The first unit I want to finalize is one of my Company Command Squads. My favorite configuration has been three plasma guns, medi-kit, and a plasma pistol for the officer. The ability to put out seven Str 6 AP 2 shots within 12" is lethal, and is usually my answer to Terminators that get too close. I have also tried running the command squad with four plasma guns, but the medi-kit not only tends to keep my overheating guardsmen alive, but has given me that added resilience that has often been useful when they get in a pinch. In addition, I tend to find that where 7 plasma shots can't do the job, 9 isn't that much more useful.
To back up that opinion I did some math and (assuming that I got it right), after five turns a command squad with 3 plasma gunners and a medic will have killed 11.6 Terminators at the loss of guardsman, while the squad with 4 plasma gunners killed 12.3 Terminators at the loss of 3 guardsmen. So my deduction, supported by experience, is that while the lethality is more or less the same, the first squad is more resilient, flexible, and - thus - dependable throughout the game, while the second squad can frontload more damage early in the game.
I would like to add that, from experience, I've found that the 4 plasma gun squad is far more prone to self-detonate from a fistful of 1's and screw up my whole battle plan than it is to get a solid 'alpha strike' and clear a unit off before sustaining the inevitable "Gets Hot!" casualties. So now I never field plasma command squads without either a medic or carapace armor (but I'll leave that math more another time).
Beyond the number of plasma shots in my squad, I've learned two other points from running this unit. First of all, every member of the squad is valuable so bodyguards are great to keep plasma gunners alive when guardsmen start to drop. Secondly, when their ride gets blown my command squad often finds themselves in a crater rather too close to the enemy for comfort - but curiously enough my opponents always tends to ask about powerfists, as power armored players are often loath to loose one or two marines from a "wipe-up crew" sent to clear them out. This has led me to equip my officer with a power fist, as the amount of time its presence has made my opponents try to rapid fire me off the table instead of charging makes it well worth its points (consider that I have a 4+/4+ save vs. incoming fire when in cover).
So my company command squad consists of three plasma guns, a medi-kit, two bodyguards and an officer with powerfist and plasma pistol. Too expensive to be considered optimized, really; but this configuration works very well for me and my style of play.
A final note on their ride. Usually I see Chimeras with hull heavy flamers and multi-lasers in the turret, but since I need these guys within 12" to be efficient I'm much more happy with keeping a heavy bolter on the hull, and mounting the heavy flamer in the turret. This typically gives me more flexibility to position the Chimera itself in such a way that it might block advances and provide cover - and still get an effective template shot.
Moving on to the hobby aspect, this squad is already built so there isn't a lot of creativity involved. However, at the time I built these I used the old Straken model, which I converted lightly to represent the officer. Sticking with the old look I used metal plasma gunners, adding some bits to give them a touch of individuality. The medic is one from the current plastic command squad set. I've used bases from Scibor to represent them fighting over jungle ruins, painted tan, which I am very happy with.
I used to run las pistol and CCW on the veterans of my old, 4th edition command squads and because of that, I now have a bunch of guys who aren't equipped to be anything but bodyguards. However, I had spent some time kit bashing my command squads even then, so I find the character of those veterans make perfect bodyguards in the current edition (and on a personal note, I like the idea of the survivors of my old command squad now serving as bodyguards). So, apart from repairing some paint chipping and the occasional loose part, all I needed to do was swap their base and tie them into the rest of the command squad.
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| This is an old picture, but the Command Squad's Chimera is the one on the left (with the searchlight) |
The Chimera was already finished as well, so it didn't take look to finalize this unit - the first step in re-organizing and finishing the W.I.P. projects of my collection! However, it was enough time to imagine a little background of the unit, made easier by the fact that the 72nd 'Blackbacks' are currently involved in a campaign upon the Imperial Planet of Ankhodia Prime.
