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so I know the rule of thumb is 1-troop uint for every 500pts, but in a 2000pts, single FOC game, is 4 really enough anymore? what has everyone else experienced? i was trying to bring 5 in my list, but it does get alittle boring. thoughts?

Depends on the troops unit. GK are the good poster child of why a troops choice per 500 points is a bad question. A troops choice can be anything between 10 terminators including justicar thawn, or a 12 point msu squad of nakid henchmen.

ok, is 4 Marine units of 10 enough at that point level?

Might help if you mention what army you have OP. Different armies require vastly different amounts of scoring units. My foot IG armies can easily get 20+ scoring troop units in them if I want them. Obviously, not many other armies can pull off this level of scoring units, but then again, their scoring units don't die just because someone looked at them funny

 esolo2200 wrote:
ok, is 4 Marine units of 10 enough at that point level?

If they ride Rhinos and are properly equipped with Special Weapons, that's half your army, so yeah, 40 Tactical Marines would be enough, to me. It's hard to judge in a vacuum, you gotta figure what other killiness you're bringing. Tactical Marines, at least for C:SM, don't bring the killiness as much as versatility, so you better bring some firepower in that other half. Some other troops may particularly excel in one area, such as Space Marine or Eldar Bikes (survivability and speed), or Cultists/Orks (numbers), and when used properly, that advantage can win games. However, clearly they have strong disadvantages too that can be capitalized on, as well.

I admit to being tempted to run the minimum 2 choices to bring awesome killy elite stuff everywhere else, and sometimes that works. But that's a big sometimes, those lists can really fall flat on their faces, too, as the extra stuff you bring might die easily, not hold your objectives, etc. Most the time, I'm not impressed with my lists when I do this. I'd say I wouldn't want to run less than 3 troops at the 2k level, probably more if I can make room. It really can depend on the list.

Now,with 5/6's of the game being objective base, I think you need to up it just a little more. You said marines, I am going to go ahead and assume vanilla marines. In which case, most likely, you are fielding tactical marines. I recommend a lot. Unless you can successfully table a ton of opponents, you need to consider how important objectives are, and how unforunately squshy tactical marines are.

That being said, I play guard, a single platoon can make up for all the troops I need in a game. Although I do supplement it with vets and ccs's.

It varies, I would rather bring more and need less, then need more and have brought less.

For my marines, I all ways run 3. Any fewer and I can't hold enough objectives without relying on combat squads. I find that any more isn't necessary because objectives can get contested, so more killing power is actually better.

All things said, if you can kill your opponent's Troops, you're game's almost won already (unless you're tabled). With this in mind, designing an army with too few troops is clearly a detriment. The problem with spamming tactical marines is they're expensive; 10 for 170 points barr any costed upgrades, +35 pts for rhinos, if they want them. 5 basic 10 man squads with 3 in rhinos are 955 points. Probably a lot more expensive as you want good gear on them, so ... add in your mandatory 100 pt hq, and you barely have 800-900 points for everything else. That's not much more of everything else.

In my white scars army of 1,500 points I have 4 troops choices. 2 bike squads, 1 scout squad with snipers and a missile launcher for holding home objectives and a tac squad in a rhino which I use to either zoom off & sit on another objective/help the scouts on the home objective/ combat squad them and do both essentially making 5 scoring units in total. If the bikes survive they can move flat out on turn 5 to capture/contest other objectives.