Space Wolf Terminators Loadout

[Beef]

Firstly sorry if this has already been asked but my search fu is week.

 

As title before i build my 2 x 5 man squads what's the best load out?

 

for looks alone power weapons and storm shield was what i was leaning towards with 1 group with twin linked lighting claws and the other with the great axe.  Both units with the assault cannon and power fist.

 

[Karhedron]

I think the optimum loadout is 3 Storm Shields to get maximum benefit from the "Rugged Resilience" rule. Then add 1 Assault Cannon and give the Leader a Great Axe.

[Beef]

 

19 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

I think the optimum loadout is 3 Storm Shields to get maximum benefit from the "Rugged Resilience" rule. Then add 1 Assault Cannon and give the Leader a Great Axe.

 

Perfect that's what i was hoping for.  for the second squad would the twin linked lighting claws be worth it or should that also be a great axe?

[Karhedron]

Lightning Claws give you a 50% increase in attacks over the power weapons but halve the killing power against anything with more than 1 wound. Twin-linked is handy. I guess I like the axe for the ability to 1-shot 3 wound models like Terminators, Meganobz and Custodians. I suspect that if you crunch the numbers, they probably come out fairly close until you get to T10+.

[DanPesci]

I used to really like running whole squads of lightning claws but now its reduced to 1 model they just don't feel worth it. 

 

I guess if you were going down the route of lots of storm bolters for an anti-chaff type unit the LC would make sense, but the SS makes sense to doube down on the rugged resiliance rule they now have, and seen as though the rest of the weapons are going to be D2, having a D3 weapon in there seems like its going to be better into what they are wanting to get into combat with (ie more elite stuff).

 

Ive been running a squad of 10 with 7x Storm Shield, 2x AC/PF and axe on the leader. Arjac leading. Logan runs solo so the whole squad plus arjac go into strat reserves and can drop in T1. Im running Beastslayer currently, so the +1 to wound strat comes in handy for getting 4s to wound on the fists and axe against vehicles etc (on top of having lethal hits)

[Karhedron]

The thing I find is that Space Wolves on the whole are pretty well equipped to deal to deal with chaff. Blood Claws will churn out a huge number of S4 Ap-1 attacks for their points and can get rerolls with Ragnar leading them. Intercessor squads chuck out a lot of cheap bolt rifle shots for their points. Grey Hunters are not as cheap but do punch fairly well at both range and in melee.

 

Lightning claws were good in editions where most infantry was still 1W and they were good elite infantry killers. Now that even basic Marines are 2W and elites are usually 3W+, LCs are just not what they used to be.

[Orange Knight]

23 hours ago, Karhedron said:

I think the optimum loadout is 3 Storm Shields to get maximum benefit from the "Rugged Resilience" rule. Then add 1 Assault Cannon and give the Leader a Great Axe.

 

Bingo. This is the optimum loadout in my opinion as well. You're utilising the rules in the best way, and the weapon profiles are effective against a variety of targets.

[Prot]

On 8/12/2025 at 10:13 AM, Karhedron said:

I think the optimum loadout is 3 Storm Shields to get maximum benefit from the "Rugged Resilience" rule. Then add 1 Assault Cannon and give the Leader a Great Axe.

 

This is exactly what I did with my one squad of Termies.

 

The thing I've realized even when I played Dark Angels is the Termies aren't really potent enough to be a threat. They are essentially ablative wounds for the characters in my armies. I have rarely had the termies reach CC. This is usually because the character they are guarding is viewed as such a huge threat (even if that's not really the case.)

 

[Moonstalker]

Agree on the optimum loadout, but just for variety's sake I gave one of the storm shield terminators the right hand lightning claw instead of one of the other power weapons.  I thought it was a good way to still use the bits and add variety to the squad (otherwise I'd have duplicated the axe).

[DanPesci]

11 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

Agree on the optimum loadout, but just for variety's sake I gave one of the storm shield terminators the right hand lightning claw instead of one of the other power weapons.  I thought it was a good way to still use the bits and add variety to the squad (otherwise I'd have duplicated the axe).

 

Aye at least half my terminators if not more have lightning claws (as I made truescale conversions back in the days where this was still an option) - but no reason these cant represent 'master crafted power weapons' now.

 

 

Quote

The thing I've realized even when I played Dark Angels is the Termies aren't really potent enough to be a threat. They are essentially ablative wounds for the characters in my armies. I have rarely had the termies reach CC. This is usually because the character they are guarding is viewed as such a huge threat (even if that's not really the case.)

 

 

Yeah they arent the killiest, especially in squads of 5. Anything that has -1D on it theyyre gonna bounce off. Its why im favouring the block of 10, with arjac in them. They come in, sit on an objective behind a wall, and force an opponent to come and deal with them, whereas my bloodclaw/grey hunters/headtakers and attached battle leaders/ragnar are then there to be the actual offensive units. Its not the most exciting use of the terminators but they are pretty hard to shift without pouring lots into them - and the fights on death from arjac makes people think twice before charging them.

 

Saying that 10 of them with arjac did kill a cerastus in one round of combat the other week (but at that point you'd hope they would as its over 400pts in investment).

[Orange Knight]

15 hours ago, Moonstalker said:

Agree on the optimum loadout, but just for variety's sake I gave one of the storm shield terminators the right hand lightning claw instead of one of the other power weapons.  I thought it was a good way to still use the bits and add variety to the squad (otherwise I'd have duplicated the axe).

 

I would advise not to do this because you're effectively using a proxy, and it will just create questions.