Lord Commissars

[TheShredder]

Does anyone find Lord Commissars useful?

 

If so, how do you equip and use them?

 

I ask because I like the idea, but they just seem rather lacklustre to me. They're pretty expensive compared to both regular Commissars and also Company Commanders (whilst being unable to issue even a single order), and they just don't seem to bring much to the table for that price.

 

Am I missing something?

[Lord Marshal]

Eases the load on those more limited Elite slots.

[Feral_80]

Not that great, but still your best bet for a semi-punchy hero. Either with power fist and Emperor's benediction pistol, or with Blade of conquest and a plasma pistol, you have a somewhat dangerous guy who is (only) able to heroic-intervene and help in a countercharge. He won't survive in any other situation however, so you can only use him safely when he cannot be targeted. You keep him just behind your frontline, intervene and kill some enemies safely, then disengage in your turn and shoot the survivors with the rest of your army.

 

The above set up uses a relic slot. A less powerful version is just with power first and plasma pistol. In any case, there are probably more effective ways to spend those points and slot, but he might be quite funny. He might also end up doing nothing all game and be a complete waste, anyway.

[duz_]

I field 2 Lord Commissars with power fists in my lists! I love them they're close combat monsters! They help with leadership buffs (particularly great against some psychic abilities) are cheap come with a 4+/5++ and look amazing too! :D

Exhibits A & B:

[Halfpint100]

For 20 points you gain +1ld to his bubble. +1 save, + 1 to hit in melee and range, +1 wound and a 5++ invun.

 

Nice upgrade IMO

[TheShredder]

I field 2 Lord Commissars with power fists in my lists! I love them they're close combat monsters! They help with leadership buffs (particularly great against some psychic abilities) are cheap come with a 4+/5++ and look amazing too!

Exhibits A & B:

Those look fantastic. Great work.

I've always been a fan of that second model. There's just something about the pose and the mechanical arm that really appeals to me.

Not that great, but still your best bet for a semi-punchy hero. Either with power fist and Emperor's benediction pistol, or with Blade of conquest and a plasma pistol, you have a somewhat dangerous guy who is (only) able to heroic-intervene and help in a countercharge. He won't survive in any other situation however, so you can only use him safely when he cannot be targeted. You keep him just behind your frontline, intervene and kill some enemies safely, then disengage in your turn and shoot the survivors with the rest of your army.

The above set up uses a relic slot. A less powerful version is just with power first and plasma pistol. In any case, there are probably more effective ways to spend those points and slot, but he might be quite funny. He might also end up doing nothing all game and be a complete waste, anyway.

Out of interest, is the Emperor's Benediction that much better than a Plasma Pistol? I know it has more shots but it lacks the strength and AP of the latter.

[Feral_80]

 

 

Out of interest, is the Emperor's Benediction that much better than a Plasma Pistol? I know it has more shots but it lacks the strength and AP of the latter.

 

 

Well in theory the Benediction is 4 points cheaper than the plasma pistol (but also 1 relic slot more expensive, of course...). It is interesting mainly for its ability to target characters, as it may act as a small deterrent against those weak support (healing/buffing) characters that tend to stay just behind the assault of various armies. But if I had to choose, I'd probably go with the Blade of Conquest and plasma, yes.

[NatBrannigan]

Why not pay a bit more and go for Yarrick? You then also get his annoying only dies on a 4+ ability and of course, the re-roll 1's to hit bubble. And if he's your warlord (and unless you're also running Guilliman he should be! Even then it's a close run thing...) he can now give out an order.

 

What a beast!

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yarrick is slightly bugged in that he has no Regiment but Orders state he can only issue them to the same Regiment as himself. In casual play it's fine, but more competitive players might put you over a barrel with that one.

[TheShredder]

Why not pay a bit more and go for Yarrick? You then also get his annoying only dies on a 4+ ability and of course, the re-roll 1's to hit bubble. And if he's your warlord (and unless you're also running Guilliman he should be! Even then it's a close run thing...) he can now give out an order.

 

What a beast!

 

Yarrick is good (save for his useless warlord trait), but I'm not a fan of special characters in general. I'd much rather use my own characters, even if they're inferior overall.

[NatBrannigan]

Well I made my own Yarrick model and just use his rules for my Warlord. I used to avoid using the special characters as well until I realised they are just rules you can use for anything. No different to my "Company Commander" actually bring a Colonel I suppose.

 

I'm assuming Yarricks order will get an FAQ soon so it's actually usable but it's a shame it even needs one isn't it? Clearly he can't only order Commissars... I can't imagine anyone I play with ever even considering saying that his rule says bla bla so you can't actually use it. Classic "That guy" behaviour.

[TheShredder]

Well I made my own Yarrick model and just use his rules for my Warlord. I used to avoid using the special characters as well until I realised they are just rules you can use for anything. No different to my "Company Commander" actually bring a Colonel I suppose.

 

I know you can do this, but it's something I prefer not doing if I can avoid it.

 

In essence, whatever character I was trying to build quickly gets lost as everyone (not unreasonably) just continues to refer to them as Yarrick (or whichever character I'm using).

 

I'll keep it in mind as a possibility, but I intend to at least try using a regular LC first.

 

I'm assuming Yarricks order will get an FAQ soon so it's actually usable but it's a shame it even needs one isn't it? Clearly he can't only order Commissars... I can't imagine anyone I play with ever even considering saying that his rule says bla bla so you can't actually use it. Classic "That guy" behaviour.

 

Well, I don't like to blame people for just following the rules. They could accept that this probably wasn't intentional and so allow Yarrick to order anyone, but I see this as a kindness on their part - not something I should expect from them.

 

At the end of the day, the blame lies with GW for refusing to playtest/proofread their rules.

[CoffeeGrunt]

There's always oversights, it's a bit harsh to claim they refused to proof-read their rules.

[TheShredder]

There's always oversights, it's a bit harsh to claim they refused to proof-read their rules.

 

There may always be oversights, yes, there shouldn't be such blatant ones. I mean, not only does this apply to one of the most basic HQ choices, but the writers then specifically wrote that Yarrick had to have that particular Warlord Trait. 

 

So either those rules were never properly proofread/playtested, or else the playtesters and/or proofreaders were incompetent. 

 

Here's the thing though - if GW's rules were freely downloadable, I doubt anyone would take issue with mistakes like this. However, when they insist on charging ludicrously-high prices for their rules then, yes, people have a right to expect high standards from them - and this includes not having such obvious mistakes.

 

And that's before we even get into GW having had 7 editions of 40k (and God knows how many codices) to practise this stuff.