Hi folks. To kick off the new
year I thought I would put up an article about everyone's favourite unit, the
humble tactical squad. Well, they aren't everyone's favourite unit now are
they? In fact I see many lists that don't include them at all in favour of
other troops choices or just other detachments. This article will attempt to
pick apart the role for tactical squads in the current game by looking at
options, builds, chapter tactics and synergy with HQs, stratagems etc. I will
include dark angels and blood angels in the article for completeness, and while
I will draw some comparisons with other troop units from those books
(intercessors, scouts, crusaders) I won't be branching out further to compare
with grey hunters, chaos marines or other troops choices, nor will I be talking
about Forgeworld units/rules.
THE BASICS:
Let's start at the beginning.
Tactical squads are one of 4 troops choices available to Space Marines and, as
per the original codex astartes should make up 6/10 of the 4 battle companies,
and 2/3 of the remaining 6 companies. That's 440/1000 marines per full strength
Chapter or roughly half, although it would be incredibly rare for an Astartes
Strike Force to be made up of that proportion of Tactical Marines. Guillemans
tweaks to the codex has buggered things about somewhat with battleline squads
and 20x5 Marines per Company rather than 10x10, but things are still pretty
much the same.
In terms of gameplay, the troops
will cost you 13 points a Marine and come in unit sizes of 5-10. I won't really
talk about power levels as I don't use them but these chaps are 5 power basic
and 4 power extra for the full 10-man squad. All marines come with frag/krak
grenades as standard as well as a bolter and bolt pistol. As always, 5 marines
allows you to take a Sergeant for free, who can swap either of his guns for
Sergeant equipment. In the previous few editions, the Sergeant the same stats
as a battle brother and could be upgraded to a veteran Sergeant for 10 points.
Now, however, he is a free upgrade to a squad, as with most squad leaders, with
one extra attack and point of leadership. As a side note, veteran Sergeants
still exist but they are 1st Company only and boast a further extra attack and
point of leadership. Lastly, a 5-9 man squad allows you to take either a heavy
or special weapon and the full 10-man squad allows both. Note that all codexes
grant the ability to reroll failed morale check.
BUILDS:
Now, I always bring tactical
squads as I stick to the codex layout and in the past have been known to favour
10-man squads, occasionally breaking them down into combat squads. However, I
will confess that Robbie-G has a good point with this whole 5-man squad thing
and so I will go through a few ways to build squads with pros and cons. As a
general rule Brigades will grant you 9+3=12 CPs but are difficult (though not
impossible) to build at 1500-2000 points due to the amount of requirements
there are. Battalions + specific detachments are easier to build and still give
you some command points. Always try to build your list around as many
detachments as possible for maximum CPs. (i.e don't put 3 elites, and 3 heavies
into a Battalion if you can give them an HQ and form a separate detachment)
The bare-bones - will cost you 65
points and give you 5 basic bolter-toting marines. The Sarge can swap out to
bolt pistol and chainsword for free. The benefit of building squads this way is
that it is dirt cheap to get yourself either a brigade or double-battalion
detachment for those juicy command points. Don't expect miracles from it as you
will only have 6 attacks (7 with the chainsword) and 9-10 bolter shots at
<12". Having said that, victory points win games - if you're short on
points a cheap tactical squad in cover for a 2+ save may just hold you that
valuable objective. Then again it may be a relatively easy target for your
opponent to simply pick them off and gain a victory point of their own.
The bare bones XL - same as above
but with 10-men rather than 5. I can't think of many reasons to take this squad
- if you were wanting to sink 130 points into a squad then you should at least
be tooling it up with some weapons for your investment to increase its damage
output. If you plan on combat-squadding it from the start then you should take
2x5 man squads to fill an extra troop slot and get a second sergeant upgrade.
1x10 vs 2x5 - not a build as such
but I thought I would address this here. The question is, should you take one
or the other, and I would argue it is almost always better to take the 2x5
option. Reasons are as follows:
1.
Unless you're playing power levels, there is no
points difference.
2.
If you planned on combat-squadding anyway,
you've now gained yourself a free sergeant (and the upgrades he permits), taken
up an extra troops slot and have access to 2 special weapons or 2 heavy weapons
rather than having to take 1 of each.
3.
Effectively immune from morale, whereas a larger
squad suffering heavy casualties may lose further models.
We should also consider benefits
to taking the 10-man squad in the argument, and those are as follows:
1.
More staying power with 10-man squad.
2.
More models will benefit from powers/stratagems
etc that benefit the unit.
3.
Can spread models out further and still benefit
from 6" reroll bubbles that affect units rather than models.
4.
Can combat squad at the beginning of the game or
partway through if still at full strength and using a stratagem.
I still think the 2x5 is the
winner here on balance.
The in-betweener - however you
equip the squad, taking a model count somewhere between 6-9 models is possible
especially if you have leftover points to spend. Of course you will benefit
from more bodies, attacks, shooting etc but it does nothing to improve your
access to an additional special/heavy weapon and does not give you combat
squads. Taking greater than 6 models will restrict you option of a Razorback
also.
The 50:50 split - the old way of
running a 10-man squad was to split them with a backfield squad containing the
heavy weapon for an objective sitting ranged unit and to put the special weapon
and Sergeant in a mid-field position. This is still viable if not that
efficient (see above) and made even better by the changes to combi-weapons and
being able to target separate units for different weapons now.
The 70:30 split - another take on
combat-squadding is to leave your 5 bare bones marines sitting in the backfield
while putting the Sergeant, special and heavy weapons in a Razorback and taking
the fight to the enemy. Particularly devastating with triple melta/flamer
weapons.
The babysitters - a 5-man squad
with a heavy weapon sitting in the backfield with a cheaply tooled Sergeant for
counter-charge potential. Good for objective camping and cheap heavy weapon
inclusion at less than 100 points.
The hunters - a 5-man squad with
a special and combi-weapon - less scary than the 70:30 split squad but you
don't pay the 65 point tax this way. Not as lethal as Company veterans or
Sternguard in the same role but cheaper for sure.
EQUIPMENT:
To start I should say that the
errata added combi-gravs to the Sergeant weapons list and melta-bombs as an
entry to the datasheet. The Dark Angel and Codex marine options are therefore
identical, with the Blood Angels having additional access to inferno pistols
and hand flamers for the Sergeant and heavy flamers as a heavy weapon option.
Let's go through the weapons categories one at a time.
Basic equipment - as mentioned
everyone has a boltgun, bolt pistol, frag and krak grenades - it's worth me
mentioning a few things now that I frequently forget in-game:
1. If
you are within 12" don't forget one member of the squad can throw a
grenade. This is especially useful on a Sergeant only packing a bolt pistol or
dual melee weapons. Both grenades are better than a pistol and arguably
better/equivalent to a rapid firing boltgun.
2. Speaking
of which, don't forget that rapid fire weapons now no longer prohibit you from
charging after firing, for maximum damage output from a squad you should be
aiming for rapid firing followed by a charge. There is now no reason to fire a
pistol over a rifle when charging into combat. Speaking of which....
3. .....
should you be locked in melee during your turn, don't forget that you can fire
your pistols at the enemy now. I always forget.
Melee - cheaper than in the
previous edition, melee weapons are available in their entirety for the
Sergeants and they can technically take 2 of them should they so wish. The line
up is power sword/ maul/axe/fist, lightning claws(s), chainsword and thunder
hammer. In the case of lightning claws it is worth taking them as a pair for
the extra attack, but no other weapons benefit from a second identical weapon.
Should you wish to forego ranged weaponry you can take a chainsword for an
additional basic attack in addition to another melee weapon.
Pistols - Bolt pistol comes as
standard to all members of the squad, but the sergeant can take one or two
pistol weapons in any combination. Grav pistols and plasma pistols are
available to all with Blood Angels also gaining access to inferno pistols and
hand flamers. All pistols are fairly cheap now and worth considering if you
can't stretch to the arguably better combi-weapons. Summaries are below under
special weapons.
Melta bombs - Sergeant only and
not usable in melee any longer, melta bombs are devastating at S8, -4AP and D6
damage rerolling to wound against vehicles. Consider them if the sergeant has
no decent ranged options and is expecting to get up close and personal.
Combi-weapons - This list also
includes a bolter if you wanted to go dual bolter for free. For 3 points though
you could take a storm bolter and still have room for another weapon. All the
other combi-weapons are pricey now as they are no longer one-shot only and can
be fired at the same time as the boltgun component with a -1 penalty. As you
don't get a bonus to your attacks for a melee and pistol weapon anymore there
are no disadvantages to combi-weapons save for the price. Options are flamer,
melta, grav and plasma as below.
Special weapons - The now standard
fare of flamer, melta, plasma and grav. Flamers are short ranged but don't need
to roll to hit, instead relying on a D6 roll for the number of attacks. Useful
for hordes and overwatch. Plasma is limited by only being damage 1 unless you
overcharge and risk killing yourself, though its range works well in concert
with bolters. Melta is, as always, your go-to character/monster/vehicle killer
and, being an assault weapon, allows you to get in range and shoot when you
advance at a -1 to hit penalty. Lastly, grav is S5 AP-3 damage 1 with 18"
range (so worse than plasma) but against anything with 3+ or better armour can
inflict D3 damage - decent against MEQs, TEQs and tanks/walkers/monsters.
Heavy weapons - pretty much the
same as the above with better range and profiles (though only Blood Angels get
access to heavy flamers) except for the additional heavy weapons in the form of
lascannons, heavy bolters and missile launchers. The former is the go-to ranged
anti-tank weapon, until you roll the dreaded 1 for damage that is. Heavy
bolters are pretty decent and the cheapest heavy weapon, whereas missile
launchers cost the same as a lascannon but with AP-2 rather than -3. This is
compensated by the additional anti-horde profile and the option to use a flakk
missile as discussed below under stratagems.
Phew. That's all for part 1. I will post part 2 next week. Thanks for reading.
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