Picking an effective HQ and Warlord for 6th edition 40k

This might seem quite obvious, but the key to having a good chance at victory, is designing a good list. I think I covered this topic a long time ago in 5th edition, but I am writing an update on it now. This particular article concentrates on HQs and why you shouldn't just dish out being the Warlord to just anyone. First and formost, every single army needs to include two troops choices and a HQ. This is mandatory across all armies. So when picking an army to collect, please pick one where you actually want to include these choices! You really dont want to be in a position where you don't like any of the troops choices, or worse, that you can't get them to work as effectively as you would want. Picking an effective HQ can often be a case of picking the cheapest and being done. There is nothing wrong with this strategy if the HQ is just there to hit the minimum HQ limit. Just try to keep his points down and hope for the best. In an ideal world, this cheap HQ brings something useful to the army, like the tau ethereals and cadre commanders.

Spending more on HQs, then you generally want him as a force multiplier. While there is nothing wrong with a combat character, I often use a Bloodthirster in my daemon army for example, he needs to do something other than hit things with a large stick. The reason I say this is because tooled up lords who do nothing else [generally space marine captains are the best fit here] are very cost ineffective. Ill explain. You have a tactical squad [pretty common in marine armies]. You buy a multimelta and a flamer, along with a sgt who has a powerfist. All very common and I belive this unit comes in around 195 points. You get 8/16 bolter shots, a multimelta and a flamer, you can score, and if you do get attacked in close combat, you get 9 marines attacking at an average ws/s/t and 2 powerfist attacks to threaten pretty much anything in the game. Krak grenades too, for monsters and dreads.

A tooled up marine captain, with terminator armour and a thunderhammer/stormshield has no shooting, and a meagre 3 thunderhammer attacks, which are near enough identical as powerfist attacks. This guy will set you back best part of 150 points. He has no ranged threat, and is very slow. He has far less going for him than the tactical squad, and has nothing else to offer but his limited close combat potential. He is however reasonably hard to kill, so in that respect, he may keep your warlord death victory point safe. Compare to a Bloodthirster.

He also can only fight in close combat, bar short ranged shooting attack, and costs an astronomical 300 points when upgraded. The Bloodthirster is also suspiciously vulnerable to shooting attacks, relying heavily on his toughness and power armour to see him through. Any s8+ ap3 or less weapons will destroy the Bloodthirster, and he can't join units and has problems hiding. Surely the Bloodthirster is a worse choice, especially as Daemons have an entire army devoted to killing things in close combat, where marines are more balanced and the combat ability of the captain is more appreciated? I say no. The Bloodthirster is a massive threat. People hear the name and it causes fear. Actual fear on the player, not that version included in the rules. They often concentrate fire on it to kill it off, before it gets to close combat. Another common feature is that people seem to want to be able to brag their X killed a Bloodthirster, so you can control the game in intangible ways with it. Its fast, and very hard to kill once it gets into close combat. Apart from Thunder Hammer equipped assault terminators, I don't think there is a unit or indeed character in the game who would fancy their chances, without some special monster hunting loadout. I hasten to add that a Bloodthirster really has no business being your Warlord. It atttracts far too much firepower, so outside of mono-khorne lists I would always have someone else being in charge. This frees the Bloodthirster up to go attack the enemy with impunity.

The most common utility HQs, which make the best Warlords, are psykers in my opinion. Provided you get access to some of the buff lores [divination and telepathy specifically from the big book] they can influence the game from relative safety. A few rerolls from divination can easily do more damage in one shooting phase than a combat lord can do in an entire game, without the risk of putting your lord on the front line. The flip side is you have to randomise your powers, so ensure you pick a lore with some good primaris powers. I would nearly always avoid pyromancy, unless your army has very limited shooting.

Other HQs worthy of mention are those who bring unique or useful powers to the table. Should they be the Warlord? Well it depends. Being Warlord means a lot of the time, they get the bonus of the Warlord power, rather than your army. So you want to look at the charts you can roll on and work out how many of the abilities would be useful to you. I would normally avoid making someone like Master of the Forge, or a Spiritseer my Warlord, because I don't think they are survivable enough. The same goes for Tyranid Primes, Guard Primaris Psykers, Chaplains and most other low wound/toughness/saves based HQs. Include them by all means, just please dont make them your Warlord! As a kind of conclusion, I would suggest picking a Warlord who is either a.cheap and can hide, b. more expensive and heavily protected or c. brings a crucial army buff you need. Don't just make your hardest combat unit a Warlord, as he is going to be in harms way.

Eldar Codex Review: The Avatar

The first none aspect warrior unit I am reviewing is the Eldar Avatar.

Anyone familiar with Avatars knows it traditionally comes with certain rules.  You know, Molten Body, Wailing Doom, Daemon etc.

Predictably, it still comes with these.  No sign of the "Court of the Young king" unit that I saw posted on various rumours websites.  Perhaps these will come out with a Biel Tan expansion.

So what changes does it have over a 4th edition Avatar.  I am sure this is why you are all here.

Well it has a good stat line.  Four stats hit 10, and I bet you can guess which ones they are!  It lost a point of invulnerable save and gained a wound, which is exactly in line with what Chaos Greater Daemons have in terms of protection.

It is very similar to a Bloodthirster, but considerably cheaper.  However it can't fly.  It does however have Battle Focus and a fearless bubble making it an ideal focal point for assault based armies.

You can interestingly buy it Exarch powers.  I think Fast Shot is a good buy here to fire Wailing Doom twice.  For the second power you will maybe find a few different combinations working.  Monster Hunter and Disarming Strike could be plain nasty!  Crushing Blow looks fairly pointless on an Avatar to me.

The only real kicker with the Avatar is it seems to have gone up in points by around 33% for a base model.  When you start factoring in upgrades in Exarch Powers it is approaching Land Raider and Bloodthirster costs.

Eldar Codex Review: Shining Spears

The third of the fast attack aspect warriors I am reviewing are Shining Spears.

As I mentioned in other articles, they have dropped quite a few points.  Perhaps not as many as I had initially claimed, but they are around 60% of their previous points cost.  They also do not seem to have changed at all in their abilities.

You may around 7 points a model on top of a jetbike and you get an aspect warrior with the same gun, same save, and same BS as a guardian.  So far, nothing impressive.

You also get the laser lance and skilled rider.  Skilled rider improves your units cover save, which is always a good thing.

Laser lances are as far as I can tell exactly the same as before.  They are good on a charge against anything not in terminator armour.  They are pretty dire should they not get to charge or get stuck in combat.  They can still shoot.

So you want an Exarch.  He wants hit and run.  He might even want a Star Lance, which turns him into a credible anti tank threat and should make short work of most walkers in close combat with it.

Oddly in the Iyanden expansion, it mentions there is a Phoenix lord of the Shining Spears, but that hes gone missing.  I am a bit disappointed that none of the "new" aspects, such as Spears, Spiders and Crimson Hunters get a Phoenix Lord.