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I find that I seem to festoon my Warlords with any gear that will keep them alive, then buff them for either shooting or cc, and they seem to be really pricey (150-200pts most often even in 1000 or 1500pt games). It seems a bit too much but when i look through I can't think of what to drop I need them all!!

But anyway, my question is; how many upgrades do you give any Warlords you take? Loads to make them super killy and tough, or not many in order to get more men/tanks in the list?

As with most stuff it depends on what your doing with your HQ and your army.

Ork warboss leading a charge. you probabaly wanna sink points in to him.

Eldar farseer just to cast powers. you probabaly don't need much else.

and there is a myriad in between.

what are you trying to do so we can give a better answer

Obviously there's no hard and fast Warlord equation, but it depends what you want to do with them basically.

Impossible question to answer, varies wildly amongst the armies and then even within a codex it depends what you want them to do.

My current Warlord is a cron OL, who has so many survival options (PS, RO, SW, Phylactery) plus MSS and a Warscythe is 220pts! It seems a bit much to me. My other army is orks so you could guess why I give my boss all the killy bitz


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In terms of that OL I want him to buff his squad, kick ass in challenges and survive so my opponent doesn't get a VP. The boss the same really

My personal preference is about 10% of what I am playing. 100 points for 1000 point games, etc.

I play CSM, and the HQ section is one of our strongest sections in the codex. Taking marked HQs to unlock special troops is a big deal, but I find that I want my warlord to do more than just buff my army. At lower point values that might mean just a lightning claw and a combi-plasma on a nurgle marked chaos lord, and higher point values it might be terminator armor, daemon weapons, and/or mounts like a juggernaut lord with an axe of blind fury. Or even a named HQ, lots of ours are amazing (Abbadon!!), but they all cost 160-265 points.

Certainly depending on your codex you might use your warlord in different ways, but most of the time its the one infantry model that you spend the most on, so you might as well equip him/her to do something for you. 200 points in a 1000 point game is probably hurting your army though. That's a significant number of infantry models that you can't take. In a 1000 point game in my army, (and I run plague marines which are very expensive troops) 100 points is some cool upgrades for my warlord or 4 more plague marines. Since with a 100 point warlord I only have 15 plague marines anyway, dropping to 11 is really bad. It works out differently for each army, but I am sure you get what I mean. Rarely do warlords do anything other than kill stuff for you, so don't make them so costly that you can't take enough troops to score the points that win the game.

Anyways, I think I have rambled enough for now. Let's see what other people think.

I tend to avoid sinking a crap ton of points into my warlord. His high target priority means those points are in more jeopardy than they would be otherwise. I prefer lean points-cost HQs that can hold their own, even if they aren't immortal or one-man wrecking machines. Vulkan is my preferred go-to guy.

I try not to exceed the cheapest unique HQ for my codex (unless its unusually cheap like Illuminor Szeras is for Necrons) in points cost.

For a lot of HQs, the unit you put them in can BE their survivability option. Take a Khorne Lord for instance...put him in a unit of 5 Berzerkers and you'll probably want to give him an invulnerable save. Make that a full size unit and he doesn't really need it...

Depends on each army and your play style.

GK Warlords tend to be very expensive, but very effective.

Eldar HQs are a bit of a mixed bag and cost a fair whack.

Orks and CSM HQs tend to be quite cheap and rather dangerous.

How long is a piece of string?

My IG commander takes no upgrades.
My rune priest takes no upgrades
My lord of change costs 300pts.

My warlord is a 100pt Librarian who rides in a rhino, casting Null Zone on things.

My planned Daemons Army is going to have a Bloodthirster in charge that costs 280pts, however.

However, my Librarian is there to provide support for my ranged firepower and help kill harder targets with Invulnerable Saves (such as Wraiths, Terminators, etc.), while the Bloodthirster's job will be to annihilate things in Close Combat.

As said, depends on army and playstyle, for myself:

DE
Archon - All decked out at around 170 points, huskblade, soul trap, etc.
Succubus - Only the weapon upgrade, most usually the venom blade. But then again, what else does she have to upgrade beside weapon?
Haemonculus - Liquifier if I could leave him behind, venom blade if the unit is expected to have 2 PTs(not counting drugs's PT) and I have those spare points lying about. Rarely anything else.

Necron
Overlord - MSS and SW are always for me, warscythe only when I'm going CCB or I know I need to prep for assault, res orb is high priority if I have him with warriors, but otherwise only when I have spare. The rest are spare points only.
Destroyer lord- MSS and SW as well, res orb only when I have spare points.

I don't think there is an answer to this. Azrael's cost is 215. I've seen him used to pretty brutal effect in even 1500 point lists. For a 500 point game? I think you may be better off paying for the cost equivalent in Rhinos w/o upgrades. At least then you'd get 12 Storm Bolter shots in and they'd have to go AT in a small game.

It really, really depends on your army and the size of such. I spend about 100pts on my HQ in an average game of DE or DA (1500+) and will slot 2 for my DA army (both Libbies, one in termie armor for re-rolls on shooting and one shielding my Dev Squad with a PFG and no other upgrades for re-rolls in the unit) and usually only take the necessary minimum 1 for my DE (basic Archon on a boat with my Kabbies to fill the slot and add a blaster roll at BS7 for good AT/ATermies). However, in smaller games, I typically run the same HQs (I'm trying to get 6th ed rules down and get to know my units before making up any lists that go *too* crazy) but in different ways.

I guess on that note (to offer a disagreement to my above statement) there are some standard HQs worth taking for certain armies. Librarian is incredible as far as DA are concerned, and very cheap to boot. I've run him around 3-5 different ways, and he's VERY flexible at 65pts base (yes, I have run him without upgrades, and he still works very well).

So can you make due with a basic HQ? Sure, absolutely. Can you upgrade him for a specific task like assaulting (In 6th ed?!) with terminators and making the enemy unit cry? Sure, absolutely. Can you just hide him in a corner under a rock to deny a possible VP to your opponent? Sure, absolutely.

Mali wrote:
Ork warboss leading a charge. you probabaly wanna sink points in to him.

Surprisingly, even tooled out extensively, the Boss tends to be pretty cheap.

With Mega Armor, Cybork, and attack squig, he's 125. With the Bike, Cybork, and Klaw, he's 135. The former is a T5 badass that always hits at S10, has a 2+ save and 5++; the latter is a T6 badass that always hits at S10, has a consistent 4+ cover save and 5++.

 EmbracetheChaos wrote:


So can you make due with a basic HQ? Sure, absolutely. Can you upgrade him for a specific task like assaulting (In 6th ed?!) with terminators and making the enemy unit cry? Sure, absolutely. Can you just hide him in a corner under a rock to deny a possible VP to your opponent? Sure, absolutely.

This!!!

Especially in the newest Codex.

You can take an Autarch with all the trimmings, but I bet a buffalo nickel that he won't be as useful as a Farseer with Guide and Prescience.

As everyone indicates, there is no hard and fast rule. It varies between codexes, it varies within a codex, and it even varies depending on what else is in your army. It's impossible to say "Well you should spend exactly X points!"

To add an example. In my Tau army, my crisis commander is close to 200 points (including his drones). But his role is to stand up front of a large unit and tank incoming fire, so I need him to have Iridium at least, which is an expensive upgrade, amongst other options he needs for his role within his unit. In smaller games I tend to run an Ethereal instead, and he gets absolutely nothing and runs dirt cheap. I hide him as best I can and use the saved points for other things.

The best way to work it out is to do it yourself. Pay particular attention to your warlord in games and what happens to him. Take note of which pieces of wargear are used regularly and/or make a big difference, vs which are used rarely or don't make much difference at all. Remove the stuff you don't need, add stuff which is really useful in your list. These things vary depending on how you personally play your army.

Too add to the chorus: there's no rule for HQ points. If I had to be put on the spot, I'd do it this way, identifying three types of HQs (on the whole)

1. The support HQ
This is your typical HQ that grants an ability or abilities that add vital synergies or powerful buffs to the army. A SM libby is a good example of this. You use it to get psychic abilities (most commonly GoI or Null Zone), which are exploited to do increase damage output to an enemy. In the same vein

Support HQs are typical run on the cheap; you only pay for the one ability you need.

2. The Brute HQ
This is something like Daemon Prince. It costs a lot but can really mess up an army. This unit normally doesn't go with a specific unit, rather it goes off on its own and lays waste.

Brutes are typically Quite expensive. This makes sense, as they are doing a lot of the work in the list, and have to be VERY potent in order to survive the hate their going to get.

3. The Synergy HQ
This HQ makes an army better. In many ways, it becomes the lynchpin of the list. This can take many forms. Sometimes its the actual damage dealer of the list (like a farsight bomb) other times it provides massive buffs that helps lists tailored to exploit the HQ (Vulkan He'stan).

The Synergy HQ (and w/e retinue it may take) usually fill a specific role. This doesn't have to be the same role every game (a warboss, for example, has the wargear and options to fill multiple roles, and can take nobz to help increase his efficiency).

Synergy HQs are all over the place on points cost. The farsight bomb can be 60% of a list, whereas vulkan could be a mere 13 or so.

That's as much a system as I'd be willing to put down on paper. I still don't really feel comfortable with only three slots, but overall I think this is a good start.

Really cant justify the average cost of your HQs it depends on race/tactic.

An HQ can cost between 50pts (cheapest i know) to over 300+. Some are legitimately a deathball on their own, others are "i need an HQ still" type choice.

This is a huge generalization, but the more combat-oriented the warlord, the more you're going to want to throw points at them. Of course you never want to *waste* points but you shouldn't cheap out where it's necessary.