Defeating the Beast: Fighting Grey Knights Article #9

The Horde Approach

This will be the last article in the series and covers the final approach that I think works very well when considering how to defeat Grey Knights. In a lot of ways, this final approach actually works very well with a lot of other armies as well. The Horde Approach is really an extension of the Sustained Durability approach. I’m singling it out as a special type because I think it warrants further discussion.

The Horde Approach is probably NOT the first thing that comes to your mind. When I say Horde, most people go directly to Orks and Tyranids. Both of these armies can execute some portions of the Horde approach, but honestly, they don’t fit every aspect of what makes the most effective Horde Approach. When thinking about the Horde Approach, you should be thinking about the combination of a ton of durable bodies, the sustained durability portion, and some withering style firepower or assault. This was all touched on in the Sustained Durability approach as well, and probably refreshing yourself on that article will help as this article moves forward.

How It Works

The best mindset for making the Horde Approach work is to NOT think of it in terms of overwhelming your opponent. Instead, you should be thinking about FRUSTRATING your opponent’s effort to defeat you. The concept of overwhelming your opponent comes from that Ork mentality where I put 180 boyz on the board and execute ORK WAVE ATTACK to wash over my opponent like an unstoppable tsunami. Although this type of approach will work against some GK lists, against Purifier spam, probably the most common type, it will fail due to cleansing flame.

What we want is to cause our Grey Knight opponent to become frustrated. The Horde Approach excels at this tactic because while you maintain a Horde, it is very difficult for your opponent to shift you, by that meaning force you to move any given direction or to “kill you” off a certain portion of the board. You’ll constantly be contesting objectives as you add more fodder to the fight. You’ll constantly be occupying portions of the board and making yourself as annoying as possible to kill.

Let’s run a thought experiment on what I would consider a good Horde list. The Blood Angels infantry horde would consist of a ballpark of 70-80 MEQ bodies backed up by a few points of Feel No Pain. Further, a sprinkling of heavy weapons will allow the Horde to apply a withering firepower to the enemy over many turns.

Take this example army and deploy it widely across the field. Against Grey Knights, recognize that their main threat range is 24 inches. Past that, the majority of GK lists only bring two types of long range firepower, Psybolt Dreads and Psybacks. If I stay out of potential 30 inch threat range (30 because they can move 6 and fire) during deployment, this will force them to be more aggressive or lose a turn of shooting. That loss of a turn plays into my hands because it’s yet another turn that he isn’t taking down models. The bottom line will be, as you see, that the less models he takes down, the more you win.

He can fire his long range guns, but Psybolt Dreads will only average about 1 Dead MEQ a turn. That’s not even going to be a dent in the Horde. Psybacks will most likely be blown off in droves due to the 3+/FnP. Now, let’s further frustrate him by putting lots of our models out of line of site, in reserve, or against the back table edge. Each turn I go where he isn’t killing a substantial number of models frustrates his ability to win the game.

Further, and this is why this approach really works versus GKs, once he steps into that 24 inch kill zone, he is also in your primary kill zone. As a Blood Angel Horde, you also have a lot of Bolters. They aren’t very good, but 70-80 of them will kill Purifiers, very slowly. And the beauty of this is, you will take infantry losses a lot slower than he does.

Finally, your withering long range fire power will be slowly bleeding him. The goal is to outlast and frustrate. The last tactic will be in a Kill Point game, when a squad gets near death, hide it. Since you don’t have any easy to claim KPs and HE DOES (because of vehicles), you can seriously deny his ability to claim them.

The Assault

A Grey Knight player forced into this predicament really only has two tactical options. (One of the greatest things about this approach is that it really controls how your opponent will end up playing.) Your opponent will either attempt to claim mid-field objectives and keep you at bay, or he will be forced to assault you. The reason is that assault is generally the easiest way to kill off multiple models. Before I address the claiming of mid-field, let’s talk about his assault options.

Most GK lists that you will find dedicate one or two assault units. The rest are general MSU squads. The thing is, a 5 man Purifier Squad is no threat to the horde in assault. Only 3 of the guys have real weapons, and against a 10 man squad, they are going to be toast so long as you brought a fist or power weapon of your own.

The goal when dealing with the dedicated assault units is to forego all shooting at other targets and fire everything into the assault units. You will have the ability to do this effectively because you aren’t concerned about shutting down other targets to prevent losses. You are already very sturdy thanks to the Horde. Whittle them down, and then swarm them when they finally get there. Coincidentally, use the “swarm” assault to allow for consolidation moves to help slingshot you into mid-field for late game objective grabbing.

The Mid-Field Objectives

Here, the name of the game is that hopefully your withering firepower has disabled a lot of his long range guns. It’s not time to execute the “Human Wave” attack that you have been purposefully holding back for this long. The tactic in this case should be to overload one objective so that you can clear it and otherwise to simply contest the others. Contesting might be moving one squad up to contest. The game doesn’t end? No sweat, that squad dies and then another steps up. Use the squads which have been depleted for this kind of task.

And lastly note that if you can simply overwhelm most GK units, especially if they are MSU units or have been properly “withered” by your fire power.

Playing the Mission not the Game

The real reason why the Horde approach works is because you are playing the mission and not the opponent. You have the luxury of doing this because your army is so sturdy. The Grey Knight player will generally not have such a luxury, especially in a Kill Point game. Deny him kill points. Claim a few of his and run. Don’t play friendly on this one.

For Roll Dice and Tie, play for the Tie. That’s the best advice I can give with the Horde approach, and playing for the tie should be easy. Buffer your objective with all of your troops, and he’ll never chop his way to it.

For objectives, overload to claim and other wise contest as described above.

Example Armies

So, here are some example armies to help you see where I am going with this.

Horde Blood Angels:

HQ:
Librarian – 100 (Shield for extra cover saves, Unleash for a swarm attack)

Elites:

3 x Sang Priests – 150 (to be distributed around effectively for FnP bubbles)

2 x 5 x Sternguard + 2 x Lascannons (simply there to add withering fire at vehicles, easy to get KPs)

Troops:

10 x Assault Marines + Power Fist – (for a counter-assault if you need one)

10 x Tactical Marines + Lascannon + Plasma + Fist – 210 (more withering fire)

10 x Tactical Marines + Lascannon + Plasma + Fist – 210 (more withering fire)

10 x Tactical Marines + Lascannon + Plasma + Fist – 210 (more withering fire)

Heavy:

10 x Dev Squads + 4 x Missile – 210 (see a pattern yet?)

10 x Dev Squads + 4 x Missile – 210

10 x Dev Squads + 4 x Missile – 210

Total: 1985 # of Bodies: 84 (don’t forget you can combat squad against other kinds of opponents)

Horde Sisters of Battle

HQ:

Kyrinov – 90 (Fearless bubble will keep you from running if shot up or assault)

5 x DCA + 5 x Crusaders – 150 (counter assault unit)

Saint Celestine – 115 (best SC in the game. Talk about an objective contesting unit!)

Elites:

5 x Celes + Multi Melta – 90 (withering fire)

5 x Celes + Multi Melta – 90 (withering fire)

5 x Celes + Multi Melta – 90 (withering fire)

Troops:

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword – 155 (they score, lots of bodies, more heavy weapons)

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword - 155

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword - 155

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword - 155

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword - 155

10 x Battle Sisiters + Multi Melta + Melta Gun + Power Sword - 155

Heavy:

10 x Retributors + 4 x Heavy Bolters (super durable and can kill tanks or Purifiers with ease)

10 x Retributors + 4 x Heavy Bolters (super durable and can kill tanks or Purifiers with ease)

10 x Retributors + 4 x Heavy Bolters (super durable and can kill tanks or Purifiers with ease)

Total: 1990 # of Bodies: 117

Horde Space Marines (Keep in mind that Space Marines and CSM don’t do a good a job of this as newer books because they currently need updates to adjust their point levels more appropriately)

HQ:

Darnath – 200 (beat stick plus can tie up heavy assault units) - 200

Elites:

5 x Stern Guard + 2 x Lascannons – 155 (withering fire)

5 x Stern Guard + 2 x Lascannons – 155 (withering fire)

5 x Stern Guard + 2 x Lascannons – 155 (withering fire)

Troops:

10 x Tactical Marines + lascannon + plasmagun + fist – 215

10 x Tactical Marines + lascannon + plasmagun + fist - 215

10 x Tactical Marines + lascannon + plasmagun + fist - 215

Heavy:

10 x Devs + 4 x Missiles – 230

10 x Devs + 4 x Missiles - 230

10 x Devs + 4 x Missiles - 230

Total: 2000 # of Bodies: 76 (see how BA does this better ??)

Horde Dark Eldar – (keep in mind that a 4+ cover save is still pretty good for cheap units)

HQ:

A few Haemoncs

Elites:

Harlequins make an excellent counter assault unit which is almost impossible to kill at range.

Troops:

20 x Warriors w/ 2 x Dark Lance (huge block that can have FnP and provides withering fire)

10-15 Wyches – (tie up units and are very frustrating)

Fast:

Beast Packs make an excellent hold back and harass unit

Scourges can be both anti-infantry and anti-tank

Conclusion

There are more lists of course, and you can always go with Orks and Tyranids who can do this very well. Orks especially as they have more shooting capacity than Tyranids. The point is to follow the concept. This will play 40K a lot differently than what most people are used to. It can work though if played properly.

Finally, as on the podcast we are briefly discussing certain armies and how they would be played against Grey Knights in different ways. Although our podcast will cover this last article, on the final installment of RALPH (RALPH 10), we will cover the remaining armies which is not done here on the BLOG.