Would an all terminator army work?

[Gooball]

Well, pretty much what the title says, I'm thinking of starting Space Marines with a nearly all terminator army.
Not gonna go into the points really because im not sure yet.
Lysander- 200
Scout squad- 75
Scout squad- 75
Terminator squad +5-400
Terminator Assault Squad-400
Assault Squad + 5- 175

That's just a rough list, it's not 1500 yet but the points not spent would be spread around to help with some Anti-Tank stuff, like a Cyclone missile launcher in the terminator squad, and some melta bombs in the assault marines.

[Lerra]

If you want to play with a mostly-terminator army, I'd recommend using either Codex: Dark Angels or Codex: Space Wolves. Both of those codices allow you to use Terminators as troop choices.

[Gooball]

Yeah but lysander is pretty awesome, Space wolves might have a better HQ/Character in combat but i don't really like their models too much.
And if i do take him, another army i wanna do is three thunderfire cannons, three sternguard squads and 2 Tactical squads. With all the shooting in the world. So he'd be like *3+ Cover save!* on all my stuff. which is awesome.

[Lord Azaghul]

Someone tried something similiar agaisnt me once in a tourney: he took skrike, and 2 scouts for his troops and 3 largish units of thunderhammer/stormshield.
I played IG, 1750. Annilation/Spearhead
I won.
He only managed to kill 1 squad of mine...but then again he was afraid to deep strike with them.

[eagleboy7259]

Absolutely they work, maybe not always with Vanilla SM as they can't take them for troops but they definitely work. Assault Marines with Storm Shields are the best as they are tough as nails, and they work best in tandum with Drop Dreads or Land Raiders. It might be worth taking a master of the forge so you can take your Dreads and your Terminators, but I could definitely see that kind of a list working using Vanilla SM's

[ggg]

I vote no - i think that 'balanced' or 'power' list competitive players would agree that Termie heavy armies don't shake it. i used to have great fun with my terminator heavy 4th ed army - but the difference is that now terminator squads don't pump out enough fire power (I miss the old rending rules and the ability to take veteran skills and two heavy weapons!) and while terminator close combat squads are impressive they still cannot win games alone- think 5 thunder hammer termies v 20 orks in combat for example.

If you want to win, having 2 really fragile scout squads who scream 'kill me!!' coupled with terminators who are really slow post teleport (allowing you to be out -maneuvered by eldar or mech generally) will cause you real problems. Scoring objective missions will be a nightmare.

Alternatively - Land raiders make terminators sexy, sexy death delivery systems. But points wise you are really pushing it to have more than 2 Lr's and 2 terminator squads -as it comes close to 1k with no scoring units. Again not really viable.

Lysander - yeah, he the man- but - expensive on top of your other expensive units - I think he is the same cost as another terminator assault squad. I would question whether you need him and multiple terminator units as they fill the same role.
I would suggest that a termy librarian with null zone would be a greater force multiplier - re rolling invulnerable saves as your units pack alot of powerfist/sword /lightning claw/ thunder hammer attacks- soften the threat from dameons / seer councils / opposing storm shield units - also a way to inject mobility with gate as another option...

From the army list ideas you have described you seem to have a real sense of style / theme which I dig but... the effort of painting and using an army that does not mesh with the general pick up and play rules I believe will prove frustrating.


I suggest taking your other army list army and bolt on a termy squad with LR and make it the hammer to your fire power anvil.


Now planet strike ----- Terminator heavy armies are Immense. That is if you can get a game.

I've run out of wine now so I'll take this as an opportunity to stop typing and refill the glass.

[Gooball]

I like your suggestions, and if there was a tourny or campaign going on locally i'd definetly do something similar. I borrowed my friends SM codex and looking through it it makes a huge contrast to my other armies.. (IG, WH)
But, as a friendly game I think i'd wanna go for a hilariously luck dependent list, (dropping straight into enemy lines without homers..)
And there's always that whinny guy who gives up if you do enough damage to his army.. imagine his face when 20 terminators rip through his tau gunline!. . (He always puts fire warriors in the middle, battlesuits on one side, hammerhead on the other, and broadsides wherever tanks are.)

[blackarmchair]

It most assuredly can work.

As stated previously, the Vanilla SM codex doesn't really do well with it due to the non-scoring nature of their terminators.

Despite it being old the DA codex does make for a very good terminator army (a good friend of mine does this). He typically runs 4-5 squads of Termies, Belial, 1-2 land raiders and 1-2 deep-striking Ven Dreads in 2k.

Ensure you get a fair mix of TH/SS guys and TWLC guys in a squad (usually 2 of each) and a 5th with an Assault Cannon. This ensures that your terminators always have SOME shooting potential but are still good at what their known for.

Alternatively you could go Space Wolves. The real trick here is to abuse a) the character's abilities (prefered enemy + wolf claws = re-roll hits and wounds) and b) to take advantage of the ability to have I4 weapons and storm shields. It can make for a very tough army. Another neat trick is to take a nice cheap 5pt combi-weapon on a few termies per squad, this can add virtually any utility to a squad.

Yeah, there are lots of possibilities. Just don't use the vanilla book...

[JonnyRoxtar]

I recently made a Space Wolf Terminator army with 13 figures in the 1500 point list and 14 in the 1750 list.

To my delight and surprise the 1500 point list won its first outing against a Tau gunline.
There are drawbacks but there are drawbacks to every list. It was a really fun list to play and relaxing too cos , well mainly cos of such a short turn phase for me, it doesnt take long to move 13 models and fire with 6 of them. The game winner for me was Njall and Id recommend taking a termie librarian with your army.

I went with a 50% rule on squad composition for stormsheilds. So in a 10 man assault squad there would be 5 stormsheilds and 5 with lightning claws.

The main point is its fun, I went into it thinking Id get the bejesus knocked out of me for the first few games till Id learned how to used the army.If its something you want to do and winning isnt everything, then go for it and good luck.

[mysterex]

In my experience they don't do well in tournaments due to the low model count. You could really suffer facing a horde (150+ orks with no vehicles?) or a highly mobile army (vehicle heavy eldar/dark eldar?) that doesn't engage in combat and just kills your scoring units at range.

[DarkAngelHopeful]

I have a decent sized Deathwing Army. Terminator Captain (Counts as Belial), Terminator Librarian, 25 Deathwing Terminators, and 2 Landraiders (all of this fully painted) and I could take a third land raider (unpainted) if I needed it. I usually play against Eldar or Tyranids. When I go full Deathwing, I usually don't do too well. But that is probably due to several factors.

1) I usually play the same guy over and over (my best friend) and we know each other's play style too well 2) I'm probably not as good at 40K as a lot of you (even though I've been playing since 2nd edition, go figure) 3) It doesn't seem to be as mobile of a force as I want/need it to be. My friends Eldar run circles around me. 4) my terminators seem to be wearing tinfoil instead of ceramite for armor (I roll an inordinate amount of 1's for saves with my terminators, so much, that my friend sometimes counts that in as a factor when he's attacking them....)

That said, I'd love to see my Deathwing do well, but as it stands they usually perform best when I'm playing a fairly high points cost game and they are supported by other units.

As a side note, I do like to deepstrike them a lot and that kills my terminators just as much as it doesn't.

[Gnoblar with Pointy Stick]

Would an all terminator army work?

Maybe. It'd be rather like trying to cut a toothpick with a chainsaw.
Welcome to overkill junction.

[BuFFo]

LOL at all the tourney talk.

Gooball, yes, a Terminator Army works. You need to have good experience as a general to use this army effectively, but eventually, you'll get the hang of playing such an elite army.

[DarkAngelHopeful]

LOL at all the tourney talk.

Gooball, yes, a Terminator Army works. You need to have good experience as a general to use this army effectively, but eventually, you'll get the hang of playing such an elite army.

Buffo, you say tourney talk like it's a bad thing.

In any event, in my limited tournament experience I don't think an all terminator army would work as well as an army with terminators in it with a supporting cast of various other models. Having said that, of course, I'm defining doing well as, being competitive and having a good chance of winning games.

Most of my experience is from friendly games. And from my experience, all terminator armies haven't done well for me, well being defined as, being able to win games. However, I'm sure most people understand you can play games with all terminator armies and do well, if dong well is being defined as playing a game and having fun with your friends.

[Big mek]

Havent seen it done in new rules, but was thinking, how would this term/bike army work against horde armies, like orks or nids?

wouldnt they have too few models to really contest anything??

[JonnyRoxtar]

You dont need to contest anything if you kill em all.

Id say the point of an army like this would be to see if you can, not to have a balanced take on all comers list.

My reasons for doing an all termie list was to have a cheap uber leet army that people would laugh at until the body count. Basicly its an excuse for me to be able to say "whos your daddy" if I win.

[Winter12]

I've seen some good lists based off Black Templars surprisingly. Two assault cannons per squad, take the re-roll hits vow, minimum crusader squads with Multi-meltas/lascannons for tank busting and you're good to go. Struggles a little against hordes but concentration of force can help with that.

[therealjohnny5]

yes it can work but requires a lot of finesse and focus. I would definitely use the SW or DA codex. Mind you you can "Count -As" if you don't like the models (much like i don't for SW). It depends a ton on focusing your units to destroy the opposing units and not getting tied up in combat, while still avoiding being rapid fired to death (thank you tau). Sweeping flanks helps. transports are helpful, deep striking useful. Consider HQ combinations that don't require huge point sinks, like termie chaplains, or termie libbys. I'm a big fan of the teleporting gun shooting unit paired with a libby. while other units do it better than termies it's a possibility. Just remember no matter the 2+ save, forced to make enough rolls and you will fail eventually. It can be a very fun list.