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.

So with the new rulebook out today (Not got yet), I have been contemplating a return from a year break of the 40k hobby.

I am considering the new Imperial guard (Astra Militarum),

For those of you who have the book, is it looking good for the AM, competitive still?, any big nerfs or big buffs?

Any units you now see great or worse?

Cheers All

Wyrdvane squads are ok now. 5 wound psyker with plus 1 on the nullify roll. I think overall out Psychic ability got better.

you think?

ML1 Primaris Psykers handing out Prescience for 50 points a pop are a thing of the past now, only having lasted for 4 weeks.

PBS dont even have access to it anymore due to being ML1.

So what are you going to use the PBS/Wyrdvane psykers for?

Okay, Biomancy gives them solid +3 buffs instead of D3, but are you really going to run them as a cc unit?

Unless of course, I am misunderstanding the rules and PBS can cast Prescience despite being ML1 and they only need to start rolling dice from the pool till they get two 4+

There is no restriction on the amount of dice you roll. Psyker level effects nullify and amount of dice generated.

Yeah those dirt-cheap re-rolls didn't last long. We can still use psychic powers pretty well, just not as spammably and easily as we used to.

Thinking about other changes, the changes to craters after an exploded vehicle will mean a lot to you if your battles are anything like mine, i.e. utter carnage. No longer will a melee unit be able to destroy a tank and then shelter in guaranteed 4+ cover.

Ok so from first replies, it would seem a mixture of unsure on whether we can still take lvl 1 prescience spam, and I would assume for us to still be top tier?

KommissarKarl wrote:
Yeah those dirt-cheap re-rolls didn't last long. We can still use psychic powers pretty well, just not as spammably and easily as we used to.

Thinking about other changes, the changes to craters after an exploded vehicle will mean a lot to you if your battles are anything like mine, i.e. utter carnage. No longer will a melee unit be able to destroy a tank and then shelter in guaranteed 4+ cover.

werent craters 5+ cover previous edition?

your mastery level defines how many power dice you can roll.

your 50pt level 1 with prescience can still cast it. je just needs a 4+ on 1 dice, you can roll as many as you like, you can also give him a second ML for that 25pts extra,

now its not as amazing as before... but it goes like this as well, as a ML 1 he gets a roll on divination table, AND gets prescience so 2 powers. any model can cast and power, because its no longer the ML that defines them individually just the number of successful power dice you will need to get the spell off..

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
your mastery level defines how many power dice you can roll.

your 50pt level 1 with prescience can still cast it. je just needs a 4+ on 1 dice

you mean 4+ on both dice since prescience is now WC 2, right?

 Sir Arun wrote:

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
your mastery level defines how many power dice you can roll.

your 50pt level 1 with prescience can still cast it. je just needs a 4+ on 1 dice

you mean 4+ on both dice since prescience is now WC 2, right?

ah yes my bad, you need 4+ on 2 dice, BUT a ML1 psyker can still roll off to cast it, he just needs to borrow power dice from elsewhere rather than just his own.

 Sir Arun wrote:
you think?

ML1 Primaris Psykers handing out Prescience for 50 points a pop are a thing of the past now, only having lasted for 4 weeks.

PBS dont even have access to it anymore due to being ML1.

So what are you going to use the PBS/Wyrdvane psykers for?

Okay, Biomancy gives them solid +3 buffs instead of D3, but are you really going to run them as a cc unit?

Unless of course, I am misunderstanding the rules and PBS can cast Prescience despite being ML1 and they only need to start rolling dice from the pool till they get two 4+

You don't know the rules here. You should be quiet. What arun has said is false. Anyone can, dice pool permitting and power known, cast prescience.

 Scipio Africanus wrote:

 Sir Arun wrote:
you think?

ML1 Primaris Psykers handing out Prescience for 50 points a pop are a thing of the past now, only having lasted for 4 weeks.

PBS dont even have access to it anymore due to being ML1.

So what are you going to use the PBS/Wyrdvane psykers for?

Okay, Biomancy gives them solid +3 buffs instead of D3, but are you really going to run them as a cc unit?

Unless of course, I am misunderstanding the rules and PBS can cast Prescience despite being ML1 and they only need to start rolling dice from the pool till they get two 4+

You don't know the rules here. You should be quiet. What arun has said is false. Anyone can, dice pool permitting and power known, cast prescience.

you mean ofcourse that any model that rolled the power up/took it bla bla right?

 ausYenLoWang wrote:

 Scipio Africanus wrote:

 Sir Arun wrote:
you think?

ML1 Primaris Psykers handing out Prescience for 50 points a pop are a thing of the past now, only having lasted for 4 weeks.

PBS dont even have access to it anymore due to being ML1.

So what are you going to use the PBS/Wyrdvane psykers for?

Okay, Biomancy gives them solid +3 buffs instead of D3, but are you really going to run them as a cc unit?

Unless of course, I am misunderstanding the rules and PBS can cast Prescience despite being ML1 and they only need to start rolling dice from the pool till they get two 4+

You don't know the rules here. You should be quiet. What arun has said is false. Anyone can, dice pool permitting and power known, cast prescience.

you mean ofcourse that any model that rolled the power up/took it bla bla right?

So long as one puts all powers into div, one has access to prescience. Who isn't vying for a 4++ because they pretty much automatically get prescience if they go for 4++ in AM?

because if you stuff him into a big unit you can give invisibility and thats better if your getting shot at.

and sure but its not just every psyker thats going to go for prescience now.. its too pricey unless your paying for the +1 ML and even then against lots of armies, your powers wont work here

so i forsee less people going into Div/Bio and more telepathy. not that i dont want div as a CSM, but you need to roll 3 or 4 dice to make sure you get it off (kinda) 2 dice is risky.

So would you say imperial guard will be highly competitve still and can the psykers stiol be used or have ig took a massive nerf?

The new rulebook also states that when a *model* has to take a leadership test, it uses its own leadership, not the highest in the unit. So Priests/Master of the Fleet are basically useless now.

KommissarKarl wrote:
The new rulebook also states that when a *model* has to take a leadership test, it uses its own leadership, not the highest in the unit. So Priests/Master of the Fleet are basically useless now.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! Thats totally lame. Well, its a good thing i have a ton of commissars, they have better flavor anyways.

KommissarKarl wrote:
The new rulebook also states that when a *model* has to take a leadership test, it uses its own leadership, not the highest in the unit. So Priests/Master of the Fleet are basically useless now.

Master of the Fleet can be replaced by a Comms Fortification, or you can still wing it and hope for the best, I guess. For 20 pts its better odds of getting your guys in than before.

Priests are far from useless still now. 25 points for fearless is still absurdly good, as is hatred on your blobs, as well as an additional absurd buff on the odd occasion. If you really want the extra buffs, just put 1-2 more Priests in there. They'd still be worth it at at 50 points for 1 Priest, so 2 for 50 is a bargain.

Wut? Werent Masters of the Fleet using their own leadership before?

 ausYenLoWang wrote:
because if you stuff him into a big unit you can give invisibility and thats better if your getting shot at.

No Invisibility for the poor guardsmen since only the Astropath knows the Telepathy discipline .

On the other hand, you can get bonus Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots (from multiple Combined Arms detachments) and that's pretty darn huge for the AM.

 Mr.Omega wrote:

KommissarKarl wrote:
The new rulebook also states that when a *model* has to take a leadership test, it uses its own leadership, not the highest in the unit. So Priests/Master of the Fleet are basically useless now.

Master of the Fleet can be replaced by a Comms Fortification, or you can still wing it and hope for the best, I guess. For 20 pts its better odds of getting your guys in than before.

Priests are far from useless still now. 25 points for fearless is still absurdly good, as is hatred on your blobs, as well as an additional absurd buff on the odd occasion. If you really want the extra buffs, just put 1-2 more Priests in there. They'd still be worth it at at 50 points for 1 Priest, so 2 for 50 is a bargain.

Actually yeah the fearless benefit is still worth it I guess. But the combat buffs are meaningless, but then I didn't put a very high value on them in 6th either. In the few games I played with the 6th edition codex, my guard failed to do much in melee anyway.

Ok, hang on, hold the phone, chill out. Let's clarify the whole psyker thing, because 7th is a huge buff to IG psykers.

The psychic phase is immediately following movement and before shooting. You get warp charges every turn (d6 + # of mastery levels in the army), which are shared through your entire army.

When rolling at the start of the game, if your psyker chooses all of his spells from one discipline, he also gains the primaris power. So wyrdvanes and astropaths will always know two powers. A primaris psyker at ML 1 will know two powers, at ML 2 he can know two of separate disciplines or three of one discipline.

There is no limit to how many warp charges that a single psyker can use. The only limit, is that each psyker can only attempt to cast each power once per turn. When you try to cast a power, you use as many charges as you want from your pool.

E.g. Wyrdvane squad with foreboding (warp charge 1) and prescience (warp charge 2). They are ML 1. Say you have a ML 2 Primaris in the army as well. You get d6 + 1 ML + 2 ML charges. Let's say you roll 4, for 7 total charges. You want to cast prescience, but want to make sure you get it, so you use 3 charges on your wyrdvanes. Roll three dice, every 4+ is a good charge, so you fail one and make two (any double 6's and it's potw). Since prescience is 2 warp charges and you made two successful rolls, you cast it successfully. You now have 4 charges remaining in the army, and can cast foreboding or the primaris psyker's powers.

You are no longer rolling against the weak ld of a wyrdvane or an astropath. Just because prescience takes 2 warp charges, doesn't mean that IG got nerfed. Most of the psychic powers got buffed, particularly the witchfires gaining about 50% range. And most of the blessing buffs got fixed at +3 instead of d3. These are all huge buffs to IG, which can field lots of cheap psykers. Psyker spam is much more powerful now.

-

Invisibility is a blessing with 24" range, the astropath can cast it on any friendly unit in range. Of course you can cast it on guard blobs. Does take 2 warp charges though.

-

Also, vehicles, got buffed, the penetrating chart now reads 1-3 Shaken, 4 Stunned, 5 Weapon Destroyed, 6 Immobilized, 7 Explodes.

-

Also, everything scores now. Our elites and fast attack units are now much more viable. In addition, the maelstrom of war missions use 6 separate objectives. Which army do you think is most able to contest and capture 6 objectives spread over the map? IG. With tactical objectives, your enemy can zoom around the table with a death star if he wants, but our guardsmen cannot be contested (cept by other troops) and our numbers allow us to more easily seize large numbers of objectives, rather than take and hold one objective.