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How many plague marines should be in a unit?

I personally like squads of 5, so you get more special weapons.

The sacred number is 7. Seven Plague Marines are a bit more durable than 5.

Plus they are sold by the 7! so its a win-win

Yup, 7 is the way to go

7

7 is sort of arbitrary.

Their magic number is 7. To do otherwise is to tempt fate.

7.

I played with 7 recently in a unit and i had 2 by the end of the game. Playing in a 2000pt battle. Was fun and definitely worth it.

Four units of five are more useful than three units of seven.

They are fearless the extra bodies mean nothing. If for some reason you need more than five to do something just send two units.

The two extra specials, the more units to cap objectives, and the less you have to worry about overkill wounds far out weigh any advantage two extra bodies will ever supply.

Kevlar wrote:
Four units of five are more useful than three units of seven.

They are fearless the extra bodies mean nothing. If for some reason you need more than five to do something just send two units.

The two extra specials, the more units to cap objectives, and the less you have to worry about overkill wounds far out weigh any advantage two extra bodies will ever supply.

I would disagree. The seven plague marines are more durable, and able to be usefull even with casualties. if a 5 man squad takes 3 casualties, 2 plauge marines aren't worth much on their own, except mabye holding an objective. on the other hand, the 4 plague marines left out of 7 can still give a sting, and i find that combat effectiveness outweighs having one last man standing.

Kevlar wrote:
Four units of five are more useful than three units of seven.

They are fearless the extra bodies mean nothing. If for some reason you need more than five to do something just send two units.

The two extra specials, the more units to cap objectives, and the less you have to worry about overkill wounds far out weigh any advantage two extra bodies will ever supply.

This. Yes 7 is the magic number but from a gaming standpoint I find 5 just fine. Cheaper and effective. Plagues are exceleent objective holders. That is their job i find for the most part. I'd much rather 4 units of 5 than 3 of seven any day of the week.

Either way, you can't go wrong with 5 or 7. 2 Plasma as special or melta. Rhinos are important for getting them where they need to be. I've had 2 plagues tie up a 10 man unit of SM for 2 turns. They are tough.

Both depending on job, 5 and 7 work.

I use 2 units of 7 plasma plagues walking and have a unit of 5 in a rhino with meltas/combi melta.

I run an additional troop unit within my ally section otherwise id add some cultists.

PMs get a 'free' champion per squad, where most other CSM units must pay 10 points for the champion.
Futhermore, in a meta full of daemon flamers, limiting the amount of models you can have killed in one blast is an advantage.
MSU also allows you to bring in more special weapons.
In that sense, there is a solid argument one can make for MSU PMs.

On the other hand, 7-10 PMs last significantly longer than smaller squads. This can be critical when preventing your opponent from making a d6" 'consolidating jump' during mid-late game.
They also prevent you from buying rhinos for 5 man squads -- which makes the 35 point surcharge much greater.

Finally, your limited to only 30 PMs if you bring 5 man squads. This is a significant disadvantage
I have recently built an army with 50 plague marines -- and let me assure you that 50 PMs in a 1750pt game are extremely hard to dislodge.
With this army I use rhinos to push to mid-board on turn 1. On turn 2, I drop 50 PMs mid-field and use bolters/PGs/MGs to start laying down fire. Each squad is sporting melta-bombs as well.
The rhinos then go to blocking enemy models/units, and I have 3 dirge casters for when I want to assault with the PMs. (yes, you want to assault a squad of sternguard that's close)
Thus far I've had good luck with this army. It has a few bad match ups (dark eldar) but overall its done quite well.
You could not do this with MSU squads.

So it really depends on your strategy. If your going to use your PMs as a bit of support, then MSU is good. If your using them as mid-field control, you want larger squads.

If you are going to have just one unit of plagues, fill it out as best you can. I usually go around with 8 (I have the worst luck rolling FNP) and it works for me.

If you are going to have miltiples, then smaller numbers are a good idea, especially if you are doing Mech 5-7 should be enough to resist most small-arms fire and still cover the table with special weapons.

There is a mathematical basis for 7 plague marines per squad.

The mathhammer for MEQ versus PMs is something like 0.8 kills per turn. If the game goes 7 turns, the statistical averages say that unit will stay alive until the end of the game. They are fearless, and will not run, which means there are fewer odds to account for.

Considering the loss of a unit means a VP for your opponent, you are increasing the odds of winning a game by including at least 7. 8 for insurance.

Yeah +5 cover and having to get out of your rhino has made it easier to kill scoring units than it used to be, but unless plague marines are your only troops I would really try to make as much use of their 2/5 specials as possible. They are still pretty hearty and chaos has a lot of great screening/harrying options for them now.

i think that smaller squads are better the extra plasma guns come in handy and being able to claim another objective is another plus, i know seven is the golden nurgle number but two extra plasma guns come in handy in any situation, i run my entire army in a block(more spaced if ap3 ord is present) with a 24' killzone, and i move the block up and fan out, this has been quite effective for me i play an all nurgle army and i place top 3 in most the local tournaments

 techsoldaten wrote:
There is a mathematical basis for 7 plague marines per squad.

The mathhammer for MEQ versus PMs is something like 0.8 kills per turn. If the game goes 7 turns, the statistical averages say that unit will stay alive until the end of the game. They are fearless, and will not run, which means there are fewer odds to account for.

Considering the loss of a unit means a VP for your opponent, you are increasing the odds of winning a game by including at least 7. 8 for insurance.

This makes no sense. What if he shoots more than one unit at you?

All taking units of seven is doing for you is reducing the number of plasma/melta guns you can field. The troops are fearless so you don't ever have to worry about running or getting swept.