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So I am about to start a tourney where I took a librarian as my HQ choice, there are a few GK and demon armies. So what do you do when you know you have minimal chance of getting something off? What discipline is best with a level 1 psyker? Or do I just hope he can do some damage with his force weapon?

The best thing to do is not rely on any offensive powers. Focus solely on buffing your own troops. That way, they need 6s to deny. Instead of the likely 4+ or even 3+.

And don't base your strategy on getting that one power off, unless you are willing to commit more points to Librarians to make it more likely.

Divination is always a good choice. The Primarus power is probably the best out of any discipline.

Throw all your dice at whatever is most important to get off usually. Same with trying to deny. Pick one thing that is going to ruin your day that they roll low on and throw all your dice at it.

Div is win if you've got it, so is telepathy since both have strong primaris', though shriek can be difficult to get through on GK, eldar or some daemons. Bio is another solid choice since 5/6 powers are good and 3/6 are buffs, though the primaris isn't so hot but still OK'ish.

Keep in mind that SM Librarians can not take divination apart from Tigurius (and Mantis warriors if you play forgeworld chapters).

If i take a Libby for HQ i take him just because i have to take an HQ and he is the most economic option. I spend the pts in other units that will win me the game.
Take telepathy and do the victory dance if he manages to get a Psychic Shriek off and do some damage.

Ya it was a 1000 point tourney so I have keep minimal

If you want access to Divination take a bare-bones Inquisitor in Power Armour, Lv 2 mastery and a decent shooting weapon will cost you around 90 points.

Assuming you are allowed allies, can be 90 points well spent.

No allies allowed. I also like my librarians paint job so I take him.

I second what's been said, and use him as a buff bot.

Actually his psychic hood makes him quite good for denying psychic powers. He'll be denying on 5's if they target your units, 4 if you're higher mastery!

Focusing on buffing your own guys is good advice. Honestly it is very very hard to shut a psyker completely out as you need 3 times the dice, so (1d6+1)x3. If you roll 4 (4+1=5) that means the opponent needs to have had 11 ML (11+4=15) in their army to even have a 50% to block you dice for dice.

Another good strategy is to "sneak" powers through. Keep enough dice to possible get something big through and manifest another power before hand. Your opponent is likely to let a psychic scream through if you also have invisibility they might have to block, just careful you don't try to scream at a real psyker or it becomes trivial to deny your power and have enough dice left.

Taking a cheap librarian is hardly a bad choice for Space Marines. You get a minimum of two powers, plus force. As others have pointed out, Telepathy is best for lvl 1 psykers, though Biomancy is number 2. Best to ignore Telekinesis/Pyromancy, as their powers aren't really that impressive compared to the other tables.

With only lvl 1, you'll be totally subject to the vagaries of the d6 for warp charcge dice. You might get 2, you might get 7.

The important thing is to put all of your power dice into casting the most important power you can each phase. You need around double the dice per level of the spell to get it reliably. Add an extra if you really need the power to go off.

On the other end, with denying the witch, it's important to throw all the dice you can get at your opponent's most dangerous power. This goes double if they have something very nasty like invisibility or summoning, or have lots and lots of warp charge points (Eldar, Tyranids, Deamons). Put all your efforts into denying their most important power. If anything, it will make your opponent think twice about their casting order.

Hope your tournament goes well!

spartiatis wrote:
Keep in mind that SM Librarians can not take divination apart from Tigurius (and Mantis warriors if you play forgeworld chapters).

And Dark Angels Libbies. And Space Wolf Librarians Rune Priests Sorcerors. And BA Libbies.

Izural wrote:
If you want access to Divination take a bare-bones Inquisitor in Power Armour, Lv 2 mastery and a decent shooting weapon will cost you around 90 points.

Assuming you are allowed allies, can be 90 points well spent.

Inquisitors can't be ML2 unless their name is Coteaz.