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No one ever takes them. Fools gold or hidden gem?

In short, I can get 20 points loose and am thinking of taking one squad to replace one of my eradicator squads. Talk me out of/into it?

The mathhammer says they're very cost-effective against 3+ save tanks, especially those with invul saves or high toughness (cough knights), from longer range than eradicators, they take buffs (like oath, incursors, and the storm of fire strat from gladius) better, the guns are sometimes startlingly effective into a lot of weird units that are considered hard to kill (bullgryn, elite 3 wound Marines, arco-flagellants, terminators without access to armor of contempt), especially compared to eradicators. and you even get a couple of power fist swings in melee.

Here's some of the mathhammer:
From 16" away, shooting at a knight (3+/4++ in cover), an eradicator squad's average damage vs. a devastator squad: Eradicators: 3.9, Devastators: 5
Add nondivergent oath: Erads: 5.2, Devs: 7.5
Add oath & incusors buff: Erads: 5.9, Devs: 8.9
Add a CP for rapid ingress into melta range/storm of fire: Erads: 8.7, Devs: 13.3
And the devastator squad has a smaller variance of results, and blanking a damage or rerolling a save will have a smaller impact when the damage is spread out among many attacks.

Or against another target, bladeguard vets, counting in models killed:
Erads: .8/1.1/1.3/1.6 Devs: 1.3/2.5/3/3.7

You probably don't see them very often because they're only AP-1.

The other reason you don't see them is that they are older models.

People have moved on to the vastly superior and esthetically pleasing Nerf Gun Brigade of Desolation Marines.

But, if you want to field them, go ahead, they are still effective on the battlefield.

I'm not sure how long they will be allowed though. I see them being swept away in another codex or two.

Celerior wrote:
No one ever takes them. Fools gold or hidden gem?

In short, I can get 20 points loose and am thinking of taking one squad to replace one of my eradicator squads. Talk me out of/into it?

The mathhammer says they're very cost-effective against 3+ save tanks, especially those with invul saves or high toughness (cough knights), from longer range than eradicators, they take buffs (like oath, incursors, and the storm of fire strat from gladius) better, the guns are sometimes startlingly effective into a lot of weird units that are considered hard to kill (bullgryn, elite 3 wound Marines, arco-flagellants, terminators without access to armor of contempt), especially compared to eradicators. and you even get a couple of power fist swings in melee.

Here's some of the mathhammer:
From 16" away, shooting at a knight (3+/4++ in cover), an eradicator squad's average damage vs. a devastator squad: Eradicators: 3.9, Devastators: 5
Add nondivergent oath: Erads: 5.2, Devs: 7.5
Add oath & incusors buff: Erads: 5.9, Devs: 8.9
Add a CP for rapid ingress into melta range/storm of fire: Erads: 8.7, Devs: 13.3
And the devastator squad has a smaller variance of results, and blanking a damage or rerolling a save will have a smaller impact when the damage is spread out among many attacks.

Or against another target, bladeguard vets, counting in models killed:
Erads: .8/1.1/1.3/1.6 Devs: 1.3/2.5/3/3.7

Against a T10+ Vehicle with a 3+ in cover or a 2+ without and a 5+ Invuln, Grav Devs do...
16 shots
32/3 or 8 hits (depending on Heavy)
80/9 or 20/3 wounds
80/27 or 20/9 failed saves
80/9 or 20/3 damage, for about 9 or 6.67 depending on Heavy
If they have Ignores Cover plus Heavy on a 3+ Armor model, it raises to 13.33.

So your math is wrong, starting off.

Three-strong Eradicators do, against the same target and outside of Melta Range...
2 shots at 3+ and 2 shots at 4+
16/9 plus 3/2 hits, for 59/18 hits
295/162 wounds
590/486 failed saves
Just over 5 damage.
It is only about 3.9 if the vehicle has a 4++.

However, let's replace the Knight with a GUO...

Eradicators do 3.9 (before FNP) still.
Grav Devs do...
16 shots
32/3 or 8 hits (depending on Heavy)
16/9 or 4/3 wounds
8/9 or 2/3 failed saves
8/3 or 2 damage

And if we replace the GUO with a Tervigon...

Grav Devs
16 shots
32/3 or 8 hits (depending on Heavy)
32/9 or 8/3 wounds
32/27 or 8/9 failed saves
32/9 or 8/3 damage, for 3.5ish or 2.67

Eradicators
2 shots at 3+ and 2 shots at 4+
16/9 plus 3/2 hits, for 59/18 hits
295/162 wounds
1,475/972 failed saves
6.45 damage

I was thinking Grav Cannons looked pretty strong in the beginning of 10th. But now? I'd magnetize em at the very least, they will probably be nerfed to the ground come 11th edition..

JNAP, Grav squad gets 12 shots, not 16.

A lot of my other damage units (redeemer, eradicators, centurion devs...) don't need oath, so this would be a unit to receive it often. And once ever, storm of fire provides both ignore cover and +1 AP. This is a great unit to receive that strat.

What other decent anti-tank units really benefit from Oath of Moment?

Celerior wrote:
JNAP, Grav squad gets 12 shots, not 16.

A lot of my other damage units (redeemer, eradicators, centurion devs...) don't need oath, so this would be a unit to receive it often. And once ever, storm of fire provides both ignore cover and +1 AP. This is a great unit to receive that strat.

What other decent anti-tank units really benefit from Oath of Moment?

Aren’t they 4 shots apiece?

…

They are not. That’s my bad.

So I brought a squad in a list sporting Guilliman (this being important because I get 2 oath tagets, nearly guaranteeing this squad oath support), and found myself playing against another marine player. I was able to use them just as anticipated. The power fist attacks almost single handedly broke up an early attack from a scout squad, and later the grav guns contributed heavily against a pair of gravis squads I'd designated as oath targets, and sniped the lone op lieutenant to boot. There was at least one round if not two that they earned back their points in one go. In short, they've still got it!!!

Another game, another demonstration of their martial might: After killing my land raider, my opponent had a squad of raveners in the open. I oathed 'em, incursored 'em, spent a cp for storm of fire, and wiped out the squad with one volley.