How do you play your termies ?

Hi brothers !

Yesterday, I had a game against necrons (2000 VS 2000, Big Guns Never Die). I won this one 11 pts to 3, mainly thanks to my stormraven (killed 2 doom scythes and 10 necron warriors), my psyrifle dreadnought (1 triarch stalker, 2 annihilation barges) and my purifiers (16 scarabs, 20 warriors and the HQ)

It was my second game with GK, and for the second time I have not been able to use my terminators : I had two squads of 5, plus the Grand Master in one of them, and as there was lot of stuff on the battlefield, I did not dare to Deep strike them : I used them to hold two objectives. This is 6 victory points, but I would prefer to see them smash out some necrons

So, I would be interested to know how you play yours.

Run them as one group of 10, get the psy bolts, combat squad them if you want. 1x Psy cannon or incin per 5, one hammer per 5, 2 halbards and 2 swords per 5.

That's the way I play them. But how do you deploy them ? How do you make them work ?

How do you presently play them Brother, and what does your list look like?

How you use your GKTs depends on your list and style of play. Footslog, SR, LRC, Deepstrike… all can be quite effective depending on the context of the game.

I tend to have a squad of 10 at 1500 points set up in much the same way as First Strike's. Then I add another five terminators for every 500 points.

I keep my options open in terms of tactics, but generally I teleport them. Walking is OK if they're guarding an objective on my side of the board but usually I have a warp quaking strike squad to take care of that.

If all goes well, the terminators teleport in at the same time, possibly using psychic communion. After the scatter the interceptors and dread knight shunt forward into supporting positions where they can use their incinerators. It gives the enemy a lot of threatening targets, one of which is a jump packing monstrous creature. The AP2 guns for killing the terminators are the same AP2 guns the enemy needs to take on the dread knight, so one will probably survive.

I try to focus overwhelming firepower on one or two units, preferably on a flank or behind buildings to limit return fire. This isn't often the enemy elite units, it tends to be softer targets like dire avengers, fire warriors, necron warriors etc That way I can probably eliminate the majority of the unit. It works OK because I'll probably get a kill point and it lowers the mass return fire which kills terminators through a large number of shots as opposed to being AT guns.

Another useful thing that terminators can do is appear behind war machines and destroy vehicles and walkers with weak rear armour, preferably 10. Even if the squad heavy weapon doesn't destroy the target outright, S5 stormbolters have a good chance of chipping off the hull points.

As general guidelines I'd say

1) Try to keep them next to another unit to give close support, be it a strike squad, a land raider or a dreadknight/dreadnought.

2) Unless you're using an assault transport, assume they will never make it to an assault unless your opponent wants them there. It's very difficult/risky to get into a position where you can assault in the next turn if the other player knows what they are doing.

3) Use them to capture and hold objectives. We have a 'special forces' type army, they achieve objectives, they don't fight wars.

Thanks Sail, nice answers. I like the quote about Special Forces : you win a battle on Victory Points, not the amount of killing. Next game in 2 weeks, I will keep your advices in mind

I am looking forward to hearing how your next game goes.

meecham63 wrote:That's the way I  play them. But how do you deploy them ? How do you make them work ?

Sounds like you are already makeing them work. They did win the game for you.
Look at what terminators are bringing to the table. Do they bring extra fire power? No, you can get the same firepower from a strike squad for less points, Strike squads are about 1/2 the cost of the Terminators.
Do they bring extra movement? No. They move 6" a turn so they are as fast as 80% of the rest of the army
Are they more survivable? Yes. 2+ armour save and a 5++ inv save.
Are they scoreing? Yes
So what do they do, sit on objectives and not die, no one wants to be in hand to hand with them with a 2+ save, so they make a zone where nothing enters (around 26" bubble, base movement of 6" and then a 7" average charge) except hand to hand units and then they have the firepower to take them out.
Your terminators are already doing there job, if you want a in your face unit take Interceptors or Purifiers.

I also mainly play interceptors. : They are IMO one of the top 5 units of this codex. Purifiers are great too, very efficient on shooting and CC.

Yep I like the as well, just wish there was a character to go with them and make them scoring

A dreadknight is a character, send one of them with a heavy incinerator. Use a grandmaster to make a couple of squads scoring.

Burn them all.

I'm sure Sai knows that a dreadknight is a monstrous creature and can therefore never join squads....

Sorry, I read 'go with them' and translated it to 'go with them' rather than necessarily 'join their unit'.

As in, to give them some more punch in close combat, challenge characters and monstrous creatures, that kind of thing.  Which is what the character would be doing.  

Considering the resilience of the dreadknight suit, although it can't hide in a unit it should be able to fulfil the same types of duties.

Unless you need the character for a leadership boost, a dread knight fills in and either can charge first to draw the overwatch shots depending on the weapon that is firing.

resilience of Dreadknight.....hmmmm

yes a dreadknight then Interceptor combo would be nasty. Heavy Incinerator and mass stormbolter/psycannon shooting then into cc

Or incinerators on the Intercep too for a nice BBQ  

Mmmmmmmmmm..... BBQ.

I know...