Psychic Devastation and Warlord Powers

Games Workshop has been doing great at getting us some content in regards to videos of late. Here is the third of the series on psychic powers and warlord powers.



via Games Workshop on "Whats New Today"
In today's video about the new edition of Warhammer 40,000, Phil Kelly gets excited about the range of devastating new psychic powers and Adam Troke tells us more about the Warlord Traits. Both of these abilities are there to augment the power of your heroes and give them an even more formidable presence on the battlefield.

The psychic powers come in five different flavours known as disciplines - Biomancy, Divination, Pyromancy, Telekinesis and Telepathy - which you can give to the psykers in your army. Different races have access to different psychic powers - you can find out who has access to what powers in the Psychic Powers card deck and in July's issue of White Dwarf. Mat Ward also takes an in-depth look at the new psychic powers in the same issue, so it's well-worth picking up if you want to know how they can benefit you and your army.

All in all the psychic powers look really nasty. Much like the spells in Warhammer they are randomly generated, though there is a primaris power (much like a signature spell) that you can also pick. The higher your psychic mastery level, the more powers you can cast - it's pretty simple stuff. A Space Marine Librarian, for example, can cast one psychic power, an Epistolary can cast one devastating power or two regular powers, and Chief Librarian Tigurius can potentially cast up to three psychic powers a turn. A quick look through the new power cards reveals them to be pretty devastating. 'Spontaneous Combustion' (unsurprisingly from the Pyromancy list) ignites and then explodes your targets while 'Invisibility' from the Telepathy list allows you to make a friendly unit virtually invisible - particularly amusing when used on a tank.

Traits are a new ability that you can attribute to your army commander before a battle. There are three Warlord Traits to choose from - Command Traits, which give benefits to nearby units; Personal Traits, which enhance your commander's abilities; and Strategic Traits, which give your army deployment and manoeuvrability bonuses. Picking a Strategic Trait could, for example, reward you with the Divide to Conquer ability, which makes it harder for your opponent to bring on reserves. Alternatively you could choose a Personal Trait and make your Warlord even more powerful. The Legendary Fighter ability will certainly make your opponents less willing to fight him in combat, that's for sure