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I'm looking into starting up my Black Templars again and I want to now the communities feelings on Black Templar in 5th ed. I want a Drop pod army, but a different one than the one blog I've read about(I think it was called defensive drop pod.) By no means am I calling out the writer or telling him he's wrong, it's not my style. I digress, I do want to create an all drop pod army that specializes in close range combat/hth. I'm considering adapting the Blood Angels codex for my Black Templar use right now, however I'm not completely sold on the fact of switching from the Black Templar codex. What did all the Black Templars player do?

The issue with the BT codex is that Crusader squads are okay, but not really that great. The vows give them a nice buff, but you have to pay extra for Frag/krak grenades.
If you want Aggressive, Assaulty, Drop Pod Marines, probably Space Wolves are the most competitive. (but doing Counts As Wolves is a little lame.)



BT have some surprisingly good shooting units with the Update. Terminators with CML's, Typhoon Speeders, PotMS Vindicators and Predators.

Here is a 1500 pt list I was considering at one point. it is a combination of Drop Pod Infantry and Fast Shooty Tanks. Lots of kill points, but I think it is decent. You could squadron the speeders if you wanted to.


HQ Champion: Accept Any Chalange 140


Elite Dread: TL LC, ML, Venerable, Tank 165


Troops Crusaders 6x Melta, Power weapon 116
Drop pod Deathwind 50

Troops Crusaders 6x Melta, Power weapon 116
Drop pod Deathwind 50

Troops Crusaders 6x Melta, Power weapon 116
Drop pod Deathwind 50


Fast Speeder Typhoon 70

Fast Speeder Typhoon 70

Fast Speeder Typhoon 70


Heavy Vindicator PotMS, EA 160

Heavy Vindicator PotMS, EA 160

Heavy Vindicator PotMS, EA 160

Total is 1493 so you have 7 points to play with.


All of the Tanks can move and shoot.
The Vindicators are essentially immune to Shaken and Stunned results with EA and PotMS. They can also move 12" and shoot.
Your Troops can stay in reserves where they are safe from enemy shooting. Since you can move and shoot, it is a decent list to go all reserves with.
The Deathwind pods are cheap and can fire a S5 blast the turn they land.

Crusader Squads are just "good" at close combat compared to the newer sleaker codices that 5th ed released. And being "good" at close combat just isn't enough now a days in the 40k meta in my opinion. Having to pay extra for grenades, only a few special weapons attacks (even at discount, still only 1 or 2 attacks), and no other way to boosten them really all hurt the close combat ability. Even with Perferred enemy, don't expect much out of crusader squads and since they are the only troop choice we got and how important they are to the missions, you can kinda see why many templars moved away from close combat heavy armies and into shooty ones. Compared to Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Dark Eldar, and other newer updates, Crusader squads are just not able to hold their own in close combat and the other armies have enough shooting to really put the hurt on what slowly arrives from reserve if you roll even average on reserves.

That said, Black Templars have some of the best Assault Terminators and reg Terminators out there. In addition Venerable Dreads are affordable for us too, granted limited to one but I take it. Don't forget templar terminators can take drop pods too if mishaping sounds too scary. Plus no Drop pod assault rule which can be a bonus or penalty depending on the game and match up. Overall, Blood Angels and Space Wolves are both much better in the close combat scene due to better troop choices. Blood Angels have mobility while Wolves are just stronger.

I want my Black Templar to be semi-competitive with them still hold ground to the fluff that they have. I can see this happening by using Drop pods and close range assault weapons. I know that other armies that have had updates are better in hth, but Black Templar by no means is down and out. I have some decisions to make about where I want my army to go. Again drop pods are a must!

To be honest I'm not a fun of having a mixed list of Drop pod units and non drop pod units. It's all or nothing for me.

I think way too many space marine players just use the newest or most powerful codex and then try and justify it. Stick with the black templars codex, and remember that everything you buy will still be perfectly useable when their new codex comes out (and it can't be further than 3rd down the line).

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:I think way too many space marine players just use the newest or most powerful codex and then try and justify it. Stick with the black templars codex, and remember that everything you buy will still be perfectly useable when their new codex comes out (and it can't be further than 3rd down the line).

That's a good point, I do like the codex a lot! That's why I used them back in the day and they were successful, but they also had their defeats too. I think I can make it work, I have yet to play them in 5th Ed so I am interested to see how they match up to other list. Any one have any good solid pointers that I may not have heard or might be key to the Black Templars success on the table top?

deffskulla wrote:

I-bounty-hunt-the-elderly wrote:I think way too many space marine players just use the newest or most powerful codex and then try and justify it. Stick with the black templars codex, and remember that everything you buy will still be perfectly useable when their new codex comes out (and it can't be further than 3rd down the line).

That's a good point, I do like the codex a lot! That's why I used them back in the day and they were successful, but they also had their defeats too. I think I can make it work, I have yet to play them in 5th Ed so I am interested to see how they match up to other list. Any one have any good solid pointers that I may not have heard or might be key to the Black Templars success on the table top?

Like all 5th editions armies: spam.

Spam termies with missile launchers
Spam Land Speeders with missiles or meltas with a flamer
Spam Drop Pods with melta and plasma troops

You'll be surprised how many you can actually get in the typical 2000pt game.

Any points left over, deck out a command squad for your Marshall

Why not spam full crusader squads? Not my method of doing buisness but it would be effective right?

IMO the Black Templars do the best all-pod armies due to the fact that reserving everything versus us only works in our favour.

Tank hunter assault cannons in pods, supporting TH/SS termies with rerolls to hit and MSU meltafist squads in pods would probably work well. The issue though is the fact that all our heavy-hitters in this kind of list apart from Typhoons are elites choices. We simply haven't got enough slots. On top of that, terminators become expensive pretty quickly.

Just out of curiousity, does anyone use Thunderhawks in Apoc games for Black Templar? I think they would be an awesome platform in lieu with drop pods. I'm thinking a thunderhawk can be built out a Stormraven for way cheaper...

Black Templar Assault Terminators are still arguably the best Assault Terminator variant in the game when running AACNMTO.

There. That's it. That's the Black Templars' current assault prowess. Assault Terminators are amazing, but they can't do the job solo. Crusader Squads tooled for CC simply cannot stand up to the newer codices' bare bones combat monster stuff.

And I wouldn't be so sure that a new codex is right around the corner, or that it's a good idea to hope for it if it is. If 6th Edition is as close as everyone says, then Black Templar players should very much want to wait for their book until after 6th - and the new version of Codex: Ultramarines - has dropped. Otherwise they'll end up in the exact same position a couple years from now.

I was thumbing through the BT codex and I've never used a techmarine. Black Templar doesn't really seem like the kind of army to use one, fluff wise.

However it would be awesome for a techmarine with 4 plasma cannons! It's awesome because the techmarine allows rerolls to the unit he is attached to!

deffskulla wrote:I was thumbing through the BT codex and I've never used a techmarine. Black Templar doesn't really seem like the kind of army to use one, fluff wise.

However it would be awesome for a techmarine with 4 plasma cannons! It's awesome because the techmarine allows rerolls to the unit he is attached to!

A Black Templar Techmarine played a crucial role in the Battle of Helsreach.

Seaward wrote:

deffskulla wrote:I was thumbing through the BT codex and I've never used a techmarine. Black Templar doesn't really seem like the kind of army to use one, fluff wise.

However it would be awesome for a techmarine with 4 plasma cannons! It's awesome because the techmarine allows rerolls to the unit he is attached to!

A Black Templar Techmarine played a crucial role in the Battle of Helsreach.

He was even the Master of the Forge!

deffskulla wrote:I was thumbing through the BT codex and I've never used a techmarine. Black Templar doesn't really seem like the kind of army to use one, fluff wise.

However it would be awesome for a techmarine with 4 plasma cannons! It's awesome because the techmarine allows rerolls to the unit he is attached to!

A friend of mine used to run Black Templar techmarines with 4 gun servitors. It's a very squishy unit with their 4+ armor saves, and very expensive. I wouldn't really recommend it.

Seaward wrote:A Black Templar Techmarine played a crucial role in the Battle of Helsreach.

I haven't read Helsreach to be honest... It would be a very expensive unit but still would be kind of fun! It would definitely take the heat of someone else at least for a round of shooting!

Seaward wrote:

deffskulla wrote:I was thumbing through the BT codex and I've never used a techmarine. Black Templar doesn't really seem like the kind of army to use one, fluff wise.

However it would be awesome for a techmarine with 4 plasma cannons! It's awesome because the techmarine allows rerolls to the unit he is attached to!

A Black Templar Techmarine played a crucial role in the Battle of Helsreach.

lol, his poor servitors. I really liked that guy though.

An updated after much deliberation. I'm going with Red Templars... I'm Keeping all of the templars crosses but they are going to be red. I've decided to do this so I can switch between the 2 codexes, Blood Angels and Black Templars, with ease. I have bought scouts and other non-black templar things that I want to use. I don't want to buy a whole new army to accomplish this. I imagine that I'm going to start a thread in Painting and Modeling to give me motivation to do this.