Updating Metal GK

[chrisB1]

Hello all,

 

I am looking for some top tips on how to update my Metal GK Army that I bought last year and had just about finished when the new stuff came out? The problem is how to use it under new Codex rules and/or the best way to update it to make the most of the new codex?

 

I have the following:

 

1 x Draigo

1 x Castellan Crowe

1 x Coteaz and retinue (2 warriors, 1 Inq, 2 MM Servitors, 1 Mystic, 3 Skulls, 1 Familiar)

1 x Solomon Lok

 

10 x GK Term (inc 2 x Justicar, 2 x Heavy Incinerators, 2 Pyscannon)

15 x GK (inc 3 x Incinerators, 2 x Psycannon)

2 x Brother Capt Stern/Brotherhood Chanpion

 

2 x Jokero

1 x Vindacare

 

1 x Dreadknight - Magnetised Weapons

 

1 x FW GK Dread - Psycannon & Nem CC Wpn

1 x Dread - TL Las & Missiles

1 x FW LR Promethius - Hurricane Bolters

1 x Razorback - TL Psycannons

 

I am thinking of buying a pack of new plastic GK and GK Termies so that i can build some of the new squads - Paladins (Command Squad?) and Purifiers and then use the other spare GK bits to update the rest of my Army. I feel I am lacking some ranged Tank/Monster killing power and wondered if i should upgrade a Dread with 2x TL Psy-autocannons?

 

Once all that lot is complete i am aiming to grab a stormraven to whiz about the table shooting up stuff?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

[Lord Commander Vulkus Dorn]

Brother I feel your pain, as the majority of my army is the metal stuff released back from 3rd ed. I've been in the process of making the most units I can with what I have and then going back in with the new stuff to fill in the gaps. I still need a Dread Knight and a Storm Raven and maybe a few more PA and Termie boxes but Im set for the most part. My biggest thing is Im not a fan of Incinerators and I have like 7 or so but I found a link to give me an idea on how to convert them into psycannons as Im a psycannon fan

[T3mpl@r Crusade]

I know how you feel. I have about 13 metal GK terminators kicking around, some with swords, some with halberds, incinerators, psycannons.

 

I run the typical setup:

hammer on justicar

3 halberds (pyscannon is one of these)

1 sword

 

I didnt have any hammers but plenty of halberds. luckily I had only 3 swords so I was able to spread those around into other squads. I ended up getting 3 boxed terminator squads, used 2 boxes to make 2 complete fresh squads and the third box was used to create palladins with an apothecary, banner, and a terminator armor inquisitor.

 

All in all, I just need one more hammer to finish them off.

[Inquisitor =D=]

Oh the pain! :)

 

I know how ya guys feel. I spent 7+ years running The Way of the Water Warrior lists, including 30 PAGKs (3 swords,3 incinerator, 24 halberds!) and 5 Termis (1hammer, 2 psycannon, 2 halberd, 2 swords) with 3 GKLRs. So I definitely know how ya feel in that regard.

 

In all honesty the only thing I've had to change was to add Crowe to my list. Lol... Plus now my 2 dreads can join in the fun as venerable warmachines :) . Besides, I always thought purifiers were how GK's should have been from the start!

 

=]D{=

[thade]

The only real trick with the old metal PAGK is that they're all packing Halberds...which cost big points to upgrade to on Strike Squads now. One thing you could do is paint their helmets and shoulder pads white and bam, they're Purifiers. ;) Or you could just choke it up and put them down as Strike Squads with the Halberd upgrades. If you sew them around, they'll still be nice. And people can be like "holy crap, metal GK?! you played them BEFORE IT WAS COOL."

[dizzy-xc]

I'm looking to aquire some metal GK's. Specifically the ones from 1988-1989. Here's a pic of the ones I'm after. I only need 5. If you guys want to get rid of them and get the newer plastics, I'll buy the metal ones from you. That way weveryone wins. Send me a PM.

 

Any of these:

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i101/BradCrabtree/Old_Termies.jpg

[Lord Commander Vulkus Dorn]

Yeah I bought Crowe myself so I could make Purifier squads, I have Draigo too. Purifiers are wicked and I agree, that is how I envisioned them to be as well.

[chrisB1]

Thanks guys,

 

I like the idea of turning some into purifiers and a quick paint job seems easy.

 

I think I might try for a deathstar paladin, I like the idea of confusing the hell out of the enemy when it comes to allocating wounds!

 

Then I think I might convert my RB to TL Las for long range support.

 

Just need to get more table time to try out a couple of lists against different enemies and scenarios, oh yes and finish assembling that pesky Dreadknight!

[Aidoneus]

I had the same problem, with around 40-50 old metal PAGKs. My solution was to buy two of the new plastic boxes (which turned into an interceptor squad). If you look, the new "falchions" are just about exactly the same size as the old justicars' swords. So what I did was to take a guy with a metal halberd, chop off the haft a little below the hand and directly above the hand, then attach a falchion blade. They look great, and you can convert tons of them. The new boxes will also give you 2 hammers, 2 staves (if you want them), and 4 psycannons.

 

Speaking of which, if you want the new psycannons to match your old psycannons, chop off the end of the barrel (the part that looks like a bolter barrel) and the ammo box. They'll look close enough to the old ones that at a casual glance they'll fit right in.

 

For the termies, I just wanted a couple more daemon hammers, so I chopped the blades off a couple of halberds and stuck on part of a guass cannon from a necron destroyer, and the battery pack from battle for macragge.

 

For my dreadnoughts, I got autocannon arms by putting lascannon barrels onto assault cannon shoulders (for the right arms) and missile launcher shoulders (for the left arms), then chopping the angled ends off the barrels. I had actually done one of these conversions during the old codex, so I just added a few more to get my mandatory two psyflemen (btw, ^_^ ).

 

You can see pictures of all of these conversions here.

[Lord Commander Vulkus Dorn]

I had the same problem, with around 40-50 old metal PAGKs. My solution was to buy two of the new plastic boxes (which turned into an interceptor squad). If you look, the new "falchions" are just about exactly the same size as the old justicars' swords. So what I did was to take a guy with a metal halberd, chop off the haft a little below the hand and directly above the hand, then attach a falchion blade. They look great, and you can convert tons of them.

 

 

I never thought about that, and I'm sure its very cheap as well. I'll look into this for my Strike Squads. I initially thought about using Termie swords but if the falchions will work, that's even better for the wallet lol

[chrisB1]

Just had a couple of good battles at local GW store in their Vets eve sessions.

 

1st 800pt capture the 1/4 of table v IG. I Fielded 1 GKT x5, Brotherhood Champion, 3 x GK (x5) Squads, 1 x DreadNaught (psycannon). He had 3 x Chimera, I x Demolisher, 1 x LRuss, HW 1 x LAs, 1 x AutoC and Storm troopers with MM galore.

 

He advance quickly but when I started hitting him with Psycannon and Psybolt SB he started to retreat. By turn 3 I had GKT immob his Demolisher and his Storm trooper Chimera and then T4 I destroyed his other ST Chimera and slaughtered his squad then immob the other Chim too. At this point he was relieved to roll on t5 for end of game LOL! One more turn and i would have been on his HW team and HQ with 10 GK! He immob my Dread and killed 4 of 5 GKT by MM.

 

Lessons Learnt - use Deep Strike more as I had to foot slog over open territory and he could use his LR HW to good effect. Also Get some Hammers for my Knights to crush his Veh. Must also learn to use Phsyic powers more!

 

Last night was not bad 1000 pts against BA - 1 Dread - MM/CCW, Capt, 2 Sq BA. 1 Sq Death Coy, 1 Sq BA Term and Term Libby. I ran BH Champ, 1 GKT Sq, 3 x GK Sq, Dreadknight Pyslincer, Hvy Incin. Simple annhilation which I achieved in 3 turns to my joy. DK was first run out and did well at burning but not on psylincer as Str angainst BA SM was poor. SB with Psybolt ammo mopped up most of his SM and his DC charged into my GKT and BH Champ which hurt them a bit - especially when I remembered the BHC Physic powers and re-rolls! Also Halberds were great to get some attacks in before him.

 

One interesting lesson was his Libby using Phsyic Hood to defeat GK Leadership tests in CC. Guess I need that Banner somewhere in there!

 

All in all a good two tests - though I am still working on getting the most from them in old gear/new cosex format though never fear the new GKT and GK are ordered so muchos conversion work to do!

 

TTFN

[Valerian]

Yeah I bought Crowe myself so I could make Purifier squads, I have Draigo too. Purifiers are wicked and I agree, that is how I envisioned them to be as well.

 

Agreed, however, the Purifiers unfortunately do not have the Deep Strike rule like regular Strike Squads do. Since I'm aiming to maximize the Teleport Assault option (purely for thematic reasons), and hope to go with zero transports, Purifiers are a no-go for me. Its okay though. I'll work it out.

 

Valerian

[chrisB1]

Just found out I have rematch with my SoB buddy against Dark Angels. 2000pt battle so I need to rework my list to compliment his new codex/update/refresh list when next WD comes out. I am keen to get up close and bloody with his SM ASAP as he has 2 x predator LC and 1 x LR LC as well which could be messy - though last time the SoB MM his vehicles really quickly!

I am thinking of using Draigo but his points are soo high?

 

Any ideas for 2000 pt (GK + SoB) v 2000 pt Dark Angels?

[Ozybonza]

I went through the process of updating my metal GK for the new codex also.

 

Swapping halberds on regular dudes for power swords/falchions made them good strike squads. I also just repainted some of their heads white to make them purifiers. In addition, I left all purifier shoulder pads non-white - that way my bear headed justicars can double as knights of flame for purifiers - very handy when you are short on hammers.

 

Something I have seen allot of is broken halberds on metal GK terminators - these models are ideal to attach a thunderhammer head to. Just chop the head of the hammer off, drill a little bit into it and stick it on the top of the halberd pole.

 

Buying 1 - 2 boxes of plastic GK should give you most of the bits you need to outfit your entire army, as well as give you a couple of extra psycannons.

[Aidoneus]

Something I have seen allot of is broken halberds on metal GK terminators - these models are ideal to attach a thunderhammer head to. Just chop the head of the hammer off, drill a little bit into it and stick it on the top of the halberd pole.

Yeah, if you look at the photos I linked to, you'll see that I did this with two of my termies. The thunder hammer heads I put on are actually part of a necron destroyer's gauss cannon, and the spare battery pack from the battle for macragge box set. I think they turned out quite well actually, and I'm probably going to convert at least one more hammer for another termy.

 

As for some of the more tactical stuff...

1) every squad should have a hammer (master-crafted if you have the points)

2) deep strike is amazing, and using it effectively will win you games regularly

3) learning to remember psychic powers (warp quake in the movement phase!) and juggling hammerhand vs. force weapons makes a big difference

4) even without a themed army, purifiers' lack of deep strike kinda kills them for me too. see point 2

 

Against your DA friend, I would try to make a balanced force (designed to work with the SoBs of course, but built for take-all-comers), rather than designing it to beat your one friend's army. It'll be a better battle that way, and more fair to him. That being said, if you're really worried about AV 13+ armour, there's no substitute for a Vindicare. Another strategy that works well for me is deep-striking and then walking up and hitting them with hammers. This works particularly well on termies, who can survive being shot, and who get lots of psycannon shots the turn they come down. Something I have not tried, but which I've heard can work well, is putting a personal teleporter on a dreadknight and flying over to beat tanks down with that.