Aspiring Champion Load-outs

[firestorm40k]

Greetings my Chaotic Brethren of the B&C :(

 

Just looking for your thoughts, wisdom and experience when it comes to what load-outs you give your Aspiring Champs in CSM, Plague Marine, or Noise Marine Squads?

 

I am planning on taking part in a tournament later this year, and am thinking about what to take – and how to load out the AC’s in my squads is an issue that I’m finding surprisingly difficult to pin down.

 

For a tournament list, I guess flexibility is the key – you need a take all-comers army, and I’d like to reflect that in the squad load-outs.

 

It is a given that all my AC’s (of which there will be four – two CSMs, a Skull Champ and a Plague Marine AC) will have Power Fists. I’m finding it difficult to decide what other weapon to give the CSM & PM AC’s though.

 

I’ve been thinking about Combi-weapons. The fact they’re one shot is a problem, but for that one round it does give you and extra couple of Plasma shots, or a Melta shot, or a flamer template. But what if they miss, or get taken out before firing? That’s a waste then.

 

Or there’s Plasma pistols – they have the obvious advantages and disadvantages; I just don’t trust my dice rolls enough to discount losing one of the Champs before they’ve done anything! Also, there’s the points cost issue – they make a CSM Champ with PF 70 points, that’s almost as much as a 5-man CSM unit on its own.

 

Finally, there’s the basic Bolter option. Doesn’t sink points like a Plasma or Combi – but could missing that extra special weapon shot be vital???

 

Those are my concerns, I look forward to hearing what you other Chaos generals have to say. Thanks for looking! ;)

[Brother Nihm]

For a tournament list, I guess flexibility is the key – you need a take all-comers army, and I’d like to reflect that in the squad load-outs.

In that case,

 

CSM

Powerfist.

 

Plague Marine

Powerfist, you are I3 without one anyway, and you have the staying power to use it.

 

Noise Marine Squads

Are sometimes best run without a Champion for competitive play due to the opposite nature of the unit (shooty first, assault second), compared to CSM.

 

Or there’s Plasma pistols

Too pricey, too risky, only sees use once or twice, e.g. another Marine will (if used properly) see use all game.

 

Doesn’t sink points like a Plasma or Combi – but could missing that extra special weapon shot be vital???

I like to think of them as added damage. Only take them if you have spare points (something I never seem to have).

 

 

My 2 Kraks

[the jeske]

fists are the only options we have . normaly when an army is properly build there isnt enough points to buy combi weapons . plasma pistols suck both because of the cost and the chance to kill the asp champ .

[LOUDERMAN]

Personally I'd go for Combi weapons on the CSM and plauge marine Champs. Generally, flamers generally get one "good" shot per game, so Combi-Flamers are almost always my first choice. Combi-Plasma can kill your fist, and thats no-bueno so I'd stay away from that, and I only run Combi-Meltas if I have a low Melta count. Or in in Termies because they wreck things better.

 

Generally I add a fist and a Combi-Flamer to almsot all my champs/sgts unless they have a reason not to have it.

[Xeonic]

My champs are almost exclusively equipped with just a Fist. The Fist is their sole objective and purpose in life and they do better, I find, if they have no distractions from it <_< . All joking aside I have a PW champ I use occasionally(killteams mainly, but he's seen some limited regular 40k table time) and I've often wished for a few combi-flamers, and proxied them a couple times but never felt enough need to actually build any.

 

My opinion is though if my unit doesn't need a Fist it probably doesn't need a champ, so in a sense it really is their only purpose. Plasma could kill my Fist(that's bad!), a combi would be nice, but melta would be a fair choice, but I already double up on reuseable guns, and with plasma I'm back to possibly killing my fist, so flamer with it's template autohits and cover ignoringness almost ensuring good bang for the back in a single shot, is the only realistic option there IMO, and quite frankly the points don't always exist for it. It would be a nice addition to a dual melta unit to give them some more duality of purpose though.

[Verbal Underbelly]

I play Death Guard so I'll only comment on your Plague Champions, I often take a plasma pistol and powerfist because the Feel No Pain rule mitigates the risks of using the pistol. I like taking a plasma shot at a squad before I assault, I've even managed to blast Rhinos in the past...

 

Oh yeah. I'd definitely always take a combi-melta on your chaos lord because his BS5 means he'll hit more often than not. I used one recently on a trygon and shaved a would of it before I charged in with my daemon weapon... the trygon went on to die...

[Aiestz]

Plasma pistols can be useful if you equip the squad with 2 plasma guns, the more the merrier!

 

But usually I put the fist, power swords get more effective with zerkers.

[nurglez]

I must admit, that fists are the way to go, and fists on berzerkers or even noise marine champions are generally better, as due to striking at different I you get round them using wound allocation shenanigans to pile the power wep wounds on the same model :)

 

In my 1500 point deathguard force I have 4 plague marine 7 man squads, 2 of these are dual melta squads with fist and combi flamer champions, the other squads are dual melta and dual plasma.

 

combi flamers are great, as they dont roll to hit and against some forces are well worth the 10 points, hell if you manage to cover 7 models in a SM squad its as if you hit with 7 bolters! way more then that 1 champion could put out.

 

Combi melta and plasma, well I leave those to my terminator's when I use them.