Everyone knows that one of the greatest 'Death Star' units in the game is a tooled up unit of Space Marine Assault Terminators with thunder hammers and storm shields. They're tough to kill because they can shrug off any hit or melee attack on a 2+/3++. And when they get in close, they're constantly stunning your characters and vehicles and generally smacking you around with S8 evilness. It's such an obvious choice that people often forget about their more tactically flexible brethren, the stock standard terminator squad. It is pretty clear that the Space Marines were always intended to be THE jack-of-all-trades army in the 40k universe. This is their chief strength (and their most obvious weakness), and I have always felt that playing to that intended role is almost always the most effective approach. After all, being able to change your target or battlefield role on the fly is a tremendous advantage, and one much better demonstrated by a standard terminator over an assault terminator.
Back to Basics
The smallest and cheapest unit of either version of terminator you can buy is 200 points for a 5 man unit. For the standard terminator squad, that's 4 marines with storm bolters and power fists, and 1 with a power sword and storm bolter. Their fantastic 2+ armor save means that they will shrug off every basic weapon on the battlefield on a 2+ and they only need to fear special and heavy weapons (as those weapons tend to turn the pinnacle of Imperial personal protective gear into a guardsman flak jacket). But even with their out-of-the-box weaponry, they're going to have a 30" threat range (24" for the gun + 6" movement), and all but one will be able to hit just as hard as their thunder hammer brethren at S8. The sergeant, unfortunately, can only ever take a power sword into battle. The good thing about this is that you have at least a passing chance to eliminate the other guy's power fist before he tears into your terminators. The bad thing about it is really due to the confusion it causes more than anything else: you see, every other Space Marine sergeant has at least one swap option for weapons which allow him to hit heavier or faster in an assault. But for some reason, the Codex Astartes provides that the toughest veteran sergeants in the chapter must wield a very specific load out while every other sergeant, from devastators to scouts, can take pretty much whatever they want into battle. Maybe the slower speed of the terminator armor means they can't make it into the armory fast enough before all of the good stuff has been picked over? Anyway, the pros and cons of this basic stock unit are as follows:
Pros
- 30" standard threat range
- 2+ armor shrugs off most attacks
- 5++ invulnerable save gives them a guardsman's chance in Hades to survive powerful hits
- S8 melee hits standard for troopers in the unit
- "Free" power weapon for the sergeant
- 10 bolter shots on the move give them the un-augmented firepower of a standard full size tactical squad
- Although just as expensive as a 5 man assault terminator squad, your foe will always prefer to take shots at the other squad before this one if he's got a choice -- this unit appears non-threatening because they're slow
Cons
- 5++ invulnerable save gives them a guardsman's chance in Hades to survive powerful hits
- Sergeant has NO access to the chapter armory
- Expensive
- Too slow to chase down fleeing hand-to-hand combatants
Reasonable Upgrades
Powerful hand-to-hand attacks and 10 bolter shots per round of shooting is really nothing to sneeze at when you stop to think about it, but if you want these guys to live up to their full jack-of-all-trades potential, they need some basic upgrades to extend their menacing presence on the battlefield. For the cost of another terminator (40 pts), you can dramatically increase this squad's killing potential: cyclone missile launcher (30 pts) and 2x chain fists (5 pts each). This does three very important things.
First, by adding the chain fists, there is NO vehicle or bunker that is safe if you can get to grips with it. With an additional D6 to roll for armor penetration, that means you go from a minimum of S9 (S8 + D6 result of 1) to a minimum of S10 (S8 + 2x D6 result of 1). Yep, that means you are going to automatically cause at least a glancing blow on most armor in the game. And with a maximum of S20, that means on average you will be able to penetrate the toughest bunkers and armor in the game (unless it has living metal, of course, but we won't go into that ridiculous rule at the moment...). To put it into perspective, a chain fist hits armor just as hard as a meltagun, but without the AP1 rating. The long and short of it is that armor doesn't stand a chance against your little 5 man unit -- that's 6 S8 power fist attacks and 6 chain fist attacks on the charge; good luck surviving that!
Second, with the simple addition of a cyclone launcher you extend the threat range of this unit to 54" -- 48" plus 6" of movement (all hail to the Relentless USR!). Playing long edge to long edge on a standard 4x6 gaming board means that you will be able to reach just about everything on the board without needing to 'gate' around with a librarian or jumping into an expensive landraider transport. Further, because this edition of the Space Marine codex lets you shoot two missiles every turn, in addition to firing the storm bolter, your firepower increases beyond that of the standard tactical squad in the blink of an eye.
Finally, the addition of these two pieces of equipment creates four pockets of wound allocation: 2x marines with SB/PF; 2x marines with SB/CF; 1x sergeant with SB/PW; and 1x marine with SB/PF/Cyclone. Given their lame invulnerable save (compared to the storm shield), this is important for keeping your cyclone launchers and chain fists the best chance possible against a fusillade of fire from the other side. Incidentally, I find it a little bizarre that that the same people that hail the psychic power 'force dome' as a "must have" also seem to agree that the terminator's invulnerable save is crap. Which is it folks? Either the 5++ is great, or it sucks. I think it sucks. But I digress...
When you compare this 40 point addition to the equivalent of adding another warm body to a thunder hammer unit, this first 40 point upgrade dramatically increase the unit's effectiveness at a much faster rate. At first glance, this rate of return appears to dissipate over time as you increase the unit's size from 5 to 10 men. With 4 chain fists and 2 cyclone launchers (allowing you to create nasty bookend combat squads, or a single unit with massive firepower), the cost of a full blown unit at 480 points is a bit steeper than the 400 points a(n) (arguably) more survivable full size thunder hammer unit. However, when you really sit down and think about it, I'm not convinced 400 points is the true cost of a full blown assault unit, but I'll get into that in a minute.
Obligatory Comparison
Because of the ubiquitous nature of the thunder hammer 'Death Star,' I don't suppose there is any way to discuss standard terminators without an obligatory comparison to their nasty assault oriented brethren. So, let's go there...
First, let's look at the threat range of your reasonably upgraded standard unit to an equally priced 6 man assault terminator unit (both at 240 pts). As stated above, a unit of terminators with a cyclone launcher has an impressive 54" range. That's enough to reach out and smack just about anyone on the board at any given time. A foot slogging thunder hammer unit can only hit you if you're within 12": a 6" movement and another 6" on the charge. You can extend that with a landraider, but that also increases your overall cost by at least 240 points if you buy the Redeemer chassis. As I referenced above, the true cost of thunder hammer terminators should probably include a mode of transportation -- either a 'gate' powered librarian (probably in terminator armor with a storm shield of his own at 140 points) or a 240+ point landraider that can only take 6 men into battle at a time. Incidentally, a 6 man unit with stripped down Redeemer costs the same amount of points as a full size unit of terminators with dual cyclone launchers and 4 armor-breaching chain fists.
Next, let's look at a Deep Strike comparison. You can drop either unit close to the enemy -- and in the case of the thunder hammer unit, if you don't drop them in, you're going to have a loooong walk, or a transport ride for a smaller number of marines. Anyway, on the deep strike, a thunder hammer unit will probably "run" to avoid template fury and then pose menacingly; they might even snarl, gnash their teeth and let loose with a biting insult or two. The standard 5 man terminator unit, however, will pop in and then stand in place to unload two tactical squad's worth of dakka into the enemy. Twenty bolter rounds and two missiles is nothing to sneeze at! And if the enemy chooses to run away from you rather than standing to accept the charge on the next turn, your standard terminators will continue to blast away at the enemy with two tactical squads worth of firepower from behind every turn while the assault terminators will jog behind the enemy continuing to pose menacingly and hurl hurtful language.
How about the assault phase? Well, there is no doubt that thunder hammer marines have an impressive ability to lay the smack down in an assault. Let's up the ante and consider maximum sized units. A full size 10 man assault unit can lambast the enemy with 30 S8 hits on the charge, and 20 hits thereafter. Further, even at I1 (because of those slow menacing hammers), their 3++ storm shields and 2+ armor mean that most of those hammers are going to survive to hit the enemy again and again during every subsequent round of combat.
Conversely, a 10 man standard terminator unit will hit you with 27 S8 hits and 3 S4 hits on the charge, and then 16 S8 hits and 2 S4 hits thereafter. That's still nothing to sneeze at, but only the S4 hits are at I4. I4 is ok for most enemies, but against faster armies and power weapon wielding characters, the S4 might as well be hitting at I1 simply because he won't be hitting until after the other guy has done his damage anyway -- which is a good argument for letting the sergeant take a fist of his own. Unlike the assault terminators with their shields, however, standard terminators are not nearly as survivable. Their 2+ save will keep them safe from regular close combat attacks, but power weapons, rending attacks and monstrous creatures will quickly whittle down standard terminators in each assault phase. In short, the standard terminators just aren't as survivable against dangerous melee units in the assault phase -- even if they can dish out nearly the same amount of pain. Note that I didn't mention anything about the stun ability of the hammer (i.e. anyone wounded by the hammer, but not killed, strikes at I1 in the next phase). But let's face it, if you just hit something with 30 hammer blows and it lived to strike in the next round... you're probably in trouble.
But let's stand back for a moment and also consider the shooting phase before the assault. Those thunder hammers are survivable, but other than harsh language, they don't have anything to soften up the assault before they go charging in (unless they've got a librarian in tow). The standard terminators have two tactical squads worth of firepower to unload before charging in. That firepower WILL take its toll on your target. Sure, your standard terminators won't last long against a squad full of power weapons, but the ability to unload that much firepower into the other guy before the charge means that they won't have to survive as many attacks from the enemy. I won't go mathhammer crazy here, but my gut tells me that the firepower is the great equalizer here: even if the enemy survives the fusillade of fire, they won't be nearly as dangerous once the melee is joined.
Since we're talking about melee, what about armor? There is no doubt that people fear the hammer. After all, even if you only manage to dent the armor or knock off a weapon on the charge, you also shake the crew/occupants. And at S9 as your base when you throw in the D6 roll, there isn't much you won't glance or penetrate. But also keep in mind that all those power fists can do the exact same thing (minus the auto-shake). But once you throw in those chain fists, however, the difference becomes crystal clear. With that additional D6 roll, you will auto-glance most armor just by picking up the dice. Further, while the thunder hammer can glance a landraider or bunker on a roll of six, a chain fist will glance or penetrate more than half the time... statistically. And with four in your squad, that's an impressive 12 bone-jarring chain hits on the charge, with an average 6 penetrating hits and 4 glances. Compare that to an average of just 5 glancing hits from all 10 thunder hammers in the assault unit. And keep in mind, those 12 chain hits don't even consider the 15 power fist attacks which will, on average, give you another 2.5 glancing blows. Clearly the standard terminators, even with just four chain fists (at a total of 20 points), is vastly superior for cracking bunkers and landraiders -- heck, they're superior at cracking any armor. Do people really consider that? Probably not.
Breaking things down, the standard terminators hit armor harder, hit almost as hard in close combat against everything else, and have a vastly superior threat range on the board. Further, because they can reach out and hit most things on the board without having to load up in a transport or deepstriking into enemy territory, they can make their presence felt during nearly every turn of the game instead of jockeying into position for a round or two of close combat. So, what does all of this boil down to? As long as you are mindful of taking advantage of cover when the other guy has lots of AP 1/2 weapons on the board, the stock terminators are actually superior to assault marines in almost every other way. They are much more likely to cause harm to the enemy during every turn, and with just a passing consideration for cover saves, are just as survivable in most situations.
Load Out Options
Unlike the sergeant, the standard terminator has a few options to consider. For every five terminators, you can take either a cyclone missile launcher, and assault cannon, or a heavy flamer. Further, all terminators, except the sergeant, can decide to take either a power fist or a chain fist. As I hope that I've pointed out above, the chain fist is valuable for two reasons: it creates the ability to allocate wounds in the squad, and it gives you a near meltagun ability to punch through armor. At 5 points each, they are not horribly expensive, but it is easy to over-do it if you aren't careful. I find that a 2 to 3 ratio of chain fists to power fists is more than enough. That is, for every three power fists (or power swords), throw in a couple of chain fists. I highly doubt you'll ever need more than 4 in a squad, as that's approximately 12 meltagun shots on the charge -- which is more melta-dakka than is possible in any other unit in the game. Trust me, that's plenty -- any more than that is just gilding the lilly; not to mention that you're taking away precious points for the rest of your army.
The real question is which heavy weapon to take. For 30 points, you can take either an assault cannon or a cyclone launcher. Both have their uses, but I personally lean more towards the cyclone launcher - but only because of its range. The assault cannon may give you four S6 shots (that rend on a 6), but a cyclone gives you four shots too: two S4 storm bolter rounds, and two shots at either S8 as krak missiles, or S4 as frag blasts. Further, let's also remember that the assault cannon does not do anything to increase your squad's threat range. 30" is nothing to sneeze at, but it pales in comparison to the 54" of the cyclone launcher. Sure 30" will keep you in range for most of the game, but that 54" can almost guarantee that you're going to have something to shoot at during every turn f the game. For an expensive unit like this, I prefer to give them every chance possible to earn their points back. Mathhammer says the following:
Against T6 monstrous creatures with a 3+ armor save:
Assault Cannon: 0.74 unsaved wounds
Cyclone/Storm Bolter: 0.37 + 0.07 = 0.44 unsaved wounds
Against Gaunts:
Assault Cannon: 2.22 unsaved wounds
Cyclone/Storm Bolter: 1.11 + 0.67 = 1.78 unsaved wounds
Note that the Gaunt calculation does not consider the use of frag missiles. If frag missiles are used, then it is very possible that the cyclone setup is better -- assuming you hit at least two gaunts with every missile shot. You can factor in the size of the target area in square inches to determine an acceptable angle of deviation, but there are so many other factors (such as the distance between enemy bases and the formation of the enemy unit) that it is pointless to make assumptions that can calculate real world applications in a given game.
Against MEQ:
Assault Cannon: 1.04 unsaved wounds
Cyclone/Storm Bolter: 0.37 + 0.22 = 0.59 unsaved wounds
Against Armor 10:
Assault Cannon:
0.38 Shaken;
0.23 Stunned;
0.23 Weap.Dest.;
0.23 Immobile;
0.16 Wrecked;
0.16 Explodes
Cyclone/Storm Bolter:
0.26 + 0.11 = 0.37 Shaken;
0.19 + 0.04 = 0.23 Stunned;
0.19 + 0.04 = 0.23 Weap.Dest.;
0.19 + 0.04 = 0.23 Immobile;
0.15 + 0.00 = 0.15 Wrecked;
0.15 + 0.00 = 0.15 Explodes
Note that while the cyclone set up is almost as good as the assault cannon against armor 10, the harder the armor gets, the better the assault cannon does overall because the bolter can no longer glance.
As much as I'd like to say that the cyclone setup is the superior weapon in any given situation, the truth is that the assault cannon is better in most categories -- but only once you get within 24" of the enemy. The truth is, you get an extra 2 feet of range by using the cyclone launcher, which means you can probably do just as well with that cyclone when you throw in the additional wounds in can cause over the course of a game.
Unfortunately, it is nearly as impossible to determine how much more often you will be able to use your cyclone over the assault cannon in the course of any given game, so you'll just have to use your own experience to determine if you spend more time within 24" range or 54" range in your typical games.
The other option available is the heavy flamer. At close range, this heavy bolter strength weapon removes armor saves and can hit as many gribblies as you can fit under the template. Against horde armies with poor armor, this weapon can be devastating, but it also means you are very close to the enemy. In a perfect world, the heavy flamer would be a better option for an assault terminator squad (can you imagine the carnage you could dish out if you could take a storm shield and heavy flamer in a thunder hammer unit!). But it isn't an option. As it stands, we've already established that standard terminators are not as survivable in close combat, and can only hold their own against non-power weapon/rending/monstrous opponents in combat.
Fortunately, those are the kinds of enemies the heavy flamer was intended to take out in large groups... but you're still flirting with disastrous territory by getting that close to the bad guy. Standard terminators are deadly at the 18" to 30" range from the enemy, but they start to lose their appeal once the bad guy closes in for a massed assault. You're better off, in my opinion, avoiding the kinds of ranges where a heavy flamer excels. At 5 points, it's not a bad upgrade option if you've got points to spare, but not enough for a serious heavy weapon like the assault cannon or cyclone, but generally speaking I think I'd prefer to throw in another chain fist.
Wrap Up
There are not many folks that speak highly of the standard terminator squad, but personally... I think those same folks are nuts. The threat radius of a standard terminator squad is huge, and they carry an impressive amount of firepower. Because they are relentless, a standard squad can boast a two to four foot threat radius that is constantly on the move. Compare that to the measly one foot radius of the thunder hammer unit, and the reality of target opportunity is pretty clear. Further, in a planetsrike game, or when you know you're going to be facing serious amounts of armor or bunkers, nothing will allow you to get to the soft creamy center of the bad guy quite as well as a chainfist. Point for point, you can simply put more effective terminators on the field in a standard squad than a thunder hammer unit. No, standard terminator squads are not a Death Star threat, but they have serious tactical flexibility and can put rounds down range every turn of the game. That is an important difference that can not be overstated.
