3000 Point Grey Knight against 3000 Point Orks and Tyranids

My Grey Knight Army List:

HQ:
1 Castellan Crowe
- 150 points

Grand Master Mordrak with 5 Ghost Knights with 4x Halberds, Brotherhood Banner
- 425 Points

Elites:
1 Techmarine with Conversion Beamer
- 105 Points

1 Venerable Dreadnought with Tw Assault Cannons, Tw Autocannons, Psybolt Ammo
- 210 Points

1 Venerable Dreadnought with Tw Lascannons, Missile Launcher
-210 Points

1 (5 Man) Squad of Paladins with Apothecary, 2x Incinerators, Brotherhood Banner,
Master Crafted Daemon Hammer, 2x Master Crafted Halberds
- 410 Points

1 Vindicare Assassin
- 145 Points

Troops:
1 (6 Man) Squad of Purifiers with Master crafted Daemon Hammer, 3x Halberds,
2x Incinerators, Digital Weapons
- 163 Points

1 (6 Man) Squad of Purifiers Master Crafted Psycannon, Psycannon, 4x Halberds,
Digital Weapons
- 187 Points

Fast Attack:
1 Stormraven Gunship with Tw Multi-Melta, Psybolt Ammo
- 225 Points

Heavy Support:
1 Nemesis Dread Knight with Heavy Psycannon, Great Sword, Personal Teleporter
-270 Points

Total: 2500 Points ( I forgot my other 500 points, i probably put in another DK and Dread)

They Had:

about 30 ork bikers
12 rokkits orks
2 battle wagons
2 trukks
1 predator looking tank (idk)
about 30 or so Nobs
________________________
The tryanids had
8x Gene stealers
about 20 or so tera, and hormogaunts
3 warrior broods
3 ripper swarms
_____________________________________________

My Deployment: I was confident I would win, I set my DK's on each side of the table (corner to corner) I put Modrak in reserve (for DP later) I put my Pallies into the SR, my 2 dreads camped in a "fortified building with a AV14" thanks to my Techmarine, I put my Techmarine up high with my Vindicare so he can shoot people with his Conversion Beamer. Crowe I put behind the same fortified building. My purifiers were going to storm up the right side of the board.

Enemy Deployment: He horded all his armor on the left side of the board (my right) the Nobs were all being transported on the wagons+trukks (unfortunately i didn't find that out until later) His bikers were all up in the middle and seemed to be ready just to rush up and shoot down my men, The rokkit orks deployed behind the armor. The tyranids deployed near his armor as well (the right side of their battle field had pretty much nothing there.

Initiative: They make me go first

Turn 1: I move up my SR 18" and shoot both assault and melta at 1 wagon, yet nothing , Both squads on Purifiers move up 6" my DKs "shunted" 30" so the DK on my left was in their right corner and the other was right in the face of the genestealers (I seriously under estimated how vicious they could be in CC and payed dearly for it later) my Dreads just stay at their original Position, My conversion beamer fires but I roll a 1 so i miss.... My vindicare fires the Turbo Penetrator ammo and manage to kill one Tyranid Warrior. My purifiers run up a 4" and a 5" and I ended my Turn after that

Enemy Turn 1: The ork player drove his battle wagons up 12" (we agreed he could go through cover but then the cover was technically "destroyed" after that) all the other armor followed behind, his bikers moved up the board about 12", the nids moved as usual, just a blind rush to get into CC with my units. The shooting phase came and his battle wagons fire their Missile Launchers (krak ammo) and immobilize my SR. The tyranids run up into some ruins out of my Psycannon fire... The assault phase, his Genestealers assault my Dk and he dies from the sheer amounts of rending hits(with only a 5+ inv ><)

Turn 2: I disembark my Pallies from the SR, I remember to move Crowe this turn, my Purifiers move another 6", I fail the DP for Modrak, my shooting phase i fire both my dreads and score Pens but unfortunately to the battle wagons Inv save nothing happens.. My Vindicare Fires at another Warrior and i miss with a 1... The tech fires its conversion beamer and the same thing happens, The inv save from the wagons again saved a rokkit ork. I fire my with my Pallies at his termagaunts and kill 2. I run my purifiers 3" and 6" and end my turn

Enemy Turn 2: His bikers move within range of my Paladins, both of his battle wagons rams my SR and it Explodes wounding a Pallie ( I still didn't really understand, apparently a battle wagon has some sort of dozer blades that cause a Str 10 hit on the enemy vehicle?) All the Nids move up another 6" so does the ork armor and they fire at my dreads but nothing happens. The nobs disembark the wagons, and the bikers fire some 50 shots at my pallies only wounding and killing one (Bs2 is almost as laughable as the Tau fire warrior Ws2) Tyranid warriors fire their ??? at my pallies but FnP saves them. Assault phase his nobs swarm my pallies, but I strike first, I pass Hammer Hand and the Force Weapon activation I kill 2 but Fnp save about 3, he attacked with a mix of weapons that I don't even think HE quite remembered their names lol, but killed another pallie, I lose combat but my units are fearless so continue fighting the turn ends

Turn 3: I watch in horror as my pallies are shot or hacked up my nobs and bikers, I quickly move my Purifiers 6" their way to help aid them, I fail another DP for modrak , I fire my Dreads at the bikers an kill 4, My conversion Beamer Immobilizes one Trukk, My vindicare Assassin fires a hellfire round and kills another Tyranid Warrior, my purifiers fire Psycannons and storm bolters at the bikers, killing another 2. Assault phase my Pallies fight on but I roll one too many ones, and the last Pallie dies from a thunder claw, and power fist. The orks get back into the Battle wagon (consolidation) I end my turn

Enemy Turn 3: He rams his Wagons into my Fortified Building (when destroyed anyone in it has to take a dangerous terrain test") In which case my techmarine and Vindicare assasin dies. His bikers move up 12" the Rokkit orks move up into assaulting range with Crowe. The hormogaunts move into assaulting range of one squad of Purifiers, He moves his Genestealers into cover. The bikers fire some 50 shots into a squad of purifiers but only hit about 10, and wounds 8 and i roll basically all 2s or 1s and the Psycannon squad dies. The assault phase the hormogaunts assault my Incinerator squad and about 10 die from cleansing fire the other are cleaned up by my Purifiers from good rolls (finally). Crowe is assaulted by Rokkit Orks he dies but uses heroic sacrifice and takes an ork with a thunder claw with him. The dreanoughts die from the genestealers i wasn't paying attention to, and trukks

I surrender after that turn. As much as I hate to do so, but I know i'm just wasting peoples time by dragging on this battle. I shake their hands and say "good Game". In the End I only have 4 Purifiers left and a DK (never got Modrak in....) The enemy has most of its attacking force, I didn't pack enough anti-armor because I thought i was only going up against Nids.

My thoughts: This was really the First time I used my GK army, and I think I need to refine my strategies, my Purifiers and Pallies are obvious beasts in CC but against such numbers, I should have stayed back and fired, the GK isn't as good as I thought, mainly because I never really got to use it, The conversion beamer was alot of points and it didn't really pay for itself, so I might switch it for an OSR. My dreads were better than I expected though, so i'll be keeping them, I next time probably need to just deploy Modrak normally, and my SR needs to stay away from heavy fire... Hopefully when we a 5000 point battle I can bring in more heavy support

Sorry about your loss! Grey Knights will always at a disadvantage against hoarde armies because for every unit we deploy they can deploy 3 or 4 for the same cost. And it doesn't matter how good we are in CC if they get overrun by targets!

Also are you using a different Force Organisation chart to normal, cause i'm seeing 4 elite choices.....

As far as your army goes as it was I think you need to rethink your force structure. Too much spent on HQ and Elites, not enough troops.


Consider changing the Ven Dreads for Autocannon Dreads in Heavy Support with Psyammo. They can take out most things without costing so much.

If you want to take a techmarine give him Orbital Strike. Yes it may scatter but if it works it will work whatever the range from your techmarine, instead of having to keep him well away from the enemy to make most of conversion beamer.

Don't put anything mastercrafted on Justicars. if they fail their psychic test you lose the mastercrafted weapon!

If you really want to take a Paladin squad but save points lose one Paladin (to take squad to 4 man). Instead of costing you 410 points for 5 guys with an apothecary it's now costing you 335 points! 75 points is a LOT of saving! And don't forget you can still use Holocaust.

Modrak.....I myself am still in two minds about him. Deep Striking first turn is good. But then what? He can only go with his Ghost Knights, and they can only take Storm Bolters. So you deep strike first turn and.....can't take out tanks, can't really do much except move into cover or shoot a bit of infantry.
If you're really set on Mordrak then I'd suggest taking out the Purifiers from your army and taking a librarian instead. Put a teleport homer on the Librarian, Attach him to mordrak, deep strike first turn....and then deep strike everything else on to Mordrak from turn 2 onwards.

Your Purifiers were nowhere near large enough squads I think. Taking on orks and tyranids with 6 man squads? OUCH good luck!

Storm Raven.......I'd ditch the dreadknight and take another stormraven personally. Or ditch the stormraven altogether, put the purifiers in rhinos with psycannons, and take another dreadknight.

Lastly when in doubt if to take Incinerators or psycannons, take the psycannons. Much more versatile and gives you a lot more firepower at range.
Consider Psycannons on your Paladin Squad. 8 Psycannon shots per turn

Well technically we agreed to play by "custom rules" (the ork player doesn't need to take any troop or HQ's or any limit in whatever unit and I could get the same in return). Also the reason I take Venerable dreads is cuz they get an extra WS and BS +1. But what i didn't know is that you can lose the MC weapon if you fail, so ty for the heads up ill be sure to edit that. Modrak I like personally because he can keep spawning his Ghost knights and buy time for my troops to get into CC, or just into better shooty positions. As for my purifiers I personally don't like large squads at the fact that they get really points heavy and if take enough losses become usless. I love Psycannons, but because Nids and Orks only have like 4+ saves incinerators would SH*T on them if they ever got in range lol. I tried the Osr and really I'm debating the fact wheres i should take one or the conversion beamer, IF i do take the Osr i can make my tech more a CC fighter than a camper, but IF i stick with my CB then hes just going to kick back in some bunker firing some crack shots I prefer SRs for the fact of their mobility, and its an assault vehicle so unless you move a full 24" my pallies or whatnot can jump out and do some serious damage, as oppose to Rhinos that move only 18" and people that disembark can assault. But thanks very much for the feed back and I'll try to orginize my GK list a bit more, after all THAT WAS my first battle with the new GKs, still getting used to them (i used to play 3k pt Nurgle CSM)

Doesn't Mordrak automatically deep strike in the first turn due to his "First to the Fray" special rule? The rule states "If he deploys via deepstrike, Mordrak and any unit he accompanies will automatically arrive in your first turn and will not scatter."

I think the best thing with Mordrak is to deep stike next to cover and then run into said cover during the shooting phase. Don't forget that the Ghost Knights give the squad the stealth special rule so you should last a turn in decent cover.

To be honest, I think if you know that you're going to be up against a horde army, then dreadknights aren't the best thing to take. For the points you'd probably have been better to take a LRC or even a LRR.

I think the main problem with the GK Codex is that there are so many nice shiny toys to take to the party, but everything is so expensive. It might have been a better idea to drop the Venerable Dreadnoughts and taken a couple of Strike Squads - don't forget a 10 man squad, 2 Psycannons, 1 Hammer and Psybolt ammo comes in at just under 250 points, and they could arguably do more damage than the Ven Dreads in your list.

I suppose you live and learn though - great report.

I forgot about alot of stuff when I was in the battle, unfortunately Modrak was the unfortunate model that I clearly didn't remember any thing about.

As for the DK its looks really badass and iv'e seen it take down chimeras and Hammerheads so i'm still going to run ONE at the very least, the LRR are too point heavy and personally i don't like them (unless i'm transporting guys, but thats what my SR's are for).

Venerable dreads as i've stated before, get an extra 1+ WS and BS and the Venerable rule which I like IMO

Purifiers get everything strike squads get except mostly cheaper (psycannon 20 pts on a strike, 10 pts with Purifiers)

But thanks for the feed back, I'll be planning to go up against them again, i'm probably going to go for a more shooty army list this time

Isn't it 10 points for a GKSS squad Psycannon? Thought you got 2 for 20

Zealadin wrote:Isn't it 10 points for a GKSS squad Psycannon? Thought you got 2 for 20

It is 10 points for a Psycannon in a Strike Squad.

Oh, so they're the same price, but still.. I like Cleansing flame and halberds are ONLY 2 pts with purifiers, If I were running anything else there would be no point of taking crowe!!!

One thing I'm curious about is what Grand Strategy did you use?