Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Skitarii

Now when you take to the tabletop, do so in the name of the Quest for Knowledge.

Why Play Skitarii

Revealing their hand in white dwarf, the Adeptus Mechanicus have been given a presence in core 40k in the form of the Skitarii (or "Tech Guard" for those of you not in the know). This is NOT the same as the Horus Heresy Mechanicum army or units. Though if Forge World have half a brain they'll start finding ways to add their 30k units into the 40k army in an upcoming Imperial Armour book. (It's Forgeworld, they have half a brain, sadly the other half belongs to GW. So fingers crossed.) There have been rather loud whispers that a full Adeptus Mechanicus codex is on the way for summer 2015.

Conceptually, the Skitarii clearly favor quality over quantity with slightly less emphasis on said rule than Space Marines, but more than Guardsmen or even Sisters of Battle. While they completely lack transports, flyers, and general variety, what they DO have is very impressive. Every infantry unit has a 6+ Feel No Pain, a BS of 4, very good leadership (8 for regulars, 9 for Alphas). Vanguard and infiltrators even have a debuff aura around them, making any CQC fight THAT much easier. Their gear choices are among the best in the entire game (Arc Rifles, transuranic arquebus, Arc Maul, Mindscrambler grenades, The Omniscient Mask, to name a few). Their Dunecrawlers are ridiculously overpowered, especially when taken in a group of three (can you say 4++ on a VEHICLE?) and even better than those are your warlord traits, with Emotionless Clarity being the bane of horde armies (Can you say BS4 on OVERWATCH?). However, there are some notable drawbacks; their infantry is only T3, so be ready for a few Instant Deaths, and for all their good quality and aggression-based abilities, they have a hard time capitalizing on them due to their lack of flamers and a notable lack of synergy; most of their anti-vehicle abilities are mid-range weapons, which no enemy commander worth their overpriced models would DARE get close enough to your steampunk soldiers to give them that opportunity. Here's hoping those Ruststalkers don't get shot up.

The Skitarii have a decently well-balanced army: There are four kits, making a total of 7 distinct models, including shooty radioactive infantry, shootier not-radioactive infantry, assassin men with knives, assassin men with cattle prods, shooty gimp-powered scout walkers, shootier gimp-powered scout walkers, and a spider-tank.

Currently, they have an interesting feel to them, in that you could probably play them as a solo army, but they'd suffer from lack of flyers and transport. The alternative is to ally them with any other Imperial force for their nasty guns, because seriously, they have some NASTY guns.

Reasons for playing Skitarii

• You've wanted Adeptus Mechanicus units in 40K for a long time.
• Every unit has Relentless, so no static gun lines for you.
• Funky-ass wargear that can't be found anywhere else.
• They look to be a middle ground between Astra Militarum and Astartes in terms of individual power level, on par with the Sisters of Battle, while getting better support.
• You want to beat Tau at their own game
• Lots of Precision Shot going around. Fuck their characters. From 60", no less.
• Rerollable BS2 snap shots on walkers. Hells yeah.
• Reroll-Ones BS4 Overwatch on the Warlord's squad. Holy motherfucker. You see that Chaos player fielding Be'lakor and preparing himself to abuse invisibility? Ruin his day and drink his tears.
• Everything has Scout and Crusader USR. EVERYTHING. This is pretty fortunate, because they have no transports. At all.
• +3" to Movement/Run/Charge for sicarians.

Skitarii Special Rules

Special Rules

Dunestrider: Units with this rule add 3" to movement in the Movement Phase, charges, and Run moves. Note that this is a flat boost, meaning that units with this rule likely still move through terrain faster than other units move across open ground. It also increases your danger radius exponentially by giving you potential 15" charges. Aw, no Rapid Fire during Overwatch for you. (Well, except those pesky Tau and other Skitarii...)

Crawler: Units with this rule are not slowed by Difficult Terrain, and automatically pass all Dangerous Terrain tests, but cannot Run, not that you'd want to. If you ever find yourself in a position where you want to run instead of shoot with your Onager, you already fucked up.

Doctrina Imperatives

There are a total of 6 Doctrines. At the beginning of each of your (the Skitarii player's) movement phases you may select any one of them (one use only) to increase either the BS or WS of the entire Skitarii army, though this is sometimes at the expense of the other stat. They are split into Conqueror Imperatives (Which boost WS) and Protector Imperatives (Which boost BS)

• Hazard Optimization (Gamma) - +1 BS
• Mindstate Secutor (Gamma) - +1 WS
• Gundrill Symbiosis (Beta) - +2 BS / -1 WS
• Technomartyr Concords (Beta) - +2 WS / -1 BS
• Binharic Omniscience (Alpha) - +3 BS / -2 WS
• Hyperaction Protocols (Alpha)+3 WS / -2 BS

Doctrine Tip: Only ever use Binharic Omniscience when you are certain nothing will charge you, on Turn 1 for example, because even Tau will be hitting your Skitarii on 3+. Similarly, Hyperaction Protocols can change the entire course of melee but at the expense of almost everything but melee. Just snap-shot as much as you can during that doctrine.

"Each Doctrina Imperative can only be used once during the game." This means that you can use Binharic Omniscience on the first turn, Gundrill Symbiosis on the second, Mindslate Secutor on the third, and so on. Keep that in mind and you can find yourself easily dominating the table as you tear chunks out of your enemy when they are playing the ranged game, then tear chunks out of him when your lines close. Do note that you don't have to use an imperative every turn and you probably won't need to either.

Warlord Traits

1. Reinforced Exoskeleton - Grants the Warlord Eternal Warrior. This only sounds useful until you realize that even with Eternal Warrior, T3, 2W and 4+ armor your Warlord is really fragile. Still, it means that you always have your FnP which is pretty great.
2. Artificer Armament - One of the Warlord's weapons becomes Master-Crafted. This can't be applied to Relics. This is mostly superficial since your Warlord will almost certainly have Preferred Enemy.
3. Masterwork Bionics - Reroll failed Feel No Pain rolls. Sounds great, but remember that a rerollable 6+ save is slightly worse than a 5+ save, so you won't be saving too much more. Is loads more effective on a Sicarian.
4. Incense Generatorium - The Warlord and his unit get Shrouded. Probably the best trait, since it keeps you alive for much longer than your standard 4+ armor save alone will. Shame your Infiltrators cannot get this.
5. Disciple of the Omnissiah - The Warlord and all friendly Skitarii within 12" reroll failed Morale checks, Pinning tests, and Fear tests. This is one of the better traits, since it's a surprisingly large bubble considering that you don't have transports.
6. Emotionless Clarity - The Warlord and his unit fire Overwatch at BS4. This does not stack with Doctrina Imperatives. Remember, you fire Overwatch at BS4, not snap shots in general, so no Arc Rifleing Flyers to death. Still a decent trait, no one will dare charge you.

It should be noted that only Skitarii Ranger Alphas and Vanguard Alphas get to roll D6 for traits. Sicarians only roll D3. As long as you are in a Maniple detachment you also get a reroll.

Skitarii Maniple Detachment

Like many of the new 7E codexes, the Skitarii have their own detachment with special rules. In particular, the Maniple (pronounced "Man Nipple"), is akin to the Harlequins and their Masque detachment, which also lacks an HQ. Unlike the Masque, however, you're not stuck with a whole bunch of taxes.

2 Compulsory Troops choices are what you need to start with, optional slots are 6 Troops, 2 Fast Attack, 4 Elites, 4 Heavy, & 1 Fortification.

The command benefits are pretty sweet: Your warlord gets the customary re-roll on the Skitarii Warlord table, but ALSO gets Preferred Enemy to boot. Did someone say plasma caliver squad?

Additionally, all models in the detachment get Crusader and Scout for free. Though under the condition that you cannot Outflank these scouting models, though if a model could Outflank via other means (like having Infiltrate), then that's acceptable.

Tactical Objectives

11 - A Victory for Logic

1 VP if you Deny the Witch. Probably a feat to do by yourself. Good thing, then, that you have the Imperium for allies, meaning Librarians with Hoods! Assassins! Nuns with guns and massive hateboners for psykers!

12 - Survival is Nothing, Data is All

1 VP if a Skitarii unit either kills or is killed during your turn. Inevitable wins.

13 - The Quest for Knowledge

1 VP for rolling a Mysterious Objective. Should be easy if you use the rules for them. It can be harder than you expect though.

14 - In Gloriam Mechanicus

1 VP if you kill a vehicle during your turn. d3 VP if you killed a Superheavy. You have the weapons, you can do this...well, maybe more the vehicle than the superheavy.

15 - Rumours of Revelation.

When you get this, roll a d6. You get 1 VP for controlling this objective, and it becomes d3 if your Warlord owns it.

16 - Affronts to the Machine God

1 VP if you kill a vehicle, same as 14...except now you also gain d3 VP if you killed 3-4 vehicles, and d3+3 VP for killing over 5 vehicles.

Skitarii Wargear

Melee Weapons

• Arc Maul -A Haywire power maul. But, you know that unit of men you have marching and shooting that are relentless, well hey guess what? Now for 20 points they can destroy ALL KINDS of vehicles, bonus points if you use it with vanguard against low armor/low toughness opponents.It's too bad infiltrators can't take this weapon, because it almost seems tailor-made for them.
• Taser Goad/Lance - A cool tesla-type S+2 melee weapon that causes two extra hits for every 6 you roll to hit. The Lance version has a higher strength of +3 when charging and also doubles the initiative of the user (generally to six). Unfortunately neither version has any AP to speak of, though get enough of them together and you can overwhelm enemies with lots of hits or pulp just about any transport.
• Power Sword - The same old weapon seen throughout 40k. S: User AP3. Good for taking out MEQ, but your guys are S3. You wound them on 5s. However, This can be offset slightly if you give it to a Vanguard Alpha, which thanks to the -1 toughness penalty against enemies in Close combat, can give you a better chance at taking out power armored foes. The sword comes as the Infiltrators basic weapon and are S4.
• Transonic Razor/Blade The crazy sonic resonance weapons found on Ruststalkers. Both are AP 5 (Blade is +1 S), tying in with the rubbish AP on most skitarii melee weapons. However, both come with the Transonic rule; To Wound rolls of 6's wound regardless of toughness and are AP2. In all subsequent rounds after the first, all attacks become AP 2 and still auto-wound on 6s To Wound. Awesome.
• Chord Claw - Also standard on Ruststalkers, this is identical in stats and rules to a Transonic razor, but also has the Molecular Dissonance rule. This means that when a model attacks with a Chord Claw, it rolls a separate attack with Fleshbane. Note that this attack is taken out of your normal pool of attacks, it does not grant you an additional attack.
• Prehensile Dataspike - An AP5 specialist weapon with Haywire and an additional attack at Initiative 10, which you use regardless of which CCW you use for your default attacks. If you think of this as a weird mash between old school servo-arms and new school servo-arms that traded power for sticks at Int 10 and Int user, you wouldn't be wrong. The question you need to ask yourself is: "Do I really need more Haywire on a unit that already has Haywire grenades?" Unless, of course, you decided to take the Transonic Blades, which makes you lose the grenades. It does mean though that your Ruststalker Princeps will get 4 haywire attacks on the charge, along with his dataspike attack, making him better than the rest of his squad combined at wrecking vehicles. But it does make you lose an attack due to being a specialist weapon.

Ranged Weapons

• Arc Weapons - Haywire weapons; come in pistol or rapid fire format for your pleasure. Also has a nice S6 if you don't want to shoot at vehicles for some reason, though at AP5 you'll need some luck to do anything.
  • Arc Pistol - It's a 12" Haywire pistol.
  • Arc Rifle - Possibly the best-looking gun the Skitarii have. It's 24" Rapid Fire, which means it pairs well with its little brother.
• Stubcarbine - Half range heavy stubber which is also assault rather than heavy. No AP might look bad, but really, all things with Sv5+ or less should have cover or invulnerable saves anyway.
• Flechette Blaster - Pistol available on the Infiltrators paired with a Taser Goad. It's got piss-poor strength at S2, but 5 (FIVE!) shots with shred means it pack more punch than a rapid-firing bolter against everything but T6/7 (which it cannot wound at all). Also grants that Pistol +1 Attack.
• Cognis Weapons - A regular Autocannon, Lascannon, or Heavy Stubber, but with the ability to make snapshot attacks at BS2.
• Galvanic Rifle - the "Basic" Skitarii Ranger weapon is pretty good - pretty much a bolter with Kraken rounds. 30" range rapid fire weapon with S4 AP4 and precision shots. Not bad at all when you compare it to the basic weapon of nearly every other Faction in the game. It also means a gun line of Skitarii can easily DESTROY a Fire Warrior gun line and laugh at their pulse rifles. Sure, they'll wound on 2+, but you'll have 4+ armor saves, they won't and wounding on 3+ isn't that bad either. Doctrina Imperatives for boosting BS are a pretty good equivalent to markerlights, too.
• Mindscrambler Grenades - Stock on Ruststalkers, they're AP4 Haywire Grenades that always wound on a 4+ (They become S3 when assaulting vehicles). This isn't poisoned, so you can screw with people with that.
  • These things are the best grenades in the game. If they were also Defensive grenades, they'd have everything. They count as assault grenades, make wounds-on-4+ blasts and can Haywire vehicles.
• Phosphor Weapons - Imagine firing a Tracer round from a Heavy Bolter and this is what you'll get. The same strength and AP, but only single shot. Any wounds or hull points caused on a target will light them up like a christmas tree and reduce their cover save for the rest of the turn. Also makes them easier to charge at.
  • Important Note: Phosphor Luminagen rule quite explicitly doesn't mention that their effect can only be used by Skitarii, it doesn't even specify that only friendly units can use it. No matter what your Allies-status is, anything can use the effect of your Phosphor weapons. Yes, even the squad of Flayed Ones you sent at the squad your Skitarii shot holes into.
  • Phosphor Blast Pistol - Pistol format phosphor weapon. It's shorter-ranged than the Serpenta, but you can take it in an infantry squad. No actual blasts, sadly.
  • Phosphor Serpenta - 18" Assault 1, essentially your squad's markerlight when you want to follow up the attack with more shooting and probably a charge later.
  • Heavy Phosphor Blaster - A nice toy for the Onager at 15pts. 36" Twin Linked Heavy 3 S6 AP3 for fucking Marines over, and it pseudo-markerlights the unit. Probably the best Luminagen gun.
• Radium Weapons - Cancer guns for your Vanguards, have a low strength of 3 as basic, but a to-wound of 6 causes two (instead of one) auto-wounds which must be saved separately. Mathammer-wise this means when it fired en masse it deals exactly as much damage as your standard S4 AP5 guns against anything but T6 and T7, against which it's twice as good. "Auto-Wounds" means it can wound even if the enemy's Toughness should be too high, which is nice for piling the saves on big wraith constructs and Iron Arm-protected daemons. Wait a second - Martians using radium firearms? Where have we heard this befo-GODDAMNIT GW!
  • Radium Pistol - It's a pistol.
  • Radium Carbine - 18" range and Assault 3, meaning lots of hits at short-mid range with the potential of cascading effect when they start causing additional wounds later. The basic weapon of the Skitarii Vanguard.
  • Radium Jezzail - possibly a nod to the Skaven warp weapons, particularly in appearance (or simply because both drew inspiration from their British-Indian namesake). It's a two shot sniper version as a weapon choice for the Dragoon, in place of its Taser Lance, for free. To Wound 6's cause two AP2 wounds which, we will remind you, you get to allocate if you get a 6 on your To Hit. Basically, if you're going to be taking these on Dragoons, you will have to commit to it - as in they're all gonna be sniping. By and by, pretty good for close range heavy infantry/monstrous creature sniping. Could be fun against Riptides with a little luck.
• Plasma Caliver - An 18" range, 3-shot assault plasma gun. It still gets hot because the Mechanicum haven't figured out plasma like the Tau or Eldar have. (Rather, the Mechanicum knew how, but the Adeptus Mechanicus forgot how to make Phased Plasma Fusils.)
  • If you want these, put them in your Warlord's unit, since just about everything Battleforged grants your Warlord Preferred Enemy. While this won't let the Calivers hit all that much harder, it lowers the chance of the gun blowing up from "very likely" to "are you sure Gets Hot is still a rule?" Also, using Doctrina Imperatives to boost your BS above 5 also lets you re-roll Gets Hot results (possibly into hits again). Rock on.
• Transuranic Arquebus - An AP3 Armourbane sniper rifle, now remember that Sniper weapons are S4 against vehicles, so while arc weapons are more reliable for bringing down Monoliths, it's great for opening transports, and of course pretty fair at punching holes into monstrous creatures too if that's the kind of army you're facing. To boot, it has a ludicrous 60" range, so with enough of them you can bust open that METAL BAWKS and force those Mary Sues to foot slog their way through your fire lanes the rest of the game. Not to mention, anything that uses this gun has Relentless, so just walk sideways and get yourself a nice peek at some side armour if you're that worried. Two units of Rangers with 2 each camping both corners of your side should be able to ensure that at least one of them catches sight of side armor.
• Icarus Array - A fucking awesome anti-air platform that goes on your Onager Dunecrawler for 35 points. Everything is Heavy (so you can move), 48" range, and Skyfire. Do note that you can still snap-fire at ground targets if you've shot down all the flyers already. Don't forget Skyfire gives full BS to shots at FMC and Skimmers also. And yes, when this thing fires, it fires all three modes at once. Tears Dark Eldar and Eldar vehicles to little bits of rainbow confetti. Tau vehicles are a little tougher, but they'll go down pretty easily too with this much firepower directed their way.
  • Daedalus Missile Launcher - S7 AP2 Heavy 1. It's a particularly badass Flakk missile.
  • Gatling Rocket Launcher - S6 AP4 Heavy 5. Ignores Cover to boot - jink this, assholes! A machine gun with rockets. Fuck yeah.
  • Twin Icarus Autocannon - S7 AP4 Heavy 2 with Interceptor and Twin-linked.
• Eradication Beamer - It's an inverse Conversion Beamer, and is the default weapon for the Dunecrawler. S10 AP1 up to 9", S8 AP3 Blast between 9" and 18", S6 AP5 Large Blast between 18" and 36".
• Neutron Laser - The Eradication Beamer without the bullshit. A chunk of change at 25pts (though you get a Cognis Heavy Stubber as well), but 48" S10 AP1 3" Blast, with Concussive. Good-bye, TEQs.

Special Issue Wargear & Armour

• Skitarii Warplate - It's shiny multi-functional armor. Not as protective as Power Armor, but has all the cool environment-suit features of it, unlike Carapace Armor. Still a 4+ save, though.
• Sicarian Battle Armour - 4+/6++ Armour, which is weird considering that the Sicarians are even ganglier than the regular Skitarii. Reverse-engineered Dark Eldar Ghostplate, maybe?
• Refractor Field - 5+ invulnerable, you've seen these before.
• Conversion Field - Like the Dark Angels get, a 4+ invulnerable that goes off like a flash grenade when hit. Friendly units can re-roll the blind test. So, it's awesome because it's a 10 point reliable Invuln save, but it's a crapshoot as to who will get the brunt of the blind effect though. Do note that since no one got hit by a weapon with the Blind Special Rule, all units (including friendly) within D6 have to test like they were hit with one. Also note that taken on an infiltrator princeps can be good due to it's ability to infiltrate and have a more reliable initiative than rangers and vanguard.
• Infoslave Skull - +1 Ld and Acute Senses, which goes very well with Infiltrators.
• Omnispex - Like an Auspex, but made Omni, though it still does the job of reducing cover saves on target units. The owning model does not have to forgo his own ranged attack to get the benefit. Jury's deliberating if it stacks with the Luminagen effect.
• Enhanced Data Tether - Whenever the unit is affected by Doctrina Imperatives they add +1 Ld, starting next turn. Does not stack with Broad Spectrum Data Tether.
• Broad Spectrum Data Tether - Whenever a friendly Skitarii unit is within 6" of a model affected by Doctrina Imperatives they add +1 Ld, until next turn. Does not stack with Enhanced Data Tether.
• Digital Weapons - Re-roll one failed To-Wound in Assault.

Relics of Mars

• Arkhan's Divinator - A meta tool named after Nagash's most loyal servant the man who invented Land Speeders and Land Raiders, this allows you to re-roll mysterious objectives and mysterious terrain. Um...at least it's cheap.
• Phase Taser - It's almost the same as a normal Taser Goad, but an unsaved wound against it calls for an Initiative test, which if failed removes the target from play. Well it won't do shit against Chaos Daemons or Eldar, and it's a crapshoot against Spess Mehreens, but maybe against Necrons or Tau , it could be good. If you were already going to give someone a Taser Goad, might as well pay five points more for this. Also Phaser Taser. Phaser Taser Phaser Taser Phaser Taser Phaser *BLAM*
• Omniscient Mask - Your team now has Zealot. Take this. Always. Works especially on Sicarian squads.
• Phosphoenix - A phosphor pistol with AP2 and Poison (3+) that shoots once, but if successful, causes three hits. Combine with an Omnispex and some Plasma Calivers for cover-ignoring lulz. And only 25 points, too! Every fa/tg/uy was flipping his shit about this thing, until codex leaks showed that it only has a range of 6". Hmmph. Probably best suited to a Infiltrator Princeps due to their close proximity tactics.
• Pater Radium - If your unit's stuck in combat by Initiative Step 1, the units you're fighting must test Toughness or take d6 AP2 random unsaveable wounds. Now this is NASTY...provided you last that long to use it. Best combined with Vanguards, since they make those T tests more reliable, and it fits their theme.
• The Skull of Elder Nikola - It's Nicola Tesla's head... That should be reason enough... Actually, what it does is allow the unit carrying it to cause everything within d6 per Turn Number" take S1 AP- Haywire hits. If you use it against a tanky guardsmen/marine army, do find a bucket for the ensuing tears. Keep in mind, you can only use it once, so get this thing in close to a bunch of vehicles near end game, if you can.

Unit Analysis

HQ

Like the Harlequins, you don't have to take one. Thank the Omnissiah, because to make an effective one you'd wind up dumping several hundred points into wargear.

Fluffwise this is due to Skitarii being directed by Techpriests who have the good sense to send orders remotely from orbit instead of risking their necks on the ground. Interestingly these orders are seen as guidance from the Omnissiah to the Skitarii instead of orders from a superior. And by this we mean they feel compelled to do, instead of follow orders.

Troops

• Skitarii Rangers - They have similar stat-lines to Tempestus Scions and have Move-Through-Cover, but also with Feel No Pain (6+) and Relentless which seems standard for Skitarii units. So they have comfortable staying power and decent move-and-shoot mobility. Since they all have Galvanic Rifles as standard, expect lots of precision hits over time, so they're excellent at removing troublesome characters or special weapon troopers from enemy units. Their range means that they can be used like more mobile Fire Warriors.
  • This unit can also take up to 2 special weapons (3 if the squad is maxxed out), however the best option is the transuranic arquebus. Exceptional for removing MEQs from the board reliably, and as mentioned above, has a ridiculously long range and an anti-transport option but rather expensive. Also an omnispex to deny cover-campers some of their trolling isn't a bad idea.

• Skitarii Vanguard - Your "basic" unit. Cheaper than Rangers at 9 points a model for something almost straight out of Fallout. They are similar to Rangers in statline but get a Radium Carbine (and a bad-ass looking 15th century helmet) instead of a Galvanic Rifle, so they trade reliable longer range and sniping ability for more firepower at medium range (and style, don't forget style). Against anything but Sv4+ they bring roughly 50% more hurt for the same points as Rangers, going to 200% against T6 and higher, (given it's within 18" range). Additionally, since they are so saturated with radiation, anyone engaged in melee with them reduces their Toughness by one, making Vanguards not as terrible in CC as you could expect from the shooty stormtrooper-esque squad.
  • Same options for special weapons as above, and they really should take some. Take Plasma Calivers if you want to vaporise MEQs and TEQs, and have balls-loads of points to spare. Is your opponent packing a Land Raider or a Monolith? No problem, Arc rifles will make toast out of them for half the price of a Caliver each. Phosphor blast pistol and Omnispex are a recommended combo for some Tau shenanigans
  • Alternatively, you can take the Vanguard bare bones. They are pretty cheap for what they do and can generate a gigantic clusterfuck with three shots per model that auto-wound twice on 6s, which you'll be having quite a few of. Especially Chaos Daemons will hate your guts for spamming Vanguard, but even Terminators buckle under the amount of wounds they will need to save. And if faced with a charge, just throw your Vanguard at them, take away their charge bonuses and laugh as your puny tin-men wound the mighty Spess Muhreens on 4+.
  • It looks at first like you can do some really cheesy stuff by stacking rad-induced toughness reduction, but, due to the specific line in the 'Rad Saturation' rule that states the rule can only be used to bring the enemy toughness to a minimum of 1, that won't work. You can reduce enemy toughness to 1, if you stack it up right (Dark Angels, Ordo Xenos Inquisitors, Imperial Knights), but abusing this will mark you as That Guy. Like most cheapness, it's fun to try once, but then hang it up and don't be a dickhat.

Elite

• Sicarian Ruststalkers - Flighty little metal men with Transonic Razors, Chordclaws and Mindscrambler Grenades, they benefit from both Dunestrider and Furious Charge, which add to make them a fast attack force. They're also very fragile with T3, even if they have 2 wounds each. They can exchange all their weapons for two Transonic Blades for free, which can ensure more of a hurt, but at the cost of utility and the chance for ID, while the Princeps can gain a Prehensile Dataspike for the cost of a melta and/or buy back the Chordclaw he traded away if he has double Transonic Blades.
  • While the Transonic Blades seem tempting, it is better to stay away from them. One attack with Fleshbane and the uber-grenades are vastly superior to +1S on the other attacks, especially since Furious Charge already makes your attacks S5.
  • Worth pointing out that on the charge you'll do more glancing hits against AV10 with razors than with haywire, so use razors on vehicles with AV10 rear armour.
  • Also worth pointing out that Chordclaws and Mindscrambler grenade units are still S5 on the charge meaning you glance that same AV10 on a 5+ with the same amount of attacks while being more effective against high T (fleshbane) and vehicles who have AV11+ rear (haywire grenades). Blades are outclassed in all situations.
  • Surprisingly, this is an excellent anti-tank unit. Your standard 5-man squad with a Dataspike will have 8 haywire attacks (4 from mindscrabler grenades, 4 from dataspike) on the charge. Against a vehicle, you would get a little over 4 glances and 1 pen on average regardless of armor, more than enough to take out just about anything. Comparable HP damage from say, BS4 meltas vs AV 12 would require 9 of them -- though to be fair, you'd get more pens. All while costing as much as melta-equipped sternguard. The only drawback is that they'd get shot off the board immediately afterwards.

• Sicarian Infiltrators - The bastard children of Alpha-5 of the Power Rangers, if he were built by a bunch of xenophobic men in red robes. Their loadouts are less impressive than the Ruststalkers with Stubcarbines and Power Swords and they're more expensive, but they get better rules: Dunestrider, Infiltrate, and Stealth means that they'll certainly reach reliable cover where they need it. However, they can be equally handy as walls as they make enemies within 6" take -1 WS/BS/I/Ld, which can lock them in for at least a round, and replacing their guns with Flechette Blasters and Taser Goads can make them irritating.
  • In short, while their special rules are better and the fact that they actually have guns that shoot farther than grenades is good, their loadouts are less useful for most situations. A ton of Taser attacks are generally more useful than a few AP3 attacks, but even those pale in comparison to the semi-instant AP2 shredding of Transonic Razors.
  • However, getting an enemy into combat with Infiltrators AND a unit of Vanguard will almost certainly result in bloody murder.

Fast Attack

• Sydonian Dragoons - Cross Imperial Guard Sentinels with Bretonnian knights and you get this. They come in squads of 1-6 and they are terrifyingly fast, open topped walkers with a Taser Lance designed for charging at people. It gets the "Dunestrider" rule which adds 3" to any move, run or charge it makes, in addition to having the Crusader special rule. It's also protected by it's cloud of incense, so gains a 5+ cover save while in the open, which benefits them as assaulters. The basic Dragoon has no ranged attack, but can replace its Lance with a Radium Jezzail (the sniper one) if you want them flanking up the side of the battlefield rather than charging things. But if you still want them charging, either version can purchase Phosphor Serpentas on top of their equipment, which can practically guarantee the charge if you manage to score a wound with them.
  • Be advised, that as melee attackers, they each have S8, I6, A4 (with the ability to generate 2 extra S8 hits with 6's) on the charge, but with no AP to speak of. They "might" be able to poke apart a Land Raider if you had a full squad of six and were lucky at rolling sixes to penetrate armour. Don't be disheartened though, that's not what Dragoons are for. With that speed they are perfect for flanking attacks and catching enemy light units or stationary artillery in the back-field. Also don't forget to claim a Hammer of Wrath when ending the charge move in BtB with enemy - while "only" S5 with no special rules, they hit automatically, so it's basically like two weaker extra attack on charge. Also they are pretty decent MC hunters, provided you take enough in a unit.
  • As Dragoons are AV11, anything without S5 or krak/haywire grenades cannot do shit against them. Be prepared for those guardsmen or orks you just charged to retreat at the end of your assault phase, leaving you in the open at the mercy of your opponent's anti-tank guns. You may get lucky with a sweeping advance and wipe them out, but it still leaves you vulnerable afterwards. On the other hand daemons and fearless enemies are royally fucked if they cannot pierce AV11.

Heavy Support

• Ironstrider Ballistarii - If you were thinking about using Dragoons for shooting, you might want to consider this as a superior alternative. They come with Twin-Linked Cognis Autocannons and the Precision Shots rule instead. You may replace the Autocannons with Cognis Lascannons if you want to go tank or TEQ hunting. Ballistarii are still blisteringly fast with Dunestrider and Crusader, but they don't have the incense cloud to protect them, so keep them at arms length from your opponent, preferably obscured behind their own cover.
  • In a pinch these could be used as fast moving Anti-Aircraft platforms. With Twin-Linked Cognis weapons at BS2, they have a ~55% chance of landing a hit on an enemy flyer, which is better than anything with BS3 & Skyfire, and since you get Lascannons a single hit is far more likely to down a vehicle in one shot than the Autocannons or Flakk Missiles you'll find everywhere else. This also leads to very accurate overwatch, but how the fuck did you let the enemy get that close to you?
  • The ballistarii are the weakest unit you have in terms of survivability (Coming from an army of T3 models). Tall, AV11 all around, no save of any kind, Open-topped, and your opponent WILL want them dead. If you use them, keep them as far back as you can. The Ironstrider Cavaliers formation negates this just a bit by allowing you to shoot through some Dragoons without giving your target cover and allowing your big guns some...but only a 5+ and a bad Outflank roll could leave you in a bad spot. Then again, that bad Outflank roll is very unlikely, since Acute Senses grant a reroll.

• Onager Dunecrawler - The bastard child of a Deff Dread and Defiler, the Onager Donkeytank is a big ugly heavy weapons platform above all else. They have a special ruleability in that they all have a 6++ save, which gets boosted by 1 up to a 4++ for every other Onager within 4" that is in the same unit. It can be kitted out with the following weapons/items:
  • Eradication Beamer - Stock weapon on the Onager and overall, not a bad one. It basically gives you a range of effectiveness and most armies would want to back away their strong, expensive units from your death walker tanks so they don't get hit with S10 AP1 zaps. And if those nasty units are not getting close to your squishy metal humies, your dudes survive longer!
  • Cognis Heavy Stubber - comes as a package deal with the Neutron Laser, as well as being a purchasable upgrade, and makes for a nice albeit milquetoast support gun. Snap-firing at BS2 is nothing to sneeze at, though.
  • Icarus Anti-Air Array - Still decently effective against ground targets for a 125pt anti-air rape machine, you get all three of the guns described in the Icarus array above--aren't you so lucky? Priciest of the options, but fills a much-needed anti-air role otherwise absent from a stand-alone Skitarii list.
  • Neutron Laser - Be wary of spending the 25pts for this upgrade because you're trading away the likelihood of reliable damage with the Eradication Beamer (if your opponent is insane or stupid enough to let it that close) for absolute murderous damage and BS2 Snap-firing (Yeah, Cognis is sweet like that) Jury's still out on whether the Laser gets Cognis You can't snapfire blasts either way, though the stubber certainly does. Arguably deadliest of the Onager's guns because of that straight S10 AP1 48" punch; if you're taking these, you don't need Balistarii with lascannons.
  • Phosphor Blaster - Facing a lot of MEQs? This is a great fire support tool for your gunline for a bargain. Additionally, as long as 3 are alive and close together, 3 AV12 walkers stomping towards you should survive well enough for the price. Tau players will hate you for bringing these and melting their little battle suits.
  • Cognis Manipulator - It's like a servo-arm...except it's on giant spidertanks and grants IWND. Sx2 (so S10) and AP1 on a 1 attack model. It is godly, but seems tuned for solo Onagers where not having a 4++ from buddies makes IWND a nice option. Painfully expensive though.
  • Mindscanner Probe - This pretty much covers your lack of krak grenades. if anyone charges within 6" of your spidertank, they no longer get bonus attacks on the charge.

Formations

• Battle Maniple - One of every unit ever, which grants you a WT re-roll, anyone within 12" of the Onager gets Ld 10, and all models gain Crusader and Scout, with Outflank being barred.
  • War Cohort - 3 Entire Battle Maniples. That's a lot of tin men. In addition to the rules of each Battle Maniple, you also get the ability to re-use one Doctrina Imperative you used earlier. Meh. Gamesworkshop's plan to make you broke.
  • While the War Cohort provides you with some nice bonuses, it really isn't worth the trouble. A single War Cohort needs three units EACH of the overcosted Ruststalkers and Infiltrators. Even at minimum sizes, that's over a thousand points that will die to a stiff breeze. While these units are great as surgical tools, in these amounts, they are merely taxes for a rule that will be useful for a single turn at most.

• Ironstrider Cavaliers - 2 Units of Dragoons and 1 unit of Ballistarii (that's up to 18 walkers). Units gain Acute Senses and Outflank. All must come in from reserves and come in together, but you start your roll on your first turn. Also they can trace line of sight and shoot through other units in this formation without giving a cover save for intervening models. Also at the start of the first game turn you nominate an enemy character, models in this Formation get to re-roll To Wound on that character and its unit...for the rest of the game.(pair well with infiltrators being able to infiltrate and also having acute senses so helps get this formation on the table edge where their warlord is and closer to action.)

• Sicarian Killclade - 3 units of Ruststalkers and 1 unit of Infiltrators. Makes the Infiltrators aura of -1 WS/BS/I/Ld extend 12". Once per game you can run and charge (after the first turn) with the Ruststalkers in the formation. That's at least 18" of movement.
  • If you were going to play that many Sicarians anyway, you can do much worse than to organize them this way. The range boost for the Infiltrators' fuck-you aura is huge, since you went to a 24" circle in which your opponent is pretty helpless (less I and Ld lend themselves to several shenanigans, less BS is gorgeous and less WS, combined with Imperatives, could be enough to get the opponent down to the dreaded hitting-on-5+-threshold) and Run + Charge, even for just one turn, is amazing considering the Ruststalkers' bullshit speed.

Allies

Battle Brothers

• Forces of the Imperium: Honestly, Skitarii are the sort of army that is being taken as an ally, not taking allies. Make a cheap Skitarii Maniple detachment so you can get some Rangers or Vanguard, make good use of your primary detachment's transports... It's the one thing this army could really use.
  • Five Flavors Of Power Armor:
    • Ally Blood Angels or Space Wolves for METAL BOXES for your METAL men... Things. Ally Guard for even more superior metal boxes and flying metal boxes. Fluff-wise, the Iron Hands make sense, and they can provide you with (regenerating) metal boxes too, though only Storm Ravens and Land Raiders unless you want to go through the trouble of repurposing dedicated transports. (You can't deploy in someone else's dedicated transport, but you can embark turn 1.) But honestly, who doesn't want Storm Ravens?
    • Let's be honest, here. Until the new Space Marine Codex comes out, the best you can do is add a Flesh Tearers detachment. Cheap Divination-Librarian, a squad of Tacs with double Flamer in a Rhino and an additional fast Rhino for your tin men and you have a playable Flesh Tearers detachment. Season to taste with a Sanguinary Priest, Sternguard and MOAR metal bawkses and you're golden. If anyone asks what this means fluff-wise, just tell them your Iron Hands allies are having a really bad day.
  • Inquisition: An Inquisition ally would be a really easy way to get a few transports added to the army without compromising on your main Skitarii force, another bonus is that it usually leaves you enough space to take another ally. Also an easy way to get psykers and disposable backfield infantry in the form of both acolytes and servitors (which aren't in the main AdMech codex why?). For style points you could take an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor, give him a conversion beamer and servo skulls, and fluff him as a member of the Ordo Machinum (which is totally a thing look it up).
  • Imperial Knights: If you feel like having a lovely fluffy alliance you should probably get an Imperial Knight and worry no more about your lack of a LoW. Take the Paladin to get some pie plates from a very long range that can deal with almost anything and before you start worrying about those annoying Riptides remember the destroyer chainsword strapped to the side (or, y'know, just a crapton of plasma calivers at BS7). Might be an idea to miss out the Errant though, you have plenty of haywire that will deal with those pesky land raiders, unless you are really craving anti-TEQ stuff. The new Crusader is a very appealing option, what with the option to take either the battlecannon or big melta alongside an AP3 Marine-mower in addition to yet another great AA gun on top. Seriously. If you have the points (and cash) to spare, there really is no excuse for not using a Crusader.
  • Sisters of Battle: Another thing your Skitarii desperately need is flamers. Flamer templates give you reliable cover-ignoring Anti-Infantry, which you otherwise lack. This is made up somewhat by many walkers having access to BS2 and a number of spammy weapons (Assault 3 BS4 on overwatch is not pleasant to be hit by), but none of these are automatic hits. This suggests Sisters, perhaps - they have flamers and need anti-air, Skitarii have anti-air but need flamers.
  • Imperial Guard: What do they give you? Bodies. Cheap, expendable blocks full of bodies holding Rapid Fire guns. And tanks with pie plates or templates. If you want any of this, they are your friends. Also, the bestest Metal Boxes to cart your tin men around.
  • Cult Mechanicus:It doesn't get much fluffier than this, and everything is more durable than your flimsy T3 in this army. Kastelans are a way superior alternative to Phosphor-Onagers and Kataphron Destroyers give you the Anti-Riptide you don't really get. Also, Kastelans have Torrent Flamers as default equipment. See above as to why that's a godsend for you. Combining Sicarians and Electro Priests can also saturate your army with so many scary CC units that your opponent won't have time to bring them all down. And finally, a lot of their buffs are specifically meant to apply to you as well so they can support you more effectively than your other Battle Brothers. However, you're still gonna be badly hurting for transports.

Allies of Convenience

• Eldar: If you're looking outside the Imperium, Eldar are probably the least troublesome choice. Windriders provide plenty of mobile fire support and objective grabbing (shuriken cannons all around, of course). Of the aspect warriors, Dark Reapers, Shining Spears and Fire Dragons are probably the most useful to you. Wraithguard have stupidly insane destructive power (Hi, Titan! Five destroyer shots! Bye, Titan!) but are slow and expensive, so I wouldn't unless you really need the Big D. Oh, and don't forget Farseers, with their newly buffed Eldritch Storm, or maledictions like Misfortune and Doom that even help out non-BB allies.

Desperate Allies

• Tau: You might look at Tau, but outside of a few durable units (Riptides, Hammerheads) or possibly Crisis suits for drop-melta, they don't have a hell of a lot to offer.
• Dark Eldar:

Come the Apocalypse

• Chaos Space Marines
• Chaos Daemons:
• Necrons: If you want to try some outside-the-box fluff, consider Necron allies. Flayed Ones, Wraiths and Lychguard give you the durable assault you lack, Destroyers give you the AP3 you only get in small numbers otherwise and if you're feeling gutsy, combining Necron assault with Vanguard could lead to some hilarious rape.
• Tyranids:

Tactics

• This army is composed entirely of Walkers and Infantry . Good thing they have Move Through Cover. The Rangers are a ranged force, and benefit from advancing behind a wall of Vanguard, in cover. Vanguard will be running quite a bit to get into range, but with 3 plasma calivers, an Omnispex and a Relic Pistol, you have forged a serious amount of rape. Infiltrators seem to quite good at disabling and murdering units. With Dunestrider, Infiltrate, Steath, and that stat reducing skill,they can screw over a unit of your choice in your opponents force. Ruststalkers excel at destroying units in CC, but suffer from AP5 (albeit with quasi-Rending) in the first round of combat, so beware! Will destroy termies if they survive the onslaught, whicch can be difficult. The Onagers appear to be your main source of anti-armor, be that flyers or tanks, what with their nasty weapons and magic "By our powers combined!" invuln save. Make a gunline of them, and pump out the dakka. The Ballistarii can hound light infantry or TEQs depending on your weapon choice and can be decent Anti Air in a pinch. The Dragoons could be a force in melee with their +3S Tesla hits and I6 on the charge, but don't underestimate a full squad of jezzails (made even more potent with the Ironstrider Cavaliers formation).

• The Battle Maniple has 1 optional Fortification available to it. An Aegis Defense Line with a Comms Relay seems like the best (and cheapest...70pts) choice, especially if you take the Ironstrider Cavaliers formation. An Imperial Bastion is always a nice LoS blocker and a few Transuranic Arquebus from up top/inside could be nasty for enemy transports. If you don't have anything in reserves, a Quad-gun can add to your AA. An ammunition dump can help negate the 3 Plasma Calivers Gets Hot shots.

• Think Eradication Beamers are underwhelming guns? Use them for mind games instead! Three Onagers with Eradication Beamers can play merry hell with enemy movement. No sane player will risk putting expensive tanks within 9" of your Onager squad, while infantry blobs will love them dearly and get close to them to avoid the big pie plates. Combine that with some Vanguard to shoot down the infantry headed your way and some Cognis Lascannons to hunt down the tanks keeping their distance and you can easily dominate the game. Or combine with some allied Conversion Beamers to trap the opponent in a fuck-you field.

• Taser Lances can be made useful if you use them right, too. Sure, no AP seems bad, but you don't hear Tyranids complaining about the lack of AP on their Flyrants' Devourers, do you? Taser Lances, especially on large Dragoon blobs, can deal a lot of Glances and Pens to vehicles. Nothing short of a Land Raider / Monolith can comfortably deal with a fuckton of S8. And thanks to Dunestrider Trollspeed, they could be charging on turn 2 if the enemy is too dumb to keep enough distance.