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Have been thinking on a Imperial army for a while and after reading some lore I found black templars interesting. They have a good painting scheme, I like there fanaticism, And that they say not to the codex and continue with the crusades.

But how should I build an army of them? I know that it is my call but I would greatly enjoy some tips for a BT army. So far I have been thinking on a Drop pod army with 2 sword brethren squads (each with one drop pod), one Marshall and a unit of assault terminators and one Gunship. Would that be a good list or atleast workable? Been thinking on assault marines but I do not hear anything good about them.

Well... How to put this gently... Don't. Black Templars are kinda up in the air right now. The current rumor is that Black Templars aren't in the next codex that comes out next month. Another rumor is they are getting their own codex again. Now, I'm just parroting what I read, so take it with as much salt as you like. But in a month, things might get very different for the Templars. Don't commit to anything just yet until the rumors get figured out and we have something concrete to work with.

There's also a rumor that WHFB 9th is hitting that weekend and that Black Templars will be able to use the current Space Marine codex as their own until they get a new book for themselves. Rumors are rumors, if you wait to see what's going to happen then you'll be waiting for a while.

As for what you're asking, I'm assuming by sword Brethren you mean Sternguard, in which case you can't go wrong with two squads in Drop Pods. They're a little pricey, but they will deliver the hurt. I'm also not sure if you mean Captain or Chapter Master when you say Marshall, though I'm assuming Captain. I would recommend bumping him up to Chapter master and giving the shield eternal. That makes him super survivable and if you give him a power fist or a thunder hammer he becomes an absolute beat stick. I personally would just put him in a unit of TH/SS termies for extra offensive punch, but that's another pretty expensive option.

You can also put him on a bike for T5 along with a command squad rolling with a bunch of grav guns, but that's not super Templar fluffy.

Oh, and always consider grav centurions, hands down one of the best units in the game, though they're short range without an method to deliver them to mid field can be a problem.

When you say that they are not in the next codex does this mean that the space marines are getting a new codex already? And thanks for the heads up.

I too wanted to make a Black Templar list recently, since as far as Space Marines go, they seem like one of the most thematically cool chapters. However, they truly are rather awful, and the units thar are good in CC are not able to benefit from their tactics. I would wait.

Personally, I went with Imperial Fists instead.

Thematically, you would have big squads of cc focused mans in lanraiders and whatnot, however, that is not a great way to play, which may or may not be important to you.

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Suffer Not the Unclean to Live! These heresy spouting witches know nothing of the true dedication it takes to embark upon the Eternal Crusade

In all seriousness the only reason to play Black Templar is for the fluff and the aesthetics. They don't really have anything that is superior to other chapter tactics, but they are still space marines with all of those tools available. I have had some success with them running 3 drop pods, a LRC, a couple stormtalons and various units in between.

Here are their biggest benefits:
Objective Secured Land Raider Crusader
Large Crusader squads with a hidden powerfist. Reg dude with a Powerfist who can swing on the unit they assault while sword brother challenges.
5-man las/plas squad. 5 guys (3 bolters, 1 lascannon, 1 plasmagun) This is a small specialty unit that does great in a rhino. You can max out these for MSU action.

One tactic is to take helbrecht and like two or three LRCS with crusader squads in them. Land raiders run forward and then you use Helbrechts one-use WAAAGH ability to charge everyone in.

but there is an awesome Black Templar community over on bolter and chainsword. I mean, these are some real zealous crusaders who can really get you into the spirit of the Black Templar.

Well, like Icculus says, if you are mostly looking for a thematic army and do not care overly much about performance, do not let things like suboptimal rules stop you! Black Templars really are some of the cooler dudes out there. Perhaps not sympathetic, but way cool.

However, it might still be a good idea to wait and see what the new codex holds in store, but if you are going for a fluffy army you might want their token units despite what would happend to them in the comin SM codex.

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. Suffer Not the Unclean to Live! These heresy spouting witches know nothing of the true dedication it takes to embark upon the Eternal Crusade

Really well said. I also think this chapter is awesome and you should follow your instinct rather than think about winning competitive battles. I don't think BT will disappear from GW shelfs and lore, they are just too emblematic, just relax then !

Plus they allow you to make the most epic SM conversions with plenty of 28mm stuff to make your own custom medieval-power-armoured fanatics. This company makes really nice multiparts plastic boxed sets, for example :

http://fireforge-games.com/webstore/teutonic-order

I have an Emperors Champion model, who is one of the cooler models in the Space Marine range in my opinion. However, I have only ever fielded him as the actual Emperors Champion once.

His rules are horrid. I mean just awful. When I do put the model out I proxy him as the Company Champion in an honor guard unit.

And honor guard, by the way, is a fancy way of saying sword brethren for the Black Templar. So they are really a good unit to take for fluff purposes. I mean, the honor guard and company champion are the Codex Adherent equivalents of the Sword Brethren and Emperors Champion.

Templars are a knife at a gun fight at the moment. But, it's a really, really fun knife and a really dull gun fight.

Also, BTs can be Shooty. 180pts gets you an TL Assault Cannon/Lascannon Razorback, 5 Marines, one with a Plasma Gun and one with a Lascannon.

That's pretty nice.

Neophytes are cool too - want to pad out your wounds in a unit? Throw in some 10pt neophytes.

Personally I play a fairly fluff-heavy BT force at the moment. Helbrecht has a spot at the head of my army. I have a couple of Crusader squads in Razorbacks. Hammernators with a Chaplin in a Land Raider Crusader. I'm working on some honour guard (by adapting Forgeworld's fantastic Red Scorpions Honour Guard unit) etc etc.

Oh and if you do consider starting a BT force do yourself a favour and buy the Black Templar transfer sheet from Forgeworld - it's really, really useful.

I played Templars for 14 years and only recently switched to Necrons due to the strength of BTs being incredibly weak this edition.

I LOVE Black Templars and I am currently very sad that they don't work out all that well. If you don't care about winning games and want to just have a cool looking force that is one of the most unique fluff chapters in the lore (next to GKs) go for BTs because they won't disappoint you there.

As noted before there is a rumor that there will be a new SM codex in June and that BTs have been removed from the book. Personally, I would wait until after the codex hits so you can take a look at what is in the book and whether or not our chapter got nuked out of 40k.

All that said, if you do choose to roll with BTs, welcome to the Crusade!

Thanks for all the answers, they are greatly appreciated. I think that I will follow your advice and wait. Maybe paint a crusader squad to se how it will go. By the way, any tips for taking pictures for a plog?

Use a good camera, have a backdrop. A solid color backdrop right behind the models prevents autofocus from trying to zoom in on something in the background. And it adds a more uniform appearance to everything.

Definitely wait for the new SM dex to drop.
No point starting an army/faction that is literally in flux right now.
You'll either win big or faceplant hard.

HQ: Emperor's Champion, Chaplain, or Terminator Marshal with Lightning Claw and Storm Shield.



Elites: Assault Marines jumping out of a Land Raider



Troops: Crusader Squads of 10 marines and 5 CCW scouts jumping out of a LR Crusader or walking!

Heavy Support: A pair of Vindicators. Everyone loves pie plates!



Fast Attack: Bikes with a Tech Marine because it looks cool!






You won't win a lot, but you'll look cool doing it!

Nice pictures and thanks for the tip Icculus. Maybe we will know more about the codex in the following weeks. I would find it quite nice with a stand alone codex for the Black templar once more.

You can put a Techmarine on a Bike? That's...different LOL

If you want em, and you like the idea, go with your heart and have a small templer force for fun. Armies are not just maths and power rankings but your own desire to paint and make them too.

You could run them with other chapter tactics if you wanted and there CC focus was not effective.

I'll spare you the trouble of finding out grimaldus is absolute rubbish, I've seen him struggle to kill other power armor a lot. Heaven help him if he has to fight a terminator at some point in his life.




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I'll spare you the trouble of finding out grimaldus is absolute rubbish, I've seen him struggle to kill other power armor a lot. Heaven help him if he has to fight a terminator at some point in his life.

Yeah that was one of the biggest changes I hated about Power Weapons. The formerly deadly Chaplains now struggle to kill anything that is MEQ or TEQ :/

Yes brother of Dorn, feel the righteous zeal flowing through you. Don't listen to lesser chapters. Black templars are the way to go, and they will be getting their own codex a little later down the track untill then you can still use the current codex rules for bt in the next update... Untill next time no petty, no remorse, no fear

(My black templars all heavily themed too !