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Recently I started a modest Deathwing army (1000 pts, in early painting stages), and I've been looking around for some general tactics on deep striking (DS) terminators. Not looking for Deathwing specific tactics but just terminators in general. A few things I'd like to specifically hear ppls comments on are:

What are the best scenarios to use DS

What are things you consider when choosing where to DS

When should you absolutely not even think about using DS

Also I'd love to hear some war stories people have for epic successes and failures with DS terminators

i only like DSing real shooty termies.CC termies should be in LR's

just my 2 cents

madmen wrote:Recently I started a modest Deathwing army (1000 pts, in early painting stages), and I've been looking around for some general tactics on deep striking (DS) terminators. Not looking for Deathwing specific tactics but just terminators in general. A few things I'd like to specifically hear ppls comments on are:

What are the best scenarios to use DS

What are things you consider when choosing where to DS

When should you absolutely not even think about using DS

Also I'd love to hear some war stories people have for epic successes and failures with DS terminators

You don't DS them. Ever. EVER. IN ANY SITUATION EVER.

Epic successes? Belial taking down a carnifex.

Epic failures? losing to a guy because of spore mines and having 4 termanators die to 2 IG with a demo charge. That same squad also blew up my LR with meltabombs.

It almost never pays to DS Assault Terminators of any variety.

I must disagree with EzeKK on this point about shooty Terminators, however. There are times when this is a viable option, but rarely when it is best. If you use a Heavy Flamer, you might want to DS that unit for the chance to get close to roast some cover-loving grots or pathfinders when walking all the way to them is just not an option.

Seeing as you are playing DA, I'd suggest taking any piece of gear that negates DS Scatter, or course. Sneaking up a bike and having to play conservative for a turn or two can pay off if you can guarantee your kill shot when you get there.

If you don't have anything to reduce or eliminate scatter, you're going to have to take a close look at the terrain and deployment to figure out your best option. Try to leave yourself the most forgiving deployment in case of scatter, such as all the way on a flank, or in a covered position. Never put your starting point within 12" of an edge. Actually, 14", for safety, depending on how many you have in the unit, you may still loose a couple if you end up on the edge and have to make a ring around the leader.

Basically, DS is a bad option for Terminators, because they have only a slightly higher than normal resilience to shooting, and no safety gear for DSing, like the Drop Pod's special rule. For Vanilla marines, using the Locator Beacons on a Drop Pod to bring in your Termies as part of the forward strike group is perfectly feasable, if you don't mind loosing a turn or two of shooting.

Personally, I use the new CML's, so with their range, I use them while walking forward across the table, and I don't want to loose those vital first rounds of shooting. However, I have had the occation to be sneaky and join them with a Termie Librarian to use Gate of Infinity to take a 24" jump to my Dreadnought's drop pod over in enemy territory.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are those my elites all up in your grill? Pardon me for saying so, old chap, but kindly stuff it."

Chaos likes to DS terminators because they're cheaper and can come with Combi-Meltas, and it's not like they value their troops, anyway. =)

As Marines, just remember, if you scatter a whole squad off the table, that's between 2000 and 6000 years of combined experience in soldiers and wargear you just tossed into the warp!

As a sidenote, this paradigm may shift with Planetstrike, with units that can DS (like Assault Terminators) being able to assault in the drop turn. If that's the case, when I start playing PS games, I'm gonna load up on Pods with beacons, and have a second wave of Hammernators that pull off a drop-turn assault for MASSIVE wins.

Well, to play Devils Advocate here

LR w/ EA and MM
Term Assault Squad x 5
Total 475


Or


Term Assault Squad x 6
Term Assault Squad x 6
Total 480


Pros of LR delivery;

Provided they don't blow it up, pretty much guaranteed to assault one unit you want (at least once) with your terms
LR provides AT and mobility
LR soaks up shots to save other armor

Cons of LR delivery;

Big point investment
Melta is (and will become) rampant




Pros of DS two squads of 6 strong Terms;

12 Terms in two units as opposed to one 5 man squad
Normally DSing units can't weather the fire, Thunder/Shield Terms can after the run inclusion
Two units in reserve that may break the game later (and keep your opponent nervous)

Cons of DS Terms;

Vulnerable to lash
May not get into assault against a mech heavy army



Of course, there are other pros/cons...but those are the big ones that pop up immediately. Thoughts?

Thanks all for the quality responses. I'm leaning more towards grabbing a LRC and popping my Belial/Assault squad in that. Kinda exciting to think about getting my first LR!!

Just make sure to not glue the front door's opening mechanism. I did that on my first Landraider.

Yeah, if you can get the front assault ramp to function properly as intended on the first assembly, you are truly an adept of the Omnissiah.

I like 'em. Add 1 squad of Ravenwing bikes, zip the bikes up the enemy's flank with your Scout move, and then DS a couple of shooty terminator squads in, including Belial's, to attack a weak flank. It's not going to work great against a heavily mechanised army, but against stuff like horde Orks, or even unmechanised Space Marine armies, it can do some wonderful damage, just because you can make it hard for many of your opponent's units to attack yours (whereas with a Ravenwing squad and 2 or 3 termie squads, most of your firepower can be concentrated on 1 or 2 enemy units).

I hate deepstriking.

Sorry. This may not be relevant.

Since the original poster is talking about Deathwing Terminators, we should talk about what those Terminators are capable of.

Firstly, you can mix guns and specialized close combat weapons in the squad. You can have Lightening Claws and a Deathwing Cyclone Launcher, for example. This is only really good for bigger games though, when you have the points to specialize.

Secondly, you get the Deathwing Assault rule. Use that for the first-turn Deep Strike, to get in there and mix it up.

Thirdly, they're Fearless.

Fourthly, as mentioned, Ravenwing can put Teleport Homers where you want them.

Fifthly, every Terminator squad in the force can take a Land Raider as their dedicated transport. Don't let that stop you from Deep Striking, though. Scoring Land Raiders are fun.

With 1000pts, you're going to be crunched for units. I recommend Belial, three units of Deathwing Terminators as troops, and one unit of Ravenwing to get them to the objectives and to hunt tanks.

I have always loved DS my Deathwing, if not for the chance to show my opponent Im crazy, but for the fact that most players will be worried when you only deploy a ravenwing squad on the table.

I rarely use the deathwing assault, unless Im using the legendary squad formation for Appoc. But as others have said, once PS comes around, Deathwing armies are going to be a force to be reckoned with.

As far as tactics go:

Normal games you want to take as many LR as you can for each squad. Now I understand your just starting out so ravenwing bike squads may be a good alternative. I rarely DS without at least one bike squad on the table. You can do your scout move before the game starts, then turboboost to a good DS spot on turn one. Depending on the game type (objective for example) you may already be within range of the target by turn one, so start DS those termies down behind cover and shoot the enemy as they come to you. Remember all types of deathwing can take the ML, so if you have a LC or TH/SS squad that is not in a LR, they can still have some range is stuck away from a unit, or shoot before assaulting.

Also the apothecary, while not able to give FNP as the vanilla marines, can be useful to ignore any failed save. As can the DW banner, which is always nice to add 1 attack to each termy in the squad.