All terminators have a 2+ save, as good as it gets for infantry models. This makes them incredibly resilient to small arms fire, hell it makes them resilient to all kinds of fire. Only plasma weapons and las cannons provide a true threat to being able to kill a model in one shot. Should a terminator be wounded by an ap1/2 weapon they all come with a 5+ invulnerable save from their crux terminatus, that bad ass left shoulder pad. These first company veterans have access to some of the most powerful ranged and close combat weapons available to a single marine that a chapter can offer. I am now going to break this post into sections to give each unit its rightful amount of attention.
Space Marine Captain in Terminator Armor: This guy is about 140 points to get a 2+ save, a storm bolter, and power sword. Having 4 attacks on the charge is nice and can be a very nice buff to a unit but that is really all the captain can offer. You could play the armor save game by sticking him in a power armor unit and having him soak up a bunch of damage before wounds start getting allocated to the unit. You can still put him in a unit with terminators and use him to kill some stuff at initiative 5 to reduce the amount of damage coming into the slower squad mates. A fun build I would like to see is two thunder hammers (175 points) which would give him 5 attacks on the charge, 4 base, that would just be a very bloody captain. Overall this guy should be taken if you are desperate for a single character that can kill a lot of things reliably, and be survivable with his 2/4++, put him in a squad of thunderhammer stormshield terminators to give him a look out sir against instant death weapons. I have never used a basic captain in terminator armor before.
Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor: For 160 points (for a chaplain take off 30 points and make him not as awesome) you get a bad ass in black armor, with a ap 4 crozius and storm bolter, that sings the Emperors praises' while butchering everyone. While ap 4 may be a turn off to some people who can only imagine a terminator with ap3 or better weapons, he is more than worth it. While his own combat power is substantial, it is what he does for his unit that makes him truly useful. With litanies of hate the squad he joins can re-roll their misses to hit on the first round of combat in which they charge making sure those high strength weapons don't whiff. I would put him in a close combat squad and let them go to work. I use this guy constantly with my Blood Angels and have yet to regret it. He is very durable with 3 wounds and his 2/4++ so you can feel safe with him as your warlord and not risking giving up slay the warlord very easily.
Librarian in Terminator Armor: For 130 points you can get a very versatile HQ choice in terminator armor. Depending on what kind of Space Marines you have; Space Wolves, Blood Angels, etc will dictate what sort of psychic powers you can use. Since I play Blood Angels I like to use fear the darkness which makes units take a LD test with a -2 debuff and blood lance which is an awesome weapon that has the melta and lance special rules. These guys have the potential to be incredible in combat if you hold on to your force token to activate the force weapon which can kill a multi wound model in one blow. You can spend the extra points to gain the ability to have these guys fire off two psychic powers a turn but I have never gotten a decent return from that investment. If you run a shooting army this guy can stay back and use some of the blessings from the rule book psychic powers and enhance your units through those but you might as well keep him out of sight and in power armor and get a few more special weapons in that role.
HQ's That Allow Terminators as Troops: This is an incredible ability that makes one of the scariest units in the game even more valuable. That far off objective that is in the rear of your opponents deployment zone can now be captured by your rampaging terminators. The trap that many players fall into with these characters is by deciding to make their entire army out of these deadly warriors. What I see as an obvious down side is that this army has very little mobility out of deep strike and the models that are on the board turn one will most likely be tactical style terminators with assault cannons and missile launchers that can really only do so much damage. Another flaw I see too often is that an army using this tactic only brings one teleport homer, if any, that always finds itself in the middle of the board so all those assault terminators will find themselves in rapid fire range of all the opposing army. (I am going to stop myself here and go into further detail later on in the post about how to use this tactic better.)
Tactical Terminators: Probably the least used terminators in the game, and really it is hard not to see the reason why. They have the 2+ save like all terminators but their 5+ invulnerable save doesn't offer much in the way of survivability in battle fields that are seeing a massive increase of ap2 weapons. They have a very limited and expensive armory, letting them have a heavy flamer, assault cannon, cyclone missile launcher, or a chain fist. At 200 points it is a questionable return on an investment. I personally have a problem finding what role these lads play. Anti-tank is a bit to ask with strength 8 missiles unless you can get them into combat with the vehicle and rip it apart with power fists, anti infantry is possible with the storm bolters and heavy flamer but to do that you need to get them in close and risk rapid fire plasma guns, and the assault cannon is somewhere in-between. The best use I have found for them is to put them in a drop pod with no upgrades and simply put them behind enemy lines in a threatening position. The point of this is to hopefully set your opponent back a turn since they can't ignore terminators in their back field and will have to dedicate something serious to eliminate them. This gives you another turn to shoot your big guns or get into assault range. Your terminators won't likely make their points back this way directly but indirectly they give your army as a whole a better chance.
Assault Terminators: These guys are the real terrors of the battle field. Commonly fielded in two load outs; twin lightning claws or thunder hammer/storm shield. Back in my Space Wolf days I fell in love with the wolf claws which are just fancy lightning claws that allow me to either re-roll my failed to hit or wound rolls instead of just failed wounds. They soon fell out of favor with me because of the amount of plasma that my opponents brought to the battle field. If these guys can get into combat they are brutal killers that will shred most things in a single turn of combat. Thunderhammer/Stormshield terminators have become everyones favorite because they can laugh off an incredible amount of fire with their 3+ invulnerable save and their thunderhammers will more often than not cause instant death to most special characters. Something that is often forget is that they are also concussive weapons that when they cause a wound the enemy goes down to initiative 1 which evens later rounds of combats against things like daemon princes and things like that. The great debate is to how many TH/SS terminators there should be in a squad and how many should be twin claws; my answer to that debate is pretty simple, make them all TH/SS and put one or two characters in there to buff their combat and provide some initiative 5 attacks to whittle down the return blows.
At this point in the post I declare my over view of the units over and am going to begin a tactical look at how to use these units in concert with each other as well as other units.
The First Does Not Deploy Without the Tenth: For those of you that want to play with only terminators because 1st Company terminators are the only way to go and you like the fluff of the units I highly suggest you deploy along with some scouts. I know I have read plenty of Black Library books where some sneaky scouts go into a heavily defended position and plant a beacon where the terminators then teleport to and lay waste to everything. Lets say you spend 115 points on a scout squad, this gets you a homing beacon and camo cloaks for a +1 cover save, I suggest you get two of them for a total of 230 points and place them into cover on the flanks of the battle field. At the coast of 5 terminators with a ranged weapon upgrade you gain the potential of a two pronged attack along the flanks of your opponent in which you can then close upon the middle dividing your opponents efforts allowing more terminators to survive. Remember that in most cases the best chance of survival for your terminators is in close combat where the larger amount of high strength low ap weapons can hurt them. Scouts can also do a nominal amount of damage with sniper rifles and can cause some potential grief with rending shots. If you prefer going into combat with 230+ point characters to bring in 200+ point scoring terminators you really should bring in some cheap scouts to enhance your mobility and survivability.
Tactical Terminators: Techpriests and cover are your friends. People that play with terminators tend to laugh at cover relying on their armor save to keep them alive or put a vehicle in what limited cover there is. Tactical terminators can really provide two roles besides the rear board threat I went over before, but them in a ruin that has been boosted by a priest to give a 3+ cover save now giving them a free storm shield in most cases and let them nip at enemy infantry to soften them up before a charge from another unit. While they are sitting back there they also provide an anti assault unit to your vehicles that may be sitting back. While they are not as disruptive as their assault based comrades they are more than capable of stalling an assault for you to move your vehicles and get another turn or two of important shooting. They can also be a reliable unit to sit and hold an objective if you are running a list that makes terminators scoring.
Delivery Systems: Drop pods are an obvious choice, although I would only do one unit this way to make sure that it came in turn 1 to cause my opponents blood pressure to rise a little. Land Raiders are another option that I went over in my last post but that is a very hefty point investment and can only be considered competitive in higher point games. I am a fan of deep striking so long as there is beacons to bring them in safely. I have probably deep struck my terminators trusting to my scatter dice more often than not and it has paid off, but if you can mitigate the risks you should do it. My favorite delivery system that has worked very well for me in the past is making them use their feet. By filling my army with fast units that will be getting turn 2 assaults like assault marines or bikers it forces my opponent to make the choice to shoot at the eventual hammer blow to the head or the blade that is shooting for their heart.
Dealing With Unwieldy Weapons: Swinging at initiative 1 can be a little nerve wracking since all it takes is one bad handful of rolls to lose your unit. What I have found is to put at least one character in the unit to get some initial strikes in to blunt the return attacks. A Reclusiarch does a great job of this with his re-rolls and strength 6 ap4 crozius which will also buff your terminators when it is their turn to swing. Throwing the captain in a unit will also give you a lot of high initiative attacks. If you have read my Blood Angel battle reports you will notice I like to use the Reclusiarch and Sanguinary Priest which allows me to pick and choose my challenges and work Look Out Sir! to keep my guys alive.
This is a really long post already so if I think of more things to do with terminators I will either edit this post or most likely make a part 2. Thanks for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post and may you have an Emperor blessed day!
I have seen more than enough of these when playing against you, and I can say more than a few Kriegsman have died in an attempt to stop these guys. I have seen some of these tactics too and they are devastating. They have given your assault marines plenty of opportunities to get into combat and not face the brunt of my fire.
ReplyDeleteThat is the most important part of an assaulting army, not get shot. I can only wish your guys were weapon skill 3 like good guardsmen should be lol.
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