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I'm just curious if there is any real advantage to taking the templars over regular marines. It seems to me to be prety close to the original dex. The main difference is the neophytes and -1 to target priority.

The Zeal special rule is an important difference. Especially if you use a pure drop pod force.

And every Troop can take crusaders as dedicated transports.

Number 1 reason: BT aren't nerfed. Run them with confidence for years to come!

Ideally there should be no advantage to taking any army. In practice there's a perception that some armies have an advantage over others and sometimes people get carried away with it. I'd suggest thinking of an army like a different set of tactical problems.

I don't have the Black Templar book but I recall there being some important differences such as the size of the squads, and the availability of certain units such that the heavy support in a Black Templar army is going to be the tanks they bring with them.

This creates an interesting tactical dilemma because while you can take larger infantry, it's a tighter fit in the vehicles available, both points and space-wise.

Besides the lack of Devastators they don't have Librarians, and that can be an interesting dilemma when facing Psycker-heavy enemies, particularly Orks and Tyranids.

They also get these wacky vows that make them behave somewhat differently to Codex chapters, like conducting tactical withdrawls to the fore and such.

Plus, background-wise, you get to play Space Marines with added xenophobia, maleficephobia, apostatophobia, and sicariophilia. These guys were kicked out of the Imperial Fists for being too hardcore.

Templars are a very underrated army. Certain builds of Templars can really take it to your opponent. Most people are not always prepared to deal with righteous sealing units...especially ones with cenobyte servitors. I like the challenge Templars provide and it requires a completely different approach than Vanilla marines. I played Vanilla marines extensively for years and in 4th edition vanilla builds bored me since all the choices were obvious. With Templars you can vary your builds more and still be effective. The only thing I would caution you on is if you are trying to build a SAFH Templar army. It isn't recommended. You should be building your list with good mobile fire support while you are attempting to cram Crusader squads and chaplains down their throats.

Capt K

Nurglitch wrote:

Besides the lack of Devastators they don't have Librarians, and that can be an interesting dilemma when facing Psycker-heavy enemies, particularly Orks and Tyranids.

And that's where Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch, comes in handy.

GuyWithHorns wrote:

Nurglitch wrote:

Besides the lack of Devastators they don't have Librarians, and that can be an interesting dilemma when facing Psycker-heavy enemies, particularly Orks and Tyranids.

And that's where Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch, comes in handy.

Which is less effective (33%) than a Ld10 unit with Psychic Hood (42% or better) and isn't usable in as many situations.

The only real consolation is that nearly all non-Imperial and non-Eldar forces are even worse off for Psychic defense.

Also, Black Templars are naturally better suited for assaults. Most of their units can - no questions asked, take CCW/BP free. Their real vulnerability is their lack of non-mech Heavy Support and Scouts with weapons choices, but being able to field 20-man squads is not to be underrated. Those ten neophytes that can be used as the odd meat shield come in very handy against AP 1 and 2 weapons.