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I look at the Librarian sometimes and think...worth the points? A chaplain is a strong second HQ afterall. There is also the whopping 50pts you pay for the pleasure of an Epistolary and his ability to use a second power in one turn. But with the right combination a Librarian can pull out some nifty tricks.

Librarians

Strengths
• Mobile
• Huge Versatility
• Can ID enemy characters with force weapon
Weaknesses
• Expensive upgrades
• Unpredictable
• Very vulnerable to instant death

Unit Options and Composition

Your basic Librarian doesn’t come with much so you’ll need to pay out the points to tool him up. The balance lies between chosen powers and wargear. These two are integral to his effectiveness.

He can be very mobile having options for jump pack, bike and the power Gate of Infinity. He can also take terminator armour, a storm shield AND retain mobility via Gate. In a fast moving Raven Guard list this is important.

Make the powers & wargear work together. Don’t choose a shield power and then take terminator armour, or take 2 shooting powers and pay points for a combi weapon.

Define his role and arm him appropriately.

Power combinations

The Mechanic
Machine curse & Might of ancients
Works well against those that love their treads. Charge with Machine curse, an auto glancing hit will soften the tank/dread up. Then smack the oil out of it with a strenghth 6 and 2d6 penertration on it's rear armour.

The Assassin
Quickening & Might of Ancients / Force sword
Annoying characters bugging you? Charge in with an Initiative of 10 then either use your force sword to Instant death them, or Might of ancients if they are a bit tougher.

The Terminator
Smite & Null zone
Deathwing army? Try this. Put your librarian with a sternguard squad with combi plas or melta, or an assault squad with plasma pistols. Play null zone and then smite with your librarian. If played right, they'll be forced to make a lot of 5+ inv saves. Re-rolling succesful ones.

The Transporter
Gate of Infinity & Force Dome
Taxi? Rhino shot up? Use gate to get your troops where they need to be, and then add a lil bubble to ensure they dont get fried. On the offensive can be used to move elites around like Sterns, Vanguard & Assault squads.

Mr Flexible
Gate of Infinity & Avenger
A flexible set up. Meaning he can be where he needs to be and add a lil toasty fun to mix with avenger. Plus, he always has his force sword to drain and shame other characters.


Tactics/Roles for Raven Guard

Mobilty helps in a fast moving RG list. Choosing a jump pack librarian allows that but means he has low survivability, so consider terminator armour and the Gate power to get around.

The Librarian typically acts as support, using his powers to plug a gap or create one. Enhancing a vital assault or going toe to toe with a monstrous creature, the Librarian is extremely versatile.

His force sword is also useful in taking out hard HQ targets, but it must be stressed that the Librarian is not as tough as a captain. His powers are essential to his success, so choose them wisely to best tailor to your opponent.

His hood can really hinder psychic races like Elder and some Chaos, but do remember its range is limited.


Deployment


His deployment will depend largely on the role you have set out for him and what he is equipped with. He can deepstrike with a jump pack or teleport in terminator armour.

Using Gate you can also feint a deployment. As in set up in one place and then Gate on turn 1 to another, hopefully wrong footing your opponent. With gate you can also feint with an attached squad, useful if your squad is in danger on turn 1.

He is a fairly expensive model, so you want to get him to work right away. But again, it’s dependant on his role and where is target is (if any)


Threats

Eldar can really put a hold on his powers, but at the same time he can do the same. A cheap librarian against Eldar can be useful, but expect his powers to be constantly challenged.

He is also vulnerable to instant death and only has 2 wounds, so out side of his desired role he can be frustrating to use.

I like it. Good Job,

although it's missing some depth in my opinion, it's one thing to say what a unit can do, but another to explain, what to do, and so on. I like it, but it requires more depth.

Well its just a begining, feel free to go in and add stuff Sy. Its not set in stone by any means.

The Librarian is full of potential and vast variety, so will require the input of various players and their experience. I have used him only briefly, this is just to get the ball rolling.

So, I just played a 660 point (weeknight with my son) game. He played Eldar. I wanted a cheap effective hq, so I used a bare bones Librarian with smite and gate. Using so few points on the hq selection allowed me to have 2 tactical squads in rhinos and a 5 man devastator squad with missle launchers.

I wasn't expecting much from the librarian, so I tucked him into some cover and was basically just going to use him to assassinate my son's psyker, or shut him down with the psychic hood.

Instead, he became instrumental in an assault as I ran the rhino's together into Jon's rangers. They were in cover and at the extreme end of his gun line. (basically I was forcing his troops to run accross the board, out into the open, with his own troops providing me cover.... fun!) so I was able to time the gate to land my librarian with the arrival of my 2 tactical squads.

In hindsight it was probably fool hardy to rapid fire at just under 12 "'s from his bunker, because one of the teams could've become pinned by the sniper fire, but I lost 3 tactical marines, passed my pin test, and then used 2 flamers, bolt pistols and the smite power + assualted in the following round.

Eventually I was able to get the rangers toasted, and stole their cover for myself for when the mass of gaurdians and howling banshees, swooped in.

So, to reaffirm, no one really looks at the librarian as a fast moving dude, I mean the model is deceptively slow marinesh looking. I'm wondering if terminator armor would be the upgrade of choice, to increase the slowness deception.

Funny you should post this as my own Librarian had a storming game after being dusted off. I too needed a cheap HQ against new IG.

Mine had a storming game as avenger ravaged several squads in Chimeras before winning me the game by flushing a vital objective.

Against Orks I also noted a possible trick. Orks like to rush at you, and in objective games they often ignore the far off ones. Gating a tac squad in turn 5 to said objective, is a potential game winning tactic.

Nice one Pen!

I think one of the main goodies a librarian gets is the hood. It seems lame but if there is a psyker it makes him think twice about exposure or being within 24" of the librarian. about 50% or more of the time my son deploys one, he's a Eldar/ork guy. so this is an inexpensive back up hq, or a primary one in a small game.

I think too, that it could be people get burned once with some tweaky rolls and the randomness sours them. Lots of things that payoff have risks... and its interesting to play without a shrike style character sometimes.

I'm thinking of using a librarian in terminator armor. Its an intersting trick to pull out, and not really expensive as a model. Now, if I can figure out the fluff to get him into 10th co.

I played yesterday night a game vs a Daemon Army, my first time against those.

I used Darius Alistair, a Librarian in Terminator armor and Storm shield @140, with Null Zone and Avenger.

I find him very cheap for the impact he had on the game.

This one was clearly opponent's primary target, but he was included in a 5 assault terminator squad with 3 SS, so
he survived and totally screw up his army.

A BloodThirster and a Demon Prince fell to his squad. I didn't use Avenger, Null Zone was just too good.

So for the raven guard, i'd recommend play both a shadow captain, and this librarian within a Termy squad.

6 guys, 4 storm shield, 1 Force weapon, 3 thunder hammers, 2LC, with Fleet = lots of pain.

As the Daemon Army is a CC one, just bring along some heavy fire support, like Typhoons for example.
But's thats another story

I definitely recommend this 140 pts guy. Just protect him well !

Indeed! And that is the great thing about the Librarian, he can be tooled up to take apart specific foes, or to counter powerful psychic ones.

As his stat line got hit and he doesnt get a free inv save, it is wise to give him terminator armour as you both suggest. With gate and fleet he is anything but slow.

People also forget the force weapon. Sometimes it is worth taking out a tough and very influnencial HQ. Like an ork warboss. It is true that eternal warrior is too commnon, but there are still a lot of powerful HQs out there that can be effected.

One very good combo which i've been using to devastating effect is

Nullzone + Gate of Infinity

Gate adds so much mobility for my drop pod army, and the nullzone just makes people shiver in their pants, most armies, if not all, have Invul saves on key units, makes bolter salvos that much more deadly. Especially daemons

So,

does a librarian in terminator get relentless? If so does this mean he can move, shoot and assault with the vortex power? I think thats pretty cool.

Also, if he is equipped with a force weapon and bolt pistol, does he get the extra cc attack if he used a shooting style power that turn?

Starting to really enjoy using librarians, and actually started tooling one up for wysiwyg.

Ooops, after a bit of a heads up and rereading the codex, cant have a bolt pistol, so please disregard the second question. Also, realized that deepstriking him (as suggested in the tactica) might have a huge impact on his mobility... especcially with a teleport homer in a sneakyfist squad.

i've been thinking (pretty much just because of this tactica) of using a libby in my force. I have both versions, but would probably only use this in smaller point games (so max points of say 150, otherwise i might as well take shrike etc), but have found it hard to decide whether the protection of terminator armour (and possibly a storm shield) would outweigh the ability to cast two physchic abilities (Epistolary)?

you know, for me the terminator armor is a no brainer, and gives an inv save, deep strike and relentless. I don't know it works for me... Plus, it looks cool.

Well it depends on how you plan to use your librarian, I'd say.

For example, I often use him when I know a specific power is the bane of a army.
Like Null Zone for daemons.

Then I put the libby inside an assault terminator squad,
and his power has so much impact on the game
that I want him alive. So I go always with the storm shield option.

And he suits well with others TH/SS terminators, also.

I choose an episcolary when I don't use terminator armor, for example in a Sternguard squads.
Here I want to protect the sterns with force dome, along with playing another power.
Force dome protects also the armor of the libby here.

i find a bare bones Librarian is the best option in low point games (500-750)

i use him with gate and a tactical squad, and in these small games plasma heavy armies are not common.
Meaning that investment in more protective equipment is not needed.

This while the gate gives me much needed mobility and the extra avenger power means that if i charge the enemy is in for a world of hurt.

So for me a "Mr. Flexible" libby at low points and then later up straight to Saadjor (count as Shrike)