Well I went away, and reassessed some things, and have come up with what I think might be about the best I can do with the BA codex for Thunderbubble styled lists. I agree with Kirby that normal Termies are better in a BA list than Assault Termies, as they give a level of duality.What do I mean here?
Well, the TH/SS terminators are great at a couple of things:
1. Surviving
2. Killing things in CC as they survive the first volley.
3. Being a wall of hard-to-ignore targets.
What they don't do, is provide any ranged firepower for their 225 point BA Price tag.
The Shooty-nators, however are great at these things:
1. Ranged firepower equivalent to 2 missile launchers per 5 guys
2. 2+ Save still, so fairly survivable versus anything but power weapons.3. Killing things in CC as they survive the first volley.
4. Being a wall of hard-to-ignore targets.
What they don't do, is tie up hard (read: power weapon weilding) targets for very long.
So, the duality they bring is a level of reliable CC, mass power fists, 2+ save, and long range Anti-Tank and Anti-Infantry firepower.
So why is this so important to look at in a BA list. Well, we have the ability to deliver TH/SS well in the codex, with StormRavens and Land Raiders, and the standard basic troop choice comes with a bonus of also being quick - but too quick for the defense lines. So if we intend to have a quiet Sunday stroll through Ork-infested ruins, we need to not get our horse in front of our carriage.
So why don't we start this list building procedure with the "givens" in our list.
Librarian
Sanguinary Priest x 2
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launchers
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launchers
So we want a Libby, because he is pimp, and Priests, because they make our somewhat weaker terminators (compared to AssTerms) stronger, albeit not against anything they are weak against.
What we end up with is: 8 Missiles at up to 4 targets, FNP, and psychic powers of your choice.
So, we need Troops, and more firepower. There are 2 options.
1. Do the unspeakable
10 Tactical Marines, Flamer, Freebie
10 Tactical Marines, Flamer Freebie
5 Shotgun Scouts, Meltabomb
5 Shotgun Scouts, Meltabomb
Yes, I said Tactical marines with the BA codex.
Why? Of all things, anti-horde! Our terminators will get eaten every time by 30 orks boys. Throw in a second pile of tactical marines, and they will kill 2-3 models, not the squad. They are also cheaper than ASM.
The scouts are there for 2 reasons. The first is that they do a good job of hiding on objectives for bugger all points, and the second is the infiltrate move. This is more to draw focus from the enemy. If they spend any amount of firepower on these guys, that's less firepower going in the Terminator screen. Remember, we are talking something like 36 bolter rounds to kill a single model. That's 360 to kill the squad dead.
2. ASM
4 x Assault Marines (5), Flamer
Simply put, these guys hover in the back line playing tag until they are needed to shoot over the defense line and cause havoc.
Finally, we should fill out our numbers with the age-old prodigy...
Missile Devastators.
Whatever fits, fill it up.
So, at 1750, my preferred list looks like this:
fester's BA Foot Spam 1750
Librarian
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launcher
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launcher
2 Priests
Tactical Marines, Flamer, Freebie (Multimelta?)
Tactical Marines, Flamer Freebie (Multimelta?)
5 Shotgun Scouts, Meltabomb
5 Shotgun Scouts, Meltabomb
5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers
So that is, 20 2+, 28 3+, 10 4+
Total, 58 bodies, many with FNP.
12 Missiles at up to 5 Targets.
You could swap the scouts for another Devastator squad if that was something you felt you needed.
At 2000 points, we start getting towards this:
fester's BA Foot Spam 2000
Librarian
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launcher
10 Terminators, Dual Cyclone Missile Launcher
2 Priests
Tactical Marines, Flamer, Freebie (Multimelta?)
Tactical Marines, Flamer Freebie (Multimelta?)
5 Shotgun Scouts,
5 Shotgun Scouts,
5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers
5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers
So that is, 20 2+, 38 3+, 10 4+
Total, 68 bodies, many with FNP.
20 Missiles at up to 7 Targets.
This fire suppression should stop most of the big worries for this army - namely RazorSpam, fairly effectively, quickly.
The reason I see this is effective is that you can play the "big block of boys" game, you can Combat Squad like a bitch and MSU.
The thing that doesn't work for me, of course, is no mobility. Having run Green Tide Orks before, the biggest issue with that is catching fleeing Skimmers and fast movers. As the Terminators are relentless, and have guns with range, that shouldn't be a big issue, however as anyone with 2/3rds of a brain will tell you, in 5th Ed, mobility is king.
Just make sure you can get that scoring unit across the board. (Don't forget Scouts can outflank too).
Focusing on foot lists with Terminators means to mind, that you cannot afford (points wise) to build in an armored wall to target saturate the field. If you wanted to do this, you would need to scale back your terminator wall, which then has its own issues...
5 Devastators, 4 Missile Launchers
