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So let's hear it - what's the best deathstar in the meta today?

 necron99 wrote:
So let's hear it - what's the best deathstar in the meta today?

I'd think it should be "Inferno Tetra", although it is a formation of four separated Daemon Prince instead of usual "deathstar" formed by multiple character joining into a single unit. But the powerful rules comes from the 4 Princes all alived on field, and it is no denying that those buffed rules (expecially the +1T and +1S. They are now all immue to S10 in terms of ID right? The Slaneesh Lash is now S7 right? The Balesword now rerolls to wound against T6 MC right?) coupled with the new Daemon Relics and the shared Warlord Trait (everyone is 4++ with the right Tzeentch WT right?) makes a unholy strong flying circus.

^ thats not a death star but ok. IMO i think the best one is the wolf star. 90 wolves from wolfkin and then fill it with librarians and azrael. It pretty stupid but there you go.

Not including bark star I think Castellans smash commander with Celestine and a conclave is pretty sick. They get obsec if you take coteaz, then Celestine grants hit and run. The IH commander is tough as nails plus the whole thing gets hatred from the detachment. Is it the best? Probabaly not, but still pretty sick!

My vote would be for the Nurgle Biker Deathstar. The thing consists of:

1 Chaos Lord
1 Sorcerer
1 Cyclopea Cabal (3 Sorcerers)
5+ Bikers

It gets loaded with an assortment of power fists, power weapons, melta, etc, plus it gets Shroud of Deceit. The squad does 32+ attacks on the charge and has T6, which can be made better with psychic buffs. Add in a Black Mace / Burning Brand / Seer's Bane to really pile on with the damage.

I played against this the other day... it ate 4 units without taking a wound. One of the sorcerers got invisibility, which was just lovely. The bikes were able to spread out across the table to multicharge 2 units at a time. Seer's Bane has great synergy with Icon of Despair against anything that's not fearless.

Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

I'll never get tired of the good old screamerstar, the durability is just stupid when everything goes off, you have enough killing power to chew your way through most other non-deathstars, and the heralds can summon more support as you go.

Just need to make sure something rolls cursed earth and the grimoire goes your way... Fateweaver FTW.

All of the old Deathstars from last year still work. They work even better with Celestine. That model is ridiculous for 200 pts. She will be in every winning Deathstar list. No doubt about it. There is absolutely no reason not to run her in any Imperium star.

 luke1705 wrote:
Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

Maybe 3 years ago it was good, I can't remember the last time I saw one on the table, or even worried about facing it.

cabal star with 15 flesh hounds from KDK and a herald. psychic power overload.

Screamer star with grimoire and 2-3 heralds supported by fateweaver. 3++ rerolling 1s.

30-40 wolfkin with supporting characters including azrael to give them 4++.

Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

Belly wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:
Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

Maybe 3 years ago it was good, I can't remember the last time I saw one on the table, or even worried about facing it.

It might still be the only Deathstar in the Imperium army arsenal that might reliably kill Eldar WK or Tau Riptide Wings / Stormsurge before being annilated.

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

What makes that so invincible.

I can see celestine with Hit&Run and her ability to ignore wounds and rebirthing 1 add per turn.
Does the abilities of the heralds merge with additional IC or just for their damage.
Which chapter does the conclave run as? UM for Tiggy??

 rawne2510 wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

What makes that so invincible.

I can see celestine with Hit&Run and her ability to ignore wounds and rebirthing 1 add per turn.
Does the abilities of the heralds merge with additional IC or just for their damage.
Which chapter does the conclave run as? UM for Tiggy??

Conclave for invisibility, Celestine for H&R, and the heralds give you 2+ Saves, the enemy subtracts 1 from BS when shooting at them, they all have IWND, and you ignore the first failed saving throw made by one of the heralds. Crazy good in CC, fast, and extremely difficult to kill or tarpit.

 rabidguineapig wrote:

 rawne2510 wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

What makes that so invincible.

I can see celestine with Hit&Run and her ability to ignore wounds and rebirthing 1 add per turn.
Does the abilities of the heralds merge with additional IC or just for their damage.
Which chapter does the conclave run as? UM for Tiggy??

Conclave for invisibility, Celestine for H&R, and the heralds give you 2+ Saves, the enemy subtracts 1 from BS when shooting at them, they all have IWND, and you ignore the first failed saving throw made by one of the heralds. Crazy good in CC, fast, and extremely difficult to kill or tarpit.

Get this - the FAQ for Space Wolves allows EACH of the 3 Heralds to ignore their first Failed Save. You have a 4+ LOS (since they lose IC and keep C) but you can LOS into other Heralds, or just keep the Heralds covered on each flank,

Also, I might not agree with "crazy good in CC". They are alright. You only have one S10 model (the IP), the rest are AP4 or S5 AP2. S10 is what makes the AP1/AP2 good. Don't get me wrong, it'll kill things, just not the crazy crap that's out there.

Saythings wrote:

 rabidguineapig wrote:

 rawne2510 wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

What makes that so invincible.

I can see celestine with Hit&Run and her ability to ignore wounds and rebirthing 1 add per turn.
Does the abilities of the heralds merge with additional IC or just for their damage.
Which chapter does the conclave run as? UM for Tiggy??

Conclave for invisibility, Celestine for H&R, and the heralds give you 2+ Saves, the enemy subtracts 1 from BS when shooting at them, they all have IWND, and you ignore the first failed saving throw made by one of the heralds. Crazy good in CC, fast, and extremely difficult to kill or tarpit.

Get this - the FAQ for Space Wolves allows EACH of the 3 Heralds to ignore their first Failed Save. You have a 4+ LOS (since they lose IC and keep C) but you can LOS into other Heralds, or just keep the Heralds covered on each flank,

Also, I might not agree with "crazy good in CC". They are alright. You only have one S10 model (the IP), the rest are AP4 or S5 AP2. S10 is what makes the AP1/AP2 good. Don't get me wrong, it'll kill things, just not the crazy crap that's out there.

Don't put the Heralds at the front. Put a Libby or St Celestine out front and keep all three Heralds in base contact with the Independent Character leader - Look Out Sir on a 2+, swap between the Heralds and Celestine's little bodyguards to shrug off as many wounds as possible on the wounds subject the Wolf Priest gives the whole unit FnP(6).
Roll on Sanctic Daemonology for the Rune Priest (he has no chance at invisibility) to get Hammer Hands and or Sanctuary, FnP and IWND will lessen the risk of perils, equip the Rune Priest with a Force Axe and the Libbies with Force Swords, means you're packing insta-death at S8 ap2, admittedly at I1 but the Libbies with Swords are also packing insta-death at S6, I4.
It'll kill plenty.

The C'tan it literally used to eat stars and can poop meteors!

 Soteks Prophet wrote:
The C'tan it literally used to eat stars and can poop meteors!

Exalted.

Neophyte2012 wrote:

Belly wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:
Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

Maybe 3 years ago it was good, I can't remember the last time I saw one on the table, or even worried about facing it.

It might still be the only Deathstar in the Imperium army arsenal that might reliably kill Eldar WK or Tau Riptide Wings / Stormsurge before being annilated.

Can confirm it can do those things. Mine has 5 cents, so that's 25 shots, 20 wounds (assuming prescience). Take 20 4+ 5+'s (because let's be real who doesn't have those shields). Sadly that's just under 7 wounds, but you're looking at killing a stormsurge outright like 40 percent of the time. Riptides are extra toast. 22 wounds, which is 3 dead riptides unless they have FNP (in which case it's 2 dead riptides). WKs with the shield take 20 5+ 5+'s (so that's 9 wounds on average), and if he doesn't have the sword.....well. That would be a dead squadron of 2 wraith knights...if for some godforsaken reason they could do such a thing.


It is hard to use that deathstar in particular effectively, but I like the challenge.

 rawne2510 wrote:

 Dakka Wolf wrote:
Heralds of the Great Wolf
Libby Conclave
Saint Celestine

Damn near invincible.

What makes that so invincible.

I can see celestine with Hit&Run and her ability to ignore wounds and rebirthing 1 add per turn.
Does the abilities of the heralds merge with additional IC or just for their damage.
Which chapter does the conclave run as? UM for Tiggy??

I just want to say that I approve the usage of the noun 'add' here.

 luke1705 wrote:

Neophyte2012 wrote:

Belly wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:
Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

Maybe 3 years ago it was good, I can't remember the last time I saw one on the table, or even worried about facing it.

It might still be the only Deathstar in the Imperium army arsenal that might reliably kill Eldar WK or Tau Riptide Wings / Stormsurge before being annilated.

Can confirm it can do those things. Mine has 5 cents, so that's 25 shots, 20 wounds (assuming prescience). Take 20 4+ 5+'s (because let's be real who doesn't have those shields). Sadly that's just under 7 wounds, but you're looking at killing a stormsurge outright like 40 percent of the time. Riptides are extra toast. 22 wounds, which is 3 dead riptides unless they have FNP (in which case it's 2 dead riptides). WKs with the shield take 20 5+ 5+'s (so that's 9 wounds on average), and if he doesn't have the sword.....well. That would be a dead squadron of 2 wraith knights...if for some godforsaken reason they could do such a thing.


It is hard to use that deathstar in particular effectively, but I like the challenge.

Ok great against the big things. Now tell me how it will do against 20 daemonettes or a squad of plague bearers in cover?

 rawne2510 wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:

Neophyte2012 wrote:

Belly wrote:

 luke1705 wrote:
Cent star is pretty good but I don't know if it's top-tier anymore because although it can pump out 20-25 AP 2 ignores cover shots that are twin linked and re-roll to wound/armor pen and generally wound or 3's or better against most of what you want to kill, Daemons are a struggle to kill, or anything with a decent invuln, which there is a lot of. Not sure if it fits the meta be right now. Is a ton of fun though.

Maybe 3 years ago it was good, I can't remember the last time I saw one on the table, or even worried about facing it.

It might still be the only Deathstar in the Imperium army arsenal that might reliably kill Eldar WK or Tau Riptide Wings / Stormsurge before being annilated.

Can confirm it can do those things. Mine has 5 cents, so that's 25 shots, 20 wounds (assuming prescience). Take 20 4+ 5+'s (because let's be real who doesn't have those shields). Sadly that's just under 7 wounds, but you're looking at killing a stormsurge outright like 40 percent of the time. Riptides are extra toast. 22 wounds, which is 3 dead riptides unless they have FNP (in which case it's 2 dead riptides). WKs with the shield take 20 5+ 5+'s (so that's 9 wounds on average), and if he doesn't have the sword.....well. That would be a dead squadron of 2 wraith knights...if for some godforsaken reason they could do such a thing.


It is hard to use that deathstar in particular effectively, but I like the challenge.

Ok great against the big things. Now tell me how it will do against 20 daemonettes or a squad of plague bearers in cover?

It is a "rock-paper-scissor" situation, Daemons is one of the bad match up and will put this DeathStar at disadvantage for sure. However, Thank the Emperor those Centurions will usually have Hurricane Bolters, so a minimun squads at 12 inch range can still pump out 18 S4 AP5 TL shots to reduce some numbers of that horde of the Daemonette, and if your star can somehow gain Ignore cover, you can kill some Plague Bearers as well. Moreover, you can use 20pts to give one of your SM Librarian Primarch's Wrath, to further your firepower against light armor enemy at decent range. Alternatively, if they don't have a good psychic defense, you can consider Psychic Shierk them after you have cast "banishment" on them, Cleansing Flame them if your GK Libby is lucky enough to rolled it, or else throw those Fulmination or Geokenesis malediction or witchfire on them. I admit it is going to be a tough fight and the above measures may not be very efficient for the huge points in Draigo-Grav Centurion-Librarian Conclave Star, But it is not in a total "no chance to fight" situation.

Jeebus, this thread has convinced me to never play 7th edition again.

More and more it sounds like a game of Cosmic Encounter except you get your powers.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Jeebus, this thread has convinced me to never play 7th edition again.

More and more it sounds like a game of Cosmic Encounter except you get your powers.

Most of these Stars hsve hsrd counters - most.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Jeebus, this thread has convinced me to never play 7th edition again.

More and more it sounds like a game of Cosmic Encounter except you get your powers.

I have to say: "Blame the 7th Edition Eldar Craftworld Codex design team." It is their suddenly super buffed awesome fire power, incredible resilience (due to not their toughness But their "So many" Eldar trickery ) and the far superior mobility, screams for other armies to develop death star.

It's more the formations with their pay to win gotta buy em all mentality.

Plus the formations are scattered and buried in a dozen places, source books, box sets etc.

During 3rd edition I designed an IG army that needed 12 books and magazines to play, I think it could be topped easily today.

I think the screamer star is the best - because it is so cheap. All you really need to run it is a herald with grimore on a disk and 9 screamers.

However with the invention of soulburst. 10wraithgard with an archon with WWP and farseer support is creeping up on the most powerful star in the game.

 Xenomancers wrote:

However with the invention of soulburst. 10wraithgard with an archon with WWP and farseer support is creeping up on the most powerful star in the game.

Offensively, sure... but to stay competitive a Deathstar needs the ability to endure one unbuffed round of shooting against it. The other popular ones can... but man... give me moment of unbuffed opportunity against this star, and a single Y'vahra can make it disappear in a round of shooting.