Terminators or Assault Terminators?

[Blackcloud6]

I started a Crimson Fist army to be a detachment for my Sisters of Battle. Right now it is one tactical Squad, One Devastator Squad, a Dreadnaught and an HQ. I have Drop Pods for them all. I have another Dreadnaught with pod being painted and another TS in the works. I'm thinking of adding Terminators. Which ones should I add first? My son suggested Assault Terminators and put them in a Land Raider as I have one in the box. I could also just Deep Strike them in to reinforce the drop podded units.

This CF army will grow to be its own too overtime.

[Wolfshade]

Land Raider + Thunder Hammer Terminators are a time honoured tradition :). They work very nicely and based on what you have listed it seems you have quite a bit of shooting and not much assault.

A lot depends on your style of play though.

[ElectricPaladin]

Oh, praise to Him on Earth. A thread about Warhammer, rather than my country's depressing politics.

I'm of two minds about terminators.

On the one hand, assault terminators have some of the killiest weapons in the game. Neither lightning claws nor thunder hammers are to be sneezed at. Without storm shields, clawminators are incredibly durable; hammernators are nigh-indestructible. You probably want a homogenous squad, so you know what to aim them at, but either way they are terrifyingly effective at their intended purpose.

On the other hand, shootinators aren't exactly easy to kill, and power fists aren't bad. They're basically no-frills thunder hammers. And the option to shoot before charging makes them even better at clearing hordes than clawminators (four attacks total rather than three). And the various weapons options are pretty tasty as well, and also add to the squad's versatility - especially if you plan on Deep Striking them rather than giving them a ride.

For a SoB army, however, I think the answer is pretty clear. Sisters already excel at clearing infantry. They can lay down a lot of firepower, with Acts of Faith that let them reroll misses in many circumstances (having the effect of almost doubling their output). They can use melta and flame to engage at close quarters or heavy bolters (rending heavy bolters!) to engage at range. What you want is a squad for tarpitting enemy units and assaulting hard nuts (after the sisters have softened it up a bit, of course). What you want is a way to deliver them safely.

What you want is hammernators in a land raider crusader.

Maybe a godhammer - because sisters don't get a lot of las.

But probably a crusader.

[Deadlift]

Land Raider + Thunder Hammer Terminators are a time honoured tradition :). They work very nicely and based on what you have listed it seems you have quite a bit of shooting and not much assault.

A lot depends on your style of play though.

I would go with this every time. When I played my Salamander army this was one unit I knew would get the job done. TH/SS even deep striking are awesome. Yeah they can't assault on the same turn but with that 3+ inv they usually handle anything thrown at them and then dish it out when the time comes. In a land raider crusader with Vulcan was my preference though. Murdered just about anything I went toe to toe with.

[Blackcloud6]

Land Raider + Thunder Hammer Terminators are a time honoured tradition :). They work very nicely and based on what you have listed it seems you have quite a bit of shooting and not much assault.

A lot depends on your style of play though.

That sound cool. And coupled with what Electric Paladin says:


For a SoB army, however, I think the answer is pretty clear. Sisters already excel at clearing infantry

I was thinking about that. The sisters provide the firepower and the Terminators make the assault.


But probably a crusader


I have the slightly older MK III LR kit. I'll have to see if it can be made as a Crusader.

You guys are great; thanks much.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

okay i have always used terminators with my Son's of Romulus chapter they were the unit that got me into the game in the first place. So here is what i have to say. what do you want them to do? that is the first question that i ask myself. i pretty much have the modeled with every available option and have used to to enough of a success that i won't leave home with out them.
( i will add the caviate that this is coming from a modeling painting and game play perspective so it encompasses the entire hobby and not just game mechanics.

Shooty terminators- They are some of my favorite miniatures they were fun to assemble pose and paint.
option wise they give you access to an infantry based heavy flamer an assault cannon and the typhoon missile launcher. one option gives you horde another horde and light Armour. the typhoon is gonna be your swiss army knife. it does mech and it does horde while still giving you those 2 storm bolter shots as well. then there's close combat power weapon armed sarge so you can tool him out as you wise chain fist and power fists on the rest of the squad and honestly 1-2 chain fists aren't a huge investment but improve the squad tremendously. these bad boys can walk up they can deep strike and they can be transported and still be effective.


assault terminators are on the other hand all close combat. their lightning claw options while being nice against elite infantry will struggle against other terminators classes they will struggle to handle high toughness as well. that's where the storm shield thunder hammer comes in. high strength decent attacks invulnerable save so these are the guys you will tank wounds onto and they will more then likely swing back and take your head off. These guys have no offensive power that is not in close combat though so no over watch no shooting phase action. Devliery wise they can walk deep and ride in a land raider. but i will stress that you need a land raider to make any decent use of them. if they deep strike they will face a hail of bullets if they walk the board they will face a hail of bullets and are easily avoidable and will be unable to contribute to the game unless you get really lucky. Also i am a firm believe in a mixed squad load out for these guys so i tend to take them in the crusader only so that adds to price. so roughly figure in the cost of a land raider and a few extra bodies.


With that being said i will stick firmly to my opinion that both are a great unit but you need to have a game plan for each as well as having some form of a delivery system for them. this partly folds into the game plan aspect as taking a unit of terminators and a transport easily puts the unit at over 500 points. so its always an investment that you do not want to mess up.

[TB0N3]

Hammernators in crusader are very good, but if you are using Fists, shootynators via deepstrike can deal a ton of twinlinked shooting.

[DarkLink]

Problem with shooty Terminators is they're just plain overpriced for the durability and firepower you get. Not hugely so, but still overpriced. THSS Terminators kill stuff dead, though. They're not the best assault unit in the game, but they are the gold standard.

[Mike X]

I field Terminators with an assault cannon in a Land Raider Crusader with a multi-melta. That way the transport can move, they can disembark, everything can open fire on the enemy squad, and if anything survives the immense firepower the Terminators can assault them plus the sergeant with a power weapon counts as having frag grenades because of the frag assault launchers.