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What's the best load out for GK GMs?


Grimm Blade

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I am just getting started with my new GK terminator force (First Brotherhood) and I am not sure how to build the GM... I have not been able to locate any fluff in regards to how the First's GM is equipped, so I believe I pretty much have carte blanc. I was thinking Psycannon and hammer. What are your thoughts and experiences in regards to how best to outfit Grand Masters? 

For starters always take the psycan IMO.  From there I dont think there is a 'best build'.

 

To me the choice really starts with 'do you need the cuirass?'

 

If not then then the soul glaive is too good to pass on. Rerolling activations means you can skimp on dice and still almost guarantee you will succeed on the attempt allowing you to sandbag a WC or two and force hard DtW decisions for your opponent.   

When activated the soul glaive is about as killy a weapon as your gonna find outside of space wolves or chaos armories, combining the best of both the volume of attacks from the falchions (due to rerolls) and the higher strength of the hammer (again due to rerolls) with full initiative 5. Also rerolling armour pens means it can even tackle av12 with HH up. Truly the best of all 3 weapons, lacking only ap2 from making it THE go to relic IMO

 

 

Now if you DO want the cuirass, which many of us do, then the soul glaive is out leaving 'only' ordinary NFWs. In this case I would definitely recommend adding master crafted to any weapon you choose since its basically like buying +1 attack, and strongly consider digi weapons too depending on the type. Lets take a look:

 

-Hammer

I personally opted for the hammer due to 2 ways to achieve instant death on most things (S10 or force) and the fact that it can replace melta bombs in a pinch with S10, making it the cheapest of the choices and the heaviest hitter with ap 2.

However I'm not sure its the clear winner especially since you sacrifice the only initiative 5 attacks in the army for something you can really just duplicate elsewhere. I recommend master crafted here but not digi weapons due to the exceptionally high strength normally wounding on 2's. This puts the cost of the hammer as identical to the soul glaive.

 

-Falchion

These weapons have the highest hit rate of all the ordinary weapons choices due to volume, but you definitely want both MC and digi weapons here to offset the lower strength. These upgrades make the falchions into a pseudo soul glaive vs common toughness values and potentially even superior when both have Force and HH going.

Falchions stand to benefit the most from HH due to the increased significance of going from str 4 to 6. This is also their biggest downside though, since strength 4 will often require HH to make these perform adequately against anything other than simple troops, including units like TWC, bikes and tough ICs, nurgle marked spawn, MCs and so on.

The implications of this means that you will almost always want BOTH force and HH to reach the level of effectiveness the soul glaive can achieve with only Force (and it rerolls activation so costs 1/4 WC of the falchions), or the hammer can achieve without psych support at all, but sacrificing initiative 5 altogether. 

If going with falchions you will also want melta bombs bringing the cost to 29 pts. 

 

-Halberd

Lastly the halberd. Probably the most well rounded option due to S5 and initiative 5, the halberd doesn't specialize in anything (volume for troops or high toughness/2+ saves). The halberd also stands to benefit the least from HH simply because the jump from str 5 to 7 is less significant than from 4 to 6 or from 8 to 10.

Again I would recommend full compliment of MC/DW and melta bombs as these are basically additional attacks unless your dice act differently than mine do. This brings the cost up to 27 pts.

 

Anyway IMO each option has attributes that make it attractive, with the soul glaive being the standout.

 

If I had to rank the choices top to bottom it would be:

soul glaive > hammer > falchions > halberd.

This is due not only to the weapons face value but also to the warp charge investment needed and how that plays into my list design, and lastly the pts cost. 

 

Anyway you asked for some thoughts!

My group is actually discussing allowing all codices and supplements the same access to relics. Why not propose the same thing? It really helps books like orks out. There's no consistency between books and especially supplements that have no restriction on relics and this simple change levels the field and makes parent codices a little more attractive. 

 

Anyway I agree initiative 5 is really hard to pass up. I've been stuck on that too. I'm not completely certain I would take the glaive over the hammer even considering if I could combine it with the cuirass. A few more games will set that straight I suppose. Also my model plays into that decision. I hate breaking up a good pose.

My group is actually discussing allowing all codices and supplements the same access to relics. Why not propose the same thing? It really helps books like orks out. There's no consistency between books and especially supplements that have no restriction on relics and this simple change levels the field and makes parent codices a little more attractive.

 

Anyway I agree initiative 5 is really hard to pass up. I've been stuck on that too. I'm not completely certain I would take the glaive over the hammer even considering if I could combine it with the cuirass. A few more games will set that straight I suppose. Also my model plays into that decision. I hate breaking up a good pose.

Blade of the relentless on a steed/bike with a Brand with the skull and demonheart? Oh hell yes.

Agreed, but if you know you'll be fighting Orks, and given he's a combat hero, I'd actually be taking the incinerator to thin out an enemy squad before charging. Even Nobz die horribly to incinerator, only MANZ can walk through it without much fear. 

At work now. Might post a pic in a couple days.

 

My group is actually discussing allowing all codices and supplements the same access to relics. Why not propose the same thing? It really helps books like orks out. There's no consistency between books and especially supplements that have no restriction on relics and this simple change levels the field and makes parent codices a little more attractive.

Anyway I agree initiative 5 is really hard to pass up. I've been stuck on that too. I'm not completely certain I would take the glaive over the hammer even considering if I could combine it with the cuirass. A few more games will set that straight I suppose. Also my model plays into that decision. I hate breaking up a good pose.


Blade of the relentless on a steed/bike with a Brand with the skull and demonheart? Oh hell yes.

 

Ya pretty much although no cross codex selections. But ya that's what happens currently right? Champs of fenris, black legion, crimson slaughter etc all allow unlimited relics.

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