So with the army rules behind us in the last post, let’s move on to the new psychic discipline Aethermancy!
Corsairs have a few options for psykers (in the form of the Baron and Prince) with access to divination and telekinesis but when you want real mental muscle – you go with the void dreamer who gets access to one heck of a new discipline.
Aethermancy.
The discipline primarily is a manipulation discipline with little in the way of direct damage. In fact I would postulate the single direct damage power is the worst available in the discipline!
As the Void Dreamer is the only corsair who gets access to Aethermancy and he is 0-1 per detachment AND he must generate at least 1 power from Aethermancy, it just makes sense to generate his whole suite of powers from here.
Primaris: Path-Ward: WC2 Blessing. The target unit always rolls sixes for randomly determined movement effects, like Charge distances, Terrain checks, Hit-and-Run moves etcetera.
While 2 charges is costly – the effects of this power cannot be understated. Guaranteeing random movement to maximum is a fantastic power to provide consistent results on the table – especially with premeasuring. Expect your opponent to try and prevent this power when you have a long charge to make!
Warp Blink WC1 Move any unit within 6″ of the caster (friendly or enemy) – 2d6″ in a direction you choose. Cannot be used on units locked in combat.
It has a few limits to it in terms of how the movement can be conducted (no leaving the table edge for example) but again, in terms of table control it’s an excellent power, able to help pull units out of tight spots (combined with jet packs or reckless abandon!!) or push enemy units into unfavorable ones.
Dispersion Field WC1 Blessing. A friendly unit within 12″ of the caster gains a 4+ cover save.
Does what it says – in an army of T3, 4+ saves this can be quite a boon. Great for vehicles like the warp hunter who don’t want to jink as well.
Webway Rift WC1 Witchfire. 12″ S3 AP6, Poisoned 3+ Large Blast.
The most mediocre power here – short range, no AP to speak of and low damage effects despite the poison 3+. I suspect it will be the type of power that gets 1 dice thrown at it when little else is of use.
Webway Breach WC2 Select one friendly Corsair unit not locked in combat within 12″ of the caster, that unit enters Ongoing Reserves.
Now we get to the interesting powers of the list. The ability to put a unit into ongoing reserves can be situationally very good. In an army where every model can deep strike, its brilliant! The opportunity to reach out and redeploy to objectives late game is massive. Need to get warlord and he is hiding in back field? Combine this power with sky burners and a few special or heavy weapons and watch the enemy disappear! You do need to plan ahead by a turn but that’s a tactical choice to make.
Warp Tunnel WC2 Blessing. The Void Dreamer and his unit*, OR a friendly Corsair unit within 6″ of the caster may be picked up and Deep Strike anywhere on the board without scatter AND may shoot and assault after arriving. However, take a note of the distance the unit traveled, and for every full 6″ the unit rolls a D6, for each 1 rolled the unit takes a savable wound.
This is an utterly brilliant power. With the right unit, you can effectively engage any enemy unit on the table at a moment’s notice. The risks of use are OK… you at least get a save against the wounds you take but you still have to take that into consideration. When you are taking 3-5 wounds against your 4+ I think it’s not bad… 8+ wounds might see the unit ineffective when it deploys!
Webway Maze WC3 An enemy unit with 12″ of the caster, not locked in combat, is placed into Ongoing Reserves (cannot target Super-Heavies). Other Corsairs, DE, Eldar, or Harlequins add +1 to their Deny attempts when targeted.
The ultimate deathstar stopper. That super friends list getting you down? Draigo and his centurion buddies being a pain? Thunder wolves rampaging with little to stop them? Hit them with this power. Yes, getting this power off will require 7 (or more!) dice to do it reliably but its game changing in its effect. Any full blown psychic deathstar will also likely be denying on at least 5+ (if not 4+ or better!) so I think in those cases, its an all or nothing power – you need to go all in against the worst of the death stars and roll the dice like any good corsair would!!
Perils of the Warp
Any of the corsairs you might access with the option to become a psyker gain another rule called Wild Psyker (its built into the rules for the void dreamer). Regardless of the discipline you use, they have their own Perils of the Warp table to represent the whole reason why the species finds Slaanesh terrifying. Its an interesting dynamic and exploration of the Eldar nature which has is quite thematic. Dark eldar have none of these worries thanks to the ban on psychics entering the dark city while the craftworld kin enter the Path of the Seer to protect themselves (along with the ghost helms used by the farseers). It’s a mixed bag in terms of effects.
- 1 Devoured: The psykers switches sides as his soul is torn out and replaced with a Slaaneshi daemon. They get all the rules associated with Daemon of Slaanesh and are now under the control of your opponent.
- 2-3 Soul Wracked: your psyker and his unit are pinned, and your opponent may choose to change the target of the power that was cast, or cancel it.
- 4-5 Warp Terrors: The unit and all Corsairs within 12″ must take a Morale check on the 3d6 (picking the 2 highest) or start falling back.
- 6 The Eye of She-Who-Thirsts: Nothing happens straight away, but for the rest of the game your psykers now perils on any double.
Let’s break the results down. Unlike typical perils, where you would be taking a wound or perhaps losing a power, the corsairs take it quite hard. The 6 result makes it more risky for you later in the game in casting (especially since you roll on this table again!). The 4-5 result is potentially crippling thanks to the corsairs rules regarding regrouping should you start failing the morale tests. The 2-3 result is in my mind actually the best of a bad lot though again could easily see your unit left high and dry in the midst of a firefight. Changing the target of the power is less of an issue in most cases.
The 1 result – well… ouch! No saves, no nothing. Just add Daemon, hatred: khorne daemons, rending and run +3” to the models stat, lose the ability to manifest psychic powers (though he will still generate dice) and counts as destroyed for the purposes of VP and so on. THEN, let your opponent control it! It starts locked in combat if with a unit when this effect is rolled. Given the 3 psykers that the corsairs can access all have access to some pretty nasty weapons (even more so when used against corsairs!) along with excellent invulnerable saves and solid combat stats – this result is potentially catastrophic for the corsairs. It makes their psykers a risk vs reward driven army.
You can easily spam out 5+ psykers of varying levels but when any one of them can quite easily turn into a significant threat within your own lines, you have to question if it’s worth it!
Regardless, I think every Corsair force can find plenty of use in a void dreamer and by extension – Aethermancy.