Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I kinda came across this Idea by happenstance. Me and a friend of mine were having a game the other day and both decided to try something new. I usually run War Convocation and him Gladius and some other SM cheese. We usually play competitive games.

So since we both decided on a little more variety and less cheese I decided to do a melee focused Skitarii/Cult Mech list and it almost tabled him. It did much much better than expected. Granted I wasnt playing anything hyper competative but it got me thinking about it.

Here is where my train of thought is. I also play KDK, which is one of the few successful melee armys currently, and I got to thinking of what makes them that way. KDK Is strong because of durability (immune to grav basically, 5+ invuls, multi wounds, and high toughness), speed, and blood tithes which boost the army over all in a multitude of ways.

Admech can match a lot of those qualities. Skitarii melee units are fast. Dragoons, Infiltrators, and Ruststalkers all add 3" to every move they make. Not quite as fast as doggies but still fairly fast. Admech is durable. Kastelans are insanely hard to bring down, lots of multi wound models, and you can give your army stealth and shrouded, and both armies have a TON of ways to improve their power through canticles and doctrinas.

So do you think with some proper ranged support (KDK have SOME ranged) that this could at all be effective? What would be the best units to take? How would you play it? Im going to try and play some of his normal tournament stuff next week with a melee oriented list and see how it goes. Thoughts?

 thekerrick wrote:
So I kinda came across this Idea by happenstance. Me and a friend of mine were having a game the other day and both decided to try something new. I usually run War Convocation and him Gladius and some other SM cheese. We usually play competitive games.

So since we both decided on a little more variety and less cheese I decided to do a melee focused Skitarii/Cult Mech list and it almost tabled him. It did much much better than expected. Granted I wasnt playing anything hyper competative but it got me thinking about it.

Here is where my train of thought is. I also play KDK, which is one of the few successful melee armys currently, and I got to thinking of what makes them that way. KDK Is strong because of durability (immune to grav basically, 5+ invuls, multi wounds, and high toughness), speed, and blood tithes which boost the army over all in a multitude of ways.

Admech can match a lot of those qualities. Skitarii melee units are fast. Dragoons, Infiltrators, and Ruststalkers all add 3" to every move they make. Not quite as fast as doggies but still fairly fast. Admech is durable. Kastelans are insanely hard to bring down, lots of multi wound models, and you can give your army stealth and shrouded, and both armies have a TON of ways to improve their power through canticles and doctrinas.

So do you think with some proper ranged support (KDK have SOME ranged) that this could at all be effective? What would be the best units to take? How would you play it? Im going to try and play some of his normal tournament stuff next week with a melee oriented list and see how it goes. Thoughts?

I can't speak from experience about a melee focused list (I only just got to my 2,000 point milestone for my admech) but I can share some data on a melee orientated list.

A guy at my local GW plays with a ton of rust stalkers, and I played against him twice with my orks. They are pretty much glass cannons without war convocation's stealth and shrouded buffing them, but they can run wild over most normal infantry. As soon as they hit str 6 ap4 they kinda implode with the instant death denying their FNP saves and multiple wounds. They have invulns, sure, but all it really takes is one Boss nob with a big Choppa to cut a few down in the first combat round, or for one blast to wipe out a squad.

Maybe take a cohort cybernetica for a fire magnet/ Mobile Fire base? it's expensive, but they can pump out enough shots to really hurt something and can "mark" targets with phosphor for that sweet re-rolling to charge bonus. Plus, it can be tough as nails as you probably know.

Oh ya I think mixing the two codexes is the only way this could work. I ran a unit of 10 rust stalkers when I played him and it chewed up most of his stuff fairly easily. You could also run that other mega admech formation for the 4+ invul too.

I'm not saying this is competitive, but on paper Electropriests combined with appropriate Canticles do tremendous damage.

A 20-man unit of Corpuscari Priests with Electroshock Gauntlets put out 40 Twin-Linked shots with the Shock Rule (an average of 50 hits). They can then charge, doing 20 S4 Hammer of Wrath + 60 S4 hits from Electromancer + 60 attacks with Zealot with the Shock Rule.

It will destroy most anything.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alteratively, Fulgurites with the Strength increasing Cancticle with that same setup willput out 60 S8 attacks with Zealot and Instant Death, which will (whips out Mr. Calculator) eadily kill a Stormsurge, for instance.

If you'd rather have the ruststalkers and infiltrators as your main melee force, you should check out the Sicarian Killclade.

3 rustalker units that can do basically a waaagh (once per game run and charge on the same turn) on turn 2+, and the Infiltrators get their debuffing bubble's range extended to 12". Considering that your guys get the +3" rule, you're going 4"-9" in the movement phase (if moving though cover), 4"-9" in the shooting phase, and then you're going 5"-12" with the assault. So you're looking at moving up the table 13"-30" at turn 2 or later with three ruststalker units.

If you want ruststalkers, that's pretty fantastic.

Thats the main formation I was thinking. I mean I have no idea if any of this can be competative but I was just surprised how well it worked vs him.

I also ran my Tech Priest in front of a ten man squad of Fulgurite Priests to tank and they marched up the field and pasted some stuff.

 thekerrick wrote:
Thats the main formation I was thinking. I mean I have no idea if any of this can be competative but I was just surprised how well it worked vs him.

I also ran my Tech Priest in front of a ten man squad of Fulgurite Priests to tank and they marched up the field and pasted some stuff.

I think this is how the codex was intended to be played by the designers, only with breachers in front of the priests instead of the tech priest.

Cohort Cybernetica is one of the hardest Battle Company counters. It can reliably decimate four Rhinos or 5-man marine squads each turn.

For melee you can try that Killclade formation and the Ironstrider formation. Might do ok.