Email in: Grey Knight Foot List

Had this question emailed to me recently. If anyone else fancies a chat or needs help with anything, hit me up on alexflyf@hotmail.co.uk

“Hey Killswitch. Bit of a lurker but loving the posts. Just wandering if you could make me a fairly strong foot Grey Knight list. I have seen a variety of lists which peaks my interest online, such as Steleks on YTTH, but nothing has really got me excited into creating it.

I thought I’d give you a shout as I know you play in the UK and would be able to create an army based on the English meta & the 1750pt limit we often see.

Im really open to ideas, as long as it works haha.

Thanks mate, Ralph Greenhill.”



So I got this message not too long ago and it got me thinking. I myself wanted to build a solid GK list which works and has a fairly good chance of beating or even competing against what we find in the UK. One thing which will be a struggle for this list is Guard. I thought long and hard about how I could build a balanced list whilst still having the capability of competing with guard, but unfortunately its just not that easy.

Psyfleman (Dreadnoughts with 2 Twin-autocannons & Psybolts) are fantastic long range fire support. They are, however, huge fire magnets in a foot list, so I had to stay away from them. I tried a few Rhinos, but same problems occurred (against any army). They either died on turn one, or if I had first turn they died turn 2. Hybrid wasn’t working.

So I decided that GK’s can run on foot, but don’t bother wasting points on those few rhinos/Psyfleman as it simply reduces the number of bodies on the board which keeps the list as strong as it is.

Enough rambling, on with the list. I tried to create the list around a Librarian at first. Shrouding is, at first glance, a must have for foot lists right? How wrong was I. It was nice that’s for sure, but braught nothing more. The other powers aren’t going to get much of a chance to be used if your unit is falling back. Yes, Armies do have fear of the darkness, cause pinning & make you run away like a scared little bitch (Pyker battle squad). Unless the unit he is leading is fearless (Purifiers, but they are just marines) then it defeats the purpose. Attatching to Purifiers all the time reduces your effectiveness of a Libby. Do you really want all those libby powers wasted on a unit which is designed to perform a support role? By support I mean fire support with a counter punch if necessary..yeah I don’t think its worth it.

Next I looked at the GM. Possible outflanking/scouting units will solve a lot of problems with this list, but a 6 inch move with no fleet isn’t reliable as some people like to think. More scoring units is also nice, but what else does a GM bring to a foot list? Well his not great in combat with T4, hidden fist will be picking him out. His not stubborn or fearless, so we still have the same problem. I wouldn’t dismiss him too easily, as he has potential, but I am more concerned about the benefits of the GM to his cost value. Scouting 1-3 units or giving 1-3 units scoring, to me, isn’t worth the 175pt tax you are paying in a foot list.

So now we are onto the Inquisitors & Special Chars. Mordrak would have been a must have if he was an IC or if his Ghost knights could take a psycannon or two, but alas they can’t so lets skip him. Kamarov would be a great asset in saving our LD problem. With a nice bubble of re-rolls, our foot list could be exceptionally hard to kick off the board. What else does he give us? A sturdy stat line to put ablative wounds on, and a relentless Multi-melta. Not bad. He gets rad grenades buffing the unit his attatched to, nice. He gets an orbital strike which, although must stay stationary, is also fairly nice. Of all of this, I would totally take him, apart from one flaw. His 200pts. It’s a fairly modest price for his abilities, which I think is needed in such a list. Lets take him for now and see where we end up.

Elites are our next section. What I personally want is some solid fearless purifiers who can lay down some hefty firepower and cover a fair amount of the board.
Let’s take two units of 10 with 4 Psycannons and 2 Hammers. These can combat squad if necessary to two units of 5 with 2 Psycannons and 1 Hammer in each. Fairly solid unit and provides a hefty amount of firepower to the army, awesome.

Time to get some scoring. Grey knight strike squads are the ample of any GK list. With Warp Quake, I’d never leave home without a single unit of 10. For this list, I am going to take two units of 10 with Psybolts, 2 Psycannons and a Hammer. 250pts for this loudout gives us a fairly strong midfield presence. With the purifiers to back them up, we have 40 bodies who can lay down a hail of fire power. Lets put this into figures. So far we have 32 str 5 shots, 24 str 4 shots & 24-48 str 7 shots, all at 24 inch range. I’d safely say, if your not in transports, you should be scared.

Now, finnaly we need a unit to pop karamarov in. I think this comes down to a personal preference, but I love the idea of 10 Terminators riding down the field laying down a hail of firepower and smashing down anything in their path. Sounds epic, lets do it. 10 Terminators with 2 Psycannons & a Banner. 3 can have Hammers and the other 6 can have Halberds (remember the Banner loses out on his NMFW). This gives us another 16 str 4 & 16 str 7 shots to our mix, bringing our total to a potential 136 shots at 24 inch range.

So how does the list work? Well its fairly subtle in its objective, move up mid-field and hold it, using the Terminators to lay down the hurt. Not many people are prepared to take on 50 marines, 2/5of which are fearless, 1/5 which is stubborn, 2/5 which has a re-roll to their LD checks. So we have a fairly large amount of anti-infantry, but what about anti-mech? Well this is where you will have to take the punishment. Assaulting with hammers or some lucky psycannon shots is the best this army can do. We do have a relentless Multi-melta which is nice, but not exactly a reliable tool. It’s also useful for preventing your opponent tank shocking your Termie unit with some clever positioning.

Lets add this all up. 2 Units of 10 Purifiers = 580pts. 2 Units of 10 GKSS = 500pts. 1 Unit of 10 Termies = 475pts. Karamarov = 200pts. Total: 1755pts…..crap!

Drop 1 Hammer for the Purifiers and call it a day, awesome. List should look like this now:

Karamarov: 200pts

10 Purifiers: 290pts
4 Psycannons, 2 Hammers.

10 Purifiers: 285pts
4 Psycannons, 1 Hammer.

10 GKSS: 250pts
2 Psycannons, 1 Hammer, Psybolts.

10 GKSS: 250pts
2 Psycannons, 1 Hammer, Psybolts.

10 Terminators: 475pts
2 Psycannons, Banner.

Total: 1750pts

51 bodies, 30 which can score. A potential 10 units for redundancy, and a potential 6 Killpoints. Every unit is at least re rolling its LD checks, making the army fairly durable, something which in my opinion, Guard armies fear. I will personally be giving this list a go and looking forward to seeing the results.

Scalling this list down is difficult. I would say keep this kind of list to the 1750+ level. At 2k I’d simply add another GKSS unit.

Cheers
Killswitch