There are a number of other officer units, these units however are formed of multiple models or in the case of the tank commander, a vehicle model.
For the majority of people the go to leader unit will be the Platoon command squad. This is probably the most versatile officer unit and, while only being able to issue one order, with the Master Vox it can issue the order up to 24 inches, giving you a large number of units that can receive orders. The ability to use stratagems on battle shocked units is also very useful, although the range is very small. The war gear abilities are also very useful, with the aforementioned master vox, the standard gives +1OC and medic 6+ FNP, which combined with a 20 man infantry squad can be a very powerful and hard to shift unit.
The Cadian command squad is very similar to the platoon command squad, with the exception of some wargear options and the ability to only join Cadian squads. The wargear abilities are the same, although it does not have the ability to effect battle shocked units, instead being able to ignore any dice modifiers the unit may suffer (apart from saving throws). If you’re running Cadian units, this is going to be your go to command unit with possibly Creed or a Castellan as warlord. I can see both command squads being run in armies for different reasons but a squad or two will be in pretty much every army.
The last command squad unit is Gaunts Ghosts. This unit is unable to join any other units, although it has the lone operative ability to keep it safe. However, it also doesn’t have any abilities, apart from being able to issue two orders that affect any other guard units. The unit itself has a couple of abilities that are useful and a selection of weapons but in reality I don’t see any reason to take this unit over either of the other officer units, apart from the obvious fun and fluff reasons for running Ibram Gaunt.
Lastly for the officer units we have the Tank Commander. Now, this is the only vehicle commander and if you want to run a vehicle heavy list or an armoured list, then you are going to need to take a few of these. The ability to order units up to 12 inches away is useful, as it means that you don’t need to keep your armour bunched up and the ability to shoot on death is also very useful and means that you can throw it forward when you know it going to die and get some useful extra shots out. Overall, it doesn’t compete with any of the other officer units apart from the Lord Solar, who is the only other office who can order vehicles. A Lord Solar and three tank commanders will be a very familiar sight within Armoured or Vehicle lists. Also if your taking just a Russ or two, they will most likely be Tank commanders.
Compared to the named characters, these using will be seen in every list, apart from Gaunts Ghost that is. The command squads are a staple unit in any list containing any infantry units and in most cases they offer more utility and versatility than any of the named characters.
There are also a number of other non officer, leader units that are more support character than actual command units. These models are most likely going to be attached alongside the officer units, to make use of their complimentary buffs.
The first unit actually breaks this assumption as the Commissar is actually an officer unit but due to the fact that it can only issue two of the orders it limits its usefulness as a proper officer unit. The main reason you take a commissar is for the battle shock buffs, being able to undo battle shock for a unit near by and also being able to re-roll tests for the unit its attached to is important in an edition where battle shock is important and very restrictive. While the unit has lost some of the versatility it had in previous editions, it is still an important unit and will be a feature in most lists running infantry blobs along side one of the command squads.
Another unit that will see a lot of play is the Primaris Psyker. Whilst psykers in general have lost a lot of versatility with the loss of many psychic powers, the Primaris psyker has retained what i consider to be into primary function within the guard, providing defensive buffs, in the form of an invulnerable save. Granting both a 4+ FNP against psychic attacks and a 4+ invulnerable save are going to keep your infantry squads hanging around for a long time. The witch fire attacks are really a secondary thing and will not be the primary reason for taking a primaris psyker in your army. This is definitely a key support character, the main question is do you take Commissars or Psykers?
The Preacher on the other hand is not such a great character. With his ability to give sustained hits in melee, you might attach him to a Catachan unit but his re-rolls ability only effects himself, which is not very useful when he only had a couple of weak attacks. If it granted the whole unit re-rolls it would be significantly better and might make him usable, as it is, he is completely outclassed but the other two supporting leaders.
Lastly in this section we have the Enginseer. You’re only ever going to take this unit when you have a number of vehicles or a super heavy. The ability to repair vehicle and give them a 4+ invulnerable save is going to be very useful, so much so that you may end up running multiple enginseerers. The fact that they gain the lone operative ability when near vehicles also means that you don’t need to bother with putting them in squads to keep them alive, just keep them near a vehicle and they’ll be fine most of the time. The vengeance ability is not overly useful, as you’ll be wanting to keep this guy out of combat as much as possible to keep him alive, however it could be useful in a last ditch Hail Mary charge.
From these support characters you will see more commissars and psykers than any others, as these are the best units here. Seeing large infantry squads running around with a command squad and either a commissar or psyker will be fairly normal i think and form the core of a majority of guard lists.
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