Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Skitarii (section)

===Elite===
*'''Sicarian Ruststalkers''' - Fighty 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 and Feel no Pain.  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. However when the ap2 kicks in with the transonic rule the furious charge has worn off, this means that one could hit at s6 rending (first turn) and then hit at s5 ap2 (second turn).
** 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 mindscrambler 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.
*** FAQs have clarified that you can only throw one grenade per phase including assault, so you're limited to just 5 haywire attacks. Hardly bad, but no longer the surefire armour deletion that it was previously.
*'''Sicarian Infiltrators''' - The bastard children of Alpha-5 of the Power Rangers and Pit-droids, if they 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 an absolute nightmare in close combat.
** 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 focused to specific tasks. A ton of Taser attacks are generally more useful than a few AP3 attacks. It turns out that with a little mathhammer, the Infiltrators have a better statistical chance of killing more Terminators than Ruststalkers by their SHEER WEIGHT OF NUMBER OF ATTACKS. Watch your opponent weep when he loses three terminators in one round of combat because he thought your Infiltrators were nothing more than robots with batons! However, unlike the Ruststalkers, the Taser/Flechette Infiltrators can force a lot of saves on (almost) anything, and over varying ranges as well. The Stub Carbine/Power Sword combo might sound great, but keep in mind that the Carbine, though a surprisingly strong gun, is not a pistol, which means that the amount of power sword attacks they can put out is very limited.
** However, getting an enemy into combat with Infiltrators AND a unit of Vanguard will almost certainly result in bloody murder, especially for the Taser Goad variant, since they suddenly hit most things' Instant Death threshold with -1T on them and S6 on you. Laugh and collect Tau tears as his 700 point Farsight Bomb gets shredded by a mere 300 points of your glorious tinfoil storm troopers.
** Do note that under Hyperaction Protocols they get WS7, combined with Neurostatic Aura this means for a full game turn Space Marines need 5+ to hit them.
** I've found while they are great on the charge they work best as a mind-game. No one playing marines or guard will want these things close at all, so they are great for forcing your opponent to turn and get rid of them or move away from the Static Aura. This is more than enough to give you a turn or 2 to get the rest of the vanguard into position to mess up someones day.
** To add onto the mind games, due to their Dunestrider rule it's a completely viable tactic to start them in the center of your deployment zone (or as close to the center as possible while remaining in cover and ideally out of LOS) at the start of your game. Your opponent won't want to deepstrike near them unless he's sure he can kill them off, being in the center allows for repositioning to either flank if one side starts to cave, and because of their huge threat range you can let them hang back until your opponent has, to their intense misfortune, forgotten about them and moved a key unit just that little bit too close.
** Before you think you have some juicy Overwatch shenanigans on your hands, look at precedent and understand that the Aura does not reduce an overwatching opponent's BS to 0. Their BS counts as 1 but is not reduced to 1. Doesn't matter anyway because your infiltrators are about to enter melee and the opponent is about to be taking their models off the table.

*'''Secutarii Hoplites''' - Titan honour guard, basically Skitarii before GW reinvented them to be the Martian militia; they're noted as actually being part of the "Adeptus Titanicus" faction, but Skitarii can take them as elites, so it's cool. Hoplites are the Fighty Secutarii, and are pretty much standard Skitarii Rangers without MTC and the Alpha doesn't get the extra wound. They come standard with Kyropatris Field Generators, which allows a squad of at least 5 guys to reroll armor saves of 1, and squads of at least 10 guys to receive shooting attacks at Str -1. For weapons, they get Arc Lances which shoot with the profile of a bolt pistol with Haywire, and have a melee profile of Str+1 AP4 with Concussive and Haywire; essentially, they function as an Arc Pistol and Arc Maul at the same time, but without the extra attack the pistol/maul combo would net you. They also have Mag-inverter shields, which gives 5++ and counts the unit as armed with defensive grenades when charged. As for options, they can take their 10 guys and add up to 10 more, all the standard options for the Alpha, and can take an omnispex (which is practically useless for these guys), and an enhanced data tether (which is nice). With all the haywire and how tough large squads can get, these guys are can make a very powerful anti-vehicle and anti-fort squad, albeit their threat bubble is rather short. For GEQs, their a tough nut to crack; but considering that they get less tough when the casualties start piling up, they have a built-in incentive to take a large squad, but that always comes with the downside in terms of point cost and transporting them where you need them most.

*'''Secutarii Peltasts''' - These are the Shooty Secutarii, they get the Mechanicus version Special Issue Ammunition. Same profile as the guys above, including the Kyropatris Field Generators, but the Peltasts actually capitalize on their higher BS. Their Galvanic Casters have 3 different firing modes (which the whole squad must use); Flechette Burster ''(AKA Goodbye GEQs!)'' which is 24" S3 AP- Salvo 2/4 Shred; Ignis Blaze ''(AKA Goodbye covered GEQs)'' which is 18" S3 AP5 Heavy 1 Ignores Cover, Blast (3"), Parabolic shot (which allows the Peltasts to ignore LOS, as long as the unit isn't sealed in an enclosed space like a building); and finally Kinetic Hammershot ''(AKA Goodbye MEQs and TEQs)'' which is 30" S4 AP3 Heavy 1 Rending. In addition, they have the one-use option of using a Blind Barrage during the shooting phase, which makes them forgo shooting on this turn and gives Shrouded to a friendly within 18", nothing saying that it can't be that same unit of Secutarii, but 2 units of Peltasts must use this on the same thing if you're giving it to a superheavy. As for options, they get the same things as Hoplites: turn a 10-man squad into up-to-20 men, Alpha options, Omnispex (which is ''much'' more useful to the peltasts), and Enhanced Data Tether. Without the crazy amounts of Haywire, Peltasts aren't as much of a threat to vehicles, though kinetic hammershot can threaten most monsters and AV10, and some lucky Rending roles can make them a threat up to AV13. They more than make up for in having larger squads still being tougher than Space Marine Scouts, and having either an answer or unmitigated rape to any infantry they come across (see below).
** Do note that Forgeworld (having probably never playtested them) gave them the basic skitarii profile, including Relentless, effectively making all of their shooting profiles into assault weapons. (That's 24" assault 4, 18" assault 1, and 30" assault 1). This makes the unit absurdly more effective than they look at a glance: a squad can scout 6", move 6", and then pelt the opponent at full range and BS, giving it a 42" menace range from turn 1.
** A side effect of the above is that the flechette profile is absurdly powerful: up to 80 shots at S3 with shred means the squad can get just shy of it's own cost in point back in Terminator kills on one turn of shooting. A little mathammer proves that it is 3 times more effective than the hammershot, even against MEQ. With Doctrina Imperatives kicking in, they can deal 37 wounds on MEQ and 50 on GEQ, getting up to a whopping 43 on MEQ and 58 on GEQ with a targeting relay or choosing the Alpha as a warlord to give the squad the ability to reroll ones to hit. Really, a squad with impossible firepower (More shots than Orks, at Tau range and with better accuracy than marines) , definitely more resilient than regular skitarii while costing just 1 ppm more than Rangers...I don't know how they will play out but the maths on them show something disgusting.
** In practice, both squads of Secutarii are best when fighting together, with Hoplites leading the Peltasts in. The enemy will either worry too much for their precious [[METAL BOXES]] and kill your Hoplites, or worry too much for their precious MEQs/TEQs/MCs and kill your Peltasts. Either way, the other squad will make it to kill the other critical parts of their army. Allied [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX|Imperial Knights]] also help them move in unaccosted, drawing enemy fire until it's too late...
**Squads of 10 tend to die really quickly unless hidden in Transports. If you're foot-slogging them, bring them in squads of at least 15, if not 20. This is certainly pricey (190-205 or 250-270 points, respectively), but the -1 Str on incoming attacks helps a lot more than it would seem, and it's pointless to have a buff which goes away as soon as you lose a single T3 model.
**20 of these guys with BS5+, re-rolling ones (warlord) coupled with misfortune (to guarantee wounds on 6's) will deal 24 rending wounds on any target T5 or above. This is your best answer to Wraithknights, Primarchs, Riptides or whatever other beasty you may come across.
**The kyropatris generator's effect of rerolling armour saves of 1 is situational on 4+ armour, but gets ridiculous when paired with a dominus or Cawl. Yes, it works, as only 5 generators have to be in the unit to grant the reroll to all models in the unit. With this, Cawl can never die to non-AP2 wounds, as it takes 64 wounds to get one through. Which he regenerates each round. Downside, majority toughness is still 3, so there will be more wounds inflicted than on solo Cawl. Upside, he gives the squad the resilience and CC punch to act more aggessively.