Chaos Terminators

[mstingray]

So I've got some chaos terminators and I'm wondering how to use them. I'm thinking:
5 Terminators
Reaper Autocannon
2 combi-melta
chainfist
lightning claws
icon of slaanesh

The reasoning is that they are more of an all comers unit able to handle whatever is thrown at them, rather than a unit that is suited towards combat or destroying tanks.
Any suggestions?

[w7west]

Unless you are running them in a land raider, I think they are more effective in 10 man squads. It's a 150 point upgrade to turn a support unit into a deathstar, which usually is worth it.

Mark of tzeench and mark of nurgle both will make a 10man squad very durable. The higher init from slaanesh can be useful for the lightning claws but striking first is not as important when the termy squad can take a large amount of beating without losing it's combat effectiveness.

For around 450 points you can get 10 termies with icon of tzeench or nurgle, 4 with powerfists, 2 with lightning claws, and 8 combi plas/melta. It's a great deathstar that can put down most units in close combat and 12" shooting.

5 man khorne termies with a few lightning claws and power fists in a landraider are a bit more expensive and hit about as hard in close combat, although they do add a landraider to the mix which shouldn't be overlooked.

[snikrot]

I almost always run the 5 man Khorn Termi in a landraider and they have yet to end a game without putting a dent in the other guy’s army. The landraider helps with target saturation as well.

[Lunar Camel]

I run two groups of 6 Terminators for my Emperor's Children. One group of 6 with Reaper Autocannon and Icon of Slaanesh for firepower and close combat (power weapons). Another group of 5 with Icon of Slaanesh and Lightning claws for close up and personal led by a Terminator Sorceror. They deep strike around an Icon of Slaanesh thats already stuck in so there isn't any mishap. One shoots, the other charges and make mincemeat of the toughest units.

[Archon]

Slaaeneshi terminators are best played with close combat equipment delivered via land raider. Sadly there are no noise-weapon-options, so i would like to go with champion with a pair of claws, a guy with h.flamer and chainfist, two more with a pair of claws and a ablative guy with standard-layout.

[Demonus]

Unless you are running them in a land raider, I think they are more effective in 10 man squads. It's a 150 point upgrade to turn a support unit into a deathstar, which usually is worth it.

Mark of tzeench and mark of nurgle both will make a 10man squad very durable. The higher init from slaanesh can be useful for the lightning claws but striking first is not as important when the termy squad can take a large amount of beating without losing it's combat effectiveness.

For around 450 points you can get 10 termies with icon of tzeench or nurgle, 4 with powerfists, 2 with lightning claws, and 8 combi plas/melta. It's a great deathstar that can put down most units in close combat and 12" shooting.

5 man khorne termies with a few lightning claws and power fists in a landraider are a bit more expensive and hit about as hard in close combat, although they do add a landraider to the mix which shouldn't be overlooked.

I fought a very similar Deathstar to this with my Necron Death Star last weekend.

8 Lychguard, Lord with Warscythe, Scarabs and orb, Overlord

Reflected back 2 combi plasma shots killing 2 terminators. Won in 2 rounds of combat. They were a ***** to get rid of though. Marched around shooting up my ****, shrugging off my AP3 shots like no buisness.

I run my chaos terminators in 3 ways:

-cheap 3 man unit to suicide in, kill a big tank with combi meltas
-assaulty squad with lightning claws and combi weapons to come out of a LR. usually no mark or slaanesh/khorne. all champions.
- big deathstar as described above, with mark of tzeench. i dont go nurgle as i find things that wound me on toughness 4 dont have too much issue with toughness 5

[DWest]

I've run Chaos Marines as one of my armies for 2 years now and I agree with the advice thus far, with a couple of additions:

0) If you do run a Land Raider for your Termies, and you put the Chaos spiky fence bitz on, make sure to leave yourself a handhold. After 2 years, the bloodstains on my Khornate LR are quite real. On to the show:

1) The teleport suicide-squad is really quite good, and with 2+/5++ they can end up being not so "suicidal", or at least draw some anti-tank away from other targets. Also remember one Termie can take a Heavy Flamer, which matches up nicely to the T and Sv of Necron Warriors. If you have a lot of trouble with the dead rising in your area, it can be a handy configuration to have on hand.

2) For me, Icon of Tzeentch is much better than Icon of Nurgle; the +1T doesn't make it any harder for plasma guns or heavy artillery to wound, and anything you really want the Termies to kill in CC probably has power weapons hiding somewhere.

Finally one trick which is only semi-related to Terminators, but applies if you plan on teleporting squads in (or other teleporters of any flavor): There's the dreaded Lash of Submission Daemon Prince, but for fairly cheap you can also get a Chaos Lord on a Steed of Slannesh. With Fleet and 12" charge range, you have an average reach of 21" on turn 1. Lash gives you an extra 2d6" pull if he's nearby. Find something squishy but not so squishy that it will be wiped out on charge (again, Necron Warriors in a large blob come to mind) and get stuck in. You now have an unshootable Icon buried on your opponent's side of the board.

[Sure]

I advise you that it is a bad idea making the Chaos Terminators a generalist unit. Against the older codices you can get away with this but it is much more effective to say "I expect this squad to (insert specific primary and secondary goals)".

For instance: I expect these squads to surgically eliminate targets and then disrupting the opponent's rate of fire.
For this I've found a unit of only three useful because it allows for more forgiving deepstrikes (I've pulled off ridiculous deepstrikes that cause everyone involved much amusement). I give them all combi-plasmas and that's it. I already have plenty of things in the list that deal with high AV and I prefer getting twice as many shots - better against long fangs, mephiston, and imperial artillery.
Plus, I love getting rifleman/psyfleman dreads in close combat - I essentially take that unit out of the game as an effective piece (with 2+ armor and L10) unless the opponent is willing to commit another one of their units to an assault (which means that unit misses out on a shooting) and thus further disrupt whatever plans they had (people don't expect you to launch an assault you can't win but then see the ulterior motives after the second round of assault. You have a decent chance of doing this even if the unit has just one guy left. Sure, sometimes this doesn't work out and I'm lucky if I don't totally fail on deepstrikes, but they please me enough to like them.

This is just one idea - maybe your list needs something else...this is just how I think terminator units are best formulated in the game's current state. Also, the guy advocating the mark of tzeench was spot on - 4+ invuln is way better that a fake-5 for toughness.

[Infinite Resignation]

The teleport Termicide squad is my common use, with a chainfist in case I survive a turn of shooting and can assault a vehicle (after all those combi meltas will have been used up). Probably the best buy if you want a Land Raider to transport some Berserkers too.

[GrandReaper]

Mine are always used for "spot removal". Either:

6 Termies w/ Heavy Flamer, 5 Combi-Plasma, Chainfist, Mark of Tzeentch
4 Termies w/ Combi-Meltas

Get's the job done, barring the 3/4 of the time I mishap.