Greetings, fellow gits! In today’s installment of our Codex: Space Marines review, we will look at the Psychic Powers available from the Librarius discipline.

Space Marine Librarians were for a good long while my (and a lot of poeple’s) go-to Character to fill the mandatory HQ slot in ye olde Force Org chart. In 7th, they became even more popular with the advent of the Librarian Conclave Formation, which made them just absolutely bonkers when added as part of a Deathstar list (raise your hand if you’re glad Invisibility has been taken behind the woodshed). In 8th, libbies have been dialled back quite a bit, and other Characters (notably Captains) have received considerable boosts that to me has made Librarians much less desirable. That is not to say they are useless or anything, but unfortunately, the Librarius discipline is perhaps not the strongest of all the psychic disciplines in 40k… Anywho… let’s dig in, shall we?

Veil of Time – Warp Charge (WC) 6, allows a Marine unit within 18 inches of the caster to reroll charge range and Advance rolls while also allowing the unit to always fight first in the Fight phase. This is an excellent power if you have a solid assault unit to boost. A big unit of Assault Terminators or Vanguard Vets are going to love the enhanced reliability to get their charge off, as it can mean the difference between life or death for them. This is especially true if you Deep Struck them right in double-tap range of your opponent’s army. A neat trick to use if you successfully get your charge off (either with Veil of Time or using the reroll Stratagem) is to follow up with the Honour of the Chapter Stratagem – this combo can end the game before it even had a chance to start for your opponent. Veil of Time can also be used defensively if your opponent is getting close to charging your dudes – if you have any vaguely competent close-quarters fighters in your list, you can use them to bubblewrap the rest of your force (or a part of which) and cast Veil on them to give them a chance to bloody the nose of the enemy charge before getting swamped. I wouldn’t select a Librarian as part of my list just for this, but if you already have one, it’s something to keep in mind. Another tactic you can use Veil of Time for is to help slingshot a unit across the battlefield: cast Veil on the unit you want to propel so that it can more reliably make a long charge after moving. You can then Pile In and Consolidate before Falling Back, potentially giving an Infantry unit the ability to be more than 30 inches from where it was originally: 6 inch move, 12 inch charge, 3 inch pile in, 3 inch consolidation, 6 inch fall back (add whatever pile in and consolidation you manage to get during your opponent’s turn). Useful to go capture a far off objective. Might Of Heroes – WC 6, boosts a single Marine within 12 inches to get +1 Strength, Toughness and Attacks. This power is situational: Roboute Guilliman locked in close combat with a Knight is going to appreciate the extra killiness and resilience, but Might is a lot less impressive when cast on say the Librarian himself. For that reason, I tend to think you are better off with selecting another power unless you are fairly confident you are going to get to use this one to consistent good effect (an example of which would be when you are fighting an all Knight army and you have Guilliman or maybe a Leviathan dread in your list). Psychic Scourge – WC 6, Psyker does a Ld rolloff against an enemy unit with 18 inches – if he wins, he causes the unit D3 Mortal Wounds. If the roll is equal, the unit suffers a single Mortal Wound and if the enemy’s result is higher, no wounds are cause. In essence, a less reliable but more flexible Smite. The nice thing about this power is that it allows you to target enemy Characters hiding behind enemy troop screens. On its own, it is unlikely to double them over, but if you have a few snipers to add some wounds on top, it can be a potent combination. I don’t believe this capability is enough on its own to warrant the inclusion of a Librarian in your army, but if you are already taking one, it’s not a bad secondary power to take on top of say Null Zone or Veil of Time. Having a Jump Pack or Bike for your libby is going to help a lot with the short range of this power. Of note, Smurf libbies have an advantage when using this power thanks to the Ultramarine Chapter Tactic (which gives them +1 Ld). Another way to boost this is to select the Inspiring Leader Warlord Trait from the BRB; it’s perhaps a bit excessive to “spend” your Warlord Trait on such a narrow use, but it’s there if your really want it. Fury of the Ancients – WC 7, draw a line between the caster and enemy model within 3D6 inches – every enemy unit touched by that line takes a single Mortal Wound. Again, a Jump Pack or Bike is going to be instrumental to make the most use of this: you’ll get an average of 10.5 inches on the roll for range, so being on foot isn’t going to work out too well to get in position. The effectiveness of this power will (once again) be highly dependant on what you are facing. An Ork “Green Tide” list featuring big mobs of Boyz isn’t going to sweat this too much. A Guilliman gunline – where multiple tanks and expensive infantry are going to be tightly packed together around King Rob – is probably going to sit up and take notice a bit more. Also, combined with Psychic Scourge, you could theoretically use this power to add more wounds unto one or more Characters. Nevertheless, even in an ideal situation, the damage output of this spell is pretty low… The “bark” of this power may end up being worse than it’s “bite” i.e. your opponent may end up being so concerned with taking multiple Mortal Wounds that he decides to break up his force-multiplication bubble to avoid it, thereby probably doing more harm to his chances of winning than if he had just taken it on the chin and dealt with the handful of Mortal Wounds you’ll be able to cause to him with this power. Psychic Fortress – WC 5, gives a Marine unit with 18 inches of the caster a 4+ save against psychic Mortal Wounds and allows it to auto-pass Morale tests. Man, what a fun way to troll Daemons and Grey Knights! Cast this on a Dreadnought spearheading your force and watch as your opponent pulls out his hair when you combine your 4+ save from Psychic Fortress with the 5+ save from the Armour of Contempt Stratagem (yes, this is one example of where this very situational Stratagem can be useful). The immunity to Morale isn’t worth a great deal but the Smite protection can be game-winning. And it’s a relatively easy power to cast, to boot! Null Zone – WC 8, denies enemy units within 6 inches of the caster the use of their invulnerable save and halves the enemy Psychic Test results in half. High WC cost, but man, if it goes off, it can seriously screw with your opponent. Daemons just absolutely hate this power, especially Tzeentch ones. It can also considerably help you manage units with good invulnerable saves such as Hammernators or any unit sitting close to Azrael. Once again, a Jump Pack or Bike is going to be pretty much a necessity to allow you to get in range/position to use this power.

So as we’ve seen above, most of the Librarius powers are highly situational. Thankfully, this is not too too much of an issue as powers are selected before the game begins rather than during list-writing; this will give you a chance to size up your opponent’s army and select the best powers to marginalise his strengths and capitalise on his vulnerabilities. Nevertheless, it’s better to already have a plan in mind when deciding to include a Librarian in your list as otherwise you are kinda just hoping that what you will be facing actually has some weakness that it will be able to exploit. With that in mind, I think I would only include a Librarian in my army if I also threw in a powerful assault unit to boost with Veil of Time. Doing so ensures that I will get at least some garanteed bang for my Librarian buck regardless of which army I’m facing.

That still leaves a second power to select, however, and here we need to have a good look at what our opponent is bringing. I’ve already mentioned a lot of the below but it bears going over again, as it is important.

An army with lots of and/or significant psychic powers and/or invulnerable save won’t like you bringing Null Zone.

Tzeentch and GK aren’t going to love Psychic Fortress either (though you will need a bit of skill to use this effectively).

Might of Heroes is only going to be really good if you have something already impressive in CC to boost, and your opponent’s army is going to suffer from the boost said CC monster receives (Guilliman vs Knights).

Psychic Scourge is best used against armies with lynchpin Characters (Hi, Mr. Commissar!) or things that will be disproportionally affected by Mortal Wounds (Knights come to mind).

Fury of the Ancients is only going to be good against elite armies operating in a tight bubble (Guilly gunline, for example) or perhaps against “parking lot” lists (i.e. a list with lots of vehicles).

It’s also a good idea to always give our Librarian a Jump Pack or Bike (recommend the Jump Pack) so that if you happen to select Null Zone, Psychic Scourge or Fury of the Ancients, you are postured to make effective use of them.

That’s it for now, Detective. ‘Till next time!