greatbigtree wrote:
In general, you're better off taking 5-man tactical squads. You can save the excess points for other units. They are not damage dealers. They're objective holders, with minor fire support role.

Ultramarines benefit minimally from being in a Gladius. You already have a trio of Tactical Doctrines to use. The doctrines are most valuable while you have more models on the board. By the 4th and 5th turns, you have much less on the board, and by the 6th and 7th turn you're lucky to be boosting much of anything with those extra doctrine uses.

Most of the Chapters already have "offensive" bonuses, like Ultras, Salamanders, Imperial Fists... already getting re-rolls to hit. Since you can't stack re-rolls, the bonuses don't help each other.

Chapters like White Scars and Iron Hands have defensive bonuses. So they benefit fully from the offensive upgrades that access to the Doctrines provide. You could look at it as getting two bonuses per turn, instead of one. A Gladius essentially gives you 4 Doctrine uses, so Ultras get very little from the extra uses, while Iron Hands can reap better damage while taking less in return. Hypothetically.

Palladournecros wrote:
orginally I wanted to try to have two Demi battle groups to get the free transports but that didn't turn out to well. Worried about the survivablty of the five man squads but I also wanted the extra tactical doctrines