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Ok, I thought this was a no brained, but I'm interested to know dakka's thoughts,

I'm running a pure Ravenwing list at 2K points, what I want advice on is real simple, librarian or chaplain? My current selection is Libby. My list is 12 bikers with 4 melta guns, 2 attack bikes with multi meltas, 2 land speeder typhoons, a dark shroud, 2 squads of black knights with a RWG in each, 2 ravenwing command squads, each with an apothecary and one with the dakka banner, sammael and at the minute a Libby on a bike. I've got him mostly for telepathy buffs - not sure these are the best, I'm going to start a separate thread on that! But I'm curious as to wether a chaplain on a bike is a better buy for zealot with the knights!?

So what do we think?

Libby everytime, the force multiplier is immense, and Ravenwing isn't a CC orientated army, so don't go trying to get a CC character in the mix, use other tools (which you've far more of) to get the job done

My Interrogator Chaplain on a bike wielding the Mace of Redemption is a total beatstick and a major bad-ass. I love him a lot and have had immense success with him.

Anyone that says Ravenwing isn't assault oriented is mistaken in my opinion. 3+ T5 units that can jet out of assault due to Hit and Run means you literally have your cake and eat it too. Still maintaining both your shooting attacks AND having your assaults + hammer of wraths every turn is a major hassle for a lot of armies. Black Knights in particular are really gross in hand to hand as they have a bajillion attacks on the charge. I run 6 black knights led by an Interrogator-Chaplain a lot of the time and they totally melt things. That third would often means I can stick him up front to "tank" with his 4++ invulnerable save, too.

Also remember every unit in our codex is Fearless or Stubborn which are both excellent for close combat, especially on units that also all have Hit and Run.

added: Don't forget that because of Hit and Run, Zealot's Hatred rule will tend to apply several times over. Because it's the first round of EACH COMBAT, that means if you hit and run away from guys and re-assault even the same squad, Hatred applies again.

If I'm honest, in a perfect world I'd take an interrogator chaplain and a Libby, but I need sammael to make the bikes troop choices :-( shame really as I don't rate sammael all that highly.

Lucky Psy-powers are gamechanging. Also there are occasions when you don't want to be in mellee even with a mellee dedicated squad. And they happen more and more often.

Libby all around is just more versatile. The Chaplain is a good beatstick indeed, but clocks in at nearly double the point as a libby. Guess it depends on your playstyle entirely. Both are valid choices.

Libby is by far the better choice. It is cheaper and brings more utility than a chaplain.

Whilst a chaplain on a bike with the mace is cool (I have a model for it too), I would never say that he is more competitive than a librarian.

DA prescience librarians are one of the few advantages that DA have over the SM codex.

i've found that a hard as nails chaplin can often come in handier than a librarian, who might be giving me what... rerolls on my twin linked boltguns? or invisibliity after my darkshroud has had its say? I always found the libby redundant, but then my list is a bit different than yours.

Your list seems to focus more on the BK and they are absolutely a CC oriented unit. +1 str and rending? YES. the TL plasma talons are powerful but don't underestimate these guys on the charge. Especially with the Chaplin, in fact the biggest problem is that you wipe out what you charge instead of staying in CC and have your boys avoid getting shot up next round

The problem is that the chaplain is far too expensive for what he does. 160 points is the minimum you will have to spend to make him decent.

If the chaplains had a points reduction to be in line with the librarian, then it would be a more difficult call.

However as it stands a base librarian can buff a melee unit better than a chaplain (prescience --> hatred), has access to more utility skills (invisibility can be a game changer, re-roll armour saves + you bolter banner army?), has a psychic hood for a little psychic defense and can also comes base with a force weapon of choice (instead of being stuck with a power maul or investing points into another weapon).

At the end of the day, most RW players take a character on a bike for 2 reasons:

1) To get access to another command squad of black knights

2) To provided access to a PFG, to protect vs tau and heldrakes.

The librarian does both of these just as well as a chaplain, but is half the cost.