Hi everyone, Michael here to take a look at the core Warlord Traits available for the GSC. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
The GSC have some nice warlord traits in the book, but with the changes to Nephilim no longer giving you a free trait, are any of them worth still considering. Let’s take a look at the main traits in the book.
Focus of Adoration– When a friendly Cult Core or Purestrain Genestealer unit is within 6″ of this warlord, the unit is eligible to perform a Heroic Intervention as if it were a character.
This is nice for getting your warlord out of trouble, if they find themselves the target of a charge. This not only gives you a chance to strike back at an enemy unit, but can get more bodies into range for the Unquestioning Loyalty special rule to allow you to pass wounds off onto the unit, rather than have the character take them. Note, that unlike the Fanatical Devotion stratagem, you do not get a boosted Heroic Intervention range of 6″, so even though you can pick a unit within 6″, you may not actually be able to get them into range to heroically intervene in every case. I would likely give this one a miss, as the Fanatical Devotion stratagem exists.
Shadow Stalker– Attacks made against the Warlord are at -1 to hit.
A nice boost for helping keep a character alive. Applies to both combat and shooting, though, in general, if you are in a position to get shot at, you are probably not in a good spot! A decent protection buff to your character.
Biomorph Adaptation– Add 1 to the attacks and toughness of the warlord.
This is great on a Patriarch. Going up to T6 and 7 attacks is a huge boost to his durability and offensive output. Probably not worth using on another character, as they tend to lack decent armour or wounds, with most having no invulnerable save, so the extra toughness is not really going to matter in most cases.
Prowling Agitant– Once per turn, when this warlord is selected as the target of a charge, before the charge roll is made and after firing Overwatch, it can make a normal move of up to 6″. The enemy unit can choose to re-direct the charge to another target.
For me, this is the best trait in the table. Unless your opponent’s unit is right on top of you, adding an extra 6″ to their charge range is going to result in a failed charge much of the time. This is great for keeping your characters out of combat, either by moving out of range, or moving into terrain where they cannot follow (in the case of vehicles). The number of times this has kept my Patriarch, or a Magus safe in my games has made it worthwhile.
Alien Majesty– Add 3″ to the range of any aura abilities your warlord has (up to 9″). Add 3″ to the following abilities up to 9″; Jackal, Meticulous Planner, Priority Target.
A nice boost for a Primus or Acolyte Iconward. Getting a 9″ bubble on their abilities gives them a massive range for buffing your units, or bringing them back to the table.
Preternatural Speed– Each time the warlord makes a melee attack, you can re-roll the hit roll. The warlord also fights first if in engagement range.
Another great boost for the Patriarch. Getting to re-roll to hit and to wound on the Patriarch really boosts his damage output, and fight first stops you having to use CP to interrupt and allow him to strike.
Overall
There are some nice warlord traits in the table, but now that you have to pay for them, are any worth taking? In all honesty, I don’t think so. If you want your Patriarch to get stuck into combat, then Preternatural Speed or Prowling Agitant could be useful. However, the Patriarch is not actually all that great in combat, with any kind of invulnerable save or Transhuman-type ability really damaging his damage output.
Alien Majesty could be useful on a Primus or Iconward if your army is built around the buffs that these units provide, but I often find they are not worth counting on, as they can die quite easily. Under the Nephilim rules, you are probably better saving your CP.
If you are going to go for traits, remember the Leaders of the Cult stratagem. For 1CP, you can give two non-Patriarch characters a warlord trait, as long as the Patriarch is your warlord. Worth considering to save you a CP.
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