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Rune Priests - The new role - bullet magnet?


Levitas

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I know that most of us watched the recent BoLs bat rep with interest, "4 JotWW?" But then shook our heads at the end after witnessing shocking tactics.

 

But the new dex will certainly make the Rune Priest a target. In addition he is no longer the combat master and has had teeth pulled out much like the vanilla book lover. Where the regular Librarian has a magicians hats worth of parlor tricks, the Rune Priest brings a lot of focused shooting and disruption powers. With his added notoriety taken into consideration too, a healthy rune priest is one that is not in combat.

 

Having played the vanilla librarian in quite a few games, its safe to say they are now very vulnerable. 2+ to hit chaos stuff is nice, until it hits you first and instant deaths. So what do you arm him with?

 

I say basic. In a big squad, a rhino so he can play 'pop n zap'. Then keep him alive to cause constant annoyance. The option to bump up his rank is much more useful than the vanilla epistolary. Reeling off 2 offensive powers a turn in a shooty one and disruptive one (tempest?). Can JotWW also be used to snipe powerfists in units?? Does it say model or unit?? Interesting...

 

I dont see him in a drop pod, mobility can be found via rhino or even a bike if you like swiftclaw bodyguards. But he needs to be protected in order to be constantly effective.

 

But the fact they will have targets on them from day one can also be used to your advantage, to pull away fire from your scoring units and distract powerful ones. Rest assured your opponent will send a unit or 2 to assassinate your weatherman, thats flack not hassling your GH's who are drinking ale over a winning objective.

 

Food for thought. And how many should we take? 4 is a liitle much, but 2...?

Model, rather than unit, it can snipe whatever it wants. That's one of the things I like about it. Personally I think they're valuable, but they're also EXPENSIVE, and to be honest, JotWW is unreliable. If you want to rely on it for support (ie taking out power weapons/fists, nobz, etc) you're going to need at least two. I would probably take one basic one with JotWW and one upgraded with JotWW and Murderous Hurricane.

Put him on a bike with a small pack of swiftclaws.

Arm them with Meltabombs in order to play double role as tank hunters if needed

The extra toughness will help but the real gem is the mobility as you will be able to manouever him to pretty much wherever you want in order to get the best effect from his powers or to keep him safe.

One of the biggest assets is the fact that he has a fairly reliable psychic hood within 24", so you probably want to try and keep him alive rather than using him to draw fire.

I'll wait till I have the dex before I decide what to arm him with. One thing is for sure, I will not take 4 RP in an army up to 2000pts. It's not sensible or fluffy. But I'd agree with Grey Mage and probably put him with a unit of GH.

Long story short Rp attract alot of fire and JoWW seems wonderful but i found i lacking.

 

Played a game of 1750 points today against eldar. Didn't really use alot of strategy because I wanted to try some things out. I used two RP's each with JoWW and another power. One RP was in TDA armor in unit of 5 TDA WG. The other had a jump pack and in a unit of SC's. The jumper died within 2 turns and the TDA in 3. They attracted every unit of firepower. I will admit that I had some unlucky rolls and Eldar had many low AP weapons and I had my whole unit of Termi's knocked out by fire dragons, except my WG w/ TH& SS put 2 wounds on the Avatar before dying. My point is that they will attract firepower.

 

The one time I used JoWW I was able to force a Init test on his Wraithlord, Farseer, 2 guardians and a dire avenger and none of them died. A GH with a PF took out the Farseer and the Wraithlord taken out by my Two landspeeders. So there are cheaper alternatives to JoWW. I had more luck with living lightning.

Long story short Rp attract alot of fire and JoWW seems wonderful but i found i lacking.

 

Played a game of 1750 points today against eldar. Didn't really use alot of strategy because I wanted to try some things out. I used two RP's each with JoWW and another power. One RP was in TDA armor in unit of 5 TDA WG. The other had a jump pack and in a unit of SC's. The jumper died within 2 turns and the TDA in 3. They attracted every unit of firepower. I will admit that I had some unlucky rolls and Eldar had many low AP weapons and I had my whole unit of Termi's knocked out by fire dragons, except my WG w/ TH& SS put 2 wounds on the Avatar before dying. My point is that they will attract firepower.

 

The one time I used JoWW I was able to force a Init test on his Wraithlord, Farseer, 2 guardians and a dire avenger and none of them died. A GH with a PF took out the Farseer and the Wraithlord taken out by my Two landspeeders. So there are cheaper alternatives to JoWW. I had more luck with living lightning.

 

something tells me that eldar might not be the best army to try JotWW on.

 

freaky high I zenos and all.

 

WLK

I know, I know. Epic Fail on my part. I had not played a competive game in almost 8 years. I was just trying out units and next time my WG will be in a LR or a drop pod. I will have to make sure that I protect my units better. His Dark Reapers, Fire Dragons, and Banshees made swiss cheese of my armor. But having two runic weapons on the field was sweet against his psycic powers.

 

Question: Can a drop pod deep strike and wait a turn to deploy the unit inside?

Question: Can a drop pod deep strike and wait a turn to deploy the unit inside?

 

Short answer: No

 

JoWW is a great power against slow things like carnifexes and some orks but against eldar or even marines you are pretty much wasting your time.

Living lightning is a great alternative and with an unlimited range you don't have to put your RP at too much risk of being gunned down. And with a D6 S7 hits you are very likely to be able to take out light armour quite easily, from anywhere on the board so long as you have LOS.

JoWW is a great power against slow things like carnifexes and some orks but against eldar or even marines you are pretty much wasting your time.

 

thats not so simple . its ok against IG and WH . its also ok against chaos , because A no psychic hoods and B PMs are i3.

JoWW is a great power against slow things like carnifexes and some orks but against eldar or even marines you are pretty much wasting your time.

 

thats not so simple . its ok against IG and WH . its also ok against chaos , because A no psychic hoods and B PMs are i3.

 

Thank you Jeske

 

I was merely making an example, not giving a detailed list of all the armies it would be effective against, but you are correct.

I still think that Living lightnig is more useful as a power in general though.

good thing you can have more than one eh :P

I still think that Living lightnig is more useful as a power in general though.

good thing you can have more than one eh

well am not saying that Jaws or the psyker build is the best what SW can do . But as I said before its not that simple . This is not the case of lash vs everything else. There are battles where Jaws can be very powerful, when spamed even more . But to make it work against every army , one would have to make the 4 rune priest list and build your army to pop transports fast [a bit like lash builds do].

Personally I really only plan on running RP in my updated wolf army, and that's Njal.

 

To me, SW RP's niche is primarily in the support role, especially in slowing down/shutting down enemy freedom of movement. To that end, I'll keep my dirt cheap but spend more points on a nice bodyguard.

 

As of now I got Njal in a pod w/ 4 WG in termy armor...2 w/ TH/SS, 2 w/ combi-melta/Frost Axe. Nice 2+ saves all around so should last against shooting, and if they get assault, having those 3+ Invulns (and Njals 4+) is nice. And since I'm running 3 pods total, I can deploy Njal with a Grey Hunters pack to support him (arriving in Pod #2)

 

Anyway that's how I see RP's being used. Cheap and in support.

Personally I really only plan on running RP in my updated wolf army, and that's Njal.

 

To me, SW RP's niche is primarily in the support role, especially in slowing down/shutting down enemy freedom of movement. To that end, I'll keep my dirt cheap but spend more points on a nice bodyguard.

 

As of now I got Njal in a pod w/ 4 WG in termy armor...2 w/ TH/SS, 2 w/ combi-melta/Frost Axe. Nice 2+ saves all around so should last against shooting, and if they get assault, having those 3+ Invulns (and Njals 4+) is nice. And since I'm running 3 pods total, I can deploy Njal with a Grey Hunters pack to support him (arriving in Pod #2)

 

Anyway that's how I see RP's being used. Cheap and in support.

Nyjal is hardly dirt cheap. Now take mine for example. mine is 195 with choose, RA, PP, and master. i now have the ability to place the chooser anywhere on the table that i want before my OP deploys, and can use it for LOS. aganist the slow nids, this gives me the ability to start removing tons of bugs with JoWW, or the same tac can be used against IG/DG/Necrons and anything with a low I. or I can use it for shooting attacks.

 

Nyjal at 270 (if you take RTDA) is alot MORE then my skim milk RP. and mine can do everything that i need him to do except for the Lord of Tempest.

 

upon a more cautious re-read of the chooser my ORG idea it not what i thought it would be, but it still gives you a great tac against those whore armies, and having that in front of them means that your LL and MH powers are going to hit on a much better number

I don't know about the whole "bullet magnet" thing. He'll definitely attract a lot of attention but I believe he works best in the support role.

no one is arguing that. the RP IS support. its just a matter of taking out the biggest support unit to reduce the effectiveness of the enemy.

Well, as the Rune Priest comes with a chooser of the slain and runic weapon and armour as default...I think he should be used to take out IC than to cause Psychic Mayhem. Of course, that doesn't mean that he can't cast a few spells on the way towards the enemy.

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