Unit of the Week: Crypteks Pt 2

[Daimyo-Phaeron Lenoch]

 

Welcome to the Unit of the Week Series!

 

Each week a different unit will be highlighted for discussion until we have amalgamated a full list of our available options and their relevant tactics as 9th edition evolves. This will include not only matched play, but free play considerations as well as Crusade, as these methods of play are just as relevant and exciting.

 

Please keep in mind this isn't to lament the status of featured units or compare them to others but to try and find their potential for all types of gameplay.

 

This week’s units (yes, plural!) are:

 

The Offense Crypteks

 

We will be looking at the Plasmancer and the Psychomancer this week. Unlike their buffbot brethren, these two characters have a very particular style of defense--they're all about the alpha-strike, and preventing enemies from being able to fight back. As such, here are some thought-provoking questions to consider and cogitate as we discuss this week's unit(s):

• Which Arkana and wargear do you give to these technowizards?
• Are relics worth the investment on these characters?
• Do you deploy them on the frontlines, or are they best served in the backline to protect other units?
• Do you make use of the Cryptothralls and the Dynastic Advisors rule?
• How do you use this unit in your listbuilding process?
• What are overall strengths and weakness of this unit?
• Which stratagems synergize well with this unit?
• Which specific Crusade benefits best suit this unit?

The floor is yours, honored Nobles and Crypteks!

[VoceNoctum]

I just love the Plasmancer for no good reason, really. Just got my Psychomancer assembled (stupid tentacles!) and primed, and he's got some neat stuff too. Neither is probably competitive it seems.

 

I do like the Psychomancer Arkana the Atavindicator, and just like the idea of a Psychomancer with a squad of flayed ones nearby, though I guess with the Atavindicator you can't get the Dimensional Sanctum to deep strike with them, so you'd need to Veil of Darkness.

 

The Plasmancer's Quantum Orb doesn't do anything for me, though I'm sure it has it's uses. The Tesla Weave might be neat as it's similar to Living Lightning and Harbinger of Destruction.

 

I still maintain that a Plasmancer could single handedly defeat a C'tan shard, even if the odds are slim. 3 mortal wounds in movement phase, 3 wounds from shooting the plasmic lance, 1 mortal at start of melee, and 2 damage from the lance...

[Bonzi]

I just love the Plasmancer for no good reason, really. Just got my Psychomancer assembled (stupid tentacles!) and primed, and he's got some neat stuff too. Neither is probably competitive it seems.

 

I do like the Psychomancer Arkana the Atavindicator, and just like the idea of a Psychomancer with a squad of flayed ones nearby, though I guess with the Atavindicator you can't get the Dimensional Sanctum to deep strike with them, so you'd need to Veil of Darkness.

 

The Plasmancer's Quantum Orb doesn't do anything for me, though I'm sure it has it's uses. The Tesla Weave might be neat as it's similar to Living Lightning and Harbinger of Destruction.

 

I still maintain that a Plasmancer could single handedly defeat a C'tan shard, even if the odds are slim. 3 mortal wounds in movement phase, 3 wounds from shooting the plasmic lance, 1 mortal at start of melee, and 2 damage from the lance...

I'm with you. I have a very irrational fondness of the plasmancer. I want to run a list with three just to see how many mortal wounds they can kick out.

[Miek]

I'm very interested in the psychomancer. Not only is the model super cool, but in a game of victory points he seems invaluable (IMHO, still haven't really played 9th). I have trouble imagining how he could not be competitive; he can disrupt juicy enemy scoring, can be rendered untargetable (arcana) or deepstrike (arcana) or equip a VoD.

 

I haven't decided how I'd play him yet, but I'd probably DS him with a unit of either hexmark, deathmarks or flayed ones to guard him and disrupt a remote objective. Probably 5+ flayed ones; they're cheap and the -1 to hit stratagem would be quite annoying, plus the immovable phalanx trait if I have it. The deathmarks, however, can perform an action... I'll probably use both in my list and adapt to the game.

 

So I'll probably play the psychomancer with the dimensional sanctum arcana (DS), no warlord trait, no relic, DS'ed with either flayed ones or deathmarks, in any dynasty although I'm generally leaning towards immovable phalanx.

 

Edit: Not hugely interested in the plasmancer, but maybe that'll change once I have played him a few times.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Miek

[Dread]

Love mine. He won me a game with his mortal wounds ability. Trying out several different builds with the different crypteks. So far he is the one with his pals running interference for him.

[Mr4Minutes]

I haven’t ran the psychomancer yet, but did pick one up because it’s an awesome model. My real complaint is that his ability goes off in your morale phase, so you can’t fully take advantage of his fight last ability, nor can you manipulate movement to get him out of trouble after using it.

 

I’ve only ran the plasmancer once, and that was a couple weeks ago. He was surprisingly fun. I took him because I believed he was a less competitive option, but found he puts in work. His shooting isn’t awful, and he just plinks off MWs here and there. I coupled it with the arkana that does MWs in your opponent’s fight phase if they have a unit within 6”. I thought it combo’d well.

[Miek]

About how many crypteks would you folks run in your games, ~1 per 500 pts? Per 1000 pts? I'm sure it varies, but I'm curious.

 

Is anyone tempted to run the same cryptek twice in a list?

[Shas Oh Dear]

I run a technomancer and a chronomancer at 2k the former with a Voltaic staff and the latter with the entropic Lance.

 

I'd say the chronomancer is the only one worth having multiples of for specific kinds of lists because their buff is something you'll need multiple times if you have say massed skorpekh.

[Miek]

Hum on second thought, the only action the psychomancer can stop from the BRB is "repair teleport homer". Both "investigate sites" and "raise the banners high" are completed on the same turn the actions are initiated. It can prevent those actions on the next turn though, but that's not quite as good. I guess an experienced opponent would avoid selecting an interruptible action secondary objective when the other player has a counter action ability.

[Mr4Minutes]

I don’t think any of them are really auto includes or keystone units to build a list around. More supplemental to splash one or two in if you’ve got the points.

[Mandragola]

Hum on second thought, the only action the psychomancer can stop from the BRB is "repair teleport homer". Both "investigate sites" and "raise the banners high" are completed on the same turn the actions are initiated. It can prevent those actions on the next turn though, but that's not quite as good. I guess an experienced opponent would avoid selecting an interruptible action secondary objective when the other player has a counter action ability.

Limiting people’s options is great though. Bear in mind, those options will grow, and start to include more codex-specific stuff too.

 

Goonhammerms Start Cometing Necrons article has quite a bit to say about psychomancers. https://www.goonhammer.com/start-competing-necrons-tactics/

 

For me the key ability is switching off Obsec, rather than denying actions. I think it probably combos well with the trait to make all your own stuff obsec. You can prevent a unit from holding a point without having to kill them. That lets you focus your killing power elsewhere, perhaps denying another point, and that’s when things will tend to look pretty good for you I think.

[VoceNoctum]

Yeah, if a unit deep strikes in and performs an action, not a lot you can do about it.

Is a Psychic Action a power or an action or both? If so, you could pick on a psyker.

 

Either way, removing ObSec is handy, and no Overwatch&fight last or half-charge are probably more combat worthy abilities.

 

I guess it'd be too powerful if it was just an aura, but you're rolling to activate the power anyway, so I don't think it'd be too game breaking. Imagine something like "every unit within X" must roll below leadership in order to complete an action".

 

And of course, the Atavindicator is just fun damage.

[nanosquid]

The psychomancer with the atavindicator is going to be in my list every time. He's a ton of fun, his debuffs don't require line of sight, and with the atavindicator he can single out a specific target regardless of LoS or Look Out Sir and hit them with an undeniable smite. The debuff options themselves are also varied enough that there will almost always be a good choice. The plasmancer can pump out some nice extra mortal wounds, but his off-brand Infernal Gaze just can't compare with the atavindicator. Plus, his energy pulse is of debatable utility when he's going to be seriously in the danger zone - 4w with 4+ no inv is not going to last long within 6" of enemies.

 

That said, having played the new death guard and tried out their orbital strike, I can definitely see an edge case for bringing the plasmancer with his orb arkana. The mortal wounds from that strike aren't likely to land, but what the gambit does is force your opponent to scatter his units off of a certain objective or take it on the jaw.

Edited March 8, 2021 by nanosquid

[Mandragola]

Yeah, if a unit deep strikes in and performs an action, not a lot you can do about it.

Is a Psychic Action a power or an action or both? If so, you could pick on a psyker.

 

Either way, removing ObSec is handy, and no Overwatch&fight last or half-charge are probably more combat worthy abilities.

 

I guess it'd be too powerful if it was just an aura, but you're rolling to activate the power anyway, so I don't think it'd be too game breaking. Imagine something like "every unit within X" must roll below leadership in order to complete an action".

 

And of course, the Atavindicator is just fun damage.

I think the fight last and removing overwatch abilities are a bit rubbish, due to when they happen - after the charge and combat phases. That said, they're not useless. Halving advance and charges is potentially very strong against things like hammernators but otherwise it'll always be a bit sketchy to be within 12" of stuff. Some Cryptothralls might help a bit with that.

 

The psychomancer with the atavindicator is going to be in my list every time. He's a ton of fun, his debuffs don't require line of sight, and with the atavindicator he can single out a specific target regardless of LoS or Look Out Sir and hit them with an undeniable smite. The debuff options themselves are also varied enough that there will almost always be a good choice. The plasmancer can pump out some nice extra mortal wounds, but his off-brand Infernal Gaze just can't compare with the atavindicator. Plus, his energy pulse is of debatable utility when he's going to be seriously in the danger zone - 4w with 4+ no inv is not going to last long within 6" of enemies.

 

That said, having played the new death guard and tried out their orbital strike, I can definitely see an edge case for bringing the plasmancer with his orb arkana. The mortal wounds from that strike aren't likely to land, but what the gambit does is force your opponent to scatter his units off of a certain objective or take it on the jaw.

I hadn't appreciated just how freely you can target the Atavindicator. That's definitely an extra selling point for the Psychomancer. I've been considering using some deathmarks to help remove things like apothecaries, and this would combine very nicely with that approach.

 

The Plasmancer could help too, in a version of the same approach. These kinds of things are already great against people who want to bubble up a lot of characters and things like Tau drones together. In all honesty though I'm not convinced I'd take a Plasmancer very often, as most of the time his ability to do direct damage to stuff can be done elsewhere in the list.

 

I wonder if there's a case for having three Plasmancers running around in a group behind things like Warrior blocks. Could be quite a threat to buff characters if multiple auras coincided.