My 1500 points Grey Knight List

Hiya guys,

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but that little annoying thing called 'real life' keeps getting in the way. Anyways, after doing a but of play testing (this was done with proxies I was just trying out different scenarios etc with the list, hence the lack of battle reps) with my first attempt list, I've written down what I hope to be my standard 1500 points Grey Knights army list!

One thing that I found out was that I didn't like the 3 Dreads (with T/L autocannons), yes, they were effective, and did take out several tanks, but, I wanted something more for the points which they ate. Let me explain further; I was able to confidently hold my side of the board; the two las razorbacks would hold my objectives, and have a nasty little counter assault unit inside if needed; but, the three terminator squads could have done with a little more help in the midfield sometimes (e.g. taking out that long fang squad, or wiping the few stragglers off the objective). This lead me to the conclusion that if I dropped the 3 dreads, I'd be able to have just over 400 points to spend on covering those weaknesses, especally considering that I had no problems taking out any armor with the strength 10 M/C Hammer, and the Psycannon.

So, what did I want to gain with my newly found points? Well, I don't consider myself to be a power or a WAAC gamer, so I was trying to squeeze in a special character if had the points, although it wasn't a priority, so I left that till the end. The first thing which I added was a second Inquisitor with Psychic communion, being able to add +/- 2 to any reserve roll seemed quite appealing. Next on my list was to find a way to assist my 3 Terminator squads, in the end, I opted for two assassins, a Vindicare and a Callidus. The Vindicare would be able to target any annoyances (e.g. hidden fists) from range, while the Callidus would try to come in as late as possible (thanks to the -2 from the two Inquisitors), and use its polymorphine and neutral shredder to get a weakened unit off an objective.

What I hope to be my standard 1500 points list:

HQ
Inquisitor
Lvl 1 Psyker w/ Psychic communion, x3 servo skulls, Combi-Flamer

Inquisitor

Lvl 1 Psyker w/ Psychic communion, Combi-Flamer

ELITES

Callidus Assassin

Vindicare Assassin

TROOPS
x5 Grey Knights
Razorback w/ T/L Heavy Bolter, Psybolt Ammo

x5 Grey Knights

Razorback w/ T/L lascannon

x5 Grey Knight Terminators

x4 Halberds, Justicar Anval Thawn, Psycannon

x5 Grey Knight Terminators

x4 Halberds, M/C Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Psycannon

x5 Grey Knight Terminators

x4 Halberds, M/C Nemesis Daemon Hammer, Incinerator

1500

Ideally, I'd like the army to work something like this:

• The standard squads, their razorback and attached Inquisitor stay in my deployment area for as much as the game as possible; they are mainly designed to help bring in reserves when I want (courtesy of the Inquisitors) and take my home objectives. As some of you thought when you viewed my first attempt, they are not there to add to the combat potential of the army; I need a way to hold objectives with 'cheap' units
• As in my other list, the Terminator squads are there to take the midfield from turn 2 onwards, deep striking in with the help of the Servo Skulls; I've Master Crafted the Daemon Hammer as then I should hopefully hit with a least 1 of the Strength 10 attacks, I don't fancy not risking the re-roll I would I get. I'm quite fond of the Incinerators, as they help deal with hordes (strength 6 is especially useful when facing orks) and the lone psycannon might pop enemy armor occasionally. Justicar Thawn is in there for two reasons, firstly, he has psychic mastery lvl 2, meaning he can cast hammerhand and activate the force weapons (very beneficial when facing big nasty MCs), secondly, his ability to never die can be useful when playing for killpoints, and for holding/contesting an objective (he might be able to get up at the last minute and hold/contest it!).
• Finally, the two assassins each have a small, but crucial role to play. As mentioned above, the Vindicare is there to be annoyance and maybe take out a few threats (low AP guns, power weapons/fists etc.). On the other hand, the Callidus will either try to stay off the board as long as possible, showing up at the last minute to take out a unit holding/contesting an objective, or get me another killpoint; or, she will come on as soon as I can get her on, to take out a threat (e.g. lascannon carrying longfangs).

Theres my completed list, and I'm pretty happy with it! I think I've covered all of the weaknesses which I've found so far, and manage to include a special character, who will be beneficial to the army.

Feel free to leave comments; tell me what you think works well and what could be improved! Also, vote on the poll for what you think I should buy next for my army (I'm getting a new camera, so expect some WIP pics to be up shortly).

Until then...

First list attempts

Hiya guys,

Blogger seems to be having a bit of trouble posting some of my posts which have been scheduled for posting; so while I'm trying to resolve this issue (the next few parts of the army list building series are due out) I thought I'd give you my first go at a 1500 point list!

Without further ado

HQ
Inquisitor
x3 Servo Skulls, Lvl 1 psyker w/ psychic communion

TROOPS
x5 Grey Knight Terminators
x4 Halberds, x1 M/C Daemon Hammer, Incinerator

x5 Grey Knight Terminators

x4 Halberds, x1 M/C Daemon Hammer, Incinerator

x5 Grey Knight Terminators

x4 Halberds, x1 M/C Daemon Hammer, Incinerator

x5 Grey Knights
Razorback, T/L Lascannon

x5 Grey Knights

Razorback, T/L Lascannon

HEAVY SUPPORT

Dreadnought

x2 T/L Autocannon, Psybolt Ammo

Dreadnought

x2 T/L Autocannon, Psybolt Ammo

Dreadnought

x2 T/L Autocannon, Psybolt Ammo

1499

Inquisitor

This guy is here to provide support for the deepstrikers (in the form of the 3 servo skulls, reducing scatter for each of the 3 terminator squads), and helping them either come in earlier or later (depends on the mission / opposing army) with his +/- 1 to reserve rolls.

x5 Terminators

These will nearly always deepstrike in, on turn two on a 3+; mainly to take up the midfield and distract my opponent from my fire-base near my deployment. Hopefully they'll claim or contest an objective at the end of the game too. The incinerator should help if I'm facing a horde army, I didn't feel the Psycannon was necessary because I already have tank busting support, and I just didn't have the points.

x5 Grey Knights (in Razorback)

Just here to add some more fire support, and take objectives; hopefully taking a low profile role but can counter assault if needed.

Dreadnought

The 3 x2 T/L Autocannon guys can pump out 6 strength 8 T/L shots per turn, this should hopefully pop transports for my Termis to take out. They should be in cover, which should help them survive that bit longer. 

Conclusion

I'm sure you can see how this list should work out, however, it'll take some play testing before I can give you any more feedback, so stay tuned for that as well as the remainder of the 'Army list 101' series. Any questions about the list feel free to leave a comment.

Until then...

List Building 101 Part 1; Mobility

Hiya Guys,


After been stuck at home with the flu (and as proof its not 'man flu' theres 2 boxes of Grey Knight Terminators in front of me, and I've been unable to build them up (cue sad violin music)) I've had a really good read of the codex, and have come up with 5! list building articles for the Grey Knights:


In each of my lists, I try to include 4 elements, to hopefully make it competitive. In this series of articles, I plan to explain each one in detail, and then list units which can help you achieve that category, and in the final article, I will bring it all together, and give you a host of different army lists!


Mobility


This is all about the armies ability to move, relocate etc. With Grey Knights being an elite army (generally low model counts), it is important that you are able to get your forces to points on the battlefield when you need them there. Its also about the ability to re-locate around the field.


This is an important feature for a Grey Knights army because as I've already said, the low model count can make Grey Knights hard to play; you are essentially playing a surgical strike army. You need to be able to get in, do what you came to do, then get out (and take objectives (as you will need to in 2/3 games)). Its also about using your ability to deny your opponent his objectives; be it zooming in at the last minute to contest one of his objectives, or running away to avoid conceding a kill point.


With this in mind, lets look at some of the units/methods which will help us achieve this criteria for our list!


Grand Master

• Grand strategy lets you make D3 units scout; this'll let you quickly deploy to where you need to get to. However, it only lets the unit scout, not much else.
• Psychic Communion (which you can also use if you have an Inquisitor, however, I'm trying to stick to pure Grey Knights as far as possible, but I do plan to include an Inquisitor in my list!) will let you play the reserves game; having the ability to +/- 2 from reserves might not seem like it can help mobility if you are deepstriking your army. For example, you can essentially bring all of your Terminators in on Turn 2, yet leave your objective grabbing units (a strike squad for example) in reserve till turn 5 to grab your objective (this is also where scout comes in (bringing them in through the back) and the ability to make units troops i.e. interceptors (covered in the 'Staying Power' article))

Transports

• Any variety of the Grey Knights transports will be able to add mobility to your list. Rhinos and Razorbacks will be able to ferry your troops back and forth, will giving then a degree of protection. However, lightly armored transports (AV10/11) will go down easily and so need to be taken on mass; this is ok in normal smurf lists, but with the Grey Knights its not so easy to take mass transport options, which leads to out next point:
• Landraiders or Stormravens can also be used, especially the latter, for a fast way of getting in and out, while also able to deepstrike to make a timely arrival! But... once again, they suffer from the same problems which the Rhinos suffer from, in the state of the current meta, and the fact that you cannot take enough of them with viable cargo due to costs, I find that they can be ineffective for giving you full mobility.

Personal Teleporters

• The use of Personal Teleporters can be very good in giving your Grey Knights addition mobility; both Dreadknights and Interceptors can take them, however, for the purpose of this article, we'll focus on the interceptors.
• They can move as jump infantry so can fly around 12" as well as using a 30" move once per game. This unit is easily my favorite for purposes of movement, as it can come in 'late' (mention in the bit about psychic communion) fly around for a turn or two, staying out of enemy charge range, then use its 30" shunt move to claim/contest an objective!

So, in conclusion, what have we have established to help us choose units for mobility:

• Grand Masters/Inquisitors are good for allowing you control of reserves, helping to bring your forces in as one, but leave unwanted elements out till later to grab objectives. You can also make units scout with a GM, but that has limited use.
• Generally, transports can be useful for giving you mobility, but don't expect then to survive for long.
• Interceptors are excellent for giving you mobility, and ideally, you should have a unit of 10, make them scoring, combat squad them, then you have 2, fast, scoring units, capable of moving 30" to claim an objective.

There you have it! I've gone over most of the key points for Mobility, and will revisit them and giving you some unit breakdowns when I do the final article. Feel free to leave comments if you think I've left anything out!

Stay tuned for the next part of the series, shooting!

Until then...

Character Conversion Ideas

Hey,

My Grey Knight Terminator orders are on they way, and it got me thinking about how I could make the most out of the kits. One think which the current model range is lacking is generic character/HQ choices. However, the Terminator Box set (most of the GK HQ choices come with Terminator armor as standard) will give you the opportunity to model characters depending on how you assemble your army/models. So, the purpose of this post is to outline how I plan to convert the Terminators into characters. I don't really want to spend nearly £25 on a box just to make some characters, however, in my list I have a unit of 7 Paladins (7 is the magic number for these guys, but that's in a different post!), which leaves me with 3 spare Terminators to make characters out of; a Librarian (which you should have ideally in and 1500+ GK list), Grandmaster/Brother Captain (they both serve the same purpose for modelling) and for the final model, I either plan to use it as a Brotherhood Banner Bearer; I don't plan to use the banner in games of 1500 (just 1750+) but I will need the model for when it is going to be used.

Here are the pictures of the 3 Grey Knight Terminator sprue's, I've drawn coloured boxes around some of the parts used for the conversions mentioned above and some of the other interesting parts the kit comes with.

Librarian

Grand Master/Brother Captain

Other interesting parts

(1) 

(2)

(3)

Librarian

For the Librarian any set of legs will work, but what you really want to do is try and get some in a square pose (you want limited movement on the pose) the legs shown in sprue 2 would be ideal. Any torso front should be okay and all the backs are the same anyway, so they don't really matter. For the arms, I'd recommend equipping your Librarian with a Halberd (although the Nemesis Warding Stave will work too for 'counts as') and you want one of them which can be held in an upright manner (the one shown in the blue box). For the storm bolter again, any arm will do, although you want to position it downwards, and with the closed fist. The best pose for the Librarian in my opinion is one of a more static nature compared to the other Grey Knights, you I'm trying to create a pose where the Libby seems to be observing the situation - the difference in pose showing him different from his battle brothers. For the head, I'd prefer the helmeted version on mine, but the choice is yours. Now to make the Librarian stand out as a Librarian; firstly, add some of the books to him (shown in blue boxes on the sprue. I think the biggest way to show you Librarian is a Librarian will be through the paining. Normal Grey Knights have gold lettering all over their armor, for the Librarian, I want to paint it blue (but using the same techniques as you would use for the gold) to make it look like the extra psychic energy is doing something, it should make them stand out! They way I would paint it (this includes the gold):

1. Basecoat the area with a darker shade of what you want (Mordian Blue/Shining Gold)
2. Wash (Asurmen Blue/Gryphonne Sepia)
3. Drybrush in a lighter shade (Ice Blue/Burnished Gold then Mithril Silver)

Grand Master/Brother Captain

The conversion for the Grand Master (and all of his other variations) require much less conversion to differ them from their fellow battle brothers (however, feel free to add extra detail etc. to make a striking leader). What I would do is: add a blank shoulder-pad and have a go at a bit of freehand incongraphy (or just paint it slightly different if you not adept at the art of fine detail painting!),  add some of the purity seals, give him the Justicar loincloth, the hand holding the Daemon head and other striking details that you want. I think that all you need to do to make a Grand Master conversion is to make him stand out form the other Grey Knight Terminators (through it be through equipment, modelling, painting etc.). 

Other interesting parts

I've also highlighted some of the other interesting parts on the sprue which I already have plans for!

• First up is the lights for the apothecary (sprue 3), I have plans to use these (I'll have a few space sets) for objective markers. When I make little comm posts etc. they'll just add to the detail
• The Brotherhood Banner is next, again, I plan to either use this as an objective by itself, or use it on my large 60mm objective (I always do a large objective! You'll get to see that WIP in a later post)
• Finally, I saw, and liked the addition of a servo-skull to the sprue. Considering how vital they will be to any deep-striking army I plan to stick each one to a small base, as you them as the counters, instead of using them as decoration for my models

There you have it! I've gone over the key points for converting characters and how to make the most from your Grey Knight Terminator sprue's.

Stay tuned for WIPs shots of my Terminators when they arrive and other Tactics articles!

Until then...

Welcome to the Grey Knights Blog!

Welcome to the Grey Knights Blog!

First of all I'll give you a bit of information about the blog and it's aims:

I want this blog to be a resource for all Grey Knight gamers, I want to be able to provide painting, modelling, gaming and just general hobby advice and tutorials. I also want to be able to have a way to document my progress with my Grey Knights, and share that with you as well.

A bit of background on me as a gamer and my history with the Grey Knights. I've played 40k for close to 4 years now (I'm 16 at the moment), and the Grey Knights were my first army. Natural, after looking through their codex after a few months, and having struggling to build the old metal models, I cobbled together a 1000 point army (this was the 1500 at my local gaming club), and played with them for about 2 years, but then moved onto an Ork army (you can find my blog here), as I wanted to play at a slightly more competitive level, with an army made of predominantly plastic as opposed to metal. But, now that the Grey Knights have got a new book, the temptation to start up a new Brotherhood was too great!

With the Codex being released on Saturday, there won't be another post on the Grey Knights until then, but I will tell you what I plan to post up in the coming weeks and months:

• Tactics for all the units in the new codex
• Different strategies to use
• A series on 'The Art of Deployment'
• Different army lists
• Battle reports
• Painting/Modelling of the new Grey Knights
• General posts on the Hobby

So, tell your friends and lets try to get as many people following this blog as we can, as the more people that follow the blog, the harder I'll try to get as many posts out as possible!

Finally, I've already ordered a pair of Grey Knight Terminator boxs, so as soon as they come, you will be the first to know. If you want to buy any Grey Knights (or any other 40k models to bolster your collection) I recomened that you go to Total Wargamer, as they offer 20% off and low shipping costs.

Until then, any questions, requests etc. use the blog email (grey-knight-blog@hotmail.co.uk)