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So, was looking at taking the Armored Battlegroup list from Forgeworld for some fun games. It is hardly a face smashing codex, and really exists only to give you an excuse to take a ton of leman russes. The problem with the changeover to 6th is that now we have to have a warlord. But literally every HQ choice for the armored battlegroup is a vehicles. At first, I didn't even know if you could pick a tank to be a warlord. Emailed FW, and they had this to say.

"We will be updating the rules for the Armoured Battlegroup list shortly but in the meantime you can nominate one of your HQ tanks as the Warlord for your army."

So there's that.

But the question is, how do warlord traits interact with a vehicle warlord? I'd imagine most, like "FNP within 3" of an objective" will simply not work period, as you can't give a tank FNP (if only) Same would go for assault based traits.

But for example, the trait that makes your warlord scoring, would that still work? And traits that give your army benefits like the city move through cover ones would still work too right?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out which warlord traits would actually work for a tank, if any, or if it can even use warlord traits at all. If it matters, my warlord will probably be a commissar Leman Russ, which is just a BS 4 leman russ variant that has a LD 10 aura for all friendly IG units within 6" of it.

Thanks for any help you can give guys!

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
So, was looking at taking the Armored Battlegroup list from Forgeworld for some fun games. It is hardly a face smashing codex, and really exists only to give you an excuse to take a ton of leman russes. The problem with the changeover to 6th is that now we have to have a warlord. But literally every HQ choice for the armored battlegroup is a vehicles. At first, I didn't even know if you could pick a tank to be a warlord. Emailed FW, and they had this to say.

"We will be updating the rules for the Armoured Battlegroup list shortly but in the meantime you can nominate one of your HQ tanks as the Warlord for your army."

So there's that.

But the question is, how do warlord traits interact with a vehicle warlord? I'd imagine most, like "FNP within 3" of an objective" will simply not work period, as you can't give a tank FNP (if only) Same would go for assault based traits.

But for example, the trait that makes your warlord scoring, would that still work? And traits that give your army benefits like the city move through cover ones would still work too right?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out which warlord traits would actually work for a tank, if any, or if it can even use warlord traits at all. If it matters, my warlord will probably be a commissar Leman Russ, which is just a BS 4 leman russ variant that has a LD 10 aura for all friendly IG units within 6" of it.

Thanks for any help you can give guys!

Atm RAW, only Bjorn can be a Vehicle Warlord.
Excluding that, anything that makes sense should work I suppose. Certain ones are a waste, and others are kinda bad, while some are just fine.

I have wondered the same, like for example when you get the one that makes all your units use the warlord's LD. Would this make say the armor fist squads ld - and thus immune to anything the causes you to use ld?

Yes, the Scoring Trait would still work.

Anything that can be applied to a vehicle would be applied as normal, others would still apply but have no effect.

It's probably best not to go with interpretations wildly out of scope with the other traits as written.
I doubt that making all of your units the functional equivelent to fearless is what they meant by 'may use the warlords leadership score instead of their own', so that one is probably one of the traits which doesn't play well with vehicles, since they do not have a leadership score. (which isn't quite the same thing as having a leadership score of -, though they are functionally equivelent in most cases)

The scoring one should work fine though, as should any that allow them to move through cover or redeploy.

Stroggified wrote:
I have wondered the same, like for example when you get the one that makes all your units use the warlord's LD. Would this make say the armor fist squads ld - and thus immune to anything the causes you to use ld?

Remember that a - would be a zero level characteristic. Hence they'd be leadership 0

Actually they simply wouldn't have a Ld. Vehicles don't have a Ld stat.

There is a big difference between Ld- and no Ld at all.

jdjamesdean@mail.com wrote:

 MrMoustaffa wrote:
So, was looking at taking the Armored Battlegroup list from Forgeworld for some fun games. It is hardly a face smashing codex, and really exists only to give you an excuse to take a ton of leman russes. The problem with the changeover to 6th is that now we have to have a warlord. But literally every HQ choice for the armored battlegroup is a vehicles. At first, I didn't even know if you could pick a tank to be a warlord. Emailed FW, and they had this to say.

"We will be updating the rules for the Armoured Battlegroup list shortly but in the meantime you can nominate one of your HQ tanks as the Warlord for your army."

So there's that.

But the question is, how do warlord traits interact with a vehicle warlord? I'd imagine most, like "FNP within 3" of an objective" will simply not work period, as you can't give a tank FNP (if only) Same would go for assault based traits.

But for example, the trait that makes your warlord scoring, would that still work? And traits that give your army benefits like the city move through cover ones would still work too right?

Basically, I'm trying to figure out which warlord traits would actually work for a tank, if any, or if it can even use warlord traits at all. If it matters, my warlord will probably be a commissar Leman Russ, which is just a BS 4 leman russ variant that has a LD 10 aura for all friendly IG units within 6" of it.

Thanks for any help you can give guys!

Atm RAW, only Bjorn can be a Vehicle Warlord.
Excluding that, anything that makes sense should work I suppose. Certain ones are a waste, and others are kinda bad, while some are just fine.

Samael can be on his land speeder and that's also a vehicle

There are several Warlord Traits that when rolled, are just useless. It's part of the game, and you just shrug and laugh it off.
A Few examples:

As a Necron Player, I have seen 'All models withing 12" use the Warlords Leadership' too many time, but I get to smile when my opponent rolls 'All enemy units within 12" use the lowest leadership'
Rolling 'Choose Night Fighting on First turn' when fighting against Dark Eldar
Getting ANY of the 'Within X" of an Objective' traits during a 'Purge the Alien Scenario'
Winning all those challenges for additional VP's when your warlord is a vehicle.
Trying to find out how to use 'Counter-charge in your deployment zone' against a Gun line, or 'Furious Charge in enemies Deployment zone' when playing a gun line.

It's just part of the game, you might get an advantage or you might not. If you're playing as if not having that Warlord trait is the whole reason you lost, then there really isn't help for you. If you LIKE to laugh at getting useless bonuses and would like to see more, then play Chaos Marines. Sometimes the boons you get are quite Pointless, and it shows that even Khorne can grant boons to show he has a sense of humor!

 Grey Templar wrote:
Actually they simply wouldn't have a Ld. Vehicles don't have a Ld stat.

There is a big difference between Ld- and no Ld at all.

While this is correct and RAW, If I might take a more RAI approach to this (purely my opinon here) There are many times where a vehicle leadership is in fact tested, one instance being GK psychic powers on vehicles. Very seldom do I see any other "Fake" characteristic than a 10 for vehicle leadership. If this wsa a HWYPI thread I would go with leaderhship 10 for vehicles as that is simply what I've always seen them with when it comes to tests. That being said, the RAW is Ld -.

 Timmy149 wrote:

jdjamesdean@mail.com wrote:


Atm RAW, only Bjorn can be a Vehicle Warlord.
Excluding that, anything that makes sense should work I suppose. Certain ones are a waste, and others are kinda bad, while some are just fine.

Samael can be on his land speeder and that's also a vehicle

There are also Chaplain Dreadnoughts for Space Marines and Bray'arth Ashmantle - Salamander Dreadnaught HQ from IA10. And let's not forget the Tank HQs for the Armored Battlegroup FW list that the OP mentioned he's using....

First of all, I'd say go with Forge World's "use a HQ as a warlord". They came up with the army and as other have pointed out, Bjorn isn't the only Potential vehicle Warlord. Now, as for which traits...

Most of the traits aren't well suited to vehicle Warlords. Command Traits 1-4 are pretty much useless. 5 is decent. "Your Warlord and any friendly units without 12" re-roll To Hit rolls of 1... at enemy units with 3" of objectives." Get some Leman Russ Exterminators close to your Warlord tank and watch a scoring enemy unit evaporate.

For Personal Traits, 6 is pretty much the only one you want: "Your Warlord is a scoring unit even if he is a vehicle." Although 3 gives your warlord Outflank. The idea of a Leman Russ popping out and surprising back-field enemy forces is a fun one.

Strategic Traits has a whole lot of good ones for vehicles: 1 gives vehicles Stealth (Ruins). 3+ cover save in ruins. Hard to go wrong there.
2. Night Attacker: I might only use this one if I was going second in order to deny my opponent any effective first-turn shooting.
3. Do Armoured Companies have any outflanking units?
4. Strategic Genius is decent.
5. Divide to Conquer is also good.
6. Princeps of Deceit is all right if you're deploying first, so you can avoid any first-turn sniping of your tanks by moving them out of the lines of sight your opponent painstakingly set up.

Unless you're really feeling lucky with for a roll on Command or Personal, I'd say Strategic is the table you want to be rolling on for a vehicle Warlord.

Yeah my question was just mainly if my vehicle HQ is a warlord, how would the warlord traits interact with them, as my store insists on using them (i honestly can't stand them)

Thanks for the clarification guys, helps a lot!

Most of the time they are useless anyway, and they are free, so its really no big deal.

I still roll them because they might be useful but I really don't care what happens with the roll.

You don't lose anything by rolling.

One of the traits says "bla bla bla count as scoring, even if it is a vehicle" I think.

I'll double check.

Edit - Personal Trait number 6.

"Your warlord is a scoring unit, even if he is a vehicle".

 kronk wrote:

 Timmy149 wrote:

jdjamesdean@mail.com wrote:


Atm RAW, only Bjorn can be a Vehicle Warlord.
Excluding that, anything that makes sense should work I suppose. Certain ones are a waste, and others are kinda bad, while some are just fine.

Samael can be on his land speeder and that's also a vehicle

There are also Chaplain Dreadnoughts for Space Marines and Bray'arth Ashmantle - Salamander Dreadnaught HQ from IA10. And let's not forget the Tank HQs for the Armored Battlegroup FW list that the OP mentioned he's using....

I think we are referring to non-IA stuff for now. And to those who say that Bjorn is the only vehicle warlord, Land speeders are vehicles too!

There is a debate whether or not The Master's Landspeeder is a character or not. Bjorn is definitely a character (per the FAQ). AFAIK those are the only two vehicle choices that use up their own HQ slot (with Bjorn being able to share one but that is irrelevant).

N.B. I am not trying to de-rail this thread with whether or not (Unique) vehicles are characters or not.

Oh I see. Because it does not specifically state that he is a character when the Master is on a landspeeder, it is subject to "speculation". Personally, as a DA player, I think that The master on LS should be a Character

 Timmy149 wrote:
Oh I see. Because it does not specifically state that he is a character when the Master is on a landspeeder, it is subject to "speculation".

Permissive rule set. The Landspeeder Samael does not have permission to be a character, unlike Bjorn.

Timmy149 wrote:Personally, as a DA player, I think that The master on LS should be a Character

O, that way madness lies.

 Timmy149 wrote:
Oh I see. Because it does not specifically state that he is a character when the Master is on a landspeeder, it is subject to "speculation". Personally, as a DA player, I think that The master on LS should be a Character

I agree that RAI (and definitely HIWPI) The Master's Landspeeder is a character and thus eligible to be your Warlord (assuming you do not have another HQ character).

However, in YMDC-land where RAW (no matter how silly they may be) is King...

 Timmy149 wrote:
Oh I see. Because it does not specifically state that he is a character when the Master is on a landspeeder, it is subject to "speculation". Personally, as a DA player, I think that The master on LS should be a Character

There's no speculation - the FAQ explicitly states that the only vehicle character is Bjorn.

Which is almost certainly an oversight; but for the moment at least it's a clear rule.