Psychic Lack

Morning. Our lack of psykers has always been a fun fluffy bit. But we don't have, and haven't had for at least a couple of codixes, the tools to deal with them. Has 8th ed changed this? Or are we still everyone's punching bag in the psychic phase?

But the Haemonculus has a great tool to deal with that. And he's good in close combat and a force multiplier.

D3 mortal wounds once per game on a 4+ is not too shabby but the complete inability to even make a Deny attempt is potentially huge.

The psychic phase lost ALOT of it's toasty goodness( and/or stupidity) with 8th. So if we managed it before it'll be a breeze now.

We'll still be punched a bit but we're hitting on +2 with our entire army in the Fighting Phase, so yeah. You win some you loose some, and we won some I think. And without any points cost on Crucible of Malediction (that i can find) we can atleast punish psychers a bit more than before.

Smite spam is potentially a thing and we can do nothing to prevent it.

so same procedure as every game. Only we can have multiple crucibles (?) now. So that´s a big plus.

We can have multiple Crucibles but each one takes an HQ slot (and costs 76 points). That being said, we can spam the Supreme Command detachment (3-5 HQ's) if we want to. Expensive but potentially worthwhile if we're up against psyker-heavy opponents.

So against Ryranids, 1000 sons, Asuryani, Genestealer several haemonculus will wreck them

But Smite Spam will be expensive unless you take the samller Smite dudes, like Warlocks. And the normal Smite does 1.9 dmg per cast. So not that bad since we're quite fast and can make sure it hits Warriors or Wyches. I havent played yet so I'll probably be proven wrong on everything I say

A couple of haemonculi will also be devastating against blobs of GK. That will be an interesting matchup.

CptMetal wrote:

So against Ryranids, 1000 sons, Asuryani, Genestealer several haemonculus will wreck them

I wouldn't go that far! You still have to get within 12" and roll a 4+ for each psyker. It's going to hurt them a little but I doubt it's going to wreck any decently constructed army. And Smite does that every turn for every psyker at 18" range with a much higher success chance (83.33% vs 50%).

Additionally, if they place it so that their expensive psyker is the within 18" and can target a good unit, either you've missplayed and then deserve some good ol' hand smacking. Or you can probably murder that psyker next turn. Just place wyches/warriors as canon fodder and care alot less when they kill 14/18p of duders with their  expensive army buffing dude. Then use a reaver squad, or a vehicle, or some helions and go and properly murder that little wimp.
(The lesser smite guys have even smaller range so go and murder them aswell)

Guys there won't be any smite spam: if you check the advanced rules for matched play there is a rule called psychic focus that says that any psychic power can be used just once PER PHASE" and NOT once "PER PHASE PER MODEL". So we are pretty covered, I think we can deal with one smite a turn.

Isn't there a paragraph saying "except smite"?

Smite is specifically excluded from the restriction. Smite spam is a thing.

I know it doesn't help the purists but it is easier than ever to splash for psykers right now.

Yvraine can cast 2 spells a turn and just go full blaster with smite and Gaze . Or you can ynnari a single unit in your army to use your buffs on if you'd like (or just buff herself) all while gaining a deny.

The hemlock can tie in well with the mindshock pod and it can only cast 1 spell a turn anyway which can be versatile and helpful without needing to be able to cast on us. Conceal/ reveal gives the enemy a -2 total to hit him or removes all cover bonuses from a unit. Embolden/horrify is not great whether it's in our army or eldar. And enhance/drain is a nice debuff even if we don't use the buff side. It also has the benefit of speed to try and target characters with it's smite and 2d3 strength 10 ap-4 dmg2 guns.

I haven't read in detail every army wargear, but from what I've seen we have more ways to deal mortal wounds than other armies, even without smite, and more reliably too.
Doesn't look like we'll miss the psychic phase more then last edition.

Does our PfP quasi-FNP work on mortal wounds?

Yep!

CptMetal wrote:

Isn't there a paragraph saying "except smite"?

Damn didn't see that! XD

Eh I'll just deal with psychers the same way I always have Darklight, poison, and cc , but it would been nice if we had at least something to do in the psychic phase and not be just a target... Oh well

Yeah. It pains a bit, but the best way is just to kill'em, though sometimes it can be hard. Yet, we shall see that our dex brings us, concerning this matter. GW said in one of their articles, that every army will have a way to deal with psykers. On top of that we are The Dark Eldar, and know how to make a very good stuff out farseers, and all psykers e.g. Baron's fortune-telling seer's fingerbones.

I have always wished we had some sort of null unit. A pariah. 12" bubble that messes with psychic tests or something....

Could be quite easy now. Lots of options and ideas. Doubles = perils, Modify rolls, allow for deny the witch rolls.

That being had, if we really need it we can more easily then ever kidna borrow a warlock or farseer etc

Nulls would be cool.

Didn't Vect kidna borrow a bunch from Realspace when he was trying to secure Khaine's Gate? Surely he can't be the only Archon to have done that?

But I guess that would be cutting dangerously close to an army having flavour. And we all know that would just kill the carefully crafted balance.

Still, in the styles of the Kabalite Warrior @Barrywise;

Woe to our enemies. We'll tear them apart regardless.

Shooting them can be difficult when they are bubble wrapped. So close combat it is. Reavers anyone?
Mandrakes to decimate the surrounding unit and Reavers to kill the character?

Woe to our enemies. We'll tear them apart regardless.