Tips for Skitarii

[PhilB]

Hi Everyone, hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

 

I've got a game coming up verses some Skitarii was hoping some people here had experience in putting the followers of the Machine God in their place.

I've never fought Skitarii before so I've really no idea what to expect, and after reading the Skitarii blog on good old 1d4chan I'm even more lost! Damn they have a lot of rules floating around.

From what I gathered it sounds like I don't want to try and sit back and trade firepower with them, but in the same breath, don't get into assault with them either?!

I'm thinking of taking my TAC Ravenwing list, which is pretty standard (below), but any tips regarding priority targets/things to stay away from/ways to approach the fight would be much appreciated!

 

Thanks All.

 

RWSF

Int Chap, mace, bike.

Lvl 2 Lib, axe, auspex, bike.

6 RWCS, champ, apoth, banner.

RWDS, assault cannon.

3 units of 1 RWABs, multi melta.

 

3x RWAS

5 RWBs, 2x grav.

RWLS, heavy bolter & assault cannon.

 

RWSS

RWDS, heavy bolter.

3 RWLS, heavy bolters & typhoon missile launchers.

[Hidicul]

Stock up on plasma weapons. your best bet is going to be as many black knights and LS Vengeance you can fit in the list. I don't think they have much in the way of ignore cover, but don't quote me on that, so dark shrouds could be useful as well as the dark talon and hope for some doubles when rolling to hit. Best of luck to you.

[aura_enchanted]

skitarii are a lot like guardsmen however their much faster on foot more like assault marines in their agility thanks to their army pretty much having scout, infiltrate, outflank, and crusader coming out of their ears. so expect lots of funny deployment nonsense or movement nonsense. their cc is either average or terrible depending on the unit and everything can fight back (including onagers)

 

onagers:

 

their tanks are a lot like leman russ's in their versatility so ill do my best to describ them based on their weapons, they all have a cc weapon that can be sued to fix themselves be uh wary of that:

 

eradication beamer - a variable tank gun thats either a shotgun of doom at very close range, or a death cannon from squishing tactical marines at long ranges, cant hurt a land raider unless it gets danger close

 

icarus array - its anti-flyer variant perhaps the best anti-air flakk weapon the imperials have that isnt mounted to a forgeworld vehicle

 

neutron laser - a concussive demolisher cannon

 

heavy phsophor blaster - basically a large blast krak missile

 

all models have a stubber

 

vanguard and rangers:

 

their core infantry, rangers can be best compared to marine scouts their a fan of being used to camp objectives and using their arebeques its a mean anti tank rifle that he gratefully cant take in bulk. meanwhile vanguard are a lot like stormtroopers with markerlights, dont try and engage in a close range shooting match with them marines will lose every time. often the HQ will be in there squads as the alpha of the rangers of vanguard if so your almost guaranteed slay the warlord if you cc. if you bring a ground army this might be one of the rare times asmodai might get his d3+1 stwl roll off. beware that they have markerlights that can strip cover and jinks only and pack them in bulk

 

ballistari - tank sniper extraordinaire the ballistari are fast moving guys with autocannons can also take a lascannon, they have grim resolve with any weapon the ballistari take so keep that in mind

 

dragoon's can best be described as outflanking teq smackers. they specialize in charging in and smashing a guy before running away and their so cheap that losing one isnt a loss if they take out a heavy weapon or a specialist, their also good at piercing light armour, bad at sustained engagements

 

rust stalkers - perhaps their best cc unit the stalker can make mincemeat out of conventional marines in short order, trying to lock up with them is a mistake unless you have invul saves or 2+ armour. can take viroblades for squishing scouts

 

infiltraitors - a misleading unit infiltraitors are better at shooting then cc as their taser goads are relatively worthless they can take viroblades like rust stalker alphas but this makes them overall a non threat to marines still. often infiltraitors will kill you with shooting and the cc will be to mop up the pieces

 

their order issuing system can make them brutally strong in a phase of attack (cc or shooting) however they rely on being a stellar flash in the pan as they cn only issue orders (called protocols) once per game. being able to rob them of their ability to inflict lots of ranged damage early is critical at forcing them to drop their bonus BS orders and twin linked orders early leaving them nothing for the late game.

 

terminators get more and more lethal as a game drags on and land raiders are actually a very big problem for skitarii to handle gamling on one off shots from lascannons and point blank tank blasts over dealing with it from afar. locking up units that arent rust stalkers almost spells there doom as few can stand up to being hit by marines even ones with power swords or mauls.

 

a whirlwind would be a good idea, great answer to their 4+ armour infantry that they tend to bring in quantity

 

bad idea would be to bring planes, or scouts they just get rolled over too quickly, if you dont bring a lot of them speeders and bikes tend to be fairly underwhelming in this matchup too and dont bother with basic dreadnaughts though i expect you already knew they were obsolete. venerable or better will do okay

 

avoid having 3+ guys in los to an onager before its dealth with they tend to just go splat before their mighty blast plates

 

would like to make a slight adjustment here, the stalkers and infiltraitors have transonic razors and blades which are good for squishing low saves, they also have rending but only the blades are s+ which makes them hit harder

[Isiah]

Wow aura - that was a pretty impressive and very useful roundup.

 

So what would you take against them? In PhilB's place?

[aura_enchanted]

Wow aura - that was a pretty impressive and very useful roundup.

 

So what would you take against them? In PhilB's place?

 

well that would be based on what i have on the shelf and not what phil does. id also need to consider the points cap, he hasnt listed one yet only a basic list of his force. so id probably start with veterans, their a versatile unit that can tackle their weaknesses in a variety of ways and since i have like 50 veterans. id look to maybe getting a drop pod or two built before the game and use them assuming i had the time and money to do so. they would be an invalulable unit i feel for disarming his units in one breath and forcing him to deal with them lest they run amok in another

 

id look to a whrilwind, whirly's are increibly strong in this matchup, he essentially has to get to range to crush it or risky losing squads of dudes every turn and unless hes running allies for drop pods i have two words: not happening.

 

my deathwing knights in a raider, against this unit he has issues, lots of them. i could start with the t5, 2+/3+++ melee unit but the star of the team is the raider who he has to throw mountains of good quality shooting at in single dice rolls to hope to bring down this of course assuming points allowed.

 

from here id look to my conventional power armour in transports and land speeders to fill out the rest of the force, i dont have many bikes so theyd be off the table as a unit i could bring, one squad is likely to get targetted and blasted to pieces as an important threat. assault marines might be good, decently mobile on packs, decently offensive in cc, able to bring flamers to root him out of the cover hes going to hug like his mother.

 

id leave my scouts at home and if i knew he had an icarus onager so would my planes, one would die overnight and another could get brought down easily since i use my scouts very aggressively for a t4, 4+ armour infantry on foot. theyd walk to a grave

 

devestators wouldnt be a bad idea, HB's, plasma cannons, i really had the pick of the littler and no bad choices

 

some people jump at the thought of the vanguard and rangers toting double plasma guns with markerlights but recognize that this is the modern era, everyone has plasma guns or grav guns these days so running from it doesnt solve anything and trying to abuse rules to make the problem mitigate isnt helping either. especially when the unit standing behind that gun are so such shrimps. to quote V "what you have are bullets and the hope that when your guns are empty im no longer standing". so too with 40k, if their guns fail them or are wasted on targets they otherwise could have killed anyway with a different gun then the weapon isnt useful. 

 

the onagers biggest flaws is that he cant indriect fire with anything and he isnt taller then a land raider, as a result i often could just park a raider and obstruct his shot, even if he closes to range and str 10 ap1 shotguns the raider he gets 1 shot, if it misses or fails to pen he has to wait for another turn of shooting to try again, i use this against vindicators to great effect. and if its a standard raider or an excelsior i get to return fire and probably do some damage, i mean i get 2 twin linked lascannons and maybe a grav cannon or a multi melta to open a 5+ invul av 12 tin can versus my av14 hull he throws one dice at every round. ill take my chances with several dice over one good dice and a save

 

magic and mobility are two strengths against pure skitarii you can undervalue as does knowing when to power through an enemies weapons. picking the right moment to drop some aggressive science on the skitarii can pay big dividends and having the ability to just get around well and drop magic puts you at an instant advantage. dont be passive around the skitarii, they enjoy a defensive foe that lets them pick them apart at their leisure, and do engage in a short range shooting match (20" or less). skitarii are simply the best at it amongst most imperials and they will grind you down to the point where even units they struggle with like high av's they can just ignore. because they know they can inflict so much damage on your other stuff. dont rely on cover to save you they have reduced cover nonsense crawling out of every infantry unit theyve got. and respond to outflanks and infiltrates, dont let them go unopposed

 

if i had allies to work with the imperial guard would have a field day, leman russ tanks mulch through skitarii like paper

[PhilB]

Geez Aura, this is some good info and will be most useful, thank you.

We normally play 1,850 point games.

I have an 1,850 list based around some DW knights in a vindicator hammer of caliban crusader, say that 5 times fast, supported by mechanised greenwing that I've been dying to try out, maybe I'll take this instead. Sadly the only veterans I own is a single command squad. I'll toy with the idea of moving some of the marines over to drop pods though, or maybe a suicide dreadnought in a pod.

My only concern is haywire, this guy loves the :cuss with his Dark Eldar and I can just see him shoehorning as much as he can into his debut Skitarii force.

 

Thanks again.

[aura_enchanted]

Geez Aura, this is some good info and will be most useful, thank you.

We normally play 1,850 point games.

I have an 1,850 list based around some DW knights in a vindicator hammer of caliban crusader, say that 5 times fast, supported by mechanised greenwing that I've been dying to try out, maybe I'll take this instead. Sadly the only veterans I own is a single command squad. I'll toy with the idea of moving some of the marines over to drop pods though, or maybe a suicide dreadnought in a pod.

My only concern is haywire, this guy loves the with his Dark Eldar and I can just see him shoehorning as much as he can into his debut Skitarii force.

Thanks again.

well he has some it comes in the form of the prehensile dataspike which is a close combat weapon which ruststalker alphas can take, and arc rifles and arc pistols weapons only found in vanguard normally though rangers can take them too, their range is absolute trash, and their AP and strength are pretty terrible but they are all haywire (their weird looking guns with square plasma blocks on them, they look like wierd square plasma guns) so he needs to get in close to use them. the unfortunate reality is at those kinds of points a favourite tactic of people who dont take cult mechanium as allies is to run them alongside flesh tearers to get mountains of drop pods and gabriel seth to also offset their bad hq's.

if he's playing pure skitarii your going to have an interesting time and it could be fun, but if not anti drop pod tactics will be your saving grace. the ability to drop in and just be bs5-bs6 with rapid fire guns is just unreal.

i know this stuff because i have their codex here in front of me, ive been building a skitarii army

[PhilB]

I quite confident there won't be any allies. He has a pretty strong opinion regarding leveraging a book's strengths or plugging a books weakness with another book, and it's not a positive opinion.

I think I'll just flood the board with AV and make him try and pick out the most important targets. Something along the lines of Az & Ez with a company command squad in a crusader (vindicator hammer of caliban) and as many tacticals in razorbacks as I can fit in there plus a whirlwind hiding behind the landraider, should be fun.

[NCSUWolf]

Vs Skittarii, Ravenwing will be really good. They can reduce your cover by 1 if they purchase an Omnispex (but its not cumulative between squads) or with Lumigen weapons (only available on a relic, the Dragoon gun, or the Onagers). 

 

I wouldnt rely on a ton of armor as Arc weapons are a thing in Skittarii (a Ranger/Vanguard squad can have up to 3, 4 with the sgts pistol). They are in the 24" threat-range.

 

The army is not overly mobile, but a few units can be sneaky with Dunestrider (both Sicarian and Ironstrider variants). It adds 3" to run, move, charge. With Scout, Infiltrate and Crusader it can make up in places but the army loses a game of keep-away.

 

Whirlwind's and assault cannons are both solid choices as the biggest drawback of the Skitters is the T3 and lack of transports. 

 

Now, if he's planning to bring the Mechanicus War Convocation (the White Dwarf formation that uses Skittarii + Knight + Cult mechanicus)... that's another beast and a tough nut to crack. I've used it to devastating effect in several tournaments (usually in places that use ITC ruling since it nerfs Ravenwing 2+ rerollable jinking). But I digress. 

 

They have a bunch of fancy sounding rules and funky weapon/gear names, but all in all, they are almost all T3, none with great armor saves, some with Invulns, but beatable if you play to your strengths, play the mission, and put the heretics in their place!

[Father Mehman]

If you have three Vindicators, take them. Carpet the board with pie plates and watch units die.

[PhilB]

Just a bit of feedback regarding that Skitarri game. I ended up proxying a heap of drop pods and trying out a null deploy double demi-co lion's blade.

With 7 pods coming in turn one and the other 6 all ending up coming in on turn 2 the Skitarri losses were pretty silly. Although I am impressed by the resilience of the Rust Stalkers & Infiltrators against the DA alpha strike.

The icing on the cake was my command squad (with the CM, Chap & Ezekiel) being charged by both a group of Rust Stalkers & a group of Infiltrators (nasty ass aura inc!) which included the Skittari warlord then having the 3 independent characters tank all the hits and almost wipe everyone out in return! I think Ezekiel tanked ~13 AP- wounds with his artificer armour!

Long version below if you like a read;

DA Lion's Blade 1,850;

Demi Co 1

CM w/ art. armour, combi-plas & relic blade.

Com Sq w/ 4 flamers & apoth in a pod.

3x Tact Sqs (5 guys) w/ melta, combi-melta & melta bombs in pods.

Ass Sq (5 guys) w/ 2 flamers & combi-flamer in a pod.

Dev Sq (5 guys) w/ 2 grav cannons in a pod.

Dread w/ TL H flamer & H flamer in a pod.

Demi Co 2

Chap

3 x Tact Sqs (5 guys) w/ grav cannons in pods.

Ass Sq (5 guys) w/ 2 flamers & combi-flamer in a pod.

Dev Sq (5 guys) w/ 2 grav cannons in a pod.

Dread w/ TL H flamer & H flamer in a pod.

10th Co Supp

Scouts Sq (5 guys) w/ bolters.

Inner Circle

Ezekiel

Skittari Maniple 1,850;

Sq of Rust Stalkers, ~ 10 guys.

2x Sqs of Infiltrators, ~ 10 guys.

2 x Sqs of Rangers, 10 guys.

2 x Sqs of Vanguard, ~6 guys.

Sq of 4 Ironstriders w/ TL lascannons.

Sq of 4 Ironstrikers w/ TL autocannons.

The warlord was one of the Rust Stalkers I think.

Not really sure of the special weapons for the troops, so many rules and names I'd never heard/seen before.

Not really sure why he didn't use any Onagers either, they seem like a very cool unit.

We rolled up the mission and got Maelstrom: Cleanse & Control, vanguard deployment and night fighting would be in effect.

The Skittari win the roll off for deployment and elect to go first, he deploys everything on the board and it's all quite spread out, even more so after infiltrators and all the scout moves.

The Dark Angels flanked their Scouts resulting in a null deploy.

Turn 1 the Skittari advance further in almost every direction across the map looking to take up positions near/on all objectives. "Weren't there meant to be space marines to fight out here?"

On plumes of fire the first wave of DA come, the Command Sq (with the Chapter Master, Chaplain & Ezekiel, both Dreadnoughts, both Assault Squads, one of the melta Tactical Squads & one of the Devastator Squads hit the deck, commence the purge boys.

Ezekiel opens the game by getting Seed of Fear off on no less than 4 Skittari squads then getting Aversion onto the autocannon IronStriders. After much flameage and the Devastators grav, both the squads of Rangers & Vanguard are either gone or running for the hills with some wounds dealt out on the unit of Rust Stalkers and a unit of Infiltrators too. The Tactical Squad managed to pop 2 of the autocannon Ironstriders with their melta.

Turn 2 Skittari, sees the wounded Rust Stalkers & Infiltrators move up to pincer attack the DA Command Squad, frustrated by the early losses, the Skittari warlord wants the DA Chapter Master's head as recompense, they open fire and butcher the Command Squad's Vets with ease but the rest of the shots are tanked on both the CM's & Ezekiel's artificer armour plus the lone Apothecary's FnP. The lascannon Ironstriders draw a bead on one of the dreadnoughts and blow it sky high. DA casualties are extremely light, given it's their first turn of return fire.

The Rust Stalkers (with the Skittari warlord) and Infiltrators charge the Command Squad and in an amazing show of space marine heartiness, only 2 saves are failed from about 8 rends & 18+ AP- wounds. The DA CM in return wipes the floor with the Infiltrator character (challenge) and keeps his momentum flowing into rest of the squad instant deathing 4 Infiltrators with his relic blade. Ezekiel, the Chaplain & the Apothecary wade into the Rust Stalkers and cut them down to just the warlord, lucky he's fearless...

The DA second turn saw 6 more fireballs descend from the heavens (gogo 2+ reserve rolls!) and the Scouts march in off the flank. After much more melta & grav plus the Chapter Master cleaving the Skittari warlord in two, Skittari forces on the board consist of 2 lascannon Ironstriders & 3 Infiltrators from the other squad camping an objective.

The Skittari quit the field at the end of turn 2.

So yeah, turns out double demi lion's blade all in pods is nasty. Then again, this was my opponents first attempt with Skittari and still has a lot to learn about them, and no he doesn't own 8 Ironstriders, we always proxy things before we commit to buying.

I've been wanting to run this list for quite a while but I think after this performance it's best left to memory, it pretty rude!

Thanks for reading this if you made it this far!

[SnakeChisler]

I don't see the point in the match up if your going to sponge 600 points worth of free transports, while I know we can legally take this stuff a better game would have been against a similar force such as the AD-Mech War Conclave

 

A better balanced game would have been Demi + some other stuff, double was always going to be a roll over

[PhilB]

455 points, actually. I never said it was a fair fight.

We often end up playing ridiculously uneven matches resulting in one side rolling over the other when we try new things.

That's the beauty of playing your mates vs pick up games, you can't hurt your mates feelings when you try out something new or OP as hell, whereas you'd have to be mindful of that in a pick up game.

[SnakeChisler]

Fair enough

 

We've been using the community comp system to grade up our lists, while my opponents have had to tone it down a bit so have I some of our Raven builds can get a bit silly. I've found more than a 5 credit swing and it can get very unbalanced, the bonus for all of us though is were now using different formations and combo's knowing that your opponent has to do the same.

The new Codex has a ton of variety which just won't get explored if we just gravitate to the strongest builds and a well thought out Demi is a powerful thing on its own and worth playing even without the free stuff.

[PhilB]

So much variety! There are still so many things I want to try from the new book. In the 6th ED book I used ravenwing 90% of the time.

Now I'm using demi's, demi's with an armoured task force (vanilla marines), demi's w/RW, demi's w/DW, RW, RW+DW, double demi's, love it!