Have you asked yourself, "What's the best set up for my Rune Priest?" Then our Rune Priest guide may help you answer that important question. The Rune Priest is second in our series Space wolves unit guides written by Adam and myself to help you to build the most ferocious and cost effective Space Wolves army.
Armed with the philosophy of getting real 'value for points', we're going to explain whether you should splash out on the hard hitting special weapons or keep things cheap and cheerful. Sometimes we'll give you a selection of well-rounded options to choose from to fit your playing style or the amount of points left in your army list.
Let's get started on the Rune Priest, effectively a Space Wolves Librarian.
The Rune Priest starts out at 100pts with a solid stat line, two Psychic Powers, a Rune Weapon, a bolt pistol; he is a great value right out of the codex. Lets take a look at the list of wargear that you can give him.
OPTIONS:
Master of Runes expensive, but great if you feel the need to use two powers a turn.
Boltgun - there is really no point for this option
Storm bolter - good on Terminator armor!
Combi-weapon - also good but only available in Terminator armor!
Plasma pistol - expensive and the Priest shouldn’t be shooting a non-psychic attack.
Runic Armor - decent but terminator armor is more cost effective and has an invulnerable save.
Terminator Armor - expensive, but comes with weapons and makes other weapons cheaper
Jump Pack - only if using Skyclaws.
Space Marine Bike - Great mobility, +1T.
Melta Bombs - sure, if you have 5pts left over
Wolftooth Necklace - Take it!
Wolf Tail Talisman - Take it, for the extra psychic protection!
Chooser of the Slain Take it!
Saga of the Beastslayer - Brilliant value for the points.
Saga of the Warriorborn - Awesome, but expensive.
PSYCHIC POWERS:
Thunderclap - There are better powers
Living Lightning - Great for popping light Vehicles
Stormcaller - An awesome second power for a Priest with Master of the Runes Priest
Tempests Wrath - Fantastic against skimmer heavy and Daemon armies
Furry of the Wolf Spirits - Decent but short ranged
Murderous Hurricane - Fantastic power, it’s really good against low toughness models and helps control the battlefield.
Jaws of the World Wolf - Good sniping power, particularly effective against low Initiative models.
After looking at the options, let me detail the options I think are worth taking and present a couple of Wargear and suggested Psychic Power combinations.
The Rune Priest should be geared as a support character model as opposed to the rest of the Space Wolf characters that are geared toward melee. His Runic Weapons anti-psychic power he can be the bane of enemy psychers, with the ability to wound Daemons on a 2+ he’s awesome against them as an added bonus.
The first thing to consider is the type of force you are going to field. Each of the three main types Footsloggin’, Mech, or Drop Pod dictate how I would look at equipping my Rune Priest.
No matter the force type I would always take a Chooser of the Slain. Not so much for the anti infiltrate rule, but for the ability to increase the Rune Priests BS by 1 when using his shooting powers. I would also spend the points to give him a Wolf Tail talisman for the extra anti-psychic protection.
For a Rune priest in a Footslogging force I would probably put him in Terminator Armor and upgrade him to a Master of the Runes. I’d give him Stormcaller or Tempests Wrath and either Living Lightning or Murderous Hurricane for Powers.
A Rune Priest in a Mech force I would probably leave him in Powered Armor maybe upgrade to Runic Armor depending on the game size. If I were to give him Storm Caller I would upgrade to a Master of Runes, but I would probably keep him cheap using Living Lightning or Tempests Wrath or Murderous Hurricane for powers.
When using Drop Pods or in an army containing a Landraider a Rune Priest can again opt for Terminator armor, as it is very cost effective and gives him an invulnerable save. This build is the only one I would be tempted to use a Saga. I’d pick two of the following Living Lightning or Tempests Wrath or Murderous Hurricane for powers.
Rune Priest 1 (Footslogger): 185
Terminator armor, Master of the Runes, Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tail Talisman
If you have the points add a Wolf Tooth Necklace.
Rune Priest 2 (Mech): 125
Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tail Talisman, Wolf Tooth Necklace
If using Stormcaller or Tempests Wrath it may be worthwhile to upgrade to master of the Runes.
Rune Priest 3 (DP/mech): 145
Terminator armor, Chooser of the Slain, Wolf Tail Talisman, Wolf Tooth Necklace
If using Stormcaller or Tempests Wrath it may be worthwhile to upgrade to master of the Runes.
A Space Wolves Rune Priest is a force to be reckoned with on the tabletop. He can be one of the most cost effective characters found in the Space Wolves Codex. In my humble opinion he is a must have in every Space Wolves list.
I’ve briefly touched on the Psychic Powers, based on my personal opinions and in game experience. When fielding one Rune Priest Murderous Hurricane and Tempests Wrath are my go to powers. Combine this with Master of the Runes, I have found that I can control a large part of the battlefield.
23 comments:
October 30, 2009 at 4:12 PM
My Rune Priest will be on a bike with a Chooser of the Slain and Jaws of the Wolf.
Yes it's cool against low Initiative models, but if you can hit lots of squad members with it, you can kill a lot of random dudes.
October 30, 2009 at 5:29 PM
Living Lightning as well. Forgot to mention that.
October 31, 2009 at 4:29 AM
valuable info. Having thought about this a little myself, I'd like to mention that Terminator armour is the only way to get an invulnerable save. That alone usually decides the issue for me, though as you say, RP are better in a supporting role, so really shouldn't need it that much.
One other point: storm caller can be great in a mechanized list because you can put him with a group of vehicles, affording a mobile cover save to nearby vehicles. A viable alternative if you have an aversion to smoke for some reason. Its similar to the Ork force field in a truck/wagon convoy tactic.
October 31, 2009 at 12:57 PM
I prefer to leave them at 100 pts and cheap as hell. They are the best 100 pt psyker in the game, and when you start to add more to it, you are not using them as a mobile gun battery. They are not an assault style unit, and work much better sitting in a pack of grey hunters, utilizing their skills as a "help" more then anything else.
With all their powers being "assault" they do not need Terminator armor as the 9-10 wounds they have with a squad of grey hunters is always much better then 2+ armor save.
Living Lightning is probably the best, as most of the others takes your opponent rolling badly to be effective (or really well with 5's or 6's). Most of the time I just run 2 with one with Jaws and Living Lightning and the other with Murderous Hurricane and Living Lightning. That way I have things I can always do with the models all the time and at any range.
October 31, 2009 at 4:13 PM
Goatboy,
I do agree that the Rune Priest is great right out of the book. Keeping him cheap is not a bad option.
Living lightning is a great power if you plan to keep your Priest in the backfield. I usually run mine midfield with my Hunters.
With the prevalence of Deepstriking units and Skimmers I find that right now Tempests Wrath to be a fantastic tool.
Forcing my opponents to make hard choices when moving the affected units and Deploying via DS.
November 1, 2009 at 11:22 AM
living lightning+ chooser of the slain in a rhino is my fav.
November 1, 2009 at 3:57 PM
I recently joined a tournament and am tag-teaming with an IG player. the point total for me would be about 300-400 with a mandatory 1 troop choice, any help would be appreciated.
This is a great blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 24, 2009 at 8:53 AM
hey why did you get so caught up with the wolf tail talisman dont they have a there staff with a 4+ null? i didnt think they stacked. if they do please tell me how
November 24, 2009 at 1:39 PM
I'm not sure why Jim chose the Wolftail Talisman. I agree that the Runepriest doesn't need it.
December 3, 2009 at 7:35 PM
Greetings.
Not sure if anyone will ever read this (last comment on 24th November), but we had some sort of 'little problem' at our last tournament and maybe you can help. It was all a matter of rules' understanding regarding the Rune Priest and the Chooser of the Slain.
One side understands that a Chooser of the Slain simply provides a Rune Priest with +1BS when it has LoS to the models he is firing to, in addition to the rules of infiltration explained in the SW Codex. However, the other side argues (and this was the position of the organization as well) that the Chooser of the Slain grants an additional 'point of fire' to the Rune Priest.
So, long story short, they argue that he may fire from the Chooser OR from himself, can measure distances from this two points and even can fire against the rear of a Leman Russ (from a Chooser placed in a GI deployment zone, for example) regardless of the actual position of the Rune Priest (who usually will be wandering in front of enemy vehicles...)
I see this a misunderstanding of rules, so I will truly apreciate your help.
Regards.
December 4, 2009 at 2:24 AM
Hi Purpledtentacle,
The former is correct. The Chooser of the Slain DOES NOT grant an additional point of fire to the Rune Priest.
The Choose of the Slain essentially acts as a 'spotter' for the Rune Priest in the same way a spotter spots for a sniper in real life.
January 2, 2010 at 1:22 AM
Boltgun - there is really no point for this option
A zero cost way of making sure your list is legal if your running multiple rune priests. I use it on one of mine all the time. No one fires a rune priest's gun anyway.
January 2, 2010 at 3:12 AM
That's a fair observation. But I'd rather choose a slightly different second psychic power than lose an attack in close combat.
January 4, 2010 at 11:14 AM
That isn't a way of satisfying the different wargear combination restriction.
Even if you have two HQs:
RP - jotww, lightning
RP - jotww, storm caller
It's still illegal. They have to have some difference in their wargear. Psychic powers are not relevant in that regard. The bolter is free and statisfies this. Because I make lists to be purely competitive, I don't spend points where I don't need to. Rune Priests that aren't in TDA don't even have an invlunerable save, so losing one attack from switching out your bolt pistol is probably not making much of a difference on an iniative 4 no invul save IC in close combat.
February 11, 2010 at 2:53 AM
in one of the comments somebody states, "terminator armour is the only way a rune priest can receive an invulnerable save" or something to that effect, but he can also take runic armour; am i missing something here?
February 11, 2010 at 10:27 AM
Runic armour only gives you a 5+ invulnerable save against psychic attacks.
June 17, 2010 at 9:47 PM
At Bruteforce:
From what I've read and the way I've seen it played at my local GW with the staff, the Wolf Tail Talisman and Runic Weapon Psychic Nullify are able to stack.
The reasoning would be they don't happen simultaneously (whereas a cover save and armour save do).
The Runic Weapon tries to stop any psychic power while the enemy psyker is in the process of casting it.
Whilst the Wolf Tail Talisman doesn't come into effect until a unit with the WTT has actually been affected by the psychic power.
The Runic Weapon tries to prevent a psychic power, whilst a WTT protects from a psychic power which has already been cast. (Making a WTT like Feel No Pain in my earlier save analogy).
I didn't see anything about this in the Errata and FAQ though, and this is just me trying to interpret the wording of the equipment involved and apply logic to it, which doesn't always work in 40k! If anyone disagrees, please explain.
July 14, 2010 at 9:53 AM
For those who think the WTT is a waste ...
The runic weapon has a chance to null a pyschic power on a 4+ roll within 24in.
Since my RP is on foot, and sits comfy in a pack of LFs, I had my share of, "Good thing I had my WTT!"
My GW store opponents are sly buggers, as they always manage to stay just outside my 24in range.
If I have 5 points left over, I'll take it. Other than that I'll let my force deal with any squads that a psychic may be hiding in.
February 21, 2011 at 6:17 PM
I take a runepriest with stormcaller in a rhino and watch all those anti-tank shots fail to do anything to my AV11 rhinos! LL also helps to take out enemy transports, especially as it can be fired out of the top hatch!
April 10, 2011 at 7:39 PM
What about cyber pet ? forgoten ?
10 pts to bloc infiltrated troops, i think it's great...
July 10, 2012 at 7:39 AM
In my first game of the 6th Ed I found, due the the complete ineffectiveness of mass bolter fire, the only way I could threaten a flying Hive Tyrant was to fire Jaws at him. The fact we definitively don't need to roll to hit with it means it is useful vs flying MCs.
August 8, 2012 at 12:39 PM
A question
I am playing a footslogging army of 1000 pts and have a list of 992 pts. My first and main opponent will be my friend who plays Dark Eldar. Using Master of the Runes, which two powers should i pick? I love Jaws, but i also want to get some good value for my Rune Priest in terms of usefullness.
September 24, 2012 at 10:14 PM
I was wondering if I could get a further explanation about the Foe Hammer and using Jaws of the World Wolf. I love the idea but doesn't the initiative test use the base stat. not the modified stat? any clarification would be great, thank you.
Post a Comment