How Many Tacitcal Squads is too Many?

[Zombie P]

I still roll with my usual 2 at 1500. They are rhino mounted and support the major push into the midfield. In larger games 2k+ I normally run 3-4 full squads, depending on what sort of game we are going to have.

 

ZP

[MordentHex]

I usually run as many as possible while still getting a unit or two of goodies.  I have been known to fill up on all 6 full squads and then just combat squad them if needed. Granted they don't do well against deathstar units, but having a good counter charge unit on the table to help deal with those things and i seem to have magic boltguns when i roll my dice. People usually underestimate the common tactical marines until you shoot 50-60 of them a turn. But then again i like attrition tactics. From what i have seen from playing the last 20ish years, it all depends on what your playing style is and how you want to use them. EVERYONE is different.

 

3-6 tactical squads in Rhino's, 2-4 in drop pods, 5-6 non transport static fire wall.  2-4 with short range firepower.  2 minimal squads to just hold an objective/s.  It all depends on you and your own tastes

 

Personally I take at least 4 and prefer 6 in drop pods or rhinos. Then kit up on the nasty stuff.

[ChaosRising]

I take as many upgraded Tacs as I can, while still cramming in some upgraded extras like Assault Squads or Devs. Usually I split my Tacs into combat squads to cover more ground and use my specialists to provide support to keep Troop casualties low. Ultimately, I'm going for a full 3rd Company, minus the vehicles, so I'm going to use a lot of the same tactics.

[hallodx]

 

I just feel like the way 6th is so objective heavy I need the bodies to make that up and work, along with the chapter traits my bolter marines are just that little bit more awesome along with tank hunting devs backing them up

I now try another way to win: simply deny enemy objectives. My firepower mat can't kill all his men in 6 turns, but as long as enemy obj takers locked in combat, they are denied. So raven guard rhino rush is my next project. This trick send my men to enemy deployment zone not slower than DP, and still provides lots of tactical choices, if my plan is right.

[Xenith]

I play Blood Angels and field 2 full tactical squads every game.

 

1 10 man, flamer, heavy bolter, stays together. 1 10 man, plasma gun, plasma cannon, combat squads dependent on mission.

 

Always had good success with them. They can reach out and touch stuff 24" away from turn 1 unlike assault marines.

 

I think critical mass of tacticals is probably 30 bodies, which is when they become really stubborn to remove, and can put out a lot of firepower.

[MordentHex]

I play Blood Angels and field 2 full tactical squads every game.

 

1 10 man, flamer, heavy bolter, stays together. 1 10 man, plasma gun, plasma cannon, combat squads dependent on mission.

 

Always had good success with them. They can reach out and touch stuff 24" away from turn 1 unlike assault marines.

 

I think critical mass of tacticals is probably 30 bodies, which is when they become really stubborn to remove, and can put out a lot of firepower.

agreed, even nasty MC's have to worry about bolters if you throw a few squads at it.

[Captain Idaho]

It's worth pointing out you can also throw a krak grenade per squad too. Adds to the power of combat squads in particular.

[Azash]

It's worth pointing out you can also throw a krak grenade per squad too. Adds to the power of combat squads in particular.

Excellent point. The frags are also a good tool against units in buildings.

[ChaosRising]

In response to which I say, why not just take a single missile launcher per squad and cover all your bases? Yes, I am missile happy.

[auwombat]

my 2 cents worth lol. Brothers Space Marines are the best, I have a tournament coming up soon, my boys against Tau, Orks, Nekrons, Eldar, Blood Angels, Chaos SM, and you know what I reckon my smurfs can beat them all, why? Because WKNF We Know No Fear! Its all in the tactics Brothers, having said that I have a core army of 6 x5 men tac squads with melts bombs ( scares armour lol ) mix of flamers, melta an plasma. 2 sternguard squads because they scare the :cuss out of everyone lol, 2 dev squads with m/l or las depends on the target plus a scout squad to pic off special targets. Thats at the very least 70 marines to shoot every time on a 3+ armour save, man you can do a lot of damage with that many shots trust me, but you can also afford to lose units which you will, but while they are killing my sternguard they are not hitting my combat squads, leave my S/G alone and they will kill you. I reckon you cannot have too many SM units on the table, I can field almost as many as Orks and you wanna see the face of a Tau player when you load up so many SM,s, anyway its all about tactics and the GOD of dice so enjoy, every time I lose I learn, every time I win I learn, the best form of attack is attack, the best form of defence is attack, and when you dont know what to do attack!

[Garath]

my 2 cents worth lol. Brothers Space Marines are the best, I have a tournament coming up soon, my boys against Tau, Orks, Nekrons, Eldar, Blood Angels, Chaos SM, and you know what I reckon my smurfs can beat them all, why? Because WKNF We Know No Fear! Its all in the tactics Brothers, having said that I have a core army of 6 x5 men tac squads with melts bombs ( scares armour lol ) mix of flamers, melta an plasma. 2 sternguard squads because they scare the :cuss out of everyone lol, 2 dev squads with m/l or las depends on the target plus a scout squad to pic off special targets. Thats at the very least 70 marines to shoot every time on a 3+ armour save, man you can do a lot of damage with that many shots trust me, but you can also afford to lose units which you will, but while they are killing my sternguard they are not hitting my combat squads, leave my S/G alone and they will kill you. I reckon you cannot have too many SM units on the table, I can field almost as many as Orks and you wanna see the face of a Tau player when you load up so many SM,s, anyway its all about tactics and the GOD of dice so enjoy, every time I lose I learn, every time I win I learn, the best form of attack is attack, the best form of defence is attack, and when you dont know what to do attack!

Not to blow my own horn...

 

  I came in second with the old DA codex in the first 6th ed tourney a year ago .  My list was Belial and a 5 man DW squad,Librarian,2 land speeders, ...and 4 ten man tacticals!!!

[VoteForPedro]

At 1500 I run two ten man Tactical Squads, usually in Drop Pods. I then complete my scoring with 5 Scouts in a Land Speeder Storm.

 

I think Tac Marines can play an important role in an army though I tend to avoid too many as there are situations that other areas of the codex deal with much more efficiently. At their heart though they are scoring units and they do that pretty well. On top of that they can be pretty good anti infantry if equipped for it which turns them from a 200 point troop 'tax' to a decent unit.

[Garath]

 Their flexibilty is worth it's weight in gold.  With enough tacticals , you can kill almost anything .  Even Fliers.  

 

  I already my several post on this ...they bring the best bang for your buck in our codex...  (and I do play DA, but am not talking about Dakka banner ) 

[Losark]

Eight Is Enough

 

#necromancy

[Trevak Dal]

Something I want to see is a Red Scorpion Army (Their the forgeworld one with the Apothecary tactical sergeants right) and just drop 6 FNP Tactical squads on the table. Add in Sevrin Loth with command squad with apothecary and suddenly the whole army just got a lot tougher. Would be an interesting set up to say the least.

 

You can do something similar with Chaos.  If you're down with the Mark of Slaanesh and Icon Ecstasy (apothecary on a Stiiiick)

[GreyCrow]

The beauty with the Tactical squads in the current Codex is that there are neither too few nor too many ! Where Tacticals do not excel is having anything in between few and many.

 

Why ? As many people pointed out, 4 to 6 full man tactical squads is a nasty formation. That means 6 heavy weapons and 6 special weapons, not counting the different loadouts on the sergeants. It means as many krak grenades as well in assaults against Monstruous creatures.

That's an Oomph! factor !

 

However, having too few is not bad at all. We have to remember that the Tacticals are point-expensive per model. And the lower amount of Tacticals you have, the higher number of more dedicated units you can get.

As an example, you can trade 3 Tacticals for 2 sternguards. While you may say OK, I lose one model, the killyness of sternguards is way above a regular marine.

 

It all depends whether you want to think in terms of volume of fire or increased killing chance per shot. ;)

[Garath]

  Tacticals are point for point the most survivable model in the current codex.  No other SM model can compare to them point for point

[ElectricPaladin]

Back when I played Codex marines, I tried to stick to the following pattern:

 

Game Size ---> # of Tac Squads

 • ≤1k           ---> 1 (the 2nd Troops choice was usually scouts)

 • 1k to 1.5k ---> 2

 • 1.5k to 2k ---> 3

 • ≥2k+         ---> 4+

 

I also preferred to run my tacs in full ten-man squads and mount them in rhinos, though I would also occasionally run a demi-squad in a razorback. Ten-man squads are better for holding objectives; five-man squads with the support of a razorback are better for gambits, because you can use the enhanced firepower of the razorback to help you blow up whatever was on the objective so you could storm it. They didn't always succeed, mind you, but they presented a viable scoring threat, which meant that I could use them to manipulate my opponent's reactions.

 

These days, I traded of my Codex marines and rock the Blood Angels 'dex instead, where the calculations are a lot more complex. In addition to using my Troops slots for a tac squad or two, I also need to consider the possibility of assault squads and death company squads and scouts.

 

Honestly, lately I've been winning a lot of games with death company and an assault squad starting on the table and using their disparate threats - painful poundy death and scoring - to manipulate my opponent into overextending himself so that when my stormraven/furioso/hammernators/captain deathstar arrives, he's overextended and I table him. So far, it works more often than you'd think...

[Axagoras]

unless theres some sweet chapter tactic to buff them (like scouting white scars or ravenguards in rhinos, or getting rerolls for a turn from ultras scouts or bikes are just better... Although to be honest its been a long time since I have ran more then 5 man tac squads in drop pods for a combi and a special weapon

[minigun762]

unless theres some sweet chapter tactic to buff them (like scouting white scars or ravenguards in rhinos, or getting rerolls for a turn from ultras scouts or bikes are just better... Although to be honest its been a long time since I have ran more then 5 man tac squads in drop pods for a combi and a special weapon

Doesn't that feel as if you're missing out on the potential of a Tac Squad, by reducing them to semi suicide units?

[Paulochromis]

Look at Axagoras' batreps, the half squads do the job pretty well.

[Brother Navaer Solaq]

I was going over my army model coutn and I noticed that I have way too many tacticals 5 10-man tact squad. way too much bolters.

i think the thumb rule in previous post about 1 troop for every 500 pts is a good thumb rule.

[Axagoras]

The issue is you pay nearly 200 points for 7 bolters, 1 heavy weapon 1 special and 1 1 shot special... vs most targets its ineffective, cause only the heavy and specials are good agaisnt vehicles (assuming loadouts) vs giant mcs only the heavy and specials are good. Vs hordes only flamers and the bolt guns are useful but to a small extent (20 bolt shots. 13 hits, is 8 dead guardsmen assuming no cover... like they just dont do much

[Garath]

 I found that grouping them together solves that problem

 

 

  10 tacticals cannot handle say 30 guardsmen in close range.  20 tacticals?  Yup!  

 

  Of course one could argue that the opposition will just deploy 60 guardsmen then.  True.  But the problem is that 60 models are much harder to fit into close range then 20 .

 

   Some of those guardsmen will be either ot ouf LOS, out of rapid fire range or bunched up- so more will die to flamers and other templates.

 

 We can freely change IG for orks,Tyranids etc...

 

   Mathematically you can fit much larger quantites of models to face of tacticals - but getting them all to act to full effect at th same time is much more difficult on the table.

[Captain Idaho]

Tactical squads are great at killing light infantry so if people take more infantry and less vehicles it'll be better for us. However we certainly need to negate the advantage of enemy numbers by attacking a flank en masse.

 

With the new Chapter Traits Tactical squads have increased in value, especially for the likes of Ultramarines.