Hi,

I just bought a pair of death strike launchers and wanted to ask the more experienced IG players how do they use them?

The only real strategy for taking them that I can think of right now is to pray that you go first and fire them as your first activation and take out all of a titans shields and maybe do some damage ( titan killer weapons are blocked by void shields right?).

If the enemy even tries shooting at them they get a blast marker and loose 50% firepower. The unlimited range dose allow you to hide them but enemy artillery and aircraft can be a problem.

Do you field them to force the opponent to fire at them at turn one and thus gain more options?

And some more technical questions.

If the unit has one blast marker and fires, only one launcher fires. Since they are 'single shot' do both launchers lose their missiles or can I next turn move the second launcher up front (so the empty one is suppressed) and fire again?

Thx!

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they are definitely there as much for psychological effect as anything else, against most armies you're likely to be going second so they will have at least 2 attempts to hit the deathstrikes before they can fire....

I would probably take both deathstrikes and vultures in a force, as a 1-2 punch to first strip shields, then retain and fire the deathstrikes, just make sure you have a supreme commander.... it's wise to park an AA or hydra battery (or two) in front of the deathstrikes to attempt to protect them from planes....

alternatively just stick them right in the corner and know the enemy can't hit both the deathstrikes AND your manticores in the other corner easily so you get to keep one alive....

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Kill Titans/Gargants ... IMO ... otherwise you are wasting that firepower ... Take out shields with FA &/or CAS ... then fire the Deathstrikes ... Cover your D/Strikes with AAA, if your opponent has those pesky aircraft/CAS ... And dispersing assets, as K noted ...

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Pretty quickly the cost of protecting them outweighs the benefit. However another way to look at it is sometimes the benefit is to be sacrificed because now your opponents opening moves are decided. They seem to come into their own on the larger games where there's just plenty more of scary stuff on the table so the effectiveness of the alpha-strike diminishes

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Remember that they also have a Heavy Bolter and a move of 20cm.

Once those missiles have been fired they are a decently mobile sacrificial unit. They can happily throw themselves into danger to place a single BM by shooting at a target, they can usually be safely ignored by the opponent so they are great for a last minute rush to grab or contest an objective, they can be a useful way of wasting time if your opponent has more activations than you so you place them of overwatch and pass back over to them, etc.

Now, if ALL you want is the silly shenanigans at the end of the game like I described above you'd be better with 2xSentinels.

But the deathstrikes are quite scary as a psychological tool. I don't know if it's worth 200pts at 3k though as that could get you a Shadowsword.

I had an experience tonight I feel I should share-

I usually take Deathstrikes and they usually have nothing much to shoot. Finally my opponent brought his Titan Legions, so it was their time to shine.
I managed to win the first activation, and downed 3/4 of his Supreme Commander's shields (a Reaver) with Vultures (poor rolling). I retained with the Deathstrikes on a 3+, and of course failed. With a re-roll.
The Deathstrikes survived into turn 2, and got another chance to shoot- failing to activate on a 2+. With re-roll.
Somehow they made it to turn 3, and managed to shoot! They even hit an already damaged Reaver- and did 4 damage on their 2D6. 5 was needed to kill it.

Obviously there's not much to draw from this- the luck was crazy (I failed almost all first turn activations- mostly on 2+'s), but I thought it'd be an amusing tale to share. I doubt many double-deathstrikes ever fire on turn 3.

Most of what you wrote seems to back my theories about this unit, Ijust wanted to wrap this topic up with two questions:

1) If the unit has one blast marker and fires, only one launcher fires. Since they are 'single shot' do both launchers lose their missiles or can I next turn move the second launcher up front (so the empty one is suppressed) and fire again?

2) If I score a hit with a deathstrike on a titan with shields do I:
a) remove d6 shields (if not enough shields are available reduce shields and wound target)?
b) remove a single shield?
c) ignore the shields and inflict wounds?

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You only lose the one missile and can indeed move the second (though if you move you will be unable to sustain and use indirect fire, better to hope they rally and lose the blast marker at the end of T1)



Option A is the correct one, so if you hit a fully shielded warhound and roll a 4, you remove both shields and do 2 damage to the titan

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Thanks !

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If You're from Poland and play Epic PM me maybe we can play a game :)

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