Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi guys, I started the hobby again recently and found myself in love with the Skitarii. I bought the starter pack, and wrote a list to help me know what units I'll buy next while I'm still painting this box. I'll be playing in my local GW with hopefully many differents players so I wrote this one trying to maintain a certain versatility to deal with most armies, while not having every counter ever. I don't intend to play against cheesy lists neither so I made it reasonably realistic.

Skitarii Maniple

10 Vanguard
Alpha with Phosphor blast pistol & Taser goad
Pater Radium
Refractor field
2 Plasma calivers
Omnispex
210 pts

10 Vanguard
Omnispex
110

10 Rangers
1 Arquebus
Omnispex
155 pts

5 Sicarian Infiltrators
Flechette blasters and Taser goads
Omniscient Mask
205 pts

2 Onager Dunecrawlers
Neutron Laser and Cognis heavy stubber, Cognis manipulator
Eradication Beamer
230 pts

2 Sydonian Dragoons
Radium Jezzails
90 pts

So the idea is that my geared Vanguard Alpha is the Warlord, and his unit will seek to engage the enemy mid/short distance, and occasionally go CQC with key targets with the support of the Infiltrators for their debuff aura and their sheer number of attacks. The Rangers keep a safe distance to try to shoot enemy special weapons, or HQ if given the chance. Meanwhile, the Onagers provide heavy support with powerful anti-vehicle weaponry, while being escorted by the second Vanguard squad to prevent anti-tank units to reach them. The Dragoons I'm not so sure. It seems to me they could be nice to shoot some big guys, given their mobility, while still dangerous in CQC against the average dude with a S3 weapon.

So to me there seems to be a nice synergy in there, but I lack the true battle experience, and so I may be a bit naive with this. I would appreciate if you had some advice for me, if this list is decent for most situations or not.

Thanks for reading me !

Dragoons want lances not rifles.

If your friends have flyers (demons, Tyranids) make one dunecrawler AA.

The rest is fine.

I wasn't sure about the jezzails either, but I wanted to stay on a "range army" mindset so I thought why not, but I guess more melee units can't be bad indeed.

And I didn't know if there was really a lot of flyers at 1000 pts either so I reserved the Icarus for my future 3rd Onager.

Thanks for the reply !

 Aaranis wrote:
future 3rd Onager.

woah they're not _that_ good

beyond 1000 consider an Imperial Knight even if you don't plan to War Convocation. AdMech and Knights go together like an old lady and 27 cats

Aah yes I'd love a Knight. But I'm afraid that won't be possible anytime soon :/ I'll build this list and play a lot with it for a load of time I guess, I still have two WHFB armies that need some care too.

Don't know much about mechanicum stuff, but the cataphran destroyers seem pretty deadly. Also, the Sicarian Infiltrators seem very expensive... 5 for 200-ish? I assume they are required for this formation... Maybe if they are actually really good, you take more of them and server as your front line while you get long range support from some dune crawlers and a knight?

I dig the list. I imagine you're not adding special weapons to the vanguard/rangers to get more bodies? I'd throw in some arc rifles on your unequipped vanguard squad to get some more anti-tank. Haywire is SO GOOD at killing armor.

@theclincher - kataphrons are in the admech book not skitarii.

I don't possess the Cult Mechanicus codex so I didn't built my list with units from this codex, but I know Kataphrons are really expensive too, yet very powerful with a lot of weapons options. I'm not fond of their look though, and they don't fit the feel of what I want from my army.

The Infiltrators are indeed quite costly, at 185 pts stock for 5 of them, but they're worth it. They spread a debuff aura that minus the WS, BS, I and Ld from all enemy units within 6" by one point and are pretty beastly in melee, they can pack an absurd amount of S6 attacks with the Taser Goad equipped ! There is the Ruststalkers which are 160 pts the 5, which are purely melee, but they have access to some neat disruptive grenades.

As for the formation actually the only requirement is 2 Troops, so it's really easy to get of course and gives nice bonuses. The warlord and his unit gets Preferred Enemy, so that's why I put 3 plasma calivers with him, so I can reroll those 1's and not get them killed after one shooting phase

Yes Infiltrators are often worth it

 Castellan Alaric wrote:
I dig the list. I imagine you're not adding special weapons to the vanguard/rangers to get more bodies? I'd throw in some arc rifles on your unequipped vanguard squad to get some more anti-tank. Haywire is SO GOOD at killing armor.

@theclincher - kataphrons are in the admech book not skitarii.

Didn't see your answer when I was typing the previous post, sorry ! I'm not adding any more special weapons because I don't have the points to do so, and I'm confident that a bare 10 man unit of Vanguard can pack a punch on their own. As for the Rangers, I don't really know how the battlefield works yet, so I don't know if they'll need to get closer or whatever, maybe they'll get destroyed by a deep strike after all I intended to do the anti-tank duty with the Onagers, with the bare Vanguards to escort them, I don't know what could happen to them and how fast, so this is a beta-test list for now I'll have to learn how to play the Doctrina Imperatives right too, with the good timing to prevent buffing my CC troops while there's still half of my gunline present for example.