Blood Angels Unit of the Week series Unit of the Week: Librarian

[Jolemai]

 

 

Welcome to part three of the Blood Angels Unit of the Week Series!

 

Following the release of the 9^th edition Supplement, there is no better time to discuss all the units we have access to. Each week a different unit will appear, with the idea being that we discuss how best to use that model on the battlefield. Where part one will focus on the unique BA units and part two will focus on BA units that are new to this edition of the Codex, part three will discuss how to get the best use the generic units from the past that are still with us (and that many of us have in our armies still), and part four will discuss the Legends units that we still own and love. Forge World and Forge World Legends comprise parts five and six.

 

Note, this isn't to lament any nerfs, etc, from previous editions; the rules are as they are so try to unlock its potential for those who wish to use them all the same. Similarly, this thread is only for using the option being discussed; it matters not if you feel something is a better choice as such comments aren't constructive to the topic and shall be removed.

Without further ado, here's this week's entry:

Librarian

Librarian, RedemptionNL

 

What are you thoughts here folks? How best would you use a Librarian?

 

 

• To compliment a list, or to build a list around? Will the Chapter Approved and Balance Dataslate changes affect your list(s)?
• Will you be running multiples?
• Footslog, jump pack, or transport? Suitable for Warlord duties?
• What spells are you taking and does this affect what you run them alongside?
• Are you buffing this unit? If so, how?
• Stratagems of note?

 

Over to you

Please note that other Librarian datasheets (i.e TDA Librarian) are discussed elsewhere and links to these can be found in the Index listed above

 

Edited February 28, 2023 by Jolemai
Updated!

[Jolemai]

Should you want your model on display here (or on another thread from the series), then submit a photo here please.

[Dolchiate Remembrancer]

Paying attention and taking notes as so far i have tried to use them as high toughness killers to no success and troup killers to little sucess.

[Karhedron]

Mephiston and the Libby Dread seem to be our heavy hitters. I think that regular Librarians are much more useful as buff-mancers to enhance our units. "Unleash Rage" is the gem in the arsenal here, particular when combined with a hard-hitting unit like SG or DC. Shield of Sanguinius took a hit when they downgraded it to a 5++ but still has mileage on high value units such as Primaris.

 

The good thing is that Mephy or a Libby Dread will normally be trying to cast Wings and Quickening which means a regular Libby is free to cast our buff powers without conflict. I always run mine with a Jump Pack as I don't want to waste Wings on a unit that can get equivalent mobility from Wargear. Choice of Force weapon is not a big deal as the Libby is not there as a melee character. He should only be going into assault when well supported as he has no native invuln and is pretty squishy. I run mine with a Force Axe as the +1S is useful as he wounds MEQs on a 2+ and can even wound T8 stuff on a 4+ in an emergency thanks to Red Thirst.

 

In summary

1. Best run to enhance high value units

2. Not  a powerhouse in their own right

3. Only commit to melee against weaker enemies unless it is an emergency

Edited January 14, 2019 by Karhedronuk

[The Unseen]

If you aren't using the dumb beta rule that disallows using movement abilities after deep striking, a Librarian with a jump pack, inferno pistol, and axe makes for a disgustingly good character assassin.

Drop in, move 12", land so that the enemy character is the closest target, cast smite, shoot a melta pistol at them, then assault them with Red Rampage.

If they aren't rocking a solid invul save and a lot a wounds, whatever you point him at is probably slag.

 

Otherwise, I second the buffing roll for him, as unleash rage is solid if you have a big ball of sanguinary guard, and smite is still excellent for hurting nasty things.

[Charlo]

If you aren't using the dumb beta rule that disallows using movement abilities after deep striking, a Librarian with a jump pack, inferno pistol, and axe makes for a disgustingly good character assassin.

Drop in, move 12", land so that the enemy character is the closest target, cast smite, shoot a melta pistol at them, then assault them with Red Rampage.

If they aren't rocking a solid invul save and a lot a wounds, whatever you point him at is probably slag.

 

Otherwise, I second the buffing roll for him, as unleash rage is solid if you have a big ball of sanguinary guard, and smite is still excellent for hurting nasty things.

 

That isn't a dumb beta rule, it's just... The rules.

 

Deep striking happens at the end of the movement phase, so you can't move after you land as movement has finished. If you mean wings though, then that's still a fairly unreliable tactic.

 

Unleash rage and Shield are excellent on Primaris with their already high number of attacks and 2W. Though rage may be better on things like SG with all the special weapons.

[Panzer]

Shield of Sanguinius is just great if you plan to use expensive vehicles like Repulsors and such. A 5++ can make a huge difference against anti-tank as long as it isn't pesky Autocannons who rely more on high ROF instead of good AP. But it's also good on infantry without a native invulnerable save or Sv2+.

 

Wings of Blood is pretty much mandatory for a melee Librarian

 

Quickening is in theory a good pick but Wings of Blood is just the better option plain and simple.

 

Unleash Rage is more than decent as well. The better the weapon of the unit and the more models in the unit the more it benefits from Unleash Rage. A unit of Vanguard Veterans with Sword&Board will love this but also just a unit of Intercessors will become quite a threat in melee thanks to Red Thirst (even more so if we ever get access to the Indomitus Crusaders specialist detachment).

 

Blood Boil is pretty much useless imo. A 6" smite that can target a unit that isn't the closest but it has to fail a Toughness check with 2d6 first. 6" is just way too short ranged to be as useful as the other psychic powers. You're better off buffing your melee if you are that close already.

 

Blood Lance is the other rather useless power imo. In an ideal scenario you could deal quite a few mortal wounds with it but usually it's not worth casting over a simple smite.

 

As for the Librarian himself I think going with Jump Pack is pretty much a given for us and the rest is up to taste. His role in the game won't really change regardless of what weapons you give him.

Just keep him close to the unit he's supposed to buff and try to stay in range for Deny the Witch. I don't think he's particularly good to hunt enemy characters and such due lack of native invul save. Let other units that either are better protected or have enough damage output to kill the target in one go do that job instead.

Edited January 14, 2019 by sfPanzer

[Paladin777]

I think he could be rather potent running around with sanguinary guard as warlord. Using Wings means you can place him wherever he needs to go to give rerolls, and unleash rage is just a no-brained! If you’re up against Eldar or another Parker heavy army having soul warden as your WLT might be useful as well.

[Majkhel]

Can't really add much to what has been said already, so I'll talk about gear.
As he lacks access to really smashy stuff (TH/PF), I'd say that Force Sword is the way to go with him.

The shooting weapon depends on his role. 
 

I like to keep mine cheap as he is a buffer in my army. A Storm Bolter is always nice upgrade in firepower for sniping away from a relatively safe distance, although I see potential for an inferno pistol if he would be supporting assault on something tougher. In my opinion anything combi-weapon lifts his price close to a bare-bones Librarian Dreadnought whom I would take (if had one completed :P ) over standard Libby any day.

Strangely, I do not see an option for a Libby on bike in our Codex.

[Jolemai]

Bike Librarian is an Index choice and a different Datasheet (so it's not suitable for this topic).

[Jolemai]

For the moment I'm using a Librarian with a jump pack to keep up with my SG and characters. He runs with Unleash Rage and Shield of Sanguinius - whilst I realise the latter only comes into the fore on SG again AP-4 weapons (i.e melta) I have played around with throwing it on Scouts (which tbh is a bit of a waste as they get gunned down with anti-personnel stuff). However, i'm not looking to change at the moment as we have Smite too which can often take the second slot.

 

Weapon-wise you're looking at min-maxing with those last few points imo. So bolter/stormbolter is where I am on the ranged side whereas his force weapon is trickier if you're looking at a TAC build. People on the outside of our Chapter go on about power axes and can't understand why we don't adore them, but that's because we already wound T4 on 3s so a different weapon is often preferable. So we often see swords or staffs - honestly, it really is meta dependent imo. In my case, I'm running a staff with my SG one as it goes for harder targets...

 

I haven't used Gallian's staff this edition (as I'm often using other relics and/or running on low CP) and I've not used the channeling stratagem yet. How could we feasibly use that stratagem and/or get three Librarians into our force? One Librarian Dreadnought/Mephiston, one support Librarian, and one with Lance/Boil, or hybrid?

[Panzer]

I honestly think I'd rather take another Librarian with the same powers as the first instead of a Lance/Boil one just so I can still have the powers available after one of them died. Worst case he can still cast Smite.

No opinion about the Staff. I never really considered it so far since the Primaris Psyker can't take one. Tho I say I like Psyker with staffs visually the best so if I ever get the chance I'll try it out. ^^

[The Unseen]

If the staff took you to Str7, I'd consider it.

But Str6 is effectively Str4 unless your hitting T8 stuff for Blood Angels.

And if your hitting T8, an axe is the same but with better AP.

The normal high T values you see is 5 and 7.

The maul is marginally better vs T5, but against monsters/vehicles it's just worse than the axe/sword, as you don't wound any better and you have worse AP.

Axes are still "the best", unless your fighting T3 targets or T4 targets without an invuln in our cases.

 

Blood Boil and Blood Lance are two of the worst damage dealing psychic powers in the game, definetely avoid.

Smite is almost always better, and you get that for free.

 

If I was going to try the channel strat, which I wouldnt because we don't have any powers that *need* to go off like that, I'd run mephy with wings, quickening, and shield (the 3 powers he likes on himself), a support with unleash rage and shield, and a character killer with an inferno pistol, wings, and your choice of duplicate support power.

 

And then they can each cast a single unique power and smite most turns.

[Panzer]

If the staff took you to Str7, I'd consider it.

But Str6 is effectively Str4 unless your hitting T8 stuff for Blood Angels.

And if your hitting T8, an axe is the same but with better AP.

The normal high T values you see is 5 and 7.

The maul is marginally better vs T5, but against monsters/vehicles it's just worse than the axe/sword, as you don't wound any better and you have worse AP.

Axes are still "the best", unless your fighting T3 targets or T4 targets without an invuln in our cases.

 

Blood Boil and Blood Lance are two of the worst damage dealing psychic powers in the game, definetely avoid.

Smite is almost always better, and you get that for free.

 

If I was going to try the channel strat, which I wouldnt because we don't have any powers that *need* to go off like that, I'd run mephy with wings, quickening, and shield (the 3 powers he likes on himself), a support with unleash rage and shield, and a character killer with an inferno pistol, wings, and your choice of duplicate support power.

 

And then they can each cast a single unique power and smite most turns.

 

Nah S7 isn't like S4. It lets you wound T4-6 on a 2+ as well and T7 still on a 3+.

Edited January 15, 2019 by sfPanzer

[The Unseen]

 

If the staff took you to Str7, I'd consider it.

But Str6 is effectively Str4 unless your hitting T8 stuff for Blood Angels.

And if your hitting T8, an axe is the same but with better AP.

The normal high T values you see is 5 and 7.

The maul is marginally better vs T5, but against monsters/vehicles it's just worse than the axe/sword, as you don't wound any better and you have worse AP.

Axes are still "the best", unless your fighting T3 targets or T4 targets without an invuln in our cases.

 

Blood Boil and Blood Lance are two of the worst damage dealing psychic powers in the game, definetely avoid.

Smite is almost always better, and you get that for free.

 

If I was going to try the channel strat, which I wouldnt because we don't have any powers that *need* to go off like that, I'd run mephy with wings, quickening, and shield (the 3 powers he likes on himself), a support with unleash rage and shield, and a character killer with an inferno pistol, wings, and your choice of duplicate support power.

 

And then they can each cast a single unique power and smite most turns.

 

Nah S7 isn't like S4. It lets you wound T4-6 on a 2+ as well and T7 still on a 3+.

 

 

Except the maul doesn't make you str7, it makes you Str6, which is what I said.

If it did make you Str7, it'd be maybe worthwhile. But Str6 is stuck in the deadzone of Str vs Toughness comparison

[Panzer]

 

 

If the staff took you to Str7, I'd consider it.

But Str6 is effectively Str4 unless your hitting T8 stuff for Blood Angels.

And if your hitting T8, an axe is the same but with better AP.

The normal high T values you see is 5 and 7.

The maul is marginally better vs T5, but against monsters/vehicles it's just worse than the axe/sword, as you don't wound any better and you have worse AP.

Axes are still "the best", unless your fighting T3 targets or T4 targets without an invuln in our cases.

 

Blood Boil and Blood Lance are two of the worst damage dealing psychic powers in the game, definetely avoid.

Smite is almost always better, and you get that for free.

 

If I was going to try the channel strat, which I wouldnt because we don't have any powers that *need* to go off like that, I'd run mephy with wings, quickening, and shield (the 3 powers he likes on himself), a support with unleash rage and shield, and a character killer with an inferno pistol, wings, and your choice of duplicate support power.

 

And then they can each cast a single unique power and smite most turns.

 

Nah S7 isn't like S4. It lets you wound T4-6 on a 2+ as well and T7 still on a 3+.

 

 

Except the maul doesn't make you str7, it makes you Str6, which is what I said.

If it did make you Str7, it'd be maybe worthwhile. But Str6 is stuck in the deadzone of Str vs Toughness comparison

 

 

I misread but S6 is still not like S4 for the same reasons as I stated above just for a smaller range (T4-5 on a 2+ and nothing for T7).

[The Unseen]

Against T4, an Axe also wounds on a 3+ base, so 2+ for us. The only times an Axe and a Maul wound differently (at least if Red Thirst triggers anyway) for BA is against T5 and 6. So... Basically T5. I don't think I've seen anything T6 hit a table the entirety of 8th so far. And unless your target is T5-6 and also has an invuln save EXACTLY the same as its armor save, or 1 less than its armor save, the axe and the maul average out to the same, with a 1/6 higher chance of wounding with a 1/6 lower chance of a failed armor save.

So unless you fight like, Thunderwolf Cavalry with Storm Shields all the time, the Axe is just better. I don't know of many other units that meet the criteria that makes the maul slightly better, and I know a lot of targets that the Axe is better against. Like MEQ's without a storm shield or iron halo.

 

if you think the maul looks cool, use it. It's your model, and *your dudes* aspect is important. But if your wanting to arrive at the mathematical *best* option, its definitely not the force maul unless your planning on fighting specifically T5-6 with a good invuln save all the time.

[Panzer]

I didn't say it's better than an axe. I'm just telling you it's not like having S4 as you claimed. That's all.

 

That being said T5 isn't that rare anymore thanks to DG and Gravis armour and all light vehicles have T6 so there's definitive a use for it. It also still allows you to wound chaff on a 2+ after Red Thirst stopped working which can be quite handy.

[Jolemai]

A little nugget take from the Null Zone Delivery System thread: 
 
 

With many different dangerous enemies these days depending on 5++ or 4++ (or even 3++, in some are cases) Invul saves, the ability to remove them entirely is perhaps more powerful/more important than ever. While Space Marine Psykers seem to have taken a back seat to Chaplains, Captains, and even minor characters like Apothecaries, the option for all Astartes to access Null Zone via their Librarians can be a game changer, I think, especially considering the smaller boards and more melee focus prevalent in 9th edition.

So, as I consider it, it seems to me that there are two really significant hurdles in using Null Zone as a space marine player:

1) Casting it successfully (without being denied)

2) Delivering the Librarian to within 6" of the enemy, once it has been cast successfully

So, the first of these is relatively straight-forward -- Null Zone requires a 7 to cast, so it is (rightfully) one of the more difficult psychic abilities to get off, especially compared to the Warp Charge 5/6 powers that are more prevalent. There are two major ways that I can think of to boost this... first, by upgrading the Librarian to a Chief Librarian and giving him the bespoke Warlord Trait which adds +1 to his casting rolls, so in essence making Null Zone into a Warp Charge 6 power.

Secondly, if you take a Successor Chapter, you can take the Trait that allows all Librarians to re-roll any 1s in their Psychic Tests. Between this and the +1 to cast Warlord Trait, you can raise the chance of getting Null Zone off from around a 58% chance to about an 80% chance of being successful, so a very significant improvement of odds in your favor.

As for the second challenge, this is a more complicated one. Since all Librarians are infantry (except Blood Angel Librarian Dreadnoughts), they either need to foot slog within 6" of the enemy, take a Jump Pack to increase their mobility, or ride in some kind of transport. The most effective methods that I know of are the following:

3) Blood Angels Jump Pack Librarian -- Use Tome of Malcador to give him both Wings of Sanguinius and Null Zone, then Advance 12+D6", then move another 12" (Wings of Sanguinius). You can add an additional 2" to this if you have a Sanguinary Ancient with the Wrath of Baal relic nearby which, taken all together, makes for a "net threat range" of 33-38" for his Null Zone aura.

Despite these options, I'd say it is still a hard thing to get Null Zone off and into range to affect your opponent (not to mention the danger of losing your Librarian if you move him that far forward), but it can also be a game-changer in the right circumstances (e.g. turning of Mortarion's Invul means that AP-3/AP-4 shooting will just tear through him).

Anyone else figure out good ways to deploy Null Zone in their games?
 

How can we make use of that using this particular Datasheet? What else can we do to enhance this tactic? How do we foresee using it and, has anyone used it yet?

[Karhedron]

I have a couple of concerns with the Null Zone Libby. Firstly it has a lot of moving parts:

 

1. Your opponent must have a suitable unit

2. You need to get the Libby into position

3. You need to cast the power

4. Your opponent needs to fail to deny (if applicable)

5. You need to have adequate firepower and/or melee power in position to take advantage of the exposed target.

 

Even if it is successful, it will leave your Librarian dangerously close to the enemy.

[Rhavien]

It's a lot of eggs in one basket. HQ slot, WL trait, relic and a lot of points. But it's not that you have to send him on a suicide mission T1. As a character he is relatively save till you need him to get close. So at turn 2 he should be able to reach every enemy anvil unit that took a mid board objective even without wings of sang going off. In the meantime he could buff/smite something and the enemy player will think twice if he shoves those Bladeguards or hammernators near your lines.

I didn't run him till now, but I'll give it a try for sure.

[Tokugawa]

If your opponent don't place his main denyer next to high value unit, it is possible to:

 

1, cast nullzone exactly out of deny range.

 

2, cast wings(still out of deny range), fly 12", go into 6" of the prior target.

[Jolemai]

Jump Chief Librarian with Null Zone, Might of Heroes, and Veil of Time seems to be coming back into favour as a third HQ choice in many "Flying Circus" type lists atm.

 

Any thoughts on tactics as it's less "point and click" then the above idea (which is now illegal)?

[keeblerartillery]

I ran him last weekend in a couple of games. I dropped might and ran him with psychic scourge. Ran him with one of my sang guard squads. He absolutely ruined some folks days - mortal wound spam and turning off invulns was fantastic.

[Montuhotep]

Just as an aside; if anyone still plays 1st Gen Angels (none of this Primaris nonsense ) does anyone think of running a Terminator Libby or is speed with JP/Wings preferable?