Black Templar Terminator Command Squad List

I promised a list after writing my article about the usefulness of Terminator Command Squads in a Black Templar army. Below are my thoughts on it.

Warning! Warning!  I don't think that this list is particularly competitive.  It certainly has many threats and will pose some serious problems for many armies, but I don't think it has the saturation levels to make it super scary.  It is a rock army.  Luckily, it has two significant rocks, so I can spread the threats. However, that said, I think it is an extremely fun list and will definitely present some strengths on the tabletop.  Here we go:

Emperor's Champion- Accept any Challenge vow- 140pt.
Castellan- terminator armor, chainfist, storm shield- 405pt.
      Terminator Command Squad- tank hunters, 2x cyclone launchers, sarge with chainfist, storm shield
Castellan- terminator armor, chainfist, storm shield- 405pt.
      Terminator Command Squad- tank hunters, 2x cyclone launchers, sarge with chainfist, storm shield

Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, 1 neophyte, multi-melta, meltagun, in rhino with smoke- 163pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, 1 neophyte, multi-melta, meltagun, in rhino with smoke- 163pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, missile launcher, flamer, in rhino with smoke- 149pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, missile launcher, flamer, in rhino with smoke- 149pt.

2 Landspeeders- 2x typhoon missiles launchers, 2x heavy bolter- 140pt.
2 Landspeeders- 2x typhoon missiles launchers, 2x heavy bolter- 140pt.
2 Landspeeders- 2x typhoon missiles launchers, 2x heavy bolter- 140pt.

1994 pt.

So, here's what it has.
22 missile launcher shots across 7 units, 8 of which are S9 when firing at vehicles, two melta bunkers
We have 10 vehicles all of which are pretty vulnerable to return fire, so hitting first and hitting hard is the way to go. 

Optimally, the two TCS can deploy with the melta bunkers and use the rhinos to generate cover (which I suppose they don't need with 2+/5++ and 2+/3++) while firing out with relentless cyclone launchers.  This is the forward element.  The missile launcher rhinos are objective campers and the speeders will bob in weave in my backfield to get off as many shots as possible.  Hopefully, we will be able to get all of the terminators across the field and box in enemy units until they can assault and mop them up.  All the while, templates will be dropped once vehicles are eliminated.  The EC will join a command squad to add some extra combat ability. 

Here are the weakness
1) 22 scoring bodies in AV11 boxes.  This should be relatively easy to neutralize with concentrated firepower.  This is why hitting hard from the start is a must. 
2) Foot terminators are slow.  If I can't demech units, I won't catch them.  I have to make sure I can get units outside of their vehicles and then spread out to limit their movements options.  The terminators will be the shepherds and the clean up crews.  They are the obvious threats though, so they will take a beating on the walk across the table. 
3) Low AV.  Having only AV10-11 will hurt.  Being smart with positioning, especially of the speeders will be crucial.  If I get turn 2, it is essential to hide them well, possibly even reserving them, though this will severely cripple my anti-mech ability. 

So, there are some obvious problems with the list, but it does have some sweet abilities as well.  It will take some especially heinous combat units to deal with the TCS and only a few armies have the ability to negate my armor or torrent enough wounds to deal with them. 

What are your thoughts?  Does this work on the tabletop?  What armies will cause it trouble?  What armies will it dominate or are there any?

Thanks for reading.

Other Black Templar articles I have written include:
Codex Review: Black Templar HQs
Codex Review: Black Templar Heavy Selections
Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 2
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The Random Element and Black Templar Strengths and Weaknesses

It's no mystery that games of chance rely on randomness to provide challenge and loss-reward relationships.  If there were no randomness, casinos across the world would be out of business.  Games like 40k, Warmahordes, and even Monopoly all rely on the use of the random element to provide an additional layer to their gaming experience.  However, from a competitive perspective, strength lies in consistency.  You don't want unexpected scenarios to arise.  You want your army to operate reliably, have redundancy, and to cancel out ill effects that can be placed on it. The best way to do this is to build armies with redundancy in them and to also play units and models that rely less on the dice.  This can be done by working in rules that forgo the use of dice or provide rerolls.

So, as I wrote my previous post about Terminator Command Squads, I began to think of the strengths and weaknesses that Black Templars have in regards to randomness and reliability. They have both.  Suprisingly, for an old codex, there are some distinct advantages to the army that make it dangerous even in today's metagame.  At the same time, there are some glaring weaknesses to the army.  How they play out and how you handle them determines your success in a very real way.

Let's get started by presenting some strengths. 
1) The biggest strength this army has comes in the form of army-wide preferred enemy provide by the Emperor's Champion.  Templars hit most things on 3+ and being able to reroll fails (and sometimes successes) allows them to be devestatingly effective and reliable in combat.  Rerolling takes their to-hit rate from 66% to 88% successful.  This is a huge benefit, but also being able to reroll hits to turn them into misses does the same thing.  This effectively turns a BT model's successful to-hit rate from 66% to 44%.  Against armies like Tau, IG, and Eldar (both kinds) this can save a squad from a punishing round of ranged counterattacks. 

2) Fearless in combat is also a strength in my opinion.  Many don't like it because it means once a unit is in combat, it is committed, either to success or to death.  To me this means that I won't flee from combat.  How ugly is it in when you see a Draigo-wing paladin star gets beaten in combat and escorted off the board.  Being fearless in combat means that you will never have to worry about even outpacing your pursuers and getting escorted off the board.

3) Easy redundancy amongst units is possible as well.  BT are fairly unique now in that they can take min siz units of models and still get a full compliment of heavy, special, and combat weapons.  This makes min-maxing easier to accomplish and means that we can actually put a decent focus on ranged attack if we need do.  2 cyclones in a 5 man terminator squad or a missile launcher and plasma gun in a 5 man crusader squad yield good returns at range and allow more units to be fielded.  We do pay a heavy tax on our vehicles though as everything but typhoon speeders are more expensive than other marine varients.

Unfortunately though, there are weaknesses in the BT codex.  There are quite a few in fact, but they can be negated if planned for.

1) Righteous zeal can be a pain.  It was intended to get our marines across the table quickly, but unfortunately means that in many cases we could end up running away from a single casualty.  When it is good, it's good, but bad dice can ruin a game for you in regards to this. On top of that, when you RZ, you have to move towards the nearest unit to you, which means it is possible to be kited along if you aren't careful.  Luckily the wording of the rule states that it is done like a consolidation move, so you don't have to move the entire distance, just up to it as a max.  There are two obvious answers to how to solve this problem in my mind.  The first is to buy a commander.  His rites of battle rule means that his LD10 is spread across the table and will mean there is very little chance that a righteous zeal move will be failed.  He also has other uses which will be given later.  I think he is your best option.  The other would only fix a single unit. If you have that nasty rock unit that you don't want running away, put a chaplain with them.  He grants fearless so you will auto-pass RZ rolls, but even better, he allows you to RZ towards any enemy unit in sight which neutralizes his unit being kited in the wrong direction. You can even pick a unit across the board as long as you can see it. This is handy.  Of course, the final solution to RZ is to keep your units in transports for as long as possible so they don't have to take RZ moves.

2) Kill 'Em All is another rule that really causes issues.  Again, a quirky 4th ed. rule that remains valid in the current ruleset, so we have to live with it. Whenever a BT infantry unit wants to shoot, it has to take a LD test at -1 to be able to select its target, otherwise it shoots at the closest thing.  That means on average we are testing on 7s.  Solution: Enter the commander again, his Rites of Battle gives all BT an effective LD10 so they are taking tests on a 9.  Not geat, but much better than 7.  Of course, this test only has to be taken if you choose to shoot or if you are trying to shoot at something other than the unit/model closest to you.  If you are trying to melta a tank, if will more than likely be the closest thing to you and in many situations, the only guns you will shoot will be bolt pistols before you assault, so again, you are looking at the closest models. Ultimately, this is for a list like missile spam.  You want to make sure that you have that commander to offset the negatives for the rule. 

Randomness occurs.  You can't get totally away from it in 40k.  It's just not possible.  If you don't want randomness, play chess or checkers.  Whenever there are dice, there will be the random element.  However, you can easily negate a lot of these things if you plan out your lists well and if you add elements to your army that bolster your strengths. 

Some Battle Reports:
Space Wolf Razorspam vs. Horde Orks- a Vassal Report
Sanguinary v. Grey Knights
Vulkan Ain't No Joke
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Are Black Templar Terminator Command Squads a More Viable Option?

It's been awhile since I last posted about 40k.  I have to say that Warmahordes has really captured my interest.  That said, I sold my Blood Angels DoA army because I just wasn't going to get it painted with all of my commission work and Menoth army to work on.  In its absence, I am left with a Black Templar army, a Space Wolf army, and models to pull off a vanilla Marine list.

That got me thinking about my old school love, the Templars. I started 40k because of them and drifted towards more competitive armies after a while, but they are still my favorite army.  I have even done an entire codex review on the army.  Scroll down to see it.  That said, awhile back now, GW released an FAQ that updated some of the rules for outdated wargear for BT.  This gave us, overall, a significant bump.  Combining some old rules with new wargear game Black Templar some interesting options.  The missile spam list became viable using terminators since we can get 2 cyclones in a 5-man squad. This gave our ranged output a significant boost.

However, I wanted to spend a bit of time focusing on some synergies that make me think of how Terminator Command Squads can be used to provide some serious threats. 

Command Squads as they appear in the Black Templar codex are an outdated animal.  The idea of having a unit attached to an HQ as a retinue providing certain benefits just doesn't exist anymore.  That said, with the inclusion of the FAQ, I feel like Terminator Command Squads become a great toolbox for Black Templars.

First of all, we need to discuss what you need. The prime ingredient is an HQ.  Unfortunately, you can't assign a command squad to the Emperor's Champion, that would rock.  You have to pick an additional HQ choice in the form of a Commander/Castellan or Chaplain/Reclusiarch.  Unfortunately, from a points budget standpoint, our HQs are not cheap.  However, they provide quite a bit of combat power. To accomplish our goal, the HQ has to wear terminator armor.  For our purposes, let's go with a Castellan.  He is the cheapest HQ.  We then want to consider his role in the unit.  To do this, we probably need to know what the unit will look like.  A terminator command squad comes with 4 models, 3 grunts and a sargeant.  They have to be tactical terminators, so will come equipped with storm bolters and powerfists.  The sarge can be outfitted with a plethora of terminator weapon options. 

Above we mentioned that our tactical terminators have gotten a huge buff in the form of updated cyclone rules.  Thus, we want to take our two cyclones in this unit.  Then, we want to consider a few things for the sargeant.  What is his role?  He can't provide additional dakka except in the form of a storm bolter, which while nice, if he is in a unit with two cyclones, he probably won't be shooting at infantry until late game.  So, let's look at allowing him some surivivability options and combat options. Since his gun won't even scratch a vehicle, I think he would be a good wound soak.  Giving him a stormshield and a chainfist will mean that most tanks will get chopped up and he provides the unit with a 2+/3++ buffer before we have to put a wound on cyclones.  Add to the unit the tank hunter veteran skill and you are shooting S9 missiles and have S9 powerfists when hitting vehicles. 

Along the same lines, if we give the Castellan a storm shield and chainfist, we add redundancy in combat and a multi-wound model with a solid invul save. 

Thus, I propose the following squad. 

Castellan-terminator armor, chainfist, storm shield
Terminator Command Squad- tank hunters, 2x cyclones, sarge with storm shield and chainfist

This comes in at a hefty price tag, but provides us with a unit that can confidently walk up the table popping armor and then throwing templates into units until it reaches their lines.  At that point, it can get into combat and hold its own with 2+ saves and 5++/3++ invul saves and can punish units with multiple S8 attacks per model.  The diversity of saves also means that power weapon wounds can be effectively dealt with.  These units become very similar to DA deathwing units. 

What's more, an army can have 2 HQs + the EC, so you can bring two such units.  This, with the EC will eat up half of your army, but can provide two brutal rock units.  Combined with min sized crusader squads and Elite tactical terminator squads, you can create a punishing missile spam army that is effective in the shooting phase against both vehicles and infantry and that can hit hard in combat. 

I will work out a 2,000pt list that utilizes at least one terminator command squad to illustrate how it fills out the army. 

What do you think?  Are TCSs too expensive for what they bring?  Are they really a viable combat option?  Let me know.

Other Black Templar articles I have written include:
Codex Review: Black Templar HQs
Codex Review: Black Templar Heavy Selections
Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 2

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Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 2

The next list I will show is pretty much a textbook example of a rock list.  It uses multiple Land Raiders to project threat across the field. As such, this army uses a more nonstandard units that I wouldn't normally use, to fill out support rolls. 

Emperor's Champion- AAC vow- 140pt.

Assault Terminators- 4x lightning claws, 1x thunder hammer/storm shields, furious charge, land raider crusader, smoke- 483pt.

Crusader Squad- 10 initiates, 4 neophytes, powerfist, meltagun, land raider crusader- 490pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, multi-melta, meltagun, rhino with smoke- 153pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, multi-melta, meltagun, rhino with smoke- 153pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, missile launcher- 90pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, missile launcher- 90pt.

Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 75pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta, heavy flamer- 75pt.

Predator- autocannon, lascannon sponsons- 125pt.
Predator- autocannon, lascannon sponsons- 125pt.

1,999pt.

This army relies on applied pressure through the two land raiders.  The assault terminators are a wonderful hammer unit on their own, so the EC joins the large crusader squad to make another considerable threat.  The landspeeders and melta bunkers move in to the midfield and threaten armor and if their contents are somewhat weak, they will attempt to tie them up or take them out altogether.  The infantry squads stay in your backfield and shoot missiles and protect the predators. 

So, this army is a rock due to its dependency on those land raiders.  Should they be neutralized, you will have an uphill climb if not a loss.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 1

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Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 1

With the general overview of the Templars done, I figured I would go ahead and take a look at some of the more popular lists.  To start off with, I am going to present two fairly balanced lists that give multiple threats and take a more all-comers approach.  Their main difference is their usage of heavy support.

List 1

Emperor's Champion- Accept any Challenge vow- 140pt.

Venerable Dreadnought- TL lascannon, missile launcher, extra armor, tank hunter skill- 170pt.
Assault Terminators- 4 lightning claws, 1 thunder hammer/storm shield, furious charge, land raider crusader with smoke- 483pt.

Crusader Squad- 7 initiates, 2 neophytes, power fist, meltagun, rhino with extra armor and smoke-224pt.
Crusader Squad- 7 initiates, 2 neophytes, power fist, meltagun, rhino with extra armor and smoke-224pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, multi-melta, meltagun, rhino with extra armor and smoke- 158pt.

Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 75pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 75pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 75pt.

Vindicator- 125pt.
Vindicator- 125pt.
Vindicator- 125pt.

1,999pt. 

This list utilizes the Vindicator rush and puts down multiple S10 templates to damage opponents.  The speeders will deepstrike in or move forward aggressively to block and attack armor. This target saturation should help the rhinos and land raider move forward with less trouble.  The venerable dread is my alternate method for tanking out high AV.  Between it and S10 templates from the vindicators, I should be able to soften up most armies in time for my combat elements to take down. 

List 2

Emperor's Champion- Accept any Challenge vow- 140pt.
Marshal- lightning claw, storm shield, artificer armor, terminator honors- 155pt.

Venerable Dreadnought- TL lascannon, DCCW with heavy flamer, extra armor, smoke, tank hunter skill- 173pt.
Assault Terminators- 4 lightning claws, 1 thunder hammer/storm shield, furious charge, land raider crusader with smoke- 483pt.

Crusader Squad- 7 initiates, 2 neophytes, power fist, meltagun, rhino with extra armor and smoke-224pt.
Crusader Squad- 7 initiates, 2 neophytes, power fist, meltagun, rhino with extra armor and smoke-224pt.
Crusader Squad- 5 initiates, missile launcher, razorback with TL lascannon with extra armor and smoke- 194pt.

Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 75pt.
Landspeeder- multi-melta/heavy flamer- 75pt.

Predator- autocannon, lascannon sponsons, smoke- 128pt.
Predator- autocannon, lascannon sponsons, smoke- 128pt.

This list focuses more on using lascannons for long range support.  It additionally has a marshal who can pack a ton of punch in combat.  This gives the army 3 solid combat threats.  The speeders do the same thing as the other list.  The venerable is a bit different.  I gave him a DCCW and heavy flamer to help protect the predators and clear out the backfield.  He is a tough customer when it comes down to it as he can reroll his hits and wounds with S10, so he will do damage. 

Both lists take a more balanced approach to fighting with decent ranged support, melta threat and combat potential.  Ultimately, I believe these lists seem to be the most flexible when it comes to taking on multiple armies.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Heavy Selections

And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 2
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Codex Review: Black Templar Heavy Selections

As has been the trend, Templars have a fairly limited selection when it comes to heavy slots.  Of these, we have 3 basic types: vindicators, predators, and land raiders.

The biggest issue that we see in this section is the same one we have been fighting with from the beginning, equality of points costs.  For some of the vehicles, we are extremely high compared to the newer marine chapters.  For others, we actually come out in good shape.  We will address each as they come.

Despite their shortcomings, we need our heavy selection because they provide our most reliable ranged fire support.  Tanks do not have to take the Kill ‘Em All test to fire as they don’t have leadership values and are not constrained by those tests.  This makes them wonderful.

Vindicators

These tanks are actually good tanks for what they do.  Like other predator-ish tanks, they provide front armor 13 which is huge.  If placed well in cover, they will more often than not be able to weather most shooting unless a meltagun gets around their sides and back.  S10 AP2 large blast ordinance is an enormously useful tool in our army.

It is at this point though, that we need to discuss redundancy and its applications to the Black Templar army.  I was initially not a follower of the “2 is necessary, 3 are better” rule, but it really pays out with vindicators.  Since their gun is so damaging, they simply become huge targets.  If you take only a single vindicator, chances are that it will not be firing much due to being stunned and shaken.  Always, always, always take at least two if not three.  That is simply a must for these tanks. 

One important thing to mention about vindicators is their ability to take power of the machine spirit.  This is a huge boon for this tank as it does two things. First it allows you to shoot the demolisher cannon after having moved further than you could normally.  With a 24” range, you need to move up to be able to shoot the big gun.  This helps out.  Second, it allows you to mitigate the effects of shooting as it allows the tank to shoot even if stunned or shaken.  This is a huge deal for such a devastating tank.  Here’s the catch, though. PotMS costs an additional 30pt.  That takes our vindicator up to a whopping 155pt.  I generally think that the cost isn’t worth it.  Instead, I like to just take additional vindicators.  With some planning and luck, at least one should be able to shoot each turn. 

Final verdict: This is a good tank, but you have to play it well or else you run the risk of it becoming high ineffective. 2/3 of the results on the vehicle damage chart severely neuter this tank’s ability to function. The other 1/3 make it a headache to play.  You simply have to play it and protect it well, so take extras to insure that you get a few shots off. 

Predators

Bottom line, you at least need these guys in your army.  Unfortunately, our dakka pred costs 110pt., a fairly steep 25 points more than the newer codexes pay.  However, our tri-las pred runs about 20pt. cheaper than the newer codexes.  GW, you rock!

I generally go for either a dakka pred or an autocannon/ lascannon sponson variant.  These both provide significant threat while maintain somewhat cost effective returns.  Otherwise, these do exactly what they do in other codexes, just not as cheaply in most cases.

Final verdict: I usually take predators in the previously mentioned setups.  They don’t run as much risk of having their guns silenced as the vindicator and can provide quite a few high strength shots.  This is good.  We need lots of long range, high strength fire support and this is where we usually get it.

Land Raiders

Templars have access to two variants here: The Crusader and the Godhammer (TL lascannon sponsons).  In both cases our variants run about the same as newer codices.  However, our land raiders don’t normally get that much play in the heavy slot.  Here’s why.

Crusaders are listed as dedicated transports for terminators and crusader squads, so you really shouldn’t be putting them in heavy slots unless you are running a large squad of sword brethren in power armor or a command squad. You simply don’t have to, so don’t. 

Godhammers provide 2 TL lascannons and a heavy bolter for 250pt.  Remember that our goal with heavy support options is to provide long range, high strength shots.  For 250pt. I can get two dakka preds, or just shy of 1 dakka pred and one tri-las pred.  The point is that a land raider is not a cost effective allocation of points.  If you want a transport to deliver units close in, the crusaders works better.  If you want ranged fire support, you want to go with vindicators and predators. 

The one use of the land raider would be to create an almost impenetrable objective camp for a small unit of crusaders to hold a home objective, but again melta can make this expensive bunker slag in no time. 

Final Verdict: Give your heavy slots to vindicators and predators, period. 

That rounds out our discussion on the various units of the Black Templar codex. Next, I will throw out some possible army lists that you might see run and how they are most likely played. 

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Fast Choices

And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar lists Part 1

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Codex Review: Black Templar Fast Choices

Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted an article on the Templars.  Loads has come up, what with school starting to wind down and the royal heir coming, but luckily this post won't be very long.  Unlike my previous articles though, this one won't be overly long.  The majority of our fast options are subpar for one reason or another. However, I will do my best to at least give them a good shake. 

Assault Marines

Well, these guys are everything that Blood Angels aren't and I don't mean that in a positive way.  The reason Codex Marine and Black Templar assault marines are subpar is because they have the ability to close somewhat quickly with their opponents, but then they don't have the tools to do anything when they arrive.  Blood Angels help this out by giving their assault marines meltaguns and access to furious charge and feel no pain.  Unfortunately, for the costs (22pt. per marine), these guys just can't compete.  One interesting note is that any assault marine can exchange his pistol for a storm shield for 3pts.  With Templars getting updated storm shields, this helps to create a unit that can soak high strength low AP weaponry fairly well, for 25pt per marine.  Still not enough in my book.

Templar Bikers

Again, a unit that doesn't do its job as well as the same unit in other codexes.  One huge fault of this unit is that it is limited to squads of 3-5, though they can take an attack bike.  Being able to combat squad or take bigger squads would be a huge boon for this unit.  One good thing going for this unit is that it can take up to 3 special weapons including: plasmaguns, meltaguns, flamers, or power weapons.  The best part of this is that you can make a fairly reliable melta threat.  Of course, it would be considered a suicide melta threat.  The massed power weapons would be good except these are 1 attack marines.  Not enough to scare most people.  If I were to take these guys, I think I would take 3 meltaguns and a multi-melta attack bike. This rings in at 191 points though (yuck), but it will shred tanks.

Attack Bikes

My big beef with this unit is its minimum size(2).  One of the flexible parts of attack bikes is being able to take singles which you can't do in the Templar codex.  The only way I would take one is as a part of a melta biker squad.

Landspeeders

This is your best bet.  Unfortunately, I have never had good luck with speeders, but these are a real help for Templars.  The multi-melta/heavy flamer models provide anti-tank early on when the majority of our army either has to pass a LD test or simply doesn't have reliable long range firepower for taking on high AV. This is perhaps the most useful variant as it combines points efficiency, duality, and the ability to be a sacrifice. It is sad though that it comes in more expensive than its partners in other codexes. 

With the latest FAQ though, our landspeeder typhoons have gotten very tempting. Ringing in at 70pt. for a typhoon with heavy bolters, we get a heck of a buy here coming in 20pts. cheaper than in other codexes.  If you want to go for a missile spam list, I would consider taking multiples of this one. 


So, after it's all said and done, the humble landspeeder wins out for our fast selections.  If I had the models (and liked them at all), I would fill my fast choices with landspeeders over the other choices every time. 

Coming soon, we wrap this review up with a view at our heavy choices.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Elites

And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Heavy Selections

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Codex Review: Black Templar Elites

After seeing the limits on our HQ and troop choices, the Elite section is a veritable supermarket of choices.  In actuality, we have five choices.  Only one is chapter specific in its own right, but the options provided for in this section of the codex are actually quite nice. 

Techmarine

To begin with, we will start with perhaps the most obscure choice in the list.  The lowly (read- awesome!) techmarine.  This guy really is an understated and underappreciated unit in a BT list.  He starts out at 70pt. and comes with a bolter, power weapon, signum, auspex, crusader seals, and a servo-arm (counts as a powerfist).  He has generic marine stats with the exception that he has two wounds and 2 attacks base. 

That is fairly nice to begin with, but let's take a look at what else makes this guy nice. He counts as an IC, so can join a squad which is a good thing as he can provide a ton of combat punch. Also, for +35pt. he can be given a full servo harness.  I totally recommend this. With the full harness, he gets artificer armor (2+ save), an extra servo-arm (granting another powerfist attack), a TL plasma pistol, and a flamer.  Both of the weapons can be fired, or he can fire one and a handheld weapon. So, with a full servo harness, bolter and power weapon, he has 2 power weapon attacks at I4 (3 on the charge) and 2 powerfist attacks.  Furthermore, our techmarine friend can choose equipment from the armory.  This means he has access to terminator honors (+1 attack) and other goodies.  I generally take my techmarine with the following setup:

techmarine- full servo harness, power weapon, storm shield, terminator honors- 135pt. 

This creates a fairly expensive elite choice, but he gets 3 attacks base (4 on the charge) and two powerfist attacks.  He can shoot both his flamer and TL plasma pistol before assaulting into combat.  He has a 2+/3++ save and can join a crusader squad to make them really mean. 

But wait there's more!  His "blessing of the omnissiah" rule allows him to repair damaged vehicles (not wrecked or exploded) on a 6 and he can reroll that dice roll if he has a full harness. 

On top of this, the techmarine can take a retinue of up to 4 servitors which include gun servitors, combat servitors, or technical servitors.  Gun servitors can take a multi-melta, heavy bolter, or plasma cannon (though only a single plasma cannon can be taken in a single retinue).  Combat servitors are equipped with a powerfist.  Technical servitors add +1 per servitor to the dice roll needed to repair vehicles.

Personally, I don't take the servitors as I like to put my techy in a crusader squad to buff them and he can't have a retinue and join a squad.  In the end, a techmarine is a very killy and fairly stout IC model that can be taken to lead a squad of crusaders in your army.  I play my techmarine when I play my MSU Templars as he plays like a third HQ choice and buffs up one of my razorback squads to make up for the deficit in models.

Sword Brethren

This is your crusader squad on steroids.  In reality, if the BT codex were upgraded, I would like to see this unit become the troop choice setup and a better unit become Sword Brethren.  Sword Brethren have the same stats as crusader initiates.  They become a bit nicer than crusaders in that they have more weapons options,  access to terminator honors, and special skills. 

Like crusaders we can give one model a heavy weapon and one model a special weapon.  Sword brethren have access to the same weapons as crusaders with the exception that in the heavy weapon selection along with a powerfist, one model can have a pair of lightning claws.  The pistol/power weapon option was then moved to the special weapon slot, meaning that this unit can really pack a solid close combat punch if needed.  As veterans, sword brethren also have access to terminators honors granting them +1A.  In addition, if a model has TH, they can take a storm shield for 10pt.  So, again, this unit can be tooled up to dish out and take pain if needed. 

The final thing that allows sword brethren to stand out are there special skills. These skills apply to the terminator sword brethren as well.  PA sword brethren must add one of these skills: furious charge, counter-attack, or infiltrate (but cannot take a vehicle option if they do infiltrate).  Again this helps to focus them on getting into the enemy lines and doing damage.  I personally would take furious charge.

Sword brethren can take a rhino or a razorback as transports.  I think rhinos are your most cost effective method since the unit is already so expensive.  Adding a 70-90pt. transport for a single gun isn't going to be a good use of your points. 

There are two basic variations that I seen commonly used with sword brethren: the alpha strike melta squad and the hitty squad. 

The alpha strike melta squad is simply a 5 man squad that takes a multi-melta, meltagun, and the infiltrate skill.  This allows them to be up close turn 1 to fire melta shots into enemy AV.  This rings in at 115pt for 5 models. 

The fighty squad rings in at significantly more, but again is probably more survivable than your typical crusader squad due to the ability to have furious charge and storm shields.  A squad of 5 with terminator honors, a powerfist, power weapon, and 2 storm shields riding in a rhino with EA and smoke totals out at 328 pt.  Again, if you get to this number of points, it is almost always better to take terminators.  However, if you are into MSU power armor units, this one will mess things up well. 

Overall, I feel that sword brethren are outperformed in combat potential by assault terminators and in cost efficiency by crusader squads, so unfortunately, these guys rarely make the cut.

Sword Brethren Terminators

These are your run-of-the-mill tactical terminators. They differ from other codexes in that each squad, regardless of number, has access to two heavy weapons: assault cannons, heavy flamers, or cyclone missile launchers.  That is wonderful as you don't have to invest 10 models worth of points to get the two weapons out of one slot.  This also makes sword brethren terminators tempting in a Templar MSU missile spam setup.  The terminators can also take chainfists on any number of models.

Like other sword brethren models, these terminators have access special skills.  They can add the furious charge or tank hunters rules.  These guys are ideally setup to be tank hunters.  The assault cannons and cyclone missile launchers allow them to take out most AV with ease when combined with the +1 to pen rolls.  That allows for the option to have essentially 8 S7 rending shots or 4 S9 missile shots when firing either weapon respectively at armor.  This is nice output for a 5 man squad.  They can provide a significant boost to your ranged attack, but there is one caveat, kill'em all. Yep, they have to pass that stupid leadership test at -1LD to shoot at a target of their choice.  So, if you want to take these guys, make sure you have a marshal or pray that their leadership 9(8) passes more often than not or they lose a lot of potential. 

You can transport terminators in a land raider crusader, but since they aren't assault specialists, I think your best transport method would be deepstriking.  To insure that deepstriking goes well, I would put a homer on an HQ choice and move him forward. Once they drop in, let them open up on their best AV target.  Conversely, you could just walk them on the board and shoot as most of the heavy weapons have decent range. You should be able to shoot turn 1with few problems, unless playing dawn of war.

With the new FAQ allowing BT cyclones to be heavy 2, these guys have risen considerably in my estimation.  I might take a single squad to bolster my shooting, but the real cream of the crop is next.

Sword Brethren Assault Terminators

Easily. The. Best. These terminators are the best terminators in the game.  Though they are equipped like all other terminators now (lightning claws or thunder hammer and storm shields), they are just a cut above the rest.  Honestly, if I could figure out how to take multiple units of these guys while still keep my troop numbers up, I would.  With the AAC vow, they are rerolling all hits, always.  They can take special skills as well (tank hunters or furious charge), though you will only want to take furious charge.  Imagine 5 furious charge, AAC lightning claw terminators.  That is 20 attacks when they assault that reroll to-hit and to-wound.  On top of that, they are striking at S5 and I5.  Not even hammernator will have an easy time with that. 

Of course, most prudent players will tell you to deploy terminators in a mix of lightning claws and thunder hammers.  I am beginning to see a problem with that.  Thunder hammers don't benefit from furious charge like lightning claws do and lightning claws aren't as survivable as thunder hammers. I personally have started deploying units of all lightning claws or all thunder hammers, usually putting the claws in an LRC and deepstriking thunder hammers off of a homer.  This has worked out well for me and poses quite a bit of threat to my opponents.  Really, the choice of combination or not is up to you, but you will most definitely want to take furious charge on them. 

The LRC is actually a really decent option for these guys.  It gives them mobility, increased threat range, and grenades.  That is nice.  All of this while providing a dangerous tank as well, that doesn't take up a force org slot. 

This is the unit you want in a templar army.  They are simply beastly.  Nothing compares to them due to being able to reroll all hits. That combined with furious charge is simply amazing.  For certain take one unit.  If possible take two.

Dreadnoughts

These are the runners up for best elite slot.  Again, there isn't anything fancy about these guys. In fact, they have fewer options than the newer chapters, mainly not being able to take autocannons.  That said, the best option if you are taking a dread is to upgrade it to venerable (you can only take a single venerable dread in a BT army) and then give it a special skill.  Only venerables can take specials skills. If you have a venerable, take him as a tank hunter.  Give him a lascannon minimum and at max give him the missile launcher as well.  I say minimum because having the DCCW can still be a nice option on a venerable.  Then give him the tank hunter special rule.  Sit back in cover and paste tanks for the entire game.  Use the venerable reroll and cover to keep him alive longer and annoy your opponent to no end.  If he gets close with infantry squads, don't be afraid to charge in and hold them up if they don't have powerfists, if they do, you may need some other intervention.  Oh...don't forget smoke launchers on this guy in case he needs to leave cover. 

Ultimately, I would take one dread in an army and it would be a venerable with tank hunters.

So, there are our stellar elite units.  They are easily the best part of the army.  In general terms, it is an easy choice.  You want assault terminators and a ven dread.  If you want some additional flavor, you can add the other units, but nothing will earn its points back like these two choices. 

Next up, we will very briefly cover fast slots.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Troop

And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Fast Choices
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Codex Review: Black Templar Troop

Notice the lack of an "s" in the title after troop.  We have one selection.  Luckily, it is a decent selection with lots of configurations, otherwise, this army would be really uni-dimensional.  The crusader squad is the Black Templar's only troop choice.  It is also unique, to my knowledge amongst it's brother chapters in that crusader squads contain a mixed unit of models (MEQ and scout equivalent models). This also means mixed WS and mixed armor saves.  The units are made up of two model types, initiaties (power armor marines) and neophytes (scouts equivalent marines).  These models both have typical marine and scout stats.  Nothing new here.  The squad is restricted in that you can only take as many neophytes as there are Initiates.  This fits alongside the fluff that initiates mentor and train neophytes even in battle and so they travel together.  So, for example if you have 5 initiates in a squad, you can have up to 5 neophytes.  You may have less, but you can't have more. 

That bit aside, let's go over options for the unit.  First, each initiate can take either a bolter or a bolt pistol and chainsword.  Generally, you want to go with the pistol/ccw setup as these guys are made for combat.  However, you can include any mixture of the two. The neophytes can take bolt pistol and chainsword or shotguns.  Again, you can mix these, but I prefer just going with close combat setup as most of the times my crusader squads are charging forward to get into combat. 

All crusader squads can give a single heavy weapon and a single special weapon option to an initiate.  The heavy weapons selection includes your missile launchers, lascannons, plasma cannons, and multi-meltas as normal, but included in this selection are also the bolt pistol/power weapon setup and the bolt pistol/ power fist setup.  Also interesting is the fact that the codex states that these two setups both yield an extra attack for two combat weapons.  This supercedes the BRB.  So, a powerfist initiate can have 3 attacks on the charge!  Nice.  The special weapons include a flamer, meltagun, or plasmagun.  Most combat oriented setups include a powerfist and meltagun in the squad. 

You also have some equipment options, namely frag grenades, krak grenades, and crusader seals.  Yes, BT marines do not automatically come with grenades.  That sucks.  Frags cost 1 point per model, kraks cost 2 points per model. Crusader seals may only be given to initiates at a cost 2 points per model. I am of the opinion that frags are really necessary as you will want the ability to assault into combat and not get spanked.  Kraks are less important as you have a powerfist AND against the rear armor of most vehicles we are looking at AV10 which you can at least glance. Crusader seals are worthless as only a single model is required to take them to get the benefits and most HQs have them.  Don't waste points there either.

Crusader squads have access to three transports that count as dedicated transports: rhinos, razorbacks, and land raider crusaders.  That's right.  You can take an LRC for each crusader squad if you wish.  It will be a terribly small army, but you can do it.  BT rhinos and razorbacks are the redheaded stepchildren of the marine chapters.  Our standard rhino is 50 points naked without even smoke launchers.  Our razorback is 70pts naked.  Smoke launchers cost an additional 3pt.  Yuck.  However, we have a terribly cheap extra armor upgrade for 5pt.  I usually give my rhinos smoke and extra armor as we want them to keep rolling as long as possible.  Our razorbacks only come in TL heavy bolter and TL lascannon form.  Again, we get screwed over for options here.  If I take a razorback, I always take the 20pt upgrade for the TL lascannon (highway robbery) and smoke.  No extra armor because if it is stunned, it isn't nearly that useful even when just shaken. The LRC is an LRC.  I always give mine smoke.  Luckily it comes stock with the multi-melta unlike the other chapter variants.  It comes out to 265pt naked.

So, how do I set up my crusader squads?

There are several popular setups.  I will attempt to list a few here.

1) Rhino standard*- you want a squad of ten models (9 if an HQ is riding alongside).  I usually take 7/3 or 8/2, intiates to neophytes.  Let's face it, neophytes are ablative wounds.  If they survive, hooray, if not, at least a power armor model didn't die.  Remove these guys first when taking wounds.  I give this squad a powerfist and a meltagun and put them in a rhino with smoke and extra armor.

10 man squad- 7 initiates (unless otherwise noted, these guys take pistol/ccw), powerfist, meltagun, 3 neophytes, all with frags in a rhino with EA and smoke- 235pt.

2) Footslogger horde*-  This unit is taken in a Templar horde army.  It is maxed out on models and usually is joined by a chaplain with cenobyte servitors (see my HQ post).  It has 10 initiates and 10 neophytes all with combat equipment, a powerfist, meltagun, and frags.  This unit slogs it across the field hoping for good righteous zeal and run moves to catapult it across the table. 

20 man squad- 10 initiates, powerfist, meltagun, 10 neophytes, all with frags- 305pt.

3) Ranged attack (1+1)**- This is a minimum squad of initiates with no neophytes, attached to a razorback with TL lascannons.  The squad takes ranged heavy and special (generally the plasmagun for range) options and bolters and camps on home objectives and shoots at AV and other targets.  I usually go for point efficiency with a missile launcher, plasmagun, and razorback with TL lascannons and smoke. You can add a neophyte to fill the 6th spot if you want, but if points are tight, cut him.

5 man squad- 5 initiates with bolters, missile launcher, and plasmagun, in razorback with TL lascannons and smoke- 189pt.

4) Melta Bunker**- Another 5 man squad. This takes advantage of the fact that we can take full heavy and special slots with minimum bodies as well, but this time we take a multi-melta and meltagun and put them in a rhino and book it to midfield where they shoot at all passing armor. This is perhaps the cheapest option.

5 man squad- 5 initiates with bolters, multi-melta, meltagun, in rhino with EA and smoke- 154pt.

5) The uber HQ bodyguard*- Occasionally you want something that can babysit your EC or Marshal that is still small enough to sit in a transport, but scary enough to threaten lots of things.  Enter the LRC.  This unit consists of 14 models (plus the HQ to get 15) that ride in the LRC, hop out and beat stuff down.  It generally consists of 10 initiates, 4 neophytes, a fist, and meltagun.  No frags needed due to the LRC.  The LRC will get smoke launchers.  This unit is healthy chunk of change, but with an HQ can put out a bunch of wounds.

14 man squad- 10 initiates, powerfist, meltagun, 4 neophytes in LRC with smoke- 493pt. 

My qualm with this squad is that if you are going to spend 493 pt. on a squad, it might as well be furious charge terminators. 

*Note, one reason (assumed as the norm) that the combat setups are so scary is because most players normally take the Accept any challenge vow which means we are rerolling our to-hit rolls EVERY ROUND OF COMBAT.  Even with regular S4 hits, this amounts to tons of wounds. 

**Remember that these squad are subject to "kill'em all" which means they need to pass a leadership test at -1 leadership in order to shoot at a target of their choice.  If they fail, they fire at the nearest enemy.  If you are taking lots of these units, you need a marshal to reign them in. 

So there are our Crusaders.  They are the backbone of the Templar army and requit themselves well the vast majority of the time.  They generally can outfight any other infantry with the exception of elite infantry.  Leave that to the big boys coming up next in my post on Elites.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar HQs

And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Elites

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Codex Review: Black Templar HQs

You might have caught my tongue in cheek reference to our HQ selection in my last post.  Black Templars have a realtively small selection of HQ choices, one of which is a mandatory choice.  Our three main HQs are the Emeperor's Champion, Marshal, and Chaplain (Master of Sanctity).  The Marshal and MoS both have a downgraded version as well, Castellan and Reclusiarch respectively.  Correspondingly, both the Marshal and MoS have access to command squads, but these are taken as a retinue and the HQ cannot be separated from them unless they are killed or the squad is killed.  That out of the way, let's take a look at our choices.

The Emperor's Champion

This guy has the word "Beatstick" written all over him.  His job is to buff the army and to kill stuff, both of which he is reasonably good at.  You want this guy, but you also need this guy.  He is a mandatory HQ selection for a BT army.  Luckily, he doesn't take up an HQ slot, so you can still take two other HQ choices if you would like.  The old EC rings in at 90pt. base and has quite a solid stat line including regular marine stats with WS6 and I5.  His equipment and rules are where he really starts to get going though.  He comes with the armor of the faith, the black sword, terminator honors (figured into his statline), a bolt pistol, crusader seals, and frag and krak grenades. The armor of the faith is artificer armor with the additional buff that he gets a 4++ in combat.  Not too shabby.  The black sword is a power sword that confers +2 strength meaning he also gets the +1A for having a bolt pistol.  I can see this changing to a relic blade in a new codex, but this combo gives him 3 attacks base. 

His rules are interesting.  The first being the major factor in the army.  The Champion has to take a vow that affects the entire army and each one costs.  They are: Accept any Challenge, No Matter the Odds (50pt.), Uphold the honor of the Emperor (10pt.), Suffer not the Unclean to Live (35pt.), and Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch (20pt.). 

Here is a quick synopsis of each vow:
1) Accept any challenge gives preferred enemy to all power armor models and dreadnoughts in the army.  This is amazing and though it is a hefty price tag, it is worth taking.  It makes our units beasts in combat.  The drawback is that you have to assault an enemy unit if you can.  Fortunately, you can work around this if you include a bolter or two in your units since when you fire a bolter, you can't assault. Nice.

2) Uphold the Honor gives a 6++ all the time and the army is immune to pinning, BUT they cannot take cover saves.  Not worth it.  With cover being so prevalent in 5th, it is a joke to consider this one. 

3) Suffer not allows power armor and dreads to gain 1 more point of strength at the cost of a point of initiative in combat.  So, power armor models are S5 but I3.  Dreads are S11 but I3.  The real issue with this comes in two forms.  1) Lower initiative means you will take more wounds in many cases as you will be striking simultaneously or last.  2) This cannot stack with furious charge.  It would be worth considering if it did as you could have S6 lightning claw terminators or S6 sword brethren.  Unfortunately, you can't so I wouldn't take it. You have plenty of places to add furious charge through veteran skills.

4) Abhor, Destroy gives everyone a D6" consolidation move before the game starts which is made towards the nearest psyker (imagine this against GK), and on a 5+ units with this rule nullify psychic powers aimed at them.  This is somewhat decent with some of the psyker heavy armies out there, but there is a lot of gray area involved.  What about things like sanctuary that aren't targetted at models specifically but affect them?  In a pinch this is my runner up. 

Basically, you want to take Accept any Challenge.  It is the stongest vow and offers the ability to play shennanigans with your to-hit rolls.  If you want to stay locked in combat to avoid shooting in your opponent's turn, reroll your hits and keep your misses to limit wounds.  If you want to go for a wipe out, reroll misses.  It is a nice ability and makes Black Templars really reliable in combat. 

Finally, the Champion has to make an automatic free move in combat to be put in base to base contact with ICs.  This means he will be your ace in the hole for trying to assassinate characters.  It also means he runs a lot of risk being put into contact with ICs who might be able to smash him down easily.  With only 2 wounds, this can be a liability. 

So, there's your EC.  If the vows were included in his price, he would be a rockstar!  Unfortunately, they aren't but you still want to take army-wide preferred enemy, so it doesn't bother me that much.  I love this guy.

Marshal/Castellan

I will talk about these two guys together as they have the same stats with the exception that the Castellan has -1W and -1LD.  These guys are your generic leadership characters.  They provide one important feature to your army.  They provide their leadership through the "Rites of Battle" rule to the entire army.  This helps your army to pass those pesky kill'em all and righteous zeal rolls that occur all the time.  With army-wide LD10 and 9 respectively, your marines become much more reliable when making morale tests. 

Onto the equipment.  Oddly enough, Marshals and Castellans come with no weapons!  You have to pay 1 point for a bolter, bolt pistol, or CCW.  I find that hilarious. 

Honestly, though, you probably want to tool this guy for close combat and assault.  For that reason, you want two things, reliable defense and nasty combat power.  With the new FAQ, a reasonable solution is evident.  Take artificer armor, terminator honors, a lightning claw, and a storm shield.  This yields a model with a 2+/3++, 5 attacks on the charge, and rerolls to hit and wound.  This setup comes in at 155pt. for the Marshal and 140pt for the Castellan.  You can't beat it for reliable kills in combat.  For additional fun, give him a holy orb of antioch, which is basically a small blast weapon that always wounds on 2+ at AP3.  Talk about marine killing potential.  Watch whole units melt away between the hand grenade and his combat attacks. Be aware that this is my preferred setup and not the only one.  It all depends on preference.

Another option to consider is the adamantine mantle which allows a character to be immune to ID at the cost of 35pt.  This is kind of pricey when you already have a 3++ save, but may help out when soaking high strength shots and attacks. 

I really like the Marshal as he brings with him good combat potential and army-wide leadership buffs.  I generally run mine in a command squad which I will talk about below. 


Master of Sanctity/Reclusiarch

These two guys share the same relationship as the Marshal and Castellan do with the Reclusiarch having -1W and -1LD compared to the MoS. 

Chaplains are kind of ambiguous to me.  They have some rules that sound good but don't help most Templar armies. These guys share similar stats to Marshals and Castellans, namely WS5 and I5.  Chaplains stand out due to their rules.  Let's go through those:
1) Unmatched Zeal- They make the unit they join fearless and they can negate the negative of righteous zeal by allowing their unit to righteous zeal towards any unit, not just the closest.  This can be a great help in keeping that money maker unit on course. 

2) Litanies of Hate- Completely useless if you take the Accept any Challenge vow.  It allows the chappy's squad to reroll hits in the first round of combat.  AAC allows rerolls every round. 

That said, chaplains are fairly sturdy with a 3+/4++ built in to their cost.  They also come stock with a power weapon.  You can always buff the chaplain up with artificer armor, adamantine mantle, and other goodies as well.  I like using a TDA Chaplain with my Assault terminators as he tends to keep them moving towards the units I want to kill.

Chaplains do have one unique piece of equipment available to them, cenobyte servitors.  These are models taken with the chaplain and for every one you have, you get an additional +1" to your righteous zeal moves up to a max of 3 servitors.  This can be really nice if you want to take a huge footslogging squad.  Being able to move forward up to 9" in your opponents' turn is nice, but watch out for traps set up to pull you in.  Luckily, the chaplain can mitigate these due to his unmatched zeal rule. 

Chaplains are cool models and fluffy, but I think I would take a Marshal or Castellan over them unless I was trying out a Templar horde.

Command Squads

Command Squads open up some interesting options for templars.  First, they allow you to take multiple special weapons in a squad.  This is impossible for your crusader squads.  Second, they count as a retinue which means your marshal, castellan, MoS, or reclusiarch can't be singled out while in a command squad.  He also can't leave it. Third, command squads can take veteran skills and they pass those skills on to the HQ choice attached to them.  This means you can add furious charge, infiltrate, or tank hunters to multiple units in your army.  Fourth, they can take an apothecary which grants access to FNP for a squad.

Command squads provide a super killy option for Templars, but at a cost.  If you start adding terminator honors, veteran skills, special weapons, combat weapons, transports, etc., the price skyrockets.  I tend to keep my command squads small and in power armor.  I usually buy an apothecary, champion, and put terminator honors on the sargeant.  This gives me two additional models with power weapon options.  Finally, I give out 2 meltaguns and the furious charge skill.  This makes a pretty nasty squad that can deal with most threats.  If you combine it with the Marshall I mentioned above, their won't be many units that can stand up to it.

There is also the option for a command squad to take a banner or holy relic (reclusiam command squad only), but I find this option too pricey for the benefit.   

Terminator command squads just aren't that great for one principle reason.  You can't take assault options for them.  They are tactical terminators.  So, unless you want to run a missile spam list, I would leave this unit at home. 

Of interest, a chaplain can be attached to a command squad as part of it and not count as a separate HQ choice, so with this option, a Black Templar army can include a staggering 7 HQ choices in 3 slots (one freebie for the EC). Not practical, but certainly fun sounding. 

To wrap up, The Emperor's Champion is a must, but also a must-have.  He is simply great for what he brings.  I always take AAC for the preferred enemy army-wide. Marshals and Castellans are also desireable for their combat options and army-wide leadership ability.  Chaplains are fun and nice to have, but I don't think they compare to the benefits provided by the other HQ choices.  Finally, if you take a command squad, think hard about it's role.  Generally, I find that they make great beatstick units that you can throw forward in objective missions without fear and they possess enough combat threat to handle all but the most elite (hammernators) infantry. 

Next up I will have a short post up about our one and only troop choice, the crusader squad.  Stay tuned.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Named HQs


And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar Troop
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Codex Review: Black Templar Named HQs

This post should be short and sweet.  The Templars have access to 2 named HQ choices.  Both are restricted to 1,500pt.+ games.  They are High Marshal Helbrecht and Chaplain Grimaldus.  Neither one is very special.  For the points you can usually tool up a vanilla version of either model for much better results.  Let's get started.

Helbrecht

This is THE High Marshal.*  The Grand Poobah of the Templars.  The Big Cheese.  And he isn't that great.  What are we working with?  WS5, S4, T4, 3W, 4A, LD10. Nothing special.  At least he comes with initiative 5.  Generic Space Marine Captains get a better weapon skill.  He comes with artificer armor, an iron halo, the sword of the high marshal, bionics, a combi-melta, and terminator honors  (included in his profile) for 175pt. A 2+/4++ save is decent, but you can get better on a generic marshal.  The sword of the high marshal grants +D3 attacks the turn he assaults and is mastercrafted. This means he can have an astounding 8 attacks on the charge, but they are S4 and the mastercrafting usually does nothing as you are taking the Accept Any Challenge vow with your EC.  There is a small consolation prize for taking Helbrecht though.  He comes with crusader seals, and frag and krak grenades.  Woohoo.

He can take a command squad of up to 10 initiates and 5 neophytes of whom one neophyte can take the fighting company standard.  He must give all of the models in his unit furious charge for +3pts a model, which while nice makes the unit more expensive and really not much of a deathstar. 

For the baddest dude in perhaps one of the baddest chapters in the marines, this guy is surprisingly a nancy.  He doesn't hit that hard. he doesn't have eternal warrior.  His save is decent, but only stands a 50/50 chance of protecting him from ID through doubling out and power weapons.  The guy just isn't that great.  Skip him.  As I mentioned, you can take a generic marshal with a better kit for less.  No contest.  Let Helbrecht stay at central command while the really fighters go and do the dirty work. 


Grimaldus

The hero of Armageddon himself.  Again, not worth the points.*  Weighing in at 195pt., you get a reclusiarch's stats (same as a templar chaplain but -1 wound and leadership).  Again, Grimaldus can only be used in games of 1,500pt. or greater.  He comes with normal chaplain gear (crozius and rosarius), along with a MC plasma pistol (nice for not overheating), terminators honors, and crusader seals.  Again, I can make a generic chaplain more killy, BUT Grimmy is actually a slightly better buy for what he brings to the table in terms of equipment/options, some of which are good and others of which are, meh.

Rules, rules, he has some special rules.  He has litanies of hate (i.e. rerolls for his unit which is usually unnecessary), but his unmatched zeal is where things start to get interesting. Instead of making only his unit fearless, he makes any unit within 6" fearless.  This can actually be good for a Templar horde army when you have large quantities of soldiers marching across the board and needing to pass righteous zeal rolls.  Combine that with his 3 mandatory cenobyte servitors and you have a unit that goes D6+3" for every righteous zeal test that they auto-pass due to fearless.  As a chaplain, he also allows models to pick the unit that the righteous zeal towards.  This keeps things moving along pretty well.

Also, as long as one of his servitors is alive, he counts as having a holy relic.  A holy relic is a one use only item that allows every marine in 2D6" to gain an extra attack once per game.  On top of that, a reclusiasm command squad member can take an additional holy relic in this specific case only. 

His final rule is called Only in Death does Duty End.  Basically after Grimmy loses his last wound (even if by ID), he can take a leadership test and get back up.  Unfortunately, every turn after he gets back up he has to leadership test to see if he stays up.  At LD9 that can be shaky over time, but it is a neat option and great way to eat a high strength attack when he is already low on wounds and you want his unit to stay alive longer. 

Grimaldus is tooled to help make a Templar horde better, not good, but better.  He helps negate a lot of the drawbacks that come with taking that type of army, but anyone who know 5th edition knows that a foot slogging army is generally dead in the water against anything that can shoot and/or move.  What he does is make it easier for large portions of the army to pass righteous zeal test and move forward to cover ground more quickly.  Optimally, with Grimmy, you would see another chaplain with cenobyte servitors and your EC leading large 10/10 man units of crusaders that are backed up by long range fire.  The neophytes take the shooting wounds and catapult your army forward and into combat with your opponent.  Again, armies with decent shooting and movement capabilities this is going to be hard and your units stand a chance of being kited along by cheap units.

If you want to run such an army, have fun, but I wouldn't take it to anything competitive.  

That wraps it up for the name HQ choices.  Next, I will talk about our gigantic generic HQ selection.
*I find it funny that around the same time these obviously underpowered characters were coming out in a fresh new codex, GW was writing up some of the most heinous, broken WFB special characters ever known.

If you missed it, here is the articles before this one in the series:
Black Templar Review: The FAQ


And here is the next articles in the series:
Codex Review: Black Templar HQs


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Black Templar Review: The FAQ

The Black Templars are near and dear to my heart.  I have said this about a thousand times, but I got into 40k because of the Emperor's Champion model.  I love the model.  To this day, he is and has been my favorite.  To that end, I am going to try my hand at an army review.  I will start, in this post, with the new FAQ and how I think it has changed the Templars.  Then I will move through HQs, Elites, Troops, Fast, and Heavy.  So sit back, relax and enjoy the show.  This should be fun.

Until recently, not all marine codexes were created equal.  The various chapters of the marines varied across a large space of time including a change in edition.  Thus rose the comments of, "Your codex is broken, my stuff doesn't get that rule." GW finally made the move early this year to bring all of the codexes in line in regards to a few areas of where rules were not equal. 

The Black Templars were recipients of such changes via FAQ and honestly, they got a mixed bag.  The chief changes that affected Templars are as follows:

1) Weapons/equipments changes. 
     - Cyclones are now heavy 2 instead of heavy 1 twin-linked.  This is huge for a few reasons.  First,   Black Templar typhoons are much cheaper than vanilla marine typhoons coming in at 20pts. cheaper. Second, our terminators can take two heavy weapons choices per 5 models, meaning that you can take small 5 man units of terminators with 2 cyclones each.  Combine this with their ability to gain the tank hunters rule and you have a 5 man terminator squad with 4 S9 missile shots when aimed at tanks. This is a very positive step forward.
     - Storm shields finally give an all around 3++.  This allows assault terminators to now be better than the other codexes' versions as we can give our terminators preferred enemy through the EC, meaning we have rerolling thunder hammers and now get an across the board 3++ as opposed to a 4++ in combat only. 
     - Narthecium not grants FNP.  This isn't huge, but it gives us a reason to consider command squads again. 
     - Machine spirit now allows you to fire at two targets.  Again nothing huge, but allowing a LRC to choose between two targets can be nice. 
     - A big one was the change of smoke rules.  Smoke rules now are applied from the BRB instead of in the codex.  This was a big hit.  Beforehand, Templar smoke made all pens glances.  This greatly improved our survivability as there is a plethora of terrain to get cover from, so we essentially could have a cover save and then take large quantities of shots and keep going.  No more.  Templar smoke has gone generic.

2) The "Kill 'Em All" debate is finally laid to rest.  Yes, we have to test to shoot at stuff.  Some of us did, some didn't.  Now we all should.

3) Speculation over righteous zeal.  A new debate has risen that asks if a unit can be righteous zealed out of pinned status and move, fire, and assault in its own turn.  There seems to be some credence to the fact that yes, it can. 

The rest is piddly stuff.  The big changes came in the form of equipment/weapons changes.  That doesn't affect us much, but it gives us some nicer combat and shooting options.  Missile spam is much easier to pull off with command squads, terminator squads, shooty crusader squads, and typhoons.  Otherwise, things seem to be same old, same old with the Templars, namely charge forward and beat until dead. 

In my next installment I will go over our two Special HQs and why you should (or shouldn't) take them.

Check out the next installment here:
Codex Review: Black Templar Named HQs

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Hiatus and the new FAQs

Well, it's been awhile since I posted anything, but I was asked to play a game of toy soldiers this past weekend with a friend who is getting back into it after a long time.  Since I haven't played a game in months, I took him up and we had a great time.  In getting back into the scene and reading the forums, I noticed that GW posted FAQs to update and universalize some of the rules across the marine codexes.  So, this got me thinking about my good old Black Templars.  With cyclone missile launchers that actual shoot twice and the ability to take two in a 5 man squad, I thought the idea of a death wing style army would be most excellent.  So, here is what I thought about:

Castellan- power sword, combi-melta, terminator armor
              - 4 sword brethren command squad terminators- 2x cyclone missile launchers, tank hunters
Castellan- power sword, combi-melta, terminator armor
              - 4 sword brethren command squad terminators- 2x cyclone missile launchers, tank hunters
Emperor's Champ- Accept any challenge, no matter the odds

5 sword brethren terminators- 2x cyclone missile launchers, tank hunters
5 sword brethren terminators- 2x cyclone missile launchers, tank hunters
5 sword brethren terminators- 2x cyclone missile launchers, tank hunters

Crusader Squad- 6 Initiates, 1 neophyte, missile launcher, flamer
Crusader Squad- 6 Initiates, 1 neophyte, missile launcher, flamer
Crusader Squad- 6 Initiates, 1 neophyte, missile launcher, flamer

What does this list offer? 
Missiles.  It has lots of missiles.  It can shoot 20 S9 missiles and 3 S8 missiles a turn.  The terminators will be fairly resilient against most lighter fire while the real goal is to protect the cyclones.  I have an effective range of 48" across the army meaning that I can handle most armies at range while they close and when they are in range, they will hopefully torn up and bloodied as they try to come to grips with 25 terminators. 

What does it lack?
Bodies and mobility.  I don't have a lot of marines in this build and I don't have a very effective way to cross the board.  The way to mitigate this is to hold my own objectives while teleporting in terminators to contest my opponent's objectives.  Luckily I have 5 units I can do that with if need be. 

To wrap it up, I totally understand this is a gimick army, but it sounds like a fun time and a different way to play my beloved black templars.  What do you think internet listeners/readers?  Would it work out?

Dusting off the Templars

I have been in a Black Templar frame of mind lately.  So, I thought I would put together a list based on the models I have.  It is a pretty simple list, but I think it works on many levels.  Here goes:

-Emperor's Champion- Accept any challenge- 140pt.

-5 Assault terminators- 3LC, 2 TH/SS, furious charge, riding in a land raider crusader with smoke- 483pt.
-Venerable Dread- TL lascannon, DCCW/storm bolter- 155pt.
-Dread- TL lascannon, DCCW/stormbolter- 125pt.

-Crusader squad- 7 initiates, powerfist, melta, 2 neophytes, frag grenades (you have to buy the stupid things)rhino with extra armor and smoke- 224pt. (Champ's crew)
-Crusader squad- 8 initiates, powerfist, melta, 2 neophytes, frag grenades (you have to buy the stupid things)rhino with extra armor and smoke- 241pt.
-Crusader squad- 5 initiates, 1 neophyte, lascannon, flamer, TL las razorback with extra armor- 206pt.
-Crusader squad- 5 initiates, 1 neophyte, lascannon, flamer, TL las razorback with extra armor- 206pt.

-Dakka Pred- Autocannon, sponson heavy bolters- 110pt.
-Dakka Pred- Autocannon, sponson heavy bolters- 110pt.

So, what does this list offer? 
The EC is the only HQ choice.  Templars rarely need more and usually can't afford more, so this guy will have to do.  Army wide preferred enemy is great.

It has an insanely hard assault terminator squad.  S5, I5 lightning claws?  Nice.  I always take more lightning claws when it comes to BT because our storm shields suck.  4++ only in combat is no good, but the thunder hammers help a bunch.  This unit is super nasty if it hits, but still has to be played well because melta and AP2 shots make it a sad panda.

I have 2 strong combat units in the rhino squads.  These will go forward as fast as possible. to get in your face and smash face and melta stuff.  The 2 razorback squad will protect my home base while my dreads rove around threatening mech, especially the tank hunting venerable with the S10 TL lascannon. 

The preds round out my shooting base.  It sucks that they cost 25pt. more than vanilla dakka preds, but what can you do, right? 

So I end up pumping out 4 TL lascannons, 2 missile launchers, and 2 autocannons.  I have three combat threats that I can throw forward aggressively to pressure my opponent and to cause close combat damage. 

With new FAQ rulings, I can also go to ground when I get shot at and if I take damage, I can pop up and move in my turn since righteous zeal allows me to hop out of going to ground.  It is a sweet deal. 

The name of the game here is to open up mech and drive my terminators home at the biggest threat on the field.