fbpx JOIN LOGIN JOIN

40k’s New Psychic Powers – Tips & Tactics

By Rob Baer | September 20th, 2016 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Space Marines, Tactics, Videos

Librarian-tiggy

GW keeps putting these new psychic powers in all their codex books so let’s take a closer look at Librarius, Technomancy, Fulmination, and Geokinesis!

Unless you’ve been in a hobby hole you know this book has just shaken up the meta! And not just for the loyalists – the bad guys got versions of these powers now too!

So many questions, too little time! Confusion must be the Psyker’s goal!

This is however, in my opinion, one of the most well written books in a while. There are some catches though, especially with the terrain section. Psychic powers are not only for Space Marines anymore but also BA,DA, SW, and GK as well.

Librarius Dicipline – Standard Primarus and 6 more powers, like the rest of them. This is your Tool box discipline for dealing with a variety of things.

The Primarius is a blast, 10 years ago that would have been good, nowadays it’s pretty basic. This was a Tier 1 Purple in WoW now it’s just a Rare.

Veil of Time – Re-Roll saving throws, that’s basically fortune for Space Marines which is great for Death Stars, WC2.

Fury of the Ancients – Beam, STR 6 AP 4 assault 1 pinning, very average if you ask me.

Psychic Fortress – Fearless, Adamantium will and a 4+ invul versus witch fire. Oh, and did you know you can stack that invul? Yup.

Might of Heroes – +2 Strength, Toughness, Initiative, and Attacks. This was great on Mephiston back in the day and guys like Draigo could really dig this. Don’t sleep on this; it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Psychic Scourge – Malediction within 24”, simulates a mind battle, if you win your opponent suffers a wound and can lose a power. “This is your brain on warp dust. Any questions?” Solid.

Null Zone – Malediction targets enemy unit, -2 Invul, you can make this drop as low as a 6+ invul. This is important versus Knight Titans, you can bring down that ion shield; Great against Death Stars.

Librarian tiggy walpaper sat

Technomancy – I think this is going to be under utilized.

Primarius: Take over a unit and fire it’s weapon, kinda Meh in certain situations, who wants the stubber on the knight titan? Not this guy.

Blessing of the Machine Spirit: I think it’s dope for the tread heads.

Machine Curse: Haywire, nothing to sneeze at because of all those Gladius strike forces.

Reforge: Recover a Hull Point, Fix a weapon, remove immobilize. Basically a free Tech Marine. Wonky donky robot magic. Oh, and grants IWD.

Warp Metal Armor: +1 Armor, front side and rear or +1 toughness. Super helpful versus War Convocation and things that will reduce your strength to prevent getting doubled out.

Fury: Beam O Haywire, great for wreaking a parking lot.

Machine Flense: focused witchfire, target losses D3 hull Points which can then inflict additional hits on another unit. I’m digging it. Very situational but can be super helpful.

deathwatch_librarian

Fulmination – One half of the two-headed Psychic shenanigans Choir.

Primarus Electoro Surge: Witchfire, shooting, whatever.

Elector Shield – 3+ Invul, stacks nicely with sancutuary.

Electropulse: It’s a Haywire Nova power, if there’s anything in the game that’s better than a beam it’s a Nova. It does the Lord’s work with haywire to scrub the parking lots.

Lightnight Arc – Lethal Discharge is like Tesla but better but snap fires and all those limitations but it’s funny when it does land.

Fist of lIghtnig – +1 Str and Attacks and when the Psycher hits cause more hits. I like it, Draigo can always use a Str 8 Attack that’s for sure.

Magneto Kinesis – Targets Unit, can move 18inches. This is well worded and answers a lot of questions us Americans would ask; but um, why get this when you have…

Electro Displacement – It’s time for a wife swap unit swap! This is where you get your scout bikers and flip flop, oh, and you get to assault right after. Bonkers. This is going to be the source of lots of broken stuff. Wulfen, I’m looking at you. P.S. blessings only target FRIENDLY models.

Space-marine-librarian-painting-of-model

Geokinesis – deals more with terrain but the other half of the two headed Disciplines of fury.

Chasm – Targets enemy unit, all models take a DT test, no armor saves. Standard. I think it’s okay.

Earth Blood: Regain D3 wounds and IWD. For WC1 it’s phenomenal.

Scorched Earth: Malediction, pick a point, attacks all the units at that point, good for getting units off objectives…maybe…meh. Tell me if I’m wrong in the comments.

Land Quake: A Faux nova that hits all enemy units and puts them in Dangerous Terrain and prevents Run, Turbo Boost, and flat out. This is how you lock down the eldar. I hope you didn’t bring a bunch of bikes trying to voltron on the last turn because you can swap in and bog them down.

Phase Form, Move through cover, Ignore Cover, no need to see the enemy. Probably the single most amazing WC1 in the history of EVER. So powerful.

Warp Quake: witch fire, targets a build/ruin, causes damage dudes take hits. Mediocre but good for burning stuff down in terrain. Basically an extra phase in shooting.

Shift WorldScape: WC3, allows you to pick up movable terrain and plop it down within 24”, friend or foe, doesn’t matter. This is a thing. This is sticky. People want to abuse this, but it’s written very well in my opinion. Check the rule book, (Page 183), a lot of stuff is classified as terrain! It may be classified as ruin, building, battlefield terrain. Lots of things. Not everything is listed in this book however. You gotta move to Stronghold assault. Here’s what all the kids want to do. Take the Sky Shield landing pad, Rules As Written it’s a piece of terrain, it’s moveable and pick-up-able. I think people are going to try and DJ Roomba around the table. I think the FAQ quys are going to be calling some emergency rulings.

To wrap this thing up I think this section right here was created to be a governor on what’s wrong with the tournament scene. When things start showing up over and over again in the tournament scene I think Games Workshop made this book for the Meta.

About the Author: Rob Baer

Rob Baer

 rob avatar faceJob Title: Managing Editor

Founded Spikey Bits in 2009

Socials: Rob Baer on Facebook and @catdaddymbg on X

About Rob Baer: Founder, Publisher, & Managing Editor of Spikey Bits, the leading tabletop gaming news website focused on the hobby side of wargaming and miniatures.  Rob has won many Warhammer 40k Tournaments over the years, including the Adepticon Team Tournament and American Team Tournaments, and is on a first-name basis with almost every major company in the space.

He’s all gaming all the time. With over 30 years of experience in retail and distribution, Rob knows all the products and exactly which ones are the best. He advocates for gaming stores and manufacturers in these difficult times, always looking for the next big thing to feature for the miniatures hobby, helping everyone to provide the value consumers want.

While he’s played every edition of Warhammer 40k and Warhammer Fantasy (since 5th Edition) and has been hobbying on miniatures since the 1908s, Titans of all sizes will always be his favorite! It’s even rumored that his hobby vault rivals the Solemnance Galleries, containing rulebooks filled with lore from editions long past, ancient packs of black-bordered Magic Cards, and models made of both pewter and resin.