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2 apothecaries...or 1?


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Everywhere. Put them everywhere. They're a boon to any squad, especially 20-man Tactical squads. They're great with Breacher Marines as well, who are already tough as nails. Heck, you can even make Primus Medicae in TDA and put them with some Terminator squads as well. FNP on 20 Marines is pretty powerful, and it's saved my skin more than a few times.

My planned "hammer" unit for my eventual Salamander 30k force is a Praetor in Cataphractii w/ shield, cloak and MC-TH, joining Firedrakes w/ TH and shield, and a Primus Medicae in Cataphratcii. Not sure what the PM will be armed with yet, but hoping it can be armed with shield and hammer to stick to the squads theme. Eventually in a Spartan.

My planned "hammer" unit for my eventual Salamander 30k force is a Praetor in Cataphractii w/ shield, cloak and MC-TH, joining Firedrakes w/ TH and shield, and a Primus Medicae in Cataphratcii. Not sure what the PM will be armed with yet, but hoping it can be armed with shield and hammer to stick to the squads theme. Eventually in a Spartan.

 

Primus Medicae doesn't have equipment limitations like some of the other Consuls do, so you should be able to toss the hammer & shield on him without issue.  Sounds like a crazy-durable squad that needs a lot of bolter-love.

 

As far as I am concerned about the original topic, though... if it's a footslogging blob squad, it really ought to have an apothecary attached.  When we're talking about methods of getting the unit across the board in a condition to actually do its job when it gets there, we want to look at how fast is the unit and how tough is the unit.  Fast and tough, slow and tough, fast and vulnerable, any of those can work, but slow and vulnerable does not.  It becomes especially worthwhile in the blob squads, however, because of the sheer number of marines that you're amortizing the cost of the apothecary across.  If you put an apothecary in a five man support squad, you're paying almost 10 points per model for Feel No Pain.  if you put him in a 20 man tactical blob, you're paying about 2 points model for Feel No Pain.

 

As for equipment... I run mine without any.  The value they bring with the FNP is enough.  But I can see arguments for Augury Scanners, Artificer Armor, and Power Swords.

 

Augury Scanners: Provide more value to the squad by giving interceptor against nearby deepstrikers and preventing nearby infiltration.  The cost for this ability is so small that it's an easily justifiable upgrade.  You can also take a combiweapon or volkite charger on him instead of the augury scanner (not with it), but given the value of the scanner compared to the cost/effectiveness of the weapons... take the scanner, if you take anything.

 

Artificer Armor: Reeaaally... only worth it to protect against barrage sniping and precision shots.  I don't think you should ever put him in a position where he takes armor saves unless he's like the last guy left.  AA protects against the situations where you don't have a choice, and even then, only when you fail LoS! rolls.

 

Power Swords: So long as your sergeant is equipped for handling challenges with AA + axe/fist, then I think the power sword can make some sense, but I'm not sure it's terribly worth it.  He only has 1 base attack, so bolt pistol + power weapon gives him 2.  I dunno if that's good enough, for the points, but it could give you a guy that puts a few wounds on the enemy tacticals while the sergeants duel it out.  Worth noting that this is an option specifically for a power sword, not a generic power weapon.

 

Re: Primus Medicae, I think his special rule is useless, and so is his pistol.  You bring him to give FNP to terminator squads, or other important squads you can't stick apothecaries in.

For me, Augury Scanners are an automatic take on apothecaries. I tend to stick them into 20 man blobs and the area denial they give is outstanding (in addition to protecting tanks for deep strikers with melta). Artificer Armor can be useful, especially since the meta is turning into barrage sniping to de-fang deathstars. Beyond those upgrades I keep them bare bones.

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