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Guardians need the ability to attach a warlock and a wraithguard to their unit for support. These troops are supposed to bolster the lines. I imagine them mixed in. Adding their punch and abilities where needed. Not just operating in isolated units. They exist to help the line troops.

Ehhhh, that's really unlikely to happen, even from a proposed rules standpoint. The warlock things has precedence but wraithguard are harder to justify IMO. The other issue is that their weapons don't mesh well at all. They may have similar ranges but Wraithguard are best against armoured targets while guardians want to target chaff/light infantry. More importantly this makes stratagems really wonky when it comes to keywords and what gets affected by what. I would rather see more options for guardians than haphazardly shove in models with completely different stat lines and rules into their unit when there isn't much reason, both in-game and fluffwise. Also, the whole point are that guardians are the support for the heavy hitters, which are the elite (i.e. wraithguard), you should look the FOC as a whole and not just the guardians as a completely separate entity.

Mostly agree with Grimskul. Mixing a third toughness value into a squad of guardians (second being a weapon platform) feels odd and impacts the way the unit behaves a lot. Plus, scraping together enough seers to wrangle wraith constructs into position is hard enough when they're concentrated into a small number of units. Keeping track of all the robot ghost grandpas would be infinitely more difficult if they're sprinkled into all your millitia units.

That said, I do like the idea of warlock "sergeants" making a comeback. Possibly with fewer wounds than a character warlock (and a lower price tag to match). Currently, the rule of 3 and limited HQ slots make it tricky to play a classic "guardians with warlock support" type of list.

Maybe even give them "runes" instead of psychic powers? Runes would always be in effect but also be less powerful than full on psychic powers. Sort of a throwback to how warlocks used to work. Currently, warlocks are strangely prone to exploding due to perils and taking a big chunk of the craftworld's population with them.

Plus, I just kind of miss the feeling of a warlock dedicated to a given unit.

Wyldhunt wrote:
Mostly agree with Grimskul. Mixing a third toughness value into a squad of guardians (second being a weapon platform) feels odd and impacts the way the unit behaves a lot. Plus, scraping together enough seers to wrangle wraith constructs into position is hard enough when they're concentrated into a small number of units. Keeping track of all the robot ghost grandpas would be infinitely more difficult if they're sprinkled into all your millitia units.

That said, I do like the idea of warlock "sergeants" making a comeback. Possibly with fewer wounds than a character warlock (and a lower price tag to match). Currently, the rule of 3 and limited HQ slots make it tricky to play a classic "guardians with warlock support" type of list.

Maybe even give them "runes" instead of psychic powers? Runes would always be in effect but also be less powerful than full on psychic powers. Sort of a throwback to how warlocks used to work. Currently, warlocks are strangely prone to exploding due to perils and taking a big chunk of the craftworld's population with them.

Plus, I just kind of miss the feeling of a warlock dedicated to a given unit.

Warlocks are already 2 wounds.

No, I think attaching a whole Warlock (or having them available as a squad upgrade) is probably fine.

I think having Warlock sergeants would be perfectly fine but I'd maybe suggest letting them cast the same power between the units so they all actually do something.
For example that lets you cast multiple conceals on guardians so they actually benefit from their psyker and it lets you try a more psychic support dependant army as you can actually have...psychic support... on more than about 2 units.

The guardians shouldn't have ever had warlock sergeants.

Warlocks are not the command structure of the guardian hosts.

Guardians have their own sergeants in the form of ex aspect warriors.

What they should be doing is giving us an actual command structure for guardians, with autarch at the end and various ranks in between.

Warlocks are separate to that, supporting the host. Not leading it.

Hellebore wrote:
The guardians shouldn't have ever had warlock sergeants.

Warlocks are not the command structure of the guardian hosts.

Guardians have their own sergeants in the form of ex aspect warriors.

What they should be doing is giving us an actual command structure for guardians, with autarch at the end and various ranks in between.

Warlocks are separate to that, supporting the host. Not leading it.

Well, the farseers and autarchs are working in tandem to lead the host, but the warlocks are sort of like a psychic vox/auspex receiving orders and scrying relevant futures in their corner of the battlefield. Plus, they offer some extra support for the relatively untrained guardians.

So it's not that warlocks are literally sergeants, but they are that guy attached to your squad that conveys your orders and carries specialized gear. Also, if I'm not mistaken, all warlocks were aspect warriors before walking the path of the seer, so... If you want a "sergeant" for guardians who used to be an aspect warrior, warlocks fit that description.

Personally, I kind of miss mixing warlocks into guardian squads. It felt fluffy to see the craftworld making an effort to bolster their relativley unprepared troops. HQ character warlocks are fine, but it's pretty rare for me to feel compelled to Protect or Conceal a guardian squad rather than Jinxing some enemies or using the Protect on some aspect warriors.

The "sergant" moniker is misleading. They're specialists. They see the future (kinda-sorta-badly), and provide direction. But they are not in command.

The squad of guardians is positioned in a ruins as all hell breaks loose with titianic knights clashing and volleys of prism fire, D-weapons and missiles scream across the battlefield.

"Which way warlock? What do we do?" says guardian as 2 of his mates have their heads exploded by high powered rifles from a distance 3 times the range of the catapults.

"what now!?.. Warlock?? Warlock!?"

Warlock cats his runes and says:

"I feel the threads of fate pulling this way" He says pointing in the direction of an open field to the right of the ruins devoid of cover.

"Follow me men!" Says the guardian as 5 of his comrades drop immediately as they step out of the ruins.

"Now what warlock!? We cant stay here!!"

"I need time to cast my runes.. you cannot rush fate my child...Be calm and feel the strands of fate" says the warlock as 3 more guardians die and the platform they have been sheltering behind evaporates..




I mean...