You be the Judge: Grey Knight tourney list submission

I have a friend who has been collecting Warhammer models since the dawn of time.  He has an extensive collection.  That said, his collection is somewhat limited in terms of models that he can field and maintain WYSIWYG.  So, when he started putting together his Grey Knight lists for a GT, I knew that they wouldn't be optimized.  However, my friend is an excellent player, regularly ranking in the top ten places at major WFB tournaments, if not obtaining best general.  He asked me for advice on two lists that he thought about taking and while money isn't an issue for new models, time, assembly, and painting are, so buying more models isn't possible. Below are his two lists and then you will see my response. 

List 1
HQ- Inquisitor w/ term armor, psycannon, 3 servo skulls, level 1 psyker - 119 points
HQ- Librarian w/ digi weapons, Mastercrafted thunderhammer, sanctuary, warp rift 170 points

Elite- Vindicare Assassin 145 points
Elite- Purifier Squad w/ 5 add troop, psycannon, psybolts 270 points

Trp- Strike Squad w/ 5 add, 2 psycannons, halberd, hammer, falchion, psybolt 265 points
Trp- Strike Squad w/ 5 add, 2 psycannons, halberd, hammer, falchion, psybolt 265 points
Trp - Term Squad w/ 5 add trps, sword, hammer, 8 falchions 400 points

Hvy- Purgation squad w/ 1 add troop, 2 psilencers, 2 psycannons, homer 185 points
Hvy- Purgation squad w/ 1 add troop, 3 psilencers, warding stave homer 180 points

1999 total

List 2
HQ- Librarian w/ digi weapons, Mastercrafted thunderhammer, sanctuary, warp rift, quicksilver 175 points

Elite- Vindicare Assassin 145 points
Elite- Purifier Squad w/ 5 add troop, psycannon, psybolts 270 points

Trp- Strike Squad w/ 5 add, 2 psycannons, halberd, hammer, falchion, psybolt 265 points
Trp Strike squad 2 as above 265 points
Trp - Term Squad w/ 5 add troops sword, hammer, 8 falchions 400 points

Fast Attack- Storm raven w/ assault cannon, hvy bolters, psybolts 225 points

Hvy - land raider 255 points

1999 total


My comments are posted below.

"I am just going to go ahead and post comments for both lists here. I think they are both interesting and the real question, which is the same for all GK armies, is how to get as much infantry on the table while not sacrificing mobility and threat.  I think we can do better with a combination of both lists.

"First, I think you need to have vehicles. Grey Knights die like any other marine, so some protection is needed. That means we need to trim the fat in some places. A bonus to this army is its ability to deepstrike just about everything in, so you have a bit of mobility through that. Your sweet spot is going to be just inside the 24" range where you can chew things up with your booku amount of shots while still staying out of assault range until you can charge in and assault for a certain victory. That said, I think we can modify your units just a bit and keep their potential while also adding in some threat with a vehicle.

"The librarian is going to be your best friend. Everyone seems to think that he is awesome out of all of the generic HQ choices. I agree. If you are giving him a hammer, don't give him digital weapons as they provide rerolls to wound and he is already wounding on 2+. I would use those 5 points to get another psychic power. In this case, I would either get shrouding or summoning. If you get summoning take a teleport homer off of one of your purgation squads and put it on him so that when he summons, things land where you want them.

"The inquisitor will be nice too. With TDA and a psycannon, he is a great model. I assume you will give him hammerhand? I think that is all he can get, but can't remember. Anyway, he is great just for the additional psycannon and servo skulls. 

"I think the vindicare will be super nasty, but will attract a lot of attention. He would be a good reason to give the libby shrouding as that will provide him a 2+ cover save in terrain. I would caution you to be careful, though. 4D6+a possible D3 for pen could be nice, but it is far from dependable. You could roll low. I think he is going to be great for taking out mid-weight AV. For the AV14, I would mass psycannon fire or try to get hammerhand and a daemon hammer into the vehicle.

"Next up we see the purifiers. Everyone I have seen run these in an army does so with halberds. I know you are limited in model range, so that isn't possible. You may look at cutting them down to five guys to help make room for something else if you need the points elsewhere.

"The strike squads look good and I think they will be pretty solid. It is also nice to be able to combat squad them for additional troops to grab objectives. On KP or victory points missions, I would leave them in 10 man squads and again use them in terrain under shrouding to creating a nasty gunline.

"I love the terminator squads. They rock. A lot of people aren't fans, but I think they are amazing troops.  In your instance, it looks like you are going for a nasty combat threat. So, I would change them up a bit. Since you have the halberd models, take a squad of 5 with 4 halberds and an MC hammer. Drop the other 5. That gives you 200pt. If we can trim a further 25-30, you can get a stormraven to put them in, and I think that would be a good combo. The falchions look nice on paper for the +1A, but having I6 is always going to be nice. Besides, on the charge, the terms will have 3 attacks and if they are in a stormraven, they should be getting off the charge. You won't need the falchions as much in that case. Being able to kill even ICs before they kill you is great. I would go that route.

"To get the remaining points, I would drop the 1 additional model from each purgation squad dropping them down to 5 models each. Also drop the warding stave as it only works in combat and you don't want those guys in combat. They need to be at that 24" distance pumping shots in the opponent's army. With the savings from them and the terminators, you could probably put together a stormraven with assault cannons, heavy bolters, hurricane bolters, and psybolt ammo and that is just nasty.

"So, ultimately, I propose a combination of the two armies with a few minor changes to some units. Something like this:

HQ- Inquisitor w/ term armor, psycannon, 3 servo skulls, level 1 psyker - 119 points
HQ- Librarian- Mastercrafted thunderhammer, sanctuary, warp rift, shrouding, summoning 175 points

Elite- Vindicare Assassin 145 points
Elite- Purifier Squad w/ 5 add troop, psycannon, psybolts 270 points

Trp- Strike Squad w/ 5 add, 2 psycannons, halberd, hammer, falchion, psybolt 265 points
Trp- Strike Squad w/ 5 add, 2 psycannons, halberd, hammer, falchion, psybolt 265 points
Trp - Term Squad w/ MC hammer, 4 halberds 205 points

Fast- Stormraven- assault cannons, heavy bolters, hurricane bolters, psybolt 255 points

Hvy- Purgation squad w/ 2 psilencers, 2 psycannons, homer 165 points
Hvy- Purgation squad w/ 3 psilencers, teleport homer 135 points

1999 total

"This gives you a fast hammer in the terminators in stormraven. It is backed up by all sorts of shooting. You can also choose to advance your purgation squads a bit and use their homers to bring the strike squads in, but if terrain is advantageous, I would just deploy everything and shoot away from turn 1. Once the terminators are stuck in, the stormraven needs to go gunship on anything it can find. If it can get rear armor visibility, it should be able to shred some armor as well, especially AV10 rear armor.

So, let me know what you think."

Internet readers, hopefully you can get an idea of what models my friend has to play with from his lists.  He can't go optimized as he doesn't have the access to psycannon models and halberds everywhere.  However, again, I think from what he has, he has a very nice selection.  So, what do you think?  Is my proposed list better?  Do he have enough to make a decent showing at a GT?  You be the judge.