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Hi there,
I've just recieved a large gift from a fellow gamer in the form of a box full of about 50 tactical marines.

It got me wondering how many more till I have too many?

As far as marines go I don't think you can ever have too many.

Kit them out differently, but as a general rule 40 tacticals on the table is around as high as you should go. You can make more work, but it requires tooling the list.

Convert some to sternguard (I suggest 20) or use them to fill out devastator squads (there's another 10)... so you really have an additional 2 tactical squads

I could use some sternguards actually Thanks

 Guardsman76 wrote:
Hi there,
I've just recieved a large gift from a fellow gamer in the form of a box full of about 50 tactical marines.

It got me wondering how many more till I have too many?

Most generals of other armies would love to have the equivilent of 10 tactical marine squads on the table. Kit them out with special and heavy weapons and break them down into Combat squads. Now you have 10 heavy armored and well armed combat units on the table that your opponent now has to deal with. Park multiples with heavy weapons around the objectives and use your other 5 special weapon combat squads to take the other objectives. Tactical marines are capable in shooting and melee, so you can really include as many as you want. It does limit the amount of specialist troops you have access to, but so what. Tac marines are still better than most other troops in the the game...

If you need some sternguard, convert 10 to a sternguard unit and keep the rest as tacticals. It certainly won't hurt you to still have 8 combat squads on the table, giving you 8 units to hold objectives with. Your opponents will be jealous.

Skriker

I use three or four in most games, any more beyond what you've got starts to approach too many. Convert some to use as Sternguard or Devastators.

The most I ever put down on the table is 4 squads. But I do field 10 man Devastators, so that's a few more.

I think the most any one person really needs, unless they do a lot of apoc games, is 6 tactical squads. That's the number in a battle company, and coincidentally the number of troop picks in one FOC. You shouldn't need more then that. As someone who's collection is a reinforced battle company, I can make almost any list I am in the mood for, barring some specific examples.

If you are talking about basic guys with bolters

7 in a tac squad x 6 = 42
5 in a dev squad x2 = 10

Total bolter-brothers in a battle company is 52.

While a company only calls for 6 special weapons and 14 heavies (barring the command squad) you should have more then that just to swap out options. More then 4 of anything (except MLs, which I might say 10) is probably more then you'll need.

I'm going to echo what most of the people in here are saying. The most I've played on the table, outside of apoc, it 3 tac squads and 2 dev squads. Kitting them out as stern guard would work as well.

As to having too many, I don't think there is such a thing. I put two battle companies on the table yesterday that was a lot of guys, so no need to stop at 50...

Haha. I was going to suggest you can never have too many as eventually you just get to display your full Battle Company of Marines.

Two is a bit ridiculous. But, then again, I've seen some photos online of a guy who fielded the entire Ultramarines Chapter, and I think another one of a guy who was getting close to the entire Blood Angels.

I do have the entire Ultramarines Chapter somewhere from back in the day. However, in 6mm Epic Scale.

The maximum number of tactical squads you ever want to take is four, and only if you play double FOC games. Otherwise the maximum is two. Tactical squads are garbage, they're a tax you pay to get to the good units in the codex and you never want to bring more than the absolute minimum required to fill the FOC and score objectives.

Of course the ideal number of tactical squads is zero. Take bikes as troops, or play a marine codex that has troops that don't suck.

 Peregrine wrote:
The maximum number of tactical squads you ever want to take is four, and only if you play double FOC games. Otherwise the maximum is two. Tactical squads are garbage, they're a tax you pay to get to the good units in the codex and you never want to bring more than the absolute minimum required to fill the FOC and score objectives.

Of course the ideal number of tactical squads is zero. Take bikes as troops, or play a marine codex that has troops that don't suck.

I second this. Harsh..but true. They are a pre-req to the other goodies Codex SM brings

I find that three is a good number, four is a bit hefty. Anything above that I've found to be just too much!

I've found that at games under 1500 points, you generally only want 2, any more and you loose out on most other options you can bring, considering that a Tactical Squad's cost can easily get into the 200 point range with transports. In the 1500 - 1999 range, you'll generally want more scoring bodies, so a third Tac Squad might be ok, but another alternative I am fond of is 5 Sniper Scouts with Cloaks and maybe a ML as a backfield objective holder.

My SM army has 70 tacticals.
I know, according to "fluff" that I only 'require' 6 for a company (along with two assault squads and two dev units).
But I was working on a full company of tacticals - then I gave up on 40k.

 Guardsman76 wrote:
Hi there,
I've just recieved a large gift from a fellow gamer in the form of a box full of about 50 tactical marines.

It got me wondering how many more till I have too many?

From what ive heard 2 full tactical squads are a maximum you should take for >2k point games.

There's no such thing as too many.

 Daemonhammer wrote:

 Guardsman76 wrote:
Hi there,
I've just recieved a large gift from a fellow gamer in the form of a box full of about 50 tactical marines.

It got me wondering how many more till I have too many?

From what ive heard 2 full tactical squads are a maximum you should take for >2k point games.

I agree. I've done quite well with C:SM and one or two tactical squads and a scout squad (all combat squaded) is the most I've ever taken in sub 2K games.

Pedro may not be that great of an HQ, but 2 or 3 scoring sternguard squads and 2 tactical squads is a ton o fun.

 ShatteredBlade wrote:
I find that three is a good number, four is a bit hefty. Anything above that I've found to be just too much!

I agree with this. 30 kitted out right should be enough. Anymore and you are probably wasting points. But they are solid all round troops choice.

I have a full six squads painted up for my Imperial Fists, that is to say enough to fill all six "troops" slots should I feel the need to. That being said, I usually only run four at a time in my gunline or Master of the Forge builds. Even at four squads I find that when I break them down into five man units I've got a problem with traffic jams and getting everyone deployed.

TR

I have a general rule of at least 25 power armoured bodies on the field. usually two tactical squads and a combat squad, although I try to field at least three full squads when I can.

Never have too many! personally I have 4-10 man squads and the options for fielding 2 dev squads with additional bodies, also just doing what was suggested earlier and converting some to Sternguard, plus having a company on your hobby room shelf always looks fantastic!

How many Tac Marines do you have overall? If you had 60, that might be a good amount for planetstrike, as you have powerful soldiers all over your walls.

Or... the imperial defence network. Truly, it is yummy.

 Peregrine wrote:
The maximum number of tactical squads you ever want to take is four, and only if you play double FOC games. Otherwise the maximum is two. Tactical squads are garbage, they're a tax you pay to get to the good units in the codex and you never want to bring more than the absolute minimum required to fill the FOC and score objectives.

Of course the ideal number of tactical squads is zero. Take bikes as troops, or play a marine codex that has troops that don't suck.

Yeah tactical squads are garbage...4s across major stats, capability in hand to hand and shooting, special and heavy weapon access, ability to hold objectives and ability to split into combat squads makes for a completely garbage unit on the table that should never be taken...EVER... Really?? Tactical marines are the most easily used and jack of all trades troops in the entire game. They can bring some of everything to the battle and do it better than many armies' elite troops can. Yep tactical marines suck big time.

Skriker

44 squads, or 440 marines. A Battle Company has 6/60, there are four battle companies, so that's 24 or 240. Then the 10 squads in each 6th and 7th for a total of 200. So 440.

I only recently discovered the addictiveness of bidding on ebay. I am now the proud owner of about 130 marines! Instead of just building a Hawklords chapter, I can now do Ultras and maybe Imperial Fists as well. I don't actually play any more as because of work travelling I can never get to the nearest club, so I see them more as painting challenges; I've never painted yellow(Imperial Fists) before and it will be interesting to see how I get on with it. In regard to my Hawklords plans, I 've bought a few bits and pieces from other manufacturers such as as alternative helmets/weapons/bodies, so it is a challenge I'm looking forward to!
In response to the OP, there is no such thing as too many, only too little time!

In 4ed i played a guy with 99 SM hardest game of 40k ever
i only had 80 Orks, i like trukks and killa kans.
i was like WOW that is so much power armor

 Skriker wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

Yeah tactical squads are garbage...4s across major stats, capability in hand to hand and shooting, special and heavy weapon access, ability to hold objectives and ability to split into combat squads makes for a completely garbage unit on the table that should never be taken...EVER... Really?? Tactical marines are the most easily used and jack of all trades troops in the entire game. They can bring some of everything to the battle and do it better than many armies' elite troops can. Yep tactical marines suck big time.

Not to mention that you only would need to kill 20 marines max to now keep your army from scoring objectives in most games. I'd figure a decent number of tact marines would do you well, especially considering that you can get 2 scoring units from a single troop choice and have them be at least resilient to small arms fire-- heck, you can push both halves into the same rhino and drop them off onto two different objective close to each other. As a primarily Xenos player, I'd kill to have troops as good as tactical marines available to me-- realistically I might take some as allies just to give me better units to take forward objectives. It's totally short-sighted to poo-poo these guys because they aren't specialist troops.

You can never have enough tactical marines, I never leave home without 3 or 4 squads of them. To this date they have never failed to earn their points back. In most cases they do casue more havoc than most other things I have fielded outside of Termies and Dreads

 Skriker wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
The maximum number of tactical squads you ever want to take is four, and only if you play double FOC games. Otherwise the maximum is two. Tactical squads are garbage, they're a tax you pay to get to the good units in the codex and you never want to bring more than the absolute minimum required to fill the FOC and score objectives.

Of course the ideal number of tactical squads is zero. Take bikes as troops, or play a marine codex that has troops that don't suck.

Yeah tactical squads are garbage...4s across major stats, capability in hand to hand and shooting, special and heavy weapon access, ability to hold objectives and ability to split into combat squads makes for a completely garbage unit on the table that should never be taken...EVER... Really?? Tactical marines are the most easily used and jack of all trades troops in the entire game. They can bring some of everything to the battle and do it better than many armies' elite troops can. Yep tactical marines suck big time.

Skriker

4s across major stats, and a 3+ armour save, like every marine. It's equipment that differentiates them and tactical equipment is sub par. Not surprising given that the pattern for tactical marines hasn't changed since second edition.

No capability in assault, one attack a model does little, and challenges mean that points spent on the sergeant are generally wasted.

A minimum of 170 points for a flamer and missile launcher? Add more points if you want better guns, or perhaps a transport. Shooting value for points spent is not good.

Holding objectives? Like any other troops choice? Combat squads, which means you now have five man squads, or as I like to call them, poison bait.

Jack of all trades troops choice? You're confusing them with Grey Hunters or Chaos Marines (and they have their own weaknesses).

Tactical squads are good at one thing. Not dying too quickly. Toughness 4, a 3+ armour save, and ATSKNF means that a full ten man squad will take some effort to remove from the table. However if you want a unit that can take the fight to the enemy they're not the droids you're looking for.

Sixth edition hasn't changed the fact that specialists are better than generalists. Specialist shooting units outclass tactical squads at range, specialist melee units will outclass them in assault. A competent player will not allow you to assault their specialist shooters, nor shoot their specialist assault units, and because you pay for your "survivability" and your unused ability the specialist units will probably also outnumber you.

Tactical marines are a bad unit. Unfortunately they're a bad unit that you have little choice about taking. Scouts lack the marine armour and transport options. Bikes require you to take a biker Captain so have their own tax (it is a pretty awesome tax though). Space Marines are a mid tier codex, and the tactical tax is one of the reasons for that.

I still use them, when playing with a librarian, or a mass dreadnought Master of the Forge list, but I'm becoming more and more addicted to my bikes who are mobile shooting specialists.