Terminators

Following a rather inane conversation with Miggles last night I thought I'd say something about terminators.

Firstly. Terminators are only assault units if they are if they are assault terminators. GKTs and Terminators (the ones with the stormbolter and shooting weapon upgrades) are shooting units. Sure they can counter-attack but because they lack a good invul save, they are not uber close combaty. And then you only really have two good assault variants. TH/SS from Vanillia marines (who are just rock hard) and Templar Termies w/LCs and Furious Charge (which rely on their higher I and sickening kill ratio to do damage before they get hurt).

Now IMO the best army to build around terminators is Black Templars. With the old rules of being able to take 2 special weapons (assaultcannons in this case) per 5 men and the tank hunters special skill, you have an excellent counter-assault unit, an excellent anti-infantry unit and an excellent anti-light armor unit (and thanks to rending it can damage anything). Whilst the BT codex suffers in its all-round options, it is quite possible to make a very balanced list around shooty BT termies (much more balanced than a Deathwing option for example).

The only other competitor for an balanced army based around termies IMO is the vanilla codex and generally copies the Dark Angel idea of a dualwing but since both the vanilla LRs, termies & bikes are better... The TH/SS termie is simply beastly and if you want a rock hard assault unit this codex is the way to go. However 900 points in 10 th/ss and 2 raider variants takes up a lot of your points so you need to maximise your ability to do damage and do it quickly with your remaining points.

Space Wolves don't do as good termie forces IMO. I think the Wolf Guard (in TDA or not) are much better at supporting the rest of the army or are a better core in power armor or mixed armor besides the fact their calvary forces are that much better. BA and DA just don't cut it with their current books. Whilst a mech list with TH/SS thrown in from the Vanilla codex is most likely better than a BT termie list, I find building a list around terminators is much more points effective for BT though vanilla runs a close 2nd.