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For the purpose of hunting tanks, as a supplement to an Imperial army. I have played with LOTD, only played against Skyhammer, so haven't much experience with that. I know it was all the rage on release.

So for 620 points you can get:

Skyhammer

2x 10 Devs with 4x Multi Meltas in each.
2 drop pods
2 min assault squads with 2x flamers in each.

Or a Legion Of the Damned Detachment:

4x 5 man squads with 1x Multi Melta, Meltagun & Combi Grav in each squad.

The Skyhammer gets 8 scoring units, some extra mobility, pinning/assault on drop and chapter tactics (Ultras/fists would do here). The big one, is Skyhammer gets to choose whether to come in turn one or two.

The LOTD ignore cover, slow and purposeful, re-roll scatter in DS, are fearless, 3++ saves and have vet stats in combat. The main attraction is the ignore cover and slow+purposeful. Downside is, they have to come on from normal reserves and are slow after the drop.

Additional consideration is I have reserve manipulation. From playing with LOTD, I know often I wish they came on turn one, occasionally though someone will hold their units back in reserve or castle up so hard, that staying in reserves past turn 2 can be handy (something Skyhammer can't do).

Skyhammer has the better anti infantry profile and the pinning.

I think, coming from an inexperienced position on the topic, that LOTD is the specialist option, with ignore cover, they kill tanks/knights and can do a passable job on some other targets that live off jink. The Skyhammer is all round solid and gets great formation bonuses, albeit the assault marines seem like a bit of a tax.

So, thoughts? The unfluffy option is just to plug in my Tau optimised stealth cadre ;-) (I'm kidding, I think.)

LotD will tank all AP2-3 better than anyone else. With Intercept from the Tau so easily done, it can be super handy. However, they will have little offensive bite.

True enough, I've had LOTD tie up stuff like dread knights in cc and hold out. Intercept still hurts, but more the smart missiles and heavy burst cannons, then ion blasts.

They have two melta shots on the drop and 3 grav (I take the combo-grav over delta for versatility). Not too impressive for their cost, but at least with ignore cover, it takes out one major factor.

If LOTD could come down turn 1, I think it would be an easy decision, as the LOTD detachment is not carrying assault marines.

LOTD is sort of an analogue to Rubric Marines except they get to take special weapon options and can Deep Strike into positon. Aka they die like normal Marines to Bolters or Multilasers but are otherwise nice to have. Four units of LOTD may be pushing it a little since you can buy close to two units of Grav Centurions in FA pods with that price. Regardless, you will still need some reserve-modifications for them to come in reliably, since most vehicles can contribute significantly enough to the game on turn 1-2.

The Skyhammer Annihilation Formation pays a premium for reliability and Turn-1 Alpha-striking capabilities, but if you're not going to be bringing Assault Marines in the first place then they will just be a big tax and two free killpoints. Consider making use of them instead even though they're not the best melee unit there is, by getting bigger squads to either combat squad and cap objectives in Maelstrom missions, or give them a few upgrades to do some work in melee, especially with the bonuses they're getting from the Formation itself. Either way, the Skyhammer is going to be a big part of your force points-wise, and should be an aspect of your force you're building around, instead of a plug-and-play tank hunter.

Depends on your points-level, why not bring a Knight? Rapid firing Battlecannon eats any AV below 14 with good range to boot, while the Thermal Cannon pretty much wrecks anything with an AV as long as you position its Ion shields right and have defence against Deep-Strikers. Assuming you're playing Space Marines, throwing Technomancy blessings on Knight can be hilarious when you have an Invul in front of AV 14.

I don't think the assault marines are terrible, they can tie up stuff or like you say, score objectives. Just not an ideal unit, but considering the formation bonuses, totally worth it.

I generally speaking always take reserve shenanigans with space marines, so not much of an issue. Not really interested in going the knight route, as good as they are.

From my experience, the vehicles in the game that I've found scary are hornets, warp hunters and knights. Most other things, that I've played so far, Grav can do the job. AV11 spam can be a pain though.

I take multiple units, because for example, against a knight, hitting more then one facing is handy.

The most successful skyhammer i've been hit with maximised the Eviscerator in the assault squads against Knights.

factoring in their drop pod, Skyhammer Grav Devs pay a mere 55~ pts per glance against any armour. the only thing that even comes close to that at AV10 is the scat bike, and at av14 the average is somewhere past the 150 mark, whilst grav is still sitting pretty at 55.

Simply put Grav Devs, if they get the full shot, are the best shooting unit in the imperium, and possibly in 40k for ROI

 malamis wrote:
The most successful skyhammer i've been hit with maximised the Eviscerator in the assault squads against Knights.

factoring in their drop pod, Skyhammer Grav Devs pay a mere 55~ pts per glance against any armour. the only thing that even comes close to that at AV10 is the scat bike, and at av14 the average is somewhere past the 150 mark, whilst grav is still sitting pretty at 55.

Simply put Grav Devs, if they get the full shot, are the best shooting unit in the imperium, and possibly in 40k for ROI

Is that also true when taking into account imperial fist chapter tactics? 8 relentless tank hunter lascannons seem like it would do well against any AV

 hippyjr wrote:

 malamis wrote:
The most successful skyhammer i've been hit with maximised the Eviscerator in the assault squads against Knights.

factoring in their drop pod, Skyhammer Grav Devs pay a mere 55~ pts per glance against any armour. the only thing that even comes close to that at AV10 is the scat bike, and at av14 the average is somewhere past the 150 mark, whilst grav is still sitting pretty at 55.

Simply put Grav Devs, if they get the full shot, are the best shooting unit in the imperium, and possibly in 40k for ROI

Is that also true when taking into account imperial fist chapter tactics? 8 relentless tank hunter lascannons seem like it would do well against any AV

The issue with the Lascannon, in top of the low firing rate, is that you're paying a lot for range, actually. So if you're podding them, you're wasting the points to put a mediocre weapon in a range it doesn't want to be.

On the other hand, it probably wouldn't be terrible either, tank hunting lascannons and the pinning ability have some uses. The extra range for example, makes them harder to intercept effectively and covers allot of the board with potential pinning.

Grav or Melta clearly is more destructive on the drop and the competitive choice, but lascannon Imp fists Devs in Skyhammer have some merit IMO. Not advocating for them, but I wouldn't dismiss them either.

hmmm... good point about the lascannon range upping the cost.

That being the case, would multimeltas on skyhammer fist devs be an effective loadout, or is grav still the king? I can imagine combat squadding with 2 meltas per group shooting every vehicle in sight, all the while rerolling failed pens (preferably in melta range) with a decent chance to explode being lethal, not to mention cheaper than grav

Grav is king with multi being the next best thing if you are light on points, or if you want to tone it down.

I don't know the maths, but I imagine against knights or vehicles immune to immobilisation, the Multi Melta has a niche for its cost. Allot cheaper if you plan on using the pinning ability of Skyhammer, where Grav tends to delete stuff (IMO).