Will we see Skitarii as a faction in the Black Books?

[bluntblade]

We've seen the old Tech-Guard pretty often in the Black Library Heresy books and I believe there've been a fair few mentions in the Black Books, so do we think we might get them as an actual faction in the Black Books? I reckon it would make sense if the Dark Mechanicum is being wheeled out, if only to give a bit more variety on the Loyalist side (and I'm hoping for Chaotic Skitarii too). But what does anyone else think?

[Marshal Loss]

FW's stance for years now (5+) has been that Skitarii in 30k are very different from 40k and won't be a faction in their own right. Skitarii are not the homogenised force they are in 40k, existing mostly under the control of the Fabricator General, and they told folks at my first Weekender to use the Tech-Thrall rules if they wanted to use their Skitarii models in the HH. If we see them at all it would probably be as some part of a Dark Mechanicum list - assuming that FW don't reverse their stance, which is very possible given the heavily changed writing team + inconsistency on the part of BL + elapsed time.

[Brother-Captain Gilead]

I am becoming increasingly convinced that we will never see skitarii in the black books, which means that my hopes have turned to seeing the Tech-Guard in both pure and tainted form arrive on the tabletop. My reasoning is that skitarii got no mentions in the Crusade book even with several passages worth of text describing the First fighting against traitor mechanicum and a few passages of the Night Lords fighting against loyal mechanicum forces. As supporting evidence I also note that the organization chart (The Belicosa Potentis Omnissiah) that we get for the Mechanicum's forces describes the Skitarius as "Ancient standing armies of elite cybernetically and genetically engineered troops, originating on Mars and principally loyal to the office of the Fabricator General" and "Skitarii regiments maintain entirely separate structures of organisation and tactical deployment outside of the Taghmata and are assigned at the behest of the Lords of Mars." If this is still true, then you actually wouldn't find that many skitarii around during the Horus Heresy compared to the 41st millenium when it seems that most Forgeworlds raise their own skitarii regiments. Additionally, if any skitarii were to be found, their loyalties should be immediately suspect due to their loyalty to the office of the Fabricator General who was of course a traitor.

 

Reading that it makes me think that as long as the principal focus of the Mechanicum army lists in 30k is on the Taghmata Omnissiah, we are unlikely to see much of skitarii, but could maybe be looking forward to hearing more of the Tech Guard regiments that are listed as being a part of the Autokrator alongside ground armor and mobile artillery units, both of which we have seen realized as units in 30k.

[bluntblade]

I'm hoping that we at least get units - they're totally there in the fluff, and it's deeply weird to me that they've been an absolute no-show thus far.

[Beren]

If we do get a Mars book, I'd imagine that's where we'd see them. I believe I recall seeing someone on a forum recount Bligh stating there were definite plans for such a list, though we can't know what's become of those plans since.

 

Regarding the scarcity of the Skitarii Legions (if not tech-guard or forge-guard) in universe, they can hardly be any rarer than the Custodes or Sisters of Silence. Their absence from a far flung conflict such as the Thramas Crusade is not entirely implausible, nd we know that there were sizable elements of loyalist Skitarii involved in the web way war.

Edited November 7, 2020 by Beren

[Qkhitai]

It's definitely irksome, although I'd be fine if they just removed the silly 'need a Titan to make them compulsory troops' rule from the Secutarii.

[Noserenda]

It was definitely in Alan Blighs plans, (I had a long conversation about them with him) That said FW have more recently been bending over backwards to not involve plastic kits like Sanguinary guard (Or a resin upgrade for them) so i personally doubt it unless we see another regime shift in the bosses there. The Mars or dark mechanicum books would be the obvious place to see them though.

In the meantime a reasonable fix would be to just use the 7th ed codexes as is, the Skitarii only really change in scale rather than design between the two eras. 

[Eternal Despair]

Another stopgap/alternative while we wait on potential official rules is if you have a look in to the skitarii list that the boys from the road to terra podcast did up. It’s definitely has its roots in the 7th Ed codex but definitely with a heresy flair and a neat solar aux style tercio system for the troops

[nagashnee]

With secutarii being able to be fielded straight out of the plastic box unit wide ( radium guns) we already have tho? Yeah they are not compulsorily troops, but if they were rarer in 30k thats a design feature and not a bug certainly? If we mean the whole 40k range, then i for one hope not, the uniform 40k skitarii army does not belong in 30k. 

[SkimaskMohawk]

Ya as nagashnee mentioned you can use skitarri with their base weapons as secutarri.

 

Honestly the fluff on skitarri was that they were this combination of cyborg warrior and barbarian with pelts and totems to make them scarier. Myrmidons always fit that previous take on them a bit better than gas mask guys with robot legs and more special laser gun.

[Noserenda]

Both types of Skitarii still exist in fluff, i did plan to convert some warcry/khorne marauder warbands with secutarii parts a little while back, (Got distracted by more AT instead :D ) to build barabarian skitarii.  Skitarii have a lot of variation out there mostly because they didnt have a specific design for decades. All the stuff in their list has been around since the dawn of the mechanicum though afaik so the list works fine as is? 

[bluntblade]

I honestly like shiny, pristine Skitarii best myself.

 

But I would also dig some savage ones, not to mention Chaotic ones.