Some Grey Knights Ramblings

I thought I’d just depart from writing about every single option in the book because frankly I’m a little short on time (work, as usual) so I’ll just condense all my rambling into this one article for now.

In the past few years, the metagame of 40k has been shaped by the internet, namely through forums and blogs. Although I frequent forums and blogs, I recognize the issues, namely “forumitis”. Someone talks about something as if its pure gold, and everyone who doesn’t think for themselves jumps on the bandwagon, and begin spreading news about its awesome, when frankly its not always so.

I’ve always had a personal opinion on things, and often (much to my joy and unending torment to enrgie as I brag about it to him) they do get “approved” later on by the masses as a more prominent internet figure "discovers" them. My ramblings may or may not be wrong, and may or may not work depending on your mind set and playstyle. Do not let my opinions dictate the way you play, but let it just open your mind to the possibilities of this army so that you don’t get bogged down by propaganda :P

I’ve also opened several threads about some of these units on the B&C, and thus far most of them have gotten some good replies.

Draigo

I’ve written a little bit about Chuck Norr….I mean, Draigo earlier, and this is one of those things that can be subject to forumitis. Some people think he sucks. Some people think that by playing him, you HAVE to play a Draigowing. Yes, he is pricey, and yes, he is somewhat restricted in his wargear, but as I mentioned; you pay 60 points for a guy with considerably better stats. Am I saying he is a bargain? Not really, but he isn’t the overcosted piece of crap some view him as either.

Regarding the Draigowing, taking Draigo opens up Paladins as a Troop choice, but one should not feel burdened to take an entire army of them. My suggestion? Take one Paladin Squad. Give it an Apothecary and Banner then shove Draigo in there. He can take those S8/9's like a man, and frankly T5, 2+/3++/4+ FNP W4 Eternal Warrior is going to take a while to remove. What about your second Troop slot? Take something simple. Maybe a small GKSS squad. Maybe, heck, a single lone Paladin if you are really low on points. Draigo has Grand Strategy, and if you need it he can give someone else scoring. I’d argue that he *could* fit in 1,500 games, although he is not necessarily the most competitive choice at below 2,000.

Crowe

The internet will have you believe he sucks so bad you just shove him in a corner and hope he doesn’t die. At the same time, I see people talking about placing a considerably-softer nearly-100-point Sanguinary Priest (eg. Lightning Claw + Jump Pack) in combat simply so that you “don’t waste his two attacks”. Really?

Granted in a Kill Point game/vs Dark Eldar you may want to be careful with him, but remember; he is 150 points, and he can actually kill if given a chance. I wrote about him previously, and IMO he’s not entirely crap, as long as he’s used correctly. Again, I’m not saying he’s good, but he’s not the “150 point tax that sits in a transport hoping to never die” that some say he is. Do keep in mind you will have to use him like a recluse – keep him a little bit away from the main thrust of your force to make sure the enemy doesn’t get to charge him and another squad of yours at the same time.

Grey Knight Strike Squads

Some people would have you believing the GKSS are AWESOME because “hey, 20 point Space Marines with Force Weapons and Stormbolters!”. My issue? 20 point Space Marines that die like Space Marines. Yes, they are rather good and I’m not saying they “suck”, BUT you have to be careful with the way you look at them. Having Force Weapons doesn’t make them an “assault unit”. They are a shooting unit, and you play them like one. As I mentioned in my last article, use them as they have always been used; a mid-field unit that only fights in close combat when it absolutely has to. Although the Hammer is always a decent addition, Halberds are a poor choice due to their lack of effectiveness in close combat, and crazy price tag.

They do, admittedly, have a few plus points. First of all, they do not need a special HQ to unlock and IMHO are better than Terminators (see my discussion on Terminators in my last article). Sometimes, all you want to take for your HQ is that Librarian for psychic power defense, and I personally take Librarians with most of my army lists even from my other armies for that. Ten guys with a Psycannons/bolts will punch a decent hole in anything it points at, and you can do it all from a fairly comfortable range of 24”. If you keep the enemy at arms length there is little you can do to go wrong with them. And much like Tacticals, ten Space Marines take a decent amount of firepower to actually remove. Last but not least, they do have Warp Quake, which has some utility.

Henchmen

Some people are insistent on Pure Grey Knight armies, and I have no quarrel with such people as I understand the desire to play such a beautiful army in…all its beauty, and to stick with the desired theme and look of an actual Grey Knight army. However, my issue is with those who write-off Henchmen because they are apparently not-as-good-as GKs.

The Henchman squad is by far one of the most variable squads in the game, and as such it almost requires its own article. However, to keep things short I’ll just go about it in point forms:

1) Mystics for the win. Deep Striking something? Please, please take them. Servo Skulls are awesome, but Mystics are just better for this purpose.

2) Crusaders and Death Cult Assassins. There was some talk about them during early rumors, but then they faded into obscurity. For their points, I really love these guys. The trick IMO is to take more Crusaders than DCA’s; I’m leaning towards, say, 7 Crusaders and 2 DCAs. DCAs are extremely killy but die to small arms fire, so you really want some beef to help soak up the shots. T3 isn’t very beefy, but 3++ is pretty reliable. Note that I’m not advocating a pure-Henchmen army; I expect that you will still have a good bunch of Grey Knights, so you could use these guys as support, or as sacrifices/bait – they are cheap enough (cheaper than GKs at least) for the duty.

3) Acolytes. I like them as they are cheap Guardsmen and make good cannon fodder, but frankly when I see them, I see Flamers. BS 3 is pretty bad and a Meltagun, although tempting, is pretty costly for its inaccuracy. The Flamer mitigates the issue but is (for some reason) not something everyone talks about. Might be worth splashing one or two into an assault Henchmen unit.

4) The “Inquisitorial Devastator Squad”. People complain about the lack of long ranged guns, and some complain about how many of our guns don’t have AP 3 or less. Enter the 20 point Plasma Cannon Servitor. Three of those combined with (say) a pair of Jokaero, and a Hellrifle-totting Inquisitor and maybe some Acolytes as cannon fodder. I’d take them if I had the HQ slot to spare for the babysitter-Inquisitor. And much like DCA’s, monkeys are to be used lightly and sparingly, just like herbs and spices during cooking.

5) Coteaz makes them Troops, and he isn’t too bad. He is a cheap HQ choice, and although he will die to anything that wants him dead rather easily, he does bring to the table his Level 2 Psyker powers, permitting him to cast both Hammerhand and the (very nice) Sanctuary, on the same turn. Combine this with a Henchmen melee squad, and you have a very well-priced, efficient squad. He also drops the cost of your core by quite a bit as even the most expensive non-monkey Henchmen are still cheaper than GKs.

Inquisitors

I wrote quite a bit about them in my last article, but really, please consider them. They are really points efficient and a good addition to any army as long as you have the HQ slot to spare. In small’ish games (say, below 2,000), its hard to go wrong with a Librarian and one of these. It is sometimes amazing why so many people talk about Librarians and GMs but fail to give these guys some credit. Recap from my last article:

1) Support HQ. Just as you would take, say, a Warrior Priest in a WHFB Empire army, you can take one of these, stick them to a squad, and let the squad benefit from his buffs; be it a mere Stubborn, or those sexy Rad Grenades, or because you actually paid for Hammerhand. He *can* fight, but don’t count on it. Keep him simple and cheap, don’t go buying toys for him.

2) Shooty HQ. Conversion Beamers are fun, but can be difficult to use. I’m a bigger fan of the Hellrifle, as it is also very conveniently the same range as a Plasma Cannon.

3) Generalist HQ. Terminator Armor, Psycannon and the (obligatory) Daemonhammer. Makes for a very reasonably-priced all-rounded HQ perfect for small games. T3 and I1 means that he can still easily die, but his Terminator Armor, S6 close combat attacks and Relentless Psycannon means he is still a pretty good bargain for his points. Just don’t expect him to be a Grandmaster-equivalent in combat….

Razorbacks

I wanted to put this under Henchmen, but I figured it warrants is own slot. Now, I love Razorbacks. The concept of having a transport vehicle with a gun strapped on it is very appealing to me. However, I don’t really understand the concept of shoving a tiny squad of Henchmen into a single Razorback in the hopes of it being a “scoring unit in a shooty transport”. Small squads of Henchmen (anything less than 10) will die and give free points/pain tokens to people.

My biggest gripe however is the sheer fixation some have on Razorbacks. Again, they are good and I do like/use them, but sometimes I feel like people expect them to act like a main battle tank that happens to be able to carry troops. The Razorback dies like any other AV 11 vehicle, and the second it even gets a Weapon Destroyed it rapidly loses its purpose. It is easy to go to town on upgrades, but that 85-points Psybolt-Assault Cannon Razorbacks feels like a whole lot to pay for something that can immediately be stripped of its power from random smallish/medium arms fire. The Razorback also forces you to use small squads, but not all units function well when small.

Interceptors

Where is the love for these poor guys? I started a thread on these guys on the B&C back when no one even cast a glance at them. Quite literally, I may have been the first person to want to brainstorm about their uses. For 26 points a pop they aren’t cheap, but think about it; if you consider Jump Packs to cost “2 points” (the difference between a Tactical and Assault Marine in the BA codex), then you are paying 4 points per model for the very powerful ability to instantly relocate 30” without risk once a game.

Although some talk about putting Psycannons on these guys, I’m a bigger fan of giving them Incinerators as they, above all units in the game, can choose where to place that nice template at their whim and fancy. The Psycannon/Psybolt squads is still pretty good, and combined with their 12” move permits them to function like a very mobile shooty GKSS. My only issue with them is that you may need to take a decent number of them (or somehow get the rest of your army up there fast) because sending them in piecemeal for suicide runs is a sure way to lose points.

Purgation Squad

Not many talk about these guys, possibly due to the PsyfleDread (still the most terrible name ever but practical :P) which is nearly as good as people would have you believe. Second on my list for the Heavy Support choices would be a small Purgation Squad, because FREE (FREE!) Incinerators en-masse is a very terrifying thing to behold. Even if the small Purgation Squad is gunned down before reaching the enemy, it is only 140 points+ depending on the transport. Not a big loss and if they reach the enemy, things WILL die.

Dreadknight

To be honest I’m not the biggest fan of the Dreadknight simply because there are better options. IMHO, the Nemesis Dreadknight suffers from a very large “flaw” – it has an unusual role that’s kind of neither here-nor-there and if you want it to do something properly, you have to pay for it. The GK army as a whole has very little issues dealing with large targets due to the severe overabundance of Force Weapons (and Hammers), assuming that large target isn’t an Eternal Warrior. Even then those Hammers would slow it down and Hammerhand can make them easier to kill. Vehicles on the other hand already fall victim to Psyfle’s, Psycannons and the random Hammer-to-hull. The unupgraded Dreadknight also lacks sheer weight of firepower to kill hordes, so all things considered its just there to kill (mostly) vehicles that ideally have higher armor, or just to make sure that big nasty is completely dead.

This means that if you want to take the Dreadknight, you have to choose a role for it. IMO, the Dreadknight is a melee unit. Don’t let its gun options fool you – its primary purpose is to walk to your opponent’s face and beat it in. Save those points, and at most spend it on the Greatsword (I’ve always been a fan of things that help mitigate bad dice without costing too much, same reason I like Lightning Claws) and *maybe* the Teletubby antenna. My issue with the teleporter is its extravagant points, and the 30” shift loses its “shine” a little if you don’t take a gun with it, although it is not entirely useless. A scoring Dreadknight (via the GM) can still last-minute teleport to a table quarter (if it survived till the end, unlikely though) or you can use the Dreadknight(s) as a bait, then redeploy turn 1, and make sure you reach melee by turn 2 – easily achieved, and rather scary when pulled off. A basic, unupgraded Dreadknight (or two!) is also a pretty decent choice in smaller (<1,000 point) games.

The other option is to play a shooty Dreadknight. With a Heavy Psycannon and Heavy Incinerator it becomes a whooping 200 points – 65 points more than a Psyfle and still more expensive than a Venerable Psyfle. That is a lot of points for a Psycannon pie plate and a long-ranged Incinerator. I personally don’t like the shooty Dreadknight because it’s a whole lot of points for something that isn’t actually all that tough and doesn’t do what the rest of your army can already do. The “hybrid” Dreadknight tends to be overcosted if you went for the works, or if you strapped on one gun to an otherwise melee Dreadknight its not as bad, but…..I’m not jumping with excitement. I can see a use for it, I can see it working, and I would eventually own one because I like robots, but it is not very high on my to-buy list. In fact I just made an order of the new stuff and the only thing I didn’t buy was the Dreadknight.

Although not a vehicle, much like many vehicles, you often want more than one for redundancy, and if you go for the teleporter, couple them with Interceptors. This gives you an army with borderline insane mobility and permits you to pick your fights at will. It costs a lot and your army will be tinier than usual, but I believe in the hands of a good player it can be dangerous.

So that’s the end of my rambling for now, I hope this has given you readers some stuff to think about and discuss. Do comment!

Disclaimer: None of the pictures are mine, just stuff I Google'd.

Tomb kings in WD next month!

After flipping through all the grey knight goodness I came to the last page.

Looks like we are getting some dusty undead next month!

My Take on The New Grey Knights - Part I: HQ and Troops

Grey Knights are a little something I hold fairly dear in my heart. I’ve had a Grey Knight collection since back in 3^rd edition when the metal models came out (as they were and still are amongst the nicest Space Marines ever made by GW), but my fascination with them stretches back a slight bit further, when I saw the (very) old metal terminator models, so much so that I still have an old converted SW Terminator Runepriest that I converted into one. Thus, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that my favourite models were not only getting new rules, but also new plastic multi-piece kits!

That said, by now I’m certain everyone has already heard rumours of the latest Grey Knights codex (or possibly even read the codex!), and with the official release date just around the corner, I thought I’d just take some time out of my busy day to talk about what I really feel about them. There is a lot of discussion going on about them on several forums, but I seem to notice some common “issues” being discussed, so I’m just going to toss my opinion in.

I’ll keep things simple since I assume at this point most of you have already read the rules, so I’m going to skip through statlines, abilities and whatnot, unless it serves to support my discussion. Note that my opinions are not necessarily “correct” by any means, and I humbly must admit that I’m going purely off sheer theoryhammer at the moment of writing this. These are merely my opinions, and in no way should dictate how you want to play your army J

HQ

Grey Knight Grand Master

(Yes thats Draigo, but hey, he is the Supreme Grandmaster....plus I have a more fitting photo for Draigo based on his fluff...)

Coming in at a whopping 175 points base, the GM (as I’ll call him from here) is pretty much what you’d expect from a more-elite-than-usual Space Marine Commander. Pretty good stats, is considerably resilient with a sexy 3++ in close combat (with the sword), and can take a ton of kit, if you are willing to pay the points. The problem?

1) Terminator Armor (TDA from now on). Its nice for survivability, not nice for transportation. You either suck it up and buy something to move him, or just risk footslogging/deep striking him. Or shove him in a Chimera bought for Henchmen, but some part of me has a feeling that would be FAQ’ed since it seems silly that TDA cannot go into Rhinos/Razorbacks but they can go into Chimeras.

2) He has three attacks, and unless you are willing to buy falchions (ew…) that’s all he’ll ever get unless he charges. You’ll ALWAYS want to master-craft/digiweapon/both his weapons, just to make sure he doesn’t fluff his rolls. However, given that he has a Force Weapon (as with pretty much all other Grey Knights short of Crowe) in some situations that’s all you need. Still, he would still suffer against hordes, and can easily be tarpitted if you are not careful.

I’d personally not bother going to town with this guy. Just give him master-crafted and/or digital weapons and those new-fangled (and utterly awesome) rad grenades/blind grenades/servo skulls, and call it a day. I’ve seen some people suggest buying him a Psycannon, but its ultra-premium price tag due to his BS 6 makes it too costly IMO.

He does, however, bring something unique that no other army has ever seen; Grand Strategy. All the options for Grand Strategy are extremely good in the right situations. Counter-attacking deep striking Paladins? Scouting Interceptor Squads? Scoring almost-any GK? Yes please. However the real power here, IMO, is the fact it occurs before deployment so you can tailor it to your needs (more for tournaments), and combined with the fact this actually occurs before Combat Squads, you can potentially give 2-6 units additional abilities after Combat Squad’ing.

The problem with him is simply that many people would take him, but just because its “cool to have Grand Strategy”. Fact is, the GK army has access to some really nice HQ choices, and the GM is pricy for a not-very-killy character – only take him if you have a grand strategy for Grand Strategy (heh), otherwise you end up paying a lot of points for a dude with three attacks.

GK Brother Captain

No. Just no. Pay those 25 points for Grand Strategy.

Brotherhood Champion

Urgh. He usually won’t get any more than three attacks under most situations, whether it be his one-target D3 attacks or his “all in base contact” ability, and you practically send him in wanting him to die, just for a chance to nuke someone with a very risky and not-too-unlikely-to-fail ability. If you want a cheap HQ, Inquisitors is where its at.

Librarian

A great utility HQ. His stats suck so don’t bother gearing him for combat, and his Level 3 upgrade, while tempting, costs a bomb. Again, I believe in keeping him simple. Most of the psychic powers have a good use, but I’m personally fond of:

1) The Shrouding. Stealth adds to the survivability of your very small elite army, and given the abundance (excessive abundance IMO) of cover in 5^th ed., you’d want this.

2) Sanctuary. Anyone who has ever played with/against pIrusk in Warmachine knows how bloody frustrating it is to force difficult terrain on charging units, and potentially game-changing. Making it dangerous terrain to boot is just icing on the cake.

3) The Summoning (maybe). The ability to move something from anywhere in the table to where the Librarian is opens up a realm of possibilities. The reason I said “maybe” is because it is somewhat risky due to the deep strike rules, and the way I read it, I’m pretty sure servo skulls/Mystics/homers do not work as targets of the Summoning are not “arriving”, they are simply being moved around.

Lord Kaldor Draigo

Frankly his fluff is terrible and feels like the writer was high on Chuck Norris jokes when he wrote them, but that’s not my point…

Many people have called him “Mephiston for GKs”, and seeing his stats, its not difficult to see why. S5 T5 W4, Eternal Warrior and with a 2+/3++ save, he will be extremely difficult to kill. Scary stats aside he’s decent; not exceptionally good, but not nearly as bad as many portray him. IMO, the trick is to shove him into a Paladin squad with an Apothecary, which would make him impossibly resilient to “mundane” weapons. He is also a Level 2 Psyker, so Hammerhand activated Force Weapons for everybody. His main issue is really his points cost, but for 60 points over a Level 2 GM with a master-crafted weapon, you basically get +1S, +1T, +1W, +1A, Eternal Warrior, Sanctified Flame (which isn’t great, but oh well.). Sounds like a deal to me.

Plus, he allows you to take Paladins as troops. While the immediate kneejerk to this is the “Draigowing”, but I think some Paladins combined with things like Mystics for deepstrike accuracy would be pretty important as Land Raiders/Storm Ravens would put a very heavy burden on your points.

Grand Master Mordrak

He WAS cool in the beta when his Ghost Knights were 32 points each, but now they cost the same amount of points as a normal Terminator; but without Psycannons/Incinerators. That coupled with the fact the entire squad dies when Mordrak dies and that Mordrak isn’t an Eternal Warrior means there no way for me to ever justify taking him.

Brother-Captain Stern

I’m never a big fan of giving the opponent an advantage unless my advantage was far greater than the advantage I was giving my opponent. The fact that the advantage I’m giving myself is EXACTLY what I’m giving my opponent means I won’t use him personally. He’s also pretty expensive, and unless you get really lucky on that D6, Zone of Banishment isn’t all too awesome either.

Castellan Crowe

Ah, Crowe. I wrote a rather long reply about him on a forum before, so I’m just going to copy/paste this:

I'm probably going to get a lot of flak for this, but seriously, Crowe isn't that bad. I'm not by any means saying he's GOOD, but he's not as epic terribad as I think many people think. A lot of people get discouraged by the whole "he's not an IC, his weapon isn't a force weapon, it doesn't ignore armor saves, the Grandmaster is 100x better and people charging him gain furious charge" issue, but if you think about it:

1) He's not very expensive. And if you look at him, he basically, sort of, has 1 less wound than a Grandmaster at 25 points less, but with the same armor save and a 4+ invul instead of a 3+ in melee if your GM kept the sword. Makes him softer if you don't use the defensive stance, but Crowe is cheaper after all. I'd say his number of attacks usually is sort-of on-par with the GM; against masses you have Cleansing Flame and his AoE attack, which could get you 2-3 attacks at least if placed well so he gets more attacks than the GM then, and if he gets stuck in combat with a single model, despite his (possibly) lower attack count, he can one-shot the target if Crowe dies even if its an Eternal Warrior, against whom Force Weapons don't help insta-gib.

2) He is a level 1 psyker, and not an independent character. This means that:
a) You are probably not going to cast Hammerhand that often as your only psychic power. This in effect kind of means he "always wounds on a 4+, and ignores armor saves", which given that MEQs are all T4 anyway, means that he, kind of, has a power weapon due to his special rending rule. Granted its not always a power weapon against T3 targets, but the trade-off is you get to wound pretty much anything on a 4+.

b) Not being an independent character, he is one extra source of Cleansing Flames since, well, he can't join a squad anyway. If you get him into a combat with a squad of Purifiers, thats two Cleansing Flames before the fight even starts, AND his special attacks. This also kind of mitigates-ish his issue against T3 targets; yes, if he rolls a 3 he doesnt ignore armor saves on those T3 targets, but seriously T3 targets very often they don't have great armor to begin with either, and things like hordes of Tyranids will take decent casualties from even Crowe himself.

3) Grand Strategy is utterly awesome, and Crowe doesn't have it. He does, however, make Purifiers Troops. While Grand Strategy is more flexible, it is also not entirely impossible for it to only occur for one squad, whereas taking Purifiers as troops means that your troop slots will be filled with a truly solid, focused unit type. I've never been a fan of jack-of-all-trades units (in this case, the GKSS) because they are simply not killy enough in their desperate attempt to cover all grounds. Its the same reason I'm not a big fan of Tacticals. At 1A each and with a fairly low chance at getting off the charge, the GKSS simply lacks the punch that the Purifiers have. And seriously, super cheap halberds. I6 force weapons are terrifying to face, and whether or not you charge or get charged, with at least 2A base, thats a ton of super-high I attacks coming your way.
Disclaimer: My DIY chapter has always followed the Blood Angels codex, and I do sometimes take Tacticals simply for the heavy weapon. And yes, I'm aware that Assault Squads aren't very killy or assaulty, but they cost marginally less than a GKSS, and are far more mobile. Plus with the SHP and superior mobility, I'm usually looking to pull off FC anyway and they do have FNP against mundane attacks.

The main issue with Crowe is delivering him. You could just keep running him every turn and he should make it up there by mid-game, which isn't a bad thing. And if your opponent charges him? Sure, go right ahead. Crowe's "AOE attacks" generally strike first, so that mitigates the +1I the opponent will get, so the only main benefit the opponent will get is that +1S, and the +1A as usual.

Inquisitors

Again, I wrote a fairly lengthy discussion about them before, so I’m just going to copy/paste this, with slight modification.

For the measly points cost of a single Purifier you can get an Inquisitor, who can fill the compulsory HQ slot should you need something cheap such as in smaller games, or if you just want a second (supporting) HQ character filling in that slot. Frankly the Inquisitor has awesome stats for his points IMO, but this is somewhat "balanced out" by the fact its a HQ choice.

They also open up the Henchmen option, which in turn, comes with a whole bunch of utility, but I won't be going so much into detail about them here. And lets not forget, they are also a source of Servo Skulls.


1) The Ordo Malleus Inquisitor is, IMO, one of the better Inquisitors. With access to the Hellrifle, he makes an awesome (and wonderfully cheap) long ranged character, ideal for babysitting a Jokaero/Servitor shooty squad (which is, by the way, actually fairly well-priced for the sheer amount of firepower they can dish out). He can also take the Daemonblade, which is surprisingly powerful (and unusually safe) for its points. Power Armor is pretty cheap too if you plan on putting him upfront.

I think the trick here is to keep him cheap; the second you start buying him things like TDA or Psychic Powers he becomes very expensive very fast, and the cost for his upgrade to get Psychic Communion (which you'd probably already have courtesy of a GM if you took one) and Hammerhand seems a little pricey for my liking, but certainly still a very viable option to make his squad that much more killy in melee. Note that the TDA upgrade isn’t bad as it gives you access to the Psycannon.

2) Not a big fan of the Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor. The Psyocculum and crossbow are both rather situational, and I've never been a big fan of the Inferno pistol.

3) The Ordo Xenos Inquisitor is also not too shabby; he's a very affordable source of a Conversion Beamer (40 points cheaper than the Techmarine equivalent at base cost!) but given the range of the Servitor heavy weapons, the Conversion Beamer would be out of its "ideal range" whereas its nicely within the range of the Malleus's Hellrifle; makes me think that it may not be the best Servitor babysitter. Alternatively, the Xenos Inquisitor is also a very cheap source of those new-fangled grenades, of which I'm particularly fond of the Rad Grenade. A simple Power Weapon, Power Armor and Rad Grenades only runs to 58 points, which isn't too bad for what you are bringing to the table.

Inquisitor Cotaez

Coteaz feels like a good example of an Inquisitor who took too many toys; at his points he has a bunch of special rules, but he's not particularly killy or survivable in close combat; without an invulnerable save and due to his I1 there is a good chance he will die before ever swinging his hammer :/
However, he is a Lvl 2 Psyker with Sanctuary, which is an interesting and otherwise unobtainable combination for Inquisitors. Still, his greatest utility is making Henchmen Troops, which comes with its own benefits.

Inquisitor Valeria

Valeria.....she's interesting and a toolbox of sorts. For many points you get a character with two very powerful one-shot attacks; a very ridiculously powerful gun which sadly may actually miss because of her good-but-not-all-that BS 4, and her insta-gib amulet which is actually rather good, particularly against all those 2W characters out there. She also effectively has a Djinn Blade (I think the rules are exactly the same, but I could be wrong), which when combined with her ability to force rerolls of successful saves (which means even invulnerable saves have to be rerolled) and her own invulnerable save (which could save her when she hits herself on her head with her dagger) means that she's not *too* shabby in combat, but not great either. WS 4 S 3 simply means that even against a standard MEQ on the charge she'd only kill one, which is kinda sad. I'm personally inclined towards saying she's not worth it for her two one-shot abilities, but not THAT terrible either.

Inquisitor Karamanov

If this guy had an invul save I'd TOTALLY play him, every single game. Not because he is great, but simply because who doesn't like a big, walking nuke dispenser with horrifying accuracy? Granted you lose some men, but thats what those Acolyte henchmen are for :X

He's too expensive in my opinion, especially given that S10 attacks would one-shot him, and various other things would just insta-kill him with no chance of saving himself (as most such options ignore normal armor saves). Would pretty much force him to hang around at the back of the table nuking people since a T5 W4 model really isn't tough enough to take its own sweet time walking up into melee, and even once he gets there he can fight but isn't that great. I tend to view his combat stats as more of a defensive thing.

Troops

Grey Knight Strike Squad

I’m going to come out and say it right here; I dislike the GKSS. Frankly, I'm tempted to not even bother with GKSS's outside of their Warp Quake utility and for those cases where I'm not running Crowe or Coteaz. While I admit that 20 points is very cheap for what you are getting, problem is you are forced to pay all this for something that shoots and assaults well-ish; but not entirely all that well. What you end up with is a very jack-of-all-trades unit that doesn't do anything too properly. If at all anything, they should be played in the same way they were in 3rd ed; a unit that is there mainly to just shoot; close combat for them is optional. Granted they are now better in melee, but I see no reason to pay so many points to make a mediocre close combat unit a semi-effective close combat unit. For a marginal increase in points you can get something that does assault bloody well (Purifiers in assault; I6, 2A each base, with optional Cleansing Flame against hordes, awesome). That said they aren’t bad in any way, and for a mere four points more than a normal Tactical Marine, it’s a bargain. I’m just not a fan :/

Grey Knight Terminators

Call me crazy, but I'm not a big fan of the troop-Terminators personally. Why? Well, if you look at them for their gear, then yes, they are worth the 40 points. But here is my problem with them: A Terminator costs 14 points more than a Purifier with a halberd. For all those points the only thing you gain is Terminator Armor, and you lose Cleansing Fire which does make them, overall, potentially more killy than Terminators. In addition, the Terminators pay premium for special weapons, while Purifiers get them for dirt cheap. Oh, and Purifiers are Fearless....

Terminators are also more difficult to deliver; the only economically viable (but significantly risky) method is Deep Strike, but given that troop Terminators only get one special ranged weapon per five models, you practically want ten of them to get two Psycannons, and to make those Psybolts worth it.

But "PURIFIERS ARE NOT TROOPS, YOU CANNOT COMPARE THEM!" you say. There are ways around it; you can take GKSS as troops, you can take Henchmen as troops with Coteaz, you can take Crowe, you can give them scoring with a GM. So basically, you lose some punch, and pay a little more for good guns, all for a whooping fourteen points per model.

To make matters worse, the (utterly awesome) Paladins are a mere 15 points more than a Terminator per model. That gives you at least twice the survivability; I say "at least" because the Paladins have wound allocation shenanigans and the optional Apothecary that helps them overcome one of the biggest issues with Terminators in general - dying to sheer weight of small arms fire. They also gain Holocaust, which is an optional extra ranged attack with anti-horde potential. Granted Holocaust is not great, but hey, its something. One thing the Terminators have that the Paladins don’t have is Thawn, but its no loss. To “make back his points” he practically has to come back to life twice, which is really unlikely and thus, IMO, he is not worth it.

All photos are properties of GW, except the Chuck Norris picture, which was from Google :)

Old skool GW zombies

While packing my miniatures I stumbled upon some classic GW zombies that I painted up some 10+yrs ago!

Still looks gruesome!

Impressive Orcs from Mantic

This company never fails to amaze me. And take my money away too.
I think the Orcs are shaping up really aggressively and nicely!

*Pic from Mantic Blog

Crashed aquila lander

Skanwy donated these terrains for the gaming group. These are good plastic terrains, with nice details and solid feel. Not like the recent crappy vacuum form terrains produced by GW... Anyway Krom volunteered to paint them and here are the pictures before I pass them to Engrie.

Green = DA, red = BA? No grey or light blue? Enjoy!

Tyranid Prime: WIP

Just a quick post on my Tyranid Prime WIP. Should have finished this awhile ago but been kept busy. Still have a few layers of highlights to go. 

New Grey Knights! And Wayland offer extended!

All the new GK stuff are now up on pre-order! And Wayland Games free shipping offer just got extended another week!
OMG..... I think i need 3 more Stormravens....



pics from GW website

LED Lights on Stormraven Squadron

Tyranids - Prime Painting

Worked on my Tyranid Prime conversion yesterday evening. After blocking out the main colours, I have begun the inking and streaking the armour. Below are WIP pictures.

From this angle my Prime looks like he has two horns. It actually has only one. 

Base blocked out colours.

Rear view

Wayland games super discount!

>

> I'm glad I held off ordering those stormravens from maelstrom for the 15% discount plus free shipping.
>
> Because wayland games has hit back with their own free shipping deal!
>
> Yes that's right. 20% discount with free shipping! Massive!!!
>
> Code: FREESHIP
>
> Sent from my iPhone 4

Red Tide part 1

After client dinners/drinks last night it was too late to begin painting. Nevertheless, I had to get my fix of 40k so i decided to show off some of my infantry units as I've only been posting mech unit updates. *white helmet power fister is my fav. model (painted by me lol)*

I've cleaned up all of the made-in-china fake marines... as you can see, I still suck at painting eye lenses... Tips anyone?

LED Lights! Marines and Stormraven!

Got this from my group of gamers. Amazing work. Looks like someone in Singapore put Jay's idea in motion before him! LOL! 

This again is not my work or Jay's but execution is awesome. Stay tuned for more cool miniatures! 

librarian dreadnought conversion part 3

The whole model has been repainted in base colors just to see if the scheme works. I think it kinda looks like optimus prime... I'm kinda feeling meh about it... any thoughts? need help with colors... Also got rid of the sword. I gave it some psychic fire ball and I'm looking to find a lance of some sort... obviously I'm leaning towards wings of sang. and blood lance... hahahaha