Preface
Before I begin, allow me to apologise for my absense. I'll be doing my best to post more regularly for those who're interested. Remember, if you have any queries about anything I've posted, or just want my opinion on something, you're more than welcome to ask, even when I'm not posting regularly.
On that note, I'm trying to take a break from the farsight bomb. While I'm fairly certain I need to play a lot of daemons before I'm even remotely passable with it, I win often enough and the army is finished enough that I feel, it's time to move on.
With that in mind, I'm starting a new Army, with Pedro Kantor at its head. I'm trying to run Sternguard, if in a way that I'm not used to. While Bolter drill is basically universal, the other rule, regarding Devastator Centurions and plain old devastators is not. What this means, unfortunately, is that I must actually include a unit of Devastators. These are my musings on how to make said Devastators good.
I will look at several different Elements, Their Price, the Prices of their weapons, the roles of their weapons, Finally, what to use to augment their output and survivability.
Price Wars
Devastators have long payed an almost unreasonable premium on their weaponry, with lascannons being a crippling 35 points and missile launchers not far behind. Now, Lascannons have dropped by as much as 43% in price - so much so, that the devastator carrying the lascannon is actually a point or two cheaper than lascannons were last edition - moreover, 3 lascannon devastators are the same price as 2 lascannon devastators last edition.
Most importantly, it means Devastators are almost affordable now, being only 35 points more expensive with 4 missile launchers than tactical marines taken with a Missile Launcher and a meltagun (my standard loadout)
Weapon Roles
Three Weapons jump out at me when I think about the Devastator squad, since they can only take heavy weapons. The first, most obvious choice is the Lascannon. 2-4 (5 with an ADL) lascannons coming out of a single shot, one at BS5 is a very powerful shooting output, with good range. This is a standard tank-hunting and monster-hunting unit, but it's the most expensive of the 3 options I'll put forward. It also has limited flexibility. This option is best taken with the Imperial Fists Chapter Tactics.
The second, equally obvious choice is the Missile Launcher. IT doesn't have that crackling oomph that the lascannon might, but then nothings as flexible as a missile launcher. At 75% of the price of a lascannon, with only a point of strength and AP in difference to the lascannon, the missile launcher is a capable tool against monsters without the 2+ armour and armour up to and including AV13. The missile Launcher supplements this Lascannon-lite weaponry with a decent frag missile, which, while not brilliant, is enough to do some damage to light infantry (even if they are AP6.) Also, it makes shooting less wasteful, as the lascannon ensures you'll never use the boltguns, or rather, that you're being wasteful if you can use the boltguns effectively.
The third, completely nonobvious option, is the Multi-melta. This weapon is a threat to any light to medium (Av10-12) within 24" and any armour within 12", making it good at area denial. 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Multi-meltas ensures that your enemy will keep his hardest armour far away from your main line, but is relatively inflexible because these weapons have no range. The weapon also deals with T6/7 monsters pretty well, which is always nice. The nicest part about this area denial is that Multi-meltas are like a snapping turtle. They're ignored because they're a relatively ineffective long range weapon, so it is likely that your opponent will ignore them, but be bitten hard when they have to come within that 24" radius. Alternatively, they'll shoot a bunch of (at most) 50% effective shooting into them to try to soften up the devastators before engaging the area - in this way, the multi-melta makes a good trap, or a good fire soak.
A fourth option occured to me while writing this, and that is the Heavy Bolter. They're not great, but they have one strength, at even 36" range, you get 12 shots at S5AP4. This isn't great, but it's about 2 wounds on marines at 36", and 7 on fire warriors; Alternatively, it's a definite ground test on a monstrous creature. Of course normal marines are already decent at killing infantry and causing grounded tests, so this idea shouldn't be used unless you have very few anti-infantry units in your army.
The third, completely nonobvious option, is the Multi-melta. This weapon is a threat to any light to medium (Av10-12) within 24" and any armour within 12", making it good at area denial. 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Multi-meltas ensures that your enemy will keep his hardest armour far away from your main line, but is relatively inflexible because these weapons have no range. The weapon also deals with T6/7 monsters pretty well, which is always nice. The nicest part about this area denial is that Multi-meltas are like a snapping turtle. They're ignored because they're a relatively ineffective long range weapon, so it is likely that your opponent will ignore them, but be bitten hard when they have to come within that 24" radius. Alternatively, they'll shoot a bunch of (at most) 50% effective shooting into them to try to soften up the devastators before engaging the area - in this way, the multi-melta makes a good trap, or a good fire soak.
A fourth option occured to me while writing this, and that is the Heavy Bolter. They're not great, but they have one strength, at even 36" range, you get 12 shots at S5AP4. This isn't great, but it's about 2 wounds on marines at 36", and 7 on fire warriors; Alternatively, it's a definite ground test on a monstrous creature. Of course normal marines are already decent at killing infantry and causing grounded tests, so this idea shouldn't be used unless you have very few anti-infantry units in your army.