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Hello everyone, as my Skitarii force is in the process of being painted and I have put a hold on my Drop Troops for now I am looking at expanding my Adeptus Mechanicus army to include some Cult Mechanicus forces. Now I know for sure that along with two squads of Kastelan Robots and two squads of Breachers that I will have two squads of Kataphron Destroyers, however I am somewhat debating on how to load them out. When breaking down the pros and cons of either taking Plasma or Grav:

Plasma:
-Pro: x2 Small Blasts help deal with the BS3
-Con: 24 Inches Range
-Pro: Good vs a wide variety of targets
-Con: Gets hot with a 4+ Save

Grav:
-Pro: 30 inch range
-Con: Weak vs light Infantry/hordes
-Pro: Lots of shots

Now I know that most people prefer the Grav and for good reason, it is awesome. However I do see the argument and case for plasma being utilized as well and I am looking for anyone's tactical Insight or experiences when fighting either during it, which one they prefer to use or are the most scared to face ect. Thanks for helping an indecisive player out!

 gmaleron wrote:
Hello everyone, as my Skitarii force is in the process of being painted and I have put a hold on my Drop Troops for now I am looking at expanding my Adeptus Mechanicus army to include some Cult Mechanicus forces. Now I know for sure that along with two squads of Kastelan Robots and two squads of Breachers that I will have two squads of Kataphron Destroyers, however I am somewhat debating on how to load them out. When breaking down the pros and cons of either taking plasma or grab

Are you going to take a War Convocation at some point or another?
That's the Skitarii formation consisting of one of each unit type, an Oathsworn Knight, and a Cult Mechanicus detachment.

It makes you no longer "Get Hot".

 Kanluwen wrote:
Are you going to take a War Convocation at some point or another?
That's the Skitarii formation consisting of one of each unit type, an Oathsworn Knight, and a Cult Mechanicus detachment. It makes you no longer "Get Hot".

Sorry I had accidentally hit submit before finishing the post and honestly I do eventually plan to collect enough to run multiple formations, however that does not include the War Convocation. I am well aware of what it does I just don't like how it forces me to take some units that I have no interest in Fielding and limits me from taking the Imperial Knight that I want to.

 gmaleron wrote:

 Kanluwen wrote:
Are you going to take a War Convocation at some point or another?
That's the Skitarii formation consisting of one of each unit type, an Oathsworn Knight, and a Cult Mechanicus detachment. It makes you no longer "Get Hot".

Sorry I had accidentally hit submit before finishing the post and honestly I do eventually plan to collect enough to run multiple formations, however that does not include the War Convocation. I am well aware of what it does I just don't like how it forces me to take some units that I have no interest in Fielding and limits me from taking the Imperial Knight that I want to.

Out of curiosity, what do you think the War Convocation comprises?

This is one I see a lot of misinformation about so I would like to see what you think or have read it contains, so I can better advise/aid you if necessary.

As far as I am aware it is formation that contains a skitarii battle maniple, Oathsworn Knight Detachment and cult mechanicus battle congregation detachment

 gmaleron wrote:
As far as I am aware it is formation that contains a skitarii battle maniple, Oathsworn Knight Detachment and cult mechanicus battle congregation detachment

That is correct.

A Skitarii Battle Maniple(formation not Detachment) consists of:
1x Ranger Squad
1x Vanguard Squad
1x unit of Onagers
1x unit of Ruststalkers
1x unit of Infiltrators
1x unit of either Dragoons or Ballistarii.

Correct and because it's forcing me to take certain units that I have no interest in (Infiltrators and Rustalkers) and limiting me to how many Dragoons I can take (I own 12) on top of the fact that the Oathssworn Knight Detachment prohibits me from taking any FW Knights due to the Restriction of having to have a regular Knight for every FW one is why I have no interest in it.

Grav Kataphrons should always be considered the better choice simply because they can overwatch/snapfire. You cannot snapfire a blast weapon. That alone has saved my bacon multiple times.

 ultimentra wrote:
Grav Kataphrons should always be considered the better choice simply because they can overwatch/snapfire. You cannot snapfire a blast weapon. That alone has saved my bacon multiple times.

Besides, 1-2 shots Blast weapons are always inferior to multiple shot weapons with shot counts at 5-6, against a decently spread out unit (maxium coherent Distance) the one Blast will hit exactly ONE model, or at most 2 if it get a lucky scatter. This is especially a problem against models with large footprints, like Spawns, bikers, squaded up MCs like Riptides or Carnifex.

Without running any Skitarri you wont have access to Vanguard, one of the best light infantry killers in the game. They chew threw anything without an armor save. They pair extremely well with Grav Kataphrons that go through anything with an armor save.

So you have to ask yourself, what is your solution to green tide? multishot plasmacannons are not it....

Keep in mind that BS3 is largely compensated for by the Canticle that provides rerolls. Grav is far superior imo.

 Exergy wrote:
Without running any Skitarri you wont have access to Vanguard, one of the best light infantry killers in the game. They chew threw anything without an armor save. They pair extremely well with Grav Kataphrons that go through anything with an armor save.

So you have to ask yourself, what is your solution to green tide? multishot plasmacannons are not it....

I should have mentioned how large my Skitarii collection was in my OP but I have over 3k points worth of them already, including a decent amount of Vanguard and Dragoons so bringing them in to support me is not an issue.

Grav always every time.

 gmaleron wrote:
Correct and because it's forcing me to take certain units that I have no interest in (Infiltrators and Rustalkers) and limiting me to how many Dragoons I can take (I own 12) on top of the fact that the Oathssworn Knight Detachment prohibits me from taking any FW Knights due to the Restriction of having to have a regular Knight for every FW one is why I have no interest in it.

ITC has ruled that a single FW Knight can fulfill the requirements of a single Knight Oathsworn detachment. Are you playing by the ITC FAQ?

SJ