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Yea I understand phosphor is a good tagging tool too for more shots with less cover saves, especially -2 from lumagen and the omnispex

I like killy giant robots though

I believe the WD also mentions that the tracked servitors can also take phosphor guns

 WrentheFaceless wrote:
Yea I understand phosphor is a good tagging tool too for more shots with less cover saves, especially -2 from lumagen and the omnispex

I like killy giant robots though

I believe the WD also mentions that the tracked servitors can also take phosphor guns

I saw a Gamma Gun on one. That's looking interesting. I'm really liking the Str6 AP2 Armorbane pistols.

I've been out of the game for about a year now so I've only finally just read up on the new Blood Angels dex and its supplements. So basically, due to all those fast attack slots that can be had in the Flesh Tearers supplement (6!), to me, it seems, for now at least lol, that BA + Skitarii is a quite competitive (and very unfluffy lol) combo.

That setup allows for a massive alpha strike. Skitarii supplies the shooty, BA supplies the pods and a beatstick or two through HQs and units. Heck, with scouts as troops, between the pods and the scouts you could even do a null deployment if need be.

Just finished a day of 500pt games with Skitarii, figured I'd report back on some things.

Vanguard are hilariously effective. 10man squad, 2 Arc Rifles (only bought two boxes), and an omnispex served as a very good core to move around. The 6+ FNP was deceptively useful. Cut casualties noticeably, and scout truly minimized the range issues of rad carbines. Trick here, as with the rest of the army, was ensuring I got the first shot - I don't fancy giving too many chances for the enemy to shoot my dudes.

5x rangers w/ two snipers and an omnispex, while not points-efficient, were a versatile unit. Always being able to threaten something was nice. Kept a Lasback in check for a couple turns, made a Ghost Ark think twice, and forced a Chaos Lord to join units he didn't want to be in just to avoid rolling saves. Psychological win if nothing else.

Ruststalkers. Ooooh Ruststalkers. By no means the statistical norm, but these crazy ninja robots slapped down a Dark Eldar Archon (failed a blind test by the Conversion Field and got punked by a Prehensile Dataspike). Dunestrider makes them ABSURDLY fast, grenades + claws give them a very versatile threat range. Again, careful maneuvering keeps them alive much longer (Princeps warlord getting shrouded trait helped a lot) and the invul save is nice to have. Again, statistical anomaly, rolled 4/ 7 6++ against TH/SS terminators. As a one-of (between them and infiltrators) I'd take them every time (but comboing the two is definitely ideal).

And a Syndonian Dragoon. One works wonders at low points (immunity to small-arms fire and all). Can't quite make a call - he either got 7/4 hits or 3/4. Doubtless better in squadrons (ran with the lance). Single phosphor serpenta never did anything, maybe three will - but again, never failed a charge with Dunestrider.

The army feels very glass-cannony without Onagers. Finesse and synergy won the day (3/4 games won, one loss was to PHENOMENAL luck on objective card draws, 5-7 final score, I lost five models and he had five left playing as space marines). My enemies were marines, dark eldar, necrons, and daemonkin.

Excellent report obsidiankatana. Thanks for that.

So this is looking to be one of those rare armies where everything is viable. (except Ballistarii, I stand by that but they may become better.)

I'm currently looking to building a solid core to build my lists around. By analyzing posts in this thread, I have come up with the following.

Vanguard Squad w/ 3x Arc Rifles (Anti-Vehicle and objective taker)

2x 5 man Ranger squads w/ 1x Arquebus each (Stationary objective holders)

Vanguard Squad w/ 3x Plasma Caliver (Gunboat unit, placed in a Rhino or Drop Pod using ally abuse)

Infiltrator Squad w/ Goads + Flechettes (Close assault and objective defense)

Ruststalker Squad (Paired with Infiltrators, same role)

2x Sydonian Dragoons

Useful 950 point core. I can add things to it to tailor to opponent as necessary.

Copied and pasted from my post on Warseer:

OK, so I just played a 1000 point game against my cousins BA list. Since there's a distinct lack of bat reps for Skitarii I'll summarize what happened:

He had (roughly):
HQ - Priest
TROOPS - 2x 5 man Scout Squads with Snipers and HB
FA - 1x 10 man RAS with Melta and Meltabombs (combat squadded)
FA - 3x Land Speeders with 2x HB each
HS - 2x Predators with TLLC and HB sponsons

My list:
5x Rangers - 2x Arq
10x Vanguard - Warlord, Conversion Field, Phoenix, Taser Goad, 2x Calivers, Omnispex
10x Vanguard - Refractor Field, 2x Arc Rifles, 1x Arc Pistol, 1x Arc Maul
2x Dragoons - Lances
5x Ruststalkers - Datapsike
1x Onager - Neutron, Extra HStubber
1x Onager - Neutron, Extra HStubber

We played long Crusade with 5 objectives and he went first. Suffice to say it went very badly for me. It was essentially a paper (me) vs scissors (him) game. There was heavy bolter shots flying all over the place, and they absolutely decimated my infantry. Even in cover if you have to roll for 8 or 9 wounds from HB you're in a world of trouble. My dice rolling was diabolical, but even if it had been statistically average, I think I would have struggled.

I lost my Rangers and one of the Dragoons early, whilst the Vanguards whiffed their rolls for moving through terrain and did nothing until the Land Speeders danced out from behind cover and shredded them over two turns. One of the Dragoons hugged cover and charged a Predator and removed it in one turn, which was impressive! Before my first Onager was deleted by Melta ASM one shotting it, it removed a combat squad of RAS who were in cover and took a hull point off one Predator. These guys are should be a staple of ANY list. I'd love to get two more of them and run 2x units of 2. The second Onager hid in cover on the far corner of the board, away from the action, and slaughtered a unit of Scouts and chipped and failed miserably at trying to remove the second Pred.

My infantry hugged cover for most of the game in an effort to make a last ditch rush for the objectives, or to pop out and use my doctrina for the +3 BS when an opportune target presented itself. Unfortunately the far more maneuverable BA list just didn't allow them to do that, and they were pretty ineffective for the whole game. My Ruststalkers followed behind them, but tried to scoot out from cover to get into an optimal assault position and whiffed their movement dice and were thusly exterminated by a hail of sniper rifle and heavy bolter shots (I failed 6 out of 7 FNP rolls in one round, after not making a single 5+ cover save on them!).

It was a slaughter, though I believe I learned a lot from it. This is some quick bullet points on what I think is crucial for an all-Skitarii force:
1. Glass cannon is an understatement. They drop like flies, even when in cover. AP4 weapons are generally fairly high S and moderate to high ROF. Autocannons and HB are the hard counter for our infantry, and Ironstriders/Dragoons don't like them when there's tons of them either. I would hate to play against Tau with Burst Cannons, MPods and SMS! I think our guys being T4 would be really nice, though they would need to cost a few more pts per model.
2. Onagers do the heavy lifting. One with an Icarus array for AA duty at higher points levels would be handy, but they should essentially always be taken with the Neutron Laser and the extra HS. The HS force saves on heavy infantry, and the AP1 blast is great for pretty much everything. With the right use of doctrines, they can pretty much never scatter.
3. We have nothing to tank. Onager's aren't TO bad, but AV12 and a meager invulnerable save is not that great. At higher points levels and units of 2 or 3, especially if you take one or all of them with IWND, they could tank a bit better. Even at 1k points I think a Knight is almost mandatory as a huge fire magnet to allow our slow infantry to get into good positions.
4. I don't rate Ruststalkers. I wish I'd taken Infiltrators instead, as they could've made a real mess of the Scout Squads and the Land Speeders by popping up behind them. I could see RS being good with a transport (assault ramp required) though...Even with 2 wounds they just go down like flies, and can be instant deathed by krak missiles to boot.
5. Dragoons are excellent - if they make combat. They're damn near impossible to hide behind terrain, though the incense cloud mitigates that somewhat. Try to keep them away from anything S4 with volume of attacks (i.e. any Marine squad) or Krak/Melta bombs (i.e. pretty much any Marine squad lol). They really enjoy murderising light infantry (not big blobs though - think Heavy Weapon Teams, Fire Warriors, Vets etc) and are positively daemonic against the rear armour of any vehicles (S8 with 4 attacks on the charge, ouch!).
6. Rangers - bring them in units of 10 with either 3 Arq'd or none. I think with the Arq's you either go hard or go home, and they die to easily to be in squads of 5. And to be fair the Galvanic Rifle is pretty nasty on a cover hugging camping unit as is. Precision Shots can put force saves on characters or special weapons with decent rolls.
7. Vanguards - need cover! AP4 is pretty easy to get in most lists, and even weapons with high ROF that don't negate their armour save will force you to make enough saves because of T3 that you may be relying on the near-useless 6+ FNP. If there was a Vanguard/Ranger only formation (maybe 2 units of Vanguard and 1 unit of Rangers) that gave them 5+ FNP and maybe move through cover, or even Dunestrider, they'd be far more formidable.

Right, sorry about the wall of text, but that's my conclusions from the games I've played so far. They're definitely an interesting army to play: less maneuverable than DE, but arguably more firepower, with the same tissue paper defence. It will be really interesting to see how the Cult Mechanicus units enhance this list. If Praetorians are T4 and troops (which I've read rumors indicating that they are), they will most likely make Rangers redundant. Castellan spam with the phosphor blaster seems like an auto-include, as they can tank and delete a lot of units in one round of shooting. A unit of them with fists for counter attack would be really interesting as well. Hide them behind your battle line, or even use them as the fire magnet, and they'd be a pretty intimidating assault target.

As painful as the last game was, I look forward to trying them out against a TAC list, and not AP4 spam. Hopefully my luck holds up next time as well!

Thanks for the report, exsanguis! I agree with your opinions on many of the units.

So my first (proper) game is going to be today (I hope!). I am going to be using my Tautology Club list against a GK list consisting of the following.
GK - Nemesis Strike Force


He'll most likely ally in some random Fire Warriors for objectivs camping, but if he doesn't bring an HQ with them I can deny his deepstrikes due to the game being Unbound.
Everything starts on the board except for the NDK. Paladins are in the Land Raider.

Due to the sheer amount of Daemonhammers and AP4, I'm not counting on any of my Skits getting saves or FNP.
Most of my army is Tau, so I will be able to kill large quantities of MEQs each turn.

Lots of people note that the Skitarii need a centerpiece model in order to draw fire. I've been tweaking lists of all kinds of point costs lately to combine my Steel Host formation with Skitarii. I think 5 AV14 chassis ought to do the trick!

The Steel Host-
HQ-
Tank Commander Executioner (dat delicious Preferred Enemy rule) w/ LC and PC
Executioner squadronmate w/ LC and PC

Hydra
Squad 1-
LRBT (stock)
Squad 2-
LR Exterminator w/ MM and LC
Squad 3-
LR Eradicator w/ HB Boat

This formation serves as the base. At 1500 I would take from Skitarii-

Rangers-
5 man, 2x TA sniper, Omnispex
Vanguard-
7 Man, 2x Caliver, Omnispex (had some extra points for 2 guys)
Vanguard-
5 Man, 2x Arc Rifle, 1x Arc Pistol

Infiltrators-
5 man. (Not sure if I should take Conversion Field or Infoslave skull here).

@ 1850
Rangers-
5 man 2 TA sniper, Omnispex
Vanguard-
5 man 2 Arc Rifle, Arc Pistol
Vanguard-
10 man 2 Caliver, Omnispex

Infiltrators-
Infoslave/Conv. Field

Blood Angels Allied Detachment-
HQ- Techmarine
2x Servo Arm servitors

Troops-
5 man bolter scouts

Elite-
6 man Death Company, 1 power fist

Fast-
1 Drop Pod

The tactics for both is pretty obvious, but the 1500 point list would need to be run more defensively than offensively since the Skitarii are going on foot. I would have taken another DC to bring the squad to 7 but the list would have been over by 1 measly point, so I took 2 servitors instead. Never know when that repair might come in handy for those Leman Russ tanks.

Mass AV 14, that'll sure take the focus off of the Skitarii lol!

With other detachments, especially two other detachments I would not bother with any CC elements from the Sktarii codex. Better to just focus on the shooting I think.

Also rather than 5 bolter guys how about 5 scouts with sniper rifles and camo cloaks?

Super Newb wrote:
Mass AV 14, that'll sure take the focus off of the Skitarii lol!

With other detachments, especially two other detachments I would not bother with any CC elements from the Sktarii codex. Better to just focus on the shooting I think.

Also rather than 5 bolter guys how about 5 scouts with sniper rifles and camo cloaks?

If by CC elements you mean Infiltrators, they aren't exactly dedicated CC, they aren't a beatstick anyway. They're more of a debuff unit that's meant to tie up, distract, or disable enemy units that are major threats to the rest of the army, a devastator squad for example or a Laspred, they could easily destroy the Laspred with the Tasergoads, and at the very least tie up the Devs in CC or neuter them by reducing their stats with the neurostatic aura.

I went with 5 bolter scouts because the camo cloaks and sniper rifles cost points I didn't have I would rather have another threat for the opponent to consider in the Death Company squad.

 ultimentra wrote:
I went with 5 bolter scouts because the camo cloaks and sniper rifles cost points I didn't have

I thought a bare tactical squad was the same price as 5 scouts with camo cloaks and sniper rifles?

Edit - Whoops, I can't read, you said bolter scouts lol.

 ultimentra wrote:
If by CC elements you mean Infiltrators, they aren't exactly dedicated CC, they aren't a beatstick anyway. They're more of a debuff unit that's meant to tie up, distract, or disable enemy units that are major threats to the rest of the army, a devastator squad for example or a Laspred, they could easily destroy the Laspred with the Tasergoads, and at the very least tie up the Devs in CC or neuter them by reducing their stats with the neurostatic aura.

I went with 5 bolter scouts because the camo cloaks and sniper rifles cost points I didn't have I would rather have another threat for the opponent to consider in the Death Company squad.

The catch is that Taser Infiltrators have a big pile of S6 strikes. Sure, it's all AP-, but against light armor hordes (Orks, Guard, also Guardians/Kabalite Warriors), you'll pretty much crush them in combat. Neurostatic Aura makes Orks/Guardians/Warriors WS3 instead of 4 (and in the case of the Guardians/Warriors, I4), allowing the Infiltrators to beat the gak out of any mediocre-save infantry unit.

5 Infiltrators with Taser Goads will have 16 attacks base- on the charge, this is 21. There aren't a lot of units which are WS5, most are either WS3 or 4, which means the Infiltrators will hit on 3's due to Neurostatic Aura. That's 14 hits base, plus around 4 more from the Taser trait, for about 16 hits, around 12-14 wounds, probably kills around 8-12 enemy models (save dependent). Against, say, Trukk Boyz or MechGuard, you'll decimate-to-wipe a squad every time the Infiltrators get into combat. Incidentally, this is a great reason to charge even a small squad of Infiltrators into larger (~20 models) blobs of horde infantry- you'll crush them just fast enough to come out of combat on your own turn, preventing the "stand around and be shot in the face" problem that happens when you completely overkill a unit in combat.

In a 3 detatchment set up with Skitarii as the primary, list your 2 first choice secondary detatchments.

Im torn between Assasins- Culexus, Inquisitor - Coteaz and Knights.

Whiskey144 wrote:

 ultimentra wrote:
If by CC elements you mean Infiltrators, they aren't exactly dedicated CC, they aren't a beatstick anyway. They're more of a debuff unit that's meant to tie up, distract, or disable enemy units that are major threats to the rest of the army, a devastator squad for example or a Laspred, they could easily destroy the Laspred with the Tasergoads, and at the very least tie up the Devs in CC or neuter them by reducing their stats with the neurostatic aura.

I went with 5 bolter scouts because the camo cloaks and sniper rifles cost points I didn't have I would rather have another threat for the opponent to consider in the Death Company squad.

The catch is that Taser Infiltrators have a big pile of S6 strikes. Sure, it's all AP-, but against light armor hordes (Orks, Guard, also Guardians/Kabalite Warriors), you'll pretty much crush them in combat. Neurostatic Aura makes Orks/Guardians/Warriors WS3 instead of 4 (and in the case of the Guardians/Warriors, I4), allowing the Infiltrators to beat the gak out of any mediocre-save infantry unit.

5 Infiltrators with Taser Goads will have 16 attacks base- on the charge, this is 21. There aren't a lot of units which are WS5, most are either WS3 or 4, which means the Infiltrators will hit on 3's due to Neurostatic Aura. That's 14 hits base, plus around 4 more from the Taser trait, for about 16 hits, around 12-14 wounds, probably kills around 8-12 enemy models (save dependent). Against, say, Trukk Boyz or MechGuard, you'll decimate-to-wipe a squad every time the Infiltrators get into combat. Incidentally, this is a great reason to charge even a small squad of Infiltrators into larger (~20 models) blobs of horde infantry- you'll crush them just fast enough to come out of combat on your own turn, preventing the "stand around and be shot in the face" problem that happens when you completely overkill a unit in combat.

Remember there are doctrine impertitives. You will almost never be charging in with WS4, as you will have either buffed WS at the expense of BS or buffed BS at the expense of WS. The only case in which you will have WS 4 is if you used the +1BS doctrine that turn.

 Exergy wrote:

Whiskey144 wrote:

 ultimentra wrote:
If by CC elements you mean Infiltrators, they aren't exactly dedicated CC, they aren't a beatstick anyway. They're more of a debuff unit that's meant to tie up, distract, or disable enemy units that are major threats to the rest of the army, a devastator squad for example or a Laspred, they could easily destroy the Laspred with the Tasergoads, and at the very least tie up the Devs in CC or neuter them by reducing their stats with the neurostatic aura.

I went with 5 bolter scouts because the camo cloaks and sniper rifles cost points I didn't have I would rather have another threat for the opponent to consider in the Death Company squad.

The catch is that Taser Infiltrators have a big pile of S6 strikes. Sure, it's all AP-, but against light armor hordes (Orks, Guard, also Guardians/Kabalite Warriors), you'll pretty much crush them in combat. Neurostatic Aura makes Orks/Guardians/Warriors WS3 instead of 4 (and in the case of the Guardians/Warriors, I4), allowing the Infiltrators to beat the gak out of any mediocre-save infantry unit.

5 Infiltrators with Taser Goads will have 16 attacks base- on the charge, this is 21. There aren't a lot of units which are WS5, most are either WS3 or 4, which means the Infiltrators will hit on 3's due to Neurostatic Aura. That's 14 hits base, plus around 4 more from the Taser trait, for about 16 hits, around 12-14 wounds, probably kills around 8-12 enemy models (save dependent). Against, say, Trukk Boyz or MechGuard, you'll decimate-to-wipe a squad every time the Infiltrators get into combat. Incidentally, this is a great reason to charge even a small squad of Infiltrators into larger (~20 models) blobs of horde infantry- you'll crush them just fast enough to come out of combat on your own turn, preventing the "stand around and be shot in the face" problem that happens when you completely overkill a unit in combat.

Remember there are doctrine impertitives. You will almost never be charging in with WS4, as you will have either buffed WS at the expense of BS or buffed BS at the expense of WS. The only case in which you will have WS 4 is if you used the +1BS doctrine that turn.

This ^ is why I am still not sure if Infiltrators are better on the board turn 1 for that debuff, or if they are better outflanking.

 Wilson wrote:
In a 3 detatchment set up with Skitarii as the primary, list your 2 first choice secondary detatchments.

Im torn between Assasins- Culexus, Inquisitor - Coteaz and Knights.

Blood Angels beats all of those out. Specifically the formation that gives you 5 or 6 FA slots (so 5 or 6 pods if you want)

Rhinos or Pods for Skitarii?

 Verviedi wrote:
Rhinos or Pods for Skitarii?

I'm thinking both here actually. For a larger point game where most troops come from the Skitarii Maniple, I would say 1 pod, plus 2 Rhinos, or 3 pods and 2 rhinos (going up the point cost ladder of course) seems appropriate to me. 1 Rhino is a target, whereas 2+ are redundancy, the same goes for your drop pod squads. Though this does mean your single pod squad will likely be forfeit after they do their damage. This is my plan anyway. I have 1 pod already, going to be picking up a couple of Rhinos once the new Space Marine stuff either pans out or goes the vaporware route. Glad I actually hit the pause button on my plans for a Sternguard squad in favor of waiting for the Admech rumors to pan out.

Also, anyone else notice that the 2x Arquebus, Omnispex Ranger squad is actually the same point cost as a 2x Caliver, Omnispex Vanguard squad at 125 for 5 man? Some food for thought.

Super Newb wrote:

 Wilson wrote:
In a 3 detatchment set up with Skitarii as the primary, list your 2 first choice secondary detatchments.

Im torn between Assasins- Culexus, Inquisitor - Coteaz and Knights.

Blood Angels beats all of those out. Specifically the formation that gives you 5 or 6 FA slots (so 5 or 6 pods if you want)

Yep, I like Skitarii + BA + Culexus. You can drop in a bunch of pods of Skitarii and a Culexus for any psychic deathstars. The best part about this army is that you can rotate which pods come down first to get the best weapons for the job. Interestingly even 10 naked Vanguard coming in from a pod can be nasty infantry killers.

Alternatively I was thinking of Skitarii + Assassinorum Execution Force + Coteaz. That is a 5+ reroll to seize, so seize initiative more than 50% of the time. With all of the infiltrate and scouting going on in the Skitarii forces you can hit pretty hard. Still I think this is more of a curiosity as the ~25% of the time you don't go first are going to hurt really bad. I really like the infiltrators and ruststalkers but it is just too easy to kill them unless the skitarii player goes first. I have been contemplating several different strategies to toughen this army up but I have not been satisfied. I am do like to mess around with cypher + ruststalkers and inquisitors w/ nades and hammer hand attached to vanguard. Not so sure if it is entirely worthwhile but it has been fun.

Just played a tournament with allied skitarii


You want pods. I am now upping it to two haywire squads and a plasma squad.....so good.

My ad mech army is walker based, using 4 squads of 6 Dragoons and 5 squads of ironstriders (varying size) using maniple and cavalier formation.

Has anyone else had any thoughts on lances vs snipers on the dragoons?

I have tried running 4 squads of lancers, 4 squads of snipers and 2 squads of each- all 3 seem to work and yet all have weaknesses.

Lances are all round great vs any target, be it a knight or a SM bike. There are some units in 40k you can't touch like 2+ rerollable ones. Some fast units like jetbikes can also be difficult to catch. 4 squads with these means you dominate most games melee wise IF you can get them into combat .

The snipers were something I ignored until trying them out once and have been intrigued by them since. They are fantastic against armoured units and even things like jetbikes will be worried if you roll multiple 6s. The cavalier formation also is pretty nifty since it allows reroll to wound vs a squad so the sniper rule becomes even better against them.

The ability to pick off units from range with snipers has been very useful , however they can't really hurt tanks with them yet alone Knights . So by taking snipers you really hurt the anti av quality of the list .

Thoughts? What's everyone else's experiences been with them?

Jpr wrote:
My ad mech army is walker based, using 4 squads of 6 Dragoons and 5 squads of ironstriders (varying size) using maniple and cavalier formation.

I wish I had your dispossable income. That's €228 for each dragoon squad so the 4 dragoon squads alone clock in just above €900

Meanwhile, I'm super-excited I am able to afford 2 (models, not squadrons).

Jpr wrote:
My ad mech army is walker based, using 4 squads of 6 Dragoons and 5 squads of ironstriders (varying size) using maniple and cavalier formation.

Has anyone else had any thoughts on lances vs snipers on the dragoons?

I have tried running 4 squads of lancers, 4 squads of snipers and 2 squads of each- all 3 seem to work and yet all have weaknesses.

Lances are all round great vs any target, be it a knight or a SM bike. There are some units in 40k you can't touch like 2+ rerollable ones. Some fast units like jetbikes can also be difficult to catch. 4 squads with these means you dominate most games melee wise IF you can get them into combat .

The snipers were something I ignored until trying them out once and have been intrigued by them since. They are fantastic against armoured units and even things like jetbikes will be worried if you roll multiple 6s. The cavalier formation also is pretty nifty since it allows reroll to wound vs a squad so the sniper rule becomes even better against them.

The ability to pick off units from range with snipers has been very useful , however they can't really hurt tanks with them yet alone Knights . So by taking snipers you really hurt the anti av quality of the list .

Thoughts? What's everyone else's experiences been with them?

I need to see this for myself.

How many dragoons?? Lol

 Wilson wrote:
How many dragoons?? Lol

24.
Sounds like fun.
$1200 for 1080 points.

I'm using 24 dragoons and 10-12 ironstriders depending on points.

The models are the dust tactic walkers with some conversion-they do the job. I bought them for £9 each from wayland in their sale which is approximately $13.50 dollars. I also had to buy some bases from ebay and lots of bits (with some trades from friends)...it cost approximately 375ish which isn't too unreasonable. There is no way I could have afforded them at gw prices!!

I mean I was largely considering doing 12 dragoons, they are quite cheap points wise. I wish the standard detachment allowed 3-4 fast attack choices, but alas one must use multiple formations/ detachments to get more than 2 units of them.

The snipers are interesting, can be good, can be bad, but with a change in the meta where jezzail dragoons will come into their own is in the msu environment. Radium sniper rifles against an msu army is really quite terrifying, as a good roll can cripple to wipe out a squad. If you are to use the ironstrider formation, I would suggest your lance dragoons go there, and start with 2 units of snipers on the board. Gets your melee units in the backfield (possibly first turn) and allows your snipers to soften targets before all your melee units hit the lines likely second turn.

For 1000 points, I have to ally in the rest of my firepower as all I have for Skitarii is 2 boxes worth of the infantry and a 5 man squad of infiltrators. Here's what I have so far-

Rangers-
5 Man 2 Arquebus, Omnispex
Vanguard-
5 Man 2 Arc Rifle, 1 Arc Pistol
Vanguard-
10 Man 2 Plasma, Omnispex

BA Allies-
HQ- Techmarine
Troops- 5 man bolter scouts
Fast- Drop Pod

So, at this point I have a couple options.
1) Ally in some Guard-
I can fit a Lord Commissar, a naked Vet Squad, and a LRBT.
2) Take a 9 man Death Company Squad with JP, 2 Power Fists and a Power Sword.

Which one do I take? I can't make up my mind haha.

I would say ditch the 2 Arquebus and use those points elsewhere, for one. They've so garishly expensive. It doesn't mean they don't work, but their price in points is just bad. Doing that would let you upgrade your BA Allies to 5-man Tacticals with a Sanguinary Priest instead of a Tech Marine. Suddenly they get a bunch more durable as objective holders, and can actually do a little work in combat.

Are you taking the Arquebus just for wysiwyg? I think for now most players would, in casual play, let you proxy those two as any other (better) special weapon, if you are consistent in always measuring from the bases correctly/similarly.