I have never really understood what the boner is about with Termagants and in particular Tervigons and Tervigon pimped out lists. Since the Tyranids codex arrived many years ago folk have been loving Tervigon and Termagant heavy lists, I am going to tell you why I think they poop.
Termagant, you is poop
Firstly the humble Termagant, it's an alien dog sized creature with the same profile as a Guardsmen more or less (though I4) and comes with a 12" range bolter. It costs a cheapo 5 points.
Nothing scary about that is there? In fact what use do Termagants have? I can think of objective holding and acting as a tarpit unit when there is a decent size of them and against a unit or model which has low amount of attacks - even better if they are in synapse. That's the use I see them for.
All in all they are not brilliant. They are just as good as a Chaos Space Marine Cultists, a Ork Grots or even the lowly Guardsmen.
Big Momma
The Tervigon is a reasonable points costed super size beast with a huge amount of six wounds. It is a psyker and can take three psychic powers, which can be swapped for biomancy making this a hulking super beast. Anyway, enough out super hulking beast, I just wanted to make that point and not wanting it to slip my mind.
The Tervigon links to the weak ass Termagant by making additional Termagant critters, 3D6 each turn, roll a double and it burns out and no more babies for you. So free weak ass troops, which I guess you cannot complain about and especially as 5/6 missions in 40k are objective games.
More interestingly if any Termagant unit is within 6" they can use the Tervigon's leadership and also gain benefits of adrenal glands and toxin sacs. In addition they also gain the counter-attack rule.
But wait, there's more and it's a big catch - if the Tervigon dies all 'Gants within 6" take 3D6 S3 AP- hits - good bye little 'Ganties.
So, if you want to stop a Big Momma from spawning and kill some Termagants you can kill two birds with one stone and take out the Tervigon, just make sure you kill it in a single shooting phase or a savvy player will move the wounded Tervigon out of distance from the Termagants.
Mercer, you fucking crazy?
So I have laid it out before you and you're probably now thinking am I bat shit crazy dissin' the Termagant and it's Momma, the Tervigon. Well I can tell you I am not bat shit crazy but I can give you a method to my possible madness:
Termagants are crap right? Any weak ass unit is only good for claiming objectives and in the Termagants case acting as a tarpit if they are in synapse. That's all they do. They aren't even good at shooting. So in a vacuum they are poo poo.
You add in the Tervigon and they get mildly better, the toxin sacs and adrenal glands help - just to show you here is 10 x Termagants vs 10 x Tactical Marines, either way the Termagants get two attacks each thanks to counter-attack or because of charging:
Termagants get 20 attacks - hit with 10 - wound with 5 - re-roll thanks to poison and get another 2.5 (lets say 3) - 8 wounds in total - Marines will fail 3.
Marines attack at the same time with 12 attacks - hit with 8 - wound with 5 - Termagants fail 4 saves
Termagants lose combat, though stay in combat due to synapse.
So even boosted up the Termagants cannot take down the Space Marines. Though in reality you're probably going to have a few more Termagants (average 2D6 is 11) thanks to spawning and multiple units. But if you need multiple units you're talking almost the Marines' points cost to wipe them out.
So Termagants aren't killing loads in close combat against infantry, what about vehicles?
Well against a Rhino the Termagants would hit 13 times and score 2 glances - not exactly wiping stuff out in a blaze of fireballs.
And your point is?
My point to go with article is that you cannot polish a turd; Termagants aren't anything to write home about before Tervigon buffing and not after. It's not like the Termagants become close combat killing machines, though I guess in large numbers and multiple units they could cause some damage.
My other point is when people say the Tervigon makes Termagants 'awesome' is do you realise how much that Tervigon is costing? You're talking 180 points min to buff the Termagants, that's a lot of points to make some weeny dog aliens from meh to meh.
Then what else does the Tervigon do once it is burnt out? Claim objectives? That's a lot of points sitting on an objective, but it is hard to shift. Other than that it is going to move slowly around the board trying to bash stuff in close combat.
At the end of it all I am saying Termagant + Tervigon combo is nothing uber awesome and isn't as good as people make out. It's a nice buff, but the Termagants don't become godly and the Tervigon and Termagants can only do limited things on the battlefield.
Or maybe I just don't rate Tervigon lists? Don't get me wrong I see a place for them in Tyranid lists just not jammed packed to the rafters with them.
What are your thoughts on Termagants?