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I'm find it really hard to fit these two situational officers into my lists.

Imperial Guard lists are really tight at 1750 and 1850 that every point matters so they are very hard to fit in.

Astropath is decent if your going second and outflanking your Valkyries and possibly put other things into reserve if your opponent has a ton of long range firepower. You get a reroll on what side your Valkyries come in on and a 16% bonus to your reserve rolls. However sometimes your only outflanking the Valkyries and then that bonus is only for 2-3 units. But if your going first 50% of the time the Astropath is just a bullet catcher who takes a it instead of a Melta or the Commander if possible.

Officer of the Fleet is situationally good against reserve lists like Daemons, Drop Pods, outflanking Khan Bikers, deepstriking terminators or obliterators. It also is nice if you get first turn with an alpha strike guard list so that makes them rethink starting in reserves or come in peice meal where you can pick them off. If I'm not playing against reserves you have a bullet catcher.

For the price of these two guys you can get a Chimera for a squad or something else.

So what do you think? Astropath and Officer of the Fleet worth the points?

As always, the answer to that question is wholly dependant on what your army composition is.

In my tourny list I always run two Penal Legions and two Valks, so the Astropath is really a must have if I want those puppies to pop up in the right places. If your not really running a lot of outflankers then it may not be worth your time, but its gonna suck when your huge Al'Rahim squad / sentinals / penal legions come in on a side of the board with zero enemy forces.

As for the Officer of the Fleet, its a bit more difficult to answer. Personally I find the ability the potentially keep units out of the game longer and keep them from coming in close to your forces highly valuable. An OotF allows you to castle far more effectively against any army that untilizes outflanking and could keep that nice squad of termis in reserve for an extra round or two.

All in all, for a grand total of 30 per model, I think its a steal for virtually any game.

Thanks for the reply.

Well my 1850 lists look like this
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/259301.page

I'm typically running 3 Valkyries as my only outflankers only if I do not get first turn. If I get first turn I start them on the board and first turn assault with Melta bombs sometimes.

The smaller the game, the less units there are that will likely benefit from or be affected by their abilities.

The smaller the game the higher the percentage of total points that CCS will be.

They are awesome, and I'd love both in ANY list. But you've always got to take functional, shooty units first. When your list comes up 30-60 short, go for it. But cutting a chimera, a hydra or chaging an executioner into a demolisher for one just doesn't seem like smart money.

I have a quick question about the Emperor's Tarot. Doesn't it only give you plus one if the dice roll are different, but it also gives you minus 1 to your roll if they are the same. So, by having an Emperor's Tarot you are actually at a greater chance of losing the dice roll.

I don't understand the benefit of this wargear, can someone please explain it to me. It would be great to get an edge to go first if possible, but I don't think this does it.

Yeah, lots of people misunderstand it...

it is one of the worst writings of a rule... they could have written it a million different ways and have the same statistical impact, but they choose to get fancy... and it confuses everyone.

Ok, before rolling to go first you and your opponent both roll a D6. Please note that this is NOT the roll to see who goes first.

If you tie, then you'll have -1 to your roll to go first.

If the combination of the dice is anything other than doubles, you will get +1 to your roll to go first.

Sadly, they could have just said, roll a die before the roll to go first is made, if you roll a 2+, you get +1 to go first, if you roll a 1 you get -1 to go first.

Instead, the authors of the codex got tricky, and decided to make the test to see if the tarot worked an opposed roll.

Thanks Shep! Very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.

You said situational. So its probably better to spend points on something that is good all the time. If you have spare points then buy the Officers.

Well the inat FAQ just got updated. And the "rules wizards" decided to just make up new rules for advisors. If playing in an inat tourney just throw the astropath in the trash. He is now completely useless (must be on table to have his ability work?)

fleet officer also suffers from that ruling, but he is more usable

the good news is that they decided to buff PBS to godlike status.

This reminds me of how Dark Angel Ravenwing Land Speeders didn't count as scoring... even when the codex says in black and white text that they score.

What an unnecessary and unsubstantiated ruling.

What is this inat FAQ? And where are Inat tournaments held? Never heard of it.

INAT FAQ I think is the Adepticon FAQ

Well under this FAQ where Astropath has to be on the table the Astropath still has a use if you outflank with Valkyries starting the rest on but Astropath isn't useful for the all reserve trick if facing overwelming firepower. Probably not worth the points.

Officer of the Fleet is situational yeah but he sometimes helps against some bad match ups like Daemons and Khan outflanking bikers + landraider full of termies. But how often do I play these bad match ups for him to be worth the points.

I might end up leaving the advisors out although they have some cool modeling opportunities.