Starting Grey Knights, how to proceed?

[Tayrod]

Yesterday I took the plunge.. After many bitter months repressing my urge to buy yet another army of small plastic soliders, I marched over to the local gaming store, and bought a pot of metallic paint and some basic grey Knights. At this moment, my first knight sits upon my painting table, proudly beaming in his new silver armour.

 

Now we all know this hobby is expensive, both in a monetary sense, and in time, so instead of tumbling around on my own, I thought I'd pick the brains of some of you top grey knight generals! I've thus accumulated a few questions, I'd like to pose to the community. Please keep in mind, I've not really kept track of warhammer40k (Im usually a fantasy guy) over the last few years, so I might be a bit ignorant on some aspects.

 

Questions:

1) New releases:

As far as I can tell, Grey Knights are a fairly new army, and I know GW likes to release stuff in batches. I have not had the time to look through the entire army book yet, so I was wondering wether or not GW currently produces minis for all the GK entries, or are we still waiting for some unreleased boxes?

I also noticed we have no battalion, is one to be expected around the corner?

 

2) Henchmen warbands - where to buy, and how to arm?

On paper, henchmen look great! I like a bit of variety in my army, so I think I'd like to include quiet alot of henchmen, but where do you guys buy them? The INQ servitors, looks great, 10 points for a BS3 multi-melta seems dirt cheap, and after casting a quick glance over the army list, these seem to really stand out as a winner, on the other hand though, I dont see them in alot of army lists, so what am I missing here?

 

3) Dreads

I've seen a few Grey Knight dreads, but I dont seem to find one on the GW site, where can they be bought, and how do you arm them with the 2x twin linked autocannon (which seems like the best choise)?

 

4) Kit bashing

How well do GK kit bash with other Marines, will my spare SM terminators mix well with the GK termies?

 

Thank you, feel free to only answer one or two of the questions, or just give me a few tips in general. Im completely green, so any usefull tips you can give me is great, irregardless of wether or not I remembered to ask!

[The Holy Heretic]

1) everything is available apart from a few henchmen options, but they're henchmen, and you can basically use any model to represent Them ;)

 

2) do as you like, or take a look in the army list section to see whats popular.

 

3) Forgeworld has some GK dreads along with Autocannon arms. Else you'll have to scratchbuild Them :)

 

4) Helmets and weaponry is really the defining GK model trait compared to lesser marines, beyond that you should be able to bash them up with everything else - and the original GK didn't have these features :)

 

Beyond that, then unless you just play for the win, then don't go overboard on purifiers, Draigo or 'psyfleman' dreads. These are what most of the internet whining is about, and GK receive a lot of hate for being cheezy OP and whatnot. Instead build a good and varied list, then you should be able to have lots of fun with your knights in shining armour :)

[saturnine]

for dreads, i recently ordered some arms from Puppetswarshop on ebay which is the same as puppetswar.eu. the arm were $20 usd for a pair and look like this on an ASoBR dread. its been a week since i've ordered and they come from poland, so i will update after i get them.

[nurglez]

I ordered the arms from puppetswar, they were ok just required a bit of bending back into shape. The other way to get a suitable dread is to buy the blood angels dread, as the librarian one looks good for a psyker. I have also purchased the aegis defence line kit, for the autocannons from there are quite suitable, and you also get some barricades.

 

Use what you like, there is a lot of hate for Psyrifle dreads, paladin spam and purifiers, but there are also ways to use them without getting as much hate, and they aren't all the I win lists that the internet seems to think they are. Also with necrons out I hope that all the band wagoners will jump on them and leave us grey knights alone :lol:

[number6]

Use what you like, there is a lot of hate for Psyrifle dreads, paladin spam and purifiers, but there are also ways to use them without getting as much hate

With two comments about this I feel like this is a subject that needs addressing.

 

"Draigowing" is NOT overpowered.

Crowe/Purifier spam is NOT overpowered.

 

All of these armies are simply that: armies. They have weaknesses that are easily exploited. Most opponents, however, don't exploit them. Tough.

 

Anybody seen the new Necron Wraiths? If people think Paladins are overpowered, have them try and remove these :) off the table. They are essentially old-school GKs with two wounds and a 3++ save. Their only real problem is low init.

 

Every army has a few potent units in it. But they cost a lot of points. So armies that spam these options are vulnerable to bad streaks of luck, as well as suffering from a limited number of offensive and defensive options. Armies with a very small number of "elite" units can generate a lot offense ... but only against a very small number of enemy targets. And enemies can easily focus upon the limited number of units that you have.

 

Purifier spam deserves no hatred at all. You're paying through the nose to field these guys in their typical loadouds, costing very nearly twice as much as regular marines. If that's not an inherent disadvantage I don't know what is.

 

In the end: play the army that you want to play. ^_^ Don't listen to the GK haters. Haters gonna hate, and that's all there is to it. It's up to the haters to use actual tactics for once rather than just line up as close as possible to you and run straight into your stormbolters and force weapons.

 

Also know that there is a wealth of options beyond Draigo and Crowe. The reasons many many GK players stick with these options are because the army can be built quickly (relatively few models), they're armies of "superheroes", and because they have proven to be EASY buttons against novice/unthinking players like those I have described here. Don't be ashamed if you choose to take a similar route for any of these reasons, but do know that you can build terrific armies without any Draigo, Paladins, Crowe, or Purifiers. And it can be done without Coteaz and henchman, too. My armies don't use ANY of these options; I do just fine. ^_^

 

All you have to ensure is that you bring a balanced list capable of taking on all comers. Don't forget that you need tools to demech the enemy. Don't forget you need a solid shooting phase. Don't forget you may need to take objectives. Make sure you have some movement options beyond just walking. Have solid, potent tactical options in all three phases of the game. (I.e, have some speed and mobility for Movement, be capable of withering fusillades against any/all of vehicles, monsters, infantry, heavy infantry in the Shooting phase, and have at least a couple of semi-scary to outright terrifying options for the Assault phase.)

 

Good luck, and welcome aboard! :P

[nurglez]

Exactly this :( I love Draigo wing, its a small elite force and I love those :rolleyes:

 

However there are so many other fun builds I am sure.

[Zephraim]

for dreads, i recently ordered some arms from Puppetswarshop on ebay which is the same as puppetswar.eu. the arm were $20 usd for a pair and look like this on an ASoBR dread. its been a week since i've ordered and they come from poland, so i will update after i get them.

Those look great, will have to get some of those for my riflemen.

[Tayrod]

Thanks for all the great tips so far. Just a quick question, Ive assembeled a psycannon armed SS Marine (ugh), and the side of the psycannon which is turned in towards the marine has a square hole in it, which looks kind of odd. The problem is that I dont have the assembly manual, and I was wondering if the psycannon comes in two parts or in one? - Am I missing something? (in the basic Knight package)

[Brother Dimetrius]

The psycannon is in one piece. You probably used the psilencer, which has a separate muzzle piece that you have to attach to said square hole.