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What is the optimal load out for a SM Captain/ Chapter Master that will be going up against mostly Space Marines and Chaos Space Marine armies.

I have heard one powerfist and a combi-weapon is pretty good. Any help is appreciated.

I mean it depends on what you want your captain or chapter master to do. As a general rule you are better off taking a librarian as your HQ. IMO if you are running a captain put him on a bike so you unlock bike squads as troops. Then give the captain artifice armor and if you have the points either a power fist storm shield or power fist an lightning claw.

Well for the librarian whats the best load out haha

Depends what you have in your army. Some will simply keep him barebones. Other lists, with assault terminators for example, may give him terminator armour and storm shield and run them with termies in a LR. Null zone is always a power to take I feel.

What do you mean by best? It really depends on what role you want your Libby to play and what you army list looks like. There is no right answer to your question in a vacuum. Generally either run your Libby bare so he is cheap and can cast null-zone/gate of infinity, or put him in terminator armor with a storm shield.

As for captain/chapter masters, personally I run my captain in Artificer armour on a bike with a relic blade. Siince he's on a bike no need to swap out the bolt pistol. That gives you a decent HQ without getting really points heavy. He can move 12", dish out TL Rapid fire bolter rounds, make the charge, enjoy a hammer of wrath and then his normal attacks. You could increase his effectiveness by possible adding hellfire rounds or digital weapons but its usually doesn't earn its points, the hellfires are especially ineffective against marines. I think that if you dont put him on a bike then a storm shield would also be a good option to help protect against ID. Just my two cents.

I would always give captain Thunder Hammer rather than Power Fist if I wanted AP2 weapon. It's just five points more.

I would go to the librarian by default, barebones or with terminators.

Maybe with a bike, to put his powers where they're needed, and give himself a 4+ cover by turbo boosting? just a thought, never tried it.

Does anyone ever put a captain with a jump pack/artificer with your choice of weapons? Sounds like the bike is the prefered method.

Best thing to do with Captains/Chapter Masters:

Put them away and get yourself a Chaplain or Librarian, thats my opinion anyway.

The only way I'd see myself using a captain would be on an bike with artificer armour and either a relic blade or lightning claw, dependent on taste.

I've actually never used a Chapter Master, he might be worth it, but on paper and from experience Librarians and Chaplains are always far better than Captains etc.

 Condas wrote:
Does anyone ever put a captain with a jump pack/artificer with your choice of weapons? Sounds like the bike is the prefered method.

I have done this. I used a Captain in my early days before I started experimenting with a Librarian.

I ran the Captain with Artificer Armor and a Relic Blade on foot with a combat squad of Tac Marines or Stern or something like that, usually in a rhino/razor. Even when his squad ate return fire and a charge he was able to single-handedly defeat average enemy HQ's in duals and mince up entire 10 man marine squads no problem. Not bad for 145pts. I also ran him with the same kit (AA/RB) and a jump pack with a five man Assault Marine squad with a PW/MB's. It made the Captain 170pts, which is right at the line of points inefficient for me, but the mobility provided by jump packs helped him mulch up to 15 backfield type models (SM scouts/Devs/etc) in average games.

All of the games where I used the Captain where casual so keep that in mind when thinking about using him. I have only ever used a Librarian in Terminator armor with a storm shield in my competitive list (for null zone).

My buddy used a chapter master in a few games and the orbital bombardment is totally hit and miss. When it does hit though, it is stupidly good for 25pts.

Conclusion:
Biker Captain w/ Artificer, preferred weps, and a bike escort is probably the best competitive loadout, but other loadouts are decent enough for casual play. Librarian honestly is a bit better of a choice for competitive play because the Captain excels at melee and SM are generally not a melee army so you'd need to build around your Captain to make it work. The Librarian powers are better suited to support a shooting force so it is easier to fit one into a list.

The only reason to use a captain is on a bike, with a Thunder Hammer/Powerfist (since he isn't going to get ID'd by anything short of a Warboss/S10). Stormshield too, if you have the points. Give him Artificer Armour to round it out, and you have a fairly strong beatstick. Even then, you only want to do this if you are making a biker army. (competitive wise, at least)

Chapter Masters are not competitive. You have a close combat oriented character who has to stand still for a turn to use what he's paying an extra 25pts for over a Captain. d'oh.

Librarians are best either run naked, with nothing but their force weapon (not an axe if you are in PA), and a bolt pistol. Null Zone and the Avenger should be your go to powers. Null Zone destroys Terminators, where as the Avenger is good for an anti-marine flamethrower on objective games where you need to clear some out. (even then, it's a S5 AP3 flamer, so even non marines are going to feel the pain.)

Other options now adays are: Machine Curse, if you know you'll be fighting a lot of tanks, and Smite. Smite isn't as good as avenger since it's pretty much the same range, but hey, 4 S4 AP2 shots isn't bad...

If you run him in TDA and a Storm Shield, consider giving him a halberd (axe). This way he can penetrate anythings armour with his force weapon. Null Zone/Avenger (or Vortex of Doom) are your powers here.

I sort of had no choice in the matter with my Chapter Master, Crimson Fists and all, but i run Pedro along with a MOTF with a conversion beamer. I like to sit back with the MOTF and blast them with the beamer then second turn drop the anvil with an orbital strike from pedro. It's worked for me any way.

As some people already said, the captain can be quite a brute if you give him an artificer armor, a PF/TH and a Lightning claw (thus having 2 specialist weapons and +1 attack, and still being flexible CC-wise)
To make him really scary, he then needs to be put on a bike to have a cheap version of EW and a T5, but then he needs a bike squad (can be the command squad command squad) to go with him
Sure, everybody loves a librarian, but they're piles of crap when it comes to CC

for a captain the optimal loadlout I have seen is Bike, powerfirst, Lightingclaw, artificer armor. Any other option the Librarian is more point efficient, and comes with huge force multipliers (null zone anyone?)

Anyway the chaptermaster is like the captain but 25 points for the oribital bombardment you can use once. Generally I find i is not worthwhile, and the chapter master unlocks honor guard which in themselves are too expensive for what they do.