Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Heyo! Im a longtime player who just can't seem to find the perfect balance with my infantry squads in 6E. Ive tried small units, but they get blown away by bolters, ive tried 20 man units, but they tend to break. I guess if i run 30+ i can get a commissar but it seems like a big point expenditure. The more reasonable success ive had was making a big 20 man blob with 2 auto cannons to sit on objectives. Whats your experience with Infantry squads and how do you like to place them? Blobs or multiple small units? Should i ever bother with being aggressive with anything less than a 30+ man blob?

On another similar note, what size IS do you use to screen vehicles? Ive learned the hard way that a measly squad of Space marines or even scouts can wreck a Leman Russ in close combat like it was nothing.

Last match I played against a friend with a 40 men blob with 4 lascannons and Coteaz behind an Aegis Line. That much re-rolling to hit firepower was hard to handle, if you consider its relative small cost.

Wish I had something similar for my CSM :(

It's purely situational. Sometimes it's better to have msu, sometimes a 50-strong platoon with inquisitor to steamroll things in mellee. The good thing is that you can choose.

Sometimes keeping MSU squads may reveal useful, noticeably against armies loaded with units that can wipe out guardsmen by the dozen in one round of shooting. For example Tau with triple-broadsides units + ignore cover shenanigans. In this case, MSU is optimal, because you force opponent to overkill, thus losing efficiency. Last summer, I made several attempts of MSU style, after comments from some tournament players in my area, stating that platoon blob was "finished". Unfortunately, I experienced terrible failures doing so. You are relegated to 4th edition IG playstyle, with an army deprived of morale boosts (commissar or other), weak benefit from orders.


So, most of the time, I think regrouping squads in a platoon is the way to go. Sure, this platoon layout has lost some polish, but still has strong advantages. With this, I still feel having a good grasp over the course of the game. I think 20-30 size is OK. On top of that, with the quick threats around of chaos spawn, bikers, demon beasts, and now tyranids hordes, with "blobs" and power weapons, you stand a chance at repelling assaulters that manage to pass through your firepower. While separate easily pickable squads, you are risking to lose them one after another.

Use one big blob as a core and have an inquisitor in there with rad grenades to lower enemies toughness in assault and give him prescience so you twinlink their to hits. Then use a couple smaller squads around them. your opponent will charge the smaller squads and over run them and then eat an entire blobs worth of shooting and if they choose to assault they will most likely lose.

I sometimes prefer to just use a bunch of smaller squads just so I have more units to give orders to.

Also what is your goal with your infantry? are you moving them around or sitting them still. Sometimes the answer is easy as you just have to think about what you want the guys to do. Bolters may kill off the smaller squads but you have to remember those bolters will do the same damage to the blob. except the blob allows your opponent to focus all his small arms fire power into a single unit.

 tankboy145 wrote:
Use one big blob as a core and have an inquisitor in there with rad grenades to lower enemies toughness in assault and give him prescience so you twinlink their to hits. Then use a couple smaller squads around them. your opponent will charge the smaller squads and over run them and then eat an entire blobs worth of shooting and if they choose to assault they will most likely lose.

I sometimes prefer to just use a bunch of smaller squads just so I have more units to give orders to.

Also what is your goal with your infantry? are you moving them around or sitting them still. Sometimes the answer is easy as you just have to think about what you want the guys to do. Bolters may kill off the smaller squads but you have to remember those bolters will do the same damage to the blob. except the blob allows your opponent to focus all his small arms fire power into a single unit.

I drift in and out of doing all mech and all infantry or something in between, im still trying to peg down what set up is best for me. I don't typically try to play a gunline because my opponents tend to do a lot of drop podding and deep striking, so staying mobile always helps (plus gunlines can be a bit boring sometimes). If anything i want to get my infantry to properly shield my mobile elements like leman russes or even vet squads i hold back for counter assault purposes (not actual assaults, but to break their momentum) besides, those vehicles get a cover save if theres a unit in front of them!

 generalchaos34 wrote:

 tankboy145 wrote:
Use one big blob as a core and have an inquisitor in there with rad grenades to lower enemies toughness in assault and give him prescience so you twinlink their to hits. Then use a couple smaller squads around them. your opponent will charge the smaller squads and over run them and then eat an entire blobs worth of shooting and if they choose to assault they will most likely lose.

I sometimes prefer to just use a bunch of smaller squads just so I have more units to give orders to.

Also what is your goal with your infantry? are you moving them around or sitting them still. Sometimes the answer is easy as you just have to think about what you want the guys to do. Bolters may kill off the smaller squads but you have to remember those bolters will do the same damage to the blob. except the blob allows your opponent to focus all his small arms fire power into a single unit.

I drift in and out of doing all mech and all infantry or something in between, im still trying to peg down what set up is best for me. I don't typically try to play a gunline because my opponents tend to do a lot of drop podding and deep striking, so staying mobile always helps (plus gunlines can be a bit boring sometimes). If anything i want to get my infantry to properly shield my mobile elements like leman russes or even vet squads i hold back for counter assault purposes (not actual assaults, but to break their momentum) besides, those vehicles get a cover save if theres a unit in front of them!

Well the vehicles need to have 25% of their front facing covered by the troops so its a little more difficult to get russes a cover save.

Also Ive tried using small 10 man squads just advancing up with a melta gun or plasma gun. Other than that another cheap option is just an autocannon or lascannon in a squad acting as fire support. Or you can combine both, throw a special and a heavy weapon in the squad.

For blobs the same concept goes, special or heavy weapons, maybe both but in blobs I would suggest throwing some melta bombs in the squads.

I've tried a deathstar blob:
Xeno inquisitor with nades, power armor, ml1 to assure prescience and book for scoutmove, counter-attack and such stuff.
Tigurius for possible 4++ and fnp+relentless.
50 guyz with 3 meltas, 3 power-axes on sergeants, 30 nades and 2 vox casters.
Pcs with a vox caster.

So, 385 for platoon + pcs and 282 pts for indeps. If there's no lord comi around - it might be a good idea to have a comissar to ensure morale checks when needed cause eventually even ld10 fails and you don't want to loose everything at once.

And aided by 50 conscripts with lord commissar but they're more for fun.

Nades are needed to deal with tough mc's that can't be harmed by s3 even with rad nades. Like Wraithknights. And they're totally worth their points. I even had Be'Lakor killed on his charge before he was able to strike blows.

Though, platoon is slow but it's more than capable of killing most things in mellee and they're awesome shooters with prescience and orders.

I like:

Lord Comissar + power fist
Inquisitor with rad grenades + psy-kout grenades + power sword + power armour
50 guard (sergeants with power axe + melta bomb)

568 points in total

You can buy them plasma/melta but I prefer to keep them cheap. Most of the time I am actually casting prescience on the manticore instead and only buffing them up when it comes time to counter charge or push forwards.

For heavy ranged damage I like coteaz + 5 jokaeron + 6 bullet catcher acolytes in a chimera. 5 lascannons a turn, twin linked, scoring and a 2+ for when it explodes. But expensive at ~350pts.

If Coteaz rolls ignores cover, he goes in with the jokaero. If he rolls 4++ he probably swaps out with the other inquisitor (even though you loose the rad grenades) but depends on the opponents army.