With 7th being out for almost a week now and some time to think on it, I have some ideas on what is going to be useful for our psykers. Please note this is my initial thoughts and is not going to be a comprehensive tactical review, just general ideas that are going to need some practical testing. Will talk about the three different psykers we can bring and different ways I think they will work. I was unfortunately proven wrong about wrydvanes getting access to telepathy, oh sad face.
Lets get the big monkey in the corner ot of the way first and talk about daemonology. Should you take it? In most cases I would say no. If there is a unit to use it, it is the Wrydvane psyker squad, as it can survive the higher chances of perils to still use the powers. If you are going this route, I recommend larger squads, not necessarily full ones, just bigger ones, to be able to soak the extra peril wounds you'll be suffering. Going this route is going to depend on the opponent you are facing. Santic is nice if you are facing a demon army and gives you options with its primaris and whatever you get from the roll. I'm not a fan of malefic, but if you want to summon some daemons, you can go this route too. More I think about it, this is really your emergency button if daemons show up and you don't have grey knights with you to back you up.
While on the topic of wrydvane psykers, I think there are some useful ways to run them. To make use of the psychic phase you want to get some extra psykers into your list so you can get off higher warp charge powers that come up. Both telekinesis and pyromancy have powerful attacks, and if you get one of the warp charge 3 ones, all is not lost as you can save your rolls for that power when you need it. I think telekinesis has more bang for buck, with a little more utility and the primaris power is better with beams no longer losing power after each hit. If you get lucky on pyromancy you can get the melta beam but it doesn't do well to gamble on that one roll.
Multiple decent sized squads of wyrdvanes, backed up by primaris psykers and astropaths will give you a decent amount of warp charges, and will allow you to focus on stronger powers if you need too. One good way to run IG psykers is to simply bring lots. You want two astropaths, two or three primaris psykers probably ML2, and a couple of wrydvane squads. Astropaths are no worse off than before, as they had just above a 50/50 shot, now they can roll one dice for WC1 powers and have same odds, or roll two and have better odds than before. Plus telepathy is awesome and shriek got a nice boost. I see astropaths being very useful in 7th and add at the very least a really cheap warp charge to your pool. ML2 Primaris psykers are worth considering as you can have 3 divination powers (or another table) and give you another warp charge to increase your chances of getting prescience off now that its up a level in WC. Wrydvanes can then choose a damage focused table that also has bonuses to give some flexibility and can be a last resort to use daemonology.
This is meant to be a full on psychic cohort to buff and should get one or two really powerful attacks to use in a pinch. Or you can go for minimal support and stick to divination with a few primaris psykers. I strongly recommend that you bring an astropath if you are bringing a CCS, they add so much for so little. You get two powers, one is guaranteed and is a nice attack, and if you get terrify, which I'm pretty sure lowers the targets leadership by 1, you can then follow up with shriek to hurt that unit, it at least gives you a better chance.
Overall the IG psykers are going to be buff focused using divination, or going for telekinesis with wrydvanes to have a mix of offensive and buffing powers. The astropath is a great ace in the hole with telepathy. Using all three, you'll add up powers and warp charges to get maximum effect. Daemonology is there if you absolutely need it, and best use with wrydvanes to keep on fighting despite perils.
Thats what I see so far, now si time to test things out and see how it works.
GG
The psyker change are a nice boon to the IG. Astropaths with their Ld 7 are more likely to case their power. Getting a free primaris at ML 1 means you have a choice in powers to use, and can no longer just ignore the "generate powers" pre-game event. In the one-in-6 chance you get invisibility on your Astropath, your blobs will be well defended and can go on the offensive instead of cowering behind an Aegis.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if its worth upgrading the Primaris to ML 2, as I haven't run more than one 7th edition game.