Inquisitorial henchman: Psykers

Holy crap! God damn I love these little guys! 10ppm if you get 8 that's a str 10 ap1 large blast with 36" in range. That's almost as good as a vindicator tank. And I love vindicator tanks! To bad we can't get em unless we ally. So I've found the neat best thing. They are a little unreliable with the psychic test and then a deny the wytch. But for 80pts they are so worth it imo. Considering a vindicator tank is like 145 for a 24" range.

I dunno, I'm looking for something to fill the pie plate roll and these are just my thoughts.

I see your point. But are they really worth it? I mean if you take Coteaz you'll be taking up a troop slot. Also if they perils, doesn't the whole squad just die? xD Seems silly to me, but try them out and tell me how it goes!

Another idea would to be run that one assassin that gets bonuses for nearby psykers..

I run coteaz so it will be a troop choice for me which is awesome
Coz I don't henchman spam. And yes that's correct, if they peril they all die. But 80points if fine. The likely hood is 1 in 6 rounds of shooting. A vindicator can blown up first turn. More likely then killing 8 psykers in cover.

the culexus asssassin only get one shot more for each psyker squad as they are treated like a single psyker.

ld 8 really kills psykers aswell as psychic defences, especially eldar. and yeah a blown up vehicle kills many of them.

Hey souba... That doesn't make sense... We weren't talking about the assassin... And yes I know each unit is counted as "1" psyker and a blown up vehicle kills many of them???

I think he meant that a psyker squad are still relatively squishy because of their low leadership of 8 and that against eldar its even worse (screw eldrad!). Plus their toughness 3 doesn't help much either.

I mean I don't think leadership 8 is low, but it definitely isn't a 10. And if you suffer perils, would that count as first blood for losing your squad? And how well will they actually hold objectives? Also how many squads of psykers are you planning on running? If they're you're using henchmen troops I don't think you'll be only running psykers.

As I looked them up to see what they exactly did a thought appeared: does the strength and ap diminish as you lose guys from the squad? If that's the case then you really don't want them to be shot. But then again what makes them pretty cool is the fact that their psychic shooting attack is considered assault 1 and so you could hide and then come out to mind rape people! But deny the witch is pretty relevant. I'm also guessing that the large blast scatters right? So you're giving the possibility of failing the psychic attack, getting perils, or missing by scattering for a STR 10 AP 1 large blast 36".

But I liked how you compared it to a vindicator. I actually wished we had vindicators too because I wanted to convert a model using the big momma cannon from puppetswar. But sadly grey knights don't run vindicators. Overall I like the idea, but is this for funsies or for competition? I think they would definitely be fun, but how practical is a 8 man squad of psykers that could just die due to unfortunate luck.

TL:DR I think there are arguments to both sides, I like your idea and pie plates as well. But is it practical or competitive? And if you're truly a fan of pie plates, why not just run Inquisitor Karamazov?

No one takes karamozov. Don't be silly! I was looking at them for a competitive list. I'm the type of person that likes to go against the normal list and tweak it a little. I would and probably could make psykers competitive. Vindicators are competitive. But don't expect them to last past turn 2 in a competitive environment.

What you have to see is, that the psykers are just like the vindicator, they are our vindicator, they're cheaper because of the psychic test>deny the wytch>scatter. I don't expect my psykers to last that long. The chance of perils is minimal. Usually I would have got first blood with a dreadnought and searchlight before I shoot my psykers turn one anyway. They don't have search lights.

Yes, the vindicator is more reliable, some would say, more survivable, but that's what you pay for. I pay 80pts, for str 10 ap1 36" large blast. That scores... If people don't shoot at the unit then I've got another scoring unit in my backfield. Yeah psykers are less reliable for shooting, but I can hide hem move and shoot. That's why I'm cheaper. I just thought I would bro g his unit to the light and give people an option. They are under estimated and over looked. For 240 pts I could have 3 units of 8 and that's less then my land raider crusader at the moment. I'm not saying I would take 3 but yeah.

Just food for thought. That's what I'm here for, help other learn and throw out ideas. And hopefully learn something myself.

Edit: after all the variables... And I'm not 100% but I think the chances of successfully hitting a target is 18%. If someone can do better mathhammer please correct me.

Psyker units are taken in many tournament lists (at least around here) they are competive, normaly in a chimera to harden them up (the chimera works well as it has the same range) and armour 12. The squad in the open would be just to soft, they have a big sign saying "Shoot Me, I have a S10 ap 1 template". Normaly taken in 2's for redundency.

Yeah. Same rule as the vindicator - take 2

The mathhammer bit is a hard shout to make tbh... as you dont know how big the target is or where the plate is placed. But you still have a two out of six chance of a direct hit... So your odds of hitting something are over 33%.

what i mean with a blown up vehicle kills them is the following:

you mostly have psykers in a chimera or a rhino. as having them on foot would be just calling to get shot at. in any case. if the vehicle gets blown up the psykers take S 4 hits.. wounding on 3+ and having a 5+ armor save will not have many of them still standing on the board as soon as the transporter explodes.

with a LD of 8 you fail around 1/4 of the tests (if my math is right, its late here) wich is quiet unreliable. couple that with any psychic defence. yeah.. eldar for example (wich can be allied by many armys just to screw you the day) space wolves, grey knights (aegis hooo!) and more. even the 1/6 chance for the deny the witch on non psykers makes them even more unreliable. not to speak of units that got psykers or are even psyker level 2+

yeah i totally agree with what your saying souba, as i've mentioned myself. its and 18% chance, (after all variables that is has to go through) to successfully direct hit a target. this is before rolling to pen or wound.

I posted something similar with the idea of finishing with 2x 10 Psyker strong units in an escalation league starting at 200pts here: https://greyknights.forumotion.com/t3340-future-escalation-league-army-plans.
It wasn’t received very well, but they may be too weak in a smaller format.

I have 0 exp playing 40K, but reading the psykers rule made me very curious about the 10 man blast plates. That being said, I look forward to hearing how they work out for you.

Thanks ill let you know how it goes.

Glad you made this topic. I\'ve recently started an escalation league and I am building my inquisition list for it. At 1000 it is going to be purely henchmen warband and I plan on running psykers in my army from 1k on. I will let you know how they do.

Even if you only have an 18% chance of hitting, you have the element of psychological warfare - make sure you tell your opponent what that unit could do and watch him fire off shot after shot to take them down - pop a Crusader or 2 in the front to shield them and it's going to get some interest

That's a turn or two of shooting from your opponent that isn't hitting your more important or vulnerable units.

I ran a unit of 6 today with a Crusader, the Crusader stayed around for the first turn and desperately fought to stay alive during the following shooting phase. And we had Eldar on the table - which stopped me from using psychic powers - the idea of a unit that can drop a Str 8, AP 1 pie plate was enough to garner a wealth of interest for a turn or two.

That turn or two was enough for me to get my harder hitters into the right places and cause some serious damage...

I was curious about these guys as well!

I was thinking on using a small unit of 5 psykers plus a warrior acolyte for fun. For their cost they could cause huge damage!

Has anyone used units this small? Was wondering about just keeping them in cover in my backfield.

I had been looking at building an army something like this with two prescient Inquisitors to mitigate the psyker scatter / gets hot rolls, and Tau allies to make it a T1 shooting phase your opponent won't soon forget.

Cortaez

OMI / psyker / TDA / psycannon / 3 skulls

Vindicare

2 x 6 Psykers / 3 plasma Acolytes / Chimera

5 Terminators / 3 halberd / 2 hammer / psycannon

3 x Psydread

Tau Commander / iridium armour / 2 missile pod's / flamer

2 x 6 fire warriors

Riptide / ion accelerator / early warming override / velocity tracker

3 Broadsides / high yield missile pod / early warning override

1996pts