Grey Knight Librarian Tactica

[Herr Major]

Given how amazing the librarians powers are for a small army count like grey knights, it seems like a "mandatory" HQ choice, or at least that's what everyone keeps saying.

My huge problem with this unit stems from my local gaming group. There is an Eldar player who has, with great joy, changed his lists to always include that rune on his farseer that makes you roll psychic tests with three dice (forgot what it was called, and it's exact ability), and will have it camp in a holo-falcon all game zipping around for cover saves.

Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated by this and really don't want to play at his game by arranging my list, so my question is thus.

Is the psychic hood on the librarian good enough to counter that ability, or is it static? Does psychic hood save you from things like shadow in the warp too or not? I'd really like to use this unit, especially since I'm making my own, but if this is a losing uphill battle then I'll have to rethink my list ideas.

Thanks!

[dark_phoenix]

psychic hoods don't work against eldar runes or shadow in the warp anything like that. All they do is attempt to stop the opponent getting their powers off.

So your eldar friend is going to make you roll your psychic tests on 3d6 now until you kill the farseer. I play eldar and always take the runes of warding as they are called. They are near enough mandatory gear now against most opponents.

[Herr Major]

Then is the risk worth it? Shrouding and quicksilver seem like really really important tactica for such a small army size...

[MaltonNecromancer]

Surely enough Vindicare assassins will hush his yap?

[Herr Major]

He's keeping it locked inside a Holo-Falcon, even with the massive pen he's zipping around the board getting a cover save. Vindicare helps but is by no means a guaranteed solution >< far as I can tell at least

[plawolf]

Well, with all the psycannons you should be taking as standard, a halofield falcon really shouldn't be too much of a bother, especially if you take psybolt ammo with them (does that still add 1 to S?).

GKs are a shooting army mostly before, and seems to have kept that flavor after the revamp of the codex. Their main strengths lies in mobile firepower from stormbolters. NFW being actual force weapons as well as powers like hammerhand help make them an all rounded force, but they do not need to be in CC asap like BA.

The only power GKs really benefit from outside of CC are shrouding, but you should be able to deploy your force with as much cover as possible anyways to start off with, so just rely on cover saves for the first turn and focus fire with psycannons to bring down the Falcon and save a Vindicare round for the Farseer if he survives the crash.

If your entire army cannot kill a Falcon in a turn or two, you probably have bigger problems than runes of warding.

[SonicPara]

He's keeping it locked inside a Holo-Falcon, even with the massive pen he's zipping around the board getting a cover save. Vindicare helps but is by no means a guaranteed solution >< far as I can tell at least

You could throw down 4x Psycannon Purgation squads by the truckloads. Three of them will get you 48 shots that may not need line of sight (this is tough to pull off with the runes of warding). You'll be laying down S7 shots like Epic Meal Time does bacon.

[Herr Major]

Yeah, was taking as many psycannons as they could carry because of how versital they are so I'm glad to hear that is a step in the right direction. Are purgation squads really better than purifier squads with 4 psycannons? Is astral aim worth the extra cost per squad? I ask this mainly because I plan to run 2 Dreadknights normally, and maybe a landraider in anything above 2500 pts

[plawolf]

Yeah, was taking as many psycannons as they could carry because of how versital they are so I'm glad to hear that is a step in the right direction. Are purgation squads really better than purifier squads with 4 psycannons? Is astral aim worth the extra cost per squad? I ask this mainly because I plan to run 2 Dreadknights normally, and maybe a landraider in anything above 2500 pts

Well if you are taking twin dreadknights and an LR, you won't be able to take purgation squads because of FoC.

Astra aim is pretty interesting, as you can shoot pretty much anything in range not meched up, and from the wording could also be used to reduce a unit's cover save if its better than 4+, which is pretty cool, but everything you shot with this power get an auto 4+ save, and it is a psy power, so would be subject to Runes and Shadow.

Purifiers also rely on psy tests for Cleansing Flame, so they are in the same boat in that regard, but they would be more reliant on their power, since Cleansing Flame is much more central to them than Astra Aim is for purgation squads. That would be something to consider if you are facing Runes or Shadow or Hoods etc.

I think the biggest difference would be how you deploy the squads. Purgation squads are like your normal devastators in that they are a static shooty unit, and would be vulnerable to flankers or deep strikers just the same (since you are loosing NFWs for most of the squad to get psycannons etc).

Purifiers are more about close range fire support and CC, so should be leading the charge into the heart of the enemy army. I would be more tempted to give them psilencers because you don't loose shots for moving.

Which you take would therefore depend on your FoC slots available from the rest of your army as well as how you like to play. But it is perfectly possible to take both if you have the slots and points, so it doesn't necessarily have to be a 'this or that' choice.

[DarkLink]

Keep in mind that he's probably spending 250+ points to hinder your 150+pt librarian, and it's not like the librarian is completely useless. You can just save the psychic powers for when you really, really need them, and just use him as a non-psychic HQ otherwise. Psycannons and rifledreads are just about the best means in the game for killing eldar skimmers now, so while 1/6 of his army is doing nothing but turbo-boosting around, you can kill the rest of his guys.