Skitarii Hunter Cohort: The 11th-Edition AdMech Stealth Detachment

The pack restates it as: friendly Skitarii Infantry, Skitarii Mounted and Ironstrider Ballistarii units have Stealth.

That is a wide net and a shallow effect. Stealth is a one-point defensive modifier, not a game-changer, and the Ironstrider Ballistarii inclusion is the unusual part: a Walker getting a rule written for infantry and cavalry.

Which means the honest read is that the detachment rule is not why you take this detachment. The value is in the toolkit around it: pre-game redeploys, mid-game withdrawals, and a stratagem suite that lets a fragile Skitarii force keep dictating where the fight happens. Treat Stealth as a small tax rebate and the stratagems as the actual product.

• Binharic Offence (2CP, start of Shooting or Fight) — two Skitarii units that have not attacked improve their weapons' Armour Penetration by 1, but may only attack one nominated enemy unit. The focused-fire button, and the most expensive spend in the detachment.
• Programmed Withdrawal (end of opponent's Fight) — place up to two Sicarian units, or one Skitarii Infantry or Mounted unit, into Strategic Reserves, as long as each is more than 3\" from all enemies. The signature trick: your spent units leave and come back.
• Isolate and Destroy (Shooting) — a Sicarian, Pteraxii, Sydonian, Ironstrider Ballistarii or Skitarii Mounted unit adds 1 to Wound rolls against a target with no other enemy units within 6\". It rewards picking off stragglers rather than punching into the enemy line.
• Shroud Protocols (opponent's Shooting) — a targeted Skitarii Infantry unit can only be shot by models within 18\" for the phase.
• Bionic Endurance (opponent's Shooting or Fight) — a targeted Sicarian, Pteraxii or Sydonian unit gains Feel No Pain 5+.
• Expedited Purge Protocol (Charge) — one Skitarii unit may declare a charge in a turn it Advanced.

• Cantic Thrallnet — Skitarii Marshal only: at the start of the battle round, both Imperatives become active for one friendly Skitarii unit within 12\" until the next battle round. The best enhancement here by a distance, because it removes the army rule's central compromise for your key unit every single turn.
• Clandestine Infiltrator — Skitarii model only: the bearer and any unit it leads gain Infiltrators and Scouts 6\". Combining a pre-game deployment with a pre-game move is a large amount of board control for one enhancement.
• Battle-sphere Uplink — Skitarii model only: after the bearer's unit shoots, if it is not in Engagement Range it makes a 6\" Normal move, but is then not eligible to declare a charge. Shoot-and-scoot for a gun unit.
• Veiled Hunter — Skitarii Marshal only, rewritten by the pack: after both players deploy, redeploy up to three Skitarii Infantry units, and any of them may go into Strategic Reserves regardless of existing reserve limits. That last clause is the important one, and it is now first-party text.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Sicarian Infiltrators and Ruststalkers — the only Sicarian datasheets, and named outright by three of the six stratagems, including the two-unit Programmed Withdrawal.
• Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard — Skitarii Infantry that gains Stealth, and the natural carriers for Veiled Hunter and Clandestine Infiltrator.
• Pteraxii Skystalkers and Sterylizors — named by Bionic Endurance and Isolate and Destroy, and fast enough to make the withdraw tools pay.
• Ironstrider Ballistarii and Sydonian Dragoons — Ballistarii are called out in the detachment rule by name, which is unusual for a Walker.
• Skitarii Marshal — carries Cantic Thrallnet or Veiled Hunter, both Marshal-only, and is now a Support character.

Take it (2 DP) when you enjoy the positional version of AdMech: deploy late, redeploy after your opponent has committed, pick off isolated units, and refuse to leave your fragile Skitarii where they can be answered.

It is fair to say 11th edition was not kind to it. The edition's changes to charge consistency and to how stratagems stack blunted the lock-down archetype this detachment used to enable, and Stealth is a modest rule to hang a detachment on. Community assessment at the pack's release put it among the weaker AdMech options. That does not make it unplayable; it makes it a skill-expressive detachment that pays out for players who plan two turns ahead rather than one.

At 2 DP it leaves 1 DP for a support, and Lords of the Forge covers its most obvious hole, since nothing here protects a character.

Sample gameplan: take Veiled Hunter on a Marshal and Clandestine Infiltrator on a second Skitarii character, so you finish deployment with three units repositioned and one already up the board. Use Cantic Thrallnet each battle round to give your key unit both Imperatives. Shoot isolated targets with Isolate and Destroy, focus a hard target with Binharic Offence, protect the receiving unit with Shroud Protocols or Bionic Endurance, and finish the turn with Programmed Withdrawal to take a spent Sicarian unit off the board before it can be traded away.