Unit of the Week: Purgation Squad

[Skywrath]

Welcome to the Grey Knight unit of the Week, where we analyse the Grey Knights units strength's and weaknesses. The unit for this week is the our answer to overwhelming firepower - the Purgation Squad. Each week a different unit will appear, with the idea being that we discuss how best to use that model on the battlefield.

 

Questions:

 

1. General first thoughts and impressions of the unit?

2. How would you use said unit, to compliment a list, or to build a list around? 

3. What other units/strategems synergize with it to give it that extra shine?

4. Miscellaneous use/Tips and Tricks?

 

BONUS: Creative ways to use units that wouldn't be obvious at first. 

[The Woodsman]

Ah, the Purgatory, the rising stars of Ritual of the Damned. Very rarely (if at all) seen during most of eighth, these boys really did get some new toys with PA and the addition of Tides. The Chaplain litanies really helps them, either by giving them the much needed extra 6" range, boosting their AP by 1 or, and I've found this to be useful when wanting to get them into range/LoS of a hidden target and/or grabbing an objective, letting them ignore To Hit modifiers.

 

Our Devastator equivalent, they remain in a weird spot because of the weapons they can take. While we get Storm Bolters across the board, both of their (okay they get three but who's taking Incinerators?) options kind of lean towards taking on Infantry (be it chaff or elite). While both the psilencer and th psycannon can stack respectable buffs on Strength, Damage and AP, neither really falls into the category of proper anti-tank. That being said, enough boosted psycannon shots will take down a tough vehicle, or at least soften it up for your melee dudes.

 

As mentioned above, Tide of Convergence, Chaplain Litanies (all but Convergence (ironically)and I think Warding?) Can buff them, and Psychic Onslaught is your best mate. At 108/128 points (psilencers and psycannons respectively), they're pretty cheap for what they can do, and considering we don't have any other "competitive" Heavy options (if you're mad like me you can try Land Raiders, but eh), so you should always have room slot-wise.

 

All in all, they can do well at supporting your Paladins/Terminators, or can be built around (by maxing out your psiweapons across other units) to form the backbone of your damage output. I'd like to see GW release new psiweapons for these guys to take (not necessarily for other units) that resemble a Lascannon or meltagun type weapon... The psibeamer (lol) I dunno.

 

Overall a good choice that can do a lot of hurt without costing you too much, and good at holding your backfield. Astral Aim is definitely a good tool, but I feel range is going to be more of a hindrance than LoS.

[Skywrath]

I find purgation squads to be an effective counter towards marines and the meta. With a chaplain and psychic onslaught for a squad that's 20 S6, -2, D3+1 shots (in shooting tide), that any of those shots have the potential to be enough. Problem is with those, is that they are squishy. Like the Dreadnought and the Paladins, the Purgation Squad competes with the casts of Astral Aim. 

 

To me purgations need three things to make them worth it - the chaplain (with the appropriate litanies), obscuring terrain and astral aim. Fit those three elements into a list, and those will really quickly pay what they are worth. I haven't tested out psycannon purgation squads, but I think at a pinch they should be reasonable to deal with vehicle spammy lists with S7 wounding on 3's compared to the regular marine/biker T5. Of course, with that route they present their own problem - psycannons need the psychic onslaught strategem to make them worth it, while with psilencers with S5, you don't really need to, barring the AP litany from the chaplain. Nonetherless, they remain one of the two viable options to deal with vehicles - the other is the Venerable Dreadnought.

 

My biggest problem with purgation squads is a way to make them have less time to set-up, i.e eliminating one of the three elements to make them shine. Unfortunately, as I haven't came up with a way to do so, they will always require an investment into a chaplain to make them worth it. The other alternative is to go with the psilencer paladin squad (which can carry 4), however it puts too many eggs in the same basket. That and we don't have a strategem that ignores movement penalities, so they are pretty immobile unless camped with either Kaldor (why would you??) or something that provides re-rolls. Perhaps there might be merit in the idea of loading them up into a rhino and putting them on a point and maximising them with preternal senses on overwatch. 

 

Hopefully with 9th we will see more ways to use them, but as they stand, they are a pretty solid unit, despite their hindrances.

[Reskin]

Some great points, I can’t speak from experience but it seems like if you are going a shooty, 24” board control list. You need to invest every squad to have special weapons (no incinerators) for it to be effective.

 

The one point that irks me with your strat is that you want me to leave behind a 118pt? Chaplain in the backfield baby sitting these units?

He’s now the price of the unit itself? You only have one astral aim to go around.

 

I assume you’d want a grandmaster with them also for re rolls to hit?

[Skywrath]

Some great points, I can’t speak from experience but it seems like if you are going a shooty, 24” board control list. You need to invest every squad to have special weapons (no incinerators) for it to be effective.

 

The one point that irks me with your strat is that you want me to leave behind a 118pt? Chaplain in the backfield baby sitting these units?

He’s now the price of the unit itself? You only have one astral aim to go around.

 

I assume you’d want a grandmaster with them also for re rolls to hit?

 

Not necessarily. Strikes can be barebones, but if you are running Paladins/Purgations, that's almost mandatory. I'm yet to experiment with Paladins being melee only. Admittedly, the Chaplain in the backfield is a sad reality, but with Ethereal Manipulation and the range litany, he almost makes up for it. I usually camp my purgations with a Venerable Dreadnought with a claw and Gate of Infinity to either address threats in melee, or run. I also buff him with Wisdom of the Ancients for the re-rolls. That in itself creates a castle where you can address most threats by either gating or dealing with it in melee with the chaplain/dreadnought. With regards to juggling AA around, you can always move the purgation squad through the terrain (as they are infantry and assuming it's breachable) and just shoot normally. Otherwise it's a juggling act between the Dreadnought with Gate, and the Purgations with AA depending on what's the bigger threat. Sometimes I load the other purgation squad into a LR, depending on matchup or gate them around (probably behind obscuring terrain). There were some fun moments where I gated a 5m purgation squad into the face of a Demon Prince and wiped him off the board, but such a move wouldn't really fly in a tournament without getting punished. 

Edited November 16, 2020 by Skywrath