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Most Expensive Single SM Model?

3K views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  bubby456 
#1 ·
Tonight I started basecoating my first five Vanguard veterans, and I was thinking about weapon loud outs for the next five once I get the Forge World kits in.

I have a pair of left and right power fists in my bitz box, and thought about the possibility of giving a Vanguard double fists. Then I realised this would make him cost 80 points! :wilt: I may do it anyway if it results in a good-looking model, but I'd have to rethink actually putting that model into a list. As nice as it would be to have three power fist attacks from a single model (+1 for charging), it's hard to justify spending as much as a unit of scouts on a single W1 model...

Barring ICs, what's the most expensive single model that you've actually played in a SM army? Was it worth it?
 
#2 ·
I played with a wolf guard in terminator armor with a cyclone missile launcher, storm shield and thunder hammer. He clocked in @ 93 points, talk about expensive! I really didn't feel he was worth it though, as putting the 3+ save on the heavy weapon in a squad was more of a gamble than it was worth it.
 
#5 ·
Sweet jesus, if we're going down that route my old allied inquisitor lords just... oh, epic failed points to kill ration. Seriously, you could pump 250 points into the bug..ers without a land raider transport. It was god awful but so satisfying to play (and the best bit was even after he charges and mauls a SM squad before being killed you put him down, and at the end of the turn he gets back up! more charging! yaay!)

However you can load out a old marine captain with a load of useless stuff - I tried to do a DA captain with a pair of lightening claws, melta bombs and combi melta (wrist on both arms, one melta and one bolter) - I did it but it failed horribly in actual play.

The old GK stormtrooper sgnts were allowed access to wargear - Terminator armour anyone? psycannon as well? heck, give them grenades to be sure (tee hee!) or a bunch of really useless stuff.
 
#6 ·
I don't have a codex with me and I don't field veterans ( well in my IG army I do) so I could be wrong, but they have 2 attacks stock? If so, the second power fist gives an extra attack as well giving 4 on the charge. Not saying its worth it, just saying.

My most decked out Sgt. has a power fist and storm bolter... not too bad, but I have lots of specials in my armies to soak up points.

Sanguinor tops my lists, followed by Calgar (Khan), and Mephiston...

Now if we were talking fantasy.... forget about it, some of those guys are just outlandish.
 
#8 ·
It's harder to do in 5th edition, but it would almost certainly be Sanguinary Guard, the few times I've put them in a list (I usually use the models as Honour Guard proxies). Those guys cost far too much.

Vanguard Vets can almost certainly out-pimp the SG, but I've never been silly or brave enough to field a 80+ point Vanguard model...
 
#9 ·
The most expensive SM models I've fielded are part of the Vanguard Veterans Deathstar unit... A 10-man vanguard vets with abundance of power weapons, fists and claws. The most expensive of them is still "only" 60 points with jump pack and power fist. The whole unit clocks something around 435 points in total, though.
 
#10 ·
Pfft, you call that a death star? :p

10 vanguard w/ JPs along with TH/SS, PF/SS, LC/SSx2, PW/SS, TH/SS+MeltaBombs, PF/SS+MeltaBombs, LC/SS+MeltaBombs, PW/SS+MeltaBombs all lead by a Relic Blade/SS sergeant. The wound allocation part wasn't as useful as I'd like but for 20 points of meltabombs it was probably worth it.

720 points, so that's an average of 72 points per model - and yes, I fielded this unit in a tournament :D 2 games it MURDERED a Necron and a CSM army all by itself, third game took out 2/3rds of it's points in nids before copping the big one, and in the 4th it got shot down to 3 men before I had a turn (thanks to the first 17 of my dice rolls featuring a 13 1s, and a few 2s) and then charged an IG squad only to realise I had just TH/PGs left and got killed before even taking a swing. All in all, they made their points back but only just. Worth it against MEQ, not so against hordes - so I only use this in friendly matches now. It draws and survives more fire than a pack of vindicators :D This was in a Shrike list that also featured TH/SS Terminators, I'd not recommend it for table quarters games though, it gets kind of cut off OR you don't get the turn 2 charge which is a mistake with a unit this expensive.
 
#11 ·
The catch is, of course, that an expensive unit doesn't have to earn its points back nowadays. There is only very few special missions that care about VP's so now it really doesn't matter if your 700 point deathstar only manages to kill 200 points worth of enemy. Only thing you need to worry about is Kill Points and Objectives.
 
#12 ·
I find it hard to believe those units do well, but if they do it's pretty cool. Space marines should be all about a few hero soldiers taking out armies alone. I have no idea how 750 points in 10 marines works but kudos to you for pulling it off. Seems like 20 Assault Terminators would probably do the same thing better for cheeper though...

Wound allocation is less useful for marines as we only have one wound so you still start losing effectiveness straight away (unlike, say a Wolf Star unit that can take 11 wounds before losing a model)

I just made a 135 point Assault Squad, with Fist and Flamer. Figure they're only 8% of my army so might be ignore long enough to get a charge in.

Lastly, it's not really the point of the topic but Lysander, Shrike and Vulcan are really expensive single models.
 
#15 ·
I find it hard to believe those units do well, but if they do it's pretty cool. Space marines should be all about a few hero soldiers taking out armies alone. I have no idea how 750 points in 10 marines works but kudos to you for pulling it off. Seems like 20 Assault Terminators would probably do the same thing better for cheeper though...
They'd also be a lot slower, or require FOUR land raiders which is 1k by itself. If my deathstar hasn't hit combat by turn 2, I've made a massive mistake.
Wound allocation is less useful for marines as we only have one wound so you still start losing effectiveness straight away (unlike, say a Wolf Star unit that can take 11 wounds before losing a model)
True, but it can help when you have to make lots of tests. This way 2 failed saves in a batch is only one model down, not 2.
I just made a 135 point Assault Squad, with Fist and Flamer. Figure they're only 8% of my army so might be ignore long enough to get a charge in.
I'm not a fan of 5 men jump pack units, as that's a very easy killpoint to claim. Handy in objective matches though.
 
#13 ·
Come to think of it, my Vanguard sergeant (TH+SS) does clock in at 80 points. He's twice the cost of most models in his squad. I think all in all the 5-man squad comes to 215 points. Maybe for the next five models I put together I should kit them out as much as possible, if only for the fun of it. The upside is less painting if I need to quickly make up points for a big game! :p
 
#14 ·
If you think those are expensive, think about this. The Space Wolves can, if they have Logan Grimnar, have a 10-man army worth 1500+points! As for a most expensive single unit, Thunderwolf Calvary models can be over 100 points.

Space Wolves are better than regular SMs at being expensive ;)
 
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