Horus Heresy Review: Terror Squad

Flayers and torturers, the Terror Squad members epitomise the (very negative and monstrous) element of the Night Lords legion, taking fear and terror as a knife edge all to themselves.

Given they infiltrate and cause fear, the tactic here is to get them up close to the enemy and outnumber them in close combat as soon as possible (recall the Talent for Murder legion rule for the Night Lords here). They're also wanting to face off against other legion troops (not vehicles, or anything else: infantry only to take advantage of their preferred enemies). 

Secondly, since we want to outnumber the enemy, we want a large sized unit whenever possible. So, its 10 members or not at all here!

The main issue here is they are an elites selection. Hence they're competing for slots against other (more decisive) units like terminators and dreadnoughts. The only way to have them as troops is by the legion's rite of war. Hence I think they're only going to see significant competitive play when employing that rite.

Here are a few build ideas.

Terror Squad (10 members), Headsman with power fist and artificer armour (225 points)

I regard this as the baseline unit. Nothing less than this is going to do its job as well. Some players might like smaller squads for focussed fear causing, but it goes against the Talent for Murder rule.

Terror Squad (10 members), 9 with volkite chargers, 1 flamer, Headsman with power fist and artificer armour (280 points)

This is the kitted out version, at significantly more points (feel free to add a melta bomb to taste just in case you get charged by a dreadnought). The volkites are there because they're good in large numbers at close range, and the infiltrate rule is going to help there immensely.