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You could, but you're paying too much for apothecaries if you do that. I'm convinced that 10-man squads are the way to go if you want to use apothecaries, and if you need to, combat squad down into the 5-man teams. Sure, one combat squad might not have FNP, but you can also opt to keep them together for kill point games that way.

I have been running a all Paladin list as my fun army while I build up the PA GK part of my army. I run Draigo, Librarian, and 2x5 Paladins with Apothecaries (fully diversified, one squad with psycannons and one with incinerators). That core of my army is 1280... I can add to it either 2 Stormravens or 1 Ven Dread and 2 Psyflmans to take it to 1750. With the Stormravens it's fast but more fragile and with the Dreads it's slow but very solid.

The problem with Paladins is that they can only hold one objective at a time, in a tournament over the weekend I played the Dread version and had 1 Win and 2 Losses. In my win I lost 3 models the whole game by staying in CC with a Sisters list, in one of my loses I was outnumbered by Orks almost 10-1 in an objective mission and in the other Deathwing tabled me with tons of Missles and Hammers. Had I gone against any psyker based army I would have been better off because of the Dreads Reinforced Aegis. I missed the speed of the SR's in both the losses.

After the experience of playing the Paladins, I have seen their uses and plan to use a squad of them in all my GK builds. They are an incredible bodyguard/death squad for the Librarian to buff, and they can anchor a portion of the battlefield on their own while daring almost anything to enter their kill zone. I'll keep playing the all Paladins army because it is incredibly fun and epic, but I won't put much expectation on winning many games...

BladeWalker wrote:
After the experience of playing the Paladins, I have seen their uses and plan to use a squad of them in all my GK builds. They are an incredible bodyguard/death squad for the Librarian to buff, and they can anchor a portion of the battlefield on their own while daring almost anything to enter their kill zone. I'll keep playing the all Paladins army because it is incredibly fun and epic, but I won't put much expectation on winning many games...

as a fun army there is no question. It just doesnt match up well against a lot out there. There are some things it will just crush too. I can see it being a fun thing to take around for casual games but I cant imagine it being something you take to a tournament and expect to win with.

Sorry to drag this back up, but I finally tried this army out today.

The search was down, so I can't tell if there are more recent threads on the topic.

My opponent wasn't playing the most optimized list, but I was impressed by the resiliency of the paladins. The psycannons did not accomplish a lot, relying on sixes is rough even with 32 shots a turn. Once they got into combat, though, they were amazing. I think a dedicated shooting army could take the list apart, but against anything that needs to close it's rough.

How did you play it? Footslogging on from the board edge or just reserving and teleporting in? And what sort of list were you up against?

I love Paladins and must know~

As an ork player there is nothing more annoying ten not being able to do anything to an army. You can't kill them with massed fire, you cant assault them and orks don't have the firepower nescassary to take them out.

The problem with paladins are low point games. They are quite cool and can be good. (Although black templar tank hunter 2 x missile launchers are better as paladins are tank/mc hunters in the shooting face.)

GreyHamster wrote:How did you play it? Footslogging on from the board edge or just reserving and teleporting in? And what sort of list were you up against?

I love Paladins and must know~

I deployed both squads on the table. My opponent was, like I said, pretty unoptimized:

Dante

10 man assault squad, melta x2, DoA
10 man assault squad, plasma x2, pod
5x Vanguard w/ fists and sheilds all around
Furioso with talons
Dread with TL-LC
Dread with MM
5x Assault Termies in Redeemer

In both games, I was able to take him apart piece meal. He landed his pod to take out my vindicare (added at 2k), and that left a squad in charge range turn 1. He than assaulted that squad with the vanguard and the termies turn two, but between sanctuary, hammerhand, and counterattack I wiped the vanguard out and broke the last two termies. Also on turn two he charged my other squad with the furioso and another dread, I was able to avoid too much damage until my turn two, when the libby popped Might of Titan on the squad and both dreads blow up. I also assaulted dantes squad turn two, at which point we called it with my having lost 4 paladins and the vindicaire, while he only had a single dread, two termies, and a landraider.

If you were to run a list like this. I would highly recommend you hold everything back and deep strike them into play. Draigo is a house and is almost like a squad of five terminators on his own.

Well, there are times I'd deepstrike, but there are also times I'd want to deploy.

Grand strategy will make at least one unit scouts as well, which helps.

There is suprising flexibility to the unit.

I'd love to see a Grey Knights Paladin army up against a Deffwing Ork army with all Meganobz, all Cyborked up with da Doc. I guess you'd need one squad of Grots or something, too...

But you'd have two armies primarily composed of 2 wound, 2+5++, Powerfist and Kombiweapon toting Big Guys going at each other.

Psychic communion offers you a lot of control over when your reserves come in, if you have two HQs with psychic communion, you pretty much have total control. You could get your larger paladin squads in early, and your 1&2 man paladin squads in at the end to deep strike into objectives. Considering draigo lets you run what, like 9 squads of paladins? You could have 1x10 for psybolt, combat squad it, and then run 1x5, and 5x1 man squads for objectives. 20 paladins, 8 scoring squads, stick in one brother captain for the second psychic communion. Of course, then you're giving up 10 kill points...

After playing a couple of games against GK armies with paladin units, I'm starting to appreciate their durability. Typically it would just take so much firepower to kill them, that it would prevent me trying to do anything else (like accomplish mission goals) for the whole game.

But they're still infantry, so so far I've had success with just interdicting their movement with vehicles or feeding them the odd sacrificial unit every once in awhile. That's where there's a single paladin unit--a whole army of paladins might have to actually be dealt with.

Flavius Infernus wrote:After playing a couple of games against GK armies with paladin units, I'm starting to appreciate their durability. Typically it would just take so much firepower to kill them, that it would prevent me trying to do anything else (like accomplish mission goals) for the whole game.

But they're still infantry, so so far I've had success with just interdicting their movement with vehicles or feeding them the odd sacrificial unit every once in awhile. That's where there's a single paladin unit--a whole army of paladins might have to actually be dealt with.

With 2 out of 3 games being objectives I supose this makes draigo quite good in bigger point games.

Niiai wrote:

Flavius Infernus wrote:After playing a couple of games against GK armies with paladin units, I'm starting to appreciate their durability. Typically it would just take so much firepower to kill them, that it would prevent me trying to do anything else (like accomplish mission goals) for the whole game.

But they're still infantry, so so far I've had success with just interdicting their movement with vehicles or feeding them the odd sacrificial unit every once in awhile. That's where there's a single paladin unit--a whole army of paladins might have to actually be dealt with.

With 2 out of 3 games being objectives I supose this makes draigo quite good in bigger point games.

In KP the paladins win they kill 3 transports and then just sit in cover, and in the objetive missions they can often force a draw.

Polonius wrote:Well, there are times I'd deepstrike, but there are also times I'd want to deploy.

Grand strategy will make at least one unit scouts as well, which helps.

There is suprising flexibility to the unit.

Using grand strategy to give a couple units counter-attack and then deepstriking in sounds like a reasonable tactic as well.

junk wrote: Psychic communion offers you a lot of control over when your reserves come in, if you have two HQs with psychic communion, you pretty much have total control. You could get your larger paladin squads in early, and your 1&2 man paladin squads in at the end to deep strike into objectives. Considering draigo lets you run what, like 9 squads of paladins? You could have 1x10 for psybolt, combat squad it, and then run 1x5, and 5x1 man squads for objectives. 20 paladins, 8 scoring squads, stick in one brother captain for the second psychic communion. Of course, then you're giving up 10 kill points...

Actually, I pretty sure Draigo only lets you take up to 6 squads of Paladins, as Paladins are Troop choices if you take Draigo as an HQ, which means they stop being Elite choices. This is supported in the new FAQ in question about Corteaz and FoC slots.

SJ

I feel like a list like this wouldn't be to bad. By having the 2 main 10 man squads they can go around stomping things, and can be combat squadded for objectives and obvious reasons. You can force your enemy to choose to try and shoot the 5 guys with 4 psycannons, or the 5 guys that are much more CC oriented, and heading for you.

Throw in a Techmarine with grenades, and now your terminators instant death T4 models. They're strength 3 with rad grenades, and now with stacking hammerhands(techmarine and paladins) you'0re a nice STR 6.

I can see a list like this working at the 2000 point level. The 2 10 man squads, and maybe 1-2 stormraves/land raiders for transportation, or on foot with another HQ, techmarines, or Purifiers.

And in running a paladin list never be afraid to use a 1 man squad of paladins as a troop. Have him stay back with a hammer and destroy any vehicle that comes your way.

Ive been playing around with a pure Paladin army, never have I lost with them yet (so far).

Th gist is that a proper paladin army will always have draigo, an apothecary, varying wargear, all the psycannons you can muster with them and finally, almost always be playing in deepstrike reserve.

Forget about bringing fancy stuff like psyfle man dreads, purifiers and what not. why? heres the mileage for your paladin army:

@1500 pts:
-10-man paladins, 7-man paladins and draigo
-two 5 man paladins, 2 storm ravens, draigo.
-one LRC, 7-man Paladin, 6-man Termies, Strom raven draigo

@2000 points, you definitely want a librarian there or more transports and then some dreadnoughts. Keep the force compact.

The ultimate weakness of a pure paladin army is an army that shoots alot of Str8 rounds. That is why you want to go to reserves and deep strike near an LOS-blocking terrain. The later you come into play, the better.

Draigo is there to make sure you can soak up Str 8 shots thanks to 3+ invul save and eternal warrior - this means your opponent needs to land at least more than 1 insta-killing wound to kill through your unit and this is where the magic of the list happens.

Very rarely would players field units that would land 2-3 shots of high STR low AP shots. Most of the time it would be missiles from long fangs that you can save with a healthy bit of luck (2+).

The most crucial part in being successful with a paladin army is to know where to put your objectives. Against gunlines, you want them to be as far from each other as possible and in the middle. Against assault oriented armies, you want them as close together as possible but in the middle of no-mans land. Most of the time it is a good idea to deploy objectives in cover because frankly, a 4+ cover save is better than a 5+ invul. Do not be afraid of deepstriking in terrain. Remember you can save failed dangerous terrain tests with invul save and FNP.

Finally, a Paladin army is all about finding an objective, taking it by killing everything in it, and then keeping enemies out. Stay put, weather the fire, win.

I know someone who ran a list exceptionally similar to this. Got tabled by dark eldar in 3 turns.

That's probably because of all the Dark Lances, and the sheer number of attacks. This list would also be hard pressed against a lot of Ork builds. I know myself that I'm going for KMB spam, so lots and lots of Str 8 AP2 weapons would mean lots of trouble for them.

thunderpanda wrote:I know someone who ran a list exceptionally similar to this. Got tabled by dark eldar in 3 turns.

Darklight Spam DE is a horrible matchup for a pure paladin army. Especially when there is no LOS blocking terrain.

Yuber wrote:

thunderpanda wrote:I know someone who ran a list exceptionally similar to this. Got tabled by dark eldar in 3 turns.

Darklight Spam DE is a horrible matchup for a pure paladin army. Especially when there is no LOS blocking terrain.

Pfft, one or two armies will slaughter all Paladins. So what? There's about a million others that you should at least have a fighting chance against.

Darkvoidof40k wrote:

Yuber wrote:

thunderpanda wrote:I know someone who ran a list exceptionally similar to this. Got tabled by dark eldar in 3 turns.

Darklight Spam DE is a horrible matchup for a pure paladin army. Especially when there is no LOS blocking terrain.

Pfft, one or two armies will slaughter all Paladins. So what? There's about a million others that you should at least have a fighting chance against.

Exactly. Against everything else, not only do you have a fighting chance against, you actually autowin against them (Orks, Daemons and Tyranids). I had no problems fighting Space Marine Armies with my paladin lists.

Just like DE Lance spam will get munched by horde Orks.

I took my paladins to an 1850 tournament today at Legions. All told, I'm happy with the performance, although I think I made some dopey errors in the third game.

The first game was a gift: space wolf terminator rush. Logan, rune priest, 8 assorted WG termies, two redeemers, two max missle long fangs, lazorbacks. Things were over when I rended one redeemer exploded and he immobilized the other on difficult. After that, I just moved forward and shot. I tabled after losing five paladins total.

The second mission was touch and go. Primary was controlling the center, but if contested, whoever killed more units within 9" of the center, or with a unit in the center, won. I was playing against orks with six trukk boy squads, two BWs, burnas, nobs, and a KFF mek and Shokk mek. I forgot that it's AP2 big blast, and he rolled a few 8+'s. My saves weren't great, but he assaulted on the last turn, I won big, and after breaking his squads, I had killed more than he had in thunderdome. My opponent made an error, I got lucky, I got a big win.

Third mission should have been a gimmme: DOW, Kill points. I was playing mech eldar: eldrad and doomseer with seer councile in WS, banshees in WS, dragons in WS, two DA squads on foot, and two prisms. Again I failed to realize that he had S9 AP2 shooting, and I kept the paladins too bunched up. Draigo failed a few too many 3++ saves, and things got heated as he kept finding two paladins 1.4999" apart. I need to invest in a coherency marker. I also needed to actually get more guys in cover, but low Difficult terrain rules kept me bogged down. For night fight, I rolled 12", his bright lance and two prisms rolled 27, 30, and 33." I also split my force, so one squad never really did much.

In the end, he broke a paladin squad which was out of coherency, it couldn't rally, then he escorted it off. That unit was worth double (mission rule), and he had killed draigo. I popped two serpents to lose 3-2.

I learned that 24" isn't very long, and that I need to keep the army together to really synergize. I need to say in cover and spread out. I need to seriously think of deepstriking more often.

I need to be aware of what's a potential thread, and deal with it.

All in all, I feel that the third game was very winnable, I just had some bad beats and made some dumb errors. For my third through fifth game with the army, I can't be too bummed about going 2-1.

@Polonius:

What is your army composition? Would it be possible @ the 1500pt level?

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

At 1500 I don't think it would work. Today I ran:

Draigo
Libby, Sanctuary, Shrouding, Might, Skulls x2

10 paladins w/ Psybolt: DH/PC, FS/PC, FC/ MC-PC, FH/PC, FH, FH, FS, Banner, 2++ stick, DH

10 paladins w/ Psybolt: DH/PC, FS/PC, FC/ MC-PC, FH/PC, FH, FH, FS, Banner, 2++ stick, DH

To drop 350pts would gut one squad. Draigo is a ton of points, and I think you'd be better off running a grandmaster and libby with 5man terminator squads instead. If you really want paladins, I'd still drop draigo, replace him with a grandmaster, and take one brick of paladins and two terminator squads. You can always use the strategy to make the paladins scoring.

I am planning my 2000 point Paladin army, and I caved and bought a land raider (In the list, already owned the model). It carries deamonhammer wielding Paladins for AT with dual incinerators for everything else. Only problem I have is deciding what my librarian should have.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but my list is in my sig.

I think it would be an awesome army to play, but it lacks flexibility. Personally against my BA with 3x dreads with talons, 3 demolisher cannons and 40 melta equpped, FNP marines I can't see your game being too enjoyable.

I would play only annihilation games or special against the odds scenarios with mates.