Heavy flamer or Reaper autocannon

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

So I am finally finishing my Terminator squad, but and in a my 1500pts list, the squad I'm building is this

5 terminators, 1 pair of lightning claws, 1 power fist, 1 combi melta, 1 power sword, 1 power mual and 1 power axe.

I have two reaper autocannon terminator models, and so at higher pts would expand the squad to include them, however, my 1500pts comes to 1492pts, and I was thinking of replacing the combi melta on the power sword guy with a heavy flamer, there role in the army is to act as bodyguard for my sorcerer and counter attack unit to aid my Thousand sons if they get assaulted or to intercept units before they assault my rubrics or tanks.

Of course, I would not be able to use the model at higher games if I wanted to use my reaper's, unless I got an extra 4 terminators for a second squad ;)

[Brother Nathan]

what have havoks to do with your question? anyway if the heavy flamer cost as as much as meltabombs why replace the combi melta? just stick i on one o the other models surely? preferably magnetise if you want to use the models when you do get to the larger points you mention.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

5 terminators, 1 pair of lightning claws, 1 power fist, 1 combi melta, 1 power sword, 1 power mual and 1 power axe.

 

Sound bad and unfocused

 

For my money, Terminators are the best platform for powerfists and chainfists. Their 2+ armour means only ranged AP2 is likely to go first, there are very few things that ignore their armour in melee at Initiative 2+.

 

With that in mind, consider something like this:

 

Terminator Champion w/lightning claw+powerfist, 4 x Terminators w/powerfist+twin-bolter, Mark of Khorne

(232 points)

 

Pretty cheap for what they do, they hit like a freight train on the charge, and the Champion can go claw faces against enemy heroes not in TDA. Against Marines you can cheaply upgrade them to 'VOTLW' for nice re-rolls on the charge. Another upgrade to consider is the Icon of Vengeance. It's expensive, but Fearless is a big asset for a melee unit (they don't quit until they're dead).

 

I have two reaper autocannon terminator models, and so at higher pts would expand the squad to include them, however, my 1500pts comes to 1492pts, and I was thinking of replacing the combi melta on the power sword guy with a heavy flamer, there role in the army is to act as bodyguard for my sorcerer and counter attack unit to aid my Thousand sons if they get assaulted or to intercept units before they assault my rubrics or tanks.

 

Reaper autocannons are overpriced garbage. I'm utterly mystified why GW keeps including them in the unit entry. Autocannon isn't that powerful, especially not when Havoks supply far more at a fraction of the price.

 

The unit I suggested make ideal bodyguards and counter-assault. If you're not kitting your Sorceror for combat, the Terminator Champ is pretty versatile and can take on most enemy heroes just fine.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

what have havoks to do with your question? anyway if the heavy flamer cost as as much as meltabombs why replace the combi melta? just stick i on one o the other models surely? preferably magnetise if you want to use the models when you do get to the larger points you mention.

That's a mistake, it should read "Terminators" :P

Reclusiarch Darius: Thousand son army, so mark of Khorne is out of the question, and the reason I don't have them all with either combi meltas or power/chainfists is pts, the current load out is 176pts, and I have 8pts spare, so I could swap one of the power weapon guys out for power fist guy with the extra pts, but which power weapon to drop? And at the moment giving anything to the champion comes across as overcosted and so just having them swing a power weapon and perhaps give them a combi melta seems the best choice, though I admit I'm not sure which (I'm converting the Dark Vengeance terminator sergeant as the champion, and he'd look good with either an axe, mace or sword.

I have done a similar set up to your champion suggestion on my terminator sorcerer (Force sword and chainfist) who I will use in bigger games, and put with the rubrics, the Sorcerer who will be with these guys has a force staff, spell familar and the 4++ item, and veteran or melta bombs.

The funny thing is, out of my gaming group, we have 2 dark angel players (one uses his IG or DE more though), a marine player, a blood angel player (he is now club president, so often too busy to play) two other chaos players, a necron player and I think a tau player, with the occaional other players of various xenos, So I am not sure how good Veterans will be when they have a sorcerer with them to give them LD10 and as an all round list it may not face Loyalists that often.

[Iron Sage]

Agree with a lot of what Reclusiarch says, but he`s dead wrong on Reapers being "garbage". It`s true that they are expensive on terminators, but to call them garbage is just not serious.

 

Its a twin-linked auto cannon with a bit less range. This also happens to be a very good weapon on units that deepstrike into forward positions, but it is indeed a bit expensive. Then again, so is a powerfist.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

I can't afford it in bigger games, but when I take my army to 1850pts I could fit an extra guy in, and at 2000pts could expand the squad to 10 men, getting two.

With reapers, they would be a threat to the likes of Rhino's, Chimera's dread/daemon engines/light tanks and a few monstrous creatures at range, with heavy flamers, they are a fair bit cheaper, but are so short ranged, and lightly armoured blobs arn't that common round my area.

I;m leaning towards the Reapers due to the fact their range means your terminators can be doing stuff pretty early on, rather then relying on deception/transports to get doing stuff quickly.

[Urauloth]

The reaper is a pretty solid weapon, but the price tag is ridiculous. Justifying it at that cost is... difficult. It's a shame, because they've always been my favourite looking TDA weapon, and they're so iconic for CSM. I'm going to mag my TDA squad so I can try one out, but I don't think it'll see the table very often. Depends on the metagame in your area, though, so we'll see.

 

Speaking of magnets, have you considered those? Expensive minis with multiple loadouts like terminators are the ideal thing to invest in magnets for. (unless you've done this already and you're just discussing loadouts from a list-building perspective)

 

I have to say I don't like the spread of different power weapons you've got going on there. There's really no point to a sword when a single claw is 3pts more and gives you shred, and you're not using a pistol, so you don't even lose an attack for it. A single combi-melta doesn't seem that useful by itself either, if you use it on a vehicle you're wasting the firepower from the rest of the squad for a single shot with a 66% chance of hitting. If you want to go the melta route, free up the points to take another one at least.

[Rune Priest Ridcully]

Decided I am pretty much going to drop the sword,and probably give the Champion a maul or an axe instead, and also give him a combi melta, though would upgrading the other one of the other two power fweapon guys to a power fist be better? Must admit I like the pair of lightning claws, 2 mauls, a fist and an axe setup idea as it would have enough S6-8 attacks to take on most things, but with enough guys with claws and going on Inititive to make sure non champions with fists/axes ect won't get a chance to swing. Plus two combi meltas and two combi bolters should be enough to contribute against the small squads most of my opponents like to field.