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Are destroyers squad useful and for which legion ? (I play Word Bearers).

How to equip them to get the most use out of them ?

Anyone ever played them ?

Thanks for the answers and comments.

Destroyers can be useful for anyone, but they're not always the most efficient way to do their job. You can take them with jump packs to follow your assault units around making supporting charges with rad grenades (assuming you're not playing Death Guard and getting rad grenades on your sergeants anyway), but if you've got HQ slots to spare it's usually better to skip out on the middleman and take a Forge Lord with rad grenades. You can take them with rad missile launchers, but Techmarines don't require anywhere near as much investment. You could take them with phosphex bombs and go Terminator-hunting, but a Siege Breaker can get them cheaper if you've got the HQ slots to spare.

So generally a Destroyer squad combines things you'd need a Centurion and a small Assault squad to replicate without them, which means the best times to use them are when you want/need multiple things that they're going to give you (e.g. if you want to crack a deathstar in melee you may want phosphex bombs and mobile rad grenades to soften them up, at which point a Destroyer squad is cheaper than getting two Consuls), or if you're pressed for HQ or Troops slots to fit them in (e.g. if you're using an allied detachment).

I agree with most of AnomanderRake's points on the whole (Particularly about Consuls), but I would argue that they do have their own uses as opposed to 'I would take something else but I can't'. For example, depending on your opponent, you'll either have them focus firing on them or pretty much ignoring them entirely. The former lets your other units advance, the latter lets the Destroyers kill things.

Also I'd argue they're still good as an Assault Squad substitute, albeit more practical in some areas due to their access to Rad and Phosphex. Rad makes them pretty effective Mechanicum killers, Phosphex is good for denial of areas around objectives. Also they can take a Land Raider as a DT and that'll give you easy access to an Explorator Augury Web, which is good if you have other elements of your list Deep Striking.

They can also be enhanced greatly by legion rules and rites, my Imperial Fists Destroyers are essentially BS5, and my Blood Angels using The Day of Revelation Rite gives them shrouded when they arrive by jump pack. No idea what Word Bearers rules and Rites are, but poke around and see if you can find any combinations that increase effectiveness.

Word Bearers Last of the Serrated Sons RoW would allow them to take Legion Drop Pods as Dedicated Transports (which also cause Pinning Tests to nearby units when they land), and allow them to get in range for Phosphex Bombs turns 1.

Reducing things to t3 is very useful when you combo the with a supporting squad, rotary cannons are weak but shooty but if they target a unit first hit by destroyers suddenly they get quite scary.

How that works? Grenades are for assault right? And missile is per model base so wouldn't help even if few models get rad effect. What i miss?

tneva82 wrote:
How that works? Grenades are for assault right? And missile is per model base so wouldn't help even if few models get rad effect. What i miss?

The only place you'd see Rad-Phage comboing with shooty units is against big Cybernetica bots. It's useful, just not that useful.

I find them great with Jump Packs deep striking in the late game to assault troops parked on objectives or to finish off units that have already been softened up. One of my local Alpha Legion players excels at using a Moritat with jump pack and a unit of Destroyers to harass and attack the flanks of the opposing army.

The missile launcher with Rad Missiles and Suspensor web is totally worth it.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

tneva82 wrote:
How that works? Grenades are for assault right? And missile is per model base so wouldn't help even if few models get rad effect. What i miss?

The only place you'd see Rad-Phage comboing with shooty units is against big Cybernetica bots. It's useful, just not that useful.

I like them to soften up high toughness HQs like Magos in an Abeyant or a Primarch. Dropping a T6 Primarch to T5 makes a big difference to S4 attacks/shots.

Last night I used mine to double up with a 10 man assault squad to wipe out a large unit of Custodies, dropping the Custodies to T4 really helped both units land enough hits.

I treat mine like a swiss army knife as I find them more flexible than a normal assault squad, although they are expensive when taken as a ten man squad with the rad missile launchers.