Terminator
Terminators are Firstborn[12] Space Marine Veterans wearing the powerful Tactical Dreadnought Armour, more commonly referred to as Terminator Armour. In most Codex Chapters, they are members of the elite 1st Company of a Space Marine Chapter.
Contents
Overview
Within a typical Space Marine Chapter, only the members of the 1st Company have full access to the rare and extremely resilient Terminator Armour. Each suit is treated as an important relic and seen as a physical representation of the Chapter's fighting spirit.[1]
The most revered part of each suit of armour is the Crux Terminatus, a cross-shaped badge placed on the left shoulder plate. According to legend, the Crux Terminatus worn by Terminator captains contains a shard of the armour the Emperor wore at the height of the Horus Heresy. To a Terminator, the loss of his Crux is unthinkable.[5a]
All suits have built-in teleportation devices which allow them to deploy anywhere via deep strike, although more often they are deployed using Land Raiders. Squads consist of a Terminator sergeant and between 4 and 9 Terminators.[5a]
Terminator Squad
Terminator Squads fight with the standard armament of a storm bolter for ranged combat and a power fist or chainfist for close combat. The storm bolter can be swapped for an assault cannon, heavy flamer, or shoulder-mounted cyclone missile launcher.[5a]
Terminator Assault Squad
Terminator Assault Squads are oriented toward close combat. To maximise their effectiveness, they swap their standard armament for a pair of Lightning Claws, or a thunder hammer and storm shield.[5f] They often battle in close quarters, such as spaceship boarding actions or in the lower levels of a hive.[3]
Terminator Command Squad
Essentially a Space Marine Command Squad equipped with Terminator Armour, a Terminator Command Squad squad consists of one terminator sergeant and three to nine terminators. The terminator sergeant is armed with a power weapon and storm bolter and the rest are armed with power fists and storm bolters. Some swap their storm bolters for assault cannons, heavy flamers or Cyclone Missile Launchers and their power fists for chainfists, especially when boarding actions are carried out.[2]
Chapter Variations
Dark Angels
The Dark Angels' 1st company is known as the Deathwing and is composed entirely of Terminator Squads. Unlike a traditional Codex Chapter, which distinguishes between Tactical and Assault roles, each Deathwing Terminator Squad is armed with a custom combination of heavy, close combat or ranged weaponry, depending on the squad's role on the battlefield. Membership in the Deathwing also confers access to some of the chapter's most closely guarded secrets. There are no Veteran Squads in the Deathwing.[6]
Space Wolves
The Wolf Guards of the Space Wolves are the retinue of a Wolf Lord, the equivalent of a Codex Chapter's Command Squad or Honour Guard. Wolf Guards have access to terminator armour, but unlike other chapters, they only wear it when the tactical situation so demands; the Space Wolves do not support permanent Terminator Squads.[7]
Each Wolf Guard can also take command of a main Battle-Brother squad. Wolf Guard, in this case, also retain their Terminator armour.[5b]
Salamanders
The Salamanders chapter uses an altered version of the Codex Astartes, with 12 squads in each company rather than the standard 10, including up to 120 Veterans or Terminators, known as the Firedrakes.[4]
Grey Knights
Unlike any other Space Marine force, the Grey Knight chapter is unique in that nearly its entire chapter can be outfitted in Terminator armour when required. Terminators of the Grey Knights use Storm Bolters and their preference of a Nemesis Force Weapon. Some may replace their storm bolter to be equipped with Incinerators, Psycannons or Psilencers instead. Furthermore, they also make use of psychic powers as is characteristic of their chapter.[8]
Chaos Terminators
Terminators in service of the Traitor Legions turned renegade thousands of years ago and have had a long time to hone their skills, making them some of the most deadly troops in the galaxy.[Needs Citation]
Major Terminator Deployments
Terminators are the veteran units of the army and are used only in the most dire circumstances.
Two of these involved the Ultramarines First Company during the First Tyrannic War and the following Second Tyrannic War. In the first war, the entire First Company was wiped out defending Macragge and during the second a company of over twenty Terminators stormed the centre of the Tyranid invasion on Ichar IV, eventually killing all of the Tyranids on the planet.[Needs Citation]
Images
Ultramarine Terminator
Iron Hands Terminator
Salamanders Terminator
Imperial Fists Terminator
1st Edition Terminators[14]
Epic Scale Terminator Squad
Terminator Captain[13]
10th Edition Terminators[16]
All Miniatures
- List of all Miniatures: Space Marines Terminators
See also
Sources
- 1: Codex: Ultramarines (2nd Edition), pgs. 24, 62, 66
- 2: Insignium Astartes, [Needs Citation]
- 3: Codex: Space Marines (3rd Edition), pgs. 8-9
- 4: Codex: Space Marines (4th Edition), pgs. 12, 31
- 5: Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition)
- 6: Codex: Dark Angels (4th Edition), [Needs Citation]
- 7: Codex: Space Wolves (3rd Edition), [Needs Citation]
- 8: Codex: Grey Knights (5th Edition), pg. 27
- 9: Imperial Armour Volume Four, pgs. 14-15
- 10: Codex Supplement: Angels of Death, pg. 55
- 11: Tartaros Terminators | Games Workshop Webstore
- 12: Spear of the Emperor (Novel), Chapter 5
- 13: Warhammer Community: Your New Store Opening Miniature – Berek the Indomitable (posted March 4 2019) (last accessed 11/21/2019)
- 14: White Dwarf 133 (UK), Mail to order catalog section
- 15: Games Workshop webstore : Space Marine Terminator Command (saved archive, last accessed 11/03/23)
- 16: Warhammer Community: A Mindblowing New Edition of Warhammer 40,000 is coming (posted 23/3/2023) (last accessed 23/3/2023)
