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Now with twice the effectiveness!

Chapter Master, TH, Shield Eternal, Bike, Artificer
Tigurius (or Sevrin Loth if FW is allowed)
Farsight
O'Vesa
Sha'Vastos (For Hit and Run and Puretide Chip)
4 Centurion Devastators with Grav Cannon/Amp, Omniscope

1399 points

optional
Torchstar (for Multi-Spectrum Sensors)

Obviously dependent on matchup, roll Gate of Infinity on Tigurius (or Sevrin Loth has it stock) or div if fighting shooty people. this is probably the death-star to end all death-stars.

Vs Seer Council/ Screamerstar you roll Divination for misfortune.

If going first, Gate into Grav-gun range and let loose. Split Fire O'vesa for the lols. Laugh as you soak return fire and spread wounds on your 5+ independent characters, two of which have (or can get) 3++ saves.

If going second, hide behind some LOS blocking cover, pop Orbital Bombardment for First Blood and then gate in your turn. Split off Bike Captain to punch things. GG

That is a bit to much chars for a normal force org... For those points i put out a Necron Court being much better, but it definitly is scary!!

 Valek wrote:
That is a bit to much chars for a normal force org... For those points i put out a Necron Court being much better, but it definitly is scary!!

2 SM HQs, 1 Allied Tau HQ, 2 Bodyguard Choices. How is it too many chars again?

A Necron court doesn't quite have a tenth of the firepower or survivability.

 Valek wrote:
That is a bit to much chars for a normal force org... For those points i put out a Necron Court being much better, but it definitly is scary!!

The farsight commander team does not count against the force org.

I think Torchstar is a must; might as well go all the way and get ignore cover. It's a huge price to pay for sig systems that could be had for a fraction of the cost on a shas'vre bodyguard if Tau Empire were primary, or on a buffmander if doing Tau-Tau.

How badly do you want the Chapter Master? I understand this list is vastly different from a conventional bomb, and I don't dislike it, but honestly, the Nova list was fine in CC. It killed a Wraithknight, mephistion, wraiths with a d-lord; and that's just what Justin told me right after he won, he probably forgot other things.

As something different, I like your idea, I just don't see how it's any better than the regular O'Vesa-star or a conventional bomb with Tiggy.*

I put an asterisk in that statement, caveat being, point for point. Obviously your death star is
More expensive than both if them and would rightly win 1on1. But there a lot of support and scoring you'd be missing out on that the other 2 wouldnt.

I guess you're right. He's not entirely useless either with his two BS5 markerlights.

The Chapter Master is absolutely necessary for that turn one Orbital Bombardment first blood, and he is using the mobility from Gate to hit threats in the backfield. I5 Hit and Run is also nice.

The difference is A) Grav Centurions, which massacre either the O'Vesa Star or a conventional bomb; B) Their main weakness is mobility and survivability, which is what the list aims to mitigate.

What support units would you suggest? The scoring are pretty much going to be min crisis Battlesuits and bike squads.

Is this SM w/ Enclave allies? If so the deathstar is illegal, to get Farsight's bodyguard team, Farsight has to be e Warlord.

The Orbital bombardment isn't that reliable for first blood; skyrays can accomplish that more consistently (or one of your Riptides).

As for threatening backfields; he's already on a bike...and you can't assault after gate-ing. He's tough enough that he doesn't really need to hide...so I'm failing to grasp what he brings to the table within the context of your bomb. He's great, I'm just saying he may not maximize his effectiveness inside a bomb.

As for support, you obviously can't fit much; especially if Torchstar is tagging along. At 1850, I'd almost recommend naked tac marines in rhinos x2. That's 350; which is just about where we'd be. You might need to shave a centurion. Small squads of bikes are going to be vulnerable from things they can't hide from. There really aren't that many helldrakes flying around anymore but anything not needing LOS will have to be your #1 target priority if you decide to go the bike route. It's not like rhinos are indestructable, but with a 1500 Deathstar flying around, who wants to be shooting at rhinos?

I'll end on this, I'm in a competitive league right now and decided to just bring a Farsight bomb + crisis spam for fun. I didn't intend for it to be super competitive because Gate is only a 75% chance even with Tiggy. First 2 games of the league I didn't get it. Lost both. Now, part of that may be my execution, I'm not absolving myself of guilt, and since you have Riptides, you have some long range, but it's something to keep in mind.

Best of luck.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh crap, Krellnus is right, I just verified.

 Krellnus wrote:
Is this SM w/ Enclave allies? If so the deathstar is illegal, to get Farsight's bodyguard team, Farsight has to be e Warlord.

No, no he does not. he simply must be an HQ choice(which he is).

Shrike: bs5 means his Bombardment hits more often than it misses(and hits spread models far more often); and the bike isn't for the T boost(although that is nice), it is for the relentless(allowing the bombardment after the gate).

That said, it is a bomb, and is the only "scary" thing in the army, thus is disarmed by pretty much any fluffy list who can kill the 3 madatory troops choices(all that can be afforded for 451 pts) first or second turn, and can tie up the bomb with non-essential units every turn thereafter. The big threat is YOU getting first turn

@Kommissar: Directly from the supplement, I quote:

"When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army WITH COMMANDER FARSIGHT AS ITS WARLORD, you may take Farsight's Commander Team instead of Farsight's XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team."

As for the troops problem, any Deathstar list has this problem. That's why I suggested Rhinos. But you'd have to be an imbecile to lose them on T1-2 because any general worth their salt would reserve their troops choices; especially if they had mobility from bikes or rhinos.

I thought Orb Bombardment always rolled full 2d6, no subtraction for BS....

6 Str 8 ap 3 shot that could ignore cover vs Str 10 ap 1 re-rollable barrage large blast template with ignores cover and monster/tank hunter, I'd put my money on the orbital bombardment most of the time.

It's the ability to barrage and hit anything on the map which makes it so deadly.

He's there to provide close combat punch and tank, and the first blood ability. Bikes aren't all that mobile without scout, and it's possible to block people off. With Gate you can circumvent their lines as you can generally appear wherever you want.

I dislike Rhinos intensely, bikers are far more flexible and durable.

Gate isn't always necessary, it's mostly there so your centurions are effective from turn one... it's really only important against mech eldar and gundam wing tau.

Kommissar Kel wrote:

 Krellnus wrote:
Is this SM w/ Enclave allies? If so the deathstar is illegal, to get Farsight's bodyguard team, Farsight has to be e Warlord.

No, no he does not. he simply must be an HQ choice(which he is).

Shrike: bs5 means his Bombardment hits more often than it misses(and hits spread models far more often); and the bike isn't for the T boost(although that is nice), it is for the relentless(allowing the bombardment after the gate).

That said, it is a bomb, and is the only "scary" thing in the army, thus is disarmed by pretty much any fluffy list who can kill the 3 madatory troops choices(all that can be afforded for 451 pts) first or second turn, and can tie up the bomb with non-essential units every turn thereafter. The big threat is YOU getting first turn

Bombardment always scatters the full amount. How do you tie up something that hits and runs at I5? Troops will be in reserve mostly.

The Shrike wrote:@Kommissar: Directly from the supplement, I quote:

"When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army WITH COMMANDER FARSIGHT AS ITS WARLORD, you may take Farsight's Commander Team instead of Farsight's XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team."

As for the troops problem, any Deathstar list has this problem. That's why I suggested Rhinos. But you'd have to be an imbecile to lose them on T1-2 because any general worth their salt would reserve their troops choices; especially if they had mobility from bikes or rhinos.

Strangely in my online copy it doesn't have this rule. Although I do realise the no- scatter deepstrike thing only works if Farsight is the warlord...

General Hobbs wrote:

I thought Orb Bombardment always rolled full 2d6, no subtraction for BS....

You are correct.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

The Shrike wrote:@Kommissar: Directly from the supplement, I quote:

"When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army WITH COMMANDER FARSIGHT AS ITS WARLORD, you may take Farsight's Commander Team instead of Farsight's XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team."

Strangely in my online copy it doesn't have this rule. Although I do realise the no- scatter deepstrike thing only works if Farsight is the warlord...

General Hobbs wrote:

You might need to re-download from your black library account. It was update a week after its release.

Farsight already gives them I5 H&R; you don't need the CM for that. I want to commend you for imagination, but I think we can agree this list is illegal.

Solid list for most opponents.

Dog pile would wreck it, well actually the dogs would just eat all your scoring units while grav guns go piff against hounds and demonic troops. Hurricane bolters are good, but the unit is paying way too much for 12 tl bolters. The chapter master doesn't have enough attacks to single handedly smash all the deamons, and if fiends + a herald are included the demon player can force tau characters or tiggy to accept challenges.

I think it would also struggle against IG and green tide. as an IG player the list doesn't look scary.

Definitely an illegal list and really not that good. Sure its scary, but its also scary expensive.

Its only really feasible at 2k and double FOC.

The Shrike wrote:Farsight already gives them I5 H&R; you don't need the CM for that. I want to commend you for imagination, but I think we can agree this list is illegal.

A) It's not a list, it's a combination of units possibly taken in a allied Farsight/SM force.

B) It's completely legal if I make Farsight the Warlord, albeit at 2k with double force org (I suppose I can just drop the Chapter Master for sub 2k)

C) He's there to tank and for the Orbital Bombardment, two I5s are also useful if Farsight goes down.

schadenfreude wrote:Solid list for most opponents.

Dog pile would wreck it, well actually the dogs would just eat all your scoring units while grav guns go piff against hounds and demonic troops. Hurricane bolters are good, but the unit is paying way too much for 12 tl bolters. The chapter master doesn't have enough attacks to single handedly smash all the deamons, and if fiends + a herald are included the demon player can force tau characters or tiggy to accept challenges.

I think it would also struggle against IG and green tide. as an IG player the list doesn't look scary.

There's more than grav guns in the star; there's O'Vesa's pie plate which doubles out the dogs; there's the orbital bombardment which doubles out the dogs; Against dog pile I'd just deploy in cover and attack you first when you charge me, then hit-and-run afterwards and shoot you to bits. The hurricane bolters aren't the point of the unit, grav-cannons are. Green Tide doesn't have the mobility or firepower to deal with the unit. Vendetta Spam would be an interesting matchup, but gunline IG will get slaughtered.

Zagman wrote:Definitely an illegal list and really not that good. Sure its scary, but its also scary expensive.

Its only really feasible at 2k and double FOC.

A) It's not a list, it's a collection of units. It's legal with double force-org.

B) You said it yourself. It isn't that much more than a Farsight bomb, is it?

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

The Shrike wrote:Farsight already gives them I5 H&R; you don't need the CM for that. I want to commend you for imagination, but I think we can agree this list is illegal.

A) It's not a list, it's a combination of units possibly taken in a allied Farsight/SM force.

B) It's completely legal if I make Farsight the Warlord, albeit at 2k with double force org (I suppose I can just drop the Chapter Master for sub 2k)

C) He's there to tank and for the Orbital Bombardment, two I5s are also useful if Farsight goes down.

schadenfreude wrote:Solid list for most opponents.

Dog pile would wreck it, well actually the dogs would just eat all your scoring units while grav guns go piff against hounds and demonic troops. Hurricane bolters are good, but the unit is paying way too much for 12 tl bolters. The chapter master doesn't have enough attacks to single handedly smash all the deamons, and if fiends + a herald are included the demon player can force tau characters or tiggy to accept challenges.

I think it would also struggle against IG and green tide. as an IG player the list doesn't look scary.

There's more than grav guns in the star; there's O'Vesa's pie plate which doubles out the dogs; there's the orbital bombardment which doubles out the dogs; Against dog pile I'd just deploy in cover and attack you first when you charge me, then hit-and-run afterwards and shoot you to bits. The hurricane bolters aren't the point of the unit, grav-cannons are. Green Tide doesn't have the mobility or firepower to deal with the unit. Vendetta Spam would be an interesting matchup, but gunline IG will get slaughtered.

Zagman wrote:Definitely an illegal list and really not that good. Sure its scary, but its also scary expensive.

Its only really feasible at 2k and double FOC.

A) It's not a list, it's a collection of units. It's legal with double force-org.

B) You said it yourself. It isn't that much more than a Farsight bomb, is it?

Grav guns wound deamons on a 6 and are nearly useless even with a grav amp. The dogs don't need to charge the death star early in the game to win. A dog pile list would have 2,000 points of fast deamons and all it needs to do is kill the remaining 600 or less points of troops. Turn 2 all the dogs charge, and they don't charge the hit and run death star they charge the scoring units.

Tactic would be similar with a MSU army such as henchmen. 12 Chimera with 3 plasma guns and 2 storm bolter henchmen + Coteaz is 1432. Lose 2 small units like Chimera to the star per turn while focusing 2,000 points of dakka onto 600 points of tau/sm troops.

Death stars are more susceptible to hard counters than tactical lists.

Well first off, IG or green tide don't need to kill it..If its purge the alien good job, otherwise they just need to ignore it and that unit even if on fire and hitting and wounding everything it sees can't target more then 2 units a turn. Simply awful. 1300+ points and I don't see it killing its points back in a game unless you face another silly deathstar. Which I have noticed is the trend as of late, these 1000+ deathstars are only decent in purge or against other expensive units. MSU is on a rise again for a reason, it ruins these wonky builds simply by principle.


BTW you grossly over estimate pie plates. OB is not a FB guarantee by a long shot, Ion excellerators aren't that scary either, with max spacing your hitting 3 dudes. I really don't see how 250 points for a one shot barrage seems good to you.

It is a fun unit though, I think the traditional farsight bomb is better though, being able to target many units.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 schadenfreude wrote:

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:

The Shrike wrote:Farsight already gives them I5 H&R; you don't need the CM for that. I want to commend you for imagination, but I think we can agree this list is illegal.

A) It's not a list, it's a combination of units possibly taken in a allied Farsight/SM force.

B) It's completely legal if I make Farsight the Warlord, albeit at 2k with double force org (I suppose I can just drop the Chapter Master for sub 2k)

C) He's there to tank and for the Orbital Bombardment, two I5s are also useful if Farsight goes down.

schadenfreude wrote:Solid list for most opponents.

Dog pile would wreck it, well actually the dogs would just eat all your scoring units while grav guns go piff against hounds and demonic troops. Hurricane bolters are good, but the unit is paying way too much for 12 tl bolters. The chapter master doesn't have enough attacks to single handedly smash all the deamons, and if fiends + a herald are included the demon player can force tau characters or tiggy to accept challenges.

I think it would also struggle against IG and green tide. as an IG player the list doesn't look scary.

There's more than grav guns in the star; there's O'Vesa's pie plate which doubles out the dogs; there's the orbital bombardment which doubles out the dogs; Against dog pile I'd just deploy in cover and attack you first when you charge me, then hit-and-run afterwards and shoot you to bits. The hurricane bolters aren't the point of the unit, grav-cannons are. Green Tide doesn't have the mobility or firepower to deal with the unit. Vendetta Spam would be an interesting matchup, but gunline IG will get slaughtered.

Zagman wrote:Definitely an illegal list and really not that good. Sure its scary, but its also scary expensive.

Its only really feasible at 2k and double FOC.

A) It's not a list, it's a collection of units. It's legal with double force-org.

B) You said it yourself. It isn't that much more than a Farsight bomb, is it?

Grav guns wound deamons on a 6 and are nearly useless even with a grav amp. The dogs don't need to charge the death star early in the game to win. A dog pile list would have 2,000 points of fast deamons and all it needs to do is kill the remaining 600 or less points of troops. Turn 2 all the dogs charge, and they don't charge the hit and run death star they charge the scoring units.

Tactic would be similar with a MSU army such as henchmen. 12 Chimera with 3 plasma guns and 2 storm bolter henchmen + Coteaz is 1432. Lose 2 small units like Chimera to the star per turn while focusing 2,000 points of dakka onto 600 points of tau/sm troops.

Death stars are more susceptible to hard counters than tactical lists.

^this

I have been shutting down riptides and WK's with MSU and the more inflated the unit, the easier the game gets to the point where it is just academic.

Well the thing about the star is that it can be split into its component units to deal with MSU, you don't have to stay in one blob beyond the first turn gate.

The problem with MSU lists is that they generally lose to the meta of riptide/mechdar spam.

 The Shrike wrote:
@Kommissar: Directly from the supplement, I quote:

"When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army WITH COMMANDER FARSIGHT AS ITS WARLORD, you may take Farsight's Commander Team instead of Farsight's XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team."

As for the troops problem, any Deathstar list has this problem. That's why I suggested Rhinos. But you'd have to be an imbecile to lose them on T1-2 because any general worth their salt would reserve their troops choices; especially if they had mobility from bikes or rhinos.

That is not what my copy says. Are you looking under the heading "army of the farsight enclaves", or somewhere else?

Mine says: "When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army, you may take a special unit called Farsight's Commander Team. If you choose to take this unit, Commander Farsight does not allow you to take an XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team as normal; he has the command team instead.

Well, I wouldn't put it past GW to publish conflicting rules in different digital formats; especially in hastily written, likely unedited supplements.

 Kommissar Kel wrote:

 The Shrike wrote:
@Kommissar: Directly from the supplement, I quote:

"When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army WITH COMMANDER FARSIGHT AS ITS WARLORD, you may take Farsight's Commander Team instead of Farsight's XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team."

As for the troops problem, any Deathstar list has this problem. That's why I suggested Rhinos. But you'd have to be an imbecile to lose them on T1-2 because any general worth their salt would reserve their troops choices; especially if they had mobility from bikes or rhinos.

That is not what my copy says. Are you looking under the heading "army of the farsight enclaves", or somewhere else?

Mine says: "When choosing a Farsight Enclaves army, you may take a special unit called Farsight's Commander Team. If you choose to take this unit, Commander Farsight does not allow you to take an XV8 Crisis Bodyguard Team as normal; he has the command team instead.

You aren't looking at an up to date copy of the rules. The changed that rule almost immediately requiring Farsight to be Warlord to gain access to his commander team. The copies floating around the internet do not reflect that change.

What source/copy are you looking at?

I never updated my I-book copy after moving it to my Android Phone(as a pdf).

So they changed it, No big for me, My tau list with enclaves is pure enclaves.