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I've had some success with the all plasma command squad, and as long as you resist overtooling them, they do a great job. It's the only real way in codex: space marines to pack 4 plasma guns into a single unit, and it doesn't require the babysitting of a captain. I deploy them in a rhino, so they have the tactical flexibility of moving 6" and rapidfiring two plasmaguns out the top hatch.
My setup is 4x vets with plasma guns and bolt pistols, apothecary with bolter and bolt pistol.

Even the CC command squad has done relatively well for me in the past, yes you have to take a captain to get them, but in my opinion that's a great bonus.
I typically play them in small-moderate points(1k~1500) "fun" games as sole HQ.
The banner I take for fluff reasons, it has very little effect ultimately. It's a nice bonus, but the cost is steep.
The champ is great. Remember he hits MEQ on a 3+, and if you're already planning to upgrade for CC anyways he's worth it, if just for the free invuln.
A fist(or hammer) is essential, it allows the squad to handle walkers that try to tarpit them, and allows them to ID T4 ICs to boot. It also makes killing vehicles a breeze, espescially in conjunction with a relic blade captain.
One storm shield optional. This is really nice on a body with no other upgrades to soak up the odd lascannon shot without risking your champion or captain. In CC most of the PW/fist attacks will be directed at the captain anyways from the usual squad leader so it's less important than you'd think.
My setup here is Apothecary with BP+CCW, Company Champion, Veteran Power Fist, with sometimes a storm shield and sometimes a banner depending on points. I lead this squad with a relic blade combi melta captain.

It is important to remember that they're not really a hammer unit, they will be highly effective vs most troops with bulk attacks and totally die against anything that spams power weapons.

Well my command squad as I originally modelled it (and apologies to those who know this already and have discussed AT LENGTH how terrible it is.....) was:

Sergeant with Storm Bolter and Power Fist.
Company Champion
Standard Bearer with Combi-Melta
Apothecary
Veteran with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield.

Eclectic mix I realise now. But was trying to get a unit that could take down most things in CC.

I thought Apothecaries can only take a CCW OR Bolt Pistol.
They can't take two weapons cause of the Narthecium taking up one arm.....

they can't take anything because they aren't given options.

the only options given are for Veterans.


the only option they can take is a Bike.

It's mad isn't it. An Apothecary should be able to take a chainsword at least!

actually he does.

he has a Chainsword and a Bolt pistol OR a bolter.



the book says the "Apothacary ALSO has a narthecium" under the wargear list. he has every thing the veterans do, he just can't swap things out.

So he can only take a chainsword and bolt pistol. That sucks.
he can't take combi-bolter?

nope.


IIRC in the the old codex he could, but i might be wrong. you could also take command squads for any HQ choice, also command terminator squads(i miss them )

Terminator Command Squad.....

Drools.

actually they were identical to Tactical terminators. they just allowed you to take 5 Terminator squads.

termies could purchase the FC or Tank Hunters special rules back then too.

I modeled my BP+CCW apothecary with his chainsword on the back of his right leg(looks like it's hanging from his belt). I carefully trimmed the hand out of a tactical squad chainsword, leaving the wire hand guard in place, then glued in two back to back combat knife handles for the handle. Came out better than I expected, a two headed eagle handle that looks like it has some heft to it.

Quite true though, he has no options beyond either BP+CCW or Bolter+CCW because he's not a "veteran". Purely by RAW, neither does the champion, who is also not a veteran. Fortunately the champion has a pretty good wargear set already, so it's not a huge deal. In a CC oriented squad I see no reason not to take him, ever.

I would've liked to have seen a termie command squad in 5th edition C:SM, say a shooty termie squad with some melee upgrade potential(termie champion?) and an apoth without a SCCW capped at 5man. Nice, but not too OTT.