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Blemishes on the Armour? - Sanguinary Guard Part 2

Ok in Part one I started the description of Baal's golden guard. Their rules, bit of lore, all good stuff. As promised though, here's part two.

Just to check, It cant be all good though right?

No they do have their weakness. first off, they are not cheap 30 points each, with their bolter variant and either of the power weapons can be steep. Couple this with the fact that when all other marines got a wound push, Sanguinary Guard are still 2 wounds. They also have no invulnerable save, which could cause problems if you cant stick them somewhere safe. In this case, butchering your opponent could be bad, getting left out of cover and engagement range leaves you open to return fire.

The other consideration is you'll want to pick targets carefully. Sure against standard marines and the ilk, as well as hordes, they can go to town. However invulnerable saves such as the Harlequins 4+ can stop a few crucial strikes before they blend you in return, and units with damage reduction such as Dreadnoughts or the ENTIRE Death Guard list will halve your damage potential.

Final verdict then? Would you take them?

If you're building for high combat, then yeah of course. I actually want more of these guys. Add in a Sanguinary Priest with jump pack, maybe make him your Warlord to give you the benefit of an Apothecary (why not make him chief) and the Blood Chalice to give them the benefits of the Assault Doctrine.. oof

I’ve got a single unit at the moment for my Lamenters, oddly enough the easiest thing to paint in that whole chapter as they (in the current lore at least) appear to be the only sons of Baal who sport silver armour and black wings on the Sanguinary Guard.

Ok so its a bit lengthy but as you can probably tell, I enjoyed this one a lot.

Ill be back soon, maybe with a return to the codex, maybe with a non compliance unit. Once the Drukhari codex drops, expect some fun with that as well.

[warpswimming]

Elite of Baal- Sanguinary Guard Part 1

Hi I felt that it was time to stretch to a non compliant chapter for a change, which brings me to the Blood Angels. Sanguinary Guard have been iconic since their release. Their sculpted often golden armour, wings and single thruster jump packs add something unique looking across the marine range so lets take an in depth look at them.

Who are they?

The Sanguinary Guard are the elite praetorians of the Chapter, dating back to the times of the Horus Heresy and before when they acted as the bodyguards to the Primarch Sanguinius himself. When the legion was split, and new founding raised, each successor had a formation of these warriors which continue to these days under the directions of Azkaellon (pictured above).

Sanguinary Guard are ancient warriors, I almost think of them as approaching Custodes in their age and role, sporting antique wargear who's forging is only known to those within the Chapter.

What gear do they have then?

Sanguinary Guard sport ancient power armour, as decorative as it is protective, which confers a 2+ save. Their winged, single thruster jump packs, unique to their order confer the FLY keyword. They sport wrist mounted ranged weaponry, with a Plasma pistol, Infernus pistol which contains the power of a meltagun at short range, or the assault Angelus Boltgun variant which kicks out 2 shots with AP-1. Their Glaive and Axe Encarmine are said to be impervious to damage, never scratched or broken, their secrets known only to the chapters artisans, pumping an additional point of damage through when they wound. Perhaps one of the most iconic parts of their wargear however is the Death Mask. The lore behind these is fascinating. The machine spirit forms a loyal bond with the wearer, which manifests on the wearers death. The mask is placed in the Sarcophagus of Sorrows for seven days and nights while it mourns and takes on the visage of its former wearer. In battle the masks terrify the enemy forcing your opponent to subtract 1 from hit rolls when an melee attack roll is made against them.

Their rules?

On top of the rules from their wargear, they carry the standard Angels of Death and Death from Above rules. They also run the Heir of Azkaellon (the leader of the Sanguinary Guard at the time of the separation of the legions) allowing them to add one to attack rolls if they are within 6 inch of a Blood Angels Warlord. They are rightly so the escort to your swift Warlord. Whilst there are a number of stratagems that can affect them, the Unbridled Ardour stratagem is Sanguinary Guard specific, 1CP to enable you to heroically intervene 6 inch after your opponent has passed his Heroic Intervention stage of his Charge Phase. Combined with the FLY keyword and the exact timing, you can throw them in and boy will they hurt.

That’s a lot.. anything else?

Ok, on top of all that, these chaps are Blood Angels, and as such benefit from +1 advance and charge rolls and adding one to wound roles when they charge, were charged or intervened. With the changes to power weapons also rolling onto the Encarmine weapons, swords alone will have you striking at strength 5, with a plus one to wound. To break that down, you'll wound standard marines on 2s, tougher models like Plague Marines on 3s, and even Imperial or Chaos Knights on 4s. Couple that with an extra attack in Assault Doctrine for a grand total of 5 each and its choppy time. Surely its not all roses, check out part 2 for more.

[warpswimming]

Duck and Cover - Suppressors of the Vanguard

Hello again. After a lengthy and disruptive Christmas and New Year period, its time to pickup where I left off. Lets finish off the roundup of the Vanguard with the Suppressors. First released as a Easy to Build kit in Shadowspear, Suppressors are still only available in the single pose kit, and only from the Vanguard Start Collecting box, which for those who may be looking at the Vanguard for their Space Marine armies, is a good way to go.

Suppressors are, or rather were, the firebase option of the Vanguard in the brief window before the Invictor, though they do still retain some utility. Suppressors are unique in the Vanguard because of their type of Mk X armour, which boasts a mix of Phobos and Gravis.

So what do they have?

Suppressors make use of the standard Primaris statline, albeit with a 12 inch movement and fly meaning they can get about much easier. They retain Angels of Death rule but they also have the Death from Above rule thanks to their Grav Chutes meaning they can be held in reserve and dropped where you need them later. The Accelerator Autocannons they all have, changed going into 9th. Whereas they used to be 2 shots and 3 damage, they are now 3 shots and 2 damage. When they use Str 7 and ap-1 think of them of a standard Autocannon with an extra shot, doesn’t sound brilliant I'll admit, especially when you consider that you only get units of 3 for 5 power. However its the ability..... Suppressing Fire.. If you play an assault army, you might want to slot a unit in just for this ability. Each time you hit with your Autocannons against an INFANTRY unit, that unit cannot fire Overwatch this turn.. pretty nice in the right situations and devastating against an army that relies on Overwatch such as Tau. Top this off with the SMOKESCREEN keyword to add a little protection thanks to the stratagem.

So what use are they?

Suppressors struggled to find a purpose since release, with a lot of people hoping that they would get a different weapon option, or maybe even an extra wound to represent the mix of Gravis. Their firepower is good, but it mashes poorly with their move trickery. A 12 inch move and Deep Strike ability might seem good on paper, but when you've got heavy (ish) weapons with a 48 inch range, is it needed? The subtle change from 8th to 9th though has given them utility they desperately needed. Whereas previously you had fewer shots, and had to kill an enemy model to prevent Overwatch, you now have more and only need HIT. Three marines, split firing at 3 different INFANTRY targets, screens you from a lot of potential Overwatch.

Defensible Terrain gives your opponent the option of Overwatch on 5s, or +1 to hit in combat. If you've got an INFANTRY gunline in ruins, such as Tau, with their supporting fire and higher than average strength weapons, denying Overwatch when you're fielding a combat focused army could be key. Outside of helping prevent Overwatch, their autocannons are not bad. I feel they are best used in a vantage point giving covering fire rather than zipping about, especially as they would take a -1 to hit penalty doing so. Stick them in cover for the save bonus, use SMOKESCREEN if you want the extra protection and just cover the table in fire.

So what Chapters make use of them?

Like I said, Suppressors are great to support a combat focused force. With that in mind, whilst they may not benefit themselves from the Chapter Tactics, Blood Angels, White Scars, Black Templars and the like, do well having a unit to prevent Overwatch.

 Even static armies can make use of them thanks to these being heavier weapons in the Fast Attack slot.

Ignoring cover save bonuses, getting +1 to hit if stationary, and the Crimson Fist outnumbered bonuses are all useful.

So would you take them?

Unfortunately no, they still seem to lack a certain something to make them a contender with other options in a large codex. Maybe in a full combat build, but that’s not my preferred playstyle.

Back soon with more

[warpswimming]

Mechanised Stealth - Invictor Tactical Warsuits

Today we're looking at the Invictor Tactical Warsuit

Part of the Vanguard and piloted by a brother in Phobos armour it acts as a mobile and advanced weapons platform

Providing heavier weaponry it infiltrates alongside other Vanguard elements

So what does it have

Special rules wise, the Invictor has the Angels of Death and Concealed Deployment rules.

With these rules it doesn’t really need any special keywords and its loadout and feel compliments its role perfectly.

Weapons wise, you walk into battle with a fragstorm grenade launcher, heavy bolter, Twin Ironhail stubber, and a Invictor fist. The standard compliment is then supplemented by either your Incendium cannon or Twin Ironhail autocannon.

Depending on your often personal preferance, the ironhail is a leadspitting platform of death or the incendium is a mostly reliable inferno spitting cooker.

The Incendium Cannon is a 12 inch str 5 2d6 auto hit which when you normally move 10 inch is pretty nice. An immediate threat when you can be 9 inch away on turn one.

If you prefer longer range, the Autocannons give you 6 shots at str 7 -1 and 2dmg allowing you to cover a large area with lead.

Add on top of this that you have eight shots at str 4 ap-1 from your stubbers, a str 4 d6 blast from the grenade launcher, and your heavy bolter with 3 shots at str 5 -1 2dmg that’s a lot of firepower from VERY close range.

If you can close the distance, and lets be honest you've got no excuse, you punch at strength 14 ap-3 and 3 damage with 5 attacks on the charge.

So what use are they?

Invictors can advance in support of advanced elements and are a serious immediate threat thanks to their Concealed Positions.

The Incendium cannon is almost immediately in range with its 12 inch and Concealed Deployment, and automatically hits, including when shooting in engagement range.

That’s my favoured loadout, though with the Ironhail Autocannons you have a bit more ranged punch.

The tradeoff however is where do you want this guy. Close range you’ll benefit from charging with your Invictor fist and its combat potential. 

The autocannons allow you to give covering fire but in my opinion its a threat that needs to be applied to force your opponent to make decisions rather than giving them the ability to make their own with impunity.

Lets not forget, you can contest or capture objectives with it, and the Concealed Deployment and 10 inch move gives you a really long aggressive reach.

So what Chapters works best?

Again there’s no wrong answer here. If you're looking at using it as a firebase then your Imperial Fists and Dark Angels benefit with ignoring cover or getting bonuses to hit, but I think close range combat armies will make the most of it.

When you start the game in charge range of either units or the enemy’s deployment zone with something sitting at 13 wounds and toughness 6 its a pressure play, exploiting a vulnerable point or forcing your opponent to target it.

White Scars will be able to advance and charge just in case they enemy is hidden away right at the back or their objective is tucked away, but I think its Blood Angels and Space Wolves that benefit the most. Either getting bonuses to hit or wound. Str 14 with +1 to wound, means you'll almost always be wounding on 2s, whilst a +1 to hit means you’ll likely be hitting on 2s with that punch and still wounding most things on 2s to boot.

Do you take them?

I've got two, one for my Fists/Lamenters and one for my Dark Angels. Both get regular use either supporting my Ravenwing, or throwing the threat analysis off with my Fists. Its a vehicular beat stick, making it resistant to poisoning effects and even when playing against an aggressive opponent who charges you first, your overwatch with the Incendium will automatically hit.

From a modelling point, those who don’t want to commit will find it easy enough to swap or magnetise the single choice variation which is always a plus when as a game FAQs can change things in sometimes drastic ways

[warpswimming]

Taking the Shot - Eliminators

Hi all. Today we're looking at the sniper team of the Vanguard, the Eliminators.

Eliminators are tasked as the fire support and scalpels of the Vanguard. Set up in firing positions and equipped with varied ammunition for every job.

So what do they have?

Eliminators are 3 man teams which cannot be expanded. Like most of the Vanguard they have the Angels of Death and Chapter Tactics rules as well as Concealed Positions. They're equipped with Camo Cloaks for an extra +1 to their saves if they are benefitting from cover and can take either Las Fusils or Bolt Sniper Rifles as core gear. The Sergeant can take any of the two main guns regardless of the rest of his units loadout, or the Instigator Bolt Carbine. 

Lets break that down. 

First off, the Las fusil is a heavy 1 str8 -3 3 damage rifle with a decent range. Pretty handy if you're going full Vanguard and lack some high strength ranged punch.

The Bolt Sniper Rifle is possibly the most usual loadout as it has 3 different firing profiles. All the profiles are str 5 with great range, all ignore the Look Out Sir rule and all are subtly different. Executioner rounds are your stock round, single shot, adding one to hit rolls and ignoring the targets benefit of cover Hyperfang trade the bonus to hit rolls and cover bonus, as well as AP for being D3 Blast. Mortis rounds increase the AP, add a point of damage for D2 and do mortals on 6s

The Instigator Bolt Carbine is a single shot assault bolter with a point of AP and D2 which also ignores Look Out Sir but then confers the Covering Fire rule. Covering fire allows you can make a normal move after shooting so long as the unit has the Instigator and it is not in engagement range. Really useful.

The final cherry on top of all this.... Eliminators are BS2 already.

So what use are they?

Where do I start? They are a very useful little unit with a lot of applications.

The Bolt Sniper Rifle alone can deal with a lot of threats. If you're playing against a Character heavy list, you can really knock out lynchpins, hordes, throw 3d3 strength 5 shots at them with blast, and using the Devastator Doctrine turn one for extra AP. Characters relying on cover, or enemy Eliminators, go for that ignoring cover (cant camo cloak if you strip the benefits of cover from them) and for tougher Characters switch out to the multi damage, mortal wounding shot.

The Las Fusil adds some high strength punch to an army that could be lacking it, flat 3 damage should never be sniffed at, and remember you're BS 2

Unit of 3 makes for a decent enough escort for a Character such as a Phobos Librarian or Captain, especially when you consider they have the CORE keyword.

The Instigator option gives you the ability to drop out from behind Obscuring Terrain, shoot, and run back, or even move, shot and then move for an Objective whilst still being a decent enough sniper option in itself, and actually opens itself up for the bolter ammo in your chapters special issue wargear, hitting characters with a single shot and then moving your snipers.

What Chapters make the most use from them?

Looking at your stock codex Chapters, there’s no wrong answer. Imperial Fist and Crimson Fist players can lean on the bolter rules for extra shots, Dark Angels if stationary can be looking at a 1+ to hit, which is great if fighting in Dense Cover or with natural negative modifiers to hit. Blood Angels even get some play if you take Quake bolts from their Special Issue Wargear to pin a unit before you charge them. Largely it boils down to your special issue bolt ammo, and how much fire support you have.

So do you take them?

Eliminators almost always find a way into my lists, despite currently only owning one unit of Bolt Rifles. 

Characters in 9th have lost a little punch thanks to the CORE keyword stipulations on their AURA abilities, but psykers, Chaplains, or the ubiquitous Chief Apothecary need taking care of, and this is your tool. Would I take the Fusil, maybe if I had enough units, but the purchase cost of 3 Eliminators is a little rich for me. The iIsitgator Bolt Carbine is a great option that which is ripe for the ammo upgrade. That people, is the end of the PHOBOS keyworded units.

In the next post I’ll look at the Invictor Warsuit, the piloted mech of the Vanguard, before rounding out this series on the Suppressors Don’t go hiding behind those red barrels now.

[warpswimming]

Honestly not Night Lords - Reivers in the Vanguard

Today I'll be looking at Reivers in the Space Marine codex.

Reivers are the Terror Troops of the Adeptus Astartes, their skull faced helms with the SMOKESCREEN and SHOCK GRENADES keywords places them narrativly into a scare tactic role. So lets take a look.

What do they have?

Reivers can have more varied wargear than a lot of the other Primaris Marines. Your basic loadout is a Special issue Bolt Pistol, and Combat knife, which you can swap out for a Bolt Carbine. On top of that, you can take either a Grapnel Launcher or Grav Chutes.

Rules wise, Reivers have the Angels of Death, Chapter Tactics and Combat Squads rules, though note the lack of Concealed Positions ubiquitous to the majority of the Vanguard.

Their Terror Troops Aura subtracts 2 from the LD of enemies within 3 inch.

Grapnel launchers allow the unit to Outflank and ignore any vertical distances when it moves outside of the charge and fight phases.

Grav chutes give you the Death From Above ability enabling them to arrive anywhere on the table over 9 inch from an enemy.

The pistol is a -2ap bolt pistol, which is nice, and the bolt carbine is assault which gives some reliable firepower.

So what use are they?

As daft as it might sound, ignore the weapon profiles. Reivers dont hit hard and they arnt any tougher than a standard marine. They are built for advancing where other Troops might chose to stand and shoot.

Reivers are a harassment unit, their LD debuff is ok, but really excels when combined with the stratagem Terror Troops, or Shock and Awe. Disrupting the reliability of units and shutting down the Objective secured abilities and Actions of the enemy.

As far as what equipment would you take? Whilst it depends on Chapter, I'd move twoard their pistols as they have an AP and you're wanting to be close with them anyways.

What Chapters do they work well in?

A combat focused unit will work well in a combat focused Chapter. Blood Angels will certainly get some use out of them but I think they would work better in White Scars because you need to get them in there. Unless you're forking out for the unit upgrades you could find you'll need a TRANSPORT to get them into position and Advance and Charge could be handy.

Imperial Fists could get some limited mileage from them but only due to the weapons being bolters.

Space Wolves are an option for Reivers, but they have their Hounds of Morkai, and they have a lot more going for them.

So would you take them?

Well, no. Sad to say that they just dont seem to pack enough utility in. To really get mileage from them you'll be wanting to support them with a TRANSPORT or a Librarian.

Like I said, they don't do the damage, and yes they have use as harassment but they are an Elite choice, and there are just so many other things in that selection that only people dedicated to them will use them over say, Bladeguard.

Reivers dont fit a role very well. The pistol is nice but isnt supported by a combat prowess or weapon that sets them apart. The bolt carbine lacks anything to set it apart from a standard boltguns other than the assault profile and with regular marines now being 2 wounds each, Tactical Squads actually hold more options before we even talk about the Drop Pod.

Lets have a breakdown.

Tactical Squad in Drop Pod actually meets the Reivers with grav chute in terms of firepower and deployment areas. Straight away though, Drop Pod comes turn one, and the Tactical Squad can take special weapons.

How does that translate with points?

5 man Tactical Squad with Drop Pod = 160 points

5 man Reiver squad with grav chutes = 100 points

Both units will arrive 9inch away from the enemy, though the Drop Pod arrives turn one, possibly securing you that objective early or screening it off.

The Tactical Squad, has the Objective Secured rule and the option to take a special weapon.

The Drop Pod actually adds firepower through its storm bolter and can hold an objective on its own.

Plus, options in your force org slots. Elites are a highly contested area.

So sorry Reivers, unless i'm going full Vanguard, you just wont make that cut very often.

So cracking on with these now, Eliminators are up next, but you still wont see them coming.

[warpswimming]

Head (band) Hunters - Incursors

For the second of my unit focuses, welcome the Incursor. Incursors must be a play on Incursion, Invasion or attack, especially sudden or brief, and boy does the wargear match that description.

So what do they have?

On top of the basic marine rules of Angels of Death and Chapter Tactics, Incursors have Concealed Position similar to Infiltrators. Their wargear and rules are based around this swift attack ethos, and this is taken directly from the codex.

'The occulus bolt carbines and Divinator-class auspexes of the Incursors feed directly into their transpectral visors.'  

Who doesn’t love sci-fi techno jargon? What this means however is the following. Their bolters whilst lacking AP do ignore the bonus of cover for their targets They have a Multispectrum Array, (read visor and shoulder auspex) which allows you to ignore any OR all modifiers to hit rolls or BS modifiers That represents the constant tactical data feed coming to the Incursor unit They also come with the SMOKESCREEN keyword as well as a Bolt Pistol and Paired Combat Blades The Combat blades give the Incursor -1AP in combat which again represents their sudden strike role. For a small points layout you can give the squad a Haywire Mine, which unlike in 8th, no longer needs to be planted. This is both a good and a bad thing. You are trading booby trapping areas of the board to deter movement,  for giving you some protection from being charged. On a 2+ you’ll inflict d3 mortal wounds on a unit that ends a charge move in engagement range, or a flat 3 against something with the VEHICLE keyword.

Don’t forget, these guys are TROOPS so you’ll be able to level your objective secured ability.

So what use are they?

I really like Incursors. Unlike 8th, I wouldn’t always take the Haywire Mine unless you're local group uses a lot of elite units such as CUSTODES or VEHICLES. With no longer being able to pop it in a choke point as a trap I feel its lost some flavour. Where I think Incursors excel though is close range, this isn’t a unit I'd suggest babysitting home objectives. They may lack some of the carnage of assault intercessors, but they also have a better ranged attack than them. To me Incursors sit almost between standard Intercessors and their new Assault Intercessor brothers. 

Using the Concealed deployment  often means you don’t have to think about TRANSPORT and when attacking targets in Dense Cover or with a native -1 modifiers to hit just don’t phase them, sorry AELDARI players. Probably the best thing to be noticed here though is that you may ignore ANY OR ALL modifiers. If you've got a +1 modifier you can still use it, so Dark Angels remaining stationary (or using the stratagem to count as not having moved) would ALWAYS be hitting on 2s.

What Chapters make the most use from them?

Honestly your stock chapters all benefit here. Maybe less so for Imperial Fists due to their ignoring of cover on their bolters being part of their Chapter Tactic. White Scars, Blood Angels and other combat based Chapters make great use of them as assault troops, close range, advance and charge, or +1 to wound with the combat blades both being great applications. Dark Angels can make use of them as forward elements supporting Ravenwing or Deathwing units with their versitility.

So do you take them?

Oh yes. They sit around the same points and power as both types of Intercessors and sit neatly in between the two in terms of role. Their firepower is reliable and they are TROOPS, plus they just look awesome as models. I'd take these as they are more versitile than Intercessors. 

As you can see from the pictures, I already have some painted up, running alongside my Ravenwing, and I’ve got more left to build, I really rate them.

Next post I’ll look into Reivers. A unit that sometimes struggles to find a use, but I’ll go into some overlooked applications of them. Until then, don your Geordie visor and have at it.

[warpswimming]

Advanced Recon - Infiltrators

Here we go, at long last I can start looking into the units of the Vanguard. Today is the turn of the Infiltrators Infiltrators are a Primaris Troops choice clad in the Phobos armour of the Vanguard Being Marines they have the Chapter Tactics and Angels of Death rules. The other common rule they have is the Concealed Positions, which can be found here.

So what do they have?

  They come stock with bolt pistol and a bolter, though unlike the standard bolter, their Marksman Bolt Carbine automatically wounds on an unmodified hit roll of 6. They come as standard with Omni Scramblers which prevents units being set up from reinforcements within 12 inch of them. They have the SMOKESCREEN keyword a rundown of which can be found here. Their only customisation option comes in the form of taking either a Helix Gauntlet or Infiltrator Comms Array. The Helix Gauntlet changes the damage of the first failed save to 0. In 8th it used to be used to heal a model, this is better as it just lets you shrug off the first bit of damage, and then your Apothecary can heal you in your command phase. It also forces your opponent to think about what resources he wants to commit and in what order. If he's planning on using heavy weapons to shift your infiltrators, will he hit you with light arms first as you ignoring 1 damage is a lot better than ignoring that flat 2 or higher for them. The Comms Array is useful if you're running multiple units of infiltrators and a Phobos Lieutenant or Captain as it allows the unit to always be in range of any of any Chapter PHOBOS units on the table for Rites of Battle (reroll 1s to hit) and Tactical Precision (reroll 1s to wound) It allows you to spread out which I think is key, not only for running a heavy objective play but also to deny reinforcements from arriving over large areas. Your isolated units of Comms equipped infiltrators will still be as reliable as if they were bunched up.

So what use are they?

Infiltrators bring a lot and depending on your Chapter can be either really durable or pretty decent offensively. You can keep them around your deployment zone to stop enemy reinforcements showing up. Just because you have Concealed Positions doesn’t mean you have to be forward. If your opponent is going for your objective with a reinforcement heavy list this zones them out. Who wants those Deathwing Terminators and Sanguinary Guard popping up, not to mention Genestealer Cults.

You could use your infiltrators as shock troops. Use their Concealed Positions to get them up close, go for Assault doctrine to give your bolters some AP and shoot away. This works well as Imperial Fists with their hits of 6 giving an extra hit, though it must be noted that that extra hit isn’t an automatic wound, those days are gone. Give them the Comms Array and you don’t have to worry about spreading out to still get your benefits.

The final way I can see you using these is as really obnoxious denial units. You're a Troops choice and so have Objective secured. Pop a Helix Gauntlet in there, run as say Iron Hands for your 6+ negate wounds, keep the SMOKESCREEN strat handy and make rushes on the enemy objectives. In order to stop you the enemy will need to focus on your push rather than the pure damage dealers you may have elsewhere. If not they will need to swarm objectives with cheaper Troops units which when your guys have a minimum of 3 attacks each in the first round of combat and 2 power armoured wounds to chew through can make for a slog on their part.

So do you take them

In short, Yes. Long answer is that it depends on the size of your game and composition of your force. In low power games, say 25-50 it can be tight to fit in, 6 power troop units, larger games make it easier. Needless to say, one squad to run interferance will never be a bad idea. So are you taking them now? Back next time with Incursors.

[warpswimming]

Command Level Abilities - Stratagems of the Vanguard

Hello again. today i'm having a look at a few stratagems from the Space Marine codex.

I wont be going into all the Marine Stratagems, just ones that predominately deal with Vanguard units, in the future I may go over some of the other ones, so I'll be looking at Smokescreen, Terror Troops and Shock and Awe.

First off is Smokescreen

Overview

In your opponents shooting phase, select a ADEPTUS ASTARTES SMOKESCREEN unit from your army that’s been targeted, attack rolls are at -1 against them

Utility

Find yourself unable to get that Dense Cover? Need that objective or just need a unit to not get shot off the board, this gives you a great defensive buff.

You'll find at first glance that a surprisingly large amount of units have the SMOKESCREEN keyword, vehicles being the obvious one but a lot of Vanguard units also have it including your base troops, the Infiltrators and Incursors.

A little 1CP stratagem that you want to keep on your mind at all times, always in your back pocket tool box of tricks.

Other than just the immediate application you can use this to counter an enemies +1 or even add to the effects of Dense Cover to push for that aggregate cap of + and -1.

Unlike the old smoke launchers wargear, this isn’t a pop smoke instead of shooting for a cover bonus, its in your opponents shooting phase and there’s no tradeoff for firepower. SERIOUSLY powerful.

Next up, Shock and Awe

Overview

Use it in your shooting phase when an ADEPTUS ASTARTES SHOCK GRENADES or LAND SPEEDER STORM unit shoots, select an enemy unit within 6 inch and until the start of your next turn, they cant Overwatch or Set to defend and they have a -1 to hit rolls for attacks.

Utility

Another 1CP stratagem that screams utility but is limited by the units you can take it on. Shock Grenades are a Reiver thing so immediately you're down to Reiver Lieutenant and Reiver squad. Both of these units are having a rough time as they struggle to find a place in a lot of people's armies for reasons I’ll hit on in a later post.

Yes you need to be within 6 inch but shutting down Overwatch and Set to Defend on a unit could be very helpful and if you make that charge or not, then -1 to hit for ALL their attacks until your next turn is pretty powerful, it doesn’t even have to be a unit you charge, you can just grenade it.

Let that sink in a bit, your 5 man Reiver unit could impose a -1 to hit on anything. That knight being annoying, drop a -1 to hit on it, worried about that swarm unit of Tyranids, give them a -1 to hit, behind Guard lines and want to inflict maximum disruption, shoot a unit, grenade some artillery and then charge a third.

I think the best way to use this might be on the LAND SPEEDER STORM due to its movement, but if you find yourself in position, why not. There’s no hit rolls. You're probably shooting those nice pistols into combat, so why not use this and mess with the enemies reliability.

Really situational, but if you're making Reivers work for you, or just want them to then why not keep it in mind.

Lastly for now, Terror Troops

Summary

A bit more expensive at 2CP this one also only targets REIVERS. you gain a 3 inch Aura that shuts down your enemies objective secured abilities and if you finish your normal move, advance or charge within 3 inch of a unit preforming an action roll 2d6 against their Leadership and if you beat it, their action fails.

Utility

Like I said, REIVERS are a little situational, however this is the ultimate trick to pull on an enemy playing a strong objective game. Don’t forget, REIVERS give a -1ld Aura as it is.

Now for the trickier bit, this is one where you want to cast Temporal Corridor to throw that unit over the board. You'll sacrifice the ability to charge, but you'll disrupt the objective game and depending on your unit size and faction, could even take the objective from the enemy. 

This stratagem is used in your command phase and lasts until your next command phase as well, so if you’re on the objective and the enemy comes to take it off you, they’ll have to do it without objective secured.

I'm building a variety of Vanguard builds and I'll be trying this out in the future.

That’s it, moving onto units next. Its going to be fun. Check back later.

[warpswimming]

Tricks up their sleeves - Warlord traits of the Vanguard part 2

After an unexpected delay, lets jump into the final three Warlord Traits in the Vanguard tree. For a recap on part 1, click here

Stealth Adept

Unless this

WARLORD

is the closest eligible target, enemy models cannot target it with ranged attacks.

Pros

This is basically the old CHARACTER rule but in 9th has a load more application than it used to. At its very core, your Warlord will be able to operate independantly so long as its not the closest thing to your enemy. Its a level of protection should you mess up your requirements for Look Out Sir, or you need to move a unit with something such asTemporal corridor to get onto an objective.

Where this is specifically differant to the same trait from 8th edition though is that units that used to specifically say that they could target CHARACTERS regardless of targeting restriction have evolved to 'Ignore the Look Out Sir rule'. Your warlord could be completely independant but visible and not targetable.

Cons Most of the time your Warlord should be a support role as well as packing its own punch. If your Warlord is isolated, there’s a good chance a plan has gone wrong.

Utility Best units to use this on are your Librarian or Captain due to the nature of their abilities and in combination with other unit wargear The Librarian can benefit as it allows you to use your psyker abilities to move units around with less risk of being left open for attack. The Captain has a bolter that can target characters ignoring look out sir, and omni scramblers which means he can sit back on an objective and snipe, stopping reinforcements arriving within 12inch, a large protective bubble on a rear objective. What about his aura ability? Whilst its only on infiltrators, they have equipment allowing them to benefit from auras anywhere on the table, it might not be much, but its something.

Summary With all the various traits available, only a few army builds will seriously benefit from this, I'd probably go for something else unless you're building around making use of Infiltrators to shut down areas of the table.

Target Priority

In your Command Phase, select one friendly PHOBOS unit within 6inch of the WARLORD. Until the start of your next Command Phase, add one to the hit rolls of ranged attacks.

Pros

Reliable shooting is always good. Whilst modifiers are capped at +1/-1 using this could help mitigate Dense Cover.

Cons

The restrictions on what units can benefit make it less useful. Most PHOBOS units are not designed for their firepower.

Utility Best used when fighting an army with a lot of -1 to hit or on boards with Dense Cover. Eliminators would be a good choice for a target but as they already sit at BS2 its only for mitigation.

Summary Its a very situational trait that in preselecting army build and with its limitations I don’t think Id ever take with all the other options out there. 

Master Marksman

Add one to the damage of ranged weapons the Warlord has, except relics and grenades.

Pros

More damage, its always good. Who wouldn’t like a 4 damage assault 1 bolter on their Captain that can ignore look out sir.

Cons Similar to rank and file Phobos units, the character in the Vanguard aren't especially built for damage.

Utility Obviously the Captain is a good call, he can stick his rifle to 4 damage, which can ignore look out sir. Guard characters would need to hide well from him, most light characters sit at the 4 wound mark and this guy would be a serious threat, if he could take this and Stealth Adept then up, I'd do that all day. The Reiver Lieutenant isn’t a bad call as it sticks his pistol up to 3 damage with decent AP but if you're using this, use a Captain.

Summary I might take this, on a Captain, supported by a unit of almost any Phobos, especially if fighting against a lot of lower wound characters. If you have an ability to give him two warlord traits and can take Stealth Adept he becomes a really annoying character chipping away buffs and auras on the move with his omni scrambler.

That’s it for Warlord Traits. Next post will look at stratagems before moving onto the units.

[warpswimming]

Tricks up their sleeves- Warlord Traits of the Vanguard Part 1

Welcome back.

Today I'll be looking at the Warlord traits in the Vanguard tree. For a recap on what the Vanguard are, check out my introduction here.

Being Vanguard traits, only your PHOBOS Warlord can take them, as well as any extra PHOBOS units you use a stratagem on to allow for more. The main focus of these traits is to bolster the PHOBOS elements in your army, and is best used in conjunction with a largely PHOBOS force. You can find a recap on the PHOBOS Captain here, the Lieutenant here and the Librarian here

So lets get to it.

Shoot and Fade

If you've played Aeldari before you’ll recognise this, for those that haven’t this allows a PHOBOS unit within 6 inch to make a normal move or advance after shooting.

Pros

Great if you want to shoot and duck into terrain, or if you just want that extra movement. Aeldari players have used this for years to get their units across a board but with 9th edition this could get your units onto Objectives quicker which is the name of the game.

Cons

You can’t charge after you use this, so running your Infiltrators or Incursors forward doesn’t mean you'll be throwing them into combat that turn. This isn’t to mean that you're weak in combat, you're still Space Marines and you'll still get your bonus Shock Assault attack if you're charged. You have to be careful with it to make sure you don’t run your Look Out Sir screen too far and leave your Warlord open though so keep that in mind.

Summary

Its ok, but not brilliant. In a game where your PHOBOS Warlord has access to 13 different warlord traits in the game, probably steer clear of this one. Its one saving grace is that you can run a Librarian up, cast a power, shoot his pistol and run back but that’s super situational.

Lord of Deceit

After both players have deployed, you can select up to three PHOBOS units from your army and redeploy them, or put them into Strategic Reserve for free regardless of normal limitations.

Pros

I love this one. During deployment you can use your units such as infiltrators to screen off the midfield especially if the opponent has any advanced deploying elements of their own, (here’s looking at you Nurglings). Doing this can ruin some midfield plans of your opponent, then you just pull them back, or reposition them to shore up a flank, or exploit an opponents weak spot.

If you're playing a mix of Phobos and back field holders, you could even throw the Phobos into strategic reserve for free and without limitations, to possibly come and harass an enemies backline and flanks from turns 2 and 3. If you were considering sticking your PHOBOS in strategic reserve anyways, this has an extra CP bonus.

Lets take a full unit of 10 Reivers, split into combat squads, and a unit of Incursors split into combat squads, both split for extra protection and mobility. Reivers have to pay for wargear to allow them to arrive at various points on the board, otherwise they have to go in your deployment area. Incursors can advanced deploy to screen out the midfield as highlighted above. Now, after you’ve got both players deployed you simply pick these two units up and put them in strategic reserve, maybe even throwing your Warlord in for good measure. You just popped 25 power of unit in strategic reserve, that were on the board, FOR FREE rather than 3 CP. Its cost a Warlord Trait sure, but those Reivers are going to have a better time popping on a flank. Sure the rest of your army might look light but unless your opponent reacts to this huge threat, you’ll grab objectives all over the board with durable units.

Cons

You are using a warlord trait to do it, and you can leave your board presence pretty light but its all about objectives in 9th.

It might not suit every opponent but the utility it gives, even if its just to pull your units back is pretty good. Just be aware that strategic reserves can be fenced out if your opponent starts lining the flanks and if they don’t turn up they’re destroyed, some missions will put a time limiter on this. Main con here is that its after deployment, which means before you know who is going first. You could redeploy your units and then end up going second, leaving something such as your eliminators out of position as your opponent just moves around, though there is an argument that they would just do this anyway.

Summary

Super useful, super fun and thematic, you can use this with Guerilla Tactics to effectively take a small PHOBOS army off the table though I'm not sure why you'd want to. Its good at stopping things like Nurglings getting objectives turn one, and trust me when I say Nurglings have become a serious problem in 9th with their durability and advanced deployment coupled with low points costs and small models. I can see this getting a lot of play in armies where you take a second warlord trait for 1CP to save 2 or more down the line with strategic reserves. I'd say one to watch.

Master of the Vanguard

This nice little Aura Trait, gives you +1 to charge rolls and plus one to move and advance whilst within 6 inch of your warlord.

Pros

Extra move and charge while using Concealed Positions is pretty nice, if you're going for a turn one charge you could do worse. The extra move will help you get around the board and onto Objectives (there’s a trend here) or just in between the enemy and somewhere they want to go.

Cons

One inch isn’t a lot (insert joke here), and your PHOBOS units for the most part are not combat monsters. In my experience, a lot of disagreements pop up around that extra inch as perspective on the tape measure can sometimes give as much variance.  Summary I see this one as a corrective measure for poor movement and deployment rather than a sure ploy, and that’s mostly because of the units it affects. If this was on all CORE units say, then assault intercessors could benefit but as it is there are better traits to take. Like I said, before 13 traits are available to your PHOBOS Warlord.

Ok so that’s it for this post, half the traits rounded up. I’ll be back with the final 3 in the next post before moving on to look at units and stratagems. ‘Tread softly and carry a big gun.’

[warpswimming]

Paving the way - Abilities of the Vanguard

Hello again. Today I'll be looking at a couple of abilities of almost all the Vanguard marines as well as a relic that can only be taken by them. To recap on who and what the Vanguard are, click here.

Straight off the bat then lets talk Concealed Positions. This ability falls on the majority of Vanguard units. Reivers, Suppressors and the Reiver Lt don’t get it, although all those units do have other ways of popping up on the battlefield from reserve without spending CP.

Concealed Positions allows you to deploy the unit anywhere so long as its 9 inch from enemies or their deployment zone, and gives a huge advantage when you consider these are not single wound advanced elements but marines with all the benefits that befalls them. Before I highlight the damage potential of this ability I want to stress the 9th edition push for objectives.

A lot of missions in 9th edition are scored at the end of your Command Phase. Importantly this means that in most situations you wont be getting those all important mid field objectives for scoring in your first turn because you don’t have chance to move. Concealed Positions can allow you to stick your units on those objectives so long as there is sufficient distance which helps you score those early victory points. The quicker you build your lead the less you need to focus on destroying every unit in your opponents army, and they also need to shift you off them.

Remember objective secured, well two of your units with Concealed Positions are Troops. Let your opponent come with their Elite and Fast Attack options, if they cant shift your Troops, you're still scoring.

Damage potential ramps up when you consider that the Invictor tactical warsuit has this ability as well, ill touch on that later in the series though.

Now is a good time to look at the Stratagem Guerilla Tactics. At 1 Cp this is a reliable stratagem thanks to the Command Phase granting you 1 CP a turn, the Phobos Librarian does have ways of gaining extras, check that out here.

In your movement phase you pick a PHOBOS unit that’s more than 6 inch from an enemy and pop it in Strategic Reserve. Popping the unit in this way only costs the CP for Guerilla Tactics meaning you can put a full unit of, lets say infiltrators, into strategic reserve for 1 CP rather than 2, if you start them on the table. Again I'll cover infiltrators soon, but yeah there’s some play there.

If you do this later in the game, you can bring that unit on from the flanks in your opponents deployment zone, making a push for their home objective, with a full strength unit and forcing them to parse some of their force off to defend their back lines.

This strat can be especially annoying for your opponent who thinks they can take out your Characters only for them to pop off with one wound remaining to relative safety.

Here’s the fun with Vanguard armies though, you can do this turn 1, but then repeat it turn 2 and so on. For 2 CP half your army could in theory be off the board after having been deployed, leaving your opponent out of position before unifying for a concentrated punch into a flank. Just be sure to check the mission rules for it because units that don’t turn up count as destroyed.

Now the Relic, the Ghostweave Cloak.

The Cloak can only be given to a model already with a Camo Cloak, so its only for Phobos Librarians and Captains. It allows you to move over models as if they were not there, and enemies much subtract 1 from hit rolls against the bearer.

Pros

Moving over enemy models stops you getting blocked from falling back and allows you to charge where you want. -1 to hit is always good

Cons

The Phobos Librarian and Captain are not combat monsters so you wont be wanting to charge them in often. -1 to hit whilst nice is capped, and as such if you're being savy with terrain, it shouldn’t make a huge differance in a lot of situations

Summary

I wouldn’t take this over some of the other relics, ever unless you want to fit some narrative or lore around it.

A lot there to digest I'm sure but just remember these are abilities that will be referred back to and most Vanguard units can take. I'll be covering warlord traits over the next few posts but these abilities should be in the back of your head as we go through what each unit can do, I'm positive I wont see every tactical perspective.

“The truth can only stay hidden for so long” ― T.R. Wallace

[warpswimming]

Preparing the Way - Phobos units and the Vanguard

Welcome back weary wander. Today starts a series of posts dedicated to the Phobos and Vanguard units and rules in the Adeptus Astartes Codex. I'll split it out into various parts, hopefully with links to make it easy to jump around.

In the series I'll cover the Vanguard units, Infiltrators, Incursors, Eliminators, Reivers, Invictor Warsuits, and Supressors, as well as the Warlord traits, and the Relic that can only be taken by them. There will also be a look at the stratagems that referance Phobos and their units.

So who are the Vanguard?

With the return of Guilliman to the Imperium, the forces of the Adeptus Astartes recieved an injection of Primaris Space Marines. Provided by Bellisarius Cawl, this marines were tougher, faster, stronger than the current Space Marine forces, although now in 9th that is less represented as Games Workshop brought the older marines up to 2 wounds.

With varying degrees of acceptance, the Primaris were welcomed into the current chapter structure of the Adeptus Astartes Chapters, the Vanguard being a standing force assigned to the 10th company.

The 10th company comprises for the most part, training elements, the scout squads that were mid ascension to a full battle brother. Its here that a scout honed his skills before moving on to the Devestator and Assault companies ultimately leading to becoming a Tactical marine.

Now the chapters have folded 10 full squads of Vanguard marines. These brothers have already been trained and specialise in stealth and infiltration tactics.

I love the idea that the 10th company now has something other than scout marines. A full 10th of the chapter being in constant training was cool but since the beginning of the introduction of the Primaris Marines, each chapter has grown in size and strength. There is an element of Imperial command having to respond to the dire situation in the 41st millennium, and the codex being a guide more than instructions. During the Heresy the Legions employed power armoured marines to act as recon units, and this is a adoption of old tactics from the darkest point in the Imperium’s history that Guilliman and Cawl were witness to.

What makes them differant?

The Vanguard employ stealth tactics through their armour and equipment. The use of camo cloaks hides them from sight, the Phobos pattern armour being more manuverable and quiet allowing them to move ahead of a force. Even the Suppressors have a hybrid of Gravis and Phobos armour allowing them to move swiftly, often inserting from above via grav chutes.

Their equipment often moves away from the heavy hitting weapons to the more accurate tracking equipment and disruption. Omni scramblers lock out areas of communication and augury, Incursors utilise advanced targeting equipment before mining areas. Reivers employ grapple guns and grav chutes to arrive where and when they are needed, using shock grenades and terror tactics to sow confusion. All this supported by a limited command staff of Captain, Lieutenant and Librarian, further specialised and clad in Phobos pattern armour.

How do they play?

Without going into each option's unique abilities. The Vanguard play for board control over pure damage. This isnt to say they cant bring the pain, the Invictor warsuit in particular is a serious and immediate threat. Playing a Vanguard army is to play the objective. Advanced deployment and movement abilities see your units where they need to be faster than most other options. Your omni scrambler units will prevent the enemy dropping where they might want and careful use of their abilities will force your opponent to react to you rather than vice versa. Their main drawback is their lack of heavy weaponry across the board, to this end sometimes support elements to provide long range heavy weapons whilst holding your rear line will be a must.

It is fully possible to build a battle forged Vanguard army that focuses on putting pressure on the weakest points in your opponents lines, often using the Tactical and the Assault doctrines.

In my next post, I'll look at the Ghostweave cloak, the relic only available to a couple of Phobos units, as well as Concealed Deployment, the ability of the majority of the Vanguard.

Until then watch the shadows.

'Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.' (Sun Tzu)

[warpswimming]

Dark Disruption - Obfuscation, Tenebrous Curse

Welcome back. Its been a little while since I posted because real life has taken over a bit, but lets get back into this with the last of the Obfuscation Discipline powers, Tenebrous Curse.

Overview

Tenebrous Curse is a Malediction power available to your Phobos Librarian. Cast on the average of 2d6, 7, it inflicts a mortal wound on your target and slows them down with -2 to move, advance and charge rolls. It is meant to represent the shadows of the enemy rising up to attack them, grasping at them and pulling them down, which is pretty awesome sounding

Pros

Whilst a range of 18 doesn’t seem much, this is cast exclusively from your Phobos Librarian meaning that you're likely to be forward deployed thanks to Concealed Deployment, handy as it means you can reach almost anywhere you need turn one to slow down the enemy vanguard.

This power can be cast on a CHARACTER so if your enemy is hiding that Captain with jump pack and thunder hammer, or a Bike mounted Captain with serious melee punch, you can slow them down pretty heavily. Armies that use advance and charge mechanics such as Ork Speed Freaks, Cult of Red Grief and White Scars could have the triple hit, reducing their threat range by 6 inch across the three reductions.

If cast on a units transport you could shut down their overwatch absorbing unit, the unit sent in to take all the possible overwatch such as a tank in order to protect the infantry.

Perhaps the most situational use of this though is to prevent your enemy from charging everything. In 9th edition you have to declare all your charge targets and reach all of your targets or you fail the charge. By limiting the effective range you could save a unit from the initial charge or cause the enemy to fail by over extending themselves.

Cons

This power has a range of 18 inch. Sure I mentioned that you'll likely be in range of casting it, but at 18 inch you're also very close to your enemy and if they are looking to charge you could stall them for a turn but that’s all it would be, a stall.

The power only affects one unit, rather than units within a select range. If you're playing a melee opponent they likely have things charging across multiple fronts. The threat of stopping a single unit is more likely to either see your librarian ignored, or just swept over in a charge or placed into engagement range thanks to consolidation.

The single mortal wound is unlikely to stop most opponents, its good for finishing off a single wound on a model, but at a 7 to cast you're often better with smite. As I said, the limitations around the power means you're acting almost as a speed bump to your enemy rather than a bulwark.

This power doesn’t affect things with the FLY keyword and only targets a visible unit. Things that are normally fast and a combat threat such as Assault Marines with jump packs, or Venom mounted squads in Drukhari are immune to this. In a culture that has you preselect your powers in tournaments, a bad matchup will make it redundant. Gunlines, Drukhari, and jump pack armies will give you real problems, and on a smaller board size things like Outriders have the movement to mean sacrificing a couple of inches isn't the problem you would expect.

Summary

Tenebrous Curse is super situational to both mission and opponent. I didn’t even cover the chances of holding enemies back from objectives as honestly it wont make a differance. Enemies that specialise in getting close will still make it, those that don’t shouldn’t mind the single mortal wound. Your Librarian will be right in the firing line after casting it so if your opponent doesn’t like it, dealing with him probably wont take too long. When the discipline has powers such as Shrouding and Mind Raid I find it a little mismatched to the close ranged threat that Phobos tends to apply and wont take it, possibly ever.

Hopefully now real life could slow down a bit again I'll look at the PHOBOS keyword next. There are units, stratagems and combos that I believe make the subset very powerful in 9th, despite their limited damage output compared to other elements in the codex.

'A human being is only breath and shadow.'

[warpswimming]

Probing the depths - Obfuscation, Mind Raid

I hope your psychic defenses are strong. Today we're looking at the Mind Raid Obfuscation psychic power.

Again, here’s a link to the breakdown of the Librarians in the Space Marine Codex, remember you're looking exclusively at the Phobos Librarian here.

Background

The psyker delves into the mind of the enemy model learning ploys, plans orders and any other classified information, painfully. I really like this power because of its narrative style, the manipulation to learn the enemies plans, it screams Dark Angels for me with their hunt for the Fallen and I can only imagine this is weak compared to what enemies are subjected to on the Rock, the home of the Dark Angels (sorry showing some serious bias I know).

Overview

On the table, Mind Raid is 6+ to cast and runs in at an 18 inch range. You pick a model and its unit takes 1 mortal wound. That’s the guarenteed part. Then if its a CHARACTER, you roll 3d6 and if you equal or beat their leadership characteristic you gain a CP. Pretty decent, low cast value and potential benefit.

Pros

When you select a model you ignore the restrictions of targeting a model. This means you can select any CHARACTER you can see and the Phobos Librarian has the speed to move around to best use it.

Rolling the 3d6 against a character does average out at 12, with most characters sporting a leadership of 8 or more you should manage to gleam that command point a good portion of the time, and that’s where 9th gives you an extra gift.

9th edition has added the command phase where you gain a CP every turn. Its allowed a lot of people to have their favourite 1CP stratagem that they can throw down every turn which is brilliant. If you're using Mind Raid every turn you can start to look at reliably being able to use a 2CP stratagem every turn, a couple of cheap 1CP stratagems, or forcing your opponent to hide their characters a little better.

There are loads of stratagems in the Codex, and the majority are sitting at the 1CP mark. I wont go into them all here, but 2Cp could potentially allow an Intercessor squad to shoot twice, to use add a protective layer on a large squad with Transhuman Physiology or allow an INFANTRY unit to preform an action AND shoot, great if you've got a secondary to score but don’t want to compromise firepower.

Cons

Whilst this power can gleam CP from enemy Characters, it doesn’t work all that well where the enemy doesn’t field a huge amount of characters you want dead immediately. Armies like Genestealer Cults are CHARACTER heavy so you've got plenty of targets to pick from, however if you're facing down Custodes or even Knights, this power immediately becomes less useful due to the limited targets for its full effect.

You'll need to be really careful with your placement to pull this off, protecting your librarian whilst being able to take whatever the enemy character can throw at you. 18 inch is right in their face and you're likely to get charged and/or shot up immediately after you cast this.

To get the most reliability out of the leadership test, you need to lean into leadership debuff abilities. Hallucination works well in tandem with this but you loose a lot of the functionality of that power, and the movement trickery that personally I think will win you more games as you position yourself on the objectives.

Summary

There’s a lot of potential here, however it depends so heavily on your opponents force that I cant see this being a staple power taking in tournaments due to the preselecting of powers etc that 9th leans on. Its a real shame as narratively its brilliant.

'I'm impressed. No one has been able to get out of you what you did with the map.'

[warpswimming]

Warp Spawned Visions - Obfuscation, Hallucination

Welcome back. Today I continue a look into the Obfuscation Dicipline with a focus on Hallucination

Like before, I urge you to recap on the Phobos Librarian who is the only character currently able to access this Discipline.

Overview

Hallucination represents the psykers reaching into the minds of their enemies and making them see things that arn't there. New enemies, fallen comrades or just swirling colours and shapes, used to disrupt and distract.

It sits at a nice 6+ to cast, so slightly below the average on 2d6 and hits one unit visible and within 18 inch which with your Concealed Position, gives you a large threat radius.

The unit you pick subtracts one from its leadership, and one from its attack rolls until your next psychic phase.

Sounds really simple, but there's some considerations you may have missed.

Pros

This power hits anything visible. There are no targeting restrictions other than that which means Characters are just as vulnerable as anything else. Obviously an Astra Militarum Commander isn’t a huge combat threat, but maybe you'd like to throw a penalty on Abaddon, or the Yncarne. If you are not already in Dense Terrain, either in the open or on Light Cover, the extra minus to hit from one unit can help reinforce your defense.

The penalty to leadership can be good when paired with other effects, such as Reivers Terror Troops Aura, and works even better when paired with the Mind Raid power that I’ll cover later, possibly netting you an extra Command Point.

The best armies to use this against are those that ignore dense cover or heavy combat armies where you could get use out of the modifier

Cons

9th has introduced limits on modifiers to hit and wound at +/- 1. This means that if you cast this on a unit your opponent has a couple of extra options as they are taking a penalty either way. Moving and shooting infantry heavy weapons or advancing and firing assault weapons wont impose a disadvantage on them, nor will them targeting a unit in dense cover as their limit has already been reached. You could even find your opponent moving and shooting heavy infantry weapons into some of your units with inbuilt penalties to hit. Whilst you are influencing your opponents decision process you may find that your naturally defensive unit suddenly becomes a more viable target.

As of yet, leadership trickery isn’t a huge part of the game. If you use this on an elite unit you could get lucky with combat attrition but you'll need to build an army that capitalised on leadership ploys. On top of having to build your list this way some opponents have ways around combat attrition such as the Dark Angels, and there is even a single use universal stratagem to auto pass a leadership test. Its high work, low reward currently.

There are even a variety of units that ignore the penalty entirely, those that always hit on a certain value or auto hit, such as flamers and Aeldari Dark Reapers. A poor matchup with your opponent in a situation where your list is locked powers wise could leave you quickly regretting taking it.

Summary

Whilst good in some situations this power is easily bypassed.

The leadership game just isn’t strong enough or reliable. With army rules that ignore aspects and a stratagem that bypasses it entirely it will be very limited in scope. Even if it does work, you're looking for your opponent rolling ones in combat attrition for a unit and sure it could kill a squad of Custodes on an unlucky roll, and lucky one does nothing, its 1 in 6.

Sure stacking penalties to hit sounds great but unless your opponent has stacking modifiers you can achieve the same effect by using terrain to either block line of sight or provide that minus to hit. With a cap in play your opponent may just go for the units that have natural shielding, because why not, and whilst they may want to hold a position, moving suddenly doesn’t become a problem outside of its normal restriction, there’s no extra downside.

I'd avoid this power. There are better ones in the Discipline that are more reliable and give you more tactical options. Such as Shrouding and Temporal Corridor.

'I respectfully decline the invitation to join your hallucination'

[warpswimming]

Manipulating the Flow - Obfuscation, Temporal Corridor

Welcome back, or rather please come back, maybe you got here first. Today I'm taking a look at the Obfuscation Discipline Temporal Corridor.

Today I'm trying something new, here’s a link to my breakdown of the Librarians, check the entry for the Phobos Librarian, it should help get a basis for this power.

Librarians of the Adeptus Astartes

Overview

Temporal Corridor is a cheap power in the Obfuscation Discipline at only a 5+ to cast. Like Shrouding and Soul Sight its limited to targeting a PHOBOS unit, but this one has a range of only 6 inch.

The unit can't shoot or charge this turn, but can immediately make a normal move or advance. If the unit advances you can add 6 inch instead of rolling. Before you ask, you cant do it if you're in engagement range of an enemy, so in close combat.

Pros

As I've said before, 9th is all about grabbing those Objectives. Sometimes, especially late game when there are fewer enemies about, the argument for trading firepower for mobility is strong. This power lets you sacrifice a turns shooting for a potential 12 inch move, on top of your initial 6. you cant underestimate giving one of your units an 18inch move if you're trailing points. You can use it to get your Secondaries such as Engage on All Fronts, or throw your Objective Secured units onto an enemy objective where they may lack the ability then to contest it among other things. Sticking an Objective secured unit on an objective this way both scores for you, and denies points for your opponent effectively doubling the benefit. You could even run back to an Objective in your Deployment Area or to hide in, or behind, terrain for extra cover.

You could even cast this on your Librarian which could give you several advantages. First off, you could reposition to the cover of terrain or a friendly unit. If the unit he was with has been decimated he could be at risk of being shot, no longer able to benefit from the Look Out Sir rule, its an extra layer of protection.

Perhaps the sneakiest way of using it on your Librarian though is to reposition him to make best use of his other abilities. The power doesn't stop him from casting his second power. The combos here are great. Other than just throwing a Smite power at an enemy you couldn’t reach before, you could use the three powers not yet covered, Mind Raid, Hallucination and Tenebrous Curse. If your PHOBOS frontline is faltering he can very quickly move to provide much needed support. Even advancing in his own movement phase to give him a 6 inch normal move, plus d6 advance plus 12 from the benefit of Temporal Corridor. Super Speedy.

Cons

This power could be situational base on who you're facing. Close range armies such as Orks and Tyranids are going to be able to close round objectives tightly and deny your sneaky attempt to steal it from them.

You could need all the firepower you've got and then this power suddenly gets under use, especially if you’ve forgotten to go for the objectives.

With the short range of the power you'll have to be careful not to leave your Librarian exposed to being out of the effect of Look Out Sir. Its a power that really reinforces a PHOBOS heavy list that is committed to Objectives over firepower and with a bad matchup with your opponent you might not be getting any use from it.

Summary

Temporal Corridor is a powerful ability but limited in utility. It could be handy to have in your back pocket, especially against armies that have less of a board presence such as Custodes but the trade off in firepower makes it difficult to use effectively.

Careful placement of units and use of this power will reward a skilled player but others may prefer the utility of other powers in the Obfuscation Discipline as they are easier to use.

If your opponent is using this, be aware of the limitations around Look Out Sir and of the sheer speed a unit of 2 wound power armoured demi gods can get if they have a path to an objective.

'All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'