Replacing default warlord trait?

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

Quick question. Are we allowed to swap out a default warlord trait on a character with a different One. For instance. If I take Belial and I dont want to use huntsman, can I swap his trait out for master of maneuvre? It might be nice to give his boys a reroll to charge without using cp.

[Lion El Jason]

Sadly not.  The only point of the table is to tell you which trait each named character must have if he's your warlord.

 

The Dark Angels codex is traditionally rushed with little thought put into it so obviously some are simply terrible choices, but nobody at GW would have even noticed TBH.  This leads to things like Belial teleporting with his own Ancient, who for some reason is the warlord so you get a playable bonus...

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

That sucks. Targeting a character with a storm bolter sounds a little underwhelming when I could re roll charge distance with the deathwing. It'll still work if I teleport near sammael or just give it to a character in terminator armour?

[Interrogator Stobz]

A Master in TDA with his relic blade and a Storm Shield which brings him one point dearer than Belial:

 

So more resilient (3++ instead of 4++) a better Warlord Trait (Your choice); but with a slightly worse sword ( usually wounds on 3+ instead of 2+ vs. non-veh and is Dam 1-3 instead of flat Dam2) and worse buff to other DW (RR 1's t hit instead of all misses).

 

Is a Belial 'Light' worth it? I think it's worth considering.

[breng77]

The resilience is debatable, since Belial is -1 to hit. But yeah he is a terrible warlord, that trait is bad on most warlord options

[Interrogator Stobz]

True enough.

I take Sammael as my warlord whenever I can. Only when I play mono Deathwing does Belial get a turn in charge.

[JJD]

You don’t have to make Belial your warlord. Just give the title to someone else and pick a useful trait.

 

I know it’s not ideal buts it’s what we have to work with.

[JGeils81]

I plan on using a lib on a bike as warlord so I can pick w/e trait. Does Azrael still “have” to be warlord if he’s in the board? Didn’t see that anywhere, haven’t read every word of the codex yet though

[JJD]

I will have to check when I get home but to be honest he has the most well rounded trait anyway.

[Helycon]

I plan on using a lib on a bike as warlord so I can pick w/e trait. Does Azrael still “have” to be warlord if he’s in the board? Didn’t see that anywhere, haven’t read every word of the codex yet though

You just need one character to be your warlord, doesn't need to be a named one. You can even have your Apothecary be your warlord if it pleases you. 

[JJD]

I plan on using a lib on a bike as warlord so I can pick w/e trait. Does Azrael still “have” to be warlord if he’s in the board? Didn’t see that anywhere, haven’t read every word of the codex yet though

I’ve checked and Azrael does not have to be the warlord. If he is your warlord in a battle forge army you get an extra command point, you also get a free re-roll once per game and a chance the get cps back from his warlord trait so you would need a good reason not to take him as warlord

[JGeils81]

Well I’ve been using him as my WL, but I thought I read somewhere before that if he was in the army he was required to be warlord.

Honestly I’ll probably use his trait even if I have a different warlord, because he’s not very mobile, and I don’t really do the “parking lot”.

[Brother Chaplain Tyranus]

I'm finding it even tougher to play azrael considering his lion helm aura doesn't affect everything anymore too. Played him again tonight and all he was doing was letting me reroll misses. I think there are more cost effective ways of doing that

[dtse]

Think of Azrael as this

 

He’s stronger than most chapter masters stat wise

 

He has a built in plasma gun

 

He gives you an extra CP if he’s your warlord and has arguably the best warlord trait as standard anyway.

 

His warlord trait is basically another free CP. so in effect he gives you 2 CP

 

And he does something that literally does not exist anywhere else in the game outside of stratagems and psychic powers: gives infantry and bikers a 4+ invuln. That’s 50% chance of negating all damage except mortals.

 

So you judge if you think that’s worth 180 points. But there is a lot of value added.

 

And btw ANY model can be the warlord. Traits apply only if that model is a character

[Helycon]

Think of Azrael as this

 

He’s stronger than most chapter masters stat wise

 

He has a built in plasma gun

 

He gives you an extra CP if he’s your warlord and has arguably the best warlord trait as standard anyway.

 

His warlord trait is basically another free CP. so in effect he gives you 2 CP

 

And he does something that literally does not exist anywhere else in the game outside of stratagems and psychic powers: gives infantry and bikers a 4+ invuln. That’s 50% chance of negating all damage except mortals.

 

So you judge if you think that’s worth 180 points. But there is a lot of value added.

 

And btw ANY model can be the warlord. Traits apply only if that model is a character

A Deredeo with Automantic Pavise gives a 5++ bubble though! But yes, a 4++ bubble is great, his stats are brilliant, and his kit moreso. I reckon I'll run him every chance I have.

[march10k]

Sadly not.  The only point of the table is to tell you which trait each named character must have if he's your warlord.

 

The Dark Angels codex is traditionally rushed with little thought put into it so obviously some are simply terrible choices, but nobody at GW would have even noticed TBH.  This leads to things like Belial teleporting with his own Ancient, who for some reason is the warlord so you get a playable bonus...

 

This.  I send him in with an ancient anyway, so there's no reason the ancient can't have the warlord trait instead. 

 

 

A Master in TDA with his relic blade and a Storm Shield which brings him one point dearer than Belial:

 

So more resilient (3++ instead of 4++) a better Warlord Trait (Your choice); but with a slightly worse sword ( usually wounds on 3+ instead of 2+ vs. non-veh and is Dam 1-3 instead of flat Dam2) and worse buff to other DW (RR 1's t hit instead of all misses).

 

Is a Belial 'Light' worth it? I think it's worth considering.

 

It's worth thinking about, but never worth doing.  There's enough stuff out there that imposes BS penalties that "reroll all misses" is sometimes more than twice the number of rerolls.  It's even more important in melee, now that fists and hammers are pretty awful in terms of damage output. Just send in the ancient for +1A and your reroll to charge warlord trait, and there's no contest at all between Belial and a generic captain.

 

Think of Azrael as this

 

He’s stronger than most chapter masters stat wise

 

He has a built in plasma gun

 

He gives you an extra CP if he’s your warlord and has arguably the best warlord trait as standard anyway.

 

His warlord trait is basically another free CP. so in effect he gives you 2 CP

 

And he does something that literally does not exist anywhere else in the game outside of stratagems and psychic powers: gives infantry and bikers a 4+ invuln. That’s 50% chance of negating all damage except mortals.

 

So you judge if you think that’s worth 180 points. But there is a lot of value added.

 

And btw ANY model can be the warlord. Traits apply only if that model is a character

 

Azrael is amazing.  Almost to the level of "must include."  I have him as the warlord of my standard list, babysitting 2x5 devastators with 8 lascannons, preferably on the upper floors of a ruin with scouts out in front to prevent an early assault.  Eight TLLC is incredibly powerful ranged antitank, you just need to make sure the rest of your list is mobile and focuses on killing troops.