The Bay Area Open is finished and there was a list that sparked some conversation with Marines, Knights and Imperial Guard fighting in a new way.
We know that the Imperial Guard have been absolute powerhouse detachments from the start of 8th edition. They are notorious for having cheap units, CP farms, and firepower if you need it.
But Jack Harpster at the 2018 Bay Area Open decided to change things up.
He went with a Bullgryn Buff star along with a Knight in a way that a lot of us hadn’t seen before.
8th Edition Buff Star: Are Psychic Conclaves Back?
We can see that this list had two buff stars in it. The first one being the group of Bullgryns getting buffed by an Astropath and a Priest. The second being a Knight buffed by Space Marine Psykers from three different chapters??
Let’s look into how they were buffed exactly.
Bullgryn are Hard to Kill
Bullgryn alone are nasty. Having a club that they swing around that’s basically an autocannon is nothing to scoff at. But It gets much…much worse. This list brought 5 Slabshields giving them a 4++ save. The Astropath could cast Psychic Barrier bringing their 4++ to a 3++. After that, he could use the Take Cover stratagem to increase their saves by 1 against shooting. Effectively giving them a 2++ save in that regard.
Their other shields, however, give them a 2+ save naturally which can again, be further augmented via psychics and that same strat down to a 1+/0+ respectively. So depending on the battlefield conditions, these guys have very nice utility indeed.
The Priest was there to make sure they all got +1 attack by him just standing close. Did we mention he brought nine Bullgryn? nine Bullgryn could chew through any kind of defense the opponent may have. He could’ve also cast Nightshroud if he wanted to make them -1 to hit we don’t know what power he chose TBH but they both have play here for sure.
Bottom line, we suggest you ignore these guys and hope they don’t connect with you if you see them in a game. You certainly won’t kill them as fast as you think you would.
Beefing up the Knight
So with a ball of angry lads barreling towards you, you’ve also got a Knight Castellan blasting parts of your army away.
Starting off with the Space Wolves Rune Priest, he was slinging Tempest’s Wrath at enemy units making them -1 to hit. Moving to the Dark Angel Librarian, he was casting Aversion making another unit -1 to hit at whatever it shot at.
These Psychic powers don’t directly buff the Knight, but with an immortal wall of meat running at you, you might as well try and take down a Knight before you die. The nice thing about both of those psychic powers is that it gave the player who cast them the option to pick what units he wanted to be -1 to hit (remember the Astropath could also in theory cast -1 to hit as well on any AM unit too).
Usually, Anti Tank weapons are in the back or dug into buildings. So while the Bullgryn were chewing up Cultists and Daemons, the Knight was able to pop anything it really needed to while the opponent’s guns were -1 and sometimes -2 to hit. Plus the other ability of the Astropath is to negate cover from an enemy unit as well. That also seems to combo well with this scenario.
The Space Marines did lose their chapter tactics cause they were all thrown in an Astartes detachment. However, they were really just there to do the Lord’s work with psychics anyways like the Librarius conclave of old.
At the end of the day, this was yet another list that we saw at the BAO that challenged the meta. Yes, it brought a ton of CPs with it and yes, it brought a Knight. But we haven’t seen Librarians used in that kind of way yet for 8th. Great job on the intricate list!
Are Psychic Conclaves back now that we saw all the psychic buffs from this army? What do you think about this list? What can you think of that would counter it? Let us know in comments of our Facebook Hobby Group.
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About the Author: Rob Baer
