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Hey guys, so I've been reading up on these "tournament" lists and I just don't understand the tons of MSU's. Why does every list seem to have 3 guys in a razor back? It seems just silly :(

5 guys you mean

In a list like that you get more vehicles than your opponent can (hopefully) deal with and heavy weapons for a good cheap price on a fairly durable platform. The abundance of mobile scoring units is also a boon. A lot of why has to do with the tactic of taking a large number of units that only a few of your opponents weapons are effective against in an effort to reduce your opponents ability to kill you. For example, with a Razorback spam list the enemies anti infantry fire is wasted on the Razorbacks while they can fire back with heavy weapons. This many units also gives you redundancy.

Zulander
it's because the point of the squad in ther razor back is to deliver a few special weapon attacks. the owning player expects them to be wiped out by the opponent's retaliation so he doesnt want to invest anymore in them then necessary.

Two small units are also, as a rule, more flexible and durable than one big one, and carry more offensive potential since you can double up on combi weapons and you have 2 razor back weapons in addition.
AF

AbaddonFidelis wrote:Zulander
it's because the point of the squad in ther razor back is to deliver a few special weapon attacks. the owning player expects them to be wiped out by the opponent's retaliation so he doesnt want to invest anymore in them then necessary.

Two small units are also, as a rule, more flexible and durable than one big one, and carry more offensive potential since you can double up on combi weapons and you have 2 razor back weapons in addition.
AF

Ow. As a razorback spammer, I disagree.

The point of a razorback squad (for vanilla marines, at least) is to act as a scoring unit--for which they really need to survive, not suicidally rush up and die. The razorback itself is a light tank, a mobile heavy weapon platform. But it also protects the guys inside. If the razor is destroyed, the guys inside can hunker down behind it and score, or advance on an objective using cover. I usually run 3 or 4 razorbacks like this, and in a typical game I lose 0 or 1 of the squads.

Razorbacks used this way have two major advantages over 10 guys in a rhino. (1) it can move and shoot--the heavy weapon in a rhino has to sit still and (2) you can get about 3X5-man razorbacks with the lascannon or las/plas upgrades for about the same cost as 2X10 guys in rhinos.

yeah you can use it for that too.
it's because they're useful for so many things. more flexible.
AF

I have had some success with 6 x Bonded 6 man FW squads against my primary SM opponent. I run those from cover to cover trying to edge them towards any objectives for a last Mad dash rush. My rationale is a 6tau FW squad is a waste of a shooting turn when there is a 3 suit Helios squad barreling down on you.....Also if you do get into CC you only lose 6 instead of 12 FWs....

It is a dangerous tactic and it has bitten me in KP games but I have had fun with it in objective games.

I'd say its mostly for durability and to overload the enemy's choice of targets.