When people think of Black Templars they think of angry, religious madmen running across the field. However, contrary to the fluff, the one thing they do very well indeed is shoot from a long distance.
Now, this is generally counter-intuitive. 'BT have assault squads as troops, right?' That may be so, but the list is so much more than just 'run at the nearest enemy'.
For instance, crusader squads are 5-10 men, and still have the options for special and heavy weapons. This means you can take a five-man squad with a lascannon and a plasma gun, for just 101 points.
Now, if you spam this type of unit, you can have up to 11 of them in a 1250 point game (once you take into account the emperor's champion with vows). This means 11 lascannons, 11 plasma guns and 33 bolters. Not bad for a close-combat themed army.
What's even more filthy is that lascannons will probably get a super boost in 6th edition. This came up today from Faeit 212.
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2012/06/presence-of-faeit-vehicle-damage-in-6th.html
Vehicle Damage Table
1-2 Shaken
3 Stunned
4-5 Weapon Destroyed and Immobilized (I wonder if its both or 4 is Wpn Dstrd and 5 is Imm?)
6 Explodes
AP1 +2 to the damage table
AP2 +1 to the damage table
In addition, your opponent will not know where to devote his firepower. Eleven small squads will force him to split his shooting, and present more targets then he can properly manage.
Another unit which kicks arse is the humble terminator tactical squad. In a five-man unit, you can take two cyclone launchers, with the tank hunters veteran skill. I'm not sure how that will work out in the 6th edition, but in 5th it for sure kicks arse. What's great too is that you can take them as command squads for a terminator armoured character, effectively freeing up more elite slots for assault terminators or dreadnoughts.
Landspeeder Typhoons are cheaper in the Templar book as well, being just 70 points versus 90 points in the vanilla codex.
Venerable dreds are great too with the tank hunter veteran skill, making the missile launcher/lascannon variant a great option in shooty lists.
In addition, Black Templar vindicators still come with the power of the machine spirit option, a significant advantage over vanilla marine vindis.
If you're thinking that you might be lacking a bit of combat punch, try assault terminators with lightning claws. Re-rolls to hit (under the accept any challenge vow), re-rolls to wound and no armour saves. A unit of five or six is pretty much overkill for any enemy unit in the game.
All in all, I reckon Black Templars are some of the best marines in the game, as long as you know some of the weird loopholes in the codex and how to use them to your advantage.
Let's just hope they aren't entirely nerfed by a White Dwarf codex. However, a 'rage' USR for crusaders (giving +2 attacks) might on the other hand provide sufficient recompense.
Now, this is generally counter-intuitive. 'BT have assault squads as troops, right?' That may be so, but the list is so much more than just 'run at the nearest enemy'.
For instance, crusader squads are 5-10 men, and still have the options for special and heavy weapons. This means you can take a five-man squad with a lascannon and a plasma gun, for just 101 points.
Now, if you spam this type of unit, you can have up to 11 of them in a 1250 point game (once you take into account the emperor's champion with vows). This means 11 lascannons, 11 plasma guns and 33 bolters. Not bad for a close-combat themed army.
What's even more filthy is that lascannons will probably get a super boost in 6th edition. This came up today from Faeit 212.
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2012/06/presence-of-faeit-vehicle-damage-in-6th.html
Vehicle Damage Table
1-2 Shaken
3 Stunned
4-5 Weapon Destroyed and Immobilized (I wonder if its both or 4 is Wpn Dstrd and 5 is Imm?)
6 Explodes
AP1 +2 to the damage table
AP2 +1 to the damage table
In addition, your opponent will not know where to devote his firepower. Eleven small squads will force him to split his shooting, and present more targets then he can properly manage.
Another unit which kicks arse is the humble terminator tactical squad. In a five-man unit, you can take two cyclone launchers, with the tank hunters veteran skill. I'm not sure how that will work out in the 6th edition, but in 5th it for sure kicks arse. What's great too is that you can take them as command squads for a terminator armoured character, effectively freeing up more elite slots for assault terminators or dreadnoughts.
Landspeeder Typhoons are cheaper in the Templar book as well, being just 70 points versus 90 points in the vanilla codex.
Venerable dreds are great too with the tank hunter veteran skill, making the missile launcher/lascannon variant a great option in shooty lists.
In addition, Black Templar vindicators still come with the power of the machine spirit option, a significant advantage over vanilla marine vindis.
If you're thinking that you might be lacking a bit of combat punch, try assault terminators with lightning claws. Re-rolls to hit (under the accept any challenge vow), re-rolls to wound and no armour saves. A unit of five or six is pretty much overkill for any enemy unit in the game.
All in all, I reckon Black Templars are some of the best marines in the game, as long as you know some of the weird loopholes in the codex and how to use them to your advantage.
Let's just hope they aren't entirely nerfed by a White Dwarf codex. However, a 'rage' USR for crusaders (giving +2 attacks) might on the other hand provide sufficient recompense.
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