Let's talk terminators.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

I failed a lot of charges. And yes, that one twice.

[Margulix]

My Assault Termies failed their charge yesterday. They then died to the kind of massed firepower that only a Guard Tank Army led by a Shadowsword can muster. (But it was still hard going to shift them.) The Vanguard vets on the other side lasted out the turn, but they were a secondary target to the Terminators, they didn't last another.

 

well in this stupid meta with mass lascannons and analogs even my LEVIAFAN dreadnought usually dies after first turn if he failes his charge from droppod. -_-

[Medjugorje]

Plus, Smite is situational: the OpFor has to bring a psyker and use it on the Terminators versus anything else.  AND Smite can wreck a lot more than Terminators.

 

It's not a reliable metric for a counterargument.

 

it is not if your enemies have 10 psykers on the table - and they cost exactly the same as your terminator squad. They have a meatshield and the character rule - so you have to strike down the meatshield or hide your terminators from the enemy what is clearly stupid because they just perform in close combat. Means near to the enemy and near to the guys who smite.

Edited March 13, 2018 by Medjugorje

[tvih]

Frankly I find the whole concept of mortal wounds stupid as implemented, Smite being rather spammable just escalates that. But Smite aside most of the things that cause mortal wounds make no sense. A vehicle exploding causing wounds that can't be mitigated by armor or invulnerable, while a direct, focused and extremely powerful blast from a lascannon can be?

Units like terminators already suffer from armor-penetrating weapons, but mortal wounds just take it one step further. They're always the most problematic against units with supposedly good saves since said units generally pay through the nose for said saves. Attacks that bypassed invulnerability were rare in previous editions. I think that in the 48 games I played prior to 8th edition (yeah, I've been keeping a record) I never ended up facing such an attack on the tabletop, at least that I can recall.

[Marshal Wolfhart]

I don't think the concept of mortal wounds is the problem, it's actually a good mechanic against deathstars. The fact that every psyker, no matter the cost or skill, can have a mortal wound smite is a problem imo. I don't know why they can't just implement different shooting profiles for different psykers after a 5+ psy test. There are "babysmites" after all, like Grey Knights or Eldar Warlocks get. Would also allow for differnt purposes for offensive psykers if they got an anti horde ability, for example.