Tactics for 10 Terminators

[minigun762]

Has anyone had any success using a full sized squad of Terminators all decked out with weapons?

 

What I'm debating about is the usefulness of 10 Terminators holding a flank by themselves, which will allow the rest of your army to engage the opponent hopefully with a localized advantage.

The Terminators are ultimately doomed, but 1) will they last long enough to form a worthwhile roadblock and 2) do 10 Terminators have the capabilities to hold back 400+ points worth of an army, or will they themselves simply be tied up by something cheap?

[Race Bannon]

Well, the almost burned-out simple-man's tactic of 6 Assault Terminators + Land Raider = 500+ points.

 

So, it depends on what you want to do. I think 10 Terminators has an edge in psychology that is hard to ignore. At least I'd imagine that.

[jesselowe]

That's a lot of points to tie up in one slow unit. Add a librarian with Gate of Infinity and you might force your opponent to deal with them; if he doesn't, they might pop up in the main battle next turn.

 

To counter 10 terminators, I think I'd try to tie them up with tarpits - maybe nurglings or scarabs. As a marine, I'd try to avoid them, but I play a fairly mobile army.

[Grey Mage]

Has anyone had any success using a full sized squad of Terminators all decked out with weapons?

 

What I'm debating about is the usefulness of 10 Terminators holding a flank by themselves, which will allow the rest of your army to engage the opponent hopefully with a localized advantage.

The Terminators are ultimately doomed, but 1) will they last long enough to form a worthwhile roadblock and 2) do 10 Terminators have the capabilities to hold back 400+ points worth of an army, or will they themselves simply be tied up by something cheap?

 

Yes, sadly it costs around 900pts for the suckers so its really an apocalypse only kind of thing... and then Destroyer weapons are to common at the larger levels. At around 3k though Ive fielded this twice:

 

WGBL- Frostblade, TDA, RC, Assaultcannon, WP

WGBG- TDA, RC, Assaultcannon, CF

WGBG- TDA, RC, Assaultcannon, LC

WGBG- TDA, RC, Assaultcannon, PF

WGBG- TDA, RC, LC, SS

WGBG- TDA, RC, PW, C-F

WGBG- TDA, RC, PF- C-M

WGBG- TDA, RC, TH-SS

WGBG- TDA, RC, PW-SS

WGBG- TDA, RC, PF- SS

WP- Runic Armor, PPistol, RC, WP, HP+B.

 

Its hideously expensive, but harder than hell to kill- no two are the same, and with a rerolling armor save and ignoring the first failed wound a turn with four stormshields to absorb plasma discharges.... yeah, it was nice. Of course it attracts alot of firepower, wich means if your force is fast enough and hits hard enough you can use that to get your squads into position unharmed and just beat the heck out of your opponent for minimal losses.

[minigun762]

As a marine, I'd try to avoid them, but I play a fairly mobile army.

 

Ahh I had brain farted about their lack of speed after deepstriking. Walkign 6" isn't going to do much but maybe slowly herd their army. This means you're stuck using a Land Raider of some sort, which makes the unit even more expensive and limits bodies (for Chaos mostly).

[Koremu]

The problem with large Terminator units is indeed that once they are down, they are slow and static. There is of course the plan of forcing your opponent to deal with them by teleporting them near an objective and contesting it. Nothing contests an objective like a Terminator :)

[tedwin183]

The trick with this, and what a lot of people seem to forget about, is that you (the terminator player) get to drop the termies where YOU want them to go. I couldn't help but laugh above at the comment about tarpitting with nurglings or scarabs. Anyone who is using 10 termies, deepstriking, and drops them close to a unit you KNOW your opponent will use as a tarpit...is not a very smart player. Its the same argument I always get into with people who bash how great TH/SS termies are because "a squad of charging genestealers will make short work of them." My reply is always: "If you're stupid enough to have your termies that close to those genestealers, without support, then you deserve to have them lost."

 

Lastly, I really don't see how they're such a slow unit. They aren't chaos spawn, they aren't ghazghkull. They move like any normal infantry model. They don't have slow and purposeful. True, they can't assault off a deepstrike...but neither can chaos daemons and I've never heard them considered "slow".

 

I think a big part of the pooh-pooh everyone is crying about shooty termies now, comes from 4th ed. when everyone brought plasma to the table and expensive TDA wasn't worth it anymore. I think with the prevalence of horde lists (guard and orks), the flamer is going to unseat even the melta, now, as the special weapon of choice. When that day comes, expect termie-heavy lists to come out of the woodwork.

[Koremu]

To a large extent, special weapon choice depends on your local metagame. Mine features Terminator, Carnifex, War Walker, Wraithguard and Wraithlord. I <3 Plasma.

[minigun762]

To a large extent, special weapon choice depends on your local metagame. Mine features Terminator, Carnifex, War Walker, Wraithguard and Wraithlord. I <3 Plasma.

 

More reason to take a variety of weapons. :D

[lord gunthar]

the ultimate terminator squad is ...

10 chaos terminators all with aspiring champion upgrade, dual lightning claws and an icon of khorne=

60 power weapon attacks that reroll to wound on the charge !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Cameron Magnus]

I have used 10 man shootie Terminators several times. It is undeniably a psychological threat to any opponent and you can usualy see this on their face when the terminators land at or among his lines and have a hay day shooting things up.

 

Yes they get shot at once but its better than slogging in and being shot at two or three times. Trust me 10 of these guys marching in rank will draw serious fire.

 

I have used their number to heard the enemy away(more like mopping up). As they walk forward the number of shots they drop with two heavies and their storm bolters can put a hurt on a unit. If they dont assault me they are running from me and most that assault have been shot up already.

 

You must support them though with something. I have used tactical marines to add to the shooting and can make a counter charge to get some extra attacks keeping them from getting stuck in. This is also nice with a dread or a Crusader due to the 24" complimenting ranges.

 

On another note I had a rather large game as I often do and deep striked ten in with two cyclones into a corner. The corner that he had deployed in. It was a three objective battle and in the third turn he turned around evey hammerhead and rail rifle he had to destroy my Termies. In the end none remained due to their lack of support but he had dedicated over half his force for almost two turns to shoot at ten 2+ save termies taking a 3+ cover save in some fortifications. It allowed my tacticals to advance nearly unmolested to the center objective. We all know that prying tacticals out of an objective is hard when they have a 4+ cover as well. I barely held that second objective and he held none as my termies faithfully made him crap his trousers at the thought of 4 krak missiles at his rear armor each turn.

 

Expensive? Oh Yeah. Effective? Nearly all the time. Fun? Thats a big HELL YEAH!

 

Cam

[Sgt. Nuthugger]

I've used 10 shooty termies with great success, with assault cannon and a cyclone. Both with a librarian with gate and lysander aswell.

 

With the librarian they are pretty awesome. Just deploy them normally where they will get off shots from the get go. When you run out of targets you can gate them to wherever the action is thickest. A stormshield on the librarian helps to counter those pesky ap 2 shots.

 

With lysander they become even more nasty with the bolter drill and adds hesitation to anyone who wants to assault them.

 

The only problem I've had with them is actually they have too much firepower if you don't have any juicy targets in range, kinda sucks shooting 18 bolter rerolled bolter shots, 4 assault cannon shots and 2 kraks at a couple of drones or a few gaunts.

 

But I atleast enjoy them alot and the look on your opponents face when you field them is always priceless.

[kaiserstole20]

I've used 10 shooty termies with great success, with assault cannon and a cyclone. Both with a librarian with gate and lysander aswell.

 

With lysander they become even more nasty with the bolter drill and adds hesitation to anyone who wants to assault them.

 

The best part about Lysander IMO is that he makes the terminators more survivable. He can eat that lascannon shot and not care too much whereas without him you just lost a 40 point model.

[minigun762]

I've used 10 shooty termies with great success, with assault cannon and a cyclone. Both with a librarian with gate and lysander aswell.

 

With lysander they become even more nasty with the bolter drill and adds hesitation to anyone who wants to assault them.

 

The best part about Lysander IMO is that he makes the terminators more survivable. He can eat that lascannon shot and not care too much whereas without him you just lost a 40 point model.

 

Yeah but whats the point cost on that unit?

Now compare it to 2 10 man squads decked out the same.

 

I think you'd find that you could afford double the bodies and firepower for about the same price as the HQs.

[kaiserstole20]

I've used 10 shooty termies with great success, with assault cannon and a cyclone. Both with a librarian with gate and lysander aswell.

 

With lysander they become even more nasty with the bolter drill and adds hesitation to anyone who wants to assault them.

 

The best part about Lysander IMO is that he makes the terminators more survivable. He can eat that lascannon shot and not care too much whereas without him you just lost a 40 point model.

 

Yeah but whats the point cost on that unit?

Now compare it to 2 10 man squads decked out the same.

 

I think you'd find that you could afford double the bodies and firepower for about the same price as the HQs.

 

I can't comment on the librarian as my Mourning Sons don't use librarians. As for Lysander he's expensive but you have to take an HQ anyways so why not him? :P

[minigun762]

Giving this some further thought, we see that at 10 Terminators, we get that 2nd Heavy Weapon.

4 Krak Missiles or 8 S6 shots is quite alot for Loyalists and 4 TL S7 shots is fairly decent for Traitors (considering the point difference).

 

Now my question is, is that enough firepower to force the opponent to come deal with your Terminators, and thereby let you use your HtH upgrades more easily?

[Ice warrior]

Now my question is, is that enough firepower to force the opponent to come deal with your Terminators, and thereby let you use your HtH upgrades more easily?

For my opinion, answer is hell yes.

Most enemies must choose to fall back or charge against terminators after cyclones has popped their transport down. Cos Lysander is leading my termies, opponent will charge and die or run and be blasted away by storm bolters.

And i love space marine codex becouse you can split your unit. Deploy cyclones and embark lysander and his team to land rider. Works all the time. :)

 

And by relentless rule terminators are better than devastator unit with 4 lascannons or missile launchers. You can move and fire so enemy tanks can't hide behind those damn hills.

[rottenlad]

Termies are the models that got me into the game back in 96' so I'll always love them. I've been running a ten man squad of Nurgle terminators for the past two years they die but not easily. Lots of combi flamers and meltas with two reapers power fist , chain fist = fun. Just teleport them in and watch the slaughter begin. :)

[Lednera]

Last weekend I had a 10 man Terminator squad standard Storm Bolters Power Fist + Power Weapon for sargent and a Terminator Captain Storm Bolter and Power Weapon in a 1000 point game and man the 10 Terminators were Fire Magnets like crazy but did not die till end of Turn 6 and the game went to Turn 7. Unfortunate that I only tied the game in Kill Points.