Caledonian Uprising Codex Option 1: GK

Following yesterday's post on the mission pack from the first big tournament of the year, Caledonian Uprising I have been busy tweaking armies to fit the criteria for all 6 missions.

With all the Primary and Secondary pairings there are certainly patterns emerging..plenty of troops, mobility and resilience are all required..however, this is pretty standard stuff for competitive armies.. one element that is useful in providing information for list building is the Annihilation pairings.. the secondary on the first Annihilation Primary is Seize Ground and the second Annihilation mission has Take and Hold with 3 objectives down the short midline of the table..

What this means is that I can built an army pretty much with impunity as even if I am losing Primary I can still grab more points than the opponent though Secondary and VP Gap..

What I have found when building high KP count armies is that they generally function very, very well..however, they can lose on KP's or draw when you are stomping the opponent.. high VP gaps tend not to matter, however, in this tournament the biggest VP gap is worth 8 tournament points too..the same as the Primary. So in the 2/6 missions where a high KP army may be majorly disadvantaged, if it not going well on KP's due to a bad match up, this can be mitigated through smashing the Secondary (objectives) and VP Gap though overall army efficiency..

So, with that in mind at 1850 I can knock out alot of options for GK:

List 1: Psycannon 'n' Strike Spam.

Malleus Inq - Power Armour, Incinerator, Daemonblade, 3 Servo Skulls
3 x 5 man Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, 2 Halberds, Razorback - Psybolts
5 x 5 man Strike Squads, Psycannon, Hammer, Razorback - Psybolts
2 x 5 man Purgation Squads, 2 x Psycannon, 2 x Incinerators, Razorback - Psybolts (1 squad also has a Hammer)

Notes:
20 effective units/threat vectors
Deep Strike Protection through Strikes,
Alpha Strike Protection through Servo Skulls
60 S7 Rending
30 TL S6
5 S6 Incinerators
6 S10 Hammers bringing at least 12 S10, 18 S10 on the charge..
50 Grey Knights
10 Razors
21 Kps
Meh. I like it. Crap load of shooting, no dreads encourage a midfield push and once there, BOOM! I can go into any of the table quarters and grab objectives, contest etc. There is some serious shooting in this list.. only capable of killing 1.4 LR per turn with Psycannons through at 24".. wait, you have 3 max typically (BA)? oh, ok. Horde control through Purifying Flame and 5 Incinerators, plus 90 S6+ shots can do some serious damage. A little bit of CC through Halberds and Hammers, power weapons throughout the army, but nothing serious..

List 2: Coteaz Spam

Coteaz
3 x 5 man Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, Razorback - Psybolts
2 x 5 man Strike Squads, Psycannon, Razorback - Psybolts
2 x 3 man Acolyte Squad, Razorback - Psybolts
1 x 3 Acolytes, 2 Meltagun, Razorback - Psybolts

1 x 3 Acolytes, 2 Plasmagun, Razorback - Psybolts
3 x 5 man Purgation Squads, 2 x Psycannon, 2 x Incinerators, Razorback - Psybolts

Notes:
22 effective units/threat vectors

Deep Strike Protection through Strikes,
Alpha Strike Protection through Anti Seize Coteaz, or Pro Seize..either way...
64 S7 Rending  (4 not Rending, plasma)
36 TL S6
Couple of cheeky melta shots for lols...or do I streamline and bosh out another couple of plasma dudes?
6 S6 Incinerators
40 Grey Knights
12 Razors
25 Kps
Not gone too far in the dilution of the troops, this time we still have a couple of Strikes..

List 3 - Crowe

Crowe
Culexus Assassin
5 x 5 man Purifiers, 2 Psycannon, 2 Halberds, Razorback - Psybolts
1 x 5 man Purifiers, 2 Psycannons, Razorback - Psybolts
3 x Psyfleman Dreadnought

Notes:
Fuck it, I can't be arsed to list it all again! Loads of shooting, Fearless, Halberds...all good, standard stuff really...
Then there is the Culexus.. with a ridiculous number of Psykers he'll be throwing out a massive number of S5 shots at AP1 with a 2+/4+ reroll to hit at 18" effective.. it works. I promise.. but of course, I know that one is controversial.. he has damn decent defence too with 3D6 LD before able to shoot at him.. but hey ho, the rest of the list is fucking deadly..

Also got some fun lists with Coteaz and Crowe combined... some fun Dreadknight lists.. but these are the ones I like for Caldonian.. they fit the missions and I have experience with them... now just til Friday to pick and Wolves and Necrons are up Monday and Tuesday respectfully..

Thoughts on the above guys? Bearing in mind the missions (see yesterday's post) do you think these could be effective? I mean, I know they are... but what are going to be my hard match ups? Which of the 6 missions are giving you the most grief when designing your army?