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Hey guys, would appreciate any feedback or help you can give me on this army list. I'm struggling and pretty overwhelmed for a couple of reasons. I've been collecting and painting warhammer on and off for quite a few years but never played a game or built an army (always wanted to), so I don't understand what I should be looking out for as I don't have any experience with games. Also, I originally had some idea of a list (1000 points) when I started collecting skitarii a couple of years ago however RL came up so I took a small hiatus and since then, a new codex and new ruleset (8E) was brought out which has messed around what I had/what was recommended. As such, I thought I'd work back from the basics and start with a 500 point list and take it from there.

Some things worth mentioning, some unit loadouts I would agree (with my limited knowledge) aren't ideal for 500 points - like my Alpha with the arc maul/arc and my amount of arc rifles - however, they're already glued together and painted, as this was for my original 1000 point army list. I'm not too fussed if they aren't the most ideal for 500 points (as long as it's not trash) but just as long as they work together in the grand scheme of things my goal of 1000 points.

Thanks in advance! Hope the intro wasn't too long-winded!

++ Unbound Army (Faction) (Imperium - Adeptus Mechanicus) [32 PL, 499pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Forge World Choice
. Forge World: Mars

+ HQ +

Tech-Priest Dominus [7 PL, 90pts]: Macrostubber, Volkite Blaster

+ Troops +

Skitarii Rangers [4 PL, 72pts]: Omnispex
. Ranger Alpha: Galvanic Rifle
. 2x Skitarii Ranger
. 2x Skitarii Ranger (Transuranic Arquebus): 2x Transuranic Arquebus

Skitarii Vanguards [7 PL, 118pts]: Enhanced Data-Tether
. 6x Skitarii Vanguard
. 3x Skitarii Vanguard (Plasma Caliver): 3x Plasma Caliver
. Vanguard Alpha: Radium Carbine

Skitarii Vanguards [7 PL, 100pts]
. 6x Skitarii Vanguard
. 3x Skitarii Vanguard (Arc Rifle): 3x Arc Rifle
. Vanguard Alpha: Arc Maul, Arc Pistol

+ Heavy Support +

Onager Dunecrawler [7 PL, 119pts]: Cognis Heavy Stubber
. Neutron Laser and Cognis Heavy Stubber: Cognis Heavy Stubber, Neutron Laser

++ Total: [32 PL, 499pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I’ve been advised that I should convert the army into a battalion for more CP. I can do this with my current models by removing the 3 vanguards with arc rifles and the 5 man ranger squad and adding in an enginseer, so I might do this too.

Hey there, i'm also an admech player and a collector. Your list seems good, considering that points are only 500. My suggestions are;
- Belisarius cawl (a solid support character, and the model is amazing)
- Kataphron Destroyers (a big unit of these provide much needed fire support against heavy infantry and tanks)
- kastellan robots (equip these with 3x heavy phosphor blaster, and you'll have a nice platform of dakka against hordes)

Note that at 500 points, the bonus rerolls the dom provides are a little weak because he has not got but so many units to grant rerolls to.
Its better to have command points to give the dunecrawler or the arquebuses pluses to hit, or the plasma weapons.
If you have a second engenseer, you could downgrade one dom to 2 engseer and I believe the army could do better with 30 points less on the table (but I assume of course, you have a few things to use those 30 points for, that you didn't bring here.)
I am mostly a gaurd player -- but when I was new to playing, I used to run my 500 point army with two separate regiment doctrines in it, usually a battalion from each of 2, so that I could see what I wanted to use later on. In your case, stygies is a good possible buff for the backline gaurd group (transuranics), or graa (don't make me spell that) gives you a bit of antipsyker power in an army very vulnerable to repeated psyk attacks. If your 1 dom became THREE engseer and you split one squad of 10 into 2 squads of 5, you could start with a battalion of mars AND a patrol from another craftworld, letting you experiement a bit to see how -1 to be hit really helps the backfield or the big mech, or how useful which is compared to what. For example, you might consider putting the plasma unit in a ryza patrol -- and experiment with that strategem combination to hit at +1 wound rolls and +1 damage per shot. (Ryza can also benefit from enhanced datatether / strategem for even more extra pluses to hit. Maybe that makes your little army have a second seriously dangerous punch agaisnt enemy big targets -- in case your crawler is taken out first.) If I were new to playing admech, I would probably run the patrol a different way every game till I saw what everything could interact with and how.

I hope this isn't coming across condescending, but you did say "new". Of course, if your heart is mars, go mars, but if it isn't, its maybe worth trying different styles.

 Spreelock wrote:
Hey there, i'm also an admech player and a collector. Your list seems good, considering that points are only 500. My suggestions are;
- Belisarius cawl (a solid support character, and the model is amazing)
- Kataphron Destroyers (a big unit of these provide much needed fire support against heavy infantry and tanks)
- kastellan robots (equip these with 3x heavy phosphor blaster, and you'll have a nice platform of dakka against hordes)

Thanks for the reply man! How would you recommend incorporating them into the list?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Dukeofstuff wrote:
Note that at 500 points, the bonus rerolls the dom provides are a little weak because he has not got but so many units to grant rerolls to.
Its better to have command points to give the dunecrawler or the arquebuses pluses to hit, or the plasma weapons.
If you have a second engenseer, you could downgrade one dom to 2 engseer and I believe the army could do better with 30 points less on the table (but I assume of course, you have a few things to use those 30 points for, that you didn't bring here.)
I am mostly a gaurd player -- but when I was new to playing, I used to run my 500 point army with two separate regiment doctrines in it, usually a battalion from each of 2, so that I could see what I wanted to use later on. In your case, stygies is a good possible buff for the backline gaurd group (transuranics), or graa (don't make me spell that) gives you a bit of antipsyker power in an army very vulnerable to repeated psyk attacks. If your 1 dom became THREE engseer and you split one squad of 10 into 2 squads of 5, you could start with a battalion of mars AND a patrol from another craftworld, letting you experiement a bit to see how -1 to be hit really helps the backfield or the big mech, or how useful which is compared to what. For example, you might consider putting the plasma unit in a ryza patrol -- and experiment with that strategem combination to hit at +1 wound rolls and +1 damage per shot. (Ryza can also benefit from enhanced datatether / strategem for even more extra pluses to hit. Maybe that makes your little army have a second seriously dangerous punch agaisnt enemy big targets -- in case your crawler is taken out first.) If I were new to playing admech, I would probably run the patrol a different way every game till I saw what everything could interact with and how.

I hope this isn't coming across condescending, but you did say "new". Of course, if your heart is mars, go mars, but if it isn't, its maybe worth trying different styles.

Man, that is great I love it. Your not condescending at all, I'm really as fresh and new as can be, almost all the stat talk goes over my head. I like what you're saying here though! It's along my line of thinking when I said I was going to start from basics at 500 points and work my way up to 1000 once I learn the army and game a bit more as I'll know what I'm lacking and what I need. I did not however think to try multiple army lists/builds out to figure out how each one plays and where their strengths and synergies lie. Thank you for that tip!

Is my list okay then, aside from you recommendation of adding more seers and mixing it up every game?

Of course it is!. I would consider adding in a skorpius disintigrator tank with the mortar gun as one of the things you put in it later, because indirect fire is a very useful aspect of the game to understand. The hovertank transport similarly is a good idea, it would give your troops some mobility and you some experience getting troops in and out of position and in and out of transport. Its not even a battalion, because to the VERY new player, cp are not critically important. The cataphron breacher units or demolisher units are good too.

You can build for "win at all costs" later, right now, your real win condition is trying out every aspect of the game as much as you can.

Dukeofstuff wrote:
Of course it is!. I would consider adding in a skorpius disintigrator tank with the mortar gun as one of the things you put in it later, because indirect fire is a very useful aspect of the game to understand. The hovertank transport similarly is a good idea, it would give your troops some mobility and you some experience getting troops in and out of position and in and out of transport. Its not even a battalion, because to the VERY new player, cp are not critically important. The cataphron breacher units or demolisher units are good too.

You can build for "win at all costs" later, right now, your real win condition is trying out every aspect of the game as much as you can.

Wonderful, thank you so much for your help. I am completely on board with your train of thought. Any army list is fine (within reason) and at this stage of the game I should be experimenting, failing even and trying out new things so that the 500 point list gets refined into something I know works for me and thus I'll know what I'm lacking or need for 1000 points. Thank you too for your other unit recommendations, I will look into them!

Your advice has been incredibly helpful and I definitely feel a lot less overwhelmed and you've quelled my anxiety, thank you!

Compound -

The other posters have given great advice for things you might build towards. I know when I first started out, getting the mechanics right was itself pretty tricky and I liked to keep it simple. I suspect if you built using Getting Started kits, you could do this pretty straight forward with minor proxying.

Battalion
Dominus (90)
Tech Priest (30)

Vanguard (40)
Vanguard (40)
Vanguard (40)

Onager w/ AAA package (~112)
Onager w/ AAA package (~112)

You should have 36 points left over for later experimentation:
Troop Special Weapons (could swap one squad for rangers with arquebuses)
Data-Tethers
Upgrades to the Dominus
Swapping the Tech Priest for Daedolosus
Swapping the AAAs for Neutron Lasers, etc.

The nice thing about the list is that you only have to worry about 4 sheets at the beginning. Mars is great because you have volume of fire from both the Vanguard and the Onagers for the MW stratagem. Stygies III is also solid because you never really need to get within 12" to achieve full volume of fire. The two Onagers also provide enough of a fire pool to justify the Dominus's higher cost for his aura.

It's a good starting point to take things are you point and allows you to either play it safe or aggressively.

 Red Acolyte wrote:
The nice thing about the list is that you only have to worry about 4 sheets at the beginning. Mars is great because you have volume of fire from both the Vanguard and the Onagers for the MW stratagem. Stygies III is also solid because you never really need to get within 12" to achieve full volume of fire. The two Onagers also provide enough of a fire pool to justify the Dominus's higher cost for his aura.

It's a good starting point to take things are you point and allows you to either play it safe or aggressively.

Thank you so much for your help, Red! You're right, that is a very easy basic list than I should be able to make no problem, and it allows me to experiment and swap out things to try out Dukeofstuff's philosophy! I think I will most definitely be giving that list a go in order to experiment and learn how everything interacts with each other. I will have to explain to my opponent that I'm new and just proxying a few things whilst I learn the game/army. Thank you!

As you're brand new to the game, don't worry too much about being competitive at this stage. Sure, you want to make sure you're not wasting money, but the good news is that admech are a strong faction at the moment, and everything in your list is a good unit that you'll probably find a use for in larger lists.

There are a few good choices you can look at to expand on this list.

If you're sticking with Mars (it's my favourite, but there are reasons you might differ), then grab Belisarius Cawl. His buffs can boost your gunline to a large degree and he's a cracking model to boot.

The Skorpius Disintegrator is a fantastic unit that can give you reliable long-range out of line-of-sight shooting to back up your gunline.

Kataphrons, both Breachers and Destroyers, are back in vogue right now after being ignored for most of 8th so far. A combination of continued points decreases, great rules in Vigilus and some helpful new support characters have made them a solid choice. For Destroyers, running them as Ryza and combining the plasma stratagems with the Vigilus rules can make them devastating. Breachers are seeing a lot of play right now, but I have to confess I'm not totally sure of the strategies being used with them at the moment.

The Kastelan Robots are very cool (and can further buff your Kataphrons), though they can be a trap if invested in too heavily. Their firepower is terrifying (and with a huge mortal wound output potential with Wrath of Mars), but to make the most of their potential they need to stay still, and can't change out of their protocol until your next turn. This leaves them very susceptible to being locked in combat if they're not successfully screened or otherwise protected.

Speaking of Wrath of Mars, Infiltrators with flechette pistols can throw out a silly amount of very weak shots that won't even scratch the paint on most things, but are a great vehicle for Wrath of Mars for some nasty deep-striking mortal wound surprises. They're tougher than normal Skitarii at two wounds, but will still drop like flies to anything more than a lasgun.

Despite the new transport, the Terrax drill still sees use, and can be a huge threat loaded up with Electro-priests. Not only are the priest capable of putting out a large number of attacks (and then getting a 3++ when they kill something), but the drill itself is a real threat in combat with its mortal wound output.

Sydonian Dragoons have always been a bit of a sleeper favourite in the army, and I personally get a lot of value from them. They're fast, fairly durable with an inbuilt -1 to hit, and can really dish out the hurt with a large number of high-strength attacks in combat. I use them a lot to deploy forward and march up the field, zoning out deep-strikers and creating a threat that your opponent can't ignore for long. This keeps some heat away from other targets in your army turn 1.

At the moment, there really aren't any truly bad units in the codex. The Tech Priest Dominus is OK, but outclassed massively as a support character by Cawl and as a mandatory HQ choice by the much cheaper Enginseer. The Datasmith can be considered to be superfluous as its main role can be fulfilled by a stratagem, but the strat doesn't let you change the robots' protocol back, so he has a place I think.