Skitarii and Mechanicum HARD DATA review

[Charlo]

....Gave it a go myself

Okay if I buy a start collecting box (and get hastily painting...) I can run this @1850 with a Grand Convocation and a Squad of Custodes:

Cawl

Dominus - Mortispex, Stasis Field

Kataphron Breachers - Arc

Kataprhon Destoryers - Grav

10 Vanguard - 3 Arc Rifles, Arc Maul, Arc Pistol

10 Vanguard - 3 Plasma, Quantum Annihilator, Taser Goad

Onager - Neutron Laser, Heavy Stubber

Kastelan - Triple Phospher, Mask of the Alpha Dominus, Conversion Field

5 Custodians - 3 Spear, 2 Shield

Might be a little upgrade heavy and I don't get a whole lot from the Grand Convo, but it lets me run everything together (otherwise I can't get Cawl in aswell)

Edit: OH.

I could run this as a Skitarii Detachment, Cult Detachment and then add in Cawl via the little Enginseer Detachment... Lol

That way I get Scout & a Canticle re-use in exchange for buffing the Onager a tiny amount...

[DeStinyFiSh]

Cawl via Enginseer Detachment? Not possible I think.

 

But you can take the Cult units as CAD to get a second HQ.

 

Or you do a Cult Battle Congregation, 2 x 5 Vanguard Skitarii Maniple and a Dominus Maniple.

 

There are options...

[DeStinyFiSh]

I had my furst bigger game yesterday and it was great fun!

We played 6000 points each side, Imperium vs Chaos with Empyric Storm table.

I had 3000 Points Conclave Aquisitorius consisting of:

- Carl

- Battle Maniple

- Holy Requisitioner

- Cohort Cybernetica

- 1 Knight Crusader

- 1 Knight Lancer

My allie had 3000 points of Marines.

- 10 Drop Pods (just 5 Marines in each)

- 2 x A formation consiting of 2 small and 1 big flyer

- 1 Supression Force (2 Whirlwinds and a Speeder)

- 1 Baneblade

Chaos had 3000 point Night Lords with 4 Daemon Princes of Tzeentch and Belakor, Lost and Damned formation, 2 Helldrakes, a Raptor + Warptalon formation and a few Horrors (I guess allied detachment for Belakor).

The remaining 3000 points was a mixture of Slaanesh, Khorne and Tzeentch... 3 Grinder, some Bikes and Dogs, 1 Tzeentch Knight Paladin, 1 Fire Raptor

First of all, the Empyric Storm is fun to play with !

And now some hard data:

- Psychic shriek is a nightmare ! This game was the first time ever that a full Cohort Cybernetica got killed, and I think about 6 wounds have been because of the shriek...

- This was the 3rd time for me fielding the Knigh lancer. Because of opponents mistake I was able to charge the Chaos Knight turn 1, hoping that the lancer is finally able to do what he is made for: Killing something heavy. Well... He hit twice and one of the rolls was a 1. Chaos Knight did nothing in return. Next turn both Knights striking at same Ini step. Lancer was able to strip the remaining HP from the Chaos Knight, who in return rolled a 6 for his D- Sword. Disappointing, I was looking forward to smash through that Knight and then be able to go rampage behind enemy lines.

- You can field a lot of tough units, but if you are up againt 6000 points and most of your allies army is in reserve or consists of flyers and small groups of Bolter- Marines (both get ignored quit often) you will get hurt !

- Carl got killed after FAILING A TOUGHNESS TEST !!! and got insta- killed by a Black Mace swinging Daemon Prince.

- The combinations of the Autopurger and -1T from Vanguard looks nice, but all it did was wounding 3 dogs.

- 1 result of the Empyric Storm on enemys turn 1 was to negate any Inv safes. Thats why I decided to go for the Stealth and Shrouded canticle, not thinking a turn ahead when the Inv safes are up again and I get charged... Cover safe did nothing to help, a 4+ Inv would have safed a lot of wounds on my Dragoons, Ruststalkers, Vanguard and maybe the Lancer, all units which got whiped out Chaos turn 2. Looks like a little mistake (+3 to cover instead of 4++), but might have decidied the game to Chaos favours.

In the end we stopped after turn 4. It was 19 : 12 to Chaos. All i had left was the Knight Crusader and 5 outfalnking Infiltrators that arrived from reserve. Marines had a few flyers, Pods and Marines left, nothing fancy.

Chaos had 2 Deamon Princes, Belakor, 1 Helldrake, some Cultists, CSM, Havocs and Bikers left.

If my partner would have had a bigger presence on the table and if I would have choosen the right Canticle at the right time, game could have been different. Next time...

[Charlo]

Okay so just planning further into my list, as I have a week to decide and paint what I want to use...

 

As I got some cheap skitarii on eBay - holding off on the start collecting box in favour of an extra Kastelan box.

 

So I beseesh ye, fellow followers of the Omnissiah...

 

Do I run two squads of 2 Bots and a Datasmith, or combine everything with Cawl / a Dominus in the Cybernetica formation? Former gives me more movement flexibility and an extra canticles and saves some points as I only need 1 HQ.... Latter gives me the split fire and overall more wound shenanigans.

 

Extra points will go to more skitarii bodies/ beefing up some potential sisters of silence I might bring (need to counter the Psykers... And I will have just finished painting them so why not?)

[DeStinyFiSh]

Why extra canticles? Cohort counts as 3 units as welle.

 

But I would go with 2 Maniples and attache Carl to some Skitarii or Breachers.

[gmaleron]

Data Upload: Finally after waiting several months for my Army to be commission painted I was able to get 2 games with my brand new painted army! My army consisted of:

 

-Cawl

-x4 Squads of 5 Vanguard, two squads had x1 Plasma Calivers, the other two had x2 Plasma Calivers

-x3 Squads of 2 Dragoons with Lances

-x2 Squads of 3 Dragoons with Lances

-x3 Squads of 2 Ironstriders with Autocannons

-x3 Inividual Dunecrawlers with Neutron Lasers and Dual Heavy Stubbers

 

OPPONENT #1: Genestealer Cults:

 

The only Army I have yet to be in 40K however unlike my other games against GC with my guard this one was really close with the final Maelstrom score being 16-12. Some highlights of the game:

 

-Cawl in two rounds of combat absolutely wrecked in the first round and then absolutely wiffed in second where he was run down by the Broodlord. Sweeping advances would kill him and both of my games, seriously considering putting the Omniscient Mask in whatever Squad he is a part of to make them Fearless.

 

-Vanguard for the most part this game really only succeeded at ensuring he couldn't appear behind me and wiping out small ambushing teams of infantry whenever they could, basically a QRF behind my wall of walkers.

 

-My Dragoons overall did very well obliterating his Left Flank when they appeared after surviving his first turn of shooting and Ambush charges once again showing off their surprising durability. Were grinded down over the course of the game with thanks in part to some lucky rending Rolls by my opponent with single models.

 

-Ironstriders we're quite effective at bringing down units on far objectives forcing a couple of them to run and deny him points. There surprising durability came into play as well allowing me to use them as a wall of sorts to protect my infantry over the first couple turns of the game.

 

-Dunecrawlers despite having no infantry targets did work the entire game putting Heavy Stubber fire and Neutron Laser blasts in great spots to whittle down his forces.

 

Overall this was a very valuable learning experience as this was the first time I'd ever taken my Dragoon Calvary Force against the GC. Outside of one lucky Maelstrom turn for my opponent where he got 9 points I had this game in the bag and look forward to a rematch in the future.

 

OPPONENT #2: Ultramarines:

 

This game can be summed up in a tale of two halves. My opponent was running the new Ultramarines Formation with Guiliman, a Contemptor Dreadnought and some Space Marines in Razorbacks with some 10th Company Scout support. For the first couple of turns it looked like I might run over my opponent as I popped all of his transports and my Dragoons were in position to charge. After that however:

 

-My Dragoons when they hit seemed to bounce off his Power Armor and in return were cut down in a myriad of ways, some of them downright silly. His save rolls for the second half were out of this world.

 

-His 10th Company snipers did an excellent job picking off my plasma Calivers taking away a vital weapon in dealing with Guiliman.

 

-His Contempor mulched several Vanguard squads and Glanced one of my Dunecrawlers to Death shrugging off everything I threw at it.

 

-Guiliman is a bastard plain and simple! He shook off tons of damage and proceeded to Destroy several Dragoons, Cawl and his Squad and some Ironstriders before the game thankfully came to an end on a dice roll were I only had a single Dunecrawler with a single Hull Point left on the entire Battlefield

 

Overall I escaped with the win courtesy of some good Maelstrom draws however it was by the skin of my teeth. Lesson learned, will hold back and whittle down his forces as much as possible before engaging my Calvary instead of blindly charging ahead should provide significantly better results.