Goatboy – Grey Knights and the Shunt Punch
Goatboy here again talking about something that caught my eye in the Grey Knights book – The Shunt Punch. Read on for all the gory details.
There is a special piece of wargear in the new codex called the Personal Teleporter. The Dread Knight and the Interceptor squads can take it and it gives you two interesting abilities. One of course is that it turns you into “jump infantry” and the other is the ability to “Shunt” or teleport 30″ in one direction. So that is pretty interesting and the only reason I bring it up is because the shunt move replaces the unit’s normal move and lets say the unit gets scout – doesn’t that mean they can shunt in their scout move phase and then if you go first continue on doing whatever you want? Also with the figure/figures becoming jump infantry, the need to stay 12 inches away is not a big deal as your jump move gets you up close and personal. So that means first turn assaults or side/butt shots.
Scout states this – Scouts are used to reconnoiter ahead and are always in the vanguard of the army. To represent this, after both sides have deployed (including infiltrators), but before the first player begins his first turn, any scouts make a normal move. This is done exactly as in their Movement phase, except that during this move, scouts must remain more than 12″ away from the enemy.
Personal Teleporter – Units with personal teleporters are Jump Infantry. Once per game, the unit can elect to make a teleport shunt instead of moving. If making a teleport shunt the unit immediately makes a move of up to 30″ in any direction.
So how you get scout on this unit is to purchase a Grand Knight Master and give this unit Scout with one of his abilities. So now this unit can use it’s Shunt move to jump 30 towards you and then when you go first, jump 12 inches and punch, shoot, or do whatever kind of jerk headed thing they want to do. From all I have read this seems possible. So lets look at some units you can make out of this.
Interceptor Squad #1 – Shunt Punch
10 Interceptors, Daemon Hammer X 2, Halberd X 8 = 320pts
So before you deploy you give this unit scout. Then you combat squad as it is deployed. Then you shunt and punch. This is a more assault oriented style unit designed to hurt whatever it is going to hit.
Interceptor Squad # 2 – Shunt and Burn!
10 Interceptors, Incinerators X 2, Daemon Hammer = 310pts
Basically this unit is designed to combat squad and give a burning sensation to your opponent as the other side can Shunt and Punch if needed. An auto hitting Str 10 hammer is always nice.
Interceptor Squad # 3 – Surprise Shunt in the Butt
10 Interceptors, Psyannon X 2, Psybolt Ammunition = 300pts
Obviously this one is trying to get side or butt shots on vehicles. Split the unit up into two and just go for a large amount of Str 5 shooting mixed with some Str 7 shooting. You could add a Hammer if you want to create a chance for a Shunt and Punch but this is a much more shooting variant.
Dreadknight + Teleporter = 205pts
This bad boy is expensive but I feel a flying dreadnought like MC is pretty scary. You make him as cheap as you can, get in there and get to doing your business. This guy is a lot easier to bubble wrap and block due to his size but he still can jump and punch over a Land Raider with his Str 10 2d6 Penetration. I hear that is pretty good when you auto hit. This is not a terrible option in any way as for the most part no army wants to get mixed up with it and having a chance to get closer faster means less chances to get blown up, killed, or just taken out. It also means he can get mixed up with those lovely new Riflemen or Psyflemen dreads people keep putting in their lists.
So yeah either you can go with a nice squad of guys you can split up and poke some holes into the enemy or a big bad monsters that somehow is flying around. Heck if I could put a bunch of blue smoke around the guys I can make them like Night Crawler and make the “bamf” noise over and over every time I pull Shunt Punch off.
Woot kinda dirty Grey Knights Trick # 4.568b. Goatboy out!
