Planning my Daemonhunters Force

[Malladrius]

After a long while of debating I have decided to start a daemonhunters army. I've played 40k for a few years now mostly with my vanilla marines. Right now I have 7 man grey knight squad and a GK termies box and I'm looking to expand my force. The current plan has my final army looking something like this:

 

HQ:

GK Grandmaster w/ standard gear & hammerhand, and 4 terminator Retinue in LRC

Inquisitor lord w/ terminator armor, & psycannon and retinue of 3 gun servitors 1 PC, 2 HB, 2 mystics, 3 acolytes and 2 sages

Elites:

GK Terminator Squad w/ psycannon BC, psycannon, and 3 standard termies

Callidus Assassin (How could I not get one of these!)

Troops:

2 7-8 man Inq. Stormtrooper Squads w/ 2 meltas in rhinos

Grey Knight Squad w/ 7 guys all standard equiped

Heavy Support:

2 Grey Knight Dreads both with TLLC/ML(I'm going to order the forge world ones they look way too awesome)

 

I have a big gaming event coming up in June/July of next year and I'm not going to have a lot of time to devote to these guys until May, so I'm getting an early start on this. My goal is to have them fully battle ready by the time this event comes around. Any suggestions on other guys I should get or things I have on here that aren't worth it to use? I'm also trying to figure out what kind of army list would be best to run. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[silversmith82]

For your lord... either turn him into a static firebase with no rhino OR put him in a rhino with a single MM servitor, 2 mystics and maybe 2 sages to ensure the MM does not miss that podding ironclad. Only other really good build IMO is the gunline inquisitor which loads up on long range servitors and camps in cover. He can get a psycannon on him, a plasma cannon servitor, 2 heavy bolters... All have 36" range and if you take 2 sages you get a re-roll per turn in case that plasma cannon overheats. Never send an inquisitor into combat ever unless you can't possibly avoid it. A hood is great on an Inquisitor Lord for its unlimited range and Ld10.

 

Your HQ terminator squad looks good, consider an incinerator for when they come charging out of the LRC. Maybe a MCNFW as well if you have points. Basically gives him an extra attack since you'll usually miss at least once when rolling to hit. My issue is with the other squad... they might want a Crusader also as a single Crusader is going to be an "golly:cussbbq" fire magnet. Having 2 will either make the enemy split fire or pick one, allowing the other to get to where it needs to go relatively unmolested. My general rule with Land Raiders is to always take at least 2 or none.

 

Callidus, she is awesomesauce. Getting to move any enemy unit is all kinds of great. Move devastators behind a building so they can't fire, move a tank out of cover into the open, move a fast unit into difficult/dangerous terrain etc... Good stuff. Also consider the Eversor. He is a freaking MONSTER in cc, can take out vehicles with his melta bombs and when he does die he blows up doing some pretty decent damage. Being the cheapest temple assasion is also great. Either way, the opponent will know you have a Callidus once you move his unit and this fact alone will screw with his tactics until she appears. If he sees an Eversor running at one of his tanks or his command unit he's also going to have to re-focus his efforts on the assasin while the rest of your army gets a breather. Hell, even DC assasins are great because you can bring them from 3 different directions and at the very least they'll throw a wrench into his plans for a turn or two. Mainly points prevents people from fielding them though, 120 pts will buy you yet another 5x IST with plenty leftover...

 

For stormtroopers... DH Chimeras are a little pricey for what you get. Most people run a squad of 5 IST in a Rhino with 2 Meltas. Yeah there is only 1 firing point, BS4 somewhat makes up for this and if you really really really need a tank dead they can always bail out and get their 2 shots. You can always induct a mechanized guard platoon for 295 pts and then steal their Chimeras while the 25 guardsmen camp the home objective. Guard Chimeras have 5 firing points. Up to you though, just throwing options out there.

 

For PAGK... honestly the only option I see for these guys in 5th ed where everything is Mech is to either run as a "mini-purgation" squad camping a home objective or induct some Guard Chimeras and mount up. Still, they can't take a heavy weapon so you won't be able to take out any armor with them like a normal tac squad could or even an IST squad. In 5th ed its really looking like our best troops choice is the mech IST sadly... You'd be MUCH better served with another 5x IST with 2 meltas mounted up than that 7 man PAGK squad.

 

Dreads... well dreads are dreads. If you are still only taking 1 LRC you can take 2 and it'll take some heat off them. They're the only other heavy support besides LRs unless you count a multi melta heavy Inquisitor retinue lol.

 

What sort of points are you looking at here? There are plenty of lists in the army list link at the top of this forum, and there are 2 really good threads going right now on Inquisitor loadouts and GK Hero loadouts.

[Malladrius]

With what I have here I am looking to be able to build army lists of a couple different sizes probably anywhere from 1000-1750 or so. I really like your long range firebase suggestion for the inquisitor lord and I'm updating that entry now. The units I'm least familiar with in here are the ISTs. My past experience being with marines, I have a fairly good idea of what to expect from the grey knights. However, I'm unsure in general as to the best way to kit out my ISTs to be able to capture forward objectives, be effective at popping tanks, and still be worth the cost. I did take a look at the cost of the Chimeras and I agree they are really expensive points wise. For now I will use my space marine Rhinos to test it out. I am not considering inducted guard as an option, I really don't like the look and feel of squishy guardsmen in my force, call me biased towards marines but that's the type of force I like to play. Thanks a ton for the suggestions silversmith, I will keep working on my army design and see what I get.

[Red Lost Soldier]

For IST, I'd go for either the twin melta or twin plasma builds and buy them a transport. Most people go for the former as GK have great trouble dealing with armour and IST are perfect for it. 6-8 men in a squad is advisable, though a great deal of players get away with min 5 man squads with twin melta and just throw them at enemy tanks then let the GK mop up. Having a cheap twin plasma squad without transport is a good way to hold a home objective, much cheaper than the mini purgation squad.

 

For the Inquisitor Lord, you need some ablative wounds for his squad. Mystics, Acoltyes, Famliars etc. Check this thread.

 

I use TLLC/ML Gk dreadnoughts to bust enemy armour and get them out of their transports personally. Without Godhammer LR's, you'll need the long range shooting to slow the enemy down.

[Malladrius]

Those are some good ideas Red. I was looking at the cost of my IST squads yesterday and was having trouble justifying the cost of a full 10 man squad, shrinking them a little should allow me to add some extra guys to my inquisitor's retinue and some extra wargear where needed and still maintain the effectiveness of the ISTs.

For the inquisitor I will probably add some acolytes with storm bolters or something for a little bit of extra ranged punch and for some bodies to suck up the wounds.

I am definitely going to make one dread a TLLC/ML one but i'm not sure for the other. I may keep them both the same to help split fire between the two. Still thinking on this one though.

Thanks a bunch for the help. Hopefully I will get a chance to start on my GKs over the weekend, school has been nuts these last few weeks.

[silversmith82]

1- You do not have 2 mystics with your IL. For shame. They are mandatory end of story. Also, that units needs more ablative wounds. Familiars are dirt freaking cheap. Use them. Acolytes are also nice for their ability to take wargear.

 

2- ISTs should be 5 man units with 2 meltas and only get out of the Rhino for dual close range melta shots on armor. Turn Rhino so it blocks los to them but so they can see their target. Shoot, blow up, get back in next turn and zoom off somewhere else. Or put them in inducted IG chims.

 

3- GKTGM might be too much in a 1500 pt... For these pts I'd make them 5-6 man GKT units with a BC and incinerators. Mouth BOTH units in LRCs, lose the dreads and probably turn that PAGK into another IST in a rhino. At 1500 pts most armies will be very hard pressed to deal with 2 LRCs, your callidus, gunbase inquisitor and the mech ISTs. Besides, our LRCs are far and away the best in the game. Always get to fire the hurricane bolters no matter how far moved? This lest us go the full 12" and still pulp an infantry squad. If you are hellbent on keeping the PAGK then probably best to make them a mini purgation squad right behind the gunline lord counting as troops and countercharge anything that manages to get near him.

[f.desrochers]

HQ:

GK Grandmaster w/ standard gear & hammerhand, and 4 terminator Retinue in LRC

Inquisitor lord w/ terminator armor, & psycannon and retinue of 3 gun servitors 1 PC, 2 HB, 2 mystics, 3 acolytes and 2 sages

 

The GKGM and squad are pretty stock-standard. If you can master-craft the NFW, you're golden.

 

The IL really should drop the terminator armour and keep the psycannon, possibly dropping the acolytes as well, and stick to cover providing one of the better firebases out there. Keep one of those dreads nearby to deal with podding dreads and the like and watch the show.

 

Elites:

GK Terminator Squad w/ psycannon BC, psycannon, and 3 standard termies

Callidus Assassin (How could I not get one of these!)

 

GKT Squad: Stock-standard and a great mobile firebase or nasty surprise using Deep Strike.

 

Callidus: I never leave home without her. How could you not take one of these?

 

Troops:

2 7-8 man Inq. Stormtrooper Squads w/ 2 meltas in rhinos

Grey Knight Squad w/ 7 guys all standard equiped

 

With the dreads and the LRC, you may actually find yourself dealing enough anti-tank shots by now. I only mention this because you now have the option of keeping a squad of IST on foot, armed with two plasmaguns as a baseline objective holder and light transport killer (I field one squad like this). Keeping a Rhino-borne squad could remain with the meltas or switch to flamers for horde control (my personal recommendation).

 

You already have a good deal of AT. Points saved by reducing the melta squads to 6-man flamer or metla squads may even get you another couple of psycannons for the PAGK squad, making them another possible candidate for objective holder and quarter controlling.

 

Heavy Support:

2 Grey Knight Dreads both with TLLC/ML(I'm going to order the forge world ones they look way too awesome)

 

I can't say enough about how nice those Forgeworld models are. I only have the standard plastics, armed with TLLC and heavy flamer/incinerator (depending on points). They can really work wonders. That said, the point was made about the lone LR-variant and two dreads. Throw in a couple of Rhinos and a GKT squad and you've got some target saturation for your enemy to work through. Throw in the disruption the Callie can provide and things should be golden.

 

Good starting list; lots of "tweaks" provided thusfar from previous posts may help refine things just a smidge. With that much time you should really be able to get a good paintjob and any conversion work done with time to spare. Can't wait to see how those Forgeworld dreads turn out!

 

;francois

[number6]

Welcome to the DH!

 

Frankly, all the advice I would offer exists in the Hunting daemons topic, which is referenced from the Online Resources topic pinned at the top of this forum. There are more excellent links to be found there, too. I can't recommend highly enough that you check them out.

 

I would say that your stated "expectations" of GKs based on your experience with Marines won't do you any good. Other than the power armour and most of the basic Marine statline, there is very little about playing Space Marines that translates over to playing with Grey Knights and the Inquisition. They really are entirely different armies with completely different playstyles and tactical abilities. Again, some of those topics in the Online Resources topic will illuminate these differences for you.

 

If you're looking to build a reasonably competitive force out of DH, then you need to base your army around small, 5-man IST units with 2x meltas in transports. Rhinos if you're going with a pure DH army, borrowed IG chimeras if your also including inducted IG. GKs are not capable of being a bread-and-butter, all-rounded force. As earlier recommended, you can include as many as one small PAGK unit with a pair of psycannons (which is colloquially known as "mini-purgation" squads) as Troops to sit on a home base objective and pour fire downrange. Other than that, mounted GKTs in land raider crusaders should form the bulk of your Grey Knights contingent. But you need the ISTs to help you bust enemy armour, put some wounds on MCs, create blocks and screens for your raiders, etc.

 

Dreadnoughts, IMHO, no longer serve any useful purpose in DH armies. Which makes me a sad panda, as I have three that are no longer any good. ;)