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I'm working on a semi-competitive tournament list so instead of the usual marine formats i'm planning to run 2 sky-hammer annihilation forces and a Shadow strike kill team. All Black Templar for plenty of charging from deep strike and maxing the sky hammer assault squads for turn 1 assaults.

The 4 devastator squads will all be coming in turn 1 to alpha strike and hopefully take out major threats instantly. but i'm struggling with how to arm them.

My current thoughts are:

2 Multi-Meltas
1 Heavy Bolters
1 Plasma Cannon

(obviously 4 heavy weapons in each squad, maybe combi-meltas on the melta squad sergeants.)

Depending on points i may swap the plasma for grav but 4 grav cannons make the models crazy expensive for how vulnerable they are. I figure after meltas do thier turn 1 vehicle popping stuff they can they hit anything with a 2+ save and because they're strength 8 insta kill most terminators etc.

Do people have better armament combinations for the devastators?

It doesn’t mater how vulnerable you are if everything near you is dead.

Grav excels here. MMs for it you don’t have the points. If you are on a budget and are worried about hordes, I guess HBs, but those are a distant third.

Plasma cannons are just generally bad.

Missile launchers over HB every time. They are the same points, deal with hordes better and give you the option of being a bit of anti-tank as well.

multimeltas are great because people tend to drive away from them really fast once they do their damage, freeing an area of the board.

Id lose the plasma and HB, maybe add combi plas to those squads, or put plasma in with the required assault marines to make sure you have it if you want.

Grav Cannons or Multimeltas.

Missile Launchers are 'meh' and the frag missile is a joke.

Heavy Bolters belong in Tac squads (and need a buff) if anywhere.

Plasma Cannons, man I love Plasma Cannons, but 2d6 scattering a small blast template is just horrible, even after reduction from BS. Small blasts really need to scatter only 1d6. Also, no overwatch.

Heavy bolters work well for me because there's a lot of skitarii around and 4 HBs can cut through a squad well enough to take out the pesky plasma calivers. Indeed out of the options they're the most reliable to do so.

I guess deep down i know grav instead of plasma is the way to go. its just painful when im used to grav kataphron levels of slaughter. I may try using the plasma in a practice game, the plan was to pod them onto a secluded objective in cover anyway.
Its annoying because i'll have to drop some upgrades from pimped out vanguard squads but i guess its worth it to watch terminators evaporate.

Is your local Skitarii player unaware of how to get cover saves? I use Skitarii constantly and am not scared of Heavy Bolters. At all.

Honestly for fighting against infantry and stuff like that, you're fine with the options you have. Grav is not universally the best choice, contrary to what people say, but again, that assumes you know who you're fighting.

If you will ever see a monstrous creature, you will want the grav, and want it bad. And concussive does help with the subsequent charge.

 davou wrote:
Missile launchers over HB every time. They are the same points, deal with hordes better and give you the option of being a bit of anti-tank as well.

multimeltas are great because people tend to drive away from them really fast once they do their damage, freeing an area of the board.

Id lose the plasma and HB, maybe add combi plas to those squads, or put plasma in with the required assault marines to make sure you have it if you want.

HBs are 10 points, MLs are 15. 25 if you are desperate for some AA.

And due to the mechanics of small blasts, I’d put my money on the HB for horde thinning. Even in optimal firing conditions, I still regret every frag I send downrange.

MLs kinda suck at everything. They can do it, but are a poor tool for the job. And if you think that frags are worthless like I do, might as well pony up the extra points for a LC. The extra S and AP are worth it. Or when range isn’t an issue (like the skyhammer) take the MM.

Try not to mix weapons, if you do it should be because of points and it should be swapping 2 weapons for MM.

Heavy bolters are awesome if you want to go cheap because of the pinning thing. Remember, relentless isn't the only benefit of the Skyhammer.

ERJAK wrote:
Try not to mix weapons, if you do it should be because of points and it should be swapping 2 weapons for MM.

Heavy bolters are awesome if you want to go cheap because of the pinning thing. Remember, relentless isn't the only benefit of the Skyhammer.

He has 4 squads. 4 squads with identical weapons, while might be optimal, would also be boring for some. I hate clone units. So while I would have squad have all one weapon I would do like OP and have at least 2 different weapon sets in the mix.

If you are combat squading them as they come out of the drop pods two multi meltas and two grav cannons work, just stand the other three in front of them to absorb fire. Gives you a spread of stuff to fire at.

I think that the maxim "if you can take grav, take grav" applies.

Grav is just flat out better than any other option in almost every scenario. Plasma cannons are junk unless you have a way to bunch opponent's squads up - any sensible opponent will make it very difficult to do any meaningful damage with them. If you're dropping anyway then lascannons only advantage over MM is lost. Missile launchers are cheap, but have the downsides of both plasma (but worse), and lascannons (but worse). Heavy bolters & MM are cheap and useful for different scenarios.

That said, if you aren't going to a tournament, just take what you think looks cool.

Probably shouldn't mix heavies in a squad, however, there's arguments for taking a number of anti-infantry squads each with a MM in them "just in case".

The best loadout statistically for a TAC list is full squads with 2 Grav and 2 Multi-Meltas, which allows you to deal with any target(s) effectively over any threat range.

Yet, given your local meta, min squars with all Grav might be your best build. Just depends on your meta.

SJ

For skyhammer your best options are Grav and melta - don't mix weapon types though. Take 4 grav in 1 and 4 melta in the other. Don't take combi on the sargent - use his signum to buff the BS of a weapon - it's about as effective yet it's also free.

HB and LC are good options for non sky-hammer devs though. They have good range so you can expect to fire them ar full BS every turn and are effective vs armor and infantry respectively.