Signals from the Frontline #435 Defeating Deathstars

Show is in the blog post!

Show Notes

Date

5-23-16

Intro

• Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, and YouTube!  Join our Forums, too! If you would like to be a guest on the show, email Reece at Contact@FrontlineGaming.org
• We sell tabletop games and supplies at 20% off! Hit us up for your next gaming order at Orders@FrontlineGaming.org or visit our webstore at FrontlineGaming.org.
• You think Reecius’ T-Shirts are cool? Buy yours, here!

News

• New ITC Terrain now available! 
  • We’ve got the new Urban Billboard and Urban Barricades and Damaged Urban Barricades! We’ve got a special deal this week, if you buy the Billboard and a Barricade set, we’ll throw in a Damaged Urban Barricade set, FREE!

• How to take down the Deathstar!
• What is a Deathstar?
  • The definition varies from person to person, but in general terms a Deathstar is a unit that has overlapping special rules–typically through the addition of independent characters–that results in overwhelming defense and/or offense disproportionate to an equal points value in other units in the game.
• The number 1 rule for fighting deathstars is: do not play their game. If they go Super Saiyan with insane buffs, do not waste even a single attack on them as you are playing into their trap.
• Accept the fact that they will destroy any unit they touch. Do not get upset about it, simply acknowledge this fact and choose which units you sacrifice at what times to keep the Deathstar contained.
  • Focus on destroying all of their supporting and scoring units.
  • Take away their ability to win the mission.
  • If you have a powerful attack or strike try to hold it back until it counts.
  • If the Deathstar player has a turn where they fail to power up/get the Grim/pass a critical psychic check, hit them with everything you’ve got as that is your chance to take them down.
  • Containing a star is often the best you can hope for.
  • Move blocking them is very important. Sacrifice a unit by simply standing in front of the star to make it have to alter it’s movement away from were it wants to go.
  • If you can make it burn a turn by feeding it a unit you can lose, you most likely have saved several units you couldn’t lose. You can also stop them from getting multi assaults this way, which is critical.
  • Space out your units, bubble wrap your important units with less important units, etc. Don’t let your opponent take more than one unit a turn with their star.
  • If you use this tactic effectively, you are trading less points per turn than the Deathstar needs to destroy to justify taking it.
• Focus on winning the mission at all costs.
  • Sacrifice any units in your army to earn mission points if it will keep you in the lead on the scoreboard. You can lose your entire army but a single model and so long as you have more mission points, you will still win the game. In order to defeat the Deathstars, you have to stay focused on winning the mission despite casualties.
• If you do have the capability to actually hurt a Deathstar, model positioning is super important. Try to avoid the meat shields and hit the critical models.
  • Make sure to have your opponent marks which dude has which power so you can try to snipe them out.
  • Use barrage weapons, etc. to take out the models with the most important powers.
  • Tank Shock a star to scrape the meat shield units out of the way of the more important models and focus on destroying them to take away the critical buffs to the star.
• If you get first turn, and have the ability to deal a great deal of damage on the first turn, go balls to the wall to take out as much of the star as possible. Hold nothing back.
• Effective weapons vs Deathstars:
  • Culexus Assassin. You’ve heard us beat this drum a million times, but it bears repeating. Played correctly, he can take out–or be the catalyst to take out–a deathstar in a single turn.
  • Sisters of Battle. With the impending changes to Condemnor Boltguns, you can reliably maul a Psychic Deathstar with a single volley. You just need to think about delivery.
  • Stomps. As much as Stomps can be obnoxious, they really do help vs. Deathstars. So long as you can survive to get them off, you have a punher’s chance of taking out the Star. Be wary of attacks that can destroy your stomper, though. Force Weapons, Armorbane attacks, etc. can take you out befoe you swing. Again, model placement is huge. If you can send in a chaff unit with your stomper to soak the attacks and let him do his thing. Just hope for those 6’s. If not, you lose.
  • If you have decent amounts of Psychic Dice, or the Grim yourself, you can use them to try to stop the one, most critical power the opponent has. Throw all your dice at Invis, reroll saves, Endruance, etc. Determine which power must be stopped and save all your dice for that. The Grim too, can be used to lower the enemy invul. Use that to your advantage.
  • D weapons are OK. A lot of folks think they will be good, but they really aren’t that effective. As you have to roll a 6 for each model hit, and there will almost always be meat shields, they aren’t as reliable as one would hope, but as you start to wear down the Star, they can really pick up speed in later turns when the star is more vulnerable.

Upcoming ITC Events

• The Silver Tower Tournament Series, Del City, Ok, May 28th, 2016
• SCGC ITC May Night Fight!, Temecula, CA, May 28th, 2016
• Coliseum of Comics May 28th, Orlando, FL, May 28th, 2016
• Puget Sound Slaughter, Card Kingdom, Seattle, WA, May 28th, 2016
• GWNG May Brawler, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, May 28th, 2016
• Huzzah Hobbies May RTT, Ashburn, VA, May 28th, 2016
• Fantasy Books and Games ITC Tournament, Fairview Heights, IL, May 28th, 2016
• Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Tournament, Titan Games and Hobbies, Timonium, MD, May 28th, 2016
• Playnetix-Kugelflug I, Oldenburg, Germany, May 28th, 2016
• MAJOR EVENT: Poland Team Championship 2016, Warsaw, Poland, May 28-29th, 2016
• The Battle for Mobile Bay 40k Tournament, Mobile Comic Con, Mobile, AL, May 28th, 2016
• Powerfists & Psykers 4, Gatineau, QC, Canada, May 28th, 2016
• Battlefield Barrie:Path to Glory, @ sir games-a-lot, Ontario, Canada, May 28, 2016
• Dakka Con, Critical Hit Games, St. Petersburg, FL, May 28-29, 2016
• Midwest Conquest GT, Kansas City, MO, May 28-29, 2016
• Warhammer 40k: The Tournament, Rocket’s Hideout, Baton Rouge,  LA, May 29th, 2016
• Thunder and Snow, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, May 29th, 2016
• Wolf Brothers Battle Born Gaming Phase 2, Reno, NV, May 29th, 2016
• Game Haven May RTT, St. George, UT, May 31st, 2016

Rumors: The Rumor Section is gathered from the web and is not in any way information we receive from  any manufacturer nor is it necessarily accurate. This section of the podcast is intended for entertainment purposes only.

Rant Session

Tactics Corner

Rules Lawyer

Completed Commissions

• Check out this incredible AdMech army we painted up for Geoff “InControl” Robinson!

List Review

2 Lists Today

Rhino Rush Returns 1845pts

Space Marines

SM Gladius Strike Force

Chapter Tactics White Scars

Battle Demi Company (720pts) [Kor’sarro Khan]

Kor’sarro Khan [Bolt pistol, Moonfang]

Assault Squad [4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Chainsword, Plasma Pistol]

Devastator Squad [4x Lascannon, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Boltgun]

Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

 

• Battle Demi Company (665pts) [Chaplain]

• Chaplain Power Armour [Bolt Pistol]

• Assault Squad [4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Chainsword, Plasma Pistol]

• Devastator Squad [4x Missile Launcher (Frag & Krak), 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Boltgun]

• Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

• Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

• Tactical Squad [Grav-cannon and Grav-amp, Rhino, 4x Space Marines]Space Marine Sergeant [Bolt Pistol, Combi-melta, Melta Bombs]

• Auxiliary (460pts)

• Storm Wing (460pts)

• Stormraven Gunship [Twin-linked Assault Cannon, Twin-linked Multi-melta, Two side sponson Hurricane Bolters]

• Stormtalon Gunship [Skyhammer Missle Launcher]

• Stormtalon Gunship [Skyhammer Missle Launcher]

• Comp Scores:

• ITC: Legal (Single detachment) Aus Community Comp:

• 1pt: White Scars Detachment

• 3 pts: Kor’sarro Khan

• 2 pts: 6 free transports from Gladius Strike Force

• 3 pts: Storm Raven.

• 2 pts: 2 Storm Talons.

• Total: 8 Comp Points.

From the iron warrior omega, i play iron warriors and nothing else, my only problem with this list is that i am debating between this and assault siege list, what are your opinions on how to make a more competitve iron warriors list but also fluffy. i dont mind using other codexes to help:

purge detachement

warpsmith, warlord- 110

5×5 chosen, autocannon – 500pts

x1 dedicated transport rhino, havoc launcher

forgefiend- 175

forgefiend- 175

2×5 havocs: 4 autocannons, veterans of the long war-240pts

fortification detachment :

aquila strongpoint, macro cannon, 4 heavy bolters, 2 ammo stores for each building -605pts thx guys for having this list and keep on keeping on