BR: BA vs. GK, SW vs. BA

Fun times to be had!

Well guys, no pictures, but I do have some hysterical fun times to tell you.  My friend took all the pictures so I'll probably just upload them later.  Don't worry, the BRs I'm going to share to you will be pretty epic.  First thing's first:  We played two games tonight, one with my Blood Angels vs. his Grey Knights, and then another with my Space Wolves vs. his Blood Angels.  Which one is more awesome?  I'll let you folks decide.

My list:
Dante
Librarian w/ JP, Sanguine Sword and Unleash Rage
3x 10x ASM w/ Fist/Infernus and 2x Meltaguns
5x Sanguinary Guard w/ CBanner and Fist
Chaplain w/ JP
2x Sanguinary Priests w/ JPs
3x AC/LC Predators

His list:
Draigo
Librarian w/ MC Halberd, 3x Skulls
Sanctuary, Shrouding, Might and Vortex
10x Paladins, 4x Psycannons, BBanner, the works
5x Paladins, BBanner, 2x Psycannons
2x Rifledreads
Dreadknight w/ Heavy Incinerator, Teleporter

Why does everyone have Grey Knights?

I've been out of it for a couple of months now because of the whole house thing, but I kept up with blog feeds and tournament reports.  As if the metagame wasn't stale already, it seems like everyone and their mother plays with Grey Knights now.  That's all I see on major gaming forums, all I see on major blogs and frankly I'm sick of it.  This is probably the biggest bandwagon in the history of 40K.  I've been playing the game since 3rd and I can't remember when everyone played the same army.

Am I crazy?  But come on..
Cheers to the death of originality and fun.  I'm gonna start posting more fun BA and SW stuff soon.

Grey Knights FAQ!

The FAQs:
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1830600a_40k_Rulebook_version_1_3.pdf
http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_CustomProductCatalog/m1830601a_Grey_Knights_v1_0.pdf

Here are some things that stuck out:

Q: If a Grand Master gives a unit with personal
teleporters the Scouts special rule, can they use the
shunt move as a part of their Scouts move? (p22)
A: No.

No more first turn charges!

Q: Does a Dreadknight with a Nemesis doomfist strike
at Strength 6 or Strength 10 in close combat? (p34)
A: Strength 6, as it is not a walker.

Awkward wording on the NDF, but I guess that makes sense. Makes the Great Sword something to be desired now over what we thought was S10.

Q: For each Jokaero Weaponsmith in a henchman unit
after the first you add +1 to the Inconceivable
Customisation roll. Does this mean that if you have 6 or
more Jokaero in a unit that they will receive no
bonuses (as you cannot roll less than a 6 and duplicate
rolls are ignored)? (p50)
A: Yes.

So I guess take 5?

Q: Can models in Terminator armour embark onto an
Inquisitorial Chimera? (p51)
A: Yes.

And here's the final word.

Q: If a model with a Nemsesis force halberd has had his
Initiative reduced to a fixed number by an
ability/special rule, do they still get the +2 Initiative
from the Halberd? (p54)
A: No.

Lash Whips rejoice!

Q: How do you work out whether a psyker is affected
by the Psi-shock special rule on a mindstrike missile or
a psyk-out bomb? (57, 58)
A: Any psyker under the template will be effected by
Psi-shock.

Been playing it like this for a while, but I'm glad they made it clear.

Q: Do you take into account the strength increase from
the psybolt and psyflame ammunition vehicle upgrades
when working out if a weapon is a defensive weapon
or not? If a vehicle has either of these upgrades, must
you use them? (p62)
A: Yes to both questions.

S5 Hurricane Bolters do not count as defensive weapons! I hope everyone's been playing them right.

Q: Would an orbital strike relay targeted within 12" of
one or more servo-skulls have its scatter distance
reduced? (p62)
A: No, it always scatters the full 2D6".

Just icing on the cake.

Q: Are Wounds from Dangerous Terrain tests allocated
in the same way as shooting attacks? (p14)
A: No. Each model moving through dangerous terrain
must take a test. Each model that fails takes a Wound

A lot of people have been playing this as shooting for the purposes of allocation, but I'm glad that it's clear as day that each model has to take DTs.  This increases the chance your IC, Sanguinary Priest or Meltagun dudes fall on their face when jumping.

Q: Do the effects of the same psychic power cast
multiple times on the same unit stack? (p50)
A: Yes, unless specifically stated otherwise.

This is big, because this means that Hammerhand from a Librarian can stack with Hammerhand from a Paladin squad.  If you have a Grand Master in there, you can test for HH 3 times, so on and so forth.  Interesting...

Q: Can a psyker attempt to cast the same psychic
power more than once in a turn? (p50)
A: No, unless the psychic power itself specifically allows
it.

This means that you can't just bring a Libby and have him spam HH to buff your dudes.  In order for you to stack, you must cast from separate sources.

Some things I don't like

I know I've been going on about all the good things about the Grey Knight codex lately and that's perfectly fine.  However, I must confess that I don't like the book as much as I want.  In this post, you'll find out why.

• The essence of what makes Grey Knights special is gone:  WS5, S6, Storm Bolters giving +1 attack, the panoply of special rules, and different degrees of psychic power displayed through the weapons they wield.  I loved the idea of Grand Masters being so psychically powerful their Nemesis Force Weapons were Force Weapons (incredibly rare back in the day).  Now, my Grey Knights feel like Grey Marines.  And no, the Force Weapons and Storm Bolters for 20 points do not do it justice.
• I don't want to be just another Marine Chapter.  Sorry Mat Ward, but I do not like the idea of being grey-colored Marines with 1000 Battle Brothers and a slightly irregular Chapter organization.
• Space Marine super heroes?  Seriously, what's with the fluff on Draigo?  Maybe Michael Bay and 5-year old kids love the whole unstoppable, utterly badass, unslayable superman, but I prefer someone a little more realistic.
• What happened to the puritan-lore that is what Grey Knights is supposed to be?  What's with this random Daemon sword in the hands of a Purifier's Champion?
• Why in the world is the entire codex filled with sorcery and psychic abilities?  Sure, Grey Knights are supposed to be psykers, but this is way overboard man.  It feels like a Thousand Sons Codex more so than what Grey Knights is supposed to be.
• Why are all three Inquisition elements in the book?  This is a Grey Knight book.  Grey Knights are the Chamber Militant of the Ordo Malleus.  Why the hell is Herecitus and Xenos bullshit doing in my book?  Not just that, how come there's barely anything about the Inquisition in the fluff but they're represented in the rules?  This just looks like a last minute higher-up insertion.
• Can someone please tell me why the most elite of the Space Marine Chapters (and this is Ward's own words) incapable of taking Land Raiders as dedicated transports?  Why are there no Librarian Dreadnoughts when our entire Chapter is composed of Psykers?  Why is there like 30 grenade options and not things like Grimoire of True Names or Sacred Incense?  You could of easily named Rad Grenades Grimoire of True Names and Blind Grenades Sacred Incense.  And Jokero monkeys man... seriously?
• Lastly, can someone tell me what I'm going to do with my Inquisitorial Stormtroopers and Grey Knight Terminators w/ Storm Shields?  Thanks.

Sorry guys, but I'm a little old school.  Some of you newer bloods won't agree with me and that's OK.  This is just a Longbeard's grumble.

PGK List Building 101

Now that I have a good amount of games under my belt as PGK, I think I'll touch upon the foundations of what makes a good list.  This will be different from the tactica because I won't discuss the application of said unit.  Instead, I'll talk about what units I've found most useful and which ones I include first when designing an army.

What HQ should I take?

In all the games I've played so far, I'm confident in saying that the Librarian is the best choice in any army lists  For 1500/1750 or even 1850 point players, the Librarian will add more to your army than the Grand Master.  In fact, I would only take the Grand Master in 2K points.  The Librarian adds a huge spell pool to your army in addition to psychic defense.  I think the best thing about the Librarian is that the spells he offers increases provides your army with everything you can ever want.  Might of Titans makes you tear through tanks, Shrouding keeps your dudes alive and Sanctuary prevents you from being assaulted.  Another great thing about the Librarian is that he's a Lv.2 Psyker, so you can cast Hammer Hand from him and stack it with Might.  This frees up your Paladin's abilities to auto-cast/pass Instant Death from the BBanner.  Sanctuary and Shrouding is also cast on your enemies' turn and thus increases the amount of survivability your elite army deserves.  The only thing he can't do is carry Rad or Blind grenades, which is one of the things I advocate when taking the Grand Master.

I see the Librarian as a staple in PGK play for the reasons mentioned above, but the Grand Master is definitely no slouch.  He's a good fighter, superior shooter and can carry grenades that seriously changes the way your enemies interact with his unit.  The best thing about him is Grand Strategy and by taking him alone your opponent's acknowledge the fact that your units can be deadlier in combat, can outflank him or count as scoring when they otherwise couldn't.  This opens up a repertoire of options otherwise unavailable to your army.  Truly, one of the only reasons the GM is not a staple is his lack of a psychic hood.  Psychic defense is so important in the games that I play that not having it is seriously detrimental to my army.  Sometimes you just can't afford having that Paroxysm or Doom casted on your men.

A guide to GK unit upgrades

In this article, I will highlight the importance of certain unit upgrades for Grey Knights.  Keep in mind that I do my guides in a very cost effective manner.  If I don't think the unit upgrade isn't worth it, I won't mention it.  Please, feel free to disagree via questions or comments.

When to Master-Craft?

For 5 points, there's a lot of reasons why you should MC weapons.  You increase accuracy in your shots and you improve the lethality of your attacks in CC.  A GM or Libby with a MC weapon makes him much more dangerous in combat because you're going to be landing more Force Weapon hits.  Once Force Weapons are activated, everything in the game that lives or breathes will fear you without question.  Eternal Warrior is the only thing that can save them at that point.  My rule to Master-crafting is simple and effective:  Always MC your Psycannons if you can, always MC your Daemonhammers and always MC your HQ's weapons if you can fit the points.  Keep in mind that MC is only 5 points and most of the time you can put it on any weapon you wish.  That means when you want something to hit; when you NEED something to hit, 5 points is a very small price to pay.  All squad leaders can MC their weapons, another thing to keep in mind.

More PGK Battle Reports!

Oh man, so many games, so little time to write.  The good thing though is that I have got a ton of good experience in so I'm ready to share my results.  In these reports, you'll see optimized and balanced army lists because that's the way to victory.  I'll keep these BRs in note form because some of the games were ridiculous.

PGK Reflections

So I've been playing quite a few games with Grey Knights and I have some vital battlefield experience to share.  This will be a semi-battle report in addition to a full blown analysis of the units I've played with lately.

I played a game with a all termie list last night and I wasn't too happy with their performance.  Small model count and terminator armies always suffer from bad rolling.  Not saying that my rolling was terribad, but it was mediocre.  Mediocre is not allowed in army with only 27 models.  As most of you know, 40K is a wound saturation game.  You shoot something enough, force enough armor saves and no matter how amazing you are, you will die.  Terminators suffer from this problem.

Last night's game was against CSM and I was playing with 2x 10x units of Terminators and a unit of 7x Paladins.  The task force was led by a Grand Master w/ Psycannon and a Librarian with a bunch of skulls scattered around the battlefield.  At the end of the game, I drew a pretty conclusive analysis of the battle:

PGK Battle Reports

Updated: 12:24am PST, 3-18-11, Game 2 posted!!!

This will be a collection of battle reports of me playing games with Pure Grey Knights.  I will be trying out a lot of different lists over the next couple of weeks to get a better feel of the book.  As always, I'll be pulling PGK lists from my tactica and playtesting my theories so I can turn them into law.  Keep in mind that feedback is very important to me, as well as discussions about tactics and strategy.  In terms of questions, please refer to what game you're talking about.  An example would be:  "In game #1, you did this.." etc.

Pure Grey Knights Tactica

Before you read this tactica, you have to understand one key thing:

This a tactica dedicated to playing with half of the Grey Knights army book.  You will not have access to any Inquisitors, Henchmen, Assassins or crazy space monkeys.  If you want to play with those units, please close out of this tactica immediately.

If you're still here, that means you're ready to play a real man's game.  You will play an army that's so elite that no other army can match you in the battlefield when played correctly.  Whether that proves to be correct or not depends entirely on you.  You will be handicapped and you will face bad match-ups time and time again.  To emerge victorious means nothing, for tomorrow you will face another enemy.  To suffer defeat also means nothing, for tomorrow you will walk onto the battlefield and try again.  You have given your life to the Chapter and you know no fear.  Be prepared to be taught the ways of pure Grey Knights.

I have seen it

So I was at my LFGS today and I got a good hard look at the Grey Knight codex.  I studied it, like the Art of War but in a hour's time because there was a hundred people there.  I only focused on what I deemed to be the most important and that was the actual Grey Knight units.  There was a lot of people looking at the book and I didn't care much for the Inquisitors and their items.  Overall, the book is almost exactly like the pdf, all the way down to the costs.  For more wargear info, check my previous posts.

Nemesis Force Weapons
Brotherhood of Psykers for Nemesis Force Weapon states that you take 1 psychic test for all models with a NFW. If you pass, ALL wounds caused by the unit count as Instant Death. Originally it was thought that you only get to blow up 1 guy, but now you can blow up an entire unit of Nob Bikers.

The sky is falling!

As expected, noobs from around the world are crying OP already at the new GK codex.  This happened for every single codex release that I've seen in the last 10 years.  Yes, I know, this thread comes from whineseer, but threads like this has appeared all over the net.  Guess what?  It's not going to stop.

Let me describe what's happening:  Bad players playing other bad players automatically result in a codex being overpowered.  When a veteran player analyzes a codex, several things take place inside his head that's completely alien to lesser players.  For example, I'll analyze myself; not because I think I'm the greatest player to have ever lived, but I have seen the rise and fall of army books since 3rd and have played in thousands of matches both competitively and casually.

Good morning Grey Knights!

I woke up this morning and raced to my computer for one reason and one reason only:  Grey Knights are available for pre-order.  Without further mumbo-jumbo, here they are:

The latest GK rumors

From various sources, taken from the arrival of the GK Black Boxes from around the world:

• Nemesis Force Sword is +1 to inv save if they already have one.
• Nemesis Force Halberd is +2 to initative.
• Nemesis force stave 2+ invun to close combat wounds.
• Brotherhood Banner -25 points. +1 attack to unit, and all models in the unit automatically pass there pyschic test for there force weapon.
• Interesting factoid -Psybolt Ammo gives +1 Strength to Stormbolters,Hurricane bolters,Heavy bolters, Auto Cannons and Assault cannons.
• Warp Stabilization Field allows Librarian to transport vehicle using the Summoning Power. Servo Skulls act like mystics with extra goodies And Brain mines means affected unit cannot act that assault phase
• Psycannon: S7 AP4 Assault 2, Heavy 4, Rending
• Heavy Psycannon: S7 AP4 Large Blast Rending
• Heavy Incinerator operates like the hellhound(+12")
• Doomfist are basically Nemesis Dreadnought CCW(ie S10 powerfists)
• Nemesis Greatsword is S6 but allows rerolls to hit and wound
• DK Daemonhammer is S10 Thunderhammer
• All nemesis weapons have daemonbane which basically ignores eternal warrior for daemons and psykers.
• Psilencer? It's got: Range of 24" Strength 4 AP -Heavy 6 There's also the option for a Gatling Psilencer, which has the same stats excepts it's Heavy 12 A Psilencer always wounds Daemons on a roll of a 4+ unless the score required to wound would normally be less.
• Psyk grenades has random abilities (waiting to hear more) Rad grenades are -1T Blind grenades are defensive

My GK match-up predictions

I wrote a article over at Bell of Lost Souls on all the GK matchups.  Please take a look at the article here.  I'll write the short-hand donation here and you guys can agree/disagree with me.  Be as vocal as you can because I love seeing other people's point of view.

GK = Marines (SW, BA, Vanilla)
GK > Chaos Daemons
GK = CSM
GK < Dark Eldar
GK < Eldar
GK < Imperial Guard
GK > Necrons
GK > Orks
GK < Tau
GK >= Tyranids
GK < Witch Hunters

Summary:
5 equal matchups
4 favorable matchups
5 unfavorable matchups

In short, I think we'll see the metagame shift towards plasma weaponry because elite armies with small model counts do not mix well with Plasma Cannons.  I know this, in every sense of the word because of 4th Ed. Dual Lash with max Oblits.  Dark Eldar also ripped me a new one in 4th and I think we'll see the same amount of damage done this time around.  Mech Tau just eats elite MEQ for breakfast, Eldar will be very strong still and Mech IG is just lol.  Witch Hunters is still a very competitive codex, don't let anyone tell you differently.

Go read the article, come back and let me know what you guys think.  I'm eagerly waiting your replies.

My Grey Knight paint scheme

Everyone has a paint scheme and the one I use is pretty ancient.  This is the method that I was taught so many years ago and it's the same one I use today.

• GW White Primer
• Heavy drybrush Boltgun Metal
• Badab Black wash
• Mithril Silver drybrush
• Enchanted Blue on the eyes and Psycannon
• Asurman Blue wash on the eyes and weapon
• Icy Blue dot on the eyes
• Shining Gold on the gothic wording
• Ogryn Flesh wash on the wording after
• Red Gore on the purity seals/books
• Menoth White Highlight on any cloth
• Devlun Mud wash on the purity seals and cloth
• Apply washes and such as needed

My GK army lists

One thing's for damn sure:  No more dual Land Raider crap if you want to play competitive.  Believe it or not, I've never played dual LRs for pure GKs.  I don't believe in taking 250+ point transports when most of the army is already so damn expensive.  Maybe because I like playing with a lot of Grey Knight Terminators and thus I spent most of my time DS'ing or footslogging.  You know what, I'm doing it again for this upcoming codex.  Now that the rest of my troops can take Rhinos, they're going to be the ones taking objectives and getting things done.

Check out my army lists:

2000

HQ:
Mordrack = 200
+10x Ghost Knights (Halberds, 2x Psycannon, 3x Warding) = 430
Lv.2 Librarian (Warding, +3x Powers) = 200

TROOP:
10x GKSS (Rhino, 2x Psycannons) = 260
10x GKSS (Rhino, 2x Psycannons) = 260
5x GKSS (Rhino, Psycannon) = 160
10x Terminators (Halberds, 2x Psycannons, 2x Warding) = 490

In this first list, you'll see my love of Grey Knight Terminators play out with purpose.  GM Mordrack enters battle on turn 1 with his retinue of Ghost Knights and start pouring down the fire.  They will find a good place to take cover from and lay down suppressing fire and will cast Psychic Communion so reinforcements can arrive.  Depending on the mission, Mordrack's Grand Strategy will either give the Librarian's Terminator unit Scout or re-roll 1s if I want things deader.  Scout allows me to outflank with +1 to reserves from PC, and I can always DS straight in another strategic location if I wanted to.  The Lv.2 Librarian has +3x powers which will probably be Quicksilver, Might of Titan and Summoning.  Quicksilver allows Grey Knights to fight glass hammer CC like Harlequins and triumph, Might of Titan punches through armor with ease and Summoning can bring squads to reinforce the front lines or bail Mordrack's squad of dudes out of trouble.

Some special rules for our Daemon friends

Well, it definitely looks like Grey Knights will have the upper hand vs. Chaos Daemons in April.  That is.. unless we provide them with a bit of fair play.  What do I mean by that?  I mean house-ruling some stuff just for them.  There is nothing fluffier than Grey Knights fighting Chaos Daemons.  I mean, come on:  Daemons' not a super strong codex to begin with.  Fatecrusher doesn't mean jack because not everyone and their mother wants to play that crap.  Now that Grey Knights are going to come out and more than half the army is geared towards eliminating Daemons, how do we make things more balanced?

If I fought against a Daemon player, I would grant him these special rules:

• Your entire army can DS on Turn 1 instead of randomly rolling for which half.  In addition, the Daemon player can choose to deploy normally via the mission rules.  Why?  Because the Chaos Gods wants mankind completely destroyed, no one, not even the most righteous defenders of mankind will stand in their way.  I call this rule:  For the Glory of Chaos.
• At the beginning of the game, Daemon players can choose D3+2 units and give them the ability to outflank.  Why?  Because the Grey Knights are completely surrounded by the forces of Chaos and the only one that's capable of helping them is the Emperor.  I call this:  The Darkest Day.
• Which brings us to our next rule:  All Daemons have without number via the old 4th Ed. Tyranid rules with a daemonic twist.  If a unit of Daemon troops is completely destroyed, they may choose to come down via DS next turn or walk on their side of the field with their full unit intact.  I call this:  Daemonic Infestation.

What do you guys think?  I personally accept the challenge.

Pure Grey Knights

First, make sure to check the previous rumor thread.  It's currently 2:12am over here and Commissar posted a bunch of new rumors.  This post, however, will deal with building a pure Grey Knight force with the new codex. That's right, pure GK, forget all that Inquisition stuff.. even though the Vindicare Assassin is so crazy good it's outrageous.

Here's all the "pure" Grey Knight info that's needed to start building army lists:

Grand Master - 175 points
WS6 BS6 S4 T4 W3 I5 A3 Ld.10 2+/4++
The Grand Strategy is the ability of the Grand Master to give one of four special rules to D3 units (Infantry, Jump Infantry, MCs, or Walkers, NOT Inquis. Warbands, ICs, or Modrak's Ghost Knights). The rules are:
-Hammer of Righteousness: Nominated unit re-rolls to wound rolls of 1 for the duration of the game
-Shield of Blades: Target unit gets Counter Attack
-Spear of Light: Target unit gets Scouts
-Unyielding Anvil: Target unit gains Scoring

Even more GK rumors!

From Commissar Ciaphas on B&C:
Updated 1:51am PST 2-13-11

"Inquisitor Coteaz allows you to have Henchman warbands as troops. There are NO Inquisitorial Stormtroops, but you can take Warrior Acolytes who you can arm with Hot-Shot Lasguns if it makes you feel any better. It's a meh option at best. Crusaders Squad spam is going to be extremely prevalent I fear. You can take them as troops for plasma pistol cost per Crusader. Storm Shields and Power weapons. Each. It's going to be a mess.

Falchions are taken in PAIRS as in the entry is "A pair of Nemesis Falchions" so yeah. I think Stormbolters act as pistols for the GKs as per the previous codex. Nemesis Force Sword is just a power weapon as far as I know. That was what it looked like when I last paged through the armoury section. Plus, why would Halberds and Nemesis Daemonhammers cost +5 points then? They'd be free as a tradeoff.

I'll check the next time I see it as to what the Brotherhood Banner and the Heavy Pyscannon and Gatling Psilencer do. Psybolt Ammo ignores invulnerable saves I BELIEVE. Not sure. I'll check the next time I see, so no one get all worked up about it just yet. Master Crafted weapons work the same as they always have, and even GKSS Justicars can MC their weapons. The Paladin Nemesis weapons aren't any different than the ones I already listed.

Henchman are Elites without Coteaz, but I wouldn't worry as far as that goes. The Elite section is pretty balanced so unless you want to go Paladin Spam (And honestly, if you do just take the Supreme Grandmaster Draigo he makes them troops anyway. Ven Dreads are meh, Purifiers are one of my favorites, but only as Troops. Dreads can be taken as Heavies, so really, you can choose between Assassins (Only one per type, they're Unique), a Techmarine, and Henchman Warbands. And the warbands are pretty diverse as far as things go.

Also, Astral Aim, your target gets a 4+ Cover save. Not sure if that was mentioned yet or not."