Thursday, September 15, 2011

Knight on the Town

Well, the ol' "new army bug" has bitten me, and so I just had to write up an army list to get that "what if" feeling out of my head. Today's exercise in wishlisting: Grey Knights.

Yeah, I know, it's "that army", but hey- if you're going to go for a new army, why not go whole hog?

This is not to say I'm getting a new army any time soon, but who knows about the future?

The army is pretty much straight forward psy-ammo spam, designed to cut up the opposing army at arm's length before finishing them up close. It's a take on a Crowe Purifier spam list, but with a little more grinding power in the form of the two strike squads. Crowe is there to eat up 150 points, provide an easy Kill Point, and make Purifiers Troops choices.

Now, without further ado, the list!

HQ
Castellan Crowe - 150 pts.

Troops
Grey Knight Strike Squad - 275 pts.
- Justicar w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Grey Knights w/ Psycannon
- Grey Knight w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 6x Grey Knights w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Rhino w/ Searchlight- 41 pts.

Grey Knight Strike Squad - 275 pts.
- Justicar w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Grey Knights w/ Psycannon
- Grey Knight w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 6x Grey Knights w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Rhino w/ Searchlight - 41 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 154 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Master Crafted Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Purifier Squad - 149 Pts.
- Knight of the Flame w/ Nemesis Daemon Hammer
- 2x Purifiers w/ Psycannon
- 2x Purifiers w/ Nemesis Force Halberd
Razorback w/ Heavy Bolters, Psybolts - 50 pts.

Heavy Support
Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Dreadnought w/ 2x Twin Linked Autocannons, Psybolts - 135 pts.

Total:
1,998 points

There's plenty of high strength firepower pouring out of each unit, as I have eight Psycannons, four strength 6 twin-linked Heavy Bolters, and six strength 8 twin-linked Autocannons. Troop Transports should be feeling the pain early on in the game any vehicle not shredded by my fusilade will (hopefully) be stunned or stuck behind a stunned / wrecked vehicle. Infantry will simply be wetting themselves at the sheer volume of fire this army can pump out. I may have some trouble with heavy armor (Land Raiders and their ilk), so that's why every squad is toting a Nemesis Daemon Hammer. With Hammerhand going these beauties go up to strength 10 (as the +1 happens before the x2 strenght with this combination) which will have even Monoliths sweating if a squad gets too close.

Of course melee is not neglected. A bevy of Nemesis Force Halberds keep my knights striking first up close. Initiative 6 is a sweet, sweet thing. The master crafting on the Daemon Hammers makes sure the Justicars / Knights of the Flame's attacks aren't wasted. All too often my Plague Champions miss with all of their Power Fist attacks, and that re-roll can be a lifesaver.

There are no Psybolts in any of my squads, as honestly I'd rather have the re-rolls against Dreadnoughts and vehicles I require a roll to hit.

Eight potential scoring units help ensure that I claim objectives, and of course this army suffers the drawback of the "Multiple Small Unit" (MSU) army- a ton of Kill Points (16!). Oh, well. That just means I have to table my opponent.

Any way, that's how I'd do Grey Knights were I to do 'em, but that'd require funding- something I'm a bit short on right now.

Oh, well. I can dream...

1 comment:

  1. Grey Knights hold an odd place for me. They're more or less exactly what I wanted them to be, a small army that packs a wallop, but the shine came off them real quick. I think the problem is a combination of Purifiers and Psycannons in that they're too good. They're so good that it doesn't make sense to take anything else. Why take a Psilencer when you can have a Psycannon? Purifiers are only slightly more expensive than Strike Squads, and that little bit of extra investment nets you quite an upgrade. There's nothing I can say about Psyflemen that hasn't been said all over the place already.

    Since all that is so good, why go with something else? After the initial glee wore off, I hit a place somewhere between despair and boredom. You saw the gushing I did on the run-up to the release and the sheer cliff after it. The book was too easy to break, the combos too evident. I can wrangle perhaps half a dozen builds out of the Blood Angels book that I want to play, but for Grey Knights I get two: Terminators and not Terminators. What's worse, the one that I was most interested in (Terminators) has shown to be the less effective of the two. Of course you could run henchman heavy, but that's not what I wanted and it looks like that's not what you came up with either.

    To stop rambling on your blog, you can borrow the codex if you like. I get the occasional itch to make a list out of it, but then I remember why I put it down. Grey Knights are a solid army, they just aren't for me in the way I wanted them to be. Perhaps they'll suit you better.

    As a parting note, I finally finished Escalation today and will stick it in the bag next time I head to your place.

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