Calgar + Honor Guard = BIG old beat stick!

[KingCronan]

First read through the marine codex I originally ignored the honor guard. But flipping through again i noticed how much cheaper they are and decided to give them a closer look. What I saw was pretty cool especially when you start looking at synergies with other units and models such as good old papa smurf, Calgar.

so here we go!
285 Marneus Calgar: Armor of Antilochus
170 Honor Guard(5): Chapter banner, Champ has Relic blade

The honor guard are pretty cheap for what they do now. For that 170pts you get 20 power weapon attacks and 4 relic blade attacks on the charge combined with the chapter banner. Then, with Clagar, you are very likely to get the Emperor's Sword warlord trait that gives his unit furious charge for one turn. So, the turn they charge out of a Land Raider they get 20 Str 5 AP3 attacks + 4 Str 7 Ap3 attacks + Calgar's 7 Str 9 Power Fist attacks.

Then you can make this even more ridiculous if you are willing to pay the points. Add in the good old Chief Librarian Tiggy with divination then you can throw around all those buffs and re-rolls too. Put a unit of Hammernators in reserve and you can have them come down on Calgar's built in teleport homer. Plus Tiggy can re-roll the reserve roll to help have them come in when you want them. Very expensive but very fun!

I threw together a silly little list as an example.

2000 Ultramarines: Heroes of Ultramar aka. 1st company aka. Calgar wing aka. Smurf Smash
HQ
285 Marneus Calgar: Armor of Antilochus

170 Honor Guard(5): Relic blade, Chapter banner (in raider)

165 Tigurius: Divination

Troops
85 Tactical Squad(5): Plasma gun
-75 Razorback: Lascannon, Twin-linked plasma gun

85 Tactical Squad(5): Plasma gun
-75 Razorback: Lascannon, Twin-linked plasma gun

65 Scout Squad(5): Camo cloaks

Elites
225 Assault Terminators(5): 5 Thunder hammers & Storm shields (in raider)

225 Assault Terminators(5): 5 Thunder hammers & Storm shields (in reserve)

Heavy Support
270 Land Raider Crusader: Multi-melta, Extra Armour

270 Land Raider Crusader: Multi-melta, Extra Armour

Its not a competitive list but I think would be a blast to play. Let me know what you think!

[Patrick Boyle]

Pretty sure the Chapter Champion doesn't get the option for a relic blade anymore. He can take a Thunder Hammer, any Honor Guard can take a relic blade, the Chapter Champion isn't an Honor Guard model. That's how I read the unit entry anyway.

[KingCronan]

Damn over looked that. Well give it to somebody else have one less attack, still fun :)

[Patrick Boyle]

I definitely agree. I'm a bit annoyed by that particular change as I've been planning to do a Chapter Master + Honor Guard for a while now with a relic blade on the Champion, to the point I have the model mostly assembled...granted I was going to use one of the giant two handed axes out of the Sevrin Loth+honor guard FW kit so I don't think people here will mind me proxying that for a hammer, but still.

[KingCronan]

it is a little silly. why can the regular guard get one of the weapons that is given almost exclusively to expert cc characters but the champion (supposedly one of the best cc fighters in the chapter) cant have it. I choke this up to good old lack of GW proof reading.

[Kaptain Badrukk]

Sounds like an obvious oversight to me. Expect FAQ.
Sometime around April.

[Katharon]

Vanguard veterans can do more and with better than the Honor Guard, the only better attribute for the Honor Guard being artificer armor. But, I will admit, the Honor Guard are a fun unit to run (since they don't take up a FoC slot for a nice chop-chop CC unit).

[Cadian122]

Vanguard veterans can do more and with better than the Honor Guard, the only better attribute for the Honor Guard being artificer armor. But, I will admit, the Honor Guard are a fun unit to run (since they don't take up a FoC slot for a nice chop-chop CC unit).

Especially as Vanguard are now Elites, which, in my case means they're always fighting for spots alongside Terminators (both variants), Sternguard, and Contemptor Dreadnoughts. I am tempted to convert up some IF Honour guard to see how they go. Not to mention the excess of Relic Blades available to the squad. Give the Champion a Thunder Hammer, he'll kick arse with it.

[Katharon]

Sounds like an obvious oversight to me. Expect FAQ.
Sometime around April.

It might or might not be. 5th Edition allowed "any model" in the Honor Guard to replace their power weapon with a relic blade. This edition seems to be excluding the Champion for no evident reason.

I would also point out the fact that the Honor Guard are the only unit I can see (so far) that is equipped the same way that CSM are, by having a bolt pistol, bolt gun, and a cc weapon. Meaning that they can blaze away with a rapid-firing boltgun if they get charged/want to and still get +1 attacks for having a pistol and a cc weapon (so long as you don't switch it out for a relic blade, which is two-handed).

[Patrick Boyle]

Vanguard veterans can do more and with better than the Honor Guard, the only better attribute for the Honor Guard being artificer armor. But, I will admit, the Honor Guard are a fun unit to run (since they don't take up a FoC slot for a nice chop-chop CC unit).

Eh, don't forget Honor Guard are Power weapon, bolter, bolt pistol, and grenades in addition to artificer armor. A Vanguard vet with jump pack and power weapon is 12pts more than a stock honor guard and doesn't have the 2+ or bolter. At 10 man units of each(stock honor guard, which includes the better stat-lined champion, vs 10 jump pack + power weapon vanguard) you're looking at 260 vs 355 points in favor of the HG.

Raw points and basic gear aside things do get more complicated; squad wide availablity of relic blades, banner options vs squad wide availablity of power fists/hammers/claws and stormshields, Elite slot vs no slot, but only if you have a chapter master. I don't think you can straight up say which is better just from looking at the paper.

[DarkLink]

Cant get a good invuln on honor guard, though.

[Katharon]

Ninja'd you by about four hours boyle. Re-read the post before yours.