G-dubs is back with a look at the Astra Militarum portion of the latest and greatest edition of Psychic Awakening, which will be available for pre-order soon in the Frontline Gaming web-cart at discounted prices with FREE shipping options!
This article was originally published on the Warhammer-community site.
Today, we’re continuing our coverage of the latest chapter in the Psychic Awakening series, The Greater Good, with another Faction Focus – this time on the new Astra Militarum rules in the book. Let’s take a look…
Regimental Doctrines
If you’ve got Codex: Space Marines, you’ll be familiar with this concept, which enables you to custom build your own factional rules – in this case, your own Regimental Doctrine – instead of choosing from a pre-existing set. To do so, you pick two rules from the 12 options available to form your Regimental Doctrine, based on your favoured style of gameplay or the narrative you’ve created for your army.
If you want to hold the line and gun down your enemies with an overwhelming weight of fire, for example, Gunnery Experts and Disciplined Shooters are two great options for maximising your number of shots.
Firstly, your Leman Russ turret weapons and heavy artillery vehicles will be able to up their effectiveness with re-rolls on the number of attacks they make. Meanwhile, your Guardsmen will be churning out two shots apiece (or four shots with a First Rank, Fire! Second Rank, Fire! order) at up to 18” range!
Alternatively, you could create an elite armoured company by choosing Combined Auspex for more accurate Overwatch fire, and Jury-rigged Repairs for a chance to regain lost wounds even in the heat of battle.
Tank Aces
Give tanks to the Emperor,* for you’ll soon be able to make your armoured behemoth of choice even better!
Instead of choosing a Warlord Trait, you can select a Tank Ace ability to apply to one of your eligible Astra Militarum vehicles. Alternatively – or in addition if you want to include two Tank Aces – you can spend a single Command Point to use the Tank Ace Stratagem…
Do you get frustrated when you score a direct hit on an opponent’s prize vehicle with your vanquisher battle cannon, only to be denied when they pass a cheeky 6+ save? Rob them of the chance by making your Tank Ace a Weapon Expert! Alternatively, against infantry-heavy armies, you can ‘gunish’ them with even greater ferocity by giving your punisher gatling cannon an AP of -1.
What’s more, that’s just one of the options for a Leman Russ Tank Ace. There are further abilities available for artillery vehicles and even super-heavy tanks such as a Baneblade. In fact, you can choose to give your super-heavy Tank Ace a Regimental Doctrine – great for complementing your army’s play style or representing a narrative on the battlefield.
Stratagems
Let’s be honest – whether it’s for the powerful in-game effects or the thematic nuances they represent, everyone loves Stratagems! Psychic Awakening: The Greater Good includes even more that can be used by various Astra Militarum units. Some of them are situational in nature, but in the right circumstances (or if you’ve tailored your army to make the most of them) you can get some serious bang for your buck, as they’re quite the bargain in Command Points.
Take Splash Damage, for example, which can be devastating when employed against enemies skulking in cover, and costs only 1 Command Point.
Another excellent choice that you can activate for a single Command Point is Strike First, Strike Hard. By fielding a trio of Armoured Sentinels armed with lascannons, you’ll be able to unleash three tank-busting shots that’ll hit on a 2+ in your first turn!
If you’re an Astra Militarum fan, suffice it to say that you’re going to love the depth and breadth of new tactical options that will be available to you in the Greater Good. And if you like to supplement your tanks and ranks of infantry with the elite soldiery of the Ordo Tempestus, check back with us tomorrow, when we’ll be looking at their rules in the new book. Until then, head over to the webstore and grab yourself a new Tank Ace!
* Sorry, not sorry.
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Oh yes, a stratagem made entirely to hit the opposing army harder on turn 1. Just what W40k lacked, more tools to decide the game before the second player even get a turn.
Sentinels.
Succinct.
Also missing the point. The strat can be bad *and* a bad idea. Lethality on turn 1 is a problem in W40K, so any stratagem whose only utility is killing more stuff on turn 1 is a bad idea.
Perhaps it’s a bad idea in the abstract sense, in that 8E is already too killy and this does not help that any, but in the realistic sense no one is bringing Sentinels for their overwhelming firepower, so it doesn’t have any meaningful effect other than making an underplayed unit slightly more viable.
Pshe, other armies can do the same without spending CPs. Also Sentinels don’t have an overwhelming firepower so I wouldn’t worry about that strat
They’d better have a “No Mercy, Sir,” strat to pair with the other and go full Cobra Kai.
should probably add in the new regimental doctrines for scions they previewed on facebook today