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The title sums it up quite nicely. I'm by no means a competitive player but I have a bad habit when list building of squeezing in the most basic two scoring troops units then all spare points go on giant tanks and monsters and other fun stuff. So at what level should you really start thinking about adding a third scoring unit? Also I assume unit survivability comes into this somewhere. For example if I'm using a chaos lord so my plague marines are troops, two can get the job done. But if I'm using cultists should I add a third unit at a lower level than normal to counter their tendency to take it in the spleen?

500 2
750 2
1000 2-3
1250 3
1500 3
1750 3-4
1850 4
2000 4+
In my opinion, i play Necrons and Marines, so my troops tend to last pretty well.

I tend to think of it more on a point basis, I would always recommend about half your army being troops.

At 1750 4 choices
1850 4-5
2000 5+

Many top tourney lists feature 6+ at 1850 and 2k. Allies makes it easy to gain access to a ton of troops.

I think a lot of it has to do with your army book as well as what you are trying to accomplish with your build. For example the SW have debatably the best troops in the game. So, I could see 4 - 6 troop choices from 1000+ points, but for elite type lists I have seen as few as 2 at 1500 points.

I think that iGuy91 has a good basic barometer. If you base your generic decision on that metric and then adjust it to your build and playing style you should be able to build some balanced lists.

I have been running overload lists lately that throw a lot of difficult to kill targets right into my enemies face. This allows me to plop down cheap and weak scoring units because they're such a low targeting priority that they survive. This only works in certain builds and against certain opponents, so be cognoscente of this when writing a list, since there is no perfect metric to use here.

it really depends how durrable they are. More durrability means you can have less.

A good rule of thumb is one unit per 500 points.

 Nevelon wrote:
A good rule of thumb is one unit per 500 points.

Yeah, that's it. If you can combat squad Marines, then you could take less non-combat squadded units. But it will depend on the rest of your army.

It's variable, depends on how good your troops are, if you can combat squad and how mobile they are

Also dont forget a unit that can contest/deny an opponent an obj is almost as good as a scoring unit itself.

It's only half as good.

Meh...out of the 6 book missions, only 3 are objective based where only the troops can score. At 1850, with my necrons, I rarely field more than 2 troop choices and don't have a problem staying competative. Then again, necron troops are garbage, so it's an easy decision...

Edited because I can't subtract 3 from 6 and get the correct answer...

I thought it was 3 of them. I can every easily be wrong.

There's the heavy support one, the kill point one, the fast attack one. I don't think there's one for elites. What am I missing?

Martel732 wrote:
I thought it was 3 of them. I can every easily be wrong.

There's the heavy support one, the kill point one, the fast attack one. I don't think there's one for elites. What am I missing?

Bah...you're right. Apparently basic math is eluding me today. Thanks for the heads up.

This is why I frequently run BA lists with no elites other than sanguinary priests. Any little trick; I know, it sad. Plus, I'm not as ga ga for BA elites as most BA players.

For MEQ I support the whole 1 scoring troop per 500. However this differs for different armies and the point allotment for units.

You generally need 1 troop per 500 points. Can't hurt to have one more than that, or the ability to split troops up on the fly.

I play fairly competitive Nurgle-marked marines (T-Sons models but nobody is perfect) with 3 scoring units (10-man Nurge-marked with TLLC sergeant and 2 meltas) and I do very well. I feel like 1 scoring unit per 500-750 points if your troops are MEQ is sufficient. For not MEQ, my pretty competative IG buddy beside me says max them out.

 Gangrel767 wrote:
I think a lot of it has to do with your army book as well as what you are trying to accomplish with your build. For example the SW have debatably the best troops in the game. So, I could see 4 - 6 troop choices from 1000+ points, but for elite type lists I have seen as few as 2 at 1500 points.

I think that iGuy91 has a good basic barometer. If you base your generic decision on that metric and then adjust it to your build and playing style you should be able to build some balanced lists.

I have been running overload lists lately that throw a lot of difficult to kill targets right into my enemies face. This allows me to plop down cheap and weak scoring units because they're such a low targeting priority that they survive. This only works in certain builds and against certain opponents, so be cognoscente of this when writing a list, since there is no perfect metric to use here.

This is what I do with my Daemons. I run two decent units of Pink Horrors until I hit 1500 or so, then I might add another, or some Plaguebearers. People are generally too busy trying to kill Fateweaver, my Daemon Princes or Flamers to worry about wasting fire on a brick of Plaguebearers hiding in my backfield.

Also to add onto the comment that only three out of six missions only allow troops to score (unless your codex makes other scoring of course), only one of them has more than two objectives. The Relic only has one, and Emperor's Will has two, making large amounts of troops somewhat of a liability, at least for Daemons. Especially considering that Daemon troops really aren't that great and are somewhat overcosted.

I do 1 + 1 per 500 points, but different armies with different quality and priced troops will vary... Marines for example can have a little less due to combat squads.

Wow, thanks for all the replies folks. So going off the scoring per 500 and durability argument on board how's this for a plan?

at 500-1000 or less two units of cultists with plague marines in the elites slot.
At 1500 add in a nurgle marked terminator lord which will qualify the plague marines as a scoring troop unit.
At 2000 add a second plague marine squad

 iGuy91 wrote:
500 2
750 2
1000 2-3
1250 3
1500 3
1750 3-4
1850 4
2000 4+
In my opinion, i play Necrons and Marines, so my troops tend to last pretty well.

This times a billion. I have gone by 1 per 500 points, but with the intermediary point levels, I usually took the amount of troops shown on this chart. I have done it without every writing it down, so I'm stealing this chart for my own use Much Thanks, iGuy91!