Sunday, April 17, 2011

Grey Knights an overlooked unit, and my discoveries

So I've started getting a respectable number of playtest games in with the new grey knights.  And, I've painted a new razorback/rhino which I'm quite proud of :D.  Anyway I've tried a variety of lists with minor tweaks based on my games.  Each time the list has gotten stronger as a whole and I am going to to share my findings with you!

Purifiers are the only thing in the army with real klling power.  (Aside from Paladins and terminaters)  In every test game they have been the only thing in my army to pull their weight.  And honestly they pull the wait of the whole army with them.

Inquisitoral henchmen suck.  That's right you heard me.  I too thought they would be the awesomesauce, but alas their ridiculously cheap bodies and suicide meltas, as well as unlcoking more transports is a fascade.  they are good when they are able to drive up to a tank of a monster without cover, from inside their transport and blow it up.  That's for sure.  But more often than not their transport gets blown up and most die in the explosion and die right away.  Or they have to roll up 12" get out, maybe not even blow up their target (because BS 3 sucks) and die.  You can't just take 1 because that's unreliable and the minute you take more than 1 you start blowing over 200 points on suicide squads that frankly suck.

As much as they are msu and cheap and melta and transport, and by all logic of 40k should be amazing, they aren't.  These guys are honestly better left at home.

Strike squads are really bad in comparison to purifiers.  I know that's a fairly obvious statement, but I don't think I've ever been let down so much by a unit of force weapons in combat.  The really need more attacks to accomplish anything.  The hammer is overcosted relative to purifiers, and you can only get 1 psy cannon.  As much as these should make up the back bone of your army they suck at it.

Autocannon dread are solid.  They are far from a bad choice that's for sure.  They may have just been over hyped a lot, but these guys are not just monsters that knock out a tank a turn each.  Honestly if I can even manage penetrating hits on 3 tanks a turn I'll be over joyed.  They will still be making it into my lists, but just don't expect the best fire support ever like I did., you will be dissapointed.

Heavy bolter razorbacks are a nice unit to have.  They add supressing fire as well as a way to help finish off squads or weaken large squads to soething a bit more manageable.  For purifiers a rhino is better, for strike squads it's about the same.

Las Plas razors that can't be shaken or stunned are not good.  Purifiers should be in rhinos because they need to be in centerfield and shooting from inside.  If you're fielding las plas razors than they better be on strike squads.  If they are om strike squads they better in the backfield making use of their range, but if they are they aren't supporting your rhinos, so the synergy just isn't there.  If you take henchmen and give them a las plas razor, you shouldn't be because you need the fire points of a chimera to make henchmen even remotely fieldable.

And lastly, interceptors.  The oe unit I am going to talk about that I haven't tested.  Honeslty I overlooked them until my buddy Rich kicked my ass earlier today and told me to consider them when I asked him what he would change in my list.

They add mobility, shunting in capture and controll is game changing, when your aggressive forces can't make it to your opponent's objective.  They can jump around and limit return fire while dealing with those pesky units you don't want to waaste a real unit on, like scout bikers, or single land speeders.  They also ass the very nice incinerator to wherever your heart desires.  With the shunt move you can basically get a S6 heavy flamer to anywhere you want on the board.  That will really help deal with pathfinders, lootas, and gaunts that are sittign on objectives in the back.

The unit adds a 3rd dimension of options a standard grey knight army does not have.  They are the grey knights version of scout bikers, wolf scouts or deff koptas.  And while they can't alpha strike they pa a simillar role in supporting the army with speed by being a pain in the ass for the opponent.

With all this in mind I think this will be the next army i will be testing.

HQ
Crowe 150

Troops
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons master crafted demon hammer 2 halberds 134
rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons master crafted demon hammer 2 halberds 134
rhino 40
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons demon hammer 2 halberds 129
rhino
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons demon hammer 2 halberds 129
rhino
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons demon hammer 2 halberds 129
rhino
5 Purifiers- 2 psy cannons demon hammer 2 halberds 129
rhino

Fast
5 Interceptors- incinerator 150
5 Intercepters- incinerator 150

Heavy
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannons psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannons psy bolts 135
Dreadnaught- 2 Twin linked auto cannons psy bolts 135

1999

6 comments:

  1. Here is what I've found looking through the codex...

    I am a big fan of Draigos attached to a squad of five Paladins (fully complex and no medic - just too expensive for my taste) along with a tooled Libby. This is the hub of my army. Expensive but durable if deployed well plus two psycannons for more shooty.

    By adding some pairs of Nemesis force falchions to a Strike Squad they have a decent amount of shooting. A ten man Strike Squad can field up to two psycannons. This is also a good unit to take psybolt ammunition (8 stormbolters). I put them in a rhino (dozer blades) so they can pillbox with the psycannons shooting from out the top hatch. The Strike Squad has Warp Quake so they are an excellent deterrent to enemy deep striking units if you keep them spread out.

    Obviously the Purifiers are one of the top units but I prefer not to use Crowe as he looks to be very situational. Still I field two six man squads with two psycannons and four Nemesis force halberds. They are mounted in the default razorback (dozer blades) with psybolt ammo. Lots of shooting plus decent in close combat as well, obviously.

    I'm not a fan of Interceptors - expensive plus only one base attack. They get to be quite expensive if you start adding in some Nemesis force falchions. You've got the Warp Quake with your Strike Squads... Good enough for me!

    All my vehicles have the warp stabilization field - sort of a poor man's version of Interceptors

    G

    ReplyDelete
  2. The interceptors are nice, but a bit expensive. Have you thought of having them as a single unit so you can combat squad both Incinerators together as an option? I really like Purifiers too, just not convinced on Crowe. How are the five man squads holding up?

    Warrior Henchmen may not work well; have you thought of trying MM-Servitors as a firebase?

    My other thoughts is a a single strike squad in a Razor. They can sit on home objective quaking anything that tried to land and Crowe gets a ride to deliver him into combat.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Nick,

    Stop trying to MSU GK's! GK's aren't other space marine armies. MSU leaves you to weak to fast. Strike Squads at full strength w/2 Psycannons, hammer, and ammo put out a ridiculous number of shots and are the backbone of every army I've built so far.

    Your list might work (and I do agree w/using Interceptors) but I can't help but feel your trying to mimic what other armies already do better to hard.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steve- I've been thinking of adding a squad of paladins in a land raider into the mix instead of a dreadnaught one of the purifer squads and a bunch of upgrades. I haven't been sold on it only because they aren't that much better than purifiers in combat, albeit much more survivable.

    Everytime I've tried strike squads I've been terribly dissapointed by the one attack, and the falchions seem like a ton of points. I mean I could try them in bigger squads but I'm not sure.

    I played a game with interceptors today and they pulled their weight. They managed to contest my opponents objective, and kill 2 squads of attack bikes. I kind of feel like a demon hammer is necessary for them though.

    Lyracien- Still on the fence about intercepters only because of their point cost, but we'll see as more testing gets done.

    Multimelta henchmen dont have the ability to move and shoot therefore they probably dont have the range to be really helpful.

    Sadly there is no good reason to field strike squads if you're already fielding crowe, so
    it's somewhat a mute point.

    Brad- I saw your post on your blog about your latest tournament outgoing, and I have to say I'm more than intrigued. Please do let me know how your army works, because I'm pertty baffled by it lol.

    There probably is merit to the large strike squads, I'll have to look into that honestly.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well the list is already being tweaked from what I brought this weekend. Not enormously (pretty much just swapped out the Pallies to turn a Inquisitor into a GM) but enough to swing the power level up another level.

    It's a very midfield oriented army. Assault only happen if they have to since I have the firepower to shoot 2-3 (depending on squad size) units off the table per turn and that's not counting my anti-tank.

    I haven't figured out how I'm gonna run it at lower levels but I've got a test set-up at 1850 in June so we'll see :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. My thought with the Servitors was that if Crowe was stealing there ride they would become a static firebase guarding the home objective. It does mean you are spending about 100 points to get him his own personal tank which may not be the best investment...

    ReplyDelete