My friends and I didn't realize two rules at first, which made the OP seem correct.
 
1.  There is always a battle at the first planet (we were only doing battles at planets a Warlord was at, making it hard to collect planets).
 
2.  The Warlord can exhaust to retreat in leiu of attacking during combat.  (We were waiting til everyone was exhausted before retreating.  This made Warlords much easier to kill).
 
Now that we are playing correctly (we think), it is much harder to kill Warlords before someone gets a planet victory.

LOL!

Sounds like you're missing a rule or two.

Dear OP,
 
Shield cards, retreating, deploying your Warlord intelligently and event cards (i.e. Indomitable) are part of the game and they can all solve "your problem".
That is to say, your real problem appears to be a lack of skill and knowledge of the game.
 
I suggest that you play some more and instead of using your Warlord as a battle-tank, you use it as a support unit. (which it is)

You know Warlords can retreat instead of attacking as part of their combat turn to avoid getting dog piled right ?
This game is far from broken.

I've seen some fairly empty reasons for disliking games but this is a new one to me.  LOL   Wow.   ::: shakes head :::

I've seen some fairly empty reasons for disliking games but this is a new one to me.  LOL   Wow.   ::: shakes head :::

I've seen some fairly empty reasons for disliking games but this is a new one to me.  LOL   Wow.   ::: shakes head :::

I would expect it in November more likely. Probably right around Worlds weekend.

Yep, we too were heavily disappointing with how wimpy and generally impotent Exterminatus ends up being most of the time - which is a shame because thematically, it should be the ultimate in death and destruction when played.  Sigh.

Underneath all of their armour, does it really matter what gender they are, or what colour their skin is?  We're not likely to get Orks or Tau to budge much on their skin colour, and the Eldar units so far are fairly androgynous.
 
I like the 40k universe and this card game regardless of the number of sausages I have at my disposal.

So, I can't play "Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy" because the main character is an Egyptian male?
I can't play Tomb Raider because the main character is a female?
I can't watch Nikita because the lead is a woman?
I can't watch ***** as Folk because the main couple is ***?
No one is stopping you from playing Warhammer if you're a man, woman, black, white, straight, bi, no one cares. No one is stopping you from watching any TV show, playing any game, or reading any book you would like to enjoy. There is no "women are not allowed" sign for this game, and it even has female options in this instance. It's also funny how there has to be an "even" amount of men to women for it to "not be sexist" and be "more female friendly". So I can go complain to the people that made "Sex and the City" and demanding an even number of male lead roles for each female lead role? I can go complain at any game or show that has 5 women for every 3 men and shout sexism?
It's funny, every time this topic comes up the "accepting" people that "care about gender and equality" can only play a game so long as they can play their own gender and their own race. Not at all close minded, bigoted or hypocritical. If you cannot play a game because you cannot play as a woman, or as a white man, or what have you, then the issue is with YOU, not the game.
Shame that Qeer is censored. Also, why on earth is G ay censored??

There is no fluff against women commissars. Quite the opposite. Or, for that  matter, no fluff against women anything, except as space marines. I just believe he was objecting to the other less canon-like parts.

Why do you keep asking these questions? Are you some kind of racial/gender troll? NO ONE has said that they would stop playing the game. NO ONE has said that they have an issue with the inclusion of more female or minority characters. The issue is that people seem to want the universe to accommodate to their preferences, instead of accepting as it is. Characters will come out, there is no doubt about it. Specially now, because FFG folks may not post much here, but they do pay attention to what is being said.  

Because without the fluff, it won't be 40k, it'd be something else. Everyone is welcome in 40k, I don't see signs screaming "no women". The product and the universe are what they are, forgive the cliché. At the risk of going off on a completely different subject here, this is what is prevalent in our society today, people wanting everything to be changed to accommodate them and their desires and preferences, instead of maybe just letting it be. I can understand when it is a major social injustice, but this does not qualify. By this line of reasoning, I should demand that romance novels include more violence and action because they are not inclusive of me as a man. Or I can just choose to not read them and read 40k books instead.

Groan.  Knew someone would post something like this eventually in these forums. 
 
Yes, the IP should change entirely just for your sensibilities and your wife's needs.  #eyeroll

True, but let's be fair and put it into perspective.  Those four new Warlords thus far announced are for Space Marines, Orkz, Chaos, and Tau.  As already discussed, all Space Marines are and were always going to be male, and while Orkz are technically genderless they identify in a male way, so those two were pretty much pre-ordained and don't know if they really count since there is no other way FFG could do it.  Chaos' new Warlord is a daemon, which is pretty certainly genderless... I don't know how one considers a gigantic blob of rot and putrefaction to truly be 'male' or 'female'; so while not a gain for the female count, is also not really a count in favor of the male count either, since daemons do not generally identify as male or female.  This leaves us with the Tau, who does have a male as their Warlord, but then the Tau were one of the two Warlords from the core set with a female warlord, Shadowsun.
 
The two factions that FFG really can't do anything gender-wise with are now out of the way, Space Marines and Orkz.  Chaos can be all over the place, and they chose to go with a neutral option there (I obviously cannot predict anything with certainty, but I imagine at some point Chaos will have at least four Warlords, one for each of the Gods, and I would expect another male one for Khorne and a female one for Slaanesh, which doesn't give us an abominable ratio when it's all done).  The Tau, Astra Militarum, Eldar and Dark Eldar are the primary ones likely to have gender diversity (Chaos is murky because of the prominence of all-male Chaos Space Marines and gender-neutral Daemons), and in the core set we're half and half with them, something that I wouldn't be surprised to see maintained but inverted with the Warlords cycle... though possibly not with the Eldar, which makes me a little sad, based on what has been spoiled.
 
Let me explain, for the Tau they started with the female Commander Shadowsun, and made the second one the male Aun'Shi.  The Dark Eldar had a female Succubus as their first Warlord, I'd anticipate either a male Archon or Incubus (presumably Drahzar) for their next one.  Astra Militarum had a male officer as their first Warlord, and we know that they're getting an Inquisitor for their next one.  An Inquisitor is a perfect opportunity for a female warlord in this cycle, there are plenty of female Inquisitors to set precedent and possibly draw from... Amberley Vail has been mentioned, there's Adrastia from DoW2, Helynna Valeria from the TT, Jena Orechiel, and a whole lot more if they draw from their own RPGs.  The Eldar had a male Farseer for their core set warlord... I would have figured a good choice for their second one would be a female Corsair Prince, Autarch, or maybe an Exarch or even Troupe Master... but we know it's going to be a Phoenix Lord, which makes the likelihood of this even split continuing unlikely, since unless they pick Jain Zar it will be a second Eldar male... but it could be Jain Zar.
 
Even if it were not, I think things in Conquest are a far cry from being a boy's-only club in terms of Warlords.  I think that counting Space Marines and Orkz in terms of the number of males featured, since they are defined-so by canon and cannot be altered by FFG, is somewhat unfair.  I think it is instead best to shoot for a reasonable balance between males and females in the Eldar, Dark Eldar, Tau and Astra Militarum, and a reasonable balance between male, and female, and holy-god-what-the-**** in Chaos.  Based on their RPGs, I do believe that FFG gets this, very probably much better than GW does.  But we can't be looking or demanding some sort of arbitrary number... what really matters is that the Warlords make sense, and offer interesting diversity of choices, of which gender should only be a small part of the diversity we are looking for, but not an inconsequential or wholly irrelevant part.

I'm surprised that nobody's voiced an opinion regarding women in the military.

Good old fashioned Political Correctness ladies and gentlemen!

If that's not really what the IP is about, then I suppose it might be.
People have done a good job of pointing out the various types of female units that already exist in the 40k universe, so I have no doubt that we'll be seeing those at some point. I'm not sure what kind of balance can be achieved outside of their inclusion without some kind of radical shift in the makeup of the franchise.

You are the one swinging and missing here, though I bear some responsibility. I said "inclusive of me as a man", not of all men. Perhaps that was a bit of an unfortunate sentence, my aim was to speak to what I would prefer to read about. I'm well aware that there are many different preferences amongst men.
Second, I don't know where you get off talking about my being privileged. For the record, though admittedly I can't prove it, I'm a Hispanic man, who came to the US as a legal immigrant. My father was a teacher, who was politically persecuted where we came from and had to leave with us. I don't know what part of that screams privileged to you. Try not to make assumptions about me without actually knowing who I am and what I may have gone through in my life.
Now, the fact that there don't seem to be many characters that are like me is inconsequential. It's sci-fi in the 41st millennium, I'm not looking for parallels with who I am, what I look like, or what gender I belong to. I don't know why anyone would. It's a hobby, I'm interested in a good story and a pleasant time. It goes no deeper than that.
 

I am white, happy, and in love with life. I am a conservative and I am a Christian; Both my Grandfather's fought in WW2 and Korea so people like us could sit behind our computers and exercise our 1st amendment rights. I am not ashamed, I don't feel guilty for being white and I certainly don't apologize. People need to learn that it is okay to have an opinion that may conflict with someone else s - learn to grow thicker skin or else George Orwell's 1984 will become a reality! Yessss... I believe the Chaos Gods are quite happy here, sowing their seeds of destruction on this thread! Hmmm.....Chaos...... I think I hear Conquest calling me!

I find it difficult to take anyone seriously who criticizes game mechanics(to the point of giving up on it!) without even playing it once. You can't provide thoughtful insight on something you don't know.

Wait, so you bought the game and haven't played it...yet don't like the game mechanics??
I'm not even sure where to go from here.

Actually to be fair...art and aesthetics matter a lot to me as well.
 
One of the best co-op card games ever hardly gets any play from me because I can't stomach the art and design. (Sentinels of the Multiverse)
 
That said, I don't find much wrong with the design on WH40kLCG. FFG recycles art, that's to be expected from given IPs to save money, but honestly, FFG is probably like S-ranked tier when it comes to presentation in their games. They really set the bar for alot of aspiring game designers and publishers.