So, no more Commissars. But...

[Plasmablasts]

After I posted that it struck me that the current SE rule creates a genuine choice between the Commissar and the standard as sources of Ld 8. They’re comparable in price (in Matched Play) but, while the flag gives slightly better morale mitigation (to Infantry squads), the Commissar is harder to kill (without snipers). For Conscripts, the Commissar is the better choice; for Mordian Infantry squads, the flag is (and keep the Commissar away from them!).

[TheShredder]

Making it discretionary would mean it's never a detriment, and that alone would be a decent change.  Or something like if fail, kill one and test again on a D3.

 

I think it would be better to just make it 'kill a model to treat the test as having rolled a 1'.

[FallenSoldiers]

I played a game today (testing out a list for an upcoming tournament) Commissar free. 1250pt, highlander rules.

 

I had 1 30 man conscript blob, with an astropath in tow and a CC nearby in some ruins.

 

I also spent the CP to make my tank commander into a “commissar tank”. Running the Catachan regiment rules my opponent and I agreed that the RAW gives them Ld10 within 6”. I also earned one of the CPs back right away from the WL trait.

 

First turn I cast Mental fortitude on them to make sure they didn’t get hammered early and suffer too badly. Opponent only took out 7 on the first turn. After that I felt that with Ld10 and only 23 remaining they didn’t need the psychic power any longer, so I sent the astropath off to be a deny battery.

 

I didn’t notice any changes in the list I ran today than when I had a very similar list with a commissar. The astropath at 15pts definitely earned his place in the list for that one power and being another roll to deny a power. At the VERY end his took one of my infantry squads down to 3 guys in one turn so I had to spend 2 CPs to keep them alive since they were on an important objective (earned 1 of those CPs back too). Sure a Commissar could have saved me 1 net CP there, but at the cost of a 31pt babysitter.

[Imperator Deus]

My main gripe is that the iconic Commissar is going to be a very rare site indeed on the table

That is what bugs me the most too. They're so iconic that the cover of the Codex has a Commissar on it, but you'll never see one on the battlefield anymore. A buddy of mine plays Steel Legion and was using Yarrick as his Warlord, but now he's debating whether his dedication to the fluff is worth eating the Commissar penalty. I've always liked the fluffiness of Commissars in Guard armies, and I've never fielded my army without at least one. I loved the sculpts for the last metal models from 5th or 6th edition, especially the one aiming down his bolt pistol with a riding crop behind his back and the one with the power fist reciting passages from a book (probably The Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer ) - such badasses! I'm definitely not going to put them on the table until GW (hopefully) corrects their over-correction in a future FAQ.

 

Unfortunately I haven't had an opportunity to get a game in since the nerf came down, but I've been struggling with what to do about it. I have two banner models for my Cadians; I usually only used one at a time, but I'll add the other one in from now on. I'm a bit of a stickler for WYSIWYG, so I'll only use Cadians for the bulk of my army along with an occasional Catachan Battalion on the side, because those are the models that I have. That means I won't be using the Mordian or Valhallan regimental doctrines or relics just on principle. Two Cadian standards should be more than enough to cover my usual 9 Infantry Squads, I have 5 Catachan Infantry Squads with one regimental standard and one platoon standard modeled for them. The regimental standard will be useful, but I'm not so sure that it's worth counting the platoon standard as a regimental standard for only 5 squads. On the other hand, it is only 5 points, it might be worth it for redundancy's sake.

 

I do have Greyfax, Coteaz and a couple of generic Inquisitors for potential leadership boosts, but I'm not sure if I want to use them. I did use Greyfax pre-codex a few times for psychic defense, but I haven't been too interested in taking non-Guard models post codex. Since we got a full psychic list in the Codex, Astropaths are a better source of psychic defense since they can cast a range of powers other than Smite now and I don't have to worry about shoehorning another detachment into my list. However, aside from the banner, I'm not seeing many options to boost leadership for Cadians other than Inquisitors, so unless I'm missing something, I might have to reconsider.

[Withershadow]

A little histrionic, aren't we? Commissar Lords are still good, Yarrick is still amazing. Calm your tits boys.

[Imperator Deus]

Previous editions had the commissar attached to a command squad, and it was the officer who was executed.

 

Be glad it’s only x amount of grunts.

That is true, but in previous editions, morale wasn't anywhere near as punishing. If you failed a morale check your unit would just fall back. Unless you were too close to your table edge or reduced to 25% of your starting size, you could try to rally them at the beginning of the next turn. Now if you blow a Morale check, you lose more models. I still haven't had an opportunity to play since the nerf, but I suspect infantry will tend to evaporate much faster now that you could lose 5 or 6 models in a turn, and then potentially lose the rest of the squad during the morale phase. Commissars in 8th helped make up for the fact that Guardsmen are so easy to kill thus forcing morale checks with significant modifiers.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Imperator Deus