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I hear so much about the much vaunted Mechvets lists, but never actually see one IRL, around here its mostly Eldar.

Is there a standard Mechvet list?

What makes them so great vs things like Wave Serpents? How would they handle a horde of Tyranids or Orks?

As a mech vet player, they do not do so great against eldar. The wave serpents are better and will kill the chimeras as they reach halfway across the board. On the other hand wave serpents have a hard time against blobs with embedded lascannons and autocannons (with prescience and ignore cover). The strength, i'd say, of the chimera is the fact that you can bring a bunch of 'em. They get your guys up the field more quickly and more protected, while acting as bunkers for your short ranged vets to shoot out of.

The Typical set on my chimera are multilaser and heavy bolter/Heavy flamer hull mount. The other options for the turret are heavy bolter/H. Flamer/autocannon. Guard bs is pretty bad, so I go for as many high str shots as I can. The auto cannon is nice, but I like the three str 6 more. Can glance AV 12 in a pinch.

With the vets inside, it's usually two meltas and a heavy flamer, or 2 plasma and heavy flamer. I cut flamers for points sometimes, but I am rarely disappointed in having the flamer. Melta bombs on the sergeants with extra points. Grenadiers is the only option I consider for mechanized. Demolitions makes them too expensive, and sentries is more for vets on foot. And... that's it really. Pot shot from inside, and time your dismount for maximum pew. Just know, if they fail they die.

Thanks for the feedback.

I run foot guard, usually with some krak nades in one platoon that advances upfield and ac/lc in the other platoon that wraps the wyverns.

When I look at the numbers I just find it hard to see how mechvets can do well in comparison VS Eldar or Orks/Nids. So many points get sucked up by the Chimeras.

I guess I see IG/AM strength as being numbers which mean bodies and brute firepower. With Chimeras any lists I make seem more like a SM/Rhino list.

 Bonachinonin wrote:
As a mech vet player, they do not do so great against eldar. The wave serpents are better and will kill the chimeras as they reach halfway across the board. On the other hand wave serpents have a hard time against blobs with embedded lascannons and autocannons (with prescience and ignore cover). The strength, i'd say, of the chimera is the fact that you can bring a bunch of 'em. They get your guys up the field more quickly and more protected, while acting as bunkers for your short ranged vets to shoot out of.

The Typical set on my chimera are multilaser and heavy bolter/Heavy flamer hull mount. The other options for the turret are heavy bolter/H. Flamer/autocannon. Guard bs is pretty bad, so I go for as many high str shots as I can. The auto cannon is nice, but I like the three str 6 more. Can glance AV 12 in a pinch.

With the vets inside, it's usually two meltas and a heavy flamer, or 2 plasma and heavy flamer. I cut flamers for points sometimes, but I am rarely disappointed in having the flamer. Melta bombs on the sergeants with extra points. Grenadiers is the only option I consider for mechanized. Demolitions makes them too expensive, and sentries is more for vets on foot. And... that's it really. Pot shot from inside, and time your dismount for maximum pew. Just know, if they fail they die.

There isn't an autocannon upgrade option in the codex IIRC. Where is it? And can you use that kind of chimera as a dedicated transport for codex guards?

Just throwing in that against AV12, two Autocannon shots are more efficient than three Heavy Bolter shots.

And may I ask where you hear such positive things about Mech-Vets?

Mech-guard struggle in today's meta, as most people load up on anti-vehicle weapons to fight Knights and Wave Serpents, which means they tend to have the tools to take down our vehicles as well (melta, haywire, etc.). And once our guys are out in the open, they are a lot less resilient than Space Marines in Rhinos.

I agree that the strength of the Chimera is the possibility to bring a lot of them and flood the board in ObSec bodies,

There isn't an autocannon upgrade option in the codex IIRC. Where is it? And can you use that kind of chimera as a dedicated transport for codex guards?

I think you may have to buy it from the forgeworld lists. It's in Imperial armour 1 - 2nd ed and imperial armour 12 with the death korp of krieg. Probably seige of vraks too.

I agree with full mech having a hard time right now. I did bring 11 vehicles to a 1500 point tournament at my local store. Chimera's become kind of a second thought though if you yourself have a knight with them, or pask squadron bearing down on the enemy lines. I have had a lot of success lately with a mix. I run a large blob with characters to hold the line so to speak. They camp my objective and throw lascannons down field. And a couple mechvets to run forward. Then spice it up with maybe outflanking sentinels or supporting artillery/ heavy tanks. It does have it's strength however.

Against say tau, who bring squads of fire warriors for the triple tap, they can't do anything until their suits or riptides open up the chimeras. If you have pask front and center and a manticore/basilisk in the back, they are going to have a hard time dedicating firepower at the pair of chimera rolling up the side.

I found against my buddies necrons they do alright too. He uses the wraith stars and such. He can only charge so many times in a game. Spread out and he has to charge the vehicle, then the guys inside before moving on to the next. Before he knows it, it's the end of the game and he has only killed two chimera and a vet squad with his expensive wraith star (just don't let him multi charge). Of course necrons have other threats, But you have guns too,

You originally asked against orks and tyranids. If the tyranids are doing a flyrant spam, you might have a hard time downing them. But if there is one or two, it should be an even game. I feel against orks, it would be an even game.

I just ran a tourney with a buddy of mine (team games) and we ran mech vets and mech orks. 1250/player
His list was essentially:
3x Taurus, vets, melta melta rocket launcher w/flakk(the only spot we had for AA)
Demolisher
Executioner
Executioner and vanquisher as tank command

The tauroxes were nice, coming with TL Autocannons, making them good vs light and med armor. He had plenty ObSec, and the big tanks took the heat off of the lighter ones. Since everyone was looking at his nasty tanks, he zipped his vets close with the meltas and then sunk some big baddies. It worked out pretty well, but a major concern he had was not enough bodies. Coupled with Orks, though, things worked nicely.

GrafWattenburg wrote:
Just throwing in that against AV12, two Autocannon shots are more efficient than three Heavy Bolter shots.

And may I ask where you hear such positive things about Mech-Vets?

Mech-guard struggle in today's meta, as most people load up on anti-vehicle weapons to fight Knights and Wave Serpents, which means they tend to have the tools to take down our vehicles as well (melta, haywire, etc.). And once our guys are out in the open, they are a lot less resilient than Space Marines in Rhinos.

I agree that the strength of the Chimera is the possibility to bring a lot of them and flood the board in ObSec bodies,

"And may I ask where you hear such positive things about Mech-Vets? "
Good question. I only see positive about mech vets on this site It seems chimera/vet lists are the only AM lists that gets seriously discussed.

In my experience its exactly as you say, most people have a lot of anti-vehicle weapons that can take down chimeras with ease.

Thanks Boss and Bona - I can see how with some other heavy armour on the table the Chimeras would be less focussed down. That really does make sense. Seems a sharp opponent playing to missions would still focus on taking out the obsec troops first but who knows - nobody really wants a pask punisher opening up on them.

I run mech vets in a list with pask, 2 wyverns, and one blob squad w/ lascannons. I generally have 3-5 vet squads and I'll say that they are very often ignored. They just don't look like the threat on the table at the beginning of the game (and they're not). But given time, they get into rapid fire plasma range or melta range and do a lot of damage in the late game. The fact that they, and their transports, are objective secured is really the gravy though. They are the units getting me victory points... getting objectives, finishing off damaged units, etc. They get ignored so often that I've switched over almost 100% to taurox. Superior gun, better movement ability, and if people are ignoring them most of the time anyways... who cares about 1 point of front armor?
Truth: they are not damage dealers of doom by any stretch, but they serve a solid purpose and are about the best that the AM have for playing the objective game.

Hey thanks for that Griff. Your list and strats sound great!

Very interesting to hear about the Taurox - their cost, mobility and TL AC on paper is strong. Good to hear they can shine in game. As you say 1 point of front armour for all those other benefits is a good deal. I might have to go buy me a couple.