Can Zoanthorpes mix their psychic powers?

[moonreaper]

I dont understand how the new psychic rules work with Zoanthorpes.

Zoanthorpes is a unit of 3 psyckers which arent brotherhood of psykers and each acts as seperate psyker (they roll tests indepentently).
What happens when they exchange their basic powers for the rulebook powers?

Can (eg) 1 zoan keep his power, the other roll for biomancy and the rest roll for 1 telekinesis and 1 telepathy power?
If they can get a mix and variety of powers, and they have like 3 different blessings, can they cast their blessings to 3 different friendly units?

Or do you choose and roll for ps powers for all 3 with a single dice roll ?

[wisdomseyes1]

I have played it they are all individual because they roll seprately for psychic tests. Which annoys me really... Keeping track of which models have which powers is a pain, not just with zoanthrope broods but with all of our psykers.

[Lanesend]

Aug 2, 2012 5:47:23 GMT moonreaper said:

Can (eg) 1 zoan keep his power, the other roll for biomancy and the rest roll for 1 telekinesis and 1 telepathy power?
If they can get a mix and variety of powers, and they have like 3 different blessings, can they cast their blessings to 3 different friendly units?

This is exactly how I've been playing them, the last few games. I went over the rules a few times, and there's nothing in it (that I can find) that would disallow it.

OTOH, they have underperformed for me as a support unit. Every time I wished I had left the original powers on.

You have to be very careful when rolling powers, and keep in mind what role you want them to fulfil, and also keep track of the powers you have already rolled.

For example, if I roll 'Gate' on the first, I would keep the two others normal. If I roll OM on the first, I can still choose to try and get Gate on the second or third.

The big risk in this is, that you end up with one zoan that is kitted for AT duties, and another that is suitable for AP duties.

When you keep them original, they're good at both.

The one moment where I would always swap them is when you're up against a terminator heavy army. Swapping for Smite seems like a good plan because of AP2.

[amareis]

Though smite is really bad when paired with BS3. 2 shots that hit and 1 that wound. Not that great for a turn of shooting. And that is if the psychic test succeeds.
Then the opponent has his 6+ DTW along with his 5++ if there is no storm shield in the front.

Too many "ifs" if you ask me.

[Geneva]

I've found trading one in for some Biomancy powers to be helpful. Both Enfeeble and Endurance are handy as you can affect two or more targets with a single unit and I've often been tempted to roll for two when Iron Arm shows up on the first. A majority toughness of 4+D3 and Eternal Warrior can potentially make a joke of both missile spam and small arms fire alike. It's too risky to take the gamble though and would only weaken your damage output to the point of pointlessness anyway. A smart opponent would just ignore them.

Either two basic plus one trade in or go with all basic. Otherwise their purpose as a unit ends up being too blunted. Triple Endurance would be amazing but you're not likely to get it.

[killme304]

Aug 2, 2012 7:45:39 GMT amareis said:

Though smite is really bad when paired with BS3. 2 shots that hit and 1 that wound. Not that great for a turn of shooting. And that is if the psychic test succeeds.
Then the opponent has his 6+ DTW along with his 5++ if there is no storm shield in the front.

Too many "ifs" if you ask me.

Zoans are BS4....

[Lanesend]

Aug 2, 2012 7:45:39 GMT amareis said:

Though smite is really bad when paired with BS3. 2 shots that hit and 1 that wound. Not that great for a turn of shooting. And that is if the psychic test succeeds.
Then the opponent has his 6+ DTW along with his 5++ if there is no storm shield in the front.

Too many "ifs" if you ask me.

Yeah, like with all psychic powers, they can be DTWed. But Zoans are BS4 and I think the stormshield doesn't work vs. shooting.

So three zoans shoot (psychic checks will fail now and then, but Ld10 should make sure that doesn't happen a lot). That is 12 shots. That is 8 hits, which would result in 4 wounds. Say that the 5++ saves one of them, that is still three dead termies...

Not bad for an army which lacks low AP shooting.

-edit- depending on the Ld of the army you face it maybe better to use shriek instead of smite.

[questioner]

Stormshield does work against shooting.

[ragnarok]

Aug 2, 2012 11:25:46 GMT killme304 said:

Aug 2, 2012 7:45:39 GMT amareis said:

Though smite is really bad when paired with BS3. 2 shots that hit and 1 that wound. Not that great for a turn of shooting. And that is if the psychic test succeeds.
Then the opponent has his 6+ DTW along with his 5++ if there is no storm shield in the front.

Too many "ifs" if you ask me.

Zoans are BS4....

And smite is assault 4

However I have just done the maths

91.7% chance of making the test
76.4% chance of the power then not being denied

If not denied avergae of:
2.03 hits
1.01 wounds
0.68 kills

2 kills per brood

[Soluncreed]

With the Doom, can you swap out cataclysm for Iron Arm? Make him that much more unkillable. And if I'm remembering the right psychic tree, if you don't like it then you can give him Psychic Shriek for more wound sucking goodness.

[Raven]

Aug 3, 2012 2:24:15 GMT Soluncreed said:

With the Doom, can you swap out cataclysm for Iron Arm? Make him that much more unkillable. And if I'm remembering the right psychic tree, if you don't like it then you can give him Psychic Shriek for more wound sucking goodness.

Iron Arm is Biomancy, Psychic Shriek is Telepathy. You can give Doom Iron Arm BUT 1. you need to roll for it. 2. You only get 1 roll. 3. You have to survive a turn at Toughness 4 before casting it. 4. Correct me if I'm mistaken but I think you can't cast Iron Arm if you're in combat.

[Sensei]

I don't have my book handy right now - my brother is borrowing it, and I can't remember reading anything about this in the rules.

Just prior to 6th coming out, I know some of the rumours noted new psychic abilities, but said you had to swap all or none of your "default" powers. I can't remember reading anything like that in the actual rulebook, so I'm wondering, for our psychers can we mix and match default and BRB powers?

For example can a zoan keep warp lance but give up blast and make a roll on one of the charts? Same with the terv keeping one but swapping others?

I may have just missed it, but it's something I've been trying to clear up for a while now.

[Lanesend]

^ No, alas. It is all or nothing for swapping psychic powers. Each psycher must choose to either keep his original powers or swap all of them for BRB powers.

[Soluncreed]

Aug 3, 2012 5:23:26 GMT Raven said:

Aug 3, 2012 2:24:15 GMT Soluncreed said:

With the Doom, can you swap out cataclysm for Iron Arm? Make him that much more unkillable. And if I'm remembering the right psychic tree, if you don't like it then you can give him Psychic Shriek for more wound sucking goodness.

Iron Arm is Biomancy, Psychic Shriek is Telepathy. You can give Doom Iron Arm BUT 1. you need to roll for it. 2. You only get 1 roll. 3. You have to survive a turn at Toughness 4 before casting it. 4. Correct me if I'm mistaken but I think you can't cast Iron Arm if you're in combat.

Ah well, a man can dream. I may still just go for psychic shriek though. It's better than what the Doom can already do. I just have to roll for it.

[Sensei]

Thanks a lot Lansend. Darn, I had heard that as well, but couldn't find it actually stated in the rulebook. Do you happen to know what page that is referenced on?