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Looking at making my army MSU, is this viable in 30k? I'd have a couple of blob units to soak wounds but I want a large quanity of units for tactical flexibility.

Bad idea, because of the high points costs for the base unit.

Depends on the army.

If you want many small units, I recommend Solar Auxilia. Tercios (think "1700s term for platoons") are blocks of 20 infantry* and you can get 3 per troops choice.

For a legion astartes list, Tannhauser is correct - the 'additional dudes' cost much less than the price of the basic unit, so taking many small units is getting you substantially less fighting power for the same cost. Generally I'd only take a sub-maximum-size unit if trying to fit them inside a transport/bunker.


*....okay. So Many. Not necessarily "small"! Still cheaper than a legion tactical squad!

I had a small game recently where tactical support squads were good in 5 man teams rather than 10 man because of the cost of the weapons - i think the concept of MSU has been replaced by MLU in 30k, with it's favorable costs for having large units and generally higher points limits.

In a small game, fair enough. There's always an issue in small games because the 'basic' legion tactical squad has no options for assault or heavy weapons.

Ground pounding lists, MSU is useless, unless in small points as said. In orbital assault it is very useful once you get past the 2 ten man tacticals for maxing out on support squads and vet squads in drop pods. I can see it useful for the same reason in a rhino mech list. But for general use, MSU is much less useful than larger units. I have been playing 30k for years, all against 40k armies and aside from tac support and heavy support squads, I max out the numbers as best I can.

Mechancium MSU can work better than Marines, there is only a 30 point penalty (7%) for 3 units of 3 thallax with 1 melta vs 1 unit of 9 thallax with 3 meltas. I know I'd rather have three smaller units of thallax than one unit...

Single Castleax are points netrual to their bigger brothers, but the thralls are only another 45 points for an extra 10 men so its very dependent on what sort of list you want to play.