MJSWASEY takes on a pre 'ARD BOYZ tourney

Today, brothers, I take my GK into an 'ard Boyz prep tourney, where it's exactly the same as the 'ard boyz would be. I made a decently hard list with what I had, and I'll let you know how it goes later!

HQ
369 Grandmaster with Psychic Hood, Retinue: 4 Terminators with Holocaust
345 Brother Captain Stern, Retinue: 4 Terminators with Holocaust

Elite
50 Inquisitor with Artificer Armor and Emporer's Tarot
120 Callidus Assasin

Troops
225 Justicar with 7 Grey Knights
225 Justicar with 7 Grey Knights
200 Justicar with 4 Grey Knights (2 with psycannons)
200 Justicar with 4 Grey Knights (2 with psycannons)

Fast Attack
170 Justicar with 4 Grey Knights (2 with Incinerators)

Heavy
258 Land Raider with Extra Armor and Smoke
258 Land Raider with Extra Armor and Smoke
80 The Meltapedo

nice list am guessing 2k pts are you not giving the inquisitor power weapon are a bolter etc

i love callidus assasins

As I was exactly 2500 i did not have the points (or the desire, really) to give the inquisitor anything. heres how it went down (we used the 2009 ard boyz missions).

Game one against a newbie. Wont go into detail but it was 23/24 to 0.

Game two vs Drop pod marines
3 drop podding marine squads, two drop podding dreads, just deep striking termies, Lysander and 5 termies in a LR, snipers, and assualt marines. as it was ard boyz storm shields were sprinkled liberally

Close match! i just deployed my 2 psycannon squads on a hill in a corner, he had scouts in the center (dawn of war). First turn I ran the two termie land raiders and a squad up the middle, and put everything else near the psycannons. he deep struck a squad and a dread near me, and mishaped another dread into the far corner. I got BC stern and friends into the scouts in the middle, immoblised the dread near the psycannons with my LR las, and had the assassin and GK squad eat up the marines near the Psycannons.

After a poor victory dance from the sniper combat from stern, lysander was able to make a good difficult terrain check to get into his squad, and two marine squads meltad my lr's to kill sterns and get a weapon off the GM's. my GM and marines made short, short work of those two marine squads, then bounced away from lysander who just destooyed my stern squad. The assualt marines got into combat with the GK squad and assassin, but were loosing the fight. The deep striking terminators landed near and then next turn assualted the psycannons with good difficult terrain rolls, In the end i ended up in a tie (winning by one kill point), 20-19 (wierd rules that really punished my 4 hq kill points, as each hq and each retinue was 5 kp each!). if i had judged the distance to the scouts better i woulda won, as lysander wouldn't have gotten the charge.

Game three vs death wing.

6 terminator squads, two land raiders, 6 bikes, a speeder, and an attack bike with homing beacons. he went first, i studied the deployment and decided EVERYTHING was in reserves. This was because it was spearhead with 2 objectives, one in each zone we didn't start in, and he had alot of concentrated, mobile terminators ready to pounce on my deployment. He spent his first and second turn deep striking in without knowing where i would be, and on turn two i got 3/4 of my army to ambush two termie squads near an obj and WIPE THEM OUT. i left a gk squad to sit on the obj, and ran the biggest gk pain train you ever saw straight toward the other objective, a huge GK caravan of two LR, 10 termies, an assassin, two psycannon squads, a flamer squad, and a inquisitor all just running straight across the diagnol of the map. it was impressive. His termies and bikes took chunks off the caravan, and there were impressive battles, like th GM and belial (sp?) killing each other, but i managed to put an empty LR on his obj for the contest, winning me a massacre and getting first place in the tourney.

The list turned out great! the assassin should never be used to solo any squad with ANY combat skills, but wow it excells at popping up behind something another squad will attack, and moving in second so it only touches one model and puts out damage but is hard to attack back

The tarot worked great with the two termie buses, as i could get first turn to zoom across the board, smoke, and ensure i'd live to get there next turn.

I think Sterns group can lose the second holocaust to give to the GM's group, letting the GM hammerhand for dread killing capabilities, as i just can't crack them without that s8.

Everyone did well except for the hilariously awful meltapedo, killing 5 of my troops total and one enemy marine. It will be swapped out to add more things to the inquistor, who soaked wounds like a pro in a GK squad, and needed better attacks. perhaps I'll also add in more GM items, like mastercrafting, and/or more GK. I've got two weeks to tune this for the real deal, so stay tuned.

Congrats Brother! Awesome win!

Thanks!

I'm very interested now in what to do with the 80 points from the bombard. I could keep it in CASE i play a true horde, but i'm thinking of a few options. some things i noticed was the inquistor, while cheap and wound soaking, could do more work. Also, i always was sweating bullets whenever my GK went off to attack, as I have nothing but the two LR that can even TOUCH a LR and any power weapon squad would eat the GKs quick with not alot of power attacks back.

Options:

1) More elite
Give the Gm's squad holocaust and give the GM MC weapon and hammerhand.

Give the inquisitor an invuln of some sort and a power weapon. possibly a combi melta. Toying if i can make an elite inquis any good at CC, as he can be picked out so i don' t know if any of the strength boosters that strike last would let him live long enough to use them, though i suppose if he hangs in the back not much will get b2b with him. if he grabs an icon or goes for SS, he could weather the storm and attack back pretty effectively.

2)swap assassins
This option can realy be done in addition to others, as it frees up points. I could swap assasins. The callidus is an excellent strategic tool, but it can only attack really really small squads alone, and needs to instead coordinate with my GK squad to provide the extra umph, but he only ends up killing 1, maybe 2 models a combat, and dies to any serious return fire.

With a inquistor in a GK squad, with any assualt nearby the celexus (sp?) assassin becomes a 5 shot s5 ap1 weapon, and the inquisitor could take that anti assualt psychic power to capitolize on LD7. My termies often go off hunting and leave only gk and inquistors let to guard any objectives, so this one guy could really do a fair bit of damage shooting anything that got close and making them take terrible moral checks.

3)Freak Show
Possibly making the inquistor actually have a retinue, something with melta and/or plasma and mystics. I would have done better then a tie against that second match, and could fend off raiders easier, but it's a fair amount of kill points that can be wiped fairly easily with concentrated shots, and they don't get shrouding......

4)Dread!
The final option is actually clearing off a few upgrades for a bare bones dreadnaught. again, something with high strength and power attacks to shore up the inquistor/8gk squad i leave next to psycannons on my side of the board and fret about while my termies are off galavanting.

Nice list you got there Brother, it looks really balanced and synergized. If I'd change anything I wouldn't take less troops, that's all I can say.

I wouldn't swap assassin. I always used the Callidus alone, popping up at the rear of the of the enemy deployment, where there are usually the heavy weapon teams (easy target), or the big guns, she cannot destroy tanks, but it's always shaken or stunned crew and makes them useless for a turn. More often than not, in my experience, a found shooting troops a few inches away from a tank, and tactic was straightforward: callidus pops up, shoot at troops and marginally at the tank (thanks flame template), killing some and then charge, in that turn you stopped two units from shooting. Then, at his turn, jump out of melee, and repeat the trick at your following turn. Very annoying for your enemy, eventually she will die or kill the targeted enemy squad. In that case the enemy will likely spend a turn shooting at her, less bolts against the GKs. I agree with you, she is an extremely strategic choice, and almost always she will die, but 90% of the cases she saves your army from bigger losses.

I would go for the Dread, possibly with lascannon, at 2500 p.ts you need that extra heavy metal.

yes the callidus are the best there rules are great i used a group in apocalipse i had 3 callidus attack a squad of SM assault termies 5 with lighting claws and 1 BC with lightening clawes my assassins killed BC and 4 terms with flamers and CC then 2 callidus died then i killed last guy with poison attack
so well made points back

i've always prefered Culexus (as easy to be killed than callidus, but way cooler ) and 5 S5 AP 1 attacks are not to be neglected (even with the poor 12 feet distance)
if you take the dread you have to find some points to give it Lascannon and a melta or a cinnie.
i like the idea of a combi-melta for the inquisitor, but a don't think that he would do great as a cc inquisitor
and if you think about a retinue for him buy 2 mystics for the free shoot against 1 deepstriker or deamon unit
and maybe if you can find points : meltabombs foe the justicars ...
Aubec

Ahhhh meltabombs! i know i was missing an anti tank option!

I decided i would have to give up too many points for the dread, the freak show makes the inquisitor not able to join the gk so less survivable and gives an extra kp (despite the insane advantage agains tthe few deep strike armies), and the cexelus, while powerful, doesn't have enough flexibility and consistency in usefulness that i like from the callidus, so I think I'm going to give the justicars meltabombs, give the inquistor a combi melta, and put a few more items on the GM/inquistor.


if you ever take two termie raiders and a inquistor, i highly recommend that tarot. It's been super for me getting first turn to zoom and smoke against weak CC armies, posiiton better against strong CC and get the first shots in, and choose table quarters. Plus you can always just choose to go second, like against drop pod armies if your staying off the table.

i've never use the tarot cause i didn't saw the advantage ... thanks brother MJ to point me the interest of it !
Aubec

Yeah I hate going second and losing land raiders to drop podding melta or LR before i can smoke, and i hate going first against heavy deep striking to allow them to see my moves and counter them.

The callidus is very usefull in some situations, but I've moved on to the eversore, to me hes just better, he always makes his points up even if he doesnt do anything. i mean when he pops out and nothings really around, the enemy still runs from him and eveyone i play against says "oh crap" when he comes out, but an 18 inch assault is hard to get away from.

and no savings (except against necrons) !!
i can understand why the callidus is often the assassin of choice ... but i'm a sentimental ... i love the culexus because he can be awesome (well placed and used) but also because he is under estimated., and because the mini is beautiful (well, imho that is )
Aubec

I've never really used the Culexus but I can see its potential. I think you can't go wrong w/ either the Callidus or the Eversor. Both are really mean when used properly and in their element.

A dread would have been my choice but with the dread being too costly, I'd go for a lone elite inquisitor beefed up for close combat and attached to one of your GK squads.

released rules make me strongly adverse to adding any extra KP or easy IC victory points. The list will give the Inquis a melta and hammerhand, and dole out meltabombs and targeters.

Grandmaster gets hammerhand and an MC as well, much stronger list.

I've always been worried about the 5 objective mission, but the last one worries me that people will protect their transports more, where they used to use the carelessly and i would casually destroy them as well for sneaky KP.

I wouldn't be suprised to see more armies sit back and shoot in missions 2 and three, at least more so then they normall would, and that worries this list a bunch.

Luckily with my tarot i can either go first or start off the board to remove the possibility of getting attacked and loosing my mobility before i get a turn.

I would recommend taking the 80 points form the Meltapedo and giving your Justicar's Icon of the Just. You never know when a invul will help, and keeping that Power Weapon alive is a nice touch.

I love doing that in casual games, but the problem in competitive is that more often then not i can get cover anyway, and if i'm not, my choice is to just lose a GK or have a 50/50 of losing the power weapon. To me, I'd usually rather lose a guy then risk losing the power weapon.

But there are definitely some games where I can my justicars artificer, icons, Bionic, and a bunch of other things for a really awesome model.w