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What do you consider to be the line that takes a good and strong unit and turns it into a Death-star? Don't get me wrong, i know what makes up a Death-star. But when do you consider a unit a Death-star? Is is simply adding a hero or two that makes it a death-star? Does it have to do with the points allocated to a unit? Is a Death-star simply a unit that is two good? I have played with/against Death-stars. i feel the can both break the game and bring some challenge to it as well. I know that the ETC limits units to 45 models of 450 points. but is that after this point you have a death star? Every book has units that can be Death-stars.. With the exception of the old chosen star, I have never seen a star that could not be beat..

This is a tactics post or general forum. This sub forum is for rules questions and interpretations. Deathstar isn't a rule (that I know of).

Indeed, I asked a v. Similar question in one of those a few weeks ago, should be in the first two pages.

When the unit gets so big you can't afford redundancy, it's a death star.
When loss of the unit radically changes your tactics, that's a good indication that you're running a death star.

-Matt

HawaiiMatt wrote:
When the unit gets so big you can't afford redundancy, it's a death star.
When loss of the unit radically changes your tactics, that's a good indication that you're running a death star.

-Matt

An assessment i would tend to agree with.

A death star to me is a unit that contains the majority of the points in an army when you throw all of hte heroes into it and when it dies, you have basically lost the game.

A death star is the ultimate extension of points denial. You put as many points as possible into a single unit that is too lethal to engage head-on, and is hard to kill without engaging it. You put all your eggs in one basket, and hope the other guy doesn't have a hammer big enough to crush it.

It leaves you vulnerable to being tided down, cut off, baited around, and generally ignored and outmaneuvered by a more balanced army... so long as the general of the other army isn't dumb enough to try and face you head-on.

 Vulcan wrote:
A death star is the ultimate extension of points denial. You put as many points as possible into a single unit that is too lethal to engage head-on, and is hard to kill without engaging it. You put all your eggs in one basket, and hope the other guy doesn't have a hammer big enough to crush it.

...or one of the many test-or-die-spells.

For some deathstars, that's not all that big a deal. Chaos Warrior/Chosenstars don't give up much in ANY test-or-die situation. Other get by on sheer number of bodies or an aggressive anti-magic defense. Slann with the ignore sixes when you cast are the ultimate extension of that concept...

Can Slaan get rid of miscast 6s? If so, do you still roll a miscast? Or is it only single 6s?

Niteware wrote:
Can Slaan get rid of miscast 6s? If so, do you still roll a miscast? Or is it only single 6s?

Every 6 you roll essentially never happens, so the good side of being becalmed is you can't miscast! How kind of the frog

Niteware wrote:
Can Slaan get rid of miscast 6s? If so, do you still roll a miscast? Or is it only single 6s?

They get rid of ALL 6s. They do not count towards you passing the spell cost, and they cannot make you miscast.

Means those high value test or die spells are a LOT harder to pull off in the first place, and can then be autodispelled if you do get them through.

So if you roll six dice and get a average spread (1,2,3,4,5,6), Becalming Cogitation removes the six entirely and you total the other five dice - getting 15 instead of 21.

If you roll well - say, 1,3,4,6,6,6 it's even worse. ALL the sixes go away, leaving you with a total of 8 instead of 26.

So hope for lots of 5s, just like normal