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Im strongly thinking of picking up somwhere in the region of a 2k admech/skit army but have some concerns.

Chiefly:
Are they monobuild due to # of options/units?
Are they boring (no flyers, transports, psychics etc)?
Do they match well as two factions?
But most importantly are they fun to play and have lastability in terms of interest?

Any advice is appreciated

Skitarii are some of the most fun units out there. I know nothing on Cult but Skitarii can function pretty damn well on their own.

In response in order of questions:

1. only a few kits in the mechanicus lines actually only make one thing (Dominus, Dunecrawler, and Robots being the three. The other four are all dual kits) and you can decide which ones you want to do based on the book and other advice around the web.

2. They are by no means boring because of what their missing. It does however, make them a bit more challenging to play. flyers and psyker's can be filled by allies, and you can use your imagination to make thematic representations for the allies you choose (suped up tech priests being psykers are one example). Transports are a whole different thing that is best looked up and thought about. We have no transports and have no good way to use them when combined with allies. We, the army that makes every vehicle, have to walk.

3. yes. the skitarii provides the numbers of expendable bodies with good guns and accuracy while the cult provides even bigger and tougher units (electro priests excluded) that are more expensive but have better guns. The skitarii also have some of the best tank-busting weapons in the imperium, while the cult has some of the best infantry killing units in the imperium outside of forgeworld.

4. They can be a real challenge to get used to. skitarii have to deploy carefully, scout carefully, move carefully and shoot carefully. The army wide doctrinas can be used to great effect while also having a downside to the most powerful ones. The cult have army wide special upgrades that have no downsides, and get more powerful depending on how many units are on the table. However they are a lot of fun to get into, and aside from a few flaws in terms of transports and unit costs they are really good codex's.

Thanks for the answer
Apologies I meant monobuild more in terms of army composition than kits.
I have no problem using a vanguard as a scouty type guy etc since I dont play much competively.
I meant more can you make several different army builds, like inf heavy, mech heavy, gunline, hand to hand forces etc?

oh, my mistake then! but yea, you can actually do a lot with the units in the books. some examples in skitarii alone:

A mobile gunline of vanguard with rangers as snipers/objective grabbers, arc rifles to take down tanks and voidshields to cover your advance

A giant onager dunecrawler force using 4 whole squads of onagers (12 in all) and minimum foot trooper support (two squads of five)

A massive force of dragoons that speed across the field with a force that outflanks on turn 1 and hits the enemy on the side, attacking from all angles with fast, very hard hitting walkers.

really, there is a few of themes we can achieve with just skitarii that are only limited by your imagination and how much your willing to think of.

Not enough fleshy bits. Buy more tyranids.

We'll be back Hissy dont worry, we just need lazy GW to update our codex and give some of our cooler new models better rules (exo, toxi) Im looking at you.

I pulled this together using battlescribe (no upgrades) based on what I might get. Look fun/ok to you guys?

+++ New Roster (1970pts) +++

++ Skitarii: Codex (2015) (Combined Arms Detachment) ++

+ Elites +

Sicarian Ruststalkers [Ruststalker Princeps, 4x Sicarian Ruststalker, Transonic razor, Chordclaw, and Mindscrambler Grenades]

Sicarian Ruststalkers [Ruststalker Princeps, 4x Sicarian Ruststalker, Transonic razor, Chordclaw, and Mindscrambler Grenades]

+ Troops +

Skitarii Vanguard [9x Skitarii Vanguard, Vanguard Alpha]

Skitarii Vanguard [9x Skitarii Vanguard, Vanguard Alpha]

+ Heavy Support +

Ironstrider Ballistarii
····Ironstrider Ballistarius [Twin-linked cognis autocannon]
····Ironstrider Ballistarius [Twin-linked cognis autocannon]
····Ironstrider Ballistarius [Twin-linked cognis autocannon]

Onager Dunecrawlers
····Onager Dunecrawler [Eradication Beamer]
····Onager Dunecrawler [Eradication Beamer]
····Onager Dunecrawler [Eradication Beamer]

++ Cult Mechanicus: Codex (2015) (Combined Arms Detachment) ++

+ HQ +

Tech-Priest Dominus [Macrostubber, Refractor field, Volkite blaster]

+ Troops +

Kataphron Destroyers
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]

Kataphron Destroyers
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]
····Kataphron Destroyer [Phosphor blaster, Plasma culverin]

+ Heavy Support +

Kastelan Robot Maniple
····Cybernetica Datasmith [Refractor field]
····Kastelan Robot [Incendine combustor, Two power fists]
····Kastelan Robot [Incendine combustor, Two power fists]

Kastelan Robot Maniple
····Cybernetica Datasmith [Refractor field]
····Kastelan Robot [Incendine combustor, Two power fists]
····Kastelan Robot [Incendine combustor, Two power fists]

Created with BattleScribe (http://www.battlescribe.net)

Two points, perhaps.
1. Ironstrider Ballistarius are not good. The Onager is a superior AA platform, and Lascannons are completely outshone by the amount of ranged Haywire you can take. I would suggest taking Sydonian Dragoons instead.

2. Maybe replace one of the units of Ruststalkers with Infiltrators? They are both very good units, but Infiltrators' debuff fields and sheer amount of attacks and shots with the Taser/Fletchette loadout is very useful.

Cool thx!
As I said I have no probs building kit A but using it as kit type B (striders -> dragoons) etc
This clocks in at about 1920 without upgrades so hopefully with some wargear I can build a competent 1500, 1850 or 2k points force.

Pretty much everything in both AdMech codexes is viable, except for Electro-Priests of both types, and Ironstrider Balistarii. Glad to help.

 Ratius wrote:
Im strongly thinking of picking up somwhere in the region of a 2k admech/skit army but have some concerns.

Chiefly:
Are they monobuild due to # of options/units?
Are they boring (no flyers, transports, psychics etc)?
Do they match well as two factions?
But most importantly are they fun to play and have lastability in terms of interest?

Any advice is appreciated

Admech was my return to warhammer army and I am happy as a clam.

1. Admech are as monobuild as you want them to be. For tournaments, yes, usually your only viable build is War Convocation in some form. For casual play, almost everything is the codex is mostly good. There isnt really any garbage tier units. Priests and Ironstriders are not bad, just outshined by others. I mix up my builds all the time. You can even take an army up to a big size with just that Kastelan robot formation with the Dominus.

2. They are NOT boring. They have so much cool wargear, and special rules that they keep the game interesting. Plus they are imperium so you can just ally.

3. They mesh extremely well as two factions. Tough slow admech march relentlessly down the field while the Skitarii can move up quickly or outflank and scout ahead to tie up units or soften up targets.

4. Tons of fun. Honestly the codex's are new. FW and GW will certainly add new models and units eventually.

Ironstrider Balistarii are usefull if you take one for the formation together with the Dragoons. Just keep them on minimum tho.

For the Kastelans... Take two Kastelan Robot Maniples and a Dominus, it makes a fun formation to.

The formations are fun if you don't run War Convocation.

Thanks guys, looks like an order is.....in order
With the stuff I have listed above in terms of purchase do I have enough to make some formations (bearing in mind I dont mind proxying x as y etc)?