40k: The Top 5 HQs in 40k
I got an e-mail on Imperius Dominatus asking what I think are the best HQ choices in 40k. So who do I think is the ultimate king of the tabletop? Well that’s a tough question to answer – but that never stopped me before.
I’ll throw my own 5 choices into the ring, though your choices may differ! So in no particular order:
Dark Eldar – Baron Sathonyx
The Baron is perhaps one of the coolest HQs in my opinion; he has a reasonable profile which is of typical D.E nature i.e low strength, high initiative and high amount of attacks.
The reason Baron is extremely cool is he is a nice little box of tricks; he gives stealth to the unit he is with along with offensive and defensive grenades – my Beastmasters really like Baron 🙂 . In addition the Baron makes Hellions troops and the unit of Hellions the Baron is with can re-roll dangerous terrain tests and hit and run initiative tests including how far the unit moves.
If that’s not good enough Baron helps the D.E army by giving +1 to deployment, just what D.E with them being the ultimate glass hammer army.
Baron himself is a tough customer, as he has a shadow field (gives 2+ invulnerable until fails), hellglaive (+1 strength) and his funky skyboard gives +2 strength when charging – that’s Baron bonking you on the head at S6 on the charge! This is where Baron shines as he can do hit and run and re-charge and be at S6 again, the ultimate tarpit unit.
Did I mention I like Baron Sathonyx?
If that’s not good enough Vulkan is a tough cookie. Basically he’s a normal Space Marine Captain, though has a 2+ armour save, 3+ invulnerable save, a heavy flamer and a master crafted relic blade – relic blades gives +2 strength.
Marneus Calgar eat your heart out!
Eldrad Ulthran
Eldrad is the ultimate Eldar psyker bad ass, though he has come down a peg or two thanks to 6th ed’s nerfing of psychic powers being used inside vehicles, but Eldrad has still got it! Eldrad can use three psychic powers per turn (if not in assault) and knows all of the Eldar powers, in addition he can use one psychic power twice!
Like typical Eldar, Eldrad is sneaky, after both sides have deployed, a player using Eldrad can nominate D3+1 units in their army and can re-position these units inside the deployment zone – handy if you’re going first.
To annoy people even more Eldrad forces enemy psykers to take psychic tests on 3D6 – anything over a 12 is a perils!
To add to Eldrad’s survivability he has a 3+ invulnerable save, 3+ save against perils of the warp, rolls 3D6 when taking psychic tests and discards the lowest.
While Eldrad isn’t so punchy in close combat, his funky staff wounds on a 2+ and ignores armour saves. Add in that Eldrad is WS5 and I5, though has a low number of attacks.
I hate Eldrad, the space elf is the ultimate mind-controlling d-bag!
* With the Eldar codex due for release soon it remains to be seen if Eldrad keeps his ultimate psyker bad ass self.
Abaddon the Despoiler
Abaddon is perhaps the ultimate close combat bad ass in 40k, after all Abaddon is the Warmaster. Abaddon has a mighty WS7 and I6, Abaddon sports two special weapons, one is a daemon weapon. If Abaddon charges and uses the Talon of Horus (S8 AP3 shred) then he will be knocking out 6 attacks. If using the daemon weapon it is possible that Abaddon could have an almighty 12 attacks at S5 AP2!
To give Abaddon some survivability he has a 4+ invulnerable save, eternal warrior and is also T5.
Not only does Abaddon like to own face but he likes to share the owning; all friendly models within 12″ have preferred enemy (Space Marines) – exceptionally handy if you are rocking loads of plasma.
Speaking of plasma, Abaddon makes Chosen troops, more plasma for you!
Behold the Warmaster and tremble!
Grey Knights Grand Master
The G.M has a typical Space Marine Captain profile, just comes in terminator armour, so nothing too fancy.
Like all Grey Knights the G.M is a mastery level 1 psyker and comes with the usual assortment of grenades plus a nemesis force sword. The G.M is very flexible in the wargear department and can have anything from additional psyker mastery levels, ranged weapons, different close combat weapons and even more grenades – rad grenades and psychotroke grenades are just evil!
The Grand Master shines by having a psychic power called psychic communion, this gives +1 to reserve rolls. Also, the Grand Master also had a funky rule called grand strategy. You roll a D3 at the start of the game before deployment and infantry, jump infantry, monstrous creature or walkers get a choice of the below roles:
Hammer of Righteousness – re-roll 1’s to wound for duration of the game.
So psycannons mostly need 2+ to wound, how about re-rolling them pesky 1’s? Or more importantly when you want to take something out with your force weapon?
Shield of Blades – counter-attack for duration of the game.
You think G.K might average in close combat because they have a single attack? How about with counter-attack?
Spear of Light – scout rule for duration of the game.
What do you think about scouting Terminators with an aegis defence line as a shield?
Unyielding Anvil – unit can claim objectives as if they were troops.
Or what about scoring Dreadnoughts or a Dreadknight? Useful if you’re not playing Big Guns Never Tire.
There you have it, the top 5 HQs in 40k in my opinion, now hit the comment box and let me here yours.
