As everybody might have noticed, there was some buzz on the internet regarding the new Daemonolgy psychic powers, and even tough I haven’t got the chance to test them hands-on I still have some thoughts on them. I personally welcome from a narrative and gameplay point of view that daemons as well as some other armies are able to summon daemons. I always have problems with my mono Nurgle force, also because I don’t run a horde of flying daemon princes, which I personally think doesn’t make much sense at all. Even though Plaguebearers are quite tough they normally get shot to bits and pieces rather fast. So having the possibility to summon more daemons to fill those gaps is great. Also having daemons appear out of nowhere during a fight also feels right to me from a pure atmospheric point of view.
For my mono Nurgle force I don’t see any balancing problems with having the possibility to get additional support; on the contrary: I see the chance to be a bit more competitive and maybe even finally win a game. With army lists that are designed to be ultra competitive things might be different as a lot of armies will have a hard time dealing with the vast amount of psychic powers that most likely will be played and the additional troops that are going to be brought to the table. At the same time, isn’t this overwhelming psychic ability not one of the trademarks of daemons? Same as Tau are feared for their superior firepower or Dark Eldar for their maneuverability? As said in the beginning, this is all hypothetical. However, even though it is a challenge to deal with a horde of Tzeentch daemons that reproduce faster than rabbits I am sure that competitive players - they tend to complain the most about new/changed rules - will find a way to deal with this new facet of the game. For narrative gamers like me this brings a lot of options, also when it comes to the set ups that might sound extreme from a pure gameplay point of view. However, having for example a total psychic overkill in a battle between Grey Knights and Tzeentch daemons sounds totally awesome to me.
I general having more weight on psychic powers isn’t bad as it adds more flavor and options. It’s just important to acknowledge and adapt. So, when you make your army list take into consideration that there are some nasty guys out there that are drying to fry your general’s brain with just a thought. Simply put: don’t bring just a knife to a gun fight. For Tau, Dark Eldar and Necrons this will be more difficult as they are lacking psykers, but they have other tools at their disposal to compensate like a lot of ballistic weapons that can kill psyches at long range.
One last word on the fact that every army except Tyranids has access to Daemonolgy: I don’t like it. Yes, rolling doubles will cause perils of the warp, so it is very dangerous to use, but it still doesn’t feel right for me for some armies. Having for example Dark Angels summoning daemons is just not right, Exorcists on the other hand is something different. For the Astra Militarum it is okay even though you can’t have them as battle brothers for Chaos Space Marines or Chaos Daemons (but that’s another topic). Overall I like what the Games Workshop Design Team has done, I just hope that the players will be reasonable and rather stick to their background than trying to just build ultra-competetive list just for the sake of any benefits they may or may not get from the Daemonolgy.
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