Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Is psyker spam with guard a reasonable strategy and how would one go about this.

Angry Apothecary wrote:
Is psyker spam with guard a reasonable strategy and how would one go about this.

I would say that you can have multiple psykers, I would say it's tough to "spam" because you only have a few good powers. I'd say at most, you'd want to have 4 psyker units, basically Astropaths are always the best just cus they're half the price of a Primaris Psyker and all you get from the Primaris is the ability to Smite.

Take one power on each one, skipping the two ones that interact with Leadership.

Thanks very much I'm so new I thought I would have to run a ton of wyrdvane squads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm mainly just fighting Tyranids and eldar a lot at my gaming table and want to really confuse them in a few weeks when we play together again.

Angry Apothecary wrote:
Thanks very much I'm so new I thought I would have to run a ton of wyrdvane squads.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm mainly just fighting Tyranids and eldar a lot at my gaming table and want to really confuse them in a few weeks when we play together again.

Yeah, I'd buy one single box of Wyrdvane psykers and run each individual one as an Astropath.

Having Wydvane and Primaris psykers together does have the advantage of being able to use the stratagem in the PA book; which may be a nasty surprise the first time you try it for someone.

The main issue is the Wyrdvane guys are weak as a wet paper bag, and have no character protection, so they'll get shot off the board the moment they come in to view of anything with a gun. Plus in order to get the best bonus on their psychic tests, you need 6 models in the unit, making them vulnerable to the new blast rules to a small extent.

The Primaris guys are also HQ units, so you'll be somewhat limited in how many you can field (especially if you want orders for infantry).

Oh, I think I might still take 4 astropaths just to smite big Tyranids and deny everything the eldar do.

Beyond the rule of three issue, an Astropath only rolls a single d6 for smites. Their primary utility is being cheap delivery platform for non-Smite Guard spells.

That being said, putting that many in your list is going to give you significant vulnerabilities to specific secondary objectives.

I played a recent game using a Primaris Psyker, Aradian Madellan, two Astropaths, and a 6-man Wyrdvane squad.

The Greater Good strat really made Madellan and the Wyrdvanes pretty useful, and they pumped out some good support powers and some mortal wounds if anything got too close. The other psykers were really just a back up Smite or another power if they main pack was out of range or targets.

This has been really helpful thank you servants of the Emperor and xeno scum alike!

I run proper gaurd psyker spam a lot .. you can actually do pretty powerful stuff with it.
wyrdvanes with one psyker primaris together can cast 2 smites and 2 spells with the stratagem, which is pretty powerful and efficient -- especially since malstrom is now cast at +2 so it goes off on an effective WC of 5 (the second activation of the psyker primaris who is in the stratagem).
Then you can have as many extra psyker primaris as you can want -- 2 more, and aradia madellan, and your smites are
d6+2 (strat, wyrdvanes) vs 5 (2/3 likely to hit, but easily denied.)
2d6 (aradia madellan, just as a smiting psyker) vs 6 (75 percent hit rate, I think)
2d6 (another regular psyker) vs 7 (50 percent hit rate?0
2d6 (another regular psyker) vs 8 (k, this one is marginal, and you can avoid the risk of failing this roll by taking one fewer smiter units, ie, 3 psyker primaris instead of 4. however, its still not the worst smite guard EVER spammed, about 41.66 percent hit)
Then. Your aradia madellan (the only way to take 4 primaris psykers in matched play) has allowed you to cast the 9 wc psyker primaris as a 7 wc cause its +2 on the dice from the strat. So back down to 50 percent)
Aha, you ask, what else can one do?

Use your psykers to snipe enemy characters with malstrom (its effectively a smite that ignores things like LOS or closer units) and then add in an inquisitor psyker (I run a malleus with a 1 cp investment to give him a second cast and activation, but its perfectly reasonable to run other inquisitors. Your 1 per army limit of this unit works well for me with a meltagun, chainsword, and +1 psyker activation and spell, because he can then cast castigate (its like malstrom) and psychic pursuit, so his meltagun can be targetted while ignoreing charccter protection -- on the same guy who just ate the malstrom and castigate.

Now the finale. Wyrdvanes can cast a support spell of their own (-1 to be hit, or +1 to save) at +2.

This little psyker bomb is wickedly effective -- pair it with a lord commmisar carrying the sniping pistol relic of the "emperor's benediction" and you get those smites, in a rolling strike, followed by malstrom, castigate, a melta sniper, and 3 s4/-1/2 sniping shots from the inquisitor.
3 wyrdvanes + 1 inquisitor + 1 lord commisar + 4 psyker primaris = 9 bodies, which will as a group fit in a valkyrie, allowing you to hover the craft forward 20 inches and dump them all out together. This gives your psyker pack an effective 20 inch + 3 inch + 18 inch range on spells, or 41, which makes it VERY easy to tag the back board if you start it anywhere but your own back board.

The 4 mortal wounds (average) and melta and lord commisar as a group can also really threaten even things like custodes captains on bikes or thunderjerkoff marines with a pile of incoming shots and damage, and the astropath in the pile can be used to strip the cover from the enemy officer so that the shooting lord commisar's -1 ap is suddenly a real threat even to things like marines.

The whole group (offense wing) costs
120 (cheapest valkyrie delivery van. I prefer the loaded variant at 165)
psykers from gaurd and inquisitor 309 total (unless aradia goes up 5 points, then its 314.

But consider this monstrosity is flyer protected -- and then its beside a flyer so harder to target, and you can spam smite like nobody EVER expected gaurd to be able to -- potentially landing 5 smites in a row before you even begin the directed anti-character effects.

3 spots open in the plane, could fit a SECOND squad of 3 wyrdvane psykers, allowing you to leave that inside the transport the first turn, use the other one for the strategem, and then lay down the boom again if your psyker group survivd the round. Since my army has had a lot of scions in it, usually the psykers are not "way forward" of the main body, and since valkyries let you hop out before the psychic phase but AFTER moving 20 inches, I usually can position my psykers where someone has either failed to screen against smites or where they at least can reach a target I want to kill.

Even is someone thinks they are well screened against all approaches with various infantry idivisions, remember that you are going to roll up, drop something like 10 mortal wounds on the screen (which stings anyone!) and then 4 more, and THEN start shootin'


That, well, is how I smitespam with gaurd, and its incredibly effective against elite opponents -- but its also an incredibly useful countercharge cohort all its own, and its even able to do things like kill enemy heavy armor or take half the wounds off an enemy questoris knight (and potentially drop it, if the meltagun gets lucky).

Without the inquisitor, it loses a lot of firepower (that melta is I think the strongest sniper weapon in the game, for all it is short in range) .. but you can do a lot of damage even so, and if your opponent is someone like the grey knights, you can also break this cohort up and smear it over the whole field to capitalize on having something like 8 denial rolls against enemy smiting.