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Seeing how Nurgle's plague lifted enough over here to have a few games. My LGWS is still closed, but I found another establishment to have a few games in. My first game was against a World Eaters player, and another one was against a Craftworlds player. The list was the double paladin bomb (well, 17 paladins), 2 strikes, and an apothecary as the core. Each game had a few small alterations, outlined below. So here were my general experiences.

 

Against a World Eater's player, I was running those same 17 paladins, 2 strike squads (waiting on some bits to arrive so I can assemble the other box), Apothecary and a Venerable Dreadnought with lascannon/missile launcher. HQ's were - Kaldor, BC, Librarian, Voldus

 

Against the Craftworld player, I dropped Kaldor and the Venerable, and added two NDK's with psycannon/psilencers. Same default core of 17 paladins, apothecary and two strike squads. HQ's were - BC, Librarian, Voldus.

 

Positives: 

 

1. Kaldor still remains the mother of all beatsticks in the World Eaters game. That 3+ invuln, and that S9 Titansword is pretty juicy. I couldn't make the maximum out of him to position him properly next to my paladin blobs but yeah. 190 points stings though.

 

2. Librarian was the MVP in a few games. Sanctic Shard, Powerful Psyker, and Empyric Channeling on a Vortex of Doom, that is pretty damn lethal. Because of that combo going off in two rounds, I effectively tabled that Craftworlds player by turn 3.

 

3. Brotherhood of psykers with the sanctic shard is absolutely disguisting - that +1 is really really really nifty. At first I despaired that the smite cost increase will hurt (and it still does), but in practice, it doesn't hurt us *that* much, if you carefully choose what units to cast first. For instance, if I made the librarian cast the smite last (let's say it's cost is now 10 from 6), then usually it goes off, because of that reroll. There were many times where that +1 managed to narrowly clutch a psychic test successfully from the Craftworlds player. 

 

4. Apothecaries - didn't get much benefit from healing from him (as the paladins are effectively immortal), but the Dynamic Insertion, Powerful Psyker, Empyric Channeling with Inner Fire absolutely demolishes units, while the demon hammers finishing anything that is low on health.

 

5. Paladins - oh boy where do I start with them. If I had the points to take both of them with thunder-hammers, that would be ideal, but alas. Effectively immortal, but very very slow. I had to use the stratagem that allows another psychic power to be cast (GoI) in this case, to get them to contend objectives. With the World-Eaters, I started them on the board, with the Craftworlds both squads were in Deep-strike. I'm still not convinced that putting them on the board is the best option (as I suspect they want to be in the face constantly) but both cases appear to work. 

 

6. NDK's. Contrary to popular belief - both versions are good. That invuln save with Truesilver armor strategem saved my hide many times, and it creates enough of an annoyance for the opponent to focus him, while I score points in the meantime. Unfortunately in my craftworlds game, it left both Eldrad and the Wave Serpent on one points a-piece after shooting and charging was finished. RIP me.

 

7. Strike Squads - the only positive thing about them in my experience, my justicar with the demon hammer. For the points you pay for them, they do more damage than what they are worth. Granted, my squad is weird because it has a justicar with a demon hammer, and both have one person with a psycannon. But after reflection, I wouldn't change that, it adds another annoyance to the opponent.

 

8. Venerable Dreadnought - something to look-out for in the new edition, especially with the missile launcher. In the World Eaters game, my lascannon had a tendency to miss (even with AA up), but the missile launcher always shone through. Need to test other configurations, though.

 

Negatives:

 

1. Strike Squads - 1W a-piece really, really hurts. I lost both games (mainly because I was still stretching my proverbial muscles), but those couldn't hold the points well enough. If the game has enough points for Terminators, I'd probably choose them over the strikes. Of course, I'm not saying I'm a good player or anything, but there were times where the point went over to the Craftworlds player because my strikes died within a turn.

 

2. Paladins - Slow. If you don't have a way to gate to an opponent, or can't get to an objective, those 544 points are left dead in the water. Them being immortal is awesome, and they sure pack a punch in melee, but yeah. With the 9th edition changes, seeing how it tends to reward the player that does objectives, these paladins are counter-intuitive in THAT regard only. I'm having a few ideas of running Interceptors with a 10m squad of demon hammer only paladins, instead of 20, to see if that helps. 

 

3. Characters - Because of the Abhor the Witch Strategem, GK's are very vulnerable in that regard (as each one of them has the Psyker keyword). On top of this, either I'm playing GK's wrong, but after you address an issue on the board (e.g wraithlord) with a characters/paladin blob, you are still stuck dead in the water. 

 

4. CP hungry - Oh yes. I don't think I need to explain that, but the amount of CP points you pay for the strategem you unleash, most of the time, doesn't work out. Again, probably a problem on my end, but I tended to go pretty liberal with the Vortex-Powerful Psyker-Empyric Channeling strategem.

 

Overall, I think GK's are very strong, and I love them to bits. However, because of the examples where the paladins are counter-intuitive to the "meta" of what 9th is about, we might have to revise the list from double paladins, to adding more units on the ground. Personally, I think interceptors will be a staple in a lot of lists. Look forward to feedback/advice/your experiences!

 

EDIT: The other idea is having a Death Knight's kind of list where I add a DW component with the resurgence of Necrons. Mainly troops, while the GK component will have paladins and the usual suspects.

Edited by Skywrath
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