First 2k army, help needed (new update!)

Hello Brothers, below is my first attempt at a 2k army. As i am new to the Grey Knights and Warhammer 40k in general i would greatly welcome any advice or comments.

for the emperor!


HQ: Crowe =150

Troop 1: Purifier x10, 4 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo, Rhino =340

Troop 2: Purifier x10, 4 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo, Rhino =340

Troop 3: Terminators x10, 2 Psycannon, Psybolt ammo, =470

Heavy 1: Land Raider Redeemer, Psyflame ammo =260

Heavy 2: Nemesis DK Heavy Psycannon,
Nemesis Greatsword, Personal Teleporter =270

Heavy 3: Dreadnought, Twin linked Autocannon,
Twinlinked Lascannon, Psybolt ammo =155

Total: =1985

First off, welcome to the forums! And may I say your profile pic is cool! I'm a big Firefly fan

Ok, for the list...

Purifiers are awesome in close-combat. Since they'll be in their rhinos until they get to assault, you can probably drop the psybolts and get them a master-crafted hammer for the KotF and halberds for the rest (exactly 20pts). This will boost their already excellent assault abilities.

I'm assuming you plan to break up the terminators and put 5 of them in the Redeemer? If so, maybe swap out 1 psycannon for an incinerator for 15pts less.

Dreadknight is cool but will probably be more effective when used in pairs. Same goes for the dread. So I would say either go for 2 dread knights (if you can fit the points) or 2 dreadnoughts. I personally would go for 2 dreadnoughts and use the extra points for something else.

If you are going to use a dreadknight, the heavy incinerator might be a better buy since the heavy psycannon does scatter.

Lastly, bear in mind that Crowe is not an Independent Character so you won't be able to attach him to a squad. He'll either have to footslog behind one of the rhinos or occupy one transport by himself.

Again, welcome to the forums!

Welcome Fellow Brother and Browncoat!

I agree with the point Master Rivan made about combat squading the Termies, and transporting 5, one with an incinerator.

Given the load out of the purifiers, were you using them as alternative purgation squads? If so, great idea given the use of your heavy slots.
What is your intended battle plan?
It looks like a 24" range fire fight army with a decent counter attack in melee.

I'd also use to last 15 points to give one of the purifier squads halberds instead of leaving them with swords.

Welcome Brother! I see you have an interest in the best 'space western' ever produced

I wouldn't ever take a dreadknight unless I were taking 2 of them. Brother Rivan has given some very good advice in this regard (and for everything else he said, for that matter), but that was just what screamed out at me when I first glanced over the list.

Perhaps Psybolt ammo is eating away too many points. I'd say leave them at home and concentrate those points in something else. Personal teleporter on the NDK is great but very expensive, and does not add much to your list. You're better of without it.

Use all those saved points to add another dread. 60 for all three Psybolt ammo + 75 personal teleporter, will give you a nice ol' psyfle-dread to add to your arsenal. This way you´ll have a nice fire base and the NDK can run freely around the table, without worrying about being the fire magnet of your army.

Oh, and welcome to Titan brother!

Thank you for the responses brothers, clearly choosing grey knights and having the good sense to be a Browncoat goes hand in hand! Below is my updated list based on your advice. I've changed the NDK to a pair of Dreads, i had a misunderstanding of "independent character" so i've upgraded to a GM for grand strategy. Upgraded a Termie squad to Paladins, threw in a Strike Squad to get my 2 troop choices quota and upgraded my Purifiers to have Halberds. dropped psybolt ammo pretty much across the board. dropped the lascannons off the dreads and went with 2 TL autocannons each as they are cheaper and get the most use out of psybolt ammo. though i'm concerned about not having any lascannons for armor pen on the board.

Now i need advice what to do with my last 56 points...
toys for my GM?
upgrades to my Terminators?
upgrades to my Paladins?
upgrades to my Strike Squad?
put lascannons back on the dreads?


HQ: Grand Master =175

Troop 1: Terminators x5, =200

Troop 2: Strike Squad x5 =100

Elite 1: Purifier x10, 4 Psycannon +40, 6 halberds +12, Rhino +40 =332

Elite 2: Purifier x10, 4 Psycannon +40, 6 halberds +12, Rhino +40 =332

Elite 3: Paladins x5 =275

Heavy 1: Land Raider Redeemer, Psyflame ammo+15 =260

Heavy 2: Dreadnought, TL AC +10, TL AC +5, Psybolt ammo +5 =135

Heavy 3: Dreadnought, TL AC +10, TL AC +5, Psybolt ammo +5 =135


Total: =1944


thoughts on the last 56 points? thanks in advance brothers.

In all honesty, I think your troops choices are really lacking. You need to focus on them a little more. The strike squad really needs to be a 10-man strike squad in a rhino with 2 psycannons and a hammer on the justicar to be effective. The terminators would benefit more if you added 2 terminators, 1 psycannon, and 1 brotherhood banner. Then you could change the LRR to a LRC so the 7 terminators and the GM could all fit. Now here's the part that you probably won't want to hear: I would recommend dropping the paladins in order to afford this. If not the paladins, then a purifier squad (whichever is probably fine, but I would personally drop the paladins). If you keep the paladins, then give them a psycannon at the very least. Keep in mind that these are simply my recommendations.

EDIT: Troops squads function much better as the "glue" that binds the list together instead of just something you slapped down there because the game forces you to. The way it is now, they would be decimated by the end of turn 2, and would essentially be a waste of 300 points. You want to make them an asset, not a hindrance.

You are a bit light on troops sadly.
Your paladins also don't have Psycannons or special weaponry, so its hard to justify putting them in the list at all IMO.
I would probably suggest kitting them out a bit more if you want them with your GM.

I'd even suggest dropping the GKT, and taking several squads of GKSS in a PsyRazor with one PsyC, this way its a more mechanised list, more targets for your opponent, and you should have at least 3 troop choices, although you'll need to work on points.

You can play with 2 troops at 2k, but it will be an extremely hard game to win, especially if you are relying on 5 2+ saves, and 5 3+

i see your points, and as i'm still assembling this army i'm really not married to the idea of termies or pallys so i'll play with the numbers some more and see how many Strike Squads i can fit in, maybe an interceptor squad...

Some cool things for your Grand Master would be Rad grenades which makes it easier to slaughter or insta kill anything your GM and his squad get into close combat with. Plus if you plan on deepstriking with any units, servo skulls can be helpful as they make it less hazardous and they are cheap point wise. Also a orbital bombardment is usually a good choice however you have to hold still with your GM to use it.

I'm not sure about everyone else here but I also like to have a hammer in almost every squad in case of having to deal with walkers or something else big.

Anyways I hope this helps some, welcome to the forums and good luck to you!

Ok hopefully i've got this list about set, still trying to fien tune it. I've seen a fair amount of games but have yet to roll the dice once myself so feel free to tell me if this is or isn't going to work at all lol

please let me know what you think

HQ: Grand Master, Cinnie +5 =180

HQ2: Librarian, Might of titan, Shrouding, Warp Rift, Sanctuary, +20 =170

Troop 1: x10 GKSS, 2 Psycannons +20, hammer +10, Psybolt ammo +20, rhino +40 , =290

Troop 2: x5 Termies, Banner +25, MC hammer +5, Psycannon +25 = 255

Elite 1: Purifier x5, 2 Psycannon +20, 2 halberds +4, Hammer +5, Rhino +40 =189

Elite 2: Purifier x5, 2 Psycannon +20, 2 halberds +4, Hammer +5, Rhino +40 =189

Elite 3: Purifier X5 2 Psycannon +20, 2 halberds +4, Hammer +5, Rhino +40 =189

Heavy 1: Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt ammo +5 =260

Heavy 2: Dreadnought, 2 TLAC Psybolt ammo +5 =135

Heavy 3: Dreadnought, 2 TLAC Psybolt ammo +5 =135


Total: =1992 (8 points left over, maybe a halberd for the GM?)

As you can see it's all mechanized, 3 Purifier squads in 3 rhinos, GKSS in another rhino, GM, Libby, Termies all pile in the Crusader, the 2 dreads stay in the back and pound away armor with their Psy TLACs.

switched the redeemer to a crusader for anti-infantry (although i really wanted to try the flame cannons lol)

i THINK I've balanced the list pretty well to handle most situations but as i've said i've yet to actually play a game yet so i could be completely wrong, have everything bought and is about half assembled, playing around with magnetizing stuff and such is slowing me down but hope to play my first game in about 2 weeks.

(is it legal to have two independent characters in one unit?)


thanks in advance for your input

Yes, you can have 2 IC's in one unit.

I like your list. Pretty well balanced and you have mobility via the transports.

As far as I'm aware you can have as many ICs as you want in a unit. You can even make a unit out of ICs but that's beside the point.

Looks good, let us know how you get on in your first battle.

DonFer wrote:Perhaps Psybolt ammo is eating away too many points. I'd say leave them at home and concentrate those points in something else. Personal teleporter on the NDK is great but very expensive, and does not add much to your list. You're better of without it.

Enough with your NDK hate brother

Thanks for the help with the army brothers, i finally got to put it to use against some traitorous Imperial Guard and the Hated Daemons.

Due to my opponents being unable to field 2k worth of troops i had to trim my list and didnt get too play around with the hurricane bolters on my LR

Both were objective based and ended in draws, some weaknesses i identified were...

my lack of being able to put a hurt on armor 13
My terminators really don't like flamer daemons

would of loved a sniper to deal with some icons warping i daemons and an ordnance master calling in orbital barrages that luckily were mostly ineffective but could of been annoying

Aren't the flamer daemons only ap3?
Hammers and CC stuff is often your best bet against high AV vehicles, or lucky rending rolls.

Zealadin wrote:Aren't the flamer daemons only ap3?
Hammers and CC stuff is often your best bet against high AV vehicles, or lucky rending rolls.

they died quickly, but had already done their damage lol

yah once i got the hammers up close it changed i bit, i was just hoping to take them out from afar... next time ill have to try to rhino rush the troops up rather than 6" inches at a time and get the hammers there sooner

Its hard really, most armies swap range for melta, which means 2d6 pen, ap1 and str 8, sadly however if you don't have this things get difficult!

Also remember that units like a Lib with warp rift get a guaranteed penetrating hit, rear armour is always going to be weak, and that while autocannons aren't ideal they can still annoy av 13. Sometimes you just need to suppress vehicles not kill them.

the vindicare's turbo penetrator(Coolest Name Ever!!) is pretty good for dealing with armor, or mostrous creatures, or yipping dogs...maybe that's a little overkill, but it's good for anti armor. You would have to drop a purifier squad, but the points you would save could give you enough to order orbital bonbardment capability so your grandmaster could watch the fight instead of joining it. This would also give you access to lance bombardments which could be another way to deal with armor, and psychout bombs to deal with...psykers. I personly think it's a waste, however to only have 5 terminators and a brotherhood banner. I think of the banner as a force multiplier and with only 5 members you arn't going to get the most out of it. I understand terminators are expensive, but they are the core of our Chapter.