Multiple Small Units vs One Large Unit

[Nicholunch]

Agreed. Great topic!

I think most often it comes down to your original pros list for each option. It's very unit specific. I'd ask yourself (general 'you') a few questions... What play style do you like? What's the goal of your army? What buffs, magic users, etc will benefit most?

I found with Kharadron Overloads, bigger Arkanaut units allow more of the bigger weapon options. A 20-40 unit strong allows 6-12 big weapons in the unit, meaning hell will come raining upon your foes and you need to lose 28 models to ranged or battleshock kills before those special guys start dying. AND then smaller units are good for objective holding/support.

Bigger Endrinrigger units allow you to use the grapnel launcher to zip line a large amount of chainsaws to collide with a monster hero BUT many small units to steal objectives quickly.

[Kyriakin]

With the new Allegiance Ability (i.e. pooling multiple units for "large unit" bonuses), Darkling Covens are one of the few armies where mid-size units are viable.

Usually, starting with 20 leaves you one death away from losing the ability, but DC can now negate this.

[BrAiKo]

On 12/7/2017 at 5:31 PM, Kyriakin said:

With the new Allegiance Ability (i.e. pooling multiple units for "large unit" bonuses), Darkling Covens are one of the few armies where mid-size units are viable.

Usually, starting with 20 leaves you one death away from losing the ability, but DC can now negate this.

Would you  not still take MSU of each of the three darkling units to make the total effective unit count 30?

A unit that comes to mind for not fitting into MSU or max size would be blood warriors (min size 5).  With their goreglave upgrade being a very worthwhile  addition (put it on the unit leader!), but only available to take 1 per unit of 10, this is probably the ideal unit size.

[MacDuff]

Don't forget that if you need to capture objectives that smaller units can grab more. Big units can't be in two places at once.

[Percivael]

Very useful write up. I have been considering a massive regiment of 20 Blightkings over 4 units of 5.

Pros: 

You get 3 and half free Blightkings (3 and a half FREE Blightkings!)

You get to spread them out yet tag all those Blightkings with the Harbinger of Decay’s Morbid Vigour ability

You can cast buff spells such as mystic shield or the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Daemonic Power spell and it effects 20 instead of 5.

very resilient and intimidating!

Would look Cool!

Cons: 

large unit on 40 mm bases could be unwieldy 

a lot of these Blightkings wouldn’t get to fight in combat

The Virulent Discharge ability works better with MSU of Blightkings all affecting each other and the enemy.

Less tactical options.

 

Does anyone else think a unit of 20 Blightkings is a good idea?!

 

[Mayple]

4 hours ago, Percivael said:

Very useful write up. I have been considering a massive regiment of 20 Blightkings over 4 units of 5.

Pros: 

You get 3 and half free Blightkings (3 and a half FREE Blightkings!)

You get to spread them out yet tag all those Blightkings with the Harbinger of Decay’s Morbid Vigour ability

You can cast buff spells such as mystic shield or the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Daemonic Power spell and it effects 20 instead of 5.

very resilient and intimidating!

Would look Cool!

Cons: 

large unit on 40 mm bases could be unwieldy 

a lot of these Blightkings wouldn’t get to fight in combat

The Virulent Discharge ability works better with MSU of Blightkings all affecting each other and the enemy.

Less tactical options.

 

Does anyone else think a unit of 20 Blightkings is a good idea?!

 

My general rule of thumb regarding MSU versus one big blob (or in this case, a bunch of blobs in one big group ) is this: If there's a discount, specific tactic, or a battallion demand = go bigger. If none of these are the motivation = go smaller. 
 

More activations//More units allows soooo much more flexibility and tactical maneuvers. Since Age of Sigmar is an objective game first and foremost - it is incredibly important to make sure that you have the right number of units to actually go for multiple objectives at the same time. One big blob can only be at one part of the map - there are usually at least three areas of the map that needs to be focused on. What do you send to the other parts? Are the things you send there weaker than your 20man Blightking Blob? What do you do if your opponent notices that your non-blightking-blob front is weaker than your blobfront and hits it with most of his heavy hitters, while sending tarpits at your Blightkings? 

This problem can be mitigated by mobility, but Blightkings aren't really famous for their ability to move fast  Once they're commited to an area, they're not going to go anywhere else.  


So in my opinion, especially regarding blightkings, MSU is much more important and helpful to you than a big blob. Exception being if you somehow manage to have a high unit count, or strong reliable units that can hold their own in addition to the blightkingblob (Blightking moshpit?) - then you could, sorta, go for the big unit approach. Although I still think you'd benefit more from the MSU approach even if you did that. 

[BrAiKo]

 

4 hours ago, Percivael said:

Very useful write up. I have been considering a massive regiment of 20 Blightkings over 4 units of 5.

Pros: 

You get 3 and half free Blightkings (3 and a half FREE Blightkings!)

You get to spread them out yet tag all those Blightkings with the Harbinger of Decay’s Morbid Vigour ability

You can cast buff spells such as mystic shield or the Chaos Sorcerer Lords Daemonic Power spell and it effects 20 instead of 5.

very resilient and intimidating!

Would look Cool!

Cons: 

large unit on 40 mm bases could be unwieldy 

a lot of these Blightkings wouldn’t get to fight in combat

The Virulent Discharge ability works better with MSU of Blightkings all affecting each other and the enemy.

Less tactical options.

 

Yeah I tend to agree with the point's Mayple raised.  And despite the freebie blightkings in the #blobpit, it's not as big a benefit when you take into account the bonus wounds from the three extra unit leaders.  And I'd feel like it was a waste not having multiple units for that Virulent healing - the total healing potential goes up exponentially with each additional unit within range of each other.