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Just picked up a SM commander and was wondering what would be the best way to go with it- Add a few extra points to turn it into a chapter master, or simply make it a captain. And what would be a good combination of weapons for him?

Unless your running bikes and want them as scoring units I would go with a chapter master. I always start my games with the one time wonder orbital bombardment. S10 AP 1 large blast of awesomness.

I would have to agree with the above, I always love to see that template-shaped hole in my enemy's forces.

anyway, in terms of equipment, I always perfer to give my Chapter Master a power fist, storm shield, and artificer armor.

Depends on your play style. If you plan on moving aggressively by bike or transport, I'd just stick to a Captain and save the 25 points. If he's gonna hang back on foot, then you can splurge on the bombardment for random acts of awesome. My preferred loadout is Artificer Armor, Relic Blade, and Bike.

I find it hard to pick the Chapter Master over the Captain. Whenever im making that choice it is ussually because i want another hard hitting squad from the choice, and i always revert to the command squad over the honor squad. But if its not for the company they bring with them, i get a chaplain.

It's very hard to justify the Chapter Master.

You essentially pay more points for a character that has the same profile and options as the Captian, but gets an ability that might be useful.

Chapter Masters and Captians are best used as CC characters, and considering that keeps you on the move all the time, the Orbital Bombardment is wasted.

Another thing to consider is that a Captain unlocks Command Squads and possibly Bikes as troops, versus the lack luster Honor Guard that the Chapter Master unlocks.

In my opinion, the Captian is always going to be a better buy, and can even be a competitive choice in certain builds. The Chapter Master offers nothing really useful, that couldn't be accomplished by another character. He is there for APOC games and people who enjoy building their own characters.

Captain is cheaper, and unlocks a Command Squad.

Chapter Master is more expensive, but has that Orbital Bombardment, and unlocks an Honor Guard.

I actually used my Marine Commander kit to build a counts-as Cato Sicarius (because the GW model sucks). He's got a sword, and a plasma pistol. I can field him as one of FOUR things: Sicarius, a Librarian with Force Sword and Plasma Pistol (dirt cheap, yet effective!), A Captain with Power Sword or Relic Blade, and Plasma Pistol, or a Chapter master withpower weapon or relic blade.

I'd avoid powerfists and thunderhammers on captains and masters. You reduce the asset of having I5 to I1. When attacking at I1, your independent character status allows him to be cut down by massed attacks easily before he ever gets a swing in.

The answer is typically "neither".

Unless you're putting a Captain on a bike to get bikers as troops, you're better off with a Librarian. Captains and Chapter Masters are just too expensive for what they do in and of themselves.

The HQ options that don't give force multipliers (i.e., non-bike Captains and Chapter Masters, who are a lot of points for a middling-quality assault unit) are pretty much exclusively inferior to those that do (i.e., bike Captains who give you bikers as troops, Librarians who both protect large sets of units with their Psychic Hood and boost offense of the whole army via Null Zone, or Vulkan He'Stan who twin-links/master crafts a bunch of your gear).

If you're not getting the force multiplier of one of the superior HQ choices, you're getting an assault unit that will die horribly to his points in Stormhammer termies -- which you could just take anyway.