DA – Terminator Bubble Wrap
Basic concept…
Your terminators act as a screening device for the rest of your forces. In 1850 I run 2x groups of terminators and in 2k points I run 3. These units start as far in the center as you can get, spaced the full 2” to maintain coherency but the objective here is to create cover saves for the units behind. In my case, my razorbacks, predators and land raider. It works really well if castled in the corner, as you can eliminate one of your flanks by use of the table edge. The Land Raider and dread (dread in 1850 only) go on the other flank to ward off any attackers.
Everything else just marches across the board as a full unit. The terminators are your plow, everything else simply rains down a boatload of shots to keep your opponent on the move. One of the major objectives is to make your opponent decide to shoot either the terms or the armor behind. Either way, you should have the ability to adapt.
Let’s look at a few images of what this will look like at deployment.
I will be using my 2k list with 3x term squads as the basis for this series as that list , I feel , is more refined than my 1850 list.
The first image is the standard deployment. Terms in the front followed by the wall of tanks, and the speeders behind that. Make sure when you place your terminators you are not blocking turret weapons, so these can fire without granting cover saves. The sponsons you really can’t do much about, but not to worry since any marine army will just be taking armor saves anyways. Make sure to place your speeders so they are getting cover saves and can fire back without cover saves, as well. You want these guys living as long as possible, reserve them if you are scared of them getting picked off early. Lastly, make sure the land raider is one of the flanks. This is to block LOS to most of the rest of your army from the flank, giving your opponent a choice. Shoot at AV 14 or.. 2+/3++ FNP terminators… good luck either way. Make sure to place the terminator bubble so that no one will be getting double tap melta goodness on your land raider either. (the term bubble is also useful for stopping those melta outflankers who are going to be coming after your weaker armor)
Again, this is the standard deployment if terrain is not going to be a problem. You set up and march across the board. Predators move until they have good firing positions and then stay put and fire all their weapons. Speeders can do whatever you need with them, fire some kraks into light armor, or frags into that juicy ork blob. Always playing them conservative as they are a threat to anyone trying to shove a land raider or two down your throat.
At about turn 3 is when I usually start to break apart my formation and go for objectives. If your terminators are taking heavy casualties, simply jump them in the land raider, and get ready to move out in a later turn to contest some objectives. (Or capture since they are troops)If annihilation, simply just keep marching across the board until you are comfortable. Don’t stray too close and let them get rapid fires off on you, but you want to be close enough for your storm bolters and heavy bolters to be wrecking shop.
The second image shows an example of a split deployment. Maybe your board has a large LOS blocking piece of terrain in the center and objective placement warrants creating two fronts for your forces. The deployment would be very similar here. Creating a ‘main force’ and a smaller force to combat your opponents smaller force. Both have massive staying power and of course these can be tweaked depending on your opponents list and deployment. Strategy is the same, terms go in front granting cover saves to the armor behind which can you easily see over them with their turrets. Speeders behind them. Landraider on one of the flanks and I would recommend using a table edge for the other if you can. Outflankers can be troublesome when your force is divided. Again, always try to maintain that bubble far enough away from your armor so your opponent is not getting double tap melta love. You can always choose to not move the predators and instead fire all weapons for a round or two and play catch up if needed later.
Turn 3 or so, when your opponent is reeling and frustrated trying to break your formation, you load up your transports and move out to capture objectives.
Is anyone running a list similar to this and not had success? Or has had absolutely fantastic success? Every get rolled by a list similar to this? Does my strategy need a little tweaking? I will be releasing more articles on the intricacies of this buildout in the coming weeks, but we need to hear from you.
-Brother C
