Thin Grey Line: Final entry at 1K from Prot.

[Prot]

This was of course my final campaign week. Our challenge was to try new things, and perhaps such a severe cut in points would cause us to try something new, or rediscover a unit that was previously untested, or just useless at bigger games...

The list I took was extremely similar to my last list except I did wedge in a Teleport homer which I never used (we all know the long ongoing discussion so I won't get into it.)

Anyway, I had a lot of turmoil getting into this army, but I wanted to see what I could do in one week. I challenged myself to finish assembly in one week of 1K, and paint as much as humanly possible in week 2.

I thought having recipes for painting metallic Iron Warriors was going to make this a breeze but I gravely understimated the bling factor on the armour. There was no way I was going to finish the 1K in a week, but I really did try, and I got probably 80 percent done and this is the result of spending EVERY spare minute I had after work, between other obligations, etc.

THE GAME:

Unfortunately the games that were set up at 1K fell apart so we had to come with something. I would be paired with another campaign army at 1K. A Blood Angels player. We would face 2K of Orks, that was built not as two individual armies, but as a pretty hefty 2K army...

My list was what you see above. The BA list was... unorthodox:

Libby

10 scouts with a priest

Lemartes with Deathcompany

Drop Pod w/Tacticals melta hvy flamer

Assault tank - Baal pred w/assault cannons/hvy bolters

Orks:

The old lucky stick crap deathstar Warboss with FNP 12 biker squad

Lots of 4+ save boyz in trukks

Battlewagon with rocket launcher squad

Battlewagon with Loota squad

Blob squad of boyz

2 x Dakka Jets

We played the Maelstrom where you can steal each others' Objective X. One of my faves.

Setup / Early game.

- Orks win first turn, and nightfight.

- my Libby rolls for psychic powers. This time I did not take Liber Daemonica because it just didn't do much. I did take Cuirass of Sacrifice because I perils so much in my other games. However, I STILL did not get the roll for Cleansing Flame! D'oh! That's 11 powers in a row where I haven't got it. But I did get Gate, Hammerhand, Purge Soul.

- Orks set up with all shooty stuff in the middle. I am more to the right flank, the BA are more to the left.

- Cards are drawn the Orks get two easy points in turn on and just advance slightly

- BA pod comes in deep and tries to threaten the Battlewagons... a few Orks are roasted with a heavy flamer but I think just one Hullpoint was stripped off a battlewagon. Ouch. Orks are hot and they smell the boys in red.

- Orks don't know what to do about things like; Global warming, world hunger, quantitative easing, or Dreadknights! They shoot wildly at one.... but strip a wound off of him. I tell him everything he's got, and he's 235 points. This causes him to panic, and one of my Dreadknights mows down a squad of knobby kneed greenskins.

++ Orks deathstar incoming. They converge on a Dreadknight, and he challenges with his warboss. I cause one wound *but did not have Force Activated. He causes 4 back and kills the Dreadknight in a turn. Above the Interceptors and second Dreadknight prepare to take revenge.

- We manage to tie the game. I have to split off my HQ termies, and do some shooting over on the west flank. I feel I have to do this because I don't want the BA scouts getting overrun as the game does not look good for the BA in the middle either....

++ two Dakka Jets come in and one tries unloading on my HQ and only one termie dies... close call. I made about 7 saves...

- My HQ / Termies while 'annoying' are not actually effective at all in this game. Aside from GoI I have no real goal in life but to plod along the table where my partner is stuck in.

- The Termies shoot, get shot, get charged. I don't know why but I made a mistake not getting out of there. I knew better, but took the advice of my BA partner and paid the price. Next turn I would try to gate on 4 D6, passing once, getting Canceled by the Ork player on a single 6. D'oh. Back to Titan for training....

- The Termies would barely hit... barely wound. The Ork Nob challenged out my Falchion Justicar Termie and smoked him with a fist to the groin. I took one wound off the nob... I didn't have force running because.....

++ Remember two pictures up? That squad of Interceptors and last Dreadknight all got force off, and the Interceptors got Hammerhand off.... They rushed in, and finally something worked out and they got their revenge. Without the stupid FnP, it appears the mighty Deathstar, just met their doom..... No saves allowed was big. But to be honest two incinerators coming in was huge.... Deathstar gone, and Warlord kill.

However, things are going quite poorly elsewhere....

++ Problem 1:, I have consolidated to break LoS. However, in the distance you can see things going horribly wrong for my BA partner. His Libby (left) Perils. Ugh. It appears he does not read the book he is so gallantly pointing outward to his opponents.

++ Problem 2: Look above the Libby. See that one lone Red Multmelta bike? Lemartes and a squad of black jump pack dudes (always forget their name) have been smoked off the scorched earth. We are losing that point.... Deathcompany... that's it.... are now... DeadCompany.

++ Problem 3: If you look above the area I have consolidated in, you will see a bunch of red trucks, and a slim, red line of desperately assaulting Blood Angels. Orks are beating them down though in sheer weight of numbers.... This is all going poorly right now and it's turning just a bit worse with each turn.

MID / LATE GAME:

- We are trying valiantly to flip this around. I take out another truck. I desperately want to hop up my last Dreadknight and start punching the lights out of the two Trucks that own the centre with all the Missiles and Lootas.... but I can't because a problem has come up.... we can get back in this game with D3 points IF we get 3 objective points.....

- Point one, my BA partner assures me is in his hands. He guarantees this because all he has to do is kill a truck with his baal pred. If he is that sure, I surely can gate away my HQ.... I gate away.... he only manages to take one hullpoint off the truck. D'oh! Very unlucky, but very poopy too.

- His Libby has peril'd. The Ork needing a killin shooting, mows him down with a Dakka jet. Ugh. That's a bad point to give up.... I asked my BA partner what he was doing with the Libby? What was the point of the dude? What was his goals with him? At that point I realized, he was not a librarian, but a simple Blood Angle chef, and in his hands was simply a book of his favorite chicken soup recipes.

- Back to the Dreadknight... I can't go after Battlewagons. Instead I have to go after a truck at mid table. I teleport, and glance it to death with the Psilencer. Mission accomplished. The BA has one heavy flamer left (from a previously broken Tactical squad) that burns just enough orks to lets us own the objective as we do not have Objective Secured on it with my Dreadknight.

- My Libby accurately Gates over to get us another point, and the third we need! We roll a D3, come up with a 1! Ugh... no breaks today.

++ Last turn Heroics. My remaining 4 Interceptors try to protect the Libby and final Terminator from getting assaulted. They shoot 8 Stormbolters, kill nothing. They then assault this pack of Orks. The Nob accepts the challenge and kills my hammer Justicar. The rest of my squad, 2 sets of falchion dudes, wiffs horribly and kills one 6 point ork! lol They are wiped out in return.

++ The last Dreadknight has sacrificed himself for the D3 points that turned out to be a single 1. His back turned to his foe, the cowards unload 10+ missiles on him, I fail 3 wounds and he falls.

++ Endgame. All I have left is the Libby and friend. They lob pot shots with the Psycannon on the Orks that just smoked the last Interceptors and hold this spot (post GoI).

My BA opponent has scouts which really have just sat on an objective deep in their zone, and a Predator... I decide to call it at the end of turn 4 as we are now too far behind and I can't see a way I could flip this around.

We tried to keep it close but the Orks won out.

POSTGAME:

- I asked my BA partner what his goals were with some of his units. I did want to second guess him but aside from the 'suicide' melta pod, I had no idea what he was actually trying to accomplish! I think he had some incredible bad luck as it was difficult to find a spot on the table where he wasn't in trouble or simply just not in the action... plus it appears the Priest had no goal, the Libby was... lost, and Lemartes with his Deathcompany faded very early to a squad of orks.

- I did not have a great game. My units were 'okay'. Oddly enough I could see an army of mostly Interceptors doing more for me than some of my 'high end' units.

+ My Terminators failed to find a role. Punching a few stormbolter shots into 6 pt Orks doesn't cut it.

+ The Libby (with squad above) was fairly useless without something like Cleansing Flame. His GoI was his only contribution.

+ Dreadknights. VERY expensive, and flexible, however I'm really glad I don't have more than two. This was something I speculated on many times in my list building. I know my meta is FULL of blobish, hordish, anti-marine armies. Lots of mid-strength shooting, lots of bodies. This is (IMO) the bane of Dreadknights. I just could not hide enough from the firepower and the defensive 'blobs' around the Battlewagons made it impossible to shunt close enough until it was too late. Don't get me wrong, the Dreadknights are super cool, and fun, but they are probably not the ideal unit for my meta. The Heavy Incinerator was by far the most potent element of their arsenal in this match up (Similar to my Nid games) Which is a little light on contribution at 235 pts x 2

+ Intreceptors. In the future, I would not take the hammer on the Justicar. I'd go dual Falchions and go with hammerhand. I'm getting challenged out too early. But otherwise I really like this squad, and could see going to 10 men in 1850. Heck even more, darting around the board, adding numbers to my small army.

Anti-air. That's something I have to think about too. Dakka jets had free run. And most of my meta field them in minor, or even heavy amounts sometimes.

I felt bad for my BA partner he tried to contribute but I don't know what happened there. lol

Anyway, thanks for reading!

[jeffersonian000]

Glad your game was a learning game, and you are absolutely right that having a purpose for each unit is key to your success (even when the units in question are not yours). I also noted you learned the same lesson I did on Justicars with Hammers (ie, don't do that).

 

As to your GKT, in your shoes I would have used them as a speed bump to slow down and route the green tide, functioning a tarpit so your Interceptors could stay free of CC and capitalize on their mobility. GoI is a great way to reposition your Termies after CC saves them from shooting on your opponent's turn, which is why I love Draigo.

 

And yes, two NDKs are enough, if you care about playing to the mission.

 

SJ

[Prot]

Thanks for the quick response and feedback.

 

Lots to think about. I'm of two minds about how this went and how my meta is. But firstly, the things you mention are definitely on my 'to do' list. Hammer is getting off the Justicar, and he'll have Falchions instead.... if I want to support CC heavily.

 

Otherwise taking 10 and combat squading would give me extra Warp Charges? Corrrect? I was thinking of goig 10 Purifiers at 1850, combat squading for dual Cleanse flame (which as you know I can't seem to get otherwise, so I might as well take the random element out of it.)

 

Anyway I'm getting off point: The two minds I speak of: 1. Starting next week I'll be back at 1850. You mention Draigo, which is nice, because he's going in the list, so are possibly... (don't laugh) Paladins, and an Eversor and another Libby. I know this sounds terrible. But to get from here to 1850 it's my shortest path of assembly and my opponents don't expect much of me right now, so I can explore things that aren't probably going to be smart in the long run.

 

2. Bodies. I know it's a struggle with GK, but bodies in my meta *appear* > Uber characters. 

 

So in the short term I am moving forward with option1, even though it is probably detrimental to me. But hope to eventually find myself able to field option 2.

 

In doing these 1K games I have kind of grown attached to the idea of splitting the army with Termies and Interceptors. I actually found they gel nice. It's a good 1-2 punch that has nice coverage. 

 

I'd love to try just 20 Interceptors as a core, and then Termie tarpit/ GoI to objectives, or line up flamers.... anyway, yea no more than 2 Dreadknights for me. It is starting to work against me here if I go beyond that.

[jeffersonian000]

A fun thing I use to do is Shunt my Interceptors between the enemy table edge of the enemy unit my GKT are in CC with, so take when the enemy breaks, they run into my Interceptors and die instantly. Not so useful in 7th, but was a blast in 5th!

 

For me, GK units fulfill multiple functions, which you pay through the nose for. If you do not utilize their flexibility, you paid too much. And above all else, they look fabulous!

 

SJ

[Prot]

This is true.

 

The army seems to have some great choices, and some not so great choices. If anything I just wish the codex was more diverse without having to go outside of it. ;)

 

I miss the listbuidling brainstorming sessions I would have with my other armies. This one doesn't seem to be that type of army.

[Adeptus]

No, that's the great failing of the GK codex. The only decisions to make are:

 

GM or Librarian?

Draigo or not?

Purifiers or not?

Interceptors or not?

 

And the rest of the list building process consists of figuring out how to cram in as many terminators and dreadknights as possible.

[Prot]

Oh man... that is disheartening. Truly.

 

I can't say it's a total surprise. I've played many power armoured armies on both sides of the long war. One thing I've learned is 'diversity' is an illusion. At the end of the day every codex has a tiny mitten full of top tier choices.

BUT for mid tier, and even some unorthodox builds that can surprise.... And even top tier, I find it lacking. Here some people are saying it is out of character to take Sicarans, or Fire Raptors and what not... honestly that is becoming so prohibitive, I wonder how some of you have played the army for so long? 

 

Now I can say I LOVE terminators, and this army does them justice (comparatively speaking). And I love the power armoured marine.... Again, Grey Knights have fine ones. I hate stuff like 'bike armies' and goofy configurations. So this is the good news for me here. 

 

That being said, I play a lot. A lot of games against a lot of different army types. So I like to test diversity in any codex I'm playing. Right now I am madly assembling 5 Paladins, an assassin, and Draigo in a crazy effort to reach 1850 for this week.... But then what?  How do you guys stay with this army for 100+ games? Weekly games? Tournaments? Is it enough to keep you going? 

 

Just sincerely curious.

[Adeptus]

Oh, I guess it's a range of things, for me at least. I don't get to play every week due to work, and I dont play 40k every time I play. And when I do play 40k, I don't always play my grey knights. The theme alone keeps me interested. I love the imagery of steel clad daemon hunting mage-knights, and it doesn't hurt that they can be played the way I want, which is assault heavy.

[jeffersonian000]

I've been playing Grey Knights since 4th, so it's been way more than 100 games. Its lke mastering Chess, only being able to vary the pieces slightly between games.

 

SJ

[Prot]

I'm playing anywhere from 4-6 games a month typically. I've laid out my future plans for the Grey Knights should I continue forward. It's pretty narrow, and playing as much as I do, I figure I'll exhaust those options within... 2 months.

 

Hopefully the army is fun enough to compensate for that.

[jeffersonian000]

I played for years with 3 Land Raiders, 3 squads of PAGK, and 1 squad of GKT as HQ (BC with bodyguard). Use to occasionally ally in Sisters and/or Marines, because we could that in 3rd and 4th. The 5th Ed codex saw me update the army to plastic (Yay! My first plastic 40k army!!!! Woot!!!!!), and I went counter to all the Pally-Psyflemen love by fielding an all TDA Ghostwing. 6th saw me update my Ghostwing to a Shunt-Punch list, and 7th had me ROFLMAO as I just kept playing my Shunt-Punch list, because that's what the new codex pared the army down to.

 

So yeah, years of play. And more years of play to come.

 

SJ

[Prot]

I played for years with 3 Land Raiders, 3 squads of PAGK, and 1 squad of GKT as HQ (BC with bodyguard). Use to occasionally ally in Sisters and/or Marines, because we could that in 3rd and 4th. The 5th Ed codex saw me update the army to plastic (Yay! My first plastic 40k army!!!! Woot!!!!!), and I went counter to all the Pally-Psyflemen love by fielding an all TDA Ghostwing. 6th saw me update my Ghostwing to a Shunt-Punch list, and 7th had me ROFLMAO as I just kept playing my Shunt-Punch list, because that's what the new codex pared the army down to.

 

So yeah, years of play. And more years of play to come.

 

SJ

 

Not to get too personal, but how many games a month do you think you play? And do you play other armies?

 

Would you say the army keeps you this engaged with it? Or is it something else? Like the background or hobby, etc?

[jeffersonian000]

I started playing 40k when I was 14, and I'm now 42. In that time, I've played 1st Ed thru 2nd Ed era Imperal Guard, 2nd Ed thru 7th Ed Space Marines, 2nd Ed thru 5th Ed Sisters, 2nd thru 3rd Ed Necrons, 3rd Ed thru 7th Ed Grey Knights, and 7th Ed Imperial Knights. Of those few lists, I've found the Grey Knights to be the most engaging, because the low model count army with few options forces me to think through each phase of the game, from list building to turn 7, using just a handful of units. That is why I feel that GKs are a master class army.

 

SJ

[Prot]

Great answer!

I'm abit older but mostly a very long term chaos player. So I'm used to lots of very interesting choices even if half of them are garbage. Lol

[Emicus]

For my own selfish reasons I hope to god you don't get bummed out of playing with GKs, I'm hoping for your batreps to become a staple! I can definently see your point with the Codex being somewhat lacking, but remember they took out both assassins and Inquisition. By simply allying them back in, you get a whole lot more options and it's "the same army". Servo skulls are the bees knees too.

Oh and I feel that fishing for psychic powers really blows: you never get what you want. So instead I pick Divination where I will​ get something useful by default, and get gravy on top such as 4++ on the terminator squad, rerolls everything on the librarian, rending, ignores cover, better overwatch. The latter is surprisingly decent since most people go "right, so I will eat another shooting round of those damn psycannons, and he'll get charge bonuses.. or I can get charge bonuses.. hmmm".

​Whereas for Sanctic it's all fishing for Cleansing Flame and Gate of Infinity. The primaris is useless, the squad already has hammerhand, sanctuary is alright but you get the same in divination, purge soul is meh and Vortex is either love it or hate it. For me it seems to be magnetically attracted to terminators.


As for the game, your blood angel partner didn't do either of you any favours running Lemartes. And a priest with the scouts? Did he sink a bucket of points on DC upgrades too? It's some pretty questionable choices which is all fine and dandy but when you're teaming up with another person I feel one should pull their weight.

[Prot]

For my own selfish reasons I hope to god you don't get bummed out of playing with GKs, I'm hoping for your batreps to become a staple! I can definently see your point with the Codex being somewhat lacking, but remember they took out both assassins and Inquisition. By simply allying them back in, you get a whole lot more options and it's "the same army". Servo skulls are the bees knees too.

Oh and I feel that fishing for psychic powers really blows: you never get what you want. So instead I pick Divination where I will​ get something useful by default, and get gravy on top such as 4++ on the terminator squad, rerolls everything on the librarian, rending, ignores cover, better overwatch. The latter is surprisingly decent since most people go "right, so I will eat another shooting round of those damn psycannons, and he'll get charge bonuses.. or I can get charge bonuses.. hmmm".

 

​Whereas for Sanctic it's all fishing for Cleansing Flame and Gate of Infinity. The primaris is useless, the squad already has hammerhand, sanctuary is alright but you get the same in divination, purge soul is meh and Vortex is either love it or hate it. For me it seems to be magnetically attracted to terminators.

 

 

As for the game, your blood angel partner didn't do either of you any favours running Lemartes. And a priest with the scouts? Did he sink a bucket of points on DC upgrades too? It's some pretty questionable choices which is all fine and dandy but when you're teaming up with another person I feel one should pull their weight.

 

That's very nice of you to say.... I actually have done tons of batreps for all the main armies I've played, including a lot of Dark Angels, lots of Chaos, and a bit of Ultra's. (Hundreds going back to my BT days) But I'm sure you're just interested in the Grey Knights stuff. ;)

 

Thanks again though. It's really nice to know when someone is reading it/getting something out of it.

 

Divination: It's funny but because the Dark Angels had nearly exclusive use of it, and then Crimson Slaughter came out with a piece of wargear (Balestar of Manon) that made it plausible for CS to get it, I feel like I've been using it for years.

 

The best use I've ever had from Divination is with Tigurius. I had a squad of FnP Warboss Nob Bikers with 12 bikes turboing at me. I was pretty sure I was dead if I did not get off an amazing round of firing. I literally poured my whole (available) Ultra force into those bikes, and maybe two died after all the "Lucky Stick" shenanigans, and FnP saves and Jink....

 

Then Tigurius gets off both Prescience and the remove cover power in the same turn. 3 Centurions fired 15 Grav shots into those stupid bikes, and whatever else could shoot in that turn and all but the warboss was dead....

 

I've used Divination for Prescience with Crimson Slaughter on the overpriced Forgefiends with their BS3.... not bad really.

 

But I look at the Grey Knights and ask myself considering those examples, is it worth re-rolling a few stormbolters? Wouldn't cleansing flame probably do more damage? Is getting an invuln on the squad any better than just activating Sanctuary? Is removing Cover that important with Stormbolters when I can just lay an Incinerator template down on those bikers anyway?

 

Right now I guess I'm enamoured with Sanctic because it's new and shiny to me. But out of everything I have/do play, I think GK benefit the least from Divination. (that's just my opinion comparing to those other armies I've used it with.)

 

We will see how tonight goes.

 

This far I love the feel of the army overall. I'm looking very forward to trying Draigo tonight for the first time. Albeit a SUPER small army.

 

I have models put together that I have not painted to keep my options open on a Chapter:

- Sicaran Tank

- Fire Raptor

- 2 Rhino's

- 2 Razorbacks

- Stormraven

[Reclusiarch Darius]

It's not storm bolters that matter, it's psycannons. 'Perfect Timing' and improved Overwatch with psycannon is amazing. Same for re-rolls. 

[Emicus]

Any batrep is a good batrep but since I play GK's they sit a little closer to the heart. Also if I read too much about other shiny things my wallet begins to pre-emptily wail... I'm adamant to sticking to the "I'm painting what I've got" this ONCE. Though I wish I had your ability not just painting wise but to churn out the army you have in two weeks, that's impressive!

As for divination it's just like Darius says, it's the psycannons and not the bolters. I run a malleus inquisitor with psycannon tacked on to my "big" terminator squad (i.e. 5 terminators, librarian + inquisitor) and 8 psycannon shots + 3-4 storm-bolters rerolling and/or ignores cover is delicious. Or psycannon+psilencer on a dreadknight, make sure you get ALL the hits.
 

 

I do agree that Cleansing Flame is wicked awesome though. But fishing for it not so much. Purifiers all the way, even just for a 5man suicide unit.