Unit of the Week: Apothecary

[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 noble Apothecary. Each week a different unit will appear, with the idea being that we discuss how best to use that model on the battlefield.

[Trollbeard]

I used one as a cheap pyschic assassin in my last game against harlequins, got a big roll for Inner fire and melted my friend’s shadowseer warlord, and then used him to perform an action in the

Next turn, I feel without the apothecary changes affecting us yet, he has a bit more use in this regard. Kept him cheap as well.

[The Woodsman]

I think the Apothecary is a bit of a gem. At 95pts with a Hammer, he's quite the cheap beats tick, with WS2+, 4 attacks with Shock Assault and an ability to heal himself in a drawn-out combat. He really shines as a way to take an extra Dominus power if you're starved of HQ slots (I like to run 2 GMDK, so I often need the additional character).

 

As mentioned by Reskin, and I've yet to try this (haven't played a game in AGES), I think he can make a great Psychic Ritual "slave". The action won't stop him from fighting in combat or using his ability, and can bag you an easy 3 VP. If you field him with a situational power (Warp Shaping, Edict, Ethereal Manipulation) than you're not sacrificing much, though the best is to have him double something up, that way it's not costing you anything to perform your action every turn and get your full 15 VP.

 

I do quite like him though, he can take the Augurium Scrolls and become a force multiplier for deep.striking Terminators/Paladins. At 80pts bare bones, he's pretty cheap.

[The Woodsman]

The downside is though, like I mentioned, he's 5VP to your opponent. Yes he's cheap. But you have to use him carefully in a sense and not throw him away.

If your opponent took assassinate, which he might be likely to do, because we usually fill up our HQ slots, and some either take the Apothecary or an Ancient. 4 Characters is 12VP

And one lone Apothecary is now awarding 8VP. It's tough to outscore something like that.

 

They say 8-10VP from each of your secondary's and you've done ok. 15VP is a very well played game. So giving away 8 like that is just yuck!

This is 100% true. But following that train of thought, a 100pts Strike Squad is also a "free" 3 CP to your opponent. At the moment Abhor the Witch just hurts us bad, whatever you're fielding. I think it is one of GK main weaknesses right now, and why they hang out in B-tier rather than top: really easy secondaries against them. We have to take a fair few characters in order to get all our Dominus powers and the support our units need, and everything is a Psyker. That being said, we can build around a few very resilient units to mitigate this. But I agree, the Apothecary (and all our characters) needs to be used smartly to avoid it just giving away VP.

[Trollbeard]

How often are you guys finding people are actually able to take “Abhor the Witch” against you? Most of my opponents, bar a single tau player and one necron player in my group, take

Pyskers in their armies. So they have never been able to take it reliably.

[Skywrath]

How often are you guys finding people are actually able to take “Abhor the Witch” against you? Most of my opponents, bar a single tau player and one necron player in my group, take

Pyskers in their armies. So they have never been able to take it reliably.

 

Like every single one person that I fought against. Which pretty much seals my fate and my chances of winning against the opponent. Having 1W units and 2W terminators doesn't help either. 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Skywrath

[Trollbeard]

Interesting, do they know beforehand that you are playing GK? I find lots of armies have good pyschic powers to build around or at least be a big part of the stratagy.

 

My last game was against Harlequin/CWE and he had a farseer and shadowseer, and he knew that I would be playing GK and still chose to run pyskers.

 

It’s no doubt a bogus secondary, I just have never had it used against me luckily lol.

[Skywrath]

Interesting, do they know beforehand that you are playing GK? I find lots of armies have good pyschic powers to build around or at least be a big part of the stratagy.

 

My last game was against Harlequin/CWE and he had a farseer and shadowseer, and he knew that I would be playing GK and still chose to run pyskers.

 

It’s no doubt a bogus secondary, I just have never had it used against me luckily lol.

 

Generally yes - I have a policy of both of us (myself and the opponent) declaring what factions we will be playing on the day. Recently we also share the lists we use on the day (pretty much send each other a copy at the same time), to alleviate any nasty surprises. That being said, my meta is pretty competitive and there is this one player I play against weekly, and can't win against him despite my best efforts. Apparently he's been to world tournaments, so yay me. Back on topic, I'm experimenting with an idea of dishing out as many MW as possible through a combination of Vortex,Purge, Inner Fire and D2 smites. Of course such a list would favour purifiers/many PAGK units, but yeah. I think out of the 20 or so games I had with 9th, there were only 5-ish times where the person didn't have a psyker. 

 

But I just had a realisation - with the new edition there is a keyword called Sanctic Astartes - what if, that keyword is set to replace the Psyker one to "indirectly" buff us. 

[The Woodsman]

How often are you guys finding people are actually able to take “Abhor the Witch” against you? Most of my opponents, bar a single tau player and one necron player in my group, take

Pyskers in their armies. So they have never been able to take it reliably.

 

To be fair, my "regular" opponents are an Ultramarines player (who often picks up a secondary army, plays a few games, sells it, so sometimes I come up against a surprise list...), a Death Guard player and a third who plays mostly Black Legion but also Kronos Tyranids (ok they field psykers but man is their anti-psyker toolkit a menace). They usually bring at least one psyker (Tigurius, Deamon Prince/Sorcerer(s)/Typhus, Tyrants), so Abhor the Witch isn't an issue. That being said, Space Marines of all varieties can build some really hardcore lists without psykers - and dare I say most SM lists won't actually field a Librarian, not when they want to bring a Captain/Chapter Master, Chaplain and Lieutenant(s). But I agree with Trollbeard in principle, only a few factions (T'au, Necrons and Drukhari) are sure to not bring any psykers. The average is probably that your opponent will have at least one, whilst a couple of factions (Craftworlds, Harlequins, Nids) will almost always bring at least one. 

 

Those games you do come across a player without Psykers though, Abhor the Witch is a pain - its pretty much a guaranteed 15 VP against you. That being said, building around a limited number of tanky units (Paladin/Terminator bombs, mainly) will help mitigate this. Keeping your squishier units in reserves/hidden until you've managed to reduce his means of killing them is also a good way of closing that gap. Sometimes, you need to play really defensively and focus on the mission - when Abhor the Witch is up is one of those times. Its definitely an issue when it comes up, but it shouldn't mean that you auto-lose. I your friends are happy to repeatedly abuse it knowing you can't do much about it, then that's on them - maybe they should try out one of their own psykers at some point and level the playing field. Alternatively, you could bring 20 Paladins, some Purgators in transports and some Strikes in Deep Strike for later turns and see how well he takes out your psykers then. Just some thought, we're kind of moving away from our friend the good Doctor, but still - sometimes you have to live with a disadvantage, learning to work around it and get a win despite it is the true art of 40K, in my opinion.

 

**When my buddy showed up with a mixed-wing DA list, without psykers, he hurt me pretty bad on Abhor the Witch... I also scraped a win by taking out his troops and bikers first, forcing him to meet me in the center of the board, while teleporting my Strikes onto abandoned objectives in Turn 3. A couple of turns of getting max Primary points will leave his Abhor the Witch points in the dust... especially if you've managed to score stuff like Psychic Ritual, Engage or Behind Enemy Lines consitently. 

Edited November 27, 2020 by The Woodsman

[Trollbeard]

Right now I feel like he’s the cheapest and best character for the Inner fire bomb, every other character has more utility, might change with the codex though.

[Skywrath]

That being said, what are your thoughts on the Apothecary remaining a sniper with Inner Fire + Powerful Adept + Empyric Channeling combo? Do we still see this having a place in the current meta?

[Trollbeard]

If he get the same buffs and abilities as vanilla SM, I think he would have more potential reviving paladins and accompanying them on the board.

[Trollbeard]

You need to use the dynamic insertion Strat to achieve anything of note, could be useful waiting until turn 3 after the enemy has committed more of their forces. Or you try to remove screens or units from around a target you wanna hit to clear space for him.

 

But ultimately yeah, a good/savvy opponent will screen you, but even the knowledge of you being able to do it will make them have to think about leaving characters/objectives exposed.

Edited November 28, 2020 by Trollbeard

[Skywrath]

That being said though, there is an unlikely path. Have a BC accompanying the paladin blob, and edict an apothecary next to the paladin blob so that they are within 6", but not the closest model so they get look out sir rule. The roll the 3D6 while not spending 3CP on the trick. Do you think that has any viability?

[Skywrath]

The BC is there just for the Edict cast. You still pay 2CP for the 3D6 roll and the the Powerful Adept, but it saves you 1CP. Not much of a change, admittedly, but knowing how CP hungry the GK are, 1CP is still better than nothing. 

[Skywrath]

Yes very true, I’m starting to view empyrean domination as a very valuable spell. By the by though.

 

You mean, Edict Imperator, right :)

[Trollbeard]

I think 4/6 dominus powers are basically an auto take, Inner fire is too situational unless you plan on the pyschic assassin combo, and ethereal manipulation I find situational as well. The other 4 I always take. Getting 2CP a turn is huge for GK at least in my opinion, because as you say, we re very CP Hungry.

 

I find I am taking Voldus as my warlord and giving him 4 Dominus powers and forgetting FttF altogether. I try to use charging as a clean up instead of my main source of damage these days.

[The Woodsman]

Tying this in to the apothecary... that’s why using him as a cheap support character with either empyrean domination or another dominus power is much better then inner fire and essentially sacrificing him. And giving up 5-8VP.

 

I think in terms of cheap characters only the tech marine is cheaper by 5pts, (someone correct me if I’m wrong) and GK characters can only take the dominus powers.

 

Characters can take Sanctic powers, its just that only characters can take Dominus, so if you can get Sanctic powers on units instead, its a better economy in terms of power selection. The Techmarine is cheaper, but also a bit of a dead weight unless you're running a few vehicles (GMDK and Ven Dreads do count, so you might be). He also, in my opinion, needs the Aetheric Conduit to really perform well as a mechanic, which is kind of a relic tax, forcing you to spend 3 CP on relics (tbh you've probably taken 2 already - there are more efficient ones than the Conduit). The thing is, he also takes up a valuable HQ slot, as opposed to the Apothecary who takes up an Elites slot, of which you have twice the amount. 

[The Woodsman]

No worries man, I didn't read it as such. Though that's not to say he couldn't have a place in a specific build. I kind of miss the hero-hammer days from late 8th, I was running something like Draigo, Voldus, 2x GMDK with an Apothecary and an Ancient.