Another doubles tourney fast approaches, with a curious and simple FoC idea with a bit of a complicated execution.  A picture being worth a thousand words:

The team shares a FoC, working similar to the allies system.  I will likely be playing along side Imperial Guard with the Tier 1 HS and FA slots already filled, thus I have to fill the Elite slot before I can even look at grabbing a HS myself.

I have wanted to run this list for a long time, and it seems that I will soon have a chance to do such.  750 points of Grey Knight silliness:

Coteaz. 100 pts
Warband: Death Cult Assassin x10 (Swords/Axes), Crusader x2. 180 pts
Warband: Warrior Acolyte with Boltguns x5, Razorback with TL Assault Cannon and Psybolt. 110 pts
Tech Marine (Power Axe)
Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt, Multi-Melta. 270 pts

Coteaz invites the first Warband and the Tech Marine over to the Land Raider for a rocking good time, so good that they have to get another squad in on it on turn 2.  Both Coteaz and the Tech Marine can pop Hammer Hand, buffing the Assassins up to Strength 6 with swords or 7 with axes.  Add in Prescience and the Assassin’s innate Init 6, you find yourself looking at 40 Str 6, AP 3, Init 6 attacks on the charge, destroying Khorne Berzerkers before they can even swing back, or weathering a few losses and obliterating things like the Swarmlord in a single round.

Having a Pass-Back roaming the board to drop payload on an objective ain’t half bad, either.

Still putzing around with the 750 point list.  Didn’t really like how the termies ended up doing in playtest, and it also seemed that I got the FoC for the event wrong (1 HQ, 2-3 Troops, 0-1 Everything Else).  Having reviewed my performance, I have come back to the conclusion that Grey Knights are better at shooting than stabbing, and this list came out of that.


Codex: Grey Knights, 750 Points, No Witty Name Yet

HQ:
Inquisitor Coteaz. 100 points

Troops:
Warband — Crusader, Plasma Acolyte x3, Jokaero, Razorback, Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammo. 177 points

Warband — Crusader, Melta Acolyte x3, Psyker, Razorback, Twin Linked Assault Cannon, Psybolt Ammo. 152 points

Warband — Plasma Servitor x3, Jokaero x2, Chimera, Search Light. 186 points

Heavy Support:
Dreadnought, Twin Linked Auto Cannon x2, Psybolt Ammo. 135 points. 


One thing of note about this list that I really like is the fact that, when in range, the Razorbacks are actually more effective at killing Land Raiders and equivalent than the Mortis Dread.  They have a 50% greater volume of shots, and then this math happens:

Str 8 Autocannon hits, rolls a 6, 8 + 6 = 14, glance.
Str 7 Assault Cannon hits, rolls a 6, 7 + 6 + 1d3 = minimum 14, guaranteed glance, 2/3 chance to pen.

Any given hit from either can glance, but only the Assault Cannon with it’s Rending USR can actually finish the job and go for the pen.

The contents of the Razorbacks are also pretty darn mean, generally being a healthy idea of staying away from them.  And being that they both have at least one long range threat inside of each of them (Jokaero with a Las Cannon, Psyker with his fire ball), an early demeching may not be as good as one hopes, especially with a Crusader in each to tank hits with his 3++.

With a local team tournament coming up in January (4 players per team, 750 point lists each using Ally FoC, 3 rounds with no one paired with the same partner twice), I have been wondering what would be the most effective thing I could bring the to table (litterally, *ba-dum-tish*), and I came up with this first list.

Codex: Grey Knights, 750 Points.  ”Sinister Seven”

HQ:
Librarian, Might of Titan. 155 points

Troops: 
Grey Knight Terminators x5, Halberd x4, Brotherhood Banner. 225 points

Elites:
Tech Marine. 90 points

Heavy Support:
Land Raider Crusader, Psybolt Ammunition, Multi-Melta, Storm Bolter.  280 points


I love the simplicity of deployment with this list, as it is quite literally “Land Raider, go”, and I am able to drop it anywhere that would support my ally for the game.  Turn one moves the Raider up 12”, Machine Spirit and Snap Firing throws much hate at anything in my face, or bubble wrapping my intended charge target.  Turn two is another 6” move with the blob of 2+ running out of the front door, more shooting into things that might muck with the charge, and then the assault phase happens.  Having already moved 24” across the field should have put the blob into reliable charge range on most anything save for back fielders on Hammer and Anvil, in which case turn one gets repeated.  Once that assault connects, though, this is where the magic happens.

Tech Marine casts Hammer Hand. Termies cast Hammer Hand. Libby casts Hammer Hand and Might of Titan.

Initiative 6: 16 Str 8 AP 3 attacks on the charge.
Initiative 4: 4 Str 8 AP 3 attacks and 4 Str 8 AP — attacks on the charge.
Initiative 1: 3 Str 9 AP 2 attacks on the charge, and 2 Str 8 AP 1 attacks (charge or no).

Additionally, all these attacks roll 2d6 for penetration.  At 750 points, this should simply overwhelm and over power most anything it contacts, and the fact that this is all bundled up with 2+ saves across the board, 5++ on six of seven bodies, Denies the Witch on 5+ most of the time (and 4+ vs Mastery level 1 psykers), along with the Aegis to further spite enemy psykers, these guys will generally get to where they want to go, and get things done.


However, anything I can come up with, still being a relatively new player, can be overcome.  There truly no accounting for the whims of the dice gods, and every Codex has it’s own flavor of cheese to bring to the table.  Even just limiting myself to Codices I own, I sat down to figure out what can trump this list, and I came up with this.

Codex: Necrons, 750 points, “Stand Back Up and Fight!”

HQ:
Overlord, Gauntlet of Fire. 95 points

Troops:
Necron Warriors x20. 260 points

Necron Warriors x10, Ghost Ark. 245 points.

Elites:
Triarch Stalker. 150 points 


Once the Raider enters maximum range, and assuming the Stalker scores a hit but no result against the Raider, the Warriors and the Ark should generate just over 5 glancing hits, demechanizing the Terminators, and allowing me to just slowly back peddle and keep shooting them until I torrent them to death, with the Heat Ray accelerating the process.  Should the Stalker miss out right, subsequent Gauss shooting should yield just under 4 glances (3.8 repeating territory), making the Raider 3/4’s dead, back peddling continues, and the chances of melee becomes dreadfully more likely.  If the Stalker gets a result, however, there should be at least some shooting left over at the end of the phase to begin torrenting the Terminators early.

Assuming the Terminators get removed from their ride outside of charge range, the torrent should cause just under two unsaved wounds a turn without a Stalker hit, or half way between two and three if the stalker gets a hit (again, discounting the Stalker’s damage and assuming Warriors stay/getting back up).  Once this hits rapid fire range it becomes just under four unsaved wounds a round, or just over 5 with Twin Linked.  If the larger of the two warrior squads is the one charged, they likely aren’t causing an unsaved wound on Overwatch without the Twin Linked.


But I ramble.  One note at the end of this Math-Hammer and speculation: this looks at these lists in isolation, and this will NOT be the case when fielded, as both sides will have 750 points of allies backing them, causing all number of bizarre things to happen, like fliers and ordinance, or Marbo out of no where.