Vanilla marines - Captain/Chapter Master loadout

[AdamR]

Agreed - remember you can throw krak grenades these days, so he'll still have a shooting attack.

[Tiger9gamer]

oh yea...! I keep forgetting about those grenades :woot:

[Arikel]

I run a biker Captain lathered in upgrades, Artificer armour is pretty much needed imo.

 

I ran her with meltabombs, hellfire rounds, digital weapons and a power sword today against mech guard.

She took out 2 Leman Russ, a chimeara, a unit of plasma vets and an upgraded company command squad! Not bad for 190 points.

 

The best thing was that we were playing kill points :huh:

 

Very nice.

 

My Captain so far has killed...no-one thus far, seeing as he doesnt have an army to back him up and hes still an amputee right now, however, the three Captain Chainswords I need arrived today, I'm basing them tomorrow and then sitting down at GW on Saturday to get them painted and cut up for the conversion (looking at my loadout, take a guess what I plan).

 

When I get some battles under my belt, we'll see how much those extra 23 points is giving him in comparison, its slow going right now thanks to my lack of available time to paint and build (and the fact I suck) but I'm still going until I get my full army ready.

 

As for the suggestion about Hellfire rounds, while I value the suggestion, I feel it best to continue for a couple reasons:

 

Firstly, I've already got the Storm Bolter on the model in a plausible manner after much posing and inwardly cursing the laws of physics (that and cutting the big strap off it), so taking it off and replacing it with a normal bolter would be pretty difficult (and soul-crushing).

 

Secondly, because of the setup of a lot of people I see in the store, I feel the Strength value of normal bolter rounds is more beneficial, plus the extra shots will help when charging a unit, I can take those few extra footsoldiers down at short-range and then charge in with the Relic Blade.

 

Well I'm not gonna knock you on this because rule of cool always wins for me, and he does sound like he'll make a cool model;). The big thing here is regular rules. Bikes are relentless, unless 6th ed changed this, which means you can always fire everything at full tilt on the move and still charge, and bikes come standard with a twinlinked bolter already attached, which means he doesn't need to carry it, the guns are on the bike already, unless you are using a non gw model. Sort of makes the stormbolter redundant on a biker captain, whether you take hellfire rounds or not.

[Giga]

I've decided to go with the following bike captain loadout:

- bike

- artificer

- storm shield

- relic blade

 

Comes out at 195 pts, which might be too expensive, so I'm still trying to decide whether I should get rid of the storm shield or not. What do you guys think? Is the 3++ save so much better than 4++ that its worth the points?

 

 

EDIT: On a related note, is there any real advantage in taking a bike command squad over a command squad in a rhino?

 

The way I see it, a close combat command squad is overpriced no matter what, so that's a big no-no for me. On the other hand, a cheap shooty command squad doesn't really benefit from riding on bikes, as you could just instead take a similarly priced biker unit that would have near the same amount of special weapons while also having an attack bike and being a troops choice.

[AdamR]

If you've got the points spare I'd keep the storm shield. He already has a shooting attack from the bike and thrown krak grenades.

I would strongly recommend switching the relic blade for a thunder hammer though.

[ShadowHaunt]

EDIT: On a related note, is there any real advantage in taking a bike command squad over a command squad in a rhino?

 

The way I see it, a close combat command squad is overpriced no matter what, so that's a big no-no for me. On the other hand, a cheap shooty command squad doesn't really benefit from riding on bikes, as you could just instead take a similarly priced biker unit that would have near the same amount of special weapons while also having an attack bike and being a troops choice.

 

The advantage of a bike command squad over a normal bike squad, is that you can give them the gear to make them hard-hitting in close combat, so they can back that captain up. A normal marine bike squad is a poor assault unit, with only 1 attack each, and no options for anything beyond basic weapons except on the Sergeant. If you put the command squad in a Rhino, then they can't help protect the captain from shooting, because they're in the Rhino, and the Captain, being on a bike, can't get in there.

[UltraTacSgt]

What do you guys think of jump captains in the 1000-1500pt range?

I am planning on running a RB/AA/MB jump captain with a 5 man assault squad. Gear on the assault sergeant isn't final but I was thinking power sword or LC and possible storm shield. The talk on this thread about ID ability is making me consider a PF though. I usually feel like putting a lot of gear on a normal sgt is kind of risky though considering it's a single wound model, and I never like my normal marines striking last.

 

I plan on using this unit more as a counter charge unit to keep things away from my gunline elements. In the case of an enemy being better at range, I'd use cover to run them up a flank and deepstrike some Tac Terms w/ assault cannon near them to give my enemy target priority issues.

 

How viable are these tactics? Is the upgrade from 4++ to 3++ really worth it for 15pts on a Captain in this role?

[FlamingDeth]

I wouldn't think so, it doesn't sound like you want some unstoppable murdering deathstar or like you want them charging dedicated assault units so the amount of PW hits he'll be getting should be pretty negligible (if everything goes according to plan). Might go with an axe on the seargent to take out any 2+ that you run into if the plan goes awry.

[thelordcal]

My load out:

 

Captain, Bike, Artificer, Power Fist, Lightening Claw - 190

 

 

With the lightening claw getting slashed (lol) as soon as i need to point fiddle elsewhere. While initiative 5 is great... i'd rather have AP 2 to handle what my bikes can't. Its also nice to Insta-gib anyone who isn't eternal warrior.

 

I run him in the following squad:

 

Command Squad, Bikes, 4x Plasma Guns, Power Fist - 290

 

with an attached: Rune Priest w. Divination!

 

 

Its my answer to flyers. 8x TL STR 7 Ap 2 shots? Yes please! Plus i have the extra power fist to help carry the combat load. Its fairly cheap for a command squad and does what i want it to, which is really, a place to stash my characters. Otherwise theyll be riding with bike squads which isn't super helpful...