Da Deathstrike Missile

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**Belexar**

Is it any good? I asked one of my friends about it and she said that she had use it once. She said that the only time she used it, it got torn appart before it had any chante to shoot; and therefore it sucked. I'm not so sure. What do you think?

**Avariel**

The Deathstrike can be fun in apocalypse games with the datasheet where it can fire a vortex missle. Titans and super heavies attract most of the early fire so your deathstrike is likely to live to fire.

In regular games of 2000 or less its hard to not take a Manticore instead of the Deathstrike because you know you can fire D3 missles now at least once vs you might not fire the deathstrike before it blows up.

I heard about somebody taking a deathstrike at the ardboys level and it killed like half a unit of nob bikers. Your results might vary as your friend got it blown up before it fired.

**TrollPie**

It's a good psychological weapon. Aside from that it's extremely unreliable and costs a lot.

**Belexar**

Hm.... Interesting. I'm putting toguether an IG army and I had planned on taking at least two tank squads, but wanted some Heavy Support. Basilisks woul be the other option, but the Deathstrike's range and power were too much for me to look over. Since it has a gakload of range, I could just keep it on my edge of the map and protect it from tanks with some Hounds, but even so it's risky. I'mma need to hear some more opinions.

**loota boy**

It's hella fun, not very competitive. When It whiffs, it's hilarious. I had friend fielding one, and it only got to fire at the very last turn. It was an objective game, and I was controlling one objective and he wasn't controlling any. He was going to lose if he didn't kill the 10 grots and their herder that went to ground at my home objective. He fired it, centering it on the runtherd, and catching every single model in the blast. Then rolled nine ones and one six, allocated to the runtherd. After a massive amount of swearing and laughing, we decided that the thing was a dud, and only killed the herder because it landed on the herder's head. It was hilarious. But yeah. Great for laughs, not very competitive.

**Dashofpepper**

Belexar wrote:Hm.... Interesting. I'm putting toguether an IG army and I had planned on taking at least two tank squads, but wanted some Heavy Support. Basilisks woul be the other option, but the Deathstrike's range and power were too much for me to look over. Since it has a gakload of range, I could just keep it on my edge of the map and protect it from tanks with some Hounds, but even so it's risky. I'mma need to hear some more opinions.

Sitting on your table edge or in a corner in a regular sized game doesn't work well - the board is only 6x4.

**schadenfreude**

Well in a normal game there are 3 things that can happen

1 It gets blown up before it shoots.

2 It shoots and wiffs.

3 It shoots and and blows stuff up. If the value of the dead models are less, or even worse far less than the cost of the deathstrike it's still a wiff in my book. A good solid hit with the deathstrike only happens 1/3 to 1/10th of the time depending who you talk to, and what they consider a good hit. IMO a good hit is over 300 points in casualties which definately happens less than 1/10 times.

The deathsrike is even less of an option in an apoc game. Given the massive firepower an apoc army has only a fool allows a unit that is fragile and powerful as a deathstrike to survive long enough to fire.

**Belexar**

Basilisks it is then! Thanks, everybody!

**Aleinikov**

Not an advocate of going for the Deathstrike for the reasons others explaioned above - still, you need to think beyond just kill potential.
The big rocket does scare opponents and can cause them to change their game plan. That can actually win you games even if the things never goes off.

**Kirika**

I tried a deathstrike a total of three times back in 2009 all three times it was totally useless. 2 times it blew up before firing and the 3rd time it wiffed with a bad scatter only killing a couple models.

I also heard anecdotes about the deathstrike laying waste to nob bikers but who plays nob bikers these days? This isn't 2009.

Deathstrike isn't competitive at all. The damage potential is there just it happens so rarely that its not worth the points. I agree with Avariel get a Manticore instead.

Dunno if I would take one for Apoc either. The vortex missle sounds awesome but if your not going first and your opponents are smart it will blow up turn 1 before firing.

**loota boy**

People talk about the psychological advantage of the missile, but while they may divert fire toward it, it's fragile enough that it isn't like they have to divert a lot. 12/10/10 armour isn't impressing anyone.

**juraigamer**

I planned a imperial guard list that used troops, sentinels and 3 deathstrikes.

When they work the first time, you will kick yourself for not bringing it later.

You can always convert it so the model can become manticores or deathstrikes, there are guides around here for that.

**nevertellmetheodds**

The only place death strikes should be is in apoc games or very large playing areas where you can hide it all game. The vortex one is a scary beast though!

**Necrontyr40k**

Deathstrikes are silly under current rules in standard games. Much better use can be made of a medusa or manticore for the same points.

Deathstrikes are a glaring example of thoughtless design that results in DOA codex entry.

**tracer**

Yeah, the Deathstrike is utterly useless in normal games, except maybe for novelty value..

In Apoc they can be thematic as superheavy artillery-support, still wouldn't take them over an ordinary artillery company though.

However, they can be great fun as a fluffy objective in a special mission scenario, IG defending their deathstrikes while the opposing player tries to take them out before they fire (supposedly at a base somewhere way of the board)..

**loota boy**

The deathstrike missile doesn't even fit into the army in a fluffy way. If I had superultraawesomefudgecoatedmegamissiles with infininte range, I would keep them back at a fortress of some kind and fire from a distance, rather then wheel them intoa no-man's land to fire at an enemy 100 yards away from me, assuming they don't blow me up in the 3 hours it takes me to arm the damn thing.

**ork_smash**

Honestly, deathstrike missles should almost never be taken over a Manticore. Storm Eagle rockets will pretty much always outperform the 1 deathstrike blast over the course of a game.

**purplefood**

Look at it this way.
Do you want to win or possibly have a chance at blowing the hell out of something/everything?
If it's the latter then go for 3 and never look back.