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

===Troops===
*'''Skitarii Rangers''' - They have similar stat-lines to Tempestus Scions and have Move-Through-Cover, but also with Feel No Pain (6+) and Relentless which seems standard for Skitarii units. So they have comfortable staying power and decent move-and-shoot mobility. Since they all have Galvanic Rifles as standard, expect lots of precision hits over time, so they're excellent at removing troublesome characters or special weapon troopers from enemy units. Their range means that they can be used like more mobile Fire Warriors.
**This unit can also take up to 2 special weapons (3 if the squad is maxed out); however, the best option is the transuranic arquebus. The arquebus allows your objective campers to contribute to the fight from afar. Exceptional for removing MEQs from the board reliably, and, as mentioned above, has a ridiculously long range and an anti-transport option, but rather expensive. Also, an omnispex to deny cover-campers some of their trolling isn't a bad idea.

*'''Skitarii Vanguard''' - Your "basic" unit. Cheaper than Rangers at 9 points a model for something almost straight out of [[Fallout]]. They are similar to Rangers in statline but get a Radium Carbine (and a bad-ass looking 15th century helmet) instead of a Galvanic Rifle, so they trade reliable longer range and sniping ability for more firepower at medium range (and style, don't forget style). Against anything but Sv4+ they bring roughly 50% more hurt for the same points as Rangers, going to 200% against T6 and higher, (given it's within 18" range). Additionally, since they are so saturated with radiation, ''anyone'' engaged in melee with them reduces their Toughness by one, making Vanguards not as terrible in CC as you could expect from the shooty stormtrooper-esque squad. 
**Same options for special weapons as above, and they really should take some. Take Plasma Calivers if you want to vaporise MEQs and TEQs, and have balls-loads of points to spare. Is your opponent packing a [[Land Raider]] or a [[Monolith]]? No problem, Arc rifles will make toast out of them for half the price of a Caliver each. Phosphor blast pistol and Omnispex are a recommended combo for some [[Tau]] shenanigans.
** Alternatively, you can take the Vanguard bare bones. They are pretty cheap for what they do and can generate a gigantic clusterfuck with three shots per model that auto-wound ''twice'' on 6s, which you'll be having quite a few of. Especially Chaos Daemons will hate your guts for spamming Vanguard, but even Terminators buckle under the amount of wounds they will need to save. And if faced with a charge, just throw your Vanguard at them, take away their charge bonuses and laugh as your puny tin-men wound the mighty Spess Muhreens on 4+.
**It looks at first like you can do some really cheesy stuff by stacking rad-induced toughness reduction, but, due to the specific line in the 'Rad Saturation' rule that states the rule can only be used to bring the enemy toughness to a minimum of 1, that won't work. You can reduce enemy toughness ''to'' 1, if you stack it up right (Dark Angels, Ordo Xenos Inquisitors, Imperial Knights), but abusing this will mark you as [[That Guy]]. Like most cheapness, it's fun to try once, but then hang it up and don't be a dickhat.(Totally worth the 500+ points needed and ability to get 2 units in cc to just get a trick on one unit)
***No, you can.  ''Rad Saturation'' has a maximum reduction of reducing to 1, but ''Rad Grenades'' on the Inquisitors has no such rule.  Barring errata (neither book's errata covers this as of 2-9-2017), you should be able to choose the order the rules resolve in, so Rad Saturation reduces (to a minimum of 1) and ''then'' the Rad Grenades reduce to a minimum of 0.
**These little tin men may very well be some of the nastiest bare-bones troops in the game. At a mere 100 points, and not even taking their Doctrina Imperatives into account, you're looking at a unit that ''can'' and ''will'' obliterate anything that doesn't have an armor value provided you roll even mildly well. And so long as you take the Skitarii Maniple formation (and who wouldn't? Plasma Calivers in your WL's squad with Preferred Enemy? Yes, ''please'') that measly 18" range on your guns suddenly becomes a 30" threat bubble thanks to Scout and your regular 6" movement to any infantry unlucky enough to be outside of a vehicle. It's also worth noting that, provided the Dice Gods truly bless your rolls and damn your opponent's, they're one of the few troops units that can kill a Bio-Titan in one round of shooting.
**Actually, 25 bare bones vanguard with a psyker casting misfortune will statistically kill it for just over 300 points in one round of shooting.
**Unless you really plan on getting into melee with Vanguard and think that extra attack is going to make a difference, you may be best off leaving the radium carbine on the Alpha. One extra attack isn't really worth 1/3 of the shots at 3/4 of your already crummy range. If you are that bothered, take a Phase Taser or Taser Goad for the chance of making more wounds. 
**That said, the dude is still pretty nasty in combat and with just 10 points more you can hand him out a taser goad and a phosphor blast pistol, which will both synergize well IF you intend to charge them. Side effects included: wounding MEQ on 2+, instaggibing T3 and possibly supporting effect from the pistol. If you go this route NEVER, EVER, FOR NO OMNISSIAHDDAMN' REASON take a radium pistol: for the same cost you are choosing between a laspistol with ap5 and a chance to put out 2 wounds or a single shot heavy bolter with a strong supporting effect. Laspistol vs heavy bolter, any objections?
**Another strong melee option for the vanguard Alpha is going Pater Radium and try to just sneak around the melee. Put one of them in the squad with your Techpriest, have the dude stay out of harm's way until initiative 1 and you got 50% to deal d6 unsavable wounds on T4 or 66% on T3. Plus whatever attack he might had.