Matter of Survival: The Leaders

Steel your resolve boys! Do not let yourselfs be intimidated by their numbers! We are the righteous fury of Sigmar! Burn them and spit on their churned corpses! Let them taste your steel! Let them feel your hate! Charge boys! In Sigmar's name! We are his hammer! Chaaaaarrge!

<hush> And i will wait right here, out of harms way. Who knows, maybe i'll even get a chance to take a decisive shot.

Fellow Gamers, it is about time that i give you some advice. Do not get me wrong cause i understand that some of you may already know these stuff. Nevertheless i'm sure that there is plenty of begginers or players for whom a road to succeed is an ordeal. Today they are my priority target. Today i will write about: Leaders.

Leaders  are not avatars of war. I wrote it and i mean it. Many players identifies themselves with their warbands Leader and expect him to lay waste in hand to hand combat. They equip their Witch Hunter Captain, or Skaven Assassin with impressive load of close combat gear and throw him into dense meele to kill and gain tons of XP. In most cases that has the opposite effect as the Leader is no Khorne's incarnation. If fortunate, a Leader may trigger a sense of pride, when fallen by couple of opponents, but usually he ends up begging for mercy, stabbed by a goblin or dragged down to his doom by a brainless zombie - kill with no XP for the killer is the worst kind of death.

Now you're probably thinking: 'so what now? What am i going to do with my useless Leader? Not leading at the front? How am i going to XP him?' Well you can always use him as a Zombie magnet if you know what i mean ;) But seriously, below there are couple of information that would help you keep your priceless Leader alive and advancing quickly.

1) Use Dakka.

If you only have the option to equip your Leader with a ranged weapon - do it. The more range the better, as you will need to keep him out of harms way for as long as it would be possible. You will also want him to gain some XP and shooting is the only way of doing so withount entering combat ;)

2) Take care of your head.

Keep in mind to buy a helmet for your Leader. It will not only make him look classy but it will make him shoot with higher frequency if opposed by a shooty warband. Helmet will also provide him with some protection in case of combat density where stunned means dead.

3) Shadow him.

Remember to keep a big bunch of a muscle around your Leader, just in case he'll get into trouble. If he falls onto the ground there's always good to have a strong arm to take him up and occupy opponent's carnivores or some unlucky random encounter.

4) Dig in.

Some Hired Swords and warband members have means to snipe out a Leader. If you face one of theese - make sure to hide your Leader until the danger has been averted.

5) Double barrel.

When a close combat eventually takes place, and it is inevitable, strike with your Leader at the last possible moment. Better to wait for something to roll under his legs, than risk stunning an opponent just for some dreg to sweep the XP before the boss. 

6) Don't play a hero.

If you decide to 'lead at the front' and buff LD through Leader's aura rule than consider putting him to the second line instead. This little trick will keep him secure for a while and still buff the rest of your fighters.

7) Wish him luck.

Buy a rabbit foot (Annual 2002) for the Leader after first battle, even if that means your warriors will eat their own shoes for dinner. 

This is it. Seven lucky rules that will help you make your Leader lucky enought that he may live to see another day. Oh, and as for the Undead who actually do not and cannot get any lucky a rule nuber eight:

8) Role playing game.

If you play the Undead and assuming your hero is still a Vampire - forget everything that you've just read. Fuck that crap, equip your bat with a halberd or a sword and mace, maybe a suit of armour and play RPG cause the Vampire is the toughest bastard in this game ;)

Nazroth,