Epistolary worth it?

[gory_v]

My feast of blades open list is due tomorrow and I'm thinking of dropping Tycho from my 'death star' unit in exchange for taking a BA Libby and using leftover points for upgrades for other units. Using it to provide more support all around with divination since pretty much every power there can be used to boost effectiveness. Question is whether or not 50 pts for another buff so long as my libby lives is worth it...

[knife&fork]

It's a tough question. 

 

On one hand we are already paying way too much for our librarians, on the other it's still cheaper than getting a second HQ and the extra buff can be very helpful.....

 

If you have plan to keep that libby alive and still get max use out of his buffs then he's probably worth more than Tycho. 

[gory_v]

He's dropping in with Corbs and 5 assault marines so the idea is for the marines to weather everything. They're dropping the same turn as assault termies and a Furi and my sternguard are dropping the turn before. Should be plenty of ways to block LOS to keep him alive.

[knife&fork]

It's going to be tough to get value out of him used liked that.

 

Which powers did have in mind using? You can still only roll/take two and can't more than one shooting attack.

[Morticon]

It really really bums me out that an epistolary BA is 150 while a DA one is 100.  All part of the game. 

 

SO....what im saying is, unless your tactic relies on a libby inside a vehicle- strongly consider either a JP or biker DA libby (with auspex)./ 

 

Its really such a great unit. And you dont need to go all out with DA allies- just a 5man scout squad, or a 5man tac razor squad- whatever fits your bill. 

[Xenith]

He's dropping in with Corbs and 5 assault marines so the idea is for the marines to weather everything. They're dropping the same turn as assault termies and a Furi and my sternguard are dropping the turn before. Should be plenty of ways to block LOS to keep him alive.

5 assault marines will weather nothing. All your opponent has to do is cause 7 wounds on 3+ armour (and Corby's FNP to get 3 kill points.

[TheSauce]

I would say that Epistolary isn't worth 50 points. There are multiple good divination powers, but that's only if you get the right rolls on the random tables, which is far from guaranteed. Otherwise you could see your libby with only one useful power, sitting around with an extra warp charge every turn.

 

Also, that will make that unit even more of a target, and it will go down even easier. I would but that 50 points elsewhere - melta bombs for characters, storm shields on sergeants, etc.

 

you could also consider using those points to upgrade your libby to TA with a storm shield. 2+/3++ is much harder to kill, and if you roll divination you can grab the power that makes him reroll saving throws, making him nearly invulnerable (and since the power lasts through the opponents turn, you still have a warp charge to use for ID with your force weapon during the opponents assault phase).

[gory_v]

The 5 assault marines are literally there as my 3rd pod so the Furi and Stern can pop in turn 1. Depending on how well those weather I'll have what's left from them, the assault marines, and assault terms all up close. Possibly some JP assault marines and raven as well depending on reserve rolls or the mission. Depending on terrain I feel that I should be okay to keep him alive with the FNP, armor saves, cover from terrain/pods, and invul saves.

 

Term Libby sounds like it could work if I stick him with the terms when they DS but I instead used points I saved from Tycho to Epistolary for an extra locator beacon in case the pod that had it gets destroyed, giving my frag dread a heavy flamer, and giving the pod assault squad a melta instead of a flamer so it's got a chance to pop something before most likely becoming cannon fodder. Not a low player but games tend to go slow anyways so we'll see how long it lasts. Should be fun to play nonetheless.

 

I can always choose our book powers if I've been choking on my roll for div powers in earlier games. I guess I think the extra options are worth the +50 even if it's wildly inflated compared to the DA and SM libby upgrade. Even when we get our new dex, I'm thinking it'll be slightly more for the Lvl 2 upgrade if we still have access to divination.

[redhorse]

I hear you dropped a flamer from that assault sqaud. Personally I've been doing something similar to you so here is my suggestion: Iibrarian in terminator armor with storm shield, assault marines with flamer and sergeant with dual hand flamers( more dakka and this can work shockingly well just imagine roasting a backfield plaugebearer squad or cultists in cover...no cover save's bitches!!) . Forget about the locator beacon, drop pods won't get popped. Just put your pods super close to an enemy unit or your own units to take advantage of the inertial guidance system.  Also, if you've got corbulo and your pod needs to land in a very critical game winning position use his farseeing eye to help you out. 

Also, food for thought here. I typically run two librarians with jump packs, much better IMO than an epistolary because you get 4 powers and thus 4 rolls on divination or any other table(s). 

[Chaplain Admetus]

Short answer: No.

 

Long answer: Even a base level librarian isn't worth it any more. Our HQ slots are terrible value for points. The only reason to actually use the librarian is because he's crap value, but less rubbish than captain/reclusiarch. Damage limitation.

[Jolemai]

Personally I disagree, but then I can roll 5+ saves

[Jolemai]

As for the OP I realise that this reply is a little late but Prescience on a five man squad is going to do very little and as mentioned, it can't cast it on the turn it arrives via a Pod. However Shield and Fear/whatever can be cast and the Shield will give your guys a better chance at surviving - even with all the anti-cover firepower that exists these days.

 

With the Codex powers an Epistolary is not worth the points. With BRB powers the answer is maybe but then it also depends on how you run your Librarian.

[Calnus]

There are really only two/three viable HQ options in BA nowadays, depending on what you want them to do.  There's either the budget option of 100-135 Librarian (kitted to go with a particular unit for the list in question), the survival option  of Terminator Librarian with Storm Shield (and probably a bodyguard of hammernators as well to make the deathstar complete), or Mephiston.

 

Having played with all 3, I find Mephiston to be the most useful in a competitive sense.  The budget Librarian gives up the Warlord point too easily, while having minor impact on the game, but the Terminator Librarian has less impact due to low speed, but tends to not get targeted.

 

Then again, my regular opponents call Mephiston "cheesy" or "broken", so it could be they just don't prep for him.  Wraithknights really haven't caught on yet in my area.

[Jolemai]

Sounds like your regular opponent is jealous

[gory_v]

Yeah, I downgraded to a normal libby after realizing that the mastery level has no effect on the number of powers a BA libby can take (doh!). While Corbs and the Libby are dropping down with the 5 man assault squad, they''ll also be dropping close to a sternguard and assault termies will be deep striking on that location as well. Depending on which powers I take or the number of sternguard are left, the choices are either to have both Corbs and the Libby join the termies or Corbs can join the termies while the Libby joins the sternguard. Again it's all situationally dependent, I just like having options with what I'm working with.

[Chaplain Admetus]

Regular librarian is fine running with Shield and Lance/Unleash as you can pop one in each player turn, so ML2 isn't necessary. With divination though, he's not good enough to get use out of several powers, and paying upwards of 100 points to glorified twin-link a squad is too steep.

[gory_v]

If I want my stern to be more shooty, possibly after they lose a few after the 1st turn, the TL would be nice for one more round of shooting. 2 weeks to play test the full list, just finished assembly and basic paint/basing yesterday. Looking forward to a great weekend.