Drraaiiigo!!!! (And some Dreadnaughts)

Terminators with 2 wounds. We all thought this was amazing. Then we looked at the codex and saw they cost 55 points each base and had no access to decent invulnerable saves.
FNP? We thought this could be incredible! Then we saw it was 75 points. 75. wow.

Like a lot of players I have glazed over Paladin units in my Grey Knights force. I felt that scoring GKTs were better and cheaper. Better in a sense that a scoring terminator unit was far superior to one that didn’t.

I didn’t want to take Draigo because despite being very decent in combat, he offered very little else.
Except of course making Paladins a Troop choice.

This can of course be done by a regular Grand Master through the Grand Strategy option. This is 100 points cheaper before you add any upgrades. Likely upgrades? A set of Grenades (Psychotroke is my favourite for the amazing random effects) and perhaps an Incinerator or Psycannon. I love the Psycannon option, but it does get very expensive. 45 points for 4 shots that are highly accurate and relentless…well, it’s a lot of points. Grenades or perhaps an Incinerator..most likely the Grenades.

I have to thank Hulksmash (found in his Homeplace here) for opening my eyes to the possibility of running Paladins. Realistically, not in a Draigo army, but as a great little unit in a more ‘regualar’ Grey Knight army.

They can run pretty cheap for the bang you get for your buck.

5 Paladins at 55. = 275…
2 Psycannons at 20 points each…40
305 points is the base cost for these dudes.
With free upgrades to Hammers and Halberds we can create a unique unit for Wound Allocation shenanigans… This helps massively.

As anecdotal evidence to this, I played 2 games yesterday with a ridiuculous Driago-Dread army last night, and it took 2 turns of concentrated fire from an entire army of Grey Knights (built competitively, played well and thoroughly playtested for tweaks) to gun down one unit of Paladins. Crazy. That was without FNP…

So, Blog Wars is coming up in just a few short weeks… Draigo is a special character and most definitely unique.
A Draigo army could be viable as I would at least have it all painted due to its crazy small size. How would it look at 1750? Yesterday I ran:

Driago

Librarian – Shrouding, Might, Quicksilver…Halberd whatever (general assortment of powers and skulls can be used here)

Paladins x 5 – 2 MC Cannons, Bro Banner, Hammer, 2 Halberds, Sword

Paladins x 5 – 2 MC Cannons, Bro Banner, Hammer, 2 Halberds, Sword

Venerable Dreadnaught – TL Auto, Ass Cannon, Psybolts or for the same points in ‘Psyfle’ configuration

Dreadnaught – 2 TL Autocannon, Psybolts

Dreadnaught – 2 TL Autocannon, Psybolts

Dreadnaught – 2 TL Autocannon, Psybolts

This comes to 1750 on the nose.. And is stupidly cool.

Not truly a competitive list, but Blog Wars is not necessarily about that.. could even sack off the Librarian and one Bro Banner (the use of which I am not convinced by) and gain another Venerable Dreadnaught… just for laughs.
Can have a maximum of 5 scoring units. Have some outstandingly reliably long range shooting and once the enemy has approached and I likewise, the Paladins have some very good shooting due to MC’s relentless Psycannons..

Probably cannot handle hordes.
But I think can hold its own versus a lot of other archetypes that you are likely to see on the tabletop

In a more realistic setup?

Grand Master – Psychotroke

Paladins (as above but without Bro Banner)

10 Strike Knights, Psybolts, 2 Cannons, Hammer, Rhino

10 Strike Knights, Psybolts, 2 Cannons, Rhino

10 Strike Knights, Psybolts, 2 Cannons, Rhino

Psyfledread

Psyfledread

Psyfledread

Good bodies, solid troops. In this setup we don’t necessarily need to use Grand Strategy to make the Paladins or Dreads scoring. We can of course, but could get good use from counter attack or from Scouting on the Paladins…
I’m missing offensive psychic presence, but the offensive cover is there from the Enhanced Aegis web from 3 Dreadnaughts..
I have to admit, I think the Librarian is overall better than the Grand Master in terms of utility and army-wide buffs from Shrouding, Sanctuary etc… but this is sooo much fun!
What are your thoughts guys? Would you like to see this attend Blog Wars and trample people/get trampled for my arrogance at thinking this is even remotely viable?