After a weeks’ delay, welcome to part four of look at Warlord special rules. You can use these links to parts one (T’au), two (Chaos and Orks), and three (Aeldari and Tyranids) if you need to catch up, so let’s jump straight into it:

Necrons

Like their slow, methodical warriors, the Necron Warlord special rules are predictable and under your direct control. More so than any other faction, you can decide exactly when to trigger your special rule, choosing whether to attack now or sacrifice your robotic minions to enact your battle-plan.

Necron Warlord special rules trigger whenever one of your Necron cards ‘readies’. A very quick recap: Your cards ‘Ready’ whenever you choose to make an attack type which that card doesn’t have. Instead of doing nothing, it either boosts one of your attacks (the green arrow and effect) or lower an enemy attack (the red arrow and effect).

Having your cards increase in power each time they Ready can lead to some interesting tactics. For example, most factions try to deploy all three cards with the same attack type (i.e. all melee), so they get the most out of making their attack. But with Necrons, you can deliberately deploy one card which can’t make that attack type – raising its stats each round.

Another option is to consider making psychic attacks. As Necrons have no psychic cards, this causes all three to Ready, potentially outweighing the benefit you may have got from directly attacking this round.

However, to make the most of your special rule you need cards which are tough enough to stick around and use their boost. Fortunately, the Necrons have some very high Wound monsters, but you can also use cards with the Shielded or Distract trait (see here for more on traits).

The Necron Warlord special rules may not be as flashy as some of the other factions, but they can definitely make a difference over the course of a battle.

Space Marines

Space Marines fight in concert with each other – each unit type reinforcing and supporting the others – and through deploying in rapid, shock assaults. We reflect this by having each Space Marine card you deploy trigger a boost as it arrives on the battlefield (meaning you get a large benefit right at the start of the battle).

Currently, all three Space Marine Warlords boost the stats of your cards as new Space Marines are deployed (though future Warlords may do different things as cards are deployed). There are two types of this effect, either A) boosting stats of cards still in your hand, or B) only boosting stats of cards already present on the battlefield.

A) The only Warlord with this type so far is Captain Acheran, and the effect is simple – each Space Marine card you deploy increases his Wounds (whether he’s still in your deck or already deployed).

This makes him an ideal beginners Warlord, but the other Space Marine Warlords require a little more finesse to get the most from.

B) Each of the other Warlords only boosts the attack stat of Space Marines which are already on the battlefield when another Marine card is deployed. For example, you deploy your first card (which gets no bonus), then the second card you deploy gives that first card a boost, and then your third card gives both the first AND second card a boost.

These bonuses stack, so if you can keep a tough card alive while a string of other Space Marines are deployed around them, then over time that card can stack up a huge increase to one of its stats.

Conclusion

The final special rule post will cover the Servants of the Emperor faction, and also looks into how we select Warlords. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for new Warlords, you can get in touch through [email protected] or via our Facebook page.