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I recently put together my devastators, and some people have said that... well, it's not the best combination of weapons I could've gone with. Here's what the heavy weapon guys are:
2x Heavy Bolter
1x Missile Launcher
1x Lascannon

The sgt. has a powerfist, as well.

Its not crappy but its not optimal either. Dev squads are already regarded as "subpar" by most people and those that do use them typically rely on Missile Launchers and Plasma Cannons as the main weapons because they're both flexible all-purpose weapons.

Your squad has some issues with what they're going to target. The HB will be wasted on armor whereas the expensive Lascannon is wasted on horde. Atleast the ML can multi-task well.

I mostly agree with Minigun except for where he says your loadout isn't crappy. It is crappy.

You've confused your unit by trying to make it do too many things. It's got anti-infantry weapons, anti vehicle weapons, and assault weapons. No matter what you do, points are being wasted.

The first thing I would drop is the Sergeant power fist. Devs don't belong in close combat. If they end up in close combat, either your generalship or your army has already failed.

Next decide what you want it to do. If you absolutely need a wall of anti-infantry firepower, stick with the missile launcher. Screw heavy bolters, frag templates will give you more hits and wounds against massed models and more versatility against harder targets.

If you want to go against bigger targets, don't use a Devastator squad. Lascannons are prohibitively expensive.

My final recommendation would be to drop the Devastators entirely. The Space Marine codex has the cheapest predator in the game. For 120 points you get 2 lascannons and an autocannon on an AV13 hull. Or an AV12 walker with two twin-linked autocannons. These options will both serve you better than 120 points' worth of Devastators.

Well, that's 30$ wasted then. What's the best way of removing parts of glued models? Getting a big knife, and chopping parts off?

BobTheChainsaw wrote:Well, that's 30$ wasted then. What's the best way of removing parts of glued models? Getting a big knife, and chopping parts off?

I just use a Razor blade and super glue. It works well. Just be careful. My thumb has bled more than any other part of my body due to my impatience.


I don't like your load out.
Personally I'd give them all the same weapon.
I recommend missile launchers. Anti-light/medium vehicles with the ability to wreck havoc upon horde too.
My Havoks are all equipped with missile launchers. AV 12 goodbye!!!

If you want anti horde for cheap, go all HB. But missile launchers can do this and Be anti vehicle killy.
If you want anti-meq/infantry, with anti light vehicle capabilities go plasma cannon.
I would stay away from las cannons because they're so damn expensive.

BobTheChainsaw wrote:Well, that's 30$ wasted then. What's the best way of removing parts of glued models? Getting a big knife, and chopping parts off?

Not wasted at all man. You now have a Tac or Sternguard Sergeant with Powerfist and four heavy weapons you can use to customize your Tac squads with.

Hm... a lazy solution would be to simply remove the missile launchers from my tacs, put them in my devastator squad and replace them with heavy bolters. Do heavy bolters in tac squads work well?

PanzerLeader wrote:

BobTheChainsaw wrote:Well, that's 30$ wasted then. What's the best way of removing parts of glued models? Getting a big knife, and chopping parts off?

Not wasted at all man. You now have a Tac or Sternguard Sergeant with Powerfist and four heavy weapons you can use to customize your Tac squads with.

Point, there is. Beauty of buying marines is that you didn just buy a Devastator squad, you bought 5 damned useful marines.

Yeah, when you next buy Tactical squads assemble what devestators you need.

For my Devs i run

Anti-horde-2 Missile lanchers and 2 Heavy bolters. mows down infantry and can hurt MCs and transports easily enough

Anti-Armor- either 4 missile launchers or 2 missile launchers and 2 lascannons. pop most vehicles and keep the cost down by only having 2 lascannons

Anti-MEQ - 2 lascannons and 2 plasma cannons. pop transports and pesky armor with the lascannons and fry the MEQs with the plasma cannons. and Lascannons aren't bad against MEQs, not good, but not bad either


Don't forget about combat squading. 2 anti-tank weapons and 2 anti-infantry weapons can go seperately and get better economy of fire

Also don't forget about the Signum. BS6 Plasma Cannons are nothing to scoff at (~87% chance not to scatter at all).

Devastators have a larger buy-in than the other heavy weapons, but they also have a higher out-put and a different resilience: they are infantry MSUs at long range. Anti-infantry weapons don't quite reach out there, so the effort your opponent has to put in to silence the guns (killing the entire squad, which should be in cover that should be reinforced) is not worth it. He doesn't put in the effort, so you get to keep shooting. You get more use out of a single slot with Devastators for about the same price as two of the other options, but it takes an army built with them in mind.

Bob, these guys have a ponit. If you pick up some more marines you can just keep adding to your collection and switch stuff around as needed. Or you could always give them to gilligan lol.

BobTheChainsaw wrote: Do heavy bolters in tac squads work well?

I think they work pretty well, they match up well enough with basic Bolters for an anti-infantry squad.
They are typically compared to frag missiles and for the most part, a Heavy Bolter will work better against basic infantry.

The only heavy weapons you should be taking in our tac squads are ml's or mm's, because they are free and anti-mech. PC's and LC's are ok, but you really want to keep your tac squads cheap.

HB's should be taken on other units, such as dakka preds, typhoon speeders, razorbacks or the occasional attack bike.

In WH40k, I'd say give them all the same weapon. This way they have the same range, the same capabilities, same everything. It's better that way. Also, I'd say dissolve your heavy weapon units into your tac squads. Best way of dealing with it.

DarkHound wrote:
Devastators have a larger buy-in than the other heavy weapons, but they also have a higher out-put and a different resilience: they are infantry MSUs at long range. Anti-infantry weapons don't quite reach out there, so the effort your opponent has to put in to silence the guns (killing the entire squad, which should be in cover that should be reinforced) is not worth it.

I think your bias as a Chaos player is showing itself.

Eldar, Dark Eldar, IG, any Marine list with dakka dreads or preds, any drop list, and any Ork list with Snikrot will have enough 36 inch shooting or ways of getting closer than 36 inches to deal with foot marines in cover.

Alright guys, my devastator squad is now officially all missile-launchers, awwwww yeah. I took the heavy bolters and the Seargent and moved them into my tacs. I also found an extra missile launcher.

Best of luck Bob.

A fairly reliable maxim in 40k is that greater numbers of cheaper units (fewer upgrades) is more effective than smaller numbers of more elite units (more upgrades).

sourclams wrote:
The first thing I would drop is the Sergeant power fist. Devs don't belong in close combat. If they end up in close combat, either your generalship or your army has already failed.

i have to disagree with this i play a sergeant with power fist and in the last 3 games my unit has been assaulted twice both by deepstriking deamons who landed right behind with lucky scatter rolls the power fist helped alot btw

Chub:

The thing about a unit with a Power Fist is that it fights back at I1, by which time the enemy charging you has already done its damage. You're better off with a Power Weapon or just a Close Combat Weapon, then using Combat Tactics to escape from combat, and And They Shall Know No Fear to automatically rally and shoot your previous attackers with Heavy Weapons. Some luck and positioning is required for this, however...

It's not the best. What I would normally play is 2 x lascannon and 2x heavy bolter. Mainly because lascannons obviously kill vehicles pretty well and heavy bolters, as well as killing infantry can take down light armour with surprising ease.

Thats a horrible setup as previously explained, mixing those weapons you will be wasting either 2 lascannons/turn or 2 HBs/turn

Sounds like the good people of Dakka have hit the nail on the head. Having a mix of weapons may seem like a good idea - flexibiity is a good thing - but you'll be wasting some of your weapons every turn.

Also, I'd not bother with a power fist. The squad cannot get into combat unless it charges, in which case you've lost four expensive and rare heavy weapons' shooting. And making Sarge more expensive is a bad idea - if you lose any model to shooting beforehand, you want to keep your big guns alive and have him take the first bullet....

Just remember, regardless of Devastator composition, pick up the full squad for extra wounds. Never run the Sergeant and four heavy weapons, always pick up another five guys, and combat squad them IMO. Even if it's four of the same weapon.

Two missiles one target, another two hit another target.

My favorite Dev loadout right now is Dev x 10, Lascannon, Missile Launcher x 3 (250).

The Lascannon CSs with the Sarge to become BS 5 with 3 ablative bodies, the three MLs and two bodies. This gives me a super accurate Lascannon for Transport work, and three Missiles to really sink the hits in on hordes, squadrons, or transports. In KP missions, they stick together just fine. If I waste one Lascannon shooting at a horde, I'm not worried, and the whole squad together can pretty much assure a transport a turn destroyed.

My second favorite loadout is Dev x 10 - Lascannon, Plasma Cannon, Heavy Bolter x 3 (260). Similar deployment, a single Lascannon with the Sarge, and the Plasma Cannon with the two Heavy Bolters. Three PCs is just too expensive, and I really like the mix of the AP 2 Blast and 6 direct Str 5 shots (that can't scatter). This pretty much assures good infantry kills no matter the target.

On the super-cheap side is my third favorite, Dev x 10, Heavy Bolter, Missile Launcher x 3 (230). This time, the Sarge goes with the Heavy Bolter. 3 shots benefit more from BS 5 that just one shot anyway, and makes even one Heavy Bolter a real threat IMO. The triple MLs do what they do best.

I've used the 4 ML Dev squad, of course. It is good, perhaps the best all rounder. I just think it's flavorless. Just remember to use a different color dice for whichever Launcher has the BS 5.

tedurur wrote:Thats a horrible setup as previously explained, mixing those weapons you will be wasting either 2 lascannons/turn or 2 HBs/turn

Not if you combat squad.

But I would(and often do) use a 10 Man, 4 Missile Launcher Devastator Squad. It doesn't get more versatile than that!

Except that you're paying 230 points for 4 missile launchers and basic, non-scoring tactical bodies...

For a very similar investment you could get two Predator tanks with 4 lascannons and 2 autocannons, or two Typhoon speeders with 4 move-and-shoot missiles and two heavy bolters.

sourclams wrote:Except that you're paying 230 points for 4 missile launchers and basic, non-scoring tactical bodies...

You can frame it however you want.

I think it's pretty good, and the OP has already committed to using them so I was under the impression that we should advise him in the best possible way to do so.

Better to simply take the 5 stock marines with 4 MLs to save 80 points. Yes, every wound failed removes a heavy weapon. Your opponent still has to dedicate weapon fire to doing so, and better to keep the unit as cheap as possible than to inflate its point cost. The extra 80 points is 2/3 of a Predator.

sourclams wrote:Better to simply take the 5 stock marines with 4 MLs to save 80 points. Yes, every wound failed removes a heavy weapon. Your opponent still has to dedicate weapon fire to doing so, and better to keep the unit as cheap as possible than to inflate its point cost. The extra 80 points is 2/3 of a Predator.

Vehicles have their weaknesses though. Shaken and stunned results, not being able to have as easy a time getting a cover save... And let's not forget Combat Squads! Being able to split into two 5 man squads with two Missile Launchers each can be a nice thing!

They have their pros and cons. If you ever see 4 frag blasts open up on a mob of Slugga Boyz you'd understand how wonderful a Devastator Squad can be!

I use Long Fangs since they're actually cost-effective. If 4 frag blasts are fun, 8 for the same price are a barrel of monkeys.