Friday, July 6, 2012

Harnessing the Warp with the Primaris Psyker: Nasty Combo


I am loving 6th edition thus far, and I am up to about my 8th game in the last week. I was even able to complete from set up to pick up, a 5 hour 3500pt game last night. So it was only a matter of time until I find some combinations that I start to love and work into my main lists.

Of course now in 6th edition there is a ton of balance and many ways to counter this. While the following power can be very hard to work into the battle and requires many things to work and get off, when successful it devastates the enemy who gets too close...... Lets take a look.

Lets Take a Close Look at Imperial Guard Primaris Psykers.......
The rules for the Primaris Psyker place him at a mastery level 1 psyker, who gets to choose 2 pschic powers from the following disciplines, Biomancy, Pyromancy, Telepathy, and Telekinesis.

Last night I made a psyker division part of my army in the game. I used 3 Psyker Battle Squads and three Primaris Psykers for my game. We all know how Psyker Battle Squads work and how they weaken resolve. They have not changed much in 6th edition, so lets take a look

Primaris Psyker gets to roll twice on the chart, so we are picking Telepathy for both our powers. The reason being that there are only 4 powers that you can get, so you are likely to get what you want. Lets look at two powers that when used in combination with Weaken Resolve, become very powerful.

Terrify........ Malediction 24" # 4 Psychic Power of Telepathy (remember that these are used at the beginning of psykers movement phase)
a Malediction that has a 24" range. The Target receives no benefit from the fearless special rule, and treats all enemy units as having the fear special rule. Furthermore the unit must take an immediate Morale check.

With this power, Psyker Battle Squads can then take down and break once fearless squads. No one is safe from weaken resolve..... (of course deny the witch still applies)

Psychic Shriek.... Witchfire Power 12"  Primaris Power of Telepathy (no roll needed to get it)
So after you use weaken resolve on a unit...... Even if that unit is fearless... You then use your powers from a Primaris Psyker to cast Psychic Shriek. Roll 3d6 and subtract the target's leadership- The Target unit suffers a number of wounds equal to the result. Armour and cover saves cannot be taken against wounds caused by psychic shriek. Psychic Shriek is a witchfire.

So this means that your Psyker Battle Squad lowers the leadership of a unit by the number of psykers in the unit... Lets say 8 since that is what I was using last night...... So leadership 10 is reduced to 2.

Then your Primaris Psyker (that was a useless unit in 5th edition), casts Psychic Shriek. Roll the three dice, subtract the units current leadership, and that is how many wounds you deliver. Last night I did this to a Blood Thirster and hit him for 9 wounds that he could only use invulnerable saves against. Lets just say he went "poof".