# How Many Troops



## Lopspoon (Jun 23, 2009)

Hello, this is an attempt to help beginning 40k players make their lists. In 5th edition, troops are of paramount importance in winning 66% of the games you will play. However, troops are often less "killy" than elites or heavy support choices.

Thus, one of the choices most important to a general when making a list is...
How many Troops? For different 40k races, the number differs because for some races, troops are very tough and you therefore don't need to many. However, for others, troops are less tough and you therefore need more.

This is not a solo effort, I need your guys help because I only really play 3 races and I want this thread to help lots of people, thus, if you add a post I'll edit this post.

*I'm going to assume we are playing at 1500 points because this is about the size of an average game.*

*Blood Angels*
3 Blood Angels troops are fairly tough with a standard 3+ save and by adding Sanguinary Priests, it is possible to give Blood Angels troops feel no pain

*Black Templar*
2-3, If they are footslogging then they can be big squads, or otherwise they can be in land raiders to keep them safe (Thanks for the info from Champion Auzias)

*Chaos Deamons*
This is tricky, as are deamons themselves. If you are bringing the highly durable plague bearers, you can take 3 units and be safe in the knowledge that most of your troops will last the battle. You can also use smaller units of plaguebearers if you want to be able to capture more objectives and hide the deamons more easily. (Thanks for the info Chumbalaya)
Chaos Deamon troops are effective in their roles, bloodletters are some of the most fearsome assault units and plaguebearers are some of the best objective holders in the game. Thus, in a deamonic swarm list, up to 10 troops can be acceptable. (Thanks LukeValantine)


*Chaos Space Marines*
4-2 It really depends because Chaos Space Marines troops are so diverse,if you include Plague Marines, you could almost get away with 2 troops because they have toughness 5 and feel no pain. 

*Deamonhunters*
2 They're so elite and expensive, if you bring more than 3 you won't be bringing much else in you list.

*Dark Eldar*
4+ Regarded as some of the softest troops in the game (Thats what you get for wearing tight leather for armour) dark eldar troops make up for this with their speed. Dark eldar troops can also carry the infamous dark lance and therefore dark eldar troops add significant mech killing power. If you take less than 4, your opponent can easily target your troops and thus force a draw. (Thanks to Blue Liger and AAAAAAAAARRRGGHH)

*Eldar*
Eldar have a myriad of different choices which translates into some options:
Footslogging: Here you want 4 units, most likely dire avengers in large enough units to provide enough ablative wounds. Rangers can use their camo cloaks to be surprisingly durable in cover but are often less effective at taking forward objectives
Mech: 3 Will do well because Falcons and Wave Serpents are notoriously tough, troops in them are much more durable but also more expensive
(Thanks for the info from Cocakoala)


*Imperial Guard*
Around 6 would be regular, bolters and the like cut through Imperial Guard troops like hot butter. Its also possible to include many more, it depends if you are bringing standard platoons or veterans. If you are going for an all vet build in chimeras or Valkyries, 4 is fine.

*Necrons*
2-3 More information would be nice

*Orks*
4+ More information would be nice

*Space Marines*
3 Space Marines are fairly tough but it's always good to have an extra unit of scoring bodies in case a random battle cannon round vaporizes a squad of space marines. A good rule of thumb to use when you take Space Marines troops is that you should take a unit of troops for every 500 points. (Thanks for the rule of thumb plus info from Jangalak and Orochi)

*Space Wolves*
3+ Space Puppies have some of the best troops in the game ie Grey Hunters however if you spend too much on them you run out of points for fun stuff like longfangs ((Thanks for the info from Vaz)

*Tau Empire*
3-4 It depends on whether they are in tanks or not, with toughness 3 they aren't super tough but they also have a 4+ save that can thus ignore bolters and such.

*Tyranids*
No idea :grin:

*Witch Hunters*
3+ Being toughness 3 and armour save 3, sisters of battle are more resilient than the average troop choice but since there aren't many other excellent units in the Witch Hunters army it is possible to run more than 3 troop choices, (Thanks bishop5) *Editors note I'm always happy to see more of those fine ladies in black*


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## Champion Auzias (Apr 30, 2009)

I would personally get way mroe troops for guard. A good mech list will have tones of troops in chimeras, and lots of Suicide Valk vets. More men means more tin boxes which seem to make the difference. 

And in 1500 I'd say 2-3 a well build templar army, give or take if oyu want ot give them land raiders, or footslog them with full neophytes. Regardless, though, if they have the right vow that gives them full rerolls to hit, a full squad has ablative wounds, a mean little rule that -could- potentially send them barreling towards enemy gunlines to start chopping, they can be a real pain. Not perfect, of course, but a solid troop choice.


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## Lopspoon (Jun 23, 2009)

Thanks for that Champion Auzias, I updated the list to include your suggestions


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## Vrykolas2k (Jun 10, 2008)

For my 2500 pt Khorne list, I have a squad of 8 Berserkers and Skull Champ (+ Khorne Lord) in the Land Raider, 14 Berzerkers and Skull Champ running and a squad of 10 Khorne Marines with Champ in a Rhino. It generally makes a mess of things, as far as troops go.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Space Wolves should be a minimum of 3. Grey Hunters are too good to pass up. Only downside to having more is that you're then limited to how many Long Fangs and Thunderwolves you can have.

IG Mech Lists require 4 minimum. Two Vets with Flamer Maxed with Demo, Two Vets with Melta maxed with Demo, both in MultiLaser/Heavy Flamer combo's.


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## Jangalak (Feb 1, 2009)

After starting out in 40k again about 18months ago i went all elite and heavy obsessed, but as time went on i kept noticing how well the good old tac squad was doing in a humble rhino - and as you say, playing the averages, they are the unit who will win you 66% of the games. 
I would agree, in 1,500 points games 3 units seem to be the right number, i would probably go as far as to say three units of tac squads are better than 2 tacs plus a scout squad in my experience.
I did start to consider the rational that for every 500points in my list, there should be a tac squad with a transport. It seems to be working for me as a rule of thumb.


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## Blue Liger (Apr 25, 2008)

Dark Eldar at 1500 should have 4 minimum - usually 2 lots of 10 in a raider and then at least 2 lots of 10-15 on the ground


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## AAAAAAAAARRRGGHH (Apr 17, 2009)

Agree. DE troops are not very tough, but mounted in a raider they are very fast indeed. Plus, their abillity to carry a wide array of special and heavy weapons mean they can be tooled to perform almost any task given to them. Provided they appear in sufficient numbers.
As such bringing less than 4 choices is a bit of a gamble. Because no matter if they are the footslogging, tankbusting sniper squads or the all purpose and very mobile raider squads you want plenty. And because raiders come with dark lances it is quite viable to bring nothing more than troops to the table.


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## Orochi (Jan 28, 2009)

Agreed with the above on DE.

My general recommendation to any MEQ player is to bring 1 troop choice for every 500 points. So that's 3 at 1500, etc etc.


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## Cocakoala (Apr 27, 2009)

I think with Eldar it would depend on what troops it is. If you were taking footslogging guardians then at 1500 you may need around 4 squads of them, but Dire Avengers in waveserpents or falcons are alot more durable so you wont need as many of them. Jetbikes have marine save and toughness and rangers get nice cover saves. So as a general idea for most of the Eldar troops choices 3ish would suffice for 1500.


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Chaos Daemons should have anywhere from 4 troops for your standard list, to 10 for a Demonic swarm list. The main reason why I would recommend more then most races is the fact that unlike said races the average demonic troops is as effective at its assigned role as some heavy/elites choices in other armies. Not to mention it is a nightmare is some objective based missions to literally on the last turn have your troops appear from no where and contest/capture objectives.


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## Chumbalaya (May 17, 2010)

Daemons can get away with 2-3 at 1500 if they field Plaguebearers. T5 and FNP is very tough. I normally field 4 units of 5 and move on, even at 2000 points. More points for killy stuff.

There really is no hard and fast rule for your number of Troops, it really depends on the rest of your army and your own preferences. Having at least 2 is a must, but it's up to you beyond that. While Troops are your only scorers, fielding killier units in other slots can help you protect your troops by aggressively attacking your opponent. You don't have to hold every objective, just 1 more than your opponent.


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## Lopspoon (Jun 23, 2009)

Once again guys, I thank you greatly for all of your help, I really hope that I can make this thread as helpful as possible, by the weekend I will have taken all your info and I will try to add more information. If you ever feel I have misquoted you, message me and I will solve it quickly.


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Chumbalaya said:


> There really is no hard and fast rule for your number of Troops, it really depends on the rest of your army and your own preferences. Having at least 2 is a must, but it's up to you beyond that. While Troops are your only scorers, fielding killier units in other slots can help you protect your troops by aggressively attacking your opponent. You don't have to hold every objective, just 1 more than your opponent.


This is all good stuff and very true. Have some rep, Mr. Chumby!

I'd like to add that it really depends on the size of the army as well. I mean, using say Dark Eldar as an example - would you really want to take 4 Troop choices in a 750-1,000 point game? I realize this is a bit of an extreme example, but feel it's worth mentioning.


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## bishop5 (Jan 28, 2008)

Witch Hunters: at least two squads in Rhino's but you might as well fill up on them as there's bugger all else in the codex that warrants inclusion.


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## Lopspoon (Jun 23, 2009)

Katie Drake said:


> I'd like to add that it really depends on the size of the army as well. I mean, using say Dark Eldar as an example - would you really want to take 4 Troop choices in a 750-1,000 point game? I realize this is a bit of an extreme example, but feel it's worth mentioning.


I do note that the number of troops should be altered for larger or smaller games, as stated above the list, this list applies to games of 1500.


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## deathbringer (Feb 19, 2009)

For a 1500 point tau list i would try and fit in 3 squads of 10 and at least 2 devilfishes, which can be either uber difficult to kill, i fired a retarded amount of shots against one at least 5 railguns and the bloody thing didn't die or in the case below.

I ran squads of 6 the other week and lost both fishes fairly easily, and the 6 man squads got mauled, so I would advise a squad of at least 10 for sheer survivability

3 squads of 10 at 1500 is a good solid solution


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## paolodistruggiuova (Feb 24, 2010)

Orks: 3troops at 1500 pt is the minimum, including nobz with a warboss there so we have a tough unit who's also our hard hitter, 2more troops of boyz then (30mans on foot, 20 on Battlewagons) will do fine, you may want to add a 40pts 10man grots troop to keep home objectives and add 1more troop for every other 500pts.
If you play Kult of Speed on trukks u'll need all 6slots for troops since your troops are squishy as butter (some 'ard butter weilding a powerklaw...but still butter )


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

well for the upcoming guard force I can now finally start I'll be having 6 troops choices.....granted all 6 choices are a Leman russ MBT of some form, but what the hey


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## Katie Drake (Nov 28, 2007)

Stella Cadente said:


> well for the upcoming guard force I can now finally start I'll be having 6 troops choices.....granted all 6 choices are a Leman russ MBT of some form, but what the hey


Haha, Armored Company list, huh?


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

Katie Drake said:


> Haha, Armored Company list, huh?


indeed, can't be bothered to paint hundreds of guardsmen to sit on the table for 5 seconds killing 1 marine per 20 and dying in numbers even stalin would cringe at.


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Stella Cadente said:


> well for the upcoming guard force I can now finally start I'll be having 6 troops choices.....granted all 6 choices are a Leman russ MBT of some form, but what the hey


AC..come on Stella, man up and go Armoured Battlegroup..far cooler plus IN support to boot:biggrin:


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## Stella Cadente (Dec 25, 2006)

armoured battlegroup is armoured company, plus who needs planes when you got tanks


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## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Stella Cadente said:


> armoured battlegroup is armoured company, plus who needs planes when you got tanks


AC and AB have enough differences to keep them as seperate entities, and from previous posts of yours I thought you likes the Imperial Navy.

ah well...


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