What’s more beneficial - mixed squads or coherent squads?

[Axineton]

If I was to run a 2000pt army would I be better off say running kill teams with mixed Primaris squads like say 1 intercessor, hellblaster, aggressor and Reiver or actual squads of hellblasters or Reivers or intercessors etc? 
 

I’m not to clued up on the deathwatch so I’m not sure the best way to use them when I start playing them in actual 40k games once I’m up and running. 

[GrinNfool]

Mixed squads of primaris, or fortis kill teams, function fine, and there are quite a few good combos at large and small squad sizes you can utilize.  You can also just field primaris in their own individual units depending on how many points you are willing to spend.  Also all mixed squads must have 5 intercessors, though you can combat squad to end up with weird things like 5 intercessors and 3 aggressors 2 inceptors, or something odd like that.  One nice thing to remember is everything counts as troops when using combat squad even if its normally a different battlefield role.

 

For bigger kill teams the two most common combos are 5 intercessors 4/5 hellblasters 1/0 inceptors, this protects your more expensive hellblasters, and if you spring for the plasma inceptor, can fall back and shoot, though thats costly.  The other one you will see is 5 intercessors w/ auto boltguns, 4 aggressors with boltstorm, and 1 inceptor w/o plasma, this makes the squad majority t5, able to advance and shoot with no penalty 25 wounds, and 16 power fist attacks first round of combat if it gets in melee.

 

If you are trying to spend fewer points reasonable combos would be 5 stalker rifles 1 aggressor, lets the squad move and shoot, good on tables with lots of LoS blocking stuff.  5 autobolts 1 aggressor works too for a bit more mobility.  Generally would avoid adding reivers though as for some reason they are 2 points more expensive than on their own and really add nothing to the kill team.  Inceptors I would mostly keep out of smaller kill teams too.

 

As far as intercessors on their own, would probably go with stalker rifles, unless your local meta is low on enemy marines and has a lot of horde players, in which case swap the stalkers for autobolts.

 

You aren't asking about normal vets so assuming you don't have them, but they tend to want to form slightly mixed teams if you add them later.

Edited February 25, 2020 by GrinNfool

[MadEdric]

I find mixed squads always prove to be more functional than a pure squad.

Primaris squads I find work well with 5 Intercessors, 2 Inceptors, and 3 Aggressors. Alternately 5 Intercessors, 4 Hellblasters, and 1 Inceptor.

The first squad has the auto bolt rifles so everyone has assault weapons, the Aggressors allow advancing and shooting, the Inceptors allow falling back and shooting; having 5 of them in total gives the squad T5.

The second squad provides plasma shooting and the Inceptor allows fallback and shoot.

You could also go 6 Intercessors (with auto bolt rifles), 2 Aggressors, and 2 Inceptors and combat squad them. Each squad can toss out 9 shots that you can alter with SIA, 6+d6 shots from the Aggressor (double if you don't move), and 6 S5 ap-1 shots. Pretty impressive for just 5 models.

If you go with Veteran squads, mixing gives you a very resillient squad with storm shields and a terminator for 2+ armor.

[Mr4Minutes]

With DeathWatch it’s all about mixed squads. Maximizing your kill teams is how you’ll get the most success. The only real situations I’d see for a pure squad is if you need a cheap MSU troop slot filled.

 

The only time I take a pure squad is hellblasters to unlock a relic slot.

[Axineton]

I do have a load of normal space marine veterans too that I can add. But cheers for the info guys much appreciated. 

[Sloeberjong]

For Primaris mixed is best. You can get some good combo's like others said.

 

However, with stalker bolt rifles you're better off with a unit of 10. They're really good with hellfire shells. Some people will advice an agressor with them so they can move, but I think it's a waste of the aggressor because it lacks the range. Best to have them camp a backfield objective and shoot at heavy infantry or light armour. Now all we need is a Strategem that let's them snipe characters and you're golden.

[Lemondish]

Mixed is best across both, at least for what the unit is made up of. When it comes down to gearing them all up, uniformity is preferred.

[Lifeafter]

I agree that in a lot of situations mixed is better. I especially like making the majority of the unit toughness five.

 

In game play I've found that the trying to make sure I'm in range for my shorter ranged units sometimes leads me to make less than optimal decisions. When everything's in range, it's sweet.

[thesilverback]

I prefer with Primaris to go 5 Intercessors, 3 Hellblasters, and vary the other two depending on the enemy.

 

For Veterans, my favorite is 10 Veterans armed with storm bolters,  this I use for support and just pour fire into the enemy.