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I am playing a salamanders space marine army and I was curious if combat squading my two 10 man tactical squads would be a good idea? Is is better to just keep the 2 10 man squads or to have 4 5 men squads???
Also what are the advantages / disadvantages of combat squading?

The beauty of combat squads come in at deployment. It allows you to optimize your force for the mission type. If its kill points it is best to keep them as one tac squad. If objectives than I would suggest combat squading to optimize your number of scoring units. That being said it then becomes important to synergies your tactical squad so that they are not hamstrung by their special weapons. It makes little sense to make a missile launcher tag along simply because you have a melta gun. Also it doesn't have to be an all or nothing decision. In most of my games I will combat squad a tac squad with a missile launcher and flamer. Put the missile half on an adl, and he other half in a rhino. Then run a full tac squad with meltagun and multimelta in a rhino.

Not a bad stratagy at all! thanks for the advice!

I completely agree with Warhawk. mission mission mission ...

I would add slightly to warhawk around objective missions, you are not always going to combat squad here.

For example in a game with 5 objectives, you have three full tac squads, your opponent has two troops choices. In that scenario victory is as 'simple' as killing one of his troops and keeping two of yours alive on uncontested objectives.

Of course your opponent will not roll with that programme very well.

In practice i have found it very rarely to my advantage to combat squad tac squads. The simple reason is 5 guys are very easy to remove from play, leaving you with a second unit that needs babysitting.

For that reason in objective games i usually go for minor victory. On occassion the opportunity opens up to take a major victory, usually because im conservatively positioned and the opponent over reaches with elements i can focus on and overwhelm.

So while turning your three tac squads into six troops choices in objective games seems to make sense, always remember its how many troops are alive at the end that matters, and most opponents can wipe the mud off their boots with 5 marines.

There's a good word of warning about 'The Relic' mission. With 1 objective that you have to 'carry,' like Loricatus mentioned, 5 marines can be blown off of it incredibly easily. With more bodies in front of it, you can actually stand a chance of the carrier surviving a turn or two to get it closer to your lines.

Thanks for all the advice you guys! I tried the combat squad tactic in my game today V.S. orcs.

It was a 500 point game and I was running a single tactical squad combatted into two five man squads, one with flamer one with missile launcher. I also had 5 sniper scouts, a Chaplin, a dread, and a rhino. I was playing against a Orc army controlled by my brother. He was running a 20 man boy squad, 3 deffcoptas, and a squad of 5 nobs run by a war-boss.

We deployed in our game of capture and control. I had the 5 man tactical squad with the missile launcher holding the objective and getting some backup from the snipers. Then I deployed the other combat squad with the sergeant and flamer into a rhino with the chaplin. 3 turns later and all my basic marines and Chaplin are gone from the combated squad, the only two that remain are the sergeant and the flamer. Another two turns and the sergeant and flamer have single handedly taken out 17 boys and 4 nobs. the Rhino rides in and releases the earlier picked up scouts to capture the enemy objective and win the game.

I could not believe how amazing my sergeant and flamer did. My opponent was speechless as we battled our way through his precious orcs. This was by far one of my proudest victories.

I play Ultramarines, and I always use combat squads. I like it because it basically allows a regular ten man squad to be in two places at once. Keep the half with your heavy weapon in back holding ground and move the other half up. Its insanely useful. Besides that, it gives you way more positioning options and your enemy twice as many squads to shoot at.

Combat Squads work well if you take a Razorback.

For kill point games, keep the squad as 10-man, and send the Razzy out as a mobile heavy weapon.
For other games, split the squad, and send the special weapon team in the Razorback, with an IC if you have a suitable one (Libby/Captain). I always send the Serg with the flamer/melta. There's no use keeping him back with the heavy weapon.

The only exception is with Heavy Flamers. Send it up front and use it for Overwatch (it can be used for that, right?), leaving a grunt team (all-bolters) to hold the objective.

Also, if you are assaulting into Overwatch, having a grunt team charge first, it keeps your specials safe to get into combat when the firing has stopped.

One weird thing you should also know (which came as a bit of a shock when i read it)

Space_Marines_v1.1.pdf wrote:ERRATA
Page 51 – Combat Squads.
Replace with the following wording:
“A ten-man unit with this special rule can break down into two
five-man units, called combat squads.
You must decide which units are splitting into combat squads,
and which models go into each combat squad, immediately
before deployment. A unit split into combat squads therefore is
now two separate units for all game purposes including
calculating the total number of units in the army, and the
number of units you can place in reserve. Then proceed with
deployment as normal. Note that two combat squads split from
the same unit can embark in the same transport vehicle,
providing its transport capacity allows.

Seen this done with combi-weapon Stern-guard. Rhino rolls up squad jumps out C-Squad A opens the transport C-Squad B shoots what falls out.

Combat squadding will maximize the effectiveness of your special and heavy weapon, at the cost of the bolter. Those 4 guys hanging back with the missile launcher, waiting to die as ablative wounds, are not rapid firing explosive death into the foes of the Emperor. Same with the guys splashing bolter rounds off the side of a tank while the meltagunner lines up his one shot. People don't give the humble tactical marine with his trusty boltgun much respect. But there is a lot you can do when you stand firm and hammer out a good bolter drill into your enemies.

I find combat squadding is usually the best course of action.
End of the day 2 squads of 5 is harder to kill then one 10 man squad. You can even shenanigans using one to protect the other, with cover saves and the impossibility of multiassault.
Then it improves the fire power, as you fire combimelta+melta at a tank, then 4 bolters at some infantry or the heavy weapon.

The best way to grab an objective is to pull the rhino to block line of sight to 5 marines outside, with 5 marines inside.

Even with the pub brawl that is the relic, though I prefer blood bowl metaphor instead. You chuck as many 5 marine squads at it as possible, then pass back to a ten marine strong squad which will carry the ball to the touch down. The loads of squads and rhinos, insures the enemy shooting is weakened and they struggle to get base contact with ball, you would recognise this as the dwarf strategy in blood bowl by the way.

Most other examples are clearer:
drop podding sternguard carry two combat squads.
Drop podding tactical squad or razorbacks, one squad travels in the transport the other sits back with a ML.