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Pure Lucius lists seem to be growing more popular. They usually take 3x Crawlers for WWSWF, then the rest is all a ton of dirt cheap infantry.

Thanks to the generosity of friends, I can now count a bunch of mechanicus bits among my list of fledgling mini-armies. Given that I mostly have partially-incomplete ranger/vanguard sprues, I imagine that they'll likely end up getting painted brown and serving as a heretech/dark mechanicus army.

So with that in mind, any tips on how to make the most of an army composed primarily of skitarii infantry? I'm not opposed to adding some cult mechanicus stuff to my army, but the money cost of castellans and breachers is pretty daunting. Plus, I just like the look of the skitarii side of things more.

Any specific forgeworlds or overall army styles I should keep in mind? My mechanicus opponents have always favored lots of breachers and castellans over skitarii infantry, so I imagine that going skitarii-heavy isn't exactly a popular army build right now.

Wyldhunt wrote:
Thanks to the generosity of friends, I can now count a bunch of mechanicus bits among my list of fledgling mini-armies. Given that I mostly have partially-incomplete ranger/vanguard sprues, I imagine that they'll likely end up getting painted brown and serving as a heretech/dark mechanicus army.

So with that in mind, any tips on how to make the most of an army composed primarily of skitarii infantry? I'm not opposed to adding some cult mechanicus stuff to my army, but the money cost of castellans and breachers is pretty daunting. Plus, I just like the look of the skitarii side of things more.

Any specific forgeworlds or overall army styles I should keep in mind? My mechanicus opponents have always favored lots of breachers and castellans over skitarii infantry, so I imagine that going skitarii-heavy isn't exactly a popular army build right now.

As someone who's just getting into Admech as a third army (and is currently over 1k dollars USD deep and not done yet), if you're cost-conscious this may not be the army for you. Cheap points cost+high dollar-per-point models: one of the most expensive armies to field.

I was noticing that with the cavalry units, I really like them but damn they are pricey for being cheap as heck to field.


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Best set up for dune crawlers, it used to be the Icarus ones, is that still the case ? I've always been more a fan, theme wise of the neutron laser.

Just curious from the gear heads. Ad Mech is sort of a pet project army of mine where I have a lot of this and that and slowly grew it over the years.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
I was noticing that with the cavalry units, I really like them but damn they are pricey for being cheap as heck to field.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Best set up for dune crawlers, it used to be the Icarus ones, is that still the case ? I've always been more a fan, theme wise of the neutron laser.

Just curious from the gear heads. Ad Mech is sort of a pet project army of mine where I have a lot of this and that and slowly grew it over the years.

The Serberys Raiders and the Ironstriders are the worst offenders IMO- You want at least 6 Raiders most of the time, and 4-5 Ironstriders, and they're 50-60 bucks a box. You can (and I have) blown near 500 just filling out my fast attack slots.

The standard "magnetize your Dunecrawler" answer applies here, but I use the Neutron Laser for single-unit deletion ability. The Icarus is rad for blobs though.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
I was noticing that with the cavalry units, I really like them but damn they are pricey for being cheap as heck to field.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Best set up for dune crawlers, it used to be the Icarus ones, is that still the case ? I've always been more a fan, theme wise of the neutron laser.

Just curious from the gear heads. Ad Mech is sort of a pet project army of mine where I have a lot of this and that and slowly grew it over the years.

Icarus is still a favourite, even more so now with the heavy weapon vehicle changes. but nobody is ever worried about a Dunecrawler these days, the only time they'll become a target is if you make them a target with WWSWF. Otherwise everything else will go first.

Ya know what's probably going to suck when our codex comes out? I bet the dmg on neutron laser just goes to 3 + D3 like every other faction seems to be getting on their D6 dmg weapons. Seems to be a real push to normalize things again, which in most cases improves stuff, but in our case dumbs everything into obscurity.

When terminators with storm shields are tougher than any tank to take down to the extent that a str 10, ap -4 D3 +3 dmg weapon is actually pretty favourable to take them out, we've gone a bit awry on the balance somewhere. I'd like to see a modified version of the old ap rules combined with the current blast rule, not to the extent that you simply cant wound a tank with assault or RF weapons, but put them at a severe disadvantage.

Two new keywords maybe: HEAVY VEHICLE and ANTI-TANK.

For example, I'd like to see all rapid-fire and assault weapons wound HEAVY VEHICLES starting on a 6+ regardless of str.
Conversely, all ANTI-TANK weapons should HIT an infantry squad of fewer than 11 models starting on a 6+ regardless of BS and probably be -1 to hit a vehicle that isn't a HEAVY VEHICLE so that light vehicles can actually have some chance of surviving in these days of increased lethality. A small squad or light vehicle is agile and small enough to just sidestep massive heavy weapons designed to pierce meter-thick tanks.

What we've done there is made RF and assault weapons plink off heavy vehicles as they should, still useful against light vehicles and they're unaffected shooting infantry.
Meanwhile heavy weapons designed for big targets struggle to find their mark on small infantry squads, but will still obliterate an infantryman if they hit, are less effective against small vehicle but are your only reliable way of taking out heavy tank-like vehicles.

Then you can increase the number of shots on RF and assault weapons to counter tougher infantry and light vehicles without giving them an even bigger advantage than they already do against heavy stuff.

Neutron laser would then obviously be ANTI-TANK
Eradication ray should work like a prism cannon imo, one ANTI-TANK profile and one not, then you can increase the shots on the non-ANTI-TANK profile to make it a tough infantry and light vehicle tool and also make it useful but not amazing against heavy tanks, like its supposed to be imo.
Same story with heavy phosphor, increase damage to 3 and it's a heavy infantry and light vehicle murder weapon without being as effective against tanks.
Meanwhile the Icarus can have a mix as it does now and be a general allrounder.

So, 6 is the sweet spot for raider units ? I have picked up a couple boxes of them and was thinking two squads of 3, but I can see where the firepower would be too light to have much worth with it.

Only picked up a pair of the iron striders over the years as yeah, I just can't bring myself to get them near full price it just feels too much of a rip.

The raiders I might buff out their squad sizes because I just love cavalry.

Thoughts feelings ? Worth it ? From what I gather they are good for scouting, skirmishing units, disruption with the chance to do something useful in shooting is that accurate for my thoughts on their use ?

Any help is much appreciated and thank you so far for the responses.

as far as I can gather, Raiders are one of the best units admech has right now.
Dakkabots, Kataphrons and Raiders which are extremely cheap (pts wise) for the number of wounds you get. Also very good add screening and annoying your opponent.

Well I love both screening and annoying opponents and yeah they are insanely cheap in points, I had to do a double take on their cost at first.

I'm very tempted to buff the squad sizes to 6 for 2 squads, just seeking some confirmation I'm not insane to do so.

I would want a really good reason for going to 6, as 5 lets you avoid Blast and coherency restrictions. If you're going to go over 5, you may as well go larger.

Well considering you can't buy them in exact numbers to make 5 I meant more as in getting more boxes to have enough for 6 and 6, even if you only would field say 5 at a time.

I'd want them small enough to be mobile but large enough to get things done and not melt away to the first shots directed their way.

bmsattler wrote:
I would want a really good reason for going to 6, as 5 lets you avoid Blast and coherency restrictions. If you're going to go over 5, you may as well go larger.

The blast 'weakness' is less of an issue until you're over 10 models imo. Getting a minimum of 3 shots on blast weapons on a D6 is the average anyway, sure they could roll less and get an extra 1-2 shots but math-wise a D6 shot weapon against a 6 model unit is no better off being blast than not. But if you find that margin is too high for you then by all means stick to 5.

Unit coherency on the other hand is going to be more of an issue with 6 than if you took 9 for example. One of the greatest tricks a unit of Raiders can pull is to contest an objective from the front placing models as close to your opponent as you can while leaving conga of models out the back to still be in the 3", then if they get charged Tactica Oblique backwards to make them fail their charge but still remain on your objective. You can still do it with 6 but your conga needs to be 2-wide at the back instead of 1 and you cant conga them forward as far or spread out as wide to screen.

When I bought my Raiders I assumed i'd be taking 3 squads, so bought 5 boxes to have 3 squads of 5 exactly, but thats a lot of FA slots so I'm finding I just dont use them all now anyway :| The detachment restrictions are a killer for us as we have a lot of good FA choices but dont really want to spend cp and hq tax to include an outrider.

edit: Oh and I wouldn't worry about them doing anyting damage-wise, treat them as more mobile bare-bones rangers. There purpose is not killing stuff, but the od kill here and there is a bonus.

Octovol wrote:

bmsattler wrote:
I would want a really good reason for going to 6, as 5 lets you avoid Blast and coherency restrictions. If you're going to go over 5, you may as well go larger.

The blast 'weakness' is less of an issue until you're over 10 models imo. Getting a minimum of 3 shots on blast weapons on a D6 is the average anyway, sure they could roll less and get an extra 1-2 shots but math-wise a D6 shot weapon against a 6 model unit is no better off being blast than not. But if you find that margin is too high for you then by all means stick to 5.

Unit coherency on the other hand is going to be more of an issue with 6 than if you took 9 for example. One of the greatest tricks a unit of Raiders can pull is to contest an objective from the front placing models as close to your opponent as you can while leaving conga of models out the back to still be in the 3", then if they get charged Tactica Oblique backwards to make them fail their charge but still remain on your objective. You can still do it with 6 but your conga needs to be 2-wide at the back instead of 1 and you cant conga them forward as far or spread out as wide to screen.

When I bought my Raiders I assumed i'd be taking 3 squads, so bought 5 boxes to have 3 squads of 5 exactly, but thats a lot of FA slots so I'm finding I just dont use them all now anyway :| The detachment restrictions are a killer for us as we have a lot of good FA choices but dont really want to spend cp and hq tax to include an outrider.

edit: Oh and I wouldn't worry about them doing anyting damage-wise, treat them as more mobile bare-bones rangers. There purpose is not killing stuff, but the od kill here and there is a bonus.

Not quite. It increases the average from 3.5 shots to 4.

It's not a big bump, but it does increase average damage.

Alright, all good information on their use, thank you once more. Getting an idea of their use is great.

I just love the feel of such units in a force. Even if its just to distract, lightly weaken or be a nuisance to the enemy all at once.

I also like the idea of fast moving objective grabbing threats that can use speed as an advantage in that regard.

 AngryAngel80 wrote:
I was noticing that with the cavalry units, I really like them but damn they are pricey for being cheap as heck to field.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Best set up for dune crawlers, it used to be the Icarus ones, is that still the case ? I've always been more a fan, theme wise of the neutron laser.

Just curious from the gear heads. Ad Mech is sort of a pet project army of mine where I have a lot of this and that and slowly grew it over the years.

For as long I've had Onagers its been Neutron Lasers from the very beginning. I think its more a personal preference thing really, I've seen people scream Icarus Arrays are the way but thats never been true to me. I find them rather lacking, but maybe im just blessed with Neutron Lasers because they never let me down. Ive started to use the Eradication Beamers more and more but its just a poor mans Battle Cannon, I wish they were better and that close range profile wasnt so... close range.

Id like to see what our new Codex does for the Onager.

 deffrekka wrote:
For as long I've had Onagers its been Neutron Lasers from the very beginning. I think its more a personal preference thing really, I've seen people scream Icarus Arrays are the way but thats never been true to me. I find them rather lacking, but maybe im just blessed with Neutron Lasers because they never let me down. Ive started to use the Eradication Beamers more and more but its just a poor mans Battle Cannon, I wish they were better and that close range profile wasnt so... close range.

Id like to see what our new Codex does for the Onager.

Well, Icarus Arrays were strictly better in 8E because of how much Fly there was.

That said, Neutron Lasers are wonderful when they connect. But sometimes, they don't. And that feels really bad. When they whiff two turns in a row, you wonder why you even bring them. And statistically, that is likely to happen eventually.

Well I love being let down, so neutron sounds like the way to me.

That said their first use for me was running neutron vs tau. Kept trying to knock out a riptide. Who played against was just forever making them invulns. Was supremely irritating.

Eventually I killed the riptidet though, only took like all game and let most of my troops die in the process but by the end I had my HQs left, one group of rangers and the Onager just walking around trying to plink away the last fire warriors loitering around, good times.

The pair of subbers on it was great for working down the troops. So I did gain some respect for heavy stubbers that day.

Heavy Stubbers do a lot of work. Especially at S5.

Hey, I'm playing a 1500 PTS game Vs Blood Angels.

I've never played them before and I've been struggling in 9 (pretty much 100% of my games are Vs Dark angels)

These are 3 variations of the list I'm looking to take. Would people mind giving opinions on which is better?


List 1


List 2


List 3


Cheers fellow adepts.

 laam999 wrote:
Hey, I'm playing a 1500 PTS game Vs Blood Angels.

I've never played them before and I've been struggling in 9 (pretty much 100% of my games are Vs Dark angels)

These are 3 variations of the list I'm looking to take. Would people mind giving opinions on which is better?

Questions:
1) Do you have Raiders?
2) Do you have any more Breachers?
3) Do you have any more Fulgurites?
4) What other firebase options do you have?

I have 15 breachers, 6 raider, 3 of each vehicle 4 ironstrider and 7 robots.

I know my list isn't the current AdMech meta list, but I don't like a Mars as it doesn't suit my playstyle.

I used to play stygies but dragoon nerfs and lack on -2 to hit hurt my lists hard. I think this gives me the fleaxbility to do what I need.

I really don't get why people don't like dunecrawlers, 5++ rr1 and ability to repair is great, adding a 6+++ makes them very hard to shift for the points, and never having to worry about wound profile is great.

How about this?


I like Crawlers too, especially at lower points. I would do Icarus Crawlers though. IMO, you don't need Neutron Lasers if you have a sufficient number of Data-hoard Breachers; souped up Heavy Arc Rifles have comparable output to Lascannons. (Plus, if you are going up against Blood Angels, Icarus Crawlers will have a surfeit of Flying targets.)

The rest is pretty straightforward. Drills+Priests behind some Raiders, and a Bomber to harass.

Looks like a good list but I just don't think it'll suit my play style as well. Thanks for the feedback however. I'll let yous know how it goes, fingers crossed.

Ok so another question for debate. I have 9 Kataphrons but I made my lists long ago with most all skittari, as I love them. My question is what is the best set up uses for Kataphrons ?

I'm a big fan of plasma, however I see and hear many use the breachers over destroyers. Why is that ? Is it just the armor increase ?

Feed me some knowledge more knowledgeable amigos. I'm a very experienced player but playing my Ad mech I've not done much as I have more armies than I'd like to admit so I get around to using them when I can and the model build, paint and use process has been slow for them.

I believe Breachers are popular because of the better save, lower points cost, and melee weapon, compared to Destroyers. Also, the custom forge world that lets arc weapons score additional hits on 5s and 6s has lead to some lists that spam Breachers, so they seem to get a lot more play.

That being said, grav-destroyers seem to have increased in popularity because of the Space Marine meta.

I'm not sure if the change to plasma rules or the various mission changes from 8th to 9th are responsible, but plasma destroyers just don't seem as good as they were before.

Quick question regarding this new Exorcists trait:



Does that mean it bypasses re-roll abilities for wounds? As in attackers don't get to re-roll their 1 or 2 to wound because it's an unmodified roll of 1 or 2 auto-fails? Is that how transhuman is worded as well?

Octovol wrote:
Quick question regarding this new Exorcists trait:



Does that mean it bypasses re-roll abilities for wounds? As in attackers don't get to re-roll their 1 or 2 to wound because it's an unmodified roll of 1 or 2 auto-fails? Is that how transhuman is worded as well?

No. It's worded the same as Transhuman, I believe, and that doesn't stop rerolls, only modifiers.

So if you're being shot at by a S5 weapon with +1 to-wound, 1s and 2s on die will fail, despite 2s normally succeeding. But if you can reroll all wound rolls, you can still reroll the 1s and 2s.

 laam999 wrote:
Looks like a good list but I just don't think it'll suit my play style as well. Thanks for the feedback however. I'll let yous know how it goes, fingers crossed.

Here is the list I'll be playing against tonight, never heard of those tanks before so I'm a little worried about them tbh.



Played last night on TTS. I got first turn and pretty much devastated his army, I felt bad as it was my first time playing this guy but it was a game to learn from. Next time I won't be as focused and enjoy the game more to show him more tricks AdMech have.

 laam999 wrote:

 laam999 wrote:
Looks like a good list but I just don't think it'll suit my play style as well. Thanks for the feedback however. I'll let yous know how it goes, fingers crossed.

Here is the list I'll be playing against tonight, never heard of those tanks before so I'm a little worried about them tbh.

Spoiler:

++ Battalion Detachment 0CP (Imperium - Adeptus Astartes - Blood Angels) [82 PL, 8CP, 1,500pts] ++

+ Configuration +

**Chapter Selection**: Blood Angels

Battle Size [12CP]: 3. Strike Force (101-200 Total PL / 1001-2000 Points)

Detachment Command Cost

+ Stratagems +

Relics of the Chapter [-1CP]: Number of Extra Relics

Stratagem: Angel Ascendant [-1CP]

+ HQ +

Captain on Bike [6 PL, 110pts]: 2. Artisan of War, Astartes Chainsword, Master-Crafted Weapon, Storm shield, Teeth of Terra, Warlord

Techmarine [5 PL, 70pts]: Boltgun, Omnissian power axe, Servo-arm

+ Troops +

Assault Intercessor Squad [5 PL, 95pts]
. 4x Assault Intercessor: 4x Astartes Chainsword, 4x Frag & Krak grenades, 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol
. Assault Intercessor Sgt: Astartes Chainsword, Heavy Bolt Pistol

Assault Intercessor Squad [5 PL, 95pts]
. 4x Assault Intercessor: 4x Astartes Chainsword, 4x Frag & Krak grenades, 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol
. Assault Intercessor Sgt: Astartes Chainsword, Heavy Bolt Pistol

Incursor Squad [5 PL, 105pts]
. 4x Incursor: 4x Bolt pistol, 4x Frag & Krak grenades, 4x Occulus bolt carbine, 4x Paired combat blades
. Incursor Sergeant

+ Elites +

Bladeguard Veteran Squad [10 PL, 175pts]
. 4x Bladeguard Veteran: 4x Frag & Krak grenades, 4x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 4x Master-crafted power sword, 4x Storm Shield
. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant: Heavy Bolt Pistol, Quake Bolts

Bladeguard Veteran Squad [5 PL, 105pts]
. 2x Bladeguard Veteran: 2x Frag & Krak grenades, 2x Heavy Bolt Pistol, 2x Master-crafted power sword, 2x Storm Shield
. Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant: Heavy Bolt Pistol

Sanguinary Guard [7 PL, 125pts]
. Sanguinary Guard: Encarmine sword, Inferno pistol
. Sanguinary Guard: Angelus boltgun, Encarmine sword
. Sanguinary Guard: Angelus boltgun, Encarmine sword
. Sanguinary Guard: Angelus boltgun, Encarmine sword

Vanguard Veteran Squad [7 PL, 140pts]: Jump Pack
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran Sergeant: Archangel's Shard, Power sword, Storm shield

Vanguard Veteran Squad [7 PL, 140pts]: Jump Pack
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran: Lightning Claw, Storm shield
. Vanguard Veteran Sergeant: Fleshrender Grenades, Lightning Claw, Storm shield

+ Heavy Support +

Sicaran Arcus [10 PL, -1CP, 170pts]: Heavy bolter

Sicaran Arcus [10 PL, -1CP, 170pts]: Heavy bolter

++ Total: [82 PL, 8CP, 1,500pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe (https://battlescribe.net)

Played last night on TTS. I got first turn and pretty much devastated his army, I felt bad as it was my first time playing this guy but it was a game to learn from. Next time I won't be as focused and enjoy the game more to show him more tricks AdMech have.

So was his plan to just walk all those troops up the field and hope the storm shields protected them? Imagine if you'd taken robots lol. I do love Breachers as an alround safe, useful troops choice. Those tanks of his have no invuln so I imagine neutrons just wasted them without too much concern?

That would be an interesting neutron upgrade tbh. We all want it to be more reliable, because that 1 shot you almost always end up with often just falls to whatever invuln anything you want dead has. if the neutron could bypass invulns then at it's current profile it'd be a real threat to everything, not just stuff without an invuln.

And keep the spiral rolling.
You basically want it to shoot MWs.
Which you only want because everything has an invul now.
Which only happened because everything has AP now.
Which only happened because they wanted the game to be more deadly.

Ignoring invuls is a terrible, terrible mechanic which is just the next step for the power creep....