Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: The Best of the Best Terminators
Goatboy here and it is a good time to be wearing terminator armor. But who has the best in the Grimdark?
In the aftermath of the Balance Update, Terminators going to a sweet 1+ or even a 0+ with some spells and cover means you are very hard to move when you get to your destination. Of course the question is what is the best Terminator out there as we have so many dang flavors lately. With that in mind – let’s rank some of them to see how they end up.
Imperial Terminators
Grey Knight Paladins
On the Imperial Side of things we have 3 different flavors of Terminators. I think the best one currently is the Grey Knight Paladins but there is cause to look at the Salamanders as well as the Wolf Guard Terminators. It is really dependent on how you want to build them out as each have their benefits. Overall the Grey Knight Paladins are better due to a few things.
The first thing that makes them better is having access to a spell that stacks an additional +1 to their save. You match this with Tide of Shadows and Armor of Contempt and you start to see a Paladin sitting in the open with a -1 save (meaning an Ap-3 weapon is still allowing you to save on a 2+). This makes them extremely tough without some of the other options they have. They also have a decent amount of attacks with an Ap-3 weapon. They do a flat 2 damage plus usually chances to do Mortal wounds when they are moving into combat. This helps them versus other AoC units that could be encroaching on their objective.
They are lacking in the shooting department. They normally are kept cheap with a Storm Bolter that has very little chance to push their AP. They can get some Stratagems to help but again you are just trying to push thru a wound or two versus some of the other tough options. Overall though they are probably the strongest and one of the terminator units. You will most likely see them the tabletop in the coming months as everyone shakes the dust off of their Marine builds.
Wolfguard & Friends
The next best of the Imperials is between the Wolf Guard Terminators, Salamanders, and Deathwing. I will go with the Wolf Guard as while they are expensive and do not have access to an Apothecary they do have the ability to be much more Offensive in the shooting phase which is where most of the other Terminators are currently lacking. Throw in 5 Combi-Gravs and your Rune Priest throwing up Aura Cover and you have a tough little unit that can dish out a lot of pain if someone gets within 18″. They can also all have Lightning claws on top. We all know how the Successor chapters can get some amazing exploding 6’s options.
Also a decent pick.
I expect both of these Imperial options to come out of the woodwork as people bring Marines back to the table top besides a few diehards looking for best of awards. The Deathwing options are still decent in they always have Transhuman and other fun tricks up their sleeve. They are a bit expensive and I rather like the Wolf Guard more just for the ability to do some cool custom designs.
Chaos Terminators
On the bad guy side of things we have 3 different flavors of Terminators each with their own benefits. You have the cheap Chaos Space Marine cousins with a ton of options that will be going away with a new book, the dueling fat boys of the Death Guard, and the cold heartless dust heads of the Thousand Sons. Overall each have their benefit and the best might be the cheapest Chaos Space Marine ones but with a new book coming I wouldn’t invest in going all Combi-Weapon. This leaves just the Death Guard and the Thousand Sons to look at. The both got objective secured which gives them a huge bump in usability in armies that needed tough objective holders.
Scarab Occult
The Thousand Son ones just got better with AoC and was already a heavily used unit in any Blue/Gold army. In fact it just means if you weren’t playing 20 of these guys you better go find some to play with if you want to keep up with the Jones’s. They are extremely tough and in a lot of ways mirror the Grey Knights. They have some Mortal wound/spell options mixed with a decent set of toughness/damage potential. They do have a better shooting set of options but doesn’t really transfer as well into the Terminator landscape. Your AP of -2 used to be good but with a ton of Armies now ignoring that they are just paying for an expensive bolter.
Still they are extremely good and one of the best things in that book. You will throw 20 on the table top, shamble forward and utilize your tricks to move around the table as needed. That is probably where they outshine their stinky brothers in the ability to get some well placed teleports and other movement tricks. The 10 man squads is more the issue there as opponents can block you out. But really just moving a few inches forward to mid table will help this slower army get ready to punch things for Magnus.
Death Guard Options
On the other side of it is the Relic like Terminators for the Death Guard. They have 2 flavors with both being interestingly tough. The Deathshroud are the cheaper brethren in that you can take a unit of 3 and use it to deep strike in and hold a point as needed. The Blightlords are their slower bros that have an ok weapon load out mixed with a decent amount of toughness. I really feel they are lacking in the shooting department which is where it gets harder to really judge Death Guard.
You can go all in on Terminators but I feel you end up having an issue of not being able to do anything to your opponent other than threaten the midfield. Keeping them as cheap as you can seems to be the way to go and looking elsewhere for your damage dealing options. This could mean going into some Daemon Engines for your Blight Hauler fun or just trying to get Plague Marines to work. I talk a little bit about Chaos Rhinos later on this week and I think these might be the way to help let your stinky fat bois hold points as some murder options push your opponent back.
The Verdict
Terminators are back with a vengeance and while I think some of the stacking might be a problem I am less worried as a lot of the strong armies has ways to throw out a lot of mortal wounds to deal with them. I feel for any Custodes player that has to try and chew through terminators in the future as well as some of the newly nerfed Tau weapons that are not going to melt thru chunky layers of plasteel, gross flesh, or dusty insides.
What is your favorite terminator? I remember reading the fluff of Chaos Terminators striking down and taking out a Warlord with well timed combi meltas so having these be good again is tickling my little fluff bunny inside my mind. I like the idea of just being scared of a slowly marching unit of Ancient warriors ready to punch things with their lightning glowing hands.
Slow and steady wins the race!
