Rebooting my AdMech forces - Lucius?

[MajorNese]

After a year-long trip of building/fielding the Raptors chapter, I'm now coming back to my AdMech for a change. Now I need to bring them up to 8th edition, which is why I have a few questions. As a rough inventory, the last group pic. Not depicted is a Knight Atropos and an ordinatus, but we don't have any rules for the latter anyway.

 

http://abload.de/img/aimg_24672js6s.jpg

 

Now, after reading the codex and having tried it yesterday against Thousand Sons, I see need for changes.

 

1. Do I see it right, the new way to run skitarii infantry are min-sized squads? The old arc vanguard squads seem underwhelming now, only wounding vehicles on a 5+, and mostly leaving vehicles with a 4+ armour save. Rangers got incredibly cheap, I consider running half a dozen min-sized squads just for CPs and distraction/deep strike blockers, in addition to deep striking plasma vanguard and maybe some kataphron.

 

2. Forge World: Lucius is my first try. I don't like playing static gunlines, and deep striking is already awesome with my Raptors. The buff against -1 weaponry seems a bit situational compared to Stygies, but deep striking basically anything from the codex (besides knights) mean I can drop certain units instead of losing them to the first shooting phase. Full plasma vanguard worked well yesterday, staying safe until dropping, dropping close enough to a magos for rerolling ones, and unleashing considerable firepower on one target. Next drop unit would be CC kastelans with flamer, those should at least create a distraction. Which racks up to a total of 3-5 CPs just for something powerful to drop, requiring at least a double battalion or a brigade.

 

3. Allies and repairs: I built my Baneblade mostly for fun, but yesterday it was the only thing keeping me from getting tabled. Gave an enginseer the repair WL trait (squishy guy, but repairs D3), rainment relic for rerolls, and once spent a CP on another repair. Result was the baneblade tanked EVERYTHING and in return decimated the enemy units constantly at range and CC at the same time. The total number of wounds would have gotten it close to destruction, but at turn 6, it was again at full strength.

 

Hilarious as it was, does anything in our codex or allies come close to that resilience in any way? In comparison, I lost 3 onagers in just 2 turns, I don't know if fielding more of those instead of a baneblade is worth it. My problem is that AdMech units die really fast compared to last edition. Running pure AdMech used to be okay with all the special rules to keep them alive, but now they just seem like IG with neither the numbers nor the resilience. For a guideline, my skitarii squads yesterday never spent more than one round on the field before dying, and they are too detailed models to just spam like IG, painting them takes too long.

 

Also, any ideas for future investments, besides stocking up on infantry to run MSU and plasma? I'll probably stock up on FW tanks and the other ordinatus once Cyraxis gets released, but that may take another few years. Next up would be more Cerastus knights for fun, and maybe a Macharius Vulkan (love the model), but no idea how good that actually plays.

 

I'd appreciate input, currently I'm a bit aimless at finding new ways to run my guys.

[Clingy]

I can advise that imperial knight crusaders are not great. I lost one to a simply space marine captain with a jump pack...yes less than 130 points destroyed something worth over 500. Lol.

 

baneblade looks great by the way

[MajorNese]

I can advise that imperial knight crusaders are not great. I lost one to a simply space marine captain with a jump pack...yes less than 130 points destroyed something worth over 500. Lol.

Yeah, I've heard of the Slamguinius. To be honest, he would kill the baneblade too. Burns CP, but is dirt cheap on points.

[Tyriks]

I can advise that imperial knight crusaders are not great. I lost one to a simply space marine captain with a jump pack...yes less than 130 points destroyed something worth over 500. Lol.

baneblade looks great by the way

This isn't a problem with the Crusader.

[Clingy]

It was a problem for me as I lost the game

[Xisor]

I've been going Graia, and found the 6+ "don't die" save a great thing for frustrating opponents, but far too dice dependant to be reliable. I think Lucius/Stygies is critical for non-gunlines who want to retain a sense of control. (Metalica is nice on a small table, but at larger distances, it feels still too slow.)

 

I have also found that having a variety of things seem to help. Folk don't like the look of Kataphrons, folk worry about robots and knights and onagers. I could see an Onager-heavy army doing well, especially if deep-striking robots are there to cause panic and distractions!

[Clingy]

So what’s the build xisor? A few Icarus/neutronagers in support of teleporting fistelans. Would you double down and throw in a large dragoon support? Might be quite tough to have enough command points though?

[Tyriks]

I prefer teleporting phosphor to teleporting fists. Dropping fists in if you fail the charge can be mighty disappointing. Shooty kastelans can still bully stuff in cc and can still shoot so definitely safer bet, more disruption potential and cheaper to boot.

[MajorNese]

I'll try the fisty baymaxes first. Probably order a few darkfire castellax, those at least don't look like a child's toy. Not sure it's effective, but should be fun.

 

As for onagers, tried the eradication ones last game, and they pretty much underperformed by low shot number rolls. Will try the phosphor ones next, those should yield a bit more reliable output. Anti tank will be taken care of by deep striking plasma vanguard + dominus and the baneblade.

 

In case of more ranged firepower, I'm looking into a Macharius Vulkan. Awesome model I've wanted for a long time, and considerable 60" dakka + enginseer should work reasonably well.

[CombatVet]

Neutronagers can have a bad roll or two but are simply amazing when you can get two or three shots.

 

Mine have caused tanks to hide behind LOS rather then chance being destroyed.

 

Also I would like to stress how good using a CP to re roll the number of shots can be. Along with being able to move and fire the big gun at full effectiveness. So good.

[Tyriks]

Yeah neutron Onagers are like my favorite unit this edition. They put the fear of the machine god in all my opponents. People play very differently when they think Onagers can gets a bead on them!

[Xisor]

Yeah neutron Onagers are like my favorite unit this edition. They put the fear of the machine god in all my opponents. People play very differently when they think Onagers can gets a bead on them!

I've found the Eradication ones good that way too. They're not enough to be terrifying, but enough to make people nervous and suspicious. And, though a touch unreliable, they can do pretty well in places!

[CombatVet]

The Eradication Onagers working out for you X?

 

Love the D6 shots but not a big fan of the AP or D3 damage. The STR 8 could be better against the heavy armor targets also. S10 on the Neutron makes wounding everything on threes a thing.

 

Would love to hear your experiences with the ERay though.