I had an e-mail today from a new player who wanted to get into 40k with the Grey Knights but has seen a lot of talk about mixed or Henchmen based armies rather than pure GK. Here's the e-mail:
"Kirby,
First, thanks for writing a great blog. As a brand new player "Back to Basics" are gifts from God. In fact, I'm so new, I don't have a single model yet. I was looking at Nids, but then Grey Knights were announced and I've been waiting ever since. I've seen initial lists floating around and most of them are inquisitor/henchmen heavy. That's fine but not really what I was picturing in my head when I would daydream about my upcoming army. I was much more excited about terminators with force weapons, grey knights, maybe backed up by some assassins. I guess my questions is, do you feel a "grey knight" (any flavor - paladin, purifier, etc) heavy army will be competitively viable? I don't necessarily mean a "foot" army just a lot more power armor and a lot less inquisition.
Best,
Adam"
Glad you're finding use from the Back-to-basics articles. Good to know they are useful! Pure GK (or even mixed GK/Henchmen) is a perfectly viable army. LKHero has done a pretty good quick and dirty run-down of the pure GK options here whilst Mike has also put up a solid list here. I think in the end Mike's list is going to be basic template for many armies. Grand Masters provide a ton of flexibility by handing out scout + scoring options (oh look scoring Purifiers without Crowe) whilst Libbies are just great utility. You have to think outside the box a little to make these type of lists as most of the GK HQs come with Terminator Armor (hard to do full mech unless you're taking Land raiders or Storm Ravens). From there you've got ranged support with the Dreadnoughts/Vindicare and a bunch of bodies, combat ability and S5/7 dakka from the GK & Purifiers.
From there foot lists, mech lists and hybrid lists are all possible with just a GK basis but what they have serious issues with is damage potential. Combat squadding is huge for this (Mike's lists goes form 7 units to 11) but is still going to make the army feel very 'elite.' Not based on number of models but based on how it works on the table. What Henchmen allow a GK army to do is go more MSU. Consider a passback is a minimum of 97 points which is a scoring metal bawks. Sure the guys inside are T3/5+ but if you have a bunch of these and more durable Troops such as GK Strike Squads or Grand Strategy + whateverunityouseefitherelikePurifiersomg you've now got more units which means increased fire potential whilst still having the solid midfield presence of Grey Knights (in whatever form).
I think what Henchmen will come down to, and I said this before the release, I'm awesome, is filling out GK FoC. Not necessarily providing more bodies (I mean Mike's has got 40+ models, not bad) but more units and battlefield options. When you consider the ability to take a couple MSU based units like passbacks/monkeymobiles/psybunkers + large squads of Grey Knights which can combat squad, you're getting the best of both worlds in a sense. Of course, you need to make sure you aren't diluting your force too much and generate a balance between the larger GK units and MSU/support Henchmen.
Hope that gives you some food for thought Adam (and everyone else).
