Shoring up the Psychic Phase

So I had a crazy idea... to provide some defense in the psychic phase, why not run a supreme command of Craftworld psykers? For example, a Farseer and 2 Warlocks on skyrunner bikes. To wit:

Background: I have been running 2 Kabal battalion,s usually Black Heart and Poison Tongue. Still not entirely sold on the proper combination of Kabals, but gotta have the Vectians to get acces to cunning, Muse, and Agents.

I am running 4 venoms, 2 raidrs, 2 Ravagers (cause i don't have a 3rd yet, i played in 5th ed when the aircraft took up a heavy support slot), voidraven, and razorwing. Mechanized shooting death.

Primary use case: Embedded psychic defense. This is superior to the Helm in that on the bikes, they have the speed to stay embedded among my Raiders/Ravagers and deny Smite, do-gooder craftworld powers, etc.

Secondary use case: Even though we don't have the Asuryani keyword and thus can't be targeted by protective powers, who needs that dirty magic touching your flawless Comorrite skin?? Use Jinx and Doom to increase the viability of our incredible shooting and Smite/Destructor for reliable mortal wounds.

This is consistent with the Battle Brothers beta rules, as they would be a supreme command of Craftworld (likely Ulthwe for fluff reasons as well as that 6+FNP.)

I envision keeping them ensconced in the middle of the raider/venom flotilla protected by their character keyword. For the low-low price of a couple hundred points, you get 3 smites, 4 denies, and the mobility of having 3 character jetbikes to troubleshoot objectives, charge flyers, or whatnot.

What say you?

It's a decent idea, but I find myself shying away from it primarily because of my fondness for Hemlock Wraithfighters.

The Hemlocks lack the destructor keyword that cripples the ability of warlocks to manifest the smite power. While they can only manifest the secondary effects of their battle runes, this is of little consequence to an army relying on Drukhari firepower. While they are more expensive, they also come with considerably more firepower, durability, and mobility. With the leadership debuff on top, they seem like a natural choice.

It usually means taking either a squad of rangers or an MSU outrider of shining spears. I'm perfectly fine with this.

Using Craftworld is lowering our power, since we're superior to them in every aspect. We're the True Kind and we must act as such.


(ps.: yes, some supreme command with eldar psykers would improve our power. But at what cost)

Running a Farseer worked very well for me in the Index, and now that the excitement of the new Codex has faded a bit I'm definitely drifting back to the idea again.

The Hemlock is also looking very attractive. Compared to a Warlock Skyrunner it's 140 points more, but in exchange you get -1 to hit, +2 toughness, +9 wounds, +1 save, a 6+++ save, a full smite, and 2d3 automatically hitting strength 12 shots. That all looks well worth the points. The -2 LD debuff is also obviously going to make Torment grenades hit much more reliably.

It's a bit dodgy in the fluff, but I was originally a Dark Elf player so mixing in magic feels perfectly natural to me!

Would you take a trio then?

I'm actually planning to convert up a crazy 'heavy jetbike Archon' to use as Baharroth to compliment the 18 Scourges and 9 Reavers... My fluff is more 'Homeless Exodites adjacent to Commoragh' so they still keep around Voidsingers and whatnot in small numbers. They're banned from Commoragh itself, sure, but some speedy 'craftworld HQs' will be a fun project to add some more variety when the infantry HQs get old ; )

Cheers,

The Good Doctor.

corollax wrote:

It's a decent idea, but I find myself shying away from it primarily because of my fondness for Hemlock Wraithfighters.

The Hemlocks lack the destructor keyword that cripples the ability of warlocks to manifest the smite power. While they can only manifest the secondary effects of their battle runes, this is of little consequence to an army relying on Drukhari firepower. While they are more expensive, they also come with considerably more firepower, durability, and mobility. With the leadership debuff on top, they seem like a natural choice.

It usually means taking either a squad of rangers or an MSU outrider of shining spears. I'm perfectly fine with this.

They are pretty awesome. However, taking 3 in an air wing is a much more significant point investment, and I don't think they would 'tuck in' to the rest of the army. It would be much harder to deal with 3 models that are small, just as mobile as the Raider/Venom flotilla, and protected by the character keyword.

Farseer with doom /Executioner
Autarch on jetbike with laserlance and the -1 to hit relic helm
Warlock skyrunner with jinx/protect

Doom + jinx is crazy powerful for massed zero ap weapons. And you can use the Seer Council strat with them (+1 to cast on all powers).
Smite and Executioner are crazy good elite infantry killer, so is the Autarch. This is a fun trio, but I have no idea how good it works for Drukhari.

withershadow wrote:

Would you take a trio then?

No, you can take 0-2 Fliers (which is the slot that a Hemlock falls into) in most detachments. The easiest way to get one in a list would be a Patrol.

My preference would probably be for a Farseer Skyrunner/Rangers/Hemlock patrol, but you miss out on Command Points. It's a heavier points sink (although still less than three Hemlocks!) but you could instead run a Battalion of a Farseer Skyrunner/Warlock Skyrunner/3 Rangers/Hemlock. That's 600 points gone but it does shore up a lot of our weaknesses as an army.

Why not run 2 farseer and a warlock?
One casts smite+doom, the second casts smite+executioner
Warlock for jinx

Lyceus wrote:

Why not run 2 farseer and a warlock?
One casts smite+doom, the second casts smite+executioner
Warlock for jinx

A single Farseer can already know Smite + Doom + Executioner and can cast three psychic powers for 1 Command Point if necessary. I'd be hesitant to spend 110 points on another Farseer based upon that, although that's personal preference more than anything.

Burnage wrote:

Lyceus wrote:

Why not run 2 farseer and a warlock?
One casts smite+doom, the second casts smite+executioner
Warlock for jinx

A single Farseer can already know Smite + Doom + Executioner and can cast three psychic powers for 1 Command Point if necessary. I'd be hesitant to spend 110 points on another Farseer based upon that, although that's personal preference more than anything.

Yeah. I thought this up mostly for the deny, and wanted 3 or a supreme command cause i'm not about that ASD life. I think 1 farseer and 2 warlocks, on bikes, gets the job done (denying the opponent his psychic toys cause if I don't get them you don't get them.) Any power I get off are just found money and free mortal wounds, since or codex doesn't need shenanigans to work correctly. At least not psyer ones.

I also already decided to get a Supreme Command detachment with 1 Farseer Skyrunner, and 2 Warlock Skyrunners.
The Farseer with Doom and Executioner, One Warlock with Jinx, and a second Warlock with Enervate.

In a previous edition, I had one terrible game with a friend who plays Chaos Daemons. He had a flying psycher, and my Dark Eldar army had no skyfire, and no psycher. He didn't even need the rest of his army. Just that one model butchered my entire army. This is NOT going to happen again. >_<