Litanies of the Faithful

Dear reader, if you know me at all by this point you will know one thing, I am not a smart man.

SHC is poo, there, I said it. I am not, nor will I ever be, a Skitarii Hunter Cohort man (I probably will be in the future). I am a Data-Psalm Conclave man at heart, a Cybernetica Datasmith man at fist, and a Rad-Zone Corps man at brain, which is why I’m writing this article today.

Over the last weekend, there were 3 Adeptus Mechanicus players that had X-0/X-1 records and we’re going to go over there lists to identify similarities, strengths, and weaknesses that we can all benefit from while playing this detachment.

List 1:

4th Annual Flames of Autumn GT

Tyler Brennan 4-1, 3rd place

• Belisarius Cawl
• Skitarii Marshal
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Peerless Eradicator
• Technoarchaeologist: Radial Suffusion
• 10x Skitarii Rangers
• 30x Skitarii Vanguard
• 2x Skorpius Dunerider
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• 2×5 Pteraxii Skystalkers
• 2×5 Sicarian Infiltrators
• 3x Skorpius Disintegrators

List 2:

Bunker Down GT 2024 RBBR

Michael Szczepanski 4-1, 7th place

• 2x Skitarii Marshal
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Peerless Eradicator
• Tech-Priest Manipulus
• 2x Technoarcheologist
• 30x Skitarii Rangers
• 10x Skitarii Vanguard
• Skorpius Dunerider
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• 6x Kataphron Destroyers
• 2×5 Pteraxii Skystalkers
• 2×5 Sicarian Infiltrators
• Canis Rex

List 3:

40K Iron Man

Callum Byers 5-0, 2nd place

• 2x Skitarii Marshal
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Peerless Eradicator
• Technoarchaeologist
• 20x Skitarii Rangers
• 20x Skitarii Vanguard
• 2x Skorpius Dunerider
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• Onager Dunecrawler
• 3x Serberys Raiders
• 5x Sicarian Infiltrators
• 3x Skorpius Disintegrators
• 2x Sydonian Dragoons with Taser Lances

The keen-eyed among you will notice that there are some similarities between these lists.

• Skitarii Marshal
  • I’m assuming the Marshal functions to boost the damage of a Vanguard unit, and at only 35 points it fills a spot in the list if you have an awkward amount leftover. This piece really allows you to push through damage on an infantry unit where you need it while in Conqueror and suffering through hitting on 4’s. Also, being able to remove battle-shock from a Skitarii unit at a crucial moment can be useful

• 40 Skitarii split between rangers and Vanguard
  • The core of the list, although some damage comes from Skitarii units, they really aren’t as crucial as they are in SHC. They really help you make sure you stay in aura range for the rest of your units. I’ve always thought you need at least 30 Skitarii for an AdMech list to function in 10th, but maybe 40 is the sweet spot.

• Tech-Priest Manipulus with the Peerless Eradicator enhancement
  • A crucial component in all the top placing Rad-Zone lists this week, giving the Breachers Lethals and Sustained hits. This will probably remain an auto-include in AdMech lists until Breachers go up to an unplayable number of points.

• Technoarcheologist
  • Blocks deepstrike 12″ or, depending on the match up, throw them in with Vanguard and drop 30 OC on a point with -1 OC to your opponents. Incredible piece for AdMech to include and no wonder there is at least one in each list.

• Skorpius Dunerider
  • Each list had at least one Dunerider in it, having the firing deck rule combined with a Skitarii Marshal to drop full re-rolls to hit and wound on a Vanguard unit for a turn doing a LOT of damage to an infantry unit, and have pretty good anti-chaff shooting themselves. They also serve as good move-blockers and action monkeys when required.

• 6x Kataphron Breachers
  • The biggest core damage dealer in the Rad-Zone detachment, combined with the Manipulus to have full re-rolls to hit, lethal and sustained hits. I dropped 26 wounds in overwatch at a tournament with this unit a few weekends ago, absolutely insane. Each list had 6. I still find this unit difficult to play as you really want to be in Conqueror to move further but the rest of your army suffers.

• Sicarian Infiltrators
  • Infiltrate and battle-shock in melee, allowing you to turn off your opponent’s OC and Stratagems if they charge you for the next turn, or move blocking against World Eaters/Votann. A cheeky play with this unit is to charge an enemy unit doing an action and if you’re near battleline they will most likely fail due to the -2 to leadership. Two of the lists took 2×5, one took 1×5. I think 2×5 is the sweet spot, but you should always be taking at least 1×5.

• Pteraxii Skystalkers
  • Skystalkers are a fast-moving unit and AdMechs only source of the grenade stratagem. The shoot and scoot mechanic can also be abused to take objectives away from opponents and to move-block the hell out of them. Two of the lists took 2×5. Additionally, having at least one unit in deepstrike helps to keep your opponent’s honest when it comes to scoring and screening their backfields.

• Skorpius Disintegrators
  • I love this unit, they do so much work. They essentially have 3 lascannons, 3 rockets, and 18 anti-chaff shots at 18″ or 9 at 36″. Two of the lists brought 3 of them and they really serve as your second punch behind the Breachers. As you do have to expose the Breachers at some point, the Disintegrators can be waiting on the firing lines to put the hurt on whatever targeted the Breachers. They are also very tanky at T10, 12W, 2+ save. In Rad-Zone you can give them a 4+ invuln for 2CP, I’m sure there would be many circumstances where this could be very strong, i.e. against Brigand Meltas.

Differences between these lists:

• Belisarius Cawl
  • Although quite expensive, Cawl essentially forms a very strong lone-operative source of re-roll 1’s to hit or Battleline. This can be crucial if you’re hitting on 4’s for having to stay in Conqueror or giving you a boon while hitting on 3’s in protector. Alternatively, I’ve used Cawl to hold points as T8, 10Wounds, 2+/4++ can be hard to shift and if your opponent moves within 12″ of you, your Breachers then get to kill whatever they moved there, spicy. At 150 points he can be a hard include for some people, but is worth trying at least a few times. Love your work Tyler.

• Canis Rex
  • Ah yes, the best model in the AdMech codex. I think Canis is insane currently as big knights can move through walls, but this really depends on your missions and terrain. On WTC I think he is quite good, on GW, not so much. In Michael’s list it seemed like Canis was replacing the role of the Disintegrators, but he also included the interesting choice of Kataphron Destroyers. I still think Rex is a great addition to a Rad-Zone list as your opponent will be running towards you most of the time, although he is no replacement for the Breacher unit.

• Kataphron Destroyers
  • I’ve not seen these played, and I haven’t played them myself to be honest. The heavy grav-cannons with a Manipulus does give the unit quite a lot of output, but only being AP-1 can be a problem into a lot of targets. You would have to be very confident about your local meta to know how to best utilize this unit. That being said, a lot of armies won’t be able to chew through the Destroyers, and Breachers in a single turn. Allowing you to expose both and be pretty safe knowing you’ll get to shoot one of the units at least one more time. They are also very cheap at 210 points. I would assume that you would always put the Peerless Eradicator Maniplus with the Breachers, maybe at 30″ range you’re more likely to get value out of the re-roll hits stratagem with the Destroyers? That actually sounds very strong but is dependent on deployment. The main problem the Destroyers have is that they’re very prone to getting tied up in combat, Breachers can punch their way out some of the time but if Destroyers get stuck their shooting is pretty much game over.

• Onager Dunecrawler
  • Callum ran this unit with the Neutron Laser, a huge anti-tank threat. The Dunecrawler is also quite good with it’s 4+ invuln and aura of 4+ invuln for Skitarii. I’m not sure how much the second ability would come into effect due to the Skitarii unit needing to be wholly within 6″ of the dinnerplate base the Dunecrawler is on. But sometimes these pop-off, again, quite terrain dependent.

• Sydonian Dragoons with Taser Lances
  • Good melee brawling unit, generally fine. Not sure what the exact tech Callum was going for here, probably just because he couldn’t run a 4th disintegrator or couldn’t fit 2 Ironstriders into the list? I would have put another unit of Infiltrators & Skystalkers if it were me.

Core of Rad-Zone Corps in the current Dataslate:

Let’s make the assumption that Rad-Zone currently functions best when you start with this core of units:

• Skitarii Marshal
• Tech-Priest Manipulus: Peerless Eradicator
• Technoarcheologist
• 20x Skitarii Rangers
• 20x Skitarii Vanguard
• Skorpius Disintegrator
• 6x Kataphron Breachers
• Sicarian Infiltrators
• Pteraxii Skystalkers
• Combination of Disintegrators, Ironstriders, Canis, Destroyers or second big shooting threat.

With 3 Disintegrators, this brings you to 1590 points, allowing you to flex 410 points of additional Infiltrators, Skystalkers, Duneriders, characters, Dragoons, Ironstriders or assassin allies.

Without Disintegrators, you have almost 1000 points to decide where you want to take your list from here.

That is not to say that you can’t do well without using this base of units, there is a lot of flex with utility units as far as AdMech goes with Pteraxii Sterylizors, Serberys Raiders, Electro-priests, Ironstriders etc.

This should have given you some idea of where to start with Rad-Zone and what successful lists are currently running. I’ll be doing a deeper dive on the Rad-Zone detachment soon.