Space Marine Tactical - In Bolters we trust?

From Games Workshop

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1060074

A while back had a talk with Wong and he mention that i don’t put faith in bolters. At first i just simply said yeah but now i would like to take that back. It’s not bolters I distrust, Its Tactical Space Marine that I don’t have faith with them. Before I go deeper I just would like to state this is just my opinion and not an advice that I recommend to the rest.

The big thing I dislike about them is the whole 10 men heavy weapon and special weapon thing. I understand it is to encourage folks to do combat squad. The usual is 5 men with special weapon with sarge on the move and 5 men with heavy weapon staying back. It sounds nice and all but the truth is you aren’t that great in either role. There do not have enough men to sustain losses in the frontline and you do not have enough firepower to hold enemy off at the rear. Even going full 10 men does create a conflict of either moving to attack or staying back due to their weapons load out. This is something to consider when players get a dawn of war deployment.

In a Space Marine codex Scouts fulfill the staying back roll better with snipers, missile launcher and camo cloaks. So leaving them with frontline role with heavy weapon that is more of a burden. However in the Blood Angel codex Assault Squad fulfills that role better with 1-2 special weapon, jump packs and decent of the angel.

In my opinion the easiest solution for this is just simply allow 5 men Tactical squad to carry a special weapon like their 4^th ed counterparts. Then the 10 men option allow either discounted heavy weapon or standard price special weapons.