Pimp my Devastators!

[Wargamer]

So I have ten new bodies joining my army, plus a plastic Dev box. This naturally gives me a wide choice of heavy weapons, but I'm suddenly unsure of how to equip my squad.

 

I was originally going to go with 2 Las 2 missiles, but I'm not sure that's best. I feel like my list needs two conflicting things - a way to take down vehicles / monsters, and a way to clear Genestealer swarms off the board.

 

So I'm open to suggestions on how to deal with both. What loadouts work best for these foes?

[GreyCrow]

Vehicles : 4 Lascannons for sure. Multi-Meltas if you feel risky.

 

Anti Hordes : Heavy Bolters are reliable. Missiles are not but can work if you are lucky!

 

For your list, it really depends on what else you have and how you want to use your Devastators.

 

With the new game mechanics, you can afford to have a generic 10 men Devastators squad with multiple different weapons as a first drop. It's relatively generalistic and this will buy you time until you deploy the more purpose built units when you start to know what you will be facing.

[Wargamer]

My list is basically an Infantry gunline - tacs, Dreads and Devastators backed up with characters and assault / Terminator squads.

 

I'm toying with making two alternate loadouts that, spare bodies willing, I can bring together - a long range anti tank with 2 (or 3) Lascannon and either missiles or plasma cannon.

 

The other idea is to try two Gravcannon with either 2 HB or 2 MM as additional firepower, but I've never used grav weapons so I don't know if they are worth bringing.

[GreyCrow]

Yeah, that is not a bad idea!

 

For the Grav Cannon, roll a few dice a few times against different enemy stat lines and see how they fare :)

[Firepower]

I would just avoid the Plasma Cannon, personally.  Random damage output is ruthlessly unreliable.

[Wargamer]

I would just avoid the Plasma Cannon, personally. Random damage output is ruthlessly unreliable.

Plasma is the only big gun with fixed damage... It has a random number of shots instead. ;)

[Galron]

Just based off my list, if I was adding devastators, I would throw 4 multi-meltas in a drop pod with a bare captain and one of my 4 man vet plasma squads since I might as well use the space with something. I actually use multiple drop pods and find them fairly effective since no one expects anyone else to use drop pods these days.

[Myrkul]

I’ve been running two squads w/ one lascannon and three heavy bolters and found them to be pretty reliable with out being a huge point sink. Signam the las and pull he cherub to fire twice turn one is pretty effective. Can signam a hbolter for hellfire/mortal wound goodness.

[Toxichobbit]

If you want them to look like Devastators (ie, reinforced greaves & targeters on helmets) then you can actually make up six heavy weapon Devastators from one box. You get plenty of helmets and six reinforced legs. There is also two of each heavy weapon, so all you need is a couple of bodies and you're set. As Devastators don't have specific bodies, you can use whatever you have in your bits box or order a couple of Marine bodies from a parts seller.

 

That is of course, assuming that you don't want the Sergeant and bolter Marines to have reinforced greaves and targeter helms, which IMO makes sense as those armour mods would be used on the guys equipped with the heavy weapons.

 

If you are ok doing this, you've got a bit more leeway with how you equip the squad, plus the option to make half of a second Devastator squad.

[yergerjo]

What I always have done is make all my Heavy Weapon models and leave them unmarked (by unit) and rotate them in as needed while the rest is static. This works for tactical squads and devastator squads both.

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

My list is basically an Infantry gunline - tacs, Dreads and Devastators backed up with characters and assault / Terminator squads.

 

I'm toying with making two alternate loadouts that, spare bodies willing, I can bring together - a long range anti tank with 2 (or 3) Lascannon and either missiles or plasma cannon.

 

The other idea is to try two Gravcannon with either 2 HB or 2 MM as additional firepower, but I've never used grav weapons so I don't know if they are worth bringing.

Lascannons over missiles, all day, everyday, even on Christmas.  

Missile launchers can go in a 5 man tac squad for the sole purpose of using flak missiles.  

Heavy bolters on devs are solid.. dirt cheap and signum hellfire shells with a reroll is like 36" range smite without targeting restrictions.

Multimeltas are bad.  Truely and solidly bad.  -1 to hit straight off the top(much of the time) and also -1 to wound vs anything you would really want to target since the multimelta is only str 8. 

 

Don't sleep on grav cannons!  These are pretty solid in tac squads for hosing down MEQs and lots of medium sized nid stuff.  Even if you shoot on the move you can do dmg since the volume of fire is great.   

[SanguinaryGuardsman]

Just based off my list, if I was adding devastators, I would throw 4 multi-meltas in a drop pod with a bare captain and one of my 4 man vet plasma squads since I might as well use the space with something. I actually use multiple drop pods and find them fairly effective since no one expects anyone else to use drop pods these days.

Devs with 4 multi melts... 160ish?

Captain.. 75?

pod.. 85

 

For that price you can get 2 squads of devs with 4 lascannons each.

 

 

+++8 lascannons shoot 8 times in about half your games(assuming you go first half the time)

+8 lascannons probably shoot 4 times in all of your games.

++8 lascannons fire at full BS nearly 100% of the time.

 

---4 multimeltas shoot once in nearly 100% of your games. (who is gonna let this squad live?)

---4 multimeltas fire at -1 BS nearly 100% of the time.

+4 multimeltas never die without doing at SOMETHING

+++anything in a drop pod is really cool

 

I just don't see it.  Other players dont expect drop pods for a reason.  They do however expect other deepstrike units and any list that deals with deepstriking stuff also deals with pods.  

[Firepower]

 

I would just avoid the Plasma Cannon, personally. Random damage output is ruthlessly unreliable.

Plasma is the only big gun with fixed damage... It has a random number of shots instead.

 

 

Lowercase "d," smarty pants

 

But the point stands.  Random values in our heavy weapons are generally a kiss of death, i.e. Vindicators and Plasma Cannons.  Flamers are a bit less affected because of cheaper pricing, far as I can tell.  Without a set base value of x+dy, you end up shooting a huge cannon that fires one potential wound at a squad of 30 guardsmen...and misses.

 

As for the M-Melta Pod bomb, I think those are better served dropping things like Sternguard.  The ultimate price tag is just too high, with how expensive Pods are these days.  An expensive anti-vehicle unit is typically best kept out of arm's reach of bad guys anyway.  They're not bad tacked on to certain vehicles, though.

Edited December 21, 2017 by Firepower

[Wargamer]

The only limitations I have with a Lascannon squad is not owning four Lascannons, so I need a fourth gun for the squad.

[Captain Idaho]

I quite enjoy using 4 Missile Launchers in my Devastator squad.

 

Sure I know Heavy Bolters are better at pulpling infantry and Lascannons have a superior AP and higher strength (relevant against T8 models), but the fact the squad is never wasted is golden.

 

As an example, against Tyranids I can fire 4 Krak missiles into a Tyrannofex and expect to take a few wounds off at least. Then next turn I can turn them on the Genestealers who approach the Tactical screen and put Frag missiles on them to reduce their number.

 

Essentially it saves me points since I don't need both a Lascannon Devastator squad AND a Heavy Bolter squad.

[Galron]

Mine was an IF I were to run it, plus I would probably have a 4 man vet plasma squad as well to take advantage of the reroll. I do quite well with my current army which already has two drop pods with 4 tactical squads in them. That would be another hard hitting close quarters unit. The lascannon unit would be better but it doesn't fit the theme of my army as I am specifically not running gunline units. I found that drop pods tend to last as well since no one ever wants to devote resources to kill them.

[justicarius6]

My Ultramarine Devs are 2 Lascannon/2 Missile Launcher mix and 2 Heavy Bolter/2 Grav-cannon mixes. They've done me proud so far.

[Jacques Corbin]

Lascannons, all the way! I even have a walking Lieutenant hanging out nearby to reroll those 1s to wound. Opponent Teleport in his Chaos Lord in Terminator Armor, and Chaos Terminators, but he places the Lord first, BAM, Auspex Scan, and he just ate 4 Lascannons to the face. Buh-bye Warlord. Just saying, Lascannons...

[Aegir_Einarsson]

If you use auspex scan. Could you use signum bonus for hitting on 3?

[Toxichobbit]

If you use auspex scan. Could you use signum bonus for hitting on 3?

 

Yes, you can.

[Aegir_Einarsson]

Nice:). Thanks.

[zero88]

Ive been working on a deep strike/teleport heavy list and I didn't want to start a new post, but I wanted to see if anyone has tried out using "Alpha-Lite" Devastator squads? What I mean by that is two squads of 5 man squads with a cherub and a single Grav Cannon, mounted in a drop pod. The idea is to have a solid Alpha (or reactionary) strike delivery system without investing a boatload of points. Those squads come in at under 100 pts each, and each unload 8 BS3+ Grav shots when they land. In your opponents turn they are a way lower target priority since essentially they're just min sized tactical squads that are optimized for an Alpha strike.

[Logiter]

Not a terrible idea for the points cost, however the only time the cherubs are ignored is for moral purposes. This means each squad would really be 6 models, totalling 12 which then wouldn’t fit into a pod.

[Prot]

The biggest problem that I see with an idea like that is pods are so overcosted for what they can do this Edition. I like the idea though and have thought of it myself in conjunction with Calgar deep striking between such pods. Maybe it’s worth a new thread.