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I've been eying the Forgeworld Death Guard and World Eater terminator upgrade packs. Which are more versatile in games? Vanillla, Death Guard, or World Eater termies and how should they be kitted out for a squad of 5 or a squad of 10. Any advice would be appreciated.

As far as I know, Death Guard and World Eater termies are just regular ones with the marks of Nurgle, and Khorne, respectively. Obviously, your DG are then going to be particularly hard to kill, and the WEs will be killtastic in CC. I think you can take it from there

Difficult to say since neither are optimal. I think five is too few for nurgle so that only leaves khorne. In that case its best to toss them in a raider with a few ccw upgrades like fists and claws. A heavy.flamer is always worthwhile.

For nurgle I would go with ten guys with heavy flamers, some combi and a few.fists and deepstrike to claim a flank

I believe these are the optimal marks for Chaos Terminators.
(with the exemption of a five-man Slaanesh Lightning Claw Possessed Land Raider brute squad)

Khorne is nice if your intending to run with at least three Chain/Power Fists, but I've found that you need to run a squad with six or more bodies to really beat-face.
If your terminators are running as assault support for units with icons, Khorne works nicely.

Nurgle helps a lot with the main weakness of terminators, low wound count verses bulk small arms fire.
Nurgle is good, but expensive for MSU.
If you play a using your terminators in more of a disruption role Nurgle will most likely buy you another turn of life.
I'll most likely generate a few winces, but I like Reaper ACs in this unit with 3 Combi-Meltas. Since they get their choice of side and rear armors.

other notes:
Try to never repeat gear so that you can dump the AP2/1 wounds on one poor guy.
Tzeentch seems like a good idea, but due to the abundance of cover (bodies or area) it's best to just splurge on Nurgle if your trying to up defense.
Glory is nice for large cheap squads (Combi-Bolter/Power Weapon) so that your investment doesn't implement a corner-case run.

I mostly play just for fun. I have a Lord Zhufor model (WE) so the World Eaters would fit in very nicely there. Not sure I'm up to painting more red though. Nurgle could be fun as I'm experimenting more with weathering effects.

Ifurita wrote:I mostly play just for fun. I have a Lord Zhufor model (WE) so the World Eaters would fit in very nicely there. Not sure I'm up to painting more red though. Nurgle could be fun as I'm experimenting more with weathering effects.

If its just for fun, my money is on the Nurgle Terminators since they look alot better to me. You can also help justify it that you get a price break on Icon of Nurgle for Terminators but not for Icon of Khorne.

As a BT player, the terminators I fear the most are Slannesh ones. I5 base terminators with power weapons? Even i'd think twice about charging them - and my army LIVES for assault!

liam0404 wrote:As a BT player, the terminators I fear the most are Slannesh ones. I5 base terminators with power weapons? Even i'd think twice about charging them - and my army LIVES for assault!

Well I wouldn't play a BT army so I could shoot them to death.

I'd charge them anyway, and damn the losses. DAMN THEM I SAY!

NO PITY!
NO FEAR!
NO REMORSE!

I'm really leaning towards the Nurgle terminators. Sigh, I'm so easily led astray.

I think you should take the cost of the Icons into account. The Nurgle icon I believe sets you back 50 points, whereas Khorne icon sets you back 30 points. You will probably be able to squeeze the 30 point IoK in more lists then the 50 point IoN.

In terms of wargear configurations, it depends on whether the squad is deepstriking or mounted in an LR. Deepstriking units tend to be cost effective, with a focus on shooting and cracking armour. LR units have more flexibility, with a focus on assault. There is a decent article on Dakkka about chaos terminator configurations that is an interesting read. Here are some configurations that I quite like.

Deepstrike Unit (5 man).
5 x Combi Meltas/Combi plasmas + 1-2 chain fists.
190-205

LR Unit
5x combi melta/combi plasma + 5 x single lightning claw
225

4 x combi melta/combi plasma + heavy flamer + chain fist
190

5 x twin lightning claws
200

liam0404 wrote:As a BT player, the terminators I fear the most are Slannesh ones. I5 base terminators with power weapons? Even i'd think twice about charging them - and my army LIVES for assault!

A friend of mine is a devoted BT player, and I am a devoted Slaaneshi CSM player. I hate his Dreads, and he hates my everything else (especially the Deep Striking combi-melta Slaaneshi Termies with a Chainfist and Heavy Flamer!).

In regards to the OP: Some has been said before about Icons and their effects, but if you are going for aesthetic purposes I recommend:

-Khorne: The extra attack throughout the squad is very effective. I usually see these guys in a LR 5 man strong: 4 with pairs of Lightning Claws (no range power though), and 1 with a Chainfist for killing those big things the LC's didn't and for the odd vehicle parked in your way. The total cost is an astounding 455 whopping points! But you also get 5 hard(er) to kill infantry with 24 attacks in an assault (20 of which potentially re-roll misses to wound) in a difficult to kill (but not impossible to kill) moving fortress that can turn into a Lascannon shooter after dropping off it's gifts. 1/3 of a 1500 pt army worth it? Up to you, but at least they will look scary sick doing what they do.

-Nurgle: I don't see many Nurgle Termies due to their high cost, but if I played them, I'd likely go down this route: 1 unit of 5 (more cost effective) or 2 units of 3 of Combi-Meltas throughout and 1 Chainfist; 230 points for a unit of 5 built like this, and 320 points for both units of 3 models each (160 points per unit). This set up is usually dedicated to being a Deep Striking unit with a knack for popping a tank upon entry. The Chainfist is not a necessary upgrade (expensive as well) but I take them for "insurance". You could also mix and match the weapons; all the combi-boltguns cost the same (5 points), as does the Heavy Flamer! I like to bring a Heavy Flamer in some of these units in case I come up against a Horde army or where I end up Deep Striking the bigger threat is a unit of like 500 Lasguns (I have lost a unit to a barrage of Lasguns before, it CAN happen). The fact that their toughness is 5 instead of 4 makes them considerably more resilient against many threats and should help in their survival on Deep Striking to be able to assault the following turn.

I haven't actually seen either of these builds used, just strategic theorizing (and likely mentioned in previous threads). I HAVE, however, seen all kinds of termies used in similar ways. I've noticed that anything but IG and Tau tend to hate the LR Termies, while everyone seems to cringe to the idea of where and when a termie squad will Deep Strike onto the field.

Aesthetically, I prefer the Death Guard over World Eaters. The helmets are the bomb, hands-down my favorite termie helmet there is.

On a end note, I personally never run terminators above 5 man strong. Yes, the icons are more cost effective in bigger units, and yes, that is a lot more fire power and more wounds, but LRs can only carry 5 termies at a time, and when Deep Striking, I've been told that once you go above 5 termies, you are better off just splitting them into smaller groups of 3-5 for a more threatening DS footprint.

Hope that helped.

Lots of good feedback, nice food for thought. Thanks everyone for your advice. Maybe I'll go with 5 World Eaters and 5 Nurgle Terminators ... just for kicks.

Ifurita wrote:I've been eying the Forgeworld Death Guard and World Eater terminator upgrade packs. Which are more versatile in games? Vanillla, Death Guard, or World Eater termies and how should they be kitted out for a squad of 5 or a squad of 10. Any advice would be appreciated.

unfortunately there isnt a rule set for legit cult terminators right now. they're just terminators with suck ass icons of chaos. +1 attack for khorne +1 toughness for nurgle. I bought some khorne Forge World terminators and painted them up. I found them to be overpriced and non-competitive in my games, but all the same absolutely necessary if you want to run a legit mono-god cult. I get the impression that Toughness 5 terminators would probably play out about the same. the extra toughness won't make them any harder for your enemy to fry with plasmaguns, and they're already pretty buff against bolters pulse rifles lasguns etc. cult terminators imo are more for show than anything else. I imagine they'll get actual rules in the next chaos codex though, so you'll be glad to have them then. The berserker terminator models were a little wierd. the torsos and heads are slightly undersized compared to the legs and arms you'll be sticking them on. the detail is of course amazing.
AF

Remember you can add an attack to your terminaters in 3 ways.

1) Icon of Khorn

2) Champion upgrade

3) Lightning Claws

If you do all three, you would have 5 base attacks, and 6 on the charge....but it makes each terminator 50 points base plus the icon for the squad.

You can always take the champion upgrade and combine it with the Mark of Nurgle, and you kinda get both marks.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:

liam0404 wrote:As a BT player, the terminators I fear the most are Slannesh ones. I5 base terminators with power weapons? Even i'd think twice about charging them - and my army LIVES for assault!

Well I wouldn't play a BT army so I could shoot them to death.

I'd charge them anyway, and damn the losses. DAMN THEM I SAY!

NO PITY!
NO FEAR!
NO REMORSE!

I lold....in class..

It depends on what you would like to do with them:

If you want them to stand back and shoot while taking some fire, Nurgle is your best bet.

If you want them to rush into assault ASAP, Khorne is the way to go.

i'm not sure if there are any other things Termies can do...

Slaanesh termies with LC can be pretty fierce. I5 LC is a good way to make most units have a bad day.

For 15 points more than a C:SM termie unit, you get +1 initiative. Which blood angels players know is kind of a big deal.

If you are just playing for fun, do what ever is fun for you, no one else can tell you what that it.

If you are playing for efficiency, the 3 man, 3 combi-melta unit at 105 points is pretty widely recognized as the most efficient build. You deep strike them, blow up a vehicle then absorb a few units' shooting before dying. Not exactly heroically inspiring but incredibly effective.

Other than that, you can sink a lot of points into them making them killing machines, which is fun, but not the most optimal build out.