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Hi dakka!

My head is all full of conflicts at the moment and hopefully you can help.

What do people consider a good standard load out for dev squads?

I'm starting blood angels and what a shooty base line to attack from whilst avoiding the use of vehicles. I've been liking the idea of 3x plasma and 1x multimelta in one squad, maybe 4 h.bolters in the other... This would cover most vehicles plus heavy infantry and hordes...

I know there's the gets hot risk but otherwise BA lack plasma. They have melta but more can't hurt. They also lack the ability to thin out hordes before assault, hence the bolters.

Not a fan of ML but could be persuaded, any thoughts or suggestions on best load outs for BA and generally?

Thanks, Adam!

It might be best to cough up for the lascannons. Either that, or plasma cannons. MM are best on bikes and the other weapons lack the destructive potential of plasma can lascannons.

BA can actually bring plenty of plasma. Ask my last meq opponent.

BA devs bring ML cheap. I use two squads of five. They are 130pts a piece and sit behind an aegis with a Tac squad and priest.

Yes, but if you're going to use ML devs, you'd probably be better off bringing something else. MLs are weak sauce in an all comers list. I have never sat after a loss and said to myself, "Boy I wish I would have had MLs in this list!"

Martel732 wrote:
Yes, but if you're going to use ML devs, you'd probably be better off bringing something else. MLs are weak sauce in an all comers list. I have never sat after a loss and said to myself, "Boy I wish I would have had MLs in this list!"

I couldn't disagree more, without knowing the context of the rest of my list that is a large assumption to take.

I don't need to know your list. I need to know the possible targets in the game. AP 2 is quite valuable and not taking it in a heavy slot is, in general, probably a mistake. The ML does not do either job well enough to be taken seriously. It's much better to have lascannons and let another unit handle things that you would have shot frag missiles at. STR 8 AP 3 ROF 1 just kinda sucks in 6th edition. It doesn't matter what the rest of your list is. It can't make that profile good.

Come to think of it, krak missiles sucked in 5th, too. At least from ROF 1 launchers. Typhoons are a different story.

5 men squad, 2 lasecannon 160 pts (if my memory is good) that enought for me. The devastator squad cost to much for me for plasma or lasecannon.I use it in the Sternguard squad for +/- the same price.

That works. Actually, I never thought of that before. That's pretty cool. Although for BA, auto/las pred may be better.

I have plenty of ap2 /1. All I can go by is what works for me with BA, played in my local meta. I see ALOT of av 10-12 transports and a couple Ork players. I like to make one list before hand and just take that to the store. I dislike playing the guys that are still "working on their list" as I am loading my guys onto a game tray. That being said, are there times I wished I had lascannons or MMs for the LR driving at my line? Yes. I just find that what I bring to the table is enough for a TAC list, in my area.

Here's the thing. Getting within melta range of a LR filled with assault terminators requires deep strike or attack bikes. Nothing else will cut it. With lascannons, you might be able to disable it before it is on top of you. MLs give you no chance to do this.

An even better reason to bring lascannons are tanks with demolisher cannons. Both the LR and the vindicator are hard to take out with kraks from the front. Lascannons will pop them much faster.

AV 10-12 transports are popped much faster by autocannons than by ML. Because of this, the autocannon/lascannon combo makes the ML krak round totally useless. Notice havoks usually bring autocannons? The stupid loyalists are stuck without.

Lascannons!!!! Take 4 in each squad they can be spammed to take down Land-Raiders and will mulch elite infantry with S9 AP2 hits. With the bonus to the damage table 4 Lascannons will almost always take out high AV vehicles in one round even with decent rolls. Signum can be used to make one hit on a 2+ so they have 48in. range and good accuracy not a bad deal.

It largely depends on your local meta. If you face alot of heavy armour (13 or higher), go lascannons. Otherwise, go ML.

I laugh when people say ML have no use. They are much cheaper than the other long range Devastator options, and 4 ST8 shots will generally take out any Armour 12 or less vehicles they target. If you are facing a xenos horde, switch to frag or use krak to kill the big monsters. Lascannons are decent, but too expensive in a devestator squad. They are much more cost effective in tactical squads. Besides, most Space Marine vehicles are loaded down with lascannons.

This is why I don't use devastators.

With any dev squads i use it is normally 2 PC and 2 ML or 4 HB for a fluffy squad on my crimson fists.

I think you would be better off going with autolas preds and vindicators if you're BA because they're fast.
If you're set on going with devastators then give them ML's and give your tac squads lascannons to deal with heavy armor.
Consider running suicide speeders with multi-meltas to deal with av 13 and 14.

I'd tend to agree with malferion. Static units don't work the best with BA, and the Preds or Vindis are much more usefull than Devs, especially point for point. Devs are far too vulnerable and cost far too much. If you need cheap AA go with the Suicide Speeders.