A Frank Discussion on HQs in general

[cas]

Hey Boys and Girls,

 

I've been doing some ponderizing on HQs in the last few days. I didn't really come to too many conclusions on my own, but I felt I should share a few with you and hopefully we can come to some meaningful conclusions. As alluded to in the topic description, I hope to cover the who, what, where, whyand when of Codex Marines leaders, both named and unnamed. So...

 

Who- Are there HQ's that are definate musts? I dont think any one HQ build is exactly the best in every situation, but there are some who are more versatile than others. Who really stands head and shoulders above the others on the battlefield? In the circles around my town, enemies of the Astartes cringe noticably when Shrike hits the deck, but he rarely seems to recieve the attention that he deserves on the forums. Many argue that units such as Lysander and Calgar are way overkill and represent to great a points sink. Should an HQ always be support unit [as is often discussed], or can he be a frontliner?

 

What- What war gear is essential to the HQ? Again, this depends on the role that he plays, but certain items (looking at you thunder hammer) can actually hamper the ability of the hero to perform before being cut down. Also, your army contains countless guns, does your HQ really need one too, or should your points go into keeping him alive longer, maybe with the old artificier armour Storm Shield combo. Is the relic blade a greater asset than the power fist?

 

Where- Keeping this one brief, should the HQ hide in a rhino [as my Pedro almost always does] or should they brave a forray out into battle even when they dont particularly need to?

 

Why- Why do you take the HQ you do? That's all.

 

When- When does your HQ work best for you? Is he a lifesaver in desperate times of need, a fall back or a shock and awe spearhead? Again, this is purely a matter of taste, but are we all taking heavily armed captains in order to carve up infantry and a Buffer HQ (Vulkan, Pedro) to boost our stat lines?

 

 

 

My personal philosophy is that HQ's can pack to much punch. I ran Lysander like it was my job for a long time, and it was super, he dropped deamon princes daily, but I lost faith in him a while back when I realized opponents in my area when building anti-Lysander Lists just to screw me over. As such, I'm just going to confound them with a Cassius and Vanilla captain combo for a while, which will allow me to free up around 100 points over what I was doing before.

 

So what are you all doing these days?

pce

[Xeonic]

I personally like to mix up my lists all the time.

My HQs are:

generic libby, naked

libby, terminator epistolary w/ storm shield

Captain, PW and bolt pistol w/cc command squad

Captain, combi melta, relic blade, arti armor, hellfire rounds, aux grenade launcher w/5x plasma gun command squad(or CC command squad)

MoTF w/conversion beamer

Sicarius

Calgar in power armor

Pedro Kantor "counts-as"

Lysander "counts-as"

 

If an opponent faces me twice with the same list it's rare. Each of these HQ play a bit differently which keeps them guessing and the basic libby is the most versetile given the wide range of troops he can go in with and powers he can use.

My generic captain w relic blade I do shave upgrades on occasionally(aux grenade and hellfire bolts first ofc), but he's a proven leader along with a ranged or CC command squad(one of the more fluffy units I like).

The termie libby I use to lead tactical termies as they run up the board assault cannoning things. He's almost a direct points replacement for lysander though he does offer some really neat options with the SS(versus lysanders massive CC potential and bolter drill).

Sicarius is probably one of my more favorite captain type figures because though he's hardly a melee powerhouse, he effects your entire army, and one squad in peticular, and you can chose how to best utilize him on deployment. His personal feel no pain and arti armor sv means he doesn't have to be in with a command squad to be decently surviveable, and the instakill sword, while gimmickey is a pretty nice gamble.

 

The other special characters I rarely pull out, I play ultras and people tend to frown on stubborn ultras, pedro is the more interesting of them IMO because his tactical depth is somewhere beyond "get into CC and beat people up".

 

My MoTF I've just assembled and cannot wait to field him, so I haven't totally figured him out yet.

[Commander Sasha]

I have tried running counts-as, and didn't like it, so I built my own.

The advice that I took, mostly from this forum, when building my IQ was, in no particular order:

 

1) Captain has high WS, and above average Initiative; more hits will work, and they get in first, so don't waste that. No gun/weapon combos that cost you a hit, unless it's a relic blade, where the strength bonus pays for it, and no hammers or fists, unless you're running with a squad that attacks early.

 

2) They already have high inv saves, and with art armour are pretty survivable; don't be scared to get into the fight, lead from the front. They can't hold objectives, so don't be afraid to treat them as disposable.

 

3) In your head, and in your opponents, they seem like the most important piece in your army; they're not, just another elite choice. Only objective holders matter!

 

4) Suitably kitted, they are nice and powerful, so give them the means to get there quick. Bikes are fast, and tough, but can't go upstairs. Jumppacks are nippy. Tanks can be good, and give another layer of armour, but are easily flipped.

 

Commander Sasha has a bike, Art Armour, Relic blade as standard, and occasionally adds meltabombs or Orbital Bombardment if there are left over points. Against my younger opponents, she rarely sees the end of the battle, as they concentrate on HQ-killing too much; against better opponents, I find she usually survives to the end, and that 24" turbo move giving 2+,4++,3+cover as she charges and contests an objective has saved the day many times!

[Xeonic]

Er, guess I covered my "who", but a breakdown of the generics:

Captain/Master - pure assault potential here, with a pretty good shooty upgrade line too. Also the most durable HQ choice, he requires some upgrades to be useful and has the strongest statline.

Chaplain - pure assault support. Give him minimal upgrades and slap him in with some assaulty troops and watch him boost their effectiveness considerably.

Libby - the individually weakest HQ choice, he nonetheless has the most utility. He can support your shooting with his own, he can be brutal in assault, and he can grant any squad he's attached to an invulnerable, and you get to chose what he can be pregame.

 

As for what, the basic captain needs little kit to be really effective, a powerweapon at worst. There are only a few melee upgrades that are useful though, power weapon(he should be 115 points and come with one standard to be honest), lightning claws(taken in pairs they don't take advantage of his BS, however you should give him a grenade launcher to help out there, taken singly they're inferior to a relic blade but work fairly well with a combi. In termie armor lightning claws are your only good choice), and the relic blade. Thunderhammers and powerfists are great weapons in their element, but that element is not on characters that can be picked out in combat. If you want a TH/SS captain lysander is a better choice overall. Digi weapons are nice if you have the points, but hardly a requirement.

 

The ranged upgrades are all pretty useful. Plasma pistols can give the bonus attack your power weapon needs, coupled with an artificer armor and maybe feel no pain from a command squad you most likely won't lose any wounds to it. Hellfire bolts are situational, they're nice but how often do you actually fire a boltgun on a captain? Aux grenade launcher in my opinion is fantastic, it's an S6 shot that can be fired along with another weapon and it costs you nothing but points. On a fully melee captain with a storm shield or pair of claws it gives him at least some pre assault shooting to take advantage of his high BS, and it's far better than a bolt pistol. Combis are combis, only on a captain they hit on a 2+. The combi melta I think is the best, it will most likely be the most accurate melta in your army, the flamer is nice but ignores his BS completely. I wouldn't use a combi plas except in terminator armor personally where relentless would let you assault after. Storm bolter I like the least. It's extra shots over a bolter, and assault, but really it's not much power there. Still, it's a cheap upgrade and he still hits on a 2+. This would have been the "must have" upgrade if you could have loaded hellfire bolts into it. It's worth noting that OB is remarkably useful if you take Master, but it's a gamble to be sure.

 

The defensive upgrades are all useful too, termie armor aside. Artificer armor is a good deal on any captain, a 2+ save with no downside aside from cost. Storm shields are great in combo with a relic blade or lightning claw, since they deny you your bonus attack anyways. Termie armor is more of a fluff based upgrade since it offers only one practical advantage over the cheaper arti armor, and that is relentless, though it's worth noting it gives you the ability to teleport. You lose the ability to wield relic blades and give up any chance of a bonus attack aside from paired weapons, and you lose your grenades, as well as the ability to sweeping advance.

 

The mobility upgrades are situational, but if you want to run bikers, grab a bike, and if you like to stick your captain in with packing vanguard or assault marines, grab a pack.

 

Most of the same applies to the other HQ choices, their unique options aside. It's worth noting that termie armor is actually good for librarians since it gives them relentless and an invulnerable(3+ SS is a must of course). If I wanted to run a termie chappy I'd look at cassius instead since he is actually more surviveable.

 

As for where they should go, I like to put a captain with a command squad, and most other HQ goes in with termies or sternguard. I'd lead an assault squad in with a jump chaplain though I'd keep him cheap. I've been meaning to build some honor guard as well, but haven't gotten around to it to judge their effectiveness.

 

HQs in my opinion are support characters, they cannot carry your army on their own but they can add a good deal of assault or counter assault potential(chaplains indirectly), and librarians in peticular offer a great deal of utility besides.

[chapter master 454]

When I see shrike I might cringe but then I look at my land raider redeemer with 5 tactical terminators with 4 chainfists and lysander leading them and remember: Oh yeah, these dudes will cause him more hurt than shrike will me. He has the options often of: let Lysander rampage his entire army with his terminators and land raider or turn shrikes rear-end around and try and take him down to prevent damage. lets also note that I also make use of fail 'falll away' combat squads who are generally just 5 bolter marines who run up, rapid fire the hell out of shrikes squad, get assaulted and die then let the second combat squad then bolt pistol and power weapon their ay through the squad to ether weaken shrikes squad or maybe even leave shrike on his own.

 

As for me, a HQ needs to have an impact on what it does. I have two personal favourite HQs: Lysander and my forgemaster with conversion beamer (will be missed while I play blood angels) for both have an impact on the game. Lysander is my frontline juggernaut who for 200 points is a great choice (if you want a point sink, try sicarius, the one who should be at the frontlines but will always die). The conversion beamer forgemaster is a gem, he has tallied many tank kills and infantry kills (his last game saw him annilate 2-3 combat squads of space marines, one of them was wiped out over 42" away in one shot) and he always gets into trouble but only because the opponent gets ticked off with his long range milarky!

 

Now captains and chapter masters go without saying are the close combat monsters of the HQ un-named so they normally ether get SS/RB or Twin LCs. Chaplins are considered the bargain bucket CC HQ; with built in power weapon and his special charge rule he can be quite a painful leader in the forefront. Librarians form the swiss army knife of the HQs; they also have a built in power weapon (that carries the insta-kill power in Close combat). They can pick up some psychic powers to ether unleash painful pre-charge shooting (smite) or will just screw your world over with the flying circus (sternguard + gate of infinity = rapid firing fun).

 

In the SC department, Shrike, khan and Lysander are the big ones who will be the biggest impactors. Shrike carries the first turn charge, Khan gives you outlflanking for all your dudes (and yes outflanking land raiders as well) while Lysander just goes up to your army and just grinds through it. Pedro is another common one to see but his inclusion is often just too predictable.

[Schultzhoffen]

A naked Librarian in a rhino with Sternguard or Grey Knights.

 

Cheap and useful.

 

Saves points for the rest of my army. The units that actually win games.

[Justicar Valius]

Who- Grand Master, hammerhand (2 power fists without the armour ignoring or iniative dropping psy power) and an unlimited range psychic hood and I5. Never leave home without him and his 4 GKT buddies. I would say the best bang for your buck in codex:SM would be Vulkan (makes his points back even before his twin linking ability)

 

What- A 2+ save armour (termie armour for Grey knights and Special characters, artificer for everyone else), a 3++ if you can. Also the power fist is a greater asset in general but why waste the initaiative5? always go for the relic blade if you are actually using a non special character codex Space marine HQ

 

Where- In a land raider crusader, if shrike with an assault squad, if Pedro anywhere he wants, he is more part of the line the hammer unit.

 

Why- Because he has a LD10 unlimited range psychic hood, he has a S6 force weapon (of the "I don't care about eternal warior vareity) and I have to take a GK hero to get any decent heavy support choices.

 

When- Just charge somthing in the middle of your opponents battle line. Then charge another unit, then another and then run from the Trygon that just popped up. If you get charged by a walker just use hammerhand and you've won. Simple.

[Captain Idaho]

It is worth emphasising the fact all "stock" Space Marine characters are support based, even the combat specialist Captain and Masters. They won't be going through squad after squad single handed, nor will they be going toe to toe with the Swarm Lord, but alongside an assault unit they become extremely deadly. As the independant character rules mean only models in base to base contact and unegaged models within 2" can attack him, a Captain/Master can be a whirl wind of destruction provided his mates are there, and very difficult to remove without killing the bodyguard.

 

Of course a Captain can be quite tough with a Stormshield, which of course reduces damage output until you consider the benefits of the good old Relic blade (possibily the best assault weapon in the whole book).

 

Now, knowing that each HQ choice is a support character we have to look at what you want your army to do on the table and which characters(s) will complement it best. An army with mechanised Tactical squads, a few support vehicles and a big squad of Sternguard can do very well with a Master of the Forge with a Plasma pistol (able to fire both plasma weapons each turn, or use a flamer, for complete utility to the Sternguard and their 2 melta guns), but a Captain or Chaplain in such an army will encourage you to use shooting units in assaults.

 

A Librarian is pretty good for a cheap but effective HQ that can do anything well but not neccessarily excellently. Reasonable in assaults, but lack of attacks, 2 wounds and no invulnerable save (unless you give up an attack) and the fact you can't use the best assault powers in your opponents turn makes him stand just behind the Captain in a fight. Similarly, he has access to Avenger and other powers (like Machine Curse) which makes him quite useful in shooting, but then he does get left with a poorer survivability for his close ranged weapons than the Master of the Forge and Captain and can be counter charged if things go wrong.

 

It goes without saying that he grants access to some interesting powers that can be useful, as well as being able to reduce the effectiveness of opponents Psychic powers (or against Orks and Imperial Guard, completely shut them down).

 

Over all though a good choice for cheap and can fit into most armies.

 

A Chaplain is reasonable in assaults and has a good invulnerable save, but his main strength is the boost he grants to an accompanying assault unit. Very cheap for this ability and should be considered if you want to increase the effectiveness an assault unit. Assault Marines benefit the most from a Chaplain as the other assault units can do alot damage without him (depending on the armament etc) and Assault Marines get less attacks and weapons to do the damage with.

 

Master of the Forge are interesting choices as provide a powerful shooting capacity to an independant character, a somewhat unusual thing outside Tau. Best used alongside a big, bolter shocking unit like Tactical squads or Sternguard and have the utility to really add punch to the unit (see above).

 

Of course you can turn this character into a reasonable artillary unit, though I have no expertise on this so can't really provide much advice. For the price I would prefer a Thunderfire personally.

[Jackelope King]

Librarian

A versatile support HQ, and my top choice in most Marine armies at points values of 1500+, when people start to bring lots of psykers to the table. Every new Codex has at least some psyker nastiness (and don't think it'll stop until they get to a new Tau Codex), so a Ld10 psychic hood is awesome by itself. In an all-comers list, Null Zone is a fantastic way to punish people who bring Rock units to the table who rely on Invuln saves. I usually pair it with the Avenger, as I like the slightly-more-reliable template over a pie plate, but I think they're equally valid choices. Other Librarian powers can be decent, but tend to bring their own problems. Might, for instance, means you basically need Epistolary to take advantage of it. Force Dome's cover save is pathetic. Machine Curse is weak sauce compared to some shooting options your army can get. Smite looks decent, but winds up being bad most of the time. And Gate of Infinity is too gimicky to be effective without making a LOLHammer army. For equipment, it's hard to go wrong with an unpgraded Librarian. Cheap and versatile. I don't mind giving a Librarian terminator armor once in awhile, and an Epistolary upgrade is nice coupled with Might, but then you start getting into a pricy model who needs pricy buddies. At least the model I converted for him looks cool ;)

 

Bike Captain

You need him to unlock bikes as troops for a biker army, and I find him much more effective than Khan (I'm not giving up my ability to Combat Tactics out of close combat with bikes). I usually equip him with a Relic Blade base, to take advantage of that I5 and WS6, so he can thin enemy ranks no matter who they are when he swings first. The only other gear I even consider for this guy are usually hellfire rounds, but they usually only come in if I have 10 points laying around that I can't do anything else with. 10 points for two extra savable wounds per turn is stretching it a bit. My bike captain currently rides with a unit of Command Squad Bikers. Together, they're a nasty, nasty unit.

 

I don't think I'd take a captain on foot that often. They need more gear to be effective and that tends to inflate their cost quite a bit. The Chapter Master even less so: less options, more expensive for the option to Orbital Bombardment, and an Honor Guard instead of a Command Squad? Not in my army.

 

Master of the Forge

He's sort of my "If not A or B then C" option. If I want a Dread Smash list, I need him. If I'm playing a more typical mech list, while I'll often opt for a Librarian over a Master of the Forge, he's more beneficial when I'll have marines on foot (something I prefer to avoid if I can). He's also not too shabby on a bike with a conversion beamer, usually able to zip around and get some long-range shots at enemy vehicles.

 

Short of once in awhile using a named character (I do a Vulkan army every once in awhile, and like to experiment with Pedro in larger games), those are the only HQs I really like.

[Koremu]

It's worth noting that the Blood Angel Captain is outright terrible. No Artificer Armour, no Relic Blade, no Bikes-as-Troops - I honestly can't see any reason to ever take one over the other HQ options in C:BA.

[Captain Idaho]

Agreed. The Reclusiarch achieves everything they need to and then some.

[Koremu]

Yeah, a 3-wound Charlie is something that should have been in C:SM :rolleyes:

[Arnil]

Kor'sarro Khan in a mech list. One reason. Outflanking redeemers into MEQ lines! Ignoreing armor templates! YES PLZ!!!! Then you drop off the Termies or keep a TAc squad in them and you have a scoreing LR! You lose combat tactics but puting Kor'sarro with a unit means hit and run. I feel it is designed so that you take one tooled out bike squad to run with Kor'sarro, biker command squad, and outflank LR and rhinos and Razorbacks with Tac squads for Schwerhpunkt and Blitzkreig tactics.

[Giga]

My regular HQs;

 

Pedro

Vulkan

Librarian with null zone and avenger

Captain with relic blade on a bike

 

Pedro is a great support character because he makes sternguard scoring and improves on the assault quality of the entire army + gives stubborn, which is extremely useful when you want to tarpit something, and which also renders you immune to some of the nastier leadership-affecting things out there (such as weaken resolve ability of IG psyker squads). He works very well in all-comers lists.

 

Vulkan is generally awesome + very fun to play around with. Though if you run Vulkan, an explosive, highly mobile, go-straight-for-the-neck list is practically a must.

 

Librarian with nullzone & avenger is generally an extremely useful HQ to have around due to his psychic powers and his psychic hood. I usually run him in my pedro and bike captain lists.

 

Bike captain with relic blade allows bikes as troops, keeps combat tactics, and is himself a rather nice close-combat HQ that also unlocks command squads. I'd say he's less competitive then Pedro and Vulkan, but even so is still pretty darn nice.

[Brother-Captain Isaac]

Captain with Relic Blade and bolter: Cheap, unlocks command squad but not very effective, but hey, that's the AoBR Commander......

 

Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer with or without bike: Good gunline HQ, I attach him to a Dev squad and blast away while the Tacs storm foward

 

Shrike(on occasions): I attach him to a Dev Squad and Infilitrate them onto an objective, then fire away while awaiting further reinforcements.

 

Sicarius(on occasions): Rites of Battle plus Combat Tactics means that my Marines would almost always get to choose whether to retreat or not. He also enchances a single Tac squad, which would usually be Infilitrate, saving the need for a transport, so that's 35 points saved. But let's face it, he's terribly overcosted...... though he is quite fluffy(UltraMarines 2nd for me!)

 

None of those HQs and tactics are sound, so I'm just trying to help.

[waaanial00]

Well before I go onto what choices I take, it really needs to be stressed that the C:SM HQ choices are not monsters in any way, even Lysander. If they are tough they dont have enough attacks, if they have fancy attacks they are still T4.

 

Despite peoples assurances that Lysander just wades through armies, he only has 3 attacks (4 on the charge) and only 1 is re-rollable. Which means at maximum he can only kill 3 units a turn but realistically he will probably only get 2. Still good but not exactly massive impact on the whole game.

 

As such I only ever run HQ choices in a support capacity, they are there to make my army kill more or to lend a hand in order to tip the scales in combat. If my army cannot best the unit in combat then it is doubtful that the unit plus HQ will be able to do a little better. However if they can take them anyway then the HQ ensures that the victory is a little cleaner.

 

This means that I rarely use the Special Characters and my most run HQ is a Librarian. My top 3 choices are

 

1) Librarian

Avenger, Machine Curse

 

- I dont find nullzone to be particularly good in my local area and I generally find there is more armour to be dealt with than Invulnerable saves to block.

 

2) Captain

Bike, Relic Blade, Hellfire Rounds

 

- Unlocks bikes as troops and generally floats around making a nuisance of himself.

 

3) Cassius

 

- Despite my protests about Special Characters, Cassius is really worth it. I dont take jump pack units anymore so the lack of a JP option doesnt bother me. The T6 FNP and combi flamer makes him a real good character and the points he costs is very cheap. Still he is not a monster as he only has 2W and 2A.

 

Anything else I run is just for fun, I run the occassional LC Terminator Captain but thats more for theme or just because the model looks cool. I have tried most of the C:SM choices and found that I would much rather just run more Sternguard or Landspeeders in the place of them.

 

Wan

[gettothegone]

Who- Captain + Command Squad *I Take 2, I usually play in 1850 - 2000 pt games always on 6x4 tables*

 

What-

Captain: Relic Blade / Storm Shield / Bike. Relic Blade for S6, and Artificer / Storm for 2/3i

Squad is 3x Lightning Claws, 1x Thammer, 2x Melta Guns, Apothacary

 

So T5 / 3/3i / FNP / Rerolling Wounds / and a S8 I1/Shaker. Its expensive, but oh so very very worth it.

 

Where- 24" your first turn, directly towards the weakest point of your opponent. Get that cover save and now you're cooking with gas. Bonus points if your opponent moved towards you this turn, because now you just need to move 18"(24) with 2x3" swirves. You CAN and most likely WILL engage on turn 2.

 

Why- It kinda demands attention immediately. Its too fast to ignore like walking squads of death, or even Land Raider based Terminators. If people start shooting it, they'll find that its incredibly difficult to kill when it's moved 24", or when you try to small arms fire it down. This forces people to leave the speeders / preds alone to try to get rid of the incoming mess that is this meat grinder.

 

If you leave the command squads alone, they will be in your face turn 2. EVERY time. Dawn of War deployments are a blast.

 

When - The name of the game here is Multi Assaulting. Set yourself up smartly to assault as MUCH as you can without underestimating your opponent. Shoot a transport next to a Pred. Then assault the insides of the tank, and throw your thunder hammer on the AV10 Predator. Dump your attacks into the pred, try to leave combat in their turn.

 

Shoot your TL/rapid fire bolters, and then Assault as many guardsmen / orcs / eldar (S3 / 4 units)as you possibly can. If they're fearless, even better. Most of the time you will cause a serious number of wounds forcing LD / Wound Checks. You have 6 units to their 20-30. They will need to wipe you out in order to survive their incoming LD checks.

 

If they do wipe you out you did 1 of 3 things wrong.

 

1. Don't assault power weapon heavy squads. Double this up with I6 power weapon heavy squads.

 

2. You bit off more then you can chew. It happens, the more you use this unit, the more you'll get what you should, and shouldn't go pick fights with. Lots of Ork Boys yes, Lots of TH/SS terminators with Vulcan, not so much, not so much, unless you're able to carve them without getting counter assaulted.

 

3. You really did something to make your dice very very angry.

 

This HQ set ups is kinda like Bruce Lee... fast, finesse oriented, and you got a hell of a punch. You can usually take out 2-3 guys at a time if you take a lump or so, but if they ever figure out that they should all attack you at the same time, then the movies would end in the first 10 minutes.

[cas]

I never realized bikes were such a huge deal, I rarely see them in my area, unless its a space elf riding it.

1 bike captain to go please and thank you.

[ShinyRhino]

I like my HQs to buff my whole force, and be durable. This is why I use a Bike Captain. I buy him artificer armor, a relic blade, and hellfire rounds for his bike. He boosts my entire force by making my 8-man-plus-attack-bike squads into Troops choices.

As a single model, he's pretty killy. S6 hits at WS6 and I5 are awesome. Only other HQs typically get to hit him first, and that's what the T5, 2+/4++ are for.

 

I also really like Librarians nowadays. The psychic hood is great fun. I just wish the Epistolary upgrade wasn't so expensive.

 

While Ilike the imagery of a Chaplain, the limitation of being a single-unit buff is not that attractive.

 

I used to run Cato Sicarius a lot, because he was a nice stopgap/holdover from my old Fourth Edition playstyle, allowing my whole army to be Ld10, and throwing out a veteran skill to one tactical squad (typically Tank Hunters to a lascannon/plasmagun squad).

[Marlow]

We mostly seem to be talking C:SM here and I am going to agree with many others. The main two choices I use are a Librarian (with Storm Shield) and Bike Captain. No real need to cover why as everyone else has said that.

 

Vulkan is so much better than a DIY Captain/Master that I could never see taking one when he is an option unless I really wanted a Command Squad. While not as powerful I like using Khan for his Furious Charge/Hit n Run. Usually coupled with Grey Knights in a Land Raider. Str 7 Attacks are great!

 

If you are taking two HQ then allying in a Grey Knight Grand Master with Psi Hood is an excellent option. He has a Force Weapon that can kill characters and the stat line to make use of it.

[Koremu]

While Ilike the imagery of a Chaplain, the limitation of being a single-unit buff is not that attractive.

He is the cheapest HQ though. 100 points for an IC with a Power Weapon and an Invulnerable Save is a good deal before you get to his special abilities.

 

On the subject of his special abilities, Honour of the Chapter is excellent at improving the usefulness of Combat Tactics. Equip the Chaplain with a Jump Pack or a Bike and he becomes a highly mobile Fearless "net" who can catch retreating squads before the enemy shepherd them off the table. As long as he hasn't turbo boosted to get to them, the unit can even counter assault the enemy shepherds.

[cas]

While Ilike the imagery of a Chaplain, the limitation of being a single-unit buff is not that attractive.

He is the cheapest HQ though. 100 points for an IC with a Power Weapon and an Invulnerable Save is a good deal before you get to his special abilities.

 

On the subject of his special abilities, Honour of the Chapter is excellent at improving the usefulness of Combat Tactics. Equip the Chaplain with a Jump Pack or a Bike and he becomes a highly mobile Fearless "net" who can catch retreating squads before the enemy shepherd them off the table. As long as he hasn't turbo boosted to get to them, the unit can even counter assault the enemy shepherds.

 

Do you really have a problem with fleeing marines? Really?

[waaanial00]

When they are 200+ points and they are fleeing from a unit of grots who are less than 6" away, yes! Once had Lysander and a unit of 7 (or so, it was over a year ago) Sternguard run off the board because they lost combat by 1, failed his LD10 check and were harassed all the way to the boarder. A jump pack Chaplain would have caused this unit to turn around and beat the snot out of the damn Demon Prince for its Tzeench gifted luck :)

 

Generally if you have Combat Tactics there will be one incident of a unit being pushed towards the dead zone a game, well if you are as unlucky as me you will. Simply because there are times when you just dont want that combat blocking your shooting or you just want to peel a unit away from the real battle. However sometimes you are jsut unlucky with LD rolls then the luck is further compounded by low running rolls.

 

Wan

[Koremu]

While Ilike the imagery of a Chaplain, the limitation of being a single-unit buff is not that attractive.

He is the cheapest HQ though. 100 points for an IC with a Power Weapon and an Invulnerable Save is a good deal before you get to his special abilities.

 

On the subject of his special abilities, Honour of the Chapter is excellent at improving the usefulness of Combat Tactics. Equip the Chaplain with a Jump Pack or a Bike and he becomes a highly mobile Fearless "net" who can catch retreating squads before the enemy shepherd them off the table. As long as he hasn't turbo boosted to get to them, the unit can even counter assault the enemy shepherds.

 

Do you really have a problem with fleeing marines? Really?

Note where I say "improve the usefulness of Combat Tactics". You have to Break and Fall Back to use CT, and a canny opponent will try to exploit the broken status to prevent you from regrouping. Chaplain solves that problem.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

The thing I see with HQ choices is that far too many people use Counts As for my liking.

 

I know it's an advocated thing fro GW, but the thing is why should a Disciples of Caliban player have access to Darnath Lysander, no matter what they name him?

 

If your Chapter doesn't have a HQ SC, then build your own... Thats my opinion anyway and one of the biggest problems I see with HQ choice.