The mission of this blog is to chronicle the development of my first Grey Knights army, leading up to a long weekend trip up to Warhammer World in Nottingham at the end of April with a 1750 point army.
This obviously does not leave me with alot of time to assemble and paint my army, as such I need to decide on a list, soon. Several list ideas intrigue me, including alpha strike, Terminator/Paladin lists and Crowe lists.
My criteria was two-fold. It had to stand a chance, but also be fun. As much I do not want to go for an ultra-competitive list. However the group I play with a competent generals all, and I'd rather not get laughed out of the room.
At this point I realised, an alpha strike list will probably piss alot of people off, and could win many games by the bottom of turn 2 (if I get first turn). I also simply cannot come up with a Terminator/Paladin list at 1750 pts that I like (any and all idea's welcome on this one).
Well, you know what that leaves:
Yup, Crowe.
The much lamented Purifier "tax" character. However controversially bad he may be, he still opens up the gorgeous purifiers as troops. Which means we go from trying to shoe-horn in the odd purifier unit, to building an army out of them, and that makes me tingle in my happy places.
Before presenting the list, here's a few things I tried to keep in mind while creating it:
1) I dislike giving purifiers psycannons. Yes, psycannons are good. Yes, they're cheap. YES, I can take 2 for every 5 Purifiers. However, people like purifiers for their extra CC force weapon attacks, and their cheap I6 bonus Halberds. Giving them Psycannons gives up their force weapons and weakens their CC ability considerably. Its even worse when people replace 2 out of 5 with them. Just FYI, this is partly why I'd like a GKT list so much, you get a psycannon which gets 4 shots on the move AND you get to keep your force weapon? That's a good deal! Well, another list for another day.
2) Max scoring. While tempting to get full 10 man units, get them Psybolt ammo and have the option to combat squad them up; this method will really reduce my overall scoring, and potentially leave half my troops without a metal box, and 26 point purifiers die just as easily to missile launchers as 16 point marines!
3) Target saturation. As I said above, as offensive as they are, purifiers still die easy. What with being kick-arse units AND my only scoring units, people will want to shoot them, alot. So I need to give them plenty of other scary things to shoot at!
4) Shell Cracking. Purifiers like to beat up men. I need something to crack those transports open to get to them.
5) Backfield dangers. Any Purifier list is going to be a mid-field orientated army. As such those long range fire support armies might prove a real headache. I need something to get back there and deal with them!
So, there are the main things I tried to keep in mind, without further ado:
HQ
Crowe 150
Elite
Ven Dread w/MM&DCCW 175
Ven Dread w/MM&DCCW 175
Troops
5 Purifiers, MC Ham, PsyC, 3xHal, Rhino 186
5 Purifiers, MC Ham, PsyC, 3xHal, Rhino 186
5 Purifiers, MC Ham, PsyC, 3xHal, Rhino 186
5 Purifiers, MC Ham, PsyC, 3xHal, Rhino 186
Heavy Support
Psyfleman Dread 135
Psyfleman Dread 135
Dreadknight w/ tele, Hv. Incin 235
So, 4 Rhinos advance into midfield [OPTION - drop Psycannons on all Purifier squads and turn those Rhinos into Razorbacks with Psybolt ammo], along with the Venerable Dreads. These dreadnoughts are tough to kill and will threaten any heavy armour they might be thinking about pushing with. The Psyflemen obviously hang back and shoot away. The Dreadknight's job is to look scary and use that shunt move to go chasing Devastators/Long Fangs/Lootas/Reapers and burn them out of their cover. Also to punch any artillery tanks.
- Another option would be to drop the Dreadknight in favour of a Callidus assassin (who is just fun to use) and a Xenos Inquisitor with Rad/ Psystroke grenades (which again are just fun.)
8 vehicles, 21 Infantry, 1 Monstrous Creature.
Yes the army is somewhat light on men, so that scoring isn't as rock solid as I'd like, but hopefully there's enough in there to draw heavy fire away from the troops.
Thoughts and comments?
my list is a little different. i have only 3 squads of purifiers at max force in rhinos. They have psybolt amo one with a incenerator the rest with halberds. (I just dont like psycannons yeah they are good but for 20 points i can just give the whole squad str 5 ap 4 weps and i only shoot at troops or termies and such with them) Then i have a vindicare for heavy armor as well as 2 dreads regular with laz cannon missle launchers. Also for heavy armor and easy light armor. I have the same dread knigt for the same reason. For my Hqs i have crowe then a grand master. The grand master is probably the most vital unit on determining my strategy. I only have 3 units that can claim objectives so with the grand master having an average of rolling a 2 on the d3 gives 2 more units (usually my dreads)scoring if need be. i found that it works real well for scoring missions which i always lost at until i added him. Im currently in a couple month trornament with this list and they are currently undefeated so im happy about that. the model count is 39 with 12 kill points at a 2000 point list.
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