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Hello. I am building a new army of space marines (A homebrew successor chapter of the Iron Hands) and I was planning on making a devastator squad for it. I am planning on having the entire squad use just missile launchers and I was wondering if this is allowable to do. I had never seen anyone do it before and I don't wanna mess it up. I have the parts to do it but I want some approval first. Second question is about the sergeant. This is my desired load-out for him; Combi-plasma and a thunderhammer. My question is, can I have both a combi-gun and a melee weapon like that? I'm somewhat new and don't have a codex for space marines yet.

You can do it, you just don't do it because MLs are terrible.

6 man squad, 2 Lascannons and a Heavy Bolter, then a Cherub for the Heavy Bolter for that sweet 2D3 Mortal Wounds.

One missile is good, for the flakk missile option.

You can take up to 4 heavies. All 4 of those can be missile launchers, if you choose. Or for 4 Lascannons. Or two of each. Or one of four different heavies. Or whatever. No more than 4 total heavies.

As Slayer said, MLs aren't the best. One is fine (there's a nifty situational stratagem that can do something nice with one). Four can do some work, but there are better options.

The MultiMelta is the only truely bad option for heavies. The others all have their place. Although the Grav and ML have a marginal place.

Grav is very good, IMO. Expensive, but a high rate of return against the most types of targets. Missile Launcher and Multimelta are at the low end. Heavy Bolter is also a poor choice for anything other than the Hellfire Stratagem. My go-to's are Lascannons, Plasma Cannons and Grav.

How good Missile Launchers are depends on how often you see lists with a good mix of armor and light infantry. The flexibility isn't bad, which is good since it's the heavy weapon in the Tac Squad box and you'll have more of them than anything else.

For what it's worth, the Devastator box comes with two of every heavy weapon marines have access to. I bought an extra Tac squad box and built most of them so when I split the rest of my squads into 5 man groups I have a heavy in each group instead of specials in half of them.

I agree with Bharring on the Multi Melt being the only straight-up bad weapon in the bunch, and that's mostly the price point. The MM has no business costing more than a LasCannon. ...and neither does the Grav Cannon.

The Grav Cannon is totally worth it if you're planning on getting closer to the enemy. It scores better against most vehicles than a Lascannon, does fantastic against elite infantry types, and is even great against many lighter troops, simply because it has 4 shots.

In Devastators it's a commitment, because you really do have to deliver them to get the most out of them, and Devs tend to be a jiucyvtarget to shoot at, so I don't usually put them on Devs. But for a Tactical Squad or Sternguard, Grav is great because you're generally expecting to get them closer to the front anyways, and Grav is really the most flexible weapon of the bunch.

Whether all the heavy weapons shpuld be as much as they are is a different story, but deployed correctly Grav is definitely worth more than Las, Imo.

First, welcome to Dakka.

I think grav is better then normal plasma, but not as good as overcharged. Good for squads that are going to be working away from re-roll support, and close to the enemy. Which is more of a tactical squad thing. Devs are far more likely to be camped backfield in a gunline with the needed support.

Not a huge fan of the random shots on the PC, but they are not a bad call. The +1 to hit from the sarge can be nice to use here.

I want to like MMs, but they are overpriced for mediocre rules in this edition. And even if they were better, the dev squad is not the place for them.

I think MLs are in one of the better spots they have been in years. I also feel they are a little overpriced. But they can get their job done; something they haven’t always been able to claim.

I still am drawn to LCs for dev squads. I find that I’m generally light on anti tank fire in my lists, so try to add more when I can. And if you are shooting nothing but krack missiles, why pay for the flexibility?

I love HBs on power armored troops, just for the look. They have a nice strat to to MW. With split fire being universal, tossing one into a dev squad is not a terrible idea.

Not really a wrong answer for how to gear up, just depends a lot on what role you need filled. My one suggestion would be to try to keep things with a similar range.

On the sarge:
You can gear him like that, but probably don’t want to. That’s the sort of weapons load you want hopping out of a drop pod or stormraven (which could be entertaining, in not very efficient with a MM/GC dev squad). But in most games the sarge might take a shot or two with the c-plas at long range, and do nothing but gesture dramatically with the hammer. And that’s a lot of points sunk into looking cool. Now I’ll admit, I spend frivolous points from time to time on stuff that’s not very effective because it looks cool. But gearing up a dev sarge better then my captains is not one of them. You probably want to keep him cheep. Stormbolter and maybe a powersword/axe (but probably just a chainsword). Save the gear for those in a better spot to use it.

Lascannons are big time overkill vs most xenos. I'm liking missile launchers, plasma cannons and heavy bolters best atm.

 Nevelon wrote:
First, welcome to Dakka.

I think grav is better then normal plasma, but not as good as overcharged. Good for squads that are going to be working away from re-roll support, and close to the enemy. Which is more of a tactical squad thing. Devs are far more likely to be camped backfield in a gunline with the needed support.

Not a huge fan of the random shots on the PC, but they are not a bad call. The +1 to hit from the sarge can be nice to use here.

I want to like MMs, but they are overpriced for mediocre rules in this edition. And even if they were better, the dev squad is not the place for them.

I think MLs are in one of the better spots they have been in years. I also feel they are a little overpriced. But they can get their job done; something they haven’t always been able to claim.

Agree on all points.

 Nevelon wrote:


I still am drawn to LCs for dev squads. I find that I’m generally light on anti tank fire in my lists, so try to add more when I can. And if you are shooting nothing but krack missiles, why pay for the flexibility?

Because sometime you run into a horde. Which admittedly only matters if you care about WYSIWYG.

 Nevelon wrote:


I love HBs on power armored troops, just for the look. They have a nice strat to to MW. With split fire being universal, tossing one into a dev squad is not a terrible idea.

Not really a wrong answer for how to gear up, just depends a lot on what role you need filled. My one suggestion would be to try to keep things with a similar range.

On the sarge:
You can gear him like that, but probably don’t want to. That’s the sort of weapons load you want hopping out of a drop pod or stormraven (which could be entertaining, in not very efficient with a MM/GC dev squad). But in most games the sarge might take a shot or two with the c-plas at long range, and do nothing but gesture dramatically with the hammer. And that’s a lot of points sunk into looking cool. Now I’ll admit, I spend frivolous points from time to time on stuff that’s not very effective because it looks cool. But gearing up a dev sarge better then my captains is not one of them. You probably want to keep him cheep. Stormbolter and maybe a powersword/axe (but probably just a chainsword). Save the gear for those in a better spot to use it.

Yeah, a Stormbolter is well worth those two points and there's no good reason not to take the free Chainsword upgrade. I put them on most of my Tac squad sergeants as well.

I’ve been considering an Imperial Fists army when I decide to branch from Orks into Mureens...love firepower of devs and feel like rocking an ALL marine force with no vehicles. Not sure how good it’ll be; but working in heavy weapons seems expensive for 3 full squads. So I was thinking doing 2 lighter devs with double plasma tac squads to give flexibility on my bigger guns. This is a double battalion plan, since I like to play troops and CP (also go against meta-grain taking tacs that “suck”).

So thoughts on 4 tac squads with 2 plasmas each and 2 smaller dev squads with a HB and ML or LC vs 3 dev squads kitted to the 9s?

Seems like MSU plasma has a lot of advantages while holding similar firepower yet being much harder to remove than stacked devestators. 8 plasma shots from 4 angles vs, maybe, 10 LCs in 3 angles that lose power after only a couple wounds.

I’m prob missing something, but this sounds solid to me /shrug

Bitharne wrote:
I’ve been considering an Imperial Fists army when I decide to branch from Orks into Mureens...love firepower of devs and feel like rocking an ALL marine force with no vehicles. Not sure how good it’ll be; but working in heavy weapons seems expensive for 3 full squads. So I was thinking doing 2 lighter devs with double plasma tac squads to give flexibility on my bigger guns. This is a double battalion plan, since I like to play troops and CP (also go against meta-grain taking tacs that “suck”).

So thoughts on 4 tac squads with 2 plasmas each and 2 smaller dev squads with a HB and ML or LC vs 3 dev squads kitted to the 9s?

Seems like MSU plasma has a lot of advantages while holding similar firepower yet being much harder to remove than stacked devestators. 8 plasma shots from 4 angles vs, maybe, 10 LCs in 3 angles that lose power after only a couple wounds.

I’m prob missing something, but this sounds solid to me /shrug

This is close to my usual core army, which is 4 10-man Tacs (GravCannon, Plasma, Combi Plasma) and 3 8-9man Dev Squads with mostly Plasma Cannons, but a Heavy Bolter and Missile Launcher mixed in. I love it. I load up on Rhinos currently for protection, mobility and running interference. Sometimes I swap the GravCannons out for Lascannons.

Edit:
I use UM tactics and rely heavily on being able to fire after falling back, that's going to be quite different if you use IF. I recommend painting them with a custom heraldry, giving you room to experiment with different chapter tactics. My "UM" are painted white, for example.