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Guys/gals:

I recently bought two boxes of the new tactical marines, and I have enough bitz to build 11 guys per box instead of the standard 10. I'm really interested in playing Kill Team and the Heralds of Ruin variant game, but would like the possibility to expand into a standard 40k game in the future. My question is what is best weapon loadout for two tactical squads?

I was thinking combi-plasma sarge with a plasma cannon marine and plasma gun marine, and a combi-melts sarge with multi-melta marine and melta gun marine. I was planning on making two missle launcher marines and two flamer marines from the extra bitz, which leaves me with 9 marines in each box to make these two squads.

Also, I made 6 heavy weapons marines out of a devastator box, so i have at least one of each heavy weapon.

Any thoughts? I'm very familiar with fluff and the general idea of units having focused roles, but I've never built a list or played before now. Thanks for any help.

It's REALLY going to vary depending on the Chapter Tactics you want your marines to use.

Also may I suggest magnetize arms for special weapons, helps you stretch the box out more. Only need to magnetize a small handful and leave the rest as standard.

 Jimsolo wrote:
It's REALLY going to vary depending on the Chapter Tactics you want your marines to use.

When it comes to chapter tactics, I'm very flexible (all my marines are painted in Deathwatch colors). I really liked the black/silver arm look, and was so indecisive about selecting a chapter that I said, "hey, why not do it this way and I can always choose whatever chapter tactics I want in the future."

Also may I suggest magnetize arms for special weapons, helps you stretch the box out more. Only need to magnetize a small handful and leave the rest as standard.

Also, I know magnets are a great way to add flexibility, so maybe I will give that a shot. Still, in the event I don't go that route, I was hoping someone could enlighten me about decent squad loadouts that have always seemed to stand the test of time. Thanks again.

That's the problem, id there is no perfect load. If you want what shows up most be either flamer or melta for special weapons, and lascannon, missile and multimelta for heavy.

Mr. bigglesworth wrote:
That's the problem, id there is no perfect load. If you want what shows up most be either flamer or melta for special weapons, and lascannon, missile and multimelta for heavy.

My plan was to have one anti-infantry squad and one kill-da-tuff-guy squad.

I was definitely going to make both flamer and missle launcher marines, but the special weapons and combi-weapons were stumping me a bit. I'll definitely make a melta-gun guy now, and I have one lascannon marine already, so would a plasma gun be a good choice?

I guess getting a few magnets for the combi-weapons would be best, but I'm so eager to assemble and paint that I didn't want to wait on another Amazon package. The combi-plasma and combi-melta seemed to show up in a lot of lists though. Thoughts?

KillJoyRobot wrote:

I guess getting a few magnets for the combi-weapons would be best, but I'm so eager to assemble and paint that I didn't want to wait on another Amazon package. The combi-plasma and combi-melta seemed to show up in a lot of lists though. Thoughts?

I've been there, but trust me, it will pay off to wait.

One of the big advantages of Marines is their ability to remain useful from edition to edition, and magnetizing amplifies this trait greatly.

Magnets save money and time if you have plenty of both no worries. Magnetizing 20% of your guys is all you need to do.

I got lazy with magnetizing (plus i didnt know how to do it when i started out) so i simply bought more torsos and legs from ebay and used those extra weapon bits to make more bodies, combine those with cheap Dark Vengeance marines and a little scalpel work and you can be on your way to a company in no time! Im a few rhinos short myself but its been a rather inexpensive process with ebay and dark vengenace ( i play Ultras so I sheared off their shoulder pads and used the GW pads to jazz them up, but standard pads are an easier option)

Ok, I am a league winning tactical squad spam, drop podding ultramarines player. When I craft any list I always follow three simple rules when designing my tactical squads.

1. Am I combat squading them and are they easy to run combat squaded? Do I need 5 marines to sit on a back objective? Do I need more targets for my opponent to overkill because of his concentrated firepower? Do I need to run 9 man squads for an IC? Generally I love to combat squad marines in all Objective based games, and keep them together for purge the alien.

2. Keep the load outs optimal. Remember meltas with meltas, plasmas with plasmas. Everything should have the same range and if you want to assault with them make sure to use weapons that can ONLY fire and assault. You never need to put heavy weapons mixed with special weapons this either leads to odd conundrums where entire 10 man squads can not charge or have to stay on the back lines because one guy wants to fire his lascannon. If you think "oh but I can combat squad them!" then you are just diluting the 5 man squad that does have the heavy weapon (4 extra useless guys) as well as neutering another squad who could really benefit from having 5 extra bodies for protecting that power fist sarge who needs to take out that MC. 10 man squads without heavy weapons, or 5 man squads with 1 heavy weapon and that's it.

3. Keep them CHEAP. Tacticals die quickly, and often cost more then the average scoring model. This means that they will be targeted in most games by smart players who are looking to taking advantage of your low scoring model count. I generally keep my tacticals under 165 points to maximize the amount of scoring models I can place on the board. This, combined with combat squads can often leave your opponent in tough situations because for some reasons it is really hard to wipe out an entire squad of marines usually one guy is left with a morale check who is then ignored for the rest of the game. If you have more tacticals when this happens your opponent will be forced to shoot at bigger squads or over kill that one lonely marine to kill all your scoring units.

Final note: your chapter tactics do play a huge role in what you want, however I have found that the ultramarines CT are best used for tac lists. I will gladly argue this on a board against any player, or on this forum. However you aren't fond of ultramar the imperial fists work nicely, and mathhammer nerds will rave for days at the iron hands 6+ FNP keeping 7.25 more marines alive per game. Another thing I have found is to just not try to get tacticals in assaults. They get tar pitted waaaaaay to easily and their melee upgrades expensively go on a sergeant who is probably going to die in a challenge anyways. So keep them out of close combat. Also Plasma>Melta>Flamer>; just due to their lack of mobility plasma offers the most firepower at the longest range while moving.