Good evening children of the life giver and thank you for joining me. Recently I have been trying my Black Templar's on the table top and while they haven't been getting tabled with no resistance I do feel that they just don't stand up in combat very well.
Looking around the internet this seems to be a bit of a sore point with Black Templar fans wanting to stick to the fluff of a combat chapter crusading around the universe in the Emperor's name and bringing heretics, traitors and xenos to heel. Now I personally love the Templar fluff and are the only marine chapter I can see myself using but Grey Knights and Blood Angels do combat better than Templar with the current codex ( hopefully this will be remedied before too long ).
The gun line style list seems to be gathering support and while Templar's don't have the cheapest vehicles coupled with not having as many free goodies as other chapters this is a bit of a worry of mine, however I am willing to give it a go to see if it turns out any better.
So first off the list I used against Mighty Simo in our last 1v1 game;
HQ
Emperor's Champion - Accept Any Challenge No Matter The Odds
Elites
6 Terminators 4 Pair of Lightning Claws, 2 Thunder Hammer & Storm Shield Furious Charge
Land Raider Crusader
Troops
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Power Fist, Melta Gun. Rhino
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Frag Grenades, Power Fist, Melta Gun.Rhino
7 Initiates, 2 Neophytes, Bolt Pistols & Close Combat Weapons, Power Fist, Melta Gun. Rhino
Fast Attack
Land Speeder - Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multimelta
Land Speeder - Typhoon Missile Launcher, Multimelta
Heavy Support
Predator - Autocannon & Lascannon Sponsons
Predator - Autocannon & Lascannon Sponsons
I would love to say that this list was amazing but really the game was very tense, it was Dawn of War with 4 objectives with me going first. I deployed nothing and used my first turn to get in position before the forces of Chaos descended on me. Turn 2 looked promising with me doing more damage at range than I expected but on turn three my terminators lept out of the land raider and ended up having nothing to kill as my Melta failed me and in return they were charged & wiped out before they even got to strike by Kharn & his beserker squad with a combi-melter toting terminator squad wrecking my raider from the 1 penetrating hit.
It went the distance to turn seven which luckily by then I had 2/4 objectives as mine, 1 contested by a speeder and the 4th was held by a single plague marine hiding behind a wrecked rhino. It was a win but had been a close game and one that I only won due to me only making one bad roll in turns 6 & 7 both shooting and in combat.
So here is my attempt at a "shooty" list
HQ
Emperors Champion Abhor the Witch, Destroy the Witch
Elites
5 Terminators - 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers, Tank Hunters
5 Terminators - 2 Cyclone Missile Launchers, Tank Hunters
Troops
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 Initiates - Bolters, 1 Plasma gun & 1 Lascannon. Razorback Twin-Linked Lascannon
5 initiates - Bolters, 1 Lascannon. Rhino
Fast Attack
Land Speeder, Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher
Land Speeder, Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher
Heavy Support
Predator - Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons
Predator - Autocannon, Lascannon Sponsons
I didn't have enough points to take a 4th razorback and was torn between a 4th scoring unit, 2 more Land Speeders or a dreadnought in a drop pod. In the end I thought with using small scoring units ( which will have to be out of the vehicles to fire the Lascannons ) a 4th troop choice sitting in a rhino might work out best but this isn't play tested as of yet so the whole list could be scrapped.
In total this list gives me 12 Missiles ( 8 with tank hunter ), 11 Lascannons ( 3 Twin Linked ) and 2 Autocannons. Now this could prove to be disastrous but until I get I6 power weapons, FNP & Furious charge across my army I don't see them being a true combat threat any time soon.
I would love to hear your ideas on this type of list and any suggestions on making this work.
Until next time
