Okay so I am plotting to do up a whole bunch of Warhammer armies and along the way whilst list building I started thinking about command group options and what exact benefits they bring for their point cost. I soon realised in most situations command options are not a no-brainer choice but can depending on many circumstances be a very poor use of points, so I thought I would try to work a general guide to assessing the value of command options for various common circumstances.

Command options come in three varieties which usually if available at all can be taken in any combination. The three options are champion, musician and standard bearer. Each option usually has the same cost of 10pts regardless of race or regiment or other considerations.

Champions

Usually come as one of two types: melee focused or range focused. A melee focused champion usually has one extra attack and a ranged champion will usually have +1 BS.

On this basis alone whether a champion is worth taking comes down to whether this small buff to the unit's killyness could be obtained by other means. How many extra troopers could one have for that price? An empire archer costs 7pts, a champion upgrade costs 10pts, clearly an extra shot and a half at BS 3 (and an extra body and a half) is worth more than bumping one shot up to BS4 in this case.

Depending on the regiment they may also be a prerequisite upgrade for certain special equipment, so in that case if one wants or needs that equipment one will have to get that upgrade.

The other thing a champion can do for one is answer challenges instead of a character in the unit. This may be very useful in a unit which will also include characters that tend to die in challenges and don't have a way to avoid it without compromising regimental leadership as skaven can. Therefore any unit which won't be joined by any heros and lords or will be joined by a hero or lord who rips and tears in challenges won't benefit from this aspect of a champion upgrade.

A bonus of 50 victory points can be had if a Champion kills a character in a challenge. This is exceedingly unlikely to happen for individually weak champions such as skaven, goblins and skeletons but is actually quite achievable for individually strong champions like ogres, bloodknights and chaos knights particularly when the opposing army has weak characters. This makes the latter kind of upgrade much more attractive.

Standards

Standards add a little to combat resolution but are auto-killed if the unit breaks in combat. For some units they can also be made magical for extra effects.

If one isn't taking or can't take a magical standard then whether or not one takes a standard will depend on how useful +1 combat resolution is for one's plan or situation.

- Ranged units which should if all goes well remain out of combat won't benefit from this much if at all.

- Particularly killy close combat units also may not benefit much from this as they will tend to get lots of combat res. from wounds inflicted. Though there is no harm in getting more.

- Large units which get many rank bonuses and steadfast may also not get that much from a standard but then again as the cost of the standard is the same regardless of unit size, large units in some sense get their standards cheaper than smaller units on a cost per model basis. Also there is no harm in getting more and standard will in most cases be much cheaper to get than a rank bonus especially if the unit is going to be a horde.

- Very mobile units which will be flank or rear charging in combination with another unit may also not benefit that much from a standard as only one standard counts for combat resolution across the whole combat.

- Units with high leadership get less benefit from standards compared with low leadership units, with unbreakable units getting the least benefit (assuming they are not also unstable).

- Unstable units benefit in proportion to the model cost, higher cost models benefit most as each +1 combat res. means one less wound suffered for losing a fight. Standards cost the same 10 points for Grave Guard as they do for Skeleton warriors but as a Grave Guard wound costs 11pts while a skeleton's wound costs just 5 pts (without upgrades), a standard will earn it's points back in 1 round of lost combat for the Grave Guard but not for 2 lost rounds in a skeleton warrior unit. As an alternative to a standard rank bonuses are more expensive for Grave Guard as well.

- Also because standard bearers are auto-killed when a unit breaks the base cost of the model vs likelyhood of breaking needs to be considered as well. If a cheap night goblin is auto-killed for being a standard bearer it is less painful than when a ogre standard bearer is auto-killed.

Lost standards give the enemy 25 victory points. Which is a powerful reason not to pay for standards for any unit that is pretty likely to die or break.

Musicians

Musicians have three general benefits

1. A small combat resolution bonus in the very particular event of tied combat resolution. This is a similar benefit as that of a standard but more situational. It is least useful in units that will either tend to win or lose combat resolutions by large margins or don't suffer much from losing combat rounds.

2. A +1 leadership bonus to rallying attempts. No benefit at all to unbreakable units. Will be rarely useful to units with leadership of 10 because the bonus cannot take the leadership above 10. Very useful on units which are likely to flee and because of other circumstances able to reliably escape enemy pursuers.

Units which flee off the table give their points value to the enemy as victory points the same as if they were killed, the more points the unit costs the more points they get. Since musicians help units rally, they are more attractive in units which are high value. If the general flees of the table that is an extra victory points for one's opponent. Musicians in the general's unit are particularly valuable then.

3. The ability to move after making a reform manoeuvre. This is of no value at all for units like skirmishers and fast cavalry who can make free reforms. Usually not very useful for ranged units which won't be moving much if at all. Probably most useful on melee units angling to make a flank charge on their next turn as it extends their threat range and helps get them into combat sooner.