With the release of the first round of things from GW and the continued releases from FW, I think we're getting close to a point where we need to discuss the makeup of the Skitarii list. Granted, I think there's still a few more releases from GW in the wings related to transport, elites, and HQ but the early pics of the Sentinel/Defilier hybrid is less than encouraging in that front.

From what I'm seeing thus far is that skitarii Rangers and Vanguard are probably too granular a division for Epic since both are troops and would likely be contained within the Demicentury (unless that changes considerably)

There are a few new weapons options available, though outside of the Galvanic Rifles, I feel most of them would result in cosmetic rather than stat changes with most still being within the short-mid range zone. I don't see the special rules for most of the weapons having much effect at the Epic scale.

Stat wise, Skitarii War Plate seems to be in line with what we currently have for armor value so nothing to change there.

What's more interesting at the moment is the Ironstrider/Sydonian stuff. From what I can gather they are basically custom AdMech Sentinels with a touch better armor and better weapons. The Sydoians seem to be sentinel versions of knights.

I can't say I'm overly enthralled with the releases so far especially compared with the stuff we've seen from FW. I'd like to see more of the fluff GW put together for them as it might give a bit more insight into how the skitarii operate, though I fear it'll end up something like "every 10 man unit has at least 5 of these awesome and extremely expensive models attached." Of what I've seen so far I only feel the Ironstriders/sydonians have much chance of showing up and even then it's really tough to justify what amounts to sentinels with a different weapon or Rough Rider sentinels. I think the result in epic terms would basically be making the Skitarii feel more guard like again.

Thoughts?

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Yes, it's certainly interesting that they're finally doing them, but until we have the full codex we won't know what the "theme" or playstyle is really like.

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Ben Sibbald

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Theres little to do about this as at epic it's pretty much cosmetic or simple weapon swaps on units that are basically counts-as already. Also, there's little standardization for Skitarii anyways I don't think you need to worry much if at all. I agree that this GW take on them is basically thematically and visually just guard (hell solar aux actually). I'd not waste any cycles on it.

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It sounds like these are Mars-specific models; someone mentioned that the Skitarii having mechanical lower legs was a Martian predilection. The wacky walkers might be as well.

It could be a while before there’s a full codex, so for now I’d say it doesn’t affect Epic much. It’s a possible style to draw from. I do like them, though.

I'd say wait until the 2-3 codices/dataslates for Adeptus Mechanicus/Skitarii are finally released, and then evaluate whether or not anything needs to be changed.

Since pretty much every Mechanicum forge has license to design its Taghmata forces according to its own preferences, I see no reason to change an established list unless you really want to incorporate something interesting/unique that would integrate well (the thought of rough rider sentinels is pretty cool).

I'd rather see 1-2 additional well-planned Mechanicum lists over time, for example the WIP armor list or a Cybernetica-heavy list down the line.

You COULD try, once we have something of a critical mass of Mechanicum models/options from GW and Forgeworld, to build a swiss army list allowing players to build for a theme or mix and match, but based on past discussion on that topic I'd suggest just sticking to theme lists: infantry, armor/mechanized, cybernetica, reductor(?)

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leaks of second round of skitarii releases about on the usual sites now. robot/cyborg ninja-bot things

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My Epic Army threads;
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* Marine (Xth Legion Iron Hands) TBA - soon!
* Necron (Scarab Conflict)
Batrep thread;
* Batreps (My armies being slaughtered by whomever & other battles.)

Bell of Lost Souls points out that the assassin thingies look a lot like a 1993 Jes Goodwin sketch:
http://www.belloflostsouls.net/wp-conte ... oodwin.jpg

Bearing in mind how incredibly bland the Necron releases are - I honestly think these are pretty great.

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Ben Sibbald

Personal & Wargaming Blog: http://www.theancienttrack.blogspot.co.uk

EPIC WIP: Grey Knights, Space Wolves, Eldar

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Is anyone doing a Skitarii armylist based on the existing GW and FW units? I for one would like one. There are some really interesting units there and they are different enough to make it feel as a separate army from say IG. What is the current closest armylist available?

We've been pulling parts of what FW has into the current skitarii list, but I don't really see pulling much from GW. At the scale of epic most of the interesting features are lost and specific units like vanguard or rangers are covered as part of the demicentury stats.

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-Vaaish

I do like the names GW is using more than, say, hypaspists. That word always trips me up, and I don’t see the connection between Skitarii and the original Greek hypaspists.

Probably no need to incorporate assassin-like units into this scale.

I like the new walkers, and it sounds like Troublemaker Games will have a proxy for the bigger one (the Onager?). The bipedal ones aren’t too different from Sentinels (at least the ones with guns instead of lances); maybe we shouldn’t replace them with Crusaders in the AMTL list.

Is it just me, or is there some sort of Futurama Christmas theme in this new release?