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Is it even allowed to have one? I was thinking of running 3 baneblades a my army. There is no rule to make a baneblade in a super heavy detachment a character like there is in the IK Lance rule. If all I want to use is that detachment can I do so without having a warlord or is a warlord required? I couldn't find a rule requiring that an army have a warlord or even who is qualified to be one. Any help would be appreciated.

Just as a side note the "Tank Ace" stratagem isn't available since it requires a character to be in the army already before you can access it.(see the paragraph above the stratagem in Engines of War.)

Leo_the_Rat wrote:
Is it even allowed to have one? I was thinking of running 3 baneblades a my army. There is no rule to make a baneblade in a super heavy detachment a character like there is in the IK Lance rule. If all I want to use is that detachment can I do so without having a warlord or is a warlord required? I couldn't find a rule requiring that an army have a warlord or even who is qualified to be one. Any help would be appreciated.

Just as a side note the "Tank Ace" stratagem isn't available since it requires a character to be in the army already before you can access it.(see the paragraph above the stratagem in Engines of War.)

You can make any model a warlord. It's just that they get a trait if they are a CHARACTER.

BRB, Page 238 wrote:Once you have mustered your army, select one of your models to be your Warlord. That model gains the WARLORD keyword. If your WARLORD has the CHARACTER keyword, they will have a Warlord Trait, which you choose now. Any Warlord can have the Inspiring Leader Warlord Trait (see below). Alternative Warlord Traits can be found in other publications.

Yep, concurred. Technically you could make the lowliest Grot / Nurgling / Ripper swarm your Warlord, even with loads of HQs floating about, if you want.
...I do seem to remember there being some characters out there that state if you include a particular model, they must be the Warlord - but can't find any examples. Were these ever a thing or am I going mad?

Thanks guys. It's amazing what you can miss with all the books out there (whodaguessed?).

 Super Ready wrote:
Yep, concurred. Technically you could make the lowliest Grot / Nurgling / Ripper swarm your Warlord, even with loads of HQs floating about, if you want.
...I do seem to remember there being some characters out there that state if you include a particular model, they must be the Warlord - but can't find any examples. Were these ever a thing or am I going mad?

You're thinking of the Supreme Command Detachment, where if you include that detachment the unit in it must be your WARLORD.

Ah, yes, I am, thank you. Which basically means if you want to take someone like Guilliman or Mortarion, you're paying CP for your main detachment and you're gonna pay 3CP more if you don't want them as the Warlord...

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You can make any model a warlord. It's just that they get a trait if they are a CHARACTER.

BRB, Page 238 wrote:Once you have mustered your army, select one of your models to be your Warlord. That model gains the WARLORD keyword...

One sad caveat is that the rules for fortification detachments forbid you from picking one of those as your warlord. Your army cannot be led into battle by a Skyshield Landing Pad

 Bilge Rat wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You can make any model a warlord. It's just that they get a trait if they are a CHARACTER.

BRB, Page 238 wrote:Once you have mustered your army, select one of your models to be your Warlord. That model gains the WARLORD keyword...

One sad caveat is that the rules for fortification detachments forbid you from picking one of those as your warlord. Your army cannot be led into battle by a Skyshield Landing Pad

Ah the good old days of 8th edition Indexhammer.

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You can make any model a warlord. It's just that they get a trait if they are a CHARACTER.

Pg. 251 (8) says a model with the character keyword must be your warlord (if your army has any).

 p5freak wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:
You can make any model a warlord. It's just that they get a trait if they are a CHARACTER.

Pg. 251 (8) says a model with the character keyword must be your warlord (if your army has any).

Good point, I guess if you're doing a Battle-forged army and not an unbound army it has to be a CHARACTER if you have any. I missed that. I guess if the ONLY model in your army is a Baneblade, it can be the Warlord.

Spore Lord!

Warlord Spore Mine! Denise any VP for it.

Doh... so it does need to be a character. Ok, Runtherd it is then!

So to me it seems the only ways to take a Battle-forged army without a Character Warlord are:
Non-Knight Super Heavy detachments
Taking the Land Raider Excelsior and Rhino Primaris

It just needs to be a character if you have any characters in your army. So, in my instance, I can select any of my Baneblades since there are no characters in my army. And my warlord Baneblade must take the "Inspiring Leader Warlord trait" since that is the only trait allowed to non-character warlords.

Leo_the_Rat wrote:
It just needs to be a character if you have any characters in your army. So, in my instance, I can select any of my Baneblades since there are no characters in my army. And my warlord Baneblade must take the "Inspiring Leader Warlord trait" since that is the only trait allowed to non-character warlords.

It won't, because it's not a CHARACTER so doesn't qualify for a Warlord trait. Yes, it says "any warlord can have the Inspiring Leader Warlord Trait", but it still needs to qualify for a warlord trait to get one.