I decided to play a game with Crowe and some purifiers to help out a friend in testing his army. I was pretty sure I was going to get toasted while going 2nd against a nasty guard army...
I brought a 2,000 list with:
- Crowe
- Inquisitor with Psychic Communion, 3 servo skulls
- 2x 5 man purifier squads with 2 psycannons and Tlass Can Razorbacks. 1 hammer/halberds
- 1x10 man purifer squads with 2 psycannons and 2 incinerators and Tlass Can Razorbacks. 1 ham/halb
- 2x10 man strike squads with 2 psycannons. 1 Razorback w psybolt ammo for Crowe
- 3 plasma cannon servitors in Chimera
- 1 dreadnight with heavy incinerator and teleporter
- 1 psyflemen dread. 2x TLauto cannons with psybolt ammo
- 1 dread with assault cannon and close combat weapon and psybolt ammo
The game was pitched battle with 5 objectives. I played against a guard army that had a ton of firepower. The things that surprised me the most where:
The amount of penetrations on AV12 with the psycannons. This 2000 list had 14 psycannons.
The flexibility of 41 grey knights. Against guard templates from Leman Russ battle cannons and demolishers they did better than expected.
Having the 4 razorbacks was a major key to the success of the army. Even though all three TLAss Cans were destroyed or wrecked, they provided cover from incoming fire, and moved the army closer to the guard line.
The Psyflemen dread was also only targeted once because of all the other priorities the guard player had to deal with. Which of course meant he did a great job.
Being fearless was also a key to victory as not having to roll for leadership checks meant I was able to stay in his face.
Using the 3 servo skulls to drop strike squads on my objectives and the center objective worked incredibly well. I combat squadded them each with a psycannon. They dropped and shot the psycannon doing great damage and they were close enough to get to my objectives.
What I wasn't too happy about:
Dreadknight with teleporter who died way too easily to lascannon fire. The teleporter helped me shunt close to the enemy, but all he did was blow up 1 chimera. Just plain ehh! I like another dread instead.
The plasma cannon servitors did blow up a chimera, but I am not sure if there 60 points are worth it yet.
Assault Cannon Dread. In the past he has done well, but died to torrents of meltas.
At first when I thought and read of others playing crowe I was not excited about what he could and couldn't do, but the power and flexibility of the purifiers just make the list enjoyable and fun to play. I will change some things around with the list to make it more optimal in the future.
Have you played against crowe?
Have you or do you play crowe?
What success have you had with him?
Any tricks or tips in using crowe?
60pts are better spent on 6 henchmen psykers I think, rather than the 3 servitors.
ReplyDeletealso: See? I told you purifiers were good! They were the first GK lists I tried.
Purifier lists basically make DE unplayable.
ReplyDeleteWee...
I have been playing Crowe and his Purifers for my Grey Knight list. I have won two games out of two so far. Both times Crowe just died to powerfists. As for tricks? He either sits in reserve and comes on late to defend the objective or borrows the Strikes Transport so he can get to combat faster while the arrive via Deep Strike.
ReplyDeleteTen Purifiers though carved up ten Tactical Terminators, two 5 Man Marine units and took the enemy objective. Still four of them alive at the end!
I haven't found Crowe to be a huge liability, either. People tend to ignore him or underestimate him.
ReplyDeleteI second the sit him in reserves and have him come in to defend an objective or to counter-outflank someone.
I tried the psykers and rolled 2 perils killing them all out of 5 games. THe other thought is to take some melta's in the chimera. Or I can just drop them all together and add more Power Armor which sound pretty good. Even the Inquisitor in Terminator armor with a psycannon could add the 15th psycannon to the list.
ReplyDeleteFoodie, The purrifiers die just like regular marines. Torrent of fire will take them out. With your dark lances, you should be able to pop AV11 easily. Sorry...
I hadn't thought of keeping crowe back instead of moving forward to kill things and be a target. Nice Idea Lyracian and NIkephoros.