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Gentactics
Gentactics
You measure. You choose whether to move or not. If you choose to move, you choose the
direction and distance.
How far you can move depends on the phase and the model's type and/or special rules, but the
general distances for everything except non-Walker Vehicles are 6" in the movement phase, 1d6"
in the shooting phase in lieu of shooting (this is called Running), and 2d6" in the assault phase if
you did not run and have an enemy to target (this is called Charging); when Charging, you either
make it to your target or not at all, with no partial movement.
The general distances for non-Walker Vehicles are choosing 6" or 12" in the Movement Phase
(which modifies how many weapons can fire at what accuracy) and then 6" or shooting in the
shooting phase.
Vehicles must pivot on their center when turning, rather than moving to the sides.
Unless you have been Rammed by another vehicle, you may not end your move within 1" of any
enemy unit. Unless you are a Skimmer, Jump Infantry, Jet Infantry, or Jetbike, you may not come
within 1" of an enemy unit at any point in your movement.
This means your 1" wide terminator cannot move through a 2.5" gap created by two enemy units.
This also means that a line of models in unit coherency (2" separation) cannot be moved through
by enemy infantry, allowing you to stop an enemy from assaulting a critical unit with a line of
expendable or powerful models. This technique is called bubble wrapping.
Remember that not all of the unit has to move as long as they maintain unit cohesion. This means
that you can have the models with heavy weapons staying still while your assault or rapid fire
weapons move up.
Remember that a "Jet Pack", mostly seen on Tau Battlesuits, is not a "Jump Pack" and thus does
not allow to move 2d6 in your normal movement phase. It has some other features on movement,
see the Jump_pack Page for more details.
Basic Advice[edit]
Unless your strategy depends on it, keep your units from being strung out. You never know when
an enemy may change tactics and a unit may need fire support quickly.
Unit cohesion means models in a unit must be within 2 inches of each other, but that doesn't mean
you want your blobs of troops in base contact at all times. Keep your models in loose formation;
horrible things happen under blast templates.
Remember, every inch counts. If you run and you roll a 1, tough, one inch can reform your entire
squad from a jumbled mess to an orderly squad in tip top shape.
Good god people, remember when moving your vehicles and walkers which side their heaviest
armor is on. So if you have a Leman Russ and you see the enemy has Lascannons, point the front
of the damn tank towards them, or eat shit and die.
Additional note: Be VERY careful when shooting tanks with fixed forward guns, (Vindicator I'm
looking at you), like a real world tank destroyer if you try to turn to one target, you may well
leave your self open.
Use a tape measure. With the start of 6th edition and continuing in 7e you can measure anything
at any time.
Someone who wants to flee will attempt to get away any way they can. Do not focus on directly
pursuing an enemy unit, instead you should cover their escape routes.
Sometimes, the bait they throw out to cover the retreat of their unit is worth killing, even if it's
small-fry by comparison.
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Listbuilding 101[edit]
Pick an army you like, for whichever reason, and memorise its codex. Start with a HQ and two
Troops. Troops aren't as important in 7th edition now that all units can hold objectives, as well as
with the addition of unbound armies. However, when it comes to late game contesting of
objectives, you're going to be glad they have objective secured.
Next decide on a play style. Even within an army this can vary a lot, as Mech Guard is very
different from Blob Guard, and Bike Marines are different from Drop Assault Marines.
Note that it's acceptable to go though these two stages in the opposite order. Pick a play style and
then an army that fits it. If you want to drown your enemy in cheap bodies then you don't want to
play Space Marines, but Orks, Nids or Imperial Guard. If you're a treadhead then you might find
yourself at home in the Guard rather than Dark Eldar, but if you like flyers and fast, paper-thin
vehicles they fit the bill (plus their vehicles are *gorgeous*). For the weeabos we have the fishes
with vagina foreheads in Gundam battlesuits (abbreviated as Tau), while if you have a penchant
for scratchbuilding stuff out of trash you are at home with the Orks and their ramshackle vehicles
and weapons.
Next if you want a chance of winning you need to balance enough anti infantry power (typically
high number of shots at mid-low strength and AP) to counter hordes (Guard,Orks,Nids) and
enough anti tank power (few shots at high strength and low AP) to counter a wall of tanks and or
monsters (Guard, Space Marines, Nid-zilla). Most armies fall in between these categories, but it's
best to keep the extremes in mind when building your army.
It's also a good idea to look over the codex and tactics for armies other than your own, so you
know what kind of forces and strategies other players will bring to the table.
"Good players build a list to deal with whatever may come their way. Bad players build a list
hoping their opponent cannot counter it."
In theory, two people can attempt to build armies to out-tailor and out-counter each others' hard
counters, but in practice, it's easier to attempt to strive for something resembling a "Takes-All
Comer" army; if nothing else, sticking with the same army and gradually making adjustments to
it as you learn what works and what doesn't work, will improve your skill as a player, compared
to going "Fool, you think your Wraithknight can save you next time. I shall return with
POISON!"mpl
So, what makes a TAC list anyway? What with fliers, and psykers, big tanks and giant robots,
what all *can* we include to make our army safe and sane? Although these are not fundamentals,
in many cases, the following are safe bets:
Seven is your lucky number: Generally, a good starting point for your army, is whether you have
the ability to throw out a lot of Strength 6-7 shooting. This number is a sweet-spot one where you
can threaten most light/medium with reliability, as well as force masses of saves upon smaller
high-toughness units. Some armies have an easier time doing this than others (Craftworld Eldar
are infamous for the amount of firepower that massed Wave Serpents can throw out). Most
importantly, however, these weapons have good range, or are easy to maneuver around; whether
running Broadsides with Missile Pods, Nightscythes, or even Autocannon Havocs, having at least
two sources of Ranged S7 will give you a solid anchor to build most armies around.
Two HQs is two too many: Although this rule is no longer an absolute, many HQs have
historically been overcosted while not contributing to your army as a whole. There are many
notable exceptions to this rule, however (Tyranids and Flying Hive Tyrants are a staple, and
having multiple Librarians seldom hurts), but for many armies, an HQ is an expensive tax you
build into your army's cost. Note that this is NOT true for Chaos, who generally have awesome
and expensive ones - although playing them properly can be tricky. The same exception can be
said for Guard, any Guard player knows or should know that they should be taking commissars,
priests, and primaris psykers along with the standard CCS or tank commander.
Know your Point Level: A 2000-point game is *not* a 1000-point game with 1000 points tacked
onto it. As your games grow in size, you will find that you begin to run out of slots. While a
Chaos player can get by with running a pair of Obliterators at 1000 points, such an investment
won't suffice for anti-tank at higher levels. Slots become more heavily contested and you find you
may end up running out of Fast Attacks/Heavy Supports. So then you take an Ally, or a
Formation. Taking an ally usually means taking a second HQ unit, and as mentioned above, HQs
have generally been the most point-inefficient part of any army in general. General point-levels
for 40k include:
200 points: At this level, you're playing Kill Team instead, or probably Heralds of Ruin.
1500 points: Aka "UK GT" level. This is generally considered the smallest point level for
tournaments.
1850 points: If you're in the states, most tournaments will use this point-level. NoVa and Da
Boyz, as do the Bay Area Open and the Las Vegas Open (whom are run by the same team).
2000 points: This was the previous point level for the NoVa US GT, and is still the point level for
the Narrative Campaign. Some other tournments may use this level but it's being superceded in
favor of 1850 points.
2500 points: Aka clusterfuck-hammer. Back when GW used to run 'Ard Boyz, this was the point-
level they used. Of course, they ran it in 5th edition, where you only had *one* FOC, equivalent
to having only one CAD. What this meant for a lot of armies was that they could take their
"good" units, run out of slots, then be forced to take lots of filler. Meanwhile, Guard could just
keep scaling up, adding more tanks to their squadrons, adding more squads to their platoons...we
don't speak much of this point level.
Build an Army, not a Mob: Remember that your units should support each other. Generally, you
want to avoid "Pure" armies, or gravitating towards one extreme of list-building. While running a
pure foot horde may look aesthetically appealing, it will suffer against players running mass
mechanized vehicles (plus it will be a major chore to paint, and your turns will take forever...).
While running a small elite squad may play quicker (and be cheaper), each casualty *hurts*.
Notable "Pure" armies that don't work include:
The Scuttling Swarm: Aka "Horde" Tyranids; Tyranids in theory can drown an opponent in bodies
and win. Key word is "in theory." In practice, the moment someone brings multiple vehicles,
trouble is inbound. Although it's possible (and potentially doable) to destroy a Rhino in melee by
glancing it to death with Hormagants, you cannot consolidate out of a close combat with a
vehicle. What this means is that any time you want to charge a 35-point APC with your 180-
something point horde of bugs, you're doing your opponent a favor by bunching your bugs up
into easy-bake flamer (or other anti-swarm options; an IG player can delete entire 30-Gaunt
broods with just a single Wyvern, if you bunch them up for him) formations. When the opposing
enemy vehicles proceed to Tank Shock you, this only hurts you even further; meanwhile, his fire
support is picking off your Synapse creatures and ranged AT. Lest you think "But wait, I can
spread out my Hormagaunts and attack an entire car-park at once", you then read the rules for
Disordered Charges, and the fact Furious Charge does not trigger during Disordered Charges...
Deathwing: Be it by Plasma or mass shooting, each casualty is noticed. You move like
infantrymen, and pay too much for shooting to de-mech your opponents.
Swordwind Aspect Warrior armies: Nope, you won't take "one unit of Fire Dragons, one of
Scorpions, and one of Banshees." Dragons, if that.
Cicadas and you!: Cicadas follow an evolutionary stratagem known as "Predator satiation", other
wise known as "The predators can't eat all of us!". I mention this because it's something to keep in
mind. While it's true that the above pure army's don't work, there is something to be said in
running lots of something, since you know your opponent can't kill them all. It's OK to have a
strong theme and have a predominance of one type of unit since you know your opponent can't
wipe you out the majority of your army fast enough with the dedicated weapons they have, just
don't use it mindlessly and grab nothing but Gaunts or Terminators or something. As ever balance
is key, it can be an imbalance, just so long as there is some balance.
Several successful tournament armies in the past have a few things in common, to use some case
studies:
An Eldar player running Wave Serpents (3 with Avengers, 2 with Fire Dragons), Nightspinners,
Hawks, and a Wraithknight has the advantage that *all* of his units are fast, there's anti-tank and
anti-infantry threat built into most every unit, and can comfortably stay back and play a defensive
game, while still having the means to flush out the occasional unit in melee as need be.
A Space Marine player running White Scars Bikers and allied with Space Wolf Thunderwolf
Cavalry has the advantage of an army that moves *fast*, has mobile shooting, the ability to
threaten giant monstrous creatures at long-range, and the ability to use the melee prowess of
Thunderwolves as a mobile anchorpoint.
Another Space Marine player using Sentinels of Terra rules ran lots of Scouts backed by
Lascannon Devestators and a Thunderfire Cannon, lead by Lysander escorting a unit of Grav-
Cannon Centurions, backed it up with an allied detachment of Flesh Tearers (including a
Librarian, meltagun drop squad, and Mephiston). The Scouts were able to run through cover,
capping and holding objectives, while being able to finish off any errant units that wandered near
them.
All three armies have a few things in common which made their armies work well:
All three of them have several ways to deal with tanks, and light/heavy infantry. The bike loses
out on "ranged" anti-tank for the ability to force numerous threats at once (as well as being able to
pack multimeltas), all tough and fast ones to boot.
All three of them have some primary advantage with regards to movement; not only does being
fast let you move around the game board faster, but high speed also lets you more effectively take
advantage of Reserves. In the case of the Sentinels list, the loss of 12" movement was offset by
having Infiltrate & Scout rules, and having access to Drop Pods.
All three of them are primarily shooty, but have at least one big "beatstick": Building an army
purely for assault won't get you too far (Argueably not exactly True, YMMV), but having at least
one tough guy will keep your opponent honest.
This isn't the only successful paradigm for building a list, but understanding "Beatsticks
anchoring lots of mobile fire teams" (Or "Heavy Cavalry + Horse Archers") will get you far.
More detailed specifics will are found in the "Individual Army Tactics" of course.
A popular tactic in the tournament scene, especially in 6th edition but with applications for any
game. The idea is that the units holding objectives are highly versatile, very cost effective, very
quick, and completely replaceable. Furthermore, *every* objective is covered this way. In high-
objective games, like all maelstrom, this allows for the nabbing of undefended or undefendavle
loacations. If one unit runs into trouble, another identical unit is ready to immediately replace
them. DEldar, Sentinel Scouts, and Tyranid spore drop lists have all succeeded in this way.
So you've managed to hamfistedly slap together your first list, its even won you a few games. but
is it good? probably not, so you go to one of TeeGee's list threads, and immediately get yelled at
for your poor formatting, lack of experience and general overall clean-shavenness
DO:- Post what you want to do with this list (tournament, casual ect)
DO:- Post the total cost of each model (for characters) or unit
DONT:- Post the individual cost break down for each upgrade
DONT:- Copy the list directly from battle scribe (or equivalent)
DONT:- bump excessively either, as that will diminish the likelihood anons will respond.
DONT:- be a wanker to somebody who gave you negative feedback. they gave it for a reason
Also remember, to get feed back, an anon who either plays or knows your army has to see it. this
means you might have to post it a few times, at different times of the day, or included an image in
the post. The less played the army the less likely you will get feedback first time: chaos usually
gets feed back first time, but sisters generally have to repost a few time. Just be patient
New to 7th, the psychic phase is where you use your vast array of mind powers.
Shooting Stuff[edit]
The basics[edit]
When using ballistic skill, your to-hit number is 7 - BS. Ie you roll 3+ to hit at BS4 and 4+ to hit
at BS3. This caps out at 2+ and will "wrap around" at BS 6 to 2+/6+ which gives you a reroll if
you miss that hits on 6+. This also caps at BS 10 at 2+/2+ at which point if you miss, you might
as well sacrifice small furry animals to the dice gods because they obviously hate your guts.
You inflict instant death if the strength of your attack is double that of the target's toughness.
Good way to remove HQs that lack the Eternal Warrior special rule. When rolling to wound, if
your strength and their toughness match, you wound on 4+. For every point of strength higher
than toughness you need to roll 1 less which caps at 2+. Likewise for every point of toughness
over strength, you add 1 to the target number to wound up to 6+. A weapon has two 6+ to wound
slots and thus can harm units with a toughness of up to 3 points higher than its strength. Most
infantry longarms are strength 4 and thus can harm units of up to toughness 7. Anything
toughness 8 or above will need special weapons to wound.
Strength 1: Sticks and harsh language. Even a guardsman can punch harder than this. Usually
seen in weapons with the Poisoned or Haywire special rule so that you can't really use the weapon
for anything but its intended purpose.
Strength 2: Geriatric Tau punches. Same as above but at least now you can sorta harm GEQs on a
5+.
Strength 3: Flashlight/Lasgun. The lowest strength for most weapons, harms MEQ on a 5+.
Strength 4: Bolter. Standard infantry longarm. Lowest strength that can damage a vehicle, though
only on a 6.
Strength 5: Heavy Bolter. The weakest level for a heavy weapon, wounds GEQs on a 2+ which is
useful for thinning out hordes.
Strength 6: Krak Grenade. The weakest level for any dedicated anti-tank weapon with a 50%
chance to glance AV 10.
Strength 7: Plasma Gun. Omnivorous diet of destruction. Wounds MEQs on 2+ and is decent at
punching holes through transports.
Strength 8: Meltagun. Dedicated anti-tank weaponry, earliest level than can glance AV 14. Will
inflict Instant Death to most infantry.
Strength 9: Lascannon. Misbegotten weapon that wishes it were strength 10. Then again, one unit
(the Basilisk artillery) fires this across the whole map so it can be a fair trade.
Strength 10: Demolisher cannon. Powerful enough to kill most vehicles and infantry in one shot.
There are two ways to kill a tough unit: Either you use a weapon to negate the strong defense, or
you can attempt to overwhelm the unit's defense and fire enough dakka into it to make it fail a
save. Bring the appropriate amount of dakka to combat a heavy unit, lest you be the one shot to
hell.
Example: Space Marine Terminators hate Guardsmen, Necron, and Tau bricks because they put
out a fuckton of weak shots that will make them inevitably fail armor saves. Or rather than rely
on 50 lasgun shots the guardsmen can instead bring a plasma gun that can negate the terminators
armor save making them much easier to kill, even with only two shots, the plasma gun only needs
to cook one terminator to make its points back. Conversely the Terminators can bring a Heavy
flamer, negating the guardsmen's or other bricks cover save, armor and numbers thanks to its AP
and template nature.
Consequently, using too many units on a weak enemy is a waste of firepower and resources.
Every unit who is somewhere can't be somewhere else.
Although over-kill might be considered bad by some, lady luck might not always be on your side.
You want to succeed even if plans A, B and C fail.
During your shooting phase, assess what target options each one of your shooty units has, and
always have your units who only have a single option fire first. The reason for this is if you've got
unit A in a position to shoot anything he likes and unit B which only has one thing to shoot at,
you want B to take the shot first. If you shoot B's target with A first instead, you run the risk of
destroying it or breaking their morale, and you'll feel like a complete moron for depriving B of
anything to shoot at.
Another thing that is good to remember is which guns to fire first. Always fire blast weapons first,
because the number of wounds they deal is always equal to the number of units in the squad at
best, whereas regular guns can deal as many wounds as they hit.
Advanced Notes[edit]
Generally speaking, don't rely on blast or flamer weapons to rack up large numbers of kills, as an
enemy general can easily spread out his models to minimize potential damage. More than
anything, they exist to keep the enemy honest and prevent an extreme concentration of forces.
That said, there are four major scenarios for enemy models to bunch-up.
When a unit emerges from Deep Strike, and either rolls poorly to Run, forfeits running to-shoot
(though a lot of Deepstrike units can reliably "Fire & Run" with the right power combinations), or
is targeted by an Interceptor Weapon beforehand.
When the unit rolls poorly to consolidate after an assault (of note is the fact that models cannot
consolidate after assaulting a vehicle). Don't forget your flamers for the second wave.
When the unit loses its transport, either to a wreck or explosion. A classic "one-two-punch" for a
Marine army is to use heavier weapons to destroy enemy transports, then immediately follow-up
with the Thunderfire cannons before the surviving passengers can spread out!
If you want to maximize the amount of damage done to bunched-up models, four AOE weapons
firing from the same unit will inflict more damage, than from four different units. To use a (very
vacuum) example, let us compare two (vacuum) scenarios, with Orks as target practice:
Four units of Chaos Space Marines, each with one flamer and 4 Bolters, fire at a unit of 20 Orks.
All other things being considered, each flamer-equipped model can hit roughly 5 Orks apiece.
The first unit fires, with one flamer hitting 5 Orks. After rolling to-hit and wound, the flamer kills
about 2-3 Orks. The remaining models fire their Bolters, and probably kill another 4 Orks. The
next unit fires, and is lucky if there is even one Ork in range of its flamer.
On the other hand, let us suppose a unit of Chaos Chosen with four Flamers was firing at the unit
of Orks. Each one hits 5 Orks, for a total of 20 hits. You now roll to-wound and the flamers
themselves kill an average of 10 Orks, for a fraction of the investment.
Many squads gain a disproportionate amount of strength from any special/heavy weapons they
are carrying with them, or from the occasional superior character leading said unit. As a result,
there are some occasions where you can mostly neuter the strength of the unit if you kill those
specific models.
Although Characters can get "Look Out Sir" rolls, troopers armed with upgraded weapons do not.
Thus, a competent player will generally hide such models in the "Center" of a formation, where
they are shielded by their buddies (since the closest models from an attack vector are hit first).
There are two main ways to single out enemy models in a unit: The first is to use weapons which
can single out specific models. This includes attacks with the Precision Shot rule, or
Beams/Focused Witchfires. These attacks tend to have inefficient economy of force.
The second way is to force key models to be the the closest visible ones singled out by your
firepower. This is generally more efficient, but is situational and requires more prep-work to pull-
off. Several ways to more reliably force your attacks to wound the models you want dead include
the following:
Using "Barrage" weapons (Mortars/etc) changes the attack point of origin from the firing unit's
location, to ground-zero of the blasts in question.
Though it's basic, it bears repeating: Always keep careful track of the order in which the models
in your unit fire. A good motto is "Area of Effect Weapons First", "Rank and File Weapons Next",
"Specials Are Last But Not Least." You want to remove as many chaff models as possible before
you give your Plasmagunner a clear shot to the enemy Plasmagunner.
If you have ready access to powers that let you move and fire during the Shooting Phase (Battle
Focus, Feints & Ambushes, the "Fire & Move" order for Guard, Marines in a Stormlance Demi-
Company, etc), you can line troops down one attack vector. Units that can move after firing can
move aside so they don't grant the enemy cover from your next firing squad (think of center-
peeling and you're not too far off). Units that can move-then-fire in the shooting phase, you can
further reposition your models based on any opportunities to hit the "next closest model".
If all else fails, you can aim to block visibility to the parts of the enemy unit you don't want to
shoot. This is yet another reason why Rhinos and convoy formations can be nasty. You can play
"Space Invaders/shooting gallery" with your troops forming a triangle, and firing at a distinct
subset of models they wish to remove.
Assault[edit]
Assaulting is somewhat less reliable in 7th, due to Overwatch and random charge ranges, but it
can still be a highly effective way of dispatching your enemies. It's also very situational, so make
sure you are familiar with just what your unit can do and to whom it can do it to best. You'll be
primarily concerned with delivering your fighting men into assaults reliably and keeping them
alive between combats. While Assault has Less of an impact in 7th edition it's still a potent force
to be considered. remember 7" is the average roll on a 2d6 charge and Dont rely on overwatch to
mow your opposition down before it gets to you, Assault is Far from dead and you'll regret it if
you treat it as such.
Optimizing your chances for success: Precision Shots should always aim to eliminate serious
threats to your Assault game (i.e.: Template weapons, Marker Drones, Single Defensive Grenade
bearers, etc.) Assault Vehicle, Crusader, Fleet, and Hammer of Wrath make your assaults more
reliable, by getting your units closer, neutralizing enemies before they can fight back, and
ensuring that when you Sweep, you stand a better chance of knocking the target out. Aim to kill
the target of your assault during his turn, never yours, because killing it in yours leaves you open
to enemy shooting. Pinning shots are your friend.
Weapon selection: Models who rely on faster initiative should seldom take Unwieldy weapons,
while with slower, tougher and better armoured troops it's less of an issue. Impact weapons such
as power spears are useless without either Hit & Run or a reliable way to get the charge. Rending
is no substitute for AP 2, but has its uses, especially in quantity. Above all, kill them before they
kill you, and to that end, take Concussive when you're faster and you can get it, but remember it
only makes a difference for multi-wound models. And don't sweat AP, or lack thereof.
Assaults happen twice per game turn vs shooting's one, they dissallow cover saves, and they
almost always have a better chance of dislodging units from objectives owing to how leadership
resolves.
Advanced Notes[edit]
As a general rule of thumb, you want to break or destroy your enemy in your opponent's assault
phase. That way, your opponent does not have a shooting phase before your assault teams move
towards their next target.
Generally speaking, Overwatch is more of an annoyance than a true threat, though certain rules,
bonuses, etc (Dark Angel Chapter Tactics, Tau Supporting Fire/Counterfire Defensive Systems,
flamers, etc) can take your toll, especially if you're relying on glass cannon units (Harlequins
notably). Some special "Negate Overwatch" powers exist, but there are other ways to mitigate the
effects of Overwatch.
Pinned units cannot Overwatch. However, this generally is not a state you can reliably inflict on
your opponent.
Overwatch takes place before you move your charging unit, and is still subject to normal rules for
Line of Sight, cover, etc. Moving a Rhino or other vehicle flat-out to block off models from
shooting your chargers is always a valid trick.
If blocking Line of Sight is not an option, then aim to eat the overwatch. One way to do this is to
have a "tanky" unit lead the vanguard. For example, when charging a unit armed with multiple
flamers, have a fast monster/walker lead the charge.
Alternately, there's sacrificing an otherwise-depleted unit. If you have one grunt remaining from a
squad, have him charge first before following up with a more intact unit. Either your opponent
must waste the Overwatch killing that one single model, or that model must tie up the enemy unit.
Remember that pile-ins use the same overall rules for charging, and thus any unit must ultimately
maintain coherency. When attacking a large spread-out unit, you can negate a lot of its strength
by attacking on opposing flanks.
Multi-assaults are where things get interesting. Remember that should a model be engaged in an
assault with two enemy units, and is in only base-to-base with models from one of those units, it
must allocate its attacks against that unit. What this rule means, is that if you have more valuable
units you wish to preserve in assault, then you can plan your attack vectors accordingly. Hilarity
is forcing Commander Smashfucker to waste his Strength 10 super-hammer of doom on rank-
and-file Termagants while his bodyguard is being eaten alive by the nearby Carnifex!
The ability to quit close combats is a very powerful ability. It can be defensive, preventing ranged
units from being tied down in melee, or it can be offensive, allowing assault units to "pinball"
around the battlefield. Hit & Run is the main evasion ability, though Gate of Infinity finds its use
as well (attaching Draigo to a unit of Centurions is the classic one-two of the infamous
"Gravstar"). Another dirty trick you can use Hit and Run for in conjunction with a sufficiently
durable unit (ex: A Conclave of the Burning One with a Deceiver Shard) is "Pulling" units off
objectives. Attack the unit from the flank, wait for them to consolidate away from the objective,
Hit & Run, and repeat the process.
Vehicle Tactics[edit]
Mastery of metal box movement is key. They can be used as walls to many different effects. For
bluntly blocking the enemies movement, or funneling some men on foot.
The most common metal box tactic used by armies that have cheap enough transports with few
guns is to disembark in the movement phase, shoot with the infantry in the shooting phase, then
flat out the transport in front of the infantry.
"Basicaly Ram them and hope it explodes :D it really is fun when it does"
It is almost always better to re-roll dice than to get +1. For instance, re-rollable 4+ has almost a
10% edge over 3+.
Because of how people throw dice, a re-rollable 2+ has a lower chance than math suggests.
People tend to use the same rolling motions, which means those dice often end up in the same
position ("1" both times).
A scatter die has a 1/3 chance of rolling "hit", making it better than or equal to BS2.
Despite being good for low-accuracy units, blasts also favour high BS units. Up to BS7, you get
increase RoI on accuracy.
Against large targets, like tanks, a difference of 1-2" makes little difference. However, *any*
scatter usually costs hits against infantry.
The average of 2d6 is 7.
Picking the highest of two dice adds about 0.5 to the average roll.
GW dice are not mathematically fair! This set of mathematical data presumes you are using
perfectly balanced casino dice which are. See following for details.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/That%27s_How_I_Roll_-_A_Scientific_Analysis_of_Dice
==============================================================
In previous editions, psychic powers were pretty much extra gear/guns for the psyker; they
activated whenever, simply took a Leadership check to trigger, could maybe be countered by
certain models, and that was pretty much it.
In 7th edition psychic powers are used in their own phase, right after the Movement Phase
(movement -> psychic -> shooting -> assault -> end) and the mechanics involved are slightly
more, well, involved, similar to the Magic phase in Warhammer Fantasy with a few key
differences.
The basic idea is that each and every one of your psykers now generates dice into an army-wide
pool of psychic dice. When you cast a psychic power, you decide how many of these dice you
want to throw into the attempt - using more dice in an individual power makes the power more
likely to activate (while increasing the chances of Perils of the Warp, or a psychic misfire), while
using fewer dice per power, you can attempt to cast more powers per turn that, while less likely to
succeed, also are less likely to go terribly, terribly wrong for the caster. Overall, the new system
seems more like an active part of the game, rather than a few special rules tacked onto the game
itself, and the way it's designed is more flexible to allow some actual tactics over the phase.
How It Works[edit]
To generate his psychic powers, a given psyker first chooses how many powers he wants from
each psychic discipline known to him, up to a total of his Mastery Level. in other words, a
Mastery Level 2 Space Marine Librarian generates two psychic powers, and can choose to
generate them from any of the psychic disciplines marked in his Codex entry.
The psyker then rolls, one by one, for the powers in the disciplines he chose. Each power is
numbered, so each die roll indicates one power he knows from the discipline the psyker rolled on.
In the case of multiple rolls matching, thus yielding multiple copies of a particular power, a re-
roll of one of the copies is conducted. If the psyker doesn't like a particular power, he may choose
to exchange the rolled power for the Primaris power of that particular discipline; this decision is
made immediately after the roll for the power being exchanged. If a psyker generates all his
powers from the same psychic discipline, he gets Psychic Focus - he automatically knows the
Primaris power of his chosen discipline in addition to his other powers. If at any point the psyker
ever gains a power from a different discipline he loses Psychic Focus. Once all your psykers are
done rolling for powers, you're set.
The odds of a psyker of a given Mastery Level (ML) being able to guarantee a given power by
rolling on the same discipline until he gets it is ML/6, which is slightly better than multiple
psykers at lower MLs doing it: for example, an ML2 psyker can guarantee a power with odds
33.33%, while two ML1 psykers both trying for it will manage it (on at least one of them) with
odds 30.56%.
Notes:
The decision to exchange a power for a primaris power is done immediately after you roll the die
to generate a power. You don't roll for all your powers and then choose to exchange one or more
into primaris powers. Make the choice on which table to roll separately for each power you
generate - so if you luck out on the first roll, you're perfectly valid in picking a power from a
different discipline.
A psyker may not know multiple copies of the same power; should you roll the same power
multiple times for the same psyker while generating powers, you'll simply reroll the 'extra' copies
in the same discipline until you end up with different powers. It is, however, entirely possible for
multiple different psykers to know the same power.
Psykers with a Mark of Chaos or psykers that are Daemons of a particular Chaos God instead
automatically know the primaris power of their chosen deity, regardless of the other powers they
might generate.
A psyker who has a force weapon of any description automatically also has the Force psychic
power to actually activate the weapon. This does NOT count as one of his mastery level picks,
nor does it prevent him from getting Psychic Focus.
A psyker who has fixed powers of no discipline (Ezekiel's Mind Worm / Ahazra Redth's Mirage)
does not count these towards psychic focus so long as he generates any remaining powers from a
single discipline. This stops them from losing out on Psychic Focus just by having a pre-set
power.
Some psykers - like most Grey Knight units, Eldar Hemlocks and so on - know only
predetermined set of psychic powers. Unless otherwise mentioned, these are the ONLY powers
they know, they do NOT generate additional ones, and are NOT eligible for Psychic Focus.
Unlike in previous editions, a psyker's potential power selection is NOT limited by his mastery
level. That is, a Mastery Level 1 psyker knows generally speaking one power, but that power may
well be Warp Charge 2 or 3 - though a low-level psyker with high-charge powers will have to rely
even more on luck of the dice and other psykers in his army to produce enough dice for casting.
When your psychic phase begins, you roll a single die. Both you and your opponent generate this
many warp charges in your pool, plus the total amount of Mastery levels in your respective
armies (plus any extra from wargear and/or special rules). You use the dice in your pool to
attempt to cast psychic powers. Your opponent uses dice in his pool to attempt to counter your
powers (Deny the Witch) and keep them from activating.
Notes:
Only psykers actively on the board generate dice. If your Librarian is sitting in a Storm Raven in
reserve, he's not contributing to your psychic pool (nor casting powers). Similarly, dead psykers
don't generate dice. (A psyker in a transport or building on the table is, however, in play and thus
does generate psychic dice).
ALL models with the Psyker or Psychic Pilot rules or units with the Brotherhood of
Psykers/Sorcerers rules generate warp charges equal to their mastery level. In other words, things
like Grey Knight vehicles and Eldar Hemlock Wraithfighters generate psychic dice (when they're
on the table).
Only the player whose turn it is rolls the initial d6 for generating psychic dice; both players use
the same result and add their respective mastery levels to it. If you rolled a 6 for generating
psychic dice, your opponent also gets more dice for trying to Deny your powers.
Psychic dice are generated at the start of the psychic phase. If one of your psykers somehow dies
during your psychic phase (say, from a Perils of the Warp attack) he obviously will not be
generating any more dice on your subsequent turns, but the dice you have remaining in your pool
-that moment- are not affected.
2: Casting Powers[edit]
Okay, so you have a bunch of dice waiting to be turned into mindbullets or whatever. Next up,
using them.
The player actively casting powers (you, in this exercise) chooses one of his psykers and one of
the powers that psyker knows; if the power has a variable cost, choose the cost now. You then
choose a number of dice from your psychic pool and roll them. Every roll of a 4+ on a psychic
dice is an activated 'warp charge'. Each power requires a certain number of warp charges to go off
- most take one, a handful need two, and a few rare ones take three. If you got enough warp
charges from your psychic dice to meet or exceed the number of warp charges for the power, the
power activated successfully. If you failed to meet the number of warp charges on the power, it
fizzled - the dice used in casting it are wasted, and the power doesn't go off.
Notes:
Casting psychic powers no longer affects the rest of the psyker's actions on the turn; a psyker can
cast any of the powers he knows regardless of whether or not he moved on his Movement Phase,
and casting psychic powers does not prevent him from running, shooting, or declaring a charge
on the following Shooting and Assault phases. Being locked in combat does not prevent the
psyker from generating dice, but does prevent the psyker from casting Witchfire and Focused
Witchfire (shooting attack) powers. Buffs, debuffs and summons are A-OK though.
A psyker may cast multiple different witchfire (shooting attack) powers during your psychic
phase, as long as he has the necessary dice, may target them at the same or different units as he
pleases, and unlike with regular shooting attacks, is not limited to charging at one of those
targeted units in his assault phase.
Psychic dice are not 'earmarked' for the psyker who generated them; it's entirely possible for you
to use all your psychic die to manifest dice from one of your psykers, regardless of where the dice
actually came from.
A psyker in a building or a transport can manifest ONLY witchfire and focused witchfire (shooty)
psychic powers, and even then only if he can draw line of sight to his target from the
transport's/building's fire points or the transport itself (if open-topped). If your psyker intends to
cast buffs/debuffs or anything more elaborate than blowing shit up with his brain, he's got to
climb out of that metal box first. Similarly, units that are inside a transport or building cannot be
targeted by a psychic power, beneficial or not. (The battlements of a building are not considered
to be 'inside' a building, so a psyker can stand, say, on the roof of a Bastion or on a Skyshield
Landing Pad and gain a degree of protection from that).
Any one psyker can only attempt to manifest a given power once in a psychic phase, regardless of
if it failed or succeeded. Two psykers knowing the same power can of course each (attempt to)
cast it, at different or same targets.
A single unit can only be affected by one copy of a given blessing at any one time - so
Hammerhand, for example, no longer stacks. Two DIFFERENT blessings on the same unit are A-
OK, though.
Since psychic powers are used in the Psychic phase, you cannot use a witchfire power to shoot
Overwatch if you get assaulted.
Any dice not used in casting powers are lost and wasted at the end of the psychic phase.
The following table shows what chance you can expect to cast a power for a given number of
warp charges. Note that this for the standard odds of harnessing (4+) and periling (at least 2
sixes), and hence does not cover situations where harnessing is improved or periling is more
likely (such as with Daemonology).
Dice Success, WC1 Success, No Perils, WC1 Success, WC2 Success, No Perils,
WC2 Success, WC3 Success, No Perils, WC3 Perils
Generally, for a good chance of success you need to use double the warp charges of the spell's
level to beat a pure coin flip; you can add 1 or 2 charges, with diminishing returns, to increase
your odds, but should never commit more than 2 extra charges, as your odds of perils will
become too high to be worth it.
Drawing raw psychic energy from hell itself to fuel otherworldly powers is a hazardous job.
Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes things notice you when you tap into the Warp.
When you cast a psychic power, every roll of 2 or more sixes on your psychic dice triggers a
Perils of the Warp. In previous editions, a Perils of the Warp was simply an automatic wound that
was difficult or impossible to save against. In 7th edition, it's a d6 table the psyker rolls on; in the
table below, "wound" means the psyker suffers 1 wound or glancing hit with no saves allowed
(FNP *is* allowed). Leadership tests are taken by the Periling psyker.
Name Number Leadership Test Not Taken Leadership Test SuccessLeadership Test
Failure
Dragged Into the Warp 1 - Wound. Psyker is removed as a casualty and his unit
takes D6 S6 AP1 hits, starting from the closest to where he was removed.
Mental Purge 2 Wound. Randomly select one power from the psyker. It is lost for the rest
of the game. - -
Power Drain 3 Wound. If it's the psychic phase, both players lose D3 Warp Charge
points. - -
Warp Surge 6 - Psyker gains 3++, Fleshbane, Armourbane, and Smash until the
next friendly psychic phase. Wound.
Notes:
Yes, Warp Surge pretty much temporarily turns your Weirdboy or Librarian into a mini-daemon
prince. The problem is actually using it. Unless your Psyker is already part of a CQC squad or
running solo, your have to choose between running into combat to make the most of it or being
able to shoot a non-assault weapon, and unless you're looking at your opponent's warlord or some
other very high value target(psyker) and you think your opponent will be dumb enough to accept
a challenge from a mini-Daemon Prince, you're likely better off shooting.
A Perils of the Warp is always ONE roll on the table, regardless of how many sixes you actually
rolled. If you rolled four sixes on your psychic test, you did NOT Perils twice as hard.
A psychic power succeeds or fails regardless of whether or not you triggered a Perils of the Warp
attack. If you rolled enough warp charges to activate a psychic power, the power does activate -
regardless of whether or not the psyker actually casting the power took a wound or even survived.
Since you need a roll of double sixes on (most) powers to Perils, it's impossible to Perils if you
only use one die in your casting attempt. Similarly, the more dice you pump into a single power,
the more likely it is for you to suffer a Perils attack.
Sanctic and Malefic Daemonology are slightly more risky to play with - unless you're a Grey
Knight (for Sanctic) or a Daemon (for Malefic), powers cast from those disciplines will perils on
ANY roll of doubles (or more) on your psychic dice. The powers are not actually any less likely
to activate than 'regular' powers, but considerably more likely to blow up back in your face.
Therefore it is advised that if you have non-daemon casting Daemonology, then have the psyker
be in Brotherhood of Psykers since Brotherhoods have more wounds to spend on Perils wounds
while still retaining psychic powers. F.ex having Malefic Primaris Psyker in Malefic Wyrdvane
psyker squad.
While one player's psykers cast powers, the other player's psykers try to counter them. Denying
the Witch is how you can (try to) keep the other player's powers from activating.
When your opponent successfully casts a psychic power that affects one or more of your units,
you choose one of them to make a Deny the Witch roll. Basically you choose the unit, pick a
number of dice from your own pool of psychic dice, roll them and add modifiers:
+1 if the unit has one or more models (attached or otherwise) with the Psyker, Psychic Pilot, or
Brotherhood of Psykers/Sorcerers special rules.
+1 if the unit has one or more models with a Mastery level higher than the casting psyker's
Mastery level.
+1 if the unit has one or more models with the Adamantium Will special rule.
Every roll of 6 or more on a Deny the Witch dice negates one successful warp charge from your
opponent's casting attempt. To successfully Deny a psychic power, you must negate -all-
successful warp charges used in casting that power. If you failed to get enough successes on the
Deny roll, the dice are simply wasted and the enemy power still activates.
If none of your units were targeted by the psychic power (the power was a blessing or
summoning power, for example, that doesn't directly effect your units) you can still try Deny the
power; instead of choosing a unit to Deny the power with, you simply choose how many dice to
use in your Deny attempt. Each roll of a straight 6 on a dice negates one warp charge.
Notes:
To successfully Deny a power, you must counter ALL the successful warp charges used in casting
the power. If your opponent uses four dice to cast a 2-charge power and gets three successes, you
must counter all three. Two will NOT be enough.
You decide whether or not to attempt to Deny a power (and how many dice you use, if any)
AFTER your opponent rolls his psychic test for casting the power. You can't be suckered into
Denying powers that wouldn't activate anyways, and you can opt to not try Denying powers that
you don't have a chance to succeed in countering anyways (powers with four successes when all
you have is three dice, and so on).
Obviously rolling multiple sixes on a Deny roll will NOT trigger a Perils of the Warp attack.
If a psychic power targets multiple units, only one of those units gets to do a Deny attempt. If a
psychic blast power scatters and hits two of your units, you pick one to do a Deny with, not try to
Deny twice.
Psychic Hoods have changed - now a unit within 12" of a friendly unit targeted with a psychic
power can roll the Deny attempt as if it was targeted for the power instead of the actual target.
Generally this means getting to benefit from the psyker and his mastery level in the Deny attempt.
If the Deny roll fails, the power still affects the original target, not the bearer of the Hood.
Note that the rule specifically says friendly unit. You cannot, therefore, use a psychic hood to
Deny a power targeted at an Ally of Convenience unit or use the hood to boost your odds of
denying a blessing. Only units from an army that is Battle Brothers with the hood-bearer can
benefit.
Successfully denying a power that succeeded, but triggered Perils of the Warp, means the power
does not activate but the casting psyker still ends up suffering the results of the Perils attack.
Like with casting powers, any dice not used in Deny attempts are lost and wasted at the end of a
given psychic phase.
5: Resolve Power[edit]
Unless otherwise stated, psychic powers with a duration last until the start of the Psyker’s next
Psychic phase. The ongoing effects of any one particular power do not stack on the same unit, but
benefits from different powers are cumulative. Unless otherwise stated, powers cannot modify
characteristics above 10 or below 1 (or below 2, in the case of Leadership).
When a power summons a unit, it Deep Strikes within the power's maximum range; the new unit
is under your control and is treated as having arrived from Reserves for all rules purposes. If the
new unit suffers a Deep Strike mishap and ends up in Ongoing Reserves, it can Deep Strike
anywhere on the board when it enters play. Summoned psykers cannot use summoning on the
same turn they're summoned. Unless otherwise stated, summoned units have no upgrades and
generate all random attributes (such as psyker powers) as soon as the power resolves. Summoned
Chaos Daemons can take an Icon and/or Instrument of Chaos, and/or upgrade to a character, if
their codex entry says they can (and they do it for free).
That covers Blessings (targets friendly unit(s)), Maledictions (targets enemy unit(s)), and
Conjurations (summons a new unit).
Witchfires
Resolve as Shooting attacks (non-witchfires which affect an enemy unit do not), although because
they happen in the Psychic phase, not the Shooting phase, Shooting phase specific consequences
of shooting do not apply, such as preventing running. Note that this normally means the Psyker
has to roll to hit or scatter using BS as normal unless the power is a Template or otherwise stated,
although some sub-types of Witchfires subvert some of the shooting rules (see below), including
needing to roll to hit. Per the Errata, a witchfire power which does not list a weapon profile hits
automatically.
Focused Witchfires
If this witchfire was cast using at least one more Warp Charge than it needed, its hits are Precision
Shots.
Profileless Witchfires
Beams
Beams automatically hit, and, in a curiosity for WH40K, are usually offensive powers capable of
hitting your own units. Choose a point within the power’s range and trace a 1mm thick line
between the chosen point and the center of the Psyker’s base – this line cannot be drawn over any
unit that is locked in combat. All units under the line (friend and foe) are hit, with the exception
of Zooming Flyers, Swooping Flying Monstrous Creatures, and the Psyker himself (or his
transport, if embarked on one). Each unit hit by the attack takes a number of hits equal to the
number of models from that unit that are under the line. Only one unit that has a model under the
line can attempt to Deny the Witch.
Note: Remember, beams are drawn from the CENTER of the casting model, unlike all other types
of witchfire, so the range is shorter than you're used to.
Novas
A nova power automatically targets and hits all enemy units (including Flyers and Flying
Monstrous Creatures) within the psychic power’s maximum range, regardless of line of sight,
being locked in combat, intervening models/terrain and so on. Only one unit that is within the
power’s maximum range can attempt to Deny the Witch.
Note that Nova powers are drawn from the edge of the Psyker's base with the range defining the
circle's radius, so the diameter of the circle is double the power's range plus the diameter of the
psyker's base, meaning a larger base can drastically increase the area under the power.
Psychic Tactics[edit]
So that's how you mind bullet, but what do you do with them?
Well the problem with tactics is some armies have the ability to bring a lot more psykers, and
therefore warp charges than others.
Space marines for example can only bring two (assuming battle forged, single FOC) (why would
you assume that when the Librarium formation is in the main codex?) level two psykers since
their psykers are all HQ choices, while daemons can easily bring over ten warp charges a turn
thanks to horrors.
Step one is to therefore consider how you and your opponent's mind bullets stack up to each
other. If you have a clear lead in mental fire power you can afford to spread your charges thinner
as your opponent won't be able to deny you as easily. If on the other hand the playing field is
roughly even you need to play more carefully, while if you're completely outclassed pick one or
two powers you really need to go off and spend all your charges on them, so that even with twice
as many or more warp charges they can't completely deny you, although your psykers are likely
to implode before the game is half over if you do it every turn, so pick your moments.
When casting powers, first budget what powers you need most to go off, (example: invisibility)
then cast all your other powers in least to most importance before it. This way your opponent is
forced to save his deny dice for either the big very important one or basically give you free reign
in the phase. While that works if you're in the lead, and very useful if you're evenly matched in
terms of warp charges since he might think he can spare the charges, it's much less effective if
you're completely out classed since your opponent may have the charges to deny your final
important power, and you won't have the power to force it though because you spent the charges
on 'deny fodder' first.
That all said, the mere presence of a big power alters the flow of the phase a lot. Your opponent
(or you, this goes both ways) now has to choose between saving his charges for the big one, or
attempt to spend his charges denying all the little powers.
As a rule, Psychic Powers are innately unreliable, and require a lot of investment for them to pay
off. While lucky rolls can give you a super-happy Psychic Deathstar of Doom, they generally
support an army rather than define it.
You get diminishing returns when investing in Psykers. Casting a basic power has a 50% chance
of failure, which halves for each additional Warp Charge spent on the power. What this means, as
you take more psykers in your army, you gradually have fewer Warp Charges for each individual
Psyker to use, as it is usually preferable to use some as power plants for the others.
Some armies will take units simply to serve as secondary "batteries" for other casters, though they
will weigh the costs of this accordingly. For example, if you want a unit of Terminators for your
army, a unit of Grey Knight Terminators is more cost-effective than similar Terminator units, but
their one WC point can only go towards buffing themselves in melee, and so it effectively gets
farmed off to other Psykers with more dramatic powers. This is if you're running Terminators
anyway/running Grey Knights anyway.
Generally speaking, the three most popular core disciplines are Divination, Malefic
Daemonology, and Telepathy. They don't have any real "dud" powers and most will find use in
nearly any game (rather than being conditionally awesome every other game), but most
importantly, they have really good Primaris Powers.
Psychic Shriek is a power with a wide potential for effects. On "average", it may inflict two
wounds on an enemy unit, but when the dice are hot, it has the potential to one-shot a unit of
Terminators, or a Monstrous Creature. It doesn't need to make a "To-Hit" roll, so you can
occasionally use it to smack monsters out of the sky as well.
Prescience is a no-frills power. Being able to reroll to-hit is very useful on nearly any unit.
Summoning lets you bring more units into the game, though if your Psyker is not a Daemon
you'll Peril like a motherfucker.
You don't have to limit yourself to these disciplines, but they tend to be the safest starting off.
Biomancy can be nice if you bank on rolling Iron Arm, and most armies have at least one good
army-specific Discipline to work with (except Tyranids, alas), but you now run the risk of rolling
an underwhelming power, and having to settle for a situationally usable Primaris ("I can penalize
the Invulnerable Saves of Daemons..." "I'm playing Necrons." "Right...curses.")
Biker Psykers are more than just a cute rhyme. They can give you a unique threat vector, due to
the ability to move, cast powers, then turbo-boost to another position. The same can be said for
Jump Packs and Flying Monstrous Creatures.
Conjuration Powers are interesting. When 7th first came out, people theoryhammered about being
able to Summon Horrors, who could summon more Horrors, but such armies never really
materialized (ha!) as a threat. That said, Summoned units make good "bait"/threats that must be
dealt with. Because you are dealing with Deep Strike, the units can end up away from your
intended point of entry. Thus, it's ideal to summon "fast" units like Daemonettes/Flesh
Hounds/Screamers, to correct any deviations.
Feel No Pain is your best friend. It's the only "save" you're allowed against Perils and can really
help a charge-heavy caster, especially a malefic summoner.
Psychic Disciplines[edit]
Remember that any power's specific rules can override the general rules. Witchfires of all types
obey the general Shooting rules with some exceptions noted above; Blessings, Maledictions, and,
of course, Conjurations do not. Note: whenever a power that targets enemies is listed below as
targeting a "model" (typically this means it is a profileless witchfire), that means it targets a unit,
but its effects resolve against a single model "hit" by the power (typically the closest one to the
caster as per usual shooting, or chosen by the caster if a focused witchfire which has paid for the
focus). As a reminder, a focused witchfire's hits are precise (attacker chooses the model(s) hit in
the unit) if an additional warp charge is harnessed to pay for it; unlike variable cost powers,
where you must choose the cost ahead of time, you may cast the power, discover you harnessed
one more than you need, and get the benefit of the additional charge.
Type Friendly or Enemy? Rolls to Hit? Can target units locked in combat? Allows
cover saves?
Witchfire (Beam) Both No No (Beams do not target units, period, but the beam
cannot be drawn across a unit locked in combat) Yes
This section lists the psychic disciplines outlined in the general rulebook; they can be used by
psykers from multiple Warhammer 40,000 armies.
Force[edit]
Technically, Force counts as a Psychic power now, though it doesn't count against Psychic Focus
or your limit of allotted powers. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same killing machine it has been
before. Remember you need a warp charge to activate it so don't go spending them all on mind
bullets before you get the chance to activate it. Additionally, it can be denied and if your enemy
has a lot more charges than you he might be able to pull it off, but it's unlikely he would spend the
powers unless your psyker is looking at something he does not want to die.
Force
Primaris Force Blessing Self Unit All Force weapons in the Psyker's unit
gain Instant Death. 1
Biomancy[edit]
Overview
Biomancy is taken for two main reasons: You want to make your Psyker a fighter, or you're
fishing for Endurance as part of a "Deathstar" build. For the former, it's usually better to attempt
to buff a character that's already an acceptable fighter, rather than trying to make a weak unit
suddenly awesome; Daemons in particular can get some excellent mileage from Biomancy, as
(barring Blue Scribes), every character they have with access to it is at least Strength and
Toughness 5. The Witchfires are acceptable if you have "one warp charge left", but they have a
low rate of fire, and suffer from having to compete against Psychic Shriek.
Biomancy Powers
18 4 2 Assault 4
All things considered, this is not a bad power, particularly if you get it by Psychic Focus so you
get it free. Is largely superior to a plasmagun against infantry since it has two more shots without
gets hot, however it lacks life leech's wound regaining power. One of the better mind bullet
powers. 1
1 Iron Arm Blessing Self Model Iron Arm is a tricky power for some, and
OP bullshit for others. It buffs your strength and toughness by +3 and grants Smash. What makes
it tricky is that it's only good in assault or if your model/unit (if a Brotherhood) is by itself. When
in a unit, you wound on majority toughness, so being toughness 7 does not help if the tactical
squad your lib is running with is four (hint: challenges), and if you're by yourself then you have to
weather an entire unit's worth of shooting, and, of course, to get the most out of the strength buff
you need to run with an assault unit. That all said, it is very powerful, but getting the most out of
it is tricky. Everything I just said can be thrown out the window if you're already very strong and
tough, and if you already planned to use your psyker in an aggressive, assaulting way. 1
Range S AP Type
18 6 2 Assault 2
What makes this handy is that when you inflict a wound, you can cause either the psyker or a
model within 6 inches to regain a wound. Better use this on your psyker; given how most of the
Perils strip wounds off, the ability to get them back can be a life-saver. 1
4 Warp Speed Blessing Self Model Remember what we said about Iron
Arm? Take all of that, and put it here as well. Giving the psyker +3 attacks and initiative while
also granting fleet, this is a power that only works in the assault, more than Iron Arm even,
though fleet does help you get there a bit faster. Be careful, though; three more initiative does not
cancel out 'unwieldy' axes that go last. Like Iron Arm, useful, but to get the most out of it you
need to be already planning to punch faces with your psyker so you can properly kit him out. An
ML2 Librarian with a Power Sword that rolls this plus Iron Arm can essentially solo entire MEQ
squads before they know what hit them. 1
Range S AP Type
The model hit must take two toughness tests or suffer a wound which ignores armor and cover for
each failure. If the model dies, a randomly selected nearby model within 2" needs to test
toughness once or die; this continues until a model passes. Not the best power, but with two
chances to kill a single wound model you have a decent chance of sniping heavy weapons or
sarges out of a unit. Still, not worth two charges UNLESS you have Enfeeble, then you have a
chance to make low toughness blobs melt. This power gets exponentially better, the lower the
number of wounds and toughness value of the target is: on average, assuming one wound models
with no invuln saves or FNP, 0.37 on T5, 0.83 on T4, 1.5 on T3, 2.67 on T2, 5.83 on T1. Because
of this, all in all you will most likely need more than 2 warp charges to get the most out of it:
either you'll have to cast Enfeeble to stand a chance at doing real damage, or you will need those
3 successes to be able to choose your target and not just kill some scrubs. 2
Divination[edit]
Overview
Divination is a powerful Discipline to have, simply because it gives you protection against a bad
die roll ruining your game-plan. While all of them help protect you in some way, it's clear to see
that more people want Prescience, Perfect Timing, Forewarning, and Foreboding more than the
others, if only because their uses are the most direct ones.
Divination Powers
3 Perfect Timing Blessing Self Unit The Psyker and his unit have Ignores
Cover on their weapons. Use it on weapons you know will kill them and be assured that they'll be
wiped! Also works on jink saves. Be warned, however, that it only affects the psyker's unit, so if
you roll this power, consider reattaching your psyker to a squad that can make use of it. 1
Pyromancy[edit]
Overview
Pyromancy is good for only one thing: melting light infantry hordes. Orks, Guardsmen, Tyranids,
Daemons maybe. Thanks to the ability to squeeze out more than one witchfire a turn, this power
could unleash a lot of hurt. Not the first choice for disciplines, but a decent secondary if you're
fighting low armor save cover campers and blobs. Additionally, for those really interested in
indulging in fiery fantasies of destruction, consider taking a Salamanders Librarian. They can
take, if using their chapter tactics, a book that provides the Molten Beam power, and +1 strength
on all the Witch Fires listed above.
Soul Blaze
This rule comes up a lot in Pyromancy, so it's worth explaining here. If an unmarked unit takes at
least one unsaved wound with Soul Blaze, mark it with something. At the end of each turn, roll a
die for each marked unit. On 1-3 the unit is not marked anymore; on 4+, the unit takes D3 S4,
Ap5 hits (randomly allocated) with Ignores Cover. This means the expected number of hits at the
end of a turn is 1 (which must then get past toughness, armor/invuln, and feel no pain), while the
expected number over infinite turns is 2. Commonly considered useless.
Pyromancy Powers
Range S AP Type
It's a Soul Blaze heavy flamer. Not much to add. Eats anything short of a Space Marine and is
inferior to the actual weapon. Strictly worse than Destructor/Renewer. 1
2 Fire Shield Blessing 24 Unit Grants a 4+ cover save and all enemy
units in 6" treat all terrain as Dangerous Terrain. 4+ is good, Stealth turns it to 3+ before you go
to ground. A useful buff spell. 1
Range S AP Type
If the unlucky model dies, he turns into a strength five AP4 blast marker with Ignores Cover and
Soul Blaze. Good at taking out cover camping wimps. Unlike with other focused witchfires, don't
try and snipe heavy weapons out; go for models that can get you a cluster of hits with the blast.
1
Remember that novas hit each different unit in range independently, so that's 2D6 hits per target.
Also remember that the range is the radius of the power; you actually have an 18 + <base size>
inch diameter area of burning. Get your psyker into place and cook lightly armored infantry.
1
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
Gott im Himmel! It's a psychic meltagun. With some really good luck you could explode maybe
two tanks or three Terminators if you line it up right. The issue with this power is that it's only
really good against tanks, and usually the reason you're rolling for Pyromancy powers in the first
place is because you have vehicles covered by something else, and you need something to cook
light infantry. 2
Telekinesis[edit]
Overview
With generally high strength, Telekinesis is trying to be the anti-tank power set, and three powers
do just that (although one does it shakily). One other power's pretty worthless against anything
but a horde in the open, and there are two support powers. This is not exactly an all-purpose set of
powers and, like Pyromancy, they not strong enough to be used by themselves. Telekinesis is a
decent backup to another, more powerful discipline. All in all a pretty mixed bag.
Telekinesis Powers
Range S AP Type
Quick recap on what Strikedown does: it means the targets you hit have to move through difficult
terrain next turn, regardless of whether they saved the wounds or not. Definitely worth smacking
up some units with this if you want to keep them from an objective or stop a charge to buy
yourself another turn to shoot them. No AP means this power has trouble killing things reliably.
1
Range S AP Type
Rolls of 11 or 12 for strength auto-wound, or penetrate if the target is a vehicle. Worth it? Well, if
you think you like your luck or bother running Flash Gitz, then give it a try. With an average
strength of 7, this can penetrate a transport, but without an AP of 1 or 2 exploding it is impossible.
Though if you're relying on this very random psychic attack to destroy vehicles, you probably
have bigger problems to sort out. 1
Range S AP Type
Powerful against swarms, but that lack of AP renders it useless against anything else. Although, if
you get a good roll on how many hits it inflicts, it could be hard for medium or even heavy
infantry to make all the saves. Compare with Sanctic Daemonology's or Pyromancy's far superior
Novas that trade Pinning for AP, Ignores Cover, and higher strength. 1
4 Levitation Blessing Self Unit A new blessing that shows how cheesy
this edition got. This makes the Psyker and his unit (unless they're Zooming, Swooping, or in
combat) move 12", ignoring terrain or other units. However, starting or landing in Dangerous
Terrain means taking a test, and you can't charge afterwards. Remember, powers are used after
moving, so if you're already in a jump squad you can jump in the movement phase and then in the
psychic phase for a 24 inch move. Dark Eldar be jealous. Your first idea would be to use it to get
into combat faster, but you cannot charge out of teleport, so you'd be sitting ducks for an entire
turn, much like with Deep Strike. Better uses would be jumping away from a close combat unit,
jumping close in order to flamer, melta or rapid fire a target to death, jumping behind vehicles to
lay some painful dakka on their rear armor or claim objectives (especially useful on Maelstrom).
To sum it up, a great power to move elite specialist weapons like Chosen or Sternguard or
relentless heavy weapons like Centurions exactly where they're needed. 1
5 Telekine Dome Blessing Self Model Gives everyone within 12" of the psyker
a 5++ against shooting. Is it useful? Ask an Ork player if he would ever field an army without at
least one KFF. If your guys have 5+ or 6+ saves, this thing is great, and even if they're MEQs,
you can fit more squads under that 12" bubble to ensure they won't be ass-raped by those low-AP
blasts everyone tends to spam nowadays. Note that you might have 5+ cover saves often enough
that taking this power would be redundant, unless you're facing a lot of template/ignore cover
shooting, and that this power, at 2 warp charges, is overpriced and largely inferior to a Dark
Angels power field generator or the aforementioned KFF. 2
Range S AP Type
Basically your own pocket Demolisher cannon. With a large blast, this is arguably better than the
D strength Vortex of Doom in Sanctic Daemonology. Whatever you throw this on, it WILL get
hurt if it hits. Generally, a proper Vindicator/Medusa/Demolisher is a better bet, since you need to
sink 7 warp charges to make it work reliably (and even then, your psyker is likely to suffer Perils
of the Warp), and those warp charges aren't cheap. Though you are gaining the benefits of
survivability and mobility, since your psyker can hide inside METAL BOXES, some infantry
blob or even fly on daemonic wigs, raining pipe plates of death on the poor chaps below. Note
that if you're an Eldar player using a Farseer, Eldritch Storm is a superior power to this in every
way except AP. 3
Telepathy[edit]
Overview
Telepathy is a generally powerful support discipline. The exceptional Primaris and two incredibly
powerful defensive Blessings (one of which is considered overpowered by a lot of players) alone
make it worth rolling for. The other powers are more situational due to being based on
overloading your opponent with Leadership checks, but they become increasingly dangerous if
you have access to reliable Leadership debuffs.
Telepathy Powers
Roll 3D6 and subtract the hit unit's Leadership. It takes the difference in wounds. MAKES ME
WANNA WAIL!! Best used on small, elite squads or monsters on whom those wounds will hurt
more. Demons with very low Leadership will also suffer from this a lot. All witchfires generally
have to roll to hit, but not this one, because it really has no profile (AP2 is listed because "no
armor saves may be taken"), so you can totally scream Flyrants off the board. For reference, your
expected wounds against leadership 7 through 10 are 3.61, 2.78, 2.04, and 1.42, before
invulnerable saves or feel no pain; this is roughly equivalent to a BS 5, Poisoned (2+), AP2,
Assault 5.2/4/3/2 Ignores Cover weapon, respectively. However, remember that it does not roll to
hit, and so will, for example, hit a unit with Invisibility up. 1
4 Shrouding Blessing Self Model Grants all friendly models within 6" of
the Psyker (including himself) the Shrouded special rule. Like some other powers, the issue with
this one is that to affect more than one unit you have to bunch up your army a bit. Even so, with
only 6" you're likely to only get two units anyway since you only need one model in range to
affect the whole unit. A nice power; remember that you only need one model in a unit to have
Shrouded for the whole unit to have Shrouded. 1
Daemonology[edit]
A few notes about Sanctic and Malefic before we start. Unlike the other powers that peril only on
a double six, these powers peril on any double unless you're a Grey Knight (who can only use
Sanctic) or a Daemon (ditto but for Malefic). This means your psyker is much more likely to
implode and will do so much faster if not from these armies, so think carefully if the risk is worth
it.
Sanctic[edit]
Overview
Generally speaking, Sanctic Daemonology is used for building a better Deathstar. The reason for
this is simple: All the Blessings in this Discipline directly target the Psyker's unit. Hammerhand
makes them hit harder, Sanctuary makes them harder to kill, and Gate of Infinity gives them
protection against being tarpitted. Round this off with two two "High Risk/High Reward"
Witchfires for good effect. The main weaknesses of this Discipline are that it doesn't do much to
benefit MSU builds, it has a very situational Primaris, and it has a good chance of blowing up
your caster. Of note is that a lot of these powers were originally unique to Grey Knights back in
5th edition. They remain the only army that can use these powers without suffering Perils on any
double roll, and many of their units get "fixed" powers on this table, allowing you a surprising
degree of reliability in using this discipline.
1 Gate of Infinity Blessing Self Unit Allows a single unit that isn't swooping
or zooming to Deep Strike anywhere. Of course, this is your fabulous SURPRISE FUCKERS!
However, remember the 1d4chan advice for deep striking: you want to be able to survive a turn of
shooting, and assault troops are going to get shot up before they can do their thing. Best done
with a tough shooting squad or something you're willing to DISTRACTION CARNIFEX with.
1
2 Hammerhand Blessing Self Unit Grants the caster and his unit +2
Strength. You remember how it was back in 3rd edition when you still had Daemonhunters? Yeah,
it's like that. While obviously best done before getting stuck in, you might consider using it
defensively. E.g. "Do you really want to charge my strength six Assault Marines?" On the down
side, this power has the same issue as Iron Arm and Warp Speed: unless you were already
planning to run the Psyker with a squad made to punch faces, then you're not getting the most out
of this power. 1
3 Sanctuary Blessing Self Unit The caster and his unit gain +1 to their
Invulnerable save. If the unit does not have an Invulnerable save, they gain a 6++. Additionally,
all Daemons (allies and enemies) within 12" of the caster treat all terrain including open ground
as Dangerous Terrain. This is mostly helpful in buffing preexisting Invulnerable saves, since
conferring an unreliable 6++ is practically a waste of Warp Charges; though it could be helpful in
preserving hopefully enough troops in your blobs if you plan on using it as a Tarpit or to drown a
priority target in armor saves. Conversely, it's helpful against daemon hordes especially if
combo'd with Banishment, as putting it on just a few units placed ahead of the main body of army
can mean seeing lots of daemons disappear as they move ahead to engage your troops, as well as
seeing a blob of daemons get ruined because they had the balls to charge you. Just bear in mind
that Assault Terminators with a 2++ is likely to lose you friends. 1
Range S AP Type
Both your psyker and the hit model must roll a D6 and add Leadership to the roll. If the enemy
loses, he takes a wound (with only Invuln and FNP allowed). Overall, it's low risk, low reward.
While not a waste of warp charges, it's not the most effective use, and they could and probably
should be spent elsewhere. Almost always strictly worse than Psychic Shriek, which will do more
wounds, on average, regardless of caster and target. 1
Range S AP Type
This can destroy anything with armor weaker than a Marine, and a lot of them, if you get your
psyker in the right place. Refer back to power one. If you get them both, engage your troll face.
2
Range S AP Type
High risk, high reward. Failing the test to manifest this power automatically causes Perils of the
Warp. DEVASTATION. EVERYWHERE. Given it's a small blast, aim for monsters and tanks.
Troops are tempting, but if they're fully spaced out you'll have trouble getting the most out of this.
Don't forget that this is Vortex, so the blast template is very likely to wander the field
uncontrollably until the end of the game, eating random units it lands on, so never cast it near the
bulk of your own army. Since this requires three charges, you'll have to use a lot of dice to get it
to work reliably, and since Daemonology causes Perils on any double roll, and not just double
sixes, your psyker is almost guaranteed to fry his brain while attempting this. You need some
serious psychic boons and some dire circumstances for this shit to be worth it. As it has the vortex
special rule, it will jump around the board every turn until doubles are rolled for the scatter
distance. 3
Malefic[edit]
Overview
There's a reason most armies don't use this; it's a major sink for your Warp Charges. Unless you
can ensure that you've got a lot of them (which Daemons really can do, hence this. although the
core strategy used in that list no longer works) don't be expecting to make clusterfucks appear at a
whim. But if you do have a ton of Warp Charges to throw around, you may be able to make your
army double in size in a couple of turns. However, even if you do, realize that using your entire
army to make more army doesn't actually accomplish anything (unless you plopped a new scoring
unit on a tactical objective, anyway); at some point you need to stop recursing and actually kill
the enemy. Sacrifice is effective enough on its own to cast at every opportunity, but you can bet
your ass that the enemy can clear off (or at least cripple) a Summoned unit with a smaller point
investment than you used to get those 6-8 dice. Used mindlessly you will get out-paced, but used
surgically you can make even the best opponents tear their hair out.
1 Cursed Earth Blessing Self Model All models with the Daemon special
rule (allied and enemy) within 12 inches of the user gain +1 to their Invulnerable save and do not
scatter when Deep Striking within range of the user. If you have a good blob unit or deathstar,
then this power will go a long way in allowing them to survive a little further. Use with the chaos
demon Grimoire for a 2+ invulnerable (and with Tzeentch daemons to make it re-rollable; the
infamous "Screamerstar"). Also, be careful: to get the most out of this your daemons have to be
within 12" of the caster, meaning you have to bunch up a bit. Not a deal breaker thanks to the
higher invulnerable, but something to remember. Also remember that this power applies to
enemies with the Daemon rule, too. So yeah, that's one thing not to cast if you're facing down an
Avatar of Khaine. If you have a bunch of daemons already this will probably draw every
remaining die your enemy can throw at it in a mad attempt to Deny it. Don't let them, either by
draining their pool first with frivolous bullshit or by throwing enough dice at it that denial is
unlikely. Or, use it as the bait for something else, like an unholy barrage of beams and witchfires
the enemy is now powerless to stop. 1
Range S AP Type
It's a fierce weapon, so...yeah, not a bad power, but nothing compared to the utility of Cursed
Earth, and there are better psychic shooting attacks. 1
Range S AP Type
More on Summoning[edit]
"New" horrors can't roll from Daemonology per Wrath of Magnus/latest FAQs. Whoops.
"New" is not explained, so it could mean all Horrors ("new" meaning "latest rules"), or only ones
that join your army after list creation ("new" as in "conjured"). The FAQ does not clarify. Either
way, summoned horrors can't roll on it.
Some quick math; you generally want to throw 6-8 dice at the Summoning to make it go off
reliably. A 10-man Horror squad is only Mastery 1 (they're taken in lists because you spend 9
points for a second warp charge, a min squad is crap), so your return on investment is at best
20%. Even if you successfully cast it 5 times in a turn, you're only able to pull off one more
Summoning than you were before, assuming none of your squads get wiped by the thousand-odd
points of return fire (you do actually have to pay points for your initial warp charge). Even if you
do, a horror unit minus its warp charge (since that's getting used for recursion) is basically a 10-
man unit of Imperial Guard without lasguns. Making even a hundred more cultist-equivalents for
a thousand points of input energy is a bad trade; you have to do something with all that warp
charge to actually win the game, like summon Daemonettes (who can actually kill people without
using your precious warp charges) or channel a bajillion Flickering Fires out of all those horrors.
Recursion is a fine way to spend your first turn while you advance into range, but make sure you
have a plan for how to get work out of it.
In lower points games, Summoning is an excellent tool for a lot of situations. Summon
Bloodletters in front of Spess Mehreens as a Distraction Carnifex (because they will either get
shot down or tear MEQs a new asshole), summon Horrors as objective-holders and batteries,
summon Daemonettes for messing up infantry, summon Plaguebearers to hold objectives / pluck
apart MCs, summon some Flesh Hounds to harrass Heavy Weapon teams or summon a bunch of
Flamers close enough to units they can actually kill with their shots. If you use this only to make
more army, you might as well leave it. Seekers are much less useful than Daemonettes, and
Nurglings are out-performed by Plaguebearers. If you summon those units for a purpose,
however, you can easily change the course of the game with it. However, the more points you
play with, the less useful this power is. If you summon 100 points worth of unit in a 500 point
game, you just increased your army by 20%, which is freaking huge. As the games get bigger, the
impact of this spell is lessened, though.
Also keep in mind that if you manage to pull this power off, it is almost impossible to deny. 3
Warp Charges minimum with no modifier to deny the witch means on average 18(!) dice
minimum to negate this, which nobody has, and if they did, they wouldn't blow them all to negate
your Summoning.
This section lists psychic disciplines only available to certain Warhammer 40,000 factions. Since
they are listed in each army's codex, their rules may sometimes override the general rulebook.
(Chaos) Space Marine Disciplines[edit]
In Angels of Death, Space Marines got 4 new psychic disciplines. Traitor Legions allows Chaos
Space Marines to take the same powers, with the discipline names changed; each discipline will
list the Space Marine name / the Chaos Space Marine name. The powers also have name swaps,
so where only one name is present, that is the Space Marine name, and where two are present, it
follows the same shape as the discipline names.
Fulmination/Ectomancy[edit]
Fulmination/Ectomancy Powers
Range S AP Type
18 5 4 Assault 6
Range S AP Type
9 1 - Assault 1, Haywire
Obviously best used against heavily mechanized lists, or otherwise when other antivehicle
weapons aren't on hand. Be wary of using it on walkers, since your psyker will have a high
likelihood of being mulched afterwards. 1
Range S AP Type
18 5 4 Assault 1D6
After resolving this, roll a die for every other enemy unit within 6" of the target; on a 4+, that unit
suffers 1D6 S5 AP4 hits that are randomly allocated. Note that the jump occurs even if the
original shots all miss. 2
Librarius/Sinistrum[edit]
AKA we jacked a bunch of powers from the Eldar and Grey Knights. Enjoy creating cheap as
fuck death stars, and possibly defeating enemy death stars too.
Librarius/Sinistrum Powers
Range S AP Type
18 5 3 Assault 1, Blast
Basic anti-MEQ. Strictly worse than Psionic Blast at -6" range and than Frazzle at -6" range and
-1S. 1
1 Veil of Time/Warp Fate Blessing Self Unit The Psyker and his entire unit
re-roll all failed saving throws. This power, right here, ties with Invisibility for absolute Psychic
cheese. And with good reason. A Terminator squad with rerollable 2+/5++ or 3++ makes it damn
near invincible as it plows into the enemy force's tight sphincter. Heck, bare-bones Wolf Guard
Terminators with only a 5++ will scare the shit out of enemies like they did pre-5th edition.
2
Range S AP Type
Geokinesis/Geomortis[edit]
Geokinesis/Geomortis Powers
Technomancy/Heretech[edit]
The discipline to use for mechanized armies. Also fares very well with Imperial Guard allies.
Heck, a CAD of tank-heavy Guard makes this all kinds of epic.
Technomancy/Heretech Powers
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
18 - - Assault 1
The hit model loses D3 HP. For each HP lost, inflict 1D6 S4 AP6 rending hits on an enemy unit
within 12" of said model; each lost HP may target a different unit, or they may all target the same
one. 2
The Dark Angels, Blood Angels, and Space Wolves each have a unique discipline only they have
access to.
Interromancy Powers
Range S AP Type
If a model takes an unsaved wound, then it takes -3 to BS, WS, I AND Ld (to a minimum of 1)
for the rest of the game. With even just 1 wound, that special snowflake or Monstrous Creature
just became an expensive paperweight and now that it has been buffed to Strength 6 it is a much
more credible threat against those tougher models where the debuff will really sting. 1
3 Aversion Malediction 24 Unit Target may only fire Snap Shots. Perfect
for negating a high threat unit to your army such as an antiarmor squad or anti-TEQ. *cough* Tau
*cough* 1
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
18 - - Assault 1
The model hit rolls 2D6+2, then subtracts their leadership value, taking the difference in wounds
with no armour or cover saves allowed. Psychic Shriek, fuck that guy edition. Combo'd with
Mind Worm wounding first, it'll absolutely destroy characters. 2
Most of these are inferior to powers in some other Discipline that the Blood Angels have access
to, so make sure you know what you're doing if you grab this.
Sanguinary Powers
1 Fear of the Darkness Malediction 12 Unit Target takes a Morale test with
-2LD. Probably the weakest power in the discipline. Note that this is a Morale test, not a Fear
test, so it affects Space Marines. Useful for moving units off of objectives or forcing them to
move into charge range of another unit. 1
2 Unleash Rage Blessing 18 Unit Grants Rage, or +1A if the target already
has Rage. Bless the Death Company. Watch them kill. On a target which doesn't already have
Rage, strictly worse than Righteous Repugnance, which itself is strictly worse than Might From
Beyond; on a target that already has Rage, better than either in effect (as +1A is usually more
useful than +1S), although at shorter range, so stick to casting this on the Death Company.
1
3 Shield of Sanguinius Blessing Self Unit The Psyker and his unit have a
5++. You'll be needing this against any AP2 or D shots. Strictly worse than Forewarning. 1
Range S AP Type
18 - 2 Assault 1
Model hit must take 2 toughness tests, suffering an unsavable wound for each failure. If it dies,
place an S4 AP5 Ignores Cover Large Blast on it. Cast and make anything T4 or lower without
FNP go boom! This is a great power for thinning out infantry units with weak armor. Typically
stronger than Haemorrhage against models with 5+ armor or worse, but much, much worse
against models with 4+ armor or better (although the effectiveness of both relies partially on
model placement in the target). 2
Range S AP Type
Storm-themed discipline, similar to Fulmination/Ectomancy, but trades out much of the utility
powers for mind bullets for close range fire support.
Tempestas Powers
Range S AP Type
18 7 - Assault 3, Tesla
Tesla means 6s to hit generate two additional hits; because the power is ROF 3, on average it is
actually ROF 4 (if you want probabilities, the odds of ROFs 3, 5, 7, and 9 are 57.87%, 34.72%,
6.94%, and 0.46%, respectively). 1
Range S AP Type
Meant for clearing out blobs, but S3 means you won't do much higher than GEQs. 1
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
18 6 - Assault 4
Range S AP Type
Summons Wolf Gork and Wolf Mork, so this power has two profiles, because it manifests both,
one at a time in either order, when you succeed at casting it; because this is Psychic, they may
freely target different units. 2
Range S AP Type
18 - - Assault 1
If the model hit is not a Monstrous Creature, it must pass an I test or be removed from play (not
Instant Death, so Eternal Warrior is ignored). Note that this power does not wound, so things that
let you avoid wounds, such as saves or FNP, also do not apply. Definitely a step down from the
old hax, and not an easy button for Riptide-killing. 2
Slaanesh, Nurgle, and, of course, Tzeentch each offer a discipline of their own to the Chaos Space
Marines, each of which typically requires the relevant Mark. These are distinct from the
disciplines they offer Chaos Daemons.
Tzeentch[edit]
A discipline that uses gimmicks to get greater effects than what most other disciplines would,
with a moderate degree of success.
Tzeentch Powers
Range S AP Type
For each model removed as a casualty, the unit takes 1D3 S3 AP- hits which do not generate more
hits. 1
Range S AP Type
18 8 1 Assault 1, Beam
Any vehicle hit by this power which Explodes! as a result rolls 2D6 to determine the explosion's
range. 1
3 Siphon Magic Blessing Self Unit For the rest of the phase, each time a
friendly model successfully manifests a psychic power within 18" of the psyker, place a die next
to the psyker. Any dice accrued in this manner can be used by the Psyker as bonus Warp Charge
points. 1
Range S AP Type
Template 1 2 Assault 1, Poisoned (4+)
Glances on a 4+ rather than rolling to penetrate, so between that and its poison, it's effectively a
gauss flamer. 2
Range S AP Type
18 6 2 Assault 1D6
To-wounds of 6 gain Instant Death, and each slain model summons a Chaos Spawn "as close as
possible" to any slain model, but more than an inch away from any enemy models. 2
Range S AP Type
Slaanesh[edit]
We are amplified! A discipline with a focus on buffs and debuffs, even on the shooting attacks.
Slaanesh Powers
Range S AP Type
1 +1I.
2 +1S.
3 +1A.
Range S AP Type
Note that Symphony of Pain explicitly interacts with weaponry, which this is not. 1
Range S AP Type
18 8 2 Assault 1, Beam
After this attack hits but before it wounds, any unit hit must take an Ld test; if they fail, this
power gains Shred against that unit. 2
Range S AP Type
This power does not affect vehicles (although they may be targeted). Every non-vehicle model in
a unit hit by this power takes a hit at that model's unmodified Strength. 2
Nurgle[edit]
Nurgle Powers
Number Name Type Range Target Description Charges
Range S AP Type
Daemons of Nurgle and models with the Mark of Nurgle are not affected.1
1 Weapon Virus Malediction 24 Unit All of the target's ranged weapons gain
Gets Hot!. 1
1D3 Effect
Range S AP Type
Note that the power of the same name in the Plague discipline is identical except for only being
WC1, so this is strictly worse. 2
Slaanesh, Nurgle, and, of course, Tzeentch, each offer a discipline to their Daemons, which
differs from what they offer mere mortals.
Change (Tzeentch)[edit]
In all, the boost to Warpflame when using the Tzeentch infantry formation works wonders with
this discipline, but outside of it? The God of Disease has greater magic than the god of Magic
himself, except for Power 6, which is 100% luck-based. Curse of the Wulfen actually made that
discipline a bit worse: now you have a 50 % chance to roll a bad power instead of 33.3% and a
single Destroyer hit is useless against horde armies and any units with multiple models. No
guarantees unless using Fateweaver or a ML1 Herald with Endless Grimoire. The Exalted Locus
is good for this as well, but it's only one squad. Unless, again, you run the Tzeentch infantry
based formation. Which leads to silliness such as 9 squads of Horrors shooting 2D6 Autocannon
rounds each with a WC1 power. Are we starting to see a pattern here? Taking Horrors and/or
Flamers? Take the Warpflame Host. It improves them and their herald ridiculously well. Just
fucking do it.
Warpflame
Any unit that suffers one or more wounds from a Warpflame attack must take a Toughness test at
the end of the phase. If they fail, they immediately take D3 additional wounds with no Armour or
Cover saves allowed. If they pass the Toughness test, they gain 6+ Feel no Pain. If they already
have Feel no Pain, either on their base profile or from earlier Warpflame tests, they get a +1
bonus to the Feel no Pain.
Soul Blaze
If an unmarked unit takes at least one unsaved wound with Soul Blaze, mark it with something.
At the end of each turn, roll a die for each marked unit. On 1-3 the unit is not marked anymore;
on 4+, the unit takes D3 S4, Ap5 hits (randomly allocated) with Ignores Cover. This means the
expected number of hits at the end of a turn is 1 (which must then get past toughness,
armor/invuln, and feel no pain), while the expected number over infinite turns is 2. Commonly
considered useless.
Tzeentch Powers
Choose this power's cost when you cast it (before rolling); its cost determines its Attacks, as noted
in its profile. This power right here? It's what is supposed to act in the place of guns for your
army. Remember that while Heavy Bolters are generally not that good, yours are generally
strapped onto much more mobile shooting platforms who can maneuver to the rear arc on enemy
vehicles and glance them out before they know what hit them. Oh those Pink Horrors, no they're
S3 they can't possibly hurt your wave serpent, why don't you maneuver it clo-
DAKKADAKKADAKKA dead serpent.1-3
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
As one of three anti tank powers, it's arguably the weaker of the spells, but at warp charge 1, it is
an easier one to get off. As a beam weapon with the same range as a bolter there is potential for
some pretty good vehicle wrecking capability. Combined with Tzeentch's Exalted Locus, a D6+5
strength AP2 beam starts to look pretty tasty. Also with a minimum of S7 with the formation in
the decurion, it starts to be pretty scary (if you could ever afford the 9 horrors squad formation of
course) (do note however that the formation only requires 9 units from a list of 3, with the points
being 50, 69 and 90; as such, a reasonably balanced formation runs to about 700 for the 9 units
AND the herald with the Exalted Locus of +1 Str). 1
Range S AP Type
Too random in strength to be reliable, potentially a real fucker if you roll a 6 in the middle of an
enemy formation with lots of cover, potentially just a waste of your Warp Charges when you roll
S1 and wound not just MEQs on a 6, but those dirt cheap GEQs as well. 2
4 Boon of Flame Conjuration 12 None WC2 nabs you 1 Exalted Flamer, while
WC3 gives you either 3 flamers or 1 Burning Chariot. Just take 1 roll on Malefic and swap for
Primaris. However, while inferior to Malefic, it's not bad, just limited, and even Malefic can't
summon Flaming Chariots; since the psychic phase is juuuust before the shooting phase you can
use this to summon some powerful shooting attacks and distractions. If using Magnus, make sure
he does this power every turn, because summoning at least 5 burning chariots over the course of a
game is nothing to scoff at. 2-3
Range S AP Type
Bolt of Change's big brother. The blast does mean you have the chance to get multiple targets, but
it's a small blast so not ideal. 2
Range S AP Type
18 D 1 Assault 1
This is what you want to demolish vehicles, Wraithknights, and Dreadknights with. 3
Excess (Slaanesh)[edit]
In all, not bad but not great either. Acquiescence has been superseded by Debilitating Distention;
Maniacal Fervor and Phantasmagoria are an excellent blessing and malediction, respectively, but
everything else is done better by Change or Plague. However, in mirror matches, due to demons'
low leaderships (all basic troop demons are leadership 7), or armies who have low Ld values
anyway (Tau, Imperial Guard, Orks), this discipline could do good work.
Excess Powers
Range S AP Type
24 6 - Assault 1, Beam,Rending
While not as generally strong as the Tzeentch stuff, (Tzeentch is greater in strength on a 3+) this
is your other anti tank option. On, say, a flying daemon prince, this is actually pretty good
because you can line up multiple targets, potentially in their rear arcs. 1
Model hit must pass a Leadership test or suffer a Wound, ignoring armor and cover. If the model
is slain, randomly select another model in the unit and repeat. A more mental version of Rancid
Visitation, and a much weaker version as well. Never target at multi wound models. Note that
because demons have comparably low leaderships to work with Demonic Instability, this power
can be FUN* in mirror matches; cast it on a unit of furies and watch them pop like balloons.
1
Range S AP Type
After this attack resolves, any unit hit must take an Ld test; if they fail, they take D6 additional
hits. Fuck that horde. 2
Range S AP Type
This power does not affect vehicles (although they may be targeted). Each unit hit rolls 2D6-Ld
and suffers Wounds equal to the result, then takes a Pinning test (which is independent of whether
or not the unit was Wounded). 2
Plague (Nurgle)[edit]
In all, got an even more awesome boost with Curse of the Wulfen. Without a doubt the best
discipline to roll on. 1 massively OP buff (Putrescent Vitality), and several powers to
neuter/cripple enemy units to make them easy pickings in close combat. Also, the witchfires
laugh at anything in Power Armor or Terminator Armor.
Plague Powers
Range S AP Type
A pretty nifty power. Anything shy of a terminator is going to at least take a dent from this.
1
Range S AP Type
This power has no effect on Vehicles. This WILL dent anything else, including terminators. The
poison 4+ does mean there's only a 50/50 chance of wounding, but the AP2 makes it better than
trying to hit them with your swords. Note that the power of the same name in the Nurgle
discipline is identical except for being WC2, so this is strictly better. 1
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
This power has no effect on Vehicles, although it may target them. Instead of rolling To Wound,
roll a D6; if you roll higher than the Wounds the model hit has remaining, it suffers 1 Wound with
the listed profile. There is no errata, and the wording is "...for a model hit by this attack, its
controlling player...", so if it matters to you, discuss with your opponent whether the power means
the model's controlling player or the attack's controlling player. 2
Eldar Disciplines[edit]
The Eldar, including the Harlequins but not the Dark Eldar, have developed a few of their own
disciplines, of course. There's also a discipline that belongs only to the Eldar Corsairs, but that's
Forgeworld, in Imperial Armour Volume Eleven - The Doom of Mymeara. As usual with
Forgeworld, expect even stranger than usual rules, interactions and arguments over RAI, and
don't use without your opponent's permission.
Craftworld Eldar[edit]
Runes of Fate[edit]
Available to Farseers as well as Eldrad. Can be taken in addition to the Telepathy, Daemonology
(Sanctic), and Divination tables. Runes of Fate, as the name suggests, are mainly focused on
changing the Eldar's fates for the better and their enemies' for the worse, though the Farseers do
have a few potent witchfires in their mind-arsenals, including one of the most powerful in the
whole game.
Primaris Guide Blessing 24 Unit Guide, the most iconic and renowned
power of the Farseer since time immemorial. Boosted significantly from past editions, the new
Guide features a range of 24", twice the range of Prescience on the Divination table. The power
basically twin-links the weapons of the target squad, allowing each and every model to re-roll
their to-hit rolls for shooting (but unlike Prescience this only effects shooting, not assault). Under
the new rules, the Farseer requires line of sight for this ability but it shouldn't be an issue. It's
wonderful and grants greater power to the army on the whole, and even better, you will get it if
you pick all powers from Runes of Fate (Psychic Focus!)1
Range S AP Type
24 - - Assault 3, Fleshbane
A focused witchfire that deals 3 hits (which land automatically because this power actually
doesn't have a weapon profile) to the model "hit" in the target unit, and, thanks to Fleshbane,
always wounds on 2+ regardless of Toughness. If the model dies, another model from the same
unit takes 2 of the same hits, and if that model is removed from play a following model receives 1
hit. Both additional models are chosen the same way as the first one - so all three are random or
all three are chosen by the caster, if you paid to focus it. 1
3 Will of Asuryan Blessing Self Model You get a 12" bubble of Fearless and
Adamantium Will. Great for making certain that you HOLD THE LINE! Though admittedly there
are other ways to get Fearless units with Eldar. Adamantium Will makes the Farseer's unit and
any nearby unit with a psyker a Denying machine. Recall that fleeing units will auto-regroup
upon entering the bubble and becoming Fearless, and it also cancels the effects of Going To
Ground. Send your Guardians to ground in a ruin for a nice 3+, pop this, have them stand back up
and unload at full BS next turn. 2
4 Fortune Blessing 24 Unit Now with 24" of range, this allows the Farseer
to sit back and stay safe while the affected unit gets a re-roll on all failed saving throws AND
Deny the Witch rolls until the Farseer's next turn. Remember the Farseer needs to have line of
sight and it costs 2 warp charges. This is probably the strongest power ever to be available to this
army. Anyone with Fortune is the absolute key to making even simple units become invincible
rape trains. Warlocks, Wraithguard, shit...fucking Dire Avengers with a shimmershield start to
scare the balls off of your enemy. Fortune is just one power that contributes to the lethality of a
unit joined by the Seer. 2
5 Mind War Witchfire (Focused) (Profileless) 24 Model
Range S AP Type
Basically a simplified version of Psychic Shriek from Telepathy, and more reliable. Changed a
little in 7th but with no downside to the Farseer. Like Executioner, Mind War technically has no
weapon profile, so you don't have to roll to hit. Each combatant (the psyker and the model hit)
rolls a 1D6 and adds the result to their Leadership (so 1D6+10 for Farseers). Then you compare
the two numbers; if the Farseer scores lower, nothing happens; if there is a draw, then the model
instantly has their WS and BS dropped by 1 until the end of the next turn; if the Farseer scores
higher, then the target also suffers the difference in wounds with no armour or cover saving
throws allowed. Great if you can hit the unit with a Warlock's Horrify power in advance (see
Runes of Battle below). Note that this power will never kill more than one model (all wounds it
deals are always allocated to the same one), whereas Psychic Shriek targets and affects units, so
its wounds get spread around (and must be spread around, as it cannot be focused). 2
Range S AP Type
Classic Eldritch Storm! 3 Warp Charges makes this thing Large Blast, 4 Warp Charges makes it
an apocalyptic 10" blast. You have to choose the casting value BEFORE you roll though, so no
aiming for three, then getting lucky and upgrading the power. Hit anything up to and including
MEQs with those pie plates and watch most if not all of the squad (or squads if you're going
Apocalyptic!) go bye-bye. While WC4 makes your Farseer more likely to Peril, make sure you
leave 1 WC remaining to ignore the wound using his/her Ghosthelm. Or just re-roll the offending
dice with Runes of the Farseer, which you should probably save each turn for Eldritch Storm if
you're planning to use it. 3/4
Runes of Battle[edit]
Available to Warlocks and Spiritseers. Warlocks have tempered their powers to a fine edge, but
every sword in their hands can be used as a shield, allowing them to use each power either for
themselves or against their foes, giving these psykers a supreme range of versatility. As such,
each roll on the Runes of Battle table is a pair of powers, one offensive and one defensive.
Range S AP Type
Destructor is the Kamehameha of Warlocks, an iconic power from codices of old. It's a psychic
heavy flamer that now features the Soul Blaze special rule; as it is copypasta of Flame Breath, but
also ships with Renewer, it is strictly better. As a power and not an actual weapon, the Warlock
cannot fire this in overwatch. Renewer is a big tool for the right units, a nearly unheard of
targeted healing power that restores a single allied model in range for a single lost wound. Most
models only have one wound to begin with so this power doesn't affect them (and cannot be cast
as a phoenix down) but instead serves a fantastic purpose when targeting most HQ units or
durable multiwound models in the army such as Wraithlords and Wraithknights, as well as the
potent Avatar of Khaine. HEALMEHAMEHAAA! 1
Harlequins[edit]
Phantasmancy[edit]
Primaris Veil of Tears Blessing Self Unit You know it. You love it. You
swear by it. Anyone who tries shooting at your psyker's squad has to roll 2D6x2. If they're not
within a distance equal to the result, the enemy unit may not fire this turn, so not only are you not
hit, but neither is anyone else if your opponent was foolish enough to use Split Fire and shoot the
Veiled unit first. It would be great if Shadowseers could take jetbikes, but it's still infinitely better
than Night Fighting. 1
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
Not fantastic since many armies have high enough stats to both tank the shots and pass the Blind
test, but very good for distracting Tau (though most Tau Battlesuits have Black Sun Filters that
give them immunity to Blind, so not as useful as it would seem, but useful against Fire Warriors
and Pathfinders), Orks, or Necrons with low Initiative scores and foiling their plans to shoot or
assault. Necrons in particular will hate you for this power, particularly everything with a Tesla
weapon. 1
Corsairs[edit]
Aethermancy[edit]
Aethermancy Powers
Primaris Path Ward Blessing - Unit The target unit (which must be
of the Eldar Corsairs faction) always gets maximum distance for Run, difficult terrain, Charge
distance, Thrust, Hit and Run distance, and Reckless Abandon distance. No range given, which
probably means infinite range. (There is no FAQ on this.) This power takes the randomness out of
all of those tricky mobility rules, making them reliable and much more useful. It's situational, but
it can make a big difference under the right circumstances. 2
Range S AP Type
Webway Rift is a weak witchfire, but it can be used to set up a pretty sick Corsair maneuver
called the Rum Slingshot. Google it. It involves too many specific rules and circumstances to
discuss here. 1
5 Warp Tunnel Blessing 6 Unit The Void Dreamer and his unit, OR a
friendly Corsair unit, may Deep Strike anywhere on the board without scatter AND may shoot
and assault after arriving. However, for every full 6" traveled, the unit rolls a D6. For each 1
rolled, they take a savable wound. This is super useful as the targeted unit can be potentially
anywhere you need them to be at a moment's notice and immediately do what you need them to
do once they're there. And the drawback isn't as bad as it seems; if you teleport 36", for example,
on average the unit only takes a single savable wound, which is well worth the practical and
psychological effects of this power. A Wraithknight could easily teleport 72" and come through
unscathed to start wrecking shit. 2
Uniquely, Eldar Corsairs also have their own Perils of the Warp results table to represent their
specific vulnerabilities to Slaanesh, since, as outcasts and pirates, they don't have access to the
tools and training that Craftworld psykers use to protect themselves from the ancient scourge of
the Eldar race.
Soul Wracked 2-3 Slaanesh claws at the souls of your psyker and his unit. They are Pinned,
and your opponent may choose to change the target of the power that was cast, or cancel it.
Warp Terrors 4-5 The psyker, his unit, and all Corsairs within 12" must take a Morale
check on the highest two dice of a 3D6 roll or start falling back, and considering that Corsairs
don't like regroup tests, this can absolutely cripple your army.
The Eye of She-Who-Thirsts 6 Nothing happens immediately, but for the rest of the
game your psykers now trigger Perils on any double roll, not just double sixes. If this is already in
effect, re-roll the Perils result.
Ynnari[edit]
Revenant[edit]
The Ynnari, a confederation of Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Harlequins, were taught a new Psychic
discipline by Ynnead.
Revenant Powers
Range S AP Type
If your Leadership value is higher than the target then this is S6, otherwise it is S3. Vehicles are
immune to this power. 1
1 Shield of Ynnead Blessing Self Model All friendly units within 7" get a
6+ invulnerable save (an "aura" or "bubble" effect on the Psyker, rather than on the units). Better
than nothing, and can stack with Sanctic Daemonology's "Sanctuary" power for a 5+. 1
Range S AP Type
Although it is hampered by short range and low strength, the potential for a high number (average
= 7 per unit, notice a theme?) of armour and cover ignoring shots is not to be sniffed at. 1
3 Word of the Phoenix Blessing 24 Unit Pick a friendly unit with
Strength from Death within 24". That unit may immediately make a Soulburst action. Consider
this your uber form of "Vanhel's Dance Macabre" where you can rapidly get your units where
they need to be. You've just moved, so move again... Or just get a free round of shooting if you're
already close enough. No real point in getting a unit to charge during the psychic phase. 2
Range S AP Type
Ynnari generally struggle against horde units, as their mechanics ae geared towards punishing
MSU. Now this power not only effectively deal with hordes, but also allow your units to activate
their extra actions from them. Straight up better then Word of the Phoenix, as it's all but
guaranteed to get at least one kill, unless you're firing it on something ridiculously tough. 2
Range S AP Type
No Invulnerable saves can be taken against this power. While this is pretty much a guaranteed
wound, just bear in mind that it is WC3 for a single shot that can still miss. 3
Tyranid Disciplines[edit]
The Tyranids and Genestealer Cults have a couple disciplines, too, although for poorly explained
reasons, there is no model in the game with access to both.
Primaris Dominion Blessing Self Model Adds 6" to the psyker's Synapse
Range. Pretty decent. It never hurts to give your swarms more breathing room from being
crammed up. With the new FAQ for 7th edition out now, psykers without the Synapse rule who
cast dominion gain a 6" Synapse Range for the duration of the power. 1
1 Catalyst Blessing 12 Unit The psyker, its unit, and one friendly
unit within 12" gains Feel No Pain. What's not to like? Cast this puppy on that 30-strong brood of
Devilgaunts in area terrain with a Venomthrope for a 3+ cover 5+ FNP, and anyone who can't
bring Ignores Cover S6+ weapons is little more than lunch meat. 1
Range S AP Type
24 5 3 Assault 1, Blast
Range S AP Type
18 10 2 Assault 1, Lance
Choose one profile when you cast this; you have a choice between a light to medium infantry
killer blast or a tank killer blast. Both are short range, but both pack a punch. Zoanthropes still
know this power by default, thankfully. 2
Broodmind Powers
Primaris Mass Hypnosis Malediction 24 Unit Reduces the target unit's WS,
BS, Attacks, and Initiative by 1. 1
Range S AP Type
It's Warp Blast from the Powers of the Hive Mind table, but without the tank killer option and
only WC1. As a result, strictly better than The Emperor's Wrath, due to having another 6" of
range with no other changes. 1
Ork Disciplines[edit]
Orks, naturally, have their own zany discipline, although, strangely, only one. Given that all of
them are at least very minor psykers, you'd think there'd at least be disciplines for Gork and
Mork, not to mention one for each tribe. Oh, well.
Powers of da Waaagh![edit]
Overview
Available to Weirdboyz. Naturally, every Ork psychic power except for two is meant to destroy
things loudly and spectacularly, and two of those five are AP 2; the Powers of da Waaagh are not
subtle. This makes using Weirdboys fairly predictable if you're planning on running them as
"another gun" to round out your army. Da Jump is fairly gimmicky, but Warpath can give a mob
that extra boost right before it charges.
Powers of da Waaagh!
Range S AP Type
24 6 3 Assault 1, Blast
A reliable Marine killer. Strictly better than Psionic Blast, at +1S compared to it, and therefore
also strictly better than The Emperor's Wrath, at +1S and +6" range. 1
Range S AP Type
Model hit must pass a Toughness test or suffer a wound with no armour or cover saves allowed.
Haemorrhage and Blood Boil both inflict *two* tests at 18" (and Blood Boil ignores invuln
saves), followed by propagated damage, and Rancid Visitation only hits at 12" but is a Nova (all
enemy units in range are hit, can hit units locked in combat) and propagates damage; the benefit
of 'Eadbanger is that those other powers are WC2 and this one is WC1, but its output is much less
than half as good. Try to avoid getting this power if you can; Frazzle will serve you much better,
in particular. 1
2 Warpath Blessing Self Unit All models in the Weirdboy's unit that
have the 'Ere We Go! special rule gain +1 Attack. 1
18 10 2 Assault 1, Beam
For killing tanks or things in straight lines...no other special rules needed to make this nastier.
2
Range S AP Type
Range S AP Type
The mighty foot of Gork (or possibly Mork) descends from the heavens in the form of a large
blast barrage. If the Strength rolled is higher than 10, the foot comes down again...and
again...until less than 10 Strength is rolled or the target is dead. 2
===========================================
Vehicles 101[edit]
Introduction to Vehicles[edit]
So you want to run a lot of Metal Boxes. Welcome to the club; this article is "under construction",
for the most part, but feel free to provide input wherever necessary.
The general viability of vehicles in 40k has oscillated from edition to edition, with some editions
favoring certain types over others; 5th edition statistically favored massed light vehicles over
smaller numbers of heavy tanks; statistically speaking, if each direct hit that penetrated had a
16% chance of destroying an enemy tank, it was more efficient to take more Razorbacks, rather
than running Land Raiders.
6th edition came out and introduced "Hull Points" as a mechanic for vehicles. While in theory,
one could destroy an enemy vehicle by exploding it, in practice, firing enough glancing shots to
strip it of health would prevent the extremes of 5th, where lucky dice rolling could have a single
lightly-armored truck take five or six direct hits from a Railgun and still stand, while a Leman
Russ Battle Tank died to *one*. If you damage a vehicle enough, it *will* be destroyed, no
extraneous luck required. Unfortunately for many, vehicle damage was still generally an
unforgiving affair; add general restrictions preventing Assaulting from most transports, and the
fact most infantry could move-and-fire Rapid-fire weapons at full-range, and most transports lost
a lot of purpose. The worst insult was the fact that vehicles could not score for objectives, even if
they were carrying Troops that *could*. Some vehicles still had their use (Flyers were very useful
to have, as were Serpents and the Catacomb Command Barge) but for the most part, vehicles
were missing from the game.
We're now in 7th. Hull points remain, but the damage table is more forgiving; unless using a
dedicated anti-tank weapon like a Lascannon or Railgun, a penetrating hit will *not* outright
destroy a vehicle in one go. Combined with missions that favor taking-and-holding objectives in
the midfield, as well as allowing *any* model to score, and vehicles are potentially an important
element of the game nowadays, though nowhere as dominant as they were back in 5th edition.
40k has a word salad of special vehicle-types: Tanks, transports, flyers, skimmers, fast, walkers,
chariot, heavy, super-heavy (walkers/flyers/tanks), and so on so forth.
Fast Vehicles can fire more weapons on-the-move, and move further on a Flat-Out move.
Tank just simply means the vehicle can Tank Shock enemy models and Ram enemy vehicles.
Tank Shock is discussed further down.
Skimmers simply ignore intervening terrain/models when moving, and can elect to Jink should an
enemy shoot. Note that although Skimmer by itself doesn't give a move bonus to Flat Out, a Fast
Skimmer has a bigger bonus than a Fast Vehicle that isn't a skimmer.
Flyer: Flyers come in from Reserves, being hard-to-hit, and usually are able to alpha-strike a
position without too much reprisal. However, their inability to stay stationary, combined with
limited firing arcs, means you usually get one good round of shooting with them every other
turn...make them count!
Hover: This simply means that the Flyer can choose to move as though it were a Fast Skimmer.
Though this makes them vulnerable to return fire, it does allow them more freedom in
moving/selecting targets.
Walker Refers to typically slow moving stumpy robots that can be upgraded with a variety of
close combat or long ranged weapons depending on the model and army. Usually best served as
support, but can comprise the majority of the force.
Immobile Drop Pods, or similar. They can't tank shock, or move or ram, but they generally Deep
Strike. Allow short-range units to close quickly.
All vehicles have an armor profile, split into three numbers: Front, Side, and Rear. These Armor
Values mostly range from 10 to 14. AV values are roughly equivalent to Toughness values 4
below them, so AV10 is roughly equivalent to T6, while AV14 is roughly equivalent to T10.
However, AV is stronger against weak weapons than T for the same equivalent value, as AV
becomes immune to attacks one S point faster (with AV10 being immune to S3 weapons or
weaker, while T6 is immune to S2 weapons or weaker), and weaker against strong weapons
(AV10 will be wounded on a 1+ by an S9 weapon, whereas no weapon of any strength can
automatically wound T6). Also, it is typically much more difficult to get saves onto your Vehicles
(and downright impossible to get armour saves onto them) than it is onto Infantry, so in practice,
AV is deceptively fragile and Vehicles will die faster than a Monstrous Creature of similar
Toughness.
Armor Values
10 Super-Light armor. Not even armor, really, just a plate covering the structure of the
vehicle. Usually found on small, fast craft and the rear of heavier vehicles. A Space Marine can
punch through this. 6 3 9
11 Light armor, or some actual armor plating. Scout vehicles usually get something like this.
A Space Marine can't punch through this, but a Heavy Bolter can. It'll stop most infantry weapons
but crumple before real firepower. 7 4 10
12 Medium armor. Now we're talking! This is the first armor value that takes dedicated anti-
tank weaponry to fight, and even a Krak Missile only stands a 50% chance of doing anything.
The Chimera enjoys a front plate with this. 8 5 -
13 Heavy armor. Autocannons will barely scratch this, and Krak grenades will just leave an
ugly scuff on the paint. The Predator has this, as does Necron Quantum Shielding. 9
6 -
14 Super-Heavy armor. The purview of walking, rolling and floating fortresses with a
reputation for being stupidly hard to kill. The Land Raider and Leman Russ get this, as do most
Lord of War slot vehicles. Either find a way around this, use melta weapons, or the strongest
ordnance you have, because nothing else will work. 10 7 -
15 Titan armor. Mostly the realm of Fortifications, but some high-end Super-Heavies get it
too. If you run into this...just give up. 11 8 -
Though 8 Loyalist armies (Space Marines and variations including Deathwatch, Space Wolves,
Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Grey Knights, Inquisition, Sisters of Battle) and Chaos Space
Marines have access to the Rhino and its variants (Razorback, Immolator, or otherwise) in some
form or fashion, a lot of their basic use will remain the same throughout each army. By itself, a
single Rhino is fairly fragile; even attempting to rush with numerous Rhinos has its issues;
against an army with sufficient ranged anti-tank, you end up basically paying to give your
opponent the luxury of fighting your army piecemeal.
A Rhino is durable-for-its-cost: A Rhino is fragile by itself, but not fragile enough for its cost. By
itself, it does minimal damage, and generally isn't worth shooting at from an economy-of-force
perspective (sure, you *could* say "Free Killpoint." Did you really need to use your Broadside
battery to kill it?)
Put another way, a Rhino costs 35 points, while 2 Marines cost 28 points. Statistically, it takes
twice as many krak missiles to kill the Rhino.
A Rhino has a good profile: Unlike Raiders, Wartrukks, Serpents, or other exotic vehicles, the
Rhino is basically a glorified M113 APC. Just a solid lump of plastic with a profile that is high
enough to block line-of-sight to friendly infantry behind it, but low enough that it can take
advantage of cover (either terrain, or your dudes). Even when wrecked, a Rhino is good at
blocking LOS.
A Rhino is Versatile: This is the big one. A Rhino can serve as mobile terrain, as a bunker, a
transport, or simply a cheap objective-holder.
NEVER face-down an enemy gunline: The Rhino is generous in that three of its four sides are
available as access points. If an enemy wishes to shoot you, chances are the Rhino will leave a
wreck. Note "wreck", and not "crater": If you directly exposed your front armor to the opponent,
the access points on the side will probably be exposed to enemy fire, while the rear access point
will leave your guys super-crowded for blasts/a hungering Heldrake. Rather, face the enemy
gunline at a 30-60-degree angle depending on whether your opponent can or cannot reach your
rear arc. This way, you have more freedom to disembark, and have a nice piece of terrain to block
line of sight.
Maintain Formation If Viable: (This one matters more for those folks wanting an old-fashioned
Razorback list. Godspeed, you crazy bastards) Some armies have high-strength blasts that can put
a major hurt on your vehicles; should someone be bringing Manticores or a Doomsday Ark, you
won't want to try this. However, you can run Rhinos/Razors in a "train"/convoy, with them
advancing in a progressive line, the head of the convoy popping Smoke, while the rest take
advantage of cover. *Remember* that vehicles measure weapon LOS from their weapons, and
Razors have a high turret mounting. Just because you have cover doesn't mean the enemy does.
Space them Out: Blasts are not the only thing you have to worry about when running Rhinos.
Although there is a Tokyo Drift in the 41st millenium, vehicles still only turn "on their center",
and Rhinos cannot move through friendly models (meaning other Rhinos) Let us suppose you
have a line of Razorbacks advancing on an enemy, and some Eldar player has proceeded to turbo-
boost Jetbikers to the sides and rear of the convoy, and sacrificed a Serpent to block off the head
of the convoy...if your Rhinos were exactly 1" apart, you're in trouble. Always maintain a
minimum of 2" between each Rhino you wish to run, and preferably add an extra 25 mm to that.
Most minis in this game are mounted on bases at least 28mm-wide, so even though you're spaced
out, you create a mobile wall denying parts of the map to your opponent.
The Rhino of Fury: Using the same principles mentioned above for a Rhino, it's possible to
punish players aiming for horde armies by taking 2 Rhinos, driving at diagonal perpendiculars
towards each other, spacing out their front bumpers 2-and-something" away from each other, and
parking a rifle team in the center. The same principle can be expanded with 3 Rhinos, four...
Dreadnoughts are a tough concept to work with for warhammer players new and old. The models
are popular and the fluff is inspiring, but on the table dreadnoughts can often prove to be
lacklustre at best. Disappointing at worst. So, it is understandable that many people will advise
you not to take a walker unless it has some sort of ranged support. In reality walkers are great
support models which shine when used effectively and applied well.
Most Walkers have two main uses and a niche role which go as follows:
Range support - From mortises and Deredos, to Riflemen, and Sonic Dreadnoughts, a walker can
make an excellent ranged support choice for any gunline army. This is because their purposes are
two-fold: the first is to add to the fire potential of your entire list and help to focus fire on the
primary threats of your opponent's force. The second are its counter assault abilities thanks to the
s10 ap2 DCCW, which allow it to patch the close combat weaknesses of any range-centric force.
Take Bjorn the Fell Handed for an example: The big bastard is well suited for babysitting a
couple of squads of long fangs while he chills out and chucks shots out with his HellFrost
cannon. Anything dumb enough to get close to him will rapidly disintegrate beneath his S10 AP2,
WS6 attacks. While Bjorn is a unique character other, less expensive, examples exist in the Sonic
Dreadnought, and the Contemptor Dreadnought.
Board Control/Disruption - Whether you're marching them through cover to threaten objectives,
Outflanking them, stuffing them in Drop Pods/Stormravens, or Deep Striking them through a
special formation, Walkers can rapidly throw a wrench in your opponent's plans. Whether they're
an obstacle to prevent your gunline from being rolled up, or they're meant to slow your opponent
down while you play the objectives game, Walkers can hand the initiative back to you and force
your opponent to play a reactive game.
Zone Mortalis deathstar Due to the cramped confines of a Zone Mortalis board, the lack of
visibility for shooting, and the forest of locked doors you will invariably find, dreadnoughts are
some of the best units to be fielded in a zone mortalis map. Thanks to the small confines and low
points level, dreadnoughts benefit from a map devoid of fast vehicles or infantry, and ton of LOS
blocking walls to save his ass from heavy weapons. Just watch out for infantry portable anti-tank
weapons or monsterous creatures and he will *shreck* anything he comes across.
Tank-type vehicles are almost entirely a domain of Imperial Guard (with exceptions such as Land
Raider), and are used to back up your squishy Guardsmen with superior firepower. Though, in
case of some lists, the only role for Guardsmen is to provide a cover save for the tanks by
standing between tank and the enemy lascannon. Other features include being large, blocky boxes
and huge targets for anything on the board (as well as for the cannons on the Empire VS Dwarf
game next table over). Tanks are also the only vehicles, as of 7th Edition, which are able to Tank
Shock.
While obvious and frequently said, ALWAYS TURN YOUR FRONT TO YOUR ENEMY. This
isn't simply because your front armor is usually superior (on Leman Russ Battle Tank, it's a
difference between AV14 and AV10), but the fact that most of your weapons point forward,
means that even AV14 all around Land Raider is able to simply inflict more damage to the enemy
it's facing than the enemy behind it. You should also try to predict your enemy's future Anti-Tank
placement, so you will not be caught with your back armor showing. In addition, try to cover
your weak points, either in bubble wrap of infantry, or by keeping your back to some impassible
terrain. Deep Strikes and Drop Pods WILL throw off your plans if you are not ready for them, so
always have something ready to take care of them, lest your tanks will become smoking wrecks.
Since everything Imperium uses is based upon WW1 technology, all of your tanks are hilariously
slow (except, amusingly, Land Raider, which is the biggest metal box ever. Thanks to it's PoTMS
it can still fire a gun while moving at full tilt). This applies to all Heavy vehicles, but Tanks are
almost universally affected. This means that you should never try to follow your targets,
especially against armies of fast-moving Eldar. This also means that your short-range tanks can
be hit n' run as well, and they are incapable to respond to quick changes in the front line and
enemy breakthroughs. However, this allows tanks to keep up exactly with infantry advance,
without the possibility of overtaking the infantry screen, keeping it safe from any assaults coming
from the front.
Tanks are the only vehicles that can Tank Shock. This is useful both against non-fearless infantry
and vehicles. Any infantry caught in Tank Shock has to make a morale check, and even Space
Marines have a chance of freaking out about a tank slowly charging at them. But most important
change in 7th Edition, is that the damage equation is changed, meaning that it's possible for
Leman Russ Battle Tank to move combat speed, and ram an enemy vehicle with a S10 attack
(14/2 Round Up = 7, +1 from Tank, +2 for heavy. While not mentioned anywhere in the rules,
you cannot have a Ram attack above Strength 10). This has no effect on firing capacity of the
Tank, so you can target any target without losing the target control - this may include the squad
which have escaped the vehicle you have glanced to death with Tank Shock.
They Go Squish:
With a carefully aimed and measured tank shock you can deal damage to a squad even if they are
unlikely to fail their morale test, all models that would end beneath the tank are moved out via the
SHORTEST DISTANCE, they must remain on the table, within coherency and an inch away
from the 'Shocking' tank to survive, if not (CRUNCH) with a fair number of tanks/your other
units or good use of impassable terrain you can CRUNCH any squad that would normally pass
their morale tests by forcing them to move within an inch of another of your units or onto
impassable terrain. FOR VISUAL LEARNERS>>>>>> [1]
Most Tank vehicles are also frequently the most customizable units as well. Leman Russ tanks
and Land Raiders come in many different flavors, and can be set up either to counter specific
types of enemy, or to have a reasonable chance to endanger anything they run across. Even the
smaller upgrades, such as Heavy Stubbers can cause some extra damage after you've erased most
of the enemy Space Marine squad with Demolisher Cannon (even at BS1, the shots add up with
Bolters, and then Math Hammer hammers). Again, it may also be more favorable to be able to
engage non standard targets, such as using LasCannon to combat vehicles outside of the
aforementioned Demolisher's range.
Jump (through windows) Vehicles: Skimmers behave similarly to jump infantry. They move over
terrain as if it weren't there. However, if they start or end their move in terrain, they have to take a
dangerous terrain test. The distinction is, unlike jump infantry, skimmers have no way to "walk";
they ALWAYS risk this dangerous terrain if they move in cover. Many armies have ways to let
your skimmers either re-roll dangerous terrain checks, automatically pass them, or ignore them
entirely. These are usually cheap upgrades and tend to be worth it. One thing to remember is,
thanks to ignoring terrain, Skimmers essentially can fly through ruins and buildings as if they
weren't there, long as they're less than 12". This means you can park a skimmer behind a bastion
during your opponent's turn, then fly right over it to get in his face.
Jinkle Jangle Bongo I Don't Wanna Leave The Congo: All Skimmers have the Jink universal
special rule. This rule is one of the most delicious bits of bullshit in 6th and 7th Edition.
Essentially, whenever a skimmer is shot at, you can choose to Jink; you declare this before the
enemy gets a chance to roll to hit. If you do, your shots next turn are Snap Shots, but you gain a
4+ cover save. This is especially good because most skimmers(Dark Eldar and Tau especially)
have ways to get bonuses to their cover saves, turning this 4+ into a 3+.
An Introduction*: When 6th Edition 40k came out, the addition of Flyers as a separate vehicle
category was one of controversy. On one hand, flyers possessed multiple layers of defenses
(including immunity to Assault), and possessed the ability to come onto Reserves at a critical
point, without normal reserve-related risks of Deep Strike Mishaps, or outflanking to the wrong
table edge, and subsequently could alpha-strike critical locations of a battlefield. On the other
hand, their movement restrictions combined with limited firing arcs to make *most* of them
effectively capable of only firing once every other turn. Many Flyer units were added to 40k but
of the flyers introduced into 6th Edition, the only one which caused teeth-pulling frustration for
its victims was the infamous Heldrake; the best-performing flyers were those from 5th Edition
which started off as fast-skimmers beforehand, with the Nightscythe and Vendetta becoming
dangerous weapons to wield or endure.
Know your Role: This really is the most important part. Aircraft in general fall under several
categories, thanks to the 2016 supplement:
Bombers: Barring a FW-friendly environment, bombers as a primary unit aren't worth taking,
simply because most bomb-weapons are overpriced, and they lack the effective threat projection
which makes Flyers expensive in the first place. Their main advantage is they provide a limited
version of Split Fire/the ability to force additional leadership checks outside of the Shooting
phase, as well as providing blast weapons with an unusual attack vector/relative accuracy. Also,
due to wording, you can drop a bomb on the invisible squad. However, most bombs are tooled for
destroying lightly armored infantry...fast, midfielding lightly armored infantry, and you generally
aren't getting too much bang for your buck.
Attack Flyers: These are the basic flyers you'd usually take. They have guns that can actually hit
worth a damn on ground targets. Against flyers however, they're useless.
Fighters: If you find another flyer, take a fighter. These are the ones that can actually get Skyfire
via the new rules, so keeping one as backup is always advised in a flyer-heavy meta, or if you
want to piss off someone with a lot of Jetbikes and Skimmers, since they also get hit by Skyfire.
Anything else, you only take -1 to BS in non-Skyfire cases.
Plan Your Moves Ahead: This really is the most important aspect. Flyers have a large dead-zone
they cannot move into from one turn to another. (This area is where we need diagrams, anyone
want to help?). In addition, you might also want to hold back on bringing out a flyer if only
because the 2016 supplement says that if only one side has flyers in reserves, the other one gets -1
to their reserve rolls.
To Intercept or Not?: A classic misconception about flyers is that they have Skyfire by default.
This isn't correct. Zooming Flyers can choose whether or not to use the Skyfire special rule at the
start of each Shooting phase. If they do, all weapons they fire that phase are treated as having the
Skyfire special rule. Whether they choose to have skyfire or not MUST be done individually, and
before any shots are fired.
Crash and Burn: So you're penned by some lucky schmuck with missiles or that fancy Mortis
Dread. You have to take a Grounding test, right? WRONG. You instead have to worry about the
vehicle damage table. If you ever get Immobilized, you have to roll a d6: on a 3+ you replace it
with Crew Stunned, but if you roll a 1 or 2, you're dead. So, you made your 3+ and are still in the
air? You are not out of the woods yet. Crew Stunned means your flyer moves forward 18". If you
cannot place the base where it has to go (on top of friendly models or less than 1" away from
enemy models) you Crash and Burn on your movement phase anyway (zooming flyer forced to
move less than 18"). Be mindful of what is or can be placed 18" in front of your flyer.
Thanks to the new supplements, you also get two new stats to flyers that can potentially change
how things run: Agility, which you need to roll under if you want to make a 90-degree turn, and
Pursuit, which comes into play against other flyers. If you get stunned or shaken, these stats get
dropped to 0 for the turn. This can potentially alter how moves are planned.
RETURN TO THE COMBAT ZONE: There's a good likelihood that if your flyer is zooming that
it might luck into a table edge. In these cases, your plane can flee the combat zone and go back to
Ongoing Reserves, with every ding you have. Upon returning. you're back to zooming.
Hovering Doom: If your flyer can hover, you can then turn it into a jumbo-sized Fast Skimmer.
You can only embark and disembark anything you're transporting in hover mode (unless of course
if you are a necron). The general disadvantage is that you can be hit by non-Skyfire units now, but
in some cases it becomes a scoring unit.
Wings: Squadrons...but for Planes!: Another new addition to Flyers is the addition of Wings,
which allow for a bunch of flyers to take up one spot and be organized in different patterns, which
provide special boosts for the wing for the battle. They can be led by Wing Leaders, who gain
traits to boost them a little.
Vigilance Attack Pattern: Have two flyers diagonal from each other. The front Attack Flyer gains
+1 BS against ground targets, the front Bomber adds +1 S to their bombs, and the front Fighter
gains +1 BS against Flyers. In all cases, the front flyer gains +1 to Jink.
Vehemence Attack Pattern: Get three flyers, have two of them behind the front one like a triangle.
All Attack Flyers gain Tank Hunters against ground targets, Bombers can re-roll Pens and
Glances, and Fighters gain Tank Hunters against other flyers.
Intolerance Attack Pattern: It's like the Vigilance pattern, but with another flyer placed diagonally
so they all form a straight line. Everyone gains Ignores Cover, but Fighters only get it against
other flyers while Attack Flyers only get it against ground targets.
Unmerciful Attack Pattern: Three fighters conga-lining one behind the other. When all flyers flat-
out, they double their pursuit scores. Attack Flyers also have to attack one ground target with up
to four weapons, with the second one getting +1 BS and the second one getting +2 BS. Bombers
can make a Bombing Run during the Flat-Out if they didn't fire in the previous Movement phase,
with the second one reducing scatter by 1" and the third reducing scatter by 2". Fighters have to
attack one flyer with up to four weapons, with the second one getting +1 BS and the second one
getting +2 BS.
Indomitable Attack Pattern: It's a cross between Vehemence and Intolerance. All flyers gain the
rules from both patterns as well as the Vigilance Pattern.
Omniscience Attack Pattern: Four flyers standing shoulder to shoulder (wing to wing?). They
gain Preferred Enemy against one kind of unit (So Dakkajets, Heldrakes, etc.) for the whole fight.
Pretty weak, to be honest.
Fortitude Attack Pattern: Four Flyers form up like a box, giving them all 4+ Invuln, IWND, and
Interceptor. All of which is rather cool.
Dogfights: The other new addition from the 2016 Death from the Skies 2012 Crusade of Fire is a
whole extra phase for flyers in reserve, which can lead to some fuckery in the reserves if you win.
Interception: Roll a die, +1 for more Fighters, -1 for more Bombers. Winner gets to pick two
flyers from their reserve and one enemy flyer in reserve for the dogfight, which will take place on
a side-field.
Engage: Both sides roll d3. There's a table that cross-references what results take place depending
on what they roll, with the winner choosing whether they want to move 12" closer or further
(Increases to 24" if the winner's pursuit value is 2 higher than the loser's).
Manoeuvre: Roll d3 again. Cross-reference another table for results. Winner can force their
opponent to turn 90 degress (180 if the winner's pursuit value is 2 higher than the loser's) or have
their flyers jink for the phase.
Attack: Yet ANOTHER cross-reference table with d3's, with the result being who fires first. Now
comes the actuall fighting. When both flyers are facing head-on, they can only snap-fire, while if
one's behind the other, the one behind gets to fire at full BS in all cases, while the front one can
only snap-fire. In any other case, everyone but Fighters can only snap-fire, while Fighters fire at
full BS. If any flyers crash and burn, they roll a table to either crash on your edge, the enemy's
edge, or not at all. Anyone else just hops back into reserve.
Note: Many people tend to ignore the 2016 supplement, especially if one player doesn't own it. In
some cases an entire flgs will have a soft ban on it or just prefer not to use it. Find out with your
local group before hand, it could mean the difference on which fliers you bring or leave behind.
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