Help revitalising my allied Templars

[Commander Dawnstar]

Towards the end of 7th Edition, following on from Fall of Cadia, I decided to add a small allied detachment of Black Templars to my Sisters army. The idea was mostly to check the boxes for the thematic units (Emperor's Champion, Crusader Squad, Land Raider Crusader) while also giving Celestine a decent bodyguard in a Vanguard Veteran squad, hoping that they could follow in her wake and take advantage of the most sacred of bullet-sponges to see them safely into combat. Naturally 8th has shifted things around a bit and my Templars haven't seen the field yet in this edition. I was hoping that you guys might be able to help me out with that.

 

The sum of my units (with their current loadouts) is:

 

The Emperor's Champion

10 Vanguard Veterans w/Jump Packs, four Lightning Claws and two Power Fists

10 Crusaders (8 Initiates, 2 Neophytes) w/Bolt Pistols and Chainswords, one Power Sword and Sword Brother w/Power Fist

Land Raider Crusader w/Multimelta

 

Even at a glance I can see that those Vanguard are unlikely to achieve much without a few Storm Shields and that the Crusader Squad isn't exactly going to make the most threatening cargo for a Land Raider now that they lack both the extra attack for charging and their old Chapter Tactics for the chance of the boost off Overwatch. I'd been thinking about maybe putting some Assault Terminators in the Land Raider, perhaps with a Chaplain, but then I'm left with a somewhat aimless Crusader Squad in a Patrol Detachment.

 

So yeah ... any thoughts on how I might salvage that into a small halfway decent melee-centric detachment, by adding/removing units or otherwise?

[kombatwombat]

If you’re willing to spend the points, I’d recommend grabbing the Assault Terminators, plus a (Terminator) Chaplain and a Dreadnought of some kind. Put the Terminators, Chaplain and Champion in the Land Raider. This fills out a Vanguard Detachment and gives you a nasty little unit capable of shooting hordes out of the way before hitting the harder stuff in assault. Grab a Rhino for the Crusader Squad, and have it Advance ahead. The LRC shoots the bubble wrap, the Crusaders and Vanguard charge what’s left of it and punch a hole big enough for the Termies and characters to pile out. The Dreadnought can be whatever you need in your army - a cheap shooting unit or a full-on combat monster Contemptor. It also fits a theme quite nicely - the elites of the Crusade leading the charge.

 

Also consider adding in a Castellan (Lieutenant) to that - a Thunder Hammer Terminator Squad piling out of a LRC re-rolling hits and 1s to wound is a scary proposition.

 

If you want to keep it cheap, a Chaplain with a Jump Pack will give your Vanguard noticeably more punch, particularly if you put a Castellan in the LRC with the Crusader Squad. Keep them close together and you’ll be surprised how much damage re-rolling just about everything does.

 

Since we lost our combat punch between editions, we’ve had to lean pretty heavily on our characters and their buffs. Fortunately, we have the best mix of characters outside of Ultramarines. The Champion will murder just about any Character he gets to grips with, Grimaldus is pricy but has some useful buffs, and Helbrecht is simply amazing. But even generic Chaplains and Castellans help us get a lot more mileage out of our mediocre combat units.