Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

All the talk about assaulting out of drop pods has got me to thinking.  Way back when the marine codex first came out there was talk about allowing termies to assault after deepstriking.  I rarely field termies and really have never liked the idea of standing there for a round while people shoot at you so don't consider it a viable strategy.  I know as a player I never fear DW deepstrike because I have a mobile army that can always eliminate the threat in a round. 

What would be wrong with allowing a unit of assault termies deepstriking then charging that round with their lightning claws?

I personally would field them if they did that

 

Wulfy

It would definitely make Assault Terminators a tactically viable unit, since the only other ways to use them are as follows. A) trudge them up the field in large enough numbers that they don't all get slaughtered while your opponent redeploys his army to make your AT's useless again, making them and Area Denial unit that's worth huge numbers of points. B) Deepstrike them anyways and use them as a bullet magnet for a turn. C) Shell out 255+ points to but a Landraider, making them a little more mobile. However, by doing this you've invested a minimum of 455 points into a single unit+transport, though you could spend as much as 585 points with a 10-man in a Crusader. Unfortunately, this high cost unit becomes public enemy number one when equipped with a Raider, meaning that they'll have a short life span as it is.

Assaulting out of pods or Assaulting after DS is something that is necessary for Assault Terminators - without such an option, they are underpowered and generally ineffective.

CK

In a word;

ludicrous.

An instant charge anywhere on the board? Why even set up against that kind of army?

Demon bomb is bad enough as in many cases the assault is unavoidable.  This proposed rule would allow for terminators to go strait into hand to hand with no risk?

Also it would be another special case violation of the normal rules, and for marines nonetheless?

One of the worst proposed Ideas in a while.

I personally would field them if they did that

Sure, so who wouldn't?

(If only Imperial Guard autocannons were S10 I would field them too... See where this is going?)

As Augustus points out, Assault Units which can perform a charge at no risk to themselves is a Bad Thing. There needs to be some possibilty of the the player on the receiving end being able to do something about the impending assault.

Perhaps, if Assault Terminators are having problems getting into assault in sufficent numbers to be meaningful, something should be done about their resilience, or their cost? Would it be worthwhile going the Obliterator route and giving Assault Terminators (or all Terminators?) T4(5) and 2 wounds? Or perhaps the FNP USR?

I should have clarified, Augustus. I understand that being able to charge anywhere on the board is a massive advantage, however, since Deep Striking and Drop Pods both have a 67% chance of scattering, and do so about 7" on average, I think it is pretty fair. A 430 point 10-man with a <9" charge range from the point they land (I added three inches because of the pod's width and the two-inch space for deployment), that puts them in a hairy position.

However, I understand your point. I think it would be fair to have such an assault follow certain circumstances. For example, I think that if the turn in which AT's charged they had a WS of 3 instead of 4, and only went after all Initiative 1 attacks had been made, they would then be fair enough for use. As it is, their T4 and resilient 2+ save will save them from a large amount of these attacks, but the idea remains that such a reduction in ability for their first round of assault makes them fair.

Thoughts?

CK

(maybe I got carried away - I guess in brief I could have said "make Korpsman's idea a Veteran Skill like Furious Charge, except it costs twenty points."

Elite
0-1 Teleport Veterans
(profile as Terminator)
Squad: One Sergeant @80 pts and three to seven Teleport Veterans @60 pts each.

Equipment: Teleport Veterans wear Terminator Armour and carry either a pair of Lightning Claws or a Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield. The Sergeant is armed with an elaborate two-handed glaive and gauntlet-mounted twin-linked flamers. These count as a close combat weapon, a power fist, a power weapon, and a heavy flamer.

Options: The Sergeant has access to Wargear and Relics but not Weapons from the Armoury.

Special Rules

Terminators - All properties of Terminator Armour apply to Teleport Veterans. As with other Terminators, Deep Strike is always assumed to be in use for purposes of their deployment.

Doctrinal Exclusion - Only one Imperial Fist ever got much experience teleporting. His name was Lysander. Teleport Veterans are not available to Imperial Fists armies.

Teleport Veterans - Teleport Veterans have many lifetimes of lightning raids on orbital platforms, close-fought retreats from decompressing star ships, and grim incursions into the vessels of invaders as loathsome as the C'tan. Only the swift survive. They may assault the turn they arrive on the table. This counts as their Veteran Skill.

there are some things that shouldnt be changed ( that is termies assaulting when they deep strike / droppoding....)

That would so unbalance the game In favor of marines/ chaos.

An experience player would know how too cover his teleporting troops/ drop poding troops.

I for one when i use my planet fall deathguard i hide my troops behind the pods for a turn.


Its just isnt right to have assault troops that jump out at you when they drop in in one turn...
Just think about how you would counter that tactic( there is none)

Wow,

WW I really like your write up and your limitations and abilities, a much better perspective.

A few points.

1 At 0-1 and for increased cost, I think it could work.

2 Terminators should never come in pods, in 15 years of this game they never have, GW left it in the rules as an oversight and have been to spineless to correct it ever since.  It has totally wrecked the fluff for the unit.

If terminators couldn't come in pods, and the unit that could assault on the DS from Teleporting was 0-1 (some risk getting killed in Deep Strike T porting within 6 inches of a target...) then I think this idea could work, and even fit into the years of theme behind terminators.

Good write up WW!

Greetings Augustus, We talk on other forums often, if you use the same name that is. We mostly agree and this time is no differant.

Wolfy, You have this issue when useing drop pods, transport vehicles (besides Raiders), deepstriking, And even when you get stuck after whipeing out a unit in cc. So there are many occasions where you have your proverbial D1ck in the wind. If you want a first turn cc with DA why not just use ravenwing? They are higher in toughness and gauranteed a first turn charge even if you go first. Use the units the way they were designed to. I know fluff wise terminators deepstrike but usually while surrounded by an entire army of there buddies.
Deepstrike them with teleport homers and put them behind someone thats already in cc thats the safe bet. either that or take so much DW and RW that you more than likely will not have to be shot at because of the mass numbers.
I really like the idea of deepstriking first turn after my scout move. That puts my terminators right behind some bikes that are going to be in cc anyways in the first turn. Move the next turn and charge or just shoot it up with tactical termies and cut down the number of enemies your RW are charging into.
First turn assaults are rare and to have tactical dreadnought armour doing it is just wrong.
With the exception of Ravenwing and a couple of tyranid units i can think of nothing else that even can. Even for the tyranid its an outragously expensive squad so ravenwing is about it.

Though I really don't think that they should have the ability, I also don't feel it would be as game changing as some think.  There will always be tactical ways to prevent such actions from coming to fruition.  And besides, WW's idea would be so very expensive that yeah it's powerful, but those willing to take it are going on a high risk battle plan which could involving wiping a rather large portion of your points off the map free of charge, that is a chance I would take as a marine's opponent!  But no, I still do agree that the rules should stay as they are, better to make people better players by finding way's to utilize a supposedly "useless" unit, rather then just FAQ them and make their use obvious.
Aztralwolf

But what if you use teleport homers?  Stick 'em on bike squads and turbo-boost 1st turn.  If you thought daemonbomb was harsh, try it with "daemons" that have a 2+/5+ sv, lightning claws, aren't subject to instability, and don't scatter.

There's nothing wrong with assault terminators, and having them assault after deepstrike is horribly unbalanced. 

For 215 points you get 5 terminators with furious charge.  On the turn they charge, which they will, they are S5 I5.

If they get shot, they get shot.  It comes out about even unless they get plasma cannonned.  Even then, "on average" only 1.11 will die.  I say "on average" because it comes down to 1/3 of the time it misses and 2/3 of the time 1.667 die.

Their problem is they add nothing to the army tactically that an HQ doesn't add.  The HQ selections are both mandatory and arguably better at it and they're potentially more mobile if nothing else.

What's _really_ wrong with them is that when you take them you want to see them romp across your opponents entire army, when your opponent's intentiion is much the opposite

That, and the fact that the normal tactical terminators are much more effective in a battlefield role.  Their close combat ability is nearly equal.

If there's any rules change to be made they should just mix and match like chaos does.

I agree with Tacobake that there's nothing wrong with assault terminators.  Having them assault with deepstrike is just unreasonable.  I do disagree that Assault Terminators are useless.

I play Black Templars so they are much more useful than they would be for a normal marine army.  I usually take 6 of them, in a land raider crusader, with an emperor's champion and master of sanctity in artificer armor.  With furious charge, and the Black Templar vows (I almost always use Accept any challenge, no matter the odds, which gives all my people the preferred enemy rule.)  and with 2 ICs with them, they are unstoppable.  I use several land speeder tornadoes, along with an assault squad with a normal chappie to support them.  Also, having Blessed Hull on the Crusader against the Eldar is a godsend.

On their own, I'd agree they're not as good as regular terminators, but with the land raider giving them a 21.5" threat radius (12" LRC move, disembark 2", the base is about 1.5", then charge 6" , and those 2 ICs, very little can stand up to it. 

Assault Terminators are far superior to regular terminators in close combat.  I'm just going to go through statistically with the terminators I use.    Lightning claws give you that extra attack on the charge, so instead of just a Sarge with 3 or 4 power weapon attacks (sorry, it's been a while since I used regular terminators, so I'm not sure of how many attacks a Sarge gets) at strength 4, I hit you with 16 (4 termies with 2LCs each) strength 5 lightning claw attacks that hit on 3+ (Black Templar preferred enemy vow), that get to reroll misses (Litanies of Hate), then wounding terminators on a 3+, and rerolling to wound, with no armor save.  On average, there will be 14 hits, and then 12 wounds inflicted, with a 5+ invul save.  8 Regular terminators will die, before they even had a chance to swing back.  If by a miracle some manage to hit back, they're not gonna live, because of 6 Thunder hammer attacks (2 termies with thunderhammers).   These terminators have such high efficiency with destroying every enemy within the combat, that often no enemy models can hit back.

ICs are great in close combat, but assault terminators are meant to not just kill a handful of people like ICs, they're meant to obliterate an enemy squad right on the charge, often with them being unable to hit back.  It's an expensive weapon, but when it connects, it is amazing.  And they can take alot of punishment, so they can soak up fire while the other elements in my army hit the enemy. 

I understand my case is entirely different from most marine players, because they don't have the Black Templar benefits of always hitting on 3+, so for alot of marine players.  I understand, and if I played normal marines, I would use regular terminators in a heartbeat.  For my situation, they are far more effective than regular terminators. 

Also, I don't spread out my forces.  I usually have less models than my opponent, so I try to have them all in the smallest area possible, to maxmize them.  I usualyl spread them out a little, in case if they're using template or blast weapons.  You really need to take care of where you place the land raider, and usually set up for a 2nd turn charge, unless the enemy runs straight at you.  And use the speeders to knock out or temporarily disable the major anti-tank weapons.  Once I get the 3 ICs, assault squad, and assault termies to the enemy's lines, it's pretty much over. 

I've have success against various lists, but I still need to face Mech Tau, and Nidzilla.  I've beaten footslogging Orks, speed freaks, Mech Eldar, foot slogging eldar, Dark Eldar, Dark Angels, Necrons, Codex Marines, Imperial Guard, Chaos Nurgle, and Slaaneshy marines. 

In most of my wins, the terminators have played an integral role in smashing through the enemy.  In some of the games, the enemy used so much firepower shooting at the land raider and the terminators that they ignore my land speeders and assault squad, so there's several threats enemies have to worry about.  I think the only list I don't think I could win against is Nidzilla.

How about a rule called "Jump in, Jump out"? Having mastered the art of surprise assault the terminators know the value of retreat. As soon as they fail a moral test they are intanty teleported off the table and count as destroyed.

I think one problem with giving Assault Termies the ability to Deep Strike and Assault on the same turn is that it would be difficult to justify giving it to them and not "normal" Termies and Grey Knight Termies.  And giving that ability to Grey Knight Termies would be OBSCENE.  Yeah,most Deamonhunter lists would consist of 2 5-man squads of Stormtroopers and 2 Grand-Masters with full 9 Termie retinues.  Also,think about someone attaching a Termie Chaplain to an Assault Termie unit with that rule.

I don't know about everybody else's area,but in mine,most people aren't going to blow the points on a Land Raider and a Termie unit because they like to spread their points around their army.  To give Assault Termies that ability just makes Land Raiders that much less attractive.

Another problem is that it doesn't fit with the flavor of Termies.  Termies are suppossed to be slow,hence the "no sweeping advance" rule.

There's three things you can do to increase the effectiveness of Assault Termies.  First,if you're worried about them getting wiped out when they assault,take a big squad of 8-10 that can withstand a few casualties and still do damage.  Second,Deep Strike them into cover,and hopefully out of LOS for most of the opponent's army.  Remember,next turn they can move 6" and assualt 6".  You don't have to be right on top of them.  Finally,if you want as close as you can get to a sure thing,shell out the points for a Land Raider instead.

I'm more for letting Termie units take Land Raiders as dedicated transports at a discounted points cost.  Either that,or Land Raiders should be a lot more customizeable and come at a lower base point cost.  For example...

Land Raider                           175 points

Type-Tank          BS-4

Front Arm.-14  Side Arm.-14  Rear Arm.-14  

Transport Capacity-20 models(models in Terminator Armor count as two models)

Special Rules-Assault Vehicle,Power of the Machine Spirit

Wargear-Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter

Options:

Upgrade Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter to Twin-Linked Assault Cannon for +15 points or to a Twin-Linked Lascannon for +30 points

Add Side-Sponsons with Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters for +20 points or Hurricane-pattern Bolters for +30 points,and reduce carrying capacity to 16 models.  Or may add Twin-Linked Lascannon sponsons and reduce carrying capacity to 10 models for +50 points.

May add a pintle-mounted Multi-Melta for +35 points.

May add Frag Assault Launchers for +5 points.

 

 

 

hmmm, the key would be to balance what's now a pretty hard to use unit without making it broken. What about adding the following option to the SM/Chaos/Grey Knight armory:

Advanced Teleport Beacon: 40pts. Any unit teleporting (not deepstriking by other means) may deploy within 6" of the Beacon without risk of scatter. Any unit that does so may assault the turn they deepstrike, however every model must make a dangerous terrain test if they assault.

The beacon costs a lot, in tournaments you'll know who will have it, and the dangerous terrain test reflects the unstable nature of the teleportation. a five man squad has a 60% chance of losing a model, meaning that while potentially devestating, setting up such a charge requires
1) a unit to carry the beacon
2) the 40 pts for the beacon
3) the cost of the termintor you'll lose before you make contact

Whatever made me think of something...how badass WOULD a GK Teleport Veteran Captain be?

Brother-Captain Moriar and the Shroud Bearers
Moriar may be taken with opponent's consent, and occupies two HQ choices.

Stats WS BS S T W I A LD SV
Moriar 5 5 5 4 3 5 4 7 2+(4+)(5+)
Bearer 5 5 5 4 1 5 2 7 2+(4+)

Squad: The Squad consists of Brother-Captain Moriar at 250 points and two to seven Shroud Bearers Grey Knight Terminators at 70 points each.

Equipment:
Shroud Bearers have a Nemesis Force Weapon and a Storm Shield. Moriar has Bionics and wears an Adamantine Cloak, a Psychic Hood, and a Rosarius. In lieu of a Nemesis, in his left hand he carries a Daemon Hammer, its handle wrapped in 1D3 Sacred Scrolls. He flails a censer of Sacred Incense in his right as an additional close combat weapon.

Special Rules:
Grey Knight Terminators
Grey Knight Hero: Moriar is an IC once his retinue have all each been successfully wounded.
Teleport Veterans
Soulless - The Shroud Bearers, out of all potential GK applicants, have been inducted to the Company because they have or appear to have no presence in the Warp. They have LD 7 as a result of this and reduce all units within 12" of them to LD7. This is applied prior to LD penalties for all Daemons - as Daemons are abominations in the eyes of the Emperor, so are the Soulless to Daemons. Exorcisms of Nurgle in particular by the Shroud Bearers are considered particularly disgusting spectacles by human members of the Ordo Malleus, as the vomit-inducing reek of Daemonic dung mingles with the putrid stench of their blood.
Psyker - Moriar is a Psyker who knows Fear of the Darkness, Holocaust, and Word of the Emperor.

On another note I can see the advantage of GW saying no Assualts!

However, due to the fact that myself and the people I play rarely use Deep striking unit, we have come up with a houserule to encourage the use of deepstriking in our games.

Basically, you roll for your unit to arrive via deepstrike, when it does, you place model where you want to deepstrike, then state wether the model/units are going to opt to shoot or to assualt.

Then you roll the scatter etc.

Reason being is it adds a small bit of extra risk. if you opt to shoot and end up behind a building you lose you chance to shoot, and if you opt to assualt and end up 7" away then you loose chance to assualt.

Makes it a little more risky but allows the ability to do one of the two but not both with the same risk.
Any thoughts?

shouldn't be allowed. teleporting takes TIME. iirc, every game turn in 40k is something like six or seven seconds. thats more than enough time for a squad to be shot to shat while the temis teleport in (who ever said the arrive at the exact same time right?).

cmon man, dont try to break marines anymore than they already can be.

While I will agree that assault terminators are rather lame at the moment since they have problems getting to hand to hand, assaulting after a deep strike hardly seems like the answer. I would much rather just see the price of the land raider dropped by 50-75 points and see how things go.

No harder for them to get into cc than it is for khaine, wraithlords, big bugs (without wings), talos, dreadnought, hmm so many.

Khaine's pretty cheap and has a leadership radius (as I recall), wraithlords and dreadnoughts can pack significant firepower and carnifexes always should. It's not like assault after deep strike is without precedents. Lictors can do it. Callidus Assasins can do it. Skrivus hits the nail on the head about LRCs making a decent ride. I've always seen fluff concerns as ephemeral because the official fluff is rewritten as neccessary to sell more models - so people who want an alternative to the official game should rewrite it as neccessary to have an entertaining time with the products they purchased.

Khaine is a giant creature and thus can be shot all across the board, has nothing to do with leadership radius. dreads are an easy kill compared to 5 terminators, lictors and callidus are useing differant rules, lictors die so friggin easy, callidus well shes tough but again a diffrant rule is used for her.
Assault after deepstrike is not needed, assault termies are hardcore. They just need to be used with a homer and as a counter charge ntot dropped into the midst of an enemy. It would take terminator heavy marine armies back to the proverbial rhino rush.
If anything i though you would say demons as they use the same rule and move, shoot and assault.

*shrug*

Fair enough. I've never been much afraid of Assault Terminators - sort of like expecting use of a caddy who isn't carrying his clubs. I think you're lawyering just a leetle to hard to say that the Callidus can't assault after deep striking - it's pretty near identical an effect, even if it doesn't use the word deep strike. I don't own Codex Chaos so I didn't care to comment on the rules in it. Read back through the thread - no-one's been saying they should get it for FREE. It'd just be like they got to carry around little personalized assault ramps.

It just bugs the heck out of me when a 10 man unit of what is arguably the most powerful hand to hand unit in the game can get into assault without ever having a chance to be shot at.

Posted By Phoenix on 06/01/2007 2:16 PM
It just bugs the heck out of me when a 10 man unit of what is arguably the most powerful hand to hand unit in the game can get into assault without ever having a chance to be shot at.

I've never played against Demon-bomb so I can't say if it is overpowered or not.  I will say that I've never considered demons to be that much of a threat, not even the Khorne ones.  I mean they hurt, but they go down.  Instability tests are a real kick.

As far as Terminators are concerned, there's nothing wrong with them not being able to attack after deep striking.  That said, I would like to see a rule changed:  the rule where if they come in contact with another enemy model the whole squad gets wiped out.  If you take away this rule, then the squad of assault terminators will generally be 1" away from an enemy (assuming they just get shifted to the nearest point where they can deploy), and gives them a good chance that the next turn (after eating a facefull of hot lead/laser light show/etc) they can have a good chance of moving 6" charging 6".

The biggest problem with deepstriking isn't necessarily that they will get shot, but that even after showing up their opponent can just walk away from them _while_ shooting them.

Posted By Tacobake on 06/03/2007 10:57 PM
I've never played against Demon-bomb so I can't say if it is overpowered or not.  I will say that I've never considered demons to be that much of a threat, not even the Khorne ones.  I mean they hurt, but they go down.  Instability tests are a real kick.

I'm sorry to say that statement is rather ignorant. Chaos demon summoning is potentially the most broken ability in the game. It wouldn't be quite so bad if they didn't have demons that moved 12", or multiple ways to virtually guarantee that the unit arrives turn 2 (favored units/icon binding).

The amount of ire the idea of terminators being able to assault from deep strike (or anything for that matter) has roused in this thread is completely preposterous. It is entirely possible and really rather easy to end up with a turn 2 assault with Khorne Bloodletters or Slaanesh Demonettes. All it takes is a mildly favorable scatter forward, or even a neutral or even unfavorable scatter off an infiltrating squad; thanks to the 5" you get simply from putting the unit on the table, its very very easy to catch any opponent in assault with a demon pack, provided they haven't seen it coming and hugged the very back edge of their table side (which against demonbomb can still not help due to Furies having 12" move and holding units in place for the follow-up).

Taco, you may say that Bloodletters are "no sweat" but this in itself shows an entirely biased or ignorant view. There are many armies that will simply fall apart if they get into even one assault with a Bloodletter or Demonette pack.

So long as Bloodletters have the ability of a turn-2 assault, Terminators deserve the same. A unit of Assault Terminators being able to assault the turn they arrive is no more "broken" than allowing 10 bloodletters (if you were to take a full unit) assault turn 2.

It should probably be pointed out, however, that a unit of Bloodletters and the unit to infiltrate and summon them would cost around 400 points, not too far shy of a Land Raider Crusader and a unit of 6-8 accompanying terminators.

You decide which is more reliable.

Posted By ColonelEllios on 06/18/2007 2:32 PM

Posted By Tacobake on 06/03/2007 10:57 PM
I've never played against Demon-bomb so I can't say if it is overpowered or not.  I will say that I've never considered demons to be that much of a threat, not even the Khorne ones.  I mean they hurt, but they go down.  Instability tests are a real kick.

I'm sorry to say that statement is rather ignorant. Chaos demon summoning is potentially the most broken ability in the game. It wouldn't be quite so bad if they didn't have demons that moved 12", or multiple ways to virtually guarantee that the unit arrives turn 2 (favored units/icon binding).

The amount of ire the idea of terminators being able to assault from deep strike (or anything for that matter) has roused in this thread is completely preposterous. It is entirely possible and really rather easy to end up with a turn 2 assault with Khorne Bloodletters or Slaanesh Demonettes. All it takes is a mildly favorable scatter forward, or even a neutral or even unfavorable scatter off an infiltrating squad; thanks to the 5" you get simply from putting the unit on the table, its very very easy to catch any opponent in assault with a demon pack, provided they haven't seen it coming and hugged the very back edge of their table side (which against demonbomb can still not help due to Furies having 12" move and holding units in place for the follow-up).

Taco, you may say that Bloodletters are "no sweat" but this in itself shows an entirely biased or ignorant view. There are many armies that will simply fall apart if they get into even one assault with a Bloodletter or Demonette pack.

All I can say is that the few times I've faced summoned demons it goes like this: They attack and get their licks in. I counter-attack. Eventually it gets to the point where they are outnumbered and they start failing instability checks and then they're gone. Note that I play Space Marine/Eldar 'elite' armies. I've also never had to face an entire army of them all at once. I once saw a Chaplain led Death Company clear out an entire Imperial Guard infantry army starting at one side and going across the board. I imagine that demon-bomb would do the same.

Posted By ColonelEllios on 06/18/2007 2:32 PM
So long as Bloodletters have the ability of a turn-2 assault, Terminators deserve the same. A unit of Assault Terminators being able to assault the turn they arrive is no more "broken" than allowing 10 bloodletters (if you were to take a full unit) assault turn 2.

It should probably be pointed out, however, that a unit of Bloodletters and the unit to infiltrate and summon them would cost around 400 points, not too far shy of a Land Raider Crusader and a unit of 6-8 accompanying terminators.

You decide which is more reliable.

Another difference between demons and terminators is that terminators can deep strike anywhere on the board. Demons can only attack the front lines they can't just teleport in anywhere on the table. Perhaps a compromise would be that when deep-striking using a teleport homer the unit can assault, but when teleporting in blind they can't.

On a tournament board with scarcely 25% terrain, against a skilled opponent, you will be hard-pressed to find a deep-strike location that is safe that is not on the front line. That is, 90% of the deep strike opportunities you get you will want to use to reinforce your position, or attack an exposed key enemy unit. I have to stress "exposed" because when an opponent expects you to be deep-striking a powerful squad, it is easy to take measures to protect vulnerable elements of their own force. Therefore, you will generally only find an acceptable compromise between the amount of room for scatter error, defensive worth (protection), and advantage at or near the front line, often closer to your own lines.

And given the abilities of a powerful assault unit like Bloodletters or Demonettes, the fact that they can only hit the "front line" (which is also just a plain old lie--you can infiltrate icons) is irrelevant because, failing a substantive counter-assault, they will cover ground quickly with consolidation and a follow-up 6" charge. These facts differ very little in respect to Terminators benefiting from the proposed change to Deep Strike.

I'd be ok with assault termies assaulting after deepstriking subject to: no shooting or moving (just the assault move); not applicable to drop pods. They can do it but have to suffer the chances of bad deviations just like everyone else.