"Hey Kirby,
So I've been reading your blog for a while, and your list building/critiquing articles have been a huge help to me. Recently I sold off my massive IG army to try my hand at some power armor dudes, and the Grey Knights caught my eye. I've played a few games with them, altering my list every time, and I've come up against a wall. I'm trying to keep my list relatively fluffy but still viable competitively (not necessarily in tournaments, but at least able to win in friendly games).
The basic idea is that the Grand Master uses his Grand Strategy to make units scoring in objective games (generally the dreadknights, maybe the purifiers if I roll high) or to give them scout or counter-attack in other games. Most of the time every unit combat squads, though I'll sometimes leave a single strike squad together, with psycannons in one group and close combat in another. The GM and Libby go with the 5 halberd purifiers for the most part. I've found that the list sticks to the fluff reasonably well (no termies, I know, but I never play them right), and that when I'm playing against people they freak out about the dreadknights and give me enough time to get into position and knock out some of their stuff with psycannons and my vindicare. I know I have some room for improvement, though, and I'm looking you for guidance!
My list is:
Grand Master
-Rad Grenades
-2x Servo-skulls
Librarian Powers: Hammerhand, Sanctuary, Warp Rift Summoning, Might of Titans
Dreadknight
-Heavy Incinerator
Dreadknight
-Heavy Incinerator
Dreadnought
-2x TL Autocannons
-Psybolt Ammo
Vindicare Assassin
Purifier Squad x10
-4x Psycannons
-1x Daemonhammer
-5x Halberds
Strike Squad x10
-2x Psycannons
-1x Daemonhammer
-Psybolt Ammo
-TL-HB Razorback w/ Psybolt ammo
Strike Squad x10
-2x Psycannons
-1x Daemonhammer
-Psybolt Ammo
-TL-HB Razorback w/ Psybolt ammo
Thanks,
Nathan"
I don't like the setups on the large Purifier and Strike squads. I'd rather see Rhinos on the Strike squads so they can be transported to midfield and simple MSU Purifier squads with Psybacks or Rhinos compared to a single large squad. The combat upgrades here are pretty meh as you want to split them into combat squads (4 psycannons is just overkill) and 5 man squads aren't that scary in combat. A hammer in each of them is fine (so 4x cannons, 2x hammers) but if you want to use halberds in them in any way competitively, don't run them full strength with 4 psycannons and even then, remember they are effective at combat but not good combat units (as has been said many times).
With that in mind you have to wonder how much gain you are getting out of your GM + Libby + Vindie combo. That's a lot of points in just three characters so I really think you need to drop one of them. I think the Libby works best in armies with lots of units to gain multiple benefits from Sanctuary/Shrouding or larger units to get maximum benefit from Might/Quick whilst obviously providing hard psychic defense. The Vindie helps add some ranged anti-tank and can snipe guys whilst the GM is obviously what the list is built around. With that in mind I'd keep the GM and consider dropping the Vinide and/or Libby and work with the points freed from there. A Terminator (or Paladin squad) would be a great asset to use as a place for the GM/Libby to walk around in and ensure your firepower is maximised for as long as possible. The rest of your squads should have appropriate transports (i.e. can fit in them without needing to combat squad) and I would only be running Psybacks if you could get at least 3-4+ of them where the number of S6 shots becomes significant.
Multiple servo-skulls are obviously important as well to help make the Dreadknights accurate and a lot scarier and that lone Dreadnought is going to stick out since it is really the only backfield unit. Re-proportioning points into two Venerable Dreadnoughts instead might work and running the Dreadknights bare instead.
