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So I'm about 1,500 points into my DoA army, but I don't know which powers to take for my Libby. Shield of Sanguinus, Unleash Rage and Blood Lance are all solid choices, but picking 2 has been problematic. My list is going to have a good bit of melta in it, along with a squad of missile launcher devastators, so Lance may be overkill, but I'm still not sure.

Thoughts?

One of the advantages of Shield is that it's cast on your opponent's turn, so with a non-Epistolary librarian you're still getting to use both of your powers.

I agree that Rage and Lance are both good; Fear can also be excellent if you're not up against Fearless all the time.

I would probably take Shield and Unleash Rage. Shield for the first enemy shooting phase the Librarian and his unit get there, then in your turn when you assault, Unleash Rage. But that's just me.

I'dd say don't bother with the shield for DoA list. You can get better cover usually otherways. Shield works best with vehicles.

Lance is good. It makes Your opponent spread out his tanks/deathstars. Fear as mentoined wrecks some opponents (hello longfangs). I have beenplaying rage and sword also. Not so sure about sword if you have many fists and meltas as you should with DoA.

Fear and Unleash Rage, job done.

Definitely not going to be short on fists or melta, but cover isn't as easily available as one thinks in DoA due to dangerous terrain tests. Fear seems like an interesting choice, but ive never tried it. How has it been for everyone here?

Halfpast_Yellow wrote:Fear and Unleash Rage, job done.

Seconded, it's what I run in my DoA

I use Fear of Darkness and Blood Lance, I run a mixed DOA and Armor list and even in low point games Fear is awesome. Fear on a unit of XV-8's and watching them fallback 3D6" off the table is priceless!

Fear is excellent. However, it doesn't make for a good pairing in a squad that's trying to assault things. I would suggest unleash rage and shield if you are planning on keeping the Lib with the assault squad.
If you don't mind breaking him off, then you can take fear and shield and try and take out a squad with him as well as providing him with a cover save on your opponents turn.

i would take rage and shield however to grant some killing power and popping power i might take shield and Sanguine sword.

I always take Unleash Rage and Shield no matter the Blood Angels list I have. Getting a 5+ cover save is amazing since you are technically not paying many points for it. Unleash Rage is also awesome for any time you assault or you get assaulted. Re-rolling to hit is amazing in close combat.

+1 for Rage/Shield combo...

Can people not just post shield without defending its use in a DoA list? Marines have 3+ save and can easily find cover.

Lance is awesome to land and kill stuff, you know as you land can not assault.

I find that Shield is really good when I put my jump librarian with Sanguinary Guard. The biggest weakness of the Sanguinary Guard is that they're hard hitting, but with a 2+ armor save and no invulnerable save they're plasma magnets. Keeping that guard alive, when they're your main hammer squad, is important, and Shield of Sanguinius is a good way to achieve that. I know you're supposed to try to land with cover, but screwing that up is always a danger.

As for the second power, it depends on who the librarian is with. When he's hanging out with Sanguinary Guard, I like to give him Might of Heroes, because the guard's master-crafted power weapons let them re-roll some misses anyway. With assault terminators, I like to give him Unleash Rage, because that way his squad is re-rolling failed to-hits and failed to-misses.

Shield is huge for DoA armies because dropping into area terrain for cover saves means taking Dangerous Terrain tests. Dropping in the open to avoid those tests means either forgoing firing to Run to spread out, or firing and risking losing the entire squad to a single plasma cannon.

Shield lets you grab the cover saves that you'll need in a world infested with plasma cannons, plasma guns, and meltaguns.

Given that an assault squad can assault the following turn a target 18" away means that you can locate cover fairly easy - place the models behind cover.... This makes shield less critical. There are few tables that won't offer terrain every 18"

I'm in the fear/lance camp really.

Although shield can be very good, it's not always necessary, and I don't think you need rage most of the time, as you want to leave some opponents alive to finish them off in their turn.

Fear and lance are both very good, and useful against different armies and units, so complement each other quite well.

DaddyWarcrimes wrote:Shield is huge for DoA armies because dropping into area terrain for cover saves means taking Dangerous Terrain tests. Dropping in the open to avoid those tests means either forgoing firing to Run to spread out, or firing and risking losing the entire squad to a single plasma cannon.

Shield lets you grab the cover saves that you'll need in a world infested with plasma cannons, plasma guns, and meltaguns.

This.

I think I'm going with Rage/Shield. Rage, though overkill against things like IG and Tactical squads, give's us a chance against things like Nobz and Wolfstars. A bunch of str5 attacks (hitting on 4s) is great, but not enough against dedicated assault units. The rerolls from Unleash Rage give us the chance to do a huge amount of damage before we can be hit back.

Having shield means that we don't have to make dangerous terrain tests to get cover. A 5+ cover save, combined with spreading out our troops to guard against blasts, makes Assault Marines very resilient against all types of shooting.

If/When I start running a second librarian, I'll probably go with Fear/Lance or something like that, as both of those powers are awesome. This thread definitely made me respect Fear, especially!