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

==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.
**'''[[Space Marines|Five]] [[Grey Knights|Flavors]] [[Dark Angels|Of]] [[Space Wolves|Power]] [[Blood Angels|Armor]]''':
***Ally Blood Angels or Space Wolves for [[METAL BOXES]] for your METAL men... Things. Ally Guard for even more [[Chimera Transport|superior metal boxes]] and [[Valkyrie|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?(Now rhinos razorbacks and pods are fast attack so go on and take some rhinos)
***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 [[Drop Site Massacre|bad day]]. Actually, scrap the Rhinos. Just max out on Drop Pods and Arc Rifles/Plasma Calivers and watch your opponent cry trying to save his army from your alpha strike.
***Of course, if you want the cheapest of the cheap transports, then go for Space Wolves. The Company of the Great Wolf detachment from the Champions of Fenris supplement requires an HQ and 2 Elite choices. What is funny is that servitors are Elite choices in Space Wolves. So for 20 points you get to fill out both elite slots with the fluff of servitors in an Admech army instead of paying 35 points more for a minimum squad size of scouts from Blood Angels. Just get yourself a Divination Rune Priest and 3 drop pods and you're set! Just remember that though this method is cheaper, you do have access to a maximum of 3 drop pods from your fast attack choices. 
***With the new Angels of Death supplement out, taking a Librarius conclave has become even more fluffy and useful. For maximum fluff take a conclave using Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and give them Technomancy. Now you have three-five psykers  that can assist you in the otherwise painful psychic phase and buff your machines and troops. With a simple act of technomancy, watch as your unit of Dragoons have AV12 all around. 
**'''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 can be taken as guard for tech priests in cult mechanicus). 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). Also, psykers. From inquisitor cotaez and other inquisitors, to the obscenely cheap 10 point ones.  
***Holy cats. Look at your Skitarii Vanguard. Now down. Back up. What's this? It's an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with Rad Grenades. Blink three times. Your Vanguard Alpha is now equipped with an Arc Maul. Spin around. You're now IDing most troops and HQs in the game with your tin men and wounding Wraithguard and Tyranid MCs on a 3+. Anything is possible when you're Skitarii Vanguard. I'm in an Inquisitorial Land Raider. 
**'''Militarum Tempestus:''' The Militarum Tempstus's Scions don't offer much the Skitarii can't do themselves. What they do offer however is the Taurox Prime as a fast attack option. So when you take a CaD of Scions and have them deep strike, this leaves you with up to 3 Taurox Primes to cart around Vanguard(Choose these guys) and Rangers(Not these ones). With it's 10 man capacity you are talking about a lot of dakka potential being moved around, and you can get them to within 18" of their foes that much easier. Or you can use Valkyries, but then you may as well go with the Astra Militarum.  
*** actually the Tempestus are alot faster then the Skitarii and can easily jump in to blast, melt or Burn ANY, back field threat you may face. not to mention there good for last minute objective Capture or contention. 
**'''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. This all assumes you aren't fielding kataphron destroyers equipped with cognis blowtorches, in that case sisters become redundant.
**'''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.
***If you are not hell-bent on fielding 100 guardsmen (and why would you? Your infantry is superior in every aspect), Allied Detachment of IG is actually pretty amazing. With Tank Commander you can include up to six tanks in AD, meaning those assholes with stealth will eat Eradicator shells, ordnance will chew through infantry from across the map and your Tin Men will advance while your platoon will hold backfield objectives. And Vendettas!
**'''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.
**'''Officio Assassinorum:''' Need some infiltration and mind-fuckery? They got Callidus Assassins. Need some more '''RIP'N'TEAR'''? They got Eversor Assassins. Need some long-ranged firepower to take out vehicles and characters? They got Vindicare Assassins. Need to ruin a psyker's day? They got Culexus Assassins. If you don't have anything else to take, you can combine all of the above into one detachment. Assassins do not count as an allied detachment so you can still take whatever you want to go along with your tin men. The best choice though would be a Culexus Assassin since he can completely nullify psychic death stars to allow your tin men to rain death on them. Just make sure you keep him away from your own psykers, if you have any.

===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. If you dislike Ironstriders, your Skitarii will have a distinct lack of anti-light vehicle since most of their Anti-Tank is Haywire-based. Tau have such weapons in spades and can also provide you with flamers and a bunch of durable bullshit. 
*'''Dark Eldar:''' They don't really have much to offer you. They, too, rely on big guns on frail platforms. Only difference? They have CARDBOARD BAWKSES, teh cowards, teh fewls. But if you sincerely want those, you should just play Dark Eldar instead and forget mucking about with Desperate Allies.
*'''Orks:''' Polar opposite of Skitarii in every way. The differing army dynamics make them about as versatile a combination as you can get, but make it difficult to come up with anything like a specific army strategy. On the plus side, using Precision Shots to deal with combat-based Cs and ICs make killing stuff easier for Boyz when they get into combat, Orks have flamers and T4 tarpits, and Orks could really benefit from some reliable anti-armour shooting every now and again. Theoretically you could have a unit for every role you can imagine, but that would require nuance, and nuanced tactics go out of the window somewhere around turn 2.

===Come the Apocalypse===
*'''Chaos Space Marines''' If we're talking this, we're talking Flamer-Chosen, Daemon Princes, Plague Marines, Hell Turkeys and Defilers. Anything else, ''anything'' else, Space Wolves do better and they're Battle Brothers to boot.
*'''Chaos Daemons:''' Could be hilarious. They give you mountains of gribblies and some sledgehammers, you give them some more effective Anti-Air and a few guns to counter their almost utter lack of such. 
*'''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:''' Maybe some Magos Biologis let something bio-engineered loose? Anyway, Tyranids are actually a great idea. They have some pretty impressive Flyers, massive tarpits and scary monsters to divert attention away from your impressively shooty but rather frail tin men. Also, you know, an answer or two to all the psychic bullshit flying around.
*'''Genestealer Cults:''' Ranged attacks from hordes of crappy 5+ saves and S3 guns. [[Imperial Guard|Sound Familiar]]? Their only benefit is in their CQC, but you can cover that to some degree. Your battle brothers can do better, probably best to pass.