Tactica Mechanicus - All Hail Mars! - 7th Edition Legacy Tactics

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**Tiger9gamer**

I played a proxy game recently against a local ultra-marine player, and it went kinda pearshaped for me. The slowness of skitarii really hurts for footslogging units, and a single ironclad dread was the worst unit to fight against. Dropped down and roasted my warlord squad!

I do think that skitarii need some transports.

**Tiger9gamer**

I didn't know onagers did, but from what I played I used mostly 3 squads of vanguard. They shot a lot but still got wrecked by heavy flamers and a storm talon.

**Tiger9gamer**

Dramagod2 wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
I played a proxy game recently against a local ultra-marine player, and it went kinda pearshaped for me. The slowness of skitarii really hurts for footslogging units, and a single ironclad dread was the worst unit to fight against. Dropped down and roasted my warlord squad!

I do think that skitarii need some transports.

I feel like the Plasma Obliterator was meant to house the Vanguard Warlord Squad. The preferred enemy keeps the big gun safe and the fortificaion protects the warlord. Add an escape hatch and they can hop out and grab an objective in the last turn. Not bad.

Thats an idea too. well we still have the rules and such... at least.

Would the same work in a battlecannon redebout?

**Tiger9gamer**

DaPino wrote:
nudibranch wrote:
DaPino wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
I played a proxy game recently against a local ultra-marine player, and it went kinda pearshaped for me. The slowness of skitarii really hurts for footslogging units, and a single ironclad dread was the worst unit to fight against. Dropped down and roasted my warlord squad!

I do think that skitarii need some transports.

You do know Infiltrators, Ruststalkers, Dragoons, Balistarii and Onagers add 3" to their move, run and charge, right?

The only unit that suffers from being slow are vanguards.

Onagers don't have Dunestrider, they only move 6".

My bad, but the point still stands. Most units that need it have decent mobility, even without transports.

Yea, I know. it just seems that vanguard are fairly slow, and that may be the bulk of my future armies. the transports may protect against most anti-infantry fire (until a lascannon blows it up or something. I play space marines so I know how it goes

) For now I may just go unbound and use a mechanized army list.

I'm actually thinking about getting an inquisitor for a warlord, and putting him in a heavy weapon servitor squad. do you know how many plasma cannons you can get? anyone? =D

**Tiger9gamer**

Super Newb wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
DaPino wrote:
nudibranch wrote:
DaPino wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
I played a proxy game recently against a local ultra-marine player, and it went kinda pearshaped for me. The slowness of skitarii really hurts for footslogging units, and a single ironclad dread was the worst unit to fight against. Dropped down and roasted my warlord squad!

I do think that skitarii need some transports.

You do know Infiltrators, Ruststalkers, Dragoons, Balistarii and Onagers add 3" to their move, run and charge, right?

The only unit that suffers from being slow are vanguards.

Onagers don't have Dunestrider, they only move 6".

My bad, but the point still stands. Most units that need it have decent mobility, even without transports.

Yea, I know. it just seems that vanguard are fairly slow, and that may be the bulk of my future armies. the transports may protect against most anti-infantry fire (until a lascannon blows it up or something. I play space marines so I know how it goes ) For now I may just go unbound and use a mechanized army list.

I'm actually thinking about getting an inquisitor for a warlord, and putting him in a heavy weapon servitor squad. do you know how many plasma cannons you can get? anyone? =D

In a inquisition warband you can get a max of 3 heavy weapons

oh that few? well there goes some hype >.< still it would be fairly cool and a nice way to add some psychic powers to a list. Or a land raider

**Tiger9gamer**

I would also like to point out that Rangers are Ap 4, and can wreck most non-space marine armies when in range. Seriously, denying units like necrons one of their saves can be big!

**Tiger9gamer**

Can someone give me a a quick reason to use Rangers over vanguard before I buy my next box set? I kinda want to hear if anyone has any good experiences with the rangers.

**Tiger9gamer**

Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Can someone give me a a quick reason to use Rangers over vanguard before I buy my next box set? I kinda want to hear if anyone has any good experiences with the rangers.

I run three squads of Rangers.
One squad with 3x Arc Rifles, two with 3x Arquebus.

They massacre anything that comes their way with an armor value. The first time I ran a squad of triple Arquebus, they popped a Land Raider and forced a KDK Terminator Lord to walk his way across the board.

Doesn't that get expensive point wise? And are three squads just enough? (I usually try to go for 4 or five when list building.)

**Tiger9gamer**

Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Can someone give me a a quick reason to use Rangers over vanguard before I buy my next box set? I kinda want to hear if anyone has any good experiences with the rangers.

I run three squads of Rangers.
One squad with 3x Arc Rifles, two with 3x Arquebus.

They massacre anything that comes their way with an armor value. The first time I ran a squad of triple Arquebus, they popped a Land Raider and forced a KDK Terminator Lord to walk his way across the board.

Doesn't that get expensive point wise? And are three squads just enough? (I usually try to go for 4 or five when list building.)

You asked for good experiences with Rangers, not my whole list!

In any regards, yeah it gets expensive--but it is highly effective in locking down large sections of the board against people who have seen what those units can do. Since my single squad popped that Land Raider, the other player made a point of locking down/killing any Rangers with Arquebus he saw as fast as possible.

Good point

and thats good to know. Do you give them omni-spexes too?

**Tiger9gamer**

Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Kanluwen wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
Can someone give me a a quick reason to use Rangers over vanguard before I buy my next box set? I kinda want to hear if anyone has any good experiences with the rangers.

I run three squads of Rangers.
One squad with 3x Arc Rifles, two with 3x Arquebus.

They massacre anything that comes their way with an armor value. The first time I ran a squad of triple Arquebus, they popped a Land Raider and forced a KDK Terminator Lord to walk his way across the board.

Doesn't that get expensive point wise? And are three squads just enough? (I usually try to go for 4 or five when list building.)

You asked for good experiences with Rangers, not my whole list!

In any regards, yeah it gets expensive--but it is highly effective in locking down large sections of the board against people who have seen what those units can do. Since my single squad popped that Land Raider, the other player made a point of locking down/killing any Rangers with Arquebus he saw as fast as possible.

Good point and thats good to know. Do you give them omni-spexes too?

Naturally!

Personally, I find the Enhanced Data-Tether to be absolutely useless. It's a joke piece of equipment--a single point of Leadership while affected by a Doctrina Imperative for a single unit.

The Broad Spectrum Data-Tether, which comes standard on ALL Skitarii walkers, effectively takes the place of that with no real issues.
And to boot? BSDT has a 6" bubble--meaning you can grant it to all of your Skitarii infantry units with clever placement.

Thats right I always forget it has that on all walkers. So for five more points you mess with cover saves instead. I like that quite a bit.

Compared to the Vanguard, are rangers worth the price? If I wanted to play the rangers more aggressively that is.

**Tiger9gamer**

So are there any good tactics for fighting the tau? I'm stumped with some way of finding a good counter for them, because they outrange us and have a lot of strong shooting against our normally infantry units. And they are also really fast compared to the mechanicus's relative slowness

**Tiger9gamer**

Orock wrote:
Have you tried straight up out shooting the tau? If you are playing war convocation position your dragoons in front of the knight then the dragoons can get2+ cover with shroudplasm and the knight can too. Or if they have alit of broadsides give the dunecrawlers cover and watch them poof from bs7 small blast str 10 shots. Our rangers pierce their armor, while they can't pierce ranger armor with pulse rifles. And since its str 5 you even keep the fnp. If their fusion suits are deep striking behind your knight/ crawlers, I like to stick coteaz with vanguard with plasma. No overheat, and coteaz also makes a nice no drop pod bubble for the inevitable marine match up. Getting alphad really hurts us like dark eldar. Honestly haven't lost to tau yet. Shroudplasm on our grav destroyers and take out markerligjt support.

Okay, that does sound like a reasonable way to beat them. Thank you!

How about outside the War con though?

**Tiger9gamer**

Verviedi wrote:
Tiger9gamer wrote:
So are there any good tactics for fighting the tau? I'm stumped with some way of finding a good counter for them, because they outrange us and have a lot of strong shooting against our normally infantry units. And they are also really fast compared to the mechanicus's relative slowness

Anti-Fire Warrior is one of the few uses for Rangers, and the sheer amount of Haywire we can take really ruins tanks' days.
As the previous poster said, grav for Riptides and Vanguard.

Yes, but they really outrange and out maneuver us. I played a 2v2 game with myself and another mechanicus player versus orks and tau. The orks died horribly to the combined might of the mechanicus but the Tau were able to just stay in the back and jetpack out of range even if we get close enough. It was super annoying and there was really no way to counter that as we couldn't get across the board fast enough.

**Tiger9gamer**

Hmm I will consider the dragoons, but it seems tau has a lot of firepower and ways to kill them.

Also I don't know if outflanking works because all the heavy guns get interceptor, and that tends to hurt.

**Tiger9gamer**

You, I wanted to ask... how many skitarii squads should someone take? I feel they are squishy enough to have a lot of them, but expensive enough to only take a few squads.

**Tiger9gamer**

I honestly really really want to stay away from the warcon as much as I can, And I want to run a fluffy and fun list combing Cult and Skitarii with the skitarii being the real main force and cult either being a co-hort cybernetica or just the regular FOC.

Right now I have a list with x4 squads of just haywire vanguard and two onager dunecrawlers.

**Tiger9gamer**

Wilson wrote:
That's a lot of haywire! Cult & Skitarii work well but the truth is war con is the best way to run them.

So what, 4 units of vangaurd at 10 man?
You probably don't need that much haywire and might find 2 onogars overkill for a 3 game competition.

Definately get 3-5 dragoons in there, they are so cheap. It's beautiful.

Try one of the cult mech formations- either the kastalans deathstar or the destroyer ignores cover one. I would have suggested the deep striking breachers but you've got waaaay too much haywire as it is!

Best way to write a list is to understand what you could be facing so try a few things out first and if it doesn't work, war con is extremely fun as it lets you run a little bit of everything. I wish every army had a formation like it!

Well mind you I don't actually have that much haywire yet, as I only have two 10 man squads with three. I like my anti-vehicle, plus they are strong enough to hurt infantry!

I was thinking of the kastelan deathstar for my main force and warlord squad as it's so cool and punchy, but right now I'm still trying to decide what to get next. Are the dragoons really that good?

**Tiger9gamer**

I agree, but I rather put my own spin on it. also a guy at my GW is already doing this >.>

So would you say 40 vanguard is just too much? how about 4 onagers?

**Tiger9gamer**

WrentheFaceless wrote:
Max unit of Onagers is 3, unless you were going with 2 and 2

Yea I was thinking of a unit of two and two both armed with neutron lasers.

**Tiger9gamer**

Unit1126PLL wrote:
What do you guys think about a Skitarii tank company?

2000 points would look like
5x vanguard with stuff
5x vanguard with stuff

3x Onagers with Neutron Laser, Pintle CHS, mindscanner probes, cognis manipulators

3x Onagers with Neutron Laser, Pintle CHS, mindscanner probes, cognis manipulators

3x Onagers with Neutron Laser, Pintle CHS, mindscanner probes, cognis manipulators

3x Onagers with Icarus Array, Pintle CHS, mindscanner probes, cognis manipulators

Maybe change one squadron to an eradication beam? for some large blast anti-infantry and being cheaper. But otherwise I really like it!

**Tiger9gamer**

ultimentra wrote:
It's because he runs 5 squads of them, so it can become hard to escape them when they are all in transports and Admech has no long range artillery in the same way that the Guard does. My Guard army fairs better against his tactic because I can just stay away from him and shell the crap out of him. Admech doesn't really have the ability to do that. Add in the randomness of Maelstrom (oh it's turn 1 and I drew Assassinate, Behind enemy lines, and score and objective in my enemy's deployment zone? Cool) and you have a recipe for disaster. Ignores cover demo charges are the bane of just about anything, and storm troopers with melta guns that never scatter and always hit are nice for him too. Funny, he refuses to let me roll his dice too. I really hate to go off topic but that gak really bothers me, I'll never understand people who are superstitious or super particular about who touches their dice. Just seems gakky to me.
/rant

I realize that I could be taking conversion fields on my sergeants but I don't want to chance the blind test, I don't really feel like it's worth it. I typically want to be keeping my sergeants from tanking wounds anyways as they are carrying relics. Anyone had a conversion field backfire?

No, But I have seen one blind a huge ork mob that was near a conversion field datasmith.

**Tiger9gamer**

So I just had a thought, if/when FW gives the 40k universe their mechanicus toys, which ones would be most valuable to us?

I for one, would be stoked to have jet pack troops and the Krios tank.

**Tiger9gamer**

I am still on the fence on the Cohort Cybernetica, as it's a lot of money to buy (and I still have not even gotten the cult codex yet >.< )

Has anyone tried using an inquisitor as their warlord for an almost pure skitarii yet? I feel he could do some work and give us a nice buff.

**Tiger9gamer**

How has inquisition been as allies with the Mechanicus? I am thinking of running them along with my Skitarii until I get the cult book (and more models)

I hope this isnt necromancy.

**Tiger9gamer**

ultimentra wrote:
I've been converting and painting an admech coteaz for awhile now, thinking of running them to get chimeras for my skitarii units.

Would that work? I thought that the vehicles are only dedicated transports for inquisitors.

**Tiger9gamer**

I would like to hear if anyone has had any experiences with the new tau. How have the mechanicus faired with such a foe?

**Tiger9gamer**

@ultimentra Good job on the write up! Very informative =D Can you tell us who won each game?

I myself had a fun game against a very infantry and tank heavy AM player who brought a grey knight squad. Instead of using knights, I finally broke down and played an unbound list.

Brought 2 blood angel rhinos for my arc vanguard squads and a las/plas razorback, along with a tech priest dominus as a warlord. I have to say, if nothing else, the rhinos did an amazing job of keeping my vanguard safe for turn 1 and 2. All the str 6 firepower that would slaughter the skitarii were absorbed by the rhinos and, until immobilization, were great for getting them where they need to go while shooting all the way. The single razorback also provided some nice fire support too. Overall one of the funnest games I had with skitarii!

**Tiger9gamer**

Dramagod2 wrote:
IHateNids wrote:
Wilson wrote:
Yeah, but you don't get additional void shields for free. Unless the format overrides that of course!
I think you would to be honest.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think that one of the two detachments can take a fortification as part of it. If this is correct, then it would be included under the 'all units in this formation' clause, in the same way the IK does.

I don't think the void shields would be free. The War Convocation specifically says that all "weapons and wargear options taken by units in theis formation, including any Relics of Mars or Arcana Mechanicum, are free. The problem is that void shields along with other building upgrades are not weapon and wargear options. You could probably argue more for weapon upgrades on other buildings but I know that when you buy a building, any upgrades like void shields or an escape hatch are not covered because they are not weapon and wargear options. They are building upgrades.

Even so the War Convocation should allow for enough room to take a building or two and it's upgrades considering all the things you get for free.

Which reminds me, what is the best knight configuration for this formation?

**Tiger9gamer**

Dramagod2 wrote:
Does anyone by chance have a spare copy of the dominus maniple from the starter or maybe a link to it online? thanks!

It's basically the a dominus, vanguard and onager in the formation, and the tech priest can make the guns of the formation twin linked within 18"

They do not have scout though.

**Tiger9gamer**

Swara wrote:
Has anyone played an armoured skitarii?
13 Vehicles - I could easily use drop pods.. but I feel so dirty when I do...

I actually played a lot of armored skitarii at 1,000pts using an unbound list (flesh tearers are too mainstream

and also I don't wanna buy the codex) using a similar idea of fast rhinos and vanguard inside:

Dominus Maniple:

Tech Priest Domius with Conversion Field
Vanguard Squad of 5 with Plasma Caviler and Omni-spex
Onager w/ Neutron Laser

Unbound list:

Skitarii Vanguard squad w/ 3 Arc Rifles and Omnispex
Skitarii Vanguard squad w/ 3 Arc Rifles and Omnispex

Onager Dune Crawler w/ Neutron Laser

Ironstrider w/ Taser

BA Rhino w/ Dozer Blades
Ba Rhino W/ Dozer Blades
Ba Razorback w/ TL Plasma Rifle and Lascannon

___

I played this a lot against a bunch of different opponents and I have to say I really like it. The rhinos give the squishy vanguard enough protection to last for a few turns and the speed to move up the board to boot. They have taken down quite a lot because of their swiftness. They do tend to die when rhinos explode and do get pretty stranded, but I can say they are miles better than tactical marines in rhinos.

If your ballsy enough to try unbound, I say give it a shot!