Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, with all the crazy formations running around and a new FAQ, is it time to revisit (or re-lambast) the best terminator army in the game right now?

Space Marines:
- First Company Strike Force gives some pretty nice buffs with Fearless and Preferred Enemy on 1 unit. With Fearless they close the gap between Deathwing Terminators for a few points cheaper. Also, if running a Librarius Conclave, the -2 Leadership debuff can really work with a Psychic Shriek style list.
- Now Space Marines can add Cataphractii terminators, or a Captain in Cataphractii armor that could add some interesting flavor.

Deathwing:
- Deathwing have a weird place because one of their formations/detachments requires everything to deepstrike from Turn 2 on. That means you need something else to stay on the board to prevent you from Auto-Losing. Aside from that, they are Fearless, can mix and match weapons, and have some interesting buffs when they first arrive from Deepstrike.

Grey Knights:
- Troop Terminators means they are the only ones in 7th edition to possibly have Ob Sec. However, this is moot if you're running the Nemesis Strike Force detachment. They also get Psycannons and power weapons at Initiative and are relatively cheap now.
- Paladins with Apothecaries are good places to stick Draigo and Librarians as well.
- Brother Captain Stern comes with Sanctuary, which can make for an intersting deathstar starter.

Chaos:
- Either using the Chosen of Abaddon or the Purge Detachment you can get quite a few Chaos Terminators into your army. They get power weapons and combi-weapons for relatively cheap, but they don't have ATSKNF. Is Termicide the best way to run them still?

Space Wolves:
- Company of the Great Wolf detachment means you can load up on terminators. They can get the same type of gear as Chaos Terminators (with Combi's and Power Weapons, and can throw in some heavy weapons as well. Wulfen and Thunderwolves get all the love from the Space Wolves, but can you make a decent Wolfwing army these days?

Blood Angels:
- Blood Angels don't get any funny shenanigans, but they can add Sanguinary Priests to give Terminators FNP, which keeps them around longer. Is there something here that can be utilized?

Basically, are any of these ideas worth exploring? I've had some moderate success with Grey Knight Terminators and Dreadknights, but are there anything the other armies can bring? I do loves me some terminators.

Grey Knight termies are pretty good with Draigo and some Libbies, the force weapons really put a hurtin' on MCs and GMCs. Unfortunately Psycannons aren't that great anymore and unless you use Paladins you only get 1 per 5 models. Other than that, GK termies have absolutely awful shooting but will clean up in assault.

I also like Wolf Guard termies in Arjac's Shield Brothers formation for the +1T. Have to take a LRC though so it's pretty expensive to get them on the board, but they're tough as nails.

Would you consider FSE crisis suits also? Having a commander and a Crisis suit for each troop choice means that you could have a tiny but fully legal detachment.

30k Death Guard

we have a 2-wound terminator squad that can be both elites, body guards, and HQs, and a HS terminator squad, so in a perfect world, not counting points:

HQ:
1 praetor w/ 10 Deathshroud Terminators (Pride of the Legion to make terminators troops)
10 Deathshroud Terminators
10 Deathshroud Terminators
TROOPS:
6 10-man Terminator squads (or Deathshroud Terminators)
ELITE:
4 10-man Terminator Squads (or Deathshroud Terminators)
HEAVY SUPPORT:
3 10-man Grave Warden Terminator Squads
LORD OF WAR:
Primarch Mortarion w/ 10 Deathshroud Terminators

Boom: 172 Models with Terminator Armour (174 if you add in 2 more Praetors.) Pair the ability to bring a ton of them with the better invuln on the Cataphractii, the fact that Death shroud have I: 3 power axes that can give more attacks and 2 wounds, The Grave Warden's bonus, and the Death Guard resistance to poison and access to rad grenades they are one of the more deadly mass terminator armies

(ignore that the mass terminator version costs 7500 points to field )

u display them on your shelf as an army, thats how you make terminator armies work lol

BA have formations that involve terminators, but they are largely worthless.

They've got formations for Terminators?

Anyway, Termicide or GK's or 1st company are about the only ways to use them. GK's are easily the best followed by Termicide.

Can someone elaborate on Termicide?

Cataphractii Captains can be joined to Devastator Squads to make them slow and purposeful... hooray for mobile lascannons!

I still run assault terminators in a LRC occasionally. They're not amazing, but they do draw a ton of fire.

Termicide is where you take 3-4 Chaos Terminators and give them all the same Combi, and deep strike next to the target you want potentially eliminated. At minimum with three, it costs only 112 points. It isn't a bad deal, and one of the only good things the CSM codex can do, even without accurate Deep Strike.

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:
They've got formations for Terminators?

Anyway, Termicide or GK's or 1st company are about the only ways to use them. GK's are easily the best followed by Termicide.

If you were going to go the Chaos route, what would the rest of your army look like? Even with the Purge, that's only 12 to 16 terminators if you keep them in groups of 3-4.

Also, if you were going 1st Company, would you just max out with all terminators, or would you try to fit some other stuff in?

A purge detachment could take 6 units, so even at min-size that's still 18 terminators. Nothing is stopping you from taking multiple purge detachments. It's the only real option for taking massed terminators.

The bringers of despair can only be taken once due to abaddon being unique and the chosen of abaddon require you to take a relatively expensive HQ for each unit, since you want it in termie armour. I suppose you can take sorcerers to make them fearless and fuel WC if you feel like it. Though you're probably still better of taking another purge detachment and getting a cabal for that.

It's a tossup between GK terminators and Vanilla Terminators for me for the following reasons:

GK terminators have access to some really fun crap and being able to cast spells is a decent boon for them. Being troops normally also helps since there's absolutely no restrictions on them whatsoever, unlike every other terminator in the game. Rites of Teleportation means that they're also the only terminators who can alpha strike now (Deathwing weeps).

Vanilla Terminators have cheap base cost and the First Company Taskforce going for them, since it's effectively a free upgrade to Fearless (which DW Terminators pay for and other terminators don't even have as an option). Cyclone Missile Launchers are still decent weapons as is TH/SS. And they can mitigate the lack of support with Land Raider DTs and the Librarius Conclave.

For BA the priest also gives them +WS in addition to FNP.

 whitedragon wrote:
Also, if you were going 1st Company, would you just max out with all terminators, or would you try to fit some other stuff in?

This kind of question always invokes a followup one:

How tightly to you want to adhere to your theme? What compromises are you willing to make for game play? Why did you set the parameters you did?

Do you want just terminators, or just 1st company assets? How much chapter support?

There are a few more formations that work for a loyalist vanilla TDA list.
Librarian Conclave
Strike Force Ultra
Land Raider Spearhead

If you are willing to include other random vehicles, a number of other options open up. Although for the armored TF, you might have to accept a non TDA techmarine.

If I was going to build a terminator army out the the basic codex, I might focus on strike force ultra as a core. I don’t think it’s rules are as good as the 1st co. TF, but it lets you take a few extra things. The captain/raven/dread help flesh out the army. The librarian conclave should also be a major part of the list. It’s the one “power unit” that fits the theme. They can help shore up a lot of weaknesses.

 Nevelon wrote:

 whitedragon wrote:
Also, if you were going 1st Company, would you just max out with all terminators, or would you try to fit some other stuff in?

This kind of question always invokes a followup one:

How tightly to you want to adhere to your theme? What compromises are you willing to make for game play? Why did you set the parameters you did?

Do you want just terminators, or just 1st company assets? How much chapter support?

There are a few more formations that work for a loyalist vanilla TDA list.
Librarian Conclave
Strike Force Ultra
Land Raider Spearhead

If you are willing to include other random vehicles, a number of other options open up. Although for the armored TF, you might have to accept a non TDA techmarine.

If I was going to build a terminator army out the the basic codex, I might focus on strike force ultra as a core. I don’t think it’s rules are as good as the 1st co. TF, but it lets you take a few extra things. The captain/raven/dread help flesh out the army. The librarian conclave should also be a major part of the list. It’s the one “power unit” that fits the theme. They can help shore up a lot of weaknesses.

I'm flexible with theme, I just really like terminators. My original idea centered around any way to add 3x Vanilla Marine Terminator Squads into an army and still have it be decent, but with the new FAQ, it seems like its time to really crank it up to 11 on the Psychic Shriek. An army I've done before that was fun (but had no librarians) was:
****************
CAD
Lysander
Chaplain in Terminator Armor
5x Tac Marines with Grav Cannon in Rhino
5x Tac Marines with Grav Cannon in Rhino
3x Centurion Grav Devastators
Imperial Knight Errant

1st Company Strike Force
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
*****************
I'm wondering if I should go less or more terminators, or shuffle around the support units all together. Another army I've been playing lately is this:

************************
Grey Knights NSF
Draigo
Level 3 Libby
Level 3 Libby
3x Paladins with Apothecary (Draigo goes here)
5x Terminators with 1x Psycannon and 1x Hammer
5x Terminators with 1x Psycannon and 1x Hammer
Dreadknight with Teleporter and Psycannon
Dreadknight with Teleporter and Psycannon

Oathsworn Knight Errant
*************************
This army brought the psychic shrieks, but its pretty light on actual firepower. Only 4x Psycannons doesn't really scare anybody. I'd also really like to find a way for this to work with Chaos, but that sounds like an even taller order without taking 2x Renegade Knights, which kinda seems like a crutch.

strike force ultra is a space marine detachment with some prominent resolve.

 whitedragon wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 whitedragon wrote:
Also, if you were going 1st Company, would you just max out with all terminators, or would you try to fit some other stuff in?

This kind of question always invokes a followup one:

How tightly to you want to adhere to your theme? What compromises are you willing to make for game play? Why did you set the parameters you did?

Do you want just terminators, or just 1st company assets? How much chapter support?

There are a few more formations that work for a loyalist vanilla TDA list.
Librarian Conclave
Strike Force Ultra
Land Raider Spearhead

If you are willing to include other random vehicles, a number of other options open up. Although for the armored TF, you might have to accept a non TDA techmarine.

If I was going to build a terminator army out the the basic codex, I might focus on strike force ultra as a core. I don’t think it’s rules are as good as the 1st co. TF, but it lets you take a few extra things. The captain/raven/dread help flesh out the army. The librarian conclave should also be a major part of the list. It’s the one “power unit” that fits the theme. They can help shore up a lot of weaknesses.

I'm flexible with theme, I just really like terminators. My original idea centered around any way to add 3x Vanilla Marine Terminator Squads into an army and still have it be decent, but with the new FAQ, it seems like its time to really crank it up to 11 on the Psychic Shriek. An army I've done before that was fun (but had no librarians) was:
****************
CAD
Lysander
Chaplain in Terminator Armor
5x Tac Marines with Grav Cannon in Rhino
5x Tac Marines with Grav Cannon in Rhino
3x Centurion Grav Devastators
Imperial Knight Errant

1st Company Strike Force
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
5x Terminators with Assault Cannon
*****************
I'm wondering if I should go less or more terminators, or shuffle around the support units all together. Another army I've been playing lately is this:

************************
Grey Knights NSF
Draigo
Level 3 Libby
Level 3 Libby
3x Paladins with Apothecary (Draigo goes here)
5x Terminators with 1x Psycannon and 1x Hammer
5x Terminators with 1x Psycannon and 1x Hammer
Dreadknight with Teleporter and Psycannon
Dreadknight with Teleporter and Psycannon

Oathsworn Knight Errant
*************************
This army brought the psychic shrieks, but its pretty light on actual firepower. Only 4x Psycannons doesn't really scare anybody. I'd also really like to find a way for this to work with Chaos, but that sounds like an even taller order without taking 2x Renegade Knights, which kinda seems like a crutch.

I think you're going in the right direction with your lists. I used to play pure Deathwing in 5th, and it kind of worked. Now in 7th you need something with firepower and mobility backing your terminators.
GK Terminators backed by Dreadknights is one option, and works in none-bleeding edge metas. Other options include Terminators backed by Grav Bikes eg Deathwing Strike Force backed by multiple Ravenwing Attack Squadrons or a Ravenwing strike force. Or BA Terminators from their detachment, backed by a Baal Strike Force with Grav Bikes and Death Company

For extra-durable Terminators, look into Iron Hands. Everybody having FNP (even if it isn't great) is a huge boon. Putting a Chain of Gorgon on a Cataphractii Captain is also a very effective upgrade, worth every point.

With the 1st Company Taskforce, you'd have a fairly durable Iron Hands terminators with some nice added perks from the formation. I prefer to run it as part of my "Fist of Medusa" formation, and attach ICs to each squad for both added effectiveness in both offense (chaplains + chainfists = dead vehicles) and defense (better FNP saves).

1st Company Task Force with all of the Terminators swapped for Cataphractii Terminators would be pretty versatile and hardy. Throw in Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and you are even better off. You could do the same thing with Strike Force Ultra.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
1st Company Task Force with all of the Terminators swapped for Cataphractii Terminators would be pretty versatile and hardy. Throw in Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and you are even better off. You could do the same thing with Strike Force Ultra.

Hmm. Just realized from your post that Cataphractii can sub for both tac and assault squads, but don’t need to be equipped as such. So instead of two/two assualt/tac, you could just spam 4 squads of lightning claw CTDA squads.

 Nevelon wrote:

 casvalremdeikun wrote:
1st Company Task Force with all of the Terminators swapped for Cataphractii Terminators would be pretty versatile and hardy. Throw in Iron Hands Chapter Tactics and you are even better off. You could do the same thing with Strike Force Ultra.

Hmm. Just realized from your post that Cataphractii can sub for both tac and assault squads, but don’t need to be equipped as such. So instead of two/two assualt/tac, you could just spam 4 squads of lightning claw CTDA squads.

Yup. Maybe add in a few fists for dealing with bigger stuff, but otherwise Cataphractii are going to be better in just about every way. Strike Force Ultra can also sub a Contemptor Dread for the Dread in that formation too.

 casvalremdeikun wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Hmm. Just realized from your post that Cataphractii can sub for both tac and assault squads, but don’t need to be equipped as such. So instead of two/two assualt/tac, you could just spam 4 squads of lightning claw CTDA squads.

Yup. Maybe add in a few fists for dealing with bigger stuff, but otherwise Cataphractii are going to be better in just about every way. Strike Force Ultra can also sub a Contemptor Dread for the Dread in that formation too.

Although on further reflection, while you can take them in SF:Ultra, you do miss out on some of the rules that specify the squads that get them. Not an issue in the 1st Co. TF, as it just gives blanket rules to everyone.

If you honestly need Terminators to be THAT much more durable, use Iron Hands in their own detachment (if points allow) and start allying in Priests (with Jump Packs for Deep Strike of course).