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Hello,

I am pretty sure I need more troops ( I read that small units aren't good, so this leads me to believe I need 10 man tac squads)

I only have 10 Tacs and 5 scouts. For Dark Angels.

So, since I'm pretty sure I need more troops, the question is, how many more TACs do I need, or should I get more scouts?

I don't have any specific direction I want to go with my army, but this is what I own:

1 x Captain
10 x Tacs
5 x Scouts
10 x Assault Marines
5 x Terminators
5 x Death Wing Knights
1 x Land speeder
1 x Nelphlim Fighter
1 x Storm Talon (Don't know why, I got it for 15$ on eBay)
6 x Ravenwing bikes
1 x Attack bike
1 x Preditor
10 x Veterans (thinking about using these as TACs)

Thank you for any advice as to what I should get to round out my army.

Use your captain as azrael to make your terminators and bikers into troops.

Should solve your problem.

As for what to get next,

Bikers with dakkabanner is the most competitive build right now. a combined arms, featuring command squad with banner in LRC with 1 or 2 Tac squads in rhinos to jump out when you get to range, followed by bikers joind by a biker librarian or tech marine with pfg, may also work.

Strictly speaking, you only need two troops choices. Of course, as mentioned, DA have some pretty cool troops options with the right characters. Deathwing are pretty hefty for a troops choice.

The only reason you're going to want to have more DA TAC marines is if you don't want to run ravenwing or deathwing. In that case, you're running either mech, or a power armor horde, which is going to need another 10-20 or 30-40, respectively. And some razorbacks or devs, of course.

A generic rule of thumb is one troop pick per 500 points. DA have a number of ways to shuffle what counts as troops, so you might be fine with what you have.

As an Ultramarine, I frequently run 2 full tac squads and a 5 man scout squad in a 1,500 point list. YMMV.

And it depends too on what you're using them for, of course. Yes, on the one hand sometimes things that aren't troops are given a wink, nod, and scoring status, but you can still use them as non-troops (deathwing, ravenwing, etc.), but there are also strategies on the other hand that are troops-focused.

In DA's case, it's the salvo bolter spam, among the other usual options.

I've played a lot of fantasy, and literally no 40k -- how important is it to have at least on pysker?

What are some popular pysker kits and schools of magic to take for DA ?

It isn't. Psykers are completely different in 40k than wizards are in fantasy.

There are rumors flying that 40k is going to get a magic phase soon, but rumors are rumors. Until proven otherwise, psykers are nothing more than models that either do shooting attacks in interesting ways, or roll leadership tests to see if they can buff a squad or two every turn.

It's much, much more simple, and much, much less mandatory.

As for popularity, nothing beats a psyker who can take divination, because he has guaranteed access to a power that allows him to give twin-linking to a squad.

Otherwise, psychic powers are pretty random. It's more you take a psyker because you want a buff unit, and then figure out which buffs he'll have that particular game (and thus how to use him), than because you want to add something specific to your army.

And as for DA, I'm pretty sure they're like the other space marines where their only psykers are librarians.

Prescience is so much of and evil win right now, 18 rapid fire bolter shots with twin linkage wooooooo!

 Nevelon wrote:
A generic rule of thumb is one troop pick per 500 points. DA have a number of ways to shuffle what counts as troops, so you might be fine with what you have.

As an Ultramarine, I frequently run 2 full tac squads and a 5 man scout squad in a 1,500 point list. YMMV.

I agree, 1 troops unit per 500 points is generally enough. That said, at larger points levels, I like to take either Azrael or Belial and have the bulk of my army scoring. It gives a lot more redundancy and makes the DW/RW far more useful.

 Ailaros wrote:
It isn't. Psykers are completely different in 40k than wizards are in fantasy.

There are rumors flying that 40k is going to get a magic phase soon, but rumors are rumors. Until proven otherwise, psykers are nothing more than models that either do shooting attacks in interesting ways, or roll leadership tests to see if they can buff a squad or two every turn.

For the meantime, they are different. Go and have a look at the 7th Ed rumours thread. There are shots of WD that confirm they will become more Fantasy like with a magic/Psychic Phase.

I usually aim for 1 + 1 per 500 points - however Space Marines with Combat Squads can be flexible enough to ignore this if they wish.

bryceloop wrote:
Hello,

I am pretty sure I need more troops ( I read that small units aren't good, so this leads me to believe I need 10 man tac squads)

I only have 10 Tacs and 5 scouts. For Dark Angels.

So, since I'm pretty sure I need more troops, the question is, how many more TACs do I need, or should I get more scouts?

I don't have any specific direction I want to go with my army, but this is what I own:

1 x Captain
10 x Tacs
5 x Scouts
10 x Assault Marines
5 x Terminators
5 x Death Wing Knights
1 x Land speeder
1 x Nelphlim Fighter
1 x Storm Talon (Don't know why, I got it for 15$ on eBay)
6 x Ravenwing bikes
1 x Attack bike
1 x Preditor
10 x Veterans (thinking about using these as TACs)

Thank you for any advice as to what I should get to round out my army.

I personally consider 4 Troops to be the "minimum"....but Space Marines are an exception, because you can split out 5 man teams, and they are so dang survivable. So...I'd reccomend adding one more 10 man Tac squad. That'll give you 3 Troops, with the ability to split out up to two more.