Skitarii and Mechanicum HARD DATA review

[MajorNese]

Another hard data summary, Skitarii (with minimal cult) against corn daemonflakes at 1500p.

 

Enemy had the usual to gain cornflake points. 3 individual spawns, lots of cultists, a few marine squads with general, lone maulerfiend, some bloodletters and possessed. Was some kind of formation, not sure about that stuff. My list was mostly Skitarii (2x 10 3-arc vanguard, 2x 10 one-plasma vanguard, 10 rangers, neutron onager, 1 dragoon, 5 infiltrators, 5 ruststalkers) with minimal cult (dominus/eradication beamer, 3 arc breachers).

 

Short version of the game:

1st turn was moving around and killing a few marines. Diagonal deployment, so not much happened. He ran towards me.

2nd turn I killed a third of his stuff, he summoned a bloodthirster. Still wasted bloodpoints, as they stop at 8.

3rd turn I killed most of the remaining stuff (except for bloodthirster, 10 marines, cultists) and he summoned another bloodthirster.

4th to 7th turn I dealt with the bloodthirsters and remaining units.

 

Potentially useful observations:

-Eradication beamer on the magos is great. Volkite is a favorite weapon of my 30k guys, but the eradicator just kills anything. Switch profile in movement phase between killing MEQ or MC, and get things done reliably. Have done both in the game, including shooting the remaining wound off the last bloodthirster. Volkite is anti mass infantry, vanguard do that already in entirely different dimensions, so this option becomes better than I thought. Added vanguards with a plasma for mass fire and protection, sweeped several units in ranged or CC. The latter only to slingshot to objectives. Detached the whittled-down vanguards to speedbump the bloodthirster, Magos on his own was safe from CC inside the circle of expendable units

-outflanking infiltrators are always useful. Killed a small marine squad near an objective, getting 2 victory points and smashing that flank afterwards

-dragoon is a good countercharge when not getting shot at. Rangers sniped the herald out of the bloodletters (only one who could hurt him), so he could bind them in CC and whittle them down across 3 rounds. 45p is really cheap, will need more of 'em

-ruststalkers are a good countercharge for the dominus vanguard squad. Kept spawn and bloodletters off them, killed both a spawn and marines before they could kill the important guys. Died speedbumping the bloodthirster while luring it into radium rifle range

-40 vanguards are quite a brick, that firepower really drowned any infantry in dice. Record was one arc vanguard squad one-shotting the second bloodthirster with one round of shooting (many 6s and failed armour rolls). CC weapons without AP won't do much (had taser/phosphor on a sarges in several CCs), but a sword could be more useful with vanguard rad rule. Two squads died to the bloodthirster, shielding the magos, others were entirely undamaged

-10 rangers killed a squad of bloodletters but failed to put wounds through the bloodthirster. Held an objective, wounded a spawn (1W left), not really bad, not overwhelming.

-arc breachers killed the maulerfiend in the 1st shooting phase. That's what they are for, shoot vehicles before they become remotely threatening. Played magos' shield for the rest of the game, while putting wounds on small squads to finish them

-neutron onager misfired miserably. Mostly, hitting something with BS7 was too much to ask for, but the stubbers worked. Can happen, haven't seen it before

 

Overall, facing a CC army is..."unfortunate" for the CC army. Ranged firepower above 24" is a problem for skitarii (and the way I killed skitarii twice), but having an enemy who has to walk through radium rifle range won't be fun for them. 2 "free" bloodthirsters (including formation bonus) may sound bad on paper, and preventing them wouldn't have worked (10+ blood points, can't prevent that), but was the only thing keeping the game from ending turn 4. Still, one died to a single unit shooting, pretty depressing for facing a (potentially) 100p troops choice.

[Tiger9gamer]

Forgive me brothers as I have been lax on my data reports for the proud lucius rhino rush army. In the last few weeks I played Grey Knights (killed so bad it's not worth talking about) and just last saturday played two games, One against a knight and ultramarines, and one against some solar auxillia

I brought my usual list:

Tech Priest Dominus with Conversion Field and skryer skull

Skitarii Squad with plasma carbine, omnispex, and Conversion field Alpha in a Las/plas BA Razorback

x2 Skitarii Squad with 3 arc rifles, omnispex in a BA rhino

Dragoon With Taser Lance

Neutron Onager

Neutron Onager (second game used the Eradication beamer)

First game went completely down hill. I made way to many mistakes and had way to much bad luck with my dice (failing shaken moral tests left and right, and generally unable to fire my most important guns). The worst parts was finiding out occupants inside fast vehicles can only snap fire when moving 12", and that emergancy disembarkation brought on by a knight errants gauntlet forces the affected unit to not be able to do anything for a turn after they get out. Changed the game completely. Other than that my army was whittled down and just anihilated by bad, bad dice rolls

Second game was much better, this time against solar auxillia. It was purge the alien, and he had two 20 man carapeace guardsmen with a thudd gun and two predator executioners behind an aegis. This time I brought an erradication beamer to help with the infantry. I had some bad scatter rolls in this game but ended up winning by a land slide. The dragoon took out an executioner by himself, the dominus squad wiped out basically 3/4ths of a lasrifle section and my other units helped destroy the guardsmen piece by piece.

What I found out with Skitarii in rhinos is that sometimes the rhinos are your bestest friend, and sometimes they help destroy you

[Tyriks]

Alright, I just played my first game.  I'm a little salty about how it went, since neither of us had played in 6+ years I was told it was going to be casual, so my army was built mostly to put bodies on the table and learn the rules.  His was not.  He played a harlequin/Eldar force.  Neither of us has a full army (model wise) so I was careful to only sub in models of an appropriate size, which he was not, which further skewed things in his favor, since I didn't consider half of the available army for my list.  He wanted to play kill points, and since I haven't played in so long I figured that was fine.  As such, I just got into cover and then let him come to me, which was probably not ideal but it worked this time since everything he brought was crazy fast.

 

It was 750 points, I brought a Dominus Maniple and a Skitarii Maniple (two groups of ten vanguard).  The DM was just to get the Dominus in as my warlord so he wouldn't die easily.  Every squad of vanguard had an omnispex, which was nice.

 

The DM vanguard had plasma, which I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  I felt like 30 points a gun was just way too expensive, and I still do, haha.  I might feel differently at a higher point cost but I'm pretty sure no situation came up where arc or radium rifles wouldn't have been better.  I'm steering clear of those for awhile.

 

Also had one squad with 3 arc rifles, which picked off the one vehicle that my onager couldn't get line of sight on.  The arc rifle was nice, since it still did a fine job of blasting his units, but it was very nice against his transports.  Next time I might make it two squads of 5 with 2 arc rifles each so that I can have a field of coverage.  

 

I also had one plain squad which scouted into some cover and pissed him off all game.  He eventually rerouted some CC units to clear them out.  

 

The Onager had a neutron laser, which worked well, but I should have brought the Icarus array.  I knew going into it the neutron laser would not be ideal but, like I said, I thought it was going to be much more casual than it was.  The onager took out three of his four vehicles/transports, and exploded two of those three, which in turn took out two jetbikes that were too close.  Even though the icarus array would've been better, I really liked the onager overall.

 

The dominus had an infoskull and no other upgrades.  He repaired the onager when it got immobilized, and executed the enemy warlord with ease in a challenge.  The enemy assaulted my vanguard which dropped his toughness down to 2, couldn't get through my armor with his seven (I think) I8 attacks and got insta-killed by the power axe.  I didn't really use him well because I was too worried about him getting killed since our level of competitiveness was so lopsided.

 

Even though my opponent was out for blood, I did pretty well.  All of his vehicles died, half his troops never made it into CC range.  If I had replaced the plasma with radium and dropped the dominus for either ruststalkers or infiltrators, it would've been a much closer game.  Even as it was, the skitarii held up well, though the dice were pretty unhelpful.  

[Tiger9gamer]

Alright, I just played my first game.  I'm a little salty about how it went, since neither of us had played in 6+ years I was told it was going to be casual, so my army was built mostly to put bodies on the table and learn the rules.  His was not.  He played a harlequin/Eldar force.  Neither of us has a full army (model wise) so I was careful to only sub in models of an appropriate size, which he was not, which further skewed things in his favor, since I didn't consider half of the available army for my list.  He wanted to play kill points, and since I haven't played in so long I figured that was fine.  As such, I just got into cover and then let him come to me, which was probably not ideal but it worked this time since everything he brought was crazy fast.

 

It was 750 points, I brought a Dominus Maniple and a Skitarii Maniple (two groups of ten vanguard).  The DM was just to get the Dominus in as my warlord so he wouldn't die easily.  Every squad of vanguard had an omnispex, which was nice.

 

The DM vanguard had plasma, which I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.  I felt like 30 points a gun was just way too expensive, and I still do, haha.  I might feel differently at a higher point cost but I'm pretty sure no situation came up where arc or radium rifles wouldn't have been better.  I'm steering clear of those for awhile.

 

Also had one squad with 3 arc rifles, which picked off the one vehicle that my onager couldn't get line of sight on.  The arc rifle was nice, since it still did a fine job of blasting his units, but it was very nice against his transports.  Next time I might make it two squads of 5 with 2 arc rifles each so that I can have a field of coverage.  

 

I also had one plain squad which scouted into some cover and pissed him off all game.  He eventually rerouted some CC units to clear them out.  

 

The Onager had a neutron laser, which worked well, but I should have brought the Icarus array.  I knew going into it the neutron laser would not be ideal but, like I said, I thought it was going to be much more casual than it was.  The onager took out three of his four vehicles/transports, and exploded two of those three, which in turn took out two jetbikes that were too close.  Even though the icarus array would've been better, I really liked the onager overall.

 

The dominus had an infoskull and no other upgrades.  He repaired the onager when it got immobilized, and executed the enemy warlord with ease in a challenge.  The enemy assaulted my vanguard which dropped his toughness down to 2, couldn't get through my armor with his seven (I think) I8 attacks and got insta-killed by the power axe.  I didn't really use him well because I was too worried about him getting killed since our level of competitiveness was so lopsided.

 

Even though my opponent was out for blood, I did pretty well.  All of his vehicles died, half his troops never made it into CC range.  If I had replaced the plasma with radium and dropped the dominus for either ruststalkers or infiltrators, it would've been a much closer game.  Even as it was, the skitarii held up well, though the dice were pretty unhelpful.  

One of the big problems of warhammer is if your opponent is one to do this often, so don't feel to bad. You won more than him by trying to make the game what it is supposed to be; Fun!

 

Great report also! 

[Tyriks]

One of the big problems of warhammer is if your opponent is one to do this often, so don't feel to bad. You won more than him by trying to make the game what it is supposed to be; Fun!

 

Great report also!

 

This thread has been extremely useful, so I wanted to add what little I could for anyone else trying to get started. I definitely want to meet other players to play more casually with one I actually have enough models to field, because I totally agree with you. Playing competitively is something I want to do eventually, but I don't want to have to plan every list to be perfect just in case.

[mmimzie]

@Tyriks I enjoyed hearing of your exploits. I agree plasma is very disappointing for it's high price. Definitly think vanguards will help you tons. I'd recommend for future games you spit up your arcs; i find usually 3 wont take out a vehicle, but 4 definitly will so may as well have two units with 2 arcs. 

 

That said i wouldn't put your oppent down so. They played a game with you. Also, i don't know that the guy you played against was out for blood. He brought harlequins which really none of them are really all that good to be honest. Worst thing you said he had was jet bikes

 

Lastly, SKitarii are kind of kill or be killed in my book. They are devastating when they shoot, and more often than not get devastated when they are shot at

[Tyriks]

@Tyriks I enjoyed hearing of your exploits. I agree plasma is very disappointing for it's high price. Definitly think vanguards will help you tons. I'd recommend for future games you spit up your arcs; i find usually 3 wont take out a vehicle, but 4 definitly will so may as well have two units with 2 arcs.

 

That said i wouldn't put your oppent down so. They played a game with you. Also, i don't know that the guy you played against was out for blood. He brought harlequins which really none of them are really all that good to be honest. Worst thing you said he had was jet bikes

 

Lastly, SKitarii are kind of kill or be killed in my book. They are devastating when they shoot, and more often than not get devastated when they are shot at

He explicitly said he brought as tough a list as he could. He apparently found a tournament list for 750 and ran that. I'm not trying to put him down, though; he and I have been gaming together for 20+ years in various games. Just seems like not the friendliest move.

 

I totally agree, though, that they are kill or be killed. 4+ seems decent (50% chance, after all) but it is just way too fragile.

 

Edit: I guess he actually said there was one meaner pure Eldar list he was going to bring, but wanted to try the Harlequins.

[Dawnstrider]

 

I totally agree, though, that they are kill or be killed. 4+ seems decent (50% chance, after all) but it is just way too fragile.

 

 

I have been looking around at allies recently and have found myself wondering about spreading 2 or 3 Rune Priests around the Skitarii units to tank wounds and give me a psychic phase as well as Adamantium will and Know no fear. Divination is Gold for Mechanicus in my opinion. Plus the idea of an enemy unit hit with Misfortune and then shot at with Rad poisoning makes me all kinds of happy inside.A Rune priest with Runic armor has a 2+/6++ for 85 points. 

[Tyriks]

Yeah, I've been thinking about allies for a variety of reasons.  First would be getting a psyker, or at least some tougher units to tank, like you suggested.  But also to grab some transports.  I was thinking about (at least for the next game) either a techmarine with some rhinos, or maybe a librarian (I do have a BA dreadnought model...).  Divination would be a real killer for Skitarii.  

 

Part of my problem is I have a strange collection of models (a lot of hand-me-downs from people who tried briefly and never really got into it, so I have SM, CSM, Tyranids, and now Skitarii), with not enough of any one army to actually field it as a rational army list.  So, I want to get more models, but I don't always know what to get since I hadn't played and thus didn't know what would really work, but I couldn't play because I didn't have enough models, so I am assuming some psyker action would be good, but I don't really know, haha.  

[Terminus]

Heresy!  Space Wolves are an outdoors-pet only.  Don't come complaining in here when you let them in your house, and they pee on your rugs and eat all the jawbones off your servo-skulls.

[Dawnstrider]

You don't really think the Omnissiah gave us taser goads to make war with did you? They are actually meant to house train the space puppies.  

[Terminus]

In the 41st millennium, all technology is the domain of the Mechanicus, even personal items like electric... toothbrushes, yeah, that's it.  Would hate to be the Magos in charge of that department.

[Dread0]

Anyway... Data!

 

 

Played my first game against DE Coven (LOTS of high toughness MC) with a Skitarii Maniple at 1000 pts (we were playing a campaign I made so various bonuses were added as extras to the 1000 pts available). I wanted to try out all my units so I took a little of everything. I thought he would go skimmer heavy at 1000 pts (he usually does) so took a lot of Haywire and anti-vehicle.

 

 

Quick overview of my list:

 

 

5 man Ranger (2x Arc Rifle, Omnispex)

 

5 man Ranger (2x Trans Arc, Omnispex)

 

5 man Vanguard w/ warlord (2x Plas, Omnispex)

 

5 man Vanguard (2x Arc Rifle, Omnispex)

 

 

Ruststalkers (Trans Razor & Chordclaw, Dataspike)

 

Infiltrators (Taser Goads & Flechette Blasters, Phase Taser)

 

 

2 x Dragoons (Taser Lance, Phosphor Serpenta)

 

 

Onager (Icarus Array, Cognis Manipulator)

 

 

Short analysis:

 

 

Infiltrators were amazing vs high toughness models

 

 

Dragoons are a great distraction

 

 

5 man squads – great to have multiple targets but very few ablative wounds until important things start dying

 

 

In depth:

 

 

So the game was going to be tough. Way more MC’s than he normally brings. 2 x 3 Grotesques with a Homonculus each in 2 skimmers (AV 10) and 3 Talos.

 

 

I rolled to go first and spread everything out pretty even; Dragoons on the flanks, Arc Rifles on either side one either side, Onager in the middle with Ruststalkers; Rangers with Trans Arc sitting back in cover, Warlord unit poised to run towards cover to get in range next turn and Infiltrators in reserve.

 

 

He put everything in one corner as I thought he would and the only went and seized the initiative!

 

 

The game progressed, there was a massive clusterf**k or a combat in the middle of the table that ended up being Ruststalkers, Onager and a Dragoon with all 3 Talos and one unit of Grotesques and a Homonculus. The brave Tech Guard lost but held the majority of his army while I whittled away at the rest. I got a little lucky but it all turned out to be very survivable although Dragoons could REALLY benefit from hit and run.

 

 

Trans Arc were very meh. Useful wounding on 4’s against toughness 7 but what with all the combat I was using a lot of –BS doctrinas which didn’t help. I can see they have a use as they were scary enough to make his skimmers jink but overall didn’t do too much.

 

 

5 man squads are tricky. It’s great to split the targets so squishy squads don’t get wiped out in one shooting phase / combat and you can draw fire away from more important targets but with an Omnispex, 2 special weapons and the Alpha you only have one wound between full effectiveness and something important dying. In a squad of 10 you have 5 models to soak up wounds and still remain a threat. Interesting as going either way has its pros and cons, very situational to what you choose I think. Although I did love sending the one Vanguard left over from the Arc squad into a combat and -1 everything’s toughness. VERY useful against Coven.

 

 

Infiltrators were great and really saved the game, they have great staying power in combat for their Wargear and they synergise really well with the Conversion Field and Phase Taser (lowers Initiative for the tests). The Phase Taser was also great fun. Nothing quite like making his 3 wound Warlord go poof with one successful wound, will be a must take against tanks.

 

 

From what I can see I really don’t know why you would take Power Swords over the Tasers. AP3 is just not worth getting rid of the +2 strength and the Taser rule. Even against Space Marines, I haven’t worked out the maths, but I would have though drowning them in wounds would be better than a few possible ones that would beat their armour saves. I could be very wrong though.

 

 

In the end it was a gentleman’s draw as we ran out of time (the store was closing) and it all came down to one combat. Infiltrators vs 2 wounded Talos and one Homonculus and Grotesque. I had some rangers and a Vanguard I could have sent in there to add some wounds and – 1 to toughness so I would have thought I would take it at the end but it would have been close. All in all a very good first showing though.

 

 

[Terminus]

The Arquebus is decidedly mediocre when the unit has preferred enemy for rerolling 1s to wound, it is decidedly terrible without.

 

I do not understand the interaction you are talking about the conversion field and the phase taser. The phase taser makes you take tests on your initiative immediately upon suffering a failed wound. Conversion field's blind takes effect at the end of the combat phase if you made any saves, and if they fail it, they reduce their WS and BS to 1.  Since this happens at the very end, even if initiative was one of the effects, it would not come into play for the phase taser until the next combat phase. But it just drops the WS/BS, which effectively means next round they need 5s to hit you.

 

Are you talking about their Neurostatic Aura?  If so, yes, I am a fan of the phase taser in this unit for precisely that reason, much like how I like the Pater Radium in my Vanguard squad that accompanies a Magos. The other reason is that it still works against Eternal Warriors and T6.  Failed that initiative check?  Poof!  If only it had an AP value for extra brokenness (like that Wulfen hammer). 

 

How are people representing it, just a regular taser goad?  I've been web-mining for ideas, but the only inspiration I've found so far is this guy:

 

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ghuDMrieJak/VaNcjNe6iGI/AAAAAAAABPY/w0xW4IJ6SME/s640/blogger-image-399728644.jpg

[Dread0]

I was wrong about the blind test then, I missed the part about taking the test at the end of the phase. Looks like I owe my opponent a pint.

 

I like the look of the Darth Maul style Taser Goad! The only thing I can think of for the Phase Taser is treating it like the Callidus’ C’tan Phase Sword and painting it in a similar way to make it look all interdimensional. That or maybe cutting the prongs off one Taser and gluing them on the end of another so you get a 4 pronged Taser just to make it look a little different.

[Terminus]

Yeah, I was sad when they made that change, but I understand why.  Having to take multiple tests per phase statistically makes you almost certain to fail it, and would be quite OP.  Neurostatic aura is nice, though.

 

The only other interaction I can think of is with 30K Myrmidos who can lug graviton imploders and photon thrusters. Any wounds from the imploder concuss (thus instantly drop initiative to 1), and any hits from the thruster will cause a blind-test at the end of phase, which is almost certain to fail.

[Dread]

This is all great info. The break down on the units will help me in my decisions. The only difference is I'm taking my 3 Iks (still building) as primary detachment with skitarii allies. I got a box of vanguard/rangers, ruststalker/infiltrators, and an ironstrider. Still trying to figure out how to kit them out but with your break down, it has helped me to zero in on good possibilities. Also now have my army for the painting ETL this year.

[DeStinyFiSh]

This is all great info. The break down on the units will help me in my decisions. The only difference is I'm taking my 3 Iks (still building) as primary detachment with skitarii allies. I got a box of vanguard/rangers, ruststalker/infiltrators, and an ironstrider. Still trying to figure out how to kit them out but with your break down, it has helped me to zero in on good possibilities. Also now have my army for the painting ETL this year.

Get the new starter box !

Vanguard are always good, you can keep them cheap and naked.

The Onager can give you very good AA support.

The Dominus is able to repair your knights.

If I wanted just something cheep to help my knights, this would be my choice

[Tyriks]

I agree, and since they made a formation just for that box, it's easy to fit into any army. The repair from the dominus is very nice!

[Dread]

Got it ordered. Then building shall commence .

[Trokair]

Played two games yesterday.

 

First one against Scions. Big Guns never tire, 5 objective, 3 near or in my deployment zone and 2 in the middle towards his)

I had:

Cohort Cybernetica

Tech-Priest Dominus, CF, Autocaduceus of Arkhan Land (Warlord)

Datersmith, Mask of the Alpha Dominus

Datersmith

3 Kastelan Robot Maniple with TL Heavy Phosphor Blaster, Heavy Phosphor Blaster

1 Kastelan Robot Maniple with Flamer and Fists

 

Battle Congregation

Tech-Priest Dominus                     

3 Kataphorn Breachers, Heavy Arc Rifle

3 Kataphorn Destroyers, Heavy Grav-Cannon

 

Skitarii

10 Vanguard, Omnispex, 2x Plasma Caliver

10 Rangers, Omnispex

 

He had

2 Taurox with missiles and Autocannons

2 Taurox  with Mini Battle Cannon and Autocannons

4 Taurox  with Guttling guns and Hotshot Volley

2 x 5 man squads with 2 meltas

1x 5 man Squad with 2 flamers

2x 10 man squads with volley guns

2x 5 Man command squad with 4 plasma guns

 

The 5 man squads started in reserve, the 10 man squad inside two Taurox’s

 

He stole the Inactive, moved his Taurox’s into line of sight and forwards, 2 missile, 1 cannon and 1 Gatling opened up on Breachers and killed one and the Tech priest with then and wounded another. (I rolled several ones for my armour saves in a row and the Techprist went down first to a missile, should not have gambled on a five in six chance of shrugging it off. )

 

The reaming Taurox shot at the destroyers and killed one.

 

In my turn one the Breachers took one hull point from one Taurox.

 

The Destroyers took one Hull point of a different one

 

The Vanguard killed one Taurox with plasma, it had a squad insight so they deployed, between the Kastellen flamer (split fire via Datasmith) and the Rangers only one of those was left, who then fled (fled of the board in the following turn).

 

The remaining Kastellan and Tech Priest killed another Taurox.

 

In his turn all but one command squad arrived via Deepstrike, the flamers landed next the Vanguard in perfect range, the rest landed in a circle around the Kastellan, his Taurox’s moved forwards and the other 10 man squad jumped out.

 

On the right the Taurox’s shot at the Breachers, killed one and left the last one on one would, did not flee.

 

The Vanguard were flamed to death with only 4 surviving (including one plasma), did not flee.

 

The combined firepower of 4 plasmas, 4 melts, 4 grenades and the 10 man squad on sniper orders put a total 5 wounds on the robots, but none died as the fire was coming from different angles. No shots reflected.

 

The reaming Taurox’s killed another destroyer and put the last one on one wound who then fled.

 

My turn two, the destroyer rallied but failed to wound anything that turn.

 

Kastellan moved to have as many targets as possible. Flamer and one robot shot at 10 man squad and killed 8, the 2 remaining fled, one robot shot at metagun squad and killed 4 the other shot at plasma gun squad and killed 4 (did not flee). Tech priest repaired two wounds.

 

Rangers shot the reaming man from meltagun squad (I overlooked that fact that there was another much closer meltagun squad at full strength).

 

Remaining Vanguard killed the flamer squad.

 

Cohort Cybernetica charged the lone plasma gunner and killed him.

 

The rest of the game was fairly short. The Rangers and melta squad fought it out at range and in combat until 3 Rangers where left, they then took one hull point of a Taurox  before dying to the same Taurox . The Breacher did nothing and died. The Destroyer killed two from the second command squad that had arrived but died in combat to a power maul. The Vanguard were reduced to one who fled who was the shot down.

 

The Cohort Cybernetica claimed an objective and cleared leftover squads and a Taurox of three objectives via shooting, got the Taurox on the fourth objective down to one hull point, and other Taurox down to one hull point.

 

Game ended with him holding two objectives with Taurox’s to my one, he had first blood and line breaker, I had slay the warlord. I had left the Cohort, he had three Taurox’s, two on one hull point.

 

Victory to the Storm Troopers (cue imperial march)

 

 

Lessons learned, don’t rely on 2+ safe when facing missiles. Breaches and Destroyer are bad at killing light vehicles (or at least with my dice rolls). Must remember to take It Will Not Die rolls on the Cohort.

 

I did not use the Mask of the Alpha Dominus this game or even change protocols as I needed to remain mobile to catch small units and in combat had more than enough attacks already.

 

 

Second game white up will come soon. 

[MoGuy]

Praise the Omnissiah! I have joined your ranks my brothers to let you partake in my collected data!

 

So far I have only played three games with the Ad Mech, the most recent one against the Deldar. Let me elaborate:

 

My list (1000 Points):

 

Dominus with Arkhan Lands Autocaduceus

 

10x Vanguard + Omnispex + 1 Arc Rifle and Alpha with Tasergoat

5x Vanguard (naked)

 

6x Plasma-Destroyers (3 with Flamers, 3 with Phosphor)

3x Plasma-Destroyers (3 Flamers)

 

1x Onager Dunecrawler (Icarusarray) + Cognis Manipulator

 

 

We deployed diagonally across the board. He brought three Ravagers(?) (the big transport thingies), each filled with Warriors with poisen weapons. He also had a 20 man squad in reserve. All his stuff was hiding behind LOS blocking terrain.

 

I deployed across my deployment-line. Far left I put the 3 Plasma-Destroyers and next to them both Vanguard-Squads. In the middle-right I deployed my 6 Destroyers with the Dominus joining them for the It Will Not Die and the T5. His WT was rerolling failed FNP. In my right corner I deployed my Dunecrawler. 

 

I got first turn and the Onager took his shots at one of the Ravagers but didnt wound it. My other stuff just moved up the table to get in range.

 

First turn for the Deldar he shot at the 3 Destroyers and killed on. They failed moral but regrouped later. Rinse and repeat till turn 3 when he destroyed the squad. They did nothing but tanked a lot of firepower. Was alright. I purposefully deployed them there to force him to deploy stuff away from my other units. The rest of his vehicles moved foreward.

 

Turn 2 my Onager immobilized his most advanced Ravager. His troops spilled out but hid behind their transport to avoid shots from my Vanguards. 

 

Deldar Turn 2: Immobilized Ravager took one wound off of the Onager. The troops from that vehicle killed a few of my 10x Vanguards but they held morale. He deepstruk (deepstriked?) his 20 Warriors behind my Dominus-Squad and opened up fire. My Dominus tanked all but one shot and was down to 2 wounds.  The rest of his army advanced a bit and tried to hide from the Onager. 

 

My Turn 3: Boom. Onager took the last HP from the immobilized Ravager and my decimated Vanguard killed 6 Eldar. Revenge! The Radium weapons are AMAZING against the T3 Eldar and even negate their armour! My 5x Vanguards moved up, closer to their bigger pendant but they had no LOS to the scratched Deldar warriors. My Dominus and his Destroyers turned around and the flamers killed all but the Captain (who had a 2+ invul save) and a warrior. In his phase he charged me and died to the Flamers (yeah, Cognis!).

 

His second most advanced Ravager was barely within range of one of my Destroyers. I took one HP off of it and immobilized it.

 

Deldar Turn 3: He got a shot at my Onager and exploded it. Dang. His decimated warriors shot again at my Vanguard and killed a few but were eradicated in my round as both Vanguard-Squads shot at them. 

 

My Turn 4: Everything advanced, my Destroyers pulverised his Ravager and his Warriors hid again. The game lasted till Turn 6 but was pretty one-sided since his last Ravager couldnt get close enough and I just killed off his warriors. 

 

In the end I almost tabled him and we called it a game. His strategy was to get close to me with his Ravagers so that the Warriors inside could open up fire on my units with their poison weapons, which had twin-linked inside of the vehicles. However, since I had so much stuff that could just wreck his transports he never came close enough to do so and I could easily destroy his Warriors. 

 

Data gained:

- Icarus Onager is amazing against Anti-Grav-Vehicles (always take one against Eldar/Deldar)

- Vanguard is the worst enemy of T3 units with 5+ armour

- It Will Not Die Dominus with his Destroyers is working pretty good so far. He can restore their wounds on 2+ and they heal themselves on 5+. Also T5 for the Dominus is always nice. 

- 3x Destroyers + 6x Destroyers worked well too. I didnt want to take 9x Destroyers in one squad because that would probably overkill most units and waste shots and I didnt want to run 3x3 squads because 3 Destroyers are pretty fragile. 

- Mixing up Flamers and Phosphor in the Destroyer-Squad was the right choice. Phosphor didnt do anything that game so maybe 6x Flamers? More Data needed.

 

My army so far consists of:

 

10x Rangers (proxed 5 Vanguard with them for that game)

10x Vanguard 

10x Rangers/Vanguard (not buld yet)

10x Rangers/Vanguard (ordered)

 

5x Infiltrators 

 

2x Onager Dunecrawler

 

1x Tech-Priest Dominus

 

9x Destroyers

 

1x Sydonian Dragoon (ordered)

 

1x Kastelan Robot Squad (ordered)

 

1x Imperial Knight Paladin (build, currently painting)

 

 

If anyone is interested in pictures of my stuff, you can look here: http://warhammer-board.de/fabrikwelt-halo-prime-armeeaufbau-skitarii-cult-mechanicus-imperiale-ritter-astra-militarum/v%C3%B6lkerforen-40k-f61/t34372-f77/?s=21db8e0e94c96031c987b8ab697fe5a5147efd71

 

If interest should arise I will open up a similar thread here and post all my stuff in English too. I have written a bit of fluff for my Ad Mech (to explain the color of their robes) and frequently update my thread with pictures and bat reps. Hard data gained will be posted here of course. ;)

[DeStinyFiSh]

1500 point vs Daemons today. It was a close game, I tabeled him turn 5 but point-wise it was 12:11 for him.

Nothing too special, so again very quick:

I had

Dominus Maniple with Plasma Vanguard + AA onager

Skitarii Maniple with 2 Vanguards and 2 Rangers (MSU with 1 Arc Rifle each) + 2 Dragoons + 1 Balistarii

1 Knight Warden with Ironstorm

1 Inquisitor (Xenos with all Grenades)

1 Culexus

The Dominus Maniple is alright to bring in the Tech Priest, but with the Canticles used correctly the Reroll is not too much of a benefit. Scout and WT reroll seem to be more usefull.

The Dominus itself was awesome as usual. Plasma Vanguard as well, AA onager under performed because there was only a summoned Bloodthirster late in game that ,ade most of its armour safes.

MSU for the Skitarii Maniple was totaly worth it ! Very cheap, a good amount of fire power, flexible when it comes to catching objectives and to many targets for the opponent to kill them all. 1 Dragoon ran away most of the time because he had Big Game Hunter since turn 1 and a lot of Dogs, Daemonettes and Fiends heading towards him. The other Dragoon was only busy grabing objectives. Ironstrider killed a dog here and there and put wounds on some fiends or the Bloodthirster.

Knight Warden safed the game. Killed 1 Keeper of Secrets (Warlord), 18 Daemonettes, 5 Dogs, 3 Fiends, 1 Grinder, 1 Bloodthirster. He also helped me grabbing objectives here and there. I love my Knight !

Inquisitor was fun. He was attached to the Vanguard. -2 T because of radiation, Ini down to 1 when chargin daemons plus the effect of psyke-out grenades is nothing to sneeze at. But I failed a charge against the Daemonettes and then got charged by them + a fiend (-5 Ini for me). I killed a Herald and 1 Daemonette and got killed straight away.

Culexus didn't do too much, but was totaly worth it. He went on a suicide mission and ran straight to the keeper of secrets. This way invisibility has been removed and my Knight was able to kill hi with the Gatling. So all in all he nearly nullified the enemys psychic phase for 1 turn, made his psychers make a big move arround him, set up the knights Gatling and then got killed by Daemonettes and Fiends.

Lessions learned:

- Don't get to excited charging something only because you juggle grenades

- Grinder with Torrent can ruin your day

- Culexus can be nasty

- Don't leave your house without a Knight

[Tiger9gamer]

Hard data update... this time against the dreaded eldar. 1,000 pt game, Purge the Alien, Hammer and Anvil.

My list was a small tweak on my beloved rhino rush:

=Dominus Maniple=

Tech Priest w/ Eradication beamer and conversion field and skryer skull

9 man Skitarii squad with plasma caviler and Omni-spex in a BA Rhino

Neutron onager

=======

arc squad 1: 10 skitarii in a BA Rhino w/ 3 arc rifles and omni-spex

Arc squad 2: 10 skitarii in a BA Rhino w/ 3 arc rifles and omni-spex

Dragoon w/ Taser

Neutron Onager

========

his force was a farseer with 5 shuriken bikes, A dire avenger squad in a Wave Serpeant and a D-scythe Wraithguard squad in a wave serpeant with a warlock... that knew invisibility Yea, it was one of those games. But may I say that despite me bad luck... We Tied!

So first two turns I basically sat on my Mechandrites and did nothing but get shot at by bikes, as the two wave serpents got outflank due to a lucky warlord trait.

Bottom of turn two was when things went down.

He came in and melted my onager with the wraiths while Plasma-Priest squad got kicked out of the rhino by it getting wrecked. His wraith guard were invisible. his other squad didnt come in until turn 3.

So top of turn 3 is when I finally started to shoot my guns. Plasma-priest squad managed to kill a single wraith guard with some rad fire. My onager shot at a wave serpent and managed to kill a wraith guard with a smart placement but the serpent jinked. arc squad 1 managed to get the bikers in range finally, and opened up with everything... but he saved 7 out of 9 wounds, all on his leader. Omnisiah was I salty. Some other guns from rhinos and such fired to kill three more guys, though.

His turn 3 was a little better. He managed to kill 3 of my priest plasma squad and made the guard invisible again, while he shook my remaining neutron onager and immobilized it. He whittled down arc squad 1 with fire before charging in (he had a relic that ignores overwatch because why the hell not?) and killing one skitarii, with me killing one in return.

Top of turn 4 I did some dancing with my tech priest. I had arc squad 2, untouched so far in the game, get out and join my dominus while my plasma squad formed a line in front of the invisibile wraith guard. I Target locked the wraith squad and opened fire on them, and managed to kill two more guard! My plasma squad charged the wraiths losing two to overwatch while my dragoon joined combat with arc squad one. The dragoon managed to walk all over the pointy eared gits at the same time they went! it was glorious! plasma squad just managed to tie up the wraith squad.

His turn 4 he just truffle shuffled around with his wave serpents. arcs managed to knock him down to 1 hull point. he also shot my onager and brought it down to one hull point.

Top of 5 arc squad 2 walked forward and shot at his wave serpent while the other one ran forward. not much to report except plasma squad managed to kill the warlock in the squad. Finally no invisibility!

his turn 5 his dire avengers finally got out of the vehicle and open fired against arc squad 2, killing all of them except three and the dominus. Wraith guard managed to kill a single skitarii and then ran down the squad. this managed to tie up the game.

After that game ended on a tie 4 kp to 4, with my dominus staring down a full squad of dire avengers. Gah was it frustrating! Eldar are just so stupid! they have no weaknesses it feels! Fast bikers for troops with stupid heavy weapons on each guy, stupid tough transports with stupid tough Wraith guard with D flamers and to top it all off they can cast spells with so many dice!

01110011 01110100 01110101 01110000 01101001 01100100 00100001 00100000 01000110 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100001 00100001 00100000 01110011 01110100 01110101 01110000 01101001 01100100 00100001 00100001

....Ahem. pardon my outburst.

Notes:

Should have had an icarius onager. That ignores cover could have saved me so much headache.

Dragoon was fething awesome!

Dominus formation saved me the game and stopped it from turning into a route. Thank you twin linked! never shot the dominus though.

If facing outflanking d-sycthes, try and move into the middle asap.

[MoGuy]

As fate decrees, I too fought against those dreaded Eldar today. So let me hit you with some Data too!
 

Dominus
+Converterfield
+Erradication Ray
+Arkhan Lands Autocaduceus

6x Plasma-Destroyers
+3x Phosphor
+3x Flamers

3x Plasma-Destroyers
+3x Phosphor

10x Vanguard
+Omnispex
+2x Arc Rifles

10x Rangers
+Omnispex

Onager Dunecrawler
+Icarusarray
+Cognis Manipulator

Knight Paladin
+Stormspear Rocketlauncher

 

 

 
1x Farseer on Bike
1x Farseer 

5x Wraithguard 

15x Windriders

1x Serpent (in it the 5x Wraithguards)

2x Ravagers (One with the Kabalite Warriors, the other with the Assault-Lances)

10x Kabalite Warriors

5x Kabalite Trueborn

5x Kabalite Trueborn

3x Dudes with Assault-Lances

 
1500 Points, Maelstrom of War (3 Objectives each Turn), no nightfighting, deployment on the short sides of the table.
 
I can best tell you of this battle by going through the performances of my units.
 
I deployed my 3x Plasmadestroyers on my left side. They were bait to get my opponent to deploy stuff on that side, which worked nicely and kept his 15x invisible Bikes from doing anything until Turn 3. The Destroyers did nothing (couldnt shoot the aforementioned Bikes because they were invisible) and died Turn 2. Still worth in my book because they were a really nice distraction.
 
My Vanguards got decimated down to 5 men by the Trueborn with their 3" blast weapons. However, the survivors annihilated his 10x Kabalite Warriors in a single turn of shooting. Vanguards are the nightmare of every Eldar/Ork/T3 5+ unit. Love em! In the end they got blown up, but that was worth it.
 
The Dominus rolled on the strategy WT-Table in the rulebook and got Infiltrate. I deployed him with his unit of 6x Destroyers in a ruin in the middle of the board. With the Shroudpsalm they had a 2+ cover save until Turn 3 and tanked A LOT of shots. Unfortunately they couldnt bring their weapons to bear against my opponents juiciest targets, since they were always invisible. They killed the 3x Dudes with Assault-Lances and two of his Wraithguard. Turn 5 only my Dominus (who healed their wounds etc. Question: Can the Dominus heal himself on a 2+?) and three of the Destroyers were left standing. Along with my Knight they charged the invisible Bikes.
 
My Rangers were also nice as always. Held Objectives for me and sniped the last two Bikes of his 5x Bike-Squad.
 
The Onager Dunecrawler was awesome! Killed the Serpent in his first round of shooting with only one weapon of his Icarusstation (the Gatling-Rocketlauncher). I hit with all 5 shots and rolled four 6s. This made the Wraithguard spill out. He later destroyed one Ravager and even got two wounds on the invisible Bikes. Surprisingly, he lasted the whole game and survived with two remaining hullpoints!
 
My Knight Paladin: Yes, YES, YESSS! He dealt damage and tanked a lot. Right at the start of the game he took down three of the Wraithguard and destroyed a Ravager. Turn 5 he charged the invisible Bikes along with my Dominus-Squad and it was enough to win me the combat. They flet but my Knight wasn't fast enough to catch them.
 
However, at the start of Turn 6 my opponent conceded. Points: 8 - 2 for me and I still had my Dominus with 3x Destroyers, all my Rangers, my Knight on 5 HP and my Onager on 2 HP, whilst he had only his invisible Bikes and ~7 Trueborn left, who had played artillery the whole game.
 
Hard Data gained:
 
+Vanguard are awesome against everything with T3 or 5+ armour (or both). Always thake them against Eldar!
+Onager with Icarus is a must when facing Eldar!
+Destroyers can be used very effectively to distract the opponent and their Plasmaweapons are decent against Eldar
+Knight Paladin is all-around goodness against Eldar, even when they have Lances (which glance on 4s)
 
-Poison can hurt Destroyers pretty bad (mine luckily had their coversave)
-Invisibility and psychic stuff in general is tough for us to deal with