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Hey guys!

One of my favorite factions in the whole of 40k is the imperium, and by extension the inquisition, as you know the daemonhunters codex pretty much was replaced by the grey knights codex. So without being "cheesy" or "that guy" how would i make a competitive, but not overall "cheesy" grey knights list? Hopefully with lots of dakka....

Thanks for any help! ~ Ashley

The times of Grey Knight cheese are over compared to what Eldar, Tau und Daemons put on the table.
Play what you want

Tommse more or less has it right here. With the changes to wound allocation, hull points to vehicles and the marked increase in AP2-3 ignoring cover templates in the game this means that the high points cost per man of the grey knights have taken a hard hit in terms of how strong they are as an army. Purifier spam armies are dead in the water while Draigowing has been severely nerfed with it being easily outmanoeuvered and torn to shreds with the vast quantity of AP2 shots that even Draigo can't cover all by himself. Similarly while psy-autocannon dreads still have deadly dakka its role as an anti-tank unit has diminished due to people generally taking less transports or at least spam transports that are either very hard to hit and are cheap (Night Scythes) or annoyingly resilient (Wave Serpents).

Right now the thing that's the "cheesiest" for Grey Knights is spamming 3 Dreadknights and using Coteaz+Henchmen with it. Other than that I can't really see a very cheesy list coming from grey knights. So thankfully you can choose a pretty diverse amount of lists without being considered WAAC or cheesy. Just don't paint them yellow!

I was thinking you could avoid Paladins and Draigo.

Running a balanced list without spamming isn't cheese. It's when you run something like 9 razorbacks at 1850 when you are running cheese

Still have to wonder at the huge benefits standard GK troops get for so little points. Force weapons with special rules, stormbolters, extra grenade, psychic mastery level and special defense against psychic attacks for two more points then what a Blood Angel trooper costs. Not as much an advantage when you get to terminators, but they still a lot for their points, including grenades which no other SM terminators can use. Still, the change in assault in 6th certainly put a dampener on what they can do.

 sing your life wrote:
I was thinking you could avoid Paladins and Draigo.

In a competitive environment where troops can easily throw out AP2, and where even semi-competitive lists will be toting large quantities, a low model count, 2+ army's day is long past.

My 160 tyranids beg to differ about 11 models being cheese. Draigowing can be easily drowned in models if they are fighting any non marine army

 ThunderFury 2575 wrote:
Hey guys!

One of my favorite factions in the whole of 40k is the imperium, and by extension the inquisition, as you know the daemonhunters codex pretty much was replaced by the grey knights codex. So without being "cheesy" or "that guy" how would i make a competitive, but not overall "cheesy" grey knights list? Hopefully with lots of dakka....

Thanks for any help! ~ Ashley

You're one edition too late. Take whatever you want - there's basically nothing in the GK codex that's "cheesy" anymore. Even Warp-Quake, arguably one of the most broken powers ever conceived, doesn't even matter anymore because full-DS armies are rarely seen anymore. Anyone who complains to you about your GK is just bitter from 5th edition. Most people nowadays would probably rather play your GK than face off against Eldar or Tau.

Rumbleguts wrote:
Still have to wonder at the huge benefits standard GK troops get for so little points. Force weapons with special rules, stormbolters, extra grenade, psychic mastery level and special defense against psychic attacks for two more points then what a Blood Angel trooper costs. Not as much an advantage when you get to terminators, but they still a lot for their points, including grenades which no other SM terminators can use. Still, the change in assault in 6th certainly put a dampener on what they can do.

True, but Blood Angels are also an older codex. Compare Strike Squads to the current Tactical Marines. 6 points more expensive per model (that's huge), no chapter tactics, no access to melta/plasma. For a full squad, you're paying ~60 points extra and they die just as fast.

Anyway, at the OP, this pretty much goes for every codex, but don't take 3 of any single elite/fast attack/heavy support choice. Try not to take 6 of the same troop choice. Even if it's not remotely overpowered, that's the definition of spam and can make games boring. Plus, some people see spamming and immediately assume it's cheesy.

Siphen wrote:
Compare Strike Squads to the current Tactical Marines. 6 points more expensive per model (that's huge), no chapter tactics, no access to melta/plasma. For a full squad, you're paying ~60 points extra and they die just as fast.

Yeah, maybe they die as fast, but still, Storm Bolter (with Psybolt even if they so desire, though obviously at extra cost) rather than a Bolter AND a Force Sword? Not bad for 6 points. Not quite super-powerful either perhaps, but still... not bad, not bad at all.

I'd like to think their chapter tactics are access to Psychic powers, the Aegis, and Preferred Enemy: Daemons.

Without the change to how tank work and the inability of GK to be a good shoty and melee army at the same time , there is nothing they can do or field that is "cheesy" . As others said before me play what you want.

Personaly I would go with some las/plas razor with shoty henchman and 2-3 units of terminators to form a helldrake immune fire base. Should work ok , as long as you don't play against tau or eldar or demons .

I wrote an article on how to play Grey Knights competitively just last week. Here's the 2000pt sample list I included:

Inquisitor Coteaz
Vindicare Assassin
10 Paladins, Halberds, 4 Psycannons
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2 Psycannons, Rhino
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2 Psycannons, Rhino
4 Jokaero Weaponsmith
Rune Priest, Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning
Rune Priest, Jaws of the World Wolf, Murderous Hurricane, Bolter
8 Grey Hunters, Flamer, Drop Pod
Imperial Bastion, Quad Gun

robpace wrote:
I wrote an article on how to play Grey Knights competitively just last week. Here's the 2000pt sample list I included:

Inquisitor Coteaz
Vindicare Assassin
10 Paladins, Halberds, 4 Psycannons
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2 Psycannons, Rhino
10 Grey Knight Strike Squad, 2 Psycannons, Rhino
4 Jokaero Weaponsmith
Rune Priest, Jaws of the World Wolf, Living Lightning
Rune Priest, Jaws of the World Wolf, Murderous Hurricane, Bolter
8 Grey Hunters, Flamer, Drop Pod
Imperial Bastion, Quad Gun

In your article, you mention the pallies and coteaz can generate a 48" anti-reserve bubble. I'm not clear on how you're accomplishing that. "I've Been Expecting You" only measures 12" from Coteaz, not his unit. I do generally like the list though.

Yeah, it's hard to be cheezy with a draigo-wing now.

Probably the strongest setup for GK is coteaz with a bunch of small henchmen squads in chimeras (they're like guard veterans, but are cheaper for what they do).

If you want to play GK on hard mode, though, then start with strike squads. As mentioned, you have to pay a lot in extra points and in lost abilities and throw it all into power weapons which are now pretty much pointless because 6th edition decided that 40k shouldn't have an assault phase any more.

A non-cheesy list that I think would be kind of fun is an all-shunt list. Strike squads with the backpack teleporters, dreadknights, and interceptors. You'd be relying an awful lot on bolt weapons, and would be spending a ton for not much killing power, but that force concentration would make things interesting.

 Ailaros wrote:
Yeah, it's hard to be cheezy with a draigo-wing now.

Probably the strongest setup for GK is coteaz with a bunch of small henchmen squads in chimeras (they're like guard veterans, but are cheaper for what they do).

If you want to play GK on hard mode, though, then start with strike squads. As mentioned, you have to pay a lot in extra points and in lost abilities and throw it all into power weapons which are now pretty much pointless because 6th edition decided that 40k shouldn't have an assault phase any more.

A non-cheesy list that I think would be kind of fun is an all-shunt list. Strike squads with the backpack teleporters, dreadknights, and interceptors. You'd be relying an awful lot on bolt weapons, and would be spending a ton for not much killing power, but that force concentration would make things interesting.

Shunt-punch is pretty decent, especially if you augment it with allies like Grav-bikes, Eldar Jetbikes, Podded Sternguard/Wolfguard, etc. It's my go-to alternative to Draigowing (I have an unhealthy obsession with Terminators).

 ThunderFury 2575 wrote:
Hey guys!

One of my favorite factions in the whole of 40k is the imperium, and by extension the inquisition, as you know the daemonhunters codex pretty much was replaced by the grey knights codex. So without being "cheesy" or "that guy" how would i make a competitive, but not overall "cheesy" grey knights list? Hopefully with lots of dakka....

Thanks for any help! ~ Ashley

Use the old Inquisition dex, and take Tau allies (no riptides).

[Note: I don't even know if Tau can ally with GK...]