Topic: Countering Ork Stars?

[Wyldhunt]

So we have a new gent at the friendly local game store who plays orks.  He's a nice guy. Not a WAAC player at all. That said, he happens to like bringing various sorts of deathstars to the table. My first game against him, his Nob Bikers took maybe two casualties versus my incubi and the shooting from my kabailites, but I basically couldn't do anything against them.  My second game, he brought some sort of Forgeworld unti with a transport capacity of 30 and loaded it up with three squads of meganobz.  It was maelstrom, andI outscored him big time, but his nobs and lootas tabled me on turn 6. I was able to whittle down the meganobz, but not before they killed whatever they chose to charge each turn.   In the last game, he made the mistake of outflanking Council of da Waaaagh thus allowing my 'nid ally and I to pretty much annihilate him, but we kept playing for the ehck of it to see what the star could do.  He charged a squad of wyches, a 20-strong warrior blob, a kitted out archon and succubus, and a 5 man squad of grotesques as a multi-assault.  I think I did 5 wounds and lost all my units. Sort of. The store was kicking us out, so we didn't resolve it properly.

It feels like anything I throw at one of his stars just bounces off.  Even units dedicated to cleaving through tough units like my incubi barely dent such units before being taken out.  I've tried simply avoiding his stars with my (usually) superior speed, but that doesn't really work against bikers.  I could maybe gain some firepower by swapping my lances out for disintegrators, but then I'd be that much less capable of dealing with the vehicles that often carry his stars. I could keep trying to simply avoid his stars all game while wracking up points, but maelstrom is random enough to make that difficult, and I can always get tabled anyway (like in my second game against him). 

To be fair, I usually run assault-heavy lists which probably doesn't help. Perhaps the 20 man wariror blob coming out of a portal I've started running could do some damage if they got a clean shot at one of his stars...

Suggestions?

[Plastikente]

I haven't got any recent experience against orks, but I would usually advocate the mobility route against deathstars.  They take up so many of his points and can only be in one place at a time, so try to prevent them from returning on his investment.  Against his bikers, maybe you can split your forces so that he has to go right out to a board edge to take down a unit and then has a long ride to reach the next victim?

[faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)]

I do not have the new dex yet, as funds are not yet available, but from what I understand, wyches are pretty much the same.

Wyches have always been my answer to any death star unit. Lock it up for a few turns while the rest of your army mows down his - then it becomes your army vs his death star.

Also, I don't know if Implosion missiles are the same or not, but I used to take 4 of those baby to wreck death stars.

[Starrok]

Even units dedicated to cleaving through tough units like my incubi

Incubi are dedicated to cleaving through tau fire warriors and marine squads, tbh. You severely overvalue their possibilities. Lack of invul save leaves them useless against most 2+ targets, which are usually either accompanied by a 3++ save, or too numerous to be wiped in one phase, after which, the survivors smack you into the ground. The guy before me says correct - the best stopper for deathstars are fearless wyches, 10-20 models. Preferrably under FNP. They take the initial blow, while the boats wipe out the rest of his army. Once they are gone, you simply finish it.

To make things considerably easier against bikes with reroll-stick, take a couple of allied serpents to deny improved jink.

Use reavers to deal with annoying units on far end of the field, such as lootas and gretchin artillery. Turn 2, they i

I don't know if Implosion missiles are the same or not

Implosion missiles are a small blast version of Eldar Starcannon now. Worthless.

Wyches have always been my answer to any death star unit. Lock it up for a few turns while the rest of your army mows down his - then it becomes your army vs his death star.

Correct approach. Venoms and kabalites on raiders toast orcs that have close to no armor. And versus meganobs, you have your disintegrators.

[faitherun (Fay-ith-er-run)]

I don't know if Implosion missiles are the same or not

Implosion missiles are a small blast version of Eldar Starcannon now. Worthless.

  Cause that bit of war gear was overpowered and spammed right!?!

Another thing that can help is after tarpitting with wyches to chuck a beast squad in there. To help kill some and keep them tied up longer...

Looking through our dex now, I came up with a possible counter, which I wrote up in the LD shenanigans thread.