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What is the consensus for the best Mark of Chaos (if any) for Chaos Terminator squads? I'm putting together a small Chaos Annihilation Force and I'm wondering if I should break out the green, the red or the pink paint.

Tzeentch seems like a waste, since they've already got a 5+ invulnerable for free. Slaanesh and Khorne are both good for CC, and Slaanesh is a lot cheaper. In a 10-man squad perhaps Khorne would be better, but in 6-man or smaller squads Slaanesh is probably more efficient. Nurgle is expensive, but T5 2+/5+ is pretty sweet whether they're shooting or in CC. Though with all the D strength weapons in Apocalypse, perhaps it's not as valuable really. Chaos Glory is actually useful since Termies aren't fearless anymore, but it kind of lacks the cool factor of the God-Marks.

How do you guys mark your Termies and why?

Dosent the mark of tzeench improve the invun save by 1 if it already exists, I think I read it that way anyway. Anyway it might not be the most effective use of points, but it sure does look pretty when painted that way heh.

purely in gaming terms, Slaanesh's low cost and high initiative power weapons seems the best value comination to me - at least for a squad you expect to get into CC

I was going to use 6-man Slaneshi squads like you mentioned.

I used to think Nurgle and Tzeentch were overpriced but considering they are 30/35 or more points a pop maybe Nurgle and Tzeentch are worth it.

Tzeentch gives a 5+ Invul save or improves it by +1 if they already have one.

The best one is dependent on what you're using it for, Shooty terminators go for Tzeentch and Combi Plasma,With a Lord in Termie armor with Tzeentch Daemon Weapon. Everyone has a 4+ Invul and 2+ Armor with alot of fire power after a deepstrike.

I've found Slaanesh is better then Khorne for CC just because it reduces the chance you'll lose some of your expensive Terminators, Though go Khorne ofc for Powerfists of fun.

And ofc just put on Chaos Glory if ya have points to spend. I hate seeing my expensive and probably veteran terminators fleeing.

I don't think there is one definative Icon that is better then the others, It really depends on thr roll you wish to have them play.

You have really two options, defensive Icons or offensive Icons.

Defensive - General roll of the Terminator squad is to either provide long range fire support, or be able to hold an objective (via deepstrike, etc.). The two options are Icon of Nurgle and Icon of Tzeentch. Icon of Tzeentch seems the better deal because it increases you save on weapons that would be aimed at the terminators. Nurgle is the most expensive of the Icons, but I wouldn't discount it. Keeping your terminators a little safer from small arms fire can really help, but with a 2+ save model the effects won't be the most effective. Winner, Tzeentch.

Offensive - You are deepstriking these bad boys right into the enemy with plans of CC. The two options are Icon of Slaneesh and Icon of Khorne. Khorne seems the better deal to me as it substantially increases the damage potential of the unit. Slaneesh is good for it's points, but the benifit is only a minor increase and will not present itself as often as the extra attacks would.

I would also like to point out that since the Icons are fixed price to variable squad sizes, the bigger the squad the more the effective the Icon. For example, 3 Terminators w/ Icon of Nurgle is stupid. 10 Terminators with Icon of Nurgle is a unit worth fielding.

Defensively i'd take IoT a 4+ invulnerable is decent!

Offensively, if you're plaing lots of marines in our area IoS so ou get first hit, if ou're plaing almost anone else i'd go for IOK as the're I value will alread be lower, (Guard, Tau, Necrons) or higher (Eldar, Nids)

I've read some extensive terminator playtesting over on Game Empire, and last batrep I read the dude there had refined the list down to 2x 10 w/ IoK and 1x 10 w/ IoT.

10 Terminators - IoK, 2 reaper autocannons, 4 powerfists

Solid shooting, good resistance (termies), and insane in combat. Assuming they're the ones charged, that's still a drunken 18 S4 I4 power weapons and 12 S8 I1 fists that gut anything left. The guy was using 2 lash princes in his list as well, meaning the khorne termies got the charge in a lot of cases, so just more of the above nasty.

The Tz termies were the objective holders, fire magnets, etc. Can't remember how many fists in there, probably 3-4 for retaliation power in combat.

Nurgle termies were actually in the guys initial lists, proved very tough but as noted the guns scragging termies are generally S7 and higher anyway.

- Salvage

I still think the Icon of Undivided is still worthwhile seeing terminators are no longer fearless.

- G

If your looking at keeping them cheap with little or no upgrades MOS is pretty effective going off at effective init. 5 with power weapons.

Thanks for all the contributions everyone!

I've got 36 Chaos Termies to put together for an Apocalypse Chaos Annihilation Force. From what I've read here, I'll go with 3 units of 10: one icon each of Nurgle, Tzeentch and Khorne. And then a 6-termie Icon of Slaanesh to round it out. I'm going with a unit of Nurgle termies for completeness, and because my main army is Deathguard. Even though in Apocalypse, they may well get whammed by a D blast that ignores their toughness.

That way I'll have a stock of Termies with various marks for use in smaller games too.

I figure that with teleporting in, I can select at least the primary targets for each unit - send the Slaaneshi and/or Tzeentch ones against anyone with a lot of power weapons, send the Nurgle ones into swarms of low-S things, etc., and the Khorne ones (with lots of PFs) at vehicles/hard targets.

Now I need to start a new thread about arming these suckers.

Too bad take Abaddon does not allow you to field Chaos terminators as a troop choice.

- G

Green Blow Fly wrote:Too bad take Abaddon does not allow you to field Chaos terminators as a troop choice.

- G

Heh, yeah, well it doesn't matter for Apocalypse, and I'm not doing much else with the Elite slots in my 'normal' Deathguard army. The only thing competing is my Dreadnought...

Green Blow Fly wrote:Too bad take Abaddon does not allow you to field Chaos terminators as a troop choice.

- G

That would be quite nasty.

Is there any rule agains all Abaddon armies in Apocalypse?

On the topic:
Khorne for the chopping.
Tzeentch and Nurgle for shooty squads.
Slaanesh and Chaos Glory only if you don't have the points for anything else.

As always, it depends what your list needs, but Khorne looks like the best deal to me. The problem there is that they're slow, and anybody smart will just avoid them.

Slanesh would be good if you didn't have many Fists, but I think one of the nice features of Chaos Terms is that you can put Fists in amongst the cheaper Power Weapons. Might catch somebody off guard with the I5, and it's cheap.

I think people are overrating Tzeentch. You can give them MoT for 35 or you can just add another Terminator with Combi weapon. The squad would have to take 6 invulnerable saves before you'd break even, and your squad is already probably under half strength at that point. Just take another Terminator (or save the points).

The same can be said for Nurgle, especially since most things that kill Terminators don't care about S4 vs S5.

All in all, I'd suggest keeping them as cheap as possible. That's really their strength relative to Loyalist Marines. Without Assault Cannons, they lose a lot of their point. Just keep them cheap.

How much are loyalists?

40 points each. 10 points higher base than chaos termies.

Darrian

Mark? None.
Mine are purely shooty, with reaper autocannon and combi-weapons (plasmas), very effective deep-striking units.