Black Heart Warlord Trait!

This isnt really much of a question or tactics or anything like that... I just wanted to say that I've taken black hearts warlord trait in my last tourney, and this recent game. In the tourney I rolled about 15 times...and at this last game, a whopping 23 times....for a total of...0 command points! thats right, I've failed 38 attempts at getting command points back.....

Next time, try with dice that actually have a 6 on them.

I've had fairly average results with it but it tends to be good game/bad game/good game/bad game, rather than averaging out over a single battle.

I'm not into it just for its own sake. I think we have access to some cool tricks to make the most of CP but playing with the index got me pretty accustomed to the power of even one re-roll per shooting phase, I don't really depend on a 13CP army that has a 1/6 chance of regenerating CP.

It's the only passive Kabal Warlord trait though so if you're not using your Archon as a beatstick you may as well.

Count Adhemar wrote:

I've had fairly average results with it but it tends to be good game/bad game/good game/bad game, rather than averaging out over a single battle.

Do you think it's still the best warlord trait if you have the option?

Soulless Samurai wrote:

Count Adhemar wrote:

I've had fairly average results with it but it tends to be good game/bad game/good game/bad game, rather than averaging out over a single battle.

Do you think it's still the best warlord trait if you have the option?

We tend to try to evaluate the efficiency of a rule/unit with it's meaned success probability. While it's not a bad way to do it, it tend to favorise units that perform ok all the time before units that can perform very well, or be a disaster the next game.

But we need the 2 kinds of units. A solid reliable core, with a pinch of random that can "explode" and change the game when needed. If it happens, it helps you, but if it fails, you still have a strong army to support your fail.

Now, the question is more "Even when you use strategy, are you more or less a luck guy?" If you don't like stratagems and weapon that can fail, but gives good results when succeed, this warlord trait is not for you.

Every time my Archon has used Soul Trap I seem to get that one back.

Had one hot game and a couple of really low success rates, along with some average luck as well. Usually you roll enough dice it is probably worthwhile most of the time.

In my last game with Black Heart I hemmed and hawed about spending 2 CP to do a counter-assault or whatever it's called. I finally decided to and proceeded to roll boxcars to recoup the CP. Haha! That worked out.

If you're up against someone who relies on stratagems a lot and has lots of CPs then it becomes more worthwhile to have Labyrinthine Cunning. Getting CPs back from opponents stratagems feels really nice for some reason.

I'm a huge fan of the Blackheart warlord trait. I don't often pick up extra CP - But when I do it feels great. The relief of knowing that you have enough CP to use Lightning Fast Reflexes really frees me up tactically.

In my latest game I played against a Harlequin army who had a similar warlord trait. I began the game with 14 CP, he with 12 CP. At the end of the game, we had generated a combined 24 extra CP for a grand total of 50 CP spend during 5 turns.

I’m trying to wean myself off BH. I feel so addicted to the 6+++ on vehicles and the CP recycling. It’s just too good not to take.

I've seen folks mention the power of Drukhari stratagems when used to "tempo" out your opponent, to use some magic the gathering lingo. We have so many stratagems that profoundly interact with the board (Fire and Fade, Lightning Fast Reflexes, Agents of Vect when used properly) that we can pretty much gush CP in the first 2-3 turns to try and put the opponent so far behind on forces that they can't catch up even with a CP advantage - being 10 CP behind doesn't matter when you have a 1k pts advantage on board in most matchups.

Labrynthine Cunning is INCREDIBLY good for this playstyle since you will inevitably spend tons of CP in the opening turns, and your opponent in turn is generally forced to spend CP to try and blunt your opener. Nowadays with double battalion armies everywhere it's not unusual at all to get 4-5 CP out of the trait, which is insanely good when you think about what that translates to in stratagems.

Also, it ends up being really stupid in the DE mirror where you get AoV flying around everywhere refunding command points to double dip on the trait, to say nothing of the ridiculous blowouts where your opponent uses a haymaker stratagem only to give you the CP needed to AoV it.

Hatred Eternal (I think that's the name - reroll everything on Archons) is really strong and was my first choice prior to the Bat/Brigade CP changes. If people start moving away from double bat/brigade bat type compositions or the CP changes to those detachments are ever nerfed, that becomes a lot more appealing.

I still use Hatred Eternal (or rather Famed Savagery, which is statistically a bit less powerful on average but has a higher top end) quite a bit, since not every game is a tournament prep game. In those games I find the lack of a babysitter Archon anchoring down my Ravagers to be very liberating.