Using Chaplain

[Saint_Anger]

Hi all, I just bought a 10-man tactical squad and a captain. I just wonder that many space marines army lists made use of captain or librarian, but I haven't seen chaplain lately. Do you guys have any advice on using chaplains? I do love this zealous warriors.

[Wolfshade]

Chaplains are brilliant for assault squads, giving them the ability to re-roll to hit on the charge.
If you play BA and they lead a death company then you also get to re-roll to wound on the charge.
I nearly always take Chaplains ahead of Captains

[Ramzus]

Captains imho aren't really that useful, unless you take one of the named characters. Librarians are almost a must anymore with all of the psykers out there. Chaplains are really great as a buff for a single unit, most of the time though I will see people take assault terminators and Cassius, simply because he is hard to kill with his high toughness.

[pathwinder14]

Chaplains are also good leading assault terminators armed wiht lightning claws. They allow them to re-roll their failed hits while the lightning claws allow them to reroll failed wounds (in adittion to being power weapons). If playing BA, add in a priest in terminator armor and you get Furious Charge and FNP (great for surviving massed small arms fire).

[FeralOni]

i almost ALWAYS run my LC termies with an attached termi chaplain... they're just too good a 'hammer' unit not too.... just like my thunder hammer termies being gated about by my termie librarian... even more fun in Apoc. where my thunder hammer termies are deathwing led by "belial" (armed the same) with an apothecary upgrade, hello 2+/3+/4+ save stack :D

[Bean]

I know this has basically been said already, above, but I'll reiterate it, just in case.

Captains (and masters) are very dubious. Unless you're taking a special-character Captain for a particular special ability or a Biker Captain to make bikes troops, you're better off just not taking a Captain. All they bring is close combat, and they don't bring nearly enough close combat to be worth their points.

Librarians are the go-to HQs. They're only a little worse at combat than Captains (and sometimes having a Force Weapon makes them better) but they get a lot of utility from their powers, and since they come with everything they need to be effective, by default, you can keep them pretty budget.

Chaplains are assault leaders--that's all they do. Like Librarians, their base states leave them a little worse at combat than the Captain, but Litanies of Hate can more than make up the difference if you put him with a sufficiently choppy unit (assault marines are an obvious and reasonable choice, though assault terminators are often better). Like the librarian, the Chaplain comes with everything he needs to be effective by default, so he stays pretty cheap (the one exception is a bike/jump pack if you're planning to put him with a bike/jump-pack unit, but that's true of every character).


So, really, chaplains are my second pick. Librarians are a good default, 'cause they're good, versatile, and cheap. However, if what you want is an HQ to lead your big assault unit, the Chaplain is a very good choice (Cassius, the special character chaplain, is excellent if you're leading an infantry squad like assault terminators). Captains are a distant third. They're far less versatile than Librarians; like the Chaplain, they're basically just for combat, and as long as you're leading a decent combat squad (which either character should be, if you're bothering to bring either) the Chaplain is almost always a better buy.

[Neelam]

At low points a chaplain in an assult terminator squad is a nightmare to deal with

[plawolf]

If you are not deep striking your termies, I would just take a regular PA Chaplin/Librarian/Priest with them.

Being ICs, they tend to attract power weapons and power fists, so the 2+ armour save is rarely useful. You might as well save yourself some points.

[papa smurf]

As mentioned above, Chaplains are basically a buff to assault oriented units, usually assault marines or assault terminators. One thing I haven't seen yet though is a mention of their cost!

They are a cheap buy for 100 points. Yes the librarian and captain cost the same initially, but in my experience a librarian without upgrades can be dispatched pretty easily since they don't have any protection beyond their power armor, and a generic captain (as mentioned above) doesn't bring any specialties to the table, unless you give him a bike to have biker troops. Chaplains come with a 4++ invuln and a power weapon as standard, and a jump pack is only 15 points, as opposed to 25 for a captain (and the extra for whatever weapon options you would give him). When it comes to small games, or even big games where you are trying to fit a lot of stuff in, a bare-bones chaplain with no upgrades (or maybe a jump pack at least) lets you get more killy things on the table, or allows squads to get more of their bells & whistles.

So IMHO, the chaplain is really a bargain HQ choice for space marine players.

[Calgar33]

I'm using a chaplain with a 10 man assault squad to great effect, pretty much kills most anything it touches.

[Nightspawn]

Chaplain's rock no matter what anyone says. Giving the unit they lead fearless and coming with a power weapon, a 4+ save and re-rolls to hit on the charge is awesome.

[Bean]

Chaplain's rock no matter what anyone says. Giving the unit they lead fearless and coming with a power weapon, a 4+ save and re-rolls to hit on the charge is awesome.

I think everyone knows that chaplains rock. It's captains that no-one likes, and for good reason!

[The AKH]

In games of 1500-2000 points, I usually take a Chaplain and a 5-man Assault Squad and keep them in reserve. Not to Deepstrike - I find more often than not, they get shot to bits - but to walk on. When they arrive (ideally turn 3 or 4) I can usually get some quite juicy charges in, with the 18" threat range of the charging Assault Marines. Coupled with the rerolls from Litanies of Hate, it's deadly.

[Wolfshade]

Giving the unit they lead fearless and coming with a power weapon
I would rather have stubborn than fearless, though I suppose it makes better sense fluff wise that they have fearless not stubborn.

[burning crome]

chaplains are a support charters they boast the units their attached to. So the better the unit the better the buff. The real questions comes are, are you over buffing so that the unit unnecessary to the point of over kill. 10 TH/SH terms will pretty much go though any thing so the re-rolls are not really required. And more to the point, wouldn't it be better to boast the number of basic models rather than sink points into him . The chaplains buff come in more into play when you got limited transport slots such as in a landraider or storm raven where taking him becomes more viable.

[MercyKiller]

For assault units, chaplains are great. I especially like them when I run Death Company in my Blood Angels army.

[UltraBlood]

I have used one attached to a regular 10 man assault squad for codex marines and it preformed really well and now that I have switched over to Blood Angels I have toyed with one with my LC terminators with pretty good results as well.

[Ravenger]

Chaplains are just a cheap CC set up HQ, they work great in smaller games over a captain but they are a utility tool for increasing the overall output of the unit they run with. I see the librarian as more of a defensive style add on to a group, at least depending on which codex you run. You gain that psychic defense at the cost of an invulnerable save on a character. They both come with power weapons, you have to decide on which powers will benefit you the most.

[Kveldulf]

In a small (750ish) point tourney last year my force was headed up by a jump Chaplain with assault squad. They did not do brilliantly but that was more due to the polethera of Grey Knights than any failing in themselves. Although the squad did manage to take down a Dreadknight in close combat.

For larger point games I actually prefer the captain, due to his being able to drop pod in with a command squad and blow a vehicle up with melta shots and still be scarry in CC with a fist and a bunch of Lclaws.

[SeraphimAngels]

Dark Angels chaplains either one of the two types rock, I have two i run with.
Chaplain with assault jumpers or termie chaplain with LC termies in a crusader.
Heh, the group I play with hate my Jump pack chaplain cuz he tears everything apart, at the last tournament i ran with him and an assault jump squad, they tore through 3 squads, it helps with the litanies to reroll your attacks. Depends on what you need to kill or you could run with both options, depends on what space marines you're playing with. :cool:

[Baeltor]

Bear in mind that for BA chaplains are Elites, their HQ verison is 130 pts.

[Azaghal]

I'm going to use Chaplains as my HQ, because sincerely I don't see a Librarian leading every strike force of space marine chapter - it's just stupid, there's too little of them. I hope they will make other options more viable in 6ed.

[Tynskel]

I use all three.
When I am designing my army I think of a theme. Captains are quite useful due to their access to wargear and good statline. Librarians are purely support, and same with Chaplains.

Blood Angels have the advantage of a Reclusiarch, which has a good statline, and the same gear as a chaplain. They make good HQs.