Post Tourney GK thoughts and analysis.

by: farmpunk

The Thawny Terminator Justicar

As a lot of you know by know, a lot of us made the trek to Kokomo to play in Uberdark's NOVA format Tourney up there. Yes, we used the NOVA mission primer pack, and found a few things we think need clarifying...

That's not why I'm here though. I'm here because I stayed up late the night before crunching my brain after the girls and Mrs. farmpunk went to bed to come up with a Grey Knight list I was content to test at 1500. Why was I testing a list for the first time at a tournament?
Why not? I needed to see how some ideas turned out.

so I brought a list like this: (yes it's got some stuff in French, the AB I had with GK's was au Francias. I translated some of it.)

1500 Pts - Chevaliers Gris Liste - 1500 pt gk lrc

1 Schema Standard, 1498 pts
  1 Librarian (Warp Rift; Shrouding; Might of Titan; Sanctuary) 170pt

  1 Inquisitor of Ordo Xenos (Power Armor; Psychotroke grenades) 48pts

  1 Assassin Vindicare 145pts

  9 Strike Squad (Psycanon x2; Halberd de Force Nemesis x7) 260pt
     1 Justicar (Halberd de Force Nemesis x1)

  7 Strike squad (Psycanon x1; Hallebarde de Force Nemesis x3) 190pt
     1 Justicar (Halberd de Force Nemesis x1)

  4 Escouade de Terminators (Psycanon x1; Halberd de Force Nemesis x3) 300pt
     1 Justicar Thawn

  1 Dreadnought (twin-linked Autocanon x2, psybolt ammo) 135pts

  1 Land Raider Crusader(Bolters hurricane x2, Assault cannon) 255pt




Not the most optimized list, but It's using the models I have. It turns out I only HAD 3 old Justicar models, so I've only got 3 guys in my Strike squads with swords. Those halberds got to be expensive, too. In the end though, it was nice striking people first.


I was pleased with the outing. I wasn't sure about taking a brick, honestly. It seems like to me putting an expensive unit of Termies in with a kind of expensive Librarian, and an inquisitor is a lot of eggs to go in a Land Raider Crusader basket.
As Spaguatyrine will attest, they work. pretty good. You just need a mode of delivery. Since I own a LRC, that was my choice. In the end, I liked it. My LRC never got destroyed. It's a big 'ol chunk of metal. Shrouding served to be an added deterrent to shooting it, as it seemed no one really wanted to get too close to it because of the brick inside the handbag.
Once the LRC had made it's delivery, the Libby served as a good force multiplier for the Termies (but can magnify any GK's nicely). Might of Titan is golden for when you disembark, esp. if can pull off multi-assaults on unsuspecting tanks. Shrouding is hand to have as well. It's got a radius, so if you pull your StormRaven or Land Raider near your Vindicare, you can get him a 2+ cover save for that turn.
The Inquisitor with psychotroke grenades isn't bad either for dealing with troops, wound allocation.

I did love having Justicar Thawn in the squad. It's nice to have someone to take a melta to the face for the rest of the squad. He died in all 3 of my games. He got back up to be his own squad in all 3 games.
Is he worth the 75pts? Not in direct killing his pt cost points, He's worth it for the opportunities he creates. If you look at it straight up, He replaces a Termie that would have died to the nasty shot so, 40 pts. Getting up to be his own scoring unit? I think that might be worth the other 35 of his 75pt cost. Casting Hammerhand twice a game turn? that's gravy.

The vindicare was also a good performer for me. He took out a LOT of armor. Except in the game against Meister Kai, who wisely torrented him down on 1st turn. Otherwise Vindi was going to pop his Farseer in the head. Then again, the Vindi took shots my other units didn't have to. Which has it's own tactical advantage. He's a good third anti-armor/IC/Special weapon utility.

Grey Knight Strike Squads are good all-around utility units. I like the options they bring to the table, and the option denial they provide with anti-DS protection. They're good shooting, and decent CC ability are nice. Being able to DS provides quite a bit of flexibility for how you execute your game.
Coupled with reserves manipulation, you can easily save a 110pt squad for DSing on objectives in the late game, which changes a lot of things.

I'm still wanting to get purifiers into a list, and I still want them to be troops really badly. I may have to work them and a GrandMaster in at 2000pts. Perhaps I need to give a Crowe army a try again. I still like the paperhammer list using 4-5 Purifier squads with 1-2 GKSS. The problem becomes delivery, esp when a Libby's involved.

As far as formulating 'competitive' GK forces? I am still in the fermentation stages. I think we've seen a few things that are easy 'duh' type things (Libby and GKT's with Thawn getting out of a StormRaven or LRC), and some things I think will work, but need a bit more understanding. (all GKSS DeepStrikers with reserves manip.) (All purifiers and Crowe)
I'm still of the thinking one unit of Termies getting to the front, backed up by GKSS's with some purifiers in rhinos, and Psyfleman dreads is gonna be mean.