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I NEED a Librarian for my Blood Angel army, and a non-dreadnought one before you start

But I don't want to give him all the awesome looking stuff then realise its the crap stuff so I turn to my trusty Dakkalings!

The army is CC based, almost everything can either Jump about or Deep strike
The only shooty part of this army is a Stormraven and some Veterans, so I was thinking of adding the Librarian to my Vets in a Drop Pod/Stormraven.

Thoughts??

I've only Used the Dread variant since picking up the BA codex.
I do have a friend though who consistently uses a jump Libby to support some of his DoA elements and I've seen it used to good effect. Just remember that Librarians tend to be a utility character first and a combat character 2nd...or maybe that is third...

The downside to the librarian is that he only has 2 wounds and no invul so you have to either be careful what he goes after or he needs to be given equipment to help with this.
if he goes with the veterans (or they sternguard or Vanguard?) then you could consider Terminator Armor to act as insurance against perils although it will cause him to eat an extra model space in the transport so make sure that he will fit with the squad.
The other option is just to keep him naked or only a jump pack and thus just play around his limitations.

Hope that helps.
Cheers,
~Volkan

I've run Libbys in a variety of lists. The choice of Termy armor or JP really boils down to which part of your army they're going to be hanging around.

As far as combi-weapons, etc, I only end up doing that if I have a handful of points leftover and nothing to spend it on. They work fine with the stock wargear, IMO, but YMMV.

It depends on what you want him to accomplish. Sometimes I run mine as an Epistolary with JP Might and Sword. This allows me to reliably kill heavy armor and monstrous creatures in one turn.

An increasingly popular layout is Shield and Unleash rage. He multiplies the combat effectiveness of the unit he is attached to by quite a bit with the preferred enemy. Shield gives cover saves in the open during your opponents shooting phase.

If you face a lot of castling mech armies, Blood lance might be the way to go. You could possible pop 2-3 or even 4 transports with decent dice rolls.

Fear the Darkness is fun. Its a good way to dust off units without touching them if you can make them fail and then escort them off the board. Take it with Blood Lance so after you pop several transports, you can potentially get rid of the riders the next turn.

Stay away from Wings on a regular non-dred libby. Just pay the 25 pts for a JP and save the power for something more useful.

Other powers to stay away from are Blood Boil. It has the potential to be a good sniper weapon, but only on about a 36% chance.

Shackle Soul has some potential... but against high leadership armies like necrons, marines, large mobs of orks, and the eldars, it wont have much effect. It is a LEADERSHIP test, not a morale or pinning test, so it does effect fearless units. You could have some fun playing with people who overlook that fact, but as a whole, its a relatively difficult power to utilize correctly.


As far as armament goes, I'd just take him stock. Give him any upgrades that fit with the unit he'll be going with. That pretty much it.

Make him an epistolary, put him in terminator armor with a storm shield. Put the psychic powers on that you think will mesh best with your army, but my preference includes Sword of Sanguinious (S10 attacks) and Might of Heroes (+D3 attacks). YMMV, but as far as wargear, this is your best loadout to keep him alive

Caboose wrote:
Shackle Soul has some potential... but against high leadership armies like necrons, marines, large mobs of orks, and the eldars, it wont have much effect. It is a LEADERSHIP test, not a morale or pinning test, so it does effect fearless units. You could have some fun playing with people who overlook that fact, but as a whole, its a relatively difficult power to utilize correctly.

As a longtime fan of the DE Horrorfex, you might want to visit YMDC and post your thoughts for critique before trying this out.

You take a morale test to run.
You take a morale test for pinning.

You can take a leadership check...and if you want to use the leadership, not morale....nothing happens; pass or fail - because the leadership test needs to go to a morale test result for effect.

Libbys come in 2 variants: 1) CC beastmode, or 2) buff master.

For CC beastmode I normally run a Libby in TA w/ SS, Sword of Sanguinus, and Unleash Rage. Attach him to some assault terms w/ a chaplain and sang priest. If you get the charge, cast sword. If not, cast rage. They will chew through ANYTHING they get into combat with.

For the buff master, really depends what your using your libby for. Heres some common loadouts:

1) rage/shield - shield to give cover, rage for CC
2) Rage/fear - rage if you need it, fear to run off pesky units (longfangs/TWC) when needed
3) Fear/shield - Fear when needed, shield at all times. Normally rides in a vehicle to provide a bubble
4) Lance/Shield - Anti-tank/vehicle cover
5) Sword/Rage - see above, it works well on a normal libby too (just not as effective)

So really depends what your army needs. I run sword/rage in 90% of my games; it allows my libby to neuter things like dreads before they swing, or gives my TH/SS termis rerolls when fighting normal joes. Then again my list runs meph in a SR and TH/SS termis in a second raven, creating a pretty puncherific punch fest

Dashofpepper wrote:As a longtime fan of the DE Horrorfex, you might want to visit YMDC and post your thoughts for critique before trying this out.

You take a morale test to run.
You take a morale test for pinning.

You can take a leadership check...and if you want to use the leadership, not morale....nothing happens; pass or fail - because the leadership test needs to go to a morale test result for effect.

Take a look at the rule book. Pg8 outlines what a Leadership test is. Pg 43 outlines Morale checks. Morale checks and pinning checks are specific types of leadership tests. The Shackle Soul test, is another type of leadership test. Fearless models automatically pass morale and pinning tests, NOT all leadership tests. Go ahead ook it up, pg 75.

For most lists, I think the only wargear really necessary is the JP. The main purpose of the libby is to provide buffs; they really don't have the profile to be a CC beast.

Unleash Rage is probably the strongest power, since any squad you're going to stick him with will probably have WS4 and therefore hit on 4's against lots of stuff. I think Shield is really great as well, bordering on required for a DoA based list. I can see Sword and Blood Lance as potentially useful as well. The other powers seem situational at best. Might is awful except on a Dred, it only averages an extra 1.5 attacks which is 1 extra wound on average at best, whereas Unleash Rage is going to contribute nearly that typically even if he's alone, which he shouldn't be.

Given what you've posted about your list, Shield might help you survive the turn after you drop. I would definetly not put the Libby with Sternguard or Vanguard Vets, since the SG aren't going to be assaulting and the Vanguard need to be alone to use Heroic Intervention. Stick him with an Assault Squad.

As an aside, mixing jump infantry with drop pods seems like a good way to get defeated in detail. Since half your pods come in on turn 1, it's almost guaranteed they will be unsupported, whether you DS the jump stuff or not.

By the way, if you really want a CC beast librarian, Mephiston is your man.

Librarian dread...people gonna hate me for this but...i dont take the wings...i just stick in in a storm raven to get it where i need it to be then i just use all the offencive attacks usualy as a distraction tell turn 2 for deep strike of tell my assault rines get there