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So I have been reading a lot of posts here on Dakka Dakka, and I've been learning a lot. Decided to create another list incorporating new knowledge.

Right off the bat, I'm going to ask you not to recommend WarCon (or pretty much anything without a Skitarii Maniple, given I am using Cawl with Peltasts). I know WarCon is the competitive standard, but I am interested in seeing what I can do with CM/Skitarii/IK outside of it. Relic spam or Dunecrawler-heavy GrandCon presents other options, but I have always been more interested in the aggressive Scout deployment of the Skitarii Maniple.

Cult Mechanicus CAD (695)

HQ
Belisarius Cawl (Warlord)
Tech-Priest Dominus - Memento-Mortispex

Troops
3x Kataphron Destroyers - 3x Heavy Grav-Cannon, 3x Cognis Flamers
3x Kataphron Destroyers - 3x Heavy Grav-Cannon, 3x Cognis Flamers

Skitarii Maniple (725)

Troops
10x Skitarii Vanguard
10x Skitarii Vanguard - Omnispex, 3x Arc Rifle

Elite
15x Secutarii Peltast - Omnispex

Fast Attack
3x Sydonian Dragoon - 3x Taser Lance
3x Sydonian Dragoon - 3x Taser Lance

Oathsworn Detachment (430)
Knight Crusader - Rapid-Fire Battle Cannon

--

Explanations

I take Cawl as my Warlord to get the guaranteed FNP reroll. He or the Dominus attach to the Peltasts for their shield generator synergy, which make them virtually unkillable.

Kataphron Destroyers kill MEQ, TEQ, and MC from afar. They have Objective Secured and can effectively camp the backfield. I invested in Cognis Flamers because I needed to make sure they were self-sufficient; nothing is going to want to charge them, and few things can outshoot them and their Vanguard escort. The Dominus can attach to one of the groups to provide Memento bonuses and tank for them. Against certain armies where Grav is of the the utmost importance, I will attach Cawl to the other unit as well.

One Vanguard unit is pure cannon fodder; throw it at anything with a Toughness value. Another packs Arc Rifles for generalist duties; with the Dominus, you can also pop vehicles, shoot down fliers, etc. Peltasts support Cawl; their weapons handle a variety of problems that he may face: the Shred shot can pretty much kill any infantry that wants to tarpit or melt him, and the Rending shot can be used against light vehicles.

Two units of Dragoons are used to pop transports and kill threats to my Knight Crusader. The Peltasts' Blind Barrage and Dominus's Shroudpsalm (4 units) both boost cover-in-the-open to 3++ and really allow them to get in close and wreak havoc early on.

I also have a Knight Crusader, which provides fire support from afar.

UPDATED 4/23

Questions

1) Should I take Cawl or the Peltast Alpha as my Warlord? I lean towards Cawl because of the guaranteed FNP reroll, but is that better than Preferred Enemy (plus an unreliable Skitarii Warlord trait)?
2) Do I need more Vanguard?
3) Do I need Omnispex on my Peltasts? Can I save 10 points or should I keep it on for the versatility?
4) In what situations would I take Phosphor Blasters over Cognis Flamers on my Destroyers? Are they worth the 30 points?
5) I dropped Neutron Laser Dunecrawlers and a second unit of Arc Rifle Vanguard for the Destroyers (necessary for my CAD). Does this create any holes in my coverage? Maybe vehicles?

1) I personally would get Cawl as warlord, though it wouldn't be outlandish to bring Vanguards or Peltast as warlord (especially if you run plasma in your warlord team).
2) I would say yes. Vanguards, even bare bones, are one of the top tier troop choices. I don't move from my house without 3 full squads.
3) Omnispex is nice on such a large force, but if you can buy something else (say you need these points to fill vanguard team to full) just skip it in my opinion.
4) Alwasy will say that Cognis Flamer are worth the points and they are way superior to Phosphor Blaster. They alleviate the biggest weakness in destroyers - just charging at them.
5) Destroyers with Heavy grav will wreck the vehicles. I'm more concerned about your ability to drop enough dices on the board while shooting normal infantry (guardsmen, orks, eldar)


Hope that helps.

The list seems good enough but are you sure you want Errant as your Knight? It seems like an overkill against vehicles. Maybe Warden or Crusader would fit in better.

I would say if you aren't going to do the Warcon, then you should just do the Grandcon. Now I know you said you aren't doing the Warcon, but one of the things that makes it very powerful is that you get FULL canticles. So in this situation you aren't going to have that, which is really just an army wide buff that gives you the shooting power to shoot pretty much anything. So just be aware that you don't have that capability. Getting a Knight Crusader for more dakka should be a high priority.

1) I would take Cawl, he generally pairs well with robots, peltasts are good also.
2) You should even out the squads and put an Arc Rifle in each. Might be better off just ditching them and taking the Grandcon and taking more kataphrons.
3) They have an ignore cover shot. But its 18" so its not a bad thing to take.
4) Cognis Flamers are the upgrade, not the default iirc. They will help you not get assaulted, which you never want to happen to those guys. People want to take out your grav so you can't kill their vehicles.
5) I think having two different haywire units is a plus.


Let me know what you think about these changes...

Grand Convocation Detachment

Belisarius Cawl (1) -

Tech-Priest Dominus (1)
Memento-Mortispex

Kataphron Destroyers (3)
Heavy grav-cannon,Cognis flamer

Kataphron Destroyers (3)
Heavy grav-cannon,Cognis flamer

Kataphron Breachers (3) -
Heavy arc rifle,Arc claw

Skitarii Vanguard (10)
2 Arc rifle

Sydonian Dragoons (3)
Taser lance

Sydonian Dragoons (3)
Taser lance

Secutarii Peltasts (10)
Omnispex

Knight Crusader (1)
Meltagun,Thermal cannon,Twin Icarus autocannon


The Dunecrawler /w icarus is 125 points, but its only 50 points to upgrade to a Knight Crusader and then 35 for the Icarus autocannon. This ends up being an 85 point AA platform and less a waste of points if there is no air.
You also get an Avenger Gatling Cannon out of the deal.

@Kandela
1&2) How do you think Peltasts compare to Vanguard in terms of role? My idea was to go from the usual 20-30 Vanguard, 5-10 Ranger to 15 Vanguard, 15 Peltast. As for Warlord choices, Plasma Calivers are nice... but too pricey outside of WarCon. =\
4) My thoughts as well.
5) Right, my greatest uncertainty is dealing with massed 4+ armor infantry right now. They occupy a sweet spot wherein they're too small for Grav to easily chew through them, but just sturdy enough to resist my Peltasts. My solution is to try to outlast them with my Cawl and Dominus tanking for my Peltast and a Vanguard unit. Skitarii are glass cannons, but CM is absurdly durable.

I chose Knight Errant because I wanted a hybrid knight that could handle AV13+ vehicles... but I think you're right, Crusader might be better. Any recommendations for what to cut?

@Ceann
I think we talked about GrandCon in another one of my posts, but the more I think about it, I do not think Skitarii will succeed by avoiding CC, precisely because they will get out-dakka'ed by races like Tau. Instead, they will have to address their critical shortcomings and play to their strengths: medium-range shooting supported by Dominus relics and tanking plus one of the most efficient Fast Attack units in the game. Of course, maybe I am being naive. I am relatively new to this game, and much of what I think is based on battle reports and mathhammer. Maybe experience will teach me otherwise.

Indeed, I feel like WarCon has glossed over a lot of AdMech's strengths and weaknesses, with its rigid composition and a very, very thick layer of free points.

That being said, I like the Scout and Crusader a lot more than IWND and PotMS, except if I were to do a list heavy on Knights and Dunecrawlers. The ability to have that 3x Neutron Laser squadron but target multiple enemies is a big deal. The bonus durability also is essential, since each Dunecrawler you kill weakens the others in its squadron. Having a 4++ save is like giving the first Dunecrawler 6 wounds, the second 4 wounds, and the final one the usual 3.5 wounds.

That all being said, Dunecrawlers are really unwieldy and squishy in this army. They don't benefit from Crusader, don't need Scout as much, and suffer greatly when you reduce BS.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, taking into account both sets of advice, I am looking at two options to scrounge up 55 points for a RFBC Crusader:

1) Cut back on infantry:

8x Vanguard
8x Vanguard
12x Peltast - Omnispex

2) Cut the Dunecrawler, and add infantry to make up for it:

5x Vanguard - 2x Arc Rifle
5x Vanguard - 2x Arc Rifle
5x Vanguard - 2x Arc Rifle
15x Peltast - Omnispex

I am leaning toward the second option, since it gives me more Haywire in smaller units. I sacrifice my flier and skimmer killer, but also improve my general shooting capability.

For option 2 I don't think you really need that much haywire.
You do have two groups of 3 grav cannons...
Adding some rangers might be worth thinking about just to give you an even fire base. You do want to be able to be firing with as many units on Turn 1 as possible.

The issue with the Tau is they can outshoot all of your short range units, meaning that before you even get something close enough to shoot back at them, they can just kill all the threats as they come.

Do you play against a lot of Tau specifically?
I know of a pretty cheesy CM tactic for dealing with them.

Ceann wrote:
For option 2 I don't think you really need that much haywire.
You do have two groups of 3 grav cannons...
Adding some rangers might be worth thinking about just to give you an even fire base. You do want to be able to be firing with as many units on Turn 1 as possible.

The issue with the Tau is they can outshoot all of your short range units, meaning that before you even get something close enough to shoot back at them, they can just kill all the threats as they come.

Do you play against a lot of Tau specifically?
I know of a pretty cheesy CM tactic for dealing with them.

Oh? I'm told that Arc Rifles are good for making Vanguard more flexible units in general.

How about this?

10x Vanguard - Refractor Field
10x Vanguard - Refractor Field, 3x Arc Rifles

Against Tau, I figured my best chance was to let my Cawl and Dominus tank for my units as they move up.

Not really playing so much as planning and painting. But please do share.

Well... its kinda complicated but it works...lol.
I don't think you would really want to do it though...
Requires 265 pt investment.
If you wanted too you could give those veterans stormsheilds, or frag cannons or other nasty things.


Holy Requisitioner

Belisarius Cawl (1) - 200pts
Kataphron Breachers (3) - 150pts
Kataphron Breachers (3) - 150pts


Inquisitorial Representative

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor (1) - 35pts
Ulumeathi plasma syphon

Allied Detachment
Librarian (1) - 120pts
Terminator Armor, The Beacon Angelis

Veterans (5) - 110pts

So what you do is, you attach the DW Libby to Cawls group and deepstrike them in.

The Inquisitor is attached to the DW Veterans.
You can also attach your other dominus if you want.

Once Cawls group lands in the middle of the Tau, wherever you deem the best position to be, the Libby uses Beacon Angelis to move the veteran squad within 6" of Cawls group.

The Inquisitor has the Ulumeathi plasma syphon, since a good majority of the Tau has plasma weapons.

All models within 12" of a syphon shoot plasma weapons at BS 1. As you can imagine shooting with BS1 is very ineffective and you can have your dominus tank wounds for that squad on his 2+.
With 12" esp if you get them close to their board edge, many of their units will have to move and run in order to get far enough away to get out of range, if they even have the option to do so.

@Ceann
Oh, that Plasma Syphon is dirty. Haha.

I'll keep your Beacon Angelis idea in mind though. Who knows, maybe in 8th edition, they will finally nerf Grav weaponry, and Breachers will be better than Destroyers.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So I discovered that there is an FAQ that nerfed the Beacon Angelis. Apparently, you need to wait a turn before using it, so not as good as I had thought.

Q: Can the Beacon Angelis’ relocation power be used on the turn it arrives, as Deep Strike and relocation both happen at the beginning of the turn?
A: No.

Q: Does the Beacon Angelis require the bearer to be on the battlefield at the start of the turn for some/all of its abilities to work? It does not say so, but two similar items (the Deathwatch teleport homer and the locator beacon) have this requirement.
A: Yes.

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/Warhammer_40000/Deathwatch_EN.pdf