Friday, April 3, 2015

Skitarii: No Transport, No Problem


At this point we have pretty much most of the info on what skitarii have as far as an army.  The dunecrawler is looking to be the last model for the army, with no HQ choice, nor transport.  To be honest, neither is really a big deal.  The Alphas have two wounds and you can kit them out to be as good if not better than an AM company commander, so really, nothing that bothers me.  The transport option though seems like a bigger deal on first glance.

But really isn't when you start to look at the army.  The elites, infiltrators and ruststalkers, both have dunestrider, which grants them +3" of movement for movement, running, and charges, plus the infiltrators have surprise infiltrate.  So they can move 9" in open terrain, have a reliable run move, and a more reliable charge.  The same goes for the two legged walkers, though only the CC one really needs the movement boost.

As for the troops, only the vanguard are really missing having a transport.  The Rangers have a 30" range, so really, they don't worry too much about moving around.  The rangers support your back field and shoot ranged targets so they really don't need one.  The vanguard, well they want to get a bit closer.  This seems like a big hit, but its important to remember they are a shooting unit, not a cc one, so they still have a 24" threat range on turn one with their movement, and really 30" once you take the detachment rules into account.

So the detachment.  Its pretty simple as far as organization go.  Two min troops and thats all, then you get to take everything else.

https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1903/2034/original.jpg

The maniple has the very nice rules of granting crusader and scout to all units in it, though unless they naturally possess scout or infiltrate, it does not grant them outflank.  So for vanguard, this gives the a potential of 12" of movement turn one, which goes a long way to getting them into position in mid field to do their work.

With a total of 8 troops, 4 elites, 4 heavy support and 2 fast attack, you can bring quite a bit into your army.  Since the dragoon is the only fast attack, 2 FA slots really isn't a big deal, as you can still bring 12 of them.  Really this army lets you min max with troops if you want to, bringing min squads with special weapons.  I probably wouldn't as you get thin on troops and these aren't space marines, so those 5 man squads just won't hold up too much.  Rangers are the best bet for min squads, but vanguard will do better at full size, plus being able to take 3 special weapons at that point.

The dunecrawler is looking good too, only 90pts at base, which is still solid and with some strong upgrade options with weapons.  I'm going to hold off on the last few units in reviewing them till I get a copy of the codex.  But they can be used as a very good AA option, or anti tank, or anti infantry.

They really have just about the whole package for an internally balanced army.  They have solid troops, each with different strengths, good cc units, again both have strengths and are fast enough to make a difference.  The vehicles are multi functional and pretty cheap. 

They can do long range, they can do short range, they can shoot air, they can claw things up.  All in all, they are a solid, very good army on their own.  They don't fit into death star 40k, thank god as far as I'm concerned.  The doctrina's look to be good, with modifying BS and WS and appearing to be ld based tests like orders. 

Ignores cover is a big thing right now, and while they don't have it straight out, they do have phosphor weapons and omnispex's so they aren't SOL here either.  Overall they seem to have great options and I am looking forward to having them as my third main army.

Praise the Omnissiah!

GG

11 comments:

  1. I love this army and the concept behind it. It is taking every ounce of being for me not to buy everything in droves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, this "small" army looks fantastic. Great models that match the mad AM aesthetic. And great, flavourful but balanced rules. No,clear must-take unit over any other. Looks really fun.

    And I'm sure there'll be great synergy with the AM proper codex & units when released.

    Hopefully the other rumoured upcoming sexes (Eldar soon, SM later in the year) can achieve the same, although both were pretty close to start with (bar mangy serpent shields).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Awesome! I can't wait to field them with my Imperial Knights now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just realized that given how cheap the Skitarii units are, you can actually field a proper detachment of them alongside an Adamantium Lance!

      Delete
  4. So far, the models look great, only the fragility of the units is worrying me. T3 will die to anything (even lasguns and bolters), and while they are fast enough to go without transport, the added protection of one seems necessary. The rangers are almost as costly as T4 3+ marines, the infiltrators almost as costly as terminators (or the same, when fielding 30k), but die a lot easier.

    The vehicles are good, as they are reasonably resilient while cheap, but an entire army will cost a lot cash-wise. Maybe I use skitarii models and conversions as base for a FW Mechanicum army, but that would take a while...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Doesn't worry me too much, they are comparable to scions in profile, and are a little cheaper. The cc versions are a bit pricey, but not enough I think to cancel them out, they are pretty mobile and we have yet to see the whole package. They should do fine without a transport, though having one would def be better.

      Delete
    2. Thank the Omnissiah, there are other options. A full squad of ruststalkers could still fit in a StormEagle. With all the haywire and CC AP2, they'd be perfect to crack LandRaiders and wipe up the content in one go.

      Delete
  5. I forgot to ask this about the Onagon Dunewalker yesterday. Can they be taken in squadrons? Or you can only have a maximum of 1 in each of your heavy support slot?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They appear to be able to be taken in squadrons, will no for sure this weekend when the codex comes out

      Delete
  6. I was looking at the rustalkes and really struggling to get them, they will have 4 attacks on the charge with basically rending, you might kill 2-3 teq but the hits back with anything with 2+ is likely to instakill them rendering the fnp and 2 wounds useless. The troops cost $ wise look like a bargain compared to the storm troopers why they made the command and troop box combinedc is a mystery, I have 8 commissar coats I will never use and much more. I like the rules and quirky weapons just the infiltrator/rust stalkers leave me feeling a bit meh!

    ReplyDelete