Kirby decided there needs to more content regarding GK lists without any Henchman usage in it so he forced me to write this. Yes my life sucks. Well actually that's not the whole story, we were talking a bit and ended up brainstorming about a Grey Knight list. Let me explain how it went.
See, Kirby started off with Purifiers. He likes them and frankly, most people do. Well except me maybe, but that aside. So quickly he produced a draw and as with almost all Purifier lists: Crowe makes any list look non-optimised right away. Well you have no choice if you want loads of Purifiers, so if that's what you're looking for go ahead. Maybe somebody will do a post on a Crowe list eventually, but currently most are simply spamming the same setup of Purifiers in rhinos with Psyfleman in support and Crowe on foot. Poor guy.
However we both liked the general feel of the list: Libby + Paladins, 4x Purifiers in rhinos and 2 or 3 Psyfleman. (depending on 1750 or 1850) Oh yes and Crowe was in that one too. What did we like about this? Well we believe that having a Paladin unit in your army has quite some potential. It's a unit with 2 very accurate and relentless Psycannons on a hard to kill platform, while it still is killy in assault and gives you a place for the Libby without the need to footslog something which doesn't want to footslog. Sneaky Dan already did a post on Paladins btw. Purifiers and Psyflemen are fine units of course. What's the problem though when you take Crowe out? Oh hey look, no scoring left.
So how to solve this? Well what about changing 2 Purifiers to GKSS units instead? Well that means you have a mighty total of 20 scoring Meq bodies in a 1750 list... There are lists which can get away with that, but not this one: You spend nearly 600 points on those units, you can't afford to play defensively with them in fear of losing 1 of the squads. However, apart from that the list was looking allright. Now the funny thing is; 30 scoring GK's in 2000 points is enough... And so we decided to make it a 2000 points list instead:
Libririan; 4 powers 170
5 Paladins; 2x MC Psycannon 325
10 GKSS; 2x Psycannon, Hammer, Psybolt, Rhino 290
10 GKSS; 2x Psycannon, Hammer, Psybolt, Rhino 290
10 GKSS; 2x Psycannon, Hammer, Psybolt, Rhino 290
5 Purifiers; 2x Psycannon, Halberd, Rhino 182
5 Purifiers; 2x Psycannon, Halberd, Rhino 182
Dreadnought; 2x TLAC, psybolt 135
Dreadnought; 2x TLAC, psybolt 135
Total: 1999
You gotta understand that this list is much more shooting focused than it is assault focused. It's a typical midfield army though: The biggest part of you army simply has a 30" range max, 24" for more shots. Short-ranged shooty army as you will. The assault component shouldn't be underestimated though; it's still a lot of powerweapons with potential Libby buffs. Biggest problem? Getting into midfield rather untouched. No problem when going first, more of a problem when going 2nd against some really shooty armies. Libby should help here though with shrouding to prevent getting crippled before it's your turn.
Expect more pure Grey Knight army lists soon, also for the 1500-1850 points range. And yes, we are aware that it's mostly theoryhammer at this point and that's how you should look at it too. It's in any case solid, we can say that also without proper testing. It gives people some ideas, certain frameworks which you can work with.
