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Pardon the GW Latin in the title.

I've just played a couple of games against my buddy's Skitarii and got absolutely hammered both times. I play mostly foot guard and they just seem to be a very good matchup for the things I've been throwing at him. Their troops can clean large groups of my infantry off the table with ease and neutron lasers can cut through Imperial tanks like they're hardly there.

So, given that they're fairly new and I haven't seen any thread on this subject yet, I figured it was time to set one up on tricks for killing the machine men.

My conclusion from two games is that you really have to use their range restrictions to maximum advantage as long as you can. Bombard the hell out of them until it's safe to move forward.

Other thoughts?

a) Cover saves on tanks are key. Between high strength and haywire weapons, they won't have trouble killing tanks regardless of their armour value. Going hull-down with camo netting, on the other hand, has a better chance of protecting you.

b) Multiple wounds and decent armour, but I think they're only T3 - therefore S6+ AP4 with a decent rate of fire can mow down their infantry fairly effectively. Exterminators can make a nice mess.

c) Big artillery is probably good. One nice thing is that skitarii don't have transports - which they admittedly don't need, with Dunestrider and Crusader and so on, but it means that compared to most armies (who fight from inside metal boxes given a choice), they are vulnerable to artillery fire from the get-go. A thunderfire cannon or heavy mortar can theoretically make its points back in one salvo of fire.

A thread on killing my tin men?
I'll bite!

Imperial Guard-
-Mass Lasgun fire (T3 is the only thing holding us back from WORLD DOMINATION (mwahahaha!)
-Heavy Bolters (2+ to wound and ignores our armor)
-Exterminator Autocannons (for killing Sicarians)
-Pask Punishers and Exterminators kill Dragoons dead. Just give 'em Ignores Cover.
-Deploy your tanks in cover! Our Phosphor weaponry can't damage AV14, so you have little worry of getting your cover removed. Use Camo Netting to counter Omnispex Arcguard.

Griffon battery is surprising effective.
Wounds on 2+, ignores armor, causes instant death, all for 75 points per pie plate.

Anything S6 or more and AP4 or better is going to hurt.

Wyverns. Can't go wrong with wyverns. Especially against a footslogging army.

Having a hard time visualizing how they are doing so well against you...what are they packing that's giving you such a hard time?

If you can do forgeworld, artillery carriages are tough, get cover and give the middle finger to haywire guns.

Going to ground behind an aegis gets you a 2+ (3+ thanks to auspex).

Bullgryns with a rad grenade inquisitor can clean up the t3 multiwound assault folks, but I'm not sure if the t5 3w is a good call against the assault guys. You could go power mace route, getting s7 and a 5++ . I4 is going to be a problem, but you should be able to wreck house in fairly short order.

Heavy flamer vets, autocanons, ignore cover orders, frfsrf, and so forth.

Hellhounds can do work, but again, eradicator cannons are going to be the business due to 36" range. You might even do well with tauroxes...48" range, move 6" with autocannons is pretty sexy. Chimeras would like double heavy bolters, but I'm not sure if mech is the way to go with all the haywire running around.

Play long as they are slow and fairly short ranged, hug cover, and pump out as many men and as much lead as you can.

Forwards for the Emperor!

-Mass Lasgun fire (T3 is the only thing holding us back from WORLD DOMINATION (mwahahaha!)
-Heavy Bolters (2+ to wound and ignores our armor)
-Exterminator Autocannons (for killing Sicarians)
-Pask Punishers and Exterminators kill Dragoons dead. Just give 'em Ignores Cover.
-Deploy your tanks in cover! Our Phosphor weaponry can't damage AV14, so you have little worry of getting your cover removed. Use Camo Netting to counter Omnispex Arcguard.

Killing Dragoons has never been particularly difficult, but with three in a unit, one generally gets through to kill something of mine before it goes down itself. My biggest issue has been that guardsmen will always loose a shootout with rangers and vanguard once they get into their range. So timing your moves is really important against Skitarii.

In the latest news today, I re-matched my buddy today and nearly tabled him. This time he erred in being overly aggressive and I was able to bring my full fire on him in a couple of situations which turned the game. It seems the best way to deal with them is to mostly play cat and mouse if they get the first turn until you can goad them into leaving their cover and then work on having a few really good turns of shooting to wipe them out in chunks.

Still, I'm convinced that three Onagers with Neutron Lasers are point-for-point one of the best units in the game. Far better than IK's.