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I am aware of the seemingly lackluster Codex: Space Marines Captain not always pulling his weight. He is a space marine with more attacks, access to special wargear, with higher WS, BS, I & Ld. Is he worth it? Is it better to take special characters, or a different HQ? Certainly for lower points games, you get far more bang for your buck with a lowly Librarian or Chaplain. For a mere 100 points, you get a slough of special rules and awesome abilities that can augment a unit to work pretty good.

So I seek your opinions, Dakkaites, of the benefits, the bonuses, the correct way to use a space marine Captain. Please address these questions and more! Thanks~

1) How have you kitted him out to make him effective, a worthy leader of your army?
2) What squads does he join?
3) What roles does he perform?
4) In what ways does he excel?
5) In what ways does he fail?

1) in 5th edition, I used a captain with a relic blade and a combi-melta, he was in comand squad kitted for cc. I used them for counter attacking (and slaughtering) non-elite cc enemy units (attack grey hunters, not th/ss termis). In 6th I would absolutely give him artificer armor because there is a lot less ap2 pw now and never give him termi armour unless he needs to deed strike, I still like relic blade because I want to uses his i5 but make sure you choose your opponents well. A lot of people like giving him a storm shield but I think it's to many points to go from a 4+ inv to a 3+. Putting him on a bike is pretty good too and fun if you want to run a bike army.
2) command squad because you can kit them to be good at whatEver you need in your list (on bikes with 4 plasma guns seem nasty in 6th).
3) again I used him as a counter charging cc monster with a good squad back up, now if I took one it would be on bikes with lots of plasma.
4) he is good in cc but not great I'd put him on a bike to avoid insta-death from power fists.
5) he is not great at killing elite cc units or characters so don't use him that way.

He's a jack of all trades HQ. All the other choices do stuff better, but he's not bad at anything and has access to a full armory to help equip himself.

1 I equip mine with a storm bolter, power sword, and artificer armor. I'm a WYSWYG kinda guy, and that's the model I have.
2 Command squad, always. The main reason I take the Captain is to field the squad.
3 He's a jack of all trades, and I equip his command squad to do anything. His battlefield role is troubleshooter. He goes where I need help, and shores up problem zones.
4 The one thing he does that nobody else does is make bikes troops (if he has one) and let you take a command squad. His job isn't to excel, but to be a all-around good guy.
5 He can be a massive point sink, if you over equip him. You need to figure out what you want him to do and give him just enough gear to get the job done. If you take all the whistles and bells, he'll still be a mediocre jack of all trades, and can still die to a lucky hit. He is also a bit bland. All the other HQs are brimming with flavor. He's just a marine with a different rank and a slightly better stat line. Yawn.

All your captain has to have is artificer armor, anything else is your choice. I run a relic blade/power axe guy on a bike, a dual power fist guy and that's about it. Digital weapons are excellent, if you have the points add them.

Isn't lighting claw better than relic blade, this topic used to come up, I am sure someone will enlighten us of their relative position in 6th edition.

There is always going to be a better named character or a librarian for whatever role you are thinking about giving him.

So the two reasons to get:
1)Command squads, these guys are ace, sternguard are probably better than power armour command squads. That said if your elite choices are took up, then a squad that is really versatile is ever so useful.
Command squad on bikes is clearly awesome, keep away from vindicators.

2)Biker armies, bikes look hard this edition, but their tactics from last edition just do not work, it will require some play testing. Even simple concepts like avoid cc, now have changed with impact hits.

MFletch wrote:2)Biker armies, bikes look hard this edition, but their tactics from last edition just do not work, it will require some play testing. Even simple concepts like avoid cc, now have changed with impact hits.

What tactics don't work anymore? If you're refering to assaulting from outflanking, that's Khan, not a Captain and a very different mindset for a bike army.

I feel avoiding CC is easier than it used to be, now. Assault distances are random, overwatch, jink and turbo-boost in the shooting phase give you a lot of admittedly small boosts.

When I want to field a captain, I feel like I want to get a bonus attack on the charge, and strike @ Initiative 5. So really so far I love the Powersword in this edition - the Power Axe would be tempting, depending on the role I want him to perform.

I have recently used Digital weapons, and I really like that. Lightning Claws are ok if you want a combi-weapon, but I always miss that extra cc attack. Especially if you want your Warlord in assault.

You can't go wrong with a relic blade, artificer armor, digital weapons and melta bombs.

Dual lightning claws is also excellent, and if you really want choices take two power weapons, model one as a power sword, the other as a power axe.

Ricter wrote:

MFletch wrote:2)Biker armies, bikes look hard this edition, but their tactics from last edition just do not work, it will require some play testing. Even simple concepts like avoid cc, now have changed with impact hits.

What tactics don't work anymore? If you're refering to assaulting from outflanking, that's Khan, not a Captain and a very different mindset for a bike army.

I feel avoiding CC is easier than it used to be, now. Assault distances are random, overwatch, jink and turbo-boost in the shooting phase give you a lot of admittedly small boosts.

Congo lining for one.

Then cover saves, with jink, normal cover and turbo saves have changed: so it is not longer turbo boost away when getting shot at, that only gives you 4+ cover, when you have 3+ armour an d5+ cover if move a little: Ergo running away isn't always the best option to stay alive.
Then if do not run away you have TL overwatch, which is fun.
Whereas before running away was most likely the best course of action if in doubt now you are better to stay and fight. This is fundamentally different as before you ran away to keep out of assault range and rapid fire range, assault is not so scary and rapid fire guns can move and shoot long distances so you can not run away from being shot.