1st Grey Knight game

Well we ran a 40K game this weekend with a combined 2000 points of Grey Knights/ Inquisition vs. 2000 points of Chaos marines.  Mike was running a typical Chaos force: prince (wings warptime, nurgle), greater demon, 8 plague marines X2 in rhinos and meltas and plasma, defiler X2, obliterators X2, 10 marines in rhinos X2 chaos icons auto cannons champion fist, terminators wit h3 combi-melta and heavy flamer, and dreadnoughts X2 double close combat weapons.

Lew ran a Malleus Inquisitor, Strormraven (twin-link  lascannon and multi melta), 5 man strike squad in rhino, 5 man terminator squad  with demon hammer, 5 man purge squad X4 psycannon, deathcult x10, and a banisher.

I ran: Coteaz, dreadnaughts twin auto cannon and psybolt X2, 4 jokearo and 2 heavy bolter servitors, 9 warriors with storm bolters and jokearo in rhino X2, and vindicare assassin.



Mike you ready to play some 40K now?

We rolled capture the flag (seriously this is the mission I get most of the time) and dawn of war. I’ll spare you the report. It was a very spirited game, but we had concerns. Mostly for Mike, since he either had a mild stroke pre-game or had spent the previous night huffing silver spray paint through a sock. He thought you only scatter a D6 if you don’t move and fire ordnance, was trying to move marines 12”, rolling dice wrong, and  a slew of other silliness. He has been playing 40K for a number of years now. We were not sure why (and neither was Mike) why he was forgetting rules. It did make for some great moments though.

Anyway, thanks to the Lew’s terminator assault on Mike’s flag we did manage a win. It also helped that our flag was protected by a mass of gridlocked rhinos. Thus making it very hard time walking to get near the building it was located in.  The Chaos forces were being peppered but psycannons and strombolters as they disembarked and approached.

We did learn some great stuff from this game.

1.       Purgagation squads with 4 psycannons camped on your objective make approaching it difficult. Heavy 4 x4 = stellar.

2.       Always remember that psycannons are rending now.

3.       Why would anyone not take at least two autocannon psybolt dreadnoughts?

4.       The Vindicare assassin has special ammo in his pistol and rifle.

5.       Needing to wound to negate Invulnerable Saves and Hyper-penetrate is still rough even with a super sniper (4+ needed).

6.       Remembering that a BS 8 gets you a re-roll on that one you rolled to hit.

7.       Grey Knight Terminators are awesome for their cost. Their power weapons, frag grenades, +1 to invul. save in close combat with swords, troops and Hammerhand, make them a steal at 40 points.

8.       Jokearo are pricey and their random rolled ability can be nice, if you get what you want/need. They will be the other anti-armor heavy lifters with their lascannon fingers. The heavy flamer was fairly useful too. (I rolled 5++ save three times on two squads. I also rolled rending and 5++ for the other 4 man monkey/servitor squad)

9.       Warp Quake and Coteaz nearby (in a 4 monkey twin heavy bolter squad) makes for a rough day for deep strikers.

10.   Why would anyone take anything but an Inquisitor for their HQ? Seriously? They are so cheap and versatile.  78 points got Lew Malleus Inqis, power armor, Hammerhand and a demon weapon. That is roughly ½ (or more) than the cost of any non-named Grey Knight HQ

11.   Demon weapon, why not take one? Roll twice on a chart for abilities, and all of them are useful, no drek on that random list (Lew rolled FNP & Eternal Warrior and power/force weapon-ish ability).

12.   Why are people not taking Deathcult assassins everywhere? Run these with the Inqis and get that nice Hammerhand bonus. They are then, strength 5, with power weapons, two base attacks, initiative 6, a 5++ save ( I hate it, but others don’t) and are fairly cheap. Who doesn’t want that kind of close combat potential?

This is a weird army. The Grey Knights themselves are not really awesome at anything. They have some good shooting with one gun (psycannon) but the range isn’t stellar and requires rending. They have cool close combat weapons, but low a number of attacks. They get silly in price with upgrades. Their Inquisition buddies can help with the range, but are a bit pricey and only accurate ½ the time.  They can also help with the close combat, but lack the toughness and grenades.  Granted it was only the first game with them. More games will only help further our opinions.