Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'm working on building some small SM and GK detachments to ally in with my skitarii. In both cases the units i'm looking at are going to be front line, get in the enemies face kinda units and as such i'm planning to equip the sergeants/justicars primarily to be good in challenges. To stop them getting expensive i'm avoiding upgrading ranged weapons but i'm struggling to decide on CC weapons, looking for some input.

On grey knights for the nemesis force weapons -

Falchions give an extra attack
Halberd gives +1 Strength
Warding stave gives +2 strength and concussive but only ap4

I'm avoiding hammers because they're expensive and strike at Initiative 1, all the above are only a few points though and i can't decide which is best, especially considering the effect force and hammer hand have.

On a similar note for space marines -

Lightning claw is most expensive and specialist weapon but ap3 and shred is a big help
Power axe hits at initiative 1 which really puts me off - might as well have a powerfist
Power maul is only ap4 but concussive
power sword only gives ap3 benefit and is same price as lightning claw

I really can't decide, any input/experiences are much appreciated.

Never build a standard Marine Sergeant for melee. He's got one wound on a 15 point power weapon.

Regarding Justicars, at most you take Falchions. In all honesty you don't need those much though.

Speaking for marines:

I’ll second not bothering for tac sarges. It’s a lot of points for a 1W guy.

However, if you want to do it...

Axe+BP is your low budget AP2. If you plan on having someone else in the squad to soak the challenge, it’s not a bad call.

Swords are very niche. That niche is killing MEQ, so it’s a big one. Once you stray outside, the other options are better.

Mauls are there not for conclusive, but for the +2S. This potentially lets you put wounds on most anything. For anything that’s not a TEQ or MEQ, the maul is the best bet.

Claws are good if you want to keep your bolter. Not that fond of them otherwise.

I’d stear away from fists. Too expensive for a 1W guy.

If you are investing in a power weapon, you probably want to pony up the points for veteran, for the extra attack.

For regular marines. Unless the squad is going to be a dedicated assault unit, i.e. assault squads, vanguard vets, CCW equipped scouts, etc. It is not worth the points to equip your sergeant for melee. chances are if your opponent sees a tactical squad with a sergeant with a powerfist or something, they're just going to shoot it to death rather than risk anything valuable in CC against it.

Grey Knights on the other hand are already paying for the extra attack on their justicars and are hybrid units that are useful in both shooting and assault due to being equipped with storm bolters. I like to equip my justicars with a better weapon. The load out I usually go with is falcions and then add an additional meltabomb. it's a little more expensive but really gives me a lot of tactical flexibility for the squad, which is really necessary for grey knights, seeing as they have so few models in an average list. I don't like halberds right now, they were cool in 5th ed but now with hammerhand on S6 ID's T3 models but S7 doesn't ID anything more. I'd rather pay more points for the staff and then get up to S8