Being a new player, I must say my opinion doesn't carry much weight, but I'll toss in my thoughts anyway.
I regularly field a Reaver in a 3K SM list. Makes a great BTS (as noted) and usually (though not always) forces my opponent to "deal" with it -- if they ignore it, one round of shooting from it will generally make them re-think that decision fairly quickly. It's pretty good at making units go away or at least piling on the BMs.
Plus...I just like the way it looks. I have a Warhound (the non-FW variety) and I'll be honest, part of the reason I haven't put it on the table yet is because it just looks...dumb. Really, GW? Dog-heads? Overdose on bad 70s Japanese action shows or what?
Having said that, I don't own a Warlord mini so I haven't tested it. I have to agree that for just a few more points (well, in "Epic terms" anyway) the Warlord does have some tasty upgrades over the Reaver -- and once I lay hands on a Warlord mini I'll test it out. Maybe I'll prefer it even with the higher cost...but I'm thinking with the cost of the Reaver already so high I won't be able to squeeze out the points from somewhere else in my list to do the Warlord with as much "list synergy" as I have now (which ain't much, mind you, but being new I have to take every little bit I can claim!).
So I guess in some ways, the points cost is also a factor.
But the REAL reason I play a Reaver? Because I want to. Titans are what drew me to Epic in the first place. In fact, when I started researching non-computer games to pick up as a new hobby (I'm a network engineer and man I NEEDED a hobby that didn't involve starting at an LCD panel for even MORE hours a day) the CONCEPT of Epic -- and the ability to play these hulking god-machines of war stirred my imagination. After hitting the local hobby stores and finding out the number of Epic players locally was very, VERY low I decided to pick up 40K instead. I don't regret it, I love me some 40K, but I finally hooked up with good group of Epic players here locally so I now I get to do both. I consider Epic to be my "fluffy" army list game, and have built my list around stuff I
like and less around list optimization concepts (I have 40K for that, thanks!). So: long story short: I like Titans. I have a Reaver. Therefore, I field a Reaver. I've yet to lose it in a game, but it's never won a game for me, either. YMMV.
