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Hey guys!

I'm going to enter a tournament soon which is 1850 points. List first, explanation afterwards:

H.Q.

- Inquitisor Coteaz - 100

Troops

- 3 acolytes in razorback w. psybolts - 62
- 3 acolytes in razorback w. psybolts - 62
- 3 acolytes in razorback w. psybolts - 62
- 3 acolytes in razorback w. psybolts - 62
- 3 acolytes in razorback w. psybolts - 62

Fast Attack

- 10 interceptors w. 2 psycannons and psybolts - 300
- 10 interceptors w. 2 psycannons and psybolts - 300

Heavy Support

- Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235
- Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235

Total = 1480 points, 370 left to spend.

The GK shunt is relatively expensive, but sorts out a lot of the problems of drop pods. You can shunt when you want, where you want, and there's very little the enemy can do to stop you. Usually I've found it run in one of two ways:
- Led by Mordrak, who makes 1-3 of your shunting units scoring, and can Deep Strike himself and a unit of ghost knights on turn 1, no scatter. You still have to fill your troops slots, and people will often just buy 2 small GKSS.
- Led by Coteaz, who gives you access to cheap, mobile scoring units which leaves you plenty of points for your shunting units.

Obviously I've chosen to go the Coteaz route. T1 deepstriking Mordrak is nice, but by the time you buy him, his ghost knights and 2 GKSS, that's a lot of points, and can still potentially leave you with only 3 scoring units. The way I figure it, my opponent will either have to focus on killing my troops (5 razors and 5 units), and if he chooses that path he will face the wrath of shunters and will end up being assaulted. Or, he will focus on my shunting units, which will still take a reasonable amount of firepower to take down, and leaves me with 5 scoring mobile units to win me the game.

For the 370 points, I had a couple of thoughts. Whilst I could add Mordrak, or another Dreadknight, or something else which would join the shunting party, there are some weaknesses in the army which I probably need to plug. I don't really have any AV, or any AA. This was the major weakness in most shunting lists I've seen, who often have a third dreadknight. What do you think of the following option:

Remove: 1 x 3 acolytes in razorback - 62 points

Add: Dreadnought w. 2 TLAC and psybolts - 135 points
Skyshield Landing Pad w. Ready For Takeoff upgrade - 80 points
Stormraven w. multi-melta, TL-assault cannon - 205 points
3 acolytes (to travel inside stormraven) - 12 points

In the end, it's the same amount of scoring units, it just brings a little more fire support and a Skyfire unit. Coteaz can travel with the acolytes in the stormraven, and then use his super duper psychic powers to charge up the shunters. I would go for something like the Stormwing instead, but I'm really going for a bit of an alpha strike, and need all my points to pay immediate dividends.

Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think!

i would go with the stormraven setup, imo the stormraven is a decent flying unit with good firepower. the dread with 2xTL auto's + psybolts will do dmg to most target, and have a slim chance against AV 14.

Stormraven but be sure to give it a lascannon as well so you can pop armor and with power of the machine spirit you can potentially take out two targets. Other then that consider taking some demonhammers on your justicars, they pop wave serpents on turn one alpha strikes quite easily!

I think the raven is actually a bad idea (in this build). You are all in on the shunt, either going to win or loose by that so you may as well maximise it. By the time the raven arrives the game will probably be decided.

I would get another NDK then add another henchman unit for Coteaz to roll in:

Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235
Henchman: Chimera, 3xPlas Acolytes, 2xStorm bolter Acolytes, 1xBanisher, 1xAcolyte with Melta Bomb - 135 (or change to taste)

Banisher is there for Daemons, 5xAcolytes shoot and the melta bomb is for just in case. You could also go a couple of Solodins for more backfield options - But I don't think they are that great.

Thanks all for your replies

McBain, the Stormraven would actually start the game on the Skyshield pad, so would be able to contribute to the T1 shunt effort. It just also means that I have a bit more AV, and later in the game a bit more AA. I definitely agree that starting anything in reserves is not going to be helpful, but thought that by putting a bird on the pad I might just be able to solve my problems. My only real hesitation is that it essentially makes the stormraven worth 285 points as I'm not going to get much more use out of the skyshield, and having it start in hover (with Coteaz + 3 acolytes inside) might be a bit of a gamble. I would take another dreadnought if the slots weren't already taken by my dreadknights. Any other unit ideas which will help me cover anti-air and anti-tank and contribute to the shunt?

I would love to get hammers on the justicars, but at the moment I would prefer to find some points for incinerators on one of the interceptor squads.

Fair point about the Raven - Didn't think about that.

I still think that a single Raven is not ideal in this list. 90% of opponents will be able to deal with a single flyer pretty easily and by not taking one you are effectively wasting their points spent on AA. With the points saved get that 3rd Dread Knight and maximise the T1 Shunt/T2 Charge. This list is about threat overload and if you don't maximise on that then you may suffer.

I agree you need at least 1 Hammer on each of your Interceptor squads (maybe 2 if you combat squad to maximise the threats).

With a shunt list you might have to accept you are limited with AA. Psycannons from the Interceptors will be useful if needed.

What about the below? It maximises your threats, T1 Shunt/T2 charge. AV is gone from either the T1 shunting Psycannons or T2 Charges from everything left. 3 Dread Knights and 5 x Combat Squadded Hammers charging in T2 is nasty! Just my 2 cents but I think in a shunt list you need to go all or nothing.


H.Q.

- Inquitisor Coteaz - 100

Troops

- 3 acolytes in razorback - 57
- 3 acolytes in razorback - 57
- 3 acolytes in razorback - 57
- 3 acolytes in razorback - 57
- 3 acolytes in razorback - 57

Fast Attack

- 10 interceptors w. 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, Halberd on Justicar - 305
- 10 interceptors w. 2 psycannons, 2 hammers, Halberd on Justicar - 305
- 5 interceptors w. 1 psycannon, 1 hammer - 150

Heavy Support

- Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235
- Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235
- Dreadknight w. heavy incinerator and teleporter - 235

Thanks for the reply man

My fear is that a list like that can only ever serve as a spoiler list at a tournament. I know that making a TAC list is getting harder, but I think that list is really only capable of taking on mass infantry and not much else. Maybe that's all that a shunting list can ever be, I'm not sure.

I've tried to look at fair few other 1850 lists, and even if I just ignore the ones with flyers, many of them have a lot of vehicles. Removing the dreadnought removes even more AV and AA. Light armour I might be alright, but heavy armour will kill me. The 5 psycannons that are in that list are mathematically likely to only score a single penetrating hit on AV13 or 14. Plus, if I have to use all of my interceptors shooting at heavily armoured tanks, then the psybolt ammo stormbolters are a total waste. Whilst they can start popping tanks on turn two in combat, it gives them an extra turn of shooting me, whilst everything is in perfect rapid fire range of everything. I think I really need something capable of blowing the tanks reliably, and then use the shunters to clean up the infantry.

Maybe a shunter list only ever can serve as a spoiler list, but my thought was that I could treat them like drop podding units and try to make the list overall a little more rounded. I think 2 dreadknights and 2 interceptor squads is a good enough start, but I think the rest of the list has to plug gaps otherwise I'm just gonna be gambling on perfect match-ups to have a hope at the tournament.

I'm thinking the stormraven is not a good bet. Anyone with half a brain will target it on turn 1 and bring it down easily, and for 285 points it doesn't have that much output anyway. Perhaps I should look to allies? I do have some SM melta drop pods I could add to the list that might work well with the shunters? I could even drop a razorback if points required it as I could add more scoring units through allies.

Maybe even a vindicare assassin for high AV?

All your points are valid ones and making a pure GK TAC list is very difficult. I think you have to accept that GK's are middle of the pack now and running them without allies means you will struggle against the top armies.

For my money - Necrons, TAU and Eldar will make the best allies for GKs as they are the best armies we can access through allies.

Having said that - I thought you were looking at making a shunt list, not a TAC one? If you want a TAC GK list then you need to start again but if you want a shunt list then you are mostly there. There's not that much to it really - Get everything that can shunt and fit it in your army and hope for a good match up.

Good luck!