First, my warlord was in this unit and had the shrouded warlord trait, so in ruins a 2+ cover safe. A warlord thatt far back in the own deployment zone with a 2+ cover save is a tough cookie, and therefor the chances are big you deny him the Slay the Warlord VP. If I would have put him in one of the 2 Vanguard units, he would have been dead turn 3.

Second, the TAs are able to threat EVERYTHING. It is even possible to penetrate a Landraider, but very unlikely. Howerver, the opponent needs to think about that risk. In this game they stripped of some hullpoints from 2 Slaanesh Charriots and a Skullcanon.

Third, with 60" range they can easily sit on an objective and hold it while the rest of your army moves up.

So all in all it was not the last time to field my Rangers with Warlord this way.

Dragoon: I need to point out again how good this thing is against Daemons! He charged 15 Bloodhounrds turn 1 and kept them busy up to turn 3. In the second turn some Daemonetts joined the fight to get the dogs free, so this 45 point tin man tied up ~30 Daemons for 3 turns. Very cool !

Onager: Against an army with very little firepower I played the as seperat units instead of boosting the Inv. Turned out to be a good idea.

Elemination Maniple: Well, every single unit was good (1x Grav Destroyers; 1x Plasma Destroyers; 1x Phosphor Robots), but the formation bonus never happened. Grav shot against AVs, which the Robots could not hurt, and the Plasma Destroyers struggeled to get into range of something the Robos shot at. But it is a nice way to add some tough units to the Skitarii without paying 105 points for a Tech Priest (not that a Tech Priest is a bad choice, is is always a good one, but sometimes you may run short on points).

Against the Tau I had a pure CM list with an oathsworn Knight Crusader. It was the Relic game with the Objective in the middle you need to grab. After turn 3 I just lost 278 points (6 E-Priests, 1 Datasmith and 1 Kastellan).

Shroudpsalm was realy helpfull. He had to use a lot of markers to get rid of my cover safe instead of boosting his BS.

Cohort Cybernetica: This formation is amazig. They soaked up so much firepower and only 1 Kastellan died. Once the reached the Relic the Tau gave up... there was no chance for them to kill the Unit.

Grav Destroyers: Killed a Hammerhead turn 1, damaged 2 more Hammerheads during the rest of the game and kept the Riptides in a corner. He rolled realy bad for his Nova Reactor and without a 3++ he was to scared to get into range of them. So 18 Grav shots out of a Ruin with 2+ cover thanks to shroudpsalm for 2 turns is good the get and keep field controll.

Arc Breachers: The stripped of hullpoints from his transports, but with just 6 shots at BF3 against jinking AVs they need to much time to bring something down. So against Tau and Eldar I would recommend taking more the be reliable.

E-Priests: Fulgurite (took them for the first time) did nothing before getting killed, Corpuscarii killed 2 Drones and stripped of the last hullpoint of a Tetra. Still, I don't know how to field them more effectively... but with the 2 units I managed to get 8 cult units on the table and had the stronger canticles, so it was ok. The plan was to charge Krisis that shock in my deployment zone, but he played a more tank heavy list.

Knight Crusader: You can never go wrong with him . Killed a lot of stuff every turn.

In defense of the Tau player: He rolled pretty shi*ty and he never faced Ad Mech nor a Knight before, and the Relic mission was good for me because of the Robots and bad for him because of... Tau...

He focused to much on the Cohort Cybernetica not knowing how tough they are instead of killing the Servitors first to be able to manouver arround without being shot to death.

[Tyriks]

I played a 1500 point game against Eldar today. It was a glorious purge of the xenos scum! Also my biggest game to date.

 

A couple thoughts:

1) Squads of Heavy Phosphor Onagers are awesome against Eldar! I had 2 in one unit. The invulnerable save was nice, but the number of shots makes up for how underwhelming the gun is on a solo Onager. I loved that unit I this game. Against the Eldar they are strong enough to at least have a chance of damaging anything they can bring. They wrecked a fire prism and got me Slay the Warlord.

 

2) Shooty Kastelans are also awesome (at least against Eldar)! They took down 2 wraithlords and an Avatar of Khaine, and glanced various vehicles. They did also reduce some very pesky warp spiders cover which helped some grav get through to wipe them out. They ended up killing almost twice their points. They also soaked up everything thrown at them.

 

3) My Dragoon was also a boss. It charged a blob of rangers (whatever the Eldar snipers are called) that were shooting at the Kastelans which worried me since they could wound them as easily as everything else, so I resolved to leave him locked in most of the game but prevent them from doing that. Well, he cleared them away in 3 turns, taking huge chunks out every turn, and then consolidated in such a way that he could charge the rear of the last fire prism and smash it in one turn of combat, claiming the objective it had been sitting on. So glorious! I definitely need more.

 

4) once again the biggest problem I had was lack of mobility. I was down by 2 points right off the bat and he gained ground up until turn 4 when I almost caught up. He would have won on points if I hadn't barely tabled him at the end of turn 5. The dragoon was nice, and I brought infiltrators, but the avatar and wraithlords all went after them since my warlord joined them (dunestrider isn't negated by the dominus and I figured he could try to tank shots for them to help them survive. They all got shot out from under him due to repositioning by the enemy). So the dragoon was my only mobile model for most of the game.

 

5) I tried out torsion cannons on some breachers. I knew he had several MCs and vehicles he might bring, so I thought it might be a good place to try them out. Since s8ap1 should be able to hit Eldar vehicles I thought even if he left the MCs at home it would be useful. It did nothing all game due to mediocre range and not enough shots. I'll probably try them again sometime but they literally did nothing (although the idea of them scared him enough that they got more attention than targets that mattered more, so it was alright).

[DeStinyFiSh]

5) I tried out torsion cannons on some breachers. I knew he had several MCs and vehicles he might bring, so I thought it might be a good place to try them out. Since s8ap1 should be able to hit Eldar vehicles I thought even if he left the MCs at home it would be useful. It did nothing all game due to mediocre range and not enough shots. I'll probably try them again sometime but they literally did nothing (although the idea of them scared him enough that they got more attention than targets that mattered more, so it was alright).

 

I think especially against jinking AVs it is crap. You barely hit anyway, than you need to pen. That is hard enough. But jinking units make it even worse by ignoring half of the shots that come through...

[JeffTibbetts]

Hey all! I love this thread and I've been lurking it for a long time now. I'm finally at the point where I can start fielding a full Ad Mech army instead of just running them as allies, but now I have some hard decisions to make and I would love some input. 

 

I recently acquired a bunch of new Cult Mech and Skitarii stuff second-hand, and most of it was preassembled. Only the Kastelans were magnetized so I'm not sure how best to use them. I have 4 and the two tech priests that go with them. Any thoughts about keeping them in one large unit or splitting them into 2? I have two squads of Destroyers, but unfortunately they were fully glued with grav and the flamers. I think this is a decent load out, but I still wish I had some options. I did get two more Onagers to go with the one I already had, and the main weapons are magnetized which is nice. Thoughts on keeping these together for the save vs. splitting them up to take on different targets? I have the same question about Dragoons. I have three now, all with Taser Lances (fine by me! I love the way they look) and Serpentias. I've seen lots of evidence for splitting them up, but also a few dissenters saying to keep them together for survivability. 

 

My preferred enemy is Necrons, and my small group also has Tau and a couple flavors of marines. No Eldar, Orks or Nids as of right now. I really enjoy arc weapons for the fluff, but the grav might be nice as I've never used it in my astartes army at all. 

 

Anyway, I guess I'm looking for a little advice based on the hard data. 

[Tyriks]

Hey all! I love this thread and I've been lurking it for a long time now. I'm finally at the point where I can start fielding a full Ad Mech army instead of just running them as allies, but now I have some hard decisions to make and I would love some input. 

 

I recently acquired a bunch of new Cult Mech and Skitarii stuff second-hand, and most of it was preassembled. Only the Kastelans were magnetized so I'm not sure how best to use them. I have 4 and the two tech priests that go with them. Any thoughts about keeping them in one large unit or splitting them into 2? I have two squads of Destroyers, but unfortunately they were fully glued with grav and the flamers. I think this is a decent load out, but I still wish I had some options. I did get two more Onagers to go with the one I already had, and the main weapons are magnetized which is nice. Thoughts on keeping these together for the save vs. splitting them up to take on different targets? I have the same question about Dragoons. I have three now, all with Taser Lances (fine by me! I love the way they look) and Serpentias. I've seen lots of evidence for splitting them up, but also a few dissenters saying to keep them together for survivability. 

 

My preferred enemy is Necrons, and my small group also has Tau and a couple flavors of marines. No Eldar, Orks or Nids as of right now. I really enjoy arc weapons for the fluff, but the grav might be nice as I've never used it in my astartes army at all. 

 

Anyway, I guess I'm looking for a little advice based on the hard data. 

I love shooty Kastelans!  They are a legit threat against almost anything in the game.  The only things I know of that they can't bring down are Land Raiders and Monoliths, which punchy ones could take care of, but they're still slow.  Getting them into combat would take awhile.  The shooty option is more expensive, but I never needed mine to move that much since they had range on most of the board from where I deployed them.  They fire enough shots to bring down large units (or to hit them hard enough that they get neutered) with 12 s6ap3 shots.  They have always excelled for me.  I would field them as separate units (having 700ish points in one unit is asking for trouble, I think) but I do eventually want to try out the formation with 2 units and a Dominus (to give them healing from him in shooting phase and autocaduceus on the Dominus for IWND).

 

Also, grav is a little too good right now, so gravaphrons are amazing.  I have never regretted them.  They fire 6 shots apiece which means even units they aren't meant to fight can be hurt.  That's also enough shots to score 6s somewhat reliably on vehicles.  I love them.

 

Onager squads are tricky.  Stuff like the Icarus Array is overkill in squads most of the time (unless flyer wings get more popular as people get used to them), and the neutron laser is also usually overkill in squads.  I enjoyed the 5++ yesterday though when I brought two heavy phosphor blasters.  I'd say it depends on your meta.  I have yet to see superheavies in my games, but if you see them a lot maybe it wouldn't be as bad.

[DeStinyFiSh]

 

I recently acquired a bunch of new Cult Mech and Skitarii stuff second-hand, and most of it was preassembled. Only the Kastelans were magnetized so I'm not sure how best to use them. I have 4 and the two tech priests that go with them. Any thoughts about keeping them in one large unit or splitting them into 2? I have two squads of Destroyers, but unfortunately they were fully glued with grav and the flamers. I think this is a decent load out, but I still wish I had some options. I did get two more Onagers to go with the one I already had, and the main weapons are magnetized which is nice. Thoughts on keeping these together for the save vs. splitting them up to take on different targets? I have the same question about Dragoons. I have three now, all with Taser Lances (fine by me! I love the way they look) and Serpentias. I've seen lots of evidence for splitting them up, but also a few dissenters saying to keep them together for survivability.

 

Welcome

 

Kastellans: Most people prefere the shooty version. I myself have got 3 with full Phosphor and 1 with Flamer and Fist. This makes the squat a little better against tougher targets in CC, but even without the fists they are still S6 AP2 or can do a single smash attack at S10.

 

Regarding the Onagers: As said before, more than 1 Icarus Array is overkill most of the time. Also, against some opponents, splitting them up is more usefull. There is not much shooting coming from Daemons or KDK for example, so there is no real need to boost the inv. Splitting the firepower (and keeping 1 shooting / alive while another one is attacked) may be more helpfull.

 

Dragoons: I like to keep them cheap, which means in smaller units. You can still attack the same unit with 2 single Dragoons for example, but if the opponent can not kill both with 1 of his units in the shooting phase. For exampe: If a bunch of Firewarriors shoot at a single Dragoon at get 4 glances, 1 Dragoon is dead, the other one next to him is still alive. If you put both in one unit, 4 glances will kill both of them (5+ cover save aside).

[Tiger9gamer]

I finally played my first game with my cohort cybernetica. also lost my first game with them, but it was a fun experience still!

My list at 1500ptswas:

Cohort Cybernetica:

Kastelen Robot man-nipple (datasmith with conversion field, two bots with phosphor)

Kastelen Robot maniple (datasmith with conversion field and Alpha Dominus mask, two bots with phosphor)

Tech Priest Anguis Diode (dominus with conversion field, Eradication ray and IWND Relic)

Skitarii Cohort

Vanguard squad (x10 men, x3 arc rifles, omnispex)

Vanguard squad (x10 men, x3 arc rifles, omnispex)

Onager dunecrawler with neutron laser

Onager dunecrawler with neutron laser

Onager dunecrawler with neutron laser

Not my best list, but I really wanted to use the robots I just painted. my opponent was space wolves of mostly drop pods (two grey hunters with plasma weapons, one big blood claw squad in the weird plane, a dread in a pod w/ helfrost and a thunderwolf squad that had a rune priest w/ endurance ) he deployed only the wolves, and I had prime positions to turn one kill a few of them with neutron lasers before endurence turned them into uberwolves.

So I had first turn, set up, all prepared to scout... then he stole the initiative.

It all went downhill from there.

Skitarii vanguard: he killed a big chunk out of both squads when he came down turn one, but I had almost all my arc rifles intact and they held morale. They retaliated by destroying a drop pod for first blood, and later they managed to take two hullpoints off the wolf flyer before they all died. not too good of a showing, but they were destroyed before they could do much.

Onager Dunecrawlers: these guys did rather well! they killed a dread in cover turn one, absolutely annihilated a full grey hunter squad in cover down to 3 guys after some phosphor marking, and the next two turns had them slowly get killed from the space wolf flyer. made up their points though!

Cohort Cybernetica: the big guys on the table! the head honchos! they did pretty good. turn 1 they shot at some space wolves who were in 4+ cover, killing half the grey hunter squad and marking them with phospor for the neutron laser. the other two bots shot at the endurenced thunder wolves and did diddly because of the aforementioned endurence. Turn 2 though three bots shot at the second grey wolf squad that just came down, and killed all but one thanks to him going to ground behind a drop pod (stupid 4+ coversave). The eradication beamer is friggen excellent for killing marines, as my dominus alone killed a third of the squad.

With blood claws and thunderwolves breathing down my neck, I had a plan. I activated my double shooting protocol and waited for an assault. the bots only lost one wound in shooting, and then they overwatched the blood claws, killing the front row of 6 in overwatch! I used the mask to switch protocols, and here I made my mistake. instead of making them more durable for the incoming charge, I gave them the extra attacks. Long story short my 800+ points lost to his 800+ points in combat over time, with the only real victory being the cohort killing the thunderwolf squad in the end. my dominus would have survived too if I passed the last 4+ save he needed to make from a power fist.

so, in the end he had 3 grey hunters total on the field that only survived because he went to ground, a flyer on it's last hullpoint and about 5 blood claws with it's chaplain in the squad after the combat. out of the 40 marines I would say that was some good work! I lost all my skitarii due to them being squishy as hell, and I never got a chance to IWND or repair my robots before the combat. However! the robots killed a lot in both CCW and shooting, and if it wasn't for endurence he would have lost his thunderwolves a lot, lot sooner then the final turn. plus, I loved seeing all the bots on the table, and my opponent didn't even touch them outside of the massive charge in the last turns. maybe I should have given one powerfists, but they still killed a lot in CCW.

[Tyriks]

 

Kastelen Robot man-nipple 

I forgot about this!  Very nice.

 

The cohort cybernetica strikes me as just too many points for not enough models in smaller games.  I think if I was going to run one in a 1500 point game I would bring little or nothing else besides vanguard and dragoons to make up for the lack of bodies.  It's at least half your army points!  I really want to take one but I know it would be suicide.

[Tiger9gamer]

Alright, more robot fun to be had! I recently acquired the 30k mechanicum rule book and quite a few more bots, and I have to say I am loving the legio Cybernetica in 30k and have been using my Kastellens as Castellex bots for the last two or three games (I used them more for 30k than for 40k). The difference is pretty interesting for the two sides, and I may make a small post talking about it someday.

 

SO with saying that, I bring you some data on a joint force between 30k mechanicus and 40k skitarii. I reccomend that you get your opponent's permission for a one on one game using this kind of stuff, because it can be a bit crazy and dubious if you wanna do this, so talking with your opponent before hand  is the best way to go.

 

My force for this 3,000 point game was as followed:

 

Legio Cybernetica

 

Archmagos Dominus (abynet, machanicator array, cyber familiar) [for those uninitiated, basically an IC for robots only, with T6, 4W and a 2+/3++, robot based psychic programming [basically wi-fi programming] but with absolutely no CCW besides the power axe and array while costing as much as a stormraven)

 

Magos Dominus (machanicator array, cyber familiar) [a smaller dominus, but T5 with two wounds, while still only able to join Robots instead of anything else)

 

Magos Prime Ordinator (master crafted Photon thrusters) [another dominus, but think of this one as a tank buster, with a str6 ap2 lance weapon that the tech priest gives armorbane to. so far this set up killed 1 dread and finished off 1 knight, but not much else]

 

Tech Thralls with Rite of Pure Thought [mechanicus gretchin with fearless]

 

x2 Castellex (darkfire canons, enhanced targeters) [48" str 7 ap2 lance gets hot on a 4W T7 MC with BS 5 and -1 cover. It's pretty good for mulching infantry and killing armor]

 

x2 Castellex (Enhanced targeters and Power Blades) [ T7 4W Monstrous Creature with BS 5 and -1 cover,  two CCW and a pinning str6 ap3 heavy 3 bolter along with regular bolters.)

 

x2 Castellex (Enhanced targeters and Power Blades) [same as above!]

 

Thanatar (enhanced targeters and Paragon of Metal) [my artillery support, with a str 8 ap2 pie plate that makes you re-roll cover saves. Paragon of metal means that my bot can opperate independently and has IWND]

 

Myrmadon destructors (x3 graviton imploders) [guys who have PE Everything! and bs 5, and carry 4 shot 40k graviton guns.)

 

Myrmadon destructors (x3 Volkite Cavilers) [same guys with Volkite weapons that are str6 ap6 4 shots each at 45". Volkite forces more wounds for every failed armor save. ]

 

 

40k skitarii

Vanguard Skitarii (x10 guys, x3 arc rifles, omni-spex)

Vanguard Skitarii (x10 guys, x3 arc rifles, omni-spex)

Vanguard Skitarii (x10 guys, x3 arc rifles, omni-spex)

Vanguard Skitarii (x5 guys, x2 arc rifles)

 

Onager Dunecrawler (x3 crawlers with x3 neutron lasers)

 

_________________________________________________________

 

So my opponents were blood angels and imperial guard, with imperial guard being comprised of mostly zerg-rushing vets with the demolition speciality and no armor, a few tanks and a few heavy weapon teams. The blood angel player was a newbie that had a foot slogging marine list with some jump packs, terminators and a drop pod dread. I created my list before I knew he was so new to the game, so I do feel slightly bad about the battle. Then he killed a robot and I lost all sympathy. Those things are bastards to produce!

 

So unit analysis on 30k mixed with 40k...

 

Skitarii vanguard: these guys scouted forward behind a fortress of redemption on a hill, and had some pretty good cover against the enemy. Only one squad got hit hard by a nova cannon and had like, 4 of it's members wiped out, but they stayed in the game and stood in front of the bots. turn 1 the squads murdered two chimeras that went flat out past my lines, opening up the boxes for the bots to shoot stuff. Turn 2 a wave of guardsmen assaulted two of the squads, and since I was WS 1 at the time won pretty handily, which also played into my hand. The two squads broke and ran, with one squad regrouping  and turning back around to fight... but more importantly allowed the guardsmen to be targeted. The rest of the game saw the skitarii help with clearing out some squads randomly, and at the end I had 12 skitarii left on the front lines.

 

5 man skitarii squad: may as well make this a seperate entry. They helped take two hullpoints off a dread and they held an objective for the game, as well as kill a singular Sanguinary guard. with arc rifles.

 

Onager Dunecrawlers: They were good as always. Turn one they nuked a vindicare assassin and 2 heavy weapon teams, and turn 2 they killed a death company squad. turn 3 they managed to get tied up for two turns by a lone demolition sergeant who killed a walker before they finally stomped him. Last turn they killed the final leman russ on the table.

 

Archmagos dominus and magos dominus: Grouping these two together because they did a pretty similar job. They stayed with the robots and healed them / buffed them when they could. They are like the 40k magos in that they can heal stuff, but it's a battle smith roll rather than the 40k 2+ roll. Mechanicator array gives you two extra servo arms for it, so it's fairly reliable on a 3+. They also have cyberthurgy, which can buff a single robot in Cortex controller range, giving them anything from healing a wound back to adding +2 to their attack rolls. downside is that they cannot shoot when doing this, so it's not a smart idea to give them a weapon if you wanna buff/fix robots.

 

this game I played it safe and only used two buffs, one of them the +2 attacks on a bot that didn't need it and another that doubled one's shooting for the turn but it can't shoot the next turn.  Turn 1 my arch magos, despite having a 3++  save, almost got instant killed by a vindicare shot. A robot took it on a look out sir! and died, but otherwise my archmagos was fine. Early in the game he killed a dread in CQC with an armor bane Mechanicator attack (just barely) so he had at least one kill this game. 

 

Magos Ordinator and thralls: He sat with some thralls on the tallest point in my deployment zone and tried to kill a leman russ, but my rolls sucked so it was only stun locked for a turn. still a lot of potential though, and I recently tried him with a conversion beamer which worked a whole lot better. Armor bane is friggen hilarious on him, and he can strip hull points fairly reliably. Photon thruster ordinator had a much better showing in a different 30k game when he killed two dreads before getting destroyed by a contemptor. Ironically, the thralls gave him fearless so he didn't run away when he gets shot.

 

Darkfire cannon Castellex: Cool unit that my warlord hung out in, but didn't get to do that much. They killed some scions with their cannon, stunned a leman russ for another turn, and that's about it. I like them quite a bit, but I need to get more lucky before they do more. Still, that plasma-gun like weapon is very nice, and can defiantly hurt just about anything.

 

Mauler Bolt Cannon Castellex These guys did most of the work, and that work was killin guardsmen! seriously, each squad can shoot 6 str 6 ap 3 pinning rounds followed by two bolters every turn, hitting on 2's and subtracting 1 from any cover saves. They can rip units apart with that kind of fire power, and did too! They probably killed a good 45% of the infantry they targetted with all the dakka they had. they never got into combat, but they have 3 attacks each so they can handle things well there.

 

 

Thanatar: Big boy bot in the house! This guy usually doesn't disappoint, but this game his performance was a bit lacking. A dread landed close to him turn 1 so he had to move, making his shot 24" instead of 48", and he had to move again turn 2 so he could see stuff better, again decreasing his range. he did kill 5 scions with his first blast, and with his second he managed to kill an enginseer and take the final wound off a leman russ that was bugging me. not a waste but not as good as I wanted him to be this game. 

 

Volkite Myrmadons: Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh boy, does volkite bugger guardsmen. These guys? Yea these guys are good no matter what era. almost a guaranteed 12 wounds against MEQ's that add more for each unsaved wound it caused. This game they killed whatever they aimed at. Turn 1 it was the warlord and his command squad as they hid in a ruin, turn 2 it was a heavy weapon team in a tower next door, turn 3 it was just cleaning up some demolition guardsmen that the other squads couldn't be bothered with and turn 4 they killed off a tactical squad as it hid on the enemy objective. They basically held the left flank down for my game.

 

Graviton Myrmadons: On a flank filled with marines and little else, these guys were king. They killed a sanguinary squad, a tactical squad, a terminator librarian and a 3 man terminator squad with a captain. I felt a little dirty for taking them at the end, but the Newbie has to learn about the wonders of graviton some time! 

 

Sooo at the end of the game the enemy had 11 marines left out of  48 or so marines, and one 1 heavy support squad out of some 70 guardsmen, while I lost a single robot, an onager and a bout 18 skitarii. to be honest, the imperial guard player had almost no idea what he was doing, or had an idea that was pretty bad in the first place and went as well as you would expect. He didn't fire a single lasgun the entire game, and hoped to tie up WS 1 skitarii without them running away. it was... not the best idea. I hope he learned that for the next game we play.

 

 

anyways, I am sincerely surprised at how good these armies worked together. The skitarii worked by providing bodies that could take on everything and helped defend the robots from a mass charge. they did suffer from a charge, but I still had enough guns to hurt everything I saw. and the robots helped to provide more specialized targeting, mowing guardsmen down effortlessly as well as turning marines into mulch. The myrmadons and the onagers provided long range support that was dreadfully effective at their jobs. with this and the recent apoc game I had where I tied the armies together again, it just makes me feel that Forge world already made a better cult mechanicus codex over the one we have. sure it doesn't have as much graviton, but it feels better thought-out with more options and ways to play over the 40k cult mechanicus. I dunno, but maybe GW should have examined the FW books a lot more before writing the cult mechanicus codex as it stands now in 2016.

 

 

Hope you guys enjoyed this little report I cooked up! 

[AfroCampbell]

Has anyone tried out Peltasts?? thoughts on these at all or the new Hoplites?

[MoGuy]

I'll order some Peltasts and Hoplites this week. There probably won't be any surprises tho. It is pretty clear that the Peltasts will eat anything but MCs and TEQs alive. Only Hoplites will need some playtesting to find out how they actually perform. I think they will be more of a tarpit unit in melee tho. I would let a Dominus join them, that way they can benefit from Canticles (Shrouded could be nice) and he would add some punch to the group. The Hoplites could then absorb wounds and the Dominus can sit back and slice up some dudes.

[Tiger9gamer]

I preordered it and am currently waiting... It also delayed my purchase of thallax!

[MoGuy]

I have some HARD DATA on the new Secutarii Peltasts. But not on their performance on the tabletop but on building them! Since I just finished 20 guys, I have to say that Forgeworld didn't do that good of a job, sadly. Normally the right arm that carries the weapon has a few cavities for the cables that run around the chestpiece. The Forgeworld upgrade sprues do NOT have those. So in order to get the arms to fit tight, you have to shave off the cables below both shoulders, where the arms attach. 

 

And resin is a nightmare to work with, as always. Washing and rinsing it before assembly only makes it moderately better. 2-component-glue seems the way to go, but since I don't own that I went with the good old superglue. 

[Tiger9gamer]

I have some HARD DATA on the new Secutarii Peltasts. But not on their performance on the tabletop but on building them! Since I just finished 20 guys, I have to say that Forgeworld didn't do that good of a job, sadly. Normally the right arm that carries the weapon has a few cavities for the cables that run around the chestpiece. The Forgeworld upgrade sprues do NOT have those. So in order to get the arms to fit tight, you have to shave off the cables below both shoulders, where the arms attach. 

 

And resin is a nightmare to work with, as always. Washing and rinsing it before assembly only makes it moderately better. 2-component-glue seems the way to go, but since I don't own that I went with the good old superglue. 

Thanks for that data, friend! I just got mine and have yet to start, so that helps a lot, and saves some time.

 

Question: I usually prime on the sprue for my skitarii because of my color scheme! would you say it would be wise to do that with the peltasts too?

[MoGuy]

 

 

Question: I usually prime on the sprue for my skitarii because of my color scheme! would you say it would be wise to do that with the peltasts too?

 

Sure, but make sure to wash the resin before! Let it soak in a bowl with warm water and some washing soap for about 10 minutes. Rinse under running water and dry with a paper towel. After that you are good to go and can start priming. 

[Tiger9gamer]

 

 

 

Question: I usually prime on the sprue for my skitarii because of my color scheme! would you say it would be wise to do that with the peltasts too?

 

Sure, but make sure to wash the resin before! Let it soak in a bowl with warm water and some washing soap for about 10 minutes. Rinse under running water and dry with a paper towel. After that you are good to go and can start priming. 

 

way ahead of you! =D just finished soaking them

[Charlo]

Might be really irresponsible this week and instead of painting my outstanding pile of BA, build my Mechanik-itarii so I can use them in a small battle or something...

 

I want to feel that firepower man.

 

I have:

 

Techpriest

Rangers & Vanguard

6 Kataphron (3 Plas/ 3 Grav)

2 Bots w/Smith

 

+ a Castellax I can probably count as a bot too.

 

Probably make a decent list with that! 

[Terminus]

Resin is such a pain in the ass, but delightfully soft to work with proper application of heat and knife. I now use an ultrasonic cleaner bath to rinse the resin before working with it, and I honestly don't have any issues with adhesion other than really big panels on vehicles that arrive bent out of shape.  I now have a heat gun for those ***kers.