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Hi Dakkites!

I'm getting ahead of myself a little and planning out 1500pts for Da Dark Angelz. Anyway - the force I am looking at putting together had a single squad of 15 Lootas. And then I realised I was using only the one Elite choice, so why not make that three units of five?

My initial thoughts advantage-wise:

Up to three separate targets - shooting at or being shot at

Requires two casualties across all three units to have a chance to route all fifteen

My initial thoughts disadvantage-wise:

Two extra kill points

Easier to send individual units packing... possibly reducing effectiveness faster?

Anyway - thoughts? (or other combinations? 8 & 7?)

Two units of 15 lootas is the better way to do it.

If you take less than 10 it is too easy to suppress the unit with morale checks: kill one or two then they run away, or shoot pinning weapons at them.

If you want to be more points-efficient, and make the lootas less of a "must shoot now" unit, then units of 12 work well too.

As Will has said.

5 lootas are easy to run off the board and just arent really that effective.

I always go with squads of 15.

Why buy one when you can buy two at twice the price?

Ok - while I understand two units of 15 Lootas is better than one - it also requires me to sacrifice something else... (and promote them to one third of my army!) Perhaps a better way to put this is:

I have approximately 225pts to spend and 3 empty Elite slots. I want to use those points on Lootas. What are the advantages and disadvantages between taking one unit of 15 versus three units of 5 or anything in between (10 and 5 for example).

First turn morale, for 25% casualties, 5 is as good as 8. (2 casualties = 25%). 9 - 12 need 3, 13 - 15 need 4 (with the advantage that you need 5 to remove fearless, but you are still Ld 10)...

I hadn't thought of pinning though... How many pinning weapons would you normally face at 1500pts? (I haven't faced any over my few 500/750pts games...)

Is one unit of 15 more likely to register as a threat (and attract more firepower) than three units of 5?

I realise this is probably tempered by how much of a threat the rest of the force is...

Thanks for your input so far - keep it coming!

10x and 5x. People will target the larger unit first, which will take more to make morale. 3x 5 man units is just adding an extra KP, and lootas are already easy to run off the board with concentrated fire...