Paladin Tactica (?)

[L30n1d4s]

I know many fellow GK players are disappointed with Paladins in the current Codex who, despite being some of the mainstays of GK armies in past editions, are generally considered over-costed and (despite being Core) handicapped by their "Honoured Knight" rule and the resultant inability to access Brotherhood buffs (or even basic re-roll auras from anyone except Draigo).

 

 

I certainly agree with some of these sentiments and am hopeful that Paladins get either a points drop and/or an amendment to the "Honoured Knight" rule that lets them be more competitive choices. In the meantime, the reality is that we are all living in a Strike Squad's world, so how can we make Paladins viable for competitive play in their current state, without any changes to their rules?

 

 

To answer that question, I thought I'd start a thread and open up the question to the other Brother-Captains here on B&C to see what we can collectively come up with. So, what has been your experiences with Paladins? Has anyone had success with them, despite their points cost/lack of Brotherhood buffs? Any innovative ideas on how to use them?

 

 

For myself, trying to answer this question, I have come up with two ideas so far:

 

 

1 - Uber-resilient Objective Holders -- With even just a minimum 3 man squad, with Sanctuary and Armoured Resilience cast on them and Tide of Shadows up, they have a 0+ save against shooting outside 12" and a 4++ Invul against everything else. Add in their natural 3W and the ability put True Silver Armour on them and they can absorb TONs of punishment (e.g. for example, in my testing they "tanked" 18 shots of Plagueburst Mortars without losing a single model....only being wounded on a 4+ against S8 and essentially ignoring AP-2 is pretty amazing). For just over 140 points, this is basically following the Custodian Guard model, where you have minimum squads of super-resilient models holding onto objectives against some of the very toughest damage out in the game. Including 1-2 minimum squads of Paladins to grab and hold Objectives (remember they can Teleport in or Gate of Infinity to otherwise difficult to reach places) might be the way to go, especially since they can more than handle with any units that may roll up and try and push them off the Objective with melee.

 

 

2 - Extra-mobile "Jump Pack" Terminators -- So, I am being a little tongue-in-cheek here, but since they are the only units outside of Librarians and Interceptors that natively have access to Ethereal Castigation, they have a surprising amount of "natural" mobility for Terminators. Specifically, if Tide of Celerity is up, they can Advance a minimum of 5+3" = 8" (or 11" with a lucky roll), then use Ethereal Castigation to move another 5" for a minimum 13" move (and possible 16" move). If you are trying to rapidly get a tough, very dangerous unit in the enemy's face for a turn 2 charge (and want to use Gate of Infinity for something else, like your GMNDK), then the Paladin's ability to do a second "free" move sets them apart from pretty much all other Terminators in the game and gives them basically the equivalent Movement of a unit equipped with Jump Packs for a turn. 

 

 

Well, those are the best ideas I have so far. What about everyone else? What successes with Paladins have you all had that you can share with the rest of us?

 

 

Cheers up front for dropping by and sharing your thoughts! ;)

 

[RedemptionNL]

handicapped by their "Honoured Knight" rule and the resultant inability to access Brotherhood buffs (or even basic re-roll auras from anyone except Draigo)

The Dreadnought reroll auras from their strat also works on them, niche as that might be.

[Archadeus]

Despite what everyone else thinks im still running a 10 man paladin squad. Paragon has a hammer and ive given them 4 psycannons as well, very expensive unit i know but im thinking of combat squading them and sticking the cannons with drago and the apothecary with unyeilding anvil. I think a 10 man still has its place in certain matchups, for example i played into custodes and paladins with armored resilience and a 6+++ soaked his bikes charge t2 and then demolished the unit.  I know i could get 3 dreadknights instead but i want to try an infantry skew list. I like the idea of msu paladin units but i have 35 Pagks surrounding them already and i want to see how they do as my anvil. 

[Axilleas]

I like them for surgical strikes. At 141pts I can afford to lose them to a mistake, but they put out such great potential damage and can take a point from an unprepared opponent.

 

The footprint is small enough to hide and they can be very resilient when needed.

 

I like one squad with falchions for taking chaff off points. Halberds on any other squads I bring.

[Skywrath]

Despite what everyone else thinks im still running a 10 man paladin squad. Paragon has a hammer and ive given them 4 psycannons as well, very expensive unit i know but im thinking of combat squading them and sticking the cannons with drago and the apothecary with unyeilding anvil. I think a 10 man still has its place in certain matchups, for example i played into custodes and paladins with armored resilience and a 6+++ soaked his bikes charge t2 and then demolished the unit.  I know i could get 3 dreadknights instead but i want to try an infantry skew list. I like the idea of msu paladin units but i have 35 Pagks surrounding them already and i want to see how they do as my anvil. 

 

+1 to this, same idea, and I still run paladins as 10m bricks. Better yet, for 1CP you can switch their powers out, so run one power that both squads can benefit from, and switch out the power on the other squad (ethereal castigation for psycannon perhaps). Paladins aren't a dead unit, although I wish we either got Bodyguard or a native 4+ invuln to distinguish them from their regular Terminator counterparts. I'm happy they are melee beatsticks, and they got some flavour though know 2, cast 1, change powers out for 1CP, but still, more needed to be done.

 

Oh btw, not sure who recommended the idea to run them all with Demon Hammers as a strike force, I totally will be doing that now - I've come around full circle to that idea.

Edited September 7, 2021 by Skywrath

[Cryminysakes]

 

Despite what everyone else thinks im still running a 10 man paladin squad. Paragon has a hammer and ive given them 4 psycannons as well, very expensive unit i know but im thinking of combat squading them and sticking the cannons with drago and the apothecary with unyeilding anvil. I think a 10 man still has its place in certain matchups, for example i played into custodes and paladins with armored resilience and a 6+++ soaked his bikes charge t2 and then demolished the unit.  I know i could get 3 dreadknights instead but i want to try an infantry skew list. I like the idea of msu paladin units but i have 35 Pagks surrounding them already and i want to see how they do as my anvil. 

 

+1 to this, same idea, and I still run paladins as 10m bricks. Better yet, for 1CP you can switch their powers out, so run one power that both squads can benefit from, and switch out the power on the other squad (ethereal castigation for psycannon perhaps). Paladins aren't a dead unit, although I wish we either got Bodyguard or a native 4+ invuln to distinguish them from their regular Terminator counterparts. I'm happy they are melee beatsticks, and they got some flavour though know 2, cast 1, change powers out for 1CP, but still, more needed to be done.

 

Oh btw, not sure who recommended the idea to run them all with Demon Hammers as a strike force, I totally will be doing that now - I've come around full circle to that idea.

 

I have to imagine this is part of the reason they dont get brotherhood access.  Symphonic Strike on this squad?? yikes!!

[Gnomeo]

Just a thought you could use the paladin strat to swap out smite. Then you could have the paladins knowing, ethereal castigation, armoured reseliance and hammerhand.

[Archadeus]

Just a thought you could use the paladin strat to swap out smite. Then you could have the paladins knowing, ethereal castigation, armoured reseliance and hammerhand.

Yep thats what im going to do with the psycannon squad. And the melee squad could switch smite for purifying flame. oh man paladins are juicy. 

 

And yeah skywrath i agree bodygaurd would make the most sense, since thats what they actually are in the fluff. Gw really missed the mark on that one, oh and crowe is leadership 8???

[Gnomeo]

 

 

Just a thought you could use the paladin strat to swap out smite. Then you could have the paladins knowing, ethereal castigation, armoured reseliance and hammerhand.

Yep thats what im going to do with the psycannon squad. And the melee squad could switch smite for purifying flame. oh man paladins are juicy.

 

And yeah skywrath i agree bodygaurd would make the most sense, since thats what they actually are in the fluff. Gw really missed the mark on that one, oh and crowe is leadership 8???

Don't get me started on GK leadership it really annoys me as they used to be fearless now they are same as normal marines. You know these guys who can stare into the warp and be fine while a normal space can go mad or be possessed