Devastators, strictly for show?

ok...
since Devastator squads are a Heavy Support choice, they will probably have to be set up first.
that being the case, won't my opponent just avoid them when placing his vehicles and Monsterous Creatures?
...i mean, they can't move and shoot, so it seems like it would be pretty easy to render them useless.

mind you, i've never played one for myself (i just picked up a box, though)... but i HAVE played against them (with my Tyranids)

does anyone have any good advice for using them?

Sometimes the threat of fire power can be enough to swing things your way. Control FireZones and you can force the opponent into doing something that you may be able to take advantage of.
Of course, this all depends on your own skill at deployment.

Assuming that's not your ONLY heavy support, place the other heavies down first.
There's a lot of strategy in deployment, and only a few people tend to pick up on that.
I reccomend devvy squads of 6, w/ 3 heavy weapons. They end up costing about as much as a Predator. Anything more than that tends to be overkill.

i wish that were an option for me... though, that might be as time goes on.

really, i just got a Dev Squad and i'm planning on playing them in the next tourney coming up next weekend.
i'm playing a Lysander Wing 2000 point list that was a little lacking in the weapons-with-real-punch department.
so, i wanted to have some Devastators... and have them matter in the day's battles.

the ONLY other thing i have in there is a sqaud of Terminators with x2 Cyclone Missle Launchers (and Tank Hunter skill)

i think what i might try to do is, deploy the Devastators in a place where they've got a few fire lanes in the middle... and then (ideally) Deepstrike the Tank Hunters near whichever side my opponent hides his armour.
(unless, of course, they move into a Dev fire lane....)

I circumvent the HS slot trouble by haveing 2x 4 HB in 8 man Dev units and then haveing my Lascannons and other AT in Tactical units. So i have allway´s placed 2 anti troop units while my oppoment places tanks. Then i place my 4 lascannon units...

You could also kit out any tac squads with twin linked lascannon razorbacks. Also squadrons of multimelta attack bikes can do some heavy hitting also.

now THAT'S a cool move... i think, in the future, i might try something like that....


thanks guys!