Welcome to the Age of Deathstars™.
With the reduction of battleplans with more than 4 objectives being active the whole game, many armies are seeing the shift to a smaller number of units which have more hitting power and survivability. These units are like sponges absorbing all the buffs possible allowing them to annihilate anything put before them, including hopefully, the enemy deathstars unit.
Whether it’s Vulkite Berzerker, Squigs, Chosen or Bestigor. Being able to stack buff and still being survivable either through healing, debuffs or everyone’s favourite a cheeky 4+ rally. This allows these units to sit on objective with little fear of being pushed off, scoring victory points turn after turn while denying them from your opponent.
I have been trying to workout all the buff possible to the 30 strong Vulkite Berzerker and it’s mind boggling. While they can’t have everything every turn, being able to pick the correct buffs/debuffs at the correct time separates out the great players from the merely net listers.
Fight on death (Warscroll)
+1 attack on the charge (Warscroll)
Fight First (Battletrait)
4+ Rally (Battlesmith)
+1 Damage (Flamekeeper)
5+ ward (Battlesmith)
Charge in the enemy turn (Flamekeeper)
+1 to hit and wound if charged (Vostarg)
+1 attack (Runefather)
+1 attack (Rune)
-1 rend (Rune)
+1 to hit (Rune)
6s to wound do mortal (Rune)
There are also counter deathstar armies which are able to pick them apart, by either picking out heroes or having unique abilities which can stop them in their tracks. Karazai the Scarred being able to Roar the Vulkites to remove the option to fight first and then having buckets of attacks from his Calamitous Tail after the Sharpshooting Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows have removed any nearby heroes can see those Duardin disappear fast!
With the smaller unit armies their natural home can often be the battle regiment which I believe we will continue to see an increase this season. Currently it has increased its prevalence from 48% to 69% in army lists. However some armies may push into the new battalions to access the new abilities there. It will be fascinating to see if this deathstar trend continues and what new ones and counters emerge in the upcoming events.
