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Primarily talking about Guardian defenders here. If I take a 10 man squad, taking a Warlock will raise the price of each model by about 3 points for the Shrouded special rule; I didn't say 3.5 because I get another body (with a 4+ inv. save) to my total.

Of course, I think Warlocks are well worth it in 20 man squads, but I'm not running 20 man squads.


So in a 10 man squad, if I have a conceal warlock, and hiding behind ruins, my guardians get a 2+ cover save. If I am hiding in a crater or a forest, they get a 3+ cover save. Pretty good, I think. What do you say?

Well, it depends. If the Guardians are mounted in a Serpent, then a Warlock will not be necessary since you can deploy the Guardians when and where (cover) you want them.
On ther hand, if the Guardians are used to hold an objective, then conceal will be quite useful since Guardians tend to run away when they face some casualties.

I don't think they are worth it;
-LD8 will cause that Conceal to fail sometimes, and
-if you spend another 16 points more you could get an extra troop squad (WJS) next to those guardians.

Darn, I forgot they were LD8. Darn it darn it darn it. Why GW why? Why make Farseers LD10 but Warlocks only LD8? They're like the worst psykers out there in terms of leadership. And Eldar are supposed to be good psykers! If he were LD9 he would also have a nice side effect of raising the squad's leadership too as long as he were alive.

I agree with NIv, I have never been impressed with adding a lone warlock to any guardians. Ld8 not only hampers psychic tests, but 1 wound means a single perils and that is that. Since conceal works on the warlock, double 1's kills em and the power goes away. A witchblade is cool, and a singing spear is nice if it gets into range but it comes at a premium.

Now, say they were Ld9, came with a slightly better stat-line, another mastery level and wound, maybe even a slightly better melee weapon. I would pay double what I pay for a warlock for such a unit!
And that unit is the spiritseer. If you have the HQ slot, spiritseers are superior to warlocks in every situation unless you want a jetseer council. Leadership that matters, the ability to join ANY squad, 2 warp charges and access to telepathy, better stats and a much cooler(but still 1 handed) witchblade that causes soul blaze. They also unlock wraith troops and can throw out a spirit mark. All for the price of 2 warlocks.

The only reason I take a lone warlock is to guard a support battery(and then only if I could not put a spiritseer there).They work great with conceal, but fearless and +1 armor save can be amazing depending on your enemy.