40K: The Yarrick Conundrum
The Hero of Hive Hades has a very peculiar rules issue with his “default” Warlord Trait.
Now that we’ve covered the Warlord Traits of the Astra Militarum, Stable Abe pointed out something to me that was pretty silly. It involves the most iconic Commissar of the Imperium: Commissar Yarrick.
The issue starts with Name Characters and Warlord Traits:
If Commissar Yarrick is your Warlord, he must have the Master of Command Warlord Trait.
So what is Master of Command?
Sweet right? Commissar Yarrick gets “Voice of Command” so that means he can issue orders, right? Not exactly…
Now, that is technically the Voice of Command rule from the Index, not the Codex – but they are identical. Notice anything funny?
The Order may only be issued to Infantry units within 6″ of this unit that have the same Regiment keyword as this unit.
“OKAY – what’s the big deal?” The problem is Yarrick doesn’t have a Regiment keyword.
Officio Prefectus is a keyword denoting that this unit is part of the Advisors and Auxilla – which is to say that this unit can be included in an Astra Militarum detachment without preventing the other units from gaining a Regimental Doctrine. (Normally, all units in that a detachment must be of the same Regiment to gain access to the Regimental Doctrine.)
If Officio Prefectus is a Regiment (I don’t think it is), then the only models that fall under that category are other Commissars. Which, hey, I guess is cool…
On one hand, this seems like a pretty silly oversight. Commissar Yarrick would be a better Warlord option if he had any of the other 5 “generic” traits. Master of Command is literally the ONLY trait that grants him an ability that doesn’t add anything to the tabletop. On the other hand, there is a VERY simple work around for all you Astra Militarum Commanders out there – Don’t take Yarrick as your Warlord. I’m hoping you can scrounge up 30 points in your list to add a Company Commander who can be your Warlord instead.
Oversight or not, it’s a shame that the Hero of Hive Hades will be relegated back to the support role of a Commissar. He does bring some pretty great buffs to the board and he’s tough to kill. I’m not saying don’t take him in your army – I’m saying one of your other HQs should probably get the Warlord Title for the game.
Alas Poor Yarrick…
