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Im interested in what uses you guys have for these units especially in a tournament setting. I realize many would rather create there own hq's for some reason ? Points i suppose but any of you that use these specialized hq's on a regular basis? And how do you run them? What units do they roll with etc....?

I use Maugan -ra quite often when i make a very shooty eldar army. He sits in the back with my tanks, support weapons (yup i use them) and multiple troops choices with platforms, and reapers.  It really nast to shoot that much and also utilize waveserpants with good cc/ midrange shooting ability. He is also good at protecting that back line from nasties of all kinds.

I also use Jain-zar when i run harlequin , scorpions and a close support type of army she works out well with a large unit of banshees or even alone with the harlequin close by.  I would not hesitate to use her , asurmen, prince yriel or even Eldrad.

I think one of the prevalent sentiments is that if a unit can be killed by a single las-cannon shot, then it must be either quick enough to determine when it is going to get shot, or able to dish out enough pain to make back its points VERY quickly, as it may only get one turn. Since Eldar Special characters either have invulnerable saves that can be fortuned, or the "Eternal Warriors" rule that prevents Instant Death, it makes them pretty worth it.

Other special characters, especially ones that are Vehicles (Bjorn The Fell Handed IIRC) can also be quite useful, as they are tough (as tough as any vehicle has ever been in 40k), and often pack quite a wallop.

I traditionally don't use them. With Codex: Dark Angels though I expect I'll fielding Belial on a semi-frequent basis.

I'm strongly considering fielding Azrael too. With a tooled out Command Squad all with an extra +1 attack (from the standard) and 4+ invulnerable saves might make a very nasty unit.

Unfortunately, I can't find my old DA special characters at the moment - they're somewhere in Ontario soaking in Simple Green - but I have no idea where beyond that.

I don't really use special characters except in "joke" armies. In general they are simply too many points all dumped into one basket. Sure they usually pack quite a punch but they have to do the following:

1) Get to where they are useful. Most special characters are hand to hand monsters and thus have to make it there. If you can?t make it to the enemy, you can?t kill them. Long ranged characters like Maugen Ra tend to not have much of a problem with this.

2) Do enough damage to be worth having. Sure Abadon is cool, but the last time I saw him on the other side of the table, the only thing in my army he (and his terminator body guards) killed were 3 or 4 of my warlocks. In the end, he was fairly worthless because he got bogged down and couldn't run around killing tasty targets.

3) Survive. Many characters go down to 1 las cannon shot or power fist wound. You can't really get your points back if you die. Having abilities that make you immune to instant death help out a lot here but a good opponent will work it out so they can pour enough fire power into you to kill you if you really are worth killing.

Eldrad is worth his points each and every time ive taken him.

The thing is usually specials are only a bit more than a tricked out hq, and they almost always have an ability that add to the army as a whole.

I truly believe GW has meant for 4th edition rules to use specials more than before.

I rarely if ever see two hq choices in tournament for obvious reason but lately i have seen the single special a bit more. I really think most characters are well worth it even in tourney.
I mean look at deciever yes he is pricey but you could rune an apponants game before it even gets rolling good.
Just about every army has its golden special character. Or even one that would work for the way you play.

I find special characters to be quite un-fluffy in most games.  Why on earth would Abadon show up in a 2000pt game?  Only if it was extremely important and probly not even then, he'd send a trusted lieutenant. 

Another reason i dont take special characters is that generally i can build a cheaper and more effective one with the codex.

The problem will soon be just how much the new chaos codex nerfs chaos characters (not special characters) I may start fielding chaos lords with power weapon, and bolt pistol and nothing else, so i can spend those points elsewhere.

Obviously Jervis has made ME want to play special characters! 

most peple make thier own HQs simply because with the wargear options they can build them better than any special named character in the books. my old DW libby was a god compared to most named SM special characters.

 

that being said as a dark angels player i basically have no choice now. if i want to have even decent HQs i must take the named special characters. sammael is the best, closely followed by azrael....belial is a joke, a very bad one.

 

my competative list always has sammael in it and my other fun list always has azrael in it.

 

 

Speaking of special characters, are the Nid "special characters" (Red Terror and Old One Eye) allowed in tournaments? Do you need the opponent's permission to field them in a normal game?

those special characters have been removed in the new codex, so no...

So, the fact that they're available on the UK website at http://uk.games-workshop.com/tyranids/special-characters/1/ is irrelevant? It's an official publication of the rules. That's like saying that Blood Angels are unusable now, since their "codex" is 2 issues of White Dwarf, not an actual codex.

Nice find sutekh.

I thought much like 01777 did, that they were no longer legal since they werent in the new codex, but this changes things.

Pretty cool.

yeah, my bad! nice find, although, i figured old one eye had been replaced with the new rules for making your own fex...

Special characters are fun to play against but after seeing Eldrad come to every single skirmish in the world of 40K and soon to be Abbadon, it gets boring and unimaginative real fast.