Starting Greyknights

[Spacefrisian]

After seeing a bat rep between Orks/ Greyknights (the one from miniwargaming) i got to think GK are a nice army to see and a real challenge to play with. So i was thinking about starting a pure GK.

 

Right now i have the following:

 

Greyknight Terminator

Greyknight Terminator with incinerator

Greyknight Justicar

 

Spacemarine Landraider (to be converged to a GK version)

 

I was thinking along the lines of 2 squads Greyknights. A GK hero+ TDA with Retinue. Landraiders (1 crusader), Dreadnought, rhino. Would this fit in a 1500 or 1700 point list?

[number6]

Welcome to the ranks of the Emperor's Finest! I always recommend newcomers to check out the wealth of information available in our Online Resources topic stickied at the top of the forum. Of particular interest are the DH tacticas there, be sure to check them out. They're eye-opening and well worth the time.

 

FWIW, I took 1500 pts pure GK list to a large RTT back in February and nearly won it. However, several months after that exploit, I am convinced that the army I took was only moderately competitive, and that there are superior bulids available to the pure DH gamer. (Though I think that using MM servitors is probably better than melta guardsmen with the Inquisitors.)

 

It's probably even more competitive to take inducted IG. Meltas in Chimeras that have hull multi-meltas and turret heavy flamers? Yes, please!

 

But pure GK ... hard to say. I don't think GKs can bring enough anti-armour -- meaning, enough meltas -- to seriously compete against optimized 5th edition mechanized forces. Lascannons just aren't good enough. Not anymore, not with the volume of vehicles that common armies like IG and Marines can spam the table with. And not with the glancing vehicle nerf.

 

Fooling around, I came up with the following. It's got serious problems, but I think it's a bit better than the list I took to the RTT.

 

HQ

[260 pts] BC, 4 GKT retinue, incinerator

 

Troops

[235 pts] 8 PAGKs, incinerator

[235 pts] 8 PAGKs, incinerator

 

Heavy

[253 pts] Land Raider, smoke

[258 pts] Land Raider, extra armour, smoke

[258 pts] Land Raider Crusader, smoke

 

Total: 1499 pts

 

Everything is mounted, and you have excellent mobility and superior assault potential. Deep striking melta weapons (e.g., land speeders, drop pod dreads) can really ruin your day, however. Also, you don't really have enough shooting to kick off something like a Steel Legion IG army spamming the table with cheap transports or a Marines army with lots of Rhinos carrying melta weapons. Not to mention Dark Eldar. (You better hope to never run across them with this army.) But against many foes you might be able to do OK. (If you face daemons, orks, and/or tyranids regularly, you can smash face with impunity with this army.)

 

For pure GK, this might be about as good as it gets. You need the GKTs to deal with enemy hammer units like Eldar seer councils, Astartes TH/SS termies, and Ork Nob Bikerz, and you need the LRC to carry them safely and deliver them on target. The LRC is also the most dangerous shooting tank you have. But you need some way to touch enemies at range, hence the need for the normal raiders with Troops embarked safely inside.

 

Otherwise you can try dropping a raider in favor of a 3rd Troops GK unit with psycannons that can sit on a home objective while the rest of your army engages the enemy. But I don't think that works so well in the context of pure GK.