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So. I'm trying to get the new Cataphracii Terminators to work, especially multiples of them in a 1'st company task force.

I think the best way is to get them more durable which would probably be in a fist of medusa strike force to give them +1 fnp from the Commander to get in total (in theory) 2+, 4++. 5+ fnp.
The killiness will be a little problem so I think the best tweak is to kit them out for a multitude of enemies. Flamers to kill chaff, lightning claws for MEQ (I am unshure if the claw is better than the fist, will try it out) and 3 Power Fists to battle tougher enemies.
A Librarian from a Librarius Conclave will go in each squad as well as the mandatory Captain to give them some more killyness which will combine nicely with the minus to leadership the units can produce.
I think the best way is to teleport them in and as such, have the first strike.

Medusa Strike Force

Captain: Cataphraci Terminator Armour, Storm Shield, Relic Blade 145.p

5x Tactical Marines: Las Cannon, Teleport Homer 95.p

5x Tactical Marines: Las Cannon, Teleport Homer 95.p

5x Tactical Marines: Las Cannon, Teleport Homer 95.p

5x Devestator Marines: Las Cannon 90.p

4x Bikes: 2x Grav Guns, Combi Grav, Melta Bomb 129.p

1'st company tast force

5x Cataphracii Terminators: 2x Dual Lightning Claws, 3x Power Fists, Heavy Flamer 185.p

5x Cataphracii Terminators: 2x Dual Lightning Claws, 3x Power Fists, Heavy Flamer 185.p

5x Cataphracii Terminators: 2x Dual Lightning Claws, 3x Power Fists, Heavy Flamer 185.p

Librarius Conclave

Librarian: Terminator Armour Lvl 2 115.p

Librarian: Terminator Armour Lvl 1 90.p

Librarian: Terminator Armour Lvl 1 90.p

1499.p

First off I would heavily suggest against running mixed melee weapons in anything but the most specialized melee detachments. Though on face value I will admit that the claws will give you a greater chance against enemy termi's, especially with the quicker initiative.

I would instead suggest giving the Librarian's a combi-grav, melta or even plasma if it comes down to it. As to get those necessary kills from range before running in. Heavy flamers are nice, especially when getting charged yourself. Coming from a grey knight perspective though its easier for me, seeing as my flamers are S6 Ap4, other then the standard levels.

You may like to take two razor backs with a laz/plas turret. By shifting a few points out from you're troops, however the bikes seem to be effective especially if you can get them into a flanking position of some sort.

Though not being familiar with the medusa strike force list, or what it forces you to take in such a case, I have no real idea.

Echoing the sentiments about mixing Terminator Weapons from above, the LC only excels in the weight of number of attacks, since you're still rolling 4+ to hit and wound most of the time against even MEQ, and with TEQ getting their 2+ against you a maximum of 8 LC attacks on the charge per squad isn't going to chew up much. Conversely, the Power Fist is really good at cracking tough enemies with its high chance to wound and instangib models, and can reliably crack vehicles, but against most enemies it will be overkill, especially against units that can throw out lots of attacks at initiative like various Space Wolf infantry or Ork Boyz, which will kill your fist guys with their sheer weight of attacks before they can hit back at I1. Hence, it's easier to run pure LC squads, and throw them at anything 3+ or worse, with up to maybe one fist on the Sarge to crack the occasional attached Character, or otherwisr run a full Fist squad to be able to shoot while retaining the capability to crack vehicles and other TEQ. Just be sure to throw your specialised Terminators at what you intend them to fight since getting 5 LCs stuck in against a Dread or 5 Fists drowned in 30 Orks will toast them quickly.

Thanks guys.

Yes I was a little bit unsure as well about mixing the weapons. So what would be the best approach with their equipment? 1 unit with dual lightning claws, swapping the heavy flamer for a frag grenade launcher and 2 units with power fists and heavy flamer or vice versa?

Just remember that Cataphracti are SnP, so they won't be getting to use those flamers for overwatch.

I'm not too sure about your choices for the medusan strike force tacs, lascannons are pretty bad, and the teleport homers are only going to help you if you're moving forward which you don't want to be doing if you're toting a lascannon around. Not to mention wasing bolter fire if you shoot at tanks or wasting lascannon fire if shooting at infantry. Hand the heavy weapons to the devs and let your tacs go infantry hunting, will also let you move the tacs up and make use of the teleport homers more effectively.

As to terminator loadout, that depends heavily on your meta. Do you see lots of tanks and MC's? If so, more power fists (and maybe a chainfist in each fist squad too if there's lots of walkers or knights). Or do you see infantry spam like a green tide or necron silver tide? If so, more lightning claws. It's a rare day when a powerfist doesn't have a good target, but lightning claws struggle with vehicles, 2+ armour and to a lesser degree, MC's.

One last thing, if you can swap out your captain for a chaplain, it'll probably be worth it for one of your terminator squads. He'll "only" be in regular terminator armour, but hatred and fearless are for winners when you're trying to punch people in the face. Unless you're just going to roll all of your librarians on Div for prescience, then never mind, go with the captain.

If you do start all the termies off the table, remember that you've only got 20 marines and 4 bikes turn 1 and you're going to get tabled before your reserves come in on the odd occasion, especially if your enemy rolls -1 to your reserves as his warlord trait. Any alpha strike army or infiltrators is going to cause you a world of problems.

Cool idea though, be interesting to see if it works out.

A few things about Terminators.

Their shooting output is incredibly poor. It really isn't worth taking Terminators with guns, and if for some reason you do you're normally better off running them in the shooting phase so they get to punch something next turn.
But then Cataphractii can't run, or even take any good guns. It's hard to recommend using them.
If you want to run shooty Terminators, go with Deathwatch who can take a Heavy on every model.

Deepstriking. A vanilla deep strike is a poor way to get models on the table. It limits Terminators being effective (i.e. in Assault) until turn 3 at the earliest, and can be too random with reserve and scatter roles.
If you want to deep strike you want a method of getting them in turn 1 (Pods or formations), and/or can assault from Deep Strike (BA).

Alternatively, consider starting them on the table and just running them at your opponent. BA TH/SS Terminators are good here - attach a Sang Priest with jump pack and Veritas Vitae to give them +1WS, FNP and re-rolls to assault distance; the Veritas gives you a better chance of being able to infiltrate them from the Strategic warlord traits

If you really need to put the termis in deep strike, than I will at least suggest a relay beacon. Letting you re roll those 3+ reserves, and making sure that you're guys have another chance to come in. However it has been a long time for me so I think the beacon is still around 25pts, so you may want to take that with a grain of salt.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Drasius wrote:
Just remember that Cataphracti are SnP, so they won't be getting to use those flamers for overwatch.

I'm not too sure about your choices for the medusan strike force tacs, lascannons are pretty bad, and the teleport homers are only going to help you if you're moving forward which you don't want to be doing if you're toting a lascannon around. Not to mention wasing bolter fire if you shoot at tanks or wasting lascannon fire if shooting at infantry. Hand the heavy weapons to the devs and let your tacs go infantry hunting, will also let you move the tacs up and make use of the teleport homers more effectively.

As to terminator loadout, that depends heavily on your meta. Do you see lots of tanks and MC's? If so, more power fists (and maybe a chainfist in each fist squad too if there's lots of walkers or knights). Or do you see infantry spam like a green tide or necron silver tide? If so, more lightning claws. It's a rare day when a powerfist doesn't have a good target, but lightning claws struggle with vehicles, 2+ armour and to a lesser degree, MC's.

One last thing, if you can swap out your captain for a chaplain, it'll probably be worth it for one of your terminator squads. He'll "only" be in regular terminator armour, but hatred and fearless are for winners when you're trying to punch people in the face. Unless you're just going to roll all of your librarians on Div for prescience, then never mind, go with the captain.

If you do start all the termies off the table, remember that you've only got 20 marines and 4 bikes turn 1 and you're going to get tabled before your reserves come in on the odd occasion, especially if your enemy rolls -1 to your reserves as his warlord trait. Any alpha strike army or infiltrators is going to cause you a world of problems.

Cool idea though, be interesting to see if it works out.

That goes without saying, we just had war zone Atlanta down here, and plenty of the people from my shop went. Plenty such armies running there in almost 200 players, not to mention a guy playing daemons, with about 55 screamers. Even with my Grey Knights effectiveness against daemons helping, it was hard enough to win against him, and all I had left was three squads in the end, Not including my last Dreadknight.