Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Renegades And Heretics (section)

===HQ===
The Renegade HQ choices are all fairly reliable, and comparable to their Astra Militarum counterparts in most ways (and not in our favour), however they are fragile when compared to, for example, a SM Captain, and lack any form of save better than a 4+. Always keep them next to someone else and they can score a few choice hits in melee and maybe make a difference if given the opportunity.

* '''Renegade Commander:''' A Traitor Astra Militarum Commander with no orders. No longer required to be a Warlord for the Covenants. They are absolutely necessary for an aggressive CC army due to a new Aura buff: the old Fanatic rule has been repurposed to let your dudes within 6" ignore modifiers in attrition tests. 5++ is their best save, but 4W 3A 3+ BS/WS on a guardsman statline is lackluster, so if you absolutely want to do glorious battle, make sure you charge anything weak enough for your squad to kill before it can strike back. In fact, just stand nearby and shout if you don't want to die to Guard Bayonets!, Fire Warrior pistols or that tank gunning you down in melee.
* '''Malefic Lord:''' A Traitor Primaris Psyker with a worse statline, no weapons, no powers sans Smite but with a 4++. If he perils and survives he gets massive bonuses to his (otherwise nonexistent) melee, but wounds lost to perils (and no way to restore them) usually mean he dies before getting any good melee off. Rogue Psykers are better casters but die faster due to not being Characters. Both are bad.
* '''Rogue Psyker Coven:''' Now cost flat 35pts per squad, which is pretty good for 15 wounds. They know only Smite and are pretty bad in any form of non-psychic combat, with only a 5++ to their name. Choir of Chaos lets them eat d3 MWs in exchange for d3 bonus to a psychic test, which makes these guys better than a Lord of Change at Smite spam. As long as you avoid lasguns and bolters that is. They have covenant access like anything else, but it's wasted on them because they absolutely suck in close combat.