Black Templars: Terminator Pod List

So now that you've seen all the toys that the Black Templar codex has available, how do they work together to build a competitive list? It's no surprise that I've built my list with as many of these unique units as possible :)

Shooty Poddy Templars (1750) 
Emperor's Champion - "Accept Any Challenge" (140)
Marshall - terminator armour, chainfist, storm shield, adamantine mantle (175)
5 Terminators Command Squad - 2 cyclones, chainfist, tank hunters (270)
5 Terminators - 2 cyclones, chainfist, tank hunters (270)
5 Assault Terminators - thunder hammer & storm shield, tank hunters (215)
Venerable Dreadnought - twin-linked lascannon, heavy flamer, smoke. searchlight (169)
Landspeeder - typhoon missile launcher (70)
Landspeeder - typhoon missile launcher (70)
5 Initiates - meltagun, multi-melta, frag grenades, drop pod (135)
5 Initiates - meltagun, multi-melta, frag grenades, drop pod (135)
5 Initiates - plasma gun, lascannon (101)


The army is obviously packing heat, with a bunch of high strength ranged attacks coming out of some very tough units. The amount of shooting is not a spam levels, but the Strength is high and everything can move and shoot. The Typhoons are an absolute bargain and really help to boost my shooting, and provide possible late game objective contesting... if they somehow survive :) I left the missile launcher off the dread so that A) he can take on units like Purifiers that are a big threat to my Terminators, and B) so that I can much easier ensure he has a 4+ cover save by hiding on the edge of walls.

This is a hybrid army, not a shooting one - there are 17 power fists / thunder hammers and all are S9 against vehicles, and rerolling misses otherwise.  Sure you go last and must first survive against higher initiative attacks, but vs anything but Grey Knights this shouldn't be a problem I often deploy as close to the enemy as possible, and move my battle lines up 6" every turn. I like to move up the flanks looking for side armour shots, but always be mindful that your models are getting the support they deserve!

Lets take a closer look at the scoring units. Only 3 squads of 5 Marines? At first glance it looks suicidal, but in my games so far I have made do. I am greatly helped by the lack of drop pod assaults, so in three out of four games I'll be getting one of those drop pods in turn 3 or later. The las-plas squad will start in reserve against armies with effective ranged shooting, but are often just deployed in cover on my home objective. With all the troops in reserve on turn one, I has no power armor on the table - just Terminators and long ranged vehicles. This can hamper my opponents ability to find effective targets for his firepower.

I've equipped the drop pod squads with melta, because every army needs some! The idea is that they can either drop in aggressively and hopefully pop something, or drop on an objective and defend it with the multi-melta. Don't forget that if you take a casualty you can consolidate the unit forward - hopefully bringing them within 12" range of a nearby vehicle. Then you can pop that next turn with the multi-melta!

I could swap the Assault Terminators and a Typhoon for another cyclone Terminator squad, but I have found this unit to be very useful so far. What do you think? How would you play the list? What kind of Black Templars list would you rock?