... there are .. voices .. in my head ...
This is a short review of the psychic powers a space marine librarian has access to. Please leave your personal thoughts on the powers as a comment!
Hi there,
the last two games (against two different chaos armies) I tried a new way of playing my iron knights space marines, I used a librarian accompanied by stern guard in a razorback (5 Veterans incl. a Sergeant with power fist, 3 combi-meltas and a heavy flamer, the razorback with heavy bolters). Despite the fact that this squad did not do anything special I will try them again next time. Regardless of the special equipment of the stern guard, I was thinking about which PSYCHIC POWER(S) I should take.
So this post is supposed to give you briefly my impressions on the different powers and additionally I would like you to comment your thoughts! I don't want to start a discussion here, where one discusses about the comments of other users. It is just supposed to be a summary of thoughts and I would really appreciate your comments.
So here we go:
* Smite: A psychic shooting attack.
--> This is a solid choice, but since the Librarian has 'only' BS 4 he still has to hit the target. The fact that it is an assault 4 weapon and an incredible AP 2 makes it (on paper) a really nice power to take out heavy armored units like terminators, but the range of 12" also limits the use of this power.
* Force Dome: Grants an invulnerable save to the librarian and his unit.
--> A 5+ inv. save is not that good, could increase your chance to survive in the open against some heavy shooting or cc. But I think this power could block one of the two power slots most of the time instead of being really useful.
* Machine Curse: A psychic shooting attack against a vehicle.
--> Well, ok a glancing hit against a vehicle within 24". Sounds not much, but for example, with a bolter you need a 6 on a D6 to do this to the rear of a rhino and you will need a 5+ on a D6 for a Land Raider with a Las Can, so this is not that bad. And glancing hits even if they are really bad in this edition and cannot destroy vehicles (except some skimmers) can at least save you some time or make a vehicle useless by destroying its weapon. So one could think about this power, but as ill luck would have it and you are facing tyranids this power could be a total waste!
* The Avenger: A template based psychic shooting attack.
--> Well, I think this is one of the best powers to take. Since it is template based you don't need to hit, it ignores cover saves and has an incredible AP of 3 with roasts even marines easily. Put another way, it is a marine roasting heavy flamer! Definitely a power to think about
* Quickening: Grants Fleet and a boosted Initiative stat for the assault phase.
--> I think one of the more useless powers since it puts your Librarian where he should not be, in close combat. Even worse it just affects the Librarian itself. Nonsense
* Null Zone: Forces enemies to re-roll Invulnerable Saves.
--> This power does not affect your troops directly but decreases the durability of your enemy. It is certainly the hell for demons and other units relying on there inv. saves. But there are some things I think one should keep in mind: first of all it does not neglect theses saves they just have to be re-rolled if successful and there are not so many units that have to rely on inv. saves. Take for example the assault terminators, ok you may force them to re-roll their 3+ storm shield saves (or their 5+) but well, to penetrate their armor you also need AP 2 weapons... so this power is not bad could have a very good effect but is sensitively depending on the opponent you are facing
* Might of the Ancients: Increases the Librarian's Strength and armor Penetration against vehicles in the Assault Phase.
--> Same as Quickening, It is only useful in CC, where your Librarian should not go to anyway. The armor penetration of 2D6 is nice but if your plan does not work out you are left somewhere in the open (since you are not stuck in cc with vehicles) and a very nice target. Rather useless in my opinion.
* The Gate of Infinity: Teleports the Librarian and any unit he is with.
--> Hell, this is one of the most useful powers in my point of view. And there are some combinations which may make this power even more effective. For example, since you are allowed to re-deploy your units using the deep strike rules you can use locator beacons to place your troops without scattering and thereby without worrying about loosing a member of your unit due to a rolled double. So a deep striked dreadnought (or what ever) in a drop pod can provide you a region (of at least 12" in diameter) where you are able to drop your librarian (incl. unit) exactly where you want. Having different locator beacons spread (within 24") this means you can jump with your unit over the battle field like a rabbit. To make your unit even faster you can (YES I ASKED A GW GUY IT IS POSSIBLE) use the power within your razorback (rhino) which leaves the vehicle behind, but this means e.g. you drive 12" pop smokes, next turn you teleport 24" and then unleash the hell with your stern guard within 12". This makes a total movement of 36" in two turns and an effective range of 48"!! An additional feature of this power is, that since you use it at the beginning of your movement you can leave CC like this filthy necronlord, teleport yourself out of the CC lets say 12" and again unleash hell!
* Vortex of Doom: High strength psychic shooting attack with a blast template that has a chance to fail and affect the Librarian.
--> Speaking of HELL, if you take a look at the stats of this power this really looks like hell for every terminator unit on this world BUT (!!!) if you take a look at the further rules it looks like hell for you and your librarian! Even though it does not happen very often, failing the psychic test will kill your Librarian and approx. half of the accompanied unit on a 2+ on a D6! Maybe a Librarian in a terminator armor with a storm shield in an equally equipped unit will be able to make use of this power without being in fear for one's life! This power is literally the SWORD OF DAMOCLES!
So this are my personal thoughts on the different powers, now it is up to yours to tell me/us what powers you like and for what special purpose! Lets go
Hi there,
the last two games (against two different chaos armies) I tried a new way of playing my iron knights space marines, I used a librarian accompanied by stern guard in a razorback (5 Veterans incl. a Sergeant with power fist, 3 combi-meltas and a heavy flamer, the razorback with heavy bolters). Despite the fact that this squad did not do anything special I will try them again next time. Regardless of the special equipment of the stern guard, I was thinking about which PSYCHIC POWER(S) I should take.
So this post is supposed to give you briefly my impressions on the different powers and additionally I would like you to comment your thoughts! I don't want to start a discussion here, where one discusses about the comments of other users. It is just supposed to be a summary of thoughts and I would really appreciate your comments.
So here we go:
* Smite: A psychic shooting attack.
--> This is a solid choice, but since the Librarian has 'only' BS 4 he still has to hit the target. The fact that it is an assault 4 weapon and an incredible AP 2 makes it (on paper) a really nice power to take out heavy armored units like terminators, but the range of 12" also limits the use of this power.
* Force Dome: Grants an invulnerable save to the librarian and his unit.
--> A 5+ inv. save is not that good, could increase your chance to survive in the open against some heavy shooting or cc. But I think this power could block one of the two power slots most of the time instead of being really useful.
* Machine Curse: A psychic shooting attack against a vehicle.
--> Well, ok a glancing hit against a vehicle within 24". Sounds not much, but for example, with a bolter you need a 6 on a D6 to do this to the rear of a rhino and you will need a 5+ on a D6 for a Land Raider with a Las Can, so this is not that bad. And glancing hits even if they are really bad in this edition and cannot destroy vehicles (except some skimmers) can at least save you some time or make a vehicle useless by destroying its weapon. So one could think about this power, but as ill luck would have it and you are facing tyranids this power could be a total waste!
* The Avenger: A template based psychic shooting attack.
--> Well, I think this is one of the best powers to take. Since it is template based you don't need to hit, it ignores cover saves and has an incredible AP of 3 with roasts even marines easily. Put another way, it is a marine roasting heavy flamer! Definitely a power to think about
* Quickening: Grants Fleet and a boosted Initiative stat for the assault phase.
--> I think one of the more useless powers since it puts your Librarian where he should not be, in close combat. Even worse it just affects the Librarian itself. Nonsense
* Null Zone: Forces enemies to re-roll Invulnerable Saves.
--> This power does not affect your troops directly but decreases the durability of your enemy. It is certainly the hell for demons and other units relying on there inv. saves. But there are some things I think one should keep in mind: first of all it does not neglect theses saves they just have to be re-rolled if successful and there are not so many units that have to rely on inv. saves. Take for example the assault terminators, ok you may force them to re-roll their 3+ storm shield saves (or their 5+) but well, to penetrate their armor you also need AP 2 weapons... so this power is not bad could have a very good effect but is sensitively depending on the opponent you are facing
* Might of the Ancients: Increases the Librarian's Strength and armor Penetration against vehicles in the Assault Phase.
--> Same as Quickening, It is only useful in CC, where your Librarian should not go to anyway. The armor penetration of 2D6 is nice but if your plan does not work out you are left somewhere in the open (since you are not stuck in cc with vehicles) and a very nice target. Rather useless in my opinion.
* The Gate of Infinity: Teleports the Librarian and any unit he is with.
--> Hell, this is one of the most useful powers in my point of view. And there are some combinations which may make this power even more effective. For example, since you are allowed to re-deploy your units using the deep strike rules you can use locator beacons to place your troops without scattering and thereby without worrying about loosing a member of your unit due to a rolled double. So a deep striked dreadnought (or what ever) in a drop pod can provide you a region (of at least 12" in diameter) where you are able to drop your librarian (incl. unit) exactly where you want. Having different locator beacons spread (within 24") this means you can jump with your unit over the battle field like a rabbit. To make your unit even faster you can (YES I ASKED A GW GUY IT IS POSSIBLE) use the power within your razorback (rhino) which leaves the vehicle behind, but this means e.g. you drive 12" pop smokes, next turn you teleport 24" and then unleash the hell with your stern guard within 12". This makes a total movement of 36" in two turns and an effective range of 48"!! An additional feature of this power is, that since you use it at the beginning of your movement you can leave CC like this filthy necronlord, teleport yourself out of the CC lets say 12" and again unleash hell!
* Vortex of Doom: High strength psychic shooting attack with a blast template that has a chance to fail and affect the Librarian.
--> Speaking of HELL, if you take a look at the stats of this power this really looks like hell for every terminator unit on this world BUT (!!!) if you take a look at the further rules it looks like hell for you and your librarian! Even though it does not happen very often, failing the psychic test will kill your Librarian and approx. half of the accompanied unit on a 2+ on a D6! Maybe a Librarian in a terminator armor with a storm shield in an equally equipped unit will be able to make use of this power without being in fear for one's life! This power is literally the SWORD OF DAMOCLES!
So this are my personal thoughts on the different powers, now it is up to yours to tell me/us what powers you like and for what special purpose! Lets go
Labels: Iron Knights, Librarian, reviews, Rules
posted by Gewaltatron at
3:26 PM
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