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Which is better. The assault cannon or the cyclone missile launcher. All round the cyclone is very good as it can destroy vehicles and use blast template fire.
However the assault cannons can in some cases blow up vehicles as it is a rending weapon and is very good at anti infantry warfare. There is a poll so you are able to vote and comment giving your opinion.

It depends on the size of the squad and the roles that you want the squad to perform:

The assault cannon outperforms the cyclone vs troops and armor. Its only failing is low range. IMO, this is good if you want the terminators to advance while shooting targets of opportunity.

IMO, the cyclone doesn't come into its own until the squad is at 10 men. At that point, the option of splitting the terminator squad into two 5 man teams becomes available and having a 5 man group with 2x cyclones as a move and fire SV2+ devestator squad while having and second unit that can run and/or countercharge is a nice option.

I built the latter as I perfer that kind of flexibility.

Moving to Tactics...

keezus wrote:The assault cannon outperforms the cyclone vs troops and armor..

It has nearly twice the chance to destroy AV 12, for example.

Keezus makes a good point. I agree. Combat squadding makes 2 Cyclones a good choice.

Keezus nailed it. If you only have 5 termies then go Asscannon, but if you have 10 go 2 Cyclones

I'm not sure how you get that autocannon is nessessarily better than a cml against infantry even in 5 man. You get 2 frag missile blasts and 2 storm bolter shots from 1 model with the cml, while you get 4 assault cannon shots from the other they seem pretty compariable to me. And if you are against hordes i'd clearly say that CML is better since even with a scatter you are likely to hit more than you could with the assault cannon. just my 2 cents.

Missile launcher all the way.

a ten man squad with 2 clyclones will kill more things because of the range. you can take longrange pockshots at infantry with frags and/or pop transports. when the enemy gets close you don't lose any firepower as you retain the Stormbolter.

20 bolter and 4 Frag blasts will shred ANY infantry and will be able to make their presense felt across the board if they get stranded.


the effective difference between a Stormbolter and an assault cannon against non-MEQ infantry isn't really enought to justify the cost. the Missile will be able to fire for at least 3 turns if not more. assault cannon will get 1, maybe 2 before it gets tied up in CC or killed.

Grey Templar wrote:...20 bolter and 4 Frag blasts...

The missile launcher is much better, all round, people forget lots of things:

Shoot the Storm Bolter! the model still gets the storm bolter too, (at 24 inches its the same rate of fire as the AC)
Switch to blast! a cyclone can potentially cause far more hits versus low T and A targets than an assault cannon can (particularly useful vs orks and Nids)
Use your range! A cyclone has a 54 inch effective range with move 6 and 48, this makes a walking Terminator squad dangerous all game long.
Better for instant death! Intentionally go after targets you can instant death where possible, like distant T4 characters and attack bikes
Better for saturation! Use your blasts and volume of fire with storm bolters to ensure enough wounds to force opponents to take saves on key models.

Use the Space Wolf Wolf Guard tricks:

Add a single cyclone terminator (preferably also with a chain fist) to a 5 man squad of wolfguard, or 2 to a 10 man, (The WG don't even have to be terminators! Put them in a pod or a rhino) then:

Create a missile saturation squad, 7 missile launcher split fire long fangs squad! Tyranid B gone!
Create a dead hard mobile grey hunter squad; have a chainfist cyclone leader as they move forward with twin melta the cyclone will spit 2 krak missile each time too!