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Seems that way.

I'm going to have to buck the "Ballistarii suck" trend.

I've been fielding a lone Ballistarii, and yeah he's not great. But once I bumped it up to two? Something magical happened.

Things started dying a lot faster. And that's to plain old autocannon Ballistarii.

That's 4 str7 AP4 TL shots at 48", at the same target for 110 points. What's that good for? I simply don't see a use for Balistarii that I can't cover using other, more effective methods.

 Verviedi wrote:
That's 4 str7 AP4 TL shots at 48", at the same target for 110 points. What's that good for? I simply don't see a use for Balistarii that I can't cover using other, more effective methods.

That's 4 Str7 AP4 TL shots at 48"...that on "To Hit" rolls of 6 have the ability to single out a specific model in a unit, on a platform that moves 9" every turn which also gets to benefit from Doctrina Imperatives.

Is it game-winning? Probably not. But it is enough of a thing that you can start forcing "Look Out, Sir!" tests on a unit and whittling a critical unit down before laying into it with your "better" weaponry.

Its a fragile, somewhat pricey platform, AV 11 open top and 2 hull points, doesnt even have the built in coversave of the Dragoon.

Dunecrawlers are a better fire support platform if you need it.

Id take 1 crawler over 2 striders myself

I'll give a second though on the ballistari. The autocannons don't do anything particularly well, but the ballistari seem to be versatile and mobile, even working as AA, and taking them as MSU would seem to limit their fragility.

Any more opinions on the plasma caliver? Still not sure if it's worth dumping 90 points in 100 points worth of vanguard. I'll probably build my first set of vanguard as 5 and 5 with 2 arc rifles each anyway.

You need to get them where you need them. Most folks who've been using them successfully ally with marines so they can use the pods to put them right where they need them.

 nerdbot wrote:
I'll give a second though on the ballistari. The autocannons don't do anything particularly well, but the ballistari seem to be versatile and mobile, even working as AA, and taking them as MSU would seem to limit their fragility.

Any more opinions on the plasma caliver? Still not sure if it's worth dumping 90 points in 100 points worth of vanguard. I'll probably build my first set of vanguard as 5 and 5 with 2 arc rifles each anyway.

Er, I believe its seems to be the majority consensus that plasma calivers are fantastic on vangaurd, if your warlord is there or you have something to mitigate their "gets hot"

They're stupid good in drop pods

My assumption is that by turn 2, your Vanguard with Plasma Calivers have done their damage, and since they are such a hard hitting, yet delicate target your opponent will likely have been trying to kill them. If they aren't dead on turn 3 something has likely gone horribly wrong for your opponent and the Gets Hot! wont matter anyways. Turns 1 and 2 the Gets Hot! rule can be mitigated via Doctrina Imperatives which give them BS 6 and 7, rerolling those 1s. Of course getting that juicy PE is always better, if somewhat reckless considering that you are practically giving away slay the warlord to your opponent. On the contrary, most of the time I find that even if I try to hide my warlord, either by physically hiding him on the board or by hiding him in a hardy squad he/she tends to die anyway. Might as well do something useful I suppose.

Bs 7/6 mitigates get hot pretty well.

 Wilson wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Balistarii are bad. Dragoons are far better, as you have plently of ranged AV (Arc Rifle, Heavy Arc Rifle, Neutron Laser) and plently of anti-MC (Radium weapons, Plasma Caliver, Transuranic Arquebus) already.

Amen. Ballerstarii suck for their cost. (£$ & pts!) avoid with caution.

Question and I think it is a silly one- can you restore a wound on a Dominus using the master of the machines special rule if it is locked in combat?

That's a pretty good question. At first glance I said yes, but looking at it deeper it say.. probably not? Only because it a says "In each or your shooting phases, instead of firing one of his weapons". Had it said just "In each of your shooting phases" or "instead or using one of his weapons/attacks" I'd green light it. But as it stands melee seems to the way to lock down dominus healing.

 Wilson wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Balistarii are bad. Dragoons are far better, as you have plently of ranged AV (Arc Rifle, Heavy Arc Rifle, Neutron Laser) and plently of anti-MC (Radium weapons, Plasma Caliver, Transuranic Arquebus) already.

Amen. Ballerstarii suck for their cost. (£$ & pts!) avoid with caution.

Question and I think it is a silly one- can you restore a wound on a Dominus using the master of the machines special rule if it is locked in combat?

No. You need to give up one shooting attack to do so.

I haven't heard that the plasma obliteratiors kits had poor quality control. Is there a thread discussing that?

Mine was pretty good, no bent or warped bits

I'll let you know when I open mine.

Had a game the other night and destroyed an decurion list with canoptek harvest. He just could not do enough damage to me and could not make enough saves.


Now I know it is not a pure mechanicus list - it uses one of the toughest formations in 40k. But the skitarii maniple was amazing in the list. I did assault with my vanguard (aura is great). Turn one I had eight units tied down ... my dragoons and vanguard were the perfect mop up squads for the list. This is a list that seemed to be almost OP - despite not having any remove cover buffs etc., it has such a devastating amount of dakka and cc that it will run over a lot of lists. I combat squad my marines of course. The scout plus dunestrider plus first turn assault plus pinning - well the combination is powerful. Also the combination of white scar doctrines (hit and run) and canticles (choosing to increase WS or BS) is quite good. I was a bit worried that the dragoons would be taken out early but TBH but they performed so well - I think that I had three squads helps a lot dividing the firepower of my opponent with more credible threats than can easily be handled. Dragoons get 4 S8 attacks on the charge at I6 and a squad usually gets 3-4 bonus attacks as well. It also means you can only overwatch one squad if multi-charging the squads.

Yea, The strength of that list would be more towards the Skyhammer formation and not the admech

Sure they're strong but all the pods on the turn you choose with all of that shooting is the backbone of that list.

While the skyhammer is the thrust of the list the Skitarii maniple does a lot of damage beyond turn one ... it greases the wheels and it really is what makes the whole list tick.

Vanguard/dragoons are a lot of nasty in this list especially if you are have units pinned or tied up and no overwatch. There is a lot of synergy here.

All of those dragoons though, my wallet cries just looking at that. Dang man.

Makes me want em. Good work.

The dragoons make me smile TBH. I feel I need to tweak the vanguard though. Really they don't need as many upgrades on the alpha so I'm thinking of splitting them up a bit more MSU ...

10 Vanguard, 2 Plasma Calivers, Omnispex, Conversion Field 180 (warlord)
2x 5 Vanguard, 2 Arc Rifles, Omnispex, Arc Pistol 210

Those same results could be gotten with any other snooty army added to a skyhammer list (which is really all this is, skyhammer and friends). They don't even have to be battle brothers because they won't be within 12 inches at the start. When you tie up 8 units you want turn one, anything can look good. Hell imagine 750 points of orks running across the field unmolested for 2 turns. This was a bad example of how admech "made a list godlike" you would be better off with the heavy drop pod skitarii list to prove your point.

Yea, I'd argue the skyhammer had a lot to do with the success of that list. Not that there isn't any inherent synergy between the two, the striders being super fast and all the Scout moves works well with the drop pod shut down you imposed.

Now for my question, what should I expand on next? I have 2 squads of rangers, 4 squads of Vanguard, 2 dragoons, 2 walkers, 2 squads of Rust stalkers, 1 of Infiltrators, and 1 unit of Kataphron Battlebots. Should I build more AdMech, and get the Dominus and some Breachers for that Formation with Deepstrike?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to properly outfit an alpha in a 5-man ranger squad w/ two arquebus? At the moment they're my only troops, but eventually they'll just become my backfield objective sitters in a larger AdMech force.

 Gitsplitta wrote:
Anyone have any suggestions on how to properly outfit an alpha in a 5-man ranger squad w/ two arquebus? At the moment they're my only troops, but eventually they'll just become my backfield objective sitters in a larger AdMech force.

Probably nothing at all.

Conversion Field, at best.

I wouldn't bother with a melee or ranged weapon as he can retain the Galvanic Rifle.

Conversion Field and Divinator. It's only 5 points and a solutely worth it for objective sitters.

Thanks guys... OK, not too much then. Got it.

@Verviedi: That's exactly how I'd outfitted him using my own dubious logic.

 MrFlutterPie wrote:
I haven't heard that the plasma obliteratiors kits had poor quality control. Is there a thread discussing that?

I've heard that... and maybe got lucky, but the one I snagged on Ebay last week turned out just fine. I am sure where there is smoke, there is fire, and i'm not convinced it is a very pretty fortification (until its in your hands you really don't realize they upsized a Plasma Cannon in CAD and stuck it right on top of a Bastion), but it feels tailor fit for the Ad-Mech Mega-Army.

Wingeds wrote:Yea, I'd argue the skyhammer had a lot to do with the success of that list. Not that there isn't any inherent synergy between the two, the striders being super fast and all the Scout moves works well with the drop pod shut down you imposed.

Now for my question, what should I expand on next? I have 2 squads of rangers, 4 squads of Vanguard, 2 dragoons, 2 walkers, 2 squads of Rust stalkers, 1 of Infiltrators, and 1 unit of Kataphron Battlebots. Should I build more AdMech, and get the Dominus and some Breachers for that Formation with Deepstrike?

Get another set of Kataphrons and a Dominus, get a Knight, and you can now run a War Convocation. Or get the Kastelans for the IWND formation.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:

 MrFlutterPie wrote:
I haven't heard that the plasma obliteratiors kits had poor quality control. Is there a thread discussing that?

I've heard that... and maybe got lucky, but the one I snagged on Ebay last week turned out just fine. I am sure where there is smoke, there is fire, and i'm not convinced it is a very pretty fortification (until its in your hands you really don't realize they upsized a Plasma Cannon in CAD and stuck it right on top of a Bastion), but it feels tailor fit for the Ad-Mech Mega-Army.

That's why I'm still planning to convert mine to be more AdMech in feel.