Null Zone

[Timbo]

So, I had a game against Pascal's daemons the other day and I tried out the psychic power Null Zone. Needless to say, this power is ridiculously strong against daemons. Essentially every unit in his army must reroll all of its successful invulnerable saves against my shooting, and some vs HtH (only on my player turn) as well. Against any other army, the power seems mediocre at best. Not all armies even have access to units with invulnerable saves, and they certainly don't always take them. I suppose it could be handy vs a seer council or a mob of cyborks or even a squad of terminators. However, the majority of Eldar, Ork and Marine armies (I will always field 10 terminators, always ) don't field those units! My question is, what good is a power that is too powerful vs one army, well almost useless against all others? Should it be taken against daemons? It does not affect cover saves, so perhaps the daemon player could try to play around it, but it's pretty tough when they are deep striking and trying to contest objectives in the open.

[Justin Buhler]

Well, here's an example of where it is useful: With this new pseudo-campaign style of play we've been kicking around at trying the interesting thing I found about the rules is you know who your opponent is, what they'll be playing, how many points and sometimes even what scenario BEFORE you write up your army lists, so while you might use Null Field against Paz knowing he plays Daemons you might field a different Psychic Power v. some other force. While some people will cry foul that this is meta-gaming I would argue that it does make tactical sense. When an army knows, even roughly, what opponent they'll be facing they gear their units correctly. Real life example if the fighting will be urban and mostly infantry then they'll strap the rapid fire, less collaterally damaging turret to their Leopard II's rather than the traditional heavy shell turret more useful for open field tank on tank action. In 40K speak, if I know my opponent is going to mass field infantry I'd probably be better spent not fielding Broadsides and rather using another Hammerhead with an Ion Cannon. Or in Dawn of War the style of gear I'd select for facing Necrons (Plasma and Melta) is going to be vastly different from the gear I'd take fighting Orks (Heavy Bolters and Flamers).

Justin

[Aervyper]

One of the best combinations i've seen is a Drop Pod w/ Libby Null Zone + Gate of infinity, and 10 Sternguard. You add Pedro Kantor to that army.... (275 point total libby + Pedro for your HQ) I realize it puts a huge bulls eye on your guys but with Gate of Infinity you don't have to walk from place to place.

I'd say in a tournament setting if your Space Marines have a plan for a Librarian than taking Null Zone is your joker card. Every army will have one unit on the table with an invulnerable save. Take into effect the drop pod rules and an adapatable squad like Sternguard and you cannot go wrong. Yes it might not work out 100%, but it should be able to get it's points back. At the very least it will require any opponent to react to it.

[Timbo]

I suppose in a tournament format a librarian would have to choose his powers for the whole tournament right at the beginning. So, in that setting Null Zone would not be too good, because it would be marginal against the majority of the armies. I agree with Quenton that Gate of Infinity is quite "dope" as the young kids say. I like it with a unit of terminators, but I can see it with Sternguard too.

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