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I've been trying to use priests in my IG blobs and don't feel I am getting value for money yet.

The righteous fury on the charge works well, but the priest itself seems too squishy and generally dies round 1 as he is targetted in CC due to him being an IC.

I have been paying for the eviscerator for the power first attack, but at I1 he goes last and WS3,T3, 4+ save generally means death before he gets to swing. Should I just go for priests with the laspistol and CC wpn for the 45 points (so now goes at I3) and save the extra 15 points?

well- they are crap. I have one just because it's funny to see a crazy old guy with a chainsaw run around.

place the priest near the rear of the blob
first turn you will get furious charge, the second turn the priest will join the combat and cannot be attacked until the next round.

Do what Grundz says. The priest's evicerator is your can opener. He's not there to fight infantry. Back of the blob until you get up to the bawkses, then charge him up front. As long as he's more than 6" from the actual infantry units you're assaulting, you're golden, and you get the rerolls still because he's a part of the squad.

As people mentioned the problem with the Priest is his IC status you have to keep him in the back so attacks don't get allocated to him.

daedalus wrote:Do what Grundz says. The priest's evicerator is your can opener. He's not there to fight infantry. Back of the blob until you get up to the bawkses, then charge him up front. As long as he's more than 6" from the actual infantry units you're assaulting, you're golden, and you get the rerolls still because he's a part of the squad.

right, and you get to chose how to pile him in over the 2-3 pile in moves and can be pretty sure if combat is still going, he's only going to be in range of 1 or 2 baddies.

Really though, your priest is only there for the rerolls, if you have 3 sarges and a commisar, thats 16 power weapon swings who are now rerolling (and hopefully +1 str so usually wounding on 4's) Until you reach 30 or more men, you are better off with more bodies than with a priest.
Giving him an evicerator is an option, but melta bombs on the commisar will do "close to" the same job incase you meet a vehicle, and the commie cant be singled out, and it's cheaper!

I really want commisar powerfists or evicerators and such to work too, but its an inherent weakness of the army, just gotta deal

He's your utility, keep him in the back unless you're assaulting a box or something of the sort and need a can opener

daedalus wrote:The priest's evicerator is your can opener. He's not there to fight infantry. Back of the blob until you get up to the bawkses, then charge him up front. As long as he's more than 6" from the actual infantry units you're assaulting, you're golden, and you get the rerolls still because he's a part of the squad.

Yup.

Priests are good, but they're tricky to use. Learn how to make the most of your movement phase, and you'll never get a priest into base to base unless you want him there.

For a clearer example, look at this game (or, well, lots of them in this series). Look at the blob on the right, and notice that the priest is in the roughly middle of the squad (the guy with the huge chainsword next to the commissar):



Now, I want to get into close combat with those dire avengers who just got bailed out of their ride. I DON'T want the priest to get in there right away. So, in my next turn, I move the blob like this:



Notice how I moved my commissar and power weapon sergeant towards the front of the squad whereas I moved the priest FURTHER away? The rest of the guys are there just to make sure the priest has coherency.

Because my priest is so far away, when the charge happens, the first guy moves in, and then the priest moves in, but because he started roughly 12" away (or maybe more. The crucial thing is that he's over 6" away), he moves 6" closer, but there's no way he can get engaged this turn.



As mentioned, once the pile-in happens, I can either rearrange it so that the priest doesn't make it into close combat at all by putting other troops in the way, or I can have him get in base to base with one model. because the rest of the models in the enemy squad all have base contact with someone from the blob, they HAVE to attack the blob, while only one of them can attack the priest, who has a pretty decent chance of surviving until he can squish someone.

Of course, to reiterate, eviscerator priests are anti-vehicle weapons. When fighting infantry, their real value is the rerolls, which they need to survive to give.

I have a question: say I am an idiot and like to play him in my penal legionnaires for fluff purposes - and yes, that does ruin a lot of their special rules, but I can't resist prisoners led to "salvation" by the valiant priest/martyr, or the image of Alien 3 cons - anyways, if he is killed before the squad gets to attack, do they still get to reroll to hit that round, because, technically he was with them on the turn they assaulted?

Good illustrations, Ailaros.

One note: IIRC the new GW FAQ specifies now that, during the pile-in move, you have to move independent characters into base contact, even if it's necessary to move other models out of the way in order to do so. So putting your own models in the way doesn't work anymore under that FAQ.

But you can still do the thing with making sure every enemy model is in base contact with the unit to minimize attacks on the priest. That's still also generally a good way to keep ICs away from powerfists and such as well.

"Using their own men as a screen in order to avoid the fight is a cowardly act, one that these great heroes would never consider!"

I always thought he would die pretty quickly if following these rules, but the book just mentions reacting to an assault or pile-in moves where the independent characters must move first.

Flavius Infernus wrote:One note: IIRC the new GW FAQ specifies now that, during the pile-in move, you have to move independent characters into base contact, even if it's necessary to move other models out of the way in order to do so. So putting your own models in the way doesn't work anymore under that FAQ.

Ah, okay. I can still get into close combat with the priest well over 24" away with proper power blob and priest placement, so it would still take awhile.

Kavalion wrote:"Using their own men as a screen in order to avoid the fight is a cowardly act, one that these great heroes would never consider!"

Hey, it takes real courage to lead from the rear. The kind of courage only the most righteous can muster.

Now men, forward! All you guys!

This thread illustrates why Witch Hunters with inducted Imperial Guard are such a hoot. Witch Hunter priests aren't Independent Characters, so they can't be picked out in combat. Moreover they become part of the unit so they can do things like outflank with Al'Rahem.

There's a little downside with their version of the Righteous Fury rule, but who wants to shoot lasguns anyway?

thats 16 power weapon swings who are now rerolling (and hopefully +1 str so usually wounding on 4's) Until you reach 30 or more men, you are better off with more bodies than with a priest.

I may be spacing out here grundz but how does the power blob get the +1 str from the priest? commissar? is there some unit that I'm missing also how does the power weapons becoming rending I understand power weapons deny armour saves this may just be a question out of how tired i am and can not comprehend things but i could really use this spelled out thanks!

Straken gives furious charge.

A lot of people swear by him, but I've never been the biggest fan. FC makes blobs 33% better while the priest makes them 50% better and gives can opening. Not to say you can't use both, of course, but the priest is bossier, in my opinion.

ahh okay i don't normally use straken which makes sense why i was confused thanks ailaros

Thanks. Nice posts. I just need to have the priest exhorting them from behind rather than leading from the front then!

Also remember that the FAQs are just suggestions and are most often crap. (though that one isn't as bad as many)

The FAQs are rules as far as this site, and most tournaments in the world, are concerned.

Ailaros wrote:Straken gives furious charge.

A lot of people swear by him, but I've never been the biggest fan. FC makes blobs 33% better while the priest makes them 50% better and gives can opening. Not to say you can't use both, of course, but the priest is bossier, in my opinion.

IMHO, it's a little better than 33%, because you are usually fighting I4 opponents and FC lets the ones that would normally die get a swing off too.
Also I use CREEEEEEED, not straken, ive found that hiding him behind something and his huge order bubble gets the job done, but I'm not as balls-deep of an assault army than as Ailaros runs.

:-) I don't run them myself, but Ailaros runs them all the time locally here... Got to say they're very effective in general, and about the only thing keeping the blobs alive against "heavies" like DN's, WL's, etc... Usually a priority target to deal with, and annoyingly difficult to kill at times...

And the FAQ's depend on your local group I'd guess, we play them as rules here (like we would for any other company that had an errata/FAQ for their rules)... So, YMMV

I've had decent experience with priests, myself. I had a blob of twenty take out a Tervigon, 15 Gants, and a group of 8 Genestealers in one game. Each time the extra hits provided by the priest severely reduced the number of incoming attacks, plus he got a couple swings in himself.

A blob without a priest is a good force and can do a lot of damage. With a priest, they can kill enough in the first round to escape in better shape to fight again. At least, that's my thinking. (and anecdotal evidence)