# Death Star units effective?



## BozlyLittle (Jul 3, 2011)

So this is a big issue up at my store how effective is a death star unit? 
Lots of people argue this and not just at my store and we know it.


Positives to a death star unit!

Whats good about a death star unit? Anything it touches in combat is dead. Well generally there's always that x-wing that can get in there. I guess they would have a ton of pluses I've seen a 100 man ghoul horde with regeneration banner, a wight lord a vampire lord a vampire and all his free necromancers and two corpse carts travelling near by. 


NEGATIVES

Like I said there's always that x-wing. Plus you don't have the ability to space out your army. You could take out that regen banner and take a whole new unit of skelatons or another corpse cart or varghulf. You could do more with a spaced out set of heroes making each unit effective. Besides my str 6 dwarf stone thrower makes mince meat out of those units anyway. along with all shooting. Because if it bleeds you can kill it.




Those are both sides of the arguments. My opinion I ran a death star once 50 phoenix gaurd with the itp banner a noble and two princes it did incredibly well but at the end of the day I lost because it was the only thing left in my army. Idk its my opinion post a comment whats your opinion.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Deathstars can be good... but what happens when that inevitable Dwellers below (or similar) smacks your unit?
Sure if you are HE with the Banner of the World Dragon you'll laugh, but anything else is going to be in real pain. Characters are going to start dying and the unit will start to shrink very rapidly...

I like big units, especially hordes but I prefer to be able to lose any unit and still fight on. My 2k ogres run a 600pt bull unit, which behaves a little like a deathstar... but its not the only threat I bring to the table.
Then again, an ogre army is move 6-8 on all its hard hitting units, so it closes the distance quickly and is very hard to avoid.


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## Deathypoo (Jun 27, 2011)

I love the idea of death star units... but I've had mixed results.

Against gun lines, harass/fast, or highly magic armies they're less good. Against armies that focus on close combat they're great. If the enemy fields expensive elites or big blocks, death star good. If they field lots of small units, death star bad.

I normally try to field a mini death star in every army (Super Star Destroyer?) but try to restrain myself from including that extra rank or bonus hero to buff it up and tip the points cost into ridiculousness. It means they lose to real death stars, but get most of the pro with less of the cons.


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## Mundungu (Jul 23, 2010)

I think it depends on your army book, some do it better than others. I'm a huge fan of them with Lizardmen. A Slann with Life and a horde of TG are not going away. However, I don't think Beastmen can get a deathstar that will be as big a threat.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Not every army can do a deathstar... but those that do normally have a big weakness.

The nastiest one I normally face is the WoC chosen deathstar. They are bad enough normally but back it up with 2-3 shrines and hive a Lv4 caster in there with 1-2 other characters and its nasty. 2+/3++ and magic resistance (for 2+/2++ vs spells) is crazy... but then I've played such a unit twice, and have yet to have anything killed by it. Only time its reached combat was when I sent my treeman ancient in to sit in an endless challenge (he eventually got gateway'd to death turn 6). Both games I won because I could go and kill the rest of the army while running away from the stupidly slow moving unit of ultimate fail.


A deathstar needs to be able to reach combat. The only effective deathstars I've seen are my own ogres (movement 6), a few units of ghouls (van hells) and HE LSG/+Teclis (magic and shooting to give them an area presence as well as combat).
A friend used to run a nasty WoC warrior deathstar which did very well against the lesser players who just ran up and tried to smack it... but did nothing but lose against the experienced players who only got into combat if it was to their advantage (such as with a flank charge from a strong ranked up unit).

Having played with a 1800pt unit in a 2k game before (including characters) I can tell you that its fun, but more stressful then you think. Sure you can beat anything face on... but you won't have any powerful units to protect your flank and if anyone casts something like Gateway on you you really start to sweat (as kept happening to me- luckily I either stopped it or it didn't roll a 10+).


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

Mundungu said:


> . However, I don't think Beastmen can get a deathstar that will be as big a threat.


I pretty much agree with you.

Even my horde of stubborn (crown) bestigors aren't that 'death star' to me. Not a lot of tricks there. Maybe a hero for blackened plate / ironcurse. 
It's the augments and hexes that make ANY beastman army 'killy'.

Doombull lead "mino-bus" are close to death stars as we can get. but w M6 and up to 30+ attacks in the front rank alone....it's a bit nuts.

A death star to me is what it was in the movie. A huge resource sink that leaves you one dimensional and the creator believes invincible. 

It's precisely this that leads to their demise. They get out maneuvered, ignored and the remainder of the army picked apart....etc.


Personally, when I run a unit/ horde, I build them to survive two rounds of Obscene spells (13th, dwellers, pit etc)& hell-storms...but I don't think there's many units out there that can survive three of those spells and still be in fighting shape. (i hate you hell-storms!)

It's a fine line between solid units and 'death stars', if you have two very formidable units, I'd wager to say "you don't have a death star". 

There's something (to me) very unsporting in 'death-stars'. Or maybe it's just the lack luster of it and just "oh-thats-very-boring-of-you"...unless there's some awesome theme. (horde of Chaos knights etc) 

One day, I will unleash my 150 strong Ungor horde. The world will tremble!!!!!!


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## kain1989 (Dec 1, 2009)

Deathstars can be a viable option, but at my local store, the people who bring them, really only beat newer or younger players, who just can't deal with it. I dislike playing with deathstars, but don't knock people for using them, but I usually can ignore, or kill, or just make a deathstar not make its points back.

But if I see someone bring a deathstar and crushes a new player, that ticks me off, and I usually tell them how to deal with it. so they don't give up on the game.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Ah, themed deathstars FTW.... I dream of a 700 strong gnoblar deathstar in a 2k game 
Now do I deploy 100 wide and 7 deep, or only 50 wide to get 14 deep?

and just because its awesome, and was how I wasted hours during my A-Levels (many years ago): Deathstar Battles


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## blackspine (Jun 9, 2010)

Tim/Steve said:


> Ah, themed deathstars FTW.... I dream of a 700 strong gnoblar deathstar in a 2k game
> Now do I deploy 100 wide and 7 deep, or only 50 wide to get 14 deep?
> 
> id=dstarbattle"]Deathstar Battles[/URL]


I have a feeling I'll beat you to my 'idiot army' of all razorgor horde or ALL CHARIOT ARMY!!!! before you get to your 10k-or-bust-gnoblar horde.


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## Troublehalf (Aug 6, 2010)

My fun DeathStar unit is x18 Kroxigors. That's 54 attacks @ S6, with Stomp hits. Not great, but fun!


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## kain1989 (Dec 1, 2009)

the best deathstar I've ever seen was massive, it was practically the size of a small moon, even though it was only a battle station. I'm pretty sure it had the power to destory a small planet. but it never made it's points back. oh well...

I think one of the few deathstars is the regen grave guard. it's killable, but man it can be effective. the only other one that I can think of is the lore of life slaan bunker in temple guard.

But I would love to see a gnoblar deathstar unit. and I'd love to see If I could kill it. I kind of doubt it, but that'd be a great game.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

High Elf Phoeinix Guard are 5+/4++ - Throw in a Prince with the Crown of Command, BSB with the Banner of the World Dragon (Flat out immune to magic, not even Dwellers/Pit/13th etc can touch them) and you have a unit that will survive anything short of the heat death of the universe.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

kain1989 said:


> But I would love to see a gnoblar deathstar unit. and I'd love to see If I could kill it. I kind of doubt it, but that'd be a great game.


LMAO- I would love to see it, would hate to have to paint it... but it would be rubbish beyond imagining.


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## sybarite (Aug 10, 2009)

well at what stage are you a deathstar?

for me, 

0 - 500 = normal unit
501 - 999 = mini death star (Throgg the toll king and 18 tolls)
1000+ = deathstar (MoT Chosen with 3 Warshines, Mage, and BSB)

overall l always try to have 1 or 2 mini death star's and you will see a death star around 4k points.


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## Deathypoo (Jun 27, 2011)

I normally think of it as a unit with more than 50% of the points of the army in it (including characters).


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

I think in a slightly different way: a deathstar is something that if you lose you are buggered... so a WoC army with 3 shrines, chosen and all their casters in there lose that unit, then they have nothing left to really fight with.
A deathstar is an 'Eggs in 1 Basket' unit


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## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

I don't have or use deathstas. Mainly because:

1. I hate investing so many points in one unt.

2. The Death Star looked really ugly!

I instead prefer Star Destroyer units. This is because they are more manouverable, more cost effective and most importantly look cooler.


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## elmir (Apr 14, 2011)

Tim/Steve said:


> I think in a slightly different way: a deathstar is something that if you lose you are buggered... so a WoC army with 3 shrines, chosen and all their casters in there lose that unit, then they have nothing left to really fight with.
> A deathstar is an 'Eggs in 1 Basket' unit


That's a better definition imo. A deathstar at 2k points isn't necesarily a deathstar at 4k. 

I do believe deathstars work a lot better in WHFB then they do in 40k at least. But the "all eggs in one basket" thing makes me never field true deathstar. The fact that skaven don't really do deathstars THAT well, also means that I seldom use them.

Facing big elite blocks is something that makes me touch myself when thinking about skryre weapons. :laugh:


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