Unique Heroes or Normal Characters

Ok so in my experience people go one way or the other on this. Nobody seems to mix and match as appropriate. Or at least very few people do. Even the battle reports in White Dwarf always seem to be full of each armies greatest heroes.

I have to say i'm fond of my Blood Angels characters and they all lend themselves well to a particular purpose. For example Dante is a great character to use if you use Sanguinary Guard cos you can take them as troops choices (freeing up precious Elites slots for Terminators, and Furioso Dreadnoughts and Sternguard Veterans and other beautifully killy units that you may want to field) and he has a similar level of equipment to the sanguinary guard making him particularly useful when standing next to them on the battle field. Or Astoroth the Grim whose particularly awesome when stood side by side with a Death Company (Not to mention that he lifts the 0-1 limit allowing you to take up to 6, 30 man, Death Companies, enough to make even a Titan Crew panic).

But is it really worth it? Especially in small games! I mean you pay 225 points to put Dante on the battlefield. My Sanguinary guard normally set me back 275... in a 1000 point game that leaves me just 500 points to play with and i still have to get 1 of my compulsory 2 troops choices in. And if i don't take the Sanguinary Guard with him then whats the point in paying all those extra points! Sure he has the Death Mask of Sanguinis and his power weapon is Master-Crafted, but apart from that i could simply field a Captain with a Jump Pack, Power Weapon and Infernus Pistol and save myself 70 points... that's practically a whole scout squad extra!

The 2 best victories i've had since the 5th edition version of Codex Blood Angels came out both had nameless normal characters instead of special characters. I think the special characters fit neatly into some armies where they have a very specific purpose i.e the Sanguinor heading up a Sanguinary Guard with a Chapter Banner and a Sanguinary Priest with Power Weapon (Giving everyone in the Squad Feel No Pain, Furious Charge and plus 2 attacks in close combat). but in anything short of an apocolypse game your just not going to have the points to field all that. If you do then is all it takes is one well placed large blast template and you've lost anything from 20-50% of your army in one go. And having seen that happen to someone seriously its absolutely crippling, a hit like that at the start of a game and you are almost garunteed to loose.

I think your army is better served by a normal Captain, Resclusiarch or Librarian than a special character most of the time, however i will oppenly admit i do often use the special characters and heroes and can almost definately see the advantages of them.

But i think this is a point that could genuinly go either way, i'll post up my ideas on how to use all the special characters and get the most out of them soon but let us know your thoughts, do you reckon your run of the mill normal character is best, or do you prefer to have your armies led by Baals Greatest Heroes? I'm going to put up a Poll and lets see what you guys think.

Later guys