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Skitarii and Mechanicum HARD DATA review


Seathal

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As long as you keep the datasmiths on the outside edges of the unit, they will be the first to die unless you intentionally LoS all of the incoming wounds off of them. There are a few very rare scenarios that would kill of the bots first but the vast majority of the time, the datasmith will be the first to go. Plus, as I understand it, if the Tech Priest were to sac his shooting to split fire, he would no longer be able to heal since he no longer has a shooting attack to sacrifice and it will not work by reversing the order either because by by healing he opted to make his shooting attacks and sac one of them so has passed the point of deciding not to shoot and can not go back. Have I got that right?

Short hard data info, game against Dark Angels at 1750p. Demi-company, some ravenwing formation, a terminator squad, a whirlwind against 4 full vanguard squads (2x one plasma, 2x arc), 10 rangers, 1 neutron onager, 1 dragoon, 5 infiltrators, 5 ruststalkers, 3 arc breachers, 4 grav destroyers with dominus.

 

As the DA were mostly footsloggers, this turned into a massacre. Missile/lascannon devastators were all but wiped by the onager in one shot, arc killed the landspeeder (giving +1 BS to bikers, had to go). From then on, the tacs arrived piecemeal in combat squads. They mostly moved into bolter range to kill the one or other skitarii, and the vanguard followed by wiping them out next turn. Haven't lost a full vanguard squad, though one was down to 1W alpha after blocking the bike/trike attack.

 

Core observations:

-just one plasma caliver makes a lot of difference, definitely worth it

-krak grenades are underrated, especially devastating against ruststalkers/infiltrators. Everyone has them, few use them

-ruststalkers have slightly higher attrition rate than infiltrators, but bring much-needed AP and can hop from CC to CC when vanguard binds enemy units

-neutron onagers are crazy precise. On paper the gun would hardly be worth it, here it was always devastating

 

Also, monolist skitarii works great, will expand it soon and leave out the kataphron. Half a company of vanguard is pretty brutal if someone gets close enough. The new box formation also allows a magos as a proper HQ, that'll be fun...

I assume he means tossing them instead of shooting bolters?

 

I'll actually find myself in possession of half a company of Skitarii and 6 of each special weapon once the starter arrives, and I'm not sure how to build them.

 

I started with just two units for convocation, and bought some extra weapon bits, so ended up with 2 pistol/goad alphas, 6 rangers, 3 arc rifles, 6 vanguard, 3 calivers. Then I added another arc rifle and caliver, and 8 more vanguard.

 

Not sure where I'm going to go with the next 20. 2 arcs and 18 vanguard? :D

If you do not need them right away, is may be wise to keep a box or two unopened. If the rumors of a combined codex and new units is true, you may find you built them all as unit A but the new robots have more synergy with Unit B and wishing you had them.

The follow line might be harmful to your hobbying soul be advised.

 

SO i used to magnetize a lot. Now i either try to get a friend to do it for me... or if i really want to switch weapons or what ever i just pop off the head or weapon and throw on the other one. ONly usualy works once... or twice...

I don't magnetize infantry, the weapons always end up looking like a separate part on the model. Big stuff, sure. Infantry, I rather have another box. Holding out for unified codex is the right idea. Watch them give rangers objective secured, I'd be real mad I build 50 vanguard. :P

I assume he means tossing them instead of shooting bolters?

Yep. Another bolt pistol won't do much against Sicarians, but a krak is S6 AP4, so just enough to remove almost all saving rolls.

 

In case of infantry, I'm already at 40 vanguard, 10 rangers, 6 arc, 2 plasma. Plasma won't be necessary that much outside of War Convo, my anti infantry vanguard have one plasma each. That's great to remove 2+ tanking chars, scratch vehicles when no other targets are in range, or ID some lower-toughness stuff like scarabs. Really improves the threat level of this otherwise cheap unit. But it's so damn expensive, more than one per squad isn't wort it IMO.

 

Playing half a company of skitarii is rarely discussed here because of the overkill War Convo, but works well. Not tournament-breakingly hard, but viable against usual lists.

Yesteday I played 1850 against Khorne Daemonkin^(Eternal War - Crusade).

I had

1 Dominus Maniple

1 Battle Maniple

1 Skitarii Maniple

He had

1 Lord and 1 Herald on Juggernaut

big blob dogs

2 x 8 berserker in rhino

2 x cultists

2 x 3 biker

1 helldrake

1 grinder

1 maulerfiend

1 hellbrute

He scoutet with a big blob of dogs with Herold and Lord on Juggernaut (about 40 wounds). I was lucky and seized the initiative. Turn 1 I killed the whole blob, only the Lord survived and charged my Dominus and his Plasma Vanguard with 2 wounds left an wiped them out unsure.png . I was able to keep the Lord in CC with my Ruststalkers then and finally killed him with my 10 Rangers.

The rest of the game was nothing too special, so here just the Data:

Dominus and Plasma Vanguard got killed early, but they hurt the big blob of dogs and the Lord pretty bad.

Icarus Onager Killed a Helldrake and a Rhino. In the end I attacked a Grinder to keep him busy. He did good, but could have been much better if the Dominus would have stayed alive longer.

Ruststalkers didn't do much. They killed a 3 man bike squat after being attacked and then they attacked the Lord (not a good idea, the 4++ saved him all the time dry.png ). Second game using them. They where ok, but not overwhelming. Need to test them much more...

10 Rangers have been nice. First time I had such a large squad. The precission shots stripped of 2 wounds of the Herold turn 1. Rapid fire in 15" is nice and being able to shoot 30" if necessary makes them realy flexible.

Rangers with TA did some stuff this game biggrin.png . The ability to cover the whole table is cool, and they are able to hurt everything, so they had targets every round. They have been no game changers, but stripped of a HP here and there, killed a bike, a few berserkers, dogs and stripped of wounds from summoned crushers.

The rest was as always. Arc Vanguard are amazing, Neutron Onagers are realy good (I love the heavy stubbers !), Infiltrators got hurt by the Grinder early, but still killed some stuff and debuffed the Grinder late game. Ironstriders and Dragoons have been solid for just 45 and 55 points. I just realised that you have to keep them away from granades if possible.

I won in the end with 8:4

Played my first game with my AdMech army rather than borrowed and proxy units.

Was about a week ago, 1500p Versus Tyranids.

 

I had:

Cohort Cybernetica

Tech-Priest Dominus (WL), CF, Arkhan Land Relic,

4 Kastelan Robot, 3 TL Phosphor Blaster, 3 Phosphor Blaster

2 Datasmiths, one with Mask of the Alpha

 

Tech-Priest Dominus

Arc Rifle Breachers

Grav Destroyers                                                                                                                              

 

10 Vanguard, Omni, 2 Plasma Caliver

10 Rangers, Omni

 

He had roughly

Old One Eye

8 Warriors

2 units of Hormagaunts (15 each I think)

20 Termagaunts (10 with better guns at back)

3 Zenanthrope

8 Genstealers

One Flyer, not sure which one

3 Lictors

 

 

Purge the Alien, Night fighting. I won the dice and deployed first, Cohort in the middle, Destroyers (with second Dominus) and Rangers on the right in terrain, Breachers and Vanguard to the left also in terrain. Vanguard and Rangers scouted forwards.

 

He then deployed Warriors and both Hormagaunts on the left rest in the middle verging on right, flyer and Genstealers in reserve. Lictors infiltrated into the middle as far as they could.

 

Turn One

 

He seised the initiative.  Everything moved forward and the Termagaunts, Warriors and Zenanthrop took pot shots but only lost two vanguard.

 

Vanguard moved forward and sideways a little to get in range and then opened up on the Warriors, killed two and wounded another. Breachers also shot at the warriors and another wound got through.

 

The Cohort moved forward a little. One shot at the Warriors and killed the wounded one. Another used the flamer to would one Lictor. The other two and the Dominus opened up on one Hormagaunts  unit, killed 8. Changed protocol to extra shots but cannot move.

 

Destroyers moved sideways to get a line of sight of Old One Eye. Phosphor shots did nothing, Grav hit with above average numbers, wounded with most but cover saves negated most and Old One Eye was on one wound. Dominus then shot with the Volkite, one hit, one wound and one failed save. Slay the Warlord and First Blood.

 

Rangers moved a little and then shot at the Termagaunts, killed 12, five of them with the better guns.

 

Turn two

 

Flyer came on on the far right, Genstealers failed to turn up. Termagaunts repositioned to target Destroyers. Lictors also moved up with the same target in mind. Hormagaunts units moved forward, Warriors moved a little.

 

Zenanthropes went to use the special mind shriek that can generate extra wrap charge for wrap blast on the Cohort. It passed, I failed to dispel it but the shot then missed.

 

Warriors shot at Breachers and hurt one. Termagaunts shot at Destroyers and hurt one. Flyer reduced the rangers to three.

 

Rangers where charged by and died to Hormagaunts . Second Hormagaunts  tried to charge cohort but failed their roll, lost two to overwatch. Lictors charged Destroyers but the wounded one died to overwatch. The Dominus with his poweraxe killed another but was wounded in return.

 

Last three Rangers moved around terrain to get line of sight on Termagaunts to shoot them, killed three.

 

Breachers shuffled away from Hormagaunts and Warriors but rolled low, shot at Warriors and killed one. One robot shot at Warriors and cased two wounds, the flamer fried some Hormagaunts  and the rest plus Dominus killed two and wounded the last Zenantrope.

 

In combat the last Lictor died and caused another would on the Dominus.

 

Turn Three

 

Genstealers don’t turn up, flyer moves and takes shots at Destroyers and kills one. Termagaunts finish off Rangers. Remaining Warriors miss Breachers but the left over Hormagaunts wipe them out in combat.

 

Cohort flamer kills some Hormagaunts , the rest shoot at flyer to cause one wound. Destroyes and second Dominus killed three Termagaunts.

 

We called it there.

 

 

Overall Breachers with Arc and Destroyers with Grave do not do to well against Tyranids. Cohort was though but did not kill that much (2.5 Zenanthrope, about 10 gaunts, one and a bit warrior and one wound on a lictor)

 

Ranger and Vangaurd both did well but died the turn after.

 

Overall good game though my opponent got unlucky with Zenanthropes (bad roll on passing powers, bad saving throws), old one eye dying so early and Genstealers never showing up. 

 

 

 

 

Corrected some spellings, really should not post things in the middle of the night.

I initially went to build just the cohort as that was the only bit of the cult mechanicus that I liked, intending to use it as an ally to something else. But then I got sidetracked with the theme and conversion idea for Tech Tralls in 30K before coming full circle and applying the idea to 40k instead. At that point I filled in the rest of the points with more cult mechanicus as well as some skitarii.

 

I have been thinking of splitting it up and running a Kastellan Maniple with three Phosphor Robots and two datasmiths as a fire base. The Domnius would move into the Vanguard, and with the remaining points I would try to fit in some Ruststalkers.

 

The lack of mobility is an issue but the entire cult mecanicus seems to have it to some degree, I must admit that the local meta dose help mitigate it a bit. Well meta is the wrong word but the local store where I play has one 6 by 4 table and two 4 by 4 tables, so about half my games are on 4 by 4 which helps.  

Well it's tough because so many points are in the unit. Getting enough other units to chill on objectives is difficult. You can't really get a lot of them because you don't have a gallon of points left over, and what you do get can often be blown off the map a turn. Which will most likely be the case because targeting the robots is pretty tough.

Actually, I think you may have some serious game if you march a unit of 2-3 robots and a squadron of 2-3 dunewalkers side by side, it can force your opponent into some tough choices on what to shoot with his high strength guns. Then put a Knight or two behind that, and call it a day.

Actually, I think you may have some serious game if you march a unit of 2-3 robots and a squadron of 2-3 dunewalkers side by side, it can force your opponent into some tough choices on what to shoot with his high strength guns. Then put a Knight or two behind that, and call it a day.

Add a Mindscanner Probe then, cheap way to pi*s of CC units msn-wink.gif

It's not exactly the data you're looking for, but I almost always run a fortification with my Skitarii Maniples.  I most frequently use a Plasma Obliterator, which functions well with Doctrina Imperatives to avoid Gets Hot!.  Sometimes I'll use a Bastion or Aegis Defense Line with a quad cannon for anti-flyer defense.  The void shield is a must-take option, and the escape hatch is very good for quick redeployments.

Just to clarify, while I'm not a fan of occupying buildings, I LOOOOVE battlements.  Why?  Well, besides the fact that by definition you get a nice and high vantage point for your heavy weapons, there are lots of other reasons.  It's a guaranteed 4+ cover save regardless of how much of the model is concealed from enemy fire. If you use up all of the space on the battlement, you are technically immune to melee (jump troops have nowhere to land and enemies inside building can't disembark).  On top of that, the battlements cannot be targeted themselves, the occupants cannot be shaken/stunned, and if the building collapses, they only take half as many hits as the guys inside and the battlements remain behind as ruins (so still cover save).

 

As far as I'm concerned, the interior for buildings is just a way to scoot a unit forward using the escape hatch if you can't fit them in a transport .

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