Grey Knight Warlord Traits

Grey Knight Warlord Traits

The Grey Knight Warlord table sucks.  There's no way around it.  Let's take a look before we decide what we really want to roll on:

GK Librarian

1. Daemon-Slayer - Hatred (Daemons) and manifest Banishment on a 2+, Draigo has this standard.  Obviously great if you're playing against Daemons, but useless against everyone else.  You already have Preferred Enemy Daemons so hatred doesn't help you all that much and every unit has Banishment, but it might save you a few WC since you'll only throw 1 die at it.
2. Hammer of Righteousness - Hammer of Wrath for the unit, Crowe's default trait.  *Sigh*... I'm not sure what GW's obsession with HoW is.  It isn't exciting and probably isn't swinging any battles or matches.  Sure, it causes an auto-hit against invisible targets, but really, you're sending your warlord against an invisible unit?
3. Unyielding Anvil - Warlord and all GK units within 12" have stubborn, Stern's trait. This would be ok if it were all units, instead of just GK units.  Stubborn doesn't help out ATSKNF too much.  
4. First to the Fray - Warlord arrives first turn and re-rolls scatter dice. A decent choice, but I can't cont on getting this, so I have to spend the points for a comms and servo skulls, negating what this provides for the most part.
5. Perfect Timing - Warlord has counter strike.  This USR is conferred to the unit, which helps. The best trait on the table but the Command table from the BRB has this too and is a better table overall.
6. Lore Master - Knows an extra power from Sanctic.  For a non-Librarian, this is pretty cool.  A brotherhood champion with Vortex of Doom could be strong.  It will mostly negate Psychic Focus for me, so is in fact, not a bonus.  If you're taking the Domina Liber Daemonica on a ML3 psyker, you get 5 rolls on Sanctic.  Still pretty meh.

Even with a re-roll from the NSF detachment, there isn't much I even want from this table.  So we have two options -- rulebook tables or non-GK warlord.  The rulebook tables are much better than they were in 6th.  The Librarian is going to be on the front lines and, while durable, certainly is open to giving away a warlord point, so exploring our allies for warlord status may be preferred.

Normally, I love Strategic, but since you don't get a re-roll on the table it increases your chances of landing a donkey. Plus, many of the benefits of the table have already been built into my list construction to take advantage of the NSF.  So Strategic is a pass.

Personal is nice, a quick rundown

1. Counter-attack - GK are a low volume, high quality attack army.  You're vulnerable when you get charged, so this can negate that.
2. Furious Charge - Only applies to the warlord.  You have halberds and hammerhand if you really need it to increase strength.
3. Outflank - Hee-haw (that's my donkey sound), pretty useless in my opinion.
4. Extra VP for slaying characters in a challenge -The Librarian is a buff machine and shouldn't be put in harms' way unless you know you can win.  I'm not complaining though as you'll occasionally still pick this up.
5. FNP - Not unit wide, but still nice since it can be taken against wounds from perils.
6. Fearless and IWND - Much better than unyielding anvil above, just remember to roll for IWND at the end of the turn, I never do.

Command is better:

1. Friendlies w/in 12” use Warlord's Ld - The Librarian is Ld10, but most of the time there isn't going to be a lot of other units within 12" of you.
2. Enemy units within 12” use lowest Ld - Terminators can't sweep, so it lets the enemy get away from combat easier, but makes failing morale more costly since we'll be in the back lines.
3. Friendlies w/in 12” have Move through cover - Avoids dangerous terrain when deepstriking.  The army is relatively slow, so every little bit helps.
4. Friendlies w/in 12” add 1” run and charge - Excellent, always welcome for an assaulting unit
5. Friendlies w/in 12” re-roll 1s to hit shooting - Usually we're not shooting much, but every little bit helps, though not as good as...
6. Friendlies w/in 12” re-roll 1s to hit in assault - As stated above, low volume, high quality attacks need all the help they can get.

None of the options are terrible. I think I like them in this order 4, 3, 6, 2, 5, 1.  You don't get to re-roll so suck it up and take it.  It's the safest for ensuring it is at least somewhat worthwhile.

Another option is to make a Dreadknight the Warlord.  Nothing changes with the DK for the Strategic or the GK table, they still kinda suck for my army.  However, both Personal and Command become much better:

1. Counter-attack - That's a pretty ballsy unit to assault a dreadknight, but they're out there and this will give you your attack back.
2. Furious Charge - Does nothing as Dreadknights are already S10.
3. Outflank - Hee-haw, still shitty
4. Extra VP for slaying characters in a challenge - Ok, so very few models are going to accept your challenge, but that just means less models making attacks.
5. FNP - Ooooh, aaaah.  DK with FNP, no one wants you to roll this.  Your opponent will groan.
6. Fearless and IWND - Also great.  Fearless doesn't help too much, but IWND on a 4 wound model rocks.

So we've got 2 donkeys and 4 great options.  It's risky with no re-roll, but the payoff is superb.  The Command is mostly the same.  The DK but with the added mobility of the DK to help the range of the bubble.

Based on this, I think I prefer the DK as my warlord.  In a tournament, I'm rolling on command, but otherwise on Personal for the big payout and epicness.

The final option is to use an ally's traits.  The most common ally I'll be using will be the Inquisition.  Coteaz has PE(Daemons) so I'm almost never going to have him as warlord.  So the only real option is the Xenos Inquisitor.  I have two varieties - grenade toter or conversion beamer.


The Inquisition table has 3 common choice for all ordo:

1. Unquestionable Wisdom: Warlord and unit can choose to pass or fail any Morale checks - Not the worst one on the table, but I'm almost certainly re-rolling this for either type.
2. Reader of the Tarot: while Warlord is alive, roll 2 dice for Reserves, Outflank, myst. terr or myst. obj. - This will give you about a 98.77% chance of making every reserve roll.  I rarely ever play with mysterious objectives, but I would if I got this trait.  More chances to get skyfire or additional cover saves.
3. Burner of Worlds: Orbital Bombardment - Seems like a really good trait, but the downside is my grenade toter has to stand still to use it (but at least can still charge, so maybe I could string out my unit, but risk killing them with the scatter).  My beamer inquisitor could use this instead when the enemy gets close.

The Ordo Hereticus traits aren't great

Plus three unique traits per warlord.  Here are the Xenos traits

4. Xeno Hunter:  Warlord and unit have the Preferred Enemy(DE, Eldar, Necrons, Orks, Tau, & Tyranids)   when targeting any enemy non-vehicle units.  Great if I'm playing any Xenos for either of my inquisitors.  Although the beamer inquisitor usually wants to target vehicles, so it doesn't apply, but makes sure that any wounds sticks.  The grenade toter will pretty much already have these buffs.
5. Xenotech Collector Warlord has 6++ and one of the Warlord’s ranged weapons gains +1S and Rending - The grenade toter only has a bolt pistol -- S5, rending is fine, but won't affect much.  The beamer does benefit.  Most of the time you will be firing at targets 18"-42" so increasing it to S9, plus rending is a pretty big deal.  Increasing even the short range from S6 to S7 means it can threaten so much more.
6. Purity of Mankind: Hatred - My beamer inquisitor can't make use of this unless something went very wrong.  The grenade toter should already have this through zealot from the priests.

The grenade toter will be on the front lines with a henchmen squad or purifiers while the beamer will always be in a building.  Based on the analysis above, I don't think the grenade toter ever really needs the buffs or can make use of them effectively.  Also, he's in a really squishy unit.

The conversion beamer inquisitor will be a fine warlord rolling on the inquisition table (re-rolling 1 and especially 6).  Otherwise, the Dreadknight is my preferred warlord.

Adios Plague Drone