SM Captain and power weapons

[Dalleron]

So this has always kinda bugged me about Space Marines of all flavours.

Why is this day and age of 40k do you still have to buy a power weapon for your Space Marine leader, who isn't a libby or Chappy. Now I know the SM codex has a termie captain and he comes with one for free but why not the leader of your company. Surely he would have power weapon at the very least. Now paying for an upgrade for a powerfist or relic blade obviously I get but for a measly power sword. How often do you see a commander without a power weapon?

Just a thought.

[DarkLink]

Because GW thinks Chainswords are the coolest thing ever. Or something.

[Katharon]

If chainswords had cool rules, then it'd be better.

[ChacoStylez]

You could always purchase the Teeth of Terra. ..

[This Dave]

You could always purchase the Teeth of Terra. ..

That's what I did for my new Captain. I used the huge Chainsword the Gabriel Seth model comes with on the bionic arm from the Space Marine Commander sprue to model it.

[Eberk]

Why is this day and age of 40k do you still have to buy a power weapon for your Space Marine leader, who isn't a libby or Chappy.
Because it is easier point-wise to have a single Melee list to choose from whether you are a Captain or a Sergeant. (notice that the Libby and Chaplain can't buy from the Melee list)

[henrythesecond]

So this has always kinda bugged me about Space Marines of all flavours.

Why is this day and age of 40k do you still have to buy a power weapon for your Space Marine leader, who isn't a libby or Chappy. Now I know the SM codex has a termie captain and he comes with one for free but why not the leader of your company. Surely he would have power weapon at the very least. Now paying for an upgrade for a powerfist or relic blade obviously I get but for a measly power sword. How often do you see a commander without a power weapon?

Just a thought.

Or to look at it from another angle, you're basically asking why Space Marine Captains aren't 15pts cheaper? So you could in effect get your Power Sword for 'free'?

Not equipping him with a PW at the base level, with the subsequent price-hike of 15pts, means it gives us the opportunity to equip him how we see fit. Fair enough, I say.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

I dunno either to be honest i can never remember running a naked captain.... its just them being lazy i guess i mean even the models they make all come with power weapons of some sort. but who knows i know i for one would never use a chain sword as its rules are non existant its the same as a combat knife so for me its power weapon of some flavor always.

[DWest]

Themed campaign maybe? Where it's like the Space Marine video game, and your Captain has whatever fell out the back of the Thunderhawk when it was shot down?

[DarkLink]

The fundamental problem is that there a lot of units that GW simply refuses to update to match the current edition. They assume that a ~100pt Captain is still worth it, even with such a mediocre statline and zero wargear, simply because they wrote the rules three or four editions ago and they assume it's still perfectly fine. As a result, we're stuck with a bunch of crappy, overpriced units that you only rarely see on the table.

The Chaplain is another good example. Chaplains do one thing well; buffing an assault unit charging out of a Land Raider. If that were still viable, then Chaplains would be pretty good. But Land Raiders are overpriced, most offensive assault units are not very good in this very shooty-based edition, and as a result almost no one plays Chaplains. Reroll to hit on the charge just isn't nearly as good as it used to be. Especially when you can take Coteaz with Prescience instead, or any other psyker with Divination access.

They did a good job of updating some SM units with the new codex. Chapter Masters are beasts on bikes with T5 and/or the Shield Eternal, especially now that you can move and shoot the orbital bombardment with Relentless. Techmarines got cheap enough that they're worth considering in certain lists, though they're still not particularly good normally, with the exception of the Thunderfire Cannon. But Land Raiders aren't worth 250pts, and haven't been for a while.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

ya i mean they could have even oh i dunno given the chain sword an ap value... my chain axe is ap4 yet a chain sword isnt even ap5 or 6... its just poor proof reading and poor rules testing. it makes no sense that a chain axe has an ap value but a chain sword does not.... all you gotta do is ax ap4 sword ap5 suddenly you have weapons that actually do what they should be doing. i am sorry if i hit you with a chain blade glave axe... there is no reason why it won't chew into your armour right away and start causing problems.

[Arkhan Land]

I kind of agree, it seems like a much more agressive weapon to use, in earlier editions it packed a slightly greater punch, not sure why the took away some of its armour penetration and strength

On the main subject I figured they wouldnt want to make other models un-usable (though I dont usually think that) but even in RT releases and later releases there are Captains with chainswords, I think the powersword is an important leadership symbol from early on, early Terminator Captain even has a nice ceremonial one on his belt. But that said its cool to be able to take stuff from a list, sometimes Powersword is whatsup cutting through some armour is tight, othertimes Its cool to give your commander who often has the best WS and # of Attacks another PW and make it so any tank/dread/armour/HQ unit that gets near him takes a-ton-a hits from a power/chainfist.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

For me it has always been the look of the sword on a commander. i like the idea of my centurions and optimos carrying swords into battle to lead their troops like like the gladius or spartha the romans used to carry. so for me it was always about the look. where as for my wolves i like more along the lines of the nordic and viking styles so i do like more axes then swords thrown in. So the cool factor has always gone into it. heck i know the marines i had made for my seige assault list before the nerfed the unit down to special weapons... instead of special and power weapons... but not going to break those off i have 2 guys modeled with killer axes and another with a power sword.. probably just going to run those as is to be honest. i know one guy who will gripe that its some how op while the rest look at the mini's and go those look awsome and i can tell you put time into them... but alas thats how things are