In many models of physics beyond the Standard Model the coupling of new physics to third generation quarks is enhanced and signatures are expected that mimic top production. We present a review of non-MSSM based searches for new physics beyond the standard model in final states containing top quarks and/or bottom quarks. This includes includes searches for heavy gauge bosons, excited quarks, chirall and vector-like top quark partners. The searches span a range of final states, from multi-leptonic to entirely hadronic, and many results use novel analysis techniques to reconstruct the highly boosted final states that are created in these topologies. The searches are performed on data collected with the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 and 8 TeV.