# A question about Skitarii.



## cheeto (Apr 1, 2011)

A question because I just finished Dark Apostle having read other books involving the skitarii. In Titanicus, they are portrayed as the Mechanicus answer to the astartes. They are massive, fiercely augmented, frightening to behold and in most cases, their brains altered so they feel no fear.

That's how it seems I always encounter them. Fierce warriors, not all that bright but highly effective all the same. Then in Dark Apostle, they are nothing but servitors. It's disappointing. I guess some could argue that it depends on the magos in charge, but isn't a servitor just a servitor?


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

There are several different types of mechanicus troops. The standard seems to be tech guard, basically IG with slight augmentations, while skitarii seem to be the AdMech storm troopers. There are several other branches, like electro priests and I think they're called executors, tech priests tooled up with things that go boom. Then many tech priests have their self made gun servitors.

Personally I would take the Titanicus iteration of skitarii to be the most accurate. Gun servitors are just that, mindless machines that act within the parameters of whatever their data wafers determine.


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## tsne16487 (Aug 5, 2011)

Certainly as Khorne said their are different types of troops under mechanicum control. And like you said it dpeends on the magos who they are serving.

In the Chapters Due the Magos had his own specialised Skitarii and Combat Servitors. They can basically augment these beings to virtually any expected level for any number of roles.

But in the chapters due the Skitarii fought Chaos Space marines very effectively in Melee situations, and they were very different beings from the combat servitors.

The Magos also had communications hardwired into their brains and he could re-direct his troops and change strategy at the speed of thought. Even the best Imperial communications arrays cannot match this level of combat control. But when the communication was sabotaged by a dark magos all of the gun servitors fell silent and couldnt fight, the Skitarii however continued to fight to their own combat programmes and augments.


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## MidnightSun (Feb 10, 2009)

Yeah, the Tech-Guard are like the Vostroyans; Imperial Guardsmen with minor bionic enhancements. As far as I know, Skitarii are a lot better, but they changed radically in the Horus Heresy (as did all Imperial technology) into lesser beings. That's not to say that they're bad now - in Soul Hunter, it's shown that Skitarii can total a Rhino with las-weaponry, an apparently remarkable feat. But in the same book, the Skitarii fail to do any real damage to the renegade Astartes forces; First Claw fights through numerous platoons of Skitarii and take no casualties (for those who don't know, there's just four Chaos Marines in First Claw).

Midnight


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## Rems (Jun 20, 2011)

So far each authers interpretation of Skitari has varied quite a bit. Abnett's in Titanicus (and McNeils in Mechanicum) are as cheeto said, the Mechanicus' answer to astartes; large, skilled shock troops that are highly augmented. 

In other novels (like Soul Hunter, Soul Drinkers or Dark Apostle) they're more like advanced/upgraded guardsmen or even free thinking servitors. 

For an in universe explanation i would say they differ to both their exact role and origin. The skittari in Titanicus for example are designated specifically as auxileries to the Titans themselves. 

Other Magos' and forgeworlds may have different requirements and philosophies regarding their skitarri; resulting in a large vareity of what come under the general label of skitarri.


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## tsne16487 (Aug 5, 2011)

Read "The Chapters Due", theres stacks of stuff in about Skitarii, they play a major role in the battle and whole sections of text are given over to their battles.

The Skitarii Commander is even honoured on Macragg at the end of the book, along with the raven guard, and inquisitor staff who took part in the battle. The Skitarii commander speaks in the novel and has dialect with lead characters, so it gives you som eidea that they are more than just mindless combat drones, and they are also written as being highly capable combat operatives.

The skitarii in Chapters Due would have destroyed 4 chaos space marines, in fact they decimated far larger forces. There was thousands of Skitarii in the battle though and took heavy losses. They spent alot of time fighting enemy underlings also not just chaos space marines as the marines did have hte edge. But mowing down platoons of Skitarii isnt how Ive read about them, just goes to show that the fluff is a bit crap sometimes when each writer can change the capabilities of specific troops.

In fact im sure when they turned the tide of one battle, the Iron Warriors and their cohorts were decimating the ranks of IG beneath the surface of Calth, the line was faltering and was going to fall, including the parts being re-inforced by Astartes and the line in the book was something like "And then the Skitarii came, and the killing began".

I like to think of them as very capable close combat troops, as the Chapters Due is one of my favourite black library novels.


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## Davidicus 40k (Jun 4, 2010)

If Skitarii are the Mechanicus answer to Astartes, then it makes sense that their power level seems to vary wildly. The same is true for Space Marines, depending on who the author is and which Chapter the Marines belong to k:.

I think it truly varies by role. Skitarii aboard a Titan, for example, would probably be more capable than those assigned to a simple Mechanicus installation.


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

Traditionally, Skitarii are basically slightly augmented guardsmen. In _Dark Adeptus_, they've had their emotions crushed, sure. Some depictions seem to confuse the Praetorians, which are large, power-fist-and-heavy-weapon-servitoresque beasties--see _Fallen Angels_ for a good portrayal of those, IIRC. Those are the ones more on a par with Marines--even more powerful, actually, but stupider and slower. Gun servitors and weapons servitors are another similar permutation of the AdMech's soldiers. Further complicating things are the chaos-corrupted Skitarii in _Mechanicum_, who are more irrational, hulking and bestial things, it seems.


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## cheeto (Apr 1, 2011)

I always kinda understood that it was slightly different from on magos to another. I guess my issue and hence question was that I didn't appreciate how weapon servitors were portrayed as fierce skitarii and then used as pure cannon fodder in Dark Apostle. I can certainly accept the differences in augmentation from one to another, just not the servitor as skitarii part. I think the author did a disservice to the mechanicus in that...

I'll get over it lol


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## Mossy Toes (Jun 8, 2009)

The Skitarii are the tech-guard accompanying Saphentis, as I remember. Not the Death Servitors that are possessed by daemons or anything like that. Do I misremember?


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

The problem is that the varying BL authors all have a different idea of what the infantry forces available to the AdMech are. Abnett obviously sees skitarii as seperate and superior to tech guard, while Reynolds seems to think they are just another name for tech guard. It'll take a codex release to fix it I think. Take the hint GW!


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## Braakbal (Aug 18, 2011)

I'm currently reading Titanicus by Dan Abnett.

From what I've gathered is that skitarii is a term used to cover several different types of fighting units. For example, the hyspasists. These are the basic units, think of guardsman with light cybernetic implants. Cataphractii are mentioned as being artillery units. And I think most of us have read about the Praetorians. Vat-grown giants with power weapons, cybernetically hardlinked plasma or las cannons and extensive augmentation.

I should mention though, that these are Skitarii used by a titan legion. Other Skitarii armies might have other configurations.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

I have learnt over the years that servitors are sometimes controlled by something whereas skitari are not. Also it does depends on magos to magos, some of them use them as an army whereas some of them use them as a body guard. 

Obviously within the army you need different guys for different things. For example you would need heavy weapons guys etc.

I've read in the past that some of them have masses of wires and cables that they can attack people with others are multi legged dreadnought things


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