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For my nilla space marine army should i take A captian with a power sword or B some other HQ choice
this is all for a 500 pt army

i prefer librarians.

B - some other HQ choice. And not a chapter master either.

For a 500 point army? Captain, as basic as you can. A power sword is fine. In larger games, the captain looses his worth, but in lower poin games where you'll pretty much be having a HQ and two troops, he is very good at making sure your troops don't run away. And he can do some damage in CC.

How about instead of a Captain, you take a Chaplain with no upgrades. He can actually keep your troops from running away (by giving them Fearless), and will turn even Tactical squads into something nasty in assault at 500 points.

Lord Rogukiel wrote:For a 500 point army? Captain, as basic as you can. A power sword is fine. In larger games, the captain looses his worth, but in lower poin games where you'll pretty much be having a HQ and two troops, he is very good at making sure your troops don't run away. And he can do some damage in CC.

i havent run into a 500 point game were someone doesnt field a tank.

edit: vanilla marine rocket launcher completely forgot

Depends, but I will almost always pick the librarian in 5e.

100 points and I get an AP3 flamer and null zone for those pesky daemon players.

Captains/CMs do nothing but bring CC ability to the table, which while nice isn't earth shattering. Do you want the awesome psychic powers or do you want the 4++ iron halo? That's basically your decision. I have come to value the psyker stuff more every single time. Particularly since the librarian keeps his I5 and comes with his force weapon for free.

Chaplains do the same but less so, they just let me rerolls to hit on the turn I charge, and stop me from being able to combat tactics the instant the deathwing player smacks me in the face with a squad of terminators. This would be a choice if we were still back in the days where being fearless didn't mean "I like no retreat wounds!" and chaplains could have 3 wounds and 5 attacks just standing around....But we aren't, so he isn't. You -want- to keep the ability to run from CC.

You are playing vanilla. To boot you are playing vanilla at a point value low enough where you will have almost nothing but two tac squads and a HQ. You will not out CC space wolves, GK troops (excepting warbands, but then those like to shoot you.), blood angels, choppa boyz, or about 10-15 other things that aren't coming to mind at the moment, even with a CC setup HQ character. (Remember, the other guy has one too!) Don't bother trying. At minimum, you need to weaken squads with shooting before you attempt CC.

Im a fan of Librarians and Chaplains in all my games. 100 points gets a labrairian who has a force weapon and powers. 100 points also gets a chaplain with a power weapon as well as fearless and rerolls to miss in CC and a 4++. as for a comander 100 points gets you 4++ and nothing spaecial.

Hytanthas wrote:Im a fan of Librarians and Chaplains in all my games. 100 points gets a labrairian who has a force weapon and powers. 100 points also gets a chaplain with a power weapon as well as fearless and rerolls to miss in CC and a 4++. as for a comander 100 points gets you 4++ and nothing spaecial.

this^
pretty much why i use librarians unless i really wan the invul save, which in 500 pts is not necessary imho, but there are many times where invul saves will help in 500 pts.

Well yes, I'm not saying the captain is a good choice in all games, merely in lower games. As noted, 500 points vanilla marines is pretty much two tac squads and a HQ. I know SM have all those fancy morale rules, but still.

Admittedly, Chaplain or librarian may be a better choice, but I think it all comes down to personal preference and experience with the HQs