40K Best Psyker Is…
So with the release of Codex Space Marines, another giant has risen to challenge for the position of greatest psyker in the game – Tigurius. But does he cut the mustard?
The Contestants
Tiggy is already being referred to as the “must take” character and the reason a lot of peoples marines are going to be blue in the future….So lets have a bit of a 4 way barny between the Masters of the Mind and see who comes out on top.
In the Blue corner, the “newcomer”, we have Tigurius
In the Black Corner – Eldrad Ulthuan
In the Purple Corner – Kairos Fateweaver
And in the Red Corner – Ahriman
So how to go about this? First a straight look at the stats, the points cost, the psychic effects available and other buffs granted to the army.
Tigurius – The cheapest of the bunch, at (I believe) only 165 points. For that you get a fairly standard stat line for a marine character, roughly matching that of Ahriman below. His greatest weakness is the lack of an invulnerable save, though! But he does get to reroll nearly everything….
Re-rolling reserves. Re-rolling psychic powers. Re-rolling psychic tests. Giving people within 12″ of him re-roll to hit… nearly every dice you roll when playing Tigurius is going to be re-rollable, especially as he is the only marine character with access to Divination to get the lovely Prescience. In fact he has access to every one of the 5 core power tables, making him super flexible. He is also the only one of these 4 with a psychic hood, allowing his improved Deny the Witch (likely to be 4+ in a lot of situations) be applied to other units.
Eldrad – Weighing in at 205 points Eldrad is actually one of the cheapest from these 4, and has a stat line that largely matches the others. T4 is a big deal for an Eldar (with the rest all being T3). Biggest strength however is a stock 3++ save. Weaknesses here are only having 1 attack bases and no armour save if the Invuln is negated (Vindicare assassins for instance).
On top of this healthy stat line he brings a lot of special rules. He can redeploy D3+1 units after your opponent has deployed, he regains Warp Charge on a 5+ after every power he casts and his weapon is an AP3, Fleshbane Force Weapon. He can also nullify perils by spending a warp charge and can once a game add +2 to a Deny the Witch and reroll a psychic test.
He draws powers from Divination, Telepathy and Runes of Fate, with a Mastery Level of 4.
Fateweaver – Weighing in at 300 points, Fateweaver is the heavy coster of the group. However, unlike the others he is a Flying Monstrous Creature, making him fast and hard to hit. He maintains a healthy S and T of 5, a BS of 6, 4+ Invuln and 5 wounds. His weaknesses are he is old and frail, and should never be in combat, with his WS 1 and 1 attack and Init 2. At least being a MC means he can smash (trading his 1 S5 attack for 1 S10 attack) at AP2 at all times.
Boons on top of his stat line are his staff, allowing you to reroll any single dice once a turn. He also lets you reroll the Warp Storm table as his Warlord trait, and the Deamon of Tzeentch ability means he rerolls saving throws of a 1.
Power wises… he’s awkward! 2 Mastery Level 4 psyskers in one body, although only using one at a time. Both heads know all of the Change powers, with one knowing one from Pyromancy and Divination, the other one from Telepathy and Biomancy
Ahriman – 230 points lets you play the Primary Sorcerer of the Thousand Sons, and gets you a above average marine stat line. WS, BS and I of 5 but his 3 wounds and a 4+ Invuln make him stand out from normal marines. No significant weaknesses in the stat line though!
His special abilities are also a bit limited. He has Veteran of the Long War, so has Hatred (Marines). He’s also Fearless and his Black Staff allows 3 separate Witchfire powers in a turn as well as being a S6 AP4 Force Weapon.
Powers wise, he can apply his Mastery Level 4 against Biomancy, Pyromancy, Telepathy and Tzeentch.
Let’s Get Ready To RUMBLE!!!
So that’s a quick run through. How do they compare… ranking 1 to 4 – character with the lowest score in the end wins!?
Survivability – Fatweaver must be the most survivable of the group. Being a flying chap means he’s hard to shoot and impossible to assault without grounding him, as well as having the highest toughness and wound number. Ahriman and Tigurius also get a shout here as they has a chance of rolling on Biomancy to buff themselves. Eldrad has the best save of the group with his 3+ Invuln, but at T4 can be ID by a fair few weapons (though the same can be said of Tigurius and Ahriman). Tigurius suffers the most here though, with a lack of a stock Invuln save. Only takes one Lascannon shot to fry him….(Fatey 1, Eldrad 2, Ahriman 3, Tiggy 4)
Martial Ability – Goes to Tigurius and Ahriman. Through simply having more attacks these guys win here. Eldrad only has 2 attacks (including his +1 for 2 CCW), Fateweaver only has 1 at WS1 and Init 2 but is the S10 and AP2… (Tiggy 1, Ahriman 2, Eldrad 3, Fatey 4)
Army Boons – Difficult one to call, but think Tigurius wins out here. His re-rolling reserves and his Psychic hood just edge it here (remember hes the ONLY one who gets to help the army in psychic defence). Fateweaver comes close with his re-rolling abilities and Eldrad redeploying tricks and one off stealth boost are decent though. Ahriman meanwhile does little beyond letting a few units infiltrate and making Thousand Sons scoring. (Tiggy 1, Fatey 2, Eldrad 3, Ahriman 4)
Personal Boons – Tigurius wins here hands down. The ability to pull from any lore, to reroll power selection and reroll psychic tests is massive when comparing psykers who randomly generate powers. It gives a great chance of getting what powers you want. He does lose out being the only Mastery 3 of the 4 being compared though. (Tiggy 1, Eldrad 2 , Fatey 3, Ahriman 4)
Powers – Powers is always going to be a subjective choice, depending on what you think of the lores. In my opinion, the best lores available are Divination and Biomancy, with Fate, Telepathy and Change as second tier choices (miles better than Pyromancy – the worst of the lores IMO).
And the winner is….
For this reason Tigurius wins by getting to pick from all of the main trees, but Eldrad comes close second, having access to most of the best. Fateweaver gets to pick from the greats too, but the way his heads work for which powers means you’re casting Divination OR Biomancy in a turn. Ahriman might be able to make Pyro work by having so many witchfire attacks in a turn, but I’d rather roll on the other tables. (Tiggy 1, Eldrad 2, Fatey 3, Ahriman 4)
So where does this bring us? Tigurius has 8, Eldrad 12, Fateweaver 13 and Ahriman brings up the rear on 17. So ranking it on numbers there’s a fairly clear hierarchy.
In my opinion purely as psyker I feel Tigerius is now top of the tree. Eldrad is pushed down to a respectable second and Fateweaver in third. Poor Ahriman is the bottom of the pile I think. Still great, but not as good as the others available (a Chaos Space Marine character not being very good….shocking)
If it was based what they bring to the tabletop, I still feel Tigurius wins as he’s strongest of the bunch (but easiest to kill), but Fateweaver is second here, purely for his rerolls. Being guaranteed to be able to reroll the Warpstorm table and have that one reroll a turn is golden in a deamon list
What are your opinions? Do you agree? Disagree? Leave your comments below!
If we just compared default level psykers from the codexes (Librarian, Farseer, Herald of Tzeentch and Sorcerer) to each other who would come out on top there?
