Doom and Gloom

If you're involved at all with the various tyranid blogs and forums, you've noticed some bad vibes on how people think the new grey knights will roll us.  I've been proxy testing to get the feel of how to handle them and figured I'd write down a few first impressions and points worthy of discussing regarding our future as they may change it.  I tried to organize my thoughts, but failed epically, so pardon the random tangents.



#1 - Monstrous Creatures.  Ours are on the way out I fear.  If you have any desire to throw a MC into combat with GK's, make it a trygon prime with adrenal glands.  IDK who would run 250pt trygons, but at least they would strike at i5 and come with SiTW.  Either that or be phenomenal in placing lash whips in b2b.  Tyrant deathstars with whips on every model will do well.  Just hope your SiTW is enough to shut down the psy powers.  I'm pretty sure the initiative power will override whips also.  Venomstars (2/3 venoms + 2 primes) all with whips could do some damage too, but would probably need an assist from a multi-assault to do killing damage before the force weapons strike.  A few good dice rolls from a few GK can end a ravener/warrior brood or MC in the blink of an eye.

#2 - CC Swarms.  You know I'm an advocate of big genestealer units and the GK codex only reinforces this.  If you can manage to keep them in cover with FnP, you won't have to worry about stormbolter and most psycannon spam.  Hormagaunts may see a rise in use, but I don't like the way they play out so probably not for me.  Gargoyles will be very good if used properly.  You get 3-4 gargoyles fully upgraded per grey knight and will get to strike before everything except halberds (until you assault through sanctuary).  Even supergants with brood progenitor, spore could, and preferred enemy will fare better against GK in combat than MC's.

#3 - Psy Defense.  They have a decent amount of it and our is important against them.  Consider a resilient front-line SiTW purveyor like the tyrant deathstar, foot zoans, or implanted prime.  Remember every time they perils, one of their GK's dies.  That's a 20-60pt model depending on what equipment they were carrying when they died.  SiTW gives them another dice to roll and another chance at perils.  Remember most GK units without IC's attached are ldr9 and can only use one power per player turn.  Aura of Despair will be useful from broodlords.  It lasts though your opponent's turn, reduced ldr by -1, and stacks with multiple broodlords.  Not worth building a list around, but useful if you pack broodlords in your "all-comer's" lists.

#4 Psy Powers.  Know yours and theirs well.  If you use paroxysm on them, you're probably down -1 ldr from aegis.  Catalyst is easier to get off as it doesn't target GK's, just watch their hood range.  Like I said above, remember the bare units can only use one power per player turn.  This makes combat actually a lot less scary for us if you use swarms.  They will be forced to choose between +1str or saving for force weapon activation.  Purifiers will burn you, but that's about it.  Sanctuary makes us take dangerous terrain casualties and strike last, so don't make any assaults unless you fully commit.  Watch out for warp rift as it's like a JoTWW flamer.  Most of the other stuff has minimal effect on us.

#5 Decisions.  GK are a small, elite army.  There are some out there trying to break them down into a MSU format, but at the end of the day, they are still marines.  Force your opponent to make decisions and whatever decision they make, turn it into the wrong one.  Every dude carrying a psycannon doesn't have a force weapon, making them less effective in combat.  Purifiers will usually have 2/4 psycannons and that many less force weapons.  If they want to flame you, now they can't activate the force weapons they do have.  If they pop warp quake to stop your deep strikes, same thing, no ID's that turn.  Keep in mind this all changes when an IC psyker joins a unit.  They create a huge force multiplier, now allowing units to be str5 and cause ID.  GK's are good at causing damage in combat.  The more they build towards shooting, the less assaulty they become.  Use that decision against them; shoot their assaulty units and assault their shooty units.

#6 GK Shooting.  It hurts both with quantity and quality.  Come with your own cover and catalyst and don't expect to last long without it.  Cover and FnP will be key to surviving stormbolters and psybolt shots.  Think of it this way:  20 Genestealers in the open getting shot by 10 psybolters will suffer about 9 casualties.  The same unit in cover with FnP will suffer about 2 casualties.  That makes them about 75% more survivable.  Everyone's hyped up on psyriflemen, but they're less dangerous to us in most respects than long fangs.  They're still only ap4, so your MC's and primes get their 3+ and FnP.  Pure GK lists will have fewer shooting weapons that deny FnP than their SW/BA counterparts.  Rends will sneak through, but str7 won't ID warriors or raveners. 

#7 Conclusion.  They will hurt you on par with space wolves if you let them.  Expect a lot of casualties via str5 shooting and str5 power weapons.  Focus your superior numbers on wiping them out one squad at a time.   Force enough armor saves and they will fall over just like vanilla marines.  Force enough leadership tests and their units will eventually fail.  Play smart and you can beat them.  It's a solid codex with no glaring weaknesses which gives them a solid foundation, but they can still be out-played.