Monday, October 7, 2013

MiGT Best General: Jesse Zischke's Grey Knights


So I showed up to the inaugural Michigan GT with my Grey Knights and a dream and ended up coming away with the best general award.  In a sea of Tau and Eldar builds the Knights needed to represent for the imperium.  Here's the list:


Coteaz
Inquisitor with the psyker upgrade and 3 servo skulls
X2 Storm Ravens w/ hurricane bolters, assault cannon, multi melta, and psy ammo
X3 Dreadknights w/ heavy incinerator
X2 Henchmen squads w/ x2 jokaero and x10 warrior acolytes w/ storm bolters
X2 Henchmen squads w/ x2 jokaero, x9 warrior acolytes w/ storm bolters, and x1 warrior w/ a bolter
X2 Henchmen squads w/ x3 crusaders
Aegis defense line


My basic strategy for most games was simple. Deploy henchmen goons behind defense line on back field objectives and shoot. Deep strike Dreadknights to torch troops in cover. Annihilate high value targets with Ravens and drop the crusaders end game to control opponents objectives.  For the most part this worked.


I have to say the hidden gems of the army were the servo skulls and crusaders.  Everything else pulled their weight, but these two made or break many games.  Servo skulls handed me the relic mission when they told Draigo and his Paladin buddies to slow their roll when trying to scout forward. And the crusaders held on to their objectives behind their storm shields as the adversary tried desperately to push them off. The skulls also helped with strategic deep strikes and mind strike missile shots.



The most important factor though in my opinion was knowing my army.  The strengths and weaknesses, and what units were best suited for each task.  I've been playing a variant of this list for over a year now and know it through and through.  Making subtle changes gradually as I go, to slowly improve it over time without going totally nuts and doing complete 180's.

The list handled both Tau, Eldar, and flying circus well. With my only loss coming from Ken Brunner and his strong Zombie Cron list.  Note, keep Dreadknights away from Typhus and mind shackle
 scarabs.  Mind strike missiles were the trump card to both draigowing and fate weaver, putting perils wounds out like crazy. Also don't forget Coteaz and his spy network, as they saved me twice from being seized on. Starting things off with a mental victory right off the bat is an invaluable boon.

Hopefully this helps some of you fellow daemon hunters out there.  I for one will keeping cleansing evil wherever I find it. Gradually improving and moulding the list to the environment at hand.  Thanks for reading.








4 comments:

  1. I love this list for all the things it can do and how it is easy to galze over the units, only noticing their surface qualities.

    You can handle pretty much anything with this list.

    I am pretty sure you will almost always have rending on the henchmen with the Jokeroes, which along with 2 shots at 24" makes more than half the board a kill zone. Coteaz is often considered a henchmen tax, but he enables you to keep first turn, deny alpha striking deep strikers and the second inquisitor makes scouting units like the Khorne hounds stay on their porch.

    Even the screamer of Jetseer stars have something to fear with Mindstrike missile coming off the ravens, which hilariously hold three man crusader squads that can survive explosions with their Vibranium Captain America shields.

    The dreadknights even have layers (especially since I forgot they can deep strike). I have pulled up to mindshackle a Dreadknight before with TWO necron lords and got force weaponed to death twice because he passed his tests AND hit me with Mind Fists. I then think of all the Wraithknights and Riptides these three probably killed.

    I love the list Jesse and I will have to go through some of the other GT's sites out there, but it would seem you might have the best GT performance of a straight GK army in 6th Edition GT history.

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  2. As being on the "receiving" end of Jesse's list all to often, this is the fine tuned version. It is brutal. He used to run Strike Squads here and there but they just ended up being roasted by Heldrakes. The Henchmen are just better in shooting and are surprisingly survivable behind the defense line. And VERY shooty.
    Things I've noted happening all too often in Jesse's games:
    Carefully moving units around in an attempt to get "rear armor" shots on Storm Ravens...
    Getting into "melta range" on Storm Ravens...
    Scout moves! Er, uh... What is a servo skull again?
    He has a Force Weapon? What?
    Those can deep strike?
    Those have rending now? For how long?
    ....
    The list goes on. Great job Jesse!

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  3. Congratulations, Jesse. Hopefully, I will win our next game. Maybe then I won't have three squads run off the board and be foiled by Coteaz's Spy Network. Gotta love those monkeys though.

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  4. Hi
    Please give us some short Battle reports from the GT ! :-)

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