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I wasn't sure if this is the correct spot to post this topic (the other option being Army Lists), but what is the most up-to-date Centstar?

As far as I know, the barebones to a Centstar is: 3-4 Cents (+/-), Draigo for Gate, and a Librarian for Invisibility. That being said, Seth Loth gives you guaranteed Invis, but in tournaments where FW isn't allowed, Tiggy gets thrown in for his 75%+ chance (with the rerolls) to grab Invis. From there, there are options, a GK for guaranteed Prescience, Libby Conclave with Tiggy for 2+ casts, etc, etc.

I was wondering how do you run your Centstars and why?
If you don't run it personally, what have you seen run either through friends or competitive play?
What does the rest of the list consist of? (Nemesis Strike Force versions of Centstar usually have 2-3 Dreadknights, from what I've seen)

Thanks!

Some people use a "poor man's" centstar as well which consists of just 3 cents with tigerius rolling for invisibility in a drop pod.

Here is my latest list...

http://greenblowfly.blogspot.com/2015/08/1500-point-batrep-draigostar-vs-decurion.html

@Doom, I like the idea of the "poor's man" Centstar! Thanks for pointing that one out.

@Dozer, why a Techmarine for an HQ? Isn't he roughly the same price as a ML2 UM Libby? Just curious to your trimmings and your thoughts on them (the extra units outside of the star).

I've always had good luck with the Techmarine. 2+ armor save plus the servo arm can be handy. Bolster Defense can be clutch versus the Cullexus.

I could definitely see a +1 cover save on a ruin coming in handy. Especially in Nova terrain, there are ruins everywhere! I like the twist to normal centstar.

I've been playing centstar for a while now and have been playtesting and fine tuning my list a lot lately.
This is my current version that seems the best.

NSF - grey Knights
Level 3 Libby with daemonhammer
Five man strike squad
2 NDK with teleporter/incinerator/psycannon/sword
Draigo

Inquisitorial detachment - inquisition
Coteaz

CAD - Ultramarines - space marines
Tigarius
2 five man bolter scouts in LS storms with heavy Flamers
drop pod with locater beacon
4 grav cents with hurricane bolters, sergeant has scope
1 hunter tank

Reserve scouts and storms as long as possible with tiggy
Coteaz helps against droppods and culexus in pod as well as seize the initiative to get invis up before alpha strike

Tiggy rolls for invis (and then perfect timing if he gets it early)
Coteaz rolls for prescience and perfect timing (invis if tiggy misses)
Level 3 Libby rolls for gate (invis and/or perfect timing before secondary gate)

Tiggy, draigo, Coteaz, Libby, and cents make the star
Dreadknights play bodyguard to the star hopefully saving shunt move for late game
Hunter does what it does until it can't / dies
Drop pod is there for null deploy option or for the strikesquad

Works well imo.... Gladius and similar armies suck lol

@ DayOne - I really like your list and run similar.

My newest version is:

NSF

Lvl 3 Libby with Hammer and Liberica
5 man Strike Squad
2 NDK with Sword, Incinerator, and teleporter
Draigo

UM CAD

Lvl 2 Libby with sword
2 - 5 man scout squads in LSS
4 Centurians with Grav, Scope

Liberian Conclave
Tyggy
2 - lvl 2 Liberians with axes

Draigo gives me auto Gate and a good tanking character
Tiggy goes for Invis
the other 2 Conclave members go for Divination and Invis if needed
The GK Libby goes on Sanctic/Divination if needed
Normal Libby goes on either Divination or Bio

I like your lists, DayOne and Marshall! I sat there and looked at "scouts and storms" for like a minute looking for Stormtalons. Brainfart as to why I forgot the DT for scouts were called Landspeeder Storms xD

I had a feeling the conclave might be strong to get off the necessary powers with less dice (and increased probability of going off).

How does Coteaz help the star besides another pskyer. Is the 12" "I've been expecting you" strong? Maybe to deter DS'ing and bad scatters. I always thought Coteaz is deathstars for that one rule always seemed like over kill. (Cuxelus deterrence makes sense, but he can always avoid the 12" from Coteaz himself and stay in 12" of a single model to take off invis)

@marshall Ragnar - Great list
I think our differences are probably based on either local meta or preference. Coteaz to me is an auto include with the introduction of skyhammer, droppod culexus and other droppod related craziness but he does kind of fizzle when the opponent doesn't have those.


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@saythings
Coteaz isn't a hard counter to the culexus but a dramatic help... By providing that buffer zone it gives you the ability to walk away in the other direction and then hopefully gate away.


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Not only that but he allows you to reroll seize and makes them reroll also... Pretty big when you need to get your powers up before they alpha strike you


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And coteaz is a level 2 Psyker too so he's only ten extra points for all those rules

Yeah, I have used Coteaz in my list before. He does help a lot with that 12" buffer and making the oponenr re-roll to sieze.

The tourneys I have been doing lately restricts lists to 3 detatchments. And I feel I get more out of the GK and Conclave then I would Coteaz.

I have heard/thought about replacing the CAD Libby with a Techmarine though so I can buffer a ruin for the critical 1st Turn if needed.

That's a common idea I've heard recently and think it's pretty good especially with the conclave option since you don't lose much with the extra Libby... Plus you get the same wound absorber in the star too

Another common idea is the fleshterrors formation to get sanguinary priest for 5+ fnp in the star

The other option my roommate and I've thought about is dark Angels cad for Azrael and his 4++ to the unit and another tank for the unit... But pricy with his troop and hq taxes since he's a LOW


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I play the same ITC / 3 detachment restrictions usually too so I feel ya on making decisions on which is better lol

This is the kind of the discussion I was hoping for! Glad to hear you guys discussing the who and why in your stars. Really appreciate the thoughts.

I've been playing my Nids for the last few months and going to Nova on Friday with them (as they are my most practice). I'm definitely looking forward to playing some Centstar lists after Nova and trying out all these ideas!

The 1850 list I plan on running arm is:

NSF:

Librarian: level 3

Strike Squad: Incinerator

NDK: Sword, Incinerator, Psycannon, teleporter
NDK: Sword, Incinerator, Psycannon, teleporter

Draigo

Librarius:
Tigurius
Librarian: Level 2, auspex
Librarian: level 2

UM CAD:
Techmarine: Full Harness

Scouts: BP, CCW (outflankers for line breaker, or deep objectives)
Scouts: Snipers, Cloaks

Cents: 4 cents, 3 hurricane bolsters, 1 ml, 4 GC+A

Total: 1850

The cloaks were because I had an extra 10pts... The harness because it's the only model I have for tech marines. Wysiwyg and all that. Not to upset though, if he tags along in the death star he is contributing 3 strength 10 attacks. Since hammer hand should be up anyways...

Auspex can be unsung heroes if you don't roll up perfect timing.

I suppose I could drop a heavy Psycannon and the cloaks to pick up a storm for the scouts, but after getting in some games with my NDKs those psycannons can really do some work.

Edit: Tigurius is the warlord, because rending hurricane bolters make the Emperor smile.


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I suppose I could drop the Techmarine and make it Telion to get the Storm, but the +1 cover save could help out in a pinch if I get second turn and can't hide completely out of LOS. And if even one wound is saved by the extra wall plating...

Agree with the techmarine thinking. Considering adding it to my list as well.

I have also heard of people taking Cypher so the Centstar had shrouded, stealth, and H-and-R.

I've never tried it myself but I've thought about running him before instead of Draigo and seeing how that works.

You can't deploy Cypher, RAW, with the Cent Star to start the game, since he must infiltrate. With the last FAQ, they nixed it.

I'd love to be wrong about it, but as far as I can tell and have read, Cypher is a no go unless you go first.

Also, he doesn't have stealth, just Shrouded.

The way read it and others in the area have is that he can delay with the centstar, but then you infiltrate hime within 2" of the Centstar and he automatically joins. I don't have the rulebook in from of me, but this was discussed in another thread also.

Usually depends on the TO that day, as I've heard it ruled both ways

@crazyterran I played basically an identical version of the list you posted for a while but honestly the storm is so much more important than I originally thought. Being able to zoom around to an objective late game after you've thinned the crowd is really huge and not to mention the scouts that pop out if it dies are still there. Moving tiggy to the CAD to harness the reserve manipulation and then dropping the tech to replace tiggy with another Libby would probably work better imo. Not to mention that since tiggy is so good at getting and casting invisibility by himself it allows the conclave to independently cast a crucial spell like perfect timing, endurance, or prescience.

Another trick up the sleeve and I'm not quite sure of its ruling / legality would be to do the sentinels of terra Libby conclave with the relic Ozark thing on one of the Libby's that allows an additional psychic dice and rerolls on a single power. Combined with the conclave focus you get 2+ reroll on any one power per turn basically gaurunteeing a success and limiting peril possibilities.

Or you could put tiggy in the CAD and loth in the conclave and just have gaurunteed invis with loth and pick and choose craziness with tiggy

The biggest problem with centstar is that the star is already powerful enough that you don't really need to boost it up anymore but need to focus on the rest of the list and come up with stuff that's going to help you get objectives or create other threats because the star can only kill so much each turn. Best case it kills 2-3 units a turn (highly unlikely, more like 1-2) and with armies like gladius that have 25-30 scoring units to kill it just makes it hard to win. Figuring out side elements that can help in this department are the key to making centstar work with the new meta. I can't tell you how many times I've lost in a tournament round because time was up and I was down by one point. Kicking ass all game and just needed one more turn to seal the deal. It's a time intensive, finesse based, crazy to play army. You can lose just by taking too long to generate and cast spells each turn. I'm not trying to talk anyone out of centstar because I personally love this army but these are the struggles and what you do to deal with them will dramatically affect your success rates.

Can Loth be taken in a conclave?

Loth cannot be.

The only special character listed in the conclave is Tiggy.

You could, however, run Tiggy/Conclave attached to a red scorpion CAD to get loth + conclave

Not true... You can take any space marine librarian in the conclave


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Loth is simply a forgeworld add onto the codex essentially

Loth cannot be until Forge World releases a FAQ/Errata to say that he can be, since RAW he's not a Librarian, he's Sevrin Loth, which is a special character.

Tigurius needed to have a special exception made for him, which means that a Character like Loth does as well.

With the Conclave, Tigurius can still cast Invis/Prescience/Ignore Cover, or Invis/Ignore Cover/Endurance if you activate Devastator/Tactical Doctrine that turn. Of course, whether Ignore Cover or Endurance is more important depends on what your opponent is standing in, and what is pointing at you. The Auspex should help if you are close enough to let you lean towards 4+ FNP...

The main finesse for this star seems to come from when to Teleport and when not to Teleport. You can't really do it every turn, as the scatter can murder you. Nor should you have to, since typically the first gets you close enough to fire.

Tigurius managed to fail at getting invis when I played a 1500 point game. So the GK rolled and got the exact same powers as Tiggy... I wouldn't be to worried if I wasn't playing against the Wraith Formation from the Eldar Codex. Still pulled out a win, but god damn did getting hit by the D hurt.

Though, that also taught me that a non-S melee Wraith Knight gets absolutely slaughtered by a Dreadknight.

I'll have to contact frontline gaming and a couple other sources to get their take on loth in the conclave... Either way he can be taken in the CAD and then tiggy in the conclave so it's not really a big deal i guess.

Everything you said is really true except I find that placement of the gate is really important and that's why droppods with teleport homers are really cool to help mitigate that problem. Even one can seal a win especially for a late game objective grab.

Honestly centstar has really good matchups against most of the top lists right now... Except the MSU based such as gladius

Things that help me the most are the pregame things that save time because that way you get max time for kicking butt lol
Don't lose because you needed just one more turn to seal a win. Make a psychic power sheet for your models and then check the boxes for each power you roll. Cut out the chit chat and know your rules fluently. Have power markets to place next to each affected unit so that you don't forget or have to argue with your opponent. Have a reminder page with easy stuff to forget like chapter tactics or special rules that affect the game. Even if it seems like second nature maybe you'll forget in the heat of the moment or late in the day when you're tired.