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I'm looking for any advice people can give me on Black Templars. I havent played in a while and just came back to the game and decided to build a Black Templar army. I've dropped a couple hundred dollars getting a decent selection of models to go with for building up to an 1850 pt army.

So far I've put together one 10 man tact squad, with a power fist/bolt pistol, 8 bolt pistol/close combat weapon, and 1 melta gun.

Two 5 man tact squads, with 3 bolters, 1 heavy bolter, and 1 plasma gun.

5 man terminator assault squad, 3 lightning claws, 2 thunder hammer/storm shield.

Emperor's Champion.

2 Land Raider Crusaders. (Although i will probably rarely use both, the thought of having my terminators in one, and my emperor's champion in the other is just awesome)

Dreadnought with lascannon.

And so far I've got one land speeder, I think I'll probably use three, but I'm not sure on what would be best.

What kind of army lists with the Templars are currently winning? Any advice or thoughts are appreciated! Thanks.

Vondoom wrote:So far I've put together one 10 man tact squad, with a power fist/bolt pistol, 8 bolt pistol/close combat weapon, and 1 melta gun.

Thats a classic drop pod unit. If you had any interest in running a drop pod army, this is exactly what I'd tell you to put into one.

Vondoom wrote:Two 5 man tact squads, with 3 bolters, 1 heavy bolter, and 1 plasma gun.

These are cool, I would think the unit might be a bit better (in the context of black templars) to have a lascannon. They might not always want to take the plasma gun. these little shooty units tend to stay way back, to prevent getting shot at by anything but anti-tank weapons.

Vondoom wrote:5 man terminator assault squad, 3 lightning claws, 2 thunder hammer/storm shield.

Adding a chaplain in terminator armor and putting them in a land raider crusader would make for some fun moments. I wouldn't call assault terminators "cutting edge tech" but you have them and you have the land raider crusdader so go for it. Don't be tempted to run this unit without an assault transport.

Vondoom wrote:Emperor's Champion.

mandatory...

Vondoom wrote:2 Land Raider Crusaders. (Although i will probably rarely use both, the thought of having my terminators in one, and my emperor's champion in the other is just awesome)

you could drop the meltagun from that 10 man choppy crusade you listed earlier and add 6 neophytes, put the emperors champion in there, and run them in your LRC.

Vondoom wrote:Dreadnought with lascannon.

this guy is cool looking and has some serious fun factor. But he would be better replaced by one of those 5 man single lascannon units. No shame in running him while you get started though

Vondoom wrote:And so far I've got one land speeder, I think I'll probably use three, but I'm not sure on what would be best.

3 would be good, give them assault cannons.

Vondoom wrote:What kind of army lists with the Templars are currently winning? Any advice or thoughts are appreciated! Thanks.

I really like what I (and others) call 'black templorks' It consists of 2 big units of crusades. (big = 20) Take grimaldus or a couple of chaplains with cenobytes and force your opponent to shoot at them. Black Templars have really good shooty terminators. they don't have sergeants but instead get a second heavy weapon.

So 2 big crusades with a chaplain, 2 or 3 terminator squads with 2x assault cannons, and 3 land speeders with assault cannons would be a great army list.

Another decent black templar list is very heavy drop pod. Fill 5 drop pods with crusades with meltaguns and power fist or terminators with assault cannons, and possibly drop pod a venerable dreadnought also.


You are pretty close to being able to play right away with what you have. It won't be perfectly tuned but you can see what else you'd like to add while playing some games. try this...

emperors champion (goes with big crusade)
chaplain in termie armor

5x assault termintors with land raider crusader

9x initiates 6x neophytes 1x power fist with land raider crusader

5x initiates with lascannon (you can use your HBs as a proxy)

5x initiates with lascannon

3x land speeders with assault cannons

no book with me so I'm approximating points values here. these things should be between 1750-2000


Let me know how it goes!

Oh, I also have a 5 man assault squad of Black Templar Sword Brethren. Equipped the way the models came in the box lol. And yeah, i have Grimaldus and his retinue on order from my local store.

The only army I played before was Space Wolves 13th Company, and I did that with 30 Wulfen, and 45 Fenrisian wolves charging at my opponent with 3 units of Long Fangs giving cover fire. It was fun and worked well against some armies, but got annihilated by any heavy tank army.

I was excited this time to play an army with vehicles and dreadnoughts so probably got more then I will likely use in the dreadnought and the two land raider crusaders, but will be fun to throw them out there sometime.

I have some lascannons from the long fangs boxes I used before that I can put on some models to choose between lascannon and heavy bolter for my units. Lascannons are great, but I just never seem to be able to pass up a +5 pt heavy bolter. It just seems like too good of a deal! lol

So I played my first game with them last night.

I used The Emporer's Champion with No matter the odds vow.

Chaplain in Term armor.

2 10 man Initiate squads each with 8 ccw/bolt pistol, 1 bolt pistol/power fist, and 1 meltagun.

1 5 man Initiate squad w/ 1 heavy bolter, 1 plasma gun, 3 bolters

1 7 man Terminator squad, 5 pairs of lightning claws, 2 thunder hammer/storm shield all with Furious Charge.

1 5 man Sword Brethren squad, with 1 pair of lightning claws all with Furious Charge and Term honors..

2 Land Raider Crusaders.

1 Venerable Dreadnought with Tank Hunter, Lascannon, and Missile Launcher.



I put the chaplain with the terminators, and the emperor's champion stayed near the sword brethren. I played against an ork army and pretty much got destroyed. We were in close combat in turn two, and half my army was dead by the end of turn 3. He got lucky on a few rolls against my LRC which hurt me, but overall I would have lost without the luck going his way I'm pretty sure.

You are very slow.

The LRC give you some mobility, but against melee hordes you need a way to thin them out and split them up.

You have ALOT of dedicated close combat units that aren't the basic troops choices. That's bad.

Your troops are the only CC unit you need.

Everything else should fire in support of them.

Yeah I was testing different things with them. But I'm starting to think I need alot more troops.

The army I played before was Space Wolves 13th Company, and Id idnt have tank or terminator options with them really, so I went kind of wild with them this time, but I'm starting to think they might not be worth the points. There still fun to use though, but I'm gonna put a few more tact squads together tonight.

I also have a Vindicator and a Predator to put together. I'm thinking I'll replace the heavy bolters in my small troop choices with lascannons to take care of dreadnoughts and big tanks.

The ork army i fought had 3 dreadnoughts and 3 killa-cans coming right down the middle at me that I had to focus alot of fire on to keep them from getting into close combat with some of my troops. He also had multiple trucks driving around and dropping troops off at undesirable places for me lol.

Termies and tanks are never worth their points.

If you have ALOT of either though, that causes problems for most armies.

Just a general rule of thumb.

As requested, a BT build for you to try out.

It's built on duality.

=================

2000 Pts - Black Templars Roster - Duality

1 Emperor's Champion @ 110 Pts
Frag Grenades; Bolt Pistol; The Black Sword; Crusader Seals; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch
1 The Black Sword @ [0] Pts
1 Armor of Faith @ [0] Pts
1 Crusader Seals @ [0] Pts

1 Castellan @ 80 Pts
Power Weapon (x1); Crusader Seals; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch
1 Crusader Seals @ [0] Pts

5 Sword Brethren Terminators @ 255 Pts
Power Fist (x5); Storm Bolter (x3); Assault Cannon (x2); Tank Hunters; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

5 Sword Brethren Terminators @ 255 Pts
Power Fist (x5); Storm Bolter (x3); Assault Cannon (x2); Tank Hunters; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

10 Crusader Squad @ 285 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x9); Close Combat Weapon (x8); Meltagun; Power Fist; Neophytes; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch
10 Neophytes @ [100] Pts
Bolt Pistol & CCW (x10); Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

10 Crusader Squad @ 285 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x9); Close Combat Weapon (x8); Meltagun; Power Fist; Neophytes; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch
10 Neophytes @ [100] Pts
Bolt Pistol & CCW (x10); Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

5 Crusader Squad @ 95 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x4); Lascannon; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

5 Crusader Squad @ 95 Pts
Bolt Pistol (x4); Close Combat Weapon (x4); Lascannon; Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 160 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x2); Assault Cannon (x2)

2 Land Speeder Squadron @ 160 Pts
Heavy Bolter (x2); Assault Cannon (x2)

1 Predator Destructor @ 110 Pts
Autocannon; Heavy Bolter (x2); Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

1 Predator Destructor @ 110 Pts
Autocannon; Heavy Bolter (x2); Abhor The Witch, Destroy The Witch

Total Roster Cost: 2000

All infantry, two chaplains with max squads, and the emperors champion with the free move when facing psykers is the templar build you want.

I'll give those ideas a shot and see how it goes with them. I have another friend of mine who has jsut started building a Chaos army and I think he is going to focus heavily on Khorne Berzerkers, despite reading that they are inferior in many ways, he likes the fluff of them. So I will mainly be playing against Chaos, Orks, and Guard.