Imperial fists tactics in 9th edition

[Mandragola]

Before the nerf to legacy of Dorn I was seriously looking at planes. But those S6 assault cannons are just looking a bit sad now. Planes don't really bring much weight of fire at S7+. Otherwise yes, they'd be great at hitting things on turn one.

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

60 Heavy Intercessors with a Chapter Master, LT and Chief Apothecary will be my new Imperial Force

Yeah but watch a box of 5 cost $85 USD.  Perils of the wallet :(

[MegaVolt87]

After thinking about it more, reading the FAQ changes/ codex reviews etc, I worked out the problem you SM guys have- all your unit synergies are now locked to supporting characters as your overall army wide rules have diminished. This is exactly the same problem CSM's have and still have currently, weaker army wide rules which need to be propped up by characters to boost the surrounding units. Taking too many characters is also a big liability believe me, you just don't have the room for beatsticks/ blender characters and support ones. Say you want faster melee, you could go CF> Pedro> Chappie > 1-2 diff banner dudes > bladeguards, chaff assault ints + transports, mabye some dreads if they fit for instance. Or brick it out with indomni cpt + Lt's, Apoth, bladeguards, dreads, heavy intercessors. You need to decide the archtype FIRST of what the army will be (eg-brick, rapid assault, move + shoot, gunline etc) then restrict yourself to buffs that dial that to 11 instead of a salad with a bit of everything. I think I can now hammer something out for CF's after realizing this when I end up getting the new codex. 

[Mandragola]

After thinking about it more, reading the FAQ changes/ codex reviews etc, I worked out the problem you SM guys have- all your unit synergies are now locked to supporting characters as your overall army wide rules have diminished. This is exactly the same problem CSM's have and still have currently, weaker army wide rules which need to be propped up by characters to boost the surrounding units. Taking too many characters is also a big liability believe me, you just don't have the room for beatsticks/ blender characters and support ones. Say you want faster melee, you could go CF> Pedro> Chappie > 1-2 diff banner dudes > bladeguards, chaff assault ints + transports, mabye some dreads if they fit for instance. Or brick it out with indomni cpt + Lt's, Apoth, bladeguards, dreads, heavy intercessors. You need to decide the archtype FIRST of what the army will be (eg-brick, rapid assault, move + shoot, gunline etc) then restrict yourself to buffs that dial that to 11 instead of a salad with a bit of everything. I think I can now hammer something out for CF's after realizing this when I end up getting the new codex. 

I agree with this. In particular I think that characters designed to smash things up are much weaker in 9th. They're not going to be reliable. This is arguably a good thing for Fists as ours isn't really an army that relies on stuff like smash captains. Models like Tor Garadon and Pedro have always been more about the buffs they hand out than the damage they do.

 

I watched a tabletop titans batrep last night with some Fist hammernators absorbing a ridiculous amount of fire from a guard army. They seem to be another degree tougher even than bladeguard. The 1+ save meant that they had a 2+ against battlecannons when in cover. I don't think he even played this all that well - he had a unit of 5 and the apothecary was somewhere else, ressing far less important heavy intercessors.

 

I've drawn up a list with 10 hammernators and Pedro. I think they might well be the perfect unit to combo with Pedro. He makes them obsec, have an extra attack and get full rerolls to hit. The Shield Unwavering strat dials them up even more crazily. 430 points for 10 of these guys doesn't really seem like too much. Your opponent can't really win while they're on the board. They tank for your other stuff by stomping forward all over objectives.

 

The rest of the list is basically a librarian, an apothecary, a bunch of intercessors and a choice. I can go more into the wrecking ball, by adding redemptors, or I could get some stuff to go and hunt problematic enemy units that are hiding from my main advance. A whirlwind would be extremely harsh if I could hit an enemy assault unit that wanted to charge me. Inceptors might be the way to go.

[Montford]

As far as I can tell Geokinesis is still usable by Imperial Fist Librarians, isn't it?

[Mandragola]

As far as I can tell Geokinesis is still usable by Imperial Fist Librarians, isn't it?

Yes. Everything in the Imperial Fists supplement is still current, though subject to the recent FAQ. You can still use Gekinesis - though it's not particularly powerful. I think I want things like psychic fortress and null zone, though probably not at the same time.

[Askari]

Layering buffs to get durability as high as possible then layering buffs to get ranged damage output as high as possible, and then putting out some stuff to keep outflankers/deepstrikers from ruining your day, and then maybe throwing in something lime Banner of Staganda to boost melee output seems to be the main army building strategy for us.

 

So Psychic fortress librarian, Chief apothecary, captain/chapter master with eye of hypnoth, maybe a standard bearer comboed with a mix of units that have lots of bolters and some units with good anti tank that we can dial up to 11 with tank hunters.

[Glute]

Can a model take more than 1 relic?  I know you have to spend CP's to get more relics but I can't tell if there is a limit of 1 relic per model?  Example: Chapter Master with Angel Artifice + Eye of Hypnoth?

 

Tks

[Mandragola]

Can a model take more than 1 relic?  I know you have to spend CP's to get more relics but I can't tell if there is a limit of 1 relic per model?  Example: Chapter Master with Angel Artifice + Eye of Hypnoth?

 

Tks

The strat to give out more relics is very clear that you can't give someone more than one relic and each relic can only be given out once.

[Snazzy]

 

As far as I can tell Geokinesis is still usable by Imperial Fist Librarians, isn't it?

Yes. Everything in the Imperial Fists supplement is still current, though subject to the recent FAQ. You can still use Gekinesis - though it's not particularly powerful. I think I want things like psychic fortress and null zone, though probably not at the same time.

 

 

I don't know.  With the nerf to Smite, the ability to inflict mortal wounds is at a premium.  Chasm is very handy for getting rid of a 3W Terminator.  Otherwise, meh.  But, you should always have a Librarian.

[MegaVolt87]

I dunno, psykers seem like there is plenty of other things/ rules that can mess with them besides other psykers like in the old days. Too many deny opportunities handed out  IMO. So clearly shutting down the 5++ bubble is going to be obvious choice, along with that mvt ones similar to warptime. Psyker spell dmg also feels very kneecapped also. Even a melee libby doesn't really work because his self buffs can be denied unlike a chappie who can't be disrupted except by lady luck on normal dice. I prefer it when the only defence against a psyker was another, they are very toned down now so it wouldn't be very overbearing to make denials limited to other psykers. 

[jeremy1391]

 

 

 

 

As far as I can tell Geokinesis is still usable by Imperial Fist Librarians, isn't it?

Yes. Everything in the Imperial Fists supplement is still current, though subject to the recent FAQ. You can still use Gekinesis - though it's not particularly powerful. I think I want things like psychic fortress and null zone, though probably not at the same time.

I don't know. With the nerf to Smite, the ability to inflict mortal wounds is at a premium. Chasm is very handy for getting rid of a 3W Terminator. Otherwise, meh. But, you should always have a Librarian.

I’m out of the loop I guess what happened to smite?

[Snazzy]

Limited to one cast per Psyker.

[Mandragola]

I'm pretty sure that's always been the rule, or at least the intended rule.

 

I expect I'll bring a Librarian, and very likely a Chief Librarian, in most lists - but not for Smite. Psychic Fortress and Null Zone are both fantastic. They don't have to always work to make a massive difference to games. The +1 to cast warlord trait helps a lot, including making their casts harder to deny and increasing the chance of a super smite.

 

I'm not so sure what the 3rd power should be. Some other source of mortal wounds would be good, especially if they can be targeted. It would be good to be able to take down units like C'tan in a single turn if possible. Psychic Scourge and Fury of the Ancients both fail at this job unfortunately, but I'm not convinced any of the Fist powers really do it either. Chasm doesn't work on C'tan at all, since they fly. I'm considering the tome of malcador as a relic but really I'm not sure it's worth it. In general I expect to cast either Null Zone or Psychic Fortress and Smite.