Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is mostly a Painting and Modelling issue. But the small part that is tactics is more relevant to me, so I posted here.

Concept:
As a rule I dont beleive that there is any such thing as a disposable marine. The effort required to recruit and prepare one procludes using them as cheap bullet magnets. I am as happy to see a combat squad with lascannon as a five wound lascannon as much as the next player, but at least there is an in game excuse for the four bolter marines to be there, rather than just to stand die and keep the one lascannon firing.

Devastator squads complicate matters a little. You get a sergeant, four heavy weapons and any others are just there to die. So I intend to make the other marines in the unit loaders and ammo carriers. The spare heavy bolter ammo boxes will be held in one hand, a bolter in another. The three pack and single missiles will be converted into a block quad of missiles with a carrying handle and also carried the same way.
Now those marines have purpose.

The advice:
I only have room for one Devastator squad, and want all the toys. So I will be splitting into combat squads, one with two heavy bolters, one with two missile launchers.

My question:
Where does the sergeant go?
My tenth marine will either be a heavy bolter or missile launcher ammo carrier. This will depend on where the sergeant goes.
The signum is rather good, Bs5 for one weapon will help, but which weapon to upgrade, a heavy bolter, or a missile launcher?
Effectively I have to choose now.

I also want your opinions on the split devastator squad with missile launcher and heavy bolters anyway. Should I be taking just missile launchers and deploying heavy bolters in some tacticals? It would allow me a ten marine squad, though I could do that anyway if I am facing orks or other enemies I will use frag on.

If you are set on splitting them with two missile launchers and two heavy bolters I would put the sergeant with the missile launchers as a spotter. when it comes down to it you will almost always want to crack that tank open more than you want to gun down an extra grot.

I was under the assumption that combat squads for devastators were so that the extra marines were not wasted. Put four heavy weapons and a bullet catcher in one squad, powerfist sergeant and his four ablative wounds in a razorback tearing down field. I can see splitting the squads with two heavies each also, but nothing beats more marines with hidden powerfist riping through the enemy.

@Zacarius - Those extra 5 marines cost another 80 points. For ten more points, you could stick with buying a 5-man devastator squad, and then field a 5 man tactical squad with a powerfist sgt??

This way your powerfist squad would be scoring as well, and gets all the tac squad options. For only ten more points....

I'd put him with the missile launchers as Zacharius suggests. I think how you plan on splitting them up is probably the best way of doing it - having the mooks there to take hits is important if you don't want to start losing weapons as soon as anyone fires at them.

I'd like to go with the rest of those suggesting the arge for the missile squad, 'cause it also makes blast template 1" more accurate.

Also, can split squads shoot at different targets? I assume that they can, but there could be some weird stuff out there.

Split squads = separate units, so they target separately.

Shrike78 wrote:I'd like to go with the rest of those suggesting the arge for the missile squad, 'cause it also makes blast template 1" more accurate.

Zacarius wrote:If you are set on splitting them with two missile launchers and two heavy bolters I would put the sergeant with the missile launchers as a spotter. when it comes down to it you will almost always want to crack that tank open more than you want to gun down an extra grot.

Huh? Am I missing something? The sergeant doesn't increase BS in any way... he just ups leadership, has an extra attack, and some different options. Whats with this idea that he will somehow make the weapons better?

Read about the signum.

Drunkspleen wrote:

Shrike78 wrote:I'd like to go with the rest of those suggesting the arge for the missile squad, 'cause it also makes blast template 1" more accurate.

Zacarius wrote:If you are set on splitting them with two missile launchers and two heavy bolters I would put the sergeant with the missile launchers as a spotter. when it comes down to it you will almost always want to crack that tank open more than you want to gun down an extra grot.

Huh? Am I missing something? The sergeant doesn't increase BS in any way... he just ups leadership, has an extra attack, and some different options. Whats with this idea that he will somehow make the weapons better?

Yeah... I had no idea about it either until reading this article, but then I looked it up and there it is, the sigum doohiky or whatever ya call it ups BS

Ah of course, I was looking at that the other day and was like "huh, what's this signum thing do" then got distracted and forgot to look it up, well now, devestators just went up a notch in my book, not that they were bad before.