Nine Man Squads in 8th Edition

[Silentz]

I'm messing around with lists and wondering if a good option might be to take 9-man tactical squads, and then fill the remaining spot in the Rhino/Drop Pod with something like an Apothecary or Company Ancient.

 

Having these individual characters is great but unless they can get in a transport, what are they going to do?  Jog behind the transports on their own?

 

You lose the ability to take a heavy weapon... which have grown in usefulness in 8th... so there's a tradeoff to be made. 

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[WarriorFish]

The extra weapon goes a long way I think, with the ability to split fire in 8th this makes it harder to miss out. On the flip side transports are not cheap now so space inside becomes somewhat of a premium... It may come down to their intended use. If they're just to run and gun the extra upgrade weapon might be best, but if they have a more specialist role and/or are intended to work with other units then the character can get more mileage and be worth the "lost" space.

[FlamingDeth]

The extra characters all would follow the normal character targeting rules so it may be worth it to keep the full Squad in the transport and just have a biker gang of support characters following the transports around.

[GreyCrow]

@Silentz : I get your dilemma brother ! There are so many cool stuff to do in 8th edition that it's hard to prioritiwe what to do!

 

For the moment, there are no bad options. It all depends on what you want your squads to do. Typically, if you want to be in the enemy's face, then the extra heavy weapon is superfluous compared to the abiltiy to fit a very good support character.

 

Alternatively, you have Razorbacks :P

[Silentz]

@Silentz : I get your dilemma brother ! There are so many cool stuff to do in 8th edition that it's hard to prioritiwe what to do!

 

For the moment, there are no bad options. It all depends on what you want your squads to do. Typically, if you want to be in the enemy's face, then the extra heavy weapon is superfluous compared to the abiltiy to fit a very good support character.

 

Alternatively, you have Razorbacks

 

Yes, taking 5-man squads + a character in a Razorback allows you to have almost everything - the speed, the heavy weapon, the buff and so on.

 

The only downsides here are that the Razorback is hellishly expensive... and that the 10-man squad is likely to get a lot more benefit from a special character like the Apothecary or the Ancient. 

 

Comparing points...

 

Footslogging 10 man Tac Squad - Combi-Plasma, Plasmagun, Lascannon = 183

Twin Las Razorback with 5 man Tac Squad - Combi-Plasma, Plasmagun = 208

 

Need to test both options out and see what works. 

[Wrath of Bruinen]

I think it probably depends on what kind of character. And maybe the army as a whole

 

For example, if you are taking an apothecary, he won't be able to heal wounds on the squad (as they only have 1 wound each), and he can only bring back one guy a turn...given wound allocation in this edition he will either be bringing back a bolter guy, or maybe a plasma gunner who overheated himself to death. Or else the squad was absolutely decimated, in which case bringing back the special weaponist or sergeant might not do a whole lot.

Ancient might get a bit more mileage.

 

The other alternative might be if the character is taxiing with the squad but then will bail out and help a different squad who rolled up in their own transport (e.g. a packed squad of termies in a land raider). If that was the case then I think I agree with GreyCrow that the heavy weapon is probably an acceptable sacrifice

[GreyCrow]

@Silentz : I know what you feel about the new cost of units, brother Captain !

I am really interested in Landspeeders myself, and The Typhoon/Heavy bolter configuration I love to field has double its points (140 !!!).

That plus the lower T means that It has to be played differently.

 

It seems to me brother that you are currently feeling choice paralysis, with so many options that all make sense that it's hard to prioritize which one to go for!

 

Tell you what, I have a proposal for you! Tell me what makes you dream in a Space Marine army, and I'll get you a list that is pretty efficient and fits your fluff ;)

[Brother Navaer Solaq]

i would just hide the company ancient behind the transport  and put the model on a bike.

 

the extra weapon heavy weapon is much better to have in a tactical squad and you have the flexibility to split the squad depending on enemy player you face.

[HenricusTyranicus]

The answer is simple. Join the Black Templars, feel the ZEAL.

[Wargamer]

You can't target characters if they aren't the closest target... so you don't always need to ride along the way you did before.

[Medicinal Carrots]

You can also take a 2-4 man squad of Company Vets if you want to leave room for characters. E.G. 4 Company Vets, 5 Sternguard, and a character to allow rerolls on their special/combi/heavy weapons.

[Stickeh]

I think a 5 man squad is the best way to run it from first impressions; I can't justify the points rhinos and drop pods cost now! At least with a razorback I can get 12 s6 asscan shots for only 30 points more than a bog standard rhino.

[Aothaine]

I honestly like the idea of the 9 man squads. If you were going to be running 4-5 tac squads and run 2-3 of them with nine marines and give them transports to keep your bubbles safe that would be an excellent idea. However, I think it would be better for an assault-based list. If you are going to go with regular tacs remember they are happiest in the mid-range and with so many armies wanting to get close I just don't seen the need for transports for tac marines other than to block charges.

 

Even T'au want to get close and personal now. Though most T'au players have not caught on to it yet. Expect it. Crisis Suits are going to be a headache to deal with.

[Kua]

The question is not whether you put a 9 or a 10 men squad with heavy weapon in the rhino.
The question is whether you put two 5 men squads with 4 special weapons in total in there, or do something completely different. ;)

[Closet Skeleton]

There's no reason to take 9 man squads. Take a razorback and a rhino, 5 man and character in one 10 men in the other one.

 

If you're not buffing two units with your character you are wasting potential points efficiency.