Tactical vs. Combat Squads

[Wanderer787]

Hey all, I've been ruminating over my Codex as of late, and the one thing standing out at me is the Combat Squads special rule. I can't really see the advantages of it because I mainly fight Orks, Tau, and Chaos which means I usually need as many numbers as I can get in a squad to keep them from failing morale tests or being completely swamped in close combat. (My GW dice are cursed. :) )

 

I know that the Combat Squads rule probably has some value though, and I'm hoping that some more experienced players will be able to give me an example or two of their uses. Thanks!

[Lord Sinaris]

Well, there are quite obvious benefits. Of course it depends on your enemy, but a "typical" layout for two combat squads would be one squad staying behind with the heavy weapon, whereas the other one (normally the special weapon and the Seargent) would advance.

 

The problem with 10-men-squads is that you will not be able to use your weaponry to maximum effect on most occasions. The heavy weapon will only be able to fire as long as you don't move, and depending on your enemy might be necessary to shoot at targets the bolters can't even penetrate. In this situation, it is obviously worse to lose 9 bolters worth of shoting, wheras you only "waste" 4 of them in a combat squad.

A 5-man squad with a short-ranged special weapon and possibly cc-oriented sergeants would waste most of its heavy weapon benefits, and make itself less mobile, and also less able to use good cover. Think of them as a small devastator and a small assault-squad.

 

On a more defensive note, there are other benefits, too. True, 5 men might be easier to kill off and are annihilated more easily. But then again, having two squads instead of one also means having two scoring units to seize objectives. There are many situations where it might be decisive to have seperated the squads. Imagine: Last turn, your last tac squad holding the objective that decides over victory. The single killer-unit of your enemy charges into close combat. They will wipe out 10 men as easily as 5. But if you splitted the squad, they will only kill one of them - and tadaa, the remaining 5 just made your game :)

 

Its a poor example probably, but there are many others. The great thing about Tac Squads is their ability to fulfill many roles, and by combat squadding you can do a lot of creative things with them. It depends a great deal on your army, your deployment, and what you will use them for.

[Wanderer787]

Actually, it's a reasonably good example. Ablative shielding can come in handy, but I guess I'm going to have to experiment with it to find out whether or not it's going to be effective enough for me to actually use, and be put into a situation where it would be advantageous. I guess my biggest hang up is that my gaming group almost always rolls a 5 or 6 when rolling for mission type (:pinch: ), so I try to deny them as many kill points as possible.

[tedwin183]

Armies such as Tau and Thousand Sons HATE combat squads. Because Fire Warriors generally come in huge squads, they typically waste 10 fusion rifle rounds when firing at a small squad. Especially because they can be so annoying, this allows things like assault squads or rhinos with sternguard in them to move up. This is typically the play I make against Tau. Thousand Sons are the same. The price for one Thousand Sons Marine is just ridiculous, albeit, they are a ridiculously powerful army. Because they rarely have low unit counts on the board, combat squading means they won't be able to handle ALL of them. They'll end up wasting shots or "overkilling" the combat squads, 1 by 1. My recipe for success with that is typically getting the 5 man serg/cc combat squad up on the line, doing some harassing, while I have a bunch of templates in the background doing all the significant damage.

[Wanderer787]

Now that sounds really useful. I hadn't really thought about it in those terms: forcing the enemy to waste shots. Hmmm...this is helping to make a Razorback look worthwhile now...

[waaanial00]

Now that sounds really useful. I hadn't really thought about it in those terms: forcing the enemy to waste shots. Hmmm...this is helping to make a Razorback look worthwhile now...

 

IMO a HB Razorback is always worth while. Coupled with a few Rhinos packed with combat squads a plenty you will be surprised by how effective it can be as a support weapon and for only 5 points more the only thing I really lament is missing out of fire points. Combat squadding is the one way I have found to make my Tacticals to work for me, the heavy weapon is otherwise just a large club for bashing in combat, but let me stress that this is working for me as I am mainly rocking Mech at the moment.

[brgerkng]

I haven't used my Tactical Squads as combat squads often. I only have one squad in my bike list, but I have 3 in my basic/mech list (both being 1850pts). Most of the time I take a multi-melta or missile launcher since they're both useful when I can fire a heavy and because they're free there's no real reason to not take them as opposed to another bolter. In most situations a 5 man squad is too fragile for my taste, but there are situations a combat squad is useful. After using my bike list for a few months I recently pulled out my basic list for a change. I used one of my tac squads as a combat squad, guys with a flamer in a rhino and a plasma cannon sitting back. During the game the combat squad with the plasma cannon probably did more then they would have if they were with the rest of the squad and because of all the other threats I had on the table they didn't see much return fire. Going by this, I would say that while running a lot of units as combat squads doesn't seem like a good idea, having one (or two) squads with the right setup as a combat squads can help out a lot.

[foster]

This gives me an idea on what to do with my boys. I was originally going to go with two full tactical squads both with meltaguns, combi-meltas, heavy bolters and Rhinos to surprise my opponant with side/rear armour shots on his Battle Wagons. As anyone would know (but I didn't really care) I'd be lucky to get to shoot the Heavy Bolter once in a game. If I were to combat squad the boys I'd have the benefit of having additional support from the heavy weapon while still able to hunt tanks with the Rhino squad.

 

I am expecting the 10 men Tactical Squads not to last beyond damaging a vehicle, especially when up against lots of tough Ork units. Having the option to split the unit will at least give me another scoring unit which I can use to support the rest of the army, or to score later if need be.

 

The only problem when combat squading your tacticals is you won't be able to take advantage of your rapid fireing boltguns, which is sometimes more handy when you really want to stick it to an infantry unit. 7/8 shots does not quite give a big impact than 14/16 shots.

 

I'll try to get back to you when I've done some experimentation.