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So Im caught up in grey knights at the moment, but aside from dumping points into really expensive units, what kind of playstyle do or should they use with grey knight only armies? Mobility with interceptors? Termies? Shell up? over agressive? Luring/ decpetion? How should they deal with tricky situations? I know its vauge but Im just trying to get a feel for them. Any insight would help alot!

I play them extremely aggressively. Shunt heavy list. Two NDKs, termie squad with Draigo and Librarian, interceptors with Incinerators. Garnish with IK, Assassins, pods, etc. Get in hard and fast.

TERMINATORS!! Seriously, I love me some Termie armor. Don't listen to the interweb haters.

Grey knights are actually a very flexible list. we are able to play Extremely aggressive, or when needed able to kite a bit. With our ability to shunt and GOI we can feign our attacks drawing their assets to one side of the board and then move almost our entire army to the other side.

I've been finding the best luck with a mobile army. deep striking termies, librarians/draigo with gate of infinity etc. Against gun line armies we have the ability to accurately get into their face turn 1 (just played a game 2 days ago where after turn 1 all of my units for the exception of 1 termie squad was 1'' from the tau gunline) and against fast assault armies we can kite them. I like to have 10 purifiers in my army in case I am up against orks/nids/blob gaurd etc (the other day on turn two I had these 10 guys (combat squaded) do 45 str 5 ap 4 hits turn 2 with their nova.) and then got to shoot after that, and then got to charge after that.

and the "star" unit of the codex is the dreadknight. 2 of these need to be in every list.. they do so much. they burninate troops, pop av10-12 with shooting and tear through MOST things in close combat.


my 1850 which is doing really really well (and by really really well I mean I haven't lost in my local meta with it yet) consists of:
1 libby with book and stormbolter
15 terminators 3 psycannons various weapons
10 purifiers in 2 rhinos various weapons
10 interceptors incinerators are a must, and various cc weapons
2 dreadknights psycannon (so good) heavy incinerator (so good) teleporter and sword.

What we dont do so well...
turtle - we dont have enough models to play long drawn out shooting matches against shooty armies.
shoot av13+
shoot flyers (unless we have our stormraven)
shoot 2+ armor

what we do well
deep strike
teleport
shooting 4+saves
shooting av10-12
shooting psykers
psy phase
destroying vehicles in CC
destroying 3+ in CC
Destroying Monstrous creatures in CC (marine vs wraith knight is a thing and can win)
alpha strike
termie troops

things we do okay
shooting at 3+
shooting at monstrous creatures
bringing vehicles (stormraven is cool but is slow not coming until turn 2) and we get the same storm raven and land raider everyone else gets so we are not special there.
close combat against 2+

I find most games with grey knights are either the grey knights tabled their opponents or got tabled.

hope this helps!

I play rather aggressive with terminators and several DK backed up with Interceptors.

Really want to run a super aggressive list with SM allies to drop in several pods for alpha goodness.

Plan on making a 2500-3000 point list in the near future (group is starting to play big yay)

Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

This is the list I intend to buy to

 obsidiankatana wrote:
I play them extremely aggressively. Shunt heavy list. Two NDKs, termie squad with Draigo and Librarian, interceptors with Incinerators. Garnish with IK, Assassins, pods, etc. Get in hard and fast.

Pretty much this. Play all-in, get in your opponent's space, bring the pain turn 1, bounce around the board as needed. Love running a Knight Errant with my 2 NDKs and Interceptors, while Draigo+Libby+GKT Gate where ever they are needed, and the rest of my GKT camp objectives. Plays fast, gets things done, and the target saturation is tough for most people to deal with. The only downside is lack of AA, but frankly its easier to ignore and avoid Flyers than it is to actually try and deal with them.

SJ

Fantome wrote:

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

This is the list I intend to buy to

Don't wanna stop you from buying it if you like Space Wolves, but consider that Blood Angels are due to be released in November and will almost assuredly have access to FA drop pods and might synergize with GK even better. Space Wolves seem like a pretty good fit though

If you aren't within 12 inches of the enemy at all time you're playing GK wrong. With the low number of models you have to make sure each unit pays for itself, Dreadknight is great at this. A good moblie list that I played was 2 DK, 2 Interceptor Squads, and Draigo/Libby in a squad of Termies, with another squad of termies in supporting distance.

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

Mainly because I had several thousand points of SW and sold most of them before knowing about the new dex and never picked them back up. So I'd rather not buy them again lol

And I already have my purple SM chapter

 FinkleLord wrote:

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

Mainly because I had several thousand points of SW and sold most of them before knowing about the new dex and never picked them back up. So I'd rather not buy them again lol

And I already have my purple SM chapter

Ha point taken. I just have a hard on for Podifiers right now. You can always use your Purple Marines as Spehss Vampires when the new dex drops.

Grey Knights are a flexible army that needs to use their abilities in every phase to justify their points cost. This means that you should not try to pigeon a GK army into just assault or shooting and any weapons choices that do so will normally hurt your effectiveness (thus the frustration of many with the psycannon on PA units).

Now frequently the GK army operates best within 12" as this is the range where all their weapons will have range and they can charge. However with army wide storm bolters there are times when operating at 18-24" range is useful to avoid getting charged.

This is why the Nemesis Strike Force is so good. It gives incredible tactical flexibility and maneuverability. You do not want to be forced to leave a token unit on the board when your token units are expensive and fragile. It also allows you to take a CAD of IG, SM, etc. to get cheap ObjSec and still take your GK at full force.

BTW I am waiting for GW to release a drop pod formation. That would rock.

 ansacs wrote:
Grey Knights are a flexible army that needs to use their abilities in every phase to justify their points cost. This means that you should not try to pigeon a GK army into just assault or shooting and any weapons choices that do so will normally hurt your effectiveness (thus the frustration of many with the psycannon on PA units).

Now frequently the GK army operates best within 12" as this is the range where all their weapons will have range and they can charge. However with army wide storm bolters there are times when operating at 18-24" range is useful to avoid getting charged.

This is why the Nemesis Strike Force is so good. It gives incredible tactical flexibility and maneuverability. You do not want to be forced to leave a token unit on the board when your token units are expensive and fragile. It also allows you to take a CAD of IG, SM, etc. to get cheap ObjSec and still take your GK at full force.

BTW I am waiting for GW to release a drop pod formation. That would rock.

^ This. They do everything very well, no one aspect overly well. If you try to play pure GK as "all shooty", "all assaulty" or "all psychic shenanigans", you'll come up short in anything other than friendly games.

I personally think that shelling up is not a good idea because though our shooting power is good (psychic and normal) our range is small. Flamer templates, 24" psycannons, 24" stormbolters, 9" cleansing flame, etc. What we do have is a surprising amount of mobility and resilience - however, in few numbers. As others have said you won't want to play them as a one-sided army but rather use units to their specialties or however you see fit.

I always recommend a Librarian because they are cheap and provide a lot of support for your army (with M3 and the Libera Daemonica relic they will roll for four powers).

I personally like fast lists that get you into combat. Paladins supported by a Librarian will be your damage-sponge while being able to tear up units - the main problem is getting them into combat. We can solve this with deepstrike, gate of eternity, or a Land Raider if you would, though if you are running Paladins I advise against this as it is a ton of points. My favorite option is the gate of eternity. A bigger group of Terminators can also fulfill this role.

You can use Nemesis Dreadknights with the personal teleporters to eat up MCs. Seriously, these things eat Wraithknights and Riptides for breakfast - don't be afraid to put them out there. They come with Sanctuary - allowing you to be 2+/4++.

If you wanted you could put Purifiers in boxes and allow the Paladins and Dreadknights to take the hits allowing you to get that nice Cleansing Flame off - they can also hold their own in combat with two attacks standard ad the option to take any of the Nemesis weapons. Don't forget they also generate two warp charges a unit - though Cleansing Flame does cost 2 itself.

Though I don't use Interceptors myself, they are good for their points. If I WERE to use them I would shunt them with the Dreadknights to shoot the surrounding units or keep them in cover midfield to preposition when needed.

You will always find yourself lacking in the AA department in a pure GK army, but if you know you are fighting a ton of fliers you could get prescience *shrug*.

Good luck!

My answer to flyer heavy lists is kill everything on the ground... then laugh as they cannot hold objectives and use the mobility of my army to position myself behind the flyers as much as possible. Will use gate, shunts, jump infantry, buildings etc. if they cant score they cant win. prescience on psycannons will also bust up a storm raven pretty well.


if they are FMC then nova's have a good chance are hurting them with no jinks and can get them there with GoI. and, should they decide to land they WILL die. grey knights eat FMC on the ground before eating breakfast (just takes 1 wound).

I tend for aggressive deep strike using terminators, NDK's and interceptors. Basically deep strike into the backfield or onto objectives .

 astro_nomicon wrote:

Fantome wrote:

 astro_nomicon wrote:
Why not Space Wolf allies? Drop podding Purifiers seem like they would be sooo good. Grey Hunters are no slouches either in the alpha strike department either as they have counter attack, have the option to take CCWs and can pack more Melta/Plas than vanilla marines.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A squad of grey hunters with 2 melta, 1 combi melta, 5x CCWs and a drop pod is 225 pts. Nothing to sneeze at.

This is the list I intend to buy to

Don't wanna stop you from buying it if you like Space Wolves, but consider that Blood Angels are due to be released in November and will almost assuredly have access to FA drop pods and might synergize with GK even better. Space Wolves seem like a pretty good fit though

Good point might just start with the gk whilst waiting for the BA dex to drop. In either case the wolves or possible BA would be painted and modeled so they match the theme of of my GK with maybe just a slight difference and would be used as counts as SW or BA.

Unless there's a death company formation, or similar....

Terminators...tons of Terminators.

I'll run 40+ from time to time.