Ad Mech in 8th Edition

[Ammonius]

*snip*

The one thing I'm not sure about is all the Aquerbuses. At 1000 pts you're giving up so much for those 4 snipers. Your vanguard are neutered without any plasma, and your onagers not taking all the heavy cognis stubbers they can is a huge waste. 

I think I originally wanted redundant sniper teams because I know that one of the lists I'm going to see in the coming weeks leans heavily on a Mek with a Kustom Force Field that I dearly want to snipe out early on. Beyond that I'm looking for attacks that deal Mortal wounds to deal with Thousand Sons, especially the Sorcerers. However, I can see the reasoning that at 1000 points doubling up is a misstep. And you're right, it is a lot of points resting on some T3 shoulders.

 

My concern for that list is a lack of bodies. Your nightmare scenario is for something to get in close combat with the Kastelan. They will still find it hard to kill them but they will just neutralise them for ages.

 

If your enemy can deep strike you need to make sure there is nowhere they can land and assault you.

 

Even if they can't deep strike, ita critical to provide some speedbump units that can take an assault then fall back and allow the Kastelan their double round of shooting.

I see your point. 10 Vanguard probably isn't enough, but then, I'm not sure what can be done about 60-90 boyz at this points lvl, especially if they are in Trukks that can just drive around the battlefield and attack from the sides/ rear.

 

I have made another version of my list that adds more bodies, and gets some plasma on the table to synergize with the Techpriest Dominus. Due to points considerations, I added the Dragoon who would act as a "tackler", moving quickly to a melee theat, charging it, hopefully doing some damage, and tying up the threat in a round of combat/ fallback. I'd much rather have the Icarus Onager though.

 

Hidden Content

Unit/ Gear

Dominus 135

Omnissian Axe

Volkite Blaster

Macrostubber

 

Datasmith 52

Gamma Pistol

Power Fist

 

VanguardA x10 149

Plasma Caliver x3

Omnispex

 

VanguardB x10 112

Arc Rifles x3

 

RangersA x 5 107

Transuranic Arquebus x2

Omnispex

 

DragoonA 74

Taser Lance

Phosphor Serpentia

Broad Spectrum Data-Tether

 

OnagerB 151

Neutron Laser

Cognis Hvy Stubber

Cognis Hvy Stubber

Broad Spectrum Data-Tether

 

KastellansA x2 220

Heavy Phosphor Blaster x2

Twin Heavy Phosphor Blaster x2

 

 

Ya know, the more I look at bat reps the more I'm seeing Electro Priests as a must have for us now.

 

Keep them out of sight then use them to counter charge and mop up any survivors, between either the big hitting power of the Disco Sticks or the MASSED DICE of the Zappy Hands they cover a wide range of uses for us now that the Skitarii are a little lacking.

Man, I'm seeing that too, especially for the Fulgurite Electro-Priests. Having a pack of 20 or so screening the Kastelan/ Onager line seems like a good move, and Omnissiah willing, we get a quick-moving transport to carry them to battle then I think they would fill the role of Berzerkers in our army, which would be a fine thing indeed.

[Silentz]

Here's my list for an upcoming tournament, which I would welcome your feedback on...

 

I need to be able to defend against the horde armies which I suspect people are going to run

Taken the Paladin knight for some S8 shooting - list has lots of dakka but most of it is S6.

Taken the Inq for Deny the Witch and Smite.   Plus the 8x3 wound Acolytes is a fantastic anti-assault screening unit. 

Electro-priests to hide and assault from cover, if possible. Or against a non-shooty army, just charge and meet the enemy head on.

 

 

2000 Admech Cawl 2 (Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition) [2000pts] 

 

Vanguard Detachment +1CP (Imperium) [157pts] 

 

+ HQ +

Inquisitor [67pts]: Bolt pistol, Force sword, Psyker (Smite, Terrify)

 

+ Elites +

Acolytes [45pts]
. . Acolyte: Bolt pistol, Plasma gun
. . 3x Acolyte: Bolt pistol, Chainsword

 

Acolytes [45pts]
. . Acolyte: Bolt pistol, Plasma gun
. . 3x Acolyte: Bolt pistol, Chainsword

 

Eversor Assassin [70pts]

 

Battalion Detachment +3CP (Adeptus Mechanicus) [1315pts]

 

+ HQ +

 

Belisarius Cawl [250pts]

Tech-Priest Dominus [135pts]: Macrostubber, Volkite Blaster

 

+ Troops +

Skitarii Rangers [85pts]: 6x Skitarii Ranger, Transuranic arquebus
 

Skitarii Rangers [85pts]: 6x Skitarii Ranger, Transuranic arquebus
 

Skitarii Vanguards [4 PL, 88pts]: 2x Arc rifle, 8x Skitarii Vanguard
 

+ Elites +

Cybernetica Datasmith [52pts]: Gamma pistol, Power fist

Fulgurite Electro-Priests [160pts]: 10x Fulgurite Electro-Priest

Sicarian Infiltrators [130pts]
. . Infiltrator Princeps . . . . Flechette blaster & Taser goad
. .  4 x Sicarian Infiltrator . . . . Flechette blaster & Taser goad
 

+ Heavy Support +

Kastelan Robots [330pts]
. . 3x Kastelan Robot:  Heavy phosphor blasters: 2x Heavy Phosphor blaster
 

Super-Heavy Auxiliary Detachment (Questor Imperialis) [458pts] ++

 

+ Lord of War +

Knight Paladin [458pts]: Heavy stubber, Heavy stubber, Rapid-fire battle cannon, Reaper chainsword

[Ammonius]

Here's my list for an upcoming tournament, which I would welcome your feedback on...

 

I need to be able to defend against the horde armies which I suspect people are going to run

Taken the Paladin knight for some S8 shooting - list has lots of dakka but most of it is S6.

Taken the Inq for Deny the Witch and Smite.   Plus the 8x3 wound Acolytes is a fantastic anti-assault screening unit. 

Electro-priests to hide and assault from cover, if possible. Or against a non-shooty army, just charge and meet the enemy head on.

That looks right on the money to me. I was going to ask why you didn't go with the S9 and less expensive Thermal Cannon, but the 2D6 shots is probably the better all-rounder.

 

Looking forward to your hard data, especially for the Fulgerites!

[Vel'Cona]

The Electro-Priests still seem very expensive for what we get, IMO.  Guess we'll have to see how they do before weighing in, though.

[Charlo]

The Electro-Priests still seem very expensive for what we get, IMO.  Guess we'll have to see how they do before weighing in, though.

 

Only 14/16 points each per model!

[Silentz]

 

The Electro-Priests still seem very expensive for what we get, IMO.  Guess we'll have to see how they do before weighing in, though.

 

Only 14/16 points each per model!

 

And two chances to do mortal wounds per charge.  I think they're better to take in bigger units - increases the likelihood of rolling the sixes.  And of having enough alive after a turn or two of being shot to do anything. 

 

My problem is going to be not having them blown off the board before they can do anything.  Hopefully they can be hidden or just seen as a lesser threat while they are out of range. 

[Charlo]

Back field all the way.

 

They're our counter units - shooty for hordes and sticky for bigger things.

 

Keep them safe in cover and advance when the enemy is upon you. I bet even overwatch with a re-roll to hit buff will be brutal from the ol' zappy hands brigade!

 

If we get Triaros in Cyraxus and they can transport Zzap priests I will be a very happy Magos.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Charlo

[lancerusso]

Played a 2k points game yesterday- I pretty much wiped a iron warriors player who had lots of forge world BS by turn 2.

 

I had Cawl and one each of

Icarus onager, phosphor onager, neutron onager, with two 5 man sniper rangers with omnispex all in a spearhead detachment.

 

Then a dominus, two autocannon striders, four taser dragoons, one ten man plasma vanguard and two five man arc rifle vanguard squads.

 

And one ten man squad of corpuscarii and one ten man squad of fulgurite.

 

It was slightly over 2000 points so my opponent added thirty points or so to his to match.

 

 

Cawl provided all the re rolls, it was amazing.

 

Two dragoons died well as a screening force, and a third did a devestating charge against bikers which it seems to be made to kill if you have vanguard to reduce toughness. E priests died with ease but I used then to advance through open ground, leaving the ruins for my skitarii to take. They would be great as a counter charge unit like ruststalkers used to be, but having them wait in your lines can be wasteful if they sit there the whole game doing nothing. I'd recommend sicarians for that still since they can move 8.

 

Arc rifles did pretty ok, took 1 wounds off a predator total, but killed two or so bikers. Snipers murderised a chaos Lord over two turns. My Icarus array did ok... He had a chaos forge world space marine flyer with some 36 shots, and it did three wounds. My neutron laser overkilled a predator turn 1 thanks to rerolling d3 hits with command dice, and then overlooked the above mentioned flyer turn two doing 16 wounds. Ap-4 is fantastic.

 

Cawl didn't personally injure anything. Phosphor guns are great to kill ruin emplaced infantry. Tech priest dominus was ok with volkite.

[Tiger9gamer]

So, anyone else hear from the community that there is a new chaos model with an HH abnyent?! 

 

that makes me much more hopeful for the admech index!

[Castellan Cato]

Yes. The dark mechanicus got two characters in the chaos book. A magos and magos on abeyant.

Theyre interesting. The abeyant gives +2" movement, 1 wound, and a heavy weapon that I would say is comparable to a plasma gun (lower strength, but more damage). They buff an odd collection of things, basically all models that would be available to the 30k line, with +1a and LD. They can also repair the above and dark mech knights.

I'm not sure where they fit in an army really, but they certainly make you think about taking one!

Edited June 21, 2017 by Castellan Cato

[Tiger9gamer]

did the astra-militarum get something like that?

[Battybattybats]

Wait dark mechanicum can repair dark mech knights.. is there a way yet for us to get mechanicus keyword knights so loyalist mechs can repair knights?

Also, i hear the Styrix is available in 8th! :D

[Redtoof]

Not played with the ad mech in 8th yet but I recently added up my fairly meagre collection. In the old rules it was 1500 on the nose. This time it's 1482 if my maths is right, so in an era of things getting more expensive, I'm pretty happy with that. I think I'll have to draft in som allies or reinforcements if the average game goes to 2000 now.

[DeStinyFiSh]

I hope that the loyalist FW knights can have the mechanicus keyword as well.

[Ammonius]

So, something occured to me while I was assembling Skitarii yesterday:

 

Since Vanguard can take all 3 special weapon types (importanly including Transuranic Arquebus) , and get rad-saturation and what seems like the better basic weapon, what incentive is there to take Rangers at all beyond aesthetics and/ or backstory?

 

Or are galvanic rifles getting sold short due to a lack of games played?

[Odds.043]

This last Saturday I was in a tournament at my local shop for the release of 8th edition. We played 3 games at 1000 points

 

My list:

 

Imperial Knight

-avenger gatling cannon

-chainsword

-heavy stubbers

-heavy flamer

 

Belisarious Cawl

 

Vanguard ×7

-omnispex

 

Vanguard ×10

-plasma caliver ×3

-omnispex

 

Onager Dunecrawler

-neutron laser

-cognise heavy stubbers ×2

 

First match was vs a chaos space marine army:

 

Chaos knight titan

-avenger gatling cannon

-thunderstrike gauntlet

 

Chaos sorcerer lord ×3

 

Cypher

 

Chaos rhino

 

The chaos player got the first turn. His knight moved into position to fight mine. His rhino moved up to deploy his dides next turn.

 

On my turn, I moved my knight to receive his charging knight. Everyone else moved to an objective on the center of the board. my onager and knight popped his rhino, killing one of his chaos sorcerers in the process.

 

He took out most of my chaffe vanguard unit wit psychic and cypher, and charged my knight doing a lot of famage, I failed to old with my chainsword.

 

On my turn I murder the rest of his sorcerer and cypher with my main force, I backed up my knight and shot his again, doing some damage, them I charged back in and used the titalic feet, scoring a few more hits.

 

His knight murders mine and tosses it with the thunderstrike into my other unit of skitarii, killing some of the rad carbines.

 

I game his knight with the combined fire of Cawl, the plasma calivers, and the dunecrawler.

 

Then I went up against a (cheating) chaos daemon player (I totaled the points for his army and he was over by more than 100 points...)

 

Daemon prince of khorne

-(not sure which weapon he had, I killed it before it got into combat)

 

Herald of Tzeench

-(also not sure what it had)

 

Exalted flamer

 

Herald of Khorne

 

Flamers of Tzeench ×3

 

Khorne Berserker ×10

 

Flesh hounds ×5

 

Flesh hounds ×5

 

Blood letters ×10

-icon

-instrument

 

Bloodletters ×10

-ditto

 

Bloodletters ×10

-ditto

 

I got the first turn, I killed the exalted flamer and wounded the daemon prince. My knight went to fight his berserkers.

 

He tries to deep strike his bloodletters behind me, so I showed him that that isnt how 8th edition works (I had to clarify the difference between this, 7th edition, and AOS constantly, and he made me reference the exact rule book page each time)... so he summoned them. Then a big series of charges happened. My 7 vanguard die. My knight gets locked in combat with bloodletters.

 

I killed his daemon prince and 2 of his flamers

 

The rest of the game consisted of him slowly murdering my entire army accepts the knight witch hung on with 3 wounds left at the end of the game, ensuring I only got a minor defeat.

 

The last game was against an ork player

 

Ghazkull thrakka

 

Warboss in mega armour

 

2 units of 20 Boyz

 

2 units of 20 (?) Gros

 

2 grot minders

 

A unit of 10 (?) Lootas

 

This match was just sad... the lootas throughout the course of the game only managed to kill 6 of my unit of 7 vanguard, and deal a few wounds to my onager, and my knight chewed through a unit of Boyz, thrakka, and the lootas, and my vanguard killed all the grits and a unit of boyz before they even got into charge range... I tabled the orks.

 

I got second place, the cheaty chaos daemon player got first.

 

Overall:

 

Cawl was absolutely amaizing, I almost never missed a shot with my skitarii bubble. The onager didn't shine as well as it could have in the last two matches given the lack of vehicles, but it did soak some wounds from my vanguard a few times.

 

I think my cheap vanguard unit was one of the most useful things I added (even though they died so much) simply because they were really god at protecting Cawl from getting shot.

 

The one game I lost, I'm sceptical of the value of the data from it, as my opponent was so confrontational about the rules, and it really feels like I just died to overwhelming force (ala the extra points...) thank of my own tactical error, given that I was actually close to a points victory if he hadnt had as many models on all the objectives.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Odds.043

[lancerusso]

So, something occured to me while I was assembling Skitarii yesterday:

 

Since Vanguard can take all 3 special weapon types (importanly including Transuranic Arquebus) , and get rad-saturation and what seems like the better basic weapon, what incentive is there to take Rangers at all beyond aesthetics and/ or backstory?

 

Or are galvanic rifles getting sold short due to a lack of games played?

Transuranic arquebuses can't move and fire, therefore you need an emplaced squad with some longer shooting to make it worthwhile. Giving them an omnispex makes the rifles more efficient too as you are more likely shooting into far ruins with them than with carbines.

 

USR wise, yes, they suck.

[Tiger9gamer]

the -1 rend on 6's seem fairly good with the high strength, and maybe it may be equal to the vanguard now that the radium does not do two wounds automatically.

[Baluc]

New to admech. Wondering what people think of inducting gaurd chasis into the army. I think the dunecrawler covers a lot of bases and is surprising cheap in points.

 

I'm finding a weakness to be getting onto objectives for maelstrom missions as well. Other than trying to infiltrate sicarans I find my reach limited in this regard.

[Suzuteo]

New to admech. Wondering what people think of inducting gaurd chasis into the army. I think the dunecrawler covers a lot of bases and is surprising cheap in points.

 

I'm finding a weakness to be getting onto objectives for maelstrom missions as well. Other than trying to infiltrate sicarans I find my reach limited in this regard.

Kastelans are secret sauce right now; you have to bring one Datasmith though. They murder everything MEQ and below. Neutron and Icarus Crawlers take care of everything else. Wrap thoroughly with Vanguard, Infiltrators, and Dragoons. Knights are also great. Errants with the new TCs are really great distractions.

[DanPesci]

Played two of my first 8th edition games yesterday. One with my admech, one with my wolves.

 

The admech on was 40PL open play/'only war' just so we could throw models down and get used to the rules.

 

I took probably the smallest force (model wise) ive ever taken!

 

Dominus

2 Kastelan Robots (full phosphor)

Datasmith

1 Netron Onager

3 Grav/phosphor destroyers

5 vanguard, 2 plasma carbines, omnispex

 

My opponent took Dark angels, something like

 

librarian on a bike

ravenwing bike squad (may have been black knights)

Dreadnought

sniper scouts with camo cloaks.

Deathwing terminator squad

 

 

Id basically tabled him by my 2nd round of shooting (he had his librarian left, but i still had one kastelan, one grav destroyer, the dominus, the onager and the datasmith.

 

He had taken first turn due to me technically being at PL42, but managed very little with shooting (id set my onager out of line of sight, and although the servitors took  couple wounds, they were instantly healed back up.) he killed 3 of my vanguard, and the rest ran away due to morale.

 

 

On my first turn my onager thatn one shotted his dreadnought (rolled for 2 hits, both wouunded, and then rolled 11 damage.), and wounuded his bikes with stubbers. 

My destroyers didnt do very well, btu theyd had aversion cast on them so were hitting on 5s

My kastelans went into the protocol that gives you 2 rounds of shooting, and proceeded to shoot his bike squad and scout squad off the table (phosphor laughs at camo cloaks)

 

So he was down to jsut his librarian, and then i realised id not even been using the rerolls of 1s the dominus gives you!

 

Opponents 2nd turn he managed to deepstrike with his terminators, and between them and psychic powers (smite is nasty!) removed some destroyers. The terminators then managed to get their 9" charge off against my kastelans, and proceeded to pummel one to death. (note - kastelans without powerfists are no longer very good in combat)

 

My turn 2, i fell back with the remaining kastelan, and between the onager, the 2 remaining destroyers, dominus and datasmith, wiped the terminator squad and put wounds onto the librarian., at which point my opponent graciously conceded.

 

 

Main take aways from the game

- Very shooty

- Kastelans shoot a lot, but unless they have fists, are no longer anywhere near as much as a threat in combat

- dominus is still excellent.

- solo 5 man vangaurd squads wont do much :)

- Star of the show was my onager. The neutron laser is flat down nasty as long as you roll well for it, an it's hardly subpar when you don't. The two heavy stubbers also caused wounds..being able to split fire now is ace.

 

 

Couple of questions I had for the community that came up during the game (bear in mind, this was our very first game of 8th for both of us!)...

 

When you activate the protocol that allows you to shoot twice but not move or charge...how does this affect piling in/falling back.

 

For example, id activated that in my turn. Opponent charged my robots, but only got close enough to be within 1" of one of the kastelans, after their pile in. They killed the kastelan that they were in base contact with, leaving the other one 3" away.

 

Now, technically, that kastelan couldnt move. So by my reckoning he couldnt pile in, and was then out of the combat automatically in his turn without having to fall back. However my opponent reckoned that 'move' and 'pile in' are two seperate things. We rolled off and he won, so the way we played it was that although my robot couldnt 'move', i could still pile in, but subseqently also choose to fall back in my turn (which left his Termies open to a world of pain, despite the kastelan itself not being able to do anything due to falling back).

 

What are others interpetaiton on this?

 

Also, if a unit of kastelans are in combat...can a datasmith still change their protocols if he is close enough to the combat? can he do it whilst in combat himself?

[Midlight]

I would say that pile in is a movement, so a shooty bot would not be able to do that. Also, the rule says 'may move up to 3"' so its optional in my mind at least.

[SoulGlaive]

With all the changes from 8th edition is their a consensus on the most efficient way to run Vanguard?

 

Especially with morale/targeting/charging, is there really a reason to run 10 body squads vs the minimum 5 body?

 

I'm inclined to believe that running Vanguard x5 with 1 or 2 Plasma Calivers and possibly an Omispex (points permitting) is the most optimal load out. 

[lancerusso]

With all the changes from 8th edition is their a consensus on the most efficient way to run Vanguard?

 

Especially with morale/targeting/charging, is there really a reason to run 10 body squads vs the minimum 5 body?

 

I'm inclined to believe that running Vanguard x5 with 1 or 2 Plasma Calivers and possibly an Omispex (points permitting) is the most optimal load out.

IMO that's the way to go with arc weapons. 65points for 5 man, two arc rifles, omnispex. I think plasma needs the ablative wounds so 10 man squad with 3 plas, and contraversially, a data tether to minimise morale loss. The omnispex doesn't give you a whole lot as often the targets you're shooting at with plas (non infantry) don't get cover saves. That's 151 points, the same as a fully kitted out neutron onager... Will have to playtest to see its worth Edited June 26, 2017 by lancerusso

[SoulGlaive]

 

With all the changes from 8th edition is their a consensus on the most efficient way to run Vanguard?

 

Especially with morale/targeting/charging, is there really a reason to run 10 body squads vs the minimum 5 body?

 

I'm inclined to believe that running Vanguard x5 with 1 or 2 Plasma Calivers and possibly an Omispex (points permitting) is the most optimal load out.

IMO that's the way to go with arc weapons. 65points for 5 man, two arc rifles, omnispex. I think plasma needs the ablative wounds so 10 man squad with 3 plas, and contraversially, a data tether to minimise morale loss. The omnispex doesn't give you a whole lot as often the targets you're shooting at with plas (non infantry) don't get cover saves. That's 151 points, the same as a fully kitted out neutron onager... Will have to playtest to see its worth

 

 

@ lancerusso The Ablative wounds part is the bit that gets me. If the opponent targets the plasma unit and starts to take those ablative wounds then the squads gone regardless from morale. Looking at a 8 for leadership with a data tether. After 2 casualties you begin to risk more without additional interaction from your opponent, and T3, 4+ save (3+ in cover or canticle) is not the most resilient of troopers.

When you split the unit into 2 groups of 5 you force the opponent to focus fire and you reduce the morale factor from taking "free models". You make your opponent commit resources to do the work.

 

From what I'm looking at enemy models do receive cover from Plasma Calivers and Carbines. Unless i missed something? Phosphor are the cover ignoring weapons.

 

Not sure if I'm explaining it all that well but that's my impression. Granted I've only played smaller games in 8th thus far.