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 0XFallen wrote:
Now that the Manipulus seems to be for sale, any confirmation on his base size?

50ml

 0XFallen wrote:
Now that the Manipulus seems to be for sale, any confirmation on his base size?

It's 50mm. I mentioned this in a previous post.

He looks a lot cooler than I expected. His build is also well-designed. The body is primarily three large pieces, with the back and arms piece covering the seam lines of the two halves of the body pieces. Much less fiddly than other AdMech models.

 Suzuteo wrote:

 0XFallen wrote:
Now that the Manipulus seems to be for sale, any confirmation on his base size?

It's 50mm. I mentioned this in a previous post.

He looks a lot cooler than I expected. His build is also well-designed. The body is primarily three large pieces, with the back and arms piece covering the seam lines of the two halves of the body pieces. Much less fiddly than other AdMech models.

I suspect I will remove the mechadendrites on his front and fill in the holes with green stuff (maybe making them into some more wierd bubbles to kind of match the chemical set on his back...), and maybe also remove the screen he has there as well, I think this will give him a much cleaner body and I think it may look better?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How are people thinking of running him (yes I know he may not be super competative for his price, but it will be nice to run somthing other than a dominus/enginseer once in a while?

I was thinking Transonic Cannon, because he can then move & advance and still fire without penalty, going (6+1)" move + (D6+1)" advance (if you use the bolster warriors) then firing a damage 2 flamer could be quite mean.

 The Forgemaster wrote:

 Suzuteo wrote:

 0XFallen wrote:
Now that the Manipulus seems to be for sale, any confirmation on his base size?

It's 50mm. I mentioned this in a previous post.

He looks a lot cooler than I expected. His build is also well-designed. The body is primarily three large pieces, with the back and arms piece covering the seam lines of the two halves of the body pieces. Much less fiddly than other AdMech models.

I suspect I will remove the mechadendrites on his front and fill in the holes with green stuff (maybe making them into some more wierd bubbles to kind of match the chemical set on his back...), and maybe also remove the screen he has there as well, I think this will give him a much cleaner body and I think it may look better?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How are people thinking of running him (yes I know he may not be super competative for his price, but it will be nice to run somthing other than a dominus/enginseer once in a while?

I was thinking Transonic Cannon, because he can then move & advance and still fire without penalty, going (6+1)" move + (D6+1)" advance (if you use the bolster warriors) then firing a damage 2 flamer could be quite mean.

I will run him in not competetiv games to advance with my infantry, mostly vanguards, some ruststalkers to get at least close to our 7E feeling.
Just leave the plugs open without tendrils, they may be used to connect with other machines, you dont need to fill them up

Having finalised my list for DM in 3 weeks the answer is I wont be purchaseing or running him i'll take 2 TPD and 3x Enginseer.

I'm going to test him on Ryza Destroyers (with Flamers), and Drill-hidden Ryza Fulgurites (Ryza for rerolling 1 to wound in Fight) tomorrow. As I'm going to battle DG without a LoW, I guess I need strong shooting and a lot of mortals. Graia and Assassins as the supplement force to curb his psychic.

Do I believe he will be the key part? Nah... but I gave him the Ryza WLT, and making his flamer an Assault D6 S5 -1 3 damage. I guess that will provoke giggles

dadamowsky wrote:
I gave him the Ryza WLT, and making his flamer an Assault D6 S5 -1 3 damage. I guess that will provoke giggles

Nice

I'm hoping the manipulus can slot into my list to give my robots 42" range. 90 points is too much though.

To repost my list for this month:

I think Manipulus is a huge force multiplier for a Cawlstar list. Another 6" of shooting range or 2" Advance is really useful. He is definitely overpriced for any other sort of list though. I take mine with the Transonic.

If the Manipulus price comes down even 5 points I will be running:

Cawl
Manipulus
5 rangers
5 rangers
5 rangers
4 robots
Icarus
Icarus

commander
commander
infantry
infantry
infantry
basilisk
3 mortars
3 mortars

castellan

Weekend battle report:

I am running:
STYGIES battalion - TPD, engi, 3x icarus, 30 vanguard, 30 rangers omnispex
CATACHAN battalion - 2x cc, straken, priest, 2x astro, 60 infantry
RAVEN Castellan

Game 1:
Near mirror match against Kyle. He has 3x custodes bikers and a catachan brigade and a castellan. He has +1 to go first. I debate placing my castellan as last drop 48" or 60" away. I should have put 60". He gets first turn and I roll like crap on my saves on my castellan. My castellan dies top of turn 2. I try to grind out and stay competitive but at the end he would have tabled me on turn 6. Game ends turn 4 with him winning. If i had put my knight 60" then he would not have been able to put his Cawl's Wrath into my knight first turn. This would have been much safer and kept me in the game. EDIT: also, 2x stygies icarus can fail to kill a 10 man guard squad, but 3 of them firing at a bike captain with a 4++ can kill that bike captain. Accuracy is a big deal

Game 2:
THis was legit my worst warhammer game experience. I am playing a pure dark eldar player who legit has no idea what his rules are. He plays unbelievably slow and refuses to roll his saves. I get second turn. He does some damage, my counter strike kills a lot. The start of my second turn starts with 10 minutes left to go in the round. I win by 5 points but this was complete bs. He endless tries to cheese my on distances even after I give him every last benefit of the doubt, giving him all kinds of 3" stuff to hold objectives when he wasn't close. He even tried to reroll his 2++ relic that says NO REROLLS and I missed it. We had to call over a judge so I could explain to him that no, if he uses a CP to reroll one of the dice on a charge then he doesn't also get to use the reroll charges rule on his wyches since that would be rerolling a reroll.

Game 3:
I am up against mechanized orks. I deploy in a near perfect defensive castle to absorb what I assume is a devastating charge. He gets first turn. He kills 2 bricks of gaurd and some other random guys. My castellan aces 1 of his 2 gorknaughts without firing his plasma cannon. My rangers and vanguard clear out his entire advance of 20 boys and 2 of the new cars. He concedes before my turn is over. Judge has to come over and help us score out what happens on a concede this early. EDIT: also, thorugh some key infantry pulling, I made sure that the "closest enemy model" during his pile ins limited his DA-JUMP 20 boy brick could only land on 1 group of infantry. EDIT: also WTF the ork mek warlord can shoot 2d6 shots at 2d6 str that do d6 damage at -5. That is lunacy! Luckily he rolling like crap and managed to only get 2 hits through the shield and only did 1 damage each time even with rerolls.

Something key I learned from Brian, the best player I know, buy a Wyvern. They are the best model in the IMPERIUM. And the arti detachment is better than the infantry conclave. I know this too late for LVO, but it is something to keep in mind. Brian runs a top8 at LVO tau list. He says the Wyvern changes the matchup from Tau > Imperium to Imperium > Tau because 1 wyvern when double shooting can kill a full 10 stack of drones per turn when you feed it CP.

Overall I am generally pleased with my list. I think my STYGIES CATACHAN RAVEN soup can at least play the game with the best lists. Big takeaways are:

always put your castellan 60" away in a mirror
buy a wyvern
stygies is really good at standing there
catachan mans is a supremely flexible detachment
I am going to lose on secondaries every game
EDIT: my movement trays are the best, they save many minutes during deployment

What's so great about the Wyvern compared to a Basilisk or just 3x3 mortars?

Also which specifically movement trays are you using?

Good report Wulfey, wishing you every success for LVO.

I’m currently looking at investing in movement trays but haven’t decided on a type yet.

 Ideasweasel wrote:
Good report Wulfey, wishing you every success for LVO.

I’m currently looking at investing in movement trays but haven’t decided on a type yet.

I think they raised the price. But these things are winners:

https://www.hammerheadgames.net/product-page/movement-tray-25mm-ten-model

They are super compact, but I like them.

The reason why the catachan arty battalion wyvern is so good:

A base wyvern is 4d6 mortar non-los shots hitting on 4s, rerolling to wound, 48" range.

If you have the arti detachment, then you have access to a strategem for 2CP to allow it to shoot twice.
If you are catachan, then you reroll your lowest of the 4d6.
If you spend 1CP, then 6s to wound are -1 near your Field Commander.
If you take the relic, then that field commander can let the wyvern ignore cover.
If you spend 2CP, then you can let the wyvern reroll all failed hit rolls all turn.

So a bully buffed wvyern is:

8d6 shots, rerolling two of them, full rerolls to hit, rerolling to wound, ignore cover, 6s are -1.

Three catachan mortar teams kill 2.6 shield drones a turn
3*3.5*0.5*0.5*0.5*0.67*3

One fully buffed wyvern kills 5.5 per turn
(6*3.5 + 2*4)*0.75*0.75*0.5*0.67

Three catachan mortar teams kill 0.8 dark reapers a turn
3*3.5*0.5*0.33*0.16*3

One fully buffed wyvern kills ~7.4 dark reapers per turn
(6*3.5 + 2*4)*0.75*0.88*0.4

You only get one reroll for the Wyvern's random shots, yes?

Yep, just your lowest one.

That math does seem impressive. It does however rely on 2CP to get from half of 5.5 drones to the full 5.5.

Without CP the Wyvern is about as good as mortars against drones, and with CP you could be talking about 5 command points in a turn. Seems steep, but then again, if you don't have a Castellan to dump CP into, seems sensible.

 ph34r wrote:
Yep, just your lowest one.

That math does seem impressive. It does however rely on 2CP to get from half of 5.5 drones to the full 5.5.

Without CP the Wyvern is about as good as mortars against drones, and with CP you could be talking about 5 command points in a turn. Seems steep, but then again, if you don't have a Castellan to dump CP into, seems sensible.

If that's the case, shouldn't the Cadians end up with more hits in the end?

Why Cadians? Their ability does not help you if you pay 2CP to reroll ALL to hit rolls.

 ph34r wrote:
Why Cadians? Their ability does not help you if you pay 2CP to reroll ALL to hit rolls.

I mean, Wyverns are gonna sit still anyway, which means you're gonna get the rerolling of 1's To Hit. I think that would average out to more shots landing than getting a reroll on a single dice for the number of shots.

If you have magnetized bases like me, I was looking at these:
https://themagnetbaron.com/collections/deals-discounts/products/2x-ferrous-movement-trays-straight-5x2-preorder-ships-by-11-26-18

Interesting point on the Wyvern. I think that's much more impactful to bring one than to bring 3x2 Mortars to thin Drones. -2 CP for relic and formation, -3 CP each turn for the buffs; another 2 CP to shoot again. You probably only need to do it once or twice though.

Wow, I definitely do have magnetized bases, and those movement trays look fantastic. Very low profile.

Fellow Tech Priests,

I'm relatively new to AdMech. My local group is going to kick-off a 1500 point round robin league next month using ITC missions. I've only played a few AdMech games, and no ITC missions. Looking for general tactics and some advice on potential lists.

My local crew features a drone-spamming Tau player, a multi-threat Ork player (high-toughness Gorkanauts, ranged artillery, and boy spam), an armor Guard player, a Space Wolves melee player, and a Nids player. With AdMech troops being both inexpensive and fairly resilient, I think I may be able to grab and hold objectives while using long-range fires to shoot opponents off their objectives. A key dilemma I face is including high-Str shooting for armored models or prioritizing the ability to pick off objective holders at range.

Potential lists:

List 1: TAC, 6 CP, 1496 points



List 2: AAA/Anti-Infantry, 6 CP, 1502 points



List 3: Gallant Distraction, 6 CP, 1503 points



List 4: No IG Artillery, 6 CP, 1504 points



The Tau and Guard players are hard hitters; I'd like to give them a good show without running roughshod over anyone. Open questions:

1. Which is better across matchups:
- Beyond Line-of-Sight mortar and earthshaker shooting for added anti-infantry, high-Str anti-tank?
- Dragoon melee threat and potential disruption to adversary charging plans?

2. Preferred WLT and relics for the Crusader:
- Sainted Ion and Ion Bulwark for survivability, using Rotate Ion Shields, Machine Spirit Resurgent, and the stratagem for applying the RR 1's blessing?
- "First Knight" WLT and Endless Fury to increase lethality, with Ion Shields and Machine Spirit Resurgent?

3. For stratagems yielding relics and WLTs, do I have to specify those in the submitted list, or before each matchup?

4. Better AdMech relic+WLT traits?

5. Preferred load-out for the infiltrators given this meta?

Anything else I'm missing?

For reference:

I have 2x Dakkabots and 2x more in the gray pile of shame. No other models at hand apart from extra Skitarri and Infiltrators. Kataphrons are out unfortunately for the moment as a result.

@wulfey I’ve struggled against dark reapers but perhaps a wyvern is the answer I need.

So you just need a guard battalion and then declare one of the company commanders a warlord (using CP for the vigilus detachment) and then just keep him near it and throw CP at it....and dead dark reapers follow?

I’m very tempted to give this a try

Battle report between my AdMech and a competitive ITC Tau list. (My opponent dropped out of LVO because he was not working during the government shutdown.)

My list:


His list (going by memory):


Deployment

My opponent won the roll off for deployment. The map is Dawn of War and the scenario is Crucible of Champions. I deploy first and have fewer units.

I went with Old School, Recon, and Marked for Death (3x Riptides, Broadside). He went with Kingslayer, Headhunter, and Marked for Death (2x Crawlers, Kastelans, Kataphrons).

The board was urban, with multiple ruins on both sides, and one central ruin commanding the center objective. Lower obstacles flank the center. Given the short deployment, we knew there was no getting range on the opponent (which is an option for me thanks to the Manipulus) or hiding. So I deployed aggressively to seize control of the center, opting to protect my infantry. One Guardsmen and Dominus formed my left; Cawl, Dominus, Kastelans, and Crawlers with two Guardsmen, Vanguard, and CC formed my center; two Guardsmen, Straken, and MiniPriest my right. He deployed for the alpha strike, a giant ball in the center, supposing his only chance was to pillow fort with his Drones and knock me out right away on his turn one.

My perspective:


His perspective:


I finished deploying first, and I won the roll. I decide to go first. My opponent SEIZED THE INITIATIVE!

Round 1

I take Shroudpsalm and forgot to roll for Mars.

Turn 1

My opponent 5x markerlights my Kastelans. He moves the Riptides to his right to gain LOS and pours shots into them, killing four. He then dumps missiles at my Crawlers, killing one.

Turn 2 - Me

I advance and MMM virtually everything onto objectives. I consolidated the two Guardsmen on my right flank so I can MMM my Straken without worrying about leaving any infantry behind; they are out of LOS. I use Strafing Run, root my Kastelans, and Wrath of Mars, killing two Fire Warrior units. I Doctrina my Crawlers and kill a third Fire Warrior unit.

In hindsight, it looked really bad, but he made a key mistake. He should have started shooting Guardsmen with his Missiles right away. But he was trying to win it outright. I took 4/5 objectives and killed more units than he did.

3-7 (my favor)

Round 2

I roll snake eyes. Iron Soul and Electromancer. Lol.

Turn 1

My opponent misses his markerlights and moves two of his Riptides out extremely far (out of Drone protection range) to gain LOS on my Kastelans. He rolls poorly and does not kill one. He realizes that he has lost and passes, letting me have the round.

Turn 2 - Me

My Kastelans delete another two units of Fire Warriors, which moved out into the open to try to get Markerlights on me. My Kataphrons deep strike on the far left and pour plasma into two of the unprotected Riptides, killing both. My Guardsmen solidify control over the objectives. My big blob on the right advances and MMMs into his center, leaving the Vanguard to hold the right objective; I control all five objectives and am in kissing distance of his Drone blob.

Final score is 7-16, with me winning decisively.

Lessons:
1) Guardsmen. Guardsmen. Guardsmen. Bring them with Vanguard. I cannot say it enough times.
2) Officer of the Fleet is the Imperium Taxi Service. It's amazing strong with Ryzaphrons, and nobody expects it.
3) Manipulus is actually quite handy. Definitely overpriced though. I think 60-70 points is ideal.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Red Acolyte
See the battle report that I just posted for an example of the most competitive Tau matchup.

To answer your questions:
1. Some of us are discussing bringing one Wyvern to kill Drones. Stygies Dragoons can work in some matchups, but they have fallen out of favor given their need to footslog across the board, which is in some situations is awful.

2. I prefer the lone Krast Styrix to the Crusader myself. But if you do bring a Crusader, I suppose your best bet is AGC + RFBC with Headsman's Mark and Ion Bulwark.

3. No. You only need to stipulate the ones that come free with your Warlord.

4. Monitor Malevolus and Necromechanic are our best WLTs. The only unambiguously good Relic is the Agripinaa Eye; decent runners-up include Pimp Cane, Graia Pimp Hat, Raiment (for Cawlstar), Tentacle Rape Machine, Phosphoenix, and Weapon XCIX.

5. Flechette Blasters and Taser Goads. Make them Mars, stack Wrath of Mars and Doctrina on them.

The Manipulus definitely seems a bit overpriced and it sounds like they were working off the Dominus's old points, hopefully the next big FAQ brings him down to 70 pts or so, which seems about right for him.

In terms of usage though I think he's definitely viable as either a defensive backline support giving your Kastelans and Destroyers extra range to stay out of 36" range of the opponent's firing line while also getting 11" flamers for your Destroyers, giving assault armies a rough time. Walking him up with dragoons as a movement buffer and healer doesn't sound bad and with the movement buff I feel like he can make charges for priests coming out of drills easier with good positioning. Definitely worth experimenting with.

Also on an unrelated note, what's everyone's opinions on infiltrators? CA 2018 gave them a small point drop and if I get the Manipulus KT box running 7 of them with taser goads sounds like a nice bit of anti horde. Are they worth running as non Mars?

Mr. Funktastic wrote:
The Manipulus definitely seems a bit overpriced and it sounds like they were working off the Dominus's old points, hopefully the next big FAQ brings him down to 70 pts or so, which seems about right for him.

In terms of usage though I think he's definitely viable as either a defensive backline support giving your Kastelans and Destroyers extra range to stay out of 36" range of the opponent's firing line while also getting 11" flamers for your Destroyers, giving assault armies a rough time. Walking him up with dragoons as a movement buffer and healer doesn't sound bad and with the movement buff I feel like he can make charges for priests coming out of drills easier with good positioning. Definitely worth experimenting with.

Also on an unrelated note, what's everyone's opinions on infiltrators? CA 2018 gave them a small point drop and if I get the Manipulus KT box running 7 of them with taser goads sounds like a nice bit of anti horde. Are they worth running as non Mars?

I've tried a unit of 5 with my Metalica on and off. They need flechette/taser. Most of mine are stubber/sword and you can tell they don't do as much, even against their supposed favored matchup of things like marines.

I feel like you need about 10, a small unit of 5 doesn't do much. 10 with flechette and tasers would make quick work of screens and dish out a ton of wounds in melee to most targets I think.

@Mr. Funktastic
I've not had playing time with Infiltrators (I have owned only 5 as of KT: Arena haha). But they look good on paper. An anti-infantry unit with an almost perfect profile for the job, especially when they get into melee.

That being said, your opponent can play around them (which may be a good thing, since it makes them less aggressive).

I am thinking of running a unit of 8, actually. 10 might be overkill for the sorts of things they do. DS them in, pop Doctrina and/or Wrath, shoot an enemy infantry unit or two off the board. Doesn't need to be too strong a unit. Even stuff like Guardsmen or Guardians are important.

I feel like they would be an ideal harassment/troop killer unit that would likely change how your opponent reacts. Even if they don't get the 9" charge off their shooting is probably threatening enough to whatever their ideal targets would be and force your opponent to try and answer them anyway. My only gripe is that they're only T3/4+. They're mostly robotic and bigger than Rangers/Vanguard, they should at least be T4! Other than that though, they look cool and at the very least it sounds like they're a legit tactical option.

Mr. Funktastic wrote:
I feel like they would be an ideal harassment/troop killer unit that would likely change how your opponent reacts. Even if they don't get the 9" charge off their shooting is probably threatening enough to whatever their ideal targets would be and force your opponent to try and answer them anyway. My only gripe is that they're only T3/4+. They're mostly robotic and bigger than Rangers/Vanguard, they should at least be T4! Other than that though, they look cool and at the very least it sounds like they're a legit tactical option.

Yeah, definitely glass cannons. Just gotta drop em, pump em, shoot a unit or two off the board, and let them eat las fire and die the next round.

A question regarding the new Tech-Priest Manipulus:

The text on his profile states "...a single model armed with a magnarail lance, an Omnissian Staff and mechadendrites"
"this model may replace its magnarail lance with a transonic cannon"

the points boxes under the profile state he is 90 points INCLUDING WARGEAR

however the Magnarail lance is 5 points per weapon, and the transonic cannon is 0 points.

if you swap to the transonic cannon would the model only cost 85 points?

any thoughts?