Revised and tested Dual Deathstar list

So after playing the Eldard/Baron Beastmaster pack for five or six games I found I wanted a second deathstar to take the heat off my pack. I picked the least obvious choice because i've always loved Grotesques. The list has played splendidly over the last four games losing once to a Nec/CSM list - heldrale/DP/Scyhes. Even that game was close.

* Urien Rakarth - 190
* Baron Sathonyx - 110
* Eldrad Uthran - 210

* 7 Master Grotesques, Liquifier Gun, Aberration, Mindphase Gauntlet - 310 (Urien)
* 5 Fire Dragons, Exarch, Crack Shot . Tank Hunters - 112 (manning AGL)

* 5 Wyches, HWGs, Venom, Splinter Cannon - 125
* 5 Wyches, HWGs, Venom, Splinter Cannon - 125
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes, Shuriken Cannon - 76
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes, Shuriken Cannon - 76

* 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 6 Razorwing Flocks - 198
(Baron/Eldrad)
* Warp Talon - 125

* Aegis Defense Line, Icarus Lascannon - 85

The list looks interesting. I love every list that doesn't feature 8 venoms + 3 ravagers.
But I've two questions.
1) The Grotesque are extremely slow. How do play them? Even with T5 and Urien will can be killed on their way to the enemy.
2) I assume that the wyches will not survive after blowing up their target vehicle. Are two troop choices really enough to control enough mission targets to win the missions?

I'm of two minds. When my opponent sees Grots at the middle and front of my deployment zone he wants to take them out. That takes the heat off the beastmaster pack. So it works rather well. I did try this list out and also found that it worked well ...

* Urien Rakarth - 190
* Baron Sathonyx - 105
* Eldrad Uthran - 210

* 7 Master Grotesques, Liquifier Gun, Aberration, Scissorhand - 315 (Urien here)

* 10 Kabalite Wariors, Splinter Cannon - 100 (manning AGL)
* 5 Wracks, Liquifier Gun, Raider 120
* 5 Wracks, Liquifier Gun, Raider 120
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes - 66
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes - 66

* 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 6 Razorwing Flocks - 198 (Baron/Eldrad here)
* Voidraven Bomber, 2 Shatterfield Missiles, Flickerfield 175

* Aegis Defense Line, Icarus Lascannon - 85

Wracks sits behind the Aegis, tGJBs and Voidravens come in from reserve. This list has more troops and maintains the general theme. I just don't have my Voidraven yet. Will by next week though. .

I like the grotesques in list 1 alot. The beastmasters and grotesques are pretty good together as far as i have seen it. I have also been running the grots to take fire from beastmasters and it works fine for me, enemies usually don't want any of those units to reach their deployment zone. But in the end, at least one of them will.

Btw, i thought baron was 105 pts.

Grotesques - Beastmater Pack - synergy. I'm aware the Grots are slow and I've dealt with it by playing a bit MOT. You cannot klet the Raiders pot shot along with the Quad Autocannon and hope the Voidraven/Warp Hunter ( depends which list) never shows up until turn three. The troops are aquishy. I keep the Wracks behind the Aegis early and use the Raiders as a gun platforms. I have a good shot at First Blood with the Icarus and Quad Cannons. I can linebreaker late with the GJBs hopefully.

So far the list in its few incarnations has performed well enough. I'm leaning towards list two to be honest. But I need to finish off some Wracks and the Voidraven. Should be done soon.

I wonder if there is a way of combining a Harlie-bomb with another deathstar unit.

Other lists of this nature include Vect to make the beasts fearless (as well as preferred enemy) . Without him, one bad assault phase will see your beasts running away and subjected to shooting.

How about a second beast pack running ahead of the main one? Then, assuming you get invisibility (I assume that's what you are hoping to get), the main pack will have a 2+ cover save and your opponent will likely ignore the front pack. Even if they don't, they will have still kept the heat off of your real threat.

Well i can get prescience with Eldrad and invisibility. I need Urien more than Vect in the list. The Grts are my second beast pack per say. You had better not ignore them. S7 Grots on the charge will mess up vehicles and troops. I'm not overly worried about a bad assault phase. I've thrown the Beastpack at Plaguemarines and Terminators and won. If the dice desert me so be it. Not much you can do about it.

Grots are amazing, I always put 4 in a raider with enhanced aethersails go flat out towards the enemies lines, more often than not they soak up an entire armies shooting for one turn drawing fire from the rest of the army.
I like have an archon with them with a PGL so they do not go at initiative 1.

So I got in a agme this afternoon with my Voidravens barely based and a few proxies. My wracks were just assembled and completely void of paint. I ran this against a CSM Slaanesh list

== Dual Deathstar ==

* Urien Rakarth - 190
* Baron Sathonyx - 105
* Eldrad Uthran - 210

* 7 Master Grotesques, Liquifier Gun, Aberration, Mindphase Gauntlet - 310 (Urien here)

* 5 Wracks, Liquifier Gun, Raider, Disentegrator 120
* 5 Wracks, Liquifier Gun, Raider, DL 120
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes - 66
* 3 Guardian Jetbikes - 66

* 4 Beastmasters, 5 Khymerae, 6 Razorwing Flocks - 198 (Baron/Eldrad here)
* Voidraven Bomber, 2 Shatterfield Missiles, Flickerfields 175
* Voidraven Bomber, 2 Shatterfield Missiles, Flickerfields 175

* Ravager, DLs, Nightshields 115

== 1850 ==

He had both cc and shooty noise marines, la lord a few heldrakes some havocs and some spawn. I was a bit worried but figured my list could handle it. I was hoping for first turn to run up the table and fire all my weapons ... not that I had enough poison but ....
So I left my voidravens and Bikes in reserves. Turn one I rushed forward with my beasts on a flank opposite a few cc Slaanesh squads and my Grots heading for the shooty squad. I rolled invisibility and had prescience so I was pretty happy. I fired every gun I had at the havocs but I left one alive in cover. I waited for the return fire from the noise marines and autocannons. He downed a few Grots (even in cover), and a beastmaster and took a hull point off a Raider. Not to terrible. I rolled for reserves and a Voidraven came in and headed for the last havoc squad. I charged into both (yes both ) cc squads and almost destroyed them both not taking a single wound. Wow. My Grots just failed to reach the shooty marines and I expected some troubel but the Raven fired missiles and guns at them and they were badly damaged. His turn I hit and ran on the remaing cc marines and he did very littley damage with his remaining shooty NMs. This was going to cost him. My turn the second raven appeared. He finished off the last of the second Havoc squad, my grots and beastpack assaulted ( i also had got my Bikes which grabbed the relic). The first raven shot more shooty marines and a wyche squad assaulted the reamining ones with the grots ... I still had a squad of wracks I hadn't used yet for anything but a gunboat which also parked by the relic. I pretty much finsihed off eighty percent of his list. He would not get the relic. I had first blood and was likely to get linebreaker. Even if the Heldrakes arrived he was in deep trouble. He conceded the game.

Wow. I expected more early casualties. He did not roll well and I rolled average. I also got firt turn with a fair mount of DLs on the table but just a few rhinos to shoot at ( the cc rhinos). That was fine as I stopped his advance by destroying them. At that point he hoped he could dent me with blasters and sonics ... but he did little damage. Grots and Stelthed invisi-beasts do not go down easy. Once in cc the game was pretty much predictable. Had his Heldrakes arrived a turn earlier he could have stopped a raven and gone for my grots which would have made the match much more interesting and who knows ... ? As it was he stood no chance at all.

I'm thinking Disentegrators might be better on both Raiders in this list. I could have used the early anti-infantry but the DLs took out the rhinos so? . Other than that I was happy.