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I'm working my way towards a fully modelled and painted legal force, and the time to add an HQ choice is next on the list.

I'm currently toying with

Tartarus Terminator Armour
Lightning Claws
Digital Lasers
Iron Halo
Grenade Harness.

It's worth mentioning I'm trying to have my cake and eat it by making the force a legal 40K Chaos Marine as well, which is influencing my choices, as is the fact I'm intending to base the model on the FW Lugft Huron model.

I intend to have him accompanying a unit of Phoenix Terminators in a Spartan ultimately.

Thoughts?

Worth mentioning I'm going for fluffy, but being unfamiliar with actually playing 30K, I'm more concerned that I'm missing something really obvious rather than looking for the most broken combo.

I'm aiming at 1500pts initially, should I be looking at a consul at that level and adding a Praetor later? If so, I'd be interested to hear thoughts in that direction.

I was helping a mate decide what 'fluffy' meant in relation to the EC - we initially thought it was just taking the best, most elite stuff; but book 1 betrayal laid out a completely different feel for them.
They want to prove that they are the best at anything they do: if that means deliberately taking a crappy weapon to hammer home how pathertic your opponent is in CC (beat them with a handicap) then so be it!
They also want to show that whenever they are in control things just work.
The book notes that they especially like leading basic human forces like militias and solar auxillia, making them more effective and lethal overall by their superior leadership alone. It mentions that they liked heading up squads of militia with one of their marines (super sargent!) to show this off.

In terms of equipment bias - they love fast moving things. Bikes, jetbikes, attack bikes, landspeeders, javelin landspeeders and jump packs are on the EC wishlist permanently.
So, sorry to say it because bike/jetbike upgrades for your praetor are kinda optimal (T5), but probably a jetbike is needed and chuck him in a squad of jetbikes.
Alternatively, the 'handicap praetor' with deliberately gakky gear at the head of an allied militia force is as fluffy as a bunny on a van-der-graff generator.
To be as fluffy as possible for the rest of your army, take one of everything possible. one bike squad, one tac squad, one assault squad, one speeder, one sicarian, one unit of termies etc, etc....

 Azreal13 wrote:

I'm aiming at 1500pts initially, should I be looking at a consul at that level and adding a Praetor later? If so, I'd be interested to hear thoughts in that direction.

If you're not taking a Rite of War, then a consul would probably be a better idea at 1500pts. Anywa, I probably wouldn't go with a lightning claw on a Praetor. If he's going to be your "character to take on other characters with", then a Paragon Blade would be best. Besides, there's no reason an ancient, archeotech paragon blade can't take the form of several smaller blades attached to a gauntlet.

Well if its gonna be a chaos army maybe get yourself a unit of kakophani to use as noise marines.
Jetbikes are awesome for EC, a preator in 30k will generally have a Paragon Blade to go through all the 2+ saves but nothing wrong with lightning claws.
However the thing i would mention is that at 1500 you may wish to use a delegatus in tartaros with lightning claws instead, They are centurions and get the master of the legion rule.
You would get your lightning claws master crafted for free but no digi lasers or iron halo and i dont think you can get a grenade harness but thats cos i dont have my book with me.

Get a bunch of models and make multiple loadouts for your Praetor. I got one in regular AA, one with a jumppack, and one on a jetbike.

For 1500, I'd take a consul to save on points unless it was a fluffy game.

If I played EC with the new points values I'd take Assault Marines and give your Praetor AA+Iron Halo, a jumppack, archaeotech pistol, whatever fancy CC weapons you have or else a Paragon Blade , PF, LC, or whatever CC weapon you prefer, digital lasers, and send him out with the AMs to do what he's there for. I wouldn't personally slow an EC Praetor down with TA when you can do AA + an Iron Halo.

If you feel like jumpacking it just get Eidolon.

^^^ yeah, Eidolon seems really good.

Personally I have a jump pack praetor holding a sword, with a holstered pistol, and with a magnetized opposite hand so I can switch out his gear as I feel is best for the rest of my list (boarding shield, volkite charger, or powerfist, generally).

Shields are about the only options I can think of that work for 30k EC but not 40k EC, so I think you'll be able to double dip with your commander no matter what you give him, and hey! take solace in the fact that no matter what you arm him with for 40k he'll be terrible

Good advice all, thanks.

I collect force rather than build armies, so multiple Comsuls/Praetors are an inevitability, but this is simply the first, so I have an HQ to field a legal force and start to use the disparate models I've already finished in something resembling an actual army.

I'm planning a unit of JP Palatine Blades for Eidolon to lead at some point, when I can figure out what I want to do with Eidolon - not a huge fan of the FW version and haven't quite planned out my own version yet.

Of course, then I'll want a Storm Eagle to carry them about, to go with the Fellblade, Sicaran and Fire Raptor I've already got..

But, for now, how's about

Legion Praetor
Tartaros Armour
Paragon Blade
Combi Weapon
Iron Halo
Digital Lasers
Grenade Harness.

Of course, I could throw assault launchers on the transport he and his unit are in, but the harness strikes me as a bit easier to get multiple uses out of, and for the same points is therefore more efficient.

I often face an EC player with a LC + PB jump pack Praetor who is very hard to deal with due to their numerous challenge buffs (4+ FNP )

He is loyalist though.