Saturday, May 10, 2014

Horus Heresy Review: Legion Terminator Squad


Let's state the obvious upfront: you cannot make Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield terminator squads in the Horus Heresy era. They don't exist. Further, they cannot automatically deep strike. Orbital strike barges (i.e. mission special rules) or character special rules must be invoked for this to happen.

Other than that, the terminator squads are exactly what you might expect them to be. Moreover, if you've played with Chaos Terminators to any extent, you probably know how you want to build your squads.

That said, there are two different types of terminator armour to think about. The first is the standard type (sometimes named after the forge world where they were manufactured such as: Tartaros, Saturnine, Indomitus). The second type is Cataphractii pattern terminator armour. The main difference is that the latter gives a 4+ invulnerable save at the expense of swapping relentless for slow and purposeful.

I won't go in to detail about the Land Raider option (Phobos or Spartan) as I'll review them separately later on. Suffice to note that these squads are able to take these options depending on the squad size.

So without further ado, here are some sample builds.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 1 plasma blaster, sergeant with grenade harness (200 points)
This is one to place in a land raider and even have an independent along for the ride. Get them in to position and unload from the land raider. Fire off those weapons and charge in to melee to finish the job. Add some power fists to taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (10 members), 2 reaper autocannons (355 points)
There's an interesting scaling of points at work here. The larger the squad, the cheaper it can get (as opposed to fielding two 5 member squads). This squad is good as it can score in any mission that troops can. But moreover, its such an efficient use of points. Add a power fist or few for taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 4 combi-meltas, 3 chain fists (233 points)
This is a pseudo "termicide" squad equipped with meltas.  Select only if the mission permits teleportation deep-striking. But it could still be placed in a land raider for good effect regardless. This is one squad that I suggest taking Cataphractii armour for.

Legion Terminator Squad (9 members), 8 with pairs of lightning claws, sergeant with thunder hammer, heavy flamer and grenade harness (445 points)
This isn't so funny on the points side, but is meant to be used as a personal guard for an independent character and transported on a land raider. On the turn they charge, use the flamer and grenade harness and then kill everything. Everything!  Very World Eater Legion I think! But Sons of Horus with their "merciless fighters" rule would also benefit here as well.

Legion Terminator Squad (5 members), 1 heavy flamer, 2 combi-flamers,  3 power fists (214 points)
Remember that these guys are scoring in any mission that troops are also scoring in? Yep - that's what you're doing here. Sitting on an objective. Take cataphractii armour and bunker down for the game. Flame anything that charges you and finish them off with power weapons and power fists. Try to avoid in coming AP2 fire as much as possible though. These guys are not meant to be a mobile threat, they are a "come here and take this objective from us if you think you can" kind of squad. Replace the combi-weapons with volkite chargers to taste.

Legion Terminator Squad (10 members), 10 volkite chargers (395 points)
If you are going to take volkite weaponry, you probably should go for the full lot or not at all really. With this many vokite weapons, you're looking to literally deflagrate the opposition squads in to nothing. But then there's the issue of getting the squad in to position. I think this squad is risky, but fun when it works!

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