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So, I was just wondering if assault termies are the only deathstar unit available for marines, or what some other options might be. If we could get some ideas posted on here that would be great. Also, assault termies. How should they be kitted. And should you take the max number you can fit into a landraider, or is five the max?

The great thing about assault terminators is that they can stand up to any unit in the game but aren't a death star. Your army can easily survive their demise.

10 man vanguard vet squad with maxed out plasma / pw?

Space Marines don't have a Deathstar unit.

Assault Terminators would be a deathstar except for what Willydstyle said. they aren't inexpendable.

they can however Wreck most other codex's deathstars.

they are Deathstar destroyers.


Vanguard cost enough to be one, but they actually suck at what they do so don't qualify.

Noob question incoming. What is a "deathstar unit"?

I'm assuming it's a very powerful and expensive unit that has the potential to do a lot of damage but will severely cripple your army if killed.

you answered your own question, lechium! couldn't have put it better myself.

Thunderhammers are the closest, and the best. Heres why. The only real reason to take a death star is to wreck your opponents death star, or take a huge chunk out of their battle line. Hammers can wreck most other death stars, the only one that does well against them is generally the seer council. In addition hammers can put out almost the same damage as a death star, for less points. Space marines are still very very competitive

Thanks for the relplies. I think I get it. So, with the assault terminators, all hammer and shield, no claws at all? And def in a LR, right?

The Codex: Space Marine deathstar would probably be Command Bikers with a Librarian for Null Zone.

A really nasty one that someone I know uses is calgar with ass. termies ina LR, followed up by cantor in a rhino with a tac squad. yeah when he gets it locked onto one target in assault, the target dies lol. calgar and termies with plus 1 attack(cantor) and charging.

20 PF attacks ws 4., 7 PF attacks ws 6, and if cantor gets in it add 4 PF attacks ws 6 and a serg. with 4 PF attacks at ws4

20+7+4+4= 35 PF ATTACKS!!! Expensive but when used properly is a steam roller and destroyer of death stars but again very expensive and needs to be used properly or else its a points waste.

Nantukoshade wrote:Thanks for the relplies. I think I get it. So, with the assault terminators, all hammer and shield, no claws at all? And def in a LR, right?

Well, I ran a unit of 10 Assault Termies with th/ss in an RTT and won it. They were accompanied by a Librarian with terminator armor, storm shield, and nullzone.
If supported correctly, they are hard to stop.

Just watch out.

Space marines, ironicly, have the Best way to stop their own hammernators. Nullzone.

in a competitive environment if your SM opponent has a Libby you can bet the farm it will have Null Zone for just that purpose.


There really isn't much point in putting the Null Zone libby with the Hammernators. He doesn't add much killing power. a Chaplain is better as he gives reroll on the charge.


also LC termies will kill more basic troops then Hammer Bros will. if playing Orks, Nids, Guard, Other(terminator and Dred light)Space marines, then LCs are better. Rerolls to wound, and to hit on the charge if you put a chaplain in there, will wipe out most units.

i had 5 LC terminators take down a brood of Fex's to 1 wound on the charge, lose 2 members and have the last Fex die to a fearless wound.


that said LC terminators will die to enemy PWs and AP2 just as easily as Tactical terminators so they arn't good against a shooty, PW heavy army

Saying that the Librarian adds little killing power is incorrect. The librarian adds alot of killing power specifically due to nullzone. He has the same number of profile attacks as a chaplain, but nullzone > rerolling to hit against the targets that are going to give you the most issues.

Also, nullzone does not require you to be in combat to be effective - it will work as long as your target is in range of the LRC's weapons anyways. IMO the librarian is the better choice to add killing power.

my point is that targets that are proper targets for Null Zone(Seer Councils, other Hammernators, Deamons) are targets that either don't need Hammernators to kill OR are poor targets for them in the first place.


Even better is to have both the Chaplain and the Libby. Libby is else where supporting with NZ wile the Chappy is making the Terminators reroll hits.

well, why keep the librarian in the raider? I normally keep mine in a razorback, and just follow the raider around to provide null zone, without having to get him into hand to hand.

So, when you use 10 termies, how do you transport them. A raider only has a capacity of 16, and termies take two spots...or am I missing something. Hopefully I am wrong, and have been robbing myself of some termies . I definately need to throw some claws in them, cause I play against lots of ork. CSM sometimes. So about 50/50 I would say. I also have a chappy in terminator armor to go with them. I was running 7 termies and a chaplain, to total 8 in the raider (cause that it the most I thought you could get in there)

wuestenfux wrote:Well, I ran a unit of 10 Assault Termies with th/ss in an RTT and won it. They were accompanied by a Librarian with terminator armor, storm shield, and nullzone.
If supported correctly, they are hard to stop.

Did you use shrike? One of my friends plays with 10 termies like that, and when they fleet across the board at you its very intimidating.

lechium wrote:Noob question incoming. What is a "deathstar unit"?

A large moon-sized weapon of mass destruction that can be killed by one well placed proton torpedo

The assault terminators don't reach deathstar level until you have about 8 of them, even with 5 though they are a very powerful unit, and I do think they classify as a deathstar, as they can both hit hard and take hits in close combat, but it has issues.

There are other space marine units that could be called a deathstar though, the biker command squad with Storm Shields and/or plasma could be a deathstar, and it's a pretty hard hitting one as well. The FNP from the apothecary combined with the storm shields makes for a very tough unit to kill. The command squad can also ride in a vehicle, but this is not as points efficient, and the extra toughness from the bike makes them harder to take down.

One deathstar I have seen used with great effect is the Chapter Master's Honor Guard (normally using an attached chapter master SC, like Marneus or Pedro.) The company champion (armed with a relic blade) is a monster, able to knock out most generic HQs (and some special HQs as well) They work best when riding around in a land raider, but can fit into a razorback as well. Any unit with mass power weapon attacks will destroy things, but these guys also carry boltguns, so they can chew up infantry units quite well. However, they are a very expensive unit, and aren't able to take hits from armor ignoring weapons.

Here is the best SM deathstar I have seen so far:

Khan/Moondragon (bike)
Chaplain/bike + power fist
Command squad on bikes:
• Apothecary
• 3x lightning claw & stormshield
• power fist & stormshield

Khan grants furious charge. Chaplain grants rerolling hits on the charge. Apothecary grants FNP. Basically you have a T5 fearless unit that can turbo boost & is solid in close combat. Thunder termies are great but if you pop their landraider they have to slog it. Five thunder termies you can kill outright before they ever swing back if you just hit them with enough attacks.

G

As many have said. SM do not really have a Deathstar. The closest are kitted out CMD squads and honor guard.

Vanguard kitted out can be one but are not a great unit for a Deathstar. I wouldn't say they suck, they are really hard to use and require tons of practice.

If you are looking for a solid hard hitting unit, TH/SS termies are nice.

You can also take 4 LC/ 3TH and a chappy in a LRC. They hit like a ton of bricks against any unit. LC's for I4 attacks to clear Infantry and TH's for vehicles and IC's. Chappy for the re-rolling on the charge.