Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba
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Apocalypse Admech: Tactica
Admech function as a lot more of a varied force in apoc than they do in 40k, at least in my opinion, due to just how much better their dedicated assault units work in this game mode and the absolute necessity of being able to defend yourself against deep strike melee. A pure gunline wall of Onagers and shooty kastelans will just get swept by any army with a decent fast melee contingent. You need either versatile screeners like Breachers or dedicated countercharge melee units on the offensive to prevent enemies from making you fight only with 10+/10+ stomping feet on your gunline troops. Your biggest struggle going pure Admech will be card generation: Admech HQs are EXPENSIVE and they all want to just be sitting back babysitting gunline units. None of them want to be moving forward at all, except maybe the Manipulus with his 18" range gun and his +3" range ability. So, try to work card draw into your army structure as best you can, and take advantage of units like Onagers who really want to be fielded in 3s and really like the aura from the Dominus.
I haven't
The Tl;DR of what's good in my opinion is: Shooty Robots and Onagers fulfil your static gunline duties admirably, Breachers provide a solid screening unit that can still shoot somewhat, most of the dedicated melee options are good if you bring transports for the ones that need it, Disintegrators, Datasmiths and Ballistari are not really worth considering.
The Troops: Admech have 4 options
Skitarii Rangers
3PL for 5, 8pl for 10
Role: Aimers
Durability: 3 or 4 PL per 8+ Ld5 wound, Light
Mobility: Most likely in range turn 1 to enemy screener units
Preferred Partners: Techpriest Dominus
Damage: .417 Inf, .275 Veh
Skitarii Rangers are one of, if not the cheapest imperial troop unit that has enough range to Aim Fire across a full 24" no man's land turn 1. Like all skitarii units, they pay heftily for that second wound, since it actually increases the average number of blasts required to guarantee their destruction from 1 at 1 wound (58.3% chance to fail the save vs a small blast, 33% chance to fail morale on that small blast even if you make the save) to 3 at 2 wounds (100% chance to fail the first save, then 58.3% and 50% to fail either the save or the morale for the second wound). Comparing the damage of 10 rangers to 3 Destroyers, the rangers should really only be considered as that cheap troop at the 5-man squad level. That's not something to discount, as they are a cheap troop and they can contribute just sitting somewhere and letting their attendant Techpriest try to repair more valuable units like Onagers or Gunbots, but their damage will just never equal other gunline units the admech have to choose from.
Secutarii Peltasts
5PL for 10, 10pl for 20
Role: Aimers
Durability: 2.5 PL per 7+ Ld5 wound, Light
Mobility: Most likely in range turn 1 to enemy screener units
Preferred Partners: Techpriest Dominus
Damage: .833 inf, .553 Veh
Secutarii peltasts are probably slightly better than Rangers on the whole, they just get forced into the 10-man size where the rangers can be a 3PL unit at minimum. They are Elite slots, which means they can't complete detachments with any of our other good Aimer units, though you could do like 2x peltasts 1x Datasmith with a unit of Robots as a decent detachment that generates cards. 3x5 rangers with Dominus is probably slightly more effective, especially if you deploy garrisoning terrain where the extra defense of the peltasts doesn't matter.
Skitarii Vanguard
3PL for 5, 8pl for 10
Role: Advancers
Durability: 3 or 4 PL per 8+ Wound, Light
Mobility: On foot may not be able to shoot turn 1 unless the opponent has units in no man's land or right on the line
Preferred Partners: Techpriest Manipulus, Kataphron Breachers
Damage: 1 Inf, .5 Veh
One of the few units who actually pals around nicely with the techpriest manipulus, since he gets their range up to 21" which gives them a better chance of a shot turn 1 with an Advance move. Another thing to look at doing with these guys is advancing up and occupying a building turn 1, since Garrisoning can get you an extra 6" of effective movement. Solidly better than rangers IF you can manage to get them that turn 1 shot, and that should 100% be your goal when fielding them. I'm much more likely to want 10 of these guys than 10 Rangers, since they may need the extra durability to weather turn 1.
Kataphron Breachers
6PL per 3 up to 12. Flat progression of stats.
Role: Advancers
Durability: 3PL per Light 6+ wound, LD5
Mobility: Probably will get to shoot turn 1 with either main weapon
Preferred Partners: TP Manipulus, TP Dominus, Skitarii Vanguard
Damage: Torsion Cannons .51 Inf, 1 Veh, HARs .75 either Inf or Veh. In Melee, .583 to either Inf or Veh
Less damage than either skitarii type but tougher than either. Weaker in melee but their damage doesn't just immediately tank like the skitarii types, so they could be used as an anti deep strike screen attached to an Aimer detachment (3 Kataphrons cost less than 10 skitarii and deal more damage in melee while also being tougher and screening the same linear area thanks to their Thicc bases) or they could accompany Skitarii Vanguard in an Advancing detachment since they're still Troops and can fill out a Vanguard and also have a 24" range gun that benefits from the Manipulus. With good dedicated melee and good dedicated shooting units though, does Admech need a generalist unit? Well, you probably will see a decent number of deep strike melee units popping into the backfield of your gunline in apoc. so maybe.
Kataphron Destroyers
7PL per 3 up to 12. Flat progression of stats.
Role: Aimers
Durability: 3.5PL per Light 8+ wound, LD5
Range: 24" to fire with Phosphor Blasters, 30" grav-cannons, 36" plasma culverins
Preferred Partners: TP Dominus, Skitarii Rangers
Damage: Phosphor Blasters .999 Inf, .665 Veh (doubled if within 12")
Grav: .999 Inf 1.32 Veh
Plasma (Overcharged): 1.17 Inf or veh
Phosphor blasters are no-brainers since these guys should be backline units. Durability wise they're similar to a 10-man skitarii ranger squad, but they do more damage for the points outside of half range. Even inside of 15" and outside of 12" the servitors do more damage. I would say that looking at the comparison between Destroyers and Breachers, the biggest benefit to the Destroyers is actually their "light" status. The farther out you go in range bands, the more you tend to see anti-Heavy weaponry being more easily available, so the fact that Destroyers are Light and can hopefully camp in a defensible terrain piece somewhere might give them an advantage over Robots that would otherwise be just flat-out better. Use Rangers to fill out the rest of a battalion. Stick a Dominus with them. Good Aimer detachment.
Now, the HQs, which we'll be evaluating a little differently.
HQs in apocalypse shouldn't really be considered for their combat potential for the most part, and instead should be seen as "Which buffs benefit this detachment the most?" Admech HQs are blessed with BS2+ ranged weapons for the most part which is not nothing, and they have good defenses, but they are fairly expensive compared to other factions' basic HQs and Admech do not have a particularly great HQ for farming up cards.
Techpriest Dominus
7PL
Pros: Reroll 1s shooting buff is great for a ton of Admech stuff, he repairs vehicles, he has a half-decent shooting attack with .348 damage vs Inf or Veh, and he's pretty dang tough with a 4+sv
Cons: Most PL7 HQs are sporting Terminator armor, granting them Deep Strike. The TPD has the defense, but lacks the ability to just show up anywhere on the board no matter how fast the things he's trying to follow are. His 6" movespeed can also make him bad at keeping up with faster melee units.
Belisarius Cawl
10PL
Pros: A 2W HQ! Wow! Doesn't die instantaneously to the first large blast he suffers! And he also grants a full to hit reroll. Those two things alone probably make him worth the extra 3PL over a TPD. He also self-repairs, generates an extra command card, and repairs any Imperium unit not just Admech/Questor Mechanicus.
Cons: The Range of his tantalizingly good Solar Atomizer means he probably will never use it. Also all the same cons from the TPD.
Techpriest Manipulus
6PL
pros: Slightly cheaper than a Dominus, really helps out certain low range units like Electropriests, Breachers and Vanguard.
Cons: His aura doesn't actually make things better at killing. It just makes them able to kill. So you have to pair him with units like Vanguard, who would unequivocally be better at kililng if they could just be in range. And would it kill them to give Admech an HQ that moves faster than 6"?
Techpriest Enginseer
5PL
Pros: The cheapest HQ. That's literally it. He's for when you want to draw a card, but you have no use for buffs or shooting attacks.
Cons: What a step down for that 1-2PL you save. He's worse at surviving, fighting, no shooting attack, no auras, just gets to repair. Other factions get "Just repairs gak" guys for like 2-3PL.
Cybernetica Datasmith
5PL
Pros: slightly tougher than an enginseer
Cons: A Techpriest Enginseer who fights worse and can only repair robots and is also an Elite choice. So you could...complete a Vanguard with him? But kastalans are Heavy so that doesn't really help you much. Take him if you're like "Man I've got these Electropriests in Transports and I could really use a command card but I don't want to take a third unit and a Manipulus to make them longer range. Might also pair nicely with Infiltrators due to 24" command range?
Now to look at some of our non-troop units! Since Battlefield Role matters a little less in Apoc, I'll be dividing up these sections by "actual battlefield role" - i.e. what the unit wants to be doing and what kinds of detachments it fits into. First, let's look at the Assaulters!
Sicarian Ruststalkers
4PL for 5, 10PL for 10
Role: Assaulters
Durability: 2PL per 8+ wound, Light LD5
Mobility: takes 2 turns to get to combat on foot
Preferred Partners: Sydonian Dragoons, Inquisitors since Unquestionable Wisdom is better than Cybernetics for them, Fulgurite Electropriests
Damage: 1.5 Inf, 1.05 Veh
They get the 2 wounds at 5 man and cost less so that's probably the best unit size to run them at. At 10 man it's pretty easy to drop them to critical thanks to LD5 (They're a lot more annoying with an inquisitor buddy! He's a super cheap HQ who grants LD7!) But their damage is not to be underestimated for the cost.
Ironstrider Dragoon
5PL, 15PL for 3, 30PL for 6
Role: Assaulters
Durability: 5PL per 7+ wound, Heavy, LD7. Always -1 to hit.
Mobility: Gets into combat turn 2
Preferred Partners: Techpriests, Fulgurites, Ruststalkers
Damage: 1.11 Inf .88 Veh
You definitely want to run them 3-man, which gets them out of the "always next to 2" restriction for unit coherency and lets you advance them as a single file column, stretching back as far as possible so your repairing HQs can keep pace. They're much less likely to tank 3 wounds in a single turn than they are to tank 1, so I don't like splitting them up into 1 man squads. Less damage than Rustalkers, and slightly less durable, but you can repair them and they're Heavy. Jezzails are kind of an interesting proposition, they change the unit into basically an Advancer that deals .486 damage to light infantry characters while on the move. you can take it as a semi-support piece on an advancer detachment with Vanguard and Breachers, and it'll be fairly decent? If the Jezzail version could be a Warlord it'd be one of the best HQs we've got. But it can't. Still more of an interesting proposition than it is in 40k.
Fulgurite Electropriests
3PL for 5, up to 12PL for 20
Role: Assaulters
Durability: 3PL per 10+ Ld6 wound with Ignore Damage 5+, becomes 6+sv if they kill something
Mobility: arrives in combat turn 3 if untransported
Preferred Partners: Skorpius Duneriders, Termite assault drills
Damage: .887 Inf, .666 Veh
Slightly less damage than Ruststalkers, in order to get mileage out of their ability you probably want them at a 10-man squad. A good detachment IMO would be Electropriests x10 in a Drill riding along with a TPD, with infiltrators filling out the remainder of the detachment., allowing you to deploy the Infiltrators anywhere so long as you deep strike the drill somewhere 24" away.
Terrax Assault Drill
12PL
Role: Assaulter/Advancer
Durability: 6PL per 5+ heavy wound
Mobility: Can shoot with an Advance after deep strike or can Fight with an Assault.
Preferred Partners: Ruststalkers, Fulgurites, Corpuscarii, Hoplites
Damage: (Heavy Flamers) 1.16 Inf, .666 Veh. (Melta Cutter) .11 Inf .5 Veh (Melee Drill) 1.16 Inf or Veh
Ideal situation is you deep strike in, Advance right up to enemy lines, and you have an infantry target to flame and a vehicle target to melta. Stuff yourself with melee units and hope the enemy shoots you up so you can have an unrestricted Assault action in the next turn. If you're pairing this with other Assaulter units, it doesn't mind assaulting off a deep strike, it just deals slightly less damage with the drill than with shooting. Its biggest advantage over the scorpius is the fact it carries 12 models, so it can have your HQ plus a 10-man unit.
Secutarii Hoplites
5PL for 10, 10PL per....10? That's a typo. Should say 20.
Role: Assaulter
Durability: 2.5PL per 7+ light wound, LD5
Mobility: Would get into combat turn 3 on foot, definitely give them a drill or a scorpius.
Preferred Partners: Fulgurites, Drill, Scorpius.
Damage: .666 Inf, .777 Veh
Their ability is interesting, ideal situation would be to throw the smallest unit of them possible into the deadliest enemy melee combatant like a titan or harlequins and just go to town with that ability. Less upfront damage and less durability than other competing units, however, and 6" move can be somewhat limiting, you definitely don't want to try and sprint these guys like you could Ironstriders or the like.
Corpuscarii Electropriests
4PL per 5 up to 20
Role: Advancer
Durability: 4PL per 10+ LD6 Ignore Damage 5+ wound
Range: 12"
Preferred Partners: Scorpius
Damage: 1.16 Inf, .8325 Veh
Biggest advantage that they have is they deal the same damage in melee as shooting, so your opponent just can not tie them up. Larger unit sizes woudl be better if not for the mobility issue, so 10-man in a transport is probably the best you can do. They are very effective mounted in a scorpius regardless.
Kastelan Punchbots
7PL for 2 up to 6
Role: Assaulter
Durability: 3.5PL per 5+ Heavy Wound Ld8
Range: gets to combat turn 2 on foot
Preferred Partners: Techpriest repair units, Ruststalkers, Ironstriders
Damage: 1.56 Inf or Veh
Fairly tanky, decently damaging, and if your opponent ignores them you can go into Tank Mode dropping your damage by only a small percentage and getting a 4+ save. These guys are fairly effective Assaulter units. If you pair them with Ironstriders they are basically immune to leadership entirely. The only problem is gettting them into a card-drawing detachment, since they're the only Assaulter admech have in their slot, and there's no Assaulter troop unit to make a Patrol out of.Best to just slot them into other Assaulter Vanguard detachments and accept they won't be contributing to your card draw.
Scorpius Dunerider
7PL
Role: Assaulter
Durability: 3.5PL per 6+ wound
Range: gets whatever is inside it into combat turn 2.
Preferred Partners: Electropriests, Ruststalkers, Secutarii Hoplites, Vanguard
Damage: 1.11 Inf, .666 Veh
Sadly if loaded with assault units you probably want to ignore its decent firepower output to guarantee them the assault turn 2. If your opponent ignores it, go to town. Good damage, good speed, good transport.
Now, the stationary gunline combatants, the aimer units.
Onager Dunecrawler
PL 8
Role: Aimer
Durability: 4PL per 5+ Heavy wound, LD7, gains a 4+ save if it has another Onager within 6"
Range: Only one main gun with less than 48" range. Stubbers 36".
Preferred Partners: More Onagers, TP Dominus
Damage: (Assuming Aimed Fire and extra Stubber for all weapons)
.347 inf .208veh
Eradication Beamer: 1.32 Inf, 1.18 Veh
Neutron Laser+Extra Stub: .977 Inf, 1.804 Veh
Icarus Array: .7635 Inf, 1.53 Veh
Onagers: Killer in groups of 3. 4+ save with the Admech faction trait and the damage this thing puts down is...really really good. Just for the love of god, screen them, because you do not want your opponent turning off your Neutron lasers and forcing you to attack with the armored feet. Weapon choice may seem like a bit of a no-brainer, the Icarus Array only does very slightly more against supersonic flyers than the Neutron laser, but keep in mind the Neutron Laser is a bit all or nothing. With a Dominus nearby you are hitting on 2+ rerollable and only a 1 or 2 fails to wound, just be aware you will feel it when that laser fails to wound. Also, long range anti-infantry in apocalypse is...bizarrely hard to come by, so the Beamer might be worth a look just on that count as well. I think the real choice is between Beamer and Laser personally. The twin PB is the victim of the fact that it's balanced for Kastelan Robots, and not against the Onagers other weapons systems: It is just worse than the Beamer.
Scorpius Disintegrator
PL 8, +1 for Belleros
Role: Aimer
Durability: 4PL per 6+ Light wound (4.5 if armed with Belleros)
Range: 48" main gun, 36" secondary guns
Preferred Partners: Onagers Robots Dominuses you know the drill.
Damage: Ferrumite: 1.25 Inf, 1.11 Veh
Belleros: 1.74 Inf, 1.39 Veh
I think the Belleros is the only one worth talking about personally. The Ferrumite's role is filled better by the Onager. The main thing the belleros offers is Barrage, allowing it to snipe infantry characters very well. Use it for that. Otherwise, I believe the Onager is just a better version of this thing.
Kastelan Shootbots
PL7 per 2 up to 6.
Role: Aaimer
Durability: 3.5PL per 5+ heavy wound
Range: 36".
Preferred Partners: Onagers, Disintegrators, regular Techpriests
Damage: 2.835 Inf, 2.03 veh
That damage amount should stand out to you. That is a ton of damage. They also do not need a Dominus to follow them around because with Aimed Fire they reroll everything, but unless your whole detachment is shootbots someone could probably use the reroll 1s aura. Only downside to them vs Onagers is the defensive profile of the Onagers when they get their 4+ save. You don't really want to give up the +1 to hit from aimed fire and the full reroll to hit to get your robots a 4+.
Ironstrider Ballistari
PL6 per 1 up to 6.
Role: Aimer
Durability: 6PL per 8+ heavy wound
Range: 48".
Preferred Partners: The..shelf?
Damage: Autocannons: .694 Inf or Veh, Lascannons 1.09 Veh.
Not even remotely worth talking about. This should be a PL4 vehicle for what it does. Also, it doesn't get the Incense cloud ability from the Dragoons, so its durability is pitiful. Take onagers. Take robots. Take anything else.
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