Fallout Wasteland Warfare Leader & Perk Tier List v5

LEADER & PERK CARDS TIER LIST v5

From the Force List PoV, there's a mighty big rule about these: You can only have one, and it has to be on your Leader - note that this doesn't apply to Heroic, which can be on as many models as you want even if it is expensive. In the Settlement rules, you can only equip them to Unique models, no units. What this means is that in my review, the card has to pull its weight all the time, every time. No faffing about with 'it might be good if...' and definitely no respect for background or RPG elements, despite how characterful many of these options are.

But first, before all of the other Leadership cards in the game, the big bear in the room...

HEROIC

Heroic is expensive at 60 freaking caps. But is it worth it? Well, yes - but only on the right models! The roll at the start of the turn will give your model (on average) at least 3 AP during a 6-turn game, with a decent chance at 4 - Actions fuel the game, and Heroic also gives all three options as Quick Actions. The bonus Health is welcome. And the combination of Criticals and Luck will turn them into a nuke or a tank or both, depending on your needs.

But when picking Heroic versus one of the other Leader cards you have to leverage it properly and get everything you can out of it. That means picking a model that's relatively cheap, quite tough and has high combat stats even before equipment (Heroic models are massive targets and expensive enough as it is!), decent LUC stat (3+ at least) so they can flip often (since it's random you'll want more chances to trigger it), and by preference don't already have access to Criticals or any of the Quick Actions other than Prepare (so you're not wasting extra points). Remember, there are Chems which give access to Lucky and Criticals at a MUCH cheaper price point than Heroic if you just want to enhance a model with one or the other.

You also want to look for a weapon which has a 2, or at most 3, Critical meter, and try to avoid weapons which have restrictions like the Combat Shotgun. You'll want to leverage that bonus Damage and/or extra Dice as often as possible. I'm not saying DON'T pick a 4-count weapon EVER, but be aware that the previous Weapons Tier lists get shaken up a bit when you take Criticals into account.

What models will do well? Well, each faction has a few but the Institute.

SURVIVORS
All of the Sole Survivors, of course - with the added benefit of passing it onto a friendly Dogmeat, letting you amortize that massive cost across two models instead of one, and getting even more Quick Actions as well! Mama Murphy has high LUC as well, but you'd probably be better off with a Daytripper/Beloved at the same cost to let her friends use her LUC instead. Cait has high LUC, and will definitely benefit from all the other options Heroic brings. Hancock's up there, especially with how cheap he is, but his weapon selection is so limited...

SUPER MUTANTS
Brutes or at most Masters, and probably Brutes. Hammer's also a strong option, and while he's pricier than a Brute with a Lead Pipe thanks to the Super Sledge being stapled to him, he'll do well with it too. I feel like there's better options for Leadership cards for Super Mutants, though...

BROTHERHOOD OF STEEL
Paladins, Knight-Captain Cade, and Danse are solid choices here - I'd go with Cade over the others as he's cheaper than the other two and still has solid options and a lot of good use on the table.

RAIDERS
Veteran Raider or Avery - of the two, probably Avery, as Vet Raiders can get pricey anyway and her Rifles 8 is pretty tasty.

INSTITUTE
Don't. As of yet, no decent LUC models exist for this faction, and Conrad Kellogg already has access to Criticals.

LEADER CARDS

As before, the tier list isn't definitive - the only really garbage ones are D-tier, but the rest are just not that far apart from each other. The top ones, though, are more generally useful than the lower ones, which require specific builds to take advantage of.

These are also more quickly done, and will rely on you looking at the cards themselves to fully understand what I'm talking about - fortunately you can download them for free.

RANK A

BLITZER (4 Caps)

Swiping the Advantage Marker once per game is pretty nasty and you do it with full knowledge; games . The Aura is handy if you build your force for it, but Pistols aren't favored ranged weapons by a lot of models... except, of course, the Institute! At four measly Caps, if you can't think of anything else to buy on this list, Blitzer will NOT go wrong for you.

 

BRUISER (13 Caps)

Making Heavy Weapons even more accurate is just great; a Walked Fire weapon could benefit quite a lot from this with the multiple hits. You're already investing a LOT of Caps into any Heavy Weapons model; for 13 more adding a green die to every shot taken is NOT a bad investment.

 

The second ability is iffy; yes, it's promising, but Slow Firing weapons don't flip their token until the model activates so it's not gonna give 'em a free Missile when removed. But in melee, a free swing is never a bad thing... I say it's actually solid.

 

CONTROLLER CREATURE/ROBOT (5 Caps)
This lets you basically change factions to Creature or Robot, and gives buffs to friendly models in an Aura. Solid, if you want to try playing those as competitive.

COMMANDER (18 Caps)

Giving an AP to up to two friendlies nearby (other than itself) a turn is actually really great - even better if they can leverage it for something other than a Reaction token. The second ability really only comes in useful against Super Mutants; Battle Cry isn't all that common. Going down in price cinched this as one of the better Leader cards.

HUNTER (10 Caps)

Adding Green to Long-range Rifle rolls? You had me at "Gauss Rifle headshot whaaat?" Oh, wait, it also enhances friendlies' Awareness? Yes, this one is good, especially with how it's cheaper than Reflex Sight Mods... or stacks with it.

STALKER (8 Caps)

The Green die add is slightly worse than the Mod Superior Materials, but the Aura effect could come in very useful in the right team build - say, on Hammer and some Suiciders?

THIEF (7 Caps)

Buffing the Lockpick skill is pretty good, if situational; but the second ability is pretty good for a Leader-type objective runner (SST or Piper come to mind). Movement does not equal a Trigger, and your Reaction token is useless? Sign me up for 7 Caps!

RANK B

DEFENDER (28 Caps)

Whoof, this is more expensive than the Commander one, and does basically the same thing for mook models - handing out free Reaction tokens to nearby friendlies (other than itself). The advantage is that it increases Physical and Energy Armor for the carrier, which is much better than resisting Battle Cry. On some models like Lancer-Captain Kell I could see this paying back the points and more.

 

FUSILIER (12 Caps)

Bonus Green to Rifles at Short range is... always good. The second effect, though? Letting a nearby friendly bum a SPECIAL stat for all its Actions? "Why, yes, I can see that you'd like PER 8 to shoot that Super Mutant in the face..." It's more expensive than Hunter, and really requires a solid Presence stat to use well, but definitely versatile.

TECH (9 Caps)

Oddly enough, the first part isn't too helpful; it's the +3 LUC that make this a top-notch card. Plenty of models with Lucky only have 2-4 LUC, and for 13 Caps doubling that stat is a bargain! Even worth adding on top of Heroic if you want to stack even more defenses on a model. 

SKIPPER (15 Caps)

An interesting card; gaining buffs for having large teams activating is pretty good, especially if you're playing a big pack of cheap models with one big hitter. On some models, like Kellogg in a Synth Grenade heavy list, this could pay back in spades. 

WASTELAND SEARCHER (5 Caps)

Search is a pretty common Expertise check, but a lot of models have lousy SPECIALs for it, so enhancing it is actually pretty good for 5 Caps. The other effect of fishing for better Item cards is never bad either, but it does mean your Leader has to be the one pulling it. Honestly? This one is solid, just for the price point.

RANK C

BERSERKER (8 Caps)

Adding Orange Battle Cry in an aura? The thing is that BC is a double-edged tool; if the Skill isn't high enough your target can actually move out of range and you just wasted your charge. Also, there are a fair few Immune models. It might be good, but you need to pick the right models for it. The Strong Armor token is nice though.

 

BODYGUARD (12 Caps)

The SPECIAL stat increases might let nearby almost dead models swing for more damage before getting taken off the table - not bad, but not wonderful either. Adding a yellow dice to Pistols, though... Yellow dice are the worst, but it's still not bad. Not good though.

CO-ORDINATOR (18 Caps)

What this does is give more movement to your forces; 2" of movement for free may not SOUND like a lot, but when spread across several models within LoS it's actually not too shabby and lets you reshape the battlefield quickly. The more models you have, and the more open the terrain, the more useful this is. The Aura isn't too great; AP doesn't come up all THAT often, but the first ability could be quite useful.

DWELLER (8 Caps)

Holding an Action until later turns... actually could be useful. It doesn't CREATE any new action economy, though. It is cheap, and might come in handy, but compared to Blitzer which is almost guaranteed to come in handy?

SELFLESS (5 Caps)

A Bodyguard one - taking a hit for a soft friend, along with buffing Int, usually means the model is escorting squishy objective runners. A bit pricey, but not terrible; the main problem is that there are some really good Leader cards. 

TACTICIAN (18 Caps)

This does two things: Obscure LoS to your leader when enemies are trying to draw it through their own models, and artificially decrease your model count for purposes of Advantage. The main problem (other than being expensive!) is that to use the Advantage friendlies have to be within 2", and clumping together like that isn't always a great idea. Not a bad Leader card, though, especially for the Enclave which rewards clumping up anyway! 

VETERAN (13 Caps)

Of all the stats to increase, Health is definitely the best (unless the model Shoots or Expertise with it!) Increasing Battle Cry Resist is only mediocre though.

WRESTLER (7 Caps)

This should be called "Bully", as it's what you're doing - giving a Purple Nurple to some nerd and hoping they don't actually hit you back. Since it only triggers when the model is engaged with ONE other model, and actually makes you easier to hit too... I find it hard to like this one. But with the right model, in the right matchup, it could do terrible, terrible things.

RANK D

BELOVED (16 Caps)

Honestly this is pretty marginal. Few models have high enough LUC to share it out, even if they're Lucky, and the second effect is mediocre, as it only gives out 1-4 Reaction Markers to most factions. I already mentioned Mama Murphy, but even then... there are other options.

BRAWLER (10 Caps)

Oh look! Adding a Yellow to a melee weapon! And +2 CHA, the least-used Attribute in the game! Feh.

GATHERER/PROCURER/TECH CHIEF (15/15/17 Caps)

These are all the same thing, and they're all mediocre. Letting a model copy one of the three Expertises off an unegaged Leader? And picking from three different marginal effects? Except in some rare situations, these are bad. Even Tech Chief's 'free' mods aren't free - why not just buy the Mod you need?

GRENADIER (4 Caps)

Don't. Grenades are not great, and these don't enhance them in the way they need. Buy more Grenades instead if you want to use them instead of this.

OLD TIMER (3 Caps)

Wasteland Cards are pretty rare and hardly crippling. The aura is... interesting though, as extending movement is never bad. But since the only models which can use it are close to dead anyway? I don't think it's anything to take.

SYNTH EXPERT (12 Caps)

Not great. Checking LoS off of other Synths seems pretty good, but since you can't shoot through walls it's mostly useful if they've got Ready tokens or if they're charging around corners.

WARDEN (12 Caps)

Warden's still on the upper end of cost, and it feels pretty bad. Extracting one friendly from a melee? 50% of ignoring Stun?

PERKS

Perks are a solid way to customize a model into a specific role - but some are definitely better than others.

First, in Settlement Mode, always get as many of the creation Perks as you need for your common weapons, along with Local Leader. They're just straight S-tier in that mode, absolutely necessary. By preference, stick them on a cheapo Settler or two that you don't HAVE to bring along to battles once your Settlement is further along, so you don't risk losing them.

With that said...

 

 

S TIER

BIG LEAGUES (5 Caps)

The reason this is in the (ahem) big leagues of S is that it's brutal on so many models, and works so regularly - on STR 7+ bonus dice, on charge bonus dice, on weapon dice... Black dice have a 25% of coming up blank, and melee models especially have so many different ways of stacking it that you'd be damfoolish NOT to take it on every melee model. The "turn Black blanks into rerolls" are probably fairly priced, but none of the other weapon types can have as many dice affected by this one. The only reason to not take it is if the model will never generate blacks in melee.

A TIER

ACTION GENDER (10 Caps)

A 33% of getting an AP for free is nothing to sneer at, especially if combined with any number of Free Actions. Not as good as Heroic, but good nonetheless!

GUNSLINGER (5 Caps)

Plenty of Pistols throw Black dice, including some of the best. For the price, rerolling blanks on Blacks is definitely worth it.

PENETRATOR (15 Caps)

Cover is one of the most common ways to resist damage, and this just flat removes it. No conditions, no "if/then" proposition, just one piece of cover, GONE. Top end skill for top-end price.

TOUGHNESS (7 Caps)

Pay 7 caps, get a 25% of resisting incoming physical damage (unless you go from 3 to 4). Quite good.

B TIER

BLITZ (3 Caps)

For the price, it's actually solid. Reaching out 2" can be quite a swing, and it could let you slip past a line of defending models to smash an objective runner with that sweet Charge bonus die...

BLOODY MESS (4 Caps)

Killing an enemy model gives you a 50% to inflict -2 on nearby enemies through their next Action. This is nasty, but can be avoided (for example, if the model just moves the penalty goes away). Still, it's fairly cheap, and some models will be able to trigger it quite often.

 

COLLABORATIVE (15 Caps) 

Expensive? Sure as hell is. Good? Well, for a dedicated tank model that goes into combat to tie up as many enemies as possible and protect a firing line, this is 100% a top pick. Considering that top Survivor AND BoS strategies are firebases protected by a couple of melee models, you wouldn't go far wrong to add this on top of said melee models. 

GHOULISH (5 Caps)

Used correctly with Turn 0 terrain placement, this can be nuts - place radiation terrain and watch as your model gets stronger! The model will be an insane tank against Feral Ghouls if you ever see any, always healing after every successful attack! But a canny opponenent may refuse to play your game. Still, at that price it's not a bad idea to include at least one Ghoul in your force.

HEAVY GUNNER (5 Caps)

Heavy Gunner is... good. Most Heavy Weapons have Black dice, and the Minigun/Gatling Laser could easily leverage this across many different die rolls with Walked Fire. But it's also harder to trigger multiple times than Big Leagues or Gunslinger - getting into Short Range on the Walked Fire guns, and only firing once per activation with Missile Launchers.

IMPATIENT (13 Caps)

Trading Health for APs is not bad, especially on models with different Free Actions. Actions are the lifeblood of the game, and getting more is never bad. But it's pricey, and can leave the model vulnerable.

LIFEGIVER (7 Caps)

Pay 7 Caps, get +1 Health. Best used on models that are at even Health totals, as average weapon damage being 2 means they might soak an extra attack or two.

QUICK THINKING (4 Caps)

Expertise Quick Action for 4 Caps. While there are better Perks out there, this one has uses, especially with the Commander Leader card...

REFRACTOR (7 Caps)

Lots of models have low Energy resist, a fact that gets exploited by BoS Lancers, Minutemen, and Institute very often. Buy this, get a 25% increased chance of resisting damage. The reason it's lower than Toughness (and not by much!) is that Physical damage sources far outnumber Energy damage sources. Honestly, this might be A as well.

RIFLEMAN (5 Caps)

The only thing holding it back from A-tier is that only bad Rifles (Institute, Assault, and Pipe) have Black dice at both ranges, so using it is slightly less reliable than with the Pistols or Close Combat versions.

STEADY AIM (8 Caps)

I'm having trouble judging this as A or C Tier. It's solid, don't get me wrong, but the Green die has no blank sides so basically this serves as an informed reroll to let you hit more easily if you turn up an armor break or damage result. It's not bad, but most of the models you'd buy this for (like Settlers) are really meant to be used in massed volleys, where one or two missed shots doesn't matter too much, and it's fairly priced but kind of expensive for those models.

C TIER

BASHER (5 Caps)

It's still just a TOUCH expensive IMHO, but a lot of models are really bad at melee combat but good with guns - good enough that taking the -2 penalty is still better than flailing away with a Machete. For 5 Caps, taking away the armor bonus as well is not a bad choice. 

 

CHEMIST (6 Caps)

For 6 Caps, you can make the Chems last a turn longer. This actually might be useful with some of the Chems whose last turn are the most important (Overdrive, Daytripper, Fury) where you wouldn't want to spend those extra Caps for another dose - especially when combined with Raiders! - but universally? Not all that great, even with the Chem cost decrease.

CONCENTRATED FIRE (9 Caps)

A bonus to shooting at a target is always good. But at that price, you could easily buy a Mod to help your shooting on both attacks, instead of just the second. However, it does work at both ranges instead of one, so it's not the worst.

 

COMPANION (12 Caps)

This pairs up two models, and if they're in LoS and Command range of the equipped model at the start of their activation they get a bonus die of their choice if they have none. That's good! But if the one WITHOUT this Perk dies, the one WITH it gets a -2 token. For the rest of the battle. For a lot of models, that's outright crippling, and means that if you take this perk, take it on the softer model of the pair so that hopefully you'll only lose one model and not effectively two.

 

FIRE RESISTANT (7 Caps)

Yes, fire is a bit more common now with Flamers and Heavy Incinerators being added. So depending on the situation, this might be good. But that's what C Rank is for ya know? 

 

HACKER (4 Caps)

4 Caps, get Computers +2. That's a solid bargain on the right models, especially in Factions that run low on Objective runners but have random models with Hacking, like the Super Mutant Overlord.

 

HIT THE DECK (3 Caps)

Increasing your Armor for really cheap is a good thing; while AoE weapons aren't super common, just having this on a model could dissuade someone from shooting said model.  

LONE WANDERER (33 Caps)

Amazing stat gains, yes. The problem is that Presence requirement can take it all away, meaning you can only use this in a low model-count force and you have to pick models with Red (preferably Yellow) Presence to use this, or be super careful in placement. Really, the only model I can see giving this to is a Behemoth; making them even tougher, especially with the lower model count of a Super Mutant force which actually brought a Behemoth!

LOCKSMITH (7 Caps)

Pay 7 Caps, get Lockpick +2. A model like the Enslaved Tech or a BoS Knight could reach for this to get an edge for not too expensive.

MOVING TARGET (8 Caps)

So if you don't do anything else but move, you can inflict a -2 penalty to hit against anyone shooting you. For slow, frail melee glass cannons, this could pay back the points; if it were cheaper it'd be great for objective runners as well. As it is... kinda situational. I feel like Blitz or Big Leagues are much more solid choices.

NERD RAGE (6 Caps)

This seems... very hard to use. Yes, the benefits are strong, but any model you're using this on is very close to dead anyway so the Strong Armor probably won't save them for another turn. On top of that, any model with this who's close to dead will be a pretty good model to remove before it can trigger!

NINJA (6 Caps)

The problem with this is how hard it is to set up. Green dice are great, but anyone using a fireteam strategy (with small groups of models close together) will make it a dead card unless you angle it juuuust right. When you could just buy a Reflex Sight for a few Caps more at a stronger benefit? 

SNEAK (3 Caps)

Movement not triggering a Reaction is pretty handy sometimes. Melee? Not so much, as the Reaction it'd trigger would be shooting into melee in two range Rulers of distance, and few players want to risk that nonsense.

STUN RESISTANT (13 Caps)

You can't be Stunned. It's not common, but it IS an effect on a lot of melee weapons... the problem is that it's so expensive for a Perk!

 

TRAVEL LIGHT (7 Caps)

2" extra of movement is no small potatoes for objective runners. It will let you get to your target with fewer AP spent, which is invaluable - or stay away from threatening models.

D TIER

ADAMANTIUM SKELETON (8 Caps)

Resistant. Not Immune. Yes, Injured Arm and Leg are pretty bad conditions, but this only kicks in IF they get targeted by something that inflicts it, and then they only have a 50% to avoid it. There are other, better Perks to take.

ATTACK DOG (10 Caps)

So you could buy this for a SS to give their dogs a 50% of inflicting Injured (Movement). Or you could buy Heroic and really buff your dog, if you wanted to. Hard pass.

CHEM RESISTANT (3 Caps)

Chems are pretty marginal to begin with (a little too expensive!), Addition isn't that bad, and Addictol or Refreshing Beverages exist in Settlement. For Cait in Settlement Mode, this could be useful - even though she'll spend most of the time in combat drugged out anyway, so no addiction penalties there. I say no.

DEMOLITION EXPERT (5 Caps)

Grenades are bad as it is. The only Grenade this affects is the Frag (and yes, Pulse, but why use Pulse grenades?). Rerolling a blank Black die IS a strong effect (as it's the die with the most blanks!) but honestly... not this one.

ENTANGLE (8 Caps)

Entangle's problem is that it can fail, and most models won't want to make a Disengage attempt UNLESS they see that you have Entangle and it might fail! Don't get this, and poor Strong is stuck with it.

FINESSE (15 Caps)

Wow, do I want to like this one. But it's pretty S***. A 50% to get a Crit token after a 15% of rolling a Critical Point? NONONONONO.

HACK ROBOT (15 Caps)

Wow, is this not worth it. You give an engaged Robot two Stuns after an opposed test? Or you can get Stunned and the Robot can move away?

HUNTSMAN (7 Caps)

For a 33% of inflicting Injured (Leg)... and reducing the weapon's Damage to 1... I don't see it. Deal more damage and kill the enemy. 

IRRESPONSIBLE (10 Caps)

Stun is not particularly common - yes, lots of things CAN inflict it, but it's all randomized. At slightly cheaper, this might be useful just to trade HP for AP on the off-chance the model gets hit by Stun, but at 10? Nonono. 

LEAD BELLY (5 Caps)

There are only 20 Food Cards that cause Radiation, assuming you have every card. In the core game deck, there are only four. That's some pretty long odds to buy this card against MAYBE needing to heal and MAYBE pulling some Food and MAYBE not being able to just suck up the 1 Radiation damage?

 

LIGHT STEP (5 Caps)

Mines are... pretty rare in the tabletop game, and not hard to avoid. For quite cheap, this one isn't terrible if you have nowhere else to spend points, but... I'm not thinking it's worth it either.

MEDIC (4 Caps)

Stimpacks and Radaways heal gobs of their respective elements already, and are expensive single-use items. I think there are better Perks, even for the price.

MYSTERIOUS STRANGER I/II/III (6/17/3 Caps)

IF the model has purchased Heroic, you can add the Mysterious Stranger for a 16% per turn of getting one free attack on a nearby enemy. Then you can stack II (for 23 Caps total!) for a 50% of getting that free attack, which can be on any enemy in the MS's LoS. For THREE more Caps, you can make the attack a Reaction instead.

Flavorful as hell? F*** yes. Good? F*** no. 26 Caps on top of the 60 for Heroic? Yes, it's an auto-hit with no roll, but the sheer randomness of it immediately makes it inferior to... lots of other perks. Sorry Mysterious Stranger...

NUCLEAR PHYSICIST (10 Caps)

Radiation weapons are sometimes good, but they already do brutal amounts of damage for quite a few points if you're facing the right enemies - and if you're not, they're wasted points. I say don't take it unless it's maybe in Settlement Mode and you're ALWAYS fighting BoS, Survivors, and Raiders.

PACK LEADER (23 Caps)

This one must be so highly priced because of the synergy between Heroic and Dogs... which aren't good. Maybe they were once upon a time, but now they are not. They are too expensive and so is this.

PAIN TRAIN (1 Caps)

So let me get this straight. I can trade a Black OR Green die on an attack, which might help me go over a model's Armor, in exchange for a bonus Black die Attack (which always hits, mind you) but also can be absorbed by the model's Armor? I... don't think so.

 

PYROMANIAC (10 Caps)

Ok, this one feels janky to me. It's basically a 33% extra chance to inflict fire. The affected weapons are all good, but already expensive, and Pyromaniac is pretty damned expensive for a Perk too! It might be C tier, but for now I'm placing it in D.

RAD RESISTANT (3 Caps)

Pay 5 Caps, get stronger against Radiation. Not... very good, except in rare circumstances, when for 5 Caps more you could get Ghoulish?

 

SHOTGUN DEVOTEE/SURGEON (6 Caps)

The effect is good. The price isn't, especially as you have to shop around for a model that already has Shooting as a Quick Action, or for some way to give them it. If there were better Shotguns around, it might be in C, but as it is the only real candidate is the Freezing Combat Shotgun 

 

STRONG CONSTITUTION (5 Caps)

Not much causes Poison aside from some critters. While Poison definitely sucks, if you're gonna put a Perk on a model it should be one that helps it kill better or forward the general battle plan - not just MAYBE protect it against something minor.  

 

WEAPON HANDLING (5 Caps)

This serves one purpose: to get a STR7+ weapon into the hands of an STR 5 model that uses AGI for their Melee or Heavy Weapons skill - because if they use STR for those skills, they should be looking at Power Armor or weapons that add Greens instead. As of Wave 5, that's THREE models out of almost 200, all of which have other options available.

 

 

CHANGELIST

v5.0 - Added Wave 5 Perks, which are mostly middlin' to bad. Always hate saying that, buuuut... 

 

v1.1 Price changes have caused some movement in the lists. Blitzer B > A. Berserker B > C. Bruiser C > A. Defender C > B. Skipper B. Tactician C. Co-Ordinator C. Big Leagues A > S. Light Step C > D. Basher D > C. Fire Resistant C. Irresponsible D. Collaborative B. Pyromaniac D. Strong Constitution D. end