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Thinking Libby conclave to get five Libby's, put one in each tactical (5 squads) then one extra Libby in a tactical squad for a total of 6 tacs in Razorbacks with Libby's shooting psychic shriek every turn to pop all the tactical squads in opposing Demi companies. Or even bike squads for that matter. Most gladius armies are taking tac minimums to spam the free transports so they are small easy to kill units... Of them get hit by shriek with leadership 8 and it's usually decent amounts of wounds per shriek.

Just random and kind of gimmicky but could prove effective and it wouldn't be like you didn't have a bunch of maelstrom grabbing tac units of your own to use if it sucks... Plus you could go for different powers against other armies
Thoughts?

So, first you have to get it off. 75% if you put in two WC into it, then you have to hit 66% chance, so you have a 50-50 shot of doing an average of 2.5 wounds, 0-2 of which will be denied by even armies with no psychic power?

Sure, sometimes you will remove an entire squad, but it seems like grav guns are cheaper and more effective.

Now, perhaps against some big expensive dudes, it will be worthwhile because those damage numbers are totally independent of everything but the unit's leadership.

Makes sense... Honestly I didn't put much into the math hammer side of things so that makes sense but it seems like it could be a great addition to grav or other threats. I know I wrecked dark Angels bikes the other day with it so it prompted the inevitable what if I spam it lol

I've never landed it, though I tried with the cheap inquisition psykers, who are only BS3 and not very often. Obviously higher BS or a guy that can reliably activate it is better.

The last time I brought a psyker, it was cheap 10 point inquisition guy attached to three guys with plasma guns. I thought I'd activate twin-link them so they didn't get hot. Instead I got perils and wiped the entire unit out. (Granted, rolling a 1, then failing Ld, then rolling high on the number of wounds is even less likely).

I feel Shriek is very random. You could hit and roll an 18 and wipe a unit out. Or you could get very midling results. If you had 5 psykers doing it, you'd probably erase a 5 man squad or two per turn, but you'd have no real control over which of them you're taking out. I know some armies have Ld debuffs they can apply. I feel like those guys would take some of the randomness out.

One problem, the librarius conclave states that ONE librarian knows the powers of the rest of the psyker, and the rest cannot cast that turn. Also, psykers/psyker units cannot manifest the same power more than once in the psychic phase. Sorry bud, your plan won't worn.

DirtyDeeds wrote:
One problem, the librarius conclave states that ONE librarian knows the powers of the rest of the psyker, and the rest cannot cast that turn. Also, psykers/psyker units cannot manifest the same power more than once in the psychic phase. Sorry bud, your plan won't worn.

Thats if the one librarian wants to cast something. from some one else within range at a 3+ or better

You can still run around with 5 libs casting whatever they know. but as soon as the one guy draws power the guys he takes them from will be shut down. IIRC

 Desubot wrote:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
One problem, the librarius conclave states that ONE librarian knows the powers of the rest of the psyker, and the rest cannot cast that turn. Also, psykers/psyker units cannot manifest the same power more than once in the psychic phase. Sorry bud, your plan won't worn.

Thats if the one librarian wants to cast something. from some one else within range at a 3+ or better

You can still run around with 5 libs casting whatever they know. but as soon as the one guy draws power the guys he takes them from will be shut down. IIRC

Correct.

You don't have to use the Librarius special rules. Each libby can cast normally if you opt not to cast with the special 3+.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

With regards to Psychic Shriek, it is a good Secondary power, but don't rely on it as a reliable form of offense.

However, for the price of the libby, you can almost go with a full 10-man tactical squad and then combat squad them. I think that may be a better way to go if you are running a Battle/Demi-company.

If you'd like to increase your odds of success with the shriek attack, you could use the new sternguard formation (the actual name I have forgotten) but as long as 3 units from this formation are within 12" of an enemy, that enemy suffers an additional LD penalty. If you take the stern in pods, the pods would could as units.

If you're interested in other LD debuff strategies I suggest you look up JimSolo's Freakshow articles. While being Eldar based, I'm sure it has some good advice.

If you play Tyranids this is a very valid idea. Flyrants casting a Shriek Nova attack hitting every unit in the bubble is friggin awesome against MSU, though I haven't played against Gladius specifically.

Other factions trying, sure, if they have alternative ways of killing too. A Farseer in a Scatbike unit casting the power this way and that while the Bikes kill something else, effective.

But, if I remember right, don't the Librarius Conclave have to be X inches away from other casters or the others lose the ability to cast the same power? Seems like one hell of a downside. You'd do better with a Knight Crusader firing it's AP3 Battle Cannon, Missiles and Gatling Gun at everything around. It's more points than four Level 2 Librarians, but it's my typical answer to MSU in my Marine armies.

Problem is...they can just hide in there METAL BAWKSES!


and unless you can magically vector strike em out, psychic shooting goes before normal shooting.

No fire points on a razorback, so your librarians would have to disembark.

Ragnulf wrote:
No fire points on a razorback, so your librarians would have to disembark.

Eh I though I read some where he wanted to do this because people where running msu glads.

If you haven't been playing an army capable of dealing with 5-man Marine squads for the past, oh 15 years, you have been playing the game in a way I'm wholly inexperienced with.

Killing marines has been the name of the game for as long as most of you can remember. Nothing's changed.

The things you used to kill Marines are the same things you still kill marines with.

 DarknessEternal wrote:
If you haven't been playing an army capable of dealing with 5-man Marine squads for the past, oh 15 years, you have been playing the game in a way I'm wholly inexperienced with.

Killing marines has been the name of the game for as long as most of you can remember. Nothing's changed.

The things you used to kill Marines are the same things you still kill marines with.

I think he's trying to do it faster. The gladius brings a lot more squads to the table.

Shriek isn't going to be all that effective. 3d6 averages at 10.5.

So on average, you're doing 1.5 wounds, assuming of course you pass the power, avoid being denied and then hit with it.

A plasma gun in rapid fire range is about as effective.

Yeah, when it works, you will erase a whole squad, but half the time it will do absolutely nothing. The primary benefit is the libby casting at a different unit than the unit shot at.

Leave shriek to Daemons, Nids, Harlies and Eldar. They do it better. (also certain C'tans)

Mavnas wrote:

I think he's trying to do it faster. The gladius brings a lot more squads to the table.

That's irrelevant. You were already trying to kill Marines as fast as possible.

I don't know how many negatives the Libby's can stack up on the enemy Ld, but Eldar/DEA/Harlies can stack up negs like there's no tomorrow, and absolutely crush SM with spammed Psychic Shriek.

Thanks for all the responses... The idea came up because it was so effective when I used it in a recent game... Two out of three times it wiped a five man squad of tactical... Granted I know that is above average rolls / results but still.

I play grav/ centstar currently and am planning on going after psychic shriek as much as possible now to add another threat when facing msu based marine armies. Like someone said above, having the ability to target a different squad then the one you shoot at is huge!! Even if every couple turns they lose a squad to this power it's totally worth it. And anytime they throw deny dice at this power instead of at my invisibility or gate of infinity then I'm already winning and the shriek was even more worth it.

Alternatively, you could not play a deathstar and have enough actual units to shoot at more than one unit per turn.

Well the deathstar can shoot at a minimum of two units per turn and if you consider psychic shriek it's actually three units per turn... That's also besides all the support threats in the army

I also started playtesting a double cent star army with the Libby conclave. That can target six units per turn potentially between the two stars.

I think you're definitely on the right track. Without shriek or other abilities, the cent stars just can't take down the MSU spam we see today.

I would advise trying to utilize some LD modifiers though if you're going to try and rely on shriek.

I agree

I don't really want to rely on it so much as make it another viable threat... Each turn I always have extra psychic dice so that's not an issue, or even the opponent stopping it with deny the witch since the main use would be against gladius and they generally don't have many dice to throw especially after invis and gate to try and stop.... Leadership 8 on the tactical squads is definitely a plus on 3d6

Any ideas on Leadership mods for SM or GK?

DayOne916247 wrote:
I agree

I don't really want to rely on it so much as make it another viable threat... Each turn I always have extra psychic dice so that's not an issue, or even the opponent stopping it with deny the witch since the main use would be against gladius and they generally don't have many dice to throw especially after invis and gate to try and stop.... Leadership 8 on the tactical squads is definitely a plus on 3d6

Any ideas on Leadership mods for SM or GK?

normal SM (not BA?) first company task force. get 3 units from it within 12 and it -2 ld. Also you can do Librarians formation and hope for terror (since you are already in telepathy) (IIRC i does - ld right?)

Terrify is probably the easiest to go for since it doesn't require different models in the army... Great idea thanks

Shriek is cool and all but I think the boring old bike death star is a better addition, popping librarians into a command squad. A Smashfether plus three librarians in a RWCS wit the lobby going between biomancy and telepathy is one of the most durable units around. 2+ rerollable jink on the little guys, tanking heavy stuff or ignores cover with the master (who regains wounds from IWND and biomancy spells) and then you can split up and multi charge 5 units if you want to. Pretty mean against MSU due to the speed

How effective shriek is is very dependent upon whether you roll to hit with it or not.
Some people do, some people don't, and GW in their wisdom have decided to never address the issue.

Personally my group does not roll to hit, so shriek is almost always a go to power.

With regards to hitting marines with it, remember that 3d6 will average a result of 10, meaning 2 wounds. This is pretty nasty vs bike armies, but less so vs tac marines.

Vs mechanized MSU I can't see your strategy working all that well. The squad of psykers costs a lot, and they will not be able to shriek most targets due to transports.

I like the concept though, and use something similar ith mechanized Inquisition.
2 melta acolytes and a psyker in a rhino is under appreciated cheese. In this case the whole package is cheaper, and has a method to deal with AV values.