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I need a cheap, reliable CC Company Command Squad and Captain for my Loyalist Alpha Legion. Please offer your input! All of it helps!

If you want good close combat troops, unfortunately you have to pay up. It mean storm shields, power weapons, and power fists, which aren't cheap. You may be better off buying terminators.

@GreatGunz - Okay then. I guess I'll have to get used to that, as I most likely will use 300ish points on them and the Captain anyway. So, what would you recommend?

Thunder hammer terminators are really a bargain at 40 points apiece. It's not exactly an original choice, but then again there's a reason why people spam those guys. They're good. Same with Lysander. He's still one of the absolute toughest ICs in the game. Honor guard are also pretty strong if they get the charge. They don't have the defense that the terminators do, but they still throw out an awful lot of power weapon attacks. Best use for a command squad imo is to load them up with plasmaguns and shoot enemy squads full of holes. That keeps them cheap and they're still pretty effective.

Well, I can see CC Termies being great (I run quite a few in other armies), but I wanted to run a CC Company Command Squad mostly for flavor. Maybe throwing in some plasma gunners (2) might help a CC Company Command Squad?

I think you have to go all or nothing on the plasmaguns, since they're rapid fire and if you shoot you can't charge. You'd be recieving the charge next turn, in other words. The command squad could get pretty rough if it included a captain and a special character like vulkan or lysander, since the apothecary gives them feel no pain (I think). If you dont want the terminators honor guard would be my next choice.

Well, one of my HQ's is definitely a Librarian w/ Null Zone and Terminator Armor.

Oh yeah, crap... Forgot about their rapid fire. And yeah, the Apothecary does give them Feel No Pain. Hmmmm.. I'll read up in the codex what options the Honor Guard have.

The null zone terminator is an excellent choice. I'd keep him out of combat though, since he's not a great fighter and it's alot easier to kill him there than with shooting. Combine him with Lysander and a good assault squad and you can probably kill just about anything in CC.

The relic blade is the option for the honor guard that most caught my eye. A honor guard with one of those hits most things on a 3, wounds most on a 2, and then they only get invulnerable saves, which they have to reroll if you have the librarian around. It doesnt get much better than that.

Well, the Librarian is dropping in with a melta squad and it does have a 24 inch range, so, the Honor guard and Lysander get to beat down whatever's nearby. How many men would you say my Honor guard squad should be. And should I take the Banner? But they're gonna get expensive FAST. A 5-man squad is 185pts, base.

I dont remember what the banner does so I couldnt say. Although if it was awesome, I think I'd know. I try to atleast know the highlights of even books I don't play. Five is probably enough. They have alot of attacks.

The banner allows for any Space Marine unit in 12 inchs of it to re-roll failed Morale or Pinning tests. Allows all units in the same squad of the Chapter Banner to get +1 Attack, and it causes one more wound in close combat, when all the wounds are being totaled up.

This squad is so expensive. Throwing on three Relic blades, 5 Honor Guard, Lysander, a drop pod, and a locator beacon on my first Drop pod makes is really expensive. As in, 500pts.

Chapter banner yes. Company banner no. It's junk.
As for the expense, yeah I agree. This is why people run the terminators instead. They also wound on 2s, and have a storm shield which the honor guard dont, and heavy armor so they live through more normal attacks. Really, for 40 points apiece they're hard to beat. I dont like how expensive honor guard are either.

Actually, this banner does all of that, and it's a chapter banner.

But to transport the Terminators, I would also need a Land Raider, most preferably a Crusader. Considering what I already have in my Elites slots, I'll use them all up. Which, wouldn't be a bad thing, considering the only other things I'd run in that last slot would be a Sternguard. I could Deepstrike too, but I'd be afraid of loosing them. That's an expensive squad to loose, that'd be 400pts going down the drain if it failed deepstrike. Pedro Kantor could be a good model for this slot instead of Lysander as well. Combine him with some Sternguards, and he's terrifying. Not a CC squad, but a very scary, scoring, combi weapon squad. Maybe even Shrike and a squad of Vanguard. Vanguard are expensive, sure, but they're a CC squad, and with Shrike, that's a big OH CRA- for the enemy!

I am running a weird Command Squad, partially for fluff and partially for needing to blow a couple of points:

Captain: Relic Blade and Storm Shield
Champion: Combat Shield, Storm Bolter, Power Weapon
Apothecary: Standard
Vet 1: Dual Lightning Claws
Vet 2: Thunderhammer, Storm Shield, Storm Bolter
Vet 3: Storm Bolter and Lightning Claws

Razorback: TL Lascannon
Also a Meltabomb or two I think.

Don't know the exact point costs, but it should be in the neighborhood of 300 points, excluding the Captain.

Some of my thoughts with this list:

1) Tried to make each person different for wound allocation.
2) They can ride in the Razorback, which is something that Terminators cannot do. Sure a Land Raider is better protection, but also costs a lot more points.
3) They can do some shooting when coming out of the Razorback.
4) Storm Bolters are Assault 2, so thats a few extra shots each turn even when assaulting.

I am sure it is not an ideal build, but it is still fairly effective and for me the fluff fits.

Don't believe you can fit dual claws in a command squad.

That said if you're gonna bring an honour guard squad you also gotta pay for a chapter master.

I like the command squad in big points game as it brings extra CC strength when you already got your elites filled up.

Khan (on foot)

Command squad:
4 melta gun/LC/SS vets
Apothecary

There is some debate as to being able to upgrade one of your vets to the company champion after the gear upgrades (for the WS5).

Slap them in a land raider (with your Termie Libby?), and you have a hell of a close combat unit: move 12", disembark, 4 melta shots in a transport's bow, then assault the content with some furious charge claw goodness...

Demdiddydizzy wrote:Actually, this banner does all of that, and it's a chapter banner.

But to transport the Terminators, I would also need a Land Raider, most preferably a Crusader. Considering what I already have in my Elites slots, I'll use them all up. Which, wouldn't be a bad thing, considering the only other things I'd run in that last slot would be a Sternguard. I could Deepstrike too, but I'd be afraid of loosing them. That's an expensive squad to loose, that'd be 400pts going down the drain if it failed deepstrike. Pedro Kantor could be a good model for this slot instead of Lysander as well. Combine him with some Sternguards, and he's terrifying. Not a CC squad, but a very scary, scoring, combi weapon squad. Maybe even Shrike and a squad of Vanguard. Vanguard are expensive, sure, but they're a CC squad, and with Shrike, that's a big OH CRA- for the enemy!

What I've found with deepstriking is that, although it's possible you'll get screwed, most of the time you'll be fine. If you drop at the center of a foot wide circle, 1/3 of the time you'll hit spot on, because 2 out of the 6 faces of the scatter die are direct hits. The other 2/3 of the time you'll scatter 6 inches or less roughly half the time, and even for the times that you do scatter over 6, there's a strong possibility you'll scatter in a direction that's safe. In other words, the odds of something awful happening when you deep strike are not as high as it might seem. It can be worth the extra mobility provided you deploy intelligently. It's a risk, but hell you're rolling dice every turn. It's a game of chance. And look at the alternative. Either walk, which is doable but slow, or buy a raider, which is not that great offensively for what you're paying. The redeemer is really the only one that comes close to justifying its cost just in terms of the weapons it carries.

Pedro is fine. I like Lysander for the close combat beat down but whatever, Pedro isn't a bad choice either. And yes stern guard are excellent. Take them. Vanguard I would stay away from, just because th/ss terminators are less expensive and do the same job better.

Deepstriking could be very effective then.


I think Pedro and a squad of Stern would be very helpful in my army. There's not really much that can go wrong with them. Run him, and a squad of stern with a Powerfist, some combi weapons, all in a Drop Pod.

Yeah, tried writing them up, and gave up as they were too expensive.

5 TH/SS terms+nullzone and power of your choice librarian, stuck in a landraider. For 300p you get 5 of the hardest models you can get with some of the best weapons that you can get, which ignore armor leaving the enemy relying on invulnerable saves that they have to reroll because of the librarian. A landraider just makes it so much better. You can can a excellent amount of bang for your buck from the above unit.

d-usa wrote:
Vet 2: Thunderhammer, Storm Shield, Storm Bolter

Don't you swap the vet's gear for upgrades? I.E your pistol/CCW you start with? how do you get 3 weaps?

Captain's w/ SS and Relic blade is scary, trust me. I've run against a few, so that could be an option.

Ergh, the only reason I don't want to run TH/SS Termies is only because I run them so often. I like using different units every once in a while, and TH/SS terminators are the most common ones I run. I'm not saying I dislike the concept of them running around with my Termie Librarian, cause let's face it, it'll be the hardest thing to kill in a LRR.

Jihallah wrote:

d-usa wrote:
Vet 2: Thunderhammer, Storm Shield, Storm Bolter

Don't you swap the vet's gear for upgrades? I.E your pistol/CCW you start with? how do you get 3 weaps?

For the command squad, the storm shield is not a swap. You can swap for the TH and storm bolter, and then every vet can take a storm shield.