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I have one slot to add to my army in the Heavy support, so far I have 1 Dev squad loaded out special for Lysander and a Thunderfire Cannon:

Do I add another x4 Missile launcher Dev squad, Vindicator or Dreadnought w/ lascannon/missile?

Vindicators. They are your ultimate troubleshooters. Diversified Nobs, Monoliths, Land Raiders, Terminators, ICs, Transports, anything dies to a vindicator.

BTW you might want to add one lascannon to your dev squad, your sarge can use the signum on him.

How does the rest of the army look like?
The considered units have different pt costs.

The vindicator is the cheapest, and the best.

uber heavy support:

2x AC/LC preds... 240 points.. puts out more firepower than a dev squad that costs 70 points more.

I have this in with my other options:


Lysander
Devistator squad: x4 Heavy Bolters, x5 standard bolters, Sarg w/ Stormbolter
Librarian w/ Null Zone and Gateway

Lysander fortifies a nearby cover to 3+, gives all bolters, storm bolters and Heavy bolters re-roll to hit, (19 twin linked shots at 24" and 23 shots at 12")

Librarian can remove invulnerable saves and teleport squad away if it gets to hot etc.

Squad does have two HQs and some serious points, but it would be backed up by a Thunderfire cannon, Dreads and 3 full tac squads plus one more Heavy selection yet to be determined. The re-rolls to hit with so many shots and the fact I see a lot of Invulnerable only opponents........... :-)

@Cannoness Rory:
Best is subjective.
Vindi is not the cheapest Hvy.

@Da-ROck:
My issue with that squad is:
You can gate, but not shoot the hvy weapons on the move.
The unit can't move to get the most out of hvy weapons.

What do you do when the opponen tis just shelling you with pie plates, 3+ cover will fail, and that squad doesn't score.
In addition you have a CC powerhouse Lysander babystitting them.

How many points are we talking about?

My 7 Cents.

Sanctjud wrote:@Cannoness Rory:
Best is subjective.
Vindi is not the cheapest Hvy.

@Da-ROck:
My issue with that squad is:
You can gate, but not shoot the hvy weapons on the move.
The unit can't move to get the most out of hvy weapons.

What do you do when the opponent tis just shelling you with pie plates, 3+ cover will fail, and that squad doesn't score.
In addition you have a CC powerhouse Lysander babystitting them.

How many points are we talking about?

My 7 Cents.

The gate is an option to avoid being assaulted or to get into position to lay down fire the next turn. Being shelled will have the advantage of 3+ cover save........ Lysander is a CC beast and has three options:

A. stay with Dev squad
B. Assault an oncoming squad that may already be weakened by bolter fire, (Librarian may be a help in CC)
C. Teleport w/ Librarian to another squad or area

I'm not worrying about it scoring I have 30 other Tactical space marines on the board. With a Thunderfire Cannon and Vindicator I should be able to respond to being shelled.

@Cannoness Rory:
Best is subjective.
Vindi is not the cheapest Hvy.

Very cheap on points.
Rolls 2 dice and picks highest when damaging armour.
Large blast.
S10.
2nd best around in the marine army (LR's 1st, these with preds joined 2nd)

they rock, they solve all problems in games, they do have short range, but your never going to need to fire lascannons 72" over the board. (and at that range, you wont have LOS)

You can't take a Dreadnought as Heavy Support unless you have a Master of the Forge as one of your HQ choices.

So that leaves the Vindicator and the Devastators. I think you're better off with the Devastators, particularly if you consider shelling out for Lascannons so you can shut down threats like Vindicators before they can get close enough to be threatening. Missile Launchers will give you more flexibility, but that squad of Devastators with the Heavy Bolters is already specializing in anti-infantry, and there's the Thunderfire Cannon, so you should complement them with some specialized anti-tank.

@JD21290:

LIke I said it's subjective.
Those pluses might entice you to take them, but I see them also as:

-Wide Side armor.
-Abundant Cover Saves.
-Only one gun, weapon destroyed sucks.
-Very cheap = 85, 115 is plainly more than 85.

Everyone weights the pros and cons differently.

My 7 Cents.

Vindicators are a Space Marines player best friends sometimes but it really depends on the kinda of army you play. In a defensive role they are not nearly as effective you need them to get up in you're opponents face and survive... preferably teamed with a landraider or other vindicators to force ur opponent to split fire.

It really depends what you need your heavy support option to accomplish:
stuff it down your opponents throat: Landraiders/Vindicator
Fire support: Preds/devs/(is thunderfire cannon heavy?)
Good for everything: I guess godhammer pattern Landraider is never really a bad choice....