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So I've just got my hands on a bunch of terminators, and am looking to corrupt them to worship my dark master Khorne

They could be blessed with various mutations and become Chaos Terminators, or if truly devout, have their minds and bodies warped into Obliterators or Mutilators if its worthwhile. Land Raiders could also be stolen from the loyalist scum to shuttle them to the battlefield.

Are they any good, and whats the best way to run them? Do Crimson Slaughter or Black Legion add anything? Are Terminator Lords worthwhile? Is there some way to take them as troops in this codex?

They'd be more or less semi-competitive at best, so I don't care if the latest AP2 pieplate spewing garbage will chew them up. I also expect to use them more for Zone Mortalis than anything else. Just wondering if they can be made reasonably good.

Cheers

I ran terminators in my khorne list and I liked them. Either they infiltrated up to mid-board with an AoBF lord (thanks to huron), or they sometimes deepstruck and wrecked face, depending on how I needed them. Terminators are pretty good in close combat compared to most stuff, and that IoW re-rolls proved crucial to getting them into close combat.

Because you beat face in close combat, the natural weakness is in shooting against stuff that wants to stay away from close combat. To fix this, everyone had a combi-weapon (a mix of plasma and melta), but that was already an obligatory upgrade for deepstriking them anyways. The one really curious choice I made, and was shockingly often glad I did was for a pair of them to be lugging around autocannons.

Normally I don't care for that weapon, and you might not think it makes sense on a CC terminator squad, but I found them occasionally invaluable. This is because, with deepstriking and long range, they're able to threaten a lot of side-armor stuff, and with twin-linking could even threaten fliers. Of course, the point was to get them into close combat to bash them with fist and maul and axe, but I didn't NEED to get them into close combat as quickly as possible in order to make them do something. This took a lot of pressure off, and options out of my oppoent's hands.

Put another way, CC terminators can be countered by keeping them out of CC. CC terminators with special weapons and twin-linked autocannons, on the other hand, can't. I mean, imagine if you could give a THSS squad an assault cannon per 5 models in the unit. You know you'd do it in a heartbeat as an insurance policy against getting stranded out of close combat. The same is true here.

In the end, my huge, angry terminator squad did well because there wasn't anything that it did particularly poorly. My only complaint is that they tended to get shot at A LOT because of the withering killing power they could put out. The nature of the beast, though. I'd rather something that get's shot at because it's too good than something that's ignored because it isn't.

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No, you can't take terminators as troops, though. It's dumb, I know. You can sort of achieve something vaguely similar with possessed in the new CSM:CS codex... sort of.

As for terminator lords, lords take terminator armor at an absurd markup. It's usually better to give him a sigil and power armor instead, as it's better against things that your lord will really fear, and cheaper. There's no substitute if you intend to deepstrike in with other terminators, though, but otherwise I think I'd pass. I mean, even in a raider, I'd rather take a lord and a sorcerer than a single, bulky terminator lord.

As for oblits, they're oblits. Nothing new, really. They still have worse killing power than other HS choices, but still have more versatility thanks to swappable weapons and deepstriking. The way I like to think of them is as concentrated terminators that use up an HS slot. Lots of wounds of deepstriking terminator armor with decent shooting and chopping alike. There's nothing wrong with giving them MoK either, especially if you're going to be aggressive with deepstriking them.

For mutilators... well... they're the weakest choice in the codex, unfortunately for them. With MoK they CAN do some pretty silly stuff, and they're a dark horse candidate for MC killer if you can reliably deliver them to a monstrous creature. The only real extra benefit they get is when paired with land raiders. 3 mutilators gives you 6 terminators worth of wounds, and somewhat approaching 6 terminators worth of chopping power, except that they only take up 3 of 5 bulky spaces in a land raider, while 6 terminators can't fit in at all.

This means that, with mutilators, you can do something silly like put 3 mutilators, abaddon, and a terminator sorcerer in a land raider.

As for raiders, there's nothing wrong with them. You lose the machine spirit (which isn't as much of a loss in my mind as others think), and you get the best version of the land raider and for cheaper. Plus, warpflames, dirge casters, etc. I don't know if I'd field just one, but there's no reason a raider rush can't work.

They can definitely be useful. Chaos terminators can take combi weapons and power weapons which make them great for tailoring to a specific target type. Equip them so they fill in gaps and you won't be disappointed. Just know that unmarked tend to be the best as cheaper is usually better.

Oblits are great and putting a mark of khorne on them won't turn them into bad. It may not be optimal but it could be useful in certain situations (move, shoot a melta, and charge the contents for example).

Mutilators get a lot of flack but they can be a decent distraction unit in a casual environment. I have seen 3 units of 1 mutilator dropped into a parking lot cause absolute havok. With the addition of rerolls to hit and/or extra attacks they become significantly better as their weakness is always low durability and low number of attacks connecting. Those attacks that do connect hurt though.

The landraider used to be useless IMO but with the addition of invisibility (Be'Lakor) or forewarning (Crimson Slaughter Sorcerer) the dirge caster landraider is fantastic for delivering your choice of melee death. Just make sure there are enough targets on the table that the landraider isn't the only thing to shoot at.

I would like to restate that oblits are amazing and can be used in a huge variety of ways to become even better.

Chaos termies are good if you can avoid ap2 stuff.

I disagree on the reaper autocannon though. 25 pts for 2 s7 shots is a bit too much. Imo, you're better off with another combi-weapon or heavy flamer. Though, i agree on unmarked termies. However, they benefit from any mark. That's one of few units in chaos codex that benefits from MoT. MoK is actually not bad mostly cause of counter-charge. +1 attack is much more notisable when you're charged than when you charge the enemy yourself. And if the opponent is not super-shooty or has his shooty elements crippled, he'll probably have to charge you. Or at least bauble wrap you with some cheap guyz where an extra attack from those few surviving termies will matter. Don't forget, you can get swept if there's no fearless lord in a unit.

I've mostly used them as meltadrop but with rather random deepstrike and 6' range, i start thinking that plazma-drop might be better. It's slightly worse at tankhunting but is more reliable cause of better range and more shots. Wider range of targets is another plus.

Reaper Autocannons are such an awkward (and terrible) upgrade. I'd rather have Combi-Plasma instead. I guess it makes sense if you're footing it across the board?

I'd rather go Heavy Flamers for the guys who can take the bigger guns. Helps when deep striking because D3 counter-assault overwatch hits is really, really good even if you're not already killing a bunch of weaker trooper types instantly.

Well, the reason for the autocannons was because on the one hand, you got to shoot them more than once. This means that terminators don't become counterable by scooting stuff away the turn after they drop. The second is that they have much longer range, which also helps with this as well. Combi-plasmas become of questionable use if you're going to single-tap them, especially since once you shoot them, they're done. The reaper suffers from neither problem.

Plus, it just so happens that this particular weapon tends to dovetail with things that you're going to have problems with getting into CC with, like a raider spam army, or fliers or FMCs. It turns out that that narrow range of things you'd want autocannons for happens to have a lot of overlap with those things that are going to be really annoying for your terminators.

I would agree that the reaper autocannon has some nice utility in this unit.

It increase the range out to which you can allocate casualties. Not always important but can come up on these large footprint units (like a beast star when you bring down/negate defenses).

Keeps you relavent when you pop your combi plasma and kill off the wraithknight. Now you can add to the torrent against the waveserpents.

Looks awesome...the most important point.