Making Terminators (and Land Raiders) Competitive

[L30n1d4s]

This has been talked about quite a lot, but the longer 8th edition goes on, the more Terminators seem to fall in relative power and viability in competitive play. People have proposed all kinds of options to fix this, including points drops, more base attacks, improved invulnerable saves, the old "Relentless" rule, etc., but I am not sure any of these would fix the issue and still keep Terminators true to their fluff (i.e. very rare, hard-to-field units who are borderline indestructible on the battlefield).

 

The more I have thought about it, the more I think the real answer for Terminators of all kinds (i.e. Heretic and Loyalist, character models and squads, etc.), is to increase their resistance to enemy "to Wound" rolls, which both is fluffy (representing their incredible durability) and a way to make them genuinely powerful on the tabletop.

 

My idea is that all Terminator models would get the following rule:

 

 

 

"Nigh Indestructible"

 

If an attack is made against a friendly model with this rule with an AP value of 0, then that attack has a -2 modifier to any of its "to Wound" rolls; If the attack has an AP value of -1 or -2, then the attack has a -1 modifier to any of its "to Wound" rolls; if the attack has an AP value of -3 or better, then there is no negative modifier to its "to Wound" rolls.

 

 

In practice, this would make Terminator models almost invincible against most AP 0 weapons (like Bolters, Lasguns, Pulse Rifles, Splinter Weapons, etc.), which would match the fluff, and much more survivable against "medium" AP weapons like Heavy Bolters, Autocannons, Krak Missiles, Battle Cannons, etc., which again is reflective of the fluff. This would also mean that you would have to really dedicate high AP attacks to deal with Terminators efficiently, in turn making them much more survivable the they currently are and increasing their in game value for holding objectives, absorbing enemy combat power, or just staying alive long enough to make an impact on the battle.

 

This rule could also be applied to all Land Raider variants, making them both more viable from a competitive angle and more true to their fluff.

[Pearson73]

That's a pretty cool idea, I like the fluff-based approach, as opposed to the purely 'how can we buff a weak unit' view.

[UnkyHamHam]

I have suggested nearly this exact same thing before. Mine was called Inviolate Adamantium. And it gave all units with the TERMINATOR, DREADNOUGHT, and HELLBRUTE keywords a -1 to wound.

 

So needless to say, I like your direction!

[Closet Skeleton]

Land Raiders are good this edition with double the lascannon shots and no more melta related evaporation, they just need to be 100 points cheaper.

 

They aren't good terminator transports but safe deepstrike makes all terminator transports irrelevant.

[Iron_Within]

On the other thread I had an alternative idea that would effect terminators

Armoured ceremite: any unit with 3+ or better may reroll failed armour saving throws of 1.

This would effect both terminators and land raiders.

Tbh though land raiders need more work. I'd propose two additional rules

Assault vehicle: units may disembark with 3" after this vehicle has moved (but may not subsequently make thier movement)

Armoured behemoth: this vehicle may always shoot is weapons even within 1" of enemy units or has retreated