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With the launch of my podcast www.skared.podbean.com. I have decided to talk about various different psychological aspects of the game. From my very uneducated point of view. Last time I asked people what they thought of Burn out and how you would deal with it and that is what I touch on during Episode 2. Well, for episode 3 I wanted to talk about how we all differently deal with that "uber" unit death star, or what ever.

So far I can think of a few things that we do:
Ignore it.
Stall it (by feeding it smaller units, redirecting it...)
Give up and loose to it.
Wait till the time is right and then hit it with all you have!!!
Use uber spells.

So, what do YOU do against this uber unit.

Cheers!

Also, check out the podcast, short and sweet worth your time and looking for feedback .

Hit it with a faster uber unit.

For example, my Witch Elf horde. ;p It is so fun to make Bloodthirsters vanish.

Flickering fire of tzeentch hit the unit twice with that death stars usually start to feel the hurt if not gateway then hit it with mok warriors with halberds and flaming banner.

Warriors + halberds and shields + mok or mot + flaming banner.
Those are my problem solvers.

Oh look a hydra.. never mind its dead.

Oh look a big rat pile thing oh its dead too.

Best thing tho is against ogres and trolls have those guys hit a unit and they are devastating a lot of high ws high str attacks that do -2 armor and ignore your regen.

If they cant deal with it well there is usually a bsb in there and with his extra damage dealing ability, simply put they gots dis.

Hit it with my even bigger uber unit! STAR!

I hit it repeatedly with Bestigors until it stopps moving, then I let my Gors much away the fleeing survivors.

If I think I can kill it I try to whittle it down and well... kill it. But if its a deathstar that seems to be immune to my weapons, I avoid it trying to get points from the surrounding army. The problem is, that this approach rarely leads to a win since throwing 100p mages to stop a unit for a turn gets costly fast.

If facing a well built deathstar that I feel I cannot kill, I am not ashamed of reforming my white lions into a conga infront of it.

Obvious choices to kill deathstarts are spells that affect the whole unit. Especially most stat test or die spells. Although, I often only have the choice of flames of the phoenix which makes killing ogre and delf deathstars kind of a pain.

Skaven have a combination answer for most death stars:

Dreaded 13th
Warp Lightning Cannon (possibly x2)

if I can use my WLCs to whittle a D.Star unit down (feeding it slave blocks if necessary), then D13 can either take down final members, or at least thin it enough to not really be a *star anymore.

The best way to take down a large deathstar unit is to multicharge it, or avoid it. I find that using that and through in a few key augments Pha's and flesh to stone, usually seal the deal.

Best answer for a deathstar: Avoid it.

If your army isn't fast enough to do this on sheer maneuverability (many aren't), this can be done by feeding it cheap units (and I do mean cheap, if you paid more than 100 points for it, you're feeding it too much). If the 1500 point unit reaps 300 points... what's the point of bringing it in the first place? (Skaven are nasty for this. 100 points brings 50 slaves, which will take even a Chosenstar a couple rounds to chew thorugh.)

THen go and kill the rest of his army. Your 1700 points will wipe the other 500 points of his army out with ease.

If you think you can magic/shoot/attrition it down with cheap units to something you can handle, then do it. Otherwise, just don't engage it at all until there is nothing else left. Then avoid it entirely if it is still too big, or combo charge it on the rear and flanks at the same time to deny it the multiple ranks of attacks if you think you've whittled it down enough.

One counter argument to the feeding it things is that you are loosing points for none in return. Thoughts?

Also, how much do you think is die to match up and how much to player skill?

personally i have always found that the deathstar units have a vulnerability in fantasy that can be exploited.

often times this is a unit killing spell from magic, it could be a side or rear charge to mitigate attacks.

really its about being prepared for them, and idntification early enough to counter.

Out deploy them.

Simple as that last game I didnt want to fight a super killy scary giant block of tomb guard so I chose not to and had them running around all game not in combat

Sounds mean but works like a charm you pick apart the rest of the army and then you should be in a position to deal with the unit.

Then charge that unit with 3 units of warriors and 2 helllcannons and ya not much lives.

hard to out deploy something thats deployed in the middle of the board. Proper deathstars are fast anyway.

I just use the Dreaded 13th Spell.

Alternatively, Warp Lightning Cannons.

Usually I either annihilate the Death Star, or blow myself up.

My method is to fight it very, very late in the game if at all. This is a lot easier against frenzied infantry death stars (local opponent is running a corsair death star of sorts) and harder against big fast stuff like ogre hordes.

If you can hit it in both flanks, you've got a shot, but its pretty tough to pull off, especially with random charge distances.

The main advantage with facing a deathstar is that its harder to be surprised. You know where most of the pain is, and you know what has to get mitigated. The how is harder.

I usually find it tougher going against multiple threat armies, or even worse, armies that can easily change where there biggest threat is coming from (see: cauldron, shadow magic)

Iago wrote:One counter argument to the feeding it things is that you are loosing points for none in return. Thoughts?

Very true, but at the same time as bleeding points from a few small units you have the rest of your army playing against theirs- so say you spend 50pts per turn redirecting your opponent's deathstar of 500ots, you're then playing the rest of that turn with 2350pts vs your opponents 1900. It's not quite as simple as this, but it's not a bad way to think about it. Always try and see the positives in what your opponent does- if they bring a giant deathstar, they've made the rest of their army easier to deal with so take advantage of that. Being prepared for someone plopping down a deathstar isn't all that hard for most armies, and can reap quite a few benefits.

True. Using your flak really helps especially when the uber unit is frenzied.

Ok here is another one. A very killy unit, with a fantastic magic caster, or a lot of shooting and CC potential.

If you engage you loose, if you stay away, they just sit there and blast you with spells, or shoot you to death.

thoughts?

Stormbanner/ Chalice of Dark Rain then tarpit with Slaves/Ungors