Misfortune and Banner of Devastation

[L30n1d4s]

I was looking at the new Psychic Tables in the Rule Book and specifically thinking about the Divination power of Misfortune. In the old rules, it used to force a targeted unit to re-roll successful saves (regular and invul), making it VERY powerful.

 

In 7th edition it has been toned down significantly, being a WC2 cost to cast now and causing all attacks against the targeted unit to have rending, vice the old forced re-rolls of saving throws. This new version of Misfortune is, of course, most useful when combined with a unit that can but out a TON of shooting to maximize the Rending potential.... think squadrons of 2-3 Leman Russ Punishers, 20 man Sisters of Battle squads rapid firing bolters, Eldar War Walker squadrons with double Scatter lasers, etc. etc.

 

Then I thought about Dark Angels and their Banner of Devastation, which basically quadruples the fire power of a Bolter at 24".... what would happen if you able to successfully cast Misfortune on a unit, then target it with Bolter units near the Banner of Devastation?

 

Take for example the classic DA Scout/BoD build.... 3 x 10 man Bolter Scout Squads infiltrate to within 18" of the target enemy... you then bring in a Command Squad with BoD so that it is within 6" of the Scouts (i.e. using a drop pod, transport, DW assault if it is a DW Command Squad, or Scout move/normal move if it is a RW Command Squad).

 

Next, in your Pyschic phase you successfully cast Misfortune on the selected target unit... Scouts open fire with a total of 120 shots, BS3 means that you get 60 hits on average.... of these, 10 should be rending. So, say your target was a Tau Riptide... if you are going first, then he had no chance to activate his Nova Reactor, so he only has a 5++, meaning that 6-7 saves would be failed, killing the Riptide in a single volley.

 

What about a Terminator Squad? 60 hits means 20 regular wounds and 10 rends, which give you 3 unsaved wounds from normal armor saves and 6 wounds from the rends, meaning you killed 9 Terminators in a single volley.

 

How about against vehicles? Normally Bolters can't hurt anything above AV10, but with rending thrown it all changes. Say you are targeting a Wave Serpent... 60 hits yields 10 rends; 6-7 of these rending hits will have a 2-3 on the D3 roll, meaning that you have 6-7 glancing hits/lost hull points... even if the Wave Serpent jinks, then you still cause an average of 3 lost HPs, enough to kill it outright.

 

Even Flyers can be threatened by this tactic... 120 shots with Snapfire yields 20 hits, with 3-4 rends.... if you are lucky, 2-3 of these will be strong enough rends to even bring down an AV12 flyer like a Storm Raven or a Vendetta.

 

Finally, what about a deathstar type unit, say a Biker Seer Council? If you go first, the Council will not have had time to cast Fortune on itself, giving you the opportunity to strike... 120 shots, 60 hits, 20 normal wounds and 10 rends.... Biker Council should fail about 7 normal 3+ saves and 5 Invuls, meaning that you just wiped out the entire unit before it could play one turn.

 

 

Now, this example uses Scouts, but you can also use BoD with Tacticals (enemy has to come to them, really, since they are not Relentless), with Ravenwing Bikers (less shots, since each squad is only 6 strong, but more accurate because of TLed and WAY more mobile), or with LR Crusaders and their Hurricane Bolters (great survivability and good mobility, but very high cost for the shooting). The limitations of this strategy are:

 

1 - You have to successfully roll Misfortune on the Divination table... multiple ML2 Librarians or an allied Tigurius can help with this.

 

2 - Successfully casting this ability... since it ML2, you probably need 4-6 dice to have a high probability of getting it off... also, as a malediction, enemy units have better options to try and stop it with DtW rolls.

 

3 - Ideally you want to have first turn, since being able to shoot before your opponent can redeploy, activate his own psychic defensive powers, or wear down your units doing the shooting is a major advantage.

 

Anyway, several things have to align, but if they do you can have a very devastating combo here. The good thing is, even if you don't roll Misfortune, your whole game is not over, since building lists around the BoD is still quite competitive, you will just have to focus the bolter fire on weaker, more traditional targets (liked massed enemy infantry).

[Brother dean]

um...  what gives rending?  Scouts dont have it and neither do bolters or the BoD.  Have I missed a line in 7th?

[march10k]

Dean....you weren't paying attention.  He's talking about combining the dakkapole with the "misfortune" psychic power.  All shooting targeting the misfortuned unit is rending.

[L30n1d4s]

The Misfortune Psychic power is a malediction from the Divination discipline which, when cast successfully on an enemy unit, causes all attacks against that unit to have Rending.

 

//// Ninja'd ;)

[Prot]

I think it's a cool idea.... I like it.

 

I do have to admit though I'm having trouble passing gas in the psychic phase without investing a LOT of points into it. 

 

The variables are: How many psykers do you need?  How many rolls do you want at divination to secure the ability? 

 

Or do you just try it for the heck of it and see how much you can pull it off?

 

If I were doing it with my Ravenwing, I'm thinking at best I could wedge a bike Libby with only 2 ML's. This gives me as many rolls on the Divination chart as Eze would have, however I'd have more trouble passing the test. 

 

I like the idea though... but personally I've never tried the Scout idea you speak of.

[Brother dean]

Ah...  Not to the psychic powers yet...  

[SnakeChisler]

Too hard to build round it to be honest Psychic for most is too random and if I was taking allies I'd be doing it to get a storm Raven to pimp my Deathwing Knights

 

After a few weeks of 7th Psychic  if your going to spam psykers then go for invisibility if your taking just the one role on Pyromancy as it has a lot of warp charge 1 powers, going on divination is a pain coz you'll never use a warp charge 2 power with 1 psyker most of the time, in the 2 games I've run 2 psyker only 1 maybe 2 powers per turn have gone off for a combined investment of 250 points. The bonus of taking a psyker is psychic defense.

 

Tigarius looks good on paper as an ally but he can't deep strike, he's got to be not in a vehicle to cast powers and he can't move 12" like my ravenwing command squad. Put him in a drop pod? maybe but I'm not the drop pod kind, you kind of need a squad he can nonce around in and not get blatted which wastes points, maybe a sternguard squad in a Rhino or Razorback after all the Psychic phase is after the movement, anyway I'd use him to cast invisibility on something as its normally easier to buff than maladict 

[Darkangeldentist]

This new combo is very nice but like a lot of tricks based on psykers, it's not something you can rely on. However, you don't need to rely on it with the banner. The banner of devastation is potent enough as is and if you make a plan that uses it with the potential to take advantage/abuse a combination like misfortune then it just becomes more powerful. Doesn't mean the whole house of cards falls down if you don't get it.

 

Divination is still a powerful discipline with many useful and potent powers but it's definitely one where you are most often going to invest just about everything gets a single power off each turn so it needs to be a good one. Telepathy for invisibility is even more of a gamble though in my view because it tempts you to go overboard around the deathstar unit that will take advantage of it and in 7th, that's not a good idea. This is diverging from the original topic though. Misfortune combines brilliantly with the effects from the banner of devastation and can really open up the threat from our regular bolter troops.

 

I didn't see this mentioned but I haven't noticed any change to the rending rules from last edition so a 6 always wounds meaning that if you manage to stick misfortune onto a wraithlord or knight you could quite feasibly see it shot of the table by weapons that could previously never harm it!

 

The hardest thing to get used to with the new psychic phase is how much less reliable casting powers can be, especially for higher cost powers.