Building a 1850 Grey Knight army with existing models

[Herr Major]

Since going to a GW store and looking over the codex, I have been trying very hard to make a good hobby shop list...that was until I realized I didn't have some of the important pieces already/pre-ordered. As a more practical use of my time, I started trying to make lists based off of those models I have or will have by weeks end, and have come up with the following. I know we can't post individual point costs yet so I'll avoid breaking forum rules.

HQ:
Grand Master ( blind and rad grenades) 195

Librarian (w/shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan and 3 servo skulls) 180

Elite:
Paladins x6 (MC Psycannon, Brotherhood Banner, Apothecary, MC Halberd x2, MC Sword x2, Falchions) 485

Venerable Dreadnought (2x TL Autocannon, psybolt) 195

Troops:
Grey Knight Strike Squad x10 (psybolt, rhino, 2x Psycannon, MC Daemon Hammer) 295

Grey Knight Strike Squad x10 (psybolt, rhino, 2x Psycannon, MC Daemon Hammer) 295

Heavy:
Dreadknight (Personal Teleporter) 205

1850 on the dot

I know everyone and their grandmaster (see what I did there :D ) is making lists at this point and asking for help, but I really appreciate the cool people in this community and value their opinion.

I have all of the above models (or will soon) plus a stormraven, 1 jokaero, 5 death cult assassins, 1 chimera, 1 ordo malleus in terminator armor with psycannon and hammer, 1 ordo hereticus, 1 ordo xenos, 3 crusaders, 3 banishers, 30+ assorted guardsman and 10 more grey knight terminators. Not a lot to work with but it's a start I guess!

[dethangel]

personaly i think paladins are a huge point-sink they cost a ton and without transport they are going to get hammered for at least 2 rounds and there are only 6 of them T4, melta and rocket bait. insta-killed...
so if you have to take paladins get rid of the apoth its to expensive take 1 more paladin and give them transport and they will be vastly more effective.
....
take Drago instead of the master and libby. he's a monster and he makes your paladins a troop choice. he has the grand stategy ability, psymaster2, titan sword,etc. he's 275 pts of bad a$$.
....
if you make the ven dred a normal dred you'll save like 60pts and with the fortifide psy ability it makes them basicly venerable with a psytest ld10. see if you can find points for 2
....
the strike squads are dead-on. cheap, fast, and effective. keep those or if you take drago you can lose a SS and for around 350 pts you could get a 10 man purifier squad with 1 hammer, 7 halberds, 2 psy cannons, psybolts and a rino. IMO the best CC grey knight unit.
...
the dred knight needs weapons to really be effective...
just something to think about i hope it helps.:)

[Herr Major]

Thanks, that does help!

For Paladins, is a Landraider Crusader the way to go because of the psybolt heavy bolters? Reason they don't currently have a transport is because I don't have the model but that can always be fixed. Also, the only reason I added them to the list was the fact that 10 kitted out terminators costed about the same as those 6 paladins, so I was thinking the 2 wound models might do better instead of 2 five man terminator squads.

I can see Draigo definitely being better than a standard Grand Master, but why no Librarian? Without a dedicated way across the table, I had included him to provide the shrouding and sanctuary powers, unless a landraider would be a better use of the points?

Thanks!

[DarkLink]

I've played a couple games with paladins, and footslogging them actually works well. Unless you're facing DE lance spam, they're near impossible to kill. Wherever the paladins are, the opponent can't be. Stick them up front and center and watch as your opponent is pinned down in their deployment zone trying to kill them.



For your list, I would have either 2 Dreadknights or 2 psyfleman dreads. 1 dread on its own doesn't provide a lot of long range firepower, and 1 DK is melta bait.




Also on the Paladins, I would trade the Banner for a Daemonhammer. The Banner isn't worth it in small squads most of the time. I wouldn't take it unless I had 8+ Paladins, or knew I was going to face 'nidz/orks with lots of multi-wound models.



Lastly, 2 HQs is too expensive under 2000pts. You're spending nearly 400pts on 2 models, and the rest of your army is too expensive to make up that gap. Drop one HQ, and get another Dread/Knight.

Edit: And don't bother with weapons for the DK. They're too expensive for too little benefit. The DK is to jump in your opponent's face and distract them, not to do damage. Jump 2 Dks in their face turn 1/2, and they have to react and focus their firepower.

[Herr Major]

I'm guessing the HQ to drop then would be the Librarian in order to keep Grand Strategy working, so is Draigo a better option then for an HQ? Dropping the Banner and the Apothecary for a MC Hammer Model and adding a second Dreadknight sounds like a solid plan.

So the new modified list is as follows.

HQ:
Grand Master ( blind and rad grenades) 195

Elite:
Paladins x7 (MC Psycannon,MC Daemon Hammer, MC Halberd x2, MC Sword x2, MC Falchions) 445

Venerable Dreadnought (2x TL Autocannon, psybolt) 195

Troops:
Grey Knight Strike Squad x10 (psybolt, rhino, 2x Psycannon, MC Daemon Hammer) 295

Grey Knight Strike Squad x10 (psybolt, rhino, 2x Psycannon, MC Daemon Hammer) 295

Heavy:
Dreadknight (Personal Teleporter) 205

Dreadknight (Personal Teleporter) 205

1835 pts

I could drop 1 paladin with a MC weapon and free up a few other points to change the Grand Master to Draigo, but is it worth it? Also I still have the Dreadnought in there mainly because of my local gaming group loves skimmers and flyers of all kinds (and is modeled as a venerable instead of a regular) but I could see dropping it and freeing up those precious points, but I'm not sure for what.

Thanks!

[DarkLink]

Oh, yeah I missed the Apothecary in there. Yeah, I'd drop that too. I haven't tried it, but so far my Paladins have laughed off small arms fire without it anyways. The only Paladins I've had killed died due to things that ignore FNP anyways, so I'm going with my original opinion that the Apothecary is more or less worthless, unless you know you're facing horde 'nidz or orks.


With the Grand Strategy and a single Paladins squad, you don't need Driago. I'd save him for games with multiple units of Paladins. He's a beast, but so are normal Grand Masters with all those grenades. I think between losing those grenades and the extra 80pts, I'd stick with the GM in this case.


As to the Grand master vs Librarian, it's a bit of personal preference. The Librarian is better for armies that sit back and shoot, the GM for armies that assault, but both work in both cases. The Librarian has some great CC buffs, and the GM is a great counter assault unit.

I think the Dread works in this list. Your opponent also has a lot of Paladins to worry about, and a couple of DreadKnights. His anti-tank is going to be busy, and no matter what he targets he's going to be missing out on something. And that long range fire support is never a bad thing. I'd keep it.

I would consider dropping it down to a normal Dread, and dropping the master crafting on the Paladin's swords, halberds and falchions. That leaves you with 100pts to spend on something. You could get an Inquisitor with Termie armor and a Psycannon, some skulls and maybe another psychic communion, with some spare points to play around with. That'll leave the Paladins with a whole lot of psycannon shots, and thanks to the Grenades on your GM the Inquisitor isn't a pushover in CC anyways. Good wound dump, too, since you don't have the Apothecary.