Psykers = Pain

So I had a CRAZY idea!

If you had four units of 12 psykers, (using Coteaz to make them troops) and used three (yes three) Culexus all with in 12" off all 48 psykers your Culexus would be pumping out 144 strength 5 ap 1 shots a turn at 12", oh and they hit on 2's and you re-roll the ones.

this build costs just under 1000 points

DID SOMONE SAY OVERKILL

(oh and each psyker squad puts out a strength 10 ap 1 large blast)

the psyker henchmen are just called psykers. the unit are not psykers by rule and as such wont grant a culexus additiional shots.

also you cant have more than 1 of each assassin type on the table as they are characters (and such are always unique)

psykers are okay but mind you that each psyker unit due to the ld8 has a 28% chance to fail its psychic test. if the enemy got a psychic hood, eldar runes of warding or you are fighting against tyranids wich got many units with shadow of the warp those guys wont do much in the battle.
a single perils of the warp will kill the whole psyker squad unit wich really hurts as you give the enemy a free killpoint for nothing.

Souba wrote:the psyker henchmen are just called psykers. the unit are not psykers by rule and as such wont grant a culexus additiional shots.

I'm not sure how you figure a model called a "psyker" is not a psyker by the rules?

Dam, missed the bit about the unique rule. But one Culexus backed up by 48 psykers would still be Ridiculous!

peeing a psyker is a special rule for every psyker unit in the game.
grab the codex and look under the special rules tab in the force organisation chart. psykers dont got the psyker rule, i was surprised too. just because they got a psychic attack doesnt make them real psykers in this case.

examples where its listed in special rules:
librarian - psyker (mastery level 2)
Brothercapatain/grandmaster - psyker (mastery level 1)
brotherhood champion - psyker (mastery level 1)
inquisitor coteaz - psyker (mastery level 2)
strike squad and any other squad - brotherhood of psykers

in the case of brotherhood of psykers they got a own explanation that such a unit counts as a single psyker.

you can even look up other codex'es to view that every real psyker unit (even sanctioned psykers of the IG but they count as a single one) got psykers as special rules in theyre tab.

if we now look at psyker henchmen:

psykers:
no special rules, no indicator of beeing actual psykers
wargear : flak armor, laspistol
psychic powers: psychic barrage

and thats it.

just because they are psykers in the name doesnt mean they are them in the game. sure they got a "psychic power" wich they have to test on but thats most probably because of balance reasons. shooting farther than a vindicator. having more AP than one, beeing a assault weapon and working every time if it wouldnt be a psychic power would be way overkill.

this is mostly done due to internal balance reasons probably. especially in the case of the culexus.

EDIT: beeing no psyker also has its uses. you dont suffer from any anti psyker wargear or speial rules, for example mindstrike missles dont cause a perils of the warp test on them and wont wipe the squad out with a single missle. aswell as the psykular wont work against them to name a few of our own codex ones.
i also just saw that perils of the warp from tyranids wont work on them too as it only forces psykers to take on 3d6. runes of warding however still work aswell as a psychic hood.

You make a very valid and well supported argument, and I see how not counting as a psyker could really help (especially against mindstrike missiles).

In my gaming community we play psykers as "pskers" even though they don't have the psker rule listed in their profile.

Even though they aren't listed as psykers I would tend to agree that its a bit silly not to count them as such.

The plasma siphon or whatever effects all plasma weapons, which GWS decided was ANYTHING considered either a plasma OR a energy weapon for the majority of armies (even using fluff descriptions).
With this kind of FAQ answer its hard to say that psykers wouldn't count.
If they have a psychic power they -must- be psykers, or they can't use the power. If anything I would say it was a line of forgotten code, or left out simply to redress the issue of this kind of setup.

i dont think it is a line of forgotten code since GW is very quick of adding such sorts of unit special rules/wargear/etc.

best example st. celestine. in the FAQ she immediatly got the independent character rule (she didnt had it in the FOC as rule)

Hey guys - when you want to argue about psykers, try looking them up in the codex. The henchmen psyker entry says that the entire group counts as ONE psyker (not each individual). Thus, they only count as one.

There is a difference between forgetting THE most important rule a character can have, and a ruling missing a sentence which makes something slightly unclear, clear. Plus after ruining the Sisters codex with that horrible WD release they probably felt they needed to make amends with a quick faq.

I don't have my codex atm as I lent it to a friend, but that's pretty much the rule across the entire codex with most GK units, so its not surprising.

It happens to often. I still grab the codex and still manage to find something new everytime.

Sometimes its better not to think too hard when reading GWS rules, otherwise issues start appearing everywhere :p

For sure, the sheer number of rules sometimes make your brain work overtime. It's good we have this forum to discuss our crazy ideas.

man man we really have been told well it happens i guess

and yeah its true. this amount of input this game brings on you especially due to so many books this game plays with makes it hard sometimes.