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Hello everyone, I'm putting together a 1750 point Space Marine army based heavily around Drop Pods and I was thinking that for when I go up to 2000 points I would add a Command Squad and have a Captain as my HQ. The Captain will be armed with a relic or power weapon, melta bombs, storm bolter and artificer armour and I want a CC-focused squad to back him up. The idea is that the flamer warms up enemy units nicely before getting stuck in for the assault phase. With that in mind, do you think this Command Squad I want him to join is too expensive?

Command squad comprising:

Dedicated transport (Drop Pod)
Apothecary
Company Champion
Veteran with bolt pistol, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with flamer, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with bolt pistol, power fist and melta bombs

That's 245 points.

Extra question: can the Champion shoot? The model has a bolt pistol...

Is the bolt pistol in his profile? If so then yes. Unless he has some weird rule about not being able to shoot.

The squad itself looks good to deal with anything easily apart from TEQ and some MCs. One fist and a relic blade might not swing it in those circumstances. (I'm probably wrong though. TH/SS will laugh it off, other TEQ will have a closer fight.)

 Fezman wrote:
Hello everyone, I'm putting together a 1750 point Space Marine army based heavily around Drop Pods and I was thinking that for when I go up to 2000 points I would add a Command Squad and have a Captain as my HQ. The Captain will be armed with a relic or power weapon, melta bombs, storm bolter and artificer armour and I want a CC-focused squad to back him up. The idea is that the flamer warms up enemy units nicely before getting stuck in for the assault phase. With that in mind, do you think this Command Squad I want him to join is too expensive?

Command squad comprising:

Dedicated transport (Drop Pod)
Apothecary
Company Champion
Veteran with bolt pistol, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with flamer, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with bolt pistol, power fist and melta bombs

That's 245 points.

Extra question: can the Champion shoot? The model has a bolt pistol...

The Champion upgrade doesn't say what gear he replaces. I'd assume just the chainsword, so he should still have his pistol to shoot. Do they all need melta bombs? You could bring the points down by dropping all but one. I'd move the flamer to the guy with the power fist. He's not getting an extra attack from his pistol, while the guy with the power sword would.

The squad is very expensive, and fragile. They are going to have to take at least one round of shooting before getting into CC. Who is going to be in the front to catch bullets? And are you going to need that many power weapons once you do get into CC? It might be worth replacing one or both of the swords with storm shields. Or just running them minimally geared as designated wounds taking point.

 Fezman wrote:
Hello everyone, I'm putting together a 1750 point Space Marine army based heavily around Drop Pods and I was thinking that for when I go up to 2000 points I would add a Command Squad and have a Captain as my HQ. The Captain will be armed with a relic or power weapon, melta bombs, storm bolter and artificer armour and I want a CC-focused squad to back him up. The idea is that the flamer warms up enemy units nicely before getting stuck in for the assault phase. With that in mind, do you think this Command Squad I want him to join is too expensive?

Command squad comprising:

Dedicated transport (Drop Pod)
Apothecary
Company Champion
Veteran with bolt pistol, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with flamer, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with bolt pistol, power fist and melta bombs

That's 245 points.

Extra question: can the Champion shoot? The model has a bolt pistol...

What if instead of bolt pistols you took plasma pistols? Soften up TEQ. thinking against MC/TEQ I guess? That'd be a +30 point swing though? I feel like it would make the squad have a wider range of targets? Does seem pricey! Is it a scoring unit via a banner or anything either? Thinking blood angels have an honor guard or something that for 130 points you get barebones fellas with a scoring banner? I guess this is my first time comparing the two but, command squad seems pricey!!! if you haven't brought allies maybe you could get more bang for your buck and run a ba hq / command squad + troop choice? (or is it 2 reqd for allies as well?) Just thinking for access to a cheaper "command squad" or whatever... if that is even, correct or viable....


Jeez. brevity. its not my thing. need moaaaar coffeeeeee

It seems just to fragile to be worth that many points. Most people use command squads to spam special weapons, which can work, but combat command squads just die two fast. If you want a deep striking combat unit, go assault terminators, or, if you want one that can also shoot, tac terminators. You could also use an assault squad or vanguard veteran squad without jump packs to go in a pod.

Here's an idea:
6 man Vanguard veteran squad 1 sargent with relic blade, 2 power sword, 1 power fist, drop pod 250

You then have two bodies to take wounds and protect the PW guys. The order you would want to take wounds in is 1, base vets, 2, power swords and captain, 3 sarge and fist.

The champion has a power sword, combat shield and bolt pistol.

I would take off the melta bombs from the power fist guy, then the squad is fine.

As a general rule of thumb, if your command squad costs the same or less than a landraider, you're doing fine.

You can have a squad of Assault Terminators for less than 245 points, however, and they usually perform the same role.

Armadeus wrote:
It seems just to fragile to be worth that many points. Most people use command squads to spam special weapons, which can work, but combat command squads just die two fast. If you want a deep striking combat unit, go assault terminators, or, if you want one that can also shoot, tac terminators.

This, basically. If you want a combat Command Squad, you need Bikes, and thanks to the FNP change this unit is a lot less credible than it used to be.

A good melee bike command squad is techically better than a terminators squad, since the higher toughness and armor or jink save plus fnp basically makes them a great platform to deploy special weapons to melee hurt. Not for thunderfhammer/powerfist spam though.

Why not include Storm shields on everyone that can. They allow a 3++. It will be an extra 60 pts so your at 305 but now you can actually survive a bit of shooting by melta and plasma which we have seen is way too common today. Though pts value has stopped being an issue for me since I run a command squad on bikes with about the same load out minus the melta bombs and plus 4 SS. Though of course T5 with a 3++, FNP and Jink is nothing to scoff at.

OP wrote:Veteran with flamer, power sword and melta bombs
Veteran with bolt pistol, power fist and melta bombs

At the very least, you should switch the flamer and bolt pistol on these two models so that the dude with the power sword gets an extra attack.

I think Command Squads are too expensive, and the only way to get real value back from them is to make them really good at doing one specific job. Apothecary + Quad Plasma is my favorite... pod it in and wipe out a whole squad of Long Fangs in one shooting phase. And thanks to the FNP, you take no Gets Hot! wounds ...like, ever. Quad Melta and Quad Flamer is also useful, but less so than the Plasma, IMO.

Also, Bike Command Squads are pretty boss ...giving FNP to a much more robust squad is always welcome; as is extending the bonus to a Biker Captain.

Company champion gets a power weapon and a combat shield I believe. So he can definitely shoot

The Combat Shield can still be used with a bolt pistol.

The Champion has a Pistol, Shield, and Sword.

 Fezman wrote:

Extra question: can the Champion shoot? The model has a bolt pistol...

Extra Extra Question- Can you read your codex? Can you read the bit where your chapter champion's wargear is listed? Does it say he has a bolt pistol? If yes- yes, you are indeed allowed to fire your pistol. The mind boggles at the question.

 Alkasyn wrote:
You can have a squad of Assault Terminators for less than 245 points, however, and they usually perform the same role.

Nah terminators don't die like the above squad. They tend to last

PotionsN'Balms wrote:
Company champion gets a power weapon and a combat shield I believe. So he can definitely shoot

I'm just quoting this one for hilarity. "He gets a power weapon and a combat shield. Definitely can shoot. You've seen Capt. America right? Thrown shield. Shooting attack mate. Aww yeah."

For those playing at home- you can have a plasmagun,bolt pistol, missile launcher, lascannon, flamer and meltagun. You can only fire one weapon per turn, but there's no actual rule that states you need hands to carry all your . You can carry 20 lascannons, but you can only fire one of them.

Jihallah wrote:

PotionsN'Balms wrote:Company champion gets a power weapon and a combat shield I believe. So he can definitely shoot

I'm just quoting this one for hilarity. "He gets a power weapon and a combat shield. Definitely can shoot. You've seen Capt. America right? Thrown shield. Shooting attack mate. Aww yeah."

lol

Too many points for what you have planned. Any unit that is planning to deepstrike and do assault is going to really be too many points.
Command squad with 4 plasmaguns which just so happens to be pretty mean in cc, then that would work for me.

I still maintain that the command squad should be 4x plasmaguns + apoth, on bikes or nothing.

There is always a better CC unit than a CC command squad (unless on bikes).

MFletch wrote:

Jihallah wrote:

PotionsN'Balms wrote:Company champion gets a power weapon and a combat shield I believe. So he can definitely shoot

I'm just quoting this one for hilarity. "He gets a power weapon and a combat shield. Definitely can shoot. You've seen Capt. America right? Thrown shield. Shooting attack mate. Aww yeah."

lol

Too many points for what you have planned. Any unit that is planning to deepstrike and do assault is going to really be too many points.
Command squad with 4 plasmaguns which just so happens to be pretty mean in cc, then that would work for me.

TH/SS squad, 200p


IMO command squads work best as you mentioned- special weapon squad. 4plasma over 4melta over 4flamers.

Because there's few units in the marine codex that can have quite the scalpel like effect of 8 S7AP2 shots. Sternguard come close, with combiweapons. Command squads can fire every turn with their plasma.