If you like guns, you’ll love Skitarii kill teams. You’ll be able to arm up with plasma calivers, transuranic arquebuses and more, allowing you to build a roster capable of turning any enemy into radioactive ash. Rho-Mu 31 - Rho-Mu 31 was a Protector of the Forge of Magma City on Mars who served Mechanicus Adept Koriel Zeth, the Mistress of Magma City. Despite appearing distanced and cold towards strangers he retained some decidedly human traits, including humour. Into this new age of war march the Skitarii legions and maniples of esoteric battle-servitors, guided by the machine-like intellect of the Tech-Priests. Their strange and wonderful weapons have had a fair few upgrades in the new edition, so today we’re taking a look at their new toolbox. Overview Castellan • Colossus • Cataphract • Crusader • Conqueror • Vorax • Hunter-Killer • Thanatar • Scyllax Guardian • Kastelan • Domitar • Arlatax • Vultarax The Cataphractii were the Skitarii's armour units. The Skitarii made use of everything from small armoured personnel carriers like the Chimera and Rhino to heavy combat walkers and super heavy tanks such as a Baneblade.

The Sydonian Dragoons echo the tactics of these ancient Martian warrior-explorers. Using incense exhausts, they march through an ochre cloud redolent of ancient Sydonia. Many a foe has been confounded by this mist long enough for the Dragoons to mount a deadly charge. What if Skitarii Rangers were also dangerously radioactive? Skitarii Vanguard fight much like their brethren, while also sapping the Toughness of anyone they get close enough to – you’ll want to keep one on your front lines for this very reason. The Adeptus Mechanicus kits are a treat for tinkerers. You can build your whole kill team from two diverse dual kit boxes with loads of options, from cosmetic changes like alternative heads and accessories to wargear like scryer-skulls and data-tethers. Omnispex - An Omnispex carries a raptor-class machine spirit that can read heat emissions, data signatures, and biological waveforms even at extreme range. Should it be kept focussed for an extended period of time, it will determine the weak points of those it scrutinises and pass them on to its master.The Secutarii's second battlefield role is to sweep in behind the God-engines of the Collegia Titanica and destroy whatever has weathered their fearful firepower, for while a Titan might shatter a mighty fortress or blast a tank company to ashes in mere solar minutes, its might cannot be squandered on the eradication of those few survivors left in its wake. While the Titan will press on to more important targets, the Secutarii will mercilessly hunt down and slay those that would seek to escape the wrath of the Machine God. Several clades from Stygies VIII have earned similar infamy amongst their foes, including those clades known as the "Crimson Blades" and the "Skullmarks." These units seem to have gone rogue, often bearing unusual markings and appearing unbidden amongst other legions that have been summoned to battle. The Skitarii Vanguard, known informally as "rad-troopers," bring the baleful touch of the Tech-priests to the far corners of the galaxy. They fight in the most inhospitable conditions possible, for over the many civil wars waged by the Cult Mechanicus, the Vanguard have learned not only to endure baleful energies, but to weaponise them. Warhammer Community: Tridents, Harpoons, and Very Large Spears: Learn to Fish with these Aquatic Imperial Knights (Posted on 17/12/2021) (last accessed 17th September 2023) According to Suda, they were six hundred men and during the battle they were the first to engage and the last to withdraw. [1]

These guys provide long-range fire support to your kill team, whether toting special weapons or just using their galvanic rifles. Alternatively, kit them out with an omnispex and use one as a spotter for one of your more heavily armed troops. Eternal Vigilance - The Skitarii have their eyelids removed upon inception, for they must harvest data for their masters at all times. To prevent them from losing their sight to the hot grit of their Forge Worlds, goggle-like augmetics filled with blessed salves are sealed into place. The targeter arrays inside them are miracles of the Omnissiah, their sophistication the bane of the Skitarii's foes. In battle, Skitarii fight with near-robotic discipline and base their firing vectors and positioning on mathematical formulae guaranteed to bring about maximum success. While the Imperial Guard focuses on broad sweeping assaults, Skitarii units generally focus on maximizing their strength against vital enemy units and installations. [25] While Skitarii fighters do not require any boost in morale, they do receive regular enhancements from combat drugs that can cause sudden bursts of energy, strength, and regenerative power. However, many of these drugs are extremely dangerous and cause horrific side effects mere minutes after their use. [23] The Skitarii Legions do not fight alone, for they escort the vast goliaths of the Centurio Ordinatus to war, and even march in the shadow of the god-machines of the Titan Legions. It is the Skitarii that bolster the battle robots of the Legio Cybernetica and they who act as bodyguards for Tech-priests brave enough to take the field.

Army of Renown – The Skitarii Veteran Cohort

A Forge World's Skitarii Legion is divided into a number of macroclades, which are in turn broken down into cohorts and maniples. The vast majority of Skitarii War Cohorts are not borne into battle by armoured machines or aircraft, but simply stride to the front line without stopping, even should they have to start the journey solar months in advance of their allies. Known colloquially as "shivs" to the soldiers of the Astra Militarum due to the shivering, blurring appearance of their Transonic Weapons, Ruststalkers can dart across a battlefield with daunting speed and fight with a frantic energy. Transuranic Arquebus - The precision and inhuman efficiency that typify the Skitarii legions are epitomised by these long-barrelled heavy weapons. Firing a shell of depleted transuranium, a Transuranic Arquebus can puncture a tank from one side to the other, the resultant pressure wave also pulping any biological creatures that may be sheltering inside.

This sensory assault, though broad in spectrum, is calibrated precisely by the Tech-priest sanctioning the despatch of these macabre assassins. Those Skitarii sent to fight alongside the Infiltrators are given null-codes that transmute these frequencies used into harmless song; to them, the constant barrage of neurostatic coming from each domed helmet is nothing more than a soft psalm to the Omnissiah's glory. In Andy Chambers's short story Deus ex Mechanicus, Praetorians are in fact servitors, rather than living humans. They move on tank treads and are armed with powerful weaponry, such as plasma cannons. [3] In the Cyropaedia (IV, 2), Xenophon compares them to the Hyrcanian cavalry, used by the Assyrians as rear-guard. Binharic Omniscience (Alpha) - The Skitarii find their minds possessed by blessed binary, the entire battlefield reduced to a series of zeros and ones through which the causal path to the enemy's demise is clear as day. Rapt in this display of the Omnissiah's might, the Skitarii bullseye the foe with merciless, inhuman efficiency.Though the monotask servitor that steers each Ironstrider engine towards the foe is all but mindless, its rider is a tried and tested Skitarii warrior. Once the Dragoon has spotted his quarry, he will mark it with a bullet from his phosphor serpenta or radium jezzail. Every turn, you’ll get to choose (or roll for) one of six powerful blessings of the Machine God for your kill team – if you play Warhammer 40,000, you’ll be familiar with these already. They’ll allow you to switch up your tactics on the fly, shifting from hiding with Shroudpsalm to charging in with Chant of the Remorseless Fist when the enemy closes range. Arc weapons fire coruscating, well, arcs of electricity across the battlefield, frying opponents alive and messing with the systems of vehicles as holy energy courses through them. Just think loud zaps and the smell of burnt metal (and flesh and hair… eww). Collectively, they have fought alongside the Astra Militarum, the Adepta Sororitas, the Adeptus Astartes, and even the Primarchs of legend. Throughout the millennia the Skitarii Legions have fought with impeccable skill and discipline even when the colossi and ravaging daemons slaughter them in droves. In doing so they have assimilated a functionally infinite amount of information for their masters.

The equipment can vary massively based on which Magos, Mechanicus Organisation or Forge World has raised and equipped them. There is little standardisation or central command of Skitarii across the Mechanicus, as each individual regiment is the personal army of a particular Magos. For example, the Skitarii of the Titan Legion Legio Invicta are gene-bulked humans with weaponised limbs and augmetic armour [4], whereas a different type of Skitarii investigated the dead world of Tarsis Ultra, and were seen to be wearing something similar in both function and design to Terminator armour. [2] Blessed Raiments - The heavy robes that the Skitarii wear to battle are lined with tiny leaden leech-spheres that absorb harmful energies. Branded above the hem is the Skitarii's squad number and the symbol of the Forge World to which he belongs. The Grand Hunt (303.M35) - House Raven, having felt the teeth of Eldar raiders from the paradise world of Geminex one too many times, formally petition for Skitarii aid. Twelve cohorts are sent to Geminex, grid-search tactics driving the Exodites and their allies from the planet's sacred places and into the crosshairs of House Raven's Imperial Knights. The Eldar of Biel-Tan retaliate, striking hard from hidden Webway portals. The Skitarii fight on through everything the Craftworld can throw at them. Once hard data has been gleaned from every one of Biel-Tan's war assets, the Skitarii withdraw en masse, leaving the remaining Knights of House Raven to make a desperate last stand. The Skitarii are functional and effective en masse, but are never treasured as individuals, even by the tech-priests that fix them, often using whatever spare parts are at hand. However, this has not stopped a few clades from distinguishing themselves, and if their deeds and heroic efforts are not recognised by their masters, they are at least made note of by their foes.The Dark Fate of Vheinos (221.M32) - When the Astropathic Choir falls silent upon the Civilised World of Vheinos, Forge World Lucius sends its Skitarii to investigate at gunpoint. The resultant rebellion sees heresy spread like wildfire, just as the Tech-priests had calculated. Within solar days the Skitarii find themselves outnumbered eighty to one -- a ratio high enough to trigger rad warfare protocols. A solar month later the Skitarii leave the planet a lifeless wasteland, its Astropathic duct excised and permanently relocated to one of Lucius' moons. War of Recovery (104.M36) - Patchy reports cite technological wonders on the planets of the Mortuam Chain. Hoping precious STC databases can be uncovered, an Explorator fleet replete with macroclades of Skitarii is launched. This begins an escalating war against an Aeldari counter-invasion that lasts over a standard century. Victory is finally won when the Skitarii use the very weapons they recover against the foe, and several first generation, munitions-grade STC databases are returned triumphantly to Mars. They were often tied to the service of a specific forge city on Mars or one of the other Forge Worlds. They differed from the standard Skitarii in several small ways, most notably because their faces were covered by a bronze skull mask with glowing green eyes and they were dressed in red robes the colour of old rust. They were noted to smell of spoiled meat and machine oils. Unusually, the heraldry of Metalica's Skitarii is dictated by their battlefield role. Skitarii Vanguard and Rangers wear metallic armour plates and white robes with red linings. Sicarians usually wear white battle plate, forgoing red altogether. All of Metalica's Skitarii bear gunmetal prostheses and cybernetic enhancements made from the very same substance that covers the planet's surface. Its Alphas and Princeps wear metal mined from the peaks of the planet's titanium mountains. The vehicles of Metalica's War Cohorts are arrayed in the bone white of their Forge World's heraldry, though it is never long before they bear the marks of fire and destruction. Though Metalica's legions are fiercely independent from the cloying touch of Mars, the hammer and fist icon of Metalica is depicted in deep red in honour of their Martian forefathers. The most blessed of Skitarii pass a point called the "Crux Mechanicus," their body more machine than flesh. Those that reach this stage of mechamorphosis are known as "Skitarii Alphas."