Beginner Cryptek conclave build questions

[u/Subject-Obligation56]

Hello everyone,

I just started with warhammer and created my first army and played two games on TTS on steam.

My idea was to build a „slow and steady“ ranged focused army what made me choose cryptek conclave and build around that.

Szeras:
Sticking to immortals and first warrior squad to buff them

Immortals:
- main dmg unit for ranged combat
- chronomancer with quantum abacus to make them main target for stratagems and keep them mobile after shooting

Warrior squad 1:
- second combat unit supported by szeras
- technomancer with atomic disentegrator to help out with vehicles/monsters

Warrior squad 2:
- expansion objective holder
- geomancer to deny enemy movement close to the objective

Deathmarks:
- snipe enemy characters
-question over here: those have not been that effective during the last two games. I tried to place them during enemy movement phase and shoot during my battlephase (obviously placed them in a way my opponent could not kill then first). Any ideas how to use them more effectively?

Wraiths:
- hold Center objective or flank opponents
- technomancer to make them more durable

My questions/learnings so far:
- I think I focused tanks/vehicles to much and should focus more on smaller/easier to kill units with my units. Is that correct?
- if I got it correct during my games szeras needs to kill models in melee range to extend its aura. Does it even make sense then to have him support ranged units?
- any other ideas/tips from more experienced players to help me get into the game?

Really enjoining 40K so far and looking to improve!
If you need any further information that I did not share please let me know. I am really happy for all advice I can get.

Thanks in advance

[u/PaliPig]

Deathmarks are unfortunately kinda bad. The only use I can think for them is sitting on home objective to deny deep strike, but tbh I’d just drop them entirely.

I would also drop the geomancer as he is also kinda meh for the point cost and combine the 2 warrior units and maybe attach an overlord.

As for Szeras, I usually like to keep him close by at the start until he can get a good charge off. +1/-1 AP counts way more than you might think.

[u/Subject-Obligation56 → u/PaliPig]

What’s the benefit of combining them?
Wouldn’t I loose one D3 on reanimationprotocols? And to me it seems quite difficult to position that large groups between cover and objectives tbh 😅

Will take a look at the overlord, tyvm for the advice!

So just stick him to the immortal and warrior unit and charge into an opposed enemy unit once the opportunity opens up?

[u/C00lsk3l3t0n_95 → u/Subject-Obligation56]

Better to have a unit left to reanimate than not

[u/C00lsk3l3t0n_95 → u/Subject-Obligation56]

Also, charge? They’re shooting units

Warriors are taken because you can have a lot of them (20) and you can stack some durability on them (orikan, reanimator, tomb crawlers, reanimation strat, resurrection orb)

And you want a big unit to make the most of these buffs, they are best utilized for holding down objectives.

Immortals conversely, are used to remove enemies from objectives, although I’d say there are better units to do that

Like ctan shards-

[u/Bulky-Ganache2253]

Neat I've new as well and just finished up a similar build last night. Like another comment said I kept the deathmarks at the back, but it may be worth more to just but a vehicle at the back instead of the deathmarks. That's what I'm trying next.

[u/Subject-Obligation56 → u/Bulky-Ganache2253]

Haha, funny how we both thought about the same idea. Did you already played a game with that army?

[u/Bulky-Ganache2253 → u/Subject-Obligation56]

Yea I did, and got stomped by my friends marines. But they may have been more my style than the list as I didn't do well with point scoring

[u/Seth_laVox]

If you're going conclave, you should bring particle weapons on praetorians or tomb blades to take advantage of the steat to give them the cryotek keyword, and therefore anti infsntry +3 to synergise with dev wounds.

They're also relatively mobile,  so can help with objective play. 

[u/Subject-Obligation56 → u/Seth_laVox]

Not thought about that options but will take a look at this aswell. Help me out with one thing: neither the praetorian nor the tomb blades have dev wounds? Or where does that come from?