Taking a single big model

This is something that i've seen in many many games over the years, and in many WD lists and others.

A big model, say a Land Raider. or Storm Raven, or Dreadknight. on its own.

Now yes, the aforementioned Land Raider is the king of tanks. AV14, POTMS, 4 hull points etc. The Stormraven is good cause it's fast, and can't be hit easily by anything that isn't a dedicated anti-air weapon (which is the new priority target these days).

Singular Dreadknight......

I'll come back to that.


Now the main reason I suppose for taking one of these units is cost. these are expensive units, even at their most basic config. And putting them together in pairs or even more quickly takes up most of your army points.  
So you take one to keep your points down, but you also take it cause (let;s face it) it's cool.  And hopefully is a real asset to your army (nothing worse than a unit that does nothing for your army. Stern I'm looking at you...)


But here's the problem.
You take one big Land Raider. And then it's the main target on the field. Double that target priority for a dreadknight!

And here's the thing. There ARE ways to protect your big bad unit. but they detract from the rest of your army.

For example, you could have your land raider with a techmarine inside, and a Librarian casting shrouding. Shrouded hard to kill land raider!
but you've just cost yourself 245 points (the cost of a Land Raider Redeemer, or fully kitted out storm raven, or more than a strike squad!) on protecting one unit.

Same with Dreadknight. You could have a librarian Summon the Dreadknight. or spend 75 points on Teleporter so you can shunt to where you need the Knight from cover. But you're still spending points defending a single unit when you could be using the points to better effect elsewhere.

So what should be done? Is it suicide to take a single Land Raider, Storm Raven, Dreadknight, Paladin Squad, Purifier Squad etc?

The answer IMO is no. It's not suicide. but when a single unit is dictating your whole tactics and play style then you need to reconsider the worth of that unit.

Another example of a single unit that is often suicide to take:
Vindicare Assassin

Hes on his own. he's not uber tough, but he's a priority target for most opponents. Why? Well in most of my games he's died very very easily. but in one game (yes I've used this story before):
2 land raiders. 2 bullets. 3 FNP saves. With 2 Turbo Penetrators the vindicare destroyed 510 points of the enemy army. he passed THREE 6+ FNP saves. and he cost 145. Yes he died in the game (took a Callidus to do it) but for a while he was the meanest baddest unit on the table.

And that's why you take a single unit. Because when it's very very very good. when it's not....it's only one unit so doesn't take out half your army by its loss.

So what are your thoughts? Are you for multiple small squads (SPAM!!) or taking the risk and putting a Land Raider on its own supported by other vehicles etc

Personally I am more in favor of taking the risk and having the single big model.
I feel the the distraction (fire magnet) big pieces cause can be very strategically advantageous, allowing the rest of your force to do their thing unhindered. But I also like the fluffy side of this strategy in which you have big models acting in epic ways worthy of the Grey Knights.

Once again I think it all comes down to play style and the meta in your area. I am interested to hear what others think.

There is one model I would kill to have in my army. I've seen pics of it on a site I can't remember. But it's the one thing I would happily take one of in my army.

Three Words:

Grey

Knight

TITAN

Grey Knight Titan's don't make much sense, but what with retcon we'll probably have them by 8th edition.  That said, there is a division of psychic titans in the older background.  The last I saw of them they turned up in the 13th Black Crusade.

I almost always use a single dread knight in my force.
Having shrouding and so on makes it difficult to kill.  Using the terrain and controlling the range to the enemy often makes it, (with a few exceptions such as from multiple fliers or JoTWW style attacks,) impossible to kill. If I had 3 dread knights it would be difficult to keep all of them out of range/LoS, I'm guaranteed to lose at least one because I have no way of stopping the enemy shooting it full of plasma.  Of course this is all based on the amount of terrain at my local gaming place and Warhammer World.  If you play in a place with only 5 bits of terrain and only one is taller than 3" your strategy would have to be entirely different.  I can afford to be conservative, a lot of players need to be more aggressive because their forces are left in the open with their danglies blowing in the wind.

In any case, if AP2 fire is heading for the knight it's not heading for my scoring terminators.  
I tend to have it escorting deep striking terminators or interceptors unless there is something specific it needs to do like assassinate a guard command squad with an incinerator or tear up an oncoming landraider. Once it has completed its objective it becomes expendable.  

Alternatively, I've often had it stick to a strike squad on an objective in my deployment zone. If I keep it out of sight in my deployment zone near an objective it will get to come out and play sooner or later. Either that or my strike squad claim the objective unopposed and I win without needing it to fire a shot or clobber anything.



I also use a single dreadnought that sits out of the way in some ruins sniping tanks and a single storm raven which does whatever I need it to do, though I don't count on it surviving.  I haven't used a land raider with knights, but with my Space Wolves I used to run one with a mechanised force, providing cover for the rhinos and adding it's firepower to the predators and razorbacks.

@brother corennus, you mean this bad boy on this site?

http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/40K%20Grey%20Knight%20army.htm

I've never had issues taking single models be it a single NDK or a single LR. For me it also fits the fluff that the GK's are so widespread that there really won't be a lot of the same units unless it's a major engagement (very high point games or apocalypse settings).
Every unit has a purpose and as long as there is synergy between units, it usually works out fine.

Back when we still had the 3rd Ed codex, I usually ran 2 LR's but that's because we don't have any other transport choice

i always use units that i want to play... and if it's big expensive unit, so be it !!   
in fact i'm prone to put lots of gear on units i do love ... like my GKGM or my Dreadknight, so yes it's not a problem for me that those units are expensive !    
and about using a libbie to protect a big unit... well, i think it's worth it, 1 or 2 turns anyway, and after that those big nasty units are in CC so it's a win-win situation !   
Aubec  

yup that's the one!

+1

Big Single Models it is!!!!!!!