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I have a friend that I'm getting into 40k, he's interested in the black templars, but i don't know much if anything about templars to do any recommendations to him as to which units are strong to use and what works best with black templars.

He's a competitive player but he also enjoys playing for fun. But I want him to build a solid army so what are the most solid choices and play styles for Black Templars?

What are the best options?

I know a bit about templars, but not everything, and some of this stuff i may be a little off on, but for the most part here are some ideas

Black Templar's are a fantastic army, if i played marines i'd play templars. First thing to do before he buys any minis, let him read your 40k rule book, and have him buy the BT codex. BT are a close combat assult army, get some rhinos, pack some troops in them and ship them off to get into close combat. just dont send them at my orks or they will get eaten =). They can take close combat scouts in their Marine squads, but can not take sniper scouts or scouts by themselves, so in a squad of marines you can have 1 cc scout per marine, so essentially you can foostschlog 10 marines and 10 scouts across the table in as 1 unit of 20....(being an ork warlord, i like this) this is a great tactic if you are holding an objective on your table end.

You MUST take an emperors champion, which is a cool little bit of fluff, hes a decent character, and with him you can select from 4 powers (prayers) to take, i believe one will let your army use the preffered enemy rule, which is fantastic in close combat, so that makes them even better in CC...

And my Favorite Part about the BT is that you can readily access their shoulder pads, Rhino and land raider custom plates and terminator shoulderpads, which if you spend the extra money to add all these little pieces of flair, when your done your army will look FANTASTIC. oh and their mainly black so they're pretty easy to paint.

thats my 2 cents on BT

Thank you very much kind sir.

BT are a great army to play if you like Landraider Crusaders and beatstick command squads. Their terminators are the only ones left that can take veteran skills, the whole army can have access to Preferred Enemy, and their IC's kick ass.

If your friend is looking to get into the army, I would recommend the following models:

Assault marines
Command squads
At least 2 LRC's
Enough marines to make atleast two 12-14 man squads
Venerable Dread (coming soon)
EC
2 boxes of assault terminators
(optional): Helbrect
(optional): Grimaldus

This should give him a solid core to build around and try different things. A command squad is great since it can take vet skills. Furious Charge is usually what I take. A marshall with 2 lightning claws is the most efficient killer. Re-roll hits and wounds? Yes please. Anyhoo, this should get the ball rolling for your friend. If you have any other questions, lemme know.

Well I'll throw in my $0.02 as a Black Templar player:

The BT are one of the best marine assault armies in the game and are probably the marine assault army that most favor mechanized builds in my opinion.

As to what models your friend is likely to find useful I'd recommend the following:

Units that are very good:

Emperor's Champion
Marshall (always take lightning claws)
Initiates (melta + powerfist is the best combo)
Neophytes (a few for a mech list, a lot for a foot list)
Assault Terminators
Predators (autocannon turret and lascannon sponson preds are a great deal for us at the moment but next codex dakka preds will likely be the go to option)
Land Raider Crusaders (we can take them as dedicated troop transports)
Land Speeders with Multi-Melta and Heavy Flamer

Units I'd recommend avoiding:
Command squads (attaching an HQ to an initiate squad is better because the initiates are scoring, only useful for terminator retinue but I see shooty terminators as well overcosted for what they do in a BT army)

Assault Marines (why? our initiates do what they do but for cheaper and while being scoring and for a pure assault unit Assault Terminators are far better)

Dreads (too expensive for a long range anti-tank role, auto/las pred is 25+ points cheaper than a TLLC/ML dread. This will likely change with our next codex as we'll likely have access to rifleman dreads)

Attack Bikes (Speeders are more versatile with the heavy flamer and going over terrain rather than through it)

non-Assault terminators (too expensive)

Razorbacks (If you want a shooty mech list, play 'nilla marines or space wolves, they're both better at it)

Vindicators (okay, they can work with 2 or 3 of them but I feel auto/las preds are far more reliable as anti-tank due to putting out 2 s9 and 2 s7 shots vs 1 s10 template with short range that can easily scatter off target and can only give 1 roll on the damage table, but some would argue in favor of them.)

Of course this is only my opinion but I do play mech BT competitively.

BT have a older codex. The point cost for a few items are lower than the curent codex's. Rhino is 50 points, current SM it's 35 pts. The E. Champ has older equipment. Make shure he uses all the special rules.
I forgot sometimes. The Vow that was refered earlier is "Accept any Challenge" It grants the whole army chance to re-roll failed assault to hits.

They do not have scouts. In most SM lists the "rookies /green horns/newbies" are scouts. Neophytes Join The SM units for "on the job trainning". What I like about this is you can have 15 men to fill a LRC. I think BT are the only SM unit that LRC's are transports not Heavy support.[ I don't know the other old DA,BA codex.]
If you like Terminators, you will love the list. The term assault unit is made up with lightning claws and/or TH/SS at no extra point cost. Standard Terminators can have 2 special weapons each unit. Then there is the Vet abilities for 3 points each. Furious Charge Rocks!!
Akaiou, If you have extra figures, Proxie a army for your friend to use. Heck use your Necrons. Just let him play a few test games, so he can find out what units work for him. What he likes.
!!! The BT can not have Psykers. The units that would be scouts, join Initiates( SM ) units. They do not have Devistator units. LRC are Transports. Sword Brethren Assault Terminators come equipped with LC or TH SS at not extra cost. CaptKaruthors Has a great win record with BT. He looks like he is the BT Authority

On a side note. Some of the absolute best looking space marine model's gw has put out are the sword brethren. They are just awesome miniatures.

I would have him get 1-2 land raider crusader kit's. Blessed hull is even more amazing now that nid's have a lance weapon. It's not just eldar getting hosed anymore (blessed hull ignores the lance rule).

Buy the assault squad kit's for your regular troop squads. Not for the jump packs but because you will want the close combat weapon and bolt pistol for your standard infantry most of the time.

An easy to put together army to start with that also will make a solid core going forward

Emperor's champion
High Marshall
2x assault squad box's (10 marines each for use as initiates)
2x scout squad box's (5 scouts to use as neophytes)
1x assault terminator squad box
3x land raider crusaders

EC, AAC is a GOD for Templars.

My favorite Templar build looks like this:

Marshal, Thammer, Sshield, Holy Hand Grenade
EC, AAC
5 Ass Terms, 3 TLLCs, 2 TH/SS, Furious Charge
5 Terms, 2 AssCannons, Tank Hunters
5 Initiate, Las/Plas, Rhino, Smoke
5 Initiate, Las/Plas, Rhino, Smoke
5 Initiate, Las/Plas, Rhino, Smoke
LRC, Smoke, Dozer
LRC, Smoke, Dozer

1748

I have been playing BT for a long time, and here are my thoughts.

LRCs are overrated. They aren’t bad but they are a pnts sink and 5th ed BT IMO ARE NOT a mech army (see next point).

Rhinos are stupid for BT. For less pts than a kitted rhino you could get 5 scoring scout models. Plus if the squad is in a rhino you lose out on the 1pt per model you pay for righteous zeal because they won’t be taking any wounds from shooting (which funny enough you want some). You are also missing out on the ability to field a 20 man squad which moves, runs, and if shot at falls forward, scores, is a monster in CC, and typically won’t die without 2 turns of the entire other army focusing on it. This is the BT ace in the hole and one of the best units in the game right now.

A Marshal with 2 lightening claws is fierce.

Always take the preferred enemy vow; all the others are ridiculous in comparison.

Chaplain with cenobite servitors are your friend. I would recommend Grimaldus and the Marshal for your HQ slots, lots of synergy.

5 man lasplas sqds are still possible. They make good objective grabbers later in the game.

Buy enough models to field your Marshal w/ lightening claws (the sword brethren model is perfect for this) Grimaldus and at least 2 20 man squads (I run 4) and laugh as your 40-80+ scoring marines fly across the board faster than bugs to get in the face of the enemy.

BT are the gak, so powerful in 5th ed.

This is the list I run and I curb stomp most people with it.

EC
Chappy:T.Honors, L.Claws, Frags, 3xCynobytes
Chappy:T.Honors, L.Claws, Frags, 3xCynobytes

Crusader Squad: 20 strong, Frags, M.Gun, P.Fist
Crusader Squad: 20 strong, Frags, M.Gun, P.Fist
Crusader Squad: 15 strong, Frags, M.Gun, P.Fist
Land Raider Crusader

Attack Bike: M.Melta

Predator Annihilator
Predator Annihilator

That gives you three strong scoring units, enough firepower to let you shoot up key enemy units and pop tanks and transports, and some serious pain in Close Combat.

The Chappys with the cynobytes lets you move 4 to 9 inches every time anyone shoots at you at the enemy of your choice and they get 6 attacks on the charge.

Those big crusader squads will just obliterate anything they touch beside things with high In that ignore armor, like genestealers and such. Outside of that, you will crush most anything you get in combat with, and you can multicharge units too.

Templars are vicious in 5th ed. and they have cool background, plus, are easy to paint, too.