Grey Knight Combat Squads

[Dialogus]

One thing I really like about the Grey Knights is that the Combat Squad rule can add an extra layer of strategy to your unit equipment choices. For regular Space Marines, almost everyone has a boltgun so it's not as big a deal, but since you have so much flexibility with the GKs you can take a variety of equipment and then rearrange it into different units depending on the mission and the opponent. I have tried a few things, and I'm curious to see what clever ideas you have!

10 Terminators:
4x halberds +1 psycannon
4x falchions + 1 psycannon
2x hammers

Typical Terminator CS splits:
Standard
4x halberds + 1 hammer + 1 psy, fight high init units, ICs, MCs.
4x falchions + 1 hammer + 1 psy, fight low init hordes, heavy infantry with no spectacular CC ability.

Vs. Nids, sometimes Orks
3x halberds + 2x falchions + 0 psy, fight infantry
1x halberd + 2x falchions + 2x hammers + 2x psy, fight Monstrous Creatures

Vs. Eldar/DE
2x halberds + 2x falchions + 1 hammer + 1 psy, two identical CS since they do the charging
2x halberds + 2x falchions + 1 hammer + 1 psy


10 Interceptors
People always tell me I'm dumb for using these guys, but I almost always make their points back and more. The Incinerators and Warding Stave are just so much more valuable on jump infantry.

1x Warding Stave
2x Incincerators
2x Hammers
2x Halberds
3x Swords

Typical Interceptor CS Splits
Standard
1x Stave, 1x Incinerator, 1x hammers, 2x halberd - Fight ICs, MCs, assault units
1x Incinerator, 1x hammer, 3x swords - Fight shooty/horde squads

Vs. MEQs
1x Stave, 2x swords, 2x halberds - hunt ICs/Terminators
2x Incinerators, 2x Hammers, 1x Sword - Engage Troop squads and vehicles


And I have typically onlly done Strike Squads and Purifiers one way:

10 GK Strike
1x MC halberd Justicar
7x Swords
2x Psycannons

1x halberd, 4x swords - Advance and assault, halberd as last-ditch effort to assassinate ICs.
3x swords, 2x psycannons - Be shooty (can spread out psycannons, but usually keep them together)


10 Purifiers
6x halberds if accompanying an IC, 5x halberds and 1x Warding Stave if not
4x psycannons

5x (or 4x and Stave) halberds, with IC
4x psycannons and 1x halberd


I usually have 1-2 Stormravens to help move my units around.

So, let me know if you have other ideas for making customizable Combat Squads or if I am just doing things terribly wrong, because I am planning to add a couple more squads to my army.

[DarkLink]

Falchions kinda suck. They're worse than halberds in general, but more expensive.

To be honest, I rarely ever combat squad, because there is rarely ever a good reason to. Combat squads significantly weaken you in CC, and GKs should be looking to finish off stuff in close combat. Shoot up transports and threatening unit, and clean up everything else in assault. So unless you're playing something like Imperial Guard that can't stand up to you in CC anyways, I wouldn't combat squad because there really isn't much of a reason to and it weakens your assault ability.


People always tell me I'm dumb for using these guys

Then they're retarded. Interceptors are awesome. I still use psycannons on them, though, because while you can more easily set up good incinerator shots with them psycannons are still better than incinerators in almost every way.

[Silverclaw]

It is howerver a good idea to split up differently depending on the enemy.

I often prefer to keep all psycannons in one squad to focus firepower.

[Neelam]

Falchions kinda suck. They're worse than halberds in general, but more expensive.

To be honest, I rarely ever combat squad, because there is rarely ever a good reason to. Combat squads significantly weaken you in CC, and GKs should be looking to finish off stuff in close combat. Shoot up transports and threatening unit, and clean up everything else in assault. So unless you're playing something like Imperial Guard that can't stand up to you in CC anyways, I wouldn't combat squad because there really isn't much of a reason to and it weakens your assault ability.



Then they're retarded. Interceptors are awesome. I still use psycannons on them, though, because while you can more easily set up good incinerator shots with them psycannons are still better than incinerators in almost every way.

The only thing I combat squad is if I give a unit psybolts then split them for objectives (if I'm low on scoring units) or Purifiers .

With the purifiers I like to have 4 guys with psycannons act as a Purgatory unit but cheaper and then the 5 regular guys with halberds / a hammer.

I actually had my 5 man purifier unit with 4 psycannons / 1 hammer take out an entire unit of outflanking genestealers with a lucky psychic power + basic attacks (the remaining few that survived the psychic power wiffed their attacks).

[DarkLink]

Yeah, splitting up one squad for objectives is one reason. Facing armies that don't deal well with 5-man Marine squads in close combat is another, as is splitting up units so that you can target more enemies.

[xxvaderxx]

I like combat squads too, and when i play the wolves codex, you can really feel the lack of it.

[Transmutedelf]

I find combat squads to be situational at best. When developing a list I like to have the option of any one unit being able to function well on its own in both shooting and assault. With a low model count and most units not having fearless it is more often hard to justify breaking down into small squads. After playing the old codex for so long I had grown used to the idea of being able to hold my ground when shot, Dont like having to worry about a group running now, and dont want to make it easier for the enemy to do so.

[Kveldulf]

My own personal rule of thumb: Combat Squad if I'm deepstriking, otherwise use full blocks to maximize firepower while minimizing kill points.