Inquisition Deathstar

Inquisition Deathstar

Henchmen

While painting my models, I've been trying to think of ways to come up with lists that can utilize the cool things I've painted, but never use.  This might take some people by surprise, especially since we're several years removed from when DCA were actually used.  Keeping them alive is difficult, plus you have to remember all the special rules.  Your opponent might get a little peeved once you read out the long list of buffs and debuffs.

1750 Inquisition Deathstar
Grey Knight Nemesis Strike Force Detachment
125 Librarian, falchions, combi-melta, melta bombs
200 5 Terminators, 1 Psycannon, 1 hammer, melta bombs
265 10 Interceptors, melta bombs, 2 incinerators
200 Stormraven
205 Dreadknight, teleporter, greatsword, heavy psycannon
205 Dreadknight, teleporter, greatsword, heavy psycannon

100 Bunker w/comms & void shield

Inquisitorial detachment
79 Xenos Inq w/3 skulls & conversion beamer
70 Henchmen: 1 psyker, 3 Servitors w/plasma cannons

99 Xenos Inquisitor  w/2 skulls, Rad & Psychotroke grenades, power armor, Psyker
185 Henchmen: 2 Priests, 3 crusaders, 6 Death Cult Assassins

18 Henchmen: 2 acolytes, 1 psyker

Bunker mates

This is just an addition to my previous NSF list, but swaps the Purifiers in the Stormraven for an inquisition squad and adds a interceptors.

Deployment is simple, just the servitor henchmen with the beamer inquisitor sit inside the bunker.  If my opponent has no barrage, I can hide the psyker henchmen squad behind the building for the extra WC each turn.  The building mans the comms to make sure my GK comes in turn 1.  I actually prefer to go 2nd unless my opponent has something that can take out a bunker at long range.

In most cases, we're going to have the Terminators, interceptors, and 2 Dreadknights drop right on my opponents front lines (aided by 5 skulls), then the Stormraven come in with the inquisition deathstar turn 2.  The stormraven is a solid flyer killer, another reason to want to go 2nd.

Crusaders

The inquisition deathstar is pretty durable once they make it into combat and deadly, but paper thin if they are outside combat.  The DCA have 2 base and 2 power weapons, giving 4 total on the charge at I6, WS5, and S4.  The Crusader has another 2 attacks on the charge at I3, but only S3.  The Priests each have another 2 I2 attacks, but only WS3, S3.  Potentially, he can smash, but I don't see many reasons to do this.  Everyone even has an invlun.  The DCA have a 5++, Priests have a 4++, and Crusaders a 3++.

Inquisitors

Generic Inquisitor

The Inquisitor brings rad grenades for -1 toughness, psychotroke grenades for shenanigans and another power weapon and maybe even activating force (although you may not be targeting the correct unit if you need this).  For your psychic roll you really only have Telepathy as the primary option.  Prescience doesn't give you much since you have no guns and the unit already has most of the buffs.  Getting hammerhand from Sanctic would be nice, but you perils on any doubles so it isn't worth it.  Telekinesis is Telekinesis.  Pyromancy isn't too bad, but I think Telepathy is strictly better.  Invisibility and Shrouding are the juicy targets while Dominate and Terrify are good.  Mental Fortitude won't help too much and hallucination isn't really worth WC2, but with Psychic Shriek in as the primaris you'll always have a useful power.

You'll want to check what the Psychotroke grenade does before you use your war hymns.  The effects are all really good (#2-6) or does nothing (#1).  If the opponent is reduced to 1 attack (#2), dropped to I1 (#5), or attacking themselves (#6) you may not need to reroll saves and instead would rather re-roll wounds to finish them off.  Keep in mind, you're still only T3, plus the opponent has -1T.  The other roll drop the opponent to Ld2, which may not help too much, but could cause them to run away.

Priests bring Zealot (hatred and fearless) plus can chant war hymns to buff the unit further.  The war hymns from the priests require a leadership test at Ld7, which only goes off a little more than 50% of the time, which is why we need 2 for redundancy.  Almost always you'll want to use the Emperor Protects with these T3 models as it allows you to re-roll all failed armor and invulns.  If you really want to finish the fight and ensure they die, then the Righteousness of the Emperor lets you re-roll to wound.  Finally, the emperor's strength gives smash to the priest, letting him have AP2 attacks but he's still only S3 (I don't think this lets him double the strength again with an eviscerator for S10 attacks, which would be cool).  You'll test for protects first, then try again if it fails.  If it goes  off try for Righteousness.

Death Cult Assassins

The DCA are your killing beasts, the Crusaders are there to tank wounds with the (hopefully) re-rollable 3++.  Multi-charging helps avoid overkill.  You don't want to be left hanging in the wind with only your invulns (and no re-rolls).

With Zealot and the Righteousness of the Emperor war hymn, you'll be re-rolling to hit and to wound against the enemy with -1T.  The DCA will be swinging at I6 with each attack having an 80% chance to kill a PA SM.  The 6 DCA alone will average 19 dead MEQ kills before they even get a chance to swing.  Even against orks, a full strength squad will kill 29 boyz, leaving only the nob, before they even get to swing back.

The Priests still need to be painted.  The one on the right is custom built

This is a terrifying amount of killing ability, that only really works because you have the dreadknights, terminators, and interceptors mucking things up before you even arrive.  Hopefully, this squad is forgotten about because you aren't getting a charge off until turn 3.

It's only 274 points including the IC.  Really, you can't even call it a deathstar at all.  That's less than a bloodthirster, less than a 5-man paladin squad, nearly the same price as 3 grave centurions.  Of course, it's substantially less survivable than all the aforementioned units.  One of the primary identifiers for deathstars is ultra durability.  Of course almost anything can be made ultra durable with invisibility, so if my GK librarian rolls for it, he has the potential to cast it on them.  The unit is fearless while the Priests are still alive, which helps.

Regular old bolters kill this unit.  It would take only around 70 shots to kill and quickly lose effectiveness with every death.  Compared to other deathstars like Paladins, which require 36 bolters shots to kill each model or Screamerstars that require 216 to kill each model, this is nothing.  Even Flyrants require 54 shots per wound when they are flying.

Inquisitorial council makes difficult decisions-- Burritos for lunch?

I think it's more effective now than ever, even though it requires choosing your target a little more delicately.   The old Grey Knight codex in 6th allowed DCA and Crusaders to take 'power weapons' so you could pick.  I modeled my crusaders with halberds (+1S, AP2 unwieldy) and modeled the DCA with staff (nunchuks, +2S, AP4) and sword (AP3).  This gave me more versatility, but it didn't have priests, so war hymns were out.  The Inquisition codex forced them both to take power swords, but limited my transport option to only Land Raiders.  Since I don't have any Land Raiders, I didn't have a delivery mechanism for the unit.  With 7th edition, battle brothers can embark in each others' transports, so now I can use a Stormraven.

Another generic inquisitor

Once I get the priests painted then I'll try this list out.  It's not going to win any lists, but it will be fun to see it overkill some poor unit only half its cost, then get shot to hell (and probably the Storm Raven that delivered them as well).