Grey Knight Allies in the 6th?

[Jolemai]

A question for those of us who are high enough rank to avoid getting our memories removed, have you used any Grey Knight allies in this edition and how have they fared?

 

 

[ianj253]

I haven't yet, but I intend too. Here's a few pros and cons I've thought up

 

Pros

1)Strike squads offer a good scoring unit that can add fire support, which we sorely lack. On top of this they are relatively flexible since we can deepstrike them need be. For 240 pts you can bring 10 of them with 2 psycannons and psybolt ammunition.

 

2) Deep strike defense. If playing an army that's utilizing alpha strike you can combat squad your strike squad and cast a nice warp quake bubble.

 

3) Cheap HQ's. You can get a barebones inquisitor for 25 points.

 

Cons

1) Only allies of convenience

 

2) Expensive. Some might argue that GK aren't as optimal of an ally due to their point cost.

 

If I were to ally I'd take the following combo

 

Inquistor 78

Power Armor

Daemon sword

Psyker- Divination

 

Strike squad x 10 240

2x psycannon

Psybolt ammunition

 

This set up would offer me a strong fire base and the rerolls from prescience would only make the squad more deadly.

[Jolemai]

Thanks for your reply, that is the sort of thing I was after. Do you feel that this Strike Squad could do the same job better than, say, Grey hunters?

 

From a personal point of view I am looking at GK allies as I want to use my Assassins in a normal game again (last used outside of Apocalypse in the second edition),

 

An alternative could of course, be Corteaz and a squad or two of henchman with Chimaeras. Could this potentially be a decent option given that most GK players have success the the Corteaz spam builds?

[Brother Maikel]

I've tried using GKT with an Ordo Malleus Inquisitor in TDA. It worked ok, despite mistakes I made on deployment. I haven't tried Strikes (as I have none), but I think they'd probably work a little better.

 

In a meta where you see lots of Deep Strike/Reserves forces, I'd run Coteaz and a 10-man Strike Squad with 2 Psycannons. For 350pts you can get a squad with 2x Psycannon, 8x S5 Stormbolters (Psybolts), 2 Halberds, 1 Daemonhammer, and a Lvl2 Psyker with access to Divination, plus Warp Quake and I've Been Expecting You. On top of that it reduces opponents' chances of Seizing to about 2.8% and increases your chance of Seizing to about 30%. They're scoring, and not particularly vulnerable.

 

Alternately, if you're gonna run a plain Inquisitor, go Ordo Malleus in TDA w/Psycannon. For 80pts you get another Psycannon, 2+/5++ armour, and a Daemonhammer. Toss in another 30pts and he can pick up Psyker Mastery Level 1 for Hammerhand/Divination(Prescience).

[ianj253]

After you started the thread it really got me debating GK vs SW, and I feel if you're only taking a small contingent of allies Ie 1 strike squad or 1 GH squad I think the GK are a better choice. Mainly because of the low HQ tax to open up the Strike squad.  However, the HQ tax becomes less of an issue as you get into a larger contingent of allies. AS you go larger the cost of the strike squads may start to eat into points more than GH squads. I can't really speak on chimeras and coteaz as I don't have experience using it. 

[Sviox]

I haven't exactly tried this out yet (playing quite rarely these days unfortunately), but I've built a small "henchman ally" force around Coteaz. I don't think actual GK are good allies because they are very "elitist" and BA already have a lot of options to fill that role. What we do need, is cheap units to hold objectives an shooty units to clear the ground for our assaults.

 

Here is what I have now:

-Coteaz (adds in some psychic goodies and seize the initiative reroll for a price that is more like a steal for what this guy is)

-Vindicare assassin (great for sniping out dangerous hidden characters or special weapons, i.e. makes the advance of main force easier)

-Henchmen squad of 4 acolytes, one with meltagun (26 points for a scoring unit with melta!)

 

Also planning on expanding the henchmen a little by:

-Adding a couple of crusaders for inv. saves

-Creating a separate retinue squad for Coteaz made entirely of servitors (2 with servo-arm, 2x with heavy bolters and a 1x with multi-melta, costing together 50 points...)

[Kickrock]

I've tried one thing with guard since 6th, but have wanted to try two others.

What I did try was a Razorback list. 16 Razorbacks. 12 Blood Angel and 4 Grey Knights. I used Cortez, Inquisitor, x2 Strike Squads and Psybolterbacks as my allies. I fielded my all of my Razorbacks, Predators, Baals and Vindicators and still had to borrow tanks to proxy this... It was intense. It worked out fairly well. Was against a Tank Guard player. I didn't win (because dumb frikin' dice) but it was funny regardless.

Now, the two lists I want to try; The first is a semi serious list. It is to give me Scoring Terminators. I will take a x10 TH/SS Terminator Squad in a Scout List. Combat Squad it off and give them two Land Raiders. Deep Strike the Land Raiders onto the Scouts. I also have a Grey Knight Grand Master for the Grand Strategy that allows me to make d3 units scoring. The rule states it is any friendly unit, not Grey Knight specific (even in the FAQ last time I checked) and not a psychic ability. That gives me two units of TH/SS terminators who score (5/5 combat squad), one 5 man Grey Knight Terminator Squad scoring and shooting, and then all my scouts.

The other list was for fun. I wanted to play around with a 6 Storm Raven list, but got the urge to make that an 8 Storm Raven list through allies. I would have to play this at 3K+ points, which i don't like doing. It would involve scouts, again, because they're dirt cheap and semi durable with cloaks. The problem with this would be finding the proxies. I only have two Storm Ravens and two Dakka Jets. I would have to borrow our Grey Knights Storm Raven, Guard Players Vendettas and maybe the Ork Players Dakka Jets. And even then I would probably be leaving the enemy with no flyer support.

[Squark]

Except allies of convenience are not Friendly units- They're enemies who you can't shoot.

 

 

Comments on this regard; HQ-wise, you want an inquisitor or a Champion for HQ slaying (Coteaz works well too), since they're cheap and other Grey Knight HQs only really work with their own forces. Troops-wise, Strike Knights are always good, Scoring terminators with Grenades are always good, And if you brought Coteaz (Because he's amazing even without Henchmen), Henchmen bring all sorts of shooty to the list. From there, the elites slot offers a variety of fun things, as does heavy support.

 

Compared to Space Wolves... The basic Space Wolves allied detachment will cost ~260 points (Rune Priest + 10 Grey Hunters with plasma or 5 Grey Hunters with plasmaguns and a Plaserback), while a Grey Knights allied detachment goes from 250-350 points depending on what HQ you bring (Coteaz+Henchmen is pretty cheap, as is a barebones inquisitor and 5 Terminators, while Coteaz+Strike Knights is expensive, but still worth it in my opinion). The Grey Knights detachment is well, what you see is what you're going to get, while the Space Wolves do have a few tricks like making the Rune Priest babysit scouts while using divination and a quadgun. Both offer strong midrange options with some possible long range support as well (Living Lightning+Long Fangs, or Psyriflemen Dreadnaughts)