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Just bought the box of Chaos Terminators. Wondering what dakka thinks is the best loadout.
These guys wont be a retinue for a chaos lord, and will probably be used to deep strike and blow up a vehicle then CC anything nearby.

Was going to have 3 with pw and twin linked, 1 with reaper and PF and 1 with powerfist and combi-meltagun.
Is the combi-flamer or heavy flamer worth taking instead?
Should i upgrade the PF + combi melta to be a champion?

CSM terminators straight out of the box only have 1 build as far as I know. You can pretty much build a cheepish support squad with the kit using both combi weapons and a power fist/chain fist. I would advise against the champion upgrade as it is a waste of points. I would also advise against the reaper autocannon over the heavy flamer unless you desperately need it in your army and have the points to spare. Depending on how long you want the unit to last, I reckon you’ll probably want to give the unit an IOCG (for the moral test reroll) or IOT (for the 4++ save).

If you want to build something more specialised such as a 5 man dual lightning claw team or a 5 man combi weapon team, you’ll need to go to an online bits store for extra bits. That being said, the most brutal kit out for a CSM terminator squad is as follows (not necessarily recommending this one, just listing it for lols).

5 terminators with single lightning claws, combi-plasmas and IoK/IoS

big fan of the combiplas LC IOS

ChaosGalvatron wrote:Just bought the box of Chaos Terminators. Wondering what dakka thinks is the best loadout.
These guys wont be a retinue for a chaos lord, and will probably be used to deep strike and blow up a vehicle then CC anything nearby.

Was going to have 3 with pw and twin linked, 1 with reaper and PF and 1 with powerfist and combi-meltagun.
Is the combi-flamer or heavy flamer worth taking instead?
Should i upgrade the PF + combi melta to be a champion?

ok here's a run down on the equipment chaos termies can take and my opinion on them.
dual lightning claws - yes
single lightning claw - yes
power weapon - yes
power fist - yes
chain fist - yes but only 1 per squad
twin linked bolter - no
combi-plasmagun - yes
combi-meltagun - yes
combi-flamer - no
heavy flamer - no
reaper assault cannon - no
aspiring champion - no
mark of tzeentch - yes
mark of khorne - yes
mark of slaanesh - yes
mark of nurgle - no
mark of chaos undivided - no

you want as much variety as possible in your squad in order to take advantage of the wound allocation rules. try not to give any two models an identical loud out if you can help it.

for 5 points upgrading the twin linked bolter to a combi weapon will almost always be worth it. I said no to the flamers because they're short ranged weapons and chaos terminators are not very mobile. if you deep strike them directly off an icon next to a horde of light infantry they'll be fine but this is kind of a rare situation. combi plasmaguns are probably the most useful because they have the longest range and greatest rate of fire.

the aspiring champion and mark of nurgle upgrades are overpriced. mark of nurgle just makes you tougher against high ap and non-power weapon attacks. well you're already in terminator armor you dont want to pay 50 points to upgrade what's already really strong. you want the mark of tzeentch to protect you against the heavy weapons that people will definitely shoot your terminators with. mark of khorne and slaanesh arent all that great in my opinion but there's nothing wrong with them per se. they make your terminators more aggressive.

try to take a mix of lightning claws, power weapons, power fists, etc., so that you have good wound allocation possibilities and so you have a wide range of capabilities in your unit. 1 chain fist is plenty. usually you wont even use that one, but it helps for wound allocation purposes. for a squad like terminators, who will have to fight god knows what, power fists are mandatory. there are some things you just cant kill without 1 or 2 or 3 or 4.... in general though its better to strike at initiative so keep power weapons and lightning claws in the majority.

the autocannon is a no go - terminators arent in the game to bust light armor, they're in the game to go after the big boys. for this you want combi plasmaguns, not a reaper. consider that the 25 points you spend on the one autocannon could have bought combi plasmaguns for the whole squad. they only shoot once but thats ok the whole squad will only shoot once anyway before they get into combat. so its really no advantage to you to be able to, in theory, shoot more than once. I said no on the heavy flamer because its hard to use.

hope that helps!

On this subject, I agree with AF on just about all counts.

I use a lot of icons in my army, and have several squads moving aggressively forward, so I get significant use out of the cheap heavy flamer, and occasionally a combi-flamer or two.

I'll also sometimes mix in an IoCG, as it gives them a cheap morale boost (I've had them break from shooting a few times), and every once in a while lets me summon or teleport a unit next to them to help out.

Other than that though, again, I agree with AF.

thanks to all for replying. Ill have a think about the icons.
I'll try and vary the eq as much as possible and look at getting a couple of extra models or bitz, such as a termie with dual LC. As well as a few more combi melta/plasma.

I also have 5 of the older CSM terminator models, is there any problem with mixing and matching the two? Would i need to put the old models on the larger base?

Some players get butt hurt about older models being on 25mm bases. Some tournaments require rebasing, some even went as far as banning old school rhinos.

you can mix and match older and newer models. it looks kind of weird but its not illegal.

For deep striking, my variant would be 3 squad minimum..

2 w combi-melta & PW
1 w heavy flamer & chainfist

The other two could be anything.

You are planning to deep strike close and personnal and anti-tank should be their number one role. 5 pts for a heavy flamer is minimal for anti-hoard work though. The other two can be anything but preference would be two more combi-meltas w PW if you need some hoard control,
nothing like two combi-flamers and a heavy flamer.

However, this all really depends on the role you need them to serve. My view is a deep strike termie unit is there to put out fires and be responsive to anything whether vehicles or hoards. Seeing deepstrike is drop in and fire with no charge, I would prefer a unit that can do either effectively but there is something to be said for 5 combi-meltas or 5 combi-plasmas but that is too focused for my taste. Lightning claws are for landraider assault units. My only automatic is the one chainfist if I am going to field them. Just get sucked into a combat with a dreadnought once and you will regret not spending the 5 points to make one powerfist a chainfist. Given that it is 10 for the PF and 15 for the chainfist, why ever play a PF?

DAaddict seems to be on pretty much the exact same page as me. That's the same 3 man squad I usually field when I'm going small. And when I bump it up to 4-6 dudes I use them as a swiss army knife in the same way. Dude, are we separated at birth or something?

Regarding small and large bases, I'd definitely say put your old models on the newer 40mm bases. It looks MUCH better, and doesn't create weird situations in terms of how many guys get covered by a blast template or something.

It's technically legal to mix, but it makes your army less visually appealing and if you happen to get an advantage in the middle of the game from it (or just look like you are), then your opponent may think you're doing it deliberately and that you're a jerk.

The old metal models are visibly smaller than the new plastics, but not by that much. They overflow the 25mm bases, so they actually look fine on 40mm. I'd recommend maybe mounting them on a small rock or something, though, to obscure the height difference.

Man if GW ever took a hint it should be this thread. Terminators need better firepower. Combi-bolters do not cut it for such and elite unit.

I concur with the combi-plasma tactics for deepstriking. Its pretty much the only reliable build when you actually place them on the board the first time. If you use anything else you run a very high chance of not doing anything with them until their next turn. Which could result in them being destroyed before that.

Termicide is always fun

I heard this crazy idea of 3 termicides 3 raptorcides in an army great for a fully meched force!

675pts is a lot to spend on suicide units. Might work for a high-points game, though.

Mannahnin wrote:675pts is a lot to spend on suicide units. Might work for a high-points game, though.

Jihallah wrote:Termicide is always fun

I heard this crazy idea of 3 termicides 3 raptorcides in an army great for a fully meched force!

Combi-Plasmas - are these something you have to kit bash, or does the bit exist from GW?

there are combi plasmaguns out there but they arent exactly common. there's 1 in the space marine commanders sprue. 1 in the stern guard kit. neither of these would look very good on a terminator. you could always just glue a plasmagun to a flamer and stick it on a terminator. its wysiwyg and looks fine. or you can just explain to your opponent that every gun is a combi plasmagun. thats pretty strait forward too.

5 Models, Combi-Plasma, Power Weapons.

This squad can more often then not nail an enemy unit worth 175 points or more as soon as they land.

And after that, they're still terminators!