Terminator Squads

[Master Barachiel]

I haven't seen any thread entitled like this so far, so here comes my question/topic: What do you think to be the very best combination of Deathwing Terminator Squads?

 

I want to play (almost) only my Deathwing and have suffered heavy losses many times.

 

We profit from Belial whose making our Terminators troops, we got this Apothecarion/Standard bearer special rule and we have the Deepstrike special rule for getting them in our first turns. Plus, we can arm them however we want but only pick 5-Terminator squads.

 

So far I know, there are different "theories" of how to play them the perfect way:

 

The Claw Wing: Only Power Claws and Cyclone Missile launchers. It's said to be perfect against armies that use hard close combat fighters like Tyranids.

 

The Shield Wing: Only Thunderhammers and Stormshields and Cyclone Missile launchersgiving you good invulnerable rolls additionally to the Terminator armour. But Terminators might suffer high losses before their hammers can strike agains the enemy.

 

The Mixed Wing: 2 Power Claws, a Power Sword+Stormbolter, 2 Thunderhammer+Stormshield and a Cyclone Missline launcher per Squad. Yet I haven't seen that actually but have heard of it from time to time. I guess, it's supposed to stress the Close Combat role of Terminators but I find it very difficult to believe that it works.

 

The Hull Crashers: 3 Chain Fists+Stormbolters, 2 Thunderhammers+Stormshields. As I've learned in a match yesterday, even 3 Chainfists attacking a Vehicle can fail to destroy it. But still this squad makes sense to me. I mean, they can destroy vehicles for certain and they got good invulnerable rolls.

 

The Infanterie Crashers: 3 Claws, 1Power Sword+Stormbolter, 1 Heavy Flamer+Powerfist. A good idea against any army like Orks or Tyranids but the fewer enemies on the table, the less ist their chance to use the flamer. Besides they can easily be shooted down.

 

The Totally Mixed Wing: 1 Thunderhammer+Stormshield+Cyclone Missile launcher, 1 Powerfist+Stormbolter, 1 Power Claw, 1 Chain-Fist+Stormbolter, 1 Power Sword+Stormbolter. Besides that it will look very odd I can't really say I believe in their strengths. It's almost only that you can totally split the wounds but that's all so far I see.

 

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Do you have any other ideas how to use the Deathwing armoury? Which kind of Terminator Squads do you think to be the most successful?

[pueriexdeus]

Squad wise I have found that 2X TH/SS is the best saving grace for all squads.

 

From here we go into specific combat utility, and from my experience there are four loads.

 

CC; 2X TH/SS, 3X LC's, CML/HF. Coming out of a LR, or DSing on T2, support AT or Bait.

 

Anti Tank (AT); 2X TH/SS, SB/PF, SB/CF, CML. DS into the OP back field. DWA T1

 

Mid Field Bait; 2X TH/SS, PW/SB, PF's, SB's, CF, Ass Cannon. DS into the OP back field. DWA T1

 

Obj Holder; 2X TH/SS, 2X LC, SB/PF, Ass Cannon/CML

[Brother Immolator]

I have a hunch that since the world is filled with THs in the new edition we will need to self them and grind our lightning claws(much to my dismay,i dont like their look at all).After all we have to buy more terminator kits.

 

Acidic remarks aside,IMHO the best squad is 3 TH/SS a chainfist/stormbolter and the sarge as is.Add a cyclone somewhere.

[Millicant]

I found THIS tactica to be very helpful. Check it out as it somewhat correlates with what you're saying.

[riddles]

you couldn't find any discussion on this? really?

 

in the current environment, land raiders sould be melta bait against a competitive army. that means your squads are hoofing it. for that, they need to be survivable. which means THSS. storm bolter fire really is negligible i'm sorry to say.

 

start with a baseline of 5 THSS terminators.

 

now, you need to be some sort of threat at range. your choices are the assault cannon or the cyclone missile launcher. the assault cannon loses you a storm shield, costs 10 points more, has less range and is comparable against most armour values. the cyclone is the no brainer choice.

 

chainfists are to taste. maybe 1 per squad but they are the first things to go should you need to trim points.

 

to support your wing, you need long range firepower that opens up transports for your termis to get at the squishy insides.

 

Here's where pure deathwing falls down. unless you have access to imperial armour 2 (and therefore, the double autocannon mortis dreadnought), you have to diversify. understand, this is purely from a competitive point of view.

 

enter the land speeder. 75 points gets you 2 missile shots and a multimelta for emergencies. take 3.

 

for heavy support, i (and many others) prefer the autocannon/lascannon predator. 130 points but still somewhat worthwhile. the other option is the vindicator. i'm slowly coming round to the vindi as an option but i remain unconvinced.

 

sadly, that's the limitation on competitive deathwing. bikes are too expensive and fragile, giving away easy KP in what should be a low KP list.

[Cloud Runner]

I've got to say, that to answer the OP's original question, my comment is this:

 

 

The best armament for your termintor squad is...... whatever you like the look of and think will be fun to play with and to play against.

 

 

Yes, there's a lot of power combo's and different types, but really, the first question is why do I want to play Deathwing? For me, the answer is simple - they are the 1st Comany of the 1st Legion and what got me playing a pure Dark Angel force - I picked them up from the original Space Hulk expansion and ran from there.

 

 

Personally, when I run a terminator squad, I tend to equip it with the classic load outs, like assault cannon and a chainfist, or the 1 x claws, 1 x hammer, Flamer and a chainfist loads.

 

Sure, theese might not be all game winning and seem a little esoteric but, for me at least, they evoke the imagery of the Deathwing - striding into battle, or fighting in close confines with the best armour and weapons the Imperium can provide.

 

 

Terminators are slow by their nature, but even without SS they can still survuve a fair wait of fire, and never be too quick to discount the odd storm bolter shooting phase - many a time have I had a lone drop pod manage to annoy an opponent with it's SB fire that they forgot about - even better when it nails a tank from behind :woot:

 

 

So, will these squad loads be successful? Depends on your objective.

 

If it's to win games and table your opponent - unlikely, unless you use them well.

 

If it's to have a good looking army and some fun without it just being a factory - more than likely.

 

 

Remember, they key to a successful army game wise, is also to focus on the objectives; a well placed couple of units near objectives at the right time can win the game, without having to eliminate much of the opposing army.

 

 

Hope that helps and I look forward to seeing which direction you choose.

 

Cheers

[EPK]

Try searching "deathwing", not just "terminator" (if that is what you did).

 

Here is one for starters, on the first page - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=247923

[Master Barachiel]

@riddles/Cloudrunner:

 

Well, I must say, my first 50 terminators I did collect for their look. So, it's more a reason of fluff, I decided that I wanted them to have Claws with Cyclone missile launchers and the rest stayed classcial CF/PF with SB. I thought this army looks totalyl fine and so on. But with this army I lost 90% of my matches. And so I've been almost up to stop playing in general (except for Apocalypse where my shooty terminators/Stormlords always worked perfectly). Anyway, I decided not to stop playing but watching for a more competitive army list.

 

Those advices you all gave me in this thread, are very interesting. I'll certainly use them to develope a better army for my DW.

 

@EPK: Thx for the link.

[EPK]

@EPK: Thx for the link.

 

No problem, try the army list section as well - http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...mp;s=&f=110