This is a continuation from our last post on this army which outlined the two key units I want to use in this army, Dreadnoughts (Psyflemen) and Purifiers. The combination of the two gives me a lot of reliable shooting at both close, mid and long-range and some pretty decent combat combinations. However, it used up most of our points (1215 out of 1850) which we need to spend on HQs and Troops. Let's look at those now.
Headquarters
The Grey Knight codex has a ton of options in HQ; in fact it's the most stacked of the FoCs which is a shame as it has the least amount of applicability with only two slots and no 'double-ups' (i.e. 1-2 Inquisitors per FoC). This however means you've got a lot of choices when it comes down to picking the leader for your army and how that can impact on the way your army is designed. We discussed Crowe in the last post and whilst he makes Purifiers Troops, he's a 150 point tax I wasn't willing to pay. Let's look at our other options then.
Mordak and Draigo are both decent and provide some unlocks but are very expensive and geared towards a more foot or hybrid based army. I'd like to keep the midfield mech theme here if possible but these guys are out regardless because they are quite expensive.
Cortez on the other hand is quite a cheap special character and even without his unlocks, is a pretty good buy at 100 points. Unlocking henchmen as Troops though could help the list in regards to the limited number of points available. However these units are not likely to be very survivable. More on this when we get to Troops. Normal Inquisitors are also options as they are quite cheap and allow two 'extra' Elites through Henchmen units. What's important about Henchmen is they have access to melta weaponry even if it is at BS3 which could really help in reliably popping open tanks. Otherwise they have a lot of options available to help cover potential weaknesses of the lists. The Inquisitors themselves are also capable of bringing nifty items like rad and psychotroke grenades as well as psychic abilities such as psychic communion (like the best reserve manipulation ever!). All options here.
There is also the Libby and Grand Master to consider but both come in Terminator armor so we'd be looking at some form of Hybrid. The Libby has a lot of great utility spells and as usual access to the grenades of doom GK players will fall in love with. A lot of spells could be useful here such as sanctuary (Purifiers + Sanc in midfield is a very daunting target), Shrouding for 3+/3++* Grey Knights in midfield (Purifiers + Sanc again here as well) and 3+ cover saves on vehicles, Summoning for rapid movement which can help with over extension, pressure and objective grabbing and Might for a very strong unit (S6 with hammerhand and 2D6 pen) which is capable of ripping open tanks. A lot of options though I think sanctuary and shrouding are the two best here. The Libby also provides hard psychic defense with his psychic hood.
The Grand Master has a lot of potential due to two things: Grand Strategy and psychic communion. Psychic communion really gives the controlling player a lot of options in regards to deploying from reserve which can help against particular armies. What is especially good is a particularly good, bad or even average dice roll can be taken advantage of depending upon the situation. Grand strategy on the other hand can make up for the lack of Crowe by turning Purifiers into Troops. This would necessitate a change in the Purifier load out however as being able to combat squad would gain the most from this ability. Whilst I think the Grand Master is a good choice, I'm not sure he fits what this list wants to be currently.
With all that in mind I think we can boil it down to three choices. Coteaz, Inquisitors and a Libby. A combination is a viable altneriatve as well but more likely feasible at the 2000 range.
Inquisitors
These guys are looking to be cheap and essentially act as unlocks for a couple hench squads. The main reason for this (whilst keeping them cheap) is to access melta weaponry. For an extra 30 points we can also access psychic communion which as discussed above, is very nice to have. Dirty cheap MM bunkers with Servitors are going to set us back 89 points a pop which includes the Inq, 2x MM, warrior aco and a Rhino. Not bad but with psychic communion added in we've only got 427 points for Troops which is barely enough for two full GK squads on foot. Whilst this looks like a nice idea and good way to get melta into the army, the units aren't exactly survivable or reliable and don't leave us with enough points. We'll leave these guys at home for now.
Coteaz
I know the title kind of gives it away but let's pretend you don't know the end result. For 100 points Coteaz brings some nice utility. First he allows you to re-roll the die to seize the initiative, yay! Not exactly reliable but it does give you a greater chance to do so. Importantly though he can force your opponent to re-roll. This means you can deploy a lot more aggressively as their chances to seize drop to 1/36. This is really, really nice. He also has an old-mystic like ability to shoot at any units coming in from reserve within 12" of him. If you combine this with Warp Quake from Grey Knight Strike Squads you can simulate bubble-wrap against reserve based armies without actually needing bubble-wrap. Having bubble-wraps for other purposes if of course nice... Outside of this he has a so-so shooting attack and a master-crafted Daemon Hammer in combat (but he's only WS4). He's also Stubborn which with Ld10 is nice to be able to hand out to certain units. Let us not forget he is a psyker too! As covered in the Armies in 5th Grey Knight psychic power post, Dark Excommunication isn't too impressive but Sanctuary provides more midfield bonuses (and combines very well with Cleansing Flame Purifiers) and hammerhand is a great bonus to have in combat(that Hammer is now S10. Hammer time!).
All that for 100 points is pretty decent but doesn't really help the army. However, Coteaz has one more 'bonus' and that is making Henchmen count as Troops. Since Henchmen are cheap this could really help this army in terms of not having many points to work with in the Troops section and Coteaz certainly isn't breaking the bank. The problem with cheap henchmen units though is survivability. Regardless, Coteaz is a very good option and shall be considered.
Librarian
What many mech armies will have to balance with many GK HQs is running some sort of foot unit due to the Terminator armor worn by most of the Grey Knight based HQs. Annoying as hell but that's part of balance as well (seriously, Shrouding in a Rhino? yes I know it can happen in a Land Raider but they have a 250 point price tag). With that said, the Libby offers up a lot of utility and options. Shrouding makes the whole army a lot scarier in midfield (3++* on everything thanks!) whilst options like Might, Sanctuary and Summoning each provide a little something to the army. Let us not forget either the psychic hood which gives the army some hard psychic defense.
Whilst the Libby provides a bunch of utility and in particular, Shrouding, with the point constraints the list is currently under, sinking ~170-200 points into an HQ doesn't leave us with much to work with in terms of getting reliable scoring, particularly when we need to consider a unit to 'babysit' the Libby on foot is also required. For this points level I think we can give the Libby a miss unless we cut down on our usage of Purifiers and Psyfledreads.
With all this in mind then I think Coteaz is going to be our best bet. We could take a single cheap Inquisitor and then pump all of our points into Troops (and a single Inquisitor with psychic communion + grenades isn't a bad idea) but Coteaz offers us cheap Troop options through Henchmen. Now all we have to do is balance the Henchmen into the remaining points whilst maintaining an effective fighting force and durable scoring...
We'll look at that in Part 3 =D.
The Grand Master has a lot of potential due to two things: Grand Strategy and psychic communion. Psychic communion really gives the controlling player a lot of options in regards to deploying from reserve which can help against particular armies. What is especially good is a particularly good, bad or even average dice roll can be taken advantage of depending upon the situation. Grand strategy on the other hand can make up for the lack of Crowe by turning Purifiers into Troops. This would necessitate a change in the Purifier load out however as being able to combat squad would gain the most from this ability. Whilst I think the Grand Master is a good choice, I'm not sure he fits what this list wants to be currently.
With all that in mind I think we can boil it down to three choices. Coteaz, Inquisitors and a Libby. A combination is a viable altneriatve as well but more likely feasible at the 2000 range.
Inquisitors
These guys are looking to be cheap and essentially act as unlocks for a couple hench squads. The main reason for this (whilst keeping them cheap) is to access melta weaponry. For an extra 30 points we can also access psychic communion which as discussed above, is very nice to have. Dirty cheap MM bunkers with Servitors are going to set us back 89 points a pop which includes the Inq, 2x MM, warrior aco and a Rhino. Not bad but with psychic communion added in we've only got 427 points for Troops which is barely enough for two full GK squads on foot. Whilst this looks like a nice idea and good way to get melta into the army, the units aren't exactly survivable or reliable and don't leave us with enough points. We'll leave these guys at home for now.
Coteaz
I know the title kind of gives it away but let's pretend you don't know the end result. For 100 points Coteaz brings some nice utility. First he allows you to re-roll the die to seize the initiative, yay! Not exactly reliable but it does give you a greater chance to do so. Importantly though he can force your opponent to re-roll. This means you can deploy a lot more aggressively as their chances to seize drop to 1/36. This is really, really nice. He also has an old-mystic like ability to shoot at any units coming in from reserve within 12" of him. If you combine this with Warp Quake from Grey Knight Strike Squads you can simulate bubble-wrap against reserve based armies without actually needing bubble-wrap. Having bubble-wraps for other purposes if of course nice... Outside of this he has a so-so shooting attack and a master-crafted Daemon Hammer in combat (but he's only WS4). He's also Stubborn which with Ld10 is nice to be able to hand out to certain units. Let us not forget he is a psyker too! As covered in the Armies in 5th Grey Knight psychic power post, Dark Excommunication isn't too impressive but Sanctuary provides more midfield bonuses (and combines very well with Cleansing Flame Purifiers) and hammerhand is a great bonus to have in combat
All that for 100 points is pretty decent but doesn't really help the army. However, Coteaz has one more 'bonus' and that is making Henchmen count as Troops. Since Henchmen are cheap this could really help this army in terms of not having many points to work with in the Troops section and Coteaz certainly isn't breaking the bank. The problem with cheap henchmen units though is survivability. Regardless, Coteaz is a very good option and shall be considered.
Librarian
Whilst the Libby provides a bunch of utility and in particular, Shrouding, with the point constraints the list is currently under, sinking ~170-200 points into an HQ doesn't leave us with much to work with in terms of getting reliable scoring, particularly when we need to consider a unit to 'babysit' the Libby on foot is also required. For this points level I think we can give the Libby a miss unless we cut down on our usage of Purifiers and Psyfledreads.
With all this in mind then I think Coteaz is going to be our best bet. We could take a single cheap Inquisitor and then pump all of our points into Troops (and a single Inquisitor with psychic communion + grenades isn't a bad idea) but Coteaz offers us cheap Troop options through Henchmen. Now all we have to do is balance the Henchmen into the remaining points whilst maintaining an effective fighting force and durable scoring...
We'll look at that in Part 3 =D.
