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I've read countless posts on how tactical and devastators should be loaded out but I could never come to a general conclusion. Part of my decision is aesthetics and relation to real-life military logic, despite that not being important in a 40k universe. My ideas are as follows:
Tactical Squad: Heavy Bolter, flamer and combi-flamer. (I am not a fan of the meltas)
Devastator Squad: Two Lascannons, two gravcannons, or two lascannons, one gravcannon and one missle launcher. (not a fan of plasma for the "gets hot rule"

My third option was to not go with sole tactical squads at all, use devastator (same point value) and put them into a ten man squad with a balance between anti infantry and vehicle:
5 Tac marines, seargent with combiflamer or combigrav, two lascannosn, a missle laucher, a grav cannon. Or, a heavy flamer instead. The issue here is the "shooting on the move." I am not sure how that rule effects the big weapons.

I am not sure how I want to organize them. In the end, I can always swap models in and out of squads, but would prefer to not do that.

Magnetize them. That way, you can always swap out the squad's load out. It's a bit of a pain but it's well worth it imo. I just put together a dev squad that's 100% magnetized including the sergeant. That way in case a new hot gun comes out to stick onto your marines or if your current load out starts to suck you can just swap it out without the need to potentially destroy your models.

Magnetizing is a huge pain.

Devastator squads come with 5 units and 2 of each heavy weapon. If you get 2, you can make 2 full 5 man squads featuring 4 of a specific weapon.

There are three dev weapons I'd even consider:

Grav cannon
Heavy bolter
Lascannon

The heavy bolter is ONLY for a dev squad with 2 X Grav 2 x heavy bolter who hides in a Rhino. Even then, the heavy bolter is daemon insurance.

Magnetise. A bit fiddly the first attempt but worth it to keep your devs and Tacs flexible.

Magnetize? I have tiny magnets to do so but I think the glue won't stick to them. I think I've tried once before. But that does sound like a huge pain considering the arm positions. What if I made ten man devastators using 2 lascannos, a bolter and a gravcannon?

timebandit3077 wrote:
Magnetize? I have tiny magnets to do so but I think the glue won't stick to them. I think I've tried once before. But that does sound like a huge pain considering the arm positions. What if I made ten man devastators using 2 lascannos, a bolter and a gravcannon?

I cannot imagine magnetizing a devastator squad. As Martel mentioned they have their uses, but it's not going to break the bank to buy a couple boxes and just have all the good loadouts built and ready. My2c

My most commonly used Heavies are GravCannon, Lascannon and Multimelta. Grav-Cannons IMO are a must on Tacticals, they're just too good. If I really am going for a cheap Tactical Squad though I'll use a Multimelta, since it has AP2, and can hurt vehicles. But really, Grav is the one that makes Tacticals fierce.

For Devastators I either use Grav Cannons (If I want them up close) or Lascannons (If I want them in the back).

My most common Special Weapons are Grav and Melta.

The thinking is that the basic Space Marine with a Boltgun is already reasonably adept at handling light - medium infantry, and Flamers and Heavy Bolters really just add too that ability. I find it's better to have squads that are capable of handling a number of different threats (and in particular be good at killing stuff that is threatening to the Tacticals) so having some anti-heavy infantry/vehicle/monster weapons are incredibly useful. The Grav Cannon is very good at killing all of those, so it's the go-to solution.

I'm not a fan of magnetizing, so I'll usually jest get another box of Tacticals to hold some of the extra Heavy Weapons that come with the Devastator box.

 Insectum7 wrote:
My most commonly used Heavies are GravCannon, Lascannon and Multimelta. Grav-Cannons IMO are a must on Tacticals, they're just too good. If I really am going for a cheap Tactical Squad though I'll use a Multimelta, since it has AP2, and can hurt vehicles. But really, Grav is the one that makes Tacticals fierce.

For Devastators I either use Grav Cannons (If I want them up close) or Lascannons (If I want them in the back).

My most common Special Weapons are Grav and Melta.

The thinking is that the basic Space Marine with a Boltgun is already reasonably adept at handling light - medium infantry, and Flamers and Heavy Bolters really just add too that ability. I find it's better to have squads that are capable of handling a number of different threats (and in particular be good at killing stuff that is threatening to the Tacticals) so having some anti-heavy infantry/vehicle/monster weapons are incredibly useful. The Grav Cannon is very good at killing all of those, so it's the go-to solution.

I'm not a fan of magnetizing, so I'll usually jest get another box of Tacticals to hold some of the extra Heavy Weapons that come with the Devastator box.

I really like that insight. What is the primary use for grav-cannons? Are they anti-heavy infantry or vehicle? My other option was combining a tactical and devastator squad in a ten man formation.

Grav-cannons are anti-everything that's not a demon or Ork boy. Queue the bitching.

They're just about the only weapon in the game that Riptides and Wraithknights care about.

Martel732 wrote:
Grav-cannons are anti-everything that's not a demon or Ork boy. Queue the bitching.

They're just about the only weapon in the game that Riptides and Wraithknights care about.

So they are not effective against orks or daemons? I'm reading on the purpose of the weapons now just to better under stand them.

Grav-cannons are salvo 3/5 24" AP 2 that wound on the armor save of the target and reroll to wound with the grav amps. This means that a single grav cannon that stands still generates

3.33 hits and

3.23 wounds vs 2+ armor
2.96 wounds vs 3+ armor
2.5 wounds vs 4+ armor
1.84 wounds vs 5+ armor
1.01 wounds vs 6+ armor and worse

So it's best to fire them at units with very good armor saves.

I play with Imperial Fists tactics and I usually play either a Sternhammer or Gladius Strike Force, so my Marines get to reroll a lot of their shots which factors into some of my decision-making.

If I'm taking a ten-Marine Tactical squad I usually give it a Grav Cannon and either a Plasma or Grav gun. This allows them to either kill infantry with their bolters or heavy stuff with their other weapons, and if they shoot at a monstrous creature then all of the squads' weapons can hurt it which is just gravy. Tactical squads are actually really good places for Grav Cannon because they like to move up field which gets the cannon into range, and they have lots of bodies to protect the cannon. Also, you'll have more Tactical doctrines than anything else so the Grav cannon will get lots of rerolls.

I also like to take 10-Marine squads with a Heavy Bolter and a melta gun, giving the Sergeant a combi-melt too, and stick them in a Rhino. This is a good unit for cruising around, taking pot shots at heavy things, and sitting on objectives. 10 Marines isn't especially hard to kill but it does take a fair amount of attention to eliminate so they can often linger around longer than you'd expect and annoy the enemy. The melta gun(s) lets the squad at least threaten pretty much anything in combination with their bolters, while the Heavy Bolter is at least a not terrible weapon to fire on the move for Imperial Fists and its good for taking pot shots at varios xenos targets.

My Devastator squads come in three flavors:

10 Marines, with 2 lascannon and 2 Plasma cannon. I combat squad them to get better coverage of the field and allow each weapon to shoot at its preferred targets. Lascannon with Tank Hunter are decent, and Plasma Cannon are a highly erratic weapon but they get an opportunity to shoot at a bunched up target at least once a game so its nice to be able to punish the enemy for that mistake.

5 Marines, with 2 Grav or Las cannon, in a Rhino. This is what I take when I get a free Rhino from the Gladius Strike Force. They hang in the Rhino and blast away at stuff.

??? Marines, with 4 Missile Launchers (with flak missiles if I can afford it). A nice all-comers unit, and Tank Hunter makes them good at shooting down fliers and light armor. I'm not sure if they'd be worth it without Tank Hunter.