40K Tactics: Beating Tyranid Deathstars with Descent of Angels

Tyranids can be a tough match up versus Descent of Angels (DoA) armies when your facing a Tyranid deathstar bubble wrapped in a sea of many teeming gaunts. Lets talk about how to defeat these xenos deathstars using units typically chosen in a DoA army.

First, lets take a look at the enemy:

A typical Tyranid deathstar is as follows:

Lash whip and bone sword, scything talons, armored shell, paroxysm, regeneration and old adversary (preferred enemy)

Lash whips

2x bone sword, regeneration

The deathstar is screened by lots of gaunts and/or genestealers. If you charge the gaunts then you’ll be counter charged by the deathstar the following turn. The Tyrant Guard and Prime both have a 3+ armor save while the Tyrant has a 2+ armor save. They are majority T6 as well. The deathstar can also draw cover from their gaunt screen since the Guard and Prime are infantry. This combination causes lots of problems for DoA armies since the vast majority of our shooting is at 12″ range. Basically when you go in for the kill you get one turn of shooting then the bug juice is going to start flying everywhere.

This deathstar reduces your models in base contact with the lash whips to I1. The Tyrant cannot be picked out either since the Guard effectively form a retinue. This unit has eight attacks that ignore armor saves (ten if they charge) at I5 and all can cause instant death. There are also nine S5 rending attacks (12 if they charge) at I4. You must not let the deathstar charge! They also reroll all missed hits all due to preferred enemy. The Tyrant can cast paroxysm reducing you to WS1 and if you don’t wipe out the Tyrant and Prime on the charge then both can regenerate lost wounds. It’s truly epic!

So how do you beat this deathstar? Well sure it’s a tall order but it can be done. Your army is more mobile so one approach is to simply hold them at arm’s length. If its a killpoint mission it should be simple enough to stay away and kill other units. That’s okay but if you’re a true son of Sanguinius then you’ll be wanting their big skulls for your trophy rack. You have to play very well versus a good Nid player to beat this deathstar with a DoA army.

Punch a hole through the gaunt screen, multi charging both the gaunts and the deathstar with as many units as possible. You will want your uber squad of death on the point hitting the deathstar. Don’t let the lash whips intimidate you! Sure it stinks to lose the initiative but think like a terminator with a thunderhammer and stormshield! You’ll be hitting last but you can still can hit very hard. My uber squad of death is as follows and will be used for this example (they are very very choppy!) –

Jump pack, Sanguine Sword and Unleash Rage

Honor Guard (jump packs and chapter banner):

Novitiate

1st veteran – Pair of lightning claws

2nd veteran – lightning claw & stormshield

3rd veteran – lightning claw & stormshield

4th veteran – thunderhammer & stormshield

Your going to get a lot of mileage out of the Librarian as he will be casting both psychic powers and using his psychic hood to attempt blocking paroxysm. Sure you’re affected by Shadows in the Warp but you’ll have to just give it your best. If you can block paroxysm that’s a big boon as those who can survive will inflict more wounds as the result. Most likely one of your powers will go off and the other will be blocked. They are both good but Unleash Rage is the better of the two in this particular situation. It’s purely random so there’s nothing you can do about it. It is what it is.

Make sure to place your Librarian in base with a Tyrant Guard to protect him. The Novitiate MUST be placed in base with a gaunt to link your assaults. All of the veterans with stormshields hit the Prime and Tyrant so they have a good chance to weather the storm. I run a Stormraven in my current list with a Furioso (Blood Talons) onboard. (Make sure to pull an alpha strike on the deathstar with the Bloodstrike missiles first to soften up the deathstar!) As I have noted in other articles this is where the Stormraven really shines as it will allow you to pull off the multi assault. The dreadnought MUST assault the gaunts as he will rack up a lot of wounds which in turn will trigger lots of armor saves for the deathstar due to No Retreat. This alone can devastate the deathstar and you MUST make sure to multi assault both gaunts and the deathstar with the dreadnaught charging the gaunts. You are taking the advantage of using gaunts as a screen away from your opponent and turning the table on them. It’s beautiful when it goes off.

G