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I'm running a Blood Angels list, and I had a quick question about one of my assault squads.

I have a 10man assault squad with 2 melta guns (possibly an infernus pistol too). Depending on the mission, and the opponent I will either keep them together, or combat squad them.

So with combat squads, would it be better to have the meltas in one squad as a dedicated tank hunting squad, and have the other as a dedicated assault squad, or have the meltas spread out so I don't have all my eggs in one basket?

I personally don't think it'd ever be a good idea to split them up.

As a dedicated tank hunting squad, they'll be incredibly fragile unless of course you DoA them. The issue is that in what way is 5 MEQ a "dedicated assault squad"? They'll be lucky if they kill anything. I think it'd be better to just keep them as ablative wounds to protect your meltas, unless you really can't fit all of them in a space when you deep strike.

 Griddlelol wrote:
I personally don't think it'd ever be a good idea to split them up.

As a dedicated tank hunting squad, they'll be incredibly fragile unless of course you DoA them. The issue is that in what way is 5 MEQ a "dedicated assault squad"? They'll be lucky if they kill anything. I think it'd be better to just keep them as ablative wounds to protect your meltas, unless you really can't fit all of them in a space when you deep strike.

What about objectives. The main problem I see with the 10man squad is that they will be tougher, but that is one less unit to grab objectives.

it will depend from game to game.

if there is a lot of light armor (rhinos, trukks, eldar), it may be best to split up and have a melta in each squad making a double threat.

if numbers are not on your side (nids, orks) keep the unit together and camp on an objective.

#1 rule: be flexible. hard-and-fast rules are what lose battles.

If you're relying on combat squads to win you objective games, you're in trouble.

Note: I said relying. There's plenty of anecdotal evidence of a single combat squad capping the final objective, but bring two troops, splitting them into 4 5 man teams means you're relying.

You're far better off bringing more troops and more durable troops. It's pretty difficult for BA right now, 18ppm is a lot to pay for an assault marine.

I agree with the above. I've had much better results with running a 10 man assault squad then a 5 man. I like a dedicated role for my assault squads but as solofalcon stated you need to be flexible as well. That dedicated role can change on the fly. Keep the meltas in the back and use the others as spare wounds for em. I've experimented with all different kinds of loadouts on em and I can say a pair of flamers has worked better for me. They're obviously going to assault or be assaulted....that's why they're fielded in marine armies. If your enemy is quick enough he may close the gap before you can effectively fire those meltas and may only get snap shots for your overwatch shots. I like the flamers because now its auto d6 hits if they get assaulted and the flamers are still alive. If you're dropping em behind enemy lines and you know you're going to be dealing with some armor, stick a melta bomb on the sgt. I usually leave melta/anti-armor duty to my sternguard in a drop pod. That's just some things I've seen in my short time playing this wonderful game.

I think there are too many variables from game to game to have a definitive answer to this. Generally, I think it's best to keep a DoA unit together. I can see the wisdom, in certain games, of pooling all the special weapons in one combat squad while hiding as well as you can the other five guys. I don't know that I'd ever combat squad them AND split the special weapons, but it's possible that there are situations where this is correct.

Unfortunately, I don't have enough experience with jump marines to help break down when you should choose each option. I usually use 5 men in a razorback, so all I can tell you for sure is that assault marines kinda suck.

I voted for keeping 10 men. I'm horrible at doing this myself, I usually split into combat squads... and those combat squads then go on to die horribly. I never learn.
BUT, I do find that if I DOA the two meltas in one combat squad I can usually get a dead vehicle out of it, so that's not a COMPLETE waste at least. Splitting the two meltas into two squads is a bit pointless.

I typically bring 3 tacticals minimum to anything over 1750. When I combat squad them I almost always go with 5 bolters in one half with the heavy/special/sarg behind them. I also use the vanilla codex with twin linked multi meltas in my tacticals. So I don't mind movig the heavy as much. Anything else but my setup I'd keep the combi/special together. With 4 bolters and heavy laynig way back. I also typically only combat squad 2 of my 3-4 tacticals to keep the more durable units on the frontlines grabbing/contesting objectives and doing some killing.