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Playing in a tournament this month that limits force org to a single battalion. Obviously Guard, Eldar, Tau, and Tyranids are gonna be pretty powerful with this limitation, while Chaos will overall suffer (although I think TSons could make a good show of it, summoning Pinks for some chaff-clearing).

Anyhow, I haven't used a pure GK list in a looong time, but here's my few ideas:

I actually think, in this format, grey knights will do better. The rest of the imperium is reliant on soup. This is a huge balance to knights/guard/etc lists. Eldar take a small hit, but should be able to field a mean ynnari list. Tau/orks/necrons/nids definitely get a huge boost.

I am worried about the 2x dreadknight. I love 2x, but what I've found is which ever one I give sanctuary and heed, the other one gets blown to bits. If I split them, then they both get badly damaged.

I haven't done 2x storm ravens. Lots of dakka to come off of them. My concern with about 700 pts airborne is that you could be left with no boots on the ground. I am curious how this plays.

Well, too few models for my liking.
You have 4 models (GMDKs, Ravens) which make up half of the army.

 Smotejob wrote:

I am worried about the 2x dreadknight. I love 2x, but what I've found is which ever one I give sanctuary and heed, the other one gets blown to bits. If I split them, then they both get badly damaged.

My solution to this potential problem is to keep one of them in reserves. T1 Gate for the guy on the board. Then, depending on how many wounds that one has, bring down the second on T2 or T3.

Regarding too few models, I have hopes that the models I do have are tough enough to survive. A 2++ GMDK can tank a LOT, and the Ravens are Hard to Hit. And when one of them dies, stuff will jump out.

I could also swap a Raven for a LRC. It can hold objectives and is perhaps tougher than a Raven.

Math:
It takes 16 Marine lascannons to kill a Land Raider, or 21 if it's in cover. (Although the standard deviation is pretty high bc of the d6 damage).
It takes 15 Marine lascannons to kill a Raven.
14 melta to kill a LR
12 melta to kill a Raven

So it looks as if the Land Raider is ever so slightly more survivable against the high-strength stuff, and would be vastly more survivable against bolters and autocannons.

I'd love a tournament or escalation league where you are limited to only one Battalion. That'd be a lot of fun! TO could up command points if needed for the players to have a little more fun or limit them to make the games more challenging. This sounds like my kind of tournament!

I think even an Escalation League using this format would be awesome!

SG

 ServiceGames wrote:
I'd love a tournament or escalation league where you are limited to only one Battalion. That'd be a lot of fun! TO could up command points if needed for the players to have a little more fun or limit them to make the games more challenging. This sounds like my kind of tournament!

I think even an Escalation League using this format would be awesome!

SG

I agree, it harkens back to simpler, 5e times.

Here's another idea. A few more bodies, and a LRC instead of a 2nd Raven to give me more boots on the ground.


For this one, I'd put the large GKSS and the two infantry characters into the LRC, giving me 7 drops total. GMDK and Strike Squad go into reserve.
T1, GKI, GMDK, and gate GKSS try to start out of LoS on an objective. GMDK gates forward, GKI jump forward. Raven and GKI stick with GMDK for rerolls.
LRC hurdles forward to center, hopefully out of LoS.

T2, the blob in the Land Raider piles out 8-9" and kills some stuff, hopefully in melee. (The GKI, GMDK, Raven, and LRC should've cleared the screen.) If GMDK is still in the first wound bracket, keep the 2nd one in reserve. Otherwise, bring him down!
LRC gets targeted for Astral Aim and Gate, and goes into a ruin.

EDIT: Would it be worth swapping Draigo for Voldus? I don't really need Voldus's extra cast/deny. I'd have to drop a Striker and the GKI hammer, but it would let me reroll all hits (instead of just 1s) and Draigo has a better invuln.
(The two characters' melee and shooting are virtually identical, with Draigo gaining one extra AP in assault.)

EDIT: Would it be worth swapping Draigo for Voldus?

I'd opt for more bodies than a 3rd HQ.
A Dread with astral aim would also be helpful.

 wuestenfux wrote:

EDIT: Would it be worth swapping Draigo for Voldus?

I'd opt for more bodies than a 3rd HQ.
A Dread with astral aim would also be helpful.

Ok so if I drop the 2nd GMDK, I'm left with this, at 1988pts



I could split the big GKSS into two smaller ones for mobility, but then Hammerhand isn't as effective.
I could drop a couple strikers to make room for Draigo.
I could take a Rifleman instead of the missile/las, but not sure on the math there. Is eight S7 -1 D2 shots better or worse than two S9 -3 Dd6 and one S8 -2 Dd6?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Rifleman vs Marines (T4 Sv3+ 1dmg) – 2.22 wound
Codex vs Marines (1dmg+frag) – 1.64 wounds
NOTE: Interestingly, the Frag and the Krak missile do the same damage against a Marine body.

Rifleman vs Rhino (T7 Sv3+) – 3.33 wounds
Codex vs Rhino – 4.54 wounds

Rifleman vs Stormraven (-1BS T7 Sv3+) – 2.67 wounds
Codex vs Stormraven – 3.62 wounds

Rifleman vs GEQ (T3 Sv5+ 1damage) – 4.63 wounds
Codex vs GEQ – 2.68 wounds

Rifleman vs Russ (T8 Sv3+) – 1.78 wounds
Codex vs Russ – 4.23 wounds

Rifleman vs Riptide with Invuln (T6 Sv3++) – 2.96 wounds
Codex vs Riptide with Invuln – 1.93 wounds

Rifleman vs Eldar Flyer (-2BS T6 Sv4+) – 3.56 wounds
Codex vs Eldar Flyer – 3.31 wounds

Rifleman vs Plaguebearers (T5 Sv5++/5+++) – 3.16 wounds
Codex vs Plaguebearers – 2.07 wounds
NOTE: 145pts of GKSS, in a reroll 1's aura, without psybolts, will do 2.07 wounds to a -1BS Plaguebearer squad, the same as the unsupported missile/las Ven Dread.

These are all averages, and the standard deviation was anywhere from 0.7 all the way to 2.6. Surprisingly, the large number of shots from the fixed damage autocannon balanced out the d6 random damage from the heavier guns, so the standard variation for both builds was similar—except against single-wound models, where the las/missile had a much lower deviation (because I treated those weapons as having single damage against single-wound models).

Well, Rifleman Dreads are great.
What is the Apothecary for? You don't have Paladins.
I'd drop Voldus and Apothecary, and bring the 2nd GMNK back.

The Apothecary is a baby Dreadknight. He puts out an impressive amount of damage, and in addition he can heal himself.

The Rifleman edges out against soft targets. Since I have a LOT of shooting that mows down soft targets (bolters and psilencers), I think I'd rather take Missile/Las.

I'm thinking of dropping Voldus and one Strike, and gaining Draigo.

Just my thoughts...

GMDK
Voldus
Draigo

3x5 Strike Squads - bare bones

Apothecary
Paladin Ancient
7 Paladin squad, 3 with Staffs, 4 with hammers

2 ven dreads - las/autocannon - missile/autocannon

LRC - all weapons

Just load up the paladins in the LRC, teleport it behind some nice piece of terrain, slap astral aim on it and dump ammo into whatever you want. Paladins can sit with the apothecary and the banner, opponent likely cant ignore this LRC so when they approach it you have CC oriented paladins with 4 attacks on hammers guarding it.

So it presents something they have to deal with, lets your strike squads build campfires on objectives and they wont want to shoot the GMDK with sanctuary and heed in the pocket, and the ven dreads can sit at max distance in shoot, I think it would be hard for them to focus on something.

LRC counts as astartes so with machine spirit and new bolter rules it does get to fire full tilt with the hurricane bolters and the storm bolter from full range with no penalty. The fact that you can astral aim it, sort of mitigates the fact that it doesn't have the invul save. You get to leave Sanctuary dedicated to the GMDK, Draigo can portal himself without having to use Gate, leaving you free to use it on the LRC first turn, get the apoth or ancient to astral aim the LRC, paladins will want to hammerhand themselves and you don't really have any overlap in regards to contention over which unit gets which psyker power. Voldus or Draigo can try to Vortex every turn and the rest can smite or w/e.

I don't understand how you're envisioning downfield delivery....
LRC gets Gate, which leaves the GMDK moving 8". Where is Draigo? Is he also walking? And Voldus?
Then this list has 18 transport slots with all those Elite termies, but only 16 spaces in the LRC, so one of them has to be dropped.

Here's the list I ran last night, against Tau.


The Apothecary did nothing the whole game, which was disappointing. I think I'm gonna try a BroChamp with Demios, which should be a nice surprise popping out of the Land Raider.
I noticed that on T1 I have three hard targets--LRC, Raven, GMDK--and one squishy target, the GKI. Those guys jumped forward, didn't charge (bc T'au overwatch is scary), and got blown away the next turn. The Raven didn't get touched, nor did the GMDK, and the Land Raider lost 8 wounds.
However, I did kill SIX units on T1: two Pathfinders, two Firewarriors, a few Shield Drones, and two Broadsides. The bolters did work, and based on some math I did last week, I didn't even use Psybolts and still managed to murder my chosen targets.

So I'm wondering if I should drop the GKI and take a second Raven instead. That would lessen my board presence, but they're just so good. Or perhaps I should drop to 5x and take a second VenDread....then i could still have Vortex on T1, and I would also increase my anti-tank shooting....

Played one last test game with the above list, against GSC. The radar blips kinda threw me off, but in the end it was a crushing victory for the Inquisition.

Two GMDKs, holding one in reserve, seems like a solid tactic. On T1, the enemy has to shoot at a target with 2++, or T8 Sv2+. or -1 to hit. Nothing is optimal, and I WANT them to shoot the Land Raider (the least valuable thing).
Dropping the GKI down to 5-man makes them a less threatening target, and also means that when they inevitably die, I won't feel as bad a I would with a full 10x.