DE Deathstars

Anyone see the slightly crappy death star article on Bols? Got me thinking of what I would put in a DE version, or rather what my fellow Archons would put in one...

On some level I dont think we need them or if they truly work in a fragile army. I would rather spread the points, but my days spreading terror with Thunder wolves does leave a soft spot for such horror units.

So what's in your 'Dark-star', and yeah, it needs a silly name...

I'd probably do..
Vect
Hemmie or 2
Incubi
Transport - The D of D.

My current Darkstar that has so far worked quite nicely in my games, edited a little to be even more ridiculous

Archon (Combat drugs, Ghostplate, Shadowfield, Huskblade, Blast pistol, Phantasm GL, Soultrap, Webway Portal)
Haemonculus (Hexrifle, Liquifier, Huskblade)
Grotesques x4 (Abberation, Liquifier - both work well for wound allocation shenanigans)
Raider (DL/Dissie, doesn't matter, Nightshields, Flickerfield)

Grotesques are fantastic bodyguards. The Archon WILL deploy the portal. The Archon WILL get into close combat. Heads will roll. It might not be points efficient, hardly so, but I absolutely love the panic it causes for the enemy. It also only seems fitting that my Archon would surround her with tough bodyguards, laughing as everything the lesser races can muster bounces off.

I will also concur with Siticus with using the Grotesques, mine looked like:

Urien,
Haemy w/agoniser, liquifier
3 Grotesques (aberration with flesh gauntlet) liquifier
On a Raider

It is more of a mini-deathstar and has always won combat against the targets I choose for them. Even when they were charged by Dante and his command group the Grotesques overcame the assault in the end even though Urien died (the aberration killed Dante).

I think they are coming into their own right now, many other DE players are starting to use them more (some using as many as 10) and they are quite the grinding unit.

I've been on this bandwagon for a while:
4 grotesques, aberation with venom blade
Archon with PGL, agonizer, combat drugs
Raider with FF

I suppose you could go bananas and add Urien...wouldn't mind painting him right now either...hmmm, next painting project?

4 grotes, aber w/ FG
Ancient haemon w/ FG
raider w/ FF

Its a squad that cant be messed with honestly.

I would go as far to add a second haemon with the Fleshy Glove, it is amazing with FC or w/o it.

I get nervous using grotesques as anything but a meat shield for shooting. With grey knights on every table they will get force weaponed to death really quick. That's one of the reasons I don't take Talos. One wound from a force weapon and poof!

I have been thinking about a 10 man incubi squad with two Haemonculi coming out of a wwp... 30+Str 5 PW attacks on charge and FNP. And once you kill that first squad they're fearless. Hmmm.... They'd loose fleet and still have no grenades... it'd never work.

Ben

4 grotes w/ith liquifier, and aberration with scissor hand
succubus with agoniser
archon with shadow field, combat drugs, torment grenades, shadow field, soul trap, huskblade
in raider with flicker field and night shield

Last game it (and 20 wyches) wiped out 20 khorne berzerkers, abbadon, and 2 terminator squads in a large multi-turn melee blob at board center. I lost 1/2 the grotes to shooting before they were charged, they blew up the rhinos carrying the berzerkers in assault prior turn.

The weakness to force weapons can be fixed by using Lady Malys in the unit instead of an Archon. She doesn't give them grenades, but now they're immune to psychic powers. With a Haemonculus Malys will have s4 on charge, allowing her to actually do some damage even to MEQ. As a bonus you get the ability to redeploy your units, which migth come handy in some circumstances.

What about The Baron and 15-19 Hellions + Helliarch with Agoniser and haemie for pain token at the start? I've never played with that myself, but apparently it wrecks face. (and is a troop choice to boot ^^)

That aint a deathstar, thats just resilient great torn in thу back.
Especially with 2 pain tokens from the beginning.

Looks like I'm going to be buying some Grotes

4 Grots w/ 1 liquifer, Abberation w/ Scissorhands
Malys
Urien

There we go guys, alot of attacks, Malys is S4 on the charge. Fearless if you give them Urien's other free pain token, and you have 1 free wound a turn (thanks again to Urien)

Or we could always do Vect's pimpwagon

Vect
Dias
9 Bloodbrides w/ 3 Razorflails, Syrien w/ Agoniser

lol that is so boss.. and like 700 points

Shadows Revenge wrote:

4 Grots w/ 1 liquifer, Abberation w/ Scissorhands
Malys
Urien

There we go guys, alot of attacks, Malys is S4 on the charge. Fearless if you give them Urien's other free pain token, and you have 1 free wound a turn (thanks again to Urien)

Or we could always do Vect's pimpwagon

Vect
Dias
9 Bloodbrides w/ 3 Razorflails, Syrien w/ Agoniser

lol that is so boss.. and like 700 points

I like it, may steal this. Every DE player should field the Dias at least once!

Can you tweak this by taking 8 Brides and throwing in a hemmy? No pain no gain?

Levitas wrote:

I like it. Trying to avoid the carnival appraoch for mine so may steal this. Every DE player should field he Dias at least once!

Fielded Dais in an Apocalypse recently. Vect, Malys, regular pimped out Archon, Court and guest appearance of Eldrad Ulthran himself. They survived everything but one last Basilisk shell without scratch, I have never seen a vehicle draw so much fire! It was fun as hell.

Levitas wrote:

I like it, may steal this. Every DE player should field the Dias at least once!

Can you tweak this by taking 8 Brides and throwing in a hemmy? No pain no gain?

you could, but you will lose 1 wych weapon. Wont be much, but Personally anything this unit hit should die, so I would hope they get a pain token quite early. Although FC early is also good

Quote :

Vect
Dias
9 Bloodbrides w/ 3 Razorflails, Syrien w/ Agoniser

lol that is so boss.. and like 700 points

Yeah it is, and it rolls like a champ. Ran this in a 1500pt list and nearly tabled Orks turn 2

8 Incubi inc. Klaivex
Haemy
PGL Archon
Raider

Grots never impressed me.

I am always itching to try

Vect
Ancient Haemy w/huskblade or FC
8 Wyches, nets, heka w/ago & PGL
Dias of Destruction

If you are going big then I can see the Bloodbrides but man, what a bunch of points! Urien might also be welcome here too, hmmm...

I have tested this layout some times and it has worked very well, even against grey knights's force weapons

Archon, djinn blade, shadowfield, combat drugs, phantasm grenade launcher (you could also get a blaster without losing an attack)
Haemonculus, liquifier, power weapon
4 Grots, aberation scissorhand (good vs vehicles too for more attacks), liquefier
raider, ff

if you play second, you can keep it in reserves if you are afraid of it being destroyed too far away, since it is a close combat unit and it is not needed that much from first turn.

In case i play first i usually have a 3 man wrack unit disembarked for the archon to steal their pain token and embark on the raider, giving them the 3rd one for fearless (needed for tankshocks or pinning tests)

Different kind of Deathstar, but I once looked at the fun the Orks were having with Burna Boyz out of a battle wagon and said, why not me?

5 Wracks with Acothyst, Liquifier
5 Haemonculus with Liquifiers and Venom Blades
Raider with Shockprow
~500 pts

Line 'em and melt 'em down. You can still charge with about 35 poison attacks that RR wounds against T4 or less. Unit has 15 T4 wounds, Fearless, FC, FNP, and if you have a few points to spare, you can add Animus Vitae, etc. to have wound allocation tricks with the Haemies.

I've put something similar together with the Court, with 2 Medusae and 3 Haemonculi, plus a kitted out Archon (or Vect). It lays the hurt, too, and has the added bonus of the fact that you usually liquify off any bodyguards from ICs and then the Archon plus Huskblade murders them. Good times.

The only "deathstars" I've seen in this thread are ones that start with 3 Pain Tokens, anything else is asking to be PBS'd/Tank Shock'd off the board before they get a last Pain Token and be embarrassed as a lucky failed Morale Check wipes your valued unit off the board.

IMO this is supremely important to a successful eggs-in-a-basket unit. Hell, Lady Malys might be too if you're taking the Grotesque route to make it so Grey Knights don't just eat the Grots for breakfast.

But regardless, I don't think DE do Deathstars well and you don't want to.

Archon - huskblade, soul trap, shadowfield, combat drugs, pgl
9 Incubi - Klaivex with onslaught (maybe demi-klaives, I question whether they're worth it)
Raider - FF

Simples and deadly. Rush the heart of their army, huskblade their commander to pump the Archon and watch them wreak havoc as a mosh-pit is created in the middle of their army. The rest of your army can generally go about their business quite happily.

While I doubt it would ever be as effective as a Draigo/Pally star or a Hive Guard/ tyrant star i'm sure you could make something with grotesques that would be pretty frightening, just watch out for a Vindi =)

callofdoobie wrote:

While I doubt it would ever be as effective as a Draigo/Pally star or a Hive Guard/ tyrant star i'm sure you could make something with grotesques that would be pretty frightening, just watch out for a Vindi =)

At first glance Grotesques' stats make them seem pretty scary, but really even with that many high-strength attacks they just aren't going to do that much. Even if 5 of them make it there alive they're only going to drop 2 or 3 marines on the charge. I suppose, however, they're going to be hard to do much damage to so they make up for their lacklustre damage with really good resilience.

Anggul wrote:

At first glance Grotesques' stats make them seem pretty scary, but really even with that many high-strength attacks they just aren't going to do that much. Even if 5 of them make it there alive they're only going to drop 2 or 3 marines on the charge. I suppose, however, they're going to be hard to do much damage to so they make up for their lacklustre damage with really good resilience.

That's really what Grotesques excel at (and why many people overlook them) - they are incredibly resilient. Three wounds, T5, and some limited wound allocation shenanigans... Not to mention a pain token off the bad to the Archon you took those bodyguards for in the first place.