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Alright, I have some Qs about GKs, and you guys can probably help.

My question is really rather simple: Concerning GKs, I run Crowe Purifiers. Usually I combat squad the three ten man squads into:

5 in a Razorback with halberds and one hammer.
4 with Psycannons and one with Halberd/ sword with them.
Crowe runs with one of the razorback squads.

The rest of my list is based on a stormraven, Grand master, Paladins(both in the aforementioned Stormraven) and two dreadknights.

Now, is this a good strategy, or is it more beneficial to drop the psycannons (possibly into incinerators) and run all ten in a rhino? This leaves crowe on his own, though he could join the paladins (Yes, I have room in the raven), or is a hybrid mix better?

As always, I value and respect your contributions, and thank you in advance.

Hmm maybe I'm wrong here but isnt the main reason to take Purifiers is for their 4 psycannons? (I'm sure cleansing flame is good but not that good!) Otherwise wouldnt it be more efficient to just run strike squads with 2 psycannons (since a rhino has 2 fireports) and swap poor old crow for a grandmaster or something?

I dont know the rule of cleansing flame but i know 1 purifier roasted 10+ of my unit with the cleansing >.<

liquidjoshi wrote:This leaves crowe on his own, though he could join the paladins (Yes, I have room in the raven), or is a hybrid mix better?

I could be wrong, but I thought Crowe wasn't an IC. If that's true, he's not going to join any unit, especially in a vehicle.

rigeld2 wrote:

liquidjoshi wrote:This leaves crowe on his own, though he could join the paladins (Yes, I have room in the raven), or is a hybrid mix better?

I could be wrong, but I thought Crowe wasn't an IC. If that's true, he's not going to join any unit, especially in a vehicle.

Well feth, he isn't.

Well, that makes Crowe utterly useless. Anyone got any other ideas for him?

Yes, the psycannons are nice, but is it a good idea to run three combat squads worth of them, or is this too many small units? I'm used to playing with a guard powerblob and with deathwing, so fragile-ish units aren't too familiar to me.

Well thats the weakness of purifier lists, you have an easy KP. As long as you have some safe area for crowe, its not all that bad, unless the enemy has outflankers, DS, or something really fast.

All of which are an easy possibility. Though He'd be hanging out at the back near enough to the Psycannon dudes. Worst comes to the worst he could potentially tarpit non-combat troops, or heroic sacrifice something big.

Stupid crowe being the worst army list entry for GK...

liquidjoshi wrote:

Stupid crowe being the worst army list entry for GK...

Well dont exactly under estimate him. If the enemy is serious about taking him down, then yea hes as good as dead probably. But if they think of him as an afterthought, he can pull off some interesting stuff (hes still got cleansing flame)

Besides, I think worst entry for GK has to be Thrawn. Dont think I've ever seen him used at all

Hmm... perhaps as charge bait?

So to get back to the actual point of the thread, I should just stick with the 12 psycannons in my list and put everyone else in Razorbacks (except crowe) yes?

There are several uses for Crowe, despite not being an IC.

- If you have Psyfleman dreads, he can hang back and protect them from outflankers and whatnot.

- If the enemy has a big, expensive CC monster HQ, you can throw Crowe in someone else's transport and sic him on the thing. He's got a 2/3 chance of killing most things outright when he's killed, via his Heroic Sacrifice power.

- If the enemy has a horde unit like a mob of 30 Boyz or 30 Hormagaunts, throw Crowe at them and watch him take out the unit single-handedly. He just uses Cleansing Flame, then enters his Blade Shield Stance. Half the unit dies to Cleansing Flame, Crowe survives the return attacks with a re-rollable 2+ armor save, the enemy takes a Ld check at a massive penalty or loses most of what's left due to No Retreat.

As far as Purifiers go, there are three reasons to take them: Cheap 2A halberds, lots of psycannons, and Cleansing Flame. Purifier squads are able to do everything at once, but are even better if they choose a role and focus on it. If I were to run a TAC Purifier list, I'd use one unit of 10 in a Stormraven with a Librarian or other unit-buffing IC like a Techmarine, all halberds plus one stave. This unit rapes just about anything in CC and has a large threat range. You can still give this unit a Rhino or Psyback, so Crowe can jump in it. I'd fill up the rest of my Troops slots with 5- or 6-man units in Psybacks, with 2 psycannons, 1 hammer and the rest halberds. The big squad plays to the Purifiers' CC strength, and the smaller squads play to their good psycannon ratio and cheap Psyback spam. The smaller squads can still do a number on weaker units in CC thanks to Cleansing Flame and a few halberds.

You can run 10-man Purifier squads with 4 psycannons, but when they take casualties you end up having to choose whether you want to cripple the squad in shooting or CC. Combat squadding them isn't as effective, because then half the squad is footslogging.

Honestly I really I don't understand why people think Crowe is useless. He's really great at certain things. I run GK Purifiers too and he's usually what my opponents fear most....next to my Venerable Riflemen.

I use Crowe in a pretty strange way but it works. I normally bring 4 Purifier squads, 2 of which have Razorbacks. I put Crowe in one of those two Razorbacks and put the Purifier squad I bought the Razorback for in the back to lay down heavy Psycannon fire. I'll give some examples of how to use Crowe.

Crowe can go into defensive stance, charge a large group of Ork boyz or Homarmgunt (any horde orientated unit) then Cleansing flame it. Most likely he will survive the volley of attacks back and make it to that next round of combat. Oh and if that unit is fearless. They are going to have a nightmare taking about 10/15 fearless wounds.

Crowe can charge very powerful close combat orientated units or HQs and tarpit them. Then he can just heroic sacrifice them. I took down a Death Company Dreadnought in one of my games. You should of seen the look on the guys face.

The last way I can think of using him right now is hiding him in your back lines and using him as surprise. For example, hide him in the corner of a building and when anything big or scary gets close just hop out of the building and get into combat with it.

The irony of your sig...

Alright, you've given me some food for thought, and using him as a surprise unit sounds like fun. The tarpit/ CF combo didn't occur to me TBH, and is one I'll be sure to try too.