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Ok, so, I've been doing some thinking. And it seems to me, that, weirdly, command squad's have an overlooked potential, as pseudo terminators. Lemmie explain.

Let's say, you get 2 captain's as your HQ's, either plain captains, or special ones like shrike or lysander, whatever you use. This means you can have 2 command squads.

So that's 10 models. Give them each a chainsword and storm shield. That's a 5 man unit, cheaper than 5 terminators. Give them a few other little upgrades like the banner, to make them even better with the spare points.

They now get a 3+ invulnerable from the stormshield. Which is almost as good as a terminator with one, only their armour is lower than the terminator one, but more often than not you are forced to make that invulnerable anyway. Then they actually become -more- survivable than the
Terminator's, given that the apothecary gives them feel no pain.

So, they are slightly cheaper without other upgrades, and instead of lightning claws, they get feel no pain (Though if you wanted to up the ante a bit, you could give them power fists or otherwise, though that will make them more expencive.) This pretty much gives you, almost-terminators, with feel-no-pain. That's damn survivable.

Other advantages? Get them into a rhino in your army, and all 10 of them can travel upfield! Much easier than land raider's for terminators, double the capacity, a fraction of the price. Or, even just give them a land raider, and you can fit in 10 rather than 5, and take your 2 captains with them to boot! Or put all 10 in a drop pod, with those captains, again, more good stuff! With the space marine special rule, if you only have that one drop pod, you can land this squad of 2 captains, and 10 pseudo-terminator's right on the first turn, right up close! Woop!

More advantages? 90 more point's, you can put the whole squad on bikes instead of giving them a transport. They become pseudo biker-terminators! Bikernators

Another advantage!? These pseudo-terminator's, don't take up anything on your force organisation chart. So, you can throw in some real terminator's if you like, just for the hell of it. Give one of your captains a teleport homer, bring in the pseudo's in a drop pod first turn, then use the homer to bring the terminator's right down with them!

So, Army idea. Let's give that a go.

2 Captains with storm shields and power swords, one with a teleport homer
2 command squads with storm shields and Chainswords (Or powerfists or more! if you preferr) All this in a drop pod.
10 Assault terminator's in reserve.
Another 10 if you have the points for it.

2 squad's of sniper scout's, to make up for those last few required troops choices.

Whatever you like to bulk out with the remaining points.



This is clearly an annihalation army only, but it let's you drop 22 to 32 unit's right into the enemy, very early in the game, that are very -very- hard to kill.


So, what'dya think? Utter nonsense, or something to think about?

I run mine with all plasma and 1 melta in it (and power weps/fists all around). Got to say though the t5 12inch move jink hammer of wrath relentless bikenators sounds like a scary prospect.

chainswords and storm shields = 0 damage out put against MEQ, TEQ type units. they are tough as termies (almost) but if they go up against elite troops they will have trouble killing them and if they go up against horde type they will be wasing their storm shields.

they are cheaper, and thats for reasons i just listed.

The problem is that the command squads have no AP in CC till you pay for it and if you do the whole unit gets enormously expensive. 250 points for 4 guys with SS and PW/Claws and a apothecarius, for the same you get 6 Terminators with better armorsave (which is very hard to deny now) and reroll to wound and an additional attack or hammers and SS. It's the same problem the vanguard has as you have to buy every weapon separate. Btw for the nearly the same price I can get 5 honor guard with relic blades.

I can admit that the 2+ is compansated by FnP, but the apothecarius himself is another problem, as he can get no upgrades at all and must be protected (being a Character makes this a tad more easier but even LOS! can fail) and Plasma- or Battlecannons will ruin your day.

Meh, fair point, If it were me, I'd pay the little bit extra to give them an improved weapon each.

Apostrophes aren't for plurals. Please stop using them as such. I also don't understand why you'll put apostrophes with some plurals and not others. It's "captains" not "captain's", "Terminators" not "Terminator's" and so on.

You can't put two five man squads in a Rhino. One unit per transport, with the exception of added ICs, Stormravens, and some superheavies.

Decking out command squads is something I'm generally wary to do, since you'll end up spending a lot of points on models that will fail a third of their saves. Even with the apothecary, they still feel very fragile. Command squads are best as a small counter-assault unit (company champion and power fist is the most I'll buy them) or as a special weapon squad with 4 plasma or melta guns. I feel like they have their place as assault units in smaller games, but trying to eclipse Terminators in the same role probably isn't your best bet for them. To give them all power weapons and stormshields even you're paying out the nose.

The command squad is an excellent option, but gets a tad more expensive than terminators if you try to equip them similarly. You lose a 2+ armor save but gain FNP.

Is it a good trade? Well, you can have a command squad that strikes at int 4, which is good vs other lower int stuff. Command squads can take 4 melta bombs for cheap, they can take whatever power weapon you want, so if you want a more versatile unit, the command squad is your guy.

In terms of equipping, I would say to go with two power swords, two power axes, captain with lighting claw and powerfist, and make sure the veterans have melta bombs. This unit should be able to handle anything.