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I own a reasonably large infantry based Space Marine army and would just like to get peoples thoughts on wether its better to use a Master Commander to give your whole army Leadership 10 (then modifiers). Or to give each sergeant terminator honours to give each squad a Leadership of 9.

Due to points I only really want to do one or the other and also I'm aware that if Master gets killed all squads revert to using normal leadership values. Its one of those "costs the same, both have advantages" type of thing.

Currently I use my Master in a command squad that has equal strength in powerful shooting and assualt. But that puts him at risk obviously, also theres no point spending money on a charactor and hiding him behind a tree

Any thoughts or advice would be great.

 

If I have an army that would use Vets (True Grit Tac squads so I have vets in them with power fists) a Master isn't neccessary.

In a shooty army with little close combat capability, then I go with the master. Typicaly in termie armor with a retinue.

I almost always ascribe to the "Chief Librarian Judd" school of command; old-school Dakkites will know of whom I speak. In my case, a Master with a stormbolter is a minor investment of points that generally lurks behind cover and gives a much greater benefit in doing so than any amount of combat could contribute, at least in the types of armies I tend to run. For 80 points, I can make virtually sure that every unit's shooting will go exactly where I want it, and that any units charged by the enemy will hold out long enough to allow me to redeploy nearby units far enough away to give the enemy a face full of bolter when they finally finish the squad.

So, yes there IS a point to buying a character and then hiding him; there's just no point in buying a TOOLED-OUT character and hiding him.

hmmmm, some interesting thoughts there.

I use a 8 to 10man command squad with champion, power fist, meltagun and a Master with power weapon/plasma pistol as my main assualt force and my 10man assualt marines with powerfist and 2x plasma pistols or flamers with a Chaplain as my second assualt force.

The rest of my infantry is made up of small 5man scouts squads equipped with a missile launcher and 2 to 4 snipers for a good amount of anti-personell but I don't upgrade then to vets as I feel the +1 attack never helps unless I'm assualted which is rare.

The vehicles having lascannons for anti-tank weapons

My Command and Assualt Squad cost between 300 and 400 pts each including HQ charactor which is obviously too excessive, which is why I'm trying to make it cost effective and rely less on one charactors abilities.

I suppose the reason I'm asking is because I'm considering wether ditch my command squad completely and field another assualt squad to retain my assualting capabilities and upgrade all infantry to have a sgt. Or do as "Lord Sutekh" suggests and keep him in cover shooting a storm bolter.

Or wether to drop my command squad down to 5men with powerfist and champion and a Master with pweapon plasma pistol. Makes it less threatening to the enemy, less points cost and can still support my assualt marines.

Cheers for your input guys, you've given me some useful idea's to think about.

I think that you could drop the command squad, keep the master and add a chaplain. That's a MEAN amount of cc.

Chapter master is always a better ioption. After all you need a character and you are only paying 15pts extra for Ld10.

I canot see any reason not to equip him without at least power weapon and bolt pistol, you can hide him well enough in a squad and you dont have to target enemy characters with him, just slaughter rank and file instead.

SM characters with storm bolters are a waste now you can no longer have a one wound cheap commander.

in a shooty army id go with a cheapy FC so that you get Ld10 and give hime enough stuff to servive. this way you save points for more guns (heavybolters...nudge,nudge)

Yeah, the nail is pretty much driven into this topic.

Neither all-Vets or a Master-only approach is more cost effective 100% of the time. It really depends on the number and role of the tac-squads in your force. A drop podding or low-numbers army might want the Vet Sarges, since they make youre squads much meaner up close and enable you to fulfill a powerful assault role with your HQ. A larger, shootier army might want to leave the CC to counter-assault units (Assault Marines) and use a hidden Master to pass their 6-man-squad morale and target priority tests more easily.

-Adso