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Hey guys,, I love tacs as they are fluffy, but whenever I run them they always always disappoint. Elder/tau/CSM/NIDS/ all out shoot me, and most of the time can out melee me as well. (Well crept tau) I guess I use my tacs poorly but... some help?

Coming from a guy who runs a company as often as possible (the old company with out dreadnoughts), which means 6 tac squads and only 2 assault and 2 devastators, I would suggest underestimating your tac marines constantly. I used to consider marines to be 'good' at things like they are in the fluff, but the fact of the matter is, expensive 3+ armor save models don't get you as far as they used to. The top trick is to not spread out. Keep your marines together in support of each other, and double team a unit as often as you can. The thought of 'a tac squad can take this unit 1 v 1' is the enemy here. Because the truth is it probably can't. But two can.

There are a lot of threads on Dakka about how you want to equip your tac squads. I tend to give them a special weapon and throw them in a rhino and just forego the heavy weapon, Don't spend too much on your sergeant either. I don't even vet mine all the time.

But moral of the story is, treat your tac squads as if they were armorless. Hide them, put them in cover, spring them only when you need and have the chance, and always have them help each other.

I use them in Drop Pods. Full ten man squads. I run Salamanders, so it's flamer, multimelta, and then melee weapon (I vacillate on which) and combi-melta on the sarge. The ability to switch up into combat squads lets you field an MSU list if that's going to be beneficial to you. (And it almost always is.)

Two squads out of a pod can do a lot for one another. One squad can peel back bubble wrap so the other can pop a transport. Alternately, one squad can bust a transport while the other squad annihilates the former occupants when they get out.

Tac squads are pretty cheap, and while they aren't first string picks in ANY battlefield role, they are solid second and third stringers in almost all others. What they excel at is picking up the slack if you have an unexpected setback elsewhere. They can't carry a game on their own, but they can absolutely help your other units, your dedicated-role units, carry their own weight if something goes wrong.

There was a bit of a debate when the codex came out about the best troop option. While bikes are still a solid choice, I've grown accustomed to Deep Strike tactics, and bikes can't do that. Tactical squads are a solid pick too, now. Of course, with 7th edition's removal of area terrain and the fact that sniper rifles are categorically worse against vehicles (functionally useless, I'd venture so far as to say), scouts are back to riding the pine as second-tier troops choices.

If you have any specific questions about tactical squads and loadouts, feel free to PM me!

Agreed.

Some pointers:

1-make the most out of the CT
2-transport, transport, transport!
3-give them a purpose

Expanded:

1- certain chapter traits cater to tactical squads while others not as much, off the top of my head: UMs led by Calgar or Sicarius are great thanks to the doctrines boost and Ld boost (no need to upgrade to vets); Raven Guard or White Scars for scouting tactical marines in rhinos (which can overwhelm armies when taken en-masse), Imperial Fists for boosted bolter efficiency, etc...

2- Tacticals without transports are next to useless, you gotta get your marines to the objectives quick, so get some pods or rhinos and grab them objectives. Did we mention that dedicated Troop transport now get the Objective Secured too? Don't forget eje005's advice about keeping your tacticals together to support each other. Go on Frontline Gaming and check out their tutorial videos on using transports

3- Build your tacticals with a purpose in mind and stick to that purpose: match the weapons (combi on srgt, special and heavy) and as mentioned above, don't spend a bunch of points on your srgt, a combi and MB is all he really needs. If your srgt gets into an assault where PWs are needed you probably screwed up somewhere, and against weak troops that you want to assault you don't need PWs anyway as their T or Save are low anyway

Hope this helps.