Beginner Grey Knight 500 point Army List: The Lightning Hammer
Ironically does not use hammers.
We had our first session for the Warhammer club at school two days ago, and preparations have begun in earnest for the School League tournament. I have some Student Initiates now, older players from last academic year who have significantly upped their game and model count.
They've even painted them!
I've been feverishly build crafting for them, trying to sort out some outrageously cheesy lists to fit inside a 650 point School League limit, and I'm getting quite a bit of success. They often turn into one trick ponies, but the one trick usually has flexible enough application so they don't meet a hard counter.
One of our newest neophytes is getting into the hobby for the first time, and has chosen to go with Grey Knights. He really likes the idea of paladins in space, but what really caught his eye was this:
 |
| Image taken from the Games Workshop webstore |
The new Grey Knight codex gives us a way to make this the literal star of the show, and also makes starting off an army incredibly easy.
Grey Knight Beginner List: The Lightning Hammer
HQ
Grand Master in Nemesis Dreadknight
Wargear: Nemesis Greatsword, Heavy PsycannonPsychic Powers: Smite, Gate of Infinity
[255 points]
Troops
Terminator Squad
Wargear: 4x Stormbolters and Nemesis Force Weapons, 1x Incinerator and Nemesis Force WeaponPsychic Powers: Smite
[258 points]
Fast Attack
Interceptor Squad
Wargear: 4x Stormbolters and Nemesis Force Weapons, 1x IncineratorPsychic Powers: Smite
[137 points]
Total: 650 Points
You can probably see where this is going. For the 500 point version, drop the Interceptor squad and special weapon on the Terminators. You get a working army in 6 models!
This relatively small army actually has quite a bit of survivability. The weakest part is clearly the Interceptors, with the Terminators and Grand Master presenting some great big distraction damage sponges. It'll work quite well for the neophyte to learn how to use his units, without them getting tabled too quickly.
That's not the trick though. This is all about high alpha strike cheese.
Deployment starts with the Grand Master and Interceptors hiding behind a rock, and the Terminators in teleportation reserve. If you get first turn, proceed to the next paragraph. If not, hope you survive any other alpha strikes the enemy has prepared for the first turn, and then counter attack with some terrifying close combat ability.
If you do get first turn, you can get the whole of your army into the enemy deployment zone and at your swords reach in no time! The Grand Master uses Gate of the Infinity and pops up where he needs to go. The Interceptors use their Personal Teleporters ability to do the same trick.
With the Terminators teleporting on the enemy door step in either case, you have a real hammer of an army zipping across the battlefield like a lightning bolt!
The Terminators are there to really ruin the enemy battle line. At two wounds a piece and 2+ armour save, the enemy will need to put a lot of firepower on them. If they don't, the well known Grey Knight close combat ability will mulch whatever back field units they have. The Incinerator is there to discourage enemy counter charges, but feel free to swap it out for other weapons.
The Interceptors can help with the alpha strike, but their role is to go and grab objectives. They have high mobility, and ignore terrain and models, meaning they can bypass bubble wrap units to slaughter objective campers. Again, the Incinerator helps with this, and gives them a little protection if they get charged themselves.
The Grand Master is the star of the army, targeting the biggest, nastiest things and cleaving them with his massive sword! He is the most effective heavy weapons platform thanks to his BS 2+, meaning moving and shooting is not the problem it is for other units. Once the big things are gone, he can then Gate to anything else that needs killing... imagine ninja shadow stepping but with a giant shining robot knight!
I've purposefully left the force weapon selection blank. That's room-for-cool, so the neophyte can pick what weapons he like the look of. Honestly, the choice is somewhat subjective anyway, with halberds coming our a little on top compared to swords. Warding staves might be a good idea if you're worried about survivability.
So, what do you think? Too small, too specialised? Not using the best the codex has to offer? Let me know in the comments below, and help this neophyte win some games of 40K!
Until next time.
Thanks for reading.
If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated.
If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day!
If you want to support me directly, use the affiliate links below. I get a small percentage of purchases you make her, and you get cheaper miniatures! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my PayPal, or become a true hero to table top education and make a regular donation to my Patreon. Every Little helps!
I like it, I have played Grey Knights before, and this looks like an interesting first stab at a list, and gives me some terrifying ideas for 2,000 points in a Battalion detachment (I could see the 500 point force x 3, and then 500 points of other stuff being amusing to play!)
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting! Since we can't spam Gate you might want to think about what unit you're sending each turn. Nothing stops you from taking loads of Terminator/Interceptor pairs though! The interceptors start on the field to satisfy the 50% on battlefield requirement, and the Terminators all start in reserve.
DeleteSince the Interceptors can bring a pair of special weapons, they can certainly fulfil the role of cover-camping-fire-support. Then when the time is right, just zip over and claim an objective.
That really is terrifying, as you have an army that can literally be anywhere it wants by the first turn... and is decent enough at shooting and close combat to do good work whilst it's there.
I like librarians because for only 105pts you can give them vortex of doom and purifying flame with the Warlord trait psychic epitome for a ton of MW you could also give him fury of Deimos rapid 3 start ap -2 DMG 2. Or sigil so you can deep strike him do mortal wounds then zip out with sigil. Also if he is the only one in range of the there gums the shots will be wasted. Wow a lot for 105pts and some Warlord traits
ReplyDelete