Devastator squads?

[UltraBlood]

Ok I have seen some battle reports lately with 10 man devastator squads in them but the consensus is to only take 5 from everyone I ask.

Is it worth the extra points to have the extra wounds or would it be worth it to take a 10 man squad and combat squad it and use the extra 5 guys to assault units that came close to allow the heavy weapons to fire that much longer?

[Garamond]

the 5 extra guys are worth it. i hate losing a heavy weapon on the first turn and those 5 really help.

[Brother Cruorem]

I usually only have 5 man Dev squads to spend the points on something better. However, if you really want the 10 man I would combat squad them. This way you can put the bolter guys in the front to prevent the heavy weapons from getting assaulted first and it gives them a cover save against shooting.

[Calgar33]

I generally use a 10 man squad with all lascannons and missile launchers and keep them together to add some serious fire power in one area but I am currently using a squad with heavy bolters and lascannons and combat squads.

[AbusePuppy]

Ten man squads are rarely worth it because you'd rather have more squads with more guns than extra bodies in an existing squad. Two squads of five Devs with Missiles is more threatening than one squad of ten Devs with Missiles.

There are sometimes cases where you want the full ten- for example, BA in large games can use up all its HS slots and thus want to be able to split fire via a ten-man Dev squad, but this is generally a rare occurrence.

If you're positioning your fire support units properly and presenting enough threats to the enemy, you shouldn't need to worry about losing guys straight away against many armies. 3+ armor and 4+ cover are enough to protect you- sinking another hundred points for ablative bodies are not a good use of resources.

(Oh, and since a lot of people also do this as well: don't buy mixed weapon loadouts. Even for SW, they never really work out.)

[SonicPara]

If I have the extra points and HS slot I take a 5-man unit with 2 missile launchers. It comes in at 120 points, has ablative wounds in the two bolter marines and the sergeant, and still is the cheapest way to bring 2 infantry missile launchers into a Codes: Space Marines list.

If you do the full 10-man unit I recommend doing 2 missiles and 2 plasma cannons and using the Combat Squad rule to have two 5-man units (2 missiles, sergeant, 2 bolters in one and then the 2 plasma cannons, 3 bolters in the other. Plasma cannons don't need the signum). Missiles instead of Lascannons as Lascannons are more cost-effective in Tac Squads (25 point discount compared to Devs while the missile is only a 15 point discount in the Tac Squad) and Plasma Cannons for the AP2 templates.

[Wolfshade]

The extra bodies are always useful for soaking up wounds.
You can also do some quite cunning things with the combat squadding options.

• Putting all the heavies in one squad, tehn having another 5 man squad adevancing like normal marines (though remember they can't hold objectives, but can contest)
• Splitting 2 heavies per squad, while this doesn't give the same rate of heavy fire, it does enable you to split the squads firing and if you had half with anti-tank weaponry and half with anti-infantry then the non specialised shots aren't wasted.
• You could potentially split the heaves 1-3, if the 1 had a signifcantly shorter range than the other 3 this enables the lone heavy + squad to be further forward and in range of targets that perhaps would be not in range if they were all together

I usually keep all of them together as I know that my devastators will be subjected to deep striking squads coming in behind the battle line, so that gives me 5 rapid firing bolters a chance to thin the ranks down

[jb50c]

I think it depends on your style of play, but IMHO a 10 man squad is a waste. It's expensive and can't hold objectives. Devs/Long Fangs should be about massed fire at range. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the only heavy weapon you could possbly make at the same rage as bolters is the multi-melta and why on earth would you ever mix that fire. If you want to mix bolter fire with a heavy, do it with a tac squad.

5 man w/4 missiles = 150
5 man w/5 lascannons = 230

10 man w/4 missiles = 230
10 man w/4 lascannons = 310

So I could have 8 missiles in 2 squads (w/2 signums) for 70 points more than a 10 man w/4 missiles.

[herigonz]

I think in a bigger game where you are using a lot of your heavy support, having a 10 man squad makes sense...

...so long as it isn't a Kill Points battle. Then in general, I tend to oppose combat squadding. The extra ablative wounds can be helpful, especially to help keep them in cover (you put the bolter marines behind the building/in terrain giving you clear line of sight).

[Nykster]

To me it depends on how important that unit of regrets toes are to your game plan. If they are a vital part of your army list, and you only have one unit of them, I would suggest to get the extra guys. It does suck up a hunk of points, but I helps with morale also. I hate I when my heavy weapon squads fall back after losing 2 models.