Viabilty of assaut style rune priests

[White Hunter]

So lately I have been contemplating using my Rune Priest with beast slayer as a member of my MC/IC hunting Wolf Guard (Arjac FTW), and the unit seems to have awesome written all over it, but with the CC character targeting it appears like my Rune Priest is way to out in the open. So a quick run down of what I see as the Pros and Cons

 

Pros:

Force Weapon (Instant Death power weapon, awesome against quite a few MC's and HQ choices)

Beast slayer (Rerolls always a plus)

Wounds daemons on a 2+ (Daemon prince and Avatar Go cry in a corner after facing Arjac and my Rune Priest in Tandem)

Living lightning before assault (can really thin out the enemy before I smash their face in)

JOWW (character and Model Sniping !)

 

 

Cons:

only 2 base attacks in TDA

only 2 wounds

Initiative 4

Can only get a 5++ invulnerable save

50 points To use 2 powers a turn (i.e. shoot living lightning and then us Force Weapon

 

So what do you guys think could the Rune priest be a good Monstrous Creature and Independent Character hunter, or is his lack of survivability make him to vulnerable?

[whitewolfmxc]

only go into cc with biggies with saga of beast and MAKE sure you go first before it does , its the only way to make it worth it XD

[Kenmichi]

It's too expensive for a model that should be maximizing it's ranged potential.

[Hfran Morkai]

We had an incident with this.

 

A friend and I were using both of our 750 point lists against a Marine player, but he wanted fun with his new Trygon so we let him swap out a Predator (only to find to our horror that a basic Trygon costs more than a fully decked pred after the game) we wanted a laugh and a chance to see just how brutal it was.

 

My friend threw a 10 Man Grey Hunter pack at it with an attached Rune Priest, however the player didn't target said Priest, fortunately.

 

The pack was mauled so I threw in one of my six man packs to add some more dice being thrown against the thing. It slowly whittled us down and eventually the Rune Priest scored a wound, took a psychic test, rolled double 6 and fried his brain, having already taken a wound previously.

 

So although Beastslayer offers re-rolls it's still pretty hard to take out MC's with the Runic Weapon.

 

In larger games I say go for it, but smaller ones it's too risky, you could lose a significant part of your force.

[Yeti]

In certain situations it may be worthwhile, but most of the time it's not. IMO the rune priest doesn't belong in CC 90% of the time. With few attacks and I4, he's barely more competent than a WG, without the protection of the rest of the pack because of his IC status.

 

The only time I'd consider taking him into CC is when I know he'll have the advantage of Initiative and when he has a decent chance to wound. That means Orks, Daemons, IG & Tau. Against Tyranids ... maybe against warriors or some of the weaker/softer multiwound critters (zoas?). Anything else and he'll either go after or need 6's to wound. Even with a re-roll, 6's are rare and it's probably not worth the risk.

 

Also, keep in mind that unless you have Master of Runes, you can't use a power in the shooting phase and use your rune weapon to ID something in the assault phase. Using the rune weapons power requires a psychic test and is considered a use of a psychic power ... and you can only use 1 psychic power per turn.

 

As far as psychic powers. JotWW against nids is golden, especially if your opponent like carnifexes. I'd also strongly suggest Murderous hurricane. Dangerous terrain against swarm armies is very nice and it also means that when they charge, it's through difficult terrain ... therefore at I1.

[Godhead]

Not sure what daemons you're fighting unless you specifically mean nurgle otherwise most will go 1st. Even with wounding daemons on a 2 you'll most likely be dead before you get to strike back. IMO if you take saga of the beast slayer its to make liviing lightning more of a threat, not your force weapon. That thing is an OH ;) contingency plan. I had a squad get charged by an 8 man death company, dante, and lemartes. The rune priest survived round 1 because he was so far back in the pack, he got lucky and survived long enough to land a wound on dante and zap him and promptly died right after. I have no illusions that if he had not been all the way in the back of the pack when i disembarked my squad then he would have died 1st turn. The rune priest just isn't good enough in CC. I miss the old dex's int 5 on the priests.