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This is the first in a series of discussions on various new elements around Ultramarines armies on the table top. This thread will focus on the Indomintus Discipline and its use within an Ultramarines army. *** My initial observations are that it is not too bad, despite many saying the White Scars one is better. The powers are quite effective but the biggest weakness is the higher casting value that Ultramarines require on their powers will often mean a single Librarian is much more limited using the Indomintus Discipline over the Librarius Discipline, for example. 1) Procognition - A nice way to keep a Psyker alive especially if Primaris (without access to Terminator armour) but really it's not going to change much since the character rule should protect you and Librarians aren't always at their best in the thick of it anyway. If you take a Librarian in Terminator armour you'll already have a 2+ save and invulnerable anyway so this power will usually end up less useful than one of the others plus Smite. 2) Scryer's Gaze is a nice way of earning back a Command Point (CPs) after you've burnt them all early game, especially if you roll badly and can't refund the usage of CPs (like me). It's also a nice way to boost one shot weapons when you can't gain a CP due to Tactical Restraint, as it saves a CP on them anyway. Warp Charge 7 is quite difficult to get off reliably so don't rely on it to regenerate a CP every turn. I would say this is an auto include power any game without two Battalions or less than 10 CPs. If I could fit two battalions into a list I might look elsewhere. 3) Telepathic Assault is again a more difficult power to get off but this is because it is so powerful. +2 to a Leadership test and the failure margin is the amount of Mortal Wounds, will be very powerful to many models in the game of course, but the real benefit here is the ability to select a model within line of sight up to 24" away. That is BIG! Character assassination and unit targeting is a powerful option and even Eldar flyers are are risk if you roll well. I want this just for the threat of it and combining it with Smite to make a killer Librarian combination if you can get it off. Terminator Librarians can drop in and provide their Terminator brethren much support here with a decent amount of Mortal Wounds generation, as can Drop Pod troops benefit from an accompanying Librarian. The range plays well for all Librarians who can remain with your army and still contribute attacks quite some distance away. It pairs well with other range 24" attacks your army might have, when considering unit interplay. Lastly is the capacity to utilise this power alongside leadership reducing effects. Although not always useful since most Leadership reducing abilities Ultramarines have access to are close ranged, a Librarian supporting such elements will be able to put considerable damage on targets. Just pray for double six! 4) Storm of the Emperor's Wrath - To be honest this is a bit duff. Relying on a 6 to Mortal Wound something is average at best and all bar pointless against anything less than 10 models strong, even if you can select your target. This is a hard pass from me. 5) Psychic Shackles is a potentially game winning power at a modest Warp Charge cost of just 6. Being able to slow down a select model at 18" in the movement and charge phases will be frustrating for just about anyone. Use it wisely to force a horde to crawl towards you, or pick out their support characters to force the opponent to choose between getting further up the board and losing the benefits of said characters or risk a staggered attack and chaining behind to remain in combat. Just as a reminder how good this could be, imagine a Land Raider moving 5" a turn, or even a Knight moving 6". Combinations with Thunderfire Cannons seems possible but the capacity to slow an entire enemy force to a crawl speaks volumes to the tricks and frustration you can play on people. A solid choice. 6) Empyric Channelling is a reasonable power if you're taking 2 or more Psykers and is something to consider. Tigurius in particular can get +3 to a Psychic Test which could even see more Smites going off on a D6. Absolutely worthless on a loan Librarian, this is a power you go for when you want to play the psychic game with multiple models. A force multiplier is very fitting for Ultramarines and as such this power has its place. Summary Overall a reasonable bunch of powers with only 1 and 4 being powers I doubt many people will bother with when the others are so much better. 6 will be in some armies and not others which is fine depending on your approach. For me, the stand out choices are 2, 3 and 5. The Tome of Malcador could find its way into a few lists for that very reason. Ultramarines benefit greatly from these 3 powers, since choosing your target is great, generating a CP or saving one for a Damage roll is also amazing and slowing down the enemy whilst we keep the pressure up under the Tactical Doctrine is critical. Unfortunately as I mentioned before, 2 of the best powers being Warp Charge 7 is going to be difficult to get off by any lone Librarian aside from Tigurius so this has to be kept in your mind when considering your requirements. *** Does anyone have any suggestions, comments or just down right amazing ideas to combine this psychic discipline with units and abilities? Feel free to disagree with my analysis. If all the powers have a place I'm happy to be proven wrong as this Codex and supplement is great fun. Courage and honour.
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- Ultramarines
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