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Just had a impromptu test game today at the local LGS using the new Grey Knights. The only person there at the time was building his Loganwing army. He barely had enough models for 1K, so I lent him several of my terminators to use as his Wolf Guard Terminators.

Since he was playing infantry only, I decided not to use my transports so that we were on a more level playing field. Now his list may not be very good IMO, but I just wanted to test out my Grey Knights. This isn't my competitive build either.


My list:

Grey Knights 1K

Captain-Brother Stern

6x Grey Knight Terminators - 1x Psycannon, Nemesis Force Swords - 265

10x Grey Knight Strike Squads - 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, 1x Warding Stave - 265
10x Grey Knight Strike Squads - 2x Psycannons, Psybolt Ammo, 1x Warding Stave - 265

Total - 995


Space Wolves 1K

Logan Grimnar

9x Wolf Guard Terminators - 4x TH/SS, 4x Wolf Claws + Stormbolters, 1x Assault Cannon
5x Wolf Guard Terminators - 3x TH/SS, 2x Wolf Claws + Stormbolters, 1x Cyclone Missile Launcher

I may be off a little, but it's very close.


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Mission: Seize Ground - 5 objectives
Deployment: Spearhead
Initiative: Grey Knights


We played on a 4' x 4' table with minimal terrain. Terrain didn't really make a difference in this game as we both ignored it and went after each other. I know that I could easily win by playing the keep-away game and just spam his terminators with S5 stormbolters, but I wanted to test out the cc-prowess of the new Grey Knights.

I deploy my terminators + Stern in the middle and GKSS on either sides of them. He deploys his wolf guards directly across from me.

He fails to steal the initiative.


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Grey Knights 1
Stern gives all 3 units counter-attack.

Everyone moves forwards 6". Then I focus all my psycannons and S5 stormbolters on Logan's squad, killing 4-5 terminators including 2 thunderhammers and almost all the stormbolters as well as putting 1W on Logan.


Loganwing 1
I make a mistake on my turn and moved to within assault range of his wolf guards. He decides not to fire, not wanting me to remove my closest models to him, so he just moves and just barely manages to make it into assault with both of my GK strike squads.

Logan gives his unit Prefered Enemy and both units +1A. Both of my GKSS's passes their test for counter-attack and Hammerhand, so I also get +1A and +1S. In assault, I put 1W on Logan and kill 1 terminator. Despite re-roll's to hit and +1A, he only manages to kill 4-5 knights thanks to my Warding Stave. I made a save against Logan's Frost axe, against 1 wolf claw and then 1 thunderhammer blow. My knights pass leadership and stay locked in battle.

In the other battle, both Hammerhand and counter-attack goes off again. He kills 4 grey knights and I believe I kill 3 terminators, including 2 thunderhammers. Again, my Warding Stave saves against 1 wolf claw and 1 thunderhammer. My knights then pass morale.


Grey Knights 2
No shooting. My Grey Knight terminators go after Logan's unit while Stern goes after the other wolf guard unit. GKT charges Logan's unit but Stern fails to make it into assault with the other unit.

I fail Hammerhand on both the GKT's as well as the squad against Logan. I then roll 1,1 for Hammerhand for my other strike squad and the Justicar dies to Perils despite his 2++ Invuln save. My Warding Stave saves another 2 grey knights - 1 against Logan's wound and another against a wolf claw.

No matter....I table him in assault this turn, losing only 3-4 GKSS in the process.



Victory to the Grey Knights!


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Post-game Assessment: While this game doesn't really mean anything, it does provide a glimpse of what the Grey Knights can do. They have very good mid-range, anti-infantry shooting. Couldn't really gauge the AT of the psycannons as there were no vehicles.

They also have very good close combat abilities. Now I didn't take any Nemesis halberds, but Nemesis swords are very good, especially on terminators and the HQ's. Force swords give my GKT's 4++ Inv and Stern, or a Grandmaster/Brother-Captain, 3++ Inv in close combat. In higher points games, I will give them a Land Raider to get them into combat as soon as possible, as that is where they will shine.

Stern - C+. Now a C may seem low, but that is what I usually give to a unit when there is not enough information (i.e. when I am not able to use the guy due to circumstances). The jury is still out on him, as he didn't get any action this game. I was planning on sending him alone against Logan's unit so that he could use his Zone of Banishment, but a miscalculation on my part allowed the Space Wolves to assault me. The C+ is for the fact that he gave all 3 units counter-attack. I will try him out again.

Grey Knight Terminators - B. They weren't really allowed to shine in this game, but that is more because the game went by too quickly. S4 stormbolters are not quite as good as the buffed-up S5 ones, but IMO psybolt ammo shouldn't be taken unless squad size is 8-10 models. They did, however, help to wipe out Logan's wolf guards.

Grey Knight Strike Squads - A. Excellent performance this game. Basically, their shooting and assault won me the game. Should be a staple in every Grey Knight list, even if it's just a smallish 5-man squad in razorback/rhino. In larger squad sizes, always give them psybolt ammo.

Psybolt Ammunition - A. An awesome upgrade, especially on larger squad sizes. Stormbolter-spam was pretty effective last edition. Now with the new Grey Knights, psybolt-stormbolter-spam is just plain nasty against infantry.

Nemesis Warding Stave - A. Just an awesome upgrade as well. This 25pt upgrade (50pts for 2) saved the lives of 7 grey knights. Totally worth it in larger squads. Should have given it to my Grey Knight terminators as well, but I forgot.

Unless they changed it at release (which is doubtful, considering he isn't a Grand Master) Stern doesn't have The Grand Strategy. Counterattack made a huge difference it looks like, but it doesn't really matter. You did make a pretty good case for the single warding staff model, at least in certain situations. Kinda reminds me a shadowfield, you have it until you fail once.

I'm pretty sure he has it as I was using the store's copy of the codex while playing. But just in case, I'll double-check it next time I'm there.

jy2 wrote:I'm pretty sure he has it as I was using the store's copy of the codex while playing. But just in case, I'll double-check it next time I'm there.

He does not.

I can confirm that Stern does not have it.

In that case, I made a mistake....trying to play after just skimming the new codex. Must have confused his entry with another character's entry.


The space wolf player also made a mistake, though it was partially my fault. He was re-rolling on the hit and wound with his Wolf Claws, but then I was the one who told him he could. Lol.

That must have been the shortest game you have ever played Jy2

It only took about half an hour. I wanted to get into combat with his terminators by turn 2, but miscalculated his charge range, thus allowing him to charge me on turn 1. So I only had 1 turn of shooting and then it was straight to combat.

Too bad I didn't get to test out Stern's Zone of Banishment. That would have made for a good laugh, lol (but probably not to my opponent).

Dang 30 minutes thats fast. Well i hope that you get another battle report in with Grey Knights that last a little longer so we can see how mean they are

I sure will. I'm going to have a rematch with him tomorrow and this time, he's bringing his real army. Also, I'm bringing my camera so there will be pics in the next batrep. We'll probably have a proper battle at 1500 or 2000.

30 minutes is about my record too. I made a Necron guy phase out.

I look forward to next report.

Good report! Can't wait to see you get into some higher point games, then we'll get to see some real blood baths!

Well all of this is subject to quite a bit of change.

rovian wrote:Well all of this is subject to quite a bit of change.

What do you mean? This army was based on the actual codex, not the leaked PDF one. The only thing different appears to be the mistake I made with Brother-Captain Stern having Grand Strategy.

did they chnage grand stratergy? as i didn't know it gave counter attack i thought it was scout scoring or re rolls of 1s

Alphacerberus wrote:did they chnage grand stratergy? as i didn't know it gave counter attack i thought it was scout scoring or re rolls of 1s

Grand Strategy basically gives you a choice of 4 tactics - scout, counter-attack, re-rolling 1's on the wound and scoring. However, when I was going through the codex, I could've sworn that Stern also had the Grand Strategy, but everyone here is telling me that he doesn't. So I'm probably mistaken, but I will check it out when I go to my local LGS later today.

oh awesome more options i didn't see counter attack thansk for clearing that up for me i will soon test my own loganwing against my purifier GK's xD

Wow, that was a fast game. 2++ in CC is vicious, especially against small heavy hitter units such as Terminators.

I wonder how your list will fair against updated Deathwing all with TH/SS. I'm guessing you would probably shoot them to death with volume of fire.

Thanks for sharing!

Yeah, against a full deathwing army, I'm going to have to play keep-away-and-shoot until I reduce the squads to a more manageable number. Then I can finish them off.

One thing though....if I had first turn, I would move my strike squads (probably in rhinos) up as far as I can to maximize my anti-deepstriking bubble. Thus if deathwing is going to be using deathwing assault, then they're going to have to deepstrike some distance away from me or risk mishapping.

QQ: Does the 2++ granted by the Warding Staff affect the entire squad? I'm just wondering because you said in the OP "It saved the lives of 7 Grey Knights". I know it sounds horrifically overpowered if it does affect the unit but I wouldn't put it past GW to include something like this.

No, it just gives the 2+ to the one that is carrying it.

No, it only gives the 2++ to the one model with the staff. However, in assault against models with different initiatives, you can allocate the wounds on him.

For example, my justicar with stave saved against Logan's I5 frost axe, then against the I4 wolf claw and finally against the I1 thunderhammer, all in the same assault phase.

The "7 lives" saved was over the course of 2 assault phases and 2 separate combats. It would've been more had the 1 stave not died to Perils while trying to cast Hammerhand.


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Ah, ninja'd by jcd.

I got in a quick 2v2, 2K per team battle yesterday. We were limited on time and because there was too much going on, I didn't take any pictures and will just be doing a brief summary.

Its was Grey knights (me) and Blood Angels vs Tau and Tyranids.

I was bringing:

Grey Knights 2K
Grandmaster - Incinerator
Librarian - Shrouding, Warp Rift, Vortex, Warding Staff

Vendread - 2x TL-Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo
Vendread - 2x TL-Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo

Grey Knight Terminators - 1x Psycannon, 1x Warding Staff
Justicar Anval Thawn
5x Grey Knight Strike Squad - 1x Psycannon, Rhino
5x Grey Knight Strike Squad - 1x Psycannon, Rhino

5x Purgation Squad - 4x Incinerators
GK Land Raider - Psybolt Ammo
GK Land Raider Redeemer - Multi-melta, Psybolt Ammo


I can't remember exactly what my partner and opponents had, the it was something like this:


Blood Angels (my partner)
Librarian
Reclusiarch

10x Terminators (deepstriked with Librarian)
Dreadnought

10x Assault Squad - 3 Plasmas, Powerfist (deepstriked with Reclusiarch)
10x Assault Squad - Powerfist, Rhino (got the Red Thirst)
10x Scouts - close combat
5x Scouts - snipers

Baal Predator

Dakkapred


Tau
Commander

3x Crisis Suits
3x Crisis Suits
6x Stealth w/drones

10x Fire Warriors
10x Fire Warriors

8x Pathfinders - Devilfish
Piranha

2x Broadsides
Railhead
Skyray


Tyranids
Hive Tyrant - Bonesword + Lash whips, Heavy Venom Cannon
Tyranid Prime

7-8 Ymgarls
Doom of Ma'lantai

5-6 Tyranid Warriors
(?) Hormagants
30x Termagants
20x Termagants
10x Genestealers - Broodlord

2x Biovores
Carnifex - Heavy Venom Cannon
Trygon Prime


Summary:
We were playing 5 objectives, 1 in the center and 2 in each of our deployment zones. Xenos went first. Suits were in reserves as well as a lot of tyranids. Jump angels and the BA terminators opted to stay in reserves. My grandmaster makes 1 of the vendreads scoring.

Turn 1
The Tau destroys 1 of my rhinos and wipe out the 5-man scout squad.

We advance and fail to do much with our shooting. My librarian casts Shrouding and my rhino pops smoke, giving cover to my LRR. I shake his skyray with my dread. My godhammer fires at his broadsides but fail to get through his cover. BA didn't do anything.


Turn 2
Tyranid player "forgets" to roll for his reserves. Only 1 crisis suit comes in. They do a risky deepstrike and mishap. I then place them near my LRR in difficult terrain (but out of fusion double-kill range). Tau take out my LRR with railguns after removing my 3+ cover with markerlights. They then focus fire on my terminator squad (with librarian), killing 1 terminator and my Librarian (failed both 2+ saves).

On our turn, BA does a risky deepstrike with his Librarian + 10 terminators. He mishaps and the whole 500pt+ unit gets wiped out. His Reclusiarch + assault marines also deepstrike and lands near the Tau skyray (+ a lot of troops). PAGK's case Warp Quake. They then zip to where his HQ + broadsides are.

My land raider once again fails to kill any of his broadsides thanks to cover. Assault marines + Reclusiarch fire at the pathfinders and kill a few. They then fail morale and run off the table. My terminators then assault his crisis suits in terrain and wipe them out (yeah for frag grenades on terminators!).


Turn 3
Trygon, ymgarls and stealth suits come in. At first, he places the stealth suits within my Warp Quake bubble so I told him not to do that. So he redeposits them elsewhere....but they scatter and end up barely in range of Warp Quake and go back into reserves. Trygon prime comes up by our objective and ymgarls come out of terrain but is not in range to do anything. Tyrant and 30 termagants are fast approaching our objective as well.

Concentrated fire by his tyranid warriors and 20 termagants kill off 6-7 assault marines from the reclusiarch's unit. Tau concentrates on my terminators in cover but fail to kill anyone. He probably killed some BA vehicles....I don't quite remember.

On our turn, the BA player forgets to roll for his outflanking scouts. My land raider zips over to his tyrant + gants and out comes my Grandmaster and purgation unit (though separately). 5-man PAGK's disembark from rhino and go after his HQ + broadsides. Terminators head for Xeno's left objective (where he has a bunch of troops and the skyray). Reclusiarch's unit go after the skyray. My scoring dread heads towards the central objective, and the BA assault squad in rhino disembarks and get ready to assault the trygon.

In shooting, PAGK's on my objectives shoot and kill a few ymgarls. Purgation unit burns away his 26 termagants. My 2 vendreads insta-kill 3-4 tyranid warriors. Then comes assault. My GKGM assault his tyrant and we both strike at I1 due to lash whips and psyk-out grenades. I fail to wound the tyrant and he puts 1W on my Grandmaster. My PAGK's multi-charge the Tau commander and broadsides. I whiff all my attacks/wounds and he kills 1 grey knight. Luckily I pass morale. The Reclusiarch's unit assaults the skyray and shakes it and the assault squad furiously charge the trygon, doing 4W to it in assault and with the shooting prior to the assault. The trygon in turn kills 6 angels, but they stay locked in combat.


Turn 4
This would be the last turn as some of the players had to go. Genestealers come in out of the trygon hole. The tyranid player makes a mistake here which I failed to catch. Models coming out of the trygon hole may not assault, but he goes and assault my Grandmaster anyways. Doom lands near the central objective but scatters out of contesting range, and carnifex comes in from their board edge and prepare to charge my grey knights locked in combat with the Shas'o + broadsides. Both crisis suits and stealth suits deepstrike in, but the crisis team mishaps due to Warp Quake and dies.

In shooting, I believe Xenos wipes out the Reclusiarch's unit and blows up the furioso. They might have done some other damage to the BA vehicles, I'm not sure. They ignore my terminators to deal with more "pressing" matters. Then we go to assault. Genestealers double-team my Grandmaster and kill him. Trygon finishes off the assault marines. Then the carnifex charge my grey knights. My grey knights end up force-weaponing the Tau commander and the carnifex (I rolled 2 6's to wound) to death and then proceed to sweep the broadsides. Wow!

On our turn, the very last turn, scouts come in and assault a unit (they stay locked, I believe). My terminators go to contest the Xenos left objective. My scoring vendread runs to claim the central objective and my PAGK's go to claim the Xenos right objective. I've also got my grey knights on my own objective. Also, the purgation unit incinerates the unit of genestealers which had just killed my Grandmaster and my other vendread kills off his ymgarls.

Grey Knights + Blood Angels win with 3 objectives to 0.



Victory to the Grey Knights (team)!!!



Post-Game Analysis:
Wow....what a performance by the clear MVP's of the game - the Grey Knight strike squad! They caused 2 deepstrike mishaps, killing one of the crisis teams. They then went on to kill the Tau commander, a carnifex and the broadside team and then grab the enemy objective. Simply astounding performance from a 110pt unit!

Runner-up would have to my Purgation squad. They killed a the 30-gant termagant unit and the genestealers. Not bad for a 100pt unit.

Wow nice battle report jy and those 110 point models now scare me