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Greetings,
I'm currently trying to make small SM army with emphasis for mechanized forces and heavy power. I'm currently thinking about exchanging one Tactical squad for Devastator squad to add some firepower and even the point cost (as any Ork player will tell you - you just can't have enough dakka). Problem is - I'm afraid that it's going to be total waste of points. With current edition there are more ways to deal with cover hugging infantry - even those with fancy power armor. There's sadly not much I can do about that but to ask more experienced players for advice: Are PCs worth their points? Is a 5 man Devastators squad a threat or just waste of points and easy pickings for the enemy? Am I wasting my points and should look elsewhere for a way to fix my army list?

I like them, they're a pretty good jack-of-all-trades devastator unit. Having 4 blast templates mitigates some of the problems with small blasts (you position your template on the densest section of troops, and then generate all your wounds from just that dense section). Their main downside is that they miss more often than direct fire weapons (scatter dice are a real drag for BS4 units), and so you'll generally be causing less wounds against single model units. If your meta has a lot of MEQ or TEQ, they're pretty effective at bringing the hurt. They also work in a pinch against hordes and against light armor.

I have great luck with them vs most armies. They even work well vs MCs as most of the time needing a around a 3+ to wound most of the time and ignoring the Armor. I usually Pull off 2-3 Wounds per Volley with some of the Larger based MCs.
Another good target for mine are Transports like Rhinos. Odds are average scatter still at least clip them which
is all you need most of the time. Alt least 50% of the time a Glance or better happens. I usually pull off 1-2 Glances and 1 Pen per volley. That is enough to wreck it if not Explode it, but I am lucky like that with Plasma.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
(you position your template on the densest section of troops, and then generate all your wounds from just that dense section).

I may be misunderstanding you, but you get an amount of hits equal to the number of models that are under the blast marker, then you start dealing damage on the model closest to your unit. Only barrage weapons start wounding under (the middle of) the pie plate.

Edit: I'm interested how to engage MEQ infantry in good cover (3+/4+). You can either ignore their armor or cover, pretty rarely both (unless you have cheese written all over you).

I like them when I have extra points. But theres many other things that have high priority, so there not fielded to often.

I really like my Plasma Cannon Dev Squad. I usually put it behind an Aegis Defense Line and they do pretty well. I play enough in your face stuff that my opponents don't usually mess with them too bad.

I was afraid that they will just die off without making their points back but from what I hear they are not bad as some tactica sites suggests. I like my weapons versatile and Plasma Cannons sounds like that especially once you get Imperial Fists tactics - I think with TH they will be able to hurt even to some light tanks. And they look awesome.
That also solves me more trouble as the bitz site I use dont have any heavy weaponry apart from PCs and ML. Plus now I know what company I'll represent - 4th for some lovely green - black synergy

EDIT:
Too bad that Devastators Centurions can't have PCs. I would love some split fire action not to mention SaP crazy utility for blast weapons.

Zsolt wrote:

 DanielBeaver wrote:
(you position your template on the densest section of troops, and then generate all your wounds from just that dense section).

I may be misunderstanding you, but you get an amount of hits equal to the number of models that are under the blast marker, then you start dealing damage on the model closest to your unit. Only barrage weapons start wounding under (the middle of) the pie plate.

Edit: I'm interested how to engage MEQ infantry in good cover (3+/4+). You can either ignore their armor or cover, pretty rarely both (unless you have cheese written all over you).

Pretty much what he said, you want as dense formation of infanytry under the marker to generate as many wounds as possible.

Full 10 man devastator squad with plasma cannons, combat squad em and put two plasma cannons in each squad, gives them more total ablative wounds per plasma cannon and allows you to shoot at different targets with two squads instead of a single 5 man squad. combat squad you have atleast 3+3=6 wounds before starting to loose plasma cannons compared to a single 5 man squad where you start to loose plasma cannons after one wound.

The best thing about a 5 man Devastator squad with 4 Plasmacannons is that they are so damn cheap.

If you lose everybody you lost...what? 125 points?

But the damage they deal is equivalent to a 200+ point unit.

They are a textbook example of glass cannon, and its always fun to see 4 S7 AP2 blasts rain down onto the enemy upto 36" away, which is more devastating than a Vindicator firing its demolisher cannon.

The Vindicator costs similar amount of points, is obviously a far more robust nut to crack when its front armor is targeted, and its main cannon can also ruin enemy armor's day (at least it has no problems penetrating easily) and it can also move and shoot, but I'd say if its side armor is targeted, it is only slightly sturdier than the 5 man Devastator squad and it also has 12" less range and as mentioned before less damage output.

I think plasma cannons are great - I put one in my tac squads and have him shoot out of the top of the rhino once the other combat squad has disembarked. It sort of lets you emulate a razorback's firepower while still having more bodies on the field.

But concerning PC's in a dev squad - I think you only get to include them after you've got your thunderfire cannon in the list. Sure, there are some situations where the PC is definately better - Deep Striking GK or when there are lots of light transports for example - but overall the thunderfire brings more bang for the buck.

But hey - if you're going for a gunline list, bring both! And the Techmarine can bolster some terrain for your Dev squad - yay for synergy. And if you're up for the conversion, take a stab at the space marine's least used long range blast: the bike mounted master of the forge with a conversion beamer.

Zsolt wrote:

 DanielBeaver wrote:
(you position your template on the densest section of troops, and then generate all your wounds from just that dense section).

I may be misunderstanding you, but you get an amount of hits equal to the number of models that are under the blast marker, then you start dealing damage on the model closest to your unit. Only barrage weapons start wounding under (the middle of) the pie plate..

My point is that you don't start removing models until after you've resolved all the hits from all 4 blast markers, and that all those hits can be resolved using the densest section of troops. If the plasma cannons were firing separately (e.g., as part of 4 different tactical squads), each time you fired one plasma cannon you would be removing models, thinning out the density of the models, and so having fewer potential hits for every follow-up shot from a plasma cannon. This is what makes batteries of blast weapons so much more effective than multiple units with blast weapons.

My Plasma Spam List has about 33+ Plasma Weapons, of which 7 [4x in a Dev and 3x in 3x Tac]. Most Armies just Melt Away.
I generally loose 3-5 a game due to Gets Got over the course of a game, but it is the damage they put out that make them worth it.
If I pick up another DV I will be adding 3 more Plasma Weapons for even more fun [1x Combi-Plasma, 1x Plasma-Gun, 1x Plasma-Cannon]