40K Editorial: Ten Things to Do with Grey Knights
So there has been a lot of talk and rumor dumps on the impending Grey Knights codex. We’ve heard that while some of the little stuff is still up in the air, fundamentally most of this stuff is locked down. So lets talk about what this army looks like it will be able to do on the tabletop.
1) Hide and Appear. Regular GKs can move at an insane pace, even teleport across the board. Deny the opponent any targets as long as possible and then bamf right across the board to be in their face late in the game. Elite armies (which GK certainly are) generally overwhelm their opponents for short periods of time; by making the period of time that the game is actually interactive short, you increase the value of your army’s strengths.
2) Draigopalooza. Draigo makes Paladins troops. According to the rumors, Paladins can have 2+/2++ saves , Feel No Pain, and be all different models. On two wound models. So Draigo is the Warboss who gives you Terminator Nob Bikers. Let’s look at the bolter fire it takes to get one wound through. 1 wound requires 2 FNP saves, 2 FNP saves requires 12 armor saves, 12 armor saves requires 24 hits, 24 hits requires 36 shots from BS 4. BS 4 Plasma still requires 9 shots!
3) Coteaz Allows Henchman as Troops. Sure, Crusaders are wimpy T3 guys. But they have Stormshields, they are cheap, and they protect a ball of decent buddies who can shoot and chop things to bits. Since you’ll almost certainly want an Inquisitor to do evil things, having a cheaper scoring unit or two can’t hurt.
4) Purifiers Kill Everything! Nothing like seeing those two 30-man Stubborn IG blobs disintegrate as two Purifier squads contact them both and use Cleasing Flame to flambé ~85% of them (50% for the first one, then 50% of what is left after the first round of saves). And since Cleasing Flame is at the start of EVERY Assault phase, it handles certain high initiative low save problems very nicely, too.
5) Grand Masters Make Scoring Dread Knights. Having to fight Voltron is even worse when he is a scoring unit, because then you really do have to deal with him. And since you need 100,000 Plasma shots (more or less) to deal with the Paladins, it may not be simple to find the extra firepower to kill these guys.
6) Vindicares Loves You! Sure, there are armies that a Vindicare isn’t all that good against (Foot Orks come to mind). But the rest of us really do have characters that we want to keep their Invulnerable Saves and sergeants with Power Fists and other key models that we would prefer not to have killed from across the board. Not to mention the shot that averages like a 36” range Melta against anything (even Melta-proof) stuff in the game. I have read countless arguments about the Vindicare not being worth the points, but any model that can become the focus of an opposing army’s anxiety is worth the points to me.
7) Warp Quake Denial Zones. “Normal” Grey Knights can create areas that block teleport homers and force Mishaps on Deep Striking enemies. This is another power that allows you to control the tempo of the game and the location of the enemy; restricting the enemy’s ability to go wherever they want is one of the greatest assets a commander can have. More and more this will lead to the enemy getting restricted to the tiny killing ground that is ruled by the Paladins and Dread Knights…
8) Razorbacks Ignore Shaken and Stunned on a Leadership 10 Psychic Test? This makes putting guns on AV 11 transports a lot more sensible – and it is already one of the most common army configurations around…
9) Brother Champion Heroic Sacrifice of Doom. One attack that removes the bad guy model from play, hitting Chapter Masters on a 3+. Sure, it only happens with the Brother Champion dies, but Abaddon was going to kill him anyway, and might as well go along for the ride. Bon Voyage Abby!
10) And You Thought Jaws of the World Wolf was Bad! Not only do the Librarians have a Jaws in Template form (much better for scaring every model in an expensive unit), Brother Captain Stern gets to explode every assault phase and kill EVERYTHING in a 6” radius that fails a Strength test. Sure, that is only 1/3rd of the Marines near him, but that means most characters are still at least twice as likely to fail against Stern’s power as against Jaws, and who hasn’t lost a Chapter Master or two against Jaws?
So that’s what we came up with in a 15 minute set of first thoughts. Your turn – how do you think the codex is going to alter the meta?
