Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've always been curious as to how a unit of independent characters and such a low model count can stand up to whole armies, today I saw the following list deployed at a GW store but was sadly only had time to see it deployed before I had to leave...

Ultramarine Allies
Terminator Chaplain,
3 Centurions With Grav Weapons,
& 5 Scout Snipers

Nemesis Strike Force
Draigo,
Librarian,
5 Man Strike Squad with Hammer and Psycannon,
Dreadknight with Personal Teleporter and Great Sword,
Dreadknight with Personal Teleporter and Hammer

Librarian Conclave
Tigurius,
Librarian,
Librarian on a bike

From what I saw he had the independent characters teamed up with the centurions, Dreadknights on the side with the scouts on an objective at the back.
How does that 1 unit work?

That particular list is called a 'centurion star' basically with all that psychic plus draigo that unit is A) nearly unkillable and B) can use gate of infinity to teleport anywhere on the boards and still have enough dice to throw out some offensive powers like the sanctic nova power.

The Centurions by themselves nuke 2 units a turn (really doesn't matter what they're shooting at), the psychic powers can kill anywhere from 1 to infinitely more(that nova is no joke against rhino equivalent vehicles) the dreadknights and strike squad are excellent for catching objective campers, the scouts can sit on an objective the whole game and be more than worth their points.

It is incredibly powerful, amazingly lethal, and you'll lose the whole thing turn one to a podding culexus if you get stuck taking first turn.

It uses psychic buffs to warp around, shoot a bunch of grav shots typically with twin linked or ignore cover or both, while invis or other defensive buffs keep them invulnerable for the entire game.

I use a pseudo-star (Death star lite) consisting of a Chaplain, a command squad with an apothecary and company champ, a librarian (from a librarius conclave) and an Iron Hands captain with a Chain of Gorgon from the new book. Use the librarian to fish for Librarius powers (rerolling saves, or the Might of Heroes +2 to S, T, etc) and it becomes a ridiculously tough unit. Might of Heroes is especially helpful for preventing instant-death by doubling toughness, which makes the FNP from the apothecary that much more potent. With 3++ and 2+++ (FnP) in the Iron Hands detachment, the captain is a beast even without the buffs from the librarian, as long as the apothecary lives. I was using a Relic blade, but I have been toying with the idea of switching to a thunder-hammer for a little more hitting power. Add in the "It Will Not Die" rule, and the Captain with a Gorgon's chain becomes a real tank worthy of praise.

Stick them in a rhino, give the command squad a couple meltas or grav guns, let them scoot around. Or put them in a Drop Pod and plant them on an objective you don't want to be moved off of (such as center board). Use the chappy to tank the invulnerable wounds if you need to, otherwise use the captain.

Not horribly expensive (Approx the cost of 2 land raiders, depending on loadout) and can chew through 2 heavy units fairly easily in a game without sustaining significant losses. Hard counters are pretty much limited to destroyer weapons, and psychic counters to your Librarian buffs.

Considering adding Azrael allied in from DA for a unit-wide 4++ save, but it's got a heavy tax to make that work. I'd love any tips to improve upon this mini-star.

Basically as others have said.

Centurions kill everything with TL bolters, grav guns that re-roll to wound, and T5 (the squad has majority T5), and allowing split-fire.

Tiggy gets whatever power he wants (pretty much). This usually goes to Invis for the 6's to hit. Makes the squad un-killable if he gets the power off.

Draigo gives the squad interceptor, and a good shot at the Gate teleportation.

Remaining libs just give extra WC and the ability of the conclave to very reliably cast Tiggys powers.

If he needs to kill something the Cents kill it. If he needs to get somewhere, he Gates to it (or splits off the bike libby to boost and grab).

The main drawback is that the squad costs around 700 pts, and by going with Tiggy he looses Hit and Run (which he would gain if he went with White Scars CT).

If you drop an assasin, or feed it lightly armoured but numerous squads (like ork boyz) you can probably play around it. You cant kill it, and you cant corner it, so you pretty much have to ignore it and hope it doesnt kill everything on the board.