Space Wolf Terminators, Discussion and Tactica Part 1

     Hello again pups!

     Today were gonna talk about Wolf Guard Terminators, their place in 7th edition 40k, some tactics and some pitfalls.

     Jumping right in- Terminators are getting a bad rap in 7th edition. 40k sites have torn into them for being too expensive, too fragile with one wound in a edition where AP2 is everywhere, and not what people expect from 200+ point units. I could go into detail but what it comes down to is people expect Terminators to be game breakers and they're not. And thats OK. I respectfully disagree that they aren't worth their costs and in my opinion these commenters are either using their Terminators wrong or do not understand what (I feel) is their purpose or both. They should be a generalist unit. Space Marines on a whole are generalists and terminators are the next level of that niche. They put out solid shooting with stormbolters and heavy weapons, and better than average cc. Terminators have strong anti infantry potential and decent anti vehicle potential both of which can increase drastically if you are willing to pay the points. I feel that Terminators are meant to ADEQUATELY handle any battlefield role they are in the position to address; they are not meant to be the rape train everyone wants them to be. I also feel they are worth their cost if for nothing other than the fact that your opponent will drop a retarded amount of power and resources to see a unit of Terminators killed. Any player worth their salt knows better than to let a unit of unchecked Terminators run around the board willy nilly.

     Terminators have their faults-this much is beyond contest. Worth the points or not, the bastards are expensive. Your shelling out 33 points per terminator with just a stormbolter and power weapon. And in all reality this isn't bad, at just over 2X the cost of a power armored marine your getting marine stats, with 2+5++ an AP3 sword or AP2 axe and a stormbolter. In spirit of comparison, lets do some math! I'm not mathematician by the way so were gonna keep this simple. No need for 4 pages worth of math hammer on this post. On average, the number of deaths PER WOUND (remember these wounds need to be inflicted in the first place) of a terminator is 1/6 vs the power armors 1/3 (assuming these wounds don't negate armor saves of either). This makes the terminator 2X as likely to shrug off this wound and about 4X less likely for 2 terminators to die over 2 PA marines with the same number of wounds. However lets say this wound is inflicted by a AP3 weapon, the Terminator will still only die to this weapon 1/6 times while the PA marine will just die. Against AP2 or better weapons the terminator is only 33% or 1/3 more likely to survive but again this chance to live is a chance PA isnt given. However at some point, after enough shots are fired, they will BOTH DIE. Basically what Im saying is the durability of the armor is relative to the situation as is the value of said armor and how you perceive it but it is indeed ALWAYS more durable, if only a little bit. Number of attacks isn't really a factor for Space wolves as our PA marines are sitting at 2 base anyway (you bought that cc weapon right?). However when our marines shoot 2 shots, they are done for that turn. No more damage will be inflicted by them. Terminators can shoot their 2 shots and charge to potentially do more damage. Another downside to Terminators are their sheer lack of mobility. They can get in a transport or deep strike to get where there going but at that point they are essentially hoofing it and no player wants a 200+ point footslogging unit. If they took said transport, they take up 2 spots a piece but this will hardly play a role in your decision. The transport they choose (if they chose one) is likely going to be a concern to most players, however, the dedicated transport options are Landraiders or Stormwolfs. expensive to say the least. Additionally you could buy a drop pod for them but this limits your terminators to a squad of 5 and costs a fast attack slot which is a premium slot considering Thunderwolf Calvary. After all this can Terminators ever be worth it in a Space Wolf army? I say yes.

     First off, I need to warn you a good bit of this article will be dealing with the CoF detachment (which I feel gives Terminators a solid push towards being the most competitive) and the formations therein. Space Wolf Terminators, I feel, need to be taken as part of a Company of the Greatwolf detachment or formation to really be as effective as possible. Furthermore, I think SW Terminators need to be combat oriented. OH SNAP! Did he just say combat oriented? Don't this foo know its 7th edition? CC is fail.. Yes I said combat oriented. Cc has taken a few hits but its where wolves shine-especially part of CoF-especially when kitted properly. Consider this, SW terminators with Claws or TH/SS cost 48 points a piece, A Lot? Maybee.. Our marine cousin's cost 40. Whats my point? For 8 points you have WS 5 Terminators with counter attack! That is huge and makes us a great deal more efficient. Lets say we have 5 Clawed terminators fighting 10 MEQs who charged us, thats 20 incoming attacks. They're hitting on 4s so we take 10 hits, wounding on 4s so 5 wounds. Thats between 0-1 terminators dead on average (not exact math of course...) our TEQs hit back with 20 attacks, hitting on 3s (WS 5) wounding on 3s (+1STR wolf claws, another example of SW terminators being stronger) thats on average 13-14 hits and 8-9 wounds (for these examples I wont be taking into account shred, but it would be even worse.). No one is getting a save from those. but thats an unfair comparison lets do Terminators VS Terminators. 5 TEQs charge our TEQs claws vs claws, 20 incoming attacks for 10 hits for 5 wounds= 0-1 dead terminators (again not including shred). Our TEQs swing back and cause 8-9 saves which is 1-2 dead enemy Terminators.  Ok we don't exactly make all our points back in one round of combat but yes our terminators are better and cause nearly 30% more hits and wounds. That adds up. But again why combat? WGT suffer from many of the same strengths and weaknesses as regular terminators, shooting and lack of shooting power per points among them but do not suffer a lack off cc strength per point.. At least not to the same degree. Play to your strengths, ours happens to be cc as I've posted about previously.

     But they're still slow! Yes this is a serious problem that is hard to object to. I've been giving you a scenario where you are not playing an objective secured list and your opponent most likely is. This means it is that much more important for you to be able to get to an objective to kill the squishy troops on it with your cc badass terminators to contest it and win the game. This is actually a pain and Im going to tell you right now, your gonna pay out the nose for the luxury of mobility. which brings us back to the question, are Terminators worth it? Well lets look at our options: Stormwolf=eh. I love this transport for dropping off troops but picking them up? You want that thing back in the air ASAP. If it gets shot down, your up shit creek my wolfy friend. Landing to grab some wolves to chauffeur them isn't the best use of this flyer. I say no. Landraider? I have a strong love-hate relationship with Landraiders. Namely, I love crusaders and HATE the other two variants, but more on that in another post. Basically 250 points for a assault vehicle thats dropping your terminators off in the heart of the enemy with 2 long range weapons is stupid. The flamestorm cannon is smexy but a total b*tch to use. The crusader damn near puts out the fire power and wounds as a tactical squad while operating at a good assault range and making up for the fact that your terminators are not shooting. Additionally it gives frag assault launchers keeping your terminators safe from initiative penalties. Oh and it can carry 8 terminators. Play to your strengths. 

     Is that worth a 500 point unit? Up to you, thats 12 twinlinked bolter rounds, 4 twinlinked rending assault rounds,  multi-melta gun shot (if you bought it.. buy it its 10 points) and 20 STR 5 WS 5 attacks with shred or 15 STR 8 WS 5 attacks with concussive that have all the durability of 14AV/4HP and T4 2+5++ or 2+3++. Ontop of decent mobility. I think its worth it. At best your opponent will shit his pants when you drop his knight like a chump, at worst he pops the landraider and your terminators have to run. Still a tough strong unit that will take more that 500pts worth of fire power to kill in a turn or two.

     Lets talk about some formations huh? There a few good ones that include terminators, Grimnar's Kingsguard, Wolf Guard Strike Force, Kingsguard Stormforce. But Im only gonna talk about 2 today. The Void claws and, of course, Arjac's Shieldbrothers.

     Void Claws are niiiice. Firstly its at least 5 and up to 10 Terminators with wolf claws. They get all the +1 WS sexyness and the rest of the rules we've come to love from CoF. Additionally they have the rules: Coordinated Assault (As long as one is alive you can reroll ANY reserve rolls) If Needs Must (when arriving from DS, you can reroll the scatter dice) and Spearhead Strike (Must arrive by DS, arrives FIRST TURN) this unit is great! You get all the goodness of the TDAs themselves (throw a cyclone missile launcher on em for every 5 models) you get them on the FIRST TURN! They're not as likely to mishap and they help your army by bringing in reserves more reliably! Great unit! The best part? Its not a unique formation nor does it have a unique character, so you can bring multiples! AHHH!

     Arjac's Shieldbrothers. Lets see... The greatest formation in the history of formations ever EVER? Yeah. This unit is stupidly optimised and every opponent I brought this against has raged. A unit of 5 TH/SS Terminators, a Landraider Crusader, and Arjac Rockfist. Im gonna get into Arjac in his own post at some point but let me go ahead and just say hes a 2 wound Lysander for 115 points! Id pay 190 points for him all day and not think 2 thoughts of it. This formation comes with all the CoF rules but throws in hammer of wrath. More killy hammernators? No it gets much much worse. In addition to being the super resilient version of a super resilient unit, these Badasses get +1T whenever they're in base contact with another model from the formation (including the Landraider), SUCK IT Deathwing! BUT THATS NOT ALL! In addition to that whenever a model makes an invuln save on a roll of 6, it deals an immediate STR8 AP2 auto hit with concussive the unit that forced the save! Got your troll face ready? Your gonna need it. Also this unit has fearless if Logan is on the board and alive which turns into zealot if he dies. I love this formation. I've killed about every deathstar you can imagine with this one. 

     These are my thoughts on SW Wolf Guard Terminators! As always, this is all subjective and opinionated and what works for me may not work for everyone. My views are in the minority of the community most of the time and I understand and accept that. I'm just presenting what is, perhaps, a different way to look at Terminators. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree? Did I leave something out? Do you have a subject you'd like me to cover? Comments are welcome as always just remember to keep them respectful. I enjoy reading others points of view and like to examine things from every angle to make the most informed decisions possible. My next post will be about more ways to equip WGT, both for range and cc options I havent covered.

                                 Hope this post was useful! Russ be with you!

                                                                                                   Jorvar

     (Wolf guard pic at bottom are my personal Shieldbrothers just completed, post on glow effects in the future)