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I'm thinking the next army I start (long way down the line yet) will be regular Space Marines and I'm hoping to end up with an army that entirely starts in reserve (I might also add some infiltrating Scouts with teleport homer), so they'd be making alot of use of Drop Pods. I don't mind if that's not a particualrly competitive way to go (I'm more interested in aiming for a themed list), but on the other hand I don't like my units to get wiped out without getting to do anything, which is where my question arises. I want ot bring some Assault Terminators as well, so if I try to give them a deep striking role as well they're going to have to teleport in, which means they're going to spend a turn standing around and probably drawing a lot of fire. What are your experiences with teleporting these fellows? Do you find they come through it OK or is it just wasteful or too risky? If it helps any, I'm not too worried about deep strike mishaps as I plan to give all the Drop Pods locator beacons, and I'm planning to give most of them Thunder Hammers (hoping the Storm Shields will be enough to keep them in one piece).

Thanks in advance!

To put it very vaguely, teleporting Assault Terminators requires luck, skill, and the proper situation. The reason I'm not dismissing the idea right off the bat is that I've used this tactic effectively on several occasions. Note that I used drop pods (Templars) to increase my chances of landing on target, so YMMV.

The real issue with DSing Assault Terminators is something you've already figured out: they arrive, then stand around for a turn getting shot to pieces (they also attract pie-plates). That means you really need to tailor your playstyle to provide the terminators with an adequate landing zone within your opponent's lines. That means reducing the amount of enemies that can shoot into the landing zone, making sure the LZ is clear of any significant anti-terminator weaponry, and making sure your terminators will have a target the turn after they land. (That last bit is important since your terminators won't arrive until at least turn 2, meaning that they only have (at best) 3-5 turns of damage dealing per game).

Preparing a place for Assault terminators to land basically requires a list centered around either maximizing their damage, or maximizing their shock-value (e.g. using them to disrupt your opponent's strategies or tie-up a major threat while the rest of your army does the real damage). That's part of why they're not particularly competitive, since such a list will be ruined if (for any reason) your assault terminators fail to perform.

I'd say that on the whole, DSing Assault Terminators is simply too wasteful to be much fun unless you can reliably control/predict your opponent.

/2cents

Unless you are running shrike, No. If your opponent is smart, here is how it goes down:

Scenario #1: You deep strike in. Everything (Already a few inches away, since you stand a lot more chance mishapping than terminators coming out of a pod like SW, resulting in people not wanting to take their chances by dropping closer. Even with teleport homers in the mix, if the opponent knows about their existence, and notices a distinct lack of terminators onboard but distinct presence on army list, the pods won't last the turn.) nearby backs off their maximum movement. 6-12. Next turn, you move up six, quite likely having nothing in assault range. Then they move 6-12. Repeat. Repeat. Your terminators have died or your army has been taken out from under you while you have 200+ points floundering in the breeze. Best you can do here is use the terminators as a block for the opponent to keep away from for a few shooting phases.

Scenario #2: You deep strike in. Your opponent shoots the daylights out of it and charges it with a unit that can actually stand up to it.

Scenario #3: You deep strik--MISHAP.

If you are running vanilla, run them with shrike (infiltration or otherwise.) or in a LR. Don't bother trying to march them up the board at base movement, or DS in. DW and SW get away with doing it due to the ability to take CMLs and ACs in otherwise CC oriented squads, because they can come in closer in a drop pod, or both. You can do neither.

Drop pod armies have problems with coming on first turn. If you want a full reserve army then use Tigurius and have units come on in turn 2. This means your termies will arrive with rest of your army, so they will be the meat shield when you need them to be.

You could even try outflanking your entire army and have them come on in a landraider.

OK, thanks. I've been giving a lot of thought to the whole idea and it does seem quite a high-risk enterprise. Maybe an entirely deep striking list is based a bit too much on chance then?

I deep strike pods with teleport homers with drop pod assault so the terminators almost always do not scatter

Tactical terminators would do this job better. It's one of the few places that tac. termies out-perform regular termies. Give them some ac's(personal preferance) and then you can put out some decent shooting the turn you arrive. Also, while they deffinantly are not as good as assault termies in cc, they still have powerfists, which will make a mess out of many things. Just keep them away from power weapons and they should be ok in assault.

Is there anything that stops Terminators from running? That would certainly help the arrivals turn pie plate problem and help close down those pesky targets.

With regard to drawing lots of fire, it also depends a lot on what else you ahve on the board that is competing in your enemy's mind as a clear and present danger. You won't be able to drop the terminators into the middle of the enemy and expect them to survive for long, but if you give you opponent a choice between running away from (and shooting up) the terminators or dealing with other units then you get them either way.