Angels of Death Psychic Power Strategies (and Shenanigans)

So I will resume my Adepticon coverage tomorrow or Friday, but I HAD to get in an article about the new Astartes Powers ASAP. A few of these are just cool combos or silly ideas, but my last point is game breaking, so reader beware. It is the kinda thing you are going to start seeing in top ITC builds I believe, and really makes me question GW's playtesting (Hey guys SM 30th b-day! BREAK EVERTYHING!!!)

GET TO THE TREES!!! Terrain Surfing
So this is really ALL ABOUT Geokenesis Power 6: Shifting Worldscape. Now this is a WC 3 power so you need some heavy hitters on the board. Things like Tiggy, Mephiston, Full Conclaves and Grey Knights work great for this.  CRAZY RIGHT!

So read the power in the picture. Pretty spiffy and ridiculous. And completely open for some especially funny stuff.
1- Spin Terrain a vehicle is hiding in to get rear armour, or partially in to force dangerous terrain tests.
2- Make it really annoyingly dense in from of vehicles, jump infantry, bikes and jetbikes
etc. etc. I am sure you all can come up with some good stuff.

BUT the real idea here is why bother with Transports like Rhinos? Why not surf on Ruins towards your enemies. They are better than Rhinos, because your guys will be more resilient IMO and can "Disembark" and assault in the same turn. Make it even better by bolstering your Ruins with a Techmarine. You can also bring the enemy to you I guess, but that is not nearly as fun.

10 Internet Points to the first person that makes a Crimson Permanent Assurance Chapter.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US! Fortification Nullification
CONTINUING with shifting world scape from above, something really funny is you can move NON-BUILDING fortifications so
1- Skyshields
2- Promethium Relays
3- Aegis Defence Lines
4- Tau Tide Walls
etc. etc.

The reason it HAS to be Non-building stuff, is because right now I am ruling conservatively and going with the building rules on page 110 BRB, where it states Buildings use the Transport Vehicle Rules, the only difference is THEY CANNOT MOVE. So even though the power says "Anything that can be physically picked up" I am going with the more conservative rule.

BUT this means you can STEAL a defence line or a prometium relay, or move all the Tau on their tidewall INTO ASSAULT RANGE or deny someone the benefits of their skyshield. All pretty annoying. And if you play you can move buildings to, you can do even meaner things, throwing bastions off of objectives and the like.

DAFT PUNKS- Technomantic Knights
For this one you can have one knight LOW or really any unit of Knights. If you are taking 1 knight, don't bother with a full Technomantic Librarian Conclave, just 1 Lib will do. BUT if you are running any formation knights, check this

3-5 Knights (Baronial Court, Adamantine Lance, Exalted Court, Gallant Lance etc. etc. Which ever you like best. It doesn't matter) + Librarian Conclave. I would likely use White Scars or Ravenguard chapter tactics. White Scars if I could afford bikes. All Libs roll on Technomantic IMO, but you can spread it out obviously, But you at least need to get Powers 4 and 5, Reforge and Warpmetal Armour. Basically, just buff and repair your knights CONSTANTLY. Haywire armour threats to them if you have nothing else to do, and let the Knights worry about the infantry. I really like this table and to me it is the "Best" in that every power on their is useful in some way in a balanced list and nothing is overtly broken either, like on some of the other new tables.

THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE UNIVERSE- Death Star Hyperdrive
I am sorry for this one. I really am. This is game breaking. I know. But I have to put it out there...
So look on the Fulmination table, power #6

Electrodisplacement. If anything should be WC3, it is electrodisplacement. What is allows you to do is swap your  psyker and his unit with another friendly, non vehicle unit. And you can charge after doing this. That is what makes this the utterly most broken power in the range of them all. Why? Well, Superfirends Death Stars can now get a near guaranteed turn 1 assault, especially if you have a full conclave. Why try and get invisibility when you can just BE THERE.

So the three best ways to deploy this IMO
1- A random drop podded in unit. Either something REALLY cheap you don't care about in case you fail your psychic test, OR something resilient that needs to be near the enemy anyway, like Grav Cents or Flamer Sternguard.
2- A Skyhammer Devastator Squad. Equip one of the Squads with 4 x Missile Launchers or Lascannons so when you warp them out of there, they still have Range to shoot. However, still in your enemies face is another Dev Squad, 2 Assault Squads, and now a Death Star. But you will have 3 hard hitting units ASSAULTING TURN 1 in your enemies deployment zone.
3- This is the most OP IMO. Where the others rely on room to deploy a drop pod and can go off the board, this can not AND it can last ALL GAME, allowing you to warp around the board LIKE LIGHTING. What is it? A squad of scout bikers. Particularly white scars or astral claws if you can help it, for the skilled rider.
Why them? Well they infiltrate. Then scout move 6". Then move 12". Then you warp them out and your psyker in and they can assault 12". AND your bikes can then turbo boost off to the next big threat and be there for a turn 2 or 3 assault!. OH AND THEY CAN HAVE A LOCATOR BEACON to bring on all your other stuff.

So there you go. And remember, it is just a game...

Over 100 attacks?: 1850/2000 pt Blood Angels (DC Death Star) + Astra Militarum

So my last post was a crazy ALL DEATH CO 3k list, but that list inspired me with an amazing idea IMO. I am just going to throw up the lists then discuss

PRIMARY DETACHMENT- Baal Strike Force, 1495
HQ- Astorath the Grim- 165: Warlord
HQ- Brother Corbulo- 120
Elites- Death Company(15)- 660- 12 x Inferno Pistols, 3 x Hand Flamers, 3 x Power Fists, 3 x Power Swords, 1 x Thunder Hammer
Troops- Scouts (5)- 60: 5 x Sniper Rifles
Troops- Scouts (5)- 60: 5 x Sniper Rifles
Fast Attack- Drop Pod- 35
Fast Attack- Drop Pod- 35
Heavy Support- Spartan Assault Tank- 360: Pintle Multi-melta, Hull Heavy Flamers, Sponson Quad Lascannons, LoG: Schism of Mars and War of Murder

SECONDARY DETACHMENT- CAD Astra Militarum, 355
HQ- Lord Commissar- 80: Power Sword
Troops- Veterans(10)- 90: 3 x Melta-guns
Troops- Veterans(10)- 90: 3 x Melta-guns
Heavy Support- Hydra- 70
No Slot- Ministorum Priest- 25

TO GET TO 2k
(So this uses codex BA as well, so you can't take an ALLIED detachment of the same Faction, though some tournaments do allow this, BUT you can take a Flesh Tearers Strike Force. To do so, remove one or both of the drop pods from the Primary detachment and put them in here.  would also very much consider switching Astorath into this detachment and the Librarian I am about to mention into the Primary Baal SF. This is so that the Librarian can be the Warlord and get a different trait and he can benefit from the Baal SF +1I, something from which Astorath can't since his axe is Unwieldly)

TERTIARY DETACHMENT- Flesh Tearers Strike Force (150 w/out Drop  pods you need to switch in )
HQ- Librarian- 90: Mastery lvl 2, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol
Troops- Scouts(5)- 60: Sarge w/ Melta-bombs

Now that the lists are out of the way, I am going to tackle the low hanging fruit of the tactics before detailing the Death Star.
-Scout Snipers camp objectives and attempt to slow the enemy with pinning fire.
-IG Veterans go into the drop pods and land to pop vehicles, kill small squads or take/contest far off objectives.
-Hydra sits in backfield and is pretty much just there to be 70pts of flyer insurance.
-In the 2k list, the extra scout squad is just a general throw at an objective and take it. They can also follow in the wake of your death star and camp an objective the Death Company leave in their wake.

NOW FOR THE DEATH STAR

So the 15 Death Co, Astorath, Corbulo, the Ministorum Priest and Lord Commissar all go into the Spartan. The Spartan is the key here. It is AV14 all round with 6 HP, so it should nearly always make it to your target, especially since Corbulo can attempt to reroll seize the initiative with his far seeing eye. With the two LoG it has it makes the scouts following it fearless (if they are close enough), is deadly against daemon engines, has protection against Haywire and has both Tank and Monster Hunter.

But ultimately it is just a delivery vehicle. Transport capacity 25 means it fits all the models in with room to spare. Dump them on target and Assault (it is an assault vehicle). Then watch mayhem happen.

First you open up with 12 melta shots, 3 S3 Handflamers (just for a large number of hits, let the dice work in your favour), 2 Bolt Pistols and 2 Laspistols.

In the 1850 point list this is how the assault breaks down on the charge:
-40 WS5, S5, I6 AP- attacks (2 Base attacks per DC, +1 for 2CCW, +2 for charging w/ Rage, +1I Baal SF, +1I & WS Red Grail from Corbulo, +1S Furious Charge)
-15 WS5, S5, I6 AP3 attacks (same bonuses, power swords)
-16 WS5, S9, I1, AP2 attacks (power fists and thunder hammer, so 4 of these are concussive)

ALL OF THESE ATTACKS REROLL TO HIT AND WOUND DUE TO ASTORATH.

Now the Commisar is there to dive on any challenges as a throw away, but he has 5 WS5 AP3/2 attacks on the charge, depending on what power weapon you equip him with. I personally would probably go sword so try and kill any power fist wielding challenger before they strike.

Astorath would provide 4 WS7 (+1 from Corbulo) S6(+1FC, +1 Axe), I1 AP2 Attacks that have instant death on a to wound roll of a 6. He also gives the squad Adamantium will for some psychic defence (as the Warlord).

Corbulo has 5A at WS6 S6(+1 Heaven's Teeth, +1 FC) and I7(+1 Baal SF, +1 Red Grail) and Rending.

Lastly the Ministorum Priest adds 4 WS3 S3 I3 AP- attacks. Any dice help right?

IN TOTAL that is 89 ATTACKS, of which 40 are AP3 or higher, with 5 more rending. AND 60 of the attacks are at I6 or Higher. WOW!!!! AND 71 of them REROLL EVERYTHING!!!!

Now to really put in a kicker- Because of Corbulo, all of the guys have FNP, not just the DC. AND BECAUSE OF THE MINISTORUM PRIEST'S WAR HYMNS, YOU CAN REROLL ALL ARMOUR AND INVULNERABLE SAVES!!!!!! (with a successful LD check).

So you not only get an armour save, you can reroll it AND then still get FNP.

NOW to make it more brutal at 2k

Add the Librarian. I personally would make him my warlord over Astorath and try to get a better trait, especially since with him in the death star you no longer need Adamantium will.

THE MUST HAVE POWER IS UNLEASH RAGE. TAKE THIS IF YOU ROLL IT. TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT.

The next best powers are
-Shield of Sanguinius- 5+ invlun for the squad (which your priest makes rerollable)
-Wings of Sanguinius- if you loose the spartan, this is the next best way to move them around
-Quickening- Primaris power as in don't bother with the others. +d3 I and A to a character. Would be useful of himself, corbulo, astorath or the commissar in a challenge.

BUT YOU NEED UNLEASH RAGE- why? Well it give a targeted friendly unit rage (+2 A charging) or +1A if they already have rage. This means all the characters in the squad get +2A and all the DC get +1 A.

This is an additional 23 attacks, plus the 6 WS5, S5, I5 AP3 (possibly force) attacks the librarian brings.
That brings the total to 118 attacks on the charge, 86 of which reroll to hit AND wound. I'd like to see a Superfriends Death Star try and stand up to that (they won't). You win on weight of dice alone.

Now this thing won't be winning any tournaments. For one it is kinda over powered. It would blast something off the map and then be open to shooting. Though the amount of save power they have makes them pretty resilient, they would still loose effectiveness. Where it works best is against OTHER death stars. Basically it is a death star designed to overwhelm other death stars with a gigantic number of dice, of which most will be going before the enemy even has a chance to fight. There are enough guys to multi-charge, but this seriously cuts down on the number of attacks and forfeits alot of rerolls, but they are still DC and would still be very fast and strong.  Despite these flaws, it would be amazing to use IMO just to watch your opponents jaw drop. And they would have to expend so much (other than D) to eliminate the death star that your low point troops would likely be unharrassed. And who knows, you could possibly use them very well to protect your Death Star (bog down 1 squad with the assault scouts, pin 2 squads with the snipers, melta vehicles or monstrous/gargantuan creatures with the vets and blast them with the spartan). Hopefully those can mitigate the amount of fire you take.

It is possible to scale back the Death Star. If you reduce the amount of Death Company you take, you could fit them into a Land Raider Variant (I would go Crusader, maybe Redeemer. Standard LR is just too small). This would open up the points and allow you to either take this in a 1500 pt game or include more options. I would go for a Tactical Squad and some more Imperial Guard stuff myself. Maybe a flyer of sorts (Vets in a Vendetta).

EDIT- Thanks to a rule pointed out on the Spikey Bits Hobbies Facebook page- Gothmog: SO ASTORATH CANNOT be taken in the squad because he CANNOT ride in the Spartan. Look under Transport rules… no jump infantry. I just thought he was Bulky, my bad. BUT I do have a good fix to still get ALL THE BONUSES. Drop Astorath and buy a Second AM Priest and a Terminator Chaplain with the Veritas Vitae and a combi-melta (to round out the last 5 points, you can put them anywhere if you’d rather do that instead). NOW you can get ANY Warlord Trait from the beginning AND you get a bonus Strategic Trait. BUT WAIT He still has Zealot, so reroll to hit still applies. AND now you have one Ministorum Priest popping Warhymns to reroll saves and another for wounds.  SO the Chaplain gets 4 (+1 charge, +1 2xCCW) WS6(+1 from Corbulo) I6 (+1 Baal SF, +1 Corbulo) S7(+1 FC, +2 Crozious) AP4 concussive attacks on the charge BEFORE being buffed by the Librarian. And you add another 4 Priest attack. SO 8 dice where there were 4 before. AND You add another 2 Attacks to the Chaplain if you manage to get Unleash Rage. SO it still all works out in the end. It gets a little harder to scale back and you loose an Instant Death ability, but the guy is S7 on the charge and overall I am not sure you need it so much in this list.

But ultimately it is a one trick pony that will likely only work once or twice a game. But man what a trick.

7th Edition- Owning the Psychic Phase

SO I will do a full review of 7th soon, but I wanted to discuss the biggest change yet first. The psychic phase. Specifically how to own (read BREAK) it...

By introducing the phase to the game, GW has done a few things that will ripple through the meta for eternity. Every phase of the game has players vying for control of it in some way or form. Psychic powers used to be a method to attempt this. Now it is a phase of its own that players will either do what they can to dominate it OR what mitigate the effects the opponent has on them during it. Think back to the introduction of flyers. Pretty much the same thing in that regard.

Because of this effect Psykers are obligatory in virtually ALL armies now. Until codices start coming out with ways to give you warp charge during your opponents psychic phase or to give bonuses to deny the witch rolls without having psykers, the only reliable defense in this phase is to posses psykers of your own.

This really all boils down to the primary driving factor to the psychic phase is warp charge. Warp Charge, for those without 7th yet, is determined by adding up the mastery levels of the psykers you do have and then the player who's turn it is rolling a d6 and adding the result. This really means it is random turn to turn how many dice you have to cast and dispel. Which means to make the phase reliable and predictable for yourself, the best thing to do is take a lot of psykers, and high mastery level at that. This gives you a core of warp charge you can rely on to cast (or deny) devastating powers, the d6 roll being just gravy if it is high, but not truly detrimental if it is low. Plus the more psykers you have, the more squads you can embed them in to improve deny the witch rolls.

So now to get to the point of the post. Breaking the psychic phase. Really this is for all the imperial armies, however since nothing in the allies matrix prevents sharing of Warp Charge, it is usable to an extent by all factions.

Nobody Expects Them

Since you can have unlimited numbers of detachments of any type now OR take unbound armies, your are able to take as many INQUISITORS as you'd like. This mini-codex is really a game changer now with an independent psychic phase. This is because the minimum requirement for an Inquisition detachment is one HQ and the basic HQ in the Inquisition codex is a single Inquisitor. This means that you can take as many one model detachments as you'd like. If you really wanted to mess with some one, you could just take 20+ inquisitors in a game.

Now the basic inquisitor is 25 points, and another 30 to be a Mastery Level 1 psyker with 2 powers. Now these powers don't really matter, because if you are doing this you should take a Mastery Level 4 psyker as your primary detachment HQ and pick powers you want.  So what you are buying with the Inquisitor is a 55 point warp charge. Basically a capacitor.

To make this deal even sweeter, since ALL Imperial Armies are Battle Brothers (so this part is unusable with all other factions) with themselves. Independent Characters can join Battle Brother squads, and as such these inquisitors can attach to your squads in your primary detachment and give them +1 to all Deny the Witch rolls. This takes you from a 1 in 6 chance to a 1 in 3 chance to deny a Warp Charge 1 power. This is possibly worth 55 points on its own.

So taking 5 Psychic Inquisitors with nothing extra would cost 275 points, which isn't cheap, but it brings valuable defense to likely all your Troops and then some, and stabilizes your warp charge pool to at least 6 (5+1 on d6 roll of a 1). Add on any other psykers in your primary list and you are looking at a really good pool for both Offense and Defense. This is not even mentioning any of the specialized wargear that Inquisitors can take.

When it comes down to it, Inquisitors are the Power and Dispell scrolls of 40k. And I am sure you will be seeing a lot more of them in the months ahead.

Opinion: The state of Codicies (PART TWO) Allied Supplements

So in part one I discussed what I feel should be the core codicies of the game and the direction they can and should go and the new lease on life that 6th ed gives the game in this aspect.

Part two is where things really should start to get interesting. As I have said before (part one and other posts, particularly on chaos) I believe the core codicies should be really well defined and have a clear image/theme. This is largely due to the advent of Allies. Codex writers should not have to include everything and the kitched sink, as you can now draw from elsewhere the required elements to make a unique theme or divergent force.

The key, to me at least and somewhat consistent with persistent rumours since the advent of 6th ed is mini-dexes/supplements. To me this is a great opportunity for rules and limited model ranges (ie 1-3 kits). This is also the perfect chance to create rules for forces that are contained within a larger core codex, but are still distinct in the fluff- an example being something like a Rough Rider Company or a full Harlequin Troupe.

The goal behind mindexes should be one of 3 things
1. Incorporate a cool faction from the fluff as allies
2. Make a cool minor faction from the fluff as your main force and supplement them with a related main codex
3. Create an entire force from the minidex, using armywide special rules to influence related allies from a main codex to thematically form one force (IE Minidex SM chapters with SM allies, all affected by the rules of the minidex force, or at least thematically connected to them).

This allows players wider access to thematic and fluffy armies, and really "drives the narrative" as GW wants us to do. A more diverse game is never bad IMO and just lets players really explore list composition and create unique forces both in terms of theme and composition.

ALLIED SUPPLEMENT CONCEPTS

Deathwatch- While I suggested in part one that they be included in an iquisitorial codex, as of right now they aren't. As well, they are too divergent IMOHO to be included in the SM codex, but not different enough in terms of play style to warrant their own separate codex. As well, they are more often than even grey knights deployed in small teams (ie Kill Teams). A minidex covering librarians and captains for HQ, a dreadnought Elite, Kill Team troops, and something cool to represent black shields maybe.

Black Templars- While a current codex, if part one was followed, OR if they don't get an update, then I think they are a perfect candidate for an allied supplement. Take alot of the current codex and just give it a face lift for 6th. EC, some special Characters with Chapter Tactics, and BT crusading squads with Brothers and Neophytes mixed. The rest is pretty much standard SM, affected by Chapter Tactics.

White Scars- A first founding chapter that I think is fluffy enough, unique enough for a few kits or upgrade sprues, and different enough to deserve more than just a character in the SM codex. Obviously some bike troop squads, chapter tactics characters, and land speeders applenty. I also think some sort of Jetbike would be nice.

Exorcists- Really, more likely to be done by Forgeworld, but I think this is a super awesome, fluffy chapter that is extremely divergent and would be great to see some characters, unique daemonhunting squads and daemonhosts associated with them brought into a minidex.

Catachans (Deathworlds)- A deathworld version of IG would be better seperated from the main IG codex in my opinion, leaving the IG codex to focus on mass infantry or armoured formations. Much like the 3rd edition catachans.

Arbites- These are a huge presence in the fluff, and definately an important Imperial faction, but not large or diverse enough for a full codex. Judeges, an arbites psyker, Arbite enforcer squads, riot suppresion squads and some unique transports could make a decent force to supplement other imperial armies or be supplemented by IG to represent PDF or fill out an entire Arbite precinct.

Rouge Traders- This is wide open and has alot of potential for alot of weird units and wargear. Rouge Traders, family rentinues, household guard, armsmen, explorator tech priests.

Squats- Who doesn't want these guys to come back? I am not even sure what their mindex would be like, but there is so much potential in terms of fluff, modeling and rules.

Rough Riders Co- A minidex with a complete overhaul of the IG FOC, horses for every slot (horse drawn artillery?), and possibilities for a revamped Rough Rider range. Not too much required for kits.

Storm Trooper Co- Similar to the RR Co, but this time Storm troopers and associated vehicles (Valkyries, Vultures) in everyslot. Plastic stormtroopers would be nice as well.

Hrud- Allies with Chaos likely. This minor race has been in the fluff for along time and have even been attempted using WHFB skaven by enthusiatic hobbyists. Really has potential for a finecast HQ or two and 1-2 kits and some unique rules.

Kroot Mercenaries- Make it more like the 3rd ed list that was chapter approved. Just a wider diversity of choices than in the tau codex, as well as genetic upgrades and more wargear. Also a great way to improve the botched Kroot in the current Tau codex.

Harlequins- A great chance to really expand upon some of the coolest fluff in the game, and represent a full troupe rather than just have them be a footnote in the Eldar codex. Venoms, Jetbikes, Death Jesters, and most importantly of all: The Solitaire...

Exodites- Another cool possibility for Eldar. A way to really incorporate some more cavalry and flying MC into the game, and some great fluff and modeling opportunities.

Genestealer Cults- A chance for Allies for the Tyranids and an ability to xenos up IG convicingly. Patriarch, Purestrains, Hybrid cultists and I am sure there are other budding opportunities to do so here.

I am sure there is much more potential for minidexes/allied supplements.