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Hey everyone,

So I'm selling out and starting an  MEQ army.  However, I want to do something with a little more grit to it, in terms of fluff.  How does this look?

HQ

Grand Master-melta bombs, sacred incense/160

5 Terminators-2 psycannons/280

ELITES

5 Terminators-Brother capitan, thunder hammer, melta bombs, 2 psycannons/300

TROOPS

6 Grey Knights-Justicar, 2 psycannons/225

6 Grey Knights-Justicar, 2 psycannons/225

FAST ATTACK

8 Grey Knights-Justicar, melta bombs/230

8 Grey Knights-Justicar, melta bombs/230

HEAVY SUPPORT

Dreadnought-assault cannon, missile launcher

Dreadnought-assault cannon, missile launcher

1889 points

I need to trim ~40 points.  Ideas?

So, most of the stuff drops in, but the troops and dreads start on the table.  My main concern regards the small numbers that start on the table.  I'd play and deploy conservatively the first couple of turns, then put pressure on once the termies show up, but if there is a lot of indirrect or a small amount of terrain, I'd be hosed.

Do daemonhunter assault cannons rend?

An alternative to the dreads is another troops squad with two psycannons, which would give me a more substantial fire base in the opening turns.  What do you think?

cheers

Grey Knight Terminators or any model in terminator armour can't have melta bombs. Thats 10 points. I haven't read the literature behind grey knights apart from the codex but it says in the bit about dreads that they dont want to be dreads they just want to die in the emperors name and be buried beneath the fortress monestary, I would take that as not so fluffy. I would bulk up your psycannon squads to 8 men each. So you can foot slog and take more casualties without losing cannons. Besiides you can deep strike with both your terminator squads. Thanks to the shrouding foot slogging isnt so unsafe. I would lose the dreads and take more Knights. Maybe lose 1 terminator in the grand master retinue, you only have to have 3 minmum. althought I dont advise that. Give melta bombs to all the justicars if you can find the points as you have nothing to kill armour 13 or greater. grey knights are hard to be competitive with, having your entire foot slogging army start on the board in escalation games will help.

Assault cannon/missile launcher is a bad combo on dreads. You'd want the dread CCW.

Also, termie units can't take two psycannons. You can only have one psycannon and then you have to buy one for the brother captain/grand master at a higher cost.

Also, all in all, my Radicals would love seeing this list across the table from them. Easy massacre

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm aware that GK are a rough army to play, but that's why I'm doing it. As I said, I want to start an MEQ army that isn't going to get me into trouble from the fluff/whiner types, looks cool, but still has a bit of punch. What I'm asking you all for, and which you have given in quantity, is quality advice on how to make GK work to the best of their ability.

Cheers

P.S. @ Skyth-radicals eh? Love to see them across from my air cav army : p

well from my experience a pure GK at 1850 are an interesting force to play. it is kinda like my deathwing-small, elite and hard to kill, and those S6 force weapons that go at initiative are realy nice.

 

a few thinks to consider since you are playing knights-taking an inquistor with retinue it is very fluffy and you get to take mystics which can save your butt against demon summoning and deepstriking forces. not te mention it is possibly cheeper than your command terminator squad.

yes GK assault cannons rend just like all other ACs which makes your dreads your tank hunters ( and for the love of the emperor put some extra armour on them! ).. incinerators are also a good choice to have in your squads. mabey shorter range than a storm bolter but they more than make up for it when you shoot/assault into cover.

Because your dreads are going to be such a high target-priority for your opponents heavy weapons, you might want to consider switching from assault cannons to twin-linked las cannons. I play an army similiar to yours and I use 2-3 deads with las/missile options and I keep them as close to 48" away from my opponents heavy weapons. Since the dreads are the only thing in the army list that can kill tanks, you better keep them alive and shooting big stuff.

Darrian

I have a nice sized GK army and I have done pretty well with them with the exception of a couple games where deep strikes went horribly amiss.

I prefer the Teleport attack squad with an incinerator and psycannon over GK terminators.
The big advantage is you get more numbers which in turn means more shooty and more wounds. An incinerator and Psycannon means shoot the incinerator first if in range and hit max models, then stormbolters and psycannon to clean up whats left. This means you have to try to teleport pretty close to your target. If you do it right though you can easily take out a squad if they have 4+ or worse armor save. I have been trying to use teleport homers but it has been difficult to get the homer into optimal position. These guys are pretty tough in close combat as well even though they don't all have power weapons. On multiple occasions I have used them to take out vehicles by teleporting in for shots on rear armor. Psycannon and Incinerator will usually make quick work of AV10 and massed stormbolter fire will get some glancing hits. Incinerators will also give you a chance to hit multiple squads or squads and vehicles which will drive your opponent nuts

GK definitely have trouble with armor. Good luck keeping your dreads alive if your opponent realizes that is your only armor threat other than deepstriking. I like to take a couple of stormtrooper squads in transports. It allows me to take a couple of meltaguns and the vet sarge can take a tele homer which as I said above hasn't worked out for me yet but I am determined to make it work. A couple transports with unknown contents will possibly distract your enemy away from the dreads for a turn or two.

My next addition will be my shooty Inquisitor squad 2 Hvy Bolter Servitors, Plasma Cannon Servitor, 2 Sages and a mystic, and psycannon for the inquisitor.

I haven't played Grey Knights, but personally I think the Emperor's Tarot is a bargain for what you get. Also, it's kind of silly and I don't know if it works very well, but the Orbital Bombardments are a fluffy way of having some more heavy support punch (you're not really using all those slots anyways.)

And if you're not entirely set on Grey Knights, the Black Templars are another example of a non-cheese marine army that looks good on the table, at least in my opinion.

This is a list I have been building up to. All GKs.

Stern, Psycannon, 4 Grey Knight Terminators = 350

Troops

Justicar, 7 Knights, 2 Psycannon, Melta Bombs = 280

Justicar, 7 Knights, 2 Psycannon, Melta Bombs = 280

Elites

Bro Cap, 4 Terminators, Incinerator, Hammerhand = 270

Bro Cap, 4 Terminators, Incinerator, Hammerhand = 270

Fast Attack

Justicar, 5 Grey Knights, 2 Incinerators, Melta Bombs = 200
Justicar, 5 Grey Knights, 2 Incinerators, Melta Bombs = 200

1850

I dont know if this will work. I have never played more than 1700 points. I am trying to get some more Terminators. I also noticed you had 2 Psycannons in each of your termy squads. You may only purchase 1 weapon option per squad.

In the list I provided I have..

28 Grey Knights and 15 Terminators. I dont think they would have a hope in hell against any decent player but they are fun. I have been playing around with the idea of dropping the psycannon from Sterns retinue and giving them an Incinerator and Teleport Homer. He can foot slog and call in the reenforcements when he needs them without scattering. I maybe I shouldnt use stern at all.

I like the looks of that list donkey! It's almost what I'm going for, but I'm wondering as to how you expect to cope with so few models on the table, before you DS. Also, those teleport squads seem small for assault squads...how do they cope with power weapons/fists etc?

cheers

The Grey Knights "may" deepstrike, they don't have to. You can soften those hidden powerfist squads with bolter and incinerator fire before you charge. Grey Knights = few models on the table. They are meant to bolster IG, Inquisition and Space Marines, Pure Gk can't be competitive unless you are against chaos without daemons. Sustained Attack is a beehotch. Are you still trying to get rid of those terminators?

I think GK can be competitve against any army. The large numer of S6 weapons are a threat to all infantry since it is almost always going to effect on a 2+. They get alot of power weapons and you can always deep strike. In my experience the key to making them competitve is pushing the envelope on the deep strike. I pick the isolated squads or unprotected vehicles and try to deep strike close enough to cause massive casualties. If your deep strike misses you can definitely be in trouble. But it sure is fun when you drop in right behind the lines and start gougimg out the soft underbelly of your opponent.

I would stay away fronm the orbital strike. It has only been useful to me when there is a large terrain piece that contains the objective so my enemy cant just avoid it

You are right about the deep striking ptlangley. The thing that makes Grey Knights so much fun is the all or nothing attitude you have to have to play them. Foolish deep strikes are what I am talking about. Go big or go home. I have been lucky thus far but I still dont think they are tourny worthy

You just have to pick your spots. The worst spot is trying to get between the rear armor of a tank and the board edge. If the tank has moved up and there is more than 12 inches I am usually going to try it, especially since GK have so many problems with armor. Other than that I like ot go close to tightly packed squads on the flanks and the all time best is into cover. But you can never count on the scatter dice. At one point I decided to figure out the probabilities to minimize chances of deviating into trouble. Of course the next game I deviated 11" twice and 12" losing a squad into impassable terrain. Oh well.

I've tried the purest route and Necrons, Tau, and Eldar have given me fits. Trying a couple of Inquisitors and their shooty flunkies for some tank busting and AP2 template weapons.

Unlike Donkey, I've had terrible luck with deep striking. Termies usually showing up around turn 4-5.

As far as competitive, I think they are. They do have some bad match-ups and are not usually at the top tables consistently, but they are a challenge and fun to play.