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I am out of town and don't have a Game store near by in this town so I can't ask anyone. I was wondering if someone would be nice enough to expalin the Deathstrike Missle. What does it do. how is it used. is it really any good.

Thanks for your help out there DAKKA.

I believe it fire just once per game.

And it needs a count down every turn to see if it gets to fire or not.

Then i think you roll dice to multiply the size of blast radius + scattering.

Something like that :'D

Deathstrike Missle is kind of ultimate weapon in Imperial Guard Codex. It is very powerful but can fire only once in a game and it isn't your decision when it would happen (you roll every turn).
I have never used it, nor i have seen it in any army list, but i'm sure it's funny for friendly game.

It is a gimmicky bait-weapon that could have some slight uses in trap-builds but is ultimately too unreliable to build tactics around.

The only really nice thing is that is cannot be glanced to death, but again the variable blast radius, and random firing just doesn't afford it any reliability.

The deal with death strikes is that you can put them out of LOS and make a frisbee-sized chunk of the board get instantly vaporized.

Of course, it's not useful if your opponent has really any mobility at all, but if your opponent stubbornly refuses to give up their 3rd ed/4th ed way of playing, then you could hypothetically bag their entire army in a single go.

Basically, it's idiot insurance that heavily penalizes your opponent for camping. If your opponents don't spend their time skulking in the backfield, then don't bother.

They seem pretty crappy.

Considering it's massive range, I'd say it's usefulness increases exponentially in a Apoc game.

Yeah, but it does kill whatever it hits. IIRC it's AP2 or 1 and allows no cover saves.

Yeah, it's basically a cannon with all the add-ons. AP1, ignores cover, rolls extra dice for vehicle penetration (while also there is no center of blast, so any vehicle touched at all is considered a hit), etc. etc.

The thing is, it's most likely going to be going off like turn 4 or 5 (if it goes off at all), which means most of the time you play, your forces will already be rather close to each other (assuming your opponent has a competent amount of mobility), making the deathstrike just as dangerous to you as it is to your opponent. Also, it's so easy to take out with deepstrikers, outflankers, etc. that against anyone who has decent mobility, it will probably just draw fire until it explodes.

That said, if your opponent is being a gakker and camping their objective, you're basically guaranteed to get the missile off, and do a LOT of damage. You can then pick over the smoldering ruins to claim objectives, etc.

That and occasionally you can get the missile off turn 1 for a loltastic alpha strike of doom! Plus, it also has it's psychological factor, and such. They're definitely not the wonder weapon advertised, but I don't think they completely deserve to be dismissed out of hand either.

Mmm... tasty tau take down potential.

So the missile launcher is on the table then the missile arrives like a reserve roll? I hope it doesn't drift though.

it's slightly more complicated. Basically, you need to roll over:

5 - turns on board + # of shaken/stunned/weapon destroyed hits taken. A 6 always means its ready.

I should also note that this actually combines a bit with the fleet officer, which guard players should be taking anyways. The FO means that it takes longer for those deepstrikers and outflankers to show up, buying the missile more time to fire.

WOW.... so an unpredictable fire and forget missle that may or may n ot do something. hmm.. sounds like a Scud missle.

Thanks for all the info gentleman. I really appreciate it. This will give me something to Ponder over the Holiday weekend.

In apoc you can use a vortex warhead instead of the regular plasma. One thing I don't understand if the missile is meant to be an ICBM, why cant we shoot it from reserve or better just buy the missile and not the tank?

When it does fire its a STR 10 AP1 3"+d3" Radius blast for a Diameter of between 8-12". Also, no cover saves allowed. This much has been pretty well said.

Something that people have forgotten to mention though is that is and AREA blast against vehicles. Meaning anything touched gets the FULL effect. Thats sort of a big deal.

I think its a pretty neat weapon. It's a bit unreliable but theres something to be said about sporting the most powerful shooting weapon in the game. (it is) With people tripping over themselves to do their best to ensure that it doesnt fire, I cannot see that its entirely useless.

Also, what happens if you're sporting two of them against a foot or hybrid list? If you manage to get both shots off and they dont deviate...its pretty much an auto-win if you hit the right targets.

Heck, with the right shot lined up, you can potentially hamstring an opponent with a single shot.

Yea sure, "just shoot it". Nevermind the fact that they're behind a screen of chimera's and a pair of Lemans that are blasting away at you....then there's the rest of the guard army to worry about while you're attempting to 'get to' the 160pt model.

Seems more of a fun weapon to have a laugh with rather than something at all reliable. Would you take one to a tournament? Probably not. Probably good for Apoc games too, would be great to clobber a titan with one. Shame the model looks so pants though, the rocket is tiny, should be more like the Epic model.

If this thing had one more random factor- like a random strength roll- it would be like the pinnacle Orktillery weapon

Vortex is 10" blast, ignores all saves and automatically removes D6 wounds from monstrous/gargantuan creatures and D3 structure points from all vehicles.

Deadshane1 wrote:When it does fire its a STR 10 AP1 3"+d3" Radius blast for a Diameter of between 8-12".

8"-12"would be great, but isn't 3"+d3" the same as 4"-6"? which isn't as great...

EDIT-it would be even cooler if I knew the difference between radius and diameter...

That's the radius, not the diameter.