Devestators and some advice needed

[malorn24]

 

I have always been a fan of the Dev squad. But they never
seem to work the way I envision them when I build my army. SO that being said:

1 I usually try to run a full 10 man squad so that I can
combat squad them so that I can fire at two different targets. Also I get the
extra wounds to save the heavy weapons.

 

2 I always go in pairs i.e. 2 laz and 2 ML they are each in their
own combat squad so that I can obviously shoot at different types of targets.

 

Am I using them wrong or is there a better way to use them?
I am mostly a footslogging company. I have only one other heavy which is a Godhammer
Land Raider. Thanks

 

[minigun762]

10 guys and 4 weapons is too many points, and two heavy weapons is not enough to get reliable kills each turn.

 

Consider something like 6 bodies with 4 weapons with the extra body manning a Quad Gun as the Sarge hands out BS5.

[MagicMan]

If you've got heavy support slots to spare, why not go for two squads, 10 bodies, 6 heavy weapons. You get the same amount of bodies, can split fire, and you get more big guns!

 

I too like to pair or match my weapons. Mixing weapons up in a Dev squad just means they don't excel at shooting any particular target.

[Reinholt]

I agree 10 man is larger than is necessary. If you have spare slots, chop that up a bit to maximize your heavy weapons per marine, though you do want to keep just enough bodies to take some rounds. I find 6-7 men is ideal for this job as well. It's just enough that a few stray shots doesn't ruin your day, but not so much it's wasteful.

[malorn24]

Thats why I like this place. I never thought of just makeing 2 smaller squads lol. Any deployment or tactic advise?

[pyroknight]

If you plan to rely on your devs, the imperial fists combat tactics are a nice boon (grants Tank Hunters). 

 

I usually put a free man on the quad gun as well, but I count him as a "heavy weapon" so I bring one extra ablative body when I do that. 

 

 

When running 2 dev squads I tend to put them on opposite sides of the battlefield to cover fire lines, making it hard for tanks to get cover from both. 

Unless i am expecting a flanking attack, and sometimes will put them together for protection. 

[DarkGuard]

A 5 man Dev unit with 4 missile launchers has been a long time staple of mine, from nearer the end of 5th edition to current Marine Codex. They only got cheaper in the new Codex (unless I give them flakk), they are versatile, often ignored, and do a solid job.

 

With Dev squads, I find that smaller squads do indeed work best, 3-4 weapons in 5-6 man squads will work better than 4 weapons in a 10 man unit.

[Storm Dragons 3rd Company]

I don't think 5 man squads stay alive well enough.  I want a couple more guys as ablative wounds.

[Excubitor]

I'll actually disagree with most people here - I find that 10 man squads with 4 heavy weapons is best for me. Ignoring the fact that I originally took it for background reasons (my army list is based around a half-company) the amount of firepower it takes to stop those 4 heavies from wrecking a target a turn means that getting through the ablative wounds is a significant investment for my opponent, and means that an extra weapon/squad a turn is shooting at the devastators instead of another unit.

 

As my regular Space wolf opponent once pointed out, a Long Fang squad has heavier firepower at the start of the game, but looses it far quicker than a devastator squad after a few wounds because of those ablative wounds. Long fangs hit with 4 krak missiles = 4 dead heavies or 3 dead and no split fire. 10 man dev squad hit = 4 dead bolters.

 

It depends on what you want to do. Maximise firepower at cost of survivability and longevity? Smaller squads, more weapons. Maximise survivability and long-term influence of those weapons? Max squad size.

[minigun762]

Fluff aside (fluff is 100% sufficient reason for an army build) , 6 bullet catchers is just too many for me.

Try having half that buffer and see if you notice your squads dying that much faster compared to whatever you purchase with those 40+ points you've saved

[Excubitor]

Part of it is though that I WANT them shooting at my devastators, to try and silence those 4 heavy weapons, instead of other units. The longer they concentrate on silencing that one unit, the longer the rest of my army has to do damage. Hence why for me those extra wounds means an extra turn or two, or unit or so, firing on them at the expense of firing at something else.

 

I actually am tempted, however, by the Ultramarine Chapter Tactics. I have an idea for smaller, 6-7 man squads with 3-4 heavy weapons with Rhino transports. The Rhino plays mobile terrain, moving out of the way so they can fire, then moving Flat Out after they shoot to block LOS again. If/when the Rhino is immobilised/wrecked and becomes a LOS obstruction, use the Devastator doctrine to move the devs back to a firing position.

[Storm Dragons 3rd Company]

I've occasionally run 4 PC Devs.  The opponent does seem to focus on those rather a lot.

[Reinholt]

If you want your opponent shooting at them, take a 6-7 man squad and a rhino. I think this is better than 10 men for almost identical points.

 

A rhino?, I hear you cry. What heresy is this?

 

Simple: it's 35 points of cover. Every turn, figure out what you are going to shoot at with the devastators. Then park the rhino in front of them to block line of sight from other units while still allowing the devastators to shoot at what you want. You should be able to shield them, reliably, from decent portions of the return fire, forcing them to chew through a 35 point rhino before they can even start shooting at your guys reliably. Plus, on the off chance you ever need to move them, or you want the rhino for some other purpose, you have it. I like the versatility of having one around much more than I like 3 additional bolter guys in a devastator squad.

 

Though if you want to go all out on durability there is no reason you couldn't take 10 men and a rhino.

[MagicMan]

A razorback would be cool too. More expensive, but it can add to the squads damage output.

[Grizzly_bear]

I run a 10 man unit with 3MLs and a PC

 

Awesome set up for me. I keep them together never combat squad and its all about fire saturation on a certain target with them