GK Terminators for dealing with MCs

[Eisenhorn31388]

Hello all, new GK player here. I am interested in putting an allied force of GK Terminators together purely for Monstrous Creature dispatching. I normally play either Blood Angels or Imperial Fists or a combination of both. I have struggled against Tyranids for quite some time with BA, but came closer to a victory with IF because of the more shooty nature of the army.  

 

I am going to employ the use of Sternguard in Drop Pods with the poison rounds to deal with the lesser toughness bugs, but I still have issues with the higher toughness guys. Lysander and a squad of TH/SS guys are great at S10 and S8, but they are all dead before they go at initiative 1.

 

So here is the question: without starting a new army, how can I use what I have for GK to take care of some of these targets? I have one squad of GK Termies, unbuilt, and an old Inquisitor Coteaz model with the old retinue (metal models). Whats the best way to kit out the Termies? And is Coteaz worth the 100 points? Any help would be much appreciated. I also plan on getting a vindicare assassin.

[Gentlemanloser]

Coteaz is always worth the points!

 

If Hammernators don't live to swing (which is a big O_O) then you're probably going to want Halberds.  Use the Brotherhood Banner and high Initiative attacks to activate the Force Weapons.

 

You might want to include another Inquisitor with Rad/Psychotroke Grenades, but it all depends on how you are deploying the GKT.  If you DS them, you can't attach Coteaz/Inquisitor to them.

[number6]

For MC hunting, it's kind of a toss-up between halberds and hammers. Both have their benefits. Halberds mean you'll often strike first, but even with Hammerhand, you'll still need at least on 6 to wound before you can attempt to Force Weapon them dead.

 

This is important. Because you won't be able to instant-kill any T8 MCs -- e.g., Wraithlords, Wraithknights -- unless you have a GK character on hand to cast hammerhand. You'll need to save the squad's psyker ability for that Force Weapon activation.

 

This is why hammers are at least as valuable. You'll usually strike last -- and thus rely on your 5++ invuls to survive hits from your opponent -- but you're much more likely to wound, and therefore much more likely to have an opportunity to activate Force Weapons after landing a wound. And for those (relatively rare) T5 MCs, you can just activate Hammerhand and let your S10 hammers do the instant killing.

 

6 of one, half dozen of the other. It's hard to say which kind of loadout would be better. And I'm not sure I'd recommend mixing and matching, either. Though if you did, I'd go 3 halberds/2 hammers for every 5 guys. Maybe you'll get lucky with the first 3 guys hitting, but if you don't, you can let them suck up the hits from the MC and hope to land a wound with your hammers after.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

3/2 ratio is what I find works as well. All hammers runs the risk of getting killed before you can swing, but halberds can sometimes whiff too. Taking both means you cover both areas, without being quite as good as all one or the other. 

 

Generally speaking most MC's won't wanna tango with you. Daemon Princes have I7 so they're happy to murder you before even halberds can swing, Riptides and Wraithknights are generally too mobile and too devastating with their shooting to catch in melee without a Raven or some other delivery. It's probably easier just to plasma or lascannon down a lot of MC's though. Barring stuff like Tervigons, they generally sport 4 wounds maximum, and most don't have better than a 3+ save, and they often lack strong invul too. 

 

One other thing to consider is taking a DK instead. He's tough enough to withstand getting punched by most things, and his S10 AP2 greatsword will murder anything. With a teleporter he also has the mobility to catch the faster MC's. 

[Gentlemanloser]

Don't forget our Psyk-out 'nades work on any MCs that are Daemons, or Psykers.  Making them attack at the same time as any Hammers.

 

Not as useful for hunting Wraithknights/Riptides.  But what Riptide is beating you in CC?

[Reclusiarch Darius]

You need to get the charge to activate psyk-out :( its one of the few special grenades that work that way (rad and psycho proc every time). Not every psyker or Daemon will be faster, but well...they are Terminators. Raven is the only realistic way to get the alpha strike happening, in most other deployments they'll charge you first. 

 

 

Not as useful for hunting Wraithknights/Riptides.  But what Riptide is beating you in CC?

 

Haha yeah. Once you're in melee it doesn't matter if he kicks to death half the squad, so long as one wound goes through the 3++, you turn on force weapon and laugh as their 200pt investment evapourates. Getting there of course is the tricky bit. Riptides aren't the best at shooting down Ravens, but Interceptor Missilesides are :( . 

[Grand Master Caloth]

I use 4 halberds and 6 hammers personally, but look at investing in a warding staff. 2++ in close combat, severely increases the chance s of hammers surviving to swing

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Warding staves are god-tier trolling in challenges. So long as your opponent doesn't have a 2+ armour save, you just laugh off their attacks and keep smacking them till a wound sticks, then force weapon activate. Expensive but pretty hilarious on Justicars and Librarians. Grandmasters generally want hammers though, as they already come with an Iron Halo. 

[Grand Master Caloth]

Agreed

[jeffersonian000]

My main GKT squad is 10 models with 1x Banner, 2x Swords, 3x Halberds, and 4x Hammers, because I feel its a good mix when getting it stuck in. Did use to run a Staff and no Swords on this unit, but dropped it to save points, letting the Swords "Tank" instead. Now, my Mordrak Bomb does include a Libby with Staff, a Banner Ghost, Ghost Halberds, and Mordrak's Hammer; the only Swords for this unit are on spawned Ghosts. My other GKT squad isn't meant to get it stuck in, but is intended to Combat Squad, so its just like the first squad, only one more Halberd in place of the missing Banner.

 

SJ

[Grand Master Caloth]

Can mordrak's ghosts take a banner?

[jeffersonian000]

Yes.

 

SJ