Is Njal worth it? Why or Why not?

[Black Arrow]

I run 3 rune priest and have been toying to idea of Njal is he worth it? What are his ups and downs? Why is he effective or why isn't he effective? Please let me know

 

Good Hunting Brothers

 

Black Arrow

[Tybrus]

LOVE HIM.... Pick any power you want to use YES PLEASE!

 

I have run 3 RP's a number of times and one is ALWAYS him. He has never failed me, and always performs at least one major game changing thing pergame...

[d@n]

His staff is pretty good against some armys.

he can only use 1 shooting attack per turn and most SW powers are shooting, so the master of the runes is pretty worthless unless your intending to use storm caller every turn. His lord of tempest ability is pretty good sometimes but most of the time it has no ingame effect really, i like his runic tda but then you cant put him in a transport which is what you want with a rune priest so he can fire out the top hatch. Overall i would say he's not really worth his points just for a slightly better runic weapon and the ability to use any of the pyskic powers, ragnar is around the same points and is better and logan is not a huge amount more and is much better.He's fun and good against psykic armys like eldar and grey knights and if you want to do a rhino rush type army then you can have him shooting jaws or living lightning out of the top hatch of a rhino whilst giving everything a 6+ cover save with storm caller but then again you could do that with 2 rune priests for less points.

[dragon950]

He knows all the psychic powers and in terminator armor has a 4+ invl. save, with his staff that negeates other psychic powers on a 3+. But his storm ability(can't remember the name) is the best at turn 3+ so you have to keep him back, where as other rune priests are most usefull at the start of the game. The only major downside is the fact that like most of our other named characters, he suffers from costing too much compared to other special characters. But I blame matt ward for that.

[Levitas]

I think if he had 3 wounds and spiked stats like the old Rune Priest then that would make him viable. The Blood Angels get a 'super' chaplain in a Recluisarch, and it would have been nice to see the weather man get similar love. As it stands he is a huge amount of points for a model that will go under very quickly in combat. Plus as most of our powers are shooty you don't benefit from being able to ping off a couple a turn, most likely he use stormcaller and living lightning/jaws. His auto power is still random and short ranged, so getting him closer means more likely he will get mugged in combat.

 

The 3+ rune staff is handy, but certainly not worth the points of the model. Take a few wolf tails and cheaper RPs to do same job.

 

The fact you have to pay for TDA is a bit of a slap in the face. I love Njals fluff and used to run him when he first came out waaay back. But in 5th he is a bench warmer to his cheaper under studies. If a 100pt Rune Priest falls then its no big lose, but if a model with the same stats yet costing the same as a Land raider falls then you feel it.

 

Ragnar, yes, Njal not so much for me.

[Voracioustigger]

I think the thing about Njal is that... he does a lot more than he gets credit for. He does a lot of small things that you don't really notice. Ragnar beefs the hell out of a squad and can give the whole army furious charge for a turn. Logan can also beef the hell out of a squad, make WG troops, and give everyone +1 attack for a turn. Bjorn can give you first turn, and you don't forget when a dread makes a 5++ save!

 

All the other Characters, you NOTICE what the characters do because they generally make a big difference all at once. Njal, on the other hand, does little things throughout the entire game. Rolling a 3 to stop a couple psychic powers? All Njal. -1 to enemy BS in a 24" bubble against an army like IG basically gives your entire army an additional 5++ save against all shooting that turn. Tempest's wrath + Murderous hurricane + All infantry w/i 24" moves as if in difficult terrain... pretty much means that you get to decide when assaults happen... and if your opponent does decide to charge you with a fast unit... he may end up taking 2-3 dangerous terrain tests! Finally, having all powers is nothing to underestimate. In my last game with Njal, he used Tempests wrath to kill some marines and immobilize a DSing Dread, He used Stormcaller, which saved his rhino after it blew smoke. He used Murderous hurricane to keep an enemy unit in place so he could charge it, he used Living lightning to damage a dread. He used JotWW to kill several scouts. So, having all these abilities can be really helpful

 

Njal isn't meant to be in CC. He's meant to sit in the middle of the battlefield, preferably hidden in a rhino or resilient squad, and make everything harder for your opponent. Your enemy will rarely focus on him because it never SEEMS like he's doing much, but all of these little things add up.

 

I will concede that I FEEL like he's useless sometimes when his powers fail or I roll a 1 for living lightning... and miss or when I roll No effect, Morale check, Morale check for Lord of Tempests against a fearless army, but generally, I think he makes your army significantly better.

[Wolf Lord Hallbjorn]

I've used Njal a handful of times. After the first two games with him, he quickly became a priority target of my enemies and melted as soon as possible. His lack of eternal warrior makes him a lot less daunting to kill than someone like Logan. He performed very well for me, but once my group realized exactly what he can do on the table they immediately did everything they could to avoid or erase him. That did play into my hands a few times but it can also end up becoming a very annoying game of "babysit the weather man".

 

I more often use regular rune priests. I would use Njal again, but perhaps in larger games or apoc.

[Korhal Ragingspirit]

I like using Njal myself, like Voracioustigger said he does a lot of "small" things that can add up to annoy your opponent. My only real beef with him is that you have to give him terminator armor to get an invulnerable save and that he should have 3 wounds.

[skoll]

I played against grey knights today and gotta tell you Njal was worth all his points (I mean i did lose the game but meh it was fun and i learned from my mistakes)

 

I nullified every single one of my opponents powers except for one, the guy was frustrated that no single hammer hand was going off and his nemesis weapons which he could auto pass with standard where getting negated anyway, he negated 20+ psychic powers. That is ridonculous

[Freman Bloodglaive]

With Grey Knights entering the game his 3+ dispel is worth every cent you pay for him. He's roughly the cost of two Rune Priests, so if you take two or more you can just switch him in.

 

I've been running a single Rune Priest till now, so substituting in Njal does require a bit of rework. But I think he's justified, even if he makes the army smaller.

 

1500 points

 

Njal 245

 

4 Wolf Guard, 4 power fists, 4 combi-meltas 172

 

5 Wolf Scouts, meltagun, plasma pistol 100 (I like the plasma pistol model that came on the Space Wolves sprue, sue me)

 

Dreadnought, assault cannon, storm bolter, wolf tooth necklace 115

 

7 Grey Hunters, meltagun, plasma pistol, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, Rhino 185

 

7 Grey Hunters, meltagun, plasma pistol, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, Rhino 185

 

7 Grey Hunters, meltagun, plasma pistol, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard, Rhino 185

 

Land Speeder multi-melta, heavy flamer 70

 

Land Speeder multi-melta, heavy flamer 70

 

6 Long Fangs, two lascannon, 3 missile launchers 170

 

Total 1497

[ShotgunFacelift]

I've often thought of running him instead of 2 x Rune Priests but have never tried. I tend to prefer to have more threats on the table than 1 single Uber-unit.

 

After giving it some thought, he could be a sneaky way around the limitations on taking multiples of the same powers with 2 or more rune priests. Being able to throw down jaws or living lightning 3 times a game (You can do this normally with 3 priests, but have to hamper the 3rd one of the less usefull powers Ex. Fenri & Eki) would be a nice way to earn the hatred of your gaming group.

 

Ex.

Rune Priest 1: (Jaws + Living Lighting)

Rune Priest 2: (Jaws + 5+ Cover Save power)

Njal -- Anything goes!

 

In addition to this you get Njal's Passive abilities which just sound like alot of fun (for me at least)

[clanfield]

iv used him twice in the new codex and both time he has fled the field ,the first time vs the nids the squad he was with took some hits and all off a sudden he had to go feed his petraven,the second time some orksies had some bad breath and he went to buy some munchies whilst i liked what he did iv not risked him a third time

[d@n]

iv used him twice in the new codex and both time he has fled the field ,the first time vs the nids the squad he was with took some hits and all off a sudden he had to go feed his petraven,the second time some orksies had some bad breath and he went to buy some munchies whilst i liked what he did iv not risked him a third time

really?, you now njal has saga of majesty and ld10.

[Voracioustigger]

iv used him twice in the new codex and both time he has fled the field ,the first time vs the nids the squad he was with took some hits and all off a sudden he had to go feed his petraven,the second time some orksies had some bad breath and he went to buy some munchies whilst i liked what he did iv not risked him a third time

really?, you now njal has saga of majesty and ld10.

 

Wow, Can't believe I forgot Saga of Majesty! Just goes to show you how many little things Njal does.

 

Also, I would say that I probably wouldn't recommend Njal until 1750pts or so. He may be worth it in smaller games, but a lot of his abilities are boosting/debuffing type abilities... so the fewer models on the table, the less useful he is.

[clanfield]

yes but alas a 11 both times is still a fail ,stupid dice

[Loki-LaughingDeath]

Recently there was a escalation league at my LGS and I really didn't feel like painting new stuff so I broke out Njal.... I lost lots of battles.... for the most part my losses were close.... like one or 2 figures close. And Njal did a ton of killing stuff didn't matter if it was vehicles, characters, grunts, elites.... he got in and smacked the everlovingdogsnot out of just about everything. Orks in CC 5 casualties on the counter attack and then again the following turn on the charge. I guard would evaporate. Berzerker Terminators got hit with the Hurricane and died..

 

Just the straight out of the blister, no TDA Njal in a unit of Grey Hunters with a Rhino....

[d@n]

I've often thought of running him instead of 2 x Rune Priests but have never tried. I tend to prefer to have more threats on the table than 1 single Uber-unit.

 

After giving it some thought, he could be a sneaky way around the limitations on taking multiples of the same powers with 2 or more rune priests. Being able to throw down jaws or living lightning 3 times a game (You can do this normally with 3 priests, but have to hamper the 3rd one of the less usefull powers Ex. Fenri & Eki) would be a nice way to earn the hatred of your gaming group.

 

Ex.

Rune Priest 1: (Jaws + Living Lighting)

Rune Priest 2: (Jaws + 5+ Cover Save power)

Njal -- Anything goes!

 

In addition to this you get Njal's Passive abilities which just sound like alot of fun (for me at least)

the problem with putting 400+ points in rune priests is there are lots of army's out there like nids elder and dark elder that have stuff that will shut down or kill pyskers out right, effectively nullify a huge chunk of your army for free of a very small point cost.

[Voracioustigger]

the problem with putting 400+ points in rune priests is there are lots of army's out there like nids elder and dark elder that have stuff that will shut down or kill pyskers out right, effectively nullify a huge chunk of your army for free of a very small point cost.

 

 

Well, Nids only have psychic defense in a 12" bubble... Lots of ways to get past that or take it out before it affects you.

 

Against Eldar, most people are only taking one farseer, so you can focus on him if you really want.

 

Plus, a few things you're forgetting

 

1) Not all armies bring psychic defense. While many armies CAN have good psychic D, not all DO. Plus, nothing really "nullifies" your psychic abilities. 3D6 on a psychic test is still about a 50% chance of the ability going off at LD 10, and psychic hoods are only a 4+. So, at best, most other armies are cutting the # of abilities you can use in half.

 

2) Lord of Tempests can't be nullified without killing Njal.

 

3) Rune Priests are essentially WGBLs with -1I and -1A + a force weapon. If we call that a wash, you're really only paying 30pts for the psychic powers, and otherwise have a model that's at least useful in CC (even if he can be picked out). At only 30pts... for the crazy things our RPs can do... I'd say that's doing something that can really hurt the army for little cost.

 

4) 1 Rune priest = Avoidable psychic D, 3 Rune priests = whole table psychic D

[d@n]

the problem with putting 400+ points in rune priests is there are lots of army's out there like nids elder and dark elder that have stuff that will shut down or kill pyskers out right, effectively nullify a huge chunk of your army for free of a very small point cost.

 

 

Well, Nids only have psychic defense in a 12" bubble... Lots of ways to get past that or take it out before it affects you.

 

Against Eldar, most people are only taking one farseer, so you can focus on him if you really want.

 

Plus, a few things you're forgetting

 

1) Not all armies bring psychic defense. While many armies CAN have good psychic D, not all DO. Plus, nothing really "nullifies" your psychic abilities. 3D6 on a psychic test is still about a 50% chance of the ability going off at LD 10, and psychic hoods are only a 4+. So, at best, most other armies are cutting the # of abilities you can use in half.

 

2) Lord of Tempests can't be nullified without killing Njal.

 

3) Rune Priests are essentially WGBLs with -1I and -1A + a force weapon. If we call that a wash, you're really only paying 30pts for the psychic powers, and otherwise have a model that's at least useful in CC (even if he can be picked out). At only 30pts... for the crazy things our RPs can do... I'd say that's doing something that can really hurt the army for little cost.

 

4) 1 Rune priest = Avoidable psychic D, 3 Rune priests = whole table psychic D

you make some good points, but I have faced army's with something like 8 shadow in the warp models, warriors have it and there a troop choice!, theres no point spending most of the game trying to get rid of monstrous creature hq ect just so you can start to use your priests.

yes i can keep my RP'S in there transports but then you either have to leave the grey hunter pack he was joined too, or keep everything in its transports meaning even more points are not being used, so you can either keep everything in there transports and not be able to use most of your army, split of the rune priest and risk the rhino getting blown up and your priest being out in the open without a pack or not use your psychic powers at all or risk all or alot of your rune priests dying to peril of the warp. With runes of warding its even worse, as you cant hide in your rhino's to negate it. With the crucible of malediction if your rolling bad then all your priests can die thought to be fair thats not very likely.

 

Yes not all army' can handle that much psychic spam but then there are alot of armies that are going to have a big advantage against you. If you loose 100pts then who cares but if you loose 400pts its going to be every hard to row back from.

 

 

The strength with spacewolves is there flexible, they can out shoot cc army's and butcher shooty ones and 1 or 2 runes priests can handle most psychic armys.

[ShotgunFacelift]

the problem with putting 400+ points in rune priests is there are lots of army's out there like nids elder and dark elder that have stuff that will shut down or kill pyskers out right, effectively nullify a huge chunk of your army for free of a very small point cost.

 

 

Well, Nids only have psychic defense in a 12" bubble... Lots of ways to get past that or take it out before it affects you.

 

Against Eldar, most people are only taking one farseer, so you can focus on him if you really want.

 

Plus, a few things you're forgetting

 

1) Not all armies bring psychic defense. While many armies CAN have good psychic D, not all DO. Plus, nothing really "nullifies" your psychic abilities. 3D6 on a psychic test is still about a 50% chance of the ability going off at LD 10, and psychic hoods are only a 4+. So, at best, most other armies are cutting the # of abilities you can use in half.

 

2) Lord of Tempests can't be nullified without killing Njal.

 

3) Rune Priests are essentially WGBLs with -1I and -1A + a force weapon. If we call that a wash, you're really only paying 30pts for the psychic powers, and otherwise have a model that's at least useful in CC (even if he can be picked out). At only 30pts... for the crazy things our RPs can do... I'd say that's doing something that can really hurt the army for little cost.

 

4) 1 Rune priest = Avoidable psychic D, 3 Rune priests = whole table psychic D

you make some good points, but I have faced army's with something like 8 shadow in the warp models, warriors have it and there a troop choice!, theres no point spending most of the game trying to get rid of monstrous creature hq ect just so you can start to use your priests.

yes i can keep my RP'S in there transports but then you either have to leave the grey hunter pack he was joined too, or keep everything in its transports meaning even more points are not being used, so you can either keep everything in there transports and not be able to use most of your army, split of the rune priest and risk the rhino getting blown up and your priest being out in the open without a pack or not use your psychic powers at all or risk all or alot of your rune priests dying to peril of the warp. With runes of warding its even worse, as you cant hide in your rhino's to negate it. With the crucible of malediction if your rolling bad then all your priests can die thought to be fair thats not very likely.

 

Yes not all army' can handle that much psychic spam but then there are alot of armies that are going to have a big advantage against you. If you loose 100pts then who cares but if you loose 400pts its going to be every hard to row back from.

 

 

The strength with spacewolves is there flexible, they can out shoot cc army's and butcher shooty ones and 1 or 2 runes priests can handle most psychic armys.

 

Dont get me wrong this much psychic spamming is not what I'm advocating. It is 400 points for 3 models that have to be placed with your troop units to be survivable. But as a way to use Njal it seems viable (truthfully, I'd prefer to just field him with another RP) especially against Grey Knights due to their heavy reliance on psychic powers.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

I was surprised at Tony [who won a big tournament, again, at just 16 years old] taking Njal to 1st place at Adepticon.

 

I think Njal is too expensive, and some of his abilities not working properly if you don't get first turn is daft. However, in a high points game, like the tournies Tony plays in, his buffs empower more men [meaning better value for the amount of points put into him, and you can take all the essentials in abundance and still have room for toys like Njal.

 

This is what Killswitch has to say on Njal: Njal vs Rune priest(s)

 

I agree with Killswitch, especially in games of up 1500 pts and less. Even in bigger games, I feel he is just too expensive for what he does, especially when compared to perhaps the best bang for buck HQs in the game, Rune priests.

[Hrolleif]

It was a long time ago so I don't remember many of the specifics, but the one time I've used Njal so far was in a friendly match against an immensely more skilled and more experienced friend. Njal alone helped me hold my own against his marauding hordes of tyranids. So I'd say he's worth it, but I guess it depends on the match and personal preference.

[skoll]

I think Njal really shines In events where your regular psychic powers are denied to you, like is the case with runes of warding and other such things. For example when I play against eldar players I end up taking Njal because I love watching them rage at how my powers are getting auto casted and there is nothing they can do.

[Bergelmir]

i'll take 3 rune priests any day for the flexibility !

[Darkseer]

I think Killswitch has something to say on the matter:

http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/2011...ne-priests.html