If The Emperor’s Great Crusade was supposed to get rid of religion and bring in an age of rationality then the Skitarii Conclaves appear to have missed a memo at some point. This is a bunch of Battle-Pilgryms, fervently devoted to holding objectives on 30k battlefields in the name of the Omnissiah.
In this article we’ll look at the army list for the Skitarii Conclaves in the new Journal Tactica: Skitarii: The Steel Hand of Mars. The list contains several new units, some represented by new models, some using existing Mech stuff and one unit that requires kit-bashing.
The Journal includes all the relevant weapon and wargear rules so you don’t need the Liber Mechanicum to run this list. The Journal alone is enough to run them. As you might imagine though, they do have some synergy with other Mechnicum forces.
Games Workshop didn't send us a copy of the Journal to review (we blame the Christmas holidays) so this article is a hot take based on information that's now in the public domain. There are some missions and there's a substantial fluff section in the book but we haven't read them yet, sorry!
Read all about the new models in our
Review of the Skitarii Battle Group.
The Skitarii Conclaves Army List
Skitarii Battle Group - Credit: Games Workshop
As usual, we kick off with a few special rules for the army list. We are told that all the units in the book are Core and that they can be Loyalist or Traitor unless individual units say otherwise – and none of the units in this book do.
The Vassals of the Forge Lords rule allows an army whose Primary Detachment is from the Mechanicum Taghmata list to take a Skitarii Conclaves Allied Detachment without using up any of its 50% limit for Allies. In theory you could have a “Mechanicum” army list that was mostly Skitarii. They are still a separate faction though, so they will suffer penalties for attaching characters and can’t ride in each other’s transports – even though they’re identical Triarios.
Skitarii Conclaves work best as allies for Mechanicum, or perhaps other factions. They don’t have any Supreme Commanders and there’s no mechanic for them to get a bonus reaction if they’re your Primary Detachment.
They get quite a fun Advanced Reaction. If your Marshal dies you can use a Reaction to have your Ordinators go into a conclave, accelerated and held over Zoom, to elect a new one. Then in the end phase one of them gets +1 to WS, A and LD as well as Icon of Authority (see the Marshal’s entry later) for their power sword or bayonet.
As a Reaction, this will only work if your Marshal dies in your opponent’s turn, so try not to charge him into anything too horrible.
Skitarii Conclave Sub-factions
There are four Sub-factions for Skitarii Conclaves and you have to pick one for all the units in a Detachment. They provide the following benefits to all your non-vehicle units:
- Acquisitor gives Line (1).
- Expurgator gives Vanguard (3).
- Vindictor, only available to Loyalists, increases the value of Deflragrate on all your guns by 1.
- Scourger, only available to Traitors, gives +1” to set-up moves.
Mechanicum don’t have easy access to Line so I expect we’ll mostly see Acquisitor Skitarii, providing crucial VPs by standing in important parts of the battlefield. Vanguard (3) is a lot of Vanguard but it’s still very difficult to score and Line is very reliable.
Vindictor and Scourger provide only very minor benefits, which is a shame. It means that Acquisitor is clearly the strongest choice in-game, while players who want to choose faction options will have a harder time scoring VPs.
Actually that’s only an issue if you’re bringing Skitarii as allies for Mechanicum, who lack their own Line stuff. The other sub-factions all look a lot more interesting if you have Tactical Squads for objectives.
Units of the Skitarii Conclave
Skitarii Battle-Pilgrym Marshal
Battle-Pilgrym Marshal - Credit: realSnice
Your Command choice is a classic melee beatstick, They have a slightly worse profile than a Legionary commander, with four wounds but only a 4+ save and 5+ invulnerable. The long-legged Battle-Pilgryms have only a 6” move but are Fast (2). They can charge reliably and their Initiative of 3 (or 4 for the Marshal) means they can Rush 11 or 12”. That’s good for getting onto objectives but means no shooting or charging afterwards.
For ranged weapons the Marshal comes with a Voltlock Handgun, which is basically a FP1 volkite Serpeta – which is not amazing. This can be upgraded cheaply for a far better Archaeotech pistol.
The melee options are pretty interesting. The standard weapon is the Auctorit Sceptre. This has an unimpressive profile, hitting at S4 AP4 D1 with Breaching 6+. However, it is an Icon of Authority, meaning that if your Marshal selects it to fight with, all Skitarii in their unit immediately lose any Pinned, Suppressed and Stunned Tactical Statuses they may have. The timing of this means your unit will have cleared its status in time to not suffer the penalty to Initiative. It doesn’t help with being Routed though, doesn’t let you charge if Pinned and doesn’t remove any new statuses the unit might gain in combat. The risk is that you clear your Stunned status but then lose the subsequent fight vs someone with scarier melee weapons, ending up Routed.
You can replace the Sceptre with either a Phase Claw or Corposant Stave, at the cost of a few points and the loss of Icon of Authority. The Claw makes the Marshal strike at I1 but with a far better S6, AP2, D2 and Rending 6+. The Stave is hits at I4, S4, AP3, D1, which isn’t fantastic, but it also has Shock (Pinned, Stunned, Suppressed), which is extremely bad news for any vehicles your Marshal bumps into.
The Marshal and Battle-Pilgryms get new kinds of grenades: Rad Charges and Haywire grenades. Both have 8" range and hit at S4, AP-, D1. Rad have Phage T and Haywire have Shock (Stun). You can but them each at 2 points per model for both units. To be honest you're probably better off just shooting most things with your Volkites.
Your Marshal will occupy a Prime slot so there’s a case for giving them a Claw and Paragon of Battle, making a very scary melee combatant. You could also go for Combat Veterans though of course, or just Logistical benefit to grab a spot for your Vulturax.
Skitarii Battle-Pilgrym Corpus
Skitarii Battle-Pilgrym - Credit: realSnice
Your key Troops unit is a Skitarii Ordinator and 7 Skitarii Battle-Pilgryms for 100 points, with the option of adding up to 8 more at 10 points each. They’ve got 6” moves, WS, BS and S3, T4, W2, I3 and A2. The Ordinator has WS4 and LD8, while the others have LD7. They have 4+ saves and 6+ Invulnerables.
For weapons they come with Voltlock Arquebuses, with 20” range and 2 S5 AP5 D1 shots and Deflagrate (5). These also have a respectable melee profile, providing +1S, AP4 and Impact (Initiative). They also bring Frag and Krak grenades, so they’re a threat in melee to any vehicle with rear armour 10.
The Ordinator can replace their Arquebus with a Voltlock Handgun (with just 1 shot and 10” range but Assault) and a Power Sword, for free. Otherwise the only upgrades are Rad Charges and Haywire grenades, as mentioned above.
This is a unit that can hold its own reasonably well vs something like a Legion Tactical Squad, which costs the same amount. Having W2 and A2 is a big upgrade and their shooting is roughly equal but their worse WS, BS and I may cause issues. They’ll massacre things like Solar Auxilia much more effectively than Legionaries, thanks to those AP4 melee weapons.
On the other hand, two of the really big strengths Tactical Squads have are Nuncio Voxes to remove statuses and Rhinos to hide inside. Battle-Pilgryms don’t get any equivalent of the Vox, except perhaps a Marshal with an Auctorit Sceptre, and their only transport is the Triarios. Those are great but they’re more than triple the price of a Rhino, so they don’t really do the same job.
Bonepicker Host
Perhaps surprisingly, the Journal includes a new unit for which there are no models, that you have to scratch build. The suggestion is to stick the guns from Tech Thralls onto Necromunda Cawdor gangers, though that sounds pretty expensive and time-consuming to me. You’d probably need to replace both arms on a lot of the Cawdor guys, as the Tech Thrall guns are one-handed.
The Champions of 'the Refused', a house-gang obsessed with 'the Kings in Yellow'. Credit: Josh Boyes
The fluff for Bonepickers is that loads of them follow behind Mechanicum armies, scouring battlefields for relics like discarded lasgun batteries. It’s not clear to me why they’d want to do this during a battle, as they’re ludicrously vulnerable on a battlefield full of Space Marines, Titans and so on.
50 points gets you 10 Bonepickers as a support choice. You can add up to 20 more for 5 points each. They have a statline slightly worse than Militia Levy with only I2 and a remarkable set of 4s for all their mental stats. 6+ saves won’t protect them from much. They’re armed with Las-locks, which have 1 18” range shot at S4 AP6 D1, which is rubbish at BS2. On the plus side nobody will want to waste a reaction returning fire at these guys. Let’s not discuss melee.
Tech-Thralls. Credit - Soggy
Three special rules define Bonepickers. Firstly, they’re Support Unit (1), so if you’re taking Skitarii Conclaves to score objectives they won’t do that. Secondly they’re Expendable (2), so if your opponent wants to score Vanguard or some other kind of points off them then they won’t do that either. Finally their own rule Zealous Followers lets them use the characteristics of nearby friendly Skitarii when they have to do a Characteristic Check – which is useful considering this unit’s LD4.
Bonepickers do get your Sub-faction rule but don’t gain much from it. Line is useless as they’re Support Squads. Vanguard would require them to kill something. They don’t have Volkite weapons for Vindictor. Scourer helps as they do benefit somewhat from +1 to Set-up Moves. They really don’t want to fight many things on a 30k battlefield but they can soak or prevent an Overwatch reaction, allowing your proper fighters a clear run into melee.
The purpose of Bonepickers seems to be as a screen and minor irritation for your opponent. Look after your valuable robots and vehicles by putting a line of disposable human bodies in the way.
I think it’s a cool thing to include these guys in the list. The community has been calling for more opportunities for customising units and here we go. It’s also a way to add some baseline humans to a Mechanicum list, illustrating the amusing/horrific concept that people are the cheapest, most disposable asset available to the Imperium. And they aren’t quite totally useless.
Triaros Armoured Conveyor
Triaros Conveyor. Credit - Soggy
The Troiros is the (Heavy) transport for your Battle-Pilgryms and Marshal. Unfortunately it’s not an especially good fit for them as it’s very expensive and not an assault vehicle. As such I’m not sure whether it makes sense to take these. You could use one as a transport for a unit of 16 Battle-Pilgryms and a Marshal, letting you get that Line unit far up the board to unleash a load of Volkite, with the option of reacting back inside the tank. That twin mauler is a good gun too, but not 200 points worth of good.
Vulturax Stratos Automata
Vultarax Stratos-Automata. Credit: Pendulin
Probably due to being in the box, the Vulturax is part of the Skitarii Conclave Army list. None of the other Automata are. There’s some fluff that the Skitarii use them for scouting, which makes sense.
I think these will be quite useful, though not amazing. Their guns apply all sorts of statuses and also have the potential to do decent damage. In melee they aren’t amazing but they are quick and great for soaking Overwatch from small arms.
Karacnos, Krios and Krios Venator
Mechanicum Karacnos Assault Tank. Credit - Soggy
Skitarii Covenants can field these three Mechanicum tanks. The downside is missing out on the Mechanicum Macrotech Prime benefit, which adds a huge amount to their durability. So If you’re taking Skitarii as allies to Mechanicum, it probably makes sense to bring the tanks as part of the Mechanicum bit of your army – or maybe makes no difference. I’ve lazily copied the following from our review of the Liber Mechanicum:
- Karacnos Assault Tank: The mortar is a status effect king and will see a lot of play on the table.
- Krios Battle Tank: All vehicles do have a Auto-repair (4+) which is very appreciated. Two profiles. This lets you choose between the Lighting Cannon (an excellent all-rounder) and the Irradiation Blaster (fun but no longer having the cool beam effect) and another profile…
- Krios Venator: 160 points base (25 more than their siblings) but Pulsar Fusil rocks. Two shot, D3, Strength 9, AP2 shots that also have Suppressive (2).
Conclusion
Overall this is a more than useful set of units, adding both some fun fluff to the Mechanicum and some useful extra scoring.
The most obvious approach is to add an Allied Detachment with a few units of Battle Pilgryms. You don’t even need to include a Marshal unless you want to unlock other types of units, most likely Transports, as otherwise all you only really need Troops. The four slots in the Allied Detachment are probably enough.
Adding a few units of 8 Battle-Pilgryms will benefit a Mechanicum army quite a lot I think. They score better than most Mechanicum units and have very decent shooting. A unit or two of Bonepickers might also be a worthwhile screen for more static lists but don’t expect them to kill anything.
I’m pleased to see that the Skitarii Conclaves list provides plenty of new and interesting options without doing anything that obviously breaks the game. I’m very happy to see them adding in units that encourage kitbashing and that it’s not just rules for the new models but slightly more of a proper faction.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
Thank you for being a friend.
This website uses cookies. Learn more.
Goonhammer App and Patron Updates: April, 2026
Kill Team Tournament Report: Engage, Party, Repeat's March Madness 2026
Goonhammer Reviews: Tribal Conquest
