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With the release of the wraithknight, it appears that there is a need for units and weapons that can efficiently take down high toughness, multi-wound MCs. As sudojoe has pointed out in his GK tactical thread, GK have a solid place as a detachment-style force and I've seen several threads here recently asking for advice on using them as allies. Thus, I want to propose a couple allied builds that focus on using the Grey Knights as a "Monster Hunter" allied detachment, specifically focused on dealing with units like the riptide, wraithknight, and other MCs.

What makes GK suited to this task are their force weapons. Almost every unit in the codex has one. Furthermore, they have strength boosting abilities standard and some important perks against psykers and daemons. They have access to psybolt ammo, and a close combat weapon match made in heaven: warding staves and nemesis daemonhammers. The tactic is to take your GK unit and charge into close combat with your opponent's MC, inflict an unsaved wound, and pass a psychic test. Admittedly, this relies on getting into close combat, but every unit can either move as jump infantry or deepstrike. In some cases, your monster hunter unit might just wait in your lines and counter-charge.

I started out with 400ish pt lists, because that seems to be the common size people are going for. I threw in a 200ish pt list as well. Note that these are basic, and only have the equipment needed to do their job as described. Adding psycannons/incinerators is at your discretion, and should be based on the needs of the rest of your army.

370 pts:
GK Librarian
GK terminators (5) - Daemonhammers, warding stave
- Librarian joins unit, chooses BRB powers (divination). Casts prescience on unit, and hammerhand to boost to S10. Warding Stave tanks wounds on 2++, hammers hit. Activate force weapons (and if not remember they are concussive)

485 pts:
GK Librarian - Quicksilver
GK Strike Squad
Nemesis Dreadknight - nemesis greatsword, personal teleporter
- Librarian casts quicksilver on dreadknight. Dreadknight charges MC, hits at I10, S10 re-rolling misses and failed wounds. Activate force weapon.

228 pts:
Ordo Malleus Inquisitor - power armor, Psyker (hammerhand)
Grey Knight Strike Squad - 4 hammers, warding stave
- Inquisitor joins unit, Casts hammerhand to boost to S10. Warding Stave tanks wounds on 2++, hammers hit. Activate force weapons (and if not remember they are concussive).

Nice lists. A lot of options.

Dunno about the wraith knight but watch out for the riptide. If deep striking the RT will generally intercept. If not and ether way if the player was smart will try to nova 4d6 away from you giving it ample time to withle you down. even without the 4d6, it should on average kite you about 13-14 inchs each turn.

Great Post. I've found myself always in need of ways to kill a bloodthirster. If they get into the think of it they are the demigods of close combat. GKs perfectly counter them with a couple of units. But since this is for an allied detach I'll leave Draigo off the list. But a librarian with quicksilver and a terminator with a staff.(10pts cheaper than on the libby) This small unit will put it on it's rear end. Also make sure the thirster takes a leadership test for every unsaved wound, or be removed if you manage to fail your force weapons test.

Honestly, add dreadknight and be done. No need to further think about it. I wouldn't worry very much Wraithknights as they will hardly dictate the meta considering they're fairly awful.

Wraithlords have existed in their current form since 3rd ed without much need for concern.

But how do they ever see combat? They arent quick by any means, and they will be dealt with as most terminators are these days: plasma and quantity of wounds.

Riptide hops and jumps away if you get close.
Wraithknight is jump inf and can hop through terrain making it nearly impossible for you to close on him.
Nids have SITW and bubble wrap to deny your charge on the MC or deny your force and hammerhand activations.

Force weapons are VERY overrated. You have to get in melee, so the MC has to be either close or you have to catch it. Then you have to wound, which may not be as straight forward depending on the enemy/IA/hammerhand activating/ number of models left. Then you have to activate the force charge, which some armies can still deny. You need to be looking for an ally who can help you keep them at range.

GK are better used as a anti-psyker/toolbox ally (a large number of MCs are also psykers). With Stormravens, warp quake, and skull probes you can keep the enemy from closing on a gunline unless they slog it.

Thanks for the feedback so far, if I think of other builds I'll post them. From my experience, one of the biggest keys actually is to be the one doing the charging, it dramatically reduces the number of attacks your opponent gets and increases yours (think about 5 extra termie attacks) and if they are a psyker they will go at I1 unless you're a dreadknight, which further increases your survivability. Most of these big nastys have some kind of invulnerable save, so the more wounds you can put down the better. This is especially true when you're facing something with eternal warrior.

As I said in my first post, this tactic does rely on close combat, but to be honest your ranged options are limited (see the "how to kill a wrathknight" posts). Mobility is therefore a concern, but the dreadknight can become a jump monstrous creature and everything else can deepstrike. It's not a perfect solution, but for some people a drag-and-drop detachment like this might be beneficial.

The issue so far in keeping lists cheap has been the troop tax, so far the cheapest options are Coteaz and 3 acolytes (112 pts) or a naked inquisitor and a strike squad (125 pts). Two other options I didn't really discuss in my initial post were Modrak and Interceptors:
Modrak - Best save possible against MC is a 4++ from Iron Halo. If he fails, he's only T4, which puts him at risk for ID. He can have a unit of terminators with him deepstrike without scatter first turn however. Main issue is cost, a legal & effective detachment would cost 500 points (Modrak+bodyguard, strike squad). I think the librarian unit is much more survivable and does more damage.
Interceptors - Too expensive. Yes, Jump Infantry with hammers sound very mobile, but a legal and effective detachment is going to cost 295+HQ (who needs to be at least 100 pts to have the prescience option).
One other option I didn't mention is taking warp rift with your librarian in the dreadknight list, it's 5 extra points but against low-initiative models like the riptide it could be very effective.

Doesn't Mordrak have a nemesis force sword? That would give him a 3++ in combat against MCs.

Mordrak has a hammer. 4 attacks base. +1 for.charging and +1 for a Bro-Banner (he is part of the squad not in independent character so it also works on him though he only gets a 4+ LoS roll.)

I'll add my vote to the Dreadknight pool. The Dreadknight is probably GK's best anti-MC in the whole book.

Force Weapons (that aren't Hammers) from regular GK are nice, but need to get lucky to wound a MC. Hammers are nice, but many terminators will get killed before they strike. Paladins have it just as bad, since any MC will just smash to ID them, and the AP2 of Smash means that Terminators/Paladins aren't getting their best defense. Yes, you can get lucky (I've had someone assault a lone sword-wielding Strike Squad member with a Riptide, and the sword wounded and the Riptide failed armor), but it's more of a threat than an actual ability. It's cool, fluffy, and cinematic, in that even the lowliest GK has the capability to take down the toughest MC, after seeing all his brothers cut down around him. It's just not something to rely on to work without getting the whole squad killed.

A Dreadknight, on the other hand, is the bane of every MC that doesn't reliably cause ID and go first (i.e. the Swarmlord, Skarbrand). Equipment-wise, you're going to want at least the Sword and the Teleporter, and I add on the H. Incinerator because torrent flamers are too good.

The sword is what makes the Dreadknight work in combat. You know the moment when your powerfist guy is the only one who can save you, with two attacks, and you roll, and you get a 2 and a 3. A DK only has 4 attacks (5 on the charge), so you want to reroll those misses. You also know the moment when your powerfist hits, and then the 1 comes to wound. The sword keeps wounds reliable too. Lastly, the Sword also makes sure you destroy whatever vehicles you charge, with rerolls to pen. The teleporter ensures that the DK actually gets into CC in the first place. Without it, he's a slow and easily outmaneuvered hulk. With it, he's able to catch up with Riptides and Wraithknights and whatever. Lastly, I shouldn't need to justify why Torrent Flamers are great against most targets.

Yeah, a DK runs 260 with this loadout, but here he becomes the answer to almost every MC and vehicle out there, and can threaten most other targets with the Flamer. S10 Force Weapons at I4 means you're basically killing whatever you strike. The I4 is lower than a Bloodthirster, Avatar, DP, etc, but most of them do not have a reliable way to kill the DK before it strikes, only a way to wound it. A Daemon warlord could get the ID warlord trait, the Bloodthirster could roll 6s to wound, and the Swarmlord could appear, but apart from the Swarmlord, are reliant on chance. You can see and avoid the ID warlord, and a bloodthirster will wound on 4+ if he wants to get more chances to roll 6s, and if he doesn't do that, he's done very few wounds. You'll just need to avoid the Swarmlord and Skarbrand. Riptides and Wraithknights may wound, but certainly won't kill a Dreadknight before they're killed by Force Weapon.

tl;dr allying into GK for a Dreadknight isn't a bad idea if you need to destroy MCs.

 Thariinye wrote:

A Dreadknight, on the other hand, is the bane of every MC that doesn't reliably cause ID and go first (i.e. the Swarmlord, Skarbrand).

I just want to touch on this. If you get Dark Excommunication off and it isn't denied. Skarbrand/bloodthirsters just become statlines with a 5+ invuln. Their weapons/armor/spells/abilities cease to function. You can no longer activate your force weapons at this point... but you are very unlikely to get instagibbed out of combat before you swing. And wounds caused will force a leadership test per wound on a ld 9 model or be removed from game.

 greyknight12 wrote:


Librarian casts quicksilver on dreadknight. Dreadknight charges MC, hits at I10, S10 re-rolling misses and failed wounds. Activate force weapon.

Why have I never thought of this? My Dreadknight has a habit of getting blatted by a friend of mine who runs a Slaanesh chaos lord with Murder Sword and nominates my Dreadknight (the downside to the Knight being a Character, can't do it to a Wraithlord). Damn my love of rolls on the Divination table...

You can also try to multi assault with other grey knight with psyk granades makes them initiative 1 for demons and psychers.