Psyker Henchmen Squads

[neonfunk]

As the topic suggests, I was wondering how viable Psyker squads are.

 

Lately I've been toying with the idea of 6-man Psyker squads (which would give us a nice S8 AP1 Large Pie, ASSAULT!), mounted in rhinos. The 36" range is a huge boon, considering our lack of long range firepower. Mounted in a rhino, this amounts to 100 points. The big downside of course is the LD8. Therefore, I wouldnt expect the squad to pump out many pie plates before they all die to perils.

 

So my question is, has anybody used them with success? Will they at least make their points back before their inevitable death? Or would it be even advisable to stick them inside a rhino/chimera for the protection (since they would most likely kill themselves anyway?)

 

Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

[Chengar Qordath]

They're definitely a bit hit-or-miss as a unit; a strength 8 AP 1 pieplate can do a huge amount of damage; a single good shot can easily earn back their point cost and more. The thing is, Ld 8 means their odds on psychic tests aren't that great, and any leadership-based psychic defenses like Psychic Hoods or Shadow in the Warp will really hurt. Ultimately, it depends on whether you're alright with fielding a unit that, depending on how much the dice like you, can either do a lot of damage or accomplish absolutely nothing.

[Drachnon]

Psychic battle squads only have about 72% chance to succeed without interference. Meaning that in a game you can expect 1 or 2 fails regardless of psychic defense. With psychic defense those odds plumit very rapidly. In the best case scenario there's a wolf priest (who are oddly enough worse then normal librarians in this case) who cut your success rate by 2 putting you at 36%, a psychic hood puts you at 24% (doing math from top of my head on this one). Shadows of the tyranids with shadow of the warp and elder farseers reduce it to below 30% I believe (not actually sure on what their wording was). Also I think the farseer will make you peril 37.50%.

 

DISCLAIMER: My math may be wrong here feel free to recalculate it yourself.

[RedemptionNL]

The good thing is, with the Psyker's power being one of the few powers in the game with a 36" range, you can actually outrange a lot of psychic defenses. Of the ones you listed, only the Eldar Farseer comes further than 24" (and who will most likely get reduced when the next Eldar codex comes along). Of course, there's still stuff like Wolftail Talisman and (Improved) Aegis that can ruin a good psy-sniper's day. :blink:

 

Still makes the Psyker squad an unreliable unit of course. But if you don't mind your squad imploding every now and then, it can be a fun and powerful unit. :lol:

 

If you go with something MSU Razorback spam, you could even spam small units of Psykers for lots of large blasts, and spreading the risk of having all your Psykers disappear. Even at something like 4 Psykers you already get an S6 AP3 Large Blast, enough to put the fear in most MEQ lists. :tu:

[Something Wycked]

Recently discussed in this thread.

 

A summation:

 

Ok, let me see if I can summarize the points.

 

Never worth it, perils, hoods etc

 

or

 

They are cheap, not a big deal if they don't work

May not be a good idea to have in a transport by themselves, besides 4pt acolyte (increases their cost, squad entirely dependent on the psykers).

May be worth campng on an objective w/o a transport (since they are so cheap)

May be worth adding 4-6 guys to a shooty meched up henchmen squad (since the cost of the transport is spread out over the psykers and other henchmen instead of just the henchmen).