Major Plunge to ground control (CSM Termies)

[Bedroom General]

Dear Bolsketeers,
I've just bought some birthday stuff. one box o' assault Termies, one box o' CSM Termies (and an aegisline in a pear tree!) I'm gonna make 4x TLC CSM Termies. The Mark I'm looking at is Slaanesh. I may champ them all up, as they will usually be Abaddon's "Bodyguard"
They will be deployed in "Opprobrium" a possessed Land Raider. I'll occasionally swap Abby out for a Chainfist combi melta terminator.
This would be for 2k or more.
(the aegis is for an imperial rifleman dread)

Comments and suggestions please.

[isotope99]

My favourite CSM termie is the Chainfist & H Flamer combo. Able to take on vehicles and hordes, he complements all the lightning claws quite well and get that sucker punch on any characters/dreadnoughts in combat.

If I was going all assault, I'd plump for extra khorne damage, but that's just me.

[Xas]

dont get shot by plasma :)

[w7west]

Dont get assaulted by wyches

[blackarmchair]

Slaanesh is the way to go for an Abaddon bodyguard. I could see an argument for Tzeentch but 4-5x Lightning Claw Champs plus Abaddon will pretty much kill anything.

Good luck with them, they're a nasty unit!

[Bedroom General]

Nasty indeed! The first game they played they took out Korra'so Khan, a chaplain on bike and four other bikers, then slaughtered a shooty terminator squad. Initiative five is excellent. Oh and Abaddon was on another part of the table, having deep struck with 3 obliterators (my new favourite tactic!) Five terminators of slaanesh 4 x claws and one H Flamer/chainfist combo, all champions, cost exactly the same as Abaddon. Seems fair!

[Daemonette666]

Nasty indeed! The first game they played they took out Korra'so Khan, a chaplain on bike and four other bikers, then slaughtered a shooty terminator squad. Initiative five is excellent. Oh and Abaddon was on another part of the table, having deep struck with 3 obliterators (my new favourite tactic!) Five terminators of slaanesh 4 x claws and one H Flamer/chainfist combo, all champions, cost exactly the same as Abaddon. Seems fair!
Not bad, I have tried similar tactics before, and have experimented with different combinations such as Kharn instead of Abaddon, Berserkers or possessed with an icon of Tzeentch, and so on.

Some recommendations. Against Tau, Eldar, Dark Eldar, and maybe even Imperial Guard, the landraider may not last for very long. that leaves your 5 terminators on foot, hugging cover, and going very slow, or moving in the open and just going slow.

From my experiences certain enemy tend to wipe out terminators and even more so, obliteterators very easily if they are not in cover or have a decent invul save.

I would recommend using an icon of Tzeentch when opposing Tau or Tyranids. Against Eldar or Dark Eldar, it is hard to decide. They have a lot of high initiative elite troops with power weapons that either strike before you or at the same time if you use the Icon of Slaanesh. Alternately using an icon of tzeentch will increase your chances of surviving the power weapon hits, but may increase the number of enemy that get to attack.

Against Space marines, go with the Slaanesh Icon. Most of them except some elites get initiative 4, and they do not have as many units dedicated to carrying lots of power weapons except terminators who are generally at iniative 1 unless they are the sergeant or a close combat squad. Either way I still think Slaanesh is the way to go here. The Obliterators can be used to deep strike and provide valuable fire support with plasma cannons on the enemy terminators. (providing you roll well for scatter, and reserves)

Recommendation - use an interchangeable set of heads for the icon to allow your squad to change allegiance depending upon who they are going against.

[Connjurus]

Recommendation - use an interchangeable set of heads for the icon to allow your squad to change allegiance depending upon who they are going against.

And either a unique paint-scheme or painted like Black Legion, Word Bearers, etc, so you don't come off as an asshat.

"Those are clearly Emperor's Children!"
"Yes, well, in their search for new and horrible experiences, they decided to see what Tzeentch had to offer them."

As far as the tactic goes, it works wonderfully. I almost always take either Tzeentch or Slaanesh Terminator Bodyguards for Abaddon if I've put them in his Landraider.

Also, why would you send Wyches against a Terminator Death-star led by Abaddon? They might tie them up for a turn or two, but even with max shardnets, those Wyches are just going to get slaughtered. Even if you get lucky and got Painbringer or Gravelotus, those poor, poor Wyches.

Also, if you're playing Dark Eldar, do yourself a favor and deepstrike the Terminators instead of putting them in that fancy 240 point tank that'll just end up getting wrecked.

ALSO when playing Dark Eldar...Havocs with Autocannons. Lol.

[Bedroom General]

Thanks for all the advice. To be fair, I had better say that these guys (who are stuck as Slaanesh due to the modelling\paint job) will usually be running against MEQ's as I have a different approach to try out on Eldar and Tau i.e. big (15+) squads of havoks (or as I like to call them, assault marines with heavy weapons!) small 5 man CSM squads for objectives. lots of bodies, lots of downrange shootyness. Slow though. Ah well, should be fun anyway.

[w7west]

Also, why would you send Wyches against a Terminator Death-star led by Abaddon?


because 150 pts of wyches can take that squad on and hold them there for most of the game or until the archon shows up

[Connjurus]

How do you figure? Five Term Champs, four with TLCs, is 24 attacks with MoS/T/N. At the most, you'll be reducing most models by 2 or 3 attacks. Painful, to be sure...but then there's Abaddon, who can pump out a ridiculous amount of attacks. My friend who plays DE prefers to shoot my Termies to death - that's a lot worse than the a 15-man "tarpit" that's 200 points with 5 shardnets. Poisoned Shooting attacks from those Warriors are just painful.

He also tends to stay away from my Abaddon death-star because I deepstrike him with more than four Terminators. Land Raiders are, as I said above, just shiny metal targets to Dark Eldar players.

Now, the Space Elf unit I DO fear are Banshees. I hate Banshees. I hate them hard.


But I've managed to hold my own against both Eldar and Dark Eldar by pulling out my dusty old Havocs with Autocannons and Missile Launchers. And my Tzeentchian Terminator Bomb. :)

[Daemonette666]

If you are going against Dark Eldar, then takeatlest 1 flamer per squad. Their 5+ save and toughness 3 means they get cleaned up easy by flamers - providing you get the chance to use them. Dark Eldar have a nasty habit of riding their transports and jumping off and running into close combat.

I think drop most of the tanks, except maybe the defiler, which can walk through cover, and still shoot str 8 pie dishes at the D/Eldar (that can take some of their characters out with instant death as well. Obliterators are good at shooting their open topped tanks down, though most D/Eldar tanks move so fast you need 6's to hit them. Obliterators and Havocs can be set up in cover and with the right icon for the havocs, they can hit the D/Eldar at the same iniative in close combat.

Standard CSM with Icons chosen for their roles are good, and either noise marines and berserkers do well against D/Eldar. The D/Eldar Characters are the problem. some of them will hit before anything you own in close combat, and then cut them to ribbons. Thankfully some of the worst D/Eldar character models can not take retinues ot join units, so they can be shot to bits.

A unit of raptors can be employed as a stop gap unit. Jump them around to plug the holes where the rapidly redeploying D/Eldar troops move to next.

Some suggestions to help, but D/Eldar are very hard to combat if they are set up as a mobile raider force.

[archimbald]

do it like me and field 18 termies plus typhus in two units of 9 and 9+1
always a good laugh and typhus can kill ten woulds without wounding... see if you can figure that one out