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So, there aren't that many real wins in the new Chaos Codex, but so far I think the Terminators are a fairly flexible one. I thought I'd start this up (continuation of another thread kinda) for discussion of effective Terminator squad builds.

Termies are pretty much the only fairly affordable, flexible unit left to the Codex, with a lot of real options to choose from, so there's actual discussions to be had there.

Raptors might be similarly worth discussing I guess.

Anyway, her'ere my squads so far:

10 Tzeentch termies, 2 power fists, two reapers - 405
- long/mid range firepower and resilience

5 Slaanesh termies, 1 powerfist, 1 reaper - 200pts
- cheap counter-assault with guns to help defend oblit firebase.

5 terminators, 5 combi-meltas - 175pts
- Almost as cheap as a drop podding meltagun squad, with more guns on the drop.

5 terminators. 5 combi-plasma - 175pts
- Same as above but for plasma

Mark Analysis:

The main things to think about with the marks are CC improvement and improved resilience to shooting.

Mark of Nurgle makes you much, much more resilient in close combat vs. MEQs. It makes you somewhat more resilient to shooting, but only to small arms fire which you almost always get a 2+ save versus.

The main drawbacks for Nurgle are powerfists, rending opponents and rending guns, and of course plasma/lascannons. The primary opponents you're going to run into in CC are Harlequins and Genestealers these days. Neither of these care about your Mark of Nurgle.

Overall I find Nurgle to be acceptable if your primary role is short range firefighting and close combat. It makes you significantly more resilient to small arms fire and also more resilient to a good amount of close combat. However, I find it to be inferior to the Mark of Tzeentch for a lot of reasons.

Mark of Tzeentch produces a massive increase in survivability against basically every threat to terminators. Power weapons, rending guns/weapons, and antitank guns. It will make a 10 man squad win combat with a squad of six harlequins though not come out ahead points-wise. If you charge the Harlequins, you'll win points wise too.

Mark of Slaanesh is very very cheap and it makes you much more resilient against I4 opponents. If you think your guys might be in assault it's probably worth it.

Mark of Khorne is rarely if ever worth it because it's more expensive than Slaanesh and doesn't produce as much of an advantage. Paying for more attacks on your squad of guys with power weapons seems silly when you could buy more resilience.

Other important things we could discuss here:

What other sorts of optimal squads can we make out of this army list?

Things that are probably flat out:
Bikes - overpriced
Possessed - random and overpriced
Tanks - can't be possessed and take up obliterator slots.

As a side note, I don't necessarily think Obliterators are all that and a bag of chips, but they are the only cost-effective way to get heavy weapons in this list that I can see. And by that I mean lascannons.

Why use 5 termies when 4 is better?

I agree with Onlainari there, 4 or 6 is the way to go(making it harder to get you to half strengt for scoring unit). Id prefer 6 myself with MoT, since the mark will be abit less/model and your powerfist champ will be left even longer if you get assulted by dangerous things.

I wouldn't use any god icons, chaos glory is the only useful one.

I'm thinking a minimum-sized squad with 3 combi-meltas and a powerfist will be a good suicide squad to take out vehicles. 'Port in, shoot, and then force them to shoot the termies or they assualt a nearby unit.

I don't know that I'd really use any Icons in small squads. Maybe a small squad kitted out for CC would do well with IoS or medium with IoK. Say 4 termies w/1 fist and IoS might be good for countercharge.

Honestly, the only reasons to take termies over Thousand Sons are deepstriking and CC.

Apologies, I misread the min squad size - smaller squads are fine

Small assaulty squads with mark of Slaanesh seems reasonable to me - even for 4-6 guys, 15pts is fairly cheap for an initiative upgrade for everyone.

I don't think I'd take any other marks with fewer than 8-10 models.

I like the 4 man with 3 combi-meltas and a fist - weighing in at 145pts. That's pretty savvy.

4 man with 4 combi-flamers and a fist strikes me as a fairly cheap way to add some anti-horde defense into your Obliterator/Daemon prince list, too. With two Lashes you could really, really stick it to a horde army with 4 flamers. Also cuts back on the dangers of teleporting.

Deepstrike in. Stand there. Wait for the lashed squads to be lashed into optimal flamer range. Then paste them.


Could also do something for seriously cheap:

3 guys, 2 combi-flamers and one heavy flamer - 105pts

On the subject of good things, I've got a recommendation that probably reveals my inexperience.

What about rhinos for squads?

I'm talking about the completely plain ones, 35 points for tank shocking pieces of LOS blocking things that become terrain when they die?

Escalation makes it more problematic, but maybe there's a way to turn that into an advantage? I mean, a 1ksons unit moves 12" from board edge, deploys 2" out and opens up with 24" AP 3 bolter shots and a magic power of choice.

I could see taking 35pt rhinos for squads but generally I'm thinking you're going to want to minimize your squads, unless you're a Thousand sons army.

For them, I'd consider putting them in Rhinos if I knew they'd get to move and smoke before they got shot at.