Monday, 31 January 2011

Cometh the Grey Knights

I thought that as this blog is meant to be about my journey into the new Grey knight I'd post a few of the rumours and my thoughts on them

HQ

Special characters – lots of them, one of them accesses cheap terminators, stern has a SS, inquisitor accesses storm troopers

SC's are always fun and add fluff , trouble is they can be overcosted or overpowered. As I like fluff this is a good rumour. :-)

 Inquisitor lord has henchmen – cross between archons court and IG command squad, they can have their own transport

Again more fluff :-)

Elite

Dreadknight
Dreadnought/ penitent engine mix
Monstrous Creature
Gatling psycannon (str 5 but 12 shots.)
DCCW

Could be good if they get the rules and points right. A big hulking grey knight does sound fun though.

Elite terminators/ Paladins – 2 wounds, FNP, 4++/ 5++, can get FNP with the apothecary

Read various versions of this one but 2 w terminators with FNP sounds evil, in a good way of course!

vindicare assassin is 0-3 has unlimited special rounds (4d6+rend vs. armour, wound on a 2+, destroys inv save)

callidus assassin – drops ‘bomb’, then can shoot the flamer then assault as normal in turn it appears.

All Assassins in one entry, same one stat line, options allow for customization into temple variants

All the rumours I've heard for assassins make them sound like one man armies, just as in the fluff! :-)

Troop

Basic grey knights - 20 pts little more for the justicar.

Point reduction is always good. As long as they still kick ar$$ of course!

Fast Attack

Storm raven - 99% confirmed

I'll either be using this or a land raider, see what special  rules (if any) it gets. And I like the model!

Heavy Support

Purgatory squads with all the extra special weapons can become troops.

Presume this will be a special character? If so I can see many a drive by shooting :-)

General

new unit –
"The Grey Knights are getting a new unit or they are getting an upgrade that causes an automatic hit to any enemy model in base-to-base with them. This hit wounds on a 4+ regardless of enemies toughness with normal saves allowed and occurs before ALL attacks (think old mandiblasters), but still adds to combat resolution at the end of combat."
"The power mentioned is (I think) the new Holocaust. How I was told that it works is as follows:
Lets say we have a unit of 20 Gaunts charging some Grey Knights. One of the Knights has the Holocaust power. After assault moves are done but before attacks are resolved, the Grey Knight passes his psychic test to use Holocaust. Each model in the enemy unit is hit once by an attack that always wounds on a 4+ and allows normal armor saves. What that basically means is that before anyone gets to swing, the Knights can blow through half of a unit that has a poor armor save. In the above example, we're looking at 9 dead Gaunts most likely - and that's before the Knights attack."

Many questions about this: is this a unit or psychic power, base to base or whole unit, does this replace holocaust....

Allies are out

Fine with me

Death watch Squads

There have been mumblings and I hope they're in!

Fearless out, ATSNKF in

Sounds good, no more extra wounds in CC

psycannons are str 7 with rending

A Grey Knight weapon that can take out power armour and vehicles, me like :-)

nemesis weapons are now
sword that grants +2 str
halberd that grants +2 int
these could psychic powers

What was wrong with universal +2 strength! An initiative bonus is always good

psychic powers – makes storm bolter rending and/ or S5, makes a vehicle AV14 on one area, PAGK can teleport

Many many question about these, what, who, where, when....

gk army has access to landraiders, rhinos, stormravens, and the chimera.

Not sure how fluffy the rhino and chimera are!

normal GK’s don’t have access to melta’s. melta’s are a rare occurence in the codex

No change from now then!

Crusade at Cut and Thrust, 1 day , 1750 point 40k Singles

Took my GK’s to this

My list
GKGM - master crafted weapon, icon of the just, sacred inscence, psychic hood, hammerhand
Retinue of 5 GKT, 1 with psycanon

Terminators
GKBC - master crafted weapon
5 GKT, 1 with incinerator

Grey knight squad
Justicar
6 PAGK, 1 with psycanon

Grey knight squad
Justicar
6 PAGK, 1 with psycanon

Land raider - extra armour, smoke launchers

Land raider crusader - smoke launchers

Battle 1
Peter Vivian (orks)
Warboss + nobz on bikes
4 boyz squads in truks
Shootaz
Battlewagon wif def rola

Mission: capture & control
Setup : pitch battle

I wipe out everything apart from bikes, he kills my troops. He wins mission, I win on VP’s

Battle 2
Hedley Crocker (Blood ‘mech’ angels)
Lots of tanks!

Mission: multiple objectives
Setup: dawn of war

GK’s can’t handle multiple tanks, he rolled over my army, did manage to take out a few tanks though. I’ll remember this game for 2 things, my GM failing to hit and wound when he charged 5 basic marines and my opponent rolling 3 1’s when try to spot me!

Battle 3
Nick Cox (slaneesh daemons)
My opponent had to go home due to his daughter being ill. So I faced
Russ (black templar)
Emperors champion
High Marshall
2 squads of 10 tack marine with meltagun and p/fist
2 squads of 5 tack marines, 1 lascanon + plasma gun, 1 missile launcher + plasma gun
Unit of 7 assault marines
Unit of 2 land speeders
Single land speeder

Mission: annihilation
Setup: spearhead

He ran towards me, I shot him then charged, there was a big bloody mess with my GM facing his high Marshall. As this suited my tactics was a good game for me, I killed lots and won. High point was when my GM tried to tickle the HM, not kill, and got killed in return!

Conclusion
W -1 / D - 0 / L - 2 (the fist game was a win using VP though so really 2-0-1!)
I finished 35th out of 42

Saturday, 29 January 2011

My gaming background/ origin

      It makes sense that my first post is about what I intend this blog to be about and my gaming background. So here goes

     I have quite a sizable 40K Ultramarine army covering many types of build (mech, bike, terminator, dread heavy, tank heavy, foot slog) and a small, but high points cost, Grey Knights army.

     With games workshop's recent announcement that they are going to release a new Grey Knights codex I’ve decided to update my current GK army and blog it as I go along. This will be both the modeling and playing of them.

As well as looking at my GK army as it builds up I’ll keep you updated with the adventures of the Ultramarines’s under my command.

And now for a brief overview of my gaming history

Late 80’s
                Fighting fantasy books, advanced fighting fantasy books, hero quest

Early 90’s (Rouge trader era)
                40K (marines with Grey Knight allies), WFB 1ed (empire)

Mid 90’s
                40K 2ed (Ultramarines, Space Wolves, both with assassins), blood bowl (undead), epic 40K (imperial guard, space marines)

Late 90’s
                continued as mid 90’s then women

Early 00’s
                Women!

Mid 00’s
                Women, 40K (Ultramarines)

Late 00’s
40K (Ultramarines, Grey Knights)

Early 10’s (modern day!)
                40K (Ultramarines, Grey Knights)