To an extent it may be true of many warlords but it is doubly so for the Hector Warlord the enemy is their pawn.
The Legendary Hector was very much considered a noble soul who got along well with allies and often enemies as well, this build is offered in memoriam for Wrecan (Mark Monack), a voice of sanity and a noble man from the WOTC forums during the short 4e era of D&D, it was from his notes it was named.The Hector build Warlord passes up on some of the limelight of regular inspiring of allies in favor of battlefield control, which goes even beyond that of the Tactical Lord. They gain the Gifted Manipulator feature in place of Inspiring Word.
Like all warlords you engage in the inspiration of and manipulation of people, but in your case you specialize in the affects you and your allies can have on the enemy. Essentially your craft is a form of focused and well coordinated acts of bluffing and intimidation. It is almost like you cheat at the chess game by moving around your adversaries pieces when they aren't looking. While some of your abilities are just as dependent on allies as other warlords many of them can be employed to make your enemies confidence or caution into tools for your benefit rather than their own and this is your focus.
While generally your manipulations of the enemy create openings for allies in this regards you have much in common with the tactical warlord. Your melee fighting may lead the opponent into exposing itself to your counter strokes but also to those of allies who might subsequently exploit them. However most notably you use the fear and caution of your enemies against itself dodging one threat you create they stumble full faced into another bigger one you have arranged or conversely their eagerness and agression, taking that opening you seemed to provide they fall into your trap, the teeth of which are yours and your allies blades and spell work.
Your weapon becomes akin to a conductors wand with it you adjust the pace and flow of the battle to suit the needs of you and your allies, hammering a flank here, leaving false openings there or feinting and falling back to entice approach, manipulating the targets of your strokes or those who target you in a way that leads the other combatants in a back and forth response, until the whole of the melee is dancing in time to the thrust of your spear.
You want an ally blocking that passage? a quick slice at his opponent's knee causing it to give ground avoiding your attack creates just the natural opening for movement for your ally. You score a seemingly minor hit, and while the foe congratulates itself on turning your death stroke into a glancing cut, the real killing blow comes in from behind . . . just as you planned from the very beginning.
Your enemies ill concieved attacks in response to fake openings you provide serve your purposes as you induce or physically force other enemies to move in line of fire. Or perhaps ducking at the last second your enemies follow through threatens or injures their own allies
When an ally needs to catch their breath you may guide the flow of combat taking the heat so that your winded ally gets a moment to use that healing surge. Perhaps it was something as crude as making a remark that drew her opponent's attention briefly, or maybe your footwork caused your target to shift around to compensate, which cut off the opportunity her opponent was setting up, or maybe there were half a dozen other unwitting participants involved in the maneuver, which you set up well in advance with almost precognitive precision.
Beyond the field of battle you may ply the same approach being trained and naturally gifted in maneuvering other people. You may find comfort or even enjoy subtly ordering any situation to your advantage. Politics too feature flankng and probing and and may be no less deadly than pitched battle; even if the blood spillled is typically reputation and influence.
Hector Warlords may be brutally terrifying on the field of battle, geniuses with tactics and tricks and utterly unnassuming in another sense.
Any Martial Exploit which slides, pulls or push an enemy increases the maximum move distance and initial reach distance (if any) by 2 squares.
The Hector Warlord core feature has variants dependent on various stats
Brutal Manipulator - "You often physically arrange the scenario manhandling enemies into position where they harm each other." If you manipulate an enemy into damaging their ally you may do damage to one of them an additional amount equal to your strength if they are adjacent to you.
Insideous Manipulation - "Your devious manipulations are a suprise to enemies" You can mark an enemy you have manipulated into being harmed by their allies and transfer that mark to any ally within 5 squares. Additionally the enemy manipulated into atacking takes Intelligence Mod damage.
Perceptive Manipulation - wisdom derived effect I am not sure about.
Wicked Manipulation - when you manipulate an enemy into damaging their ally they themselves take psychic damage equal to your charisma and the attack may target Will+1 instead of Armor Class.
These are a few of characteristic powers of the Hector Warlord - The Gifted Manipulator.
Tactical Repositioning - Intimidating one enemy right before you is one thing but acting in unison (or an action arranged to occur in unison) can leave an entire group taken aback.
Fog of War - Exploiting the complexity and confusion of the battle field the more enemies you have the more they do your job for you, more prosaically it is much like a false opening combined with using an enemy as a human shield.
Impressive Strike / Press Gang - Usually the enemy aids you involuntarilly but sometimes being ultimately convincing works even better
Dizzyiing Smash - Head wounds can really be a pain
