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.