Hello all!
Rawdogger here to talk about a list I’ve been toying around with these past couple weeks. Now that the terrain factory in the Martinez store is over and done with and we’ve gotten the place cleaned up again, I’ve actually even been able to get some games in, which is a rarity for me nowadays. You can even watch a video of me here playing Steve the Architect and getting thoroughly trounced to the sound of Steve’s tape measure snaps. Despite my losing nature and tendency to surrender at even the slightest sign that things are going south, I actually do enjoy playing against competitive players in a competitive atmosphere. In fact, one of the reasons I usually do so poor in competitive 40k tournaments is the fact that I abhor playing against the game if it is not in a tournament type setting. Real chicken and egg shit, if you ask me. Anyways, I’ve played around with a couple different things but the list that I keep getting drawn back to is the Centurion Star and its many variants. The list has a lot of power behind it, and with the right allied combinations has the potential to be a top table army. Though powerful, it does suffer from a myriad of weaknesses ranging from drop grav spam to a low model count. I’ve kept all these weaknesses in mind when writing out the most recent iteration of my Centstar. But enough of this confusing literacy. Onto the list!
Ultramarine CAD
Tigurius -Not only a badass Lv.3 psyker with access to the all important Telepathy powers, but the dude can re-roll failed psychic tests for reasons. Most importantly for me, Tigurius comes with the Storm of Fire warlord trait, which allows him to select a unit every shooting phase and give them the Rending special rule. Can I have 24 twin linked rending Hurricane Bolter shots from the Centurions for my birthday, mommy?
3x 10 Scouts, Combi-Grav – Having either 3 units of 10 or 6 units of 5 Scouts infiltrating and scouting before the game begins can REALLY put the hurting on your opponent. I like to give the Sergeants Combi-Gravs so that any foolish opponent putting a high value, high armor save unit out in the open potentially gets a nasty first turn. Ultramarine Doctrines let you pop the re-roll 1’s to hit at an opportune moment. You can keep these guys in reserve to Outflank if you opponent has too much killy death on the table for you to handle such as Scatterbike spam and Tigurius makes sure that they come in when needed due to his Master of Prescience special rule.
4x Centurions, 3x Grav Cannon, 1x Lascannon, Omniscope – How much do I have to say about these guys? They will absolutely murder anything within 24″ of them and with the special sauce of Draigo’s Gate of Infinity psychic power they have an absolutely huge threat range. Though super hunky these guys WILL fall to mass small arms fire or AP2 weaponry so don’t hang your nuts out there too freely or you might just get them pinched by your opponent.
Imperial Bunker, Escape Hatch – This is a new addition to my list. Since everything in this army can either Outflank or Deep Strike except the CentStar and character pals, I’ve found that it is sometimes necessary to put them in something that can keep the drop grav and scatter spam at bay for the first turn. The escape hatch helps get me up the field after the first round. The Bunker is still susceptible to drop melta so it’s important to try to position the bunker with it’s back and sides blocked in so the only place to drop that melta is right in front where there are fire points and Coteaz can utter ‘I’ve Been Expecting You’.
Grey Knight Nemesis Strike Force
Librarian, Lv. 3 – Homeboy adds another 3 psychic dice to the pool while rolling on Telepethy if Tigurius doesn’t get Invisibility (I’m a wanker). If Tigurius does get Telepethy I usually will roll on the Sanctic Daemonology to try and get the Sanctuary power in order to boost Draigo’s invulnerable save to 2+. He also adds two 2+ saves to the CentStar unit.
5x Terminators, Incinerator – My troop tax for the Strike Force. These guys can definitely pack a wallop with the ability to run and shoot the turn they deep strike due to the Nemesis Strike Force special rules. Hitting a weak backfield unit with the S6 AP4 (Sooooouuuulll Blaze) flamer the turn they deepstrike in definitely will bring a smile to your face. They aren’t bad in combat either, able to boost their strength to 6 with Hammerhand and having AP3 Force Swords.
Nemesis Dreadknight, Personal Teleporter, Heavy Incinerator, Heavy Psycannon, Nemesis Daemon Hammer – These guys taken in the Nemesis Strike Force with the ability to deep strike in turn 1 and then run and blast the ever living shit out of whatever the hell is in it’s way really are a go to for me. It’s important to think of these guys as T6 4 wound Terminators, though, and you WILL roll 1’s so try not to throw them right in the line of fire of your opponent’s entire army unless you want to see your 220 point bad ass disappear faster than Frankie on read aloud day in grade school.
Muth’Fuckin Draigo, SON – The man, the myth, the legend. Draigo brings the all import Gate of Infinity psychic power as well as the Eternal Warrior special rule. He’s an outright beast in combat with a base strength 7 AP2 Master Crafted Force Sword that can be boosted to S9 if he gets off Hammerhand. Draigo makes opponents think twice about charging into the otherwise underwheming in combat Centstar.
Inquisition
Coteaz – Coteaz brings so much to this army it’s ridiculous. Most importantly, Coteaz provided Deep Strike protection in the form of I’ve Been Expecting You which allows him and his unit fire out of sequence at anything that arrives from reserves within 12″ of his model. He also lets you re-roll your seize roll and makes your opponent re-roll theirs. He brings the Stubborn special rule to the party and most importantly, his asshole Cyber Eagle that will peck the ass off your face.
Inquisitor, Psychotrope Grenades, 3x Servo Skulls – Another recent addition to the list. The base Inquisitor brings servo skulls to counter the rise in White Scar Battle Companies we will be seeing in upcoming tournaments. He also has Psychotrope grenades to make the opponent think twice about assaulting the unit since any roll on a 2-6 will be detrimental on the first round of combat.
So what are your thoughts on the list? I’ll be attending several tournaments as we head into the fall and would love to break the top 100 in the ITC rankings before the Las Vegas Open in February, How can I make this list better? Is it possible that I am a godly list writer with big oily muscles and no improvement is necessary? Does my breath stink?
Pretty solid list, those scouts with the high BS will do a job for you, the only real suggestion I have is try squeeze some halberds on to those grey knight Terminators. That +1 strength with hammerhand is worth trying to get in there
I run a roughly similar list (no bunker, less scouts and an extra NDK, Sevrin Loth instead of Tiggy). I have a small tweak to help the list though. Upgrading the librarian to ML3 costs 25 points. These 25 points get you one extra warp charge and one additional power. Instead of this you (in my opinion) should upgrade the inquisitor to be a psyker. You still get the additional warp charge, you still get to roll on telepathy but as a bonus you have an additional psyker who now has psychic focus so gets psychic shriek for free. Plus your inquisitor with 4 attacks goes from having a chainsword to having a force sword. Gate of infinity in, psychic shriek twice and then unleash your centurions devastating fire upon the enemy, its quite fun!
And a last thing: the liber heresius is quite nice for 15 points, It gives your deathstar scout (so you could even outflank with it), a turn of split fire, etc. I personally replaced my omniscope with this but i think it is less valuable if you bought your centurions an 80 point bunker already anyway.
Great list, you definately could lay down the hurt with this.
If Invisibility and warp charge are what you are after, consider adding a 2 Acolyte ,1 psyker unit to the army. Swap out his warp blast for a roll at Telepathy. Worst case scenario you get another shriek. Solid way to bump your WC pool and not risk perils on your more relevant psyker. Admittedly it does add a pretty easy Kill Point, but you could hide in the bunker.
Worse ways to spend 18 pts.
All true points!
Draigo is a must for cent stars. Without gate you are supremely vulnerable. Looks nasty rawdogger!
I recommend going flute prefect timing on the GO libby rather than sanctic. Ignores cover takes that unit from annoying to down right scary.
I do roll on Divination with Coteaz so there is always a chance to get it. The issue with trying to get too many clutch psychic powers is that you only have so many psychic dice in a phase. Trying for Invisibility, Gate, Prescience, and Perfect Timing can really drain you.
I think you should try and add one more dreadknight in the list. This would give your opponent one more threat to deal with and take pressure off the Centurions
Mobile-ish deathstar with ob sec MSU sprinkled to taste is a recipe for success IMO.
I get how deathstars work, but they aren’t my favorite thing to fight against, also, judging by your history of posts, I suspect that somewhere in your tournament play you’ll get really frustrated with a string of rolls that gets your deathstar killed or neutered and you’ll be really upset.
Very similar to what I used to run at the end of 6th and start of 7th before GK and Inquisition got split. Definitely happy to see it back now that we’re allowed 3 detachments purely bc Coteaz brought so much to the party, but the lack of Gate and Santic in general without the perils risk did more for survivability and prevention for getting caught in assault….let’s just say I’m glad a strong cent star is back in the mix. Add in Tiggy’s spanking new WL trait and you now have something that can also effectively take out those awkward 4+ saves you’ll see more of in AdMech that grav is less effective on even with the amps. Looking forward to seeing how it pans out for you!
Maybe consider ditching 5 scouts for a LS storm? The blind check large blast does wonders against Necrons and Orks while also providing more mobility for the maelstrom in later turns and end of game objective grabbing/contesting.
Yeah I might just try that in my next game.
You could tack the savings onto some missiles for the lascannon cent for a little more oomph when you split fire him, not sure where the last 5 can go though other than maybe random melta bombs somewhere.
Also easier to keep the storm on/off the table with Tiggy’s reserve re-rolls if you roll a maelstrom you need to keep pace or just position it out of LoS for an end of game grab.
I’ve been told several times that the “I’ve been expecting you” rule doesn’t trigger if Coteaz is embarked in a bastion. What do you guys think?
I find the inquisitor an odd choice TBH. the Centstar has enough CC viability without it.
I suggest dropping that.
Go with instead maybe Locater beacons on scouts.
I have been thinking about the bastion too. I have been trying to keep my centurions from getting hammered by alpha strikes but more importantly keeping them from the podding culexus that seem to proliferate around here
get the Librarius conclave, cast all but santic power on 2+