Goatboy’s 40k: Is the Sky Psychically Falling?
Goatboy here to talk all about the new psychic mind bullets everyone is talking about for the Space Marines.
Welcome back to another glorious 40k Monday. I am the wondrous Goatboy and my plan is to bring you some nice talking points about the newest 40k update to hit the battlefield. I know there are a lot more releases beyond just some new psychic mind bullets but will save that for a later time as everyone and their mom is talking, fighting, and lamenting about these new powers.
What New Psychic Powers?
First if you live under a rock and don’t have access to the internet but somehow still like 40k, GW released a new Space Marine updated called Angels of Death. This hot little 33 dollar tome is full of all the extra Space Marine stuff they released before as well as some fixed updates for the rest of the main chapters. They slammed together the Raven Guard and White Scars mini codexes as well as updated the Clan Iron Hands and Imperial Fists mini dexes. They also were nice enough to add in a new “battle host” for you vehicle lovers as well as finally giving some love to Bad Touch Ben Mohiles favorite chapter – Salamanders. To add more frosting to the delicious cake this book brings they decided to throw in 4 new disciplines your librarian conclaves to drool over. They range from some pretty bonkers powers down to a few meh bits but over all its a pretty bad ass release.
I am just surprised it isn’t more expensive, coming in limited edition versions, and covered in space glitter dust.
Onto the Psychic Powers
Librarius Discipline
Let’s begin with the initial discipline easily named the Librarius discipline. This one is the default set of powers you would think some kind of psychic bad ass might actually throw out on the battlefield. The feeling with these powers is that they didn’t really fit any of the other disciplines but were powers that felt needed in the upcoming landscape of 40k. Overall I find this power to be extremely useful as it has a bit of everything from anti psychic to anti death star abilities. Will go over each power and give a small “review” to give an idea on how I feel about it.
Primarius – Emperor’s Wrath – WC 1 Witchfire blast. Its decently strong, can kill some stuff, and overall feels very “primariusy”. I give it a B-.
1 – Veil of Time – WC 2 Marine version of Fortune. This one is pretty dang good and will be a staple of generating groans when you roll it for your deathstar. I give it a A+ for Aelong.
2 – Fury of the Ancients – WC 1 – 20″ Beam that hits things and causes pinning. Kinda Meh as is AP 4 so it isn’t killing Warp Spiders like Tzeentch’s Beam. It gets a C-.
3 – Psychic Fortress – WC 1 – Blessing that doesn’t go very far but gives you a 4+ inv save versus other witchfires. This is the stinker as its just meh – It gets a D.
4 – Might of Heroes – WC 1 – Your psychic dude becomes a bad ass with +2 to a lot of stats. Hey its like you sorta rolled a perils, got the 6, and didn’t fail your LD test. Not terribad – B-
5 – Psychic Scourge – WC 1 – Now this one is pretty neat – pick an enemy Psyker, roll 2d6 pick your highest and add your Mastery Level. Your opponent rolls a single D6 and adds their level. If you are higher they now manifest warp charge on a 6+ and take a wound. If you beat them by 3 they lose a random spell too. This is bad ass as it will target Tiggie Smalls all day – A
6 – Null Zone – WC 2 – What this is back now? Dangit. Now it just targets a unit and they get a -2 to their Inv saves. Still it is pretty dang sweet for negating all those Cursed Earth, Warpstorm, and annoying Eldar nonsense. A+ as it poops on big ole death stars.
Geokinesis Discipline
Next up we have the Geokinesis Discipline. Doesn’t this sound like one of those terrible mini cars from the 90’s that look like they were just bigger power wheels? This one is all about doing stuff to terrain and is probably one of the other related – oh my gawds its broken set of powers. Overall it is a dang good set of powers.
Primarius – Chasm – WC 2 – Pick a unit not locked in combat, everyone takes a dangerous terrain test that can only be saved with Invulnerable saves. This is pretty rough for a Primarius spell and will hit big fat and annoying units. A due to being a default spell so you can always get it.
1 – Earth Blood – WC 1 – Hey you can heal d3 wounds on someone and give their unit IWND. If only they had a big fat MC to give wounds back too. I guess that Chapter Master is going to be a big ole pain in the butt. A Solid B+ for your efforts good sir.
2 – Scorched Earth – WC 1 – Pick a point, every unit within 6 inches takes a Str 5 ap 4 hit that ignores cover and that area is now dangerous terrain. This doesn’t do a whole lot but it might be annoying if they want to move away with the relic or something. Take a C good sir!
3 – Landquake – WC 1 – Malediction that forces a unit to not be able to run, turbo boost, or move flat out. Plus they are in dangerous terrain. This could be annoying for Deathstars but they will still initially move 12 inches most of the time so end. A solid C for this one.
4 – Phase Form – WC 1 – Blessing that lets a unit ignore cover and ignore line of sight. Plus they can move through cover as well. Holy poops is this pretty dang strong. A solid A!
5 – Warp Quake – WC 1 – It does stuff to buildings/ruins that are not very exciting and if your guys are in there it hurts them. Meh?
6 – Shifting Worldscape – WC 3 – Remember the chatter on how you can move a piece of terrain? This is the power that does it. If your unit is fully in the terrain they get to move with it. If not they have to get out. Still – throw a small forest with a crazy death star in it forward and then assault out of it. Of course I wonder if putting some weird Aegis defense line shapes or even the Promethium Pipes would cause some issues as they can only be an inch from it. This is the other big move spell that might be a problem for Tau to deal with. I give this a A but your army needs to be built to use it or have terrain you can use.
Fulmination Discipline
After that we have the Fulmination Discipline. Its the lightning set of powers that is always showcased in any librarian art we see. Lightning looks cool to draw – so why not have a power based off of it. This discipline has one of the holy sh$t powers in there as well. Will get to it in a little bit.
Primarius – Electrosurge – WC 1 – Magic missile basically. Its ok with being Strength 5 and ap 4. Thankfully it is not a D6 number of shots and just a straight take 6 missiles. A solid B.
1 – Electroshield – WC 1 – Psyker gets a storm shield. Yay! Not amazing, not terrible so it gets a B-.
2 – Electropulse – WC 1 – Haywire Nova. If only you blew things up on a 6 when you roll that lucky penetrate. It only hits once on the Nova too so meh – C-
3 – Lightning Arc – WC 2 – Hey we finally have a D6 number of hits power that could hit other stuff around it. I remember Tesla doing that for the Necrons in the olden days. A cute power that isn’t that awesome. A C for your troubles.
4 – Fists of Lightning – WC 1 – The Psyker gets all Iron Fisty like with his fists. Its ok and the causing more hits when you hit something is neat. Its just the psyker doesn’t have enough attacks to really make it matter. A C again for this power set.
5 – Magnetokinesis – WC 2 – This one is an interesting one as it lets you teleport a bit by moving a unit 18″. The unit can be zooming, swooping or locked in combat so isn’t an escape power. You can’t assault after moving so while cute it isn’t game breaking. A B- for you good sir!
6 – Electrodisplacement – aka Table Flip you Death Star Mutha BLEEP BLEEP your Dad BLEEP BLEEP in the BLEEP BLEEP eats Donkey BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP Fudging BLEEP! – WC 2 – So this is the teleport power that everyone is mad about. Pick a unit that is 24″ away from you, remove all models except for one – swap that model with the psyker and then put the units around that model within 6″ and in unit coherency. You can assault afterwards. I want you to think about how bonkers that is and how the poor Tau and any other non assault army is in for a rough treat as the psyker, their death star friends, and maybe even their ex girlfriend are all coming a lot closer and assault into your business. I expect a ton of Inquisitors to come into play as they keep scouts away from you. Tau – you better intercept that unit coming out of the drop pod. Heck Eldar are going to get a big ole surprise as a ton of pipe wielding a$$holes come knocking on your door. This is the spell that might need to get nerfed in ITC after some testing. A+++ in your face!
Technomancy Discipline
Finally we have the Technomancy Discipline. This one is set up to be utilize by those pesky Iron Hand jerks we might see on the table top. They are going to be tough as nails and a pain in the butt to remove. Still let’s look at these powers. This discipline is kinda bad as there is really only one power worth going for if you have a specific army.
Primarius – Subvert Machine – WC 1 – Malediction that lets you shoot one of your enemies vehicles weapons that isn’t one use only. Of course it is randomly assigned weapon and both you and your opponent get to roll a dice. If your opponent is higher nothing happens. If you tie it only shoots at snapshot level. If you win you get shoot it with the vehicles BS. This isn’t a very good power and took too long to type out and explain. A D good sir – a D!
1 – Blessing of the Machine – WC 1 – This is like the old Grey Knights ignore shaken power but you can target the vehicle. Heck if it isn’t shaken they get a +1 to their BS too. Even the Psyker can still cast it when embarked on a vehicle but only on the vehicle he is embarked on. Meh indeed! You get a C!
2 – Machine Curse – WC 1 – D3 Haywire hits with a Focused Witchfire. Kinda of odd it is a Focused one as it really should only matter to a vehicle as it is Str 1 Ap -. Another Meh power with a C rating.
3 – Reforge – WC 1 – You get to fix a vehicle like a servo arm but it has no chance to fail! It also give IWND which isn’t terrible. Yay? – Another C!
4 – Warpmetal Armor WC 2 – Target unit if its a vehicle gets +1 Armor to all sides and a non vehicle unit get +1 toughness. This one is pretty spicy especially with that lovely Knight unit. Could be a neat power to try and roll for when finishing off the Librarian Conclave power set. I give it a B+
5 – Fury of Mars – WC 1 – A beam haywire attack. Again if you could blow stuff up on a roll of a 6 when you penetrate this might be better. Overall it is pretty weak sauce – Grade C!
6 – Machine Flense – WC 2 – Unit loses d3 hull points and a unit within 6 inches take damage because the machine is Flensed all over their face. They take d6 str 4 ap 6 rending hits so it isn’t completely terrible. Each Hull point lost lets them choose another unit as needed. This is another C-B power too.
What Do I Think?
Right now these powers would be ok if there wasn’t a pesky Ultramarine character running around. Tiggie Smalls gives you a nice 75% chance to roll the power you need with his pesky reroll powers ability. I would suspect a lot more players being a lot more finicky when dealing with terrain. If you can’t fit in the piece then you are not shooting across the field. I have a gut feeling the teleport power is the worst of the lot as while fortune is pretty nutty it does get turned off pretty easily with the Culexius assassin. The teleport is going to just make playing against super friends a heck of a lot harder.
What do you guys think about the new powers? Should they be looked at and nerved like invisibility is in ITC? Should it just be let to run rampant and maybe make those pesky Eldar think twice in events? Are Tau just getting more and more crap dumped on them? Do these pants make me look fat?
