Starting a Grey Knights Army

[xDimebeag]

Hey guys, I'm rolling a Grey knight army. I'm not going to henchman spam, so I bought myself a strike squad and a terminator squad and upgraded them to paladins. My next purchase is obviously going to be another strike squad so i can fill out the compulsory 2nd troop choice. So I was thinking a Librarian in terminator armour might be a decent HQ to take and stick him in with my paladins. So, I was wondering if you guys have any other suggestions about other HQ's I am to consider or any other helpful hints and tips you could give me. Thank you for checking this out!

[Anggul]

Grand Masters are good if you want to use more of the specialist troops rather than more Strike Squads, as they can make any non-vehicle unit scoring. They're also quite powerful in combat, as you would expect.

Oh and, Psycannons. Psycannons are your friend. They let you rip things open from afar, as well as being good at anti-infantry as well, and for pretty cheap too.

Another thing is that you should remember that just because your troops all have fancy swords etc., doesn't mean you should be rushing them into combat. They all have Storm Bolters so their firepower is fearsome, charging into combat is good as a finisher, but make the most of the firepower you have. Paladins are, of course, meant for combat, but Strike Squads should focus on getting the most out of their shooting before driving off the enemy once and for all with a charge.

[DarkLink]

Coteaz, hands down. Hes basically a cheaper, better Librarian. Librarians arent bad, but coteaz is better and you dont really need two expensive psykers. So instead of a Librarian, I recommend magnetizing one model to get the following options: Draigo, a Grand Master with a psycannon, and an Inquisitor in Terminator armor with a psycannon. But pretty much every single FK army is better off with Coteaz.

Edit: always max out psycannons. Psybolts are worth it, but only on full size squads with 7-8 storm bolters. And GKs are a shooty army, even Paladins. GKs use assault only to clean up what they've already shot, though Paladins happen to be just about the nastiest assault unit in the game, and Purifiers own horde units.

[xDimebeag]

Hmm, sounds like sound advice from the both of you I like Corteaz, he's pretty awesome and I've always liked the look of the model too. Thanks guys, but what about purgation squads? would 3 psycannons and 1 incinerator be a wise choice?

[Chaoschrist]

would 3 psycannons and 1 incinerator be a wise choice?

Why would you want to split them? Why not take 4 Psycannons? Incinerators need to get up close. The exception might be if you're going to combatsquad the bunch. 3 psycannons + 2 other GK's in one squad, a more close combat oriented squad with the incinerator in the other.

[xDimebeag]

Why would you want to split them? Why not take 4 Psycannons? Incinerators need to get up close. The exception might be if you're going to combatsquad the bunch. 3 psycannons + 2 other GK's in one squad, a more close combat oriented squad with the incinerator in the other.

Hmm, I guess so, I just thought it'd be a good idea to try and cover all possible situations that the squad might come across, but the idea of having 3 psycannons and 2 gk's is something i never thought about, so thanks for that

[celestialatc]

Purgnation Squads are good at doing one thing, not being mixed because you will never get them into all the situations you want to set them up for. (unless you combat squad like Chaoschrist suggests).

Maxing Psycannons means you are going to have them as defenders or midrange support, blasting at anything that is within your 24" bubble. And Astral Aim makes sure you can hit everything around you. I actually like putting in Coteaz or an Inquisitor with divination powers into this squad.

If you want incinerators, Purgnation squads become really good at cleaning out ruins and a great forward unit. With Astral Aim you can set up your purgnation squad in a spot outside of LOS of an enemy squad, turn on Astral Aim and burn the heretics without them getting that 4 + cover save since you are using templates.

That's my 2 cents. I recently have been using Coteaz and a terminator inquisitor a lot more with me GKs instead of using a Librarian or Xenos Inquisitor. Divination is just so amazing!

[DarkLink]

Purgation squads aren't bad, but you can do basically everything a Purgation squad does, better, with Purifiers. You can try hiding a 4-psycannon squad behind a wall of vehicles and buffing them with Coteaz and using Astral Aim, but that's a little limiting to pull off and it limits the mobility of your army somewhat.

[Aegwymourn]

the nastiest ive seen is having a henchmen squad take a chimera dedicated transport and then have the 4-psycannon squad and coteaz "borrow" their ride for the game. a lot of shots with immunity from most anti-infantry.

[DarkLink]

The biggest problem with Purgation squads is the extra cost of the Psycannons. Their Psycannons are twice as expensive as all the other power armor Psycannons, which means a Purgation squad is significantly more expensive with psycannons than even Purifiers. You can get a 10-man squad of Purifiers with 4 Psycannons at the same cost as 10 Purgators with Psycannons, and Purifiers are Fearless, 2A base, all Ld9, and have Cleansing Flame which is really, really good. 10 Purifiers with Psycannons can deal a ton of damage with psycannons, fight better in assault, and make Ork and 'nid hordes run for their lives. Purgation squads can only do the former, not the latter, and Astral Aim is too situation to make up for that.