Vaaish wrote:
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So given that you're partly paying in activations, is it appropriately costed? Or do they pop up more in 4000 pt lists?
It's a tough call. You lose initiative which gives your opponent more freedom to move around. Most AMTL players try to get two objectives 30cm apart so the warlord can run in the middle and hold or contest both. They also have a pretty good amount of firepower they can put out. What usually happens is people ignore the warlord(s) and concentrate on reducing the easier to kill formations which leaves AMTL unable to prevent an opponent from contesting late in the game.
My experience is that larger titans don't usually put out enough firepower per turn to make up for the lost activations so you end up with the big titans sitting there rather impotently railing on a formation here or there while the rest ignore it and do what they want. That said they usually survive the game in pretty good shape and since titan firepower doesn't diminish as the game goes on they do end up doing more damage overall. They just don't feel like god machines on the field.
That's the impression I get (as an epic newbie who hasn't actually played with or vs AMTL, I hasten to add). When you buy a unit, you're buying firepower, mobility, resilience, footprint on the battlefield... and activations. Most people aren't buying 100 pt units because they have a desperate need for more sentinels (though they are useful). They're buying them as 100 point activations. Single warhounds cost more than pairs for this precise reason-- in that case you're explicitly paying for the activations.
As you're describing from your experience (again, this is purely theorycraft from my POV), it sounds like rather than being attack units, Warlords are essentially fire-support vehicles writ very, very large. They do massive damage, but you can't really use them effectively in assault or maneuver warfare or hold terrain.
So two questions: are the Warlords and Emperors surviving because they're marvelous at survival, or because they're not priority targets? (This includes armies underinvesting in TK weapons because very big titans aren't perceived as a threat.) Second, is their damage output sufficient to justify their points cost?
Anyway, this is pure uninformed meddling, but an interesting question.