Do you like Death Stars? Do you like to roll fistfull’s of dice? Are you a fan of Sanguinius? If you said yes to all of these, do I have a list set for you!
How often are you able to get over 100 attacks on the charge? And reroll to hit… and wound… at S5… and I6… with rerollable saves… and FNP… Yes, this list has all of that.
PRIMARY DETACHMENT- Baal Strike Force, 1495
HQ- Astorath the Grim- 165: Warlord
HQ- Brother Corbulo- 120
Elites- Death Company(15)- 660- 12 x Inferno Pistols, 3 x Hand Flamers, 3 x Power Fists, 3 x Power Swords, 1 x Thunder Hammer
Troops- Scouts (5)- 60: 5 x Sniper Rifles
Troops- Scouts (5)- 60: 5 x Sniper Rifles
Fast Attack- Drop Pod- 35
Fast Attack- Drop Pod- 35
Heavy Support- Spartan Assault Tank- 360: Pintle Multi-melta, Hull Heavy Flamers, Sponson Quad Lascannons, LoG: Schism of Mars and War of Murder
SECONDARY DETACHMENT- CAD Astra Militarum, 355
HQ- Lord Commissar- 80: Power Sword
Troops- Veterans(10)- 90: 3 x Melta-guns
Troops- Veterans(10)- 90: 3 x Melta-guns
Heavy Support- Hydra- 70
No Slot- Ministorum Priest- 25
TO GET TO 2k
So this uses codex BA as well, so you can’t take an ALLIED detachment of the same Faction, though some tournaments do allow this, BUT you can take a Flesh Tearers Strike Force. To do so, remove one or both of the drop pods from the Primary detachment and put them in here. I would also very much consider switching Astorath into this detachment and the Librarian I am about to mention into the Primary Baal SF. This is so that the Librarian can be the Warlord and get a different trait and he can benefit from the Baal SF +1I, something from which Astorath can’t since his axe is Unwieldly.
TERTIARY DETACHMENT- Flesh Tearers Strike Force (150 w/out Drop pods you need to switch in)
HQ- Librarian- 90: Mastery lvl 2, Force Sword, Bolt Pistol
Troops- Scouts(5)- 60: Sarge w/ Melta-bombs
Now that the lists are out of the way, I am going to tackle the low hanging fruit of the tactics before detailing the Death Star.
-Scout Snipers camp objectives and attempt to slow the enemy with pinning fire.
-IG Veterans go into the drop pods and land to pop vehicles, kill small squads or take/contest far off objectives.
-Hydra sits in backfield and is pretty much just there to be 70pts of flyer insurance.
-In the 2k list, the extra scout squad is just a general throw at an objective and take it. They can also follow in the wake of your death star and camp an objective the Death Company leave in their wake.
NOW FOR THE DEATH STAR
So the 15 Death Co, Astorath, Corbulo, the Ministorum Priest and Lord Commissar all go into the Spartan. The Spartan is the key here. It is AV14 all round with 6 HP, so it should nearly always make it to your target, especially since Corbulo can attempt to reroll seize the initiative with his far seeing eye. With the two LoG it has it makes the scouts following it fearless (if they are close enough), is deadly against daemon engines, has protection against Haywire and has both Tank and Monster Hunter.
But ultimately it is just a delivery vehicle. Transport capacity 25 means it fits all the models in with room to spare. Dump them on target and Assault (it is an assault vehicle). Then watch mayhem happen.
First you open up with 12 melta shots, 3 S3 Handflamers (just for a large number of hits, let the dice work in your favour), 2 Bolt Pistols and 2 Laspistols.
In the 1850 point list this is how the assault breaks down on the charge:
-40 WS5, S5, I6 AP- attacks (2 Base attacks per DC, +1 for 2CCW, +2 for charging w/ Rage, +1I Baal SF, +1I & WS Red Grail from Corbulo, +1S Furious Charge)
-15 WS5, S5, I6 AP3 attacks (same bonuses, power swords)
-16 WS5, S9, I1, AP2 attacks (power fists and thunder hammer, so 4 of these are concussive)
ALL OF THESE ATTACKS REROLL TO HIT AND WOUND DUE TO ASTORATH.
Now the Commisar is there to dive on any challenges as a throw away, but he has 5 WS5 AP3/2 attacks on the charge, depending on what power weapon you equip him with. I personally would probably go sword so try and kill any power fist wielding challenger before they strike.
Astorath would provide 4 WS7 (+1 from Corbulo) S6(+1FC, +1 Axe), I1 AP2 Attacks that have instant death on a to wound roll of a 6. He also gives the squad Adamantium will for some psychic defence (as the Warlord).
Corbulo has 5A at WS6 S6(+1 Heaven’s Teeth, +1 FC) and I7(+1 Baal SF, +1 Red Grail) and Rending.
Lastly the Ministorum Priest adds 4 WS3 S3 I3 AP- attacks. Any dice help right?
IN TOTAL that is 89 ATTACKS, of which 40 are AP3 or higher, with 5 more rending. AND 60 of the attacks are at I6 or Higher. WOW!!!! AND 71 of them REROLL EVERYTHING!!!!
Now to really put in a kicker- Because of Corbulo, all of the guys have FNP, not just the DC. AND BECAUSE OF THE MINISTORUM PRIEST’S WAR HYMNS, YOU CAN REROLL ALL ARMOUR AND INVULNERABLE SAVES!!!!!! (with a successful LD check).
So you not only get an armour save, you can reroll it AND then still get FNP.
NOW to make it more brutal at 2k
Add the Librarian. I personally would make him my warlord over Astorath and try to get a better trait, especially since with him in the death star you no longer need Adamantium will.
THE MUST HAVE POWER IS UNLEASH RAGE. TAKE THIS IF YOU ROLL IT. TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT.
The next best powers are
-Shield of Sanguinius- 5+ invlun for the squad (which your priest makes rerollable)
-Wings of Sanguinius- if you loose the spartan, this is the next best way to move them around
-Quickening- Primaris power as in don’t bother with the others. +d3 I and A to a character. Would be useful of himself, corbulo, astorath or the commissar in a challenge.
BUT YOU NEED UNLEASH RAGE- why? Well it give a targeted friendly unit rage (+2 A charging) or +1A if they already have rage. This means all the characters in the squad get +2A and all the DC get +1 A.
This is an additional 23 attacks, plus the 6 WS5, S5, I5 AP3 (possibly force) attacks the librarian brings.
That brings the total to 118 attacks on the charge, 86 of which reroll to hit AND wound. I’d like to see a Superfriends Death Star try and stand up to that (they won’t). You win on weight of dice alone.
Now this thing won’t be winning any tournaments. For one it is kinda over powered. It would blast something off the map and then be open to shooting. Though the amount of save power they have makes them pretty resilient, they would still loose effectiveness. Where it works best is against OTHER death stars. Basically it is a death star designed to overwhelm other death stars with a gigantic number of dice, of which most will be going before the enemy even has a chance to fight. There are enough guys to multi-charge, but this seriously cuts down on the number of attacks and forfeits alot of rerolls, but they are still DC and would still be very fast and strong. Despite these flaws, it would be amazing to use IMO just to watch your opponents jaw drop. And they would have to expend so much (other than D) to eliminate the death star that your low point troops would likely be unharrassed. And who knows, you could possibly use them very well to protect your Death Star (bog down 1 squad with the assault scouts, pin 2 squads with the snipers, melta vehicles or monstrous/gargantuan creatures with the vets and blast them with the spartan). Hopefully those can mitigate the amount of fire you take.
It is possible to scale back the Death Star. If you reduce the amount of Death Company you take, you could fit them into a Land Raider Variant (I would go Crusader, maybe Redeemer. Standard LR is just too small). This would open up the points and allow you to either take this in a 1500 pt game or include more options. I would go for a Tactical Squad and some more Imperial Guard stuff myself. Maybe a flyer of sorts (Vets in a Vendetta).
But ultimately it is a one trick pony that will likely only work once or twice a game. But man what a trick.
EDIT- Thanks to a rule pointed out on the Spikey Bits Hobbies Facebook page- Gothmog: SO ASTORATH CANNOT be taken in the squad because he CANNOT ride in the Spartan. Look under Transport rules… no jump infantry. I just thought he was Bulky, my bad. BUT I do have a good fix to still get ALL THE BONUSES. Drop Astorath and buy a Second AM Priest and a Terminator Chaplain with the Veritas Vitae and a combi-melta (to round out the last 5 points, you can put them anywhere if you’d rather do that instead). NOW you can get ANY Warlord Trait from the beginning AND you get a bonus Strategic Trait. BUT WAIT He still has Zealot, so reroll to hit still applies. AND now you have one Ministorum Priest popping Warhymns to reroll saves and another for wounds. SO the Chaplain gets 4 (+1 charge, +1 2xCCW) WS6(+1 from Corbulo) I6 (+1 Baal SF, +1 Corbulo) S7(+1 FC, +2 Crozious) AP4 concussive attacks on the charge BEFORE being buffed by the Librarian. And you add another 4 Priest attack. SO 8 dice where there were 4 before. AND You add another 2 Attacks to the Chaplain if you manage to get Unleash Rage. SO it still all works out in the end. It gets a little harder to scale back and you loose an Instant Death ability, but the guy is S7 on the charge and overall I am not sure you need it so much in this list.
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