Imperial Overlord wrote:Sure pyscannon bolts will work on the shells, but even the Grey Knights have limited numbers of those. The shells can shoot back just fine and most Grey Knights don't have psycannons. Killing the shells with storm bolters will take some doing. The rank and file of the Thousands Sons numbers in the thousands and that's not counting their war slaves. I haven't heard of the Grey Knights having good heavy weapon support and the fact that their limited number of psycannons are quite effective against the shells doesn't change the fact they'll have to get that close. Advancing through heavy bolter fire sucks and the Thousand Sons will throw the sink at them.
The Grey Knights have man-portable heavy psycannons and incinerators aplenty. They have them in the same proportion as regular marines have heavy weapons and in their Terminator units can actually field more. The psycannon used in the field is actually more effective than a heavy bolter or assualt cannon. It's certainly long ranged enough to be a headache to Rubric Marines and sorcerers. So laying their hands on effective man-portable heavy weapons are not going to be an issue. They've got plenty and they're actually more effective than some comparable weapons in the marines. There is a lack of high-power anti-tank weaponary but that's another issue.
By contrast, per the last Chaos Codex, the Thousand Sons have no man-portable heavy weapons and absurdly limited special weapons. By the rules, they've got nothing but combi-weapons for their Terminators! I don't know to what extent that's changed in the latest Codex but the Thousand Sons have not really ever been a heavy weapon Legion. So for man-portables, they're in a bad way really.
Now of course there's the discussion of Chapter and Legion's armored assests. The Grey Knights don't field much by way of conventional tanks and artillery. Because of their mission, it tends to be Dreadnaughts, Land Raiders, and orbital reinforcements bombarding the target; a lot less of the conventional stuff if at all. That's nothing to sneeze at though. The fluff, as I recall, implies that thank to Inquisitorial connections the Grey Knights have more dreadnaughts around than other Chapters. Certainly they have more maintenance and equipment than all but the most privileged Chapters. So they've got heavy firepower should they choose to deploy it.
Again, the Thousand Sons are not among the heavy armor chapters. While they certainly have the armored vehicles, they don't seem to employ them nearly as often as others. That's probably because the Rubric Marines are not entirely capable of manning them. So while they can match the Grey Knights, nothing really suggests they'd be able to out-do them in terms of heavy armor. And there's reason to believe they may be at a disadvantage.
All in all, the Grey Knights are probably an effective match in range and once in closer quarters at a significant advantage because of their gear.
Imperial Overlord wrote:As a side note, how effective are psycannons against Defilers?
The man-portable versions would have a tough time of it; but there is nothing preventing it from being applied to an auto-cannon shell either.
That said, a dreadnaught is more than a match for all but the high-end Defilers and almost certainly more common to boot. The Thousand Sons almost certainly have very few dreadnaughts and no ability to create new ones. The Defilers are nasty but they're not a game tipper by any means.
Spartan wrote:NecronLord wrote:
Bjorn the Fell Handed was alive at that time, so it's certainly possible to sustain a Marine's life. There's been some (probably incorrect, given Iacton Qurze) conjecture about Space Marines being able to live forever, too. If Custodes have that to a higher degree...
You can't use Bjorn as an example of longevity, he's a dreadnought and spend like 99.9% of his time is stasis. They rune priests only wake him up every couple hundred years or so to recount the final words of Russ. Dante is the oldest none space marine and is only 1,000 years old.
Spartan wrote:NecronLord wrote:
Bjorn the Fell Handed was alive at that time, so it's certainly possible to sustain a Marine's life. There's been some (probably incorrect, given Iacton Qurze) conjecture about Space Marines being able to live forever, too. If Custodes have that to a higher degree...
You can't use Bjorn as an example of longevity, he's a dreadnought and spend like 99.9% of his time is stasis. They rune priests only wake him up every couple hundred years or so to recount the final words of Russ. Dante is the oldest none space marine and is only 1,000 years old.
Yes, Bjorn is in stasis a good bit of the time but with ten millennium under his belt he's still got to be positively ancient even so. And he wasn't nearly as reclusive in his younger days, most dreadnaughts aren't.
As for Dante, he's not the oldest confirmed Marine. The veteran sergeant who trained him is still alive and is has to be at least 1,400 years old by the time line. Dante is actually 1,100 as a point of fact and still as active as ever. Mephiston is also old but given he's a psyker, that's a far more complicated thing.
Still, I'd point out that Logan Grimnar is 900 years old and some of the William King novels seem to imply that there were Space Wolves that lived longer than that and even some still alive (but not named).
. According to Codex: Ultramarines, the two expunged legions (Legions II and XI) are noted as having taken part in the Great Crusade, but were apparently extinguished around the beginning of the Horus Heresy, and all records of them were lost by the end of the Heresy. 
Honestly though, a more codex oriented marine chapter...even the plain vanilla Ultramarines would be a better choice than the GK.
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