Terminators... how many is too many

[Dr Duck]

I've recently started my dark angel army again. I played it when i first played in the late 90's and after a VERY successful paint stripping exercise i've pretty much got a 2000pt army again.

 

Flicking through he new codex i noted that the USP for the DA's these days seems to be their effectiveness with deepstriking terminators.

 

Would i be mad to try to include 3 squads, 2 ranged to arrive on turn 1 with a further squad armed with LC's to arrive using the homers later on in the game?

[Gillyfish]

The short answer is no, you wouldn't be mad.

 

The long answer is that it depends on the composition of the rest of your army. What will back up those terminators and how do you see them working in combination with your other units? Most DA players tend to take advantage of the fact that we can mix and match our terminator weapons so that each squad can do a bit of everything fairly well. A typical unit might be five terminators, one with assault cannon, one with chainfist, one with lightning claws and sergeant with sword, leaving one marine with the basic armament of storm bolter and powerfist. That gives you a unit that can shoot units up (and don't forget you can't charge the turn you deepstrike) and handle close combat in later turns.

 

As I say, much depends on the rest of your army and how your terminators fit within it. Given the number of them you're planning to deploy, it may be worth taking Belial (to make them troops) and then upgrade one unit to have an apothecary and (possibly) a standard.

 

So what else will you include?

 

Oh and welcome to the Rock! :)

[Cpt. Bannockburn]

You also mentioned a teleport homer, however, you'll need Ravenwing bikes or attack bikes for those.

 

My own 2000pts list consists solely of DW units, but I mostly work without deepstrike, except, as a rule of thumb, against inexperienced opponents.

The shock and awe of turn 1 terminator squads gets old really quick ;)

Of course, this also depends on the mission you're playing, opponents' deployment and a lot of other things.

 

People generally like it to field as much bodys as possible in a DW army, but I use a different approach of 2 HQs (Belial+librarian or GK brother captain), 3 squads, 1 LR, 1 LRC and 3 dreadnoughts, going heavily mechanized with one squad (usually the one with the librarian) to deploy via normal deep strike (in order to use it strategically), the others riding in the land raiders.

 

For other general tips refer to gillyfish's excellent advise :lol:

Apothecaries are awesome, but I dislike the banner, because I like to NOT wipe out an enemy on the charge and be left in the open for counterfire. It can be useful against 'uber'-assault units, but I usually shoot those to bits with plasma templates ;)

Do not take missile launchers for terminators, they are overpriced and underpowered in our codex. The assault cannon can crack tanks way more reliably and the heavy flamer is my favorite in either the deep striking squad (when hellfire librarian is attached) or for a charge out of a LR.

 

A word of warning: Terminators are NOT indestructible. with 16-17 bodies on the field you can be whittled down by just about everything, which is why cover saves of 4+ are preferable, the apothecary is so integral and the safest place to be is close combat.

[Tomevans]

I take a Land Raider Crusader with my Terminator army, although it is expensive it often takes many Lascannon shots to take down and draws alot of attention away from my Terminator squads. Might be a useful idea for you.

 

As for taking 2 HQ choices, I prefer an Interrogator Chaplain simply due to the massive boost he gives the squad when entering CC. A Termie with lightning claws re rolling to hit and wound is pretty hard.

[krewl]

Speaking for myself it seems about 60 terminators is enough..... but I got a bit carried away there..

 

In a 1700 points army in Deathraven (Deathwing and Ravenwing combined with belial and Sammael for all scoring units) I tend to take 3 DW squads, 2 of which drop in t1 on scouted biker homers, that combined with 2 apothecary keeps the termies alive for quite a bit.

 

In pure Deathwing you can fit 6 squads in a 1700 points army with Belial, though that's a tight fit.

5 squads gives you more points for weapons (That will be the assault cannon mostly unless you're building a mechanised army with landraiders) and room for adding another character (Our sub par librarian, a chaplain (works wonders for CC or an inducted Brother captian grey knight.)

 

Off course a mechanised deathwing turns that into something like 3 squads 3 landraiders and belial.

 

When including just a squad of Deathwing, even then Belial can be a great fit. He's a steal pointswise and very good at what he should do (namely chop up infantry) while adding the benefits of the Deathwing banner, a termie apothecary and a 2nd command squad in power armour with another apothecary. that bunch would be a good addition to a great many lists.

 

Hope that helps, if you have any furtther questsion, just shoot ^_^