Proven tactics that beat Grey Knights?

[Chuck777]

In case you have been living under a rock for the past year, there have been a deluge of anti-Grey Knight posts across the 40k-Interwebs. People decry Grey Knights as broken, too powerful and unfair. Yet they exist and they are here to stay. What we need to do is come up with a comprehensive list of tactics that have proven to defeat Grey Knights. That way when people post their complaints, we can send them to this thread with the hope they will pick up a few handy tricks and, with any luck, have a better go of it next time they play against Grey Knights.

- I think the easiest tactic to list off is to stay out of their 24 inch death bubble. The best way to ensure that is to keep your army mobile and not be afraid to send a few units off as sacrificial lambs.

- Another tactic is to focus fire. Just like everything else, throwing dice at a problem will eventually kill that problem. If one unit's shooting doesn't take down an enemy down, then pump more shots into it. Grey Knights will almost always be out numbered by you, thus giving you an advantage in that regard. Maximize this advantage by focus firing.

- Protection from Psyker powers is important. Be they Shadows or the Warp or a Psychic Hood, try and bring something that will help down play one of the Grey Knight's greatest strengths.

- As with all Marine armies, Grey Knights can be killed when using AP3, 2 or 1 weaponry.


These are just general tactics, please feel free to include more specific tactics for different armies or tactics on how to beat particular GK units.

[helvexis]

play a large number of lance dark eldar army ... and dont get into combat until the unit is small enough to not outright destroy you and then send in the occasional suicide squads

[plawolf]

If you have better mobility, spread out. GK lists are typically smaller forces, and they are particularly reliant on mutual support and synergies to be effective. With the vast majority of their firepower capped at 24", causing them to spread out could allow you to pick them apart piecemeal.

Infiltrating/deep striking of outflanking units with strong AV are always good. GK depend on their psyrifle dreads to cover their lack on long range infantry based firepower. Take these out or even tying them up in CC will throw a massive wrench in the GK army's battle plan.

Storm shields are a good investment, and almost a requirement on any unit that wants to get into CC with GK that has halberts. But having said that, don't be afraid to be the one to charge, especially on units like strike squads or interceptors as they only have 1 attack base, so denying them the charge bonus is critical, and an extra turn of stormbolter shooting can hurt a lot and make all the difference. That is why it is better to charge even if you have defensive grenades.

Don't forget to tank shock, especially with empty transports. Usually if there is a GK deathstar that you absolutely don't want hitting your lines, tank shock could work a lot better than a sacrificial speed bump, as chances are, a unit like that will destroy your speed bump without having to slow much, if it slows them at all.

Offensive psyker powers! So many people only focus on defensive against powers that they forget that GKs actually don't have that great psyker defensives themselves. All too often, people get caught up with the fluff and assume that since GKs are an army of psykers, they must have really good psyker defenses. Nit necessarily so! Look out for GK Libbies with hoods and dreadnoughts giving out re-enforced aegis. However, not many GK lists take Libbies any more as they are usually better HQ options, and the GK dreads tend to be sitting in the backfield shooting. This means their deathstars marching up he board at you will only have normal aegis as psyker defense, and normal aegis isn't that amazing. Bullets and swords might struggle against purifiers and paladins, but psyker attacks might prove far more effective than what a lot of people might expect.

[Uncle Nutsy]

well as a DE player i just..

deepstrike with ravagers and venoms fully loaded with lance right behind and shoot the everloving crap out of the dreads, shoot their weak flanks and gank whatever survives with razorwings.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

As a Necron player: I spam Grey Knights with Tesla until there are no more to spam.

[Wolfshade]

Most anti-marine tactics work against GKs. If you force someone to roll enough saves they will fail them. We've all heard/seen terminators go down to massed IG flashlights, and grots beating them in CC. GKs are an elite army, you have to fight them at their weakness, I was talking to my make the other day and he was telling me about this S10 AP2 weapon he was bringing to the game, and I found myself thinking if I'm playing Orks that doesn't worry me, if I play Marines then it is a concern.

[FeralOni]

plasma cannons and battlecannons... or, if you're my command squad - fire your lasguns and watch ALL the termie lords fall over dead (it's happened to me three times now)

[Cadre]

Different GK lists are completely different animals. Against more standard lists spamming power armor and dakka-dreads, the primary skill you need to learn is targeting priority. What is the biggest threat to you, how quickly can it bring its awfulness to bear?

For my Tau, who concentrate heavily on maintaining full firepower on the move, the biggest threats are the enemy troops, followed closely by the dreadnoughts.

What this means for me is that I immediately target the transports, and do my best to strand the troops. Immediately afterward, I turn the attention of my heavy anti-tank (railguns) to their non-venerable dreadnoughts (I tend to ignore venerables) while the rest of my army turns to focus-firing down individual squads while withdrawing in the face of their advance. There is a LOT of room for this plan to go wrong, but the overall strategy is sound and can be applied to other GK lists.

Concentrate on disabling critical threats, then immediate threats, then attrition. They will go down eventually. It is also worth noting that against GK vehicles you have to shoot to kill. Anything with AP1 will be a life-saver. Against other armies you can shift your fire to undamaged vehicles after a good hit, no matter the result. Not so with GKs...damned fortitude. It's one of the few things in the codex I genuinely believe to be broken.

[NoNolva]

responses very good! )

[Neelam]

A great tactic would to take any marine army you have and proxy them as Grey Knights for a few games , you fast learn their weaknesses .

- Force them to spread out , I.e. split your forces and deploy on separate corners .

- Focus fire , depending on what they bring either the psyrifleman dreadnoughts or fast moving transports .

- Cover , most Gk players will take psycannons over incinerators and cover can become a pain in the *** to deal with against high model count armies .

- Bring lots of melta / plasma but make sure something else is available to take on stormravens / psyriflemen sitting at long range.

[Demonus]

Plenty of ways to beat GK, depending on your army. Read their codex, see their strengths and weaknesses. Deny their strengths, exploit their weaknesses.

[Learn2Eel]

The only regular Grey Knights army in my store (I know, ONE regular) is a Draigo-wing/Purifier spam list mashed into at 1500 points. It's two cheesy elements put together that have their effectiveness reduced by not fully exploiting the strengths of each individual part.

My tactics for beating this sort of list revolve around a) focusing on one target at a time b) targeting the most immediate threats and c) ignoring his walking paladins.
The trick to beating Grey Knights is like beating any other army. You just have to be aware of their nasty, nasty rules and stay out of their 24" bubble of death. Of course, Psyflemen dreads literally blow this idea out the window, but against the list above, it wouldn't be too hard.

Grey Knights are probably the best codex per head in close combat; their basic infantry can literally deal with virtually everything that charges them. It's not often your opponent's cheapest troops choice (not including forge organisation altering) will scare the pants off other armies' dedicated melee units. However, most of the codex is hamstrung by a short range; on small tables it can be difficult to counter this. Psyflemen dreads and Vindicare's are the only real long-range anti-tank options in the codex, so you work towards taking them out and you can then deal with the threats that won't become a problem until much later.

Psychic defence also helps out a lot. For codexes like Chaos Space Marines, Dark Eldar (outside Lady Malys) and so on, you have to find alternate ways of shutting their army down. For example; my Thousand Sons work wonders against Grey Knights because their force weapons all of a sudden aren't so scary, something they rely on to make up for their lack of numbers. AP3 bolters, psychic death rays and a potential 30" threat range are not liked by marines, unless of course they have that nasty cover save. On the same note, I don't even bother engaging the Draigo-wing because it is slow and will only kill on average one unit a game. I'm not joking. This is of course against someone that isn't that good of a player, but the point still remains valid. Once I wiped out the rest of his army, his Draigo-wing wasn't very scary at all. It's great for a unit that costs well over 500 points......

I'd also think a Hydra-spam list would absolutely demolish most Grey Knights lists. But as far as general tactics, remember the basics of gaming, even when cheesy armies with two storm-ravens and three dreadknights are rushing towards you; target priority, unit positioning, focus fire. Select a target that you think is the most immediate threat. Move into position. Make it go boom.

[egorene]

I like to stop GKs with a Marine horde (~about 60+ models) and if possible with a flanking HQ (the Khan or
Ahazra Redth) .

One command squad with 4 plasma guns and a 10 assault squad with 2 flamers , powerfist .
And all sergeants use powerfists .

2 units of sternguard 6 men with 4 combiplasma powerfist ,
3 tacticals with 10 men and all use powerfists , plasmaguns and whatever heavy weapon i find .

[dirkspair]

here is a nice anti GK unit (and anti psyker unit in general)

one ordo hereticus inquisitor with a psyocculum

2-3 plasma cannon servitors
1-2 swiss army monkeys
some crusaders or grunts as meat shields
all in a chimera

all fire against GKs will be with BS 10, almost impossible to miss with the plasma cannons, las cannons for their vehicles and dreads, 2+ to hit with 2+ re-roll.