Devastator Mortal Wound Battery

[Diagramdude]

I was browsing through our stratagems and I noticed that the Hellfire Shells and Flakk Missile stratagems are worded such that you pop them right before the "model" fires.

 

It got me thinking that you could run a devastator squad with at least one heavy bolter and one missile launcher and potentially use both stratagems on the same unit and only if you need to, since in 8th you declare your targets ahead of time but can resolve the unit's shots model by model. Beyond that, the Devastator sergeant's signum can be used to give +1 to the hit roll, so the Flakk Missile would have +2 to the hit roll, which makes it that much more reliable especially against all the minus to-hit spam armies. 

 

Also, given the way Armorium Cherub and the Hellfire/Flakk stratagems are worded, you could fire the devastators normally and if you really need to close out the last couple wounds then you could use the Cherub to make either the HB or ML model fire again and then use the stratagem.

 

An absolute bare-bones devastator squad with just one HB and one ML is 100 points, so I would consider them a viable choice for a Heavy slot in a brigade. I think I would run two lascannons, a HB and ML for 145 (with cherub). I think the combination of the Signum and Cherub ability make Devastators the ideal unit for maximizing the Hellfire Shells and Flakk Missile stratagems.

[redshadow]

I like this, it could be used with scouts aswell, 3 scout squads with heavy bolters and 3 with missile launchers = 435pts for your 6 troop choices

[Brother Crimson]

Space Marine had this for a while. Hellfire is quite good because it also rely on using a relatively cheap Heavy Bolter.

 

Missile on the other hand is expensive and less usable ( only vs flying)

[Diagramdude]

I agree, I'm just pointing out that a devastator squad can run both a HB and ML, and the stratagem is activated before the model shoots rather than before a unit shoots, so there is some flexibility in whether to call on it or not. For example with 4x HB devs, you could fire the first three normally and then decide to pop the stratagem on the last guy if you really need 1 or 2 more wounds through, or even fire all 4 and then pop the cherub and activate the stratagem on the model that shoots for a second time to finish off a target.

 

And the signum's +1 to hit makes the stratagems that much more reliable, since they depend on a single to-hit roll.

Edited December 25, 2017 by Diagramdude

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

They certainly are good stratagems to have in the tool box, and those d3 mortal wounds could potentially be game changing, taking the last few wounds off of a key enemy unit. Not bad for 1 cp spent.