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Hi all,

As a new player i'm trying to get a grasp of all the currently available and viable Deathstars for all the different factions. What the unit composition is? How they work? and what they are good for?
Would appreciate any info from all the experienced players out there.

Thank you before hand for your help.

Imperial:

Super Friends - Ravenwing & SW or White Scars & SW

DraigoStar - Grey Knights, Ultramarines & Librarius Conclave


Daemons:

ScreamerStar

I also read about the Necron Orikan star: Lychguard + Orikan + Zandrek + extras but dont know how good/viable it is?

as well as the Conclave of the burning one formation, but dont know if that counts as a death star..

SW
- WolfStar: Iron Priests, Cyber Wolves and TWC for a huge footprint and CC power

Tyranids
- PenTyrant: Five Flyrants which is tough to take down and can go after five targets a turn

Orks
-BikerStar: 15 Warbikers with a Painboy on Bike and Warboss on Bike. Huge footprint, lots of dakka, sometimes Zhadsnark for Scout
-GreenTide: 100 Boyz all on foot, can run and charge, multi-assaulting everything in reach.

Grotstar: Two Archons with Shadowfields tank the wounds for a horde of grotesques. One or more embedded Farseers provides Fortune to reroll the 2++ saves, make the unit Invisible, or other shenanigans.

Seer Council w 5 Farseers/Baharroth for HnR
White Scars or Ravenwing Command Squad with 3-5 Iron Priest/Wolf Guard Battle Leaders w ablative wolves, possible Chapter Master + Librarius Conclave/Azrael
Centurions w Draigo + any number of librarians
Green Tide w Mega Armored boss with the reroll gear
Ork Biker units using Zardsnark
Necron units abusing Obyron, the wargear that makes folks snapshot ya and the teleportation wargear
Farsight + a bunch of suits with special rules that pinpoint deepstrike
Screamers + 4 Heralds
Daemonkin Fleshhound units + CSM/Daemonkin Lords on steeds
Plaguedrone deathstar with a few heralds + tons of psy support
Imperial Guard blobs with psychic support, Azrael, hit and run and CC characters

Probably a few I missed. Those are the ones I still see around.

Eh I really wouldn't put the Daemonkin Fleshhound Star on the list with units with 2+/3++ rerollables and invisibility. All the Houndstar has going for it is a mass of 2W hounds, maybe a Herald that gives everyone hatred or another attack, also a lord with the Blood Forged Armor in front to either tank the attacks or have the hounds jump in front of him. The star is too large to jump from cover to cover and is only effective against infantry or maybe another star if they get the jump on them. It really falls apart to anything focusing it down, unlike other stars that have amazing survivability. Daemonkin don't even get things like shrouded units, psychic powers, crazy rerollable saves, or anything.

Also Daemonkin gain power in MSU via Blood Tithe so making a star with them is somewhat counter-codex. Just my opinion from attempting to run different stars in my Daemonkin and getting owned every time.

Don't forget SM command bikerstar!

Iron Hands chapter tactics
With a chaptermaster with shield eternal tanking wounds in the front you take either a bunch of power weapon/storm shield armed command squad bikers or you give them all grav guns and storm shields. Make sure to pack an apothecary for those awesome 4+ FNP saves

 andysonic1 wrote:
Eh I really wouldn't put the Daemonkin Fleshhound Star on the list with units with 2+/3++ rerollables and invisibility. All the Houndstar has going for it is a mass of 2W hounds, maybe a Herald that gives everyone hatred or another attack, also a lord with the Blood Forged Armor in front to either tank the attacks or have the hounds jump in front of him. The star is too large to jump from cover to cover and is only effective against infantry or maybe another star if they get the jump on them. It really falls apart to anything focusing it down, unlike other stars that have amazing survivability. Daemonkin don't even get things like shrouded units, psychic powers, crazy rerollable saves, or anything.

Also Daemonkin gain power in MSU via Blood Tithe so making a star with them is somewhat counter-codex. Just my opinion from attempting to run different stars in my Daemonkin and getting owned every time.

Ive seen someone attach a lord with the axe of fury, another lord and cypher, plus he had psychic support for invisibility. It worked fairly well due to cypher's hnr.

Basically be wary of any Daemon/CSM/Daemonkin unit that is large and has lots of psychic support, it can and will eat you up.

Alright, doing all that will make one of the craziest deathstars in the game, but you're spending so much on it that it becomes almost your entire army. Other faction's deathstars aren't their entire armies, they're just one focus.

I do fair with a Sorcerer on Telepathy and a spell familiar, beatstick Daemonheart. Nurgle lord, and spawn.

 LValx wrote:
Seer Council w 5 Farseers/Baharroth for HnR
White Scars or Ravenwing Command Squad with 3-5 Iron Priest/Wolf Guard Battle Leaders w ablative wolves, possible Chapter Master + Librarius Conclave/Azrael
Centurions w Draigo + any number of librarians
Green Tide w Mega Armored boss with the reroll gear
Ork Biker units using Zardsnark
Necron units abusing Obyron, the wargear that makes folks snapshot ya and the teleportation wargear
Farsight + a bunch of suits with special rules that pinpoint deepstrike
Screamers + 4 Heralds
Daemonkin Fleshhound units + CSM/Daemonkin Lords on steeds
Plaguedrone deathstar with a few heralds + tons of psy support
Imperial Guard blobs with psychic support, Azrael, hit and run and CC characters

Probably a few I missed. Those are the ones I still see around.

It appears that we had better deathstars in the past.

Ejderhare wrote:
I also read about the Necron Orikan star: Lychguard + Orikan + Zandrek + extras but dont know how good/viable it is?

It comes in one of two varieties:
Sword & Shield
pros- ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to 3++ that rerolls 1s, followed by a 4+++ that could also reroll 1s if your Warlord is in the unit.
cons- not very killy, with only S5 AP3 swords.
Warscythe
pros- will carve anything it comes into contact with apart.
cons- much easier to kill, with only 3+/4++ (though you can still reroll 1s on armor saves).

Biggest problem with both versions is speed. They're regular infantry with no assault transport and no way to reliably get up table without just sitting for a turn doing nothing. Most things will just stay out of their way (though, you can corral things with Wraiths to make it easier to control the board).

as well as the Conclave of the burning one formation, but dont know if that counts as a death star.

Oh, that's definitely a deathstar. Problem is, it's not very reliable, thanks to the r-tarded random shooting powers the C'tan gets.
Still, so long as the shard included is the Nightbringer, it's still plenty deadly... just not as good as other armies deathstars.

 LValx wrote:
Necron units abusing Obyron, the wargear that makes folks snapshot ya and the teleportation wargear

That's not a very good one.
When best used, it's a two unit combo that relies on the first unit getting a good deep strike so the second one can pinpoint deep strike next to it... problem is, the units that will be doing the shooting will most likely just be warriors. Two units of Warriors won't exactly be able to accomplish much. The most the can hope for is shooting two units, waiting for their next turn, then maybe shooting something else and charging if they haven't already been tied up. Cool theory, but not all that amazing in practice.

The reality is Necrons don't really have any super amazing deathstars like the other races do. Their strength lies in the overall resilience of the army as a whole.
...
Though, if I really wanted to be a jerk, I could mention Sentry-Star (a leftover from the old codex that involves using forge world Sentry Pylons. The Deathray variants haven't been updated so are still using the old firing method where you draw a line. It'll still F anything up that it fires at, but because it uses an exploit of GW and FW's inability to properly FAQ things, you would pretty much become TFG by using it. Even then, still not utterly game breaking like some of the other deathstars)

Seerstar is still serious...

Dark Eldar Reavers and two jetseers rolling for invis does really well too.

I'm not a very experienced player, but I thought about something like a FlayedStar.

A chronotek with solar staff and a lord with phylactery, MSS, voidblade (or any other melee weapon) and veil of darkness,
join a group of maxed out Flayed Ones.

If you also have enough points, maybe grab a Night Scythe, or a Monolith for save transport into battle.
When your guys are foot slogging, deploy out of range or LOS and pop your solar staff in the first turn.
Than deep strike the whole unit per veil infront of your target and any shots that go through are repelled
by the 4+/5++/4+++.
Put orikan in there and enjoy your free invisibility, deep striking, 4+/5++/4+++ (re-roll all 1s in the first two)
and 4+ RP rolls for instant death weapons.

Well, obviously this is very good against shooty armies, which tend to be very aweful in CC, such as Tau,
some of the Eldar or other Necrons. But it lacks shooting after deep striking, so keep some units within
fire support range.
And keep them away from vehicles or walkers with 11< x armour value.

Or you could exchange the flayed ones for lychguard or praetorians.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@skoffs Sword & Shield
pros- ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to 3++ that rerolls 1s, followed by a 4+++ that could also reroll 1s if your Warlord is in the unit.
cons- not very killy, with only S5 AP3 swords.

No, this isn't entirely true, because you can't re-roll 1s for RP with orikan.
His special rule sais "[units] can re-roll 1s for all saving throws."
But Reanimation Protocols are specifically stated as not being a saving throw.

 Icelord wrote:
Seerstar is still serious...

However, its very dependable on the powers. Without fortune or maybe invincible it will be toast early in the game.

LordHesse wrote:

@skoffs Sword & Shield
pros- ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to 3++ that rerolls 1s, followed by a 4+++ that could also reroll 1s if your Warlord is in the unit.
cons- not very killy, with only S5 AP3 swords.

No, this isn't entirely true, because you can't re-roll 1s for RP with orikan.
His special rule sais "[units] can re-roll 1s for all saving throws."
But Reanimation Protocols are specifically stated as not being a saving throw.

The RP re-roll 1's isn't from Orikan. Rather, it is from your Overlord in a Reclamation Legion detachment. The Overlord allows every Necron unit in the Decurion within 12" to re-roll 1's on their RP tests.

I've had my friend take a Wraithstar(necron)

some special character who had joined the unit of six or so Wraiths with their 3++/4+++ (from the Spider formation) and the special character gave them re-rolls on fail saves of 1.

I was playing my Tau and had a few units with precision shots trying to knock wounds off of this character but I failed to kill him and the rest of my fire failed to kill but one Wraith.

I was cut up pretty quickly afterwards.

 jy2 wrote:

LordHesse wrote:

@skoffs Sword & Shield
pros- ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to 3++ that rerolls 1s, followed by a 4+++ that could also reroll 1s if your Warlord is in the unit.
cons- not very killy, with only S5 AP3 swords.

No, this isn't entirely true, because you can't re-roll 1s for RP with orikan.
His special rule sais "[units] can re-roll 1s for all saving throws."
But Reanimation Protocols are specifically stated as not being a saving throw.

The RP re-roll 1's isn't from Orikan. Rather, it is from your Overlord in a Reclamation Legion detachment. The Overlord allows every Necron unit in the Decurion within 12" to re-roll 1's on their RP tests.

Oh yeah I see, my fault.

 digital-animal wrote:
I've had my friend take a Wraithstar(necron)

some special character who had joined the unit of six or so Wraiths with their 3++/4+++ (from the Spider formation) and the special character gave them re-rolls on fail saves of 1.

I was playing my Tau and had a few units with precision shots trying to knock wounds off of this character but I failed to kill him and the rest of my fire failed to kill but one Wraith.

I was cut up pretty quickly afterwards.

That'd be Orikan again. His innate ability to allow saving throws of 1 to reroll sees him as the key piece to several deathstar-esque builds.
The only problem with sticking him in a unit of Wraiths is that it slows them down (typically Wraiths are used to run up the table to catch and hold problem enemy units).
Though, if you do stick Orikan with Wraiths, there's almost no reason why you wouldn't also attach a Destroyer Lord so they can pretty much reroll all 1s (to hit, to wound, saving). With rending, those Wraiths really appreciate the chance to turn a 1 into a 6.

However, thanks to the speed issue (6" + run or Night Scythe then wait for a turn doing nothing), you probably won't be seeing this deathstar very often.

Orgyn star

Squad of 10 Orgyns, white scars libby conclave on bikes, yarrak, 4 iron preists, and a wolf guard bl.

Fast, tons of powers, hit and run, and a ton of attacks in combat, and stubborn! Grav wounds on 5+

Daemons:

Be'lakor + any max unit with heralds in it = death star (well, not pink horrors)

Honestly, a lot of daemon units in large numbers might be seen as deathballs. +15 hounds with herald is a go-to unit I bring almost every game. No grimoire or invisibility support needed. Just a lot of wounds and a lot of speed.

+4 plague drones are pretty nasty too.

 skoffs wrote:

 digital-animal wrote:
I've had my friend take a Wraithstar(necron)

some special character who had joined the unit of six or so Wraiths with their 3++/4+++ (from the Spider formation) and the special character gave them re-rolls on fail saves of 1.

I was playing my Tau and had a few units with precision shots trying to knock wounds off of this character but I failed to kill him and the rest of my fire failed to kill but one Wraith.

I was cut up pretty quickly afterwards.

That'd be Orikan again. His innate ability to allow saving throws of 1 to reroll sees him as the key piece to several deathstar-esque builds.
The only problem with sticking him in a unit of Wraiths is that it slows them down (typically Wraiths are used to run up the table to catch and hold problem enemy units).
Though, if you do stick Orikan with Wraiths, there's almost no reason why you wouldn't also attach a Destroyer Lord so they can pretty much reroll all 1s (to hit, to wound, saving). With rending, those Wraiths really appreciate the chance to turn a 1 into a 6.

However, thanks to the speed issue (6" + run or Night Scythe then wait for a turn doing nothing), you probably won't be seeing this deathstar very often.

Interestingly I have seen it at each of the last four tournaments I have been to. Its incredibly resilient. Usually it does have a leftover D Lord from a Destroyer Cult in there, but also Zandrekh (for Zealot) and another Lord and overlord (from the royal court that brings Orikan) for some more Warscythes in there. It really messes stuff up, its super resilient and it give amazing centre of the board threat. Take it with a solar staff and a veil of darkness in the royal court if you want maximum reliability of getting up in your opponent's grill.

Downside - not very resilient to Stomp or D weapons. Everyone always says its easy to deal with too. You just kill the spyders and can start to do the wraiths with small arms fire, but its rarely that simple vs a canny player.

10man DW Knights squad
Ezekiel going interromancy
Int chaplain with eye of the unseen
librarius conclave going for sanctuary and invisibility and possibly endurance

not mobile, not shooty, eats anything in assault and with invisibility and sanctuary (hopefully) damn near unkillable with majority T5 2++

 skoffs wrote:

Ejderhare wrote:
I also read about the Necron Orikan star: Lychguard + Orikan + Zandrek + extras but dont know how good/viable it is?

It comes in one of two varieties:
Sword & Shield
pros- ridiculously hard to kill, thanks to 3++ that rerolls 1s, followed by a 4+++ that could also reroll 1s if your Warlord is in the unit.
cons- not very killy, with only S5 AP3 swords.
Warscythe
pros- will carve anything it comes into contact with apart.
cons- much easier to kill, with only 3+/4++ (though you can still reroll 1s on armor saves).

Biggest problem with both versions is speed. They're regular infantry with no assault transport and no way to reliably get up table without just sitting for a turn doing nothing. Most things will just stay out of their way (though, you can corral things with Wraiths to make it easier to control the board).

as well as the Conclave of the burning one formation, but dont know if that counts as a death star.

Oh, that's definitely a deathstar. Problem is, it's not very reliable, thanks to the r-tarded random shooting powers the C'tan gets.
Still, so long as the shard included is the Nightbringer, it's still plenty deadly... just not as good as other armies deathstars.

 LValx wrote:
Necron units abusing Obyron, the wargear that makes folks snapshot ya and the teleportation wargear

That's not a very good one.
When best used, it's a two unit combo that relies on the first unit getting a good deep strike so the second one can pinpoint deep strike next to it... problem is, the units that will be doing the shooting will most likely just be warriors. Two units of Warriors won't exactly be able to accomplish much. The most the can hope for is shooting two units, waiting for their next turn, then maybe shooting something else and charging if they haven't already been tied up. Cool theory, but not all that amazing in practice.

The reality is Necrons don't really have any super amazing deathstars like the other races do. Their strength lies in the overall resilience of the army as a whole.
...
Though, if I really wanted to be a jerk, I could mention Sentry-Star (a leftover from the old codex that involves using forge world Sentry Pylons. The Deathray variants haven't been updated so are still using the old firing method where you draw a line. It'll still F anything up that it fires at, but because it uses an exploit of GW and FW's inability to properly FAQ things, you would pretty much become TFG by using it. Even then, still not utterly game breaking like some of the other deathstars)

Meant Orikan. My B

Kastelan eat gak star ;
x6 kastelan robots w/ datasmith and techpriest
2 up iwnd at start of round and buy arkhans rod for 5 up at end of round comes in at 100 points.

bring goblet to drink tears

I personally like a ravenwing command with librarian(s), maybe a chapter master for TH/SS. Go with telepathy, aiming for invis and shroud. Entire unit armed with plasma and rending, with 4 attacks apiece on charge, which is not the most killy to be fair, then add a 3+++ rerollable, posibbly 2+++ reroll, with T5 and FNP. Or tack on a darkshroud, eliminating the need for shroud spell.