8th Ed Codex on the way

[Spanish_Muffin]

Copy of Priest Alpha strike from the FB group;
 

The Stygies VIII alpha strike potential...
 

It's during deployment, so you can spend as much CP as you have, and your units come in before the battle begins, which means they can then behave normally (move, shoot, charge, etc).
 

If you're getting really high on your Electropriests, 2-3 units of 20, getting CP'd in before the battle round starts 9.00001" away from the enemies. When the turn starts, you then get your 6" move which puts them at 3.0000001" away from whatever you want to die (or up to 1.000001" with advancing the fulgurites) , and not only can you get all your normal shooting that you normally would alpha with, but you now have a bunch of big hitters getting a top of turn 1 nearly guaranteed charge, and if you target your priests right, 2-3 units fo 20 priests walking away with a 3++ at the end of your turn 1.
 

Less sexy if you end up going second, but holy crap..

Edited September 16, 2017 by Spanish_Muffin

[Withershadow]

Mostly full summary above.

 

Stygies VIII seems the strongest.  Going for max command points seems to be the best army build.  Heavy support remains best section of the army.

Aww, thanks for linking my Facebook breakdown! I worked hard on that. I just did a look a look at using Stygies Fulgerite Electro Spam Bugaloo in the group too!

I don't use Facebook, I did the summary myself by reading and pausing the review.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Withershadow

[Spanish_Muffin]

 

Mostly full summary above.

 

Stygies VIII seems the strongest.  Going for max command points seems to be the best army build.  Heavy support remains best section of the army.

Aww, thanks for linking my Facebook breakdown! I worked hard on that. I just did a look a look at using Stygies Fulgerite Electro Spam Bugaloo in the group too!

I don't use Facebook, I did the summary myself by reading and pausing the review.  Seek social media validation somewhere else.

 

Misread the name, and thought you were Riot Earp, who did link my summary a handful of posts above yours. My mistake for quoting the wrong fellow.

[Riot Earp]

Yeah thanks for summary was insecure if i should call you here by your realname.

And withershafowdow pls. be polite in this Forum. We appreciate your work as well.

[Spanish_Muffin]

Combed through review some more to get rest of relics.  See below.

 

Warlord traits are:

Monitor Malevolus - you can roll a single hit, wound or damage roll for for warlord once per game. also, any time opponent uses a stratagem, on a roll of 6 you gain a command point

Magos Biologis - re-roll failed wound rolls with Warlord when attacking infantry, beasts, or monsters.

Mechadominator - enemy vehicles that target warlord suffer -1 to hit.

Necromechanic - whenever you repair, regain additional wound.

Chorister Technis - re-roll Canticle dice.

Prime hermeticon - friendly forge world models within 6" re-roll hit rolls in Fight phase.

Masterwork bionics (Lucius) - +1 to invulnerable saves

Reinforced exoskeleton (Agripinaa) - all damage suffered by warlord reduced by 1 to minimum of 1.

Xenarite Studies (Stygies VIII) - add 1 to wound rolls vs units that aren't Chaos, Imperium or Unaligned

First-hand Field testing (Ryza) - chose one non-relic weapon carried by warlord, add +1 to strength and damage characteristic

 

Stratagems

Gloria Mechanicus - 2CP - change canticle immediately (one you haven't used or a random generate one)

Divine Chorus - 2CP - once per battle, re-use previously used canticle

Zealous Congregation - 3CP - electropriests fight second time

Elimination Volley - 2CP - kataphron destroyers and kastelan robots within 6" of each other get +1 to hit rolls this shooting phase

Archeotech Specialists - 1CP/3CP - relics

 

Machine Spirit Resurgent - 1CP - ignore damaged profile of vehicle or knight until end of turn

Machine Spirit Revenge - 1CP - vehicle destroyed automatically explodes

Infoslave Skull - 2CP - 12" interceptor shots at reinforcements with -1 to hit

Acquisition at any cost - 2CP - activate at end of turn, infantry unit within 3" of objective gains +1 to saves and +1 to attack profile until beginning of next turn

Tech Adept - 1CP - target character can repair twice, even same model (nice combo with Necromechanic for 2D3+2)

 

Scryerskull - 1CP - reveal D3 concealed deployment markers, identify a mysterious objective, or fire a unit without Dawn Raid/Low Visibility/Cover of Darkness penalty

Dataspike - 1CP - characters gain additional attack vs vehicles that deals D3 mortal wounds

Binharic Override - 1CP - at end of any phase, change battle protocol of Kastelan robots; can never change battle protocols again, for any reason, for rest of battle

Cognis Overwatch - 1CP - cognis weapons that fire overwatch use regular ballistic skill

Benevolence of the Omnissiah - 1CP - use when vehicle or knight suffer mortal wounds, you get a 5+ FNP save against that mortal wound and for rest of phase

 

Dunestriders - 1CP - Ballistarii or Dragoons advance roll uses 2 dice combined

Conqueror Doctrine - 1CP - Skitarii get +1 to hit in melee, or +2 if they have data tether

Protector Doctrine - 1CP - as above, but for shooting

Rage of the Machines - 1CP - vehicle ignores penalty for moving and firing heavy weapons, and advancing and firing assault/cognis weapons.

 

Knight of the Cog - 1CP - knight within 12" of character can benefit from canticles

Rotate Ion Shields - 1CP - +1 to ion shield saves till end of save

 

The Stygies VIII unique stratagem is Infiltration. The dogma is -1 to be hit outside of 12".  So the Raven Guard Forge World.

 

Ryza are plasma specialists, add +1 to wound with any plasma weapons, as well as add 1 damage to any plasma weapons. Their dogma is re-roll 1s to wound in melee.

 

Metalica unique stratagem is models in melee with yours suffer -1 Ld.

 

Relics

Patter Cog Tooth Axe - S+2 AP-2 D3

Pseudogenetor - make D6 additional attacks, S4 AP-1 D1

Autocaduceus - regenerate 1 wound, additionally when repairing can re-roll dice (super nice with Necromechanic warlord trait and tech adept stratagem)

Phosphoenix - phosphor serpenta S5 AP-3 D1, assault 3 at 18", no cover saves

Uncreator gauntlet - Sx2, AP-3, D-d3, minus 1 to your hit rolls, successful wounds against vehicles deal additional mortal wound

Raiment of the Technomartyr - 6+ FNP for Warlord, also overwatch shots that roll a 6 result in additional attack with same weapon

Omniscient Mask - skitarii units within 6" re-roll hits in fight phase

Skull of Elder Nikola - once per game, 2d6" radius, vehicles suffer mortal wound on 2+.

Solar Flare (Lucius) - Warlord can teleport up to 30" away instead of moving, once per game. set up as reinforcements.

Cerebral Technomyte (Graia) - start game with additional command point

Red Axe (Mars) - S+1, AP-5, D2

Adamantine Arm (metalica) - already spoiled by GW

Omnissiah's Hand (Stygies VIII) - at end of each fight phase, any unit within 1" of warlord suffers mortal wound on a roll of 4+

Weapon XCIX (Ryza) - 24" heavy 3, S7, AP-1, D2; wound rolls of 6+ inflict an additional mortal wound

Eye of Xi-Lexum (Agripinna) - in shooting phase, pick enemy Vehicle within 18". friendly models re-roll 1s to wound, if model is Chaos, re-roll failed wounds

 

Fulgurites - 17 points per model (+1), Rangers 8 (-2), Vanguard 9 (-1). Heavy arc rifle 8 (-10).  No other adjustments to costs.

Fantasic summary. 

 

[MagicHat]

Yeah i had higher hope but im not to dissapointed.

 

Here is the essense from the Facebook group which made a member.

 

“copy pasting this from my full post on it;

 

Full Breakdown of the Changes/Main Lack of Changes I could find while reading along with the Codex Review.

I'll probably edit this a few times to add more stuff as I rewatch and reread the codex a dozen more times.

1. Questoris Mechanicus have 2 different Command Abilities (one adds +1 to Invul. Another allows Knights to benefit from canticles)

2. Enginseer is an HQ

3. So, so many stratagems to pick from. A Crazy amount. Some highlights; 7 of which are locked into specific Forgeworlds. 2 of which are for Questoris Mechanicus.

4. Vanguard and Rangers points reduction (9 and 8 respectively)

5. Infiltrators had their profiles adjusted to the FAQ

6. Kastellan Protector Protocol Wording Change - It's now Specifically a double shots. IT IS NO LONGER a second shooting cycle.

7. Dragoon Lance now is -1 AP.

8. Knights do not have <Adeptus Mechanicus> tag. They've retained <Household> with no rules for it.

9. Cawl has remained locked to Mars, as expected.

10. Kastelon mortal wound reflection has to be on the repulsor grid save and it has to be a natural 6 after rerolls but before modifiers.

11. Cognis heavy stubber is down to 5pts from 8 (your neutronager is now 140 pts flat, not that odd 143 )

12. Fulgurites got an increase to 17 per model.

13. Heavy Arc Rifle is down to 8pts, from it's prior 18.“

 

Dominus and Cawl can repair stuff outside AdMech, but only 1 wound in those cases.

 

Kataphrons got +1 move.

 

Thermal Cannon is now always Heavy D6.

 

We are walking out of this buffed. Would have preferred driving out of this buffed, but I will take it 

[Withershadow]

I think having Cawl along in a Mars Spearhead detachment with a bunch of robots and onagers to get tons of re-rolls and put out mortal wounds with the unique stratagem is pretty solid.  His re-roll ability didn't change, so he's one of the few models that can re-roll regardless of modifiers.  That's a lot of accurate and deadly dakka.  Then take a separate detachment with FW of choice for whatever else you want to do.  Just make sure to paint them differently so you aren't perceived a superfriends cherry-picking ****.  For fluff rationale, Cawl is just there to inspect the facilities when <insert enemy> attacks!

 

Mobility for non-Lucius/StygiesVIII Forgeworlds is limited to Infiltrators and Ballistarii/Dragoons.

 

Overall I am not that salty about it, except for a few things like Ruststalkers being so lackluster.  Everything else is overall more appealing than the Index.  We will get all the funky stuff with Fires of Cyraxis, so have patience.

 

Stygies VIII has a nice color scheme, and I don't have any predominately black army, so I guess I got my Skitarii colors.  I'll paint my Onagers and Kastelan robots red, though.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Withershadow

[Spanish_Muffin]

Poor Ruststalkers. All they needed was a deepstrike rule, or their FNP back, or a boost to t4, or even a -1AP on their weapons.

Any one of those might have made them playable, even if it didn't make them good.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Spanish_Muffin

[Frater Cornelius]

So it basically comes down to either Stygies/Lucius alpha strike or Mars gunline? Still more playstyles that C:SM :D

[Spanish_Muffin]

So it basically comes down to either Stygies/Lucius alpha strike or Mars gunline? Still more playstyles that C:SM

 

Even better, we can do both!

[Heliomanes]

From what I see here I might stay with Mars. The Cawl, Kastelan, Onager wall looks good and has, if anything, been given a slight buff. Double canticles with modifiers might also be interesting now that we can use CP to carry over the canticles to a Knight.

[Frater Cornelius]

From what I see here I might stay with Mars. The Cawl, Kastelan, Onager wall looks good and has, if anything, been given a slight buff. Double canticles with modifiers might also be interesting now that we can use CP to carry over the canticles to a Knight.

 

You won't be able to fit a lot in that list. I am not convinced of the staying power of big AdMech hitters compared to their more horde-y units.

[Spanish_Muffin]

I think having Cawl along in a Mars Spearhead detachment with a bunch of robots and onagers to get tons of re-rolls and put out mortal wounds with the unique stratagem is pretty solid. His re-roll ability didn't change, so he's one of the few models that can re-roll regardless of modifiers. That's a lot of accurate and deadly dakka. Then take a separate detachment with FW of choice for whatever else you want to do. Just make sure to paint them differently so you aren't perceived a superfriends cherry-picking ****. For fluff rationale, Cawl is just there to inspect the facilities when <insert enemy> attacks!

 

Mobility for non-Lucius/StygiesVIII Forgeworlds is limited to Infiltrators and Ballistarii/Dragoons.

 

Overall I am not that salty about it, except for a few things like Ruststalkers being so lackluster. Everything else is overall more appealing than the Index. We will get all the funky stuff with Fires of Cyraxis, so have patience.

 

Stygies VIII has a nice color scheme, and I don't have any predominately black army, so I guess I got my Skitarii colors. I'll paint my Onagers and Kastelan robots red, though.

You feeling better about Stygies than Lucius then, or is it a design choice?

 

Arguably -1 to be hit is a better passive over -1ap becoming 0, but is that worth the potential loss of deepstrikes if you're going to end up going second?

[Frater Cornelius]

For shooty units, deep strike is better. For melee you want the extra move after infiltrate.

[MagicHat]

Double canticle wont work with knights, as they lacks the forgeworld dogma.

[Withershadow]

 

I think having Cawl along in a Mars Spearhead detachment with a bunch of robots and onagers to get tons of re-rolls and put out mortal wounds with the unique stratagem is pretty solid. His re-roll ability didn't change, so he's one of the few models that can re-roll regardless of modifiers. That's a lot of accurate and deadly dakka. Then take a separate detachment with FW of choice for whatever else you want to do. Just make sure to paint them differently so you aren't perceived a superfriends cherry-picking ****. For fluff rationale, Cawl is just there to inspect the facilities when <insert enemy> attacks!

 

Mobility for non-Lucius/StygiesVIII Forgeworlds is limited to Infiltrators and Ballistarii/Dragoons.

 

Overall I am not that salty about it, except for a few things like Ruststalkers being so lackluster. Everything else is overall more appealing than the Index. We will get all the funky stuff with Fires of Cyraxis, so have patience.

 

Stygies VIII has a nice color scheme, and I don't have any predominately black army, so I guess I got my Skitarii colors. I'll paint my Onagers and Kastelan robots red, though.

You feeling better about Stygies than Lucius then, or is it a design choice?

 

Arguably -1 to be hit is a better passive over -1ap becoming 0, but is that worth the potential loss of deepstrikes if you're going to end up going second?

Mostly design choice, I really don't want to paint any more cream/tan cloth.  The deep strike is indeed somewhat more flexible than infiltrate in this case, since you can drop plasma-totting Skitarii with Protector Doctrine, or a bunch of Electro-priests where you need to, but I've gotten great mileage out of the -1 to be hit and infiltration from my Alpha Legion, so I'm just used to having that deployment flexibility.  I get all my "coming of out deep strike with all the plasma" jollies from Stormtroopers, who do it cheaper and better than Skitarii, and have orders to boot.  I'll probably carry over the previous edition's separation between Cybernetica and the Skitarii, and paint the former as Mars and the latter as Stygies VIII.

 

I have a lot of rangers and dragoons, and being able to place them in convenient covered locations near objectives, with more useful firing angles to take advantage of their sniper weapons, seems quite good.  Skitarii are squishy, so the -1 to be hit will be invaluable, far more so than the -1AP reduction.  Sydonian Dragoons are now -2 to hit combined with their incense cloud. That is downright obnoxious! It hasn't been mentioned so far (perhaps because it's unnecessary to do so), but we do get objective secured for being battleforged and all-same-FW.  For "deep strikes", there are always Infiltrators. 

 

Overall, I'm glad I haven't gotten around to building Ruststalkers yet, so I'll just make them another Infiltrator unit.  The only unit I'm looking at sideways is my Kataphron Breachers.  With no changes to arc weapons (except cost), no Holy Requisitioner anything (boo hiss!!!), and Elimination Protocol stratagem being Destroyers only, I am going to have to see if I can snap those arms off to give them plasma cannons (I used up all the grav cannons for my Myrmidons :P).

[Mitchverr]

Just me or did ryza pretty much get a rather lackluster deal for their stuff overall? Shame, I guess im moving to stygies given my love for dragoons and electro-priest electro sticks.

 

BTW, just me, or Stygies dogma + electro priest blob + elecro priest stratagem of attack 2 times = untold destruction of blob armies? So long as you get the first turn to pull it off?

[Heliomanes]

A big unit of infiltrators with flachettes, taser goads and "Wrath of Mars" and perhaps a BS bonus might be an interesting option too.

[Withershadow]

Just me or did ryza pretty much get a rather lackluster deal for their stuff overall? Shame, I guess im moving to stygies given my love for dragoons and electro-priest electro sticks.

 

BTW, just me, or Stygies dogma + electro priest blob + elecro priest stratagem of attack 2 times = untold destruction of blob armies? So long as you get the first turn to pull it off?

That is a really really expensive stratagem, given how many awesome stratagems we have to use.  Burning 3 just to kill a conscript squad or whatever seems like a win for your opponent.

 

But yeah, not the electro stick guys, but the classic electro punch guys can do a number on units like that.

 

15 Corpuscarii - shoot 45 times - get an average of 45 hits, after wounds and flak armor saves, that should be 20 dead conscripts.  Then charge (assuming no overwatch casualties), that's another 2-3 mortal wounds, then 30 swings resulting in 25 hits on average, which after wounds and flak results in another 11 dead conscripts.  So that's already 33-34 dead models, is it really worth 3 command points to kill another dozen?  I really don't think so.

 

I think your best bet for that Stratagem is if you manage to get your stick guys into melee with something very scary and elite, like say Mortarion.  If a unit of 15 Fulgurites charges him, that's 2-3 mortal wounds, followed by 30 attacks, so another 6D3 mortal wounds on average.  Their regular attacks will probably not do much of anything, and even if you roll super hot on your mortal damage rolls, he'll still be standing.  Another 30 attacks SHOULD potentially deal enough mortal wound to finally bring the big man down.  Of course, the question becomes that if you spend 3 command points to attack again, why can't he spend 2 command points to counter attack, and with his scythe kill all of your dudes, wasting your command points.

[OnboardG1]

 

Arghhh I really like Mars but the Stygie and Lucius rules open up the use of so many more models. Looks like I might go with Stygies or Lucius for the light stuff.

[Thorakitai]

With the stratagems, fulgurites have become silly at storming objectives. If you really have command points to burn, infiltrate them in, charge everyone near the objective, making sure you kill something in the first round for the 3++, then fight again at the end of the phase to kill everything else, and then at the end of your turn use the stratagem that gives a unit near an objective +1 to their saves and +1 attack, and dare your opponent to come after them. No wonder fulgurites went up in price. Edited September 16, 2017 by Thorakitai

[Withershadow]

Arghhh I really like Mars but the Stygie and Lucius rules open up the use of so many more models. Looks like I might go with Stygies or Lucius for the light stuff.

You can easily do both.  Mars is basically the one you play if you want Cawl and Robots.  It's easy to take a patrol detachment using Destroyers for the requisite troop slot, who can help buff the Robots with Elimination volley.  Then you have 2 heavy support slots for Robots or whatever else.  Or just take a Spearhead detachment which locks you into taking 3+ heavy support choices, but also means you gain +1 CPs.  Then just take your other stuff like Skitarii and Electropriests in a separate detachment with FW dogma of your choice (just again, paint them differently or get lots of nasty looks ). A brigade may be difficult to pull off, but with a spearhead and battalion, that's 7 CPs, which isn't bad.  I'm not sure if Archmagos is Cawl's unique warlord trait?  If not, pick the one that lets you harvest CPs from opponent stratagem.

Edited September 16, 2017 by Withershadow

[OnboardG1]

I think that's probably what I'll do. I have an onager from the Start Collecting bundle and I'm probably going to get another which would give me enough for a Mars patrol and a Lucius or Stygies Brigade.

[Withershadow]

Brigade is really tough as a separate detachment.  I pointed up a bare-bones one, and it was over 1000 points with mostly crap in it (3x enginseers, 3x datasmiths, 6x 5-man ranger squads, 3x lance dragoons, 3x onagers).  Considering Cawl (250), Destroyers (76 each) and Kastelan Robots (110 each) is already 698 points, you're not left with a very strong list if the rest of it is mostly filler crap.

[MagicHat]

Wrath of Mars triggers on 6 to wound, not to hit.

 

Spearhead with robots, onagers and an unit of kataphrons with Cawl, then brigade of optional forgeworld seems nice.