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I was playing against a friend of mine who was using a pure GK force and we were discussnig how underpowered they were (specifically which army was worse off, footslogging Orks or Pure GK's), and I eventually came up with the following idea to make GK's pretty useful.  Combine Grey Knights with the power of broken shooty marines.

A bunch of 6 Man Las/Plas squads (4 or so depending on points level)
2 or 3x Tornados
Master Commander

And fill the rest with GK's.  You can take the equivalent of two terminator squads using the HQ and Elite slots, and you can throw a unit of normal GK's into Fast Attack last.  You could also throw the troops in and rely on shrouding and target overload to get you through the first two turns.

Obviously it's not going to be as good as the same Shooty Marine base + Assault Cannon Termies, but I'm thinking it may be a decent enough army that could at least let you have a themed GK force that didn't completely suck.  Plus there is the fun you could have by painting your normal SM's in the GK colors (including the Speeders, Preds, et all) and have them be "initiate GK's", the looks you'd get when you explained it would probably be worth it all by itself.

Except that, according to the Daemonhunter codex, if you take space marines, you can't have Grey Knights and vice versa.

You would use Space Marines as the parent List, and use GK's as Allies, where you are alowed 0-1 HQ, 0-1 Elite, 0-2 Troops, and 0-1 Fast Attack allotments of Grey Knights.

I think it can be a great idea. I have been experimenting with Daemonhunters units in a parent SM army, and it can fill the weaknesses of a shooty marine army very well. I wouldnt load up on grey knights, but rather just use what you need to fill your counterassault role. They still are not as efficient as marines for their cost. Just beware that you will have to deal with sustained assault daemons if you field a single grey knight.

I've also been experimenting with grey knights in a parent SM list. I played against a Chaos army that only included marines (he knew I was trying out GK). Anyways I'd have to say that I was pretty satisfied for what the Grey Knights did although I think that I would rather have the termies and assault cannons.

I do have a question though, if I only include one squad of Grey Knights and I decide to deepstrike them, do the daemons that die before the Grey Knights arrive also gain sustained assault or is it just the ones on the table once the GKs are on?

To me it still seems like you are paying more for less. A regular group of marines can do a full load out of long range and still maintain mobility.

pure grey knights with a grey knight land raider is fine, and if he still has problems get ig in there for some heavy weapons

Posted By Flavius Infernus on 10/10/2006 5:46 AM
Except that, according to the Daemonhunter codex, if you take space marines, you can't have Grey Knights and vice versa.

This is not true.

If you are playing DH and take Marine allies, you cannot take GKs. If you are playing pure GK's you cannot take Marine allies (as Marines do not call upon GKs). Marine armies can take GK allies.

And I'd warn against it, simply because all adding GKs does is make Daemon Bomb players love you even more. Nothings quite as good as getting Sustained Attack for all your Daemonette Cav.

BYE

I don't know why you'd be so worried about demon bombs. Assuming they're Demonettes (as that's what I see everyone and their mother using), they come on at the other board edge and you get to shoot them with lots of stormbolters and psycannons, which should make them go bye bye and nets you more VP's.

Mounted Demoneets, OK, but honestly I haven't seen much of that and I doubt they'd be able to get to the GK's in one turn after coming on, if you're playing a demon bomb army you're much better off deploying back and shooting the delivery units.

Besides the whole point isn't really making the uber competitive SM list, the point is being able to field a Grey Knight themed army that doesn't completely suck. The total points spent on the Marines is about half of a 1500 Point army for support of your other half of the army which is tied up in expensive GK units.

Plus if you were using the alternative (fielding pure GK's) you'd still have all these problems anyway.

I think shootie IG parent list with GKs would do far better than marines but that's just me. The GKs add something the IG really lack, but don't really add much to a marine army you can't do better with plain terminators.

I agree with Longshot here, if you want to maximize your forces shooting ability to supplement a detachment of GK's you need to go for cost, weapons and survivability. while the Marines parent group is nice, i doubt you can get the maximal output of heavy weapons to do what you want, take out the heavy troops and tanks with long range fire. At the same time with Marines parent groups you have higher survivability.

On the other side, and I am not too familiary with GK rules, if you can take an IG parent group and supplement your forces with GK, you can probably get more weapons for less cost at the exchange of survivability (unless you plop guys in cover). Some demolishers and autocannon teams might do your guys great. I'll read through the codexes and see what an army list would look like with GK/SM and GK/IG detachments by tomorrow.