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Before i buy the new box set. Has anyone used them to good effect or have just been a big failure. They seem to be pretty good but the t-minus rule really hurts them. So give your thoughts on why there good or not.

There's a few threads on this, but since no one answered, I think they are rather bad. It's one shot, it goes off at a time you can't control, and it is variable power. Not only that it can scatter and be interrupted. Most importantly, it's a single heavy support choice in a race that can take squads of them. So you could fit in 3 LRBT or 3 Medusa or whatever.

The fluff on it makes it a lot better than it is IMHO.

Hey Christian! What up man?

I think you can build a very effective list with Deathstrikes.

I have not tried this though, this is only theory but I believe it would be highly effective.

You take three of them, and the rest of the army is typical mech IG spam. You hide the deathstrikes as best you can, and play the res of your army as normal. You have a 50% chance of one of them firing turn 2, which is good odds, and the other two should fire the next turn, playing the odds.

What this means is that on average, you will have carpet bombed the other guy with 3 d6" RADIUS (a lot of people miss that) nukes that would obliterate most of the opposing army. This gives you time to bust transports, too.

Now, of course this is a gamblers army, but I think it could be a ton of fun and highly effective if luck is with you.

But honestly, I wouldn't try and run a deathstrike with less than 2, I think you have to play the odds and go with 3, which also adds a lot of survivability to them.

If you want pure effectiveness, I would role with the manticore.

Say hi to the fellas up in SLOtown for me, man!

Reecius wrote:Now, of course this is a gamblers army, but I think it could be a ton of fun and highly effective if luck is with you.

There is a subtle difference between gambling and Russian roulette. Any strategy that relies on Deathstrikes is completely at the mercy of randomness in a game that's already random enough. The secret of gambling, as any gambler will tell you, is reducing the amount of luck you need to win as much as possible.

Hahaha, good point, but with taking 3 you dramatically reduce the element of chance.

And Russian roulette is a bad example as it involves the player dying horribly! (Just watch Deer Hunter)

I agree that the triple Deathsrike list is anything but dependable, but if it hits big, like all three going off turn 2 (which admittedly will only happen once in 216 games) it could be game winning.

As I said, the triple manticore would certainly be the more reliable list, but I would definitely be willing to try the triple deathstrike for fun and the huge payoff it potentially has. And if you supported them with the plethora of IG units that dish out pain in other slots, you could be fine.

That is all theory though, as I stated, i have not tired it myself.

I think that they're a wierd unit, in that they're not a good alpha strike, but they also don't have any staying power. I can see two ways to use them: as reecius described, or as single throw in to a mechanized list. Any shooting at the deathstrike keeps your reliable stuff alive, but you'll have a big boom at some point...

I suppose you could run one as a fear tactic unit. That would draw a lot of fire, and perhaps serve a useful purpose in that role. I didn't think of that. In that case, the potential shooting is more of a bonus than anything else.

The triple threat strategy I think has merit, but then, some of my other wacky ideas that looked great on paper didn't pan out in practice. This one though, i would certainly be willing to try.

I would say ditch it. Make the Manticore instead, it's amazing.

Although, in friendly games, they seem like they could be very fun to use.

I'd definately recommend Manticores over Deathstrikes as not only are they awesome but they're also more reliable.

I plan on putting a list together with at least 2 Manticores