Monday's Game at the Club: Terminator Tactics

 I volunteer with an after-school program over at the High School called the Sci-Fi Club. All gaming and Sci-Fi related stuff is welcome. There are around a dozen up-and-coming 40k gamers who attend. They are at various stages of collecting armies. Any given week, they are scattered between modeling, painting, or playing at the club.

I have been playing each week in various capacities (either solo games or partnering with students). My goal is to teach them the basic rules, help them with codex specific rules, increase tactical and strategic thinking in game, and encourage sportsmanship. On top of that, I get to have fun.

This past week, I joined forces with a Black Templar player in a game against an Imperial Guard player. The young man playing the Imperial Guard is the oldest playing and a bit more advanced in most aspects of the game.


 BT and I split the Force Organization Chart. I threw Assault Termies (1 Thunder Hammer and 4 Lightning Claws), 1 Reclusiarch in Terminator Armor, and a basic Sanguinary Priest in my new Land Raider Crusader. BT brought everything else in the army.

My goal was to demonstrate the value of Mechanized Transport on the table-top. I believe that it worked.

In a Dawn of War situation, I was able to roll on the table at cruising speed, using Power of the Machine Spirit to fire the Multi-Melta on a Leman Russ, and deposit my Terminators into a platoon on Turn 3. This was despite attracting Battle Cannon and Manticore fire while in transit.

Near the end of the game, the following was said (and I quote), "I am beginning to see the value of using Transports."

I would like to add a bit of general Blood Angel terminator tactics. I understand the temptation to run a lot of TH/SS like all the other marines do.

I submit that our codex makes Lightning Claws the stronger option. I would like to qualify that statement by saying that you should sprinkle in some Hammertime to increase survivability. I will let you decide the perfect ratio of LCs to TH/SSs in your unit. I like 4 LCs with 1 TH/SS.

Ok, back to the Lightning Claws: Lightning Claws Terminators used in conjunction with a Sanguinary Priest make an outstanding combination. Furious Charge grants that the LCs are going off on Initiative 5 and Strength 5. We already have a veteran statline. Throw in the Chaplain, and I get the following from my 4 LC termies: 16 attacks at Initiative 5 which re-roll to hit and re-roll to wound (Strength 5) while ignoring armor saves.  It is pretty devastating.

In yesterdays game, they inflicted 15 wounds off their 16 attacks on a 25 man blob squad. Throw in the Reclusiarch's attacks, and Sgt Hammertime was lucky that anything was left to hit.

In a previous game a couple of weeks back, I went head to head with an opponents Terminators. 5 on 5. His 5 Hammers versus my configuration of 4 LC and 1 TH. Bear in mind that this was without a Sanguinary Priest or Chaplain. My LC termies killed 4 of his TH termies at initiative 4 prior to the hammers ever attempting to strike a blow.

So, put a Sanguinary Priest and Chaplain in a unit with Lightning Claw Terminators, and you will not be disappointed. Remember to sprinkle in the appropriate amount of Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield Terminators to increase survivability. Try it, you'll like it!

As a matter of fact, I have been putting together a Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armor and another TH/SS Termie in order to fill up my Crusader.

I owe you some finished photos of the Crusader. Also, I will post photos of the Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armor in the future.

Thanks for viewing and reading, your comments are always welcome.