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Just wondering how people view the importance of the size of squads when making army lists, and what people think is most optimal.

For me I always try to take squads in groups of 4 to maximize the "Minimum 25% to Regroup" rule, but in squads of 4x +1(5, 9, 13...) you gain the need to kill 1 more guy to force a LD check in the first place.

Playing Necrons, the only time I use the 4x +1 rule is when fielding a large squad of footslogging warriors since they are less likely to get wiped out by shooting in one turn. Otherwise it is always 8 Warriors/Immortals or 7 Warriors/Immortals w/ an atached Cryptek.

Squad size you say?

Make it as big as the transport allows.

No transport? Make it bigger.

America.

Depends on the type of squad, their role, and their cost. Taking a mob of 20 Guardsmen is a far sight more reasonable than a mob of 20 Thousand Sons.

 TheCaptain wrote:
Squad size you say?

Make it as big as the transport allows.

No transport? Make it bigger.

America.

LOL spoken like a true Marine. ATSKNF kinda makes squad size less important, and the fact that I am a Necron player with Ld 10 might put me in the same boat.

I will admit it is more of something that other armies have to worry about but old habits die hard. A squad of 8 Firewarriors can only take 2 casualities before taking a LD test but 9 Firewarriors have to take 3 casualties before they take a LD test. But on the downside when 9 Firewarriors get down to only 2 guys left and they break they can't regroup where a group that started as 8 Firewarriors could.

Of course the correct respone to this would be...

Who plays Tau?

There, I beat you to it.

Depends. I don't worry about the 25% casualties causing LD checks, though. (I play Marines, Chaos Marines, and Horde Orks).

Do I have to take 10 men to get a special and heavy weapon like Space Marine Tatical squads? Do I have to take 10 men to get a pair of special weapons like Chaos Space Marines?

That aside, enough to make the squad reasonably resilient enough to do it's job is the next consideration. Will a 5-man autocannon Havoc squad last long enough to crack open 2-3 transports? No, better have 7 and put the sergeant and the other two ablative wounds up front.

Will 5 sniper scouts in cover with camo cloaks last long enough to take out some sergeants and/or special/heavy weapons? Probably. 6 or 7 seems like a more effective number, though.

I don't worry too much. I know it's not optimal, but my BT fire squads number 6. I usually dislike minimum squad sizes.

As a marine player: 5 or 10. Tac and Dev squads are always 10, all the others are normally 5. Scouts will occasionally see full size.

Codex marines don't get a whole lot of say in squad size.

For Vanilla marines, its always max size because you can't get any weapon upgrades before that. If this wasn't the case I would take tons of 5 man Tac squads with a single weapon each.

For footslogging BT, I try to max squad sizes (10x marines, 10x scouts). 6 in my shooty templar (5x marines, 1x scouts).

Makes sure at least a handful survive into close combat ^^

I play Space Marines, so I almost always go for ten man squads. For my tactical squads, it's the only way to get the upgraded weapons, and for most selections it gives me the option of having combat squads if I so choose.

as a guard player losing squads just makes me lol

I like taking large amounts of troops and then small-medium elite or heavy squads. Keep in mind I play Orks buuuuut i would probably do this with an elite army ie. SM, GK, or CSM.

I usually only put one tank in a squadron. Being able to split fire with my troops Russes is better than the survivability advantage IMO. OTOH it isn't great for orders or for that warlord traits that affect squadrons.

I play Vanilla marines, so it's all about the multiples of 5. Up to 10. So it's either 5 or 10. Bloody Codex Astartes...

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
I usually only put one tank in a squadron. Being able to split fire with my troops Russes is better than the survivability advantage IMO. OTOH it isn't great for orders or for that warlord traits that affect squadrons.

Well, orders cannot be given to vehicles, so you don't need to worry about that. Took me awhile to have a look at the codex after a player at our FLGS was giving "Fire on my Target" and "Bring it Down" orders to his squadron of Basilisks/Medusas... Imagine the nastiness which ensued.

It depends on what I'm trying to do.

If I'm trying to spam MSU, Ill generally go with 5 man MEQ squad. Marines dont have to worry about break tests/regrouping or anything like that, so the multiple of 4 rule does not apply.

When I'm building a blob unit, I generally take the max possible. An example of this would be 30 boys.

When I'm taking zenos, Ill often go with a multiple of 4. An example would be 4 eldar guardian jetbikes.

Finally, when I want a squad to be durable I take 10 man. An example would be 10 PMs.

Cheesedoodler wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
I usually only put one tank in a squadron. Being able to split fire with my troops Russes is better than the survivability advantage IMO. OTOH it isn't great for orders or for that warlord traits that affect squadrons.

Well, orders cannot be given to vehicles, so you don't need to worry about that. Took me awhile to have a look at the codex after a player at our FLGS was giving "Fire on my Target" and "Bring it Down" orders to his squadron of Basilisks/Medusas... Imagine the nastiness which ensued.

You can in the Armored Battlegroup list.

 TheCaptain wrote:
Squad size you say?

Make it as big as the transport allows.

No transport? Make it bigger.

America.

Ha! QFT