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I play IG, and I love fielding many types of units.

How many infantry squads should I leave to be scoring units? Also, what would you consider to be too many?

Thanks for the input!

You should have 5+ units that can score. Points wise you should probably be anywhere from 600-1k+ in Troops/scoring units.

It depends some how you're using them though, whether they're on foot or running in vehicles.

The rule of thumb that I've always heard was 1 scoring unit for every 500 points.

So a minimum of 3 at a 1500 point game, 4 at 2,000, etcetera.

I always abide by 1+1 for every 500 points. So 4 at 1500 and 5 at 2000.

However, with guard? your scoring units are cheap and fragile. Might want to take a few more.

I always hear 1 scoring unit for every 500 tossed all over the place. I hear it SO much...

Honestly, I don't think it's enough for IG. I think as close as possible to 1/2 your points your playing in scoring units is a better answer. Counting all the transports/weaponry your giving them. Each of my scoring units is about 1/2 of what 500 pts is so that common saying works. About 220-230 points or so. For IG though a squad of Vets with 3x MG + Chim is only 155. So maybe 1.5 every 500 so like 3x in 1000 points. Or just stick to 1/2 your points in scoring units and you should be good.

For example in my 1850 list I run:
10x Tacticals: PC PG CPG Rhino
10x Tacticals: PC PG CPG Rhino
10x Tacticals: MM MG CMG Rhino
10x GKSS: 2x Psycannon

900 points. 40 MEQ bodies, 9 possible scoring units. Much higher chance that I can score some objectives.

It's much easier for IG since you can spam so much and take so many efficient transports and weaponry alongside.

Of course this is just MY personal preference.

I run 4 at 1850, however IG can run more easily with platoons tbh. Depending on how you field what ya got.

In 5th I ran 3 Vet squads and a platoon with
PCS
4 infantry squads

It depends heavily on the army. You'd have to consider the survivability and damage output when it comes to deciding how many scoring units, as well as the point value of the game.

Scoring units are important, and you should never skimp on them, but there are some tasks you just can't accomplish with them.

I always build my lists by making a checklist of what I need to do on the battlefield & what units are most capable of doing that specific thing, then building the list from there, e.g.

Can I claim objectives, Can I deal with MEQ, can I deal with hordes, can I deal with TEQ, Heavy tanks, transports, flyers, etc

Luckily with guard, your troop choices are very versatile, so they're usually able to do more than just score. For example plasma vets can score AND deal with MEQ. Maxed blob squads with comissars can score AND swamp death stars. This makes it practical to take more than you normally would.

 somecallmeJack wrote:
Scoring units are important, and you should never skimp on them, but there are some tasks you just can't accomplish with them.

I always build my lists by making a checklist of what I need to do on the battlefield & what units are most capable of doing that specific thing, then building the list from there

This is pretty good advice. I like to plan my lists around a certain unit. It just so happens that the two armies I use the unit I plan around is my troops. Vets for guard and grey hunters for wolves.
The problem with guard is that scoring units are incredibly squishy. For an infantry squad to hold something you pretty much need to blob them together which makes them unwieldy.

Holding home objectives for guard is fairly easy, it becomes difficult hen you need to move forward and take the opposing player's objective or the relic.

I'd follow the recommendation of 1 scoring unit for every 500pts. Maybe switch it to 1 troop choice fr every 500 points. Platoons are great for defending and a deep striking PCS can grab enemy objectives in the later turns which can be game breaking.

With guard, redundancy is key. You will want more than 1 scoring unit per 500 points. A single SWS might be able to score but it dies easily. Even 10 guardsman can get killed in a turn.

The 1+1/500 rule is a pretty good rule of thumb - for MEQ and TEQ armies. Any army that has resilient or 3+ armor troops can get by with that.

For a guard player I recommend 2 +2/500 approach. 2 scoring units, plus 2 more for every full 500 points of the game, so 6 scoring units at 1000, and 10 at 2000. Easily done with platoons.

I do minimum 3 units at 2k and right now it's 4. But 3 of them can combat squad into 6 scoring units. I also make sure to have a fast attack and heavy support selection as well. Cause there is a 1/6 chance those units can score too.

The common (1 + 1 for every 500 points) is a good rule for Space Marines, but it doesn't quite work for armies with squishier troops choices. I would instead suggest following the a guideline inspired by the above:

Spend (200 +/- 50) + (200 +/- 50)*X/500 points on troops, where X is the total number of points.

Depends on army and list, I generally go with 1 troops per 500 pts: so 2 troops at 500-1000, 3 troops at 1500, etc I do this because I want to run a variety of units, there is nothing stopping me from spamming wyches on venoms, but it's just boring for me.

Some armies also have decent troop choices, so they'd probably use more than others...

I have 4 scoring units in my 1500 point white scars army, 1 of which can combat squad making 5 scoring units if i require it.

Does this seem like enough then?

at 1500 (for C:SM) I have 2 10 man tacs and 1 5 man camo-cloaked scout squad

In general, you should have more than you think. In the case of guard, it should be about twice as many than that.

The 1 per 500 points made sense, but that was back in the day when 1/3rd of your missions had no objectives, and 1/3rd of your missions had exactly one objective per player. Now your average game has a lot of objectives on them, which means you're now going to need more scoring units to compensate.

You have to factor in how strong each scoring unit is as well. 6 slots of 10 cultists is more scoring units than 4 squads of 10 space marines but they certainly won't be capturing as much. You have to balance it out.

Good to know. I use roughly 6 squads of 10 guardsman, not counting any command squads in a standard game. I wanted to make sure I wasn't cutting too many in my list making. Thanks for all of the input everybody!

For guard in the 1500-1850 range, I've had good results with two vet squads in chimeras and a single platoon consisting of 4 rifle squads w/ HWTs, a HWS, and of course the PCS. The platoon spreads out as much as necessary in the backfield and the vets seize objectives on the enemy's side. I blob up the guardsmen to varying degrees depending on the map, so I can have anywhere from a 40-man blob to 4 10-man squads deployed. If attrition is particularly high, sometimes the PCS will make a dash for an objective around turn 5.

Yeah, 60 guardsmen should probably be enough. I'd tack on another 20 by 1850, but for 1500 that's likely good enough... well... depending on how much anti-horde your opponents like to bring...

 Ailaros wrote:
Yeah, 60 guardsmen should probably be enough. I'd tack on another 20 by 1850, but for 1500 that's likely good enough... well... depending on how much anti-horde your opponents like to bring...

O.o 80 guardsmen at 1850. That's soooo much infantry.

Not that arguing the point, merely asking; is that really how much it takes for guard?

At 1850, I have a 40 man blob and 2 tactical squads (One or two HWT's for backfield objectives), but if I were to take out the tac squads, would I be left having to take around 40 more guardsmen to be viable?

 TheCaptain wrote:

 Ailaros wrote:
Yeah, 60 guardsmen should probably be enough. I'd tack on another 20 by 1850, but for 1500 that's likely good enough... well... depending on how much anti-horde your opponents like to bring...

O.o 80 guardsmen at 1850. That's soooo much infantry.

Not that arguing the point, merely asking; is that really how much it takes for guard?

At 1850, I have a 40 man blob and 2 tactical squads (One or two HWT's for backfield objectives), but if I were to take out the tac squads, would I be left having to take around 40 more guardsmen to be viable?

Wow only 80? A full on leafblower list has at least 70 guardsmen with your 6 vet squads and 2 CCS's. My last 2k tourney list had 151 guardsmen in it And that's counting only the first wave of conscripts. I could easily break 300 if enough waves got sent in.

But that was a silly list that I made with literally no vehicles in it whatsoever to figure out what major weaknesses my infantry had and what I would need to cover those weaknesses (oddly enough, that's hordes. Tanks died the moment I saw them and elite infantry hate lasguns.) Most of my sane 1850-2k lists run between 100-135 guardsmen, and a few leman russes or other support vehicles.

As for scoring units, since I use mostly platoons, I tend to have anywhere between 8 and 15, depending on how crazy I get with vet squads and HWS's. I'm actually working on cutting that down a bit, by trying to get more elite infantry, but we'll see how that goes. IG work pretty differently than other armies, and I have a hard time subscribing to the 1 per 500pts thing. I don't feel comfortable unless I have roughly 3 per 500pts, but that's because I field an entirely infantry army most of the time. Guys that use chimeras/vendettas can get away with a lot less.

Right, 80 is the minimum I'd take for 1850, unless, perhaps, all of your troops are dura-vets. You could easily go for more. In my case, 40 of those 80 are send in the next wave conscripts, which quickly makes those 40 become 80 or 120.

But yeah, it really does take that much for foot guard. For how much mech players like to whine about hull points, that's nothing compared to the loss of by-unit cover and the new wound allocation problems (amongst many, many others) that beat up foot lists.

I had a game recently where I lost roughly 40 guardsmen in a single round of shooting. And they were all at least partially in cover. That would have never happened in 5th ed. Nowadays, you just need a lot more boots on the ground to get the same job done.

And, of course, that's just scoring units. My 80 guardsmen in the above example also included 16 dudes in officer squads and 30 stormtroopers...

Lots. I field mostly elite armies with small model counts, and 3 is the absolute minimum I'd ever consider putting on the table. Foot Guard should ideally have at least three infantry platoons with some mixture of infantry and heavy weapon squads in mid to large-sized games; Veterans are better for Valkyrie air-cav.

Not to derail too much but since a lot of answers have been given already for the IG player...

What about MEQ? Primarily for 1500 and 1850 lists as those are the ones the tournaments are held at here.

I'm thinking 1+1 /500. So in 1500 4x scoring units and in 1850 6~

Also, what do you guys consider "scoring units" in that 4x. Each scoring unit meaning a 10x man tactical squad can combat squad so that = 2x scoring units? Or are you always counting the Tactical squad as actually being just 1x unit still even if you can combat squad and get you 2x scoring units. Maybe an easier answer would be bodies...10+10 bodies/500?

Thoughts?

Yeah, that's the trick. How do you count full-sized tac squads?

I'd be tempted to be conservative with this, as, played properly, there's a lot you can do with tac squads.

Also, I'd consider other stuff, like that captain and his suddenly scoring bikes, or pedro and his suddenly scoring sternguard. There are other things that can pump up this number that you may have been taking already.

i thin k it really depends on how survivalble your troups are and how usefull they are outside of objectives if i have scouring th/ss termies i prolly dont need 6 or more troops however i like to run 8 just cuz

It's been said already - it depends on the survivability and resilience of the units in question as well as any other factors such as WBB, Regeneration or Spawning.

Furthermore, it depends on the general points cost of the units and their role, as well as your playstyle. Sure, a Deathwing Terminator squad can sit on the back line on an objective but for a DW army that's a huge waste of points that they're likely not to make back.

My own armies tend to be as follows...

Death Guard - 3/4 even at 2k points (3 Plague Marine squads, 1 allied Plaguebearer squad). Sure, it's not exactly the 1+1 per 500 ideal but Plague Marines are tough and survivable. And you only need one survivor to claim or deny so that's when playing canny starts to kick in.

Tyranids - I fill the Troops choices right out. And spawn even more. And more. And more. They're fragile, expendable and to be honest the Troops are one of the most useful bits of that entire Codex. I wish I could take even more...