Good commander, best melee?

[NemFX]

Space marine captain + two lightning claws + artificier armour + jump pack = best melee character?

 

For the points, is this worth it?

 

I figure that while the rest of my army stands around shooting stuff, I can throw my captain at the nearest threat, ideally tie them up in melee for a little while by himself (maybe a turn or two while I get in some good shooting) and he can give the squad a black eye, or more, while I'm trying to reduce the enemy numbers.

 

It's been awhile since I've actually gotten to play (I'm about a month short of a year of no-gaming) so is this a viable and cost effective method?

 

 

My army has enough 'looks cool, but doesn't get used' characters in it.

 

(others include: thunderhammer + bolter captain, and bolt pistol + plasma pistol captain)

[MagicMan]

Its not a terrible idea, but its not a particuarly awesome one either.

 

 

You've gotta remember that the captain will be killing 3 - 5 men a turn, tops, and maybe worse than that. So without back up he'd have to be careful on who he picked on. Howeeeeever, get him a few Assault squad buddies (5 with a powerfist costs less than the captain...) and you've got a handy little counter-assault unit.

[Venemox]

I have to agree; Thunderhammer+Bolter captains does look cool.

[DarkGuard]

I find that one of the most survivable vanilla Captains out there is a Captain with relic blade, storm shield and artificer armour. Sporting a 2+/3++ save, and 3-4 S6 power weapon attacks, along with a good initiative of 5, this Captain can dish out damage and soak it up. The downfall here is the amount of attacks aren't inspiring, expect him to take down 2 guys a turn so he'll need back up. From this basic build of 160pts, feel free to then add on things like a jump pack if he's joining an Assault or jump Vanguard squad, or bikes if you want a bike Command squad and/or bike troops. Indeed, while the bike is expensive and I dislike them, it makes him even harder to kill by increasing his toughness. Furthermore, spare a thought for digi weapons. Even though you're wounding on 2s against most things you want every hit to count, digi weapons prevents you from rolling 1s too often with re-rolls, ensuring he'll keep on killing.

 

Just a thought, and built well it looks cool. However, a lot of people run them, so you may want to steer clear if you don't want to follow the crowd so much, but IMO he is the best melee Captain.

[Validar]

I run the 160 point relic blade + ss + aa version. It works out very well as long as I keep him out of insta-kill weaponry. I have played him in a LR with a killy CS, in which case he most of the time simply went out on his own, and I have played him as a member of a combat squad - very risky, but it adds a deadly edge to that one rhino and forces your opponent to give it required attention.

[Ming]

Yeah, I'd guess the best all-around commander is the RB + DW + AA +/- SS variant....if you can put him on a bike, better than the jump pack version. But as previously posted...don't want him stuck in with death star units, and getting him un-damaged to the assault is always the tricky part. Better all around over dual claws on the basis of S6 power weapons may be better wounding in the long run, especially if you want to assault T5+ opponents.

[fivepointedstar]

best one i used was CM with bike, AA, SS, RB, digi weapons, Nade launcher first off hide behind something use the bomb drop and then 2nd turn fly in and kill, kill, kill.

[NemFX]

My army has had a couple of different leaders, mostly because I go for what looks awesome, or is fluffy for my army. Usually those manage to overlap.

 

Normally my army is lead by a chapter master with artificier armour, weapons varied because they generally didn't get used. I was pretty much only using that one for orbital bombardment.

 

The first of my fluff captains was Captain Sigma. Bolter and thunderhammer, artificier armour. In actual gameplay, I only counted the bolter as an upgrade, the hammer was just a ccw. Looked neat, did nothing for my army.

 

Then I made Captain Lambada. Yeah. I know. Spelled Lambda, but that looks wrong. 2 plasma pistols, 2 auxiliary grenade launchers, artificier armour. Basically anything not a vehicle, in 12" would die. This was okay, but I missed orbital squad killing capabilities.

 

My army's current (overall) leader is using the Marneus Calgar rules so that I get both orbital bombardment, and three! honour guard squads. Add in 3 drop pods and you have a very nice little massacare.

 

 

As for Captain Psi, he's about half made already. I scratchbuilt the jumppack so it'd look like an older version, and had to scratchbuild the lightning claws cause I couldn't find any.

 

As nice as the idea is for him to have assault squads to help; my army is going to be a flak storm. 9 land speeders with 2 heavy bolters each for my fast attack, at least six razorbacks with heavy bolters. That's about 150 shots a turn. Psi's role is literally to just go tie up squads that get too close to whatever I'm trying to protect. He's literally the sacrificial pawn, he just gets some spiff gear to give him a chance.

 

Imagine if you will, your second last turn, your scouts are sitting on an objective, but oh crap, there's a squad of berzerkers about to charge them next turn. So, you jump your captain into the thick of them with his claws (3 attacks) and charging (extra attack) and whatever else he might have. He's got a slim chance of killing them all, maybe he'll take out a quarter of the squad if he's rolling averages. That's fine though, artificier armour and iron halo? He'll probably survive long enough, and keep them tied up, so you win.

 

 

but it turns out to be CRAZY what kind of stabs this guy has

 

im teling you....

 

melee like that is UNREAL, it doens't even HAPPEN.

 

most of the time