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Another test for the Grey Knights this time against Imperial Guard, man do I hate mech Guard!

Grey Knights


HQ

Ordo Xenos Inquisitor - scythian venom blade, power armour, 3 x servo skulls, digital weapons & rad grenades

Elite

5 x Purifiers w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons, 2 x nemesis halberds & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

5 x Purifiers w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons, 2 x nemesis halberds & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

Troops

10 x Grey Knights w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

10 x Grey Knights w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

10 x Grey Knights w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

10 x Grey Knights w/ Rhino - 2 x psycannons & nemesis daemon hammer - Rhino w/ hunter killer

Heavy Support

Dreadnought - 2 x twin-linked autocannons & psybolt ammo

Dreadnought - 2 x twin-linked autocannons & psybolt ammo

Dreadnought - 2 x twin-linked autocannons & psybolt ammo

Total: 2,000

Imperial Guard


HQ

Company Command Squad w/ Chimera - 4 x plasma guns

Company Command Squad w/ Chimera - 4 x plasma guns

Troops

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x meltaguns

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns

Veterans w/ Chimera - 3 x plasma guns

Fast Attack

Vendetta

Vendetta

Hellhound

Heavy Support

Manticore Missile Launcher - heavy flamer

Manticore Missile Launcher - heavy flamer

Manticore Missile Launcher - heavy flamer

Total: 2,005

* All tanks have hull heavy flamers

Game: Seize Ground + Pitched Battle

Deployment

Guard won the roll off and placed a objective top right of the board but 12" from the edge, another objective was placed in the centre shrine ruin while Grey Knights placed the others, one in a factory ruin on the left flank and another in a large ruin on the right flank.

Guard deployed first putting a wall of Manticores just behind the top right objective and a single plasma Veteran squad in a Chimera behind this formation was all supported with a Vendetta. In the centre the bulk of the armour deployed putting melta units at the front then the plasma units behind while the other Vendetta deployed on the left flank. The Hellhound deployed with the bulk of the armour hiding behind a melta Chimera.

Grey Knights deployed next using terrain wisely and hiding all Rhinos in ruins so the ordnance would only hit the top floor - Purifiers and a Dreadnought deployed centre, two Strike Squads left flank and the rest in front of the ruin holding the right flank objective - two Strike Squads and two Dreadnoughts.

Turn 1

Manticores move position to get LOS on the Rhinos and Dreadnoughts on the right flank but nice deployment means they will get cover saves from the ruin - indirect fine might have been useful, but all units had been spaced out. Centre Chimeras surge forward with a plasma unit claiming the objective but moving so the side is half covered, this way can fire plasma out the hatch later. Rest of the tanks on the front line pop smoke.

Shooting Manticores blast out each getting two shots after misses and cover saves a Dreadnought is crew shaken and a Rhino crew stunned. Vendetta blasts at a Rhino too but it makes all the cover saves. Other Vendetta fires at a Rhino in a building, passes most the cover saves but is still crew shaken.

Grey Knights turn the two Purifier units pass terrain tests and move out 6" along with the supporting Dreadnought. On the left flank the shaken Rhino tries fortitude power with double 6's, it takes another shaken result - the tank and the supporting one move out of terrain, the Strike Squad bail out the shaken Rhino and use it as a shield to block LOS. Left flank the shaken Dreadnought fails the psychic test for fortitude, it moves behind the ruin to block LOS as the other Dreadnought and two Rhinos move up, the other Rhino passes the fortitude psychic test.

Shooting squad on foot fires at the Hellhound but does nothing. Purifiers fire a Chimera and only stun it and shake another while the other Strike Squad supporting the squad on foot shakes another Chimera. Right flank Vendetta is shaken and immobilised thanks to the Dreadnought while one Manticore is crew stunned the other crew shaken.

Turn 2

Hellhound moves forward ready to incinerate the Strike Squad on foot, a CCS moves to support the squad holding the shrine objective while a shaken Chimera moves to reinforce the shrine objective. Rest stays put!

Shooting Hellhound roasts the Strike Squad on foot killing two silver armour Marines. Purifiers with the Inquisitor get blown out their Rhino by plasma from the squad holding the shrine objective, CCS follow up the volley and kill three Purifiers - they pass morale and pinning tests.

Grey Knights turn the squad on foot gets back in their Rhino and move up 6" while the supporting Rhino moves into terrain, the tank fails dangerous terrain test and is immobilised. Battered Purifiers move out of terrain and back a bit to be out of range of plasma while the supporting Dreadnought and Purifiers move to blast the Guard out of the shrine objective. Left flank both Dreadnoughts move up with Rhino support.

Shooting Hellhound is shaken from psycannon fire but double hunter killer missiles see it dead. A melta Chimera is exploded from psycannon fire squad inside passes morale and pinning tests. Purifiers blast the Chimera with meltas on the shrine objective and manage to stun it, supporting Dreadnought fires at another melta Chimera and just stuns it. Left flank Dreadnought blasts Vendetta and explodes it, psycannons and the other Dreadnought blast Manticores to break the wall protecting the troops but score stunned on one and shaken on another, hunter killer missiles just get the same results though one misses.

Turn 3

Melta squad by the exploded Hellhound get ready to unleash melta into the Rhino, CCS follows them to issue order and blast the Grey Knights with plasma, hopefully. Melta Chimera moves to get into melta range of the last Purifier Rhino.

Shooting CCS issues bring it down to the melta squad, they succeed and the Rhino is popped, Grey Knights fail pinning test, CCS follows up with plasma leaving just a few left who pass morale. Meltas blast the Purifier Rhino and pop it. Dreadnought suffers two weapon destroyed results from the Vendetta, plasmas follow it up and wreck it. On the right flank Manticore repositions and fires three shots at a Dreadnought and wrecks it. Multi laser from the Chimera by the objective manages to stun one of the oncoming Rhinos.

Grey Knights movement squad bails out the immobilised Rhino in terrain and move onto the left flank objective. Purifiers move to blast the melta Chimera on the objective and hopefully assault it. On right flank Rhino tries fortitude power and passes, Rhinos move up to lay down fire power as the last Dreadnought moves behind.

Shooting Grey Knights on the objective cut down some of the melta Guardsmen with storm bolter fire as only half the squad can see them, Guardsmen go to ground and are ok. Purifiers manage to immobilise and weapon destroyed on the melta Chimera. Dreadnought manages to score weapon destroyed on a Manticore on the right flank.

In assault Purifiers charge the immobilised Chimera and cast hammerhand, scores another weapon destroyed result.

Turn 4

Not a lot of movement by Guard except on the right flank where the weapon destroyed Manticore shifts around to let the Chimera come forward as the other CCS zooms over and bails out. Plasma unit which has been holding the objective moves as the melta unit in the immobilised tank still has it and moves to draw LOS on the Purifiers.

Shooting CCS on the left flank issues get back in the fight while other CCS issues bring it down to itself. Shooting on the right flank meltas and plasma fire into the Grey Knights out in the Rhino crater, two survive and pass morale. Meltas take some potshots at the unit on the right flank objective killing two Marines. Purifiers eat plasma and all die. Rhino gets wrecked by CCS, squad manages to bail out half in terrain so getting cover from the plasma Veterans by the objective who fire at them, but all cover saves are passed. Last Dreadnought takes multiple direct Manticore shots leaving it shaken and immobilised.

Grey Knights turn the two man squad moves to assault the melta Veterans in the crater from their exploded tank last turn. Battered Purifiers move to shoot and assault melta Chimera taking shots at the squad on the objective while on the right flank squad out of the tank moves through terrain to get closer to the objective as the other Rhino moves up.

Shooting the melta Guardsmen take some pain from storm bolter and psycannon leaving two left who pass morale. Melta Chimera near the right flank objective is exploded by psycannon fire, the Purifiers follow it up with storm bolter, bolt pistol and psycannon shots leaving four Guardsmen left who pass morale. Last Dreadnought passes psychic test for fortitude and blasts the Chimera scoring immobilised, squad in Rhino fires double psycannons into the CCS, thanks to cover only two die but pass morale as the squad on foot fires at the Chimera by the objective but scores weapon destroyed.

In assault Purifiers charge the Guardsmen and cast cleansing flame, though no Guardsmen take a wound from that despite scoring four wounds! Guardsmen fail morale and fall back 5". Melta Guardsmen get torn apart by the Justicars force weapon - Strike Squad stays in terrain.

Turn 5

CCS on the right flank get out their Chimera ready to dish out plasma on the two man Strike Squad. Other CCS holds position.

Shooting CCS on right flank issues fire on my target making those Grey Knights re-roll cover saves, shooting goes bad and three guys die from gets hot! no Grey Knights are killed, CCS falls back after failing morale! Other CCS does no better kills a couple of Space Marines but suffers gets hot! and falls back 7". One Manticore fires its last payload and wrecks the last Dreadnought.

Grey Knights turn the two man Strike Squad fire and wreck the empty CCS Chimera. Purifiers gun down the falling back Guard unit they beat in CCS. Right flank squad bails out the Rhino and moves to objective while the other squad runs through terrain to claim the right flank objective, but doesn't get close enough.

Game ends in a draw. Grey Knights hold the left flank, Guard have the shrine in the centre the top right flank is contested by Manticores and Strike Squad while the right flank objective isn't claimed at all.

Summary

Game went well considering mech Guard is army I really hate to play against. I was going to try a deep striking list but I haven't finalised it yet, though the Rhino list with full squad sizes works nicely.

I'm a bit concerned about the Purifiers as they don't seem to be able to take much of a punch and numbers drop quickly so I might add to their number, say six or seven per squad. I'm also tempted to cut down the Inquisitor to almost bare bones and just take rad grenades and a scythian blade to help in combat that way I can get two of them.

Hunter killer missiles all hit except one but in total only managed to explode a single tank, I'm not too sure about these and I think I might drop them to get more Purifiers.

Nemesis daemon hammers didn't see a lot of action either. Grey Knights are a mix of shooty and assault force and I'm mostly shooting from the Rhino hatches so I might drop these too. I'm not 100% yet.

Rest of the list worked well, Dreadnoughts are cracking and double psycannons work nicely though can be tough taking out armour you just need to hope you get good dice rolls with the number of weapons you have.

Thanks for the report, it's good to see what the new Grey Knights are made of and what to watch out for.

Thanks for the comment. Grey Knights are good but not unstoppable as a lot of people claim. You just kill them like normal Marines and bring them down with weight of fire power or weight of numbers.

Great report. Shame there's no pics as you usually have but good read non the less. The more I read Grey Knights the more I dislike them. Like you say they aren't unstoppable but they certainly feel like the "cheap" way to go. IG Mech is up there I have to say, those Manticores can do some serious damage...especially 3 of them.

Nice report. Very competitive lists.

When are you gonna bust out your orks vs GK? Or have you already?

When you say dislike you mean dislike as in don't like the army or dislike how they play etc? And yeah, definately not unstoppable I don't know why people in the tactica forum are all up in the air about them...

Mech Guard is a serious pain for any army TBH and triple Manticores can do some damage.

Haven't tested against Orks will do over bank holiday just for you mate

Oh, pictures, no pictures as proxying Angels atm though got some Knights on order

Good match really, I would say if you drop the DH's get some more Psycannons they rip tanks apart with Heavy 4. I would say break LOS more often and chuck in a AT suicide squad, IE Bare Bone Interceptors with DH or Psycannon or both.

Apart from that I'm almost suprised you got a draw. It seemed you didn't do much damage to him at all. I would drop the HK's and get more purifiers GK's need options and if they can rip the purifiers apart so easy that's a good anti horde part gone. I would add more for sure.

Isnt that guard army missing its mandatory infantry platoon?

You think dreads are nasty, wait til you try out the vendreads. Expensive, but worth every point.

Dislike in the sense it's just the flavour of the month sorta thing. I am a fan of the tried tested and true armies of 40k. The orks, vanilla marines, and tyranids being my favs. Plus everyone talks about how great they are. I say screw them I'll beat ya with my kan wall. They are almost too good and I can't say I am a fan of that fact.

Truth be told never played as them (don't plan on it). People are just way too cocky I play against...plus I usually lose to them. I hate that vindicare assassin. Always taking out my KFF.

InquisitorVaron wrote:Good match really, I would say if you drop the DH's get some more Psycannons they rip tanks apart with Heavy 4. I would say break LOS more often and chuck in a AT suicide squad, IE Bare Bone Interceptors with DH or Psycannon or both.

Apart from that I'm almost suprised you got a draw. It seemed you didn't do much damage to him at all. I would drop the HK's and get more purifiers GK's need options and if they can rip the purifiers apart so easy that's a good anti horde part gone. I would add more for sure.

I've been thinking about daemon hammers and for 10 points for a single attack they're not worth it so I will be dropping those, can't get more psycannons though as every unit is fully loaded.

Mech Guard is pretty tough as loads of tanks and it's only rending which does the damage and most time I got stunned/shaken. Guard lost several Chimeras, Vendetta, two Veteran units and two CCSs. Not a huge amount but half the army.

I'll definately be dropping the HKs and getting more Purifiers just for the numbers really.

Grundz wrote:Isnt that guard army missing its mandatory infantry platoon?

No. Mech Guard doesn't need a Platoon..

jy2 wrote:You think dreads are nasty, wait til you try out the vendreads. Expensive, but worth every point.

I played with Venerables in the past with the vanilla codex the models look cool but for the extra points I don't think they're worth it.

skycapt44 wrote:Dislike in the sense it's just the flavour of the month sorta thing. I am a fan of the tried tested and true armies of 40k. The orks, vanilla marines, and tyranids being my favs. Plus everyone talks about how great they are. I say screw them I'll beat ya with my kan wall. They are almost too good and I can't say I am a fan of that fact.

Truth be told never played as them (don't plan on it). People are just way too cocky I play against...plus I usually lose to them. I hate that vindicare assassin. Always taking out my KFF.

I get what you mean. It may appear I'm jumping on the band wagon too though I'm not but in other way I am. I've been looking at other Marine armies for the last several months as I tried DoA, looked at Chaos again, looked at Space Wolves and Vanilla again too. Grey Knights I've never been interested in TBH but the codex got be hooked. One codex I am looking forward to is Necrons, my first 40k army .

As for your Kan Wall, I think it would give Grey Knights some serious headaches. Grey Knights aren't as good as everyone thinks they are. And yeah, Vindicares are a pain.

Thanks for report, very insightful. and it does show how some opponents can defeat GKs, specifically Tau and IG which my friends have had the greatest pleasure demonstrating. More More More please

Thanks man.

Grundz wrote:Isnt that guard army missing its mandatory infantry platoon?

Sigh for many folks veterans are mandatory these days...

Luckily we have a fair number of hybrid IG players who only use a few or even no (like me) veteran units....

Best of both worlds IMO...

mercer wrote:

jy2 wrote:You think dreads are nasty, wait til you try out the vendreads. Expensive, but worth every point.

I played with Venerables in the past with the vanilla codex the models look cool but for the extra points I don't think they're worth it.

It's different with GK psyfleman dreads. With venerableness and fortitude, you can expect your dreads to last almost the entire game usually, pumping out 4 BS5 TL S8 shots each turn without interruption. Moreover they have an advantage over long fangs/devastators/non-fast predators in that they can move and still shoot. Lastly, they give the army some good psychic protection. Psyfleman vendreads are the most efficient gun platforms vs medium armor in the whole game today, bar none. There are no ranged AT better than them. If you ever try them, you will see the difference very easily compared to normal dreads.

skycapt44 wrote:Dislike in the sense it's just the flavour of the month sorta thing. I am a fan of the tried tested and true armies of 40k. The orks, vanilla marines, and tyranids being my favs. Plus everyone talks about how great they are. I say screw them I'll beat ya with my kan wall. They are almost too good and I can't say I am a fan of that fact.

Just watch out for Crowe-purifier-psycannon-dread GK's. They're going to be very hard for kanwall orks to deal with.

Good report man! Mech guard, hurrah!

jy2 wrote:

mercer wrote:

jy2 wrote:You think dreads are nasty, wait til you try out the vendreads. Expensive, but worth every point.

I played with Venerables in the past with the vanilla codex the models look cool but for the extra points I don't think they're worth it.

It's different with GK psyfleman dreads. With venerableness and fortitude, you can expect your dreads to last almost the entire game usually, pumping out 4 BS5 TL S8 shots each turn without interruption. Moreover they have an advantage over long fangs/devastators/non-fast predators in that they can move and still shoot. Lastly, they give the army some good psychic protection. Psyfleman vendreads are the most efficient gun platforms vs medium armor in the whole game today, bar none. There are no ranged AT better than them. If you ever try them, you will see the difference very easily compared to normal dreads.

Yup all true but normal Dreadnoughts can do that too. As mentioned, I've tried Venerables before and they're too expensive.

Grey Knights are strng but no unstoppable so its good that you are mkeing tactitcs.

The biggest difference in my mind is the reroll for a venerable GK dread enables you to increase the chance of getting that valuable shaken/stunned result you can ignore. Unlike a non GK venerable which, in the best case, still cannot shoot the next turn.

IMO venerable dreads in a GK army play MUCH differently than other SM codexes

Why do they?

Well it's nice to know that I may have a chance of beating some of the more 'elite' armies of the 41st Millenium.
Great battle report by the way, keep up the good work!

Will20017

Thanks man