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

==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 [[Necrons|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.'' Wrong, your ELITES are strength 4, with the RUSTSTALKERS getting furious charge, doesn't look so bad now, does it? 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 Infiltrator's 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. [http://battleangel.wikia.com/wiki/Panzer_Kunst ''Hertza Haeon!''] 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 strikes at Int 10 and full Initiative, 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. Note that you don't gain an attack for the additional CCWs, due to being a specialist weapon. Rulebook FAQ now means only one Haywire Grenade used per unit, so the Dataspike doubles the number of Haywire attacks you're getting, well worth it considering those changes.

===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. The only problem is that it doesn't really jive well with the vanguard and ranger's basic weapons. To be fair though, radium carbines are AP5, so on vanguards, you're trading the possibility for auto-wounds for increased range, more reliable-to-get saveable wounds, and anti-vehicle ability. 
***Take this. Always. As often as you can. Sure, the plasma caliver is great and should be put into a squad (read, ONE squad, you don't need more vanguard kitted out with these), but it's prohibitively expensive and for its price you can give another vanguard squad two of these rifles, which can give them a bit of the ranged damage they so desperately need coupled with something that can reliably put wounds onto MEQs and easily pop a Land Raider from four Haywire shots once you close the distance, or make those pesky E/DE skimmers jink or risk losing two-thirds of their Hull Points from your initial shooting. This is also the only gun that can reliably wreck a vehicle and let your rad-carbines get at the soft targets inside (Plasma Calivers have an infinitely higher chance to EXPLODE a vehicle, but you have to balance this against a statistically 50% chance to lose one of your two plasma calivers if you fire at less than BS6)
*'''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. It's distinctly not a pistol (duh, it's a ''carbine''), so no extra attack if you take it.
*'''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 COULD destroy a [[Tau|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 specifically isn't Poisoned, so you can screw with Monstrous/Gargantuan Creatures 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+ AP4 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 by letting you re-roll the charge range. Note: The phosphor pistol and serpenta hit harder and pierce armor better than bolters, in addition to lighting targets up. Remind me why the Imperium dropped these again.
**'''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. Or your enemies.
**'''Phosphor Blast Pistol''' -The Nerf gun from hell. 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? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom#Weapons Where have we heard this befo-]GODDAMNIT GW!
**'''Radium Pistol''' - It's a pistol. You're better off ponying up the points for the Phospher Blast Pistol instead, unless you *have* to have radium. The PBP costs the same and is more generally useful. 
**'''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 [[Awesome|basic]] weapon of the Skitarii Vanguard. With 10-man vanguard units, this weapon causes so much wounds that can potentially delete a squad or even a MC. 
**'''Radium Jezzail''' - another [[Skaven |esoteric jezzail]]. It's a two shot sniper version as a weapon choice for the Dragoon, in place of its Taser Lance, for free. [[Awesome|To Wound of 6's cause two AP2 wounds instead of 1]] which, we will remind you, you get to allocate if you also 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. (Though, to be fair, this is basically a full-auto plasma gun, so it's likely they use similar tech in pulse rifles, but it can't cool down every shot.) 
**With three shots with Gets Hot, you are looking at a 50% chance of one of your Skitarii feeling the heat. This can be offset in two non-mutually exclusive ways:
***The Skitarii FOC, as well as two formations, gives your Warlord and his unit Preferred Enemy. Pop your calivers in his squad to all but eradicate the threat of Gets Hot at the cost of painting a larger target on your Warlord's unit.
***Doctrina Imperatives give you two turns of having BS higher than 5. Thus you can have a relatively safe 3 rounds of shooting before Gets Hot starts taking a significant toll.
 
*'''Transuranic Arquebus''' - An AP3 ARMORBANE sniper rifle. Keep in mind, Armorbane means you roll an additional D6 to determine penetration. Sniper weapons are S4 against vehicles by default, so a roll of two 5s means you're glancing Baneblades from ANY side. However, this does require a fair bit of luck to achieve, so Arc weapons are more reliable for bringing down Monoliths or Hammerheads. Transports (and whatever's in them), on the other hand, will not be so hard to crack. There is literally no vehicle this anti-tank rifle is incapable of theoretically making go boom pretty much across the board. It has a ludicrous 60" range, so with enough of them you can bust open that [[Metal Boxes|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. Keep in mind that the average result of 2d6 is 7 (which will glance AV11 and penetrate AV10). So while it is possible to penetrate AV14, you are better off sticking to targeting transports to get the most out of this gun. 
**Works beautifully with a Scryerskull Perspicatus on an allied Tech-Priest Dominus. Light up an enemy vehicle, re-roll armour penetration against it with your Arquebi. If taken in a Dominus Maniple, you can re-roll to-hit as well.
**While this gun is excellent, it perhaps has the least synergy with your Skitarii. Straight up do not take it on Vanguard. Rangers are better since the non-specialists also have Precision Shots. However, you are better off taking them in minimal squads with two Transuranic Arquebuses. Having 3 in a unit sounds enticing, but keep in mind that requires having 7 Rangers <s>sitting around doing nothing but wasting points.</s> Why sit around with relentless models? Grab 3 rifles and go marine hunting, mate! Big game 'untin' with yer host, tha Omnissiah!
*'''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. For best results, play the 1812 overture while rolling for this weapon.
**'''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, 3+ Eldar assholes! A machine gun with rockets. [[Dakka|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". YOUR ONLY LARGE BLAST. Surprisingly killy, S6 will put even make marines hurt, they can only pass so many 3+ saves. 
*'''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.. and everything else.
----

===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. [[Heresy|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 its ability to infiltrate and have a more reliable initiative than rangers and vanguard. Not to mention that, combined with the infiltrator's debuffing aura, a successful blinding is '''more likely to happen''' and '''[[Rape|will take the enemies' WS and BS down to 0]].
**EDIT: By rulebook any stat can't go below 1 due to modifiers, AND in the bonus/malus calc you put before bonus and malus then you set the value, so the AB or AC are 1 after the blind check anyway.'''
*'''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. 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.
*'''Kyropatris Field Generator''' - The Funky Backpacks of the Secutarii, this gives them re-rolls on Armour saves of 1 as long as there are five members with this in the unit, a -1S on ranged attacks against them if there's 10 or more.
*'''Secutarii Warplate''' 4+ Armour for Secutarii, nope nothing special, just a 4+ armour save, just like Skitarii Warplate.

===Relics of Mars===
*'''Arkhan's Divinator''' - A meta tool named after the man who invented [[Land Speeder]]s and [[Land Raider]]s, 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 [[Space Marines|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}} =NOTE= Slap this on an Infiltrator Princeps and go monster hunting as Infiltrators REDUCE I within 6".
*'''Omniscient Mask''' - This unit now has [[Chaplain|Zealot]]. Take this. Always. Works especially on Sicarian squads.
*'''Phosphoenix''' - The last phosphex weapon in the Imperium, ironically used to execute the techpriest that destroyed the STC for the other ones. It comes with AP2 and Poison (3+) and 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 Nikola 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.