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It seems that the popular unit fro assault marines is the Chaplain, but I am wondering how people field him. The reason being that a regular Chaplain, say MoS has not been more effective than when I run a regular Master with Fist. I am looking to what the most effective assault & HQ unit those of you have found to be? This is a little layout that I've found the most effective so far:

Master
Terminator Honors
Power Fist
Bolt Pistol
Jump Pack
136pts

5 Attacks on the Charge

Assault Marines x 8

24 Attacks on the Charge

I don't run a Fist with marines because of the lower WS of the marine. I hate having 4 attacks on the charge and missing 3!

The Chaplain's Litanies of Hate, and Honour of the Chapter, will boost Assault Marines for combat. The former will let them re-roll misses on the turn they charge, and the latter will make the unit Fearless.

1. The master is 6 attacks otc, isn't he? 3 Base, 1 for the add. CC-weapon, 1 for terminator honours, 1 for the charge.

2. Still, having 4 fist attacks on the sarge and missing 3 of them is more worthwhile than having a potential 6 attacks and not even commencing them (IC rules under 4th).

3. As nurglitch already pointed out: The chappy will help with missing 3 out of 4 attacks. Plus he comes with a PW and a 4+ Inv already. If you compare him with a master, you'll find that he pays like 10 points for his 'iron halo', which is quite good imho. Add a jump pack and, if you really want to, a fist so you can at least choose wether to use his high Ini or not.

4. If you need the master for overall leadership simply consider using him as the secondary HQ. Termie armour + Twin LCs is 130 pts, get a termie command squad so you pay for 4 termies rather than 5 in a standalone squad to get your Twin ACs. Accounting for those saved points, the master costs effective 90 pts, which is pretty cheap and most certainly you'll get use out of both squads.

-Khorneflakes

The chaplain isn't run with assault marines for damage, as you've discovered. He's run to make the unit fearless and allow them to re-roll hits.

Don't forget that while he comes with a "free" power weapon, you can still replace with with a power fist of his own, or a pair of lightning claws.

Finally, the Chaplain comes standard with a 4++ invulnerable save, making him more durable against power weapons. In the basic Marine codex, you can only take one relic, and since the Chappy already has the equivilant of the iron halo, you can throw a Mantel on him to really tank.

Polonius, you don't replace the Crozius. You use it as an additional weapon, so you can choose which to use. As for the LC, I think it's a bit silly, tbh. My sense of economy rebels against paying 30 points just to reroll wounds.

I run dirt-cheap reclusiarches (jump pack, frags, bolt pistol) as at least 50% of my HQs. Run with my standard assualt squad, he's very good for the price.

I run a Chaplain with power weapon, plasma pistol and jump pack. Joint with 10xAssualt marines with 1vet and power fist and another with plasma pistol.

Isn't overly expensive they are fearless and can deal a lot of damage quickly if they charged. Against eldar it might be worth having a powerfist chappy as he will go after the eldar almost everytime anyway.

Well I have been cheating myself! Either that or preparing for 5th edition rules by using one less attack. I prefer to think the latter, I feel less stupid that way! Well I do see the logic now why many use chappy. And being able to reroll the sergeant with fist would help him hitting more.

I usually run a decked out chaplain with a power fist and crozius. With all the evilness you can deck him out with, at last tally i accounted for on average 3 enemies regardless of toughness or armor save per turn in CC.

While a Chaplain really boosts the unit he accompanies, a Captain provides a leadership boost to the whole army. If you don't have another HQ space available it would be something to lead the Assault Squad with a Captain. He'd only boost that squad's killing potential a little, but the boost to the entire army can make or break a game (or simple save points on veteran sergeants).

For games of 2000pts+ I do add a Captain with Command Squad/Honour Guard for that very reason.

When using the Blood Angels Codex I'm tempted to stick the captain and Honour Guard into a razorbackHB to run alongside the Chaplain so they all get into combat. Not sure if thats a good idea though.

I usually field as many assualt marines and death company as possible, so i rarely have points for a second HQ after adding tanks and dreads.