Black Templars - A Tale of Secondaries
Black Templars are an excellent melee army and the vow Uphold the Emperor’s Honor makes them highly resilient as well - every unit has a 5++ invulnerable save and mini Transhuman Physiology (can only be wounded on a 3+). Yesterday I was playing a game versus Blood Angels and my 20 man Primaris Crusader squad took a full charge from a 10 man Death Company squad hitting on 2+ with full rerolls. Thankfully my squad had Litany of Divine Protection for the 5+++ after save. When the smoke cleared I still had 10 Marines left, including four power fists and they destroyed the Death Company… they simply shrugged off many many chainsword, power sword as well as thunderhammer attacks. I should add that the Death Company squad was in the assault doctrine as well. It was a game changing moment to say the least.
While Black Templars do well scoring primary objectives, scoring secondaries is not nearly as easy. Obviously we typically have no psykers so there’s no need the worry about the Warpcraft category… however, there is a good case to made for including a psychic Inquisitor in your army and they are fairly cheap points wise. The one exception is Abhor the Witch - you score points by killing psychic enemy characters and psychic units - this could work quite well versus armies like Eldar, Grey Knights, Thousand Sons and Tyranids.
No Prisoners is typically a good choice, if you’re playing the Templar game then you’re killing many enemy units (not including characters, monsters and vehicles) and it quickly adds up. This falls under the category No Mercy, No Respite.
Oaths of the Moment also falls under the category No Mercy, No Respite and you can’t take more than one secondary from each category. If you’re playing a large Primaris Crusader squad this is not as good of a choice - you’ll probably fail morale once or twice. You score points killing enemy characters, monsters and vehicles; if you don’t fall back or fail morale and if you have a core unit or character within 6" the center of the board. However, if you’re playing against an elite army with a low unit count it’s possible you could score more than No Prisoners.
If you’re up against an army with a lot of characters take Assassination - you score 3 points for each enemy character you destroy and 4 for their Warlord. If your playing against an army with lots of monsters and/or vehicles take Bring It Down - you score multiple points for each enemy unit with 9 or more wounds. You can’t take both though because they both fall under the category Purge the Enemy.
Engage on All Fronts falls under the category Battlefield Supremacy - you score 2 points each turn by having units in at least three table quarters and the unit must have at least 3 models. If you have units in each table quarter you score 2 points. It’s fairly easy to be in three table quarters but be careful if the mission requires you to start off deployed in only one table quarter… if you’re opponent goes first and has a fast army they can trap you in your table quarter.
Raise the Banners High falls under the Shadow Operations category and is a good choice if you have say ten or more units. You’ll need at least two units that are dedicated to scoring this secondary. The deployment zone is an important consideration when selecting this secondary - again if you have to deploy in one table quarter it could be hard to achieve.
These are the easiest secondaries to score generally in my opinion. We don’t have any really easy ones to choose from so it’s very important to dominate your opponent in the primary game.