Terminators in Codex: Space Marines come in two basic flavors shooting Terminators and Assault Terminators. The most popular form of terminators to be fielded from the 5th edition codex, in contrast to the 4th ed codex, are Assault Terminators. No one can deny the power of Thunder hammer/Storm Shield equipped assault terminators, the unit single-handedly changed 40k. TH/SS terminators find a way into the majority of Space Marine lists you find spammed all over the internet, mine included. They have found a special place in my heart, being a Salamander player, and I currently have 15 of them for my army. The advantages of TH/SS terminators is well known and touted on blogs and wargaming communities all over the internet so I will speak no more about how awesome they are.
Assault Terminators also have the option of taking Lightning Claws. Lightning Claws are very deadly weapons for Assault Terminators, they add an attack, allow rerolling for wounds, they are power weapons, and hit in initiative order. This is certainly nothing to be sneezed at. Pairing them with a Chaplain will give you a reroll to hit and wound. A good tactic for using LC armed assault terminators is to use mixed squads. 3TH/SS and 2 LC or 3LC and 2TH/SS terminators in a LR or variant is a nice combo, having a ride keeps the more vulnerable LC terminators safe until they can charge. This load out benefits greatly from a Shrike list. In particular taking 3LC+3TH/SS and Chaplain in a LRC in a Shrike list will give you a unit with a turn one threat range of 20-26inches. LR moves 12in terminators get out 2in from ramp fleet 4-6in and Assault 6in. I have played against and with this unit and it can be devastating, especially against an opponent who isn't prepared or has misjudged the distances during deployment. This unit is also a killer in a Khan list since he allows the LRC to outflank with the unit. Don't discount Lightning Claws, remember; not taking the best does not mean you are taking the worst!
Now we come to the bastard sons of the Terminators. "Regular" Terminators, the Vanilla terminators of the Vanilla marines. Whenever I field a squad of shooting terminators I get cock eyed looks from people and comments of "you know TH/SS terminators are better right?" "You know Assault Terminators cost the same and are better right?" "You know regular terminators are horrible in 5th edition." "Oh, regular terminators? Auto fail" (the last one was a comment I got prior to a game I won =] I felt pretty good about that win). I find this is simply untrue. As with most codices there are some units which are so good they overshadow many other units which are classified simply as "good". It is true that TH/SS terminators are awesome but that doesn't mean all other variants are therefore bad. Every squad comes with a sergeant with Power Weapon and Terminators with Storm Bolters and Power Fists. Then there are options for Assault Cannons, Heavy Flamers, and Cyclone Missile Launchers. All of those are weapons that can do a lot of damage in the shooting and assault phase. Let's take a look at a few neat things I have seen done with regular terminators. First lets look at a unit that nearly cost my Orks a crushing defeat, which I narrowly avoided by quickly running away to sit on objectives and hope turn 7 wouldn't come!
2 Librarians in Terminator armor both with the Avenger. The avenger is a flamer template psychic power.
10 Terminators with 2 Heavy Flamers and a LRC dedicated Transport.
Both Librarians roll in the LRC with 3 terminators and 2 HF terminators. When they get out they can lay down 4 flamer template attacks and still charge! This unit can wither an enemy down to nearly nothing then charge in and mop up the left overs.
Another squad, similar to the first, is Vulkan with the same Terminator squad as the above but in a LRR accompanied by a Techmarine with Servo Harness. This gives the unit 3 twinlinked Heavy Flamers and one twin linked regular flamer, if you give the techmarine a power weapon you have three models striking with power weapons (one str 6) at initiative (Vulkan, Techmarine, Sarge) plus power fists to round it out.
Another great combo I saw used by an Imperial Fist player and a different player using Khan and the White Scars is 10 Terminators w/2 Cyclone Missile Launchers. Take Lysander and combat squad the Terminators. Lysander, Sarge+4 Terminators Deep Strike with twin linked Storm Bolters. The other squad acts as a fire base with 4 missile shots a turn, 10 storm bolter shots, and 2+5+ saves; the best part about this squad could possibly be the fact that the CMLs can move and shoot the same turn which Devs can't do. Repositioning to gain targets isn't a problem for these bad boys.
In all the above examples I suggest the combat squad of 5 Storm bolter terminators deepstrikes and mows down some infantry. I know there are many other uses for "Vanilla" Terminators but these are just the few I have actually seen used or used myself. As with most of the articles in this series I want to encourage people to think outside the box when using C:SM, you don't have to use the nets best lists or even the best units in the codex. Sometimes great lists come from using unexpected units from a codex that aren't amazing but are still good. I will leave you with a photo of my Salamanders "Vanilla" Terminators and a list I have been considering playing in September's tournament at our FLGS.
Salamanders 2,000 points
HQ:
Vulkan
Elite:
Terminator Squad (10) 2 Heavy Flamers+Land Raider w/MM
Terminator Assault Squad (5) TH/SS
Heavy Support:
Land Raider Redeemer w/MM
Troops:
Scouts (5) BP/CCW sarge w/ PF and Combi Melta
Scouts (5) BP/CCW sarge w/ PF and Combi Melta
Tactical Squad (10) Flamer/ML
Tactical Squad (10) Flamer/ML
Fast Attack:
Land Speeder Storm w/MM
Land Speeder Storm w/MM
So what do you think? Are shooting terminators good or not? You know my opinion now tell me yours.
Nice article! I am really enjoying this series on C:SM. BoLS had something like this up but the author didn't go into what units he wanted to run, instead he asked what everyone else thought. I think he was fishing for ideas on what he should write in the follow up article. If your units show up in his next article... well... the I guess we'll know.
ReplyDeleteOh come on, don't bash BoLS they do a great job with most of their articles. Bigred wasn't sniffing for ideas to put in his article he is more than capable of coming up with any of those terminator builds on his own. In fact anyone can come up with those units all they need is a codex, a brain, and some paper. Not to say they aren't good units, they just aren't completely original.
ReplyDeleteOk, while "not taking the best doesn't mean you're taking the worst" is a fine mantra to live by in 40k, if you want average results, I have to say you would be a total moron if you took regular terminators over assault terminators. I don't care how you load them with weapons or what HQ or Elite add ons you throw in, you can't make a shooting Terminator squad as killy as TH/SS ones. Although you prove my point since your "list" includes both types of terminators not to mention LR spam. For shame Overwatch, for shame.
ReplyDeleteChristopher...
ReplyDeleteI for one don't consider our author to be a moron, nor so do I believe myself to be one either; Tell me, in a Drop Pod List, what makes more sense, Thunderhammer Terminators, or Tactical Terminators? If you drop on turn 5, and the game ends, what did those Thunderhammer Terminators do? At least in that situation, the Tactical Terminators get one round of shooting to pound your opponent. No one is a 'moron' for taking different options, if they serve a purpose. Given a different list each time, any unit can be made viable. I've had great success against GT players by using close combat scouts outflanking with a powerfist and combi flamer to hit their gun line.
Kudos for the article man! I enjoyed it thoroughly!
I don't care how you load them with weapons or what HQ or Elite add ons you throw in, you can't make a TH/SS Terminator squad as killy as shooting ones. I much prefer storm bolters to shaking vehicles and making greater deamons INI 1, thank you very much. Not to mention special weapons.
ReplyDeleteI play tyranids and I get a little said when I look at space marine terminators. I mean the tyranid codex has some really good elite choices(zoanthropes and hive guard), but none of them are heavy elite infantry like terminators. We got ymgarl genestealers instead which are too expensive in my opinion for what they can do.
ReplyDeleteThere are always the troop choices though despite what some people claim no other troops(and some elites can't beat a genestealer squad in close combat if numbers aren't totally unmatched(sometimes even then.) I love genestealers I run them with poison and I take a broodlord with poison and scything talons. Even terminators will take casulties against or usally outright lose to equal numbers of genestealers. Generally when someone says their terminators beat genestealers they are talking about five(200 points at least) terminators killing 8(114 point) or 12 (168 point) squads of genestealers. Anyway I like terminators and I love it when they fight genestealers it gives the game kind of an old spacehulk theme.
As a note on the Imperial Fist example - you can't combat squad and put one unit into Deepstrike Reserve and deploy the other half.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different note (which I know the typical answer, but humour me): On what rules basis does a Lightning Claw armed Assault Terminator gain a second attack?
Typical answer: Its always been that way, it's got 2 weapons.
RAW answer: He's only armed with "Lightning Claws". Not a pair, or two of them. And the weapons description in the codex doesn't support that the "s" automatically means 2.
But good luck trying to convince any Marine player of that.