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If I'm recalling this correct, I was wondering if anyone has ever actually used this in a game and how it worked for them?

I mean in theory I could see this being very devastating especially to a horde list that clusters together during deployment and then (provided you go first) bringing the rain of fire upon their heads and just delivering an awesome show of orbital force.

Or am I way off base and this is just a cheesy gimic that people use in fun games?

Cheers~

It is of pretty much no use. Not worth buying a chapter master for.

The Chapter Master's orbital bombardment is extraordinarily powerful, especially in small games. I'd go so far as to say that it's so good that there's no reason to buy a Captain unless you want to get Bikes as Troops or really need to field a Command Squad.

It depends on how your SM play. If your chapter master is part of a counter-assault force for more of a gunline, then he can take the turn to drop the bombardment. If you need him moving to keep up with your forces then it's not as good because you don't want him standing still to fire it.

1/3 of the time, its devastating. Easily worth 25 points if you're fighting a lot of AV 14, or multi-wound models. Less so if you're fighting a lot of MCs, or swarms of Orkz/Guardsmen/'Gaunts/'Gants.

As an Ork player I've had it used against me a few times and its hurt every time.

My marine opponent runs a list that likes to castle up and has a strong counter assault element.

Consequently his Pedo Kantor isn't moving much early in the game so he has plenty of time to drop it. And since I run horde orks it is pretty much guaranteed to hit something and do some damage early in the game.

If you run a counter-assault based marine army go for it.

I have had very little use of the chapter. But this last weekend I was in a tourament and had a chapter master. On the first turn I dropped it on a chaos land raider and destroyed it. Sometimes it is just all about luck

In my old SM list I would actually field 2 Chapter Masters and 3 Vindi. Normally I would deploy a them on a unit holding home objective or waiting to embark in a razorback. Most times they were very effective in popping armor that was hiding or making short work of a horde unit. Once they were used a rarely ever did anything else with them.

I've had varying degrees of success with it. I've blown up a Landraider once, but failed to even pen a Basilisk on other occasions. I think 90% of the time a Vindicator would be a better choice.

I'd agree with Commander Endova. I've used Vindicators with great success and have had spotty results at best with the Chapter Master.

Of course YMMV, but my personal recommedation would be to go with an HQ that will better benefit your army.

~FR

well you have to consider what you get over a captain

for the cost of a powerfist you get, Orbital bombardment and +1 wound.

A Str10 AP1 large blast is great if you are facing a horde or mechanized list. It is particularly effective in a spearhead deployment. even low model count armies will be bunched up.


if it hits on target it will most likely wipe whatever it hits and if it scatters off it might hit other things, but its not bad if you don't hit.

the worst thing is if you forget you have it and never use it

Grey Templar wrote:well you have to consider what you get over a captain

for the cost of a powerfist you get, Orbital bombardment and +1 wound.

You don't get an extra wound, weirdly enough, I meet a guy last time at the club who thought the same thing, where do you get that from? Looking at the chaplain entry? Looking at Calgar?

IMO, it isn't 25 pts for the orbital bombardment, it is 125pts + gear for a HQ that just doesn't add enough to your army

I've used it a few times. In one game, it Immobilized a Defiler on turn one, resulting in it not hitting anything the whole game.
In another, it Exploded a Baal Predator on turn one.

Notice that both big results occurred on Turn One.

The real bonus of the Orbital Bombardment is the unlimited range, and that fact that it's an Ordnance Barrage. This means you can hit anything on the table, no matter if you have LOS or not. Got Hive Guard skuling around outside LOS? Drop that Orbital Bombardment on their faces. You have a 33% chance of wiping them off the face of the planet by rolling one of the two hit markers on your scatter die.
Plus, since it's Ordnance, you roll that 2d6 for Armor Penetration, and take the highest. Not a guaranteed kill by any means, but it helps.

Comparing it with a Vindicator is total rubbish. OB is a one-shot skill bought via an HQ choice, with S10, AP1 and Ordnance Barrage.
The Vindicator is bought as a Heavy slot, can fire repeatedly, has 24" range, and is S8, AP2 (IIRC). It's plain Ordnance, and cannot fire indirectly.
Two totally different creatures, really.

If you have the spare 25 points, and planned to take a non-Biker Captain, take the Chapter Master instead. Use smarts when determining his deployment based on if you have first turn, or not. Pick the no-brainer spots for the OB to land, like dead center on the opponent's horde line, or smack in the center of their parking lot.

Ive had it drop on my boyz a couple times. At best it hurt a mob, but it wasnt anything to really send me to the hills. When I run a horde, I spread out anyways. Im to anal to leave a horde bunched up so I can get it in the rear from a template. I agree on the Vindicators though, those are where the hurtin comes from

Vindies are str 10 ap 1 as well.

Actually there's a surprising amount of str 10 ap 1 pieplates available to marines in the present codex.

And you won't be wiping out hive guard any time soon as they're T6 and thus laugh at ordnance.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:Vindies are str 10 ap 1 as well.

Actually there's a surprising amount of str 10 ap 1 pieplates available to marines in the present codex.

And you won't be wiping out hive guard any time soon as they're T6 and thus laugh at ordnance.

The Vindicator's Demolisher cannon is S10, AP2. A subtle but distinct difference.

And the Orbital bombardment would wound Hive Guard on a 2+ with no armour save. They'd go down pretty fast.

Hive guard is a horrible target for ordnance. Small unit + large base size = probably 1 hit, so your 125+ chapter master just knocked a wound off a 50pts model

DaOrkz1977 wrote:In my old SM list I would actually field 2 Chapter Masters and 3 Vindi. Normally I would deploy a them on a unit holding home objective or waiting to embark in a razorback. Most times they were very effective in popping armor that was hiding or making short work of a horde unit. Once they were used a rarely ever did anything else with them.

Did you not find it slightly boring fielding 2 Chapter Masters?

Frostreaver wrote:

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:Vindies are str 10 ap 1 as well.

Actually there's a surprising amount of str 10 ap 1 pieplates available to marines in the present codex.

And you won't be wiping out hive guard any time soon as they're T6 and thus laugh at ordnance.

The Vindicator's Demolisher cannon is S10, AP2. A subtle but distinct difference.

And the Orbital bombardment would wound Hive Guard on a 2+ with no armour save. They'd go down pretty fast.

D'oh of course it is.

Internet rule 3. Any post pointing out a mistake will invariably contain a mistake.

I'll be in the corner wearing the dunces hat.

Imho it's not worth it.

If your opponent is smart, and dropping that pie plate of nastiness would greatly affect the game, then of course he will take steps to mitigate it's affect. This involves putting yourself at max coherency, and hunkering down in cover of some sort.

If there are tanks that you simply must kill, then it is much more worthwhile, but then the unreliability factor comes in. With a 1/3 chance to hit and as much as a 5/6 chance of it scattering beyond any usefullness, (note that these statistics do not account for scatter onto another unit) I would argue that there are much better ways to spend your points.

Moreover, there are many SM armies that actually use their Chapter Master and therefore cannot afford to let him sit back.

My friends and I are becoming less and less enchanted by the Orbital bombardment. In a total of 4 games that I've played where it was used, it has killed about 5 marines and a vindicator. Now, when added up, this does total to be more points than the cost of 6 orbital bombardments, but my friends who used said Bombardment have also never had very successful games when paying the extra 25 points for it.

Why do people say it is 25 pts for the bombardment? When do you ever use a normal captain if you're not making a bike army? The normal captain is a sub-par HQ choice. If you deck him out for combat, he quickly get's in the same league as the special characters, and you might as well just get them. If you don't deck him out for combat, you should take a libby/chaplain instead. So when you go for the chapter master, you are choosing a sub-par HQ choice that has an unreliable gimmick. It is nice on Pedro and Calgar, as it is just a bonus, but the normal CM is just a subpar choice.

I keep telling Marneus to slow down and call for re-inforcements, maybe give the brothers up on the Battle Barge something to do by shooting the big gun once in a blue moon, but he's all like "OH, TO WALK ON THE BLOODSTAINED GROUND. CHARGE!!!!!"

I even went so far as to tell him to fall back once. He refused.

@GeneralRetreat:
He refused because you didn't use the politically correct term of 'tactical retreat'.
You didn't even use the code word: Combat Tactics.



A+ for the funny post.
___________________

If one will not use the Orbital, then 25 points saved is 25 points earned.
In addition, a Captain is used to get access to the Command Squad.
Masters are only limited to unlocking Honor Guard.

I take Masters simply for the ability to take Honor guard

Command squads are a waste of points IMO. Honor guard are awsome for the ability to take relic blades and the 2+ armor save.

I have a Homebrew CM and with his honor guard he's great, but not OP. and his orbital bombardment works pretty good too. its no different from the normal one.

very few opponents think about the OB ability simply because it gets ignored alot. but that template will either do nothing or make many times its points back

Illumini wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:well you have to consider what you get over a captain

for the cost of a powerfist you get, Orbital bombardment and +1 wound.

You don't get an extra wound, weirdly enough, I meet a guy last time at the club who thought the same thing, where do you get that from? Looking at the chaplain entry? Looking at Calgar?

I've heard it was from the old Codex. Same thing at my old FLGS. Everyone assumed that until I actually fielded one my first game there.

Man i am so angry they nerfed my nilla chapter master. i haven't used him in so long i forgot. Chaplains and libbies being so much better. i field at least one in every Appoc game for the bombardment specificly.

Grey Templar wrote:I take Masters simply for the ability to take Honor guard

Command squads are a waste of points IMO. Honor guard are awsome for the ability to take relic blades and the 2+ armor save.

I have a Homebrew CM and with his honor guard he's great, but not OP. and his orbital bombardment works pretty good too. its no different from the normal one.

very few opponents think about the OB ability simply because it gets ignored alot. but that template will either do nothing or make many times its points back

Honor guard are pretty bad compared to termies, and IMO also compared to the command squad (which I also find a bit overpriced) If you want relic-wielding 2+ saves, get some GK termies. Much better than the HG, and probably in the same price-league - and you don't even have to buy the CM to field them

But that mght not be fair and if i play SMs i want to play SMs not SMs with superpowad allies. if i want superpowad SMs i will play superpowad SMs

Honerguard are expensive, but can chew through terminators and make great "assassination" squads for enemy charactors.

well going by the bombardment Pedro Kantor has, which i've used once or twice in my fun list when against horde armies (bearing in mind this was only around 800 points-ish) it's good to have but highly conditional. Certainly with the right deployment you could worry the opponent a bit, but that depends if you want to give up that turn's movement or not, imo very useful if you're against something that'd mash you in assualt, since that extra turn of shooting will help you anyway.

I realise i've contributed nothing that hasn't already been said here...

The suprise factor is great . You can see a vindy and counter it with bad LOS and weapons fire and out ranging it. The commander can be transported, jumppacked or have a bike...or walk....in each case he looks much less like a problem. Something else to think about.