Welcome back to our series of 40k articles here at Master of Magics. You might remember that a few weeks ago I started work on painting my first 40k army in around six years – the Ghosts of Mortain – based on the lore of Vorth Mordrak and his ghostly retinue of Grey Knights. When you last saw them they were an army of around 1,000 pts worth of infantry, and over the past couple of weeks I’ve been wondering what to do with them next. Now their numbers have swelled, and I have around 2,000 pts spread out over three detachments with which to battle the enemies of mankind.
Today I’ll be showing you the fruits of my labours, as well as giving my thoughts on Grey Knights following the release of Chapter Approved 2018. It is worth noting that I didn’t build this force to be competitive, nor was I in the market for any best-painted army awards. This was an idea that evolved as my collection grew and was more about completing an interesting project than assembling a top tier army. I am not saying that building such a force is wrong, if you want to play high-level 40k with only the most powerful lists then that’s absolutely fine, more power to you – but that isn’t what this was about.
That being said, building an army is a huge investment in time and money, and as a result, and it would be ludicrous to collect and paint a force that you don’t like or enjoy. If you have an idea for an army, a Kill Team, or even a single model, then go for it. It doesn’t matter how crazy or weird it might seem. If you have the drive and passion to build it, do it. After all, you’re not in this hobby to please other people, you’re in it to make yourself happy.
The Knights of Titan
While I didn’t build this army to be a competitive Match Point list, most players I play do so with Match Point rules, so it made sense to assemble the army in such a way. Since Grey Knights are an elite army (in the fact that they don’t have a lot of models) I decided to focus more on amassing a larger number of troops than I would normally be able to. This was mainly to maximise the effectiveness of the Knights of Titan, allowing my troops to capture an objective even if my opponent has more models in range of it than I do. Since I was probably going to be outnumbered most of the time, I thought it was important to ensure I could match other armies in objective-based games.
To do this, I decided to go with two battalion detachments, giving me a total of six troop choices at a bare minimum. Each of the two battalions would contain two five-man Strike Squads and a five-man Terminator Squad. I love Terminators, but they are way too expensive (even after their point reduction) for games in 8th edition. While they can hit like a ton of bricks and lay waste to most other units in melee, there are just far too many high AP weapons on the tables these days that also inflict two wounds. This was made wildly apparent to me during a game against some vanilla Adeptus Astartes, when a five-man squad of Hellblasters vaporised one of my Terminator squads in a single volley of plasma-derived death.
Strike Squads, on the other hand, are cheaper and have just as much firepower as their larger brethren. Sure, their survivability and melee prowess isn’t much to write home about, but when you’re looking for cheap objective holds as the Grey Knights, your options are reasonably limited outside of bringing in some Imperial Guard allies like a Loyal 32.
For my HQ’s, I went with Grand Master Voldus (standing in for Vorth Mordrak) as well as a Chaplin, a Librarian, and another Grand Master. Voldus is not only a beast in the Psychic Phase (due to him knowing four of the six Grey Knight powers) but he’s also a real powerhouse in melee. Couple this up with his and the other Grand Masters’ Rites of Battle ability, and you have a backbone solid enough to support any army. The Chaplin allows me to get the most out of my models in melee, while the Librarian allows me to dominate the Physic Phase thanks to his Psychic Phase.
So we’ve got plenty of troops and some solid characters to smash face with. But what if we come across some tanks or even an Emperor or a Renegade Knight? Well, that’s what Dreadnoughts are for. Looking at the points I had left, I had just about enough for three Venerable Dreadnoughts armed with Twin Lascannons and Combat Weapons w/Storm Bolters with one more HQ choice to spare.
Since this would allow me to take down most heavily armoured threats and fitted nicely into a Vanguard Detachment, that seemed like the best use of my remaining points. For the HQ, I decided upon a Brother Captain to increase the range of my Smites, which should also go a long way towards helping deal with more robust targets. With that, we have a completed list.
Battalion Detachment One
HQ
Grand Master Voldus [10 PL, 153pts]
Grey Knight Chaplain [8 PL, 107pts]
Troops
Strike Squad [7 PL, 118pts]
- Grey Knight (Daemon Hammer)
- 3x Grey Knight (Halberd)
- Grey Knight Justicar (Halberd)
Strike Squad [7 PL, 118pts]
- Grey Knight (Daemon Hammer)
- 3x Grey Knight (Sword)
- Grey Knight Justicar (Sword)
Terminator Squad [13 PL, 218pts]
- Grey Knight Terminator Justicar (Sword)
- Terminator (Daemon Hammer)
- Terminator (Falchions)
- Terminator (Halberd)
- Terminator (Sword)
Total: 714pts
Battalion Detachment Two
HQ
Grand Master [10 PL, 132pts] (Halberd)
Librarian [9 PL, 113pts]
Troops
Strike Squad [7 PL, 118pts]
- Grey Knight (Daemon Hammer)
- 3x Grey Knight (Falchions)
- Grey Knight Justicar (Falchions)
Strike Squad [7 PL, 118pts]
- Grey Knight (Daemon Hammer)
- 3x Grey Knight (Sword)
- Grey Knight Justicar (Sword)
Terminator Squad [13 PL, 218pts]
- Grey Knight Terminator Justicar (Sword)
- Terminator (Daemon Hammer)
- Terminator (Falchions)
- Terminator (Halberd)
- Terminator (Sword)
Total: 699pts
Vanguard Detachment
HQ
Brother-Captain [9 PL, 112pts] (Sword)
Elites
- Venerable Dreadnought [9 PL, 157pts] (Twin lascannon, Combat Weapon w/Storm Bolter)
- Venerable Dreadnought [9 PL, 157pts] (Twin lascannon, Combat Weapon w/Storm Bolter)
- Venerable Dreadnought [9 PL, 157pts] (Twin lascannon, Combat Weapon w/Storm Bolter)
Total: 583pts
Grand Total: 1,996pts
All in all, I’m very happy with how the list came together. I’ve had a few games of varying sizes since completing the project and I have to say; I’m a fan of how it plays. Sure, Grey Knights are nowhere near top tier when it comes to competitive armies, even with the substantial point reduction they received in Chapter Approved. But thanks to said reduction and the beta bolter rules for Astartes they feel much better than they have done for a while. Being able to squeeze a few more models into a list really does help out, and a five-man squad being able to lay down a staggering amount of firepower in a single Shooting Phase can really put horde-heavy armies on the back foot.
While it’s unlikely that I’ll win many events with these guys, I don’t really mind. As I stated back at the start of the article, I didn’t build this army just to win – I built it mainly because, despite their low power level, I love the Grey Knights as a faction. Sure, I wish they were a bit more powerful, but overall I’m happy with my Ghosts of Mortain, and I’m looking forward to playing them in the foreseeable future.
Do you have any pet armies you have been working on? Let us know about them in the comments down below and remember to like and subscribe to keep up to date with all we do here at Master of Magics. If you want to support future content for the site, consider becoming one of our Patrons. Just $1 a month would do so much to help us create more of the content you enjoy. Until next time though citizen, remember – the Emperor protects.
