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List (2000 Points, 13 CP, 15 Units)

Battalion

Brother-Captain (Fury of Deimos {-1 CP}, Daemon Hammer) — Purge Soul
Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight (G.Psilencer, H.Psycannon) — Sanctuary

1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Gate of Infinity
1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Vortex of Doom
1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions) — Hammerhand

Brotherhood Ancient (Falchion, Banner of Refining Flame) WARLORD (First to the Fray) — Gate of Infinity
Venerable Dreadnought (Twin Autocannon, Twin Lascannon) — Astral Aim

Interceptor Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Vortex of Doom

Stormhawk Interceptor (Icarus Stormcannon, Typhoon Missile Launcher)
Stormhawk Interceptor (Icarus Stormcannon, Typhoon Missile Launcher)

Battalion

Castellan Crowe — Hammerhand
Lord Kaldor Draigo — Vortex, Gate of Infinity

1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Gate of Infinity
1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Vortex of Doom
1x5 Strike Squad (Falchions, 1x Psilencer) — Hammerhand

Plan


Advice Guide

My goal is to make a PURE Grey Knights list as competitive as possible for ITC events. I realize soup would make it much more competitive, but in my opinion adding soup to a Grey Knights list is a slippery slope. As you strive to incorporate the most competitive units of other Imperium codex it quickly becomes NOT a Grey Knights list. So please restrict your advice accordingly — How can I make this army more competitive, whilst still maintaining a PURE GK list?

Thanks for your consideration.

Interesting goal. Any specific reason on taking the Stormhawk Interceptors? The will die fast with only 2 of them there and I don't think they will be killing much. They do counter flyers but Grey Knights have a bunch of psychic based mortal wounds that ignore -1 to hit penalties and I'm not sure they need the Interceptors.

I think you should increase the size of the Interceptor Squad, give them all storm bolters and use them to turn 1 teleport in and delete a weaker enemy unit with the Grey Knight strategem that buffs storm bolters. I would even give them Astral Aim so you can teleport out of LOS of the most dangerous enemy shooting units. I think that the Vortex of Doom plan will be harder to pull off and easier for the enemy to counter, and killing off some screening units would make a turn 2 teleport strike + charge attempt more effective. I would still keep Astral Aim on the Dreadnought, and make the choice about who gets to use Astral Aim based on the terrain and which enemy units you want to try to kill turn 1. I would also consider a Rhino to store the Interceptors turn 1 just to get another unit on the board for the Reserves rule and to protect them from LOS ignoring weapons, flyers, and other units that can get across the board turn 1 since you have no screening units.

I like the Grey Knights stratagems, but are you sure you need 2 Battalions? I think you could get by with 1 Battalion Detachment and 1 Supreme Command Detachment for 9 CP. I don't think you want to have too many strike squads since they are so expensive. If you do remove the strike squads it reduces the total amount of units in your list, and thus the Reserves units rule is less of a problem (but you still have to watch the PL of stuff you have in reserves). I'm not sure what you add in if you remove some strike squads, maybe a Purgation Squad with Psilencers for the other GK weapon buff stratagem?

 THE_LIST_MASTER wrote:
Interesting goal. Any specific reason on taking the Stormhawk Interceptors? The will die fast with only 2 of them there and I don't think they will be killing much. They do counter flyers but Grey Knights have a bunch of psychic based mortal wounds that ignore -1 to hit penalties and I'm not sure they need the Interceptors.

Thanks for your feedback. I'll try to address each point.

In terms of units that can start on-the-table, my order of preference is 1x Astral Ven Dread > 2x Stormhawk(s) > Interceptor Squad(s).
I've run 2x Stormhawks in my GK lists for quite a while. One is too few to give value to Draigo's aura. Three is too much of an over-investment in case my opponent doesn't bring FLY units.
I value the Stormhawks for a few reasons. (1) CA dropped their points a bit, and made Icarus Stormcannon REALLY points-efficient. (2) A decent number of meta lists have FLY (3) They can secure Recon (4) With smart positioning they can character-snipe or objective-block (5) The bane of all assault-based armies is FLY units who can just fall back without penalty, so the Stormhawks provide some insurance against that.

I think you should increase the size of the Interceptor Squad, give them all storm bolters and use them to turn 1 teleport in and delete a weaker enemy unit with the Grey Knight strategem that buffs storm bolters. I would even give them Astral Aim so you can teleport out of LOS of the most dangerous enemy shooting units.

That's a fine idea, but seems very situational. Personally I'm not too keen on Interceptor squads anymore. The latest FAQ nerf to their charge rules (along with all other FLY units) really killed them for me. I like one 5-man squad for the Vortex pressure, the mobility, and the ability to start on-the-table... but not sure I want to invest heavily in them anymore. For me, the bonus CP of taking Strikes outweighs the mobility benefit of Interceptors.

I like the Grey Knights stratagems, but are you sure you need 2 Battalions? I think you could get by with 1 Battalion Detachment and 1 Supreme Command Detachment for 9 CP. I don't think you want to have too many strike squads since they are so expensive. If you do remove the strike squads it reduces the total amount of units in your list, and thus the Reserves units rule is less of a problem (but you still have to watch the PL of stuff you have in reserves).

PL is no longer a factor for Tactical Reserves (thank god).

Yeah this is something I've really wrestled with. I'm leaning towards 2 Battalions because GK can be very CP hungry, and without a CP-farm warlord trait I think we need to stock up. Honestly I wish I could even add a 3rd detachment for the extra CP, but not sure I can fit that in without weakening my list. Still debating whether to spend 1CP on Fury of Deimos...

I'll want to Heed (2CP) for the first 1-3 turns... Psychic Channeling (1CP) once per Psychic-phase... Mental Focus (1CP) if I need to get some crucial smite off.... Psybolt Ammunition (2CP) if the GMNDK needs it... Only in Death (1CP) anytime a Character dies in combat... Honour The Chapter (3CP) if Draigo or the Brother-Captain charges something big & scary (like a Knight)

Plus an average 3x re-roll stratagems on each of my turns... one in Psychic to prevent Perils, or to successfully cast a crucial spell, or Purge Soul shenanigans... one in Shooting for damage-reroll.... one in Charge to reroll successful 9" charge.

It all adds up to a lot of CP expenditures.

Well in that case I would consider removing the Interceptors, I think they will rarely do much damage and are very easy to kill if they dive in turn 1. And since you have Stormhawks for things like Recon they seem even less useful for board control, and any unit coming in from reserves can grab objectives like they do. Only reason I would keep them is for early Deny the Witch attempts on important psychic abilities, but even then they will probably die if they want to try to get in range for that stuff.

If you are keeping the Stormhawks then maybe 1-2 Stormtalons would be worth it, they are another medium toughness vehicle with -1 to hit. With 3 flyers you could use them as a kind of screen for turn 1 assault units like 40 boyz with Da Jump, since units without Fly can't even touch them in assault.

What do you think about a Purgation Squad with Psilencers? I think Psilencers are very good, especially with the stratagem that buffs them. Wounding pretty much everything in the game on 5+, with 6 shots each and d3 damage. I think I would prefer that over a Venerable Dreadnought if I had to pick a unit to shoot through walls with, it seems like the Dreadnought will just tickle big things like Knights and isn't that effective against smaller targets.


EDIT: Fixed typo.

Psilencer is okay... I wouldn't add a psilencer purgation squad in. Will be foot slogging and hitting on 4s.

I would keep the minimum interceptor squad for the vortex of Doom. It's a good source of either mortal wounds across multiple units or to scare the opponent and force them to spread out more. But I agree, keep it at one squad.

I am not crazy about the stormhawks, but I get the point with recon. I would think most games you could be successful with 3 of the other secondaries, but this allows you to be preemptive about your plan. How well does this work for you? Can you keep this up for 4 turns? Do you have the staying power to hold up that long to get all 4 recon points?

Stormhawks to me just require to much work for meh output.

What is your plan for crowe?

 Smotejob wrote:
Psilencer is okay... I wouldn't add a psilencer purgation squad in. Will be foot slogging and hitting on 4s.

I would keep the minimum interceptor squad for the vortex of Doom. It's a good source of either mortal wounds across multiple units or to scare the opponent and force them to spread out more. But I agree, keep it at one squad.

I am not crazy about the stormhawks, but I get the point with recon. I would think most games you could be successful with 3 of the other secondaries, but this allows you to be preemptive about your plan. How well does this work for you? Can you keep this up for 4 turns? Do you have the staying power to hold up that long to get all 4 recon points?

Stormhawks to me just require to much work for meh output.

Compared to additional Ven Dreads, Stormhawks seem the lesser of two evils in terms of on-the-table units. I really hate the idea of paying for more than one Ven Dread because their price is marked up for being Psykers, yet we often never get the chance to cast anything with them (besides Astral on the first one). The Stormhawks are still fragile, but at -1 to Hit they're a little more durable than a Ven Dread. Stormhawks also make Draigo useful on Turn 1, since GMNDK often takes the first Gate.

In an updated version of this list I've dropped the Interceptor squad & exchanged the generic BroCap for Stern, which saves a few points. In replacement I've added a Rhino and a Techmarine. So I suppose I'm coming around to the idea that Rhinos/Razorbacks can be useful on-the-board units too. But only in moderation.

What is your plan for crowe?

In this older list my plan was to either deepstrike or footslog him, whichever is most convenient at getting him into 3" Smite range ASAP. My ideal play with Crowe would be for him to charge something scary that can't kill him in one turn, so he can survive the combat round and start putting in D6 smites the following turn.

In new list I have the option of putting him in a Rhino, which increases the likelihood that he'll find his way into combat by Turn 2.

Rhinos are okay. Dropping their payload and then charging a shooty unit to tie it up a turn or two so the rest of your boys can do work and not get shot at.