Warhammer 40K: Why Assault Terminators Suck – and How to Fix Them
I love that we got a new Assault Terminators kit, but man do these models need help with their 40K game rules. Here’s how.
I love that we got a new Assault Terminators kit, but man do they feel like sleepy toddlers playing soccer on the tabletop of war. They are running around the field not understanding what they should be doing and if they try something just feel so ineffective that you question why you brought them in the first place. What the heck should we do with the chunky Space Marines?
We got three things to make them better. Step one would be to make them tougher in some form. The next would be to make them hit harder. The final step would be to give them a cool extra rule. Let’s break down each one and give them a rule to make them better.
Assault Terminator Fix #1 – Make Them Tougher
We’ll start with the easy one with making them tougher. We have a few other Assault Terminator kits that are out there now and each of them have a very simple rule to make them tougher. We could just give them that rule – which is just the ability to be -1 to wound if the attack strength is higher than their toughness of 5. This means they will most likely always be wounded on 4’s which could just be a terminator armor rule. I think that is just the easiest thing to do and we could even look at making the Stormshield for them even better by adding something fancy like -1 to damage instead of having them hit 4 wounds.
I know you are asking isn’t that just Dark Angels Death Wing Knights? I think by removing the 4th wound and letting the regular Terminators have something special with the -1 damage for their shield will make them unique and different enough. Also, the Assault Terminators can go up to 10 models which with 4 wounds and -1 damage might be a problem for some armies to deal with. I just feel we have answers on how to make Assault based Terminators good and we need to tweak those rules to create unique and different units that still work the same with rules we know that are decent.
Assault Terminator Fix #2 – Make Them Deadlier
The next one is we must let them hit harder. A unit with 3 attacks that hit on a 4+ is not good when they cost so much. I know the Hammer has Devastating wounds but when a unit of these guys can’t kill a Rhino on the charge you have to ask what’s the point of them. I think they just need to hit on 3’s and remove this whole 4+ mess from the Space Marine Weapon Skill.
After fixing their Weapon Skill I do feel they need to have more oomph when they charge into combat. I would even put in some kind of Tank Shock option as they come due to their Shield Charge. This would make them different from all the other Terminators and push a brute force type of idea for them as they teleport in and connect with their charge.
Assault Terminator Fix #1 – A Better Special Rule
Finally let’s add in some kind of extra rule that isn’t a Battleshock based option. Battleshock just doesn’t work as an option because while you “activate” it the success of it is based on what your opponent rolls. This removes the agency from players’ hands and puts it all based on your opponent failing. I would rather have a rule that is based on me succeeding instead of rule I need the other person to fail.
What do we do then? We are already talking about a Tank shock like rule so what else could we do with a unit of Terminators. What if their charge disorientated the opponent in some way? Why not give the enemy a -1 to hit? That could be a simple way to also make Assault Terminators tougher without making them tough all the time. Would this be too powerful with stacked -1 to wound and -1 damage? I think leaving it only in the assault phase lets them still be tough enough and again force the player to get them mixed in instead of just sitting on a neoprene circle in the middle of the table.
Do you think this is enough to make Assault Terminators good? Would this make them too good? These models used to be feared and now you are left wondering why you even take them to the tabletop.
